large as this longing

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=337222628676667864&q=favre+to+jennings+overtime&total=4&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

Today, the highlight of my drive home came while I was sitting, bumper to bumper on the Crosstown. The stupidly large SUV in front of me had a TV that I could see through its rear window…it was showing Sponge Bob Square Pants.
…yes, this is my life.

O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
above the heavens.
From the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise
because of your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet:
all flocks and herds,
and the beasts of the field,
the birds of the air,
and the fish of the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!

I’ve been having some good dialogue over the past couple days with my wife, friends, my pastor, and a former seminary professor. What I’ve included below is originally from an email I wrote yesterday to my wife and buddies.
—-

I have a question. I’m racking my brain preparing for the lesson I’m teaching in youth group tomorrow night on “The Bible.” This isn’t on any specific content from the Bible, rather, simply teaching about the Bible generally. I have found that I usually formulate main points for my talks in the form of questions. One of the main points that I want to hit on tomorrow night is “Why is the Bible So Confusing?” I’ll likely talk about things like weird laws from Leviticus, random stuff like long geneologies, the book of Revelation etc. But also, and maybe this is the hardest one, I want to be sensitive to the question, “Isn’t God really mean sometimes, especially in the Old Testament?” Specifically I’m thinking of using the Battle of Jericho in Joshua 6 as an example. I’m wrestling with the notion of God’s apparent sanction of the genocide of the Canaanites. I mean, really?? All living things destroyed including women and children? How do we reconcile that with a God who is supposedly the very embodiment of love? And okay, I’ve considered the fact that this story in Joshua (and others) really might be a symbolic reality, a myth so to speak with truth and meaning beyond the literal details of the story (hows that for a seminary answer). The real point then being in the provision of God for God’s people when faced with adversity. “And the walls came a tumblin’ down” may be metaphorical. But in that case, how do you explain that to a group of 13 yr olds?
any thoughts?