Richard Dahlstrom

Seeing and Hearing God - Joyfully - Beyond Church Walls

Richard Dahlstrom — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 21:30:26 -0700

: Is God INSIDE the walls, or OUTSIDE?

One of the best parts of the Christmas story is when we encounter those two old folks named Simeon and Anna waiting, waiting, longing, looking for Jesus. They're the one's who see him for who he is when Mary and Joseph bring him in for dedication, while the religious elite miss him entirely. I've preached on this text more than once, always trying to make the point that we need to read our Bibles with a view towards looking for Christ and respond to his wooing call, pointing out that people who spend lots of time in church run the risk of knowing their Bibles, but not knowing in any intimate way, the Person to whom the text points. We should be showing up, reading our Bibles, and looking for Christ in all that's revealed there. And yet - what if there's more to the story?

What if Simeon and Anna's passion to see Christ isn'tjust a call to develop some habits of spiritual formation in the areas of Bible study and prayer? What if they're also inviting us to look for hints of God's glory everywhere? What if we begin to walk through our days looking for God's truth, beauty, longing, and glory in everything we see, so that Radiohead on Pandora, and Van Gogh, Sounders soccer and reaching the summit of Mt. Rainier are all sermons, texts God is using to preach to us?

If that were true, then the God of the Bible jumps off the pages of the book, and begins speaking to us in the midst of our daily lives, both through the arts we enjoy and the daily experiences of living at work, at the hospital, in the classroom. We become Simeon's and Anna's, looking intently at the world in which we live, seeking to see what the living God can show us in all of life because we believe that God is speaking through all of life. The world opens up to us, not as a scary place, but as a place where God is already at work, right in the midst of the beauty and brokenness. Our scripture reading then, becomes a lens through which we're able to look at our world and find what God is saying through "our own poets" even as Paul found God's truth in the poets of his day. Scripture informs life - AND life illuminates scripture, a concept my friend develops so wonderfully in this book I'll be reviewing soon.

The sacred/secular division is one of the most damning heresies ever foisted on humankind by a weak church. It's what led John Muir's preacher/father to write to him, after reading one of John's articles about his encounters with God through the glories of nature in Yosemite, "You cannot warm the heart of the saint of God with your cold icy-topped mountains. O, my dear son, come away from them to the Spirit of God and His holy word, and He will show our lively Jesus unto you....and the best and soonest way of getting quit of the writing and publishing your book is to burn it, and then it will do no more harm either to you or others." No wonder John Muir left the church while continuing to give glory to God as the source of all beauty, abundance, and provision in creation. How many young people have been scared away from science because they came to a crossroads, having been taught that they had to make a choice between a 6000 year old "Biblical" earth, and a much older "secular" view of origins?

The church has often been afraid of "the world" because verses like this and this - afraid that somehow if we don't preach about the evils of the world and call for withdrawal, Christ followers will be destroyed by the world. This view, though, ignores Jesus words, Paul's example, and the truth that mature believers aren't hiding in isolationism, afraid of getting stained by going to a museum or a rock concert. They're called, instead, to look for the unseen in the seen, to look for the light of truth in the midst of our beautiful and broken world. How do I know this?

1. Because humans are God's image bearers. Though terribly marred, it remains true that we all humans have a capacity in them to represent the glory of God through their work and life. "Unsaved" people go to dark places to serve, just like Christians do. They donate kidneys, work to stop human trafficking, feel a tingling in their souls when they encounter nature's beauty, and create art that can make you weep with joy.

2. Because God has placed eternity in our hearts. This means that, in different ways, each of us have longings that point us to God. The film "In a Better World" reveals the director's and writer's longing for a world where people treat each other with respect by revealing the darkness that's woven into the whole world because the darkness is woven into all of us. The movie preached a sermon to me about justice, and the power of loving one's enemies, and the need for wisdom. "As your own poets have said" says Paul. They're preaching to us - all the time. We just need to wake up and pay attention.

I'm presently doing research for a sermon series whose working title is "Every Square Inch". We'll look at various vocations, maybe a band or movie or two and look for God's text in life and God's text from His book. The working title is based on this statement by Abraham Kuyper: “Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!‘”

Indeed. It's all God's. Wherever you're going after you read this post, God's already there, revealing Himself though real life, flesh and blood, art and music, rivers and sunsets. I hope we can learn together, in the coming days on this blog, how to read the two books together. To start the conversation, I hope some of you will answer this question:

Where, recently, have you encountered God's eternal truth outside of formal worship services and Bible study?

