In the blue corner Jacob in the red God.

Once upon a time there was an ordinary man who was commissioned by God to be a great leader. As he was leading God's children to a future hope Jacob was left alone. A man came upon him and they began to wrestle, "So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak."

Random to say the least.

Even more interesting is the man that comes upon Jacob, is actually God.

Take a moment, and try to wrap your minds around the idea of the creator of the farthest reaches of the universe coming into human from to go a couple of rounds with ordinary Jacob. Craziness, I'd rather wrestle 10 Andre the Giants (see picture) than one God.

This is what I take from the story...

God is alive and real and tangible and wants you to engage with him in conflict. (conflict not in the negative violent connotation that we have of it, but conflict simply being to opposing forces colliding.) In this case God and Jacob literally and physically collide in a wrestling match.

This debunks a few perceptions of faith and God:

- That we are suppose to be robots, being dictated by God in everything we do. On the contrary, if you don't understand where God is taking you then wrestle him over it.

- It's a "sin", or wrong to be angry at God. On the contrary, every wrestling match I have ever been in has been a result of anger or has resulted in anger. God wants your whole heart, the good and the bad, the confused and the certain, and especially the joyous and the angry.

Heres the rub...

God wants to engage with you and wrestle with you over every aspect of your life. The more we do this we become closer to God physically and our ability to hear his voice is much more clear. I tend to leave God out of a lot of my life, and push him far way from me, definitely far enough away that we couldn't wrestle.

Collusion

Here is a new word for everyone to learn and put into practice...

Collusion:

A conflict where the parties are inviting the very things they're fighting against.

See the word conflict in its essence is "passive", it is something that happens to us. Conflict for example, may be in result of a simple misunderstanding.

On the other hand,

The conflicts that I have noticed in my life have overwhelmingly not been conflict at all, and instead I have invited the very thing that I find myself frustrated with, fighting against, or arguing at.

Step back from your life and see what you find of the conflicts in your life. Are they conflicts or really collusion?

Doesn't the solution for conflict totally change when we look at it in this light?

GO

"Most good things have been said far too many times, and just need to be lived" 

 In that I find myself aligning my convictions with the way I actually live my life...

 The question to ask ourselves is where do we talk the talk but not walk the walk?

 Where is God's voice leading you that you are ignoring and what convictions has he put on your heart that you avoid sacrificing for...

 Tough questions but we have to ask ourselves or we will be another generation with great books but no real life sacrifice, protest, or action to account for the change we dreamt of. 

SPIRITUALIZED

"We've spiritualized the devil, but when Exxon is funding think tanks to basically confuse the lessons that we're getting from this great book of creation, that's devilish work. We find ourselves praying to God to protect us from the wiles of the devil, but we can't see him when he staring us in the face." 

I don't particular know how to respond to this quote, but I couldn't help but dwell in it. 

Maybe we have really spiritualized the devil to the point that when evil stares us in the eye in the form of oppressive structures, corrupted politics, or whatever that we might encounter, small or large, throughout the day.

Rather than just asking God for protection from the devil and his schemes in our prayers, we might need to pray more for prevention, for God to reveal to us who and what the devil has a hold on so we can avoid it and fight and pray against.

I still don't know what to make of it, take what you want from it...

Where is the Hope?

Always the argument for fighting injustice at a local level and changing the simple controllable practices in our life that we know may be wrong but might not witness the direct consequences, is simply that my small actions or sacrifices have no significance.

 Whether it is not purchasing bottled water, or clothes stained by the blood of overworked and underpaid children, or better yet marching in protest or writing your representatives, these are the sacrifices that we know we should make but would characterize as being worthless and pointless endeavors.

 Whatever it may be, constantly we (myself included) justify not sacrificing at the local level because we do not see its effects or believe that are small actions have any significance.

 This mentality is not only disproved by history but as well stunts societies’ forward progress.

 Movements that really take flight and sweep change across society are always birthed out of locality, families, and personal sacrifices. 

 Racism for example- Even when the laws of land condemned and made segregation and racism as a practice illegal, there were still practices like not selling land to African Americans that plagued "free" and "equal" America up until 1989.

 Real change took place around the dinner table, when parents tucked their children in to bed, planting seeds of respect, beliefs in equality, ideas that God truly created every man in his image, and implanting the biblical fact that Jesus died for humanity, not just me and you but for Osama Bin Laden and his misguided associates as well.

 For Henry David Thoreau, there was not inconsequential acts, only consequential action: "For it matters not how small the beginning may seem to be: what is once well done is done forever" 

 And as well...

