Friday, September 21, 2007

Sharpened by a Friend

In Proverbs 27:17 the wise man wrote, "As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another." Developing that kind of friendship takes work and plenty of time, and when you are fortunate enough to arrive at that place where your friend not only is a supportive presence but also a challenging partner in transformation - you are blessed.

I have been blessed with a few friends like this in my lifetime. One such friend is Jeff Caylor. Jeff and I met in Colorado and worked together at a media agency. Jeff is a creative dude, a skillful songwriter and muscian, and a superb backpacking compatriot. He hasn't had his cake handed to him on a silver platter, and he's walked through more than his share of hurt. And out of this interesting menagerie of personality, talent, and life experience, God has shaped a man like King David who has a heart for the divine.

I asked Jeff if I could repost something he posted on his blog a week ago. He titled it "The Divine Process." Enjoy!
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"The Divine Process"
by Jeff Caylor

I was listening to an interview on the radio last week with Phil Collins. Whatever you think about him today, the man was a mega-star in the eighties. After departing the band Genesis, he recorded his first solo project called Face Value. He said in the interview that if he hadn’t gotten divorced, he would have never written that album, or the outtake, throw-away piece that never made it to the final master called “How Can You Sit There.” That song was later reworked and renamed. You know it as “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now),” his first #1 song in the US. Seriously. Up from the ash and rubble of a divorce, springs a 25-year, successful, solo music career.

Great for Phil Collins, you’re thinking. But it doesn’t do me any good. Really? You mean you never heard that (or another) song on the radio and wanted to turn it up and cry your eyes out because the one from high school that you knew was more than a friend told you she just wants to be friends? You didn’t secretly sing the words to yourself when your college sweetheart called things off? Or, sitting in your car, after another night of questioning life and trying to make sense of why you have to let go of all those memories, you didn’t wonder how Phil Collins could have found such insight into the nature of love and pain when he wrote that song? You could swap out any song about unrequited love in any genre and I’m willing to bet there’s an equally painful story behind it.

Mostly, the Phil Collins story is about redemption, to me. To be honest, I don’t know anything about Phil’s faith, but when I hear a pop song on the radio about love (or lost love, most often), I am instantly transported to the pain and hardship it required to pen those words. Words that transcend time and space and elicit memories and emotions and pain and joy in another person. Words that represented HOPE to the artist. I think about the divine process of art. Art, the Story, is something created by God and He uses whom He chooses to tell it. This process takes the pain, hope, tragedy, joy, shock and mundane of life and makes magic out of it. It shares an experience that heals both the artist and the recipient. But it’s not just about the finished product.

When Noah landed the ark, most people think it was just a few days before he and the animals walked down the ramp to a brand, spanking new earth. Unfortunately, it takes a lot longer for floodwaters to retreat than for the rain to fall. According to Genesis, they waited on the ship for several months before the bird returned with an olive branch. That’s a long time to hope. I imagine Noah and his family saved a plank from the ship, or maybe the original olive branch, as a testament to what they had been through. Something that lasted for generations to remind people of God’s faithfulness. A keepsake.

Some songs are like that.

But to me (and many other artists I’m sure), art born from pain is more than a keepsake. It represents Ground Zero–the starting point, not the ending point. The arrow that points back to an intricate, inexplicable process that has brought me to today. And if nothing else, it’s the buoy that subtly reminds me of an imminent, hope-filled shoreline just beyond the fog.



Thursday, September 20, 2007

Journey Class ~ 1 ~ Purpose & Intro


This morning we began our Journey together with a group of 10 people. Over these 8 weeks, we will be partnered with Traveling Companions with whom we will be building relationships as we discuss the material, and as we pray for one another during the week.

The purpose of The Journey class flows right out of our mission statement:

To glorify God, by being transformed into the likeness of Jesus
through authentic and loving relationships
and by continuing God's mission in our world.

During our time together, we discussed both the cultural views and our personal views of what it means to be a Christian, and what it means to be a church. We noticed quite a difference in these two perspectives, and I think we'll even find some difference between our personal views and the Gospel of Jesus as we go along.

During a time of getting to know our Traveling Companions, an interesting observation was made. One person noted that while they thought they knew everyone at the table, through their interactions, they came to realize that they didn't even know everyone's last name. It is much easier to stay at a friendly but surface level of relationship, even in the church, than to go deeper in knowing and being known. I trust that we will grow in this way through our times together.


Monday, September 17, 2007

The Journey

As a part of our journey to become a people who actively pursue "transformation into the likeness of Jesus," we have developed a study that we are not so creatively calling The Journey. This 8 week study begins this week, and will cover topics such as "The Mission of God and the Gospel," "The Holy Spirit and the Way of Peace," and "The Missional Church."

The Journey is a part of our process of membership, but is not focused on "membership class" topics. It is our goal to have all of our current members go through The Journey within a 2 year time span, as well as those who are interested in committing themselves to our community in formal membership. We are praying that these studies will help us to draw together as a community of Jesus followers who are actively joining God in his mission in our world.

Over the next 8 weeks, I will be posting an outline of what we will studying, as well as a summary of what we are seeing and hearing from the Spirit through our time together.