I've Got Mono: The Challenges and Beauty of Monogamy

Richard Dahlstrom — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 09:36:45 -0700

The New Times published an article recently positing that infidelity was, for some marriages, just the right ingredient needed to keep a marriage strong. The advocate for this lifestyle is none other than Seattle's own Dan Savage, of "Savage Love", Stranger fame. At first blush (pun intended), the article appears not to be worth the time to read. Who cares about some guy's theory that married couples would be happier in some cases if infidelity was an accepted part of the marriage package? But a real reading revealed both the thoughtfulness behind his argument, and the subtleties of deception that run terribly deep in waters of our culture.

Savage readily acknowledges the advantages of monogamy, but adds that there are drawbacks, as he points out when he says, "people in monogamous relationships have to be willing to meet me a quarter of the way and acknowledge the drawbacks of monogamy around boredom, despair, lack of variety, sexual death and being taken for granted". To battle these dangers, Savage is an advocate for what he calls the 3 G's: "lovers out to be good, giving, and game" (skillfully lovers, generous lovers, lovers willing to try new things). It's that third one that's the sticking point for Savage, and he says that when lovers reach an impasse where one party has sexual desires that the other is unwilling to fulfill, it might be best to set them free, to let them go off and find the experience they're looking for. This, Savage says, can keep the love alive in the relationship. The infidelity, in other words, can be a good thing if all parties agree.

If you read my stuff regularly, you know that I read widely, including forays into "The Stranger", the "NY Times", "Fox News", and more. I do this because I believe, strongly, that Christ followers aren't called to separation from the world, but are called to live with discernment right in the midst of the world. If our world is considering non-monogamy as a way to save marriage, I want to know about, discerning what's true in the midst of the proposal, and what's not. So here we go:

What's True - I like that Savage is ultimately concerned with sustaining monogamous relationships. He's an interesting character because he's this funky blend of traditional values that find their origin in who God has made us to be (monogamous) and the values of what the Bible calls "the flesh" or "the sin nature" (depending on your translation). But more of that later. It's interesting too that Savage isn't just trying to keep people living under the same roof. He wants people to be genuinely in love - to avoid the traps of boredom, lack of variety, and sexual death that are often the reality in monogamous relationships; a couple living together for 50 years doesn't constitute success in Savage's book. There's supposed to be real love. Does anyone want to argue with him on that? I don't either.

Let's acknowledge that when the Bible talks about the ideal for marriage, whether it's the vision cast in Genesis 2, or Paul's lofty vision in Ephesians 5 (sacrificial love, service, openness and vulnerability, trust) God's vision is that there be a body/soul/spirit union that's still throbbing with passion as people grow older. Let's not forget Paul's liberating advice in I Corinthians 7 when talking about sexuality: "do not deprive one another" (except by mutual agreement for prayer, which means that you don't withhold sex, using it as a tool for power in the marriage). All of this seems to envision what Savage sees as the ultimate goal, which is a healthy union between two people!

What's Not True - Ah, but the devil is in the details. When Savage posits that a "more perfect union" can be realized by allowing one's partner to fulfill his/her fantasies with some outside party, he's dumped a boatload of lies into ocean, polluting the waters of our thoughts and making infidelity appear, just possibly, to be a healthy part of normal marriage - not for everyone of course, but for some. This plays well (the article was the number 1 e-mailed article in the NY Times for a portion of last week), and is reinforced in books about open marriage, and even in the recent book: "Pre-Marital Sex in America" which reveals the data on how young people are hooking up, a cultural reality among singles that surely prepares the soil for the "non-monogomy" of Savage's marital ethic.

Nope. There are a boatload of reasons why we mustn't go down that road, but let's just address the biggest one:

God's Heart for Monogamy: When Jesus talks about marriage he always goes back to Genesis two at the reference point;always. This means that, though there are accomodations made in the Bible for divorce and polygamy, they're clearly never seen as the ideal. Further, God makes no provision whatsoever for infidelity. Is there grace? Of course, for repentant hearts that see their sin. But Savage leads us into dangers waters when he sees it, not as seen, but as a prescription to marital health. The ideal is always monogamy - saturated with real love.

This notion had fallen on hard times, even during the days of Jesus; so much so that that when he articulates radical monogamy in Matthew 19, the disciples said, "if such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry." Yes, it's hard. But it's the vision, and Savage is plunging a knife right into the heart of it. I had to say something!

: still crazy...in love..after all these years

OK. God's for monogamy. But here's an important thing to say as this winds to a close. God isn't just interested in monogamy.Ultimately, God is interested in love and intimacy. So, if I'm going to be committed to monogamy AND intimacy, this will take me down a road that will strip my soul bare, revealing my vulnerability and fear, exposing my pain and anger, demanding my deepest honesty. In other words:

1. I'll need to be honest with my partner about my sexual struggles, longings, and failures. And I'll need to be a safe place for my partner to be honest.