 Chico Mendez began his journey simply fighting to save the rubber tree and the people whose lives were dependent on this natural resource, but soon realized the significance of his fight. "... Then I thought I was trying to save the Amazon rainforest. Now I realize I was fighting for humanity." 

 This is what makes passions and individuality beautiful!

 I may be passionate about teaching people about peace and how there is another way besides violence, another may be passionate about revealing the Gospel, another may be passionate about feeding the homeless, and even again another may be passionate about recycling.

 Each and every passion does not stand-alone.

 Each passion and action that follows is completely directed at saving humanity and bringing the Kingdom, or God's dream for the world, that much more of a reality. 

 Start small and dwell in the hope that no act goes unnoticed, and with the right perspective and love behind your small acts, the effects of the acts will create a wake, that can gather strength in the wakes of other small acts creating a monstrous wave that can truly move humanity. 

"Letter from a Birmingham Jail"

16 April 1963

Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter to his fellow clergymen...

Was not Jesus an extremist for love: "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you." Was not Amos an extremist for justice: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever flowing steam." Was not paul an extremist for the Christian Gospel: "I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Was not Martin Luther an extremist: Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise, so help me God." 

So the question is not whether we will be extremist, but what KIND of extremist we will be. Will we be extremist for HATE or for LOVE? Will we be extremists for the PRESERVATION of injustice or for the EXTENSION of justice? In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified. We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime--the crime of extremism. Two were extremist for IMMORALITY and thus fell BELOW their environment. The other, Jesus Chris, was an extremist for LOVE, TRUTH, and GOODNESS, thereby ROSE above his environment." 

Perhaps where you are right now, the nation and the world are in dire need of creative extremists. 

Check Please

It seems to me that we are in a turning point in history. We can continue to rely on the same economic practices and ideologies that got us into this mess or we can travel down a new road that is much different than the one we have always taken in the past. 

 

"The way out has to be different than the way in"

 

Maybe for the first time we can ask the oppressed and the poor how they would like the systems of society to be set up. 

 

Strive for equality not just in laws and perspectives but equality fleshed out in the structures of our society that currently keep the rich richer and the poor poorer. 

 

As followers of Christ, who tore down everything about unjust hierarchal systems, now is a beautiful time to wonder over some questions: what is Jesus’ dream for economics of the world, is his dream in line with present practices and ideologies, and is Jesus' way of doing things may be what could bring us out of the pit we have dug ourselves into. Or will we continue to perceive Jesus’ commands as to idealistic and inapplicable to the present world.

 

"The great temptation of the church, and of every believer, is the offer Satan made to Jesus in the desert: to win the world with power. But power will not end poverty. We must discover another way of living." 

Get Swept Up

We followers of Christ have embarked on a journey that we will never come to the end of. The hope of each follower of Christ is that we refelect Jesus and his character each day more and more. Ulitmately, we want to be Jesus to the world, ultimately we want to throw everything off that it means to be David Brodsky and become Jesus. 

I no longer, live but Christ lives in me. 

We become swept up in the wind of God's jouney when we reliaze that there is nothing we can do, become, or reflect with the by ourselves or with the help anything or anyone. ONLY through the grace that Jesus bestows on us are we able to become what we strive for, (the incarnation of Jesus' character on earth). Although, on our own, our efforts to become more Christ like are futile, God promises through Paul that we will carry out what he started in us to its completion. 

Take hope in the power of God to change your life in any way that you dream or need. Allow your prays to be big, because when you are truly swept up in God's journey he can take you anywhere. 

Today pray a prayer so big that it seems crazy! Ask for God to end injustice or for him to use you to fix the church. Or it may be more personal, just do not let your prayer be contained by any doubts or worries that it might not be answered. If that was the case then their would be no reason to pursue Christ in the first place. 

"To suppose that whetever God requireth of us that we have power of ourselves to do, is to make the cross and grace of Jesus Christ of none effect."

-John Owen 

Natural Disaster Reveals Human Disaster

I was completely distrubed and startled by this email and it protrays the

Whose House are we Building?

From Frank Viola's Reimagining Church...

 

"Perhaps a simple illustration will help to underscore the force of what I've tried to communicate in this chapter. Suppose that you hired a carpenter to build a den as an addition to your home. You sketched out a diagram specifying how you wanted the den to be built. You then carefully explained it to the carpenter. 

 

After returning from a week long, vacation, you are shocked to find that your new den barely resembles the image that you sketched out for him. You ask the carpenter why he failed to adhere to your plan. He responds by saying, "I thought my ideas were better than yours."

