Messy Spirituality

Even though I let Jamie down and didn't start reading "Jesus Creed" yet, I am glad I started "Messy Spirituality" by the late Mike Yaconelli. This is my second time, and while I won't be going through chapter by chapter (it's only 137 pages), I will probably lift some quotes or stories that I find meaningful now and then.

The first time I read the book Mike Y. became a hero of mine. It had a lot to do with comments like this:

"Everywhere I look on the cruise ship of Christianity, I see crews of instructors, teachers, experts, and gurus eager to explain God's plan for the placement of my deck chair, but I still can't even unfold it. No wonder, when I peruse the titles in a Christian bookstore, I feel like I am the only klutz in the kingdom of God, a spiritual nincompoop lost in a shipful of brilliant biblical thinkers, an ungodly midget in a world of spiritual giants. When I compare my life with the experts', I feel sloppy, unkept, and messy in the midst of immaculately dressed saints... and I'm a minister. Maybe that's why God allowed me to pastor a church 'for people who don't like to go to church.'" (p. 22-23)

Hey... I resembe that remark. Before I was a pastor I was a welder, a sheetmetal worker, and a gas station attendant (with a brief stint as a videographer's gopher). It's not that I'm 'dumb' necessarily, but to be honest, I am easily intimidated by big-talkers and bold-talkers. I'm simple, and sometimes it takes me awhile to "get" things. I need lots of grace. So this book is a breath of fresh air no matter how many times I read it.

I think it's important for people like Mike, and myself, to step forward though... because of comments like this on p. 23:

"Many of those who attend our church have always wanted to go to church, wanted to know God better, longed for a better relationship with Jesus, but more often than not, they would end up at a church where they were made to feel as if the 'mess' of their lives disqualified them from the possibility of an authentic spiritual life."

Yeah. That's what I believe God has called me to, and sometimes I get to thinking I'm real smart... and I forget. I am sorry for the times I've been an idiot and done that.

As Mike says on p.24: "This may sound shocking to some, but spirituality is a home for those who don't have life figured out, who don't know the Bible as well as they could, and who don't have their spiritual lives all together - 'the rest of us' who thought there wasn't a 'rest of us,' Christians who are trying to follow Jesus the best we can."

I can't really recommend this book for everyone, because not everyone thinks or feels like I do. But if you've felt like me... I DEFINATELY recommend it.

Peace friends. It's a revolution.