2. I'll need to work, really work hard, at fanning the flames of love. There are endless forces working against intimacy in our culture, but they needn't win. It's just that I need to recognize those forces and swim upstream against them.

3. I'll need to recognize the difference between sex and food. I Corinthians 6 explains how food and sex are different. I've taught on this many times with students, explaining that, for the Corinthians, sexuality was viewed as an appetite, just like food. When you're hungry you eat. When you want sex... you find it, by any means possible. But Paul explains that sex isn't an appetite in the same way as food, explains that self-denial of our primal urges, far from killing us, will actually make us stronger. Why? We'll be forced to find satisfaction, joy, and meaning, in other ways when sexual expression isn't open to us. We'll need to play music, work in the garden, enjoy good conversation, or good sunsets, or good food.

There's much more to say... but coming from one who's been monogamous AND is still passionately in love, it's important gain a vision for both: monogamy and passionate love: two ingredients which, together, will form a mighty strong, joy infused bond!

How can the church do a better a job of instilling the values of monogamy and passionate love?

If you like this article - please forward it via twitter, or facebook. Thanks!

Surprised by Joy? Not anymore.

Richard Dahlstrom — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 08:40:24 -0700

We'd been hiking for a little while. Up 1000 meters, and then down 1000. Up another 1000, and then down again. Then up one more time, and down half way to our final night at a hut. The huts are the Alpine alternative to backpacking. Instead of carrying everything with you, all you need is fresh underwear, a little soap and toothpaste, and a sheet. The hut provides you with a bed, pillow, blanket, your beverage of choice, and a meal, all for around 50 Euro for the two of us. Of course, the place comes with views that are unmatched by any Hilton, Sheraton, or Comfort Inn anywhere in the world.

We wake the last morning of our Alpine adventure and begin our hike out, down, and down, and down, all the way to Schaldming, which is where I teach in December most years. The valley, now seen in summer light, is stunning, filled with ever changing scenery as we make our way to lower, thicker air. About 1/3 of the way down, we come into a small opening where the trail crosses the stream. Right at the crossing there's a tiny cabin, a barn, and a garden. I stop and stare because at that moment, I feel as if I've walked into perfection. To say, "you had to be there" is an understatement, because the moment was made of everything: the generosity of the church that enabled us to enjoy this trip, the companionship of my best friend and only wife, the gift of health to enjoy it all, the waterfall and high alps behind me, the lush valley opening before me, the sound of the stream, and the feel of the clear water on my toes, and this piece of heaven, this cabin of perfection right in the midst of it all.

Tears fill my eyes as I realize that this is my own version of CS Lewis' "Surprised by Joy". This is my glimpse of eternity. This is God's invitation, God's reminder that His creation, at its best, brings perfect joy, and offers a window through which we can peak at eternity.

Yes, there are horrific injustices in the world, and it's strange to ponder that I'm standing in the midst of perfection while my youngest child is walking through thegenocide museum in Rwanda. Yes, there is violence, degradation, and the marks of our collective inability to run the show, and the marks are everywhere to be seen. These blood stains, though, are a shabby excuse for unbelief. Those who shake their fist at the god they don't believe in are terribly selective in their perceptions. They see the crusades, but not the courage. They see the injustice, but not the sacrifice. They see the ugliness, but not the beauty.

As for me, as I approached this glorious patch of holy ground, I had this sense of knowing - "Knowing" that "all manner of things shall be well", that in spite of all humanity has done to be unfaithful, God's relentless faithfulness will, in the end, prevail. He'll restore it all, until the whole is shot through with glory.

And there's more. In that moment, in that space by the cabin, all temptations, all the trinkets of this world that often seduce us seemed like a pile of dung. Greed, lust, fear, shame, bitterness...all of them were so unbecoming, so incongruous to the perfection of the place. Who could hold onto sin in the midst of such light?

CS Lewis' book "Surprised by Joy" is his autobiography and testimony. He was surprised because he wasn't expecting it. Though I don't go looking for these moments of perfection, I'm not surprised by them anymore. I'm old enough to believe that, when our hearts are even vaguely in pursuit of companionship with our creator, our senses are attuned to his glory and revelation. When that happens, God breaks through, sometimes in oddest moments, like walking Aurora with a friend from the Commons in Seattle - at other times, in the midst of our deepest loves which, in my case, means the mountains.

Lord of all creation;

Bless you for calling out to us, through the many waters, the mountains, the humble shelters, the hospitality of strangers, the shared humanity that transcends languages. Thank you for breaking through, inviting us towards eternity, imparting hope and in so doing, exorcising our doubts and weariness. The glimpses of glory are our bread for the journey. May we so attune our hearts to hear your voice, to see your light, that we are fed by what you give us, this day and every day.