 

Have we not done the same with the Lord's house?"

 

Look around at the Church and ask yourself if it is inline with how God dreams it to be. It will not change until we, his followers, realize that the manual has been completely thrown out, or we have chosen bits of pieces that are easier and for self benefit to apply. 

Dynamite

This weekend was a Young Life Leader Retreat for the Raceway Region. It was a lot of fun to get away, be challenged, take part in good conversation, and best of all to be around some really great people. I was challenged in many ways this weekend and my view of YL was expanded greatly. There will be more of what I learned in the future, but for now there was one word that stood out to me more than anything. 

 

Dynamite. 

 

While listening to a seminar on the Gospel, the teacher just glanced over an idea that God had me stop and dwell on.  In Romans chapter one Paul says, "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God..." Simple and true. The teacher went on and mentioned that the actual Greek word for power is where the English language gets the word for dynamite. This is what God stopped me on. The gospel: the life, character, passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the tool that God uses to display his power. To enter our lives and change them forever.

 

When we come face to face to face with the power of the Gospel you cannot come out the other side the same person. 

 

Just like if you were to stumble across some dynamite that happened to go off anywhere near you. 

 

Physically, mentally, socially, and whatever "lly" you can think of, you would be altered. 

 

How every many times you hold dynamite in your arms and let it explode, you can't get use to it. 

Breath

It is a Jewish tradition that says when God spoke at Mt. Sinai and gave the Torah to those following Moses, he entered into a divine, eternal, and mystical conversation with not only those who were standing at the foot of the mountain, but all of humanity at any point in time. I was asked to reflect on what God's voice would have sounded like to me if I had actually lent my ears to him that day at Sinai. Thing is, I was at Sinai. Well not actually Sinai, it was actually in Goshen Virginia (population maybe 400) that I first hear God's voice. 

The voice I heard at the foot of Mt. Sinai

Was a voice I had never heard before

My, Father had never been much of a father

He did the best he knew

But his best, fell short of what was enough

God’s voice then

Was a fatherly voice

 

Intimate

Deep

Passionate

True

Freeing

And wise

 

For the first time I felt accomplished

There was nothing more or less of me

That my father needed to give adoration

 

Genuine Love

Without limits or circumstances

Sacrificial and tangible

A love that was once foreign

 

The voice was not just audible

It was close

So close I could feel the warmth of my Father’s breath

 

His breath was like the wind

It encompassed me with a gust of calmness

 

To die then,

Meant being swept up into the wind

Something unending and perfect

 

More than anything

I knew the voice was God’s

 

No longer would I question

Where this voice went,

I would follow

 

 

First Blog

This is my first blog. I am sitting in Starbucks attempting to write a paper on the Earth Charter. Who knows what the Earth Charter is? Not many of you have every even heard of the Earth Charter. Yet, it may be one of the most important documents of our generation. 

This generation will be defined by how we handle many injustices currently oppressing humanity and creation. One that stands paramount is how our generation will move into the next generation revamping, ending, or revolutionizing the structures of politics, economics, and society in general, that do not approach their objectives in a sustainable way.  

         In his letter to Rome, Paul of Tarsus personifies creation as a women pained by the labor of childbirth, “We know that the whole creation has been groaning…”. Even before the talk of global warming and the greenhouse effect Paul recognized that the same condition that humanity was suffering from was trapping creation as well. Only recently have the groans of creation been so loud that some have taken notice. The authors of the Earth Charter are those that have not only heard the groans but have decided that it is no longer time to only be a witness to the groaning but to act.

         Its not just creation itself that the Earth Charter hears groans from. In the Bible’s account of humanity’s first murder, God addresses Cain by saying, “Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.” Blood is spilled on this generation’s soil every minute and the groans that use to only reach God’s ears are now reaching those who are behind the Earth charter. 

         The Earth Charter is essentially the declaration of independence for the earth, a call for revolution to end the rule of the oppressive King of sin, selfishness, and the human condition that has ruled over humanity for far too long. 

Here is the link that will take you to the real life Earth Charter. I envision as a dialogue that people will come in contact with and walk away with a new perspective on how to approach every decision they make. Or better yet a filter that individuals, businesses, and organizations use to bring everything they do through the Earth Charter, throwing anything that does not align with the principles outlined in the E.C. out! 

http://www.earthcharterinaction.org/2000/10/the_earth_charter.html

In peace, pocket parks, and Jesus

David