Amen.

Where do you find glimpses of hope and eternity?

Why now? Why hope? Why colors? Why art?

Richard Dahlstrom — Tue, 10 May 2011 16:58:37 -0700

I just returned from an inspiring afternoon with a few hundred people, interacting around the topics of the gospel and social justice, and I wanted to take a moment and share why I'm so passionate about this topic, and hence the book I've just written. My hope and prayer is that this new book finds its way into many hands because I believe that millions are floundering in their faith, or on the sidelines, or simply having the wrong conversations because they've not yet truly grasped the significance of the incredible life to which we're called in Christ.

The book, as many of you already know, is called The Colors of Hope. You can read a free chapter here. You can join a Facebook discussion here. But before you do any of that, I thought answering a few questions would be a helpful:

Why is now the time for this book?

Our culture has never been more polarized politically, and it seems that the church has followed suit. There are endless debates about the state of Rob Bell's soul, as emergent churches shout at neo-Calvinists, and pastors debate attractional and missional models of doing church. On the internet, among church leaders, it's loud, it's judgmental, and it misses the point. I want to stand up and shout sometimes: "Can we please stop shooting at each other? The world doesn't care about our in-house arguments! But they do care about children dying of treatable diseases, and income disparity, and global poverty, and human trafficking, and the AIDS crisis. And Jesus does too."

This book calls us back to the conversation that the prophets of the Bible called us to, a conversation that challenges us to make the invisible God visible in this world through acts of mercy, justice, and love. Our world is desperate for this just now, and it kills me to see us obsessing over the wrongs things while ignoring that which is central to the gospel.

Why Hope? Because the gospel declares that Jesus resurrection has initiated an entirely new trajectory to history, we who follow Christ are able to give more than food, water, economic empowerment. We're able to invite people into an entirely different story, not a story of survival, but a story of hope. We're able to invite people into an entirely different trajectory of history. We're able to invite people to a wholeness that will never come about through economics alone. This message is the hope of the world and we are the messengers!

Why Colors? Because God has boiled the whole thing down to three exhortations, three primary colors: mercy, justice, and love. I lived life for years using only two colors, and I can tell you it's wrong. But when we utilize all three colors, all the beauty and vibrancy that our world needs can come to life as Christ followers build clinics, bring clean water, plant tomatoes for neighbors, love the elderly and ill, befriend immigrants, stand in the gap for victims of economic oppression and human trafficking, and so much more. The world is waiting for these colors. This book is about why painting these colors is the responsibility of every Christian... and it's about how to do that.

Why Art? Because bringing hope to the world requires discipline, just like art. It requires clearly understanding one's subject, just like an artist must know the object they're painting. There are setbacks, just like artists have. There's weariness, and not enough time, and the need to paint during the margins of life because life gets in the way. There's the question of what exactly to paint, as we stare at the canvass that is our future. And yet, paint we must, because we're born to be creative. I share stories of people who've found their craft and are doing it - faithfully, in the midst of setbacks, slowly over time becoming a voice a hope in their world. It's beautiful to see, and it's the calling of us all.

I hope you'll share a link to this, or the video below, freely because this is a message, I believe more than ever, that we American Christians need to hear, and to live. Thanks!

I'll give a couple books away randomly to those who retweet, or post this on Facebook.

And if the World Ends May 21...?

Richard Dahlstrom — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 08:04:08 -0700

"There is no doubt that the Antichrist has already been born. Firmly established already in his early years, he will, after reaching maturity, achieve supreme power." Martin of Tours - 4th Century AD

I've always had friends who are "into" Biblical prophecy and finding the dates of Christ's return. In the 70's, I saw charts and graphs predicting the end of the world would happen in the 70's. The same thing happened in the 80's and 90's. And who among us could forget Y2K and the great apocalyptic threats of that time as people ran for cover, taking their guns and bags of rice with them just in case.

Now there's a lot of chatter about May 21, the day believers will exit, plucked out of here (raptured) by Christ, so that hell's fury can be poured on the rest of the planet, which will be destroyed on October 21st. You can learn all about it here, complete with charts, though they're different than the charts of my youth, by 15, 20, 30, years or more.

My response to all this is a simple question: So what?

Don't get me wrong. I believe in the day of the Lord, and a final judgment. It's hard to read the Bible and come to the conclusion that history won't have a terminus. Commerce, wars, nation states and family life, everything as we know will come to end some day - and maybe that day will be soon. Sadly, though, the predicting of dates has had a long, tired, embarrassing history in the church, enough that I'm sure some people view all of us as quacks because we've gotten that guessing game wrong so often.

The reason I say "so what" in response to the latest educated guess has nothing to do with this group's chart. Anybody can make a cool chart. Anybody can start with certain assumptions and find the final hour of history. It's the assumptions, though, that need to be challenged because wrong assumption in an argument will always lead to wrong conclusions. But never mind that - even challenging the assumptions misses the main points, and there are, it seems to me, three main points.

1. Prophecy was given in the Bible so that AFTER things happened, people could say, "this is that of which the prophets spoke...". I'm having a terrible time finding clear dates, most likely because what Jesus said here. In spite of this, people love to guess. Fine. Guess if you must. But call it that, please. We've been down this tired road too many times.

2. Whether Christ returns tomorrow or 1000 years from now, our calling is the same. In this parable we come to see that Christ has given us each of us some resources to carry out the work of His kingdom until He returns. We're called to be salt and light, yeast and mustard seeds, making the presence of God's good reign known in small ways, "until He comes back". The tragedy of the guessing games is their diversionary power: we think we're being really holy, and on the 'inside' because we've done our homework and have secret knowledge. God cares more about whether we're loving our enemies, sharing our wealth, and living with contentment. Those things, however, sound like work. Far easier to view the Christian life as a cosmic game of "Clue" and busy ourselves with trivia.

Here's what I do know: my call to love God and love my neighbor, my call to embody the hope of Christ in tangible ways, my call to invest the many gifts I've been given in God's kingdom purposes, doesn't change whether Christ is returning tomorrow or 3521.

3. History will end someday. Life as we know it will end. The kingdoms of this world never last. There are lots of reasons for this, worthy of a different posting. Obsessing over dates is one way of missing the point. Pretending that everything will continue endlessly in the present status quo is equally wrong. The formed makes us apocalyptic junkies, addicted to the latest "sky if falling" theory. The latter tempts us to make our home in this world of buying and selling, eating, drinking, and being merry because the promise of His coming is quaint, but not to be taken seriously.

To the contrary, we're invited to keep our lamps lit - which means to be saturated with the fuel of the Holy Spirit that will enable the light of God to shine through our lives. We're invited to abound in God's work right up to the end... whether that means the end of our lives, or the end of history.

The gathering clouds of the middle-east appear darker now than at any point in recent history. Who knows what this means? Maybe May is the end of the world as we know it. But all we know right now is that in a world of shakeable kingdoms, we can have an unshakeable confidence, enabling us to live as people of hope in the midst of it all - come what may!

May 21? It's a Saturday and I'll just have returned from Science Camp (more on that later this week). I'm hoping, on that day, to either be climbing with my son, backcountry skiing with my wife, or going on a long bike ride. And if the world ends? I hope I'll be found loving God, loving the people in my world, and stewarding the precious days and gifts I've been given.

My deepest hope for you? Exactly the same thing!

How does your view of the 'end times' affect your daily living?

Fantasy - A door to reality that's closing, and why we should keep it open

Richard Dahlstrom — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 10:46:25 -0800

This past weekend, as part of our plans to insulate our attic bedroom, I was searching out the “art” part of the project and stumbled upon these lovely works from England. They’re part of folklore, fairy tale genre that hints at a different world – they’re not the world itself, but just a hint of it, a marker pointing us in a direction beyond what we can touch, taste, and feel in this here and now. As Lewis says, they are “only the scent of flower we have not found, the hint of a tune we have not heard, the news from a country we have never visited.” Lewis proposes that our love of fairy tales reveals that we’re made for more than this life, more than buying and selling, living and dying, watching Glee and filling our our March Madness bracket. He proposes that the fairy tales themselves point towards another part of our world, invisible yet real.

As Dennis Haack writes, “right up to the medieval age, the church believed that fantasy creatures, sorcerers, ghouls, goblins, and ghosts were as ancient as creation. Their inclusion reminded everyone that humans are more than mere mortals or machines.” Fairy tales hint at the grand meta-narrative that permeates the universe, the cosmic struggle between good and evil. This is why Christians like CS Lewis, JR Tolkien, and yes, even JK Rowlings, tell fantastic tales, and it’s why nearly everyone’s a fan of at least of one of these authors.

During the Victorian age though, much to Lewis’ dismay, fairy tales were sanitized and moved from the parlor to the nursery. 20th century evangelicals have taken the whole thing a step further, often vilifying Harry Potter and Halloween, rather than leaning into to the truths contained therin: there are powers beyond this physical ream – real evil exists in the this world, and real good – honor, sacrifice, and courage are things that matter, as does beauty and our longings to be caught up in a story larger than our sanitized lives.

Some of this stems from our desire to protect children from the realities of this cosmic struggle. I understand the desire to shelter, but hear this: Life is not safe. Following Christ is not safe. Confronting evil in the world, whether in our own hearts or in the power structures around us, is not safe. But neither is it boring. In our attempts to make our faith safe and sane, we’ve created a precious moments version of Christianity, with pastel figures splashed across the pages of our children’s bible, highlighting our sanitized view of the faith. There’s paste Noah entering the ark with all the happy animals (but no drowning masses). There’s the pastel version of David strumming on his harp (but no picture of him cutting of Goliath’s head). There’s no pastel Tamar, disguising herself as a prostitute and sleeping with Judah either. (did you know that in the original version of sleeping beauty, the princess was wakened, not by a kiss, but by giving birth to twins, conceived while she slept as the prince…well, you know how these things happen!)

We’ve sanitized it all, sort of pretending that there is no cosmic struggle, that there are no powers higher than our college degree and credit card. The result is often, as Dennis Haack says, a church that offers a “therapeutic God and advertises church as a ‘safe’ place.”

What’s needed is the recovery of our authentic sense of mysticism, our sense that the world is bigger than what we see and touch, that the invisible forces of evil in our world are real (because they are), and that we’re invited into God’s story, even more so than Edmund was invited in by Aslan. This is the kind of life I want to live – saturated with mystery and glory, right in the midst of bill paying, shopping, and yes, even insulating the attic.

What are your thoughts? Have we sanitized our gospel too much? How about our fairy tales? Why are Christians afraid of Harry Potter but not CS Lewis?

Sexual Anarchy & Sexual Freedom

Richard Dahlstrom — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 12:47:24 -0800

The church, over the years, hasn't done a very good job, in my opinion, of addressing sexual ethics. We invoke "you'll feel guilty" (but sex feels good as often guilty, for lots of reasons I won't address here), or "you'll get a disease, or get pregnant" (but there are ways of dealing with both of those things), or "because God says so" as if we should just blow our brains out, not caring for God's rationale, becoming mindless servants in spite of the fact that we're to love God with all our minds. Here's my take on God's sexual ethic, prompted by recent events in the news.

Whether it's MTV's newest show exploring the seemingly endless sexual appetites of some American teens, or the now famous Karen Owen F*** List powerpoint, her tale of bedding various Duke athletes, offered in sordid detail with ratings for each (based on anatomical size, lovemaking skills, attractiveness), the reality is that an increasingly large percentage of our youth culture are floating on the stormy seas of awakening sexuality and adulthood with neither an anchor, nor a compass.

This is, in itself, troubling. Worse though, is the observations by some that Karen Owen's diary of drunkenness (she woke up with bruises after one encounter during which she blacked out), servitude to thoughtless males, and objectification of her stream of partners, is a lifestyle praised by some highly educated and powerful people. Penelope Trunk, author of The Brazen Careerist, writes:

I, for one, am fascinated that Owen has so much self-knowledge. I wish I had had Owen’s self-confidence, pluck, and earning power when I was her age. I wish I had been taking control of male tools when I was that young. I wish I had been so good at getting the guy. I am twenty years older than Owen, but she inspires me to be brave, take risks, and let my creativity get the best of me.

Other students confessed that they secretly envied her brazen boldness and "strong sense of self". To hear from her positive admirers, one gets the sense that she does, indeed, have a map and compass, and that's she's charting the way into previously untested waters of sexual freedom, if only the women of America can muster the chutzpa to rise up and follow her.

Oh. I'd better mention this too. As the Atlantic Monthly article about her exploits reveals: Asked by a reporter from Jezebel for her thoughts on everything that had happened, she responded with a fully human and entirely feminine sentiment. “I regret it,” she said, “with all my heart.” Sexual anarchy, it appears, isn't as fulfilling as we'd like to believe.There's a better way and perhaps once we've stepped into the cesspool of sexual anarchy and taken a look around, we'll be open to considering something different. That's my hope anyway. Here are some valuable insights, some lessons to be learned as we survey the current sexual landscape of America:

1. Anarchy and Freedom aren't the same thing. It's strange to me that the marvelous generation of young adults who are so intent on changing the world by ending hunger, homelessness, poverty, and oppression could, at the same time, so often be unaware of the destructive and oppressive nature of sexual anarchy. With every casual bedding, every broken relationship, every serial sexual exploitation, another heart is trampled, another barrier to long term intimacy is erected, another weapon of cynicism and anit-vulnerability is created. "No matter" is what is often hear. "What two people do in the privacy of their space is their business alone." Really? Such an assessment presumes that none of us have an interest in the social capital destroyed by divorcing sex from commitment. But look around - the carnage is everywhere, including our precious economic prosperity.

2. If sex and commitment go together - then sex belongs in marriage. The reason for this? It's because sustaining a relationship of intimacy and commitment with one other person for a lifetime is perhaps one of the most challenging things any of us will ever attempt, outstripping the challenges of career, finances, and more, by sometimes exponential degrees. Because it's so hard, and so important, cultures throughout history have built support systems to bring the community together and stand with those who are making such a vast commitment. The support begins with that thing called a wedding, and continues on, ideally, with ongoing collective energy working towards the well being of couples. There are spiritual, economic, emotional, political, and societal reasons why everyone has a stake in the success of these long term commitments. But make no mistake about it: everyone has a stake. That's why your sexual hobbies aren't only about you and who you bed. They're about the whole community, the whole civilization, though in our hyper-individualistic culture, you need to really work to wrap your brain around this one. Work it at please. It's worth it.

3. God's not anti-sexual, neither should we be. I completely understand that it's hard to hold one's sexuality in the ways of which I speak, especially during your youth, especially in a hyper-sexualized culture. And believe me when I say I'm not writing to condemn our failings. I'm writing to name our commitment free sex for what it is: a failing, and invite a vision for holding sexual differently, inviting us to restore the linkage of sexual intimacy to marriage and commitment. You've failed? Start over. You've failed again? Start over again. It's never too late to recapture God's vision of intimacy, for God has this great capacity for renewal.

4. Learn to really be free. Seeking to live this way though, will mean that we'll struggle with abstinence. But of course, this is the real freedom right? I was with some students in Austria recently and we all went out for supper after class because I wanted to introduce to one of my genuine Austrian loves: Garlic Soup. These students have agreed to abstain from alcohol while studying there, even though they're over 21. Some of them were Germans who grew up drinking beer. But on this night, we practiced, all of us, our freedom to abstain because the truth of the matter is if we don't have the freedom to abstain, we don't have freedom. Note, please, that the freedom to abstain from sex will be asked of you once married. Children, illness, weariness, company. I can share that there will be bio-rhythms of intensity and abstinence, even in the best of marriages (and mine's one of the best :) ) So, we might as well learn that our freedom to indulge must include the freedom to abstain - otherwise it's not freedom at all. It's slavery.If you like this post - please pass it on. It's an important subject for everyone who has an interest in sex. And, as always, I welcome your thoughts.

Resolved: I'll pray - 5 ways to pray 5 minutes a day

Richard Dahlstrom — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 20:56:16 -0800

Life, it seems, is coming at us faster than ever. Longer hours at work, more stress, commutes, repairs, exercise, relationships, and endless social connections that encourage us to remain linked in, with updated status reports and timeless tweets - add it all up and life can feel like a video game. It's coming at you and you're reacting. Reacting, though, is much different than living. When I'm reacting, I end up preaching because I'm expected to say something, rather than because I've something to say. I feel scattered, ineffective, stressed.I've felt this way too much in 2010, and so I'm heading back to "first things", foundational truths that are considered foundational precisely because life can be built on them. I Samuel 30 tells the story of a time in David's life when he felt overwhelmed. After some enemies ransacked a village, stealing his wives and children, he was overwhelmed with grief. On top of that, his few faithful friends were so angry over the kidnapping that they blamed David for it and there was talk of stoning him to death. It was a bad week. We all have them, though not often to that degree.The first thing David did, we learn, was he "strengthened himself in the Lord". This is the best first thing any of us could do, before diet, exercise, yoga classes, new goals and objectives, or attending another seminar. Billions are made each year by capitalizing on our fundamental discontent - our sense of dis-ease that sends us looking in a thousand directions for ways to make life better. I'd like to humbly suggest that whatever you're resolving to do differently in 2011, if you don't have any habits that help you strengthen yourself in the Lord, start there. Specifically:I resolve to pray 5 minutes a day - at least 5 days a week.If that sounds overwhelming, here are five options for structuring your five minutes of prayer:

1. write your prayers in a journal. This helps you keep track of your prayers and see progress (or areas where you might be stuck).

2. meditative prayer means that you memorize a prayer, like the Lord's prayer, or the 23rd Psalm, or the prayer of St. Francis. Then, having memorized it, you say it slowly, offering a phrase (aloud or silently) with each exhaling breath.

3. contemplative prayer - which means, practically, sitting silently and envisioning the reality that you are wrapped in the arms of a loving God. You don't need to say anything, and when your mind wanders (it will) you simply return to pondering God's loving presence. Another way of doing this is to repeat a word that God might give you. I'll sometimes pray this way: "I receive your wisdom Lord - thank you" or instead of wisdom, maybe 'peace', 'patience', 'courage' or whatever is needed for the day.

4. Identity prayers - read through specific bible verses that declare your identity in Christ, thanking God in prayer for each truth as you read them.

5. talk to God - if you're not a journal keeper, then just talk with God. If you need some structure to the conversation, try categories: a) Give thanks for a blessing you've experience (whether a sunrise, or good conversation, or....) b) confess where you've failed or are struggling, and thank God for his forgiveness c) request from God things that are own your heart, as you express your need for provision, direction, healing d) pray for others, asking God to respond to situations in your sphere of concern.

I don't want to guilt anyone into this. I do want everyone who reads this to know that I've never met anyone who has grown into a sense of genuine intimacy with God who would easily walk away from their time with God in prayer. What's more, habits of prayer have marked those whose lives have overflowed with blessing of Christ, for countless generations. You don't "skip prayer" and know intimacy with God. Prayer has been foundational for millions, for generations. So simple. So transformative. So rare.We're in a state of information overload and as a result, it's easy for us to end up worrying about many things in the world: money, sexuality, terrorism, which party is in power, how to lose weight, what will happen to the economy (and our jobs), singleness, marriage, children, aging parents. As we flit from worry to worry, the life gets sucked out of us, and we find ourselves weary, confused, overwhelmed - at least some of us do.If we pray first, though, our answers are built on the foundation of intimacy with our creator. Can you think of a better foundation?

Neither can I. That's why I'm calling our church to develop habits of prayer in 2011, and I hope you'll join us.I hope we can help each other, in 2011, become people who pray.Please share your own thoughts on:

1. why regular prayer times can be hard to acheive

2. what benefits you've found from regular prayer timesThanks! I'll be writing more about this after I return from Africa.

Killing the Candy Tax: Metaphor for our political problems

Richard Dahlstrom — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 09:12:13 -0700

Washington state, where I live, had "Initiative 1107" on the ballot, which passed resoundingly and as a result, banished sales tax from the important necessities of life: soda, candy, and bottled water. Thus is surely good news for all those living on the edge, who'll now be able to afford just a little bit more candy, or perhaps another six pack of coke, or even the convenience of expensive water that comes in bottles which will ultimately pollute oceans and landfills, while drawing down much needed aquifers so thatCoco-Cola and Nestle can squeak by for their shareholders. Yes sir - candy is important in these tough times. Thank goodness the American Food and Beverage association had 16 million dollars to spend on killing our state's tax on these essential items.

Forgive the sarcasm, but the 1107 scene seems a fitting metaphor for our entire national politic. We want cheap candy, and corporations and politicians spend billions telling us so. I know the red people think I'm talking about the blue people's desire for subsidized health care, but I'm not talking about what blue people want. I know too, that blue people think I'm talking about the red people's hunger for the simple sugars of smaller government (perhaps with a cup of tea), but I'm not talking about what red people want.

I'm talking about what we all want, at least some of the time:

We want to be able to buy stuff made overseas where workers are paid for a day of work what we might make in an hour here, and yet keep living wage jobs alive here in America, so we can stay above water on the houses we own, or perhaps be able to afford one someday.

We want gas that costs less than $3 dollars a gallon (look at how lucky we are with the cheapest gas in developed world...way down there at #101 between the powerhouses of Namibia, and Bangladesh), so that we can drive wherever we want, whenever we want, even though the net result of our habits means that we, who are 5% of the world population, are consuming 20% of the world's resources. Many of us, apparently, don't seem bothered by this at all, and only want to find a way for it to continue, if only for another decade or two, even if it means risking another gulf disaster, though it would be better if we could drill off the shore of somebody else's continent.

We want the cheapest food on the planet, but we also want that food to be free from pesky e-coli bugs, and antibiotic resistant bacteria, in spite of obscene conditions that are commonplace in industrial agriculture, conditions that are a breeding ground for these very diseases, over which we'll sue food manufacturers. Oh, and we all want lawsuits to decrease, and corporations, including farms, to be held accountable.

We want the government out of our public lives, but if we're red, we want them to define the family for us.

We want the government out of our private lives, but if we're blue, we want them to regulate banks and put a tax on carbon.

Everybody wants the government out - and in. The reds and blues just want them out and in, in different places.

We're hungry...and though there are nuanced differences, I've gotta say that I've heard little, on either side of the aisle that offers anything more than sugar. There are no talks of sacrifice, personal responsibility, the honest challenges of the global economy and outsourcing, the hard choices that will be required to reduce the deficit and the real risks that will create to the economy, or the cost of our American, individualistic, consumeristic lifestyle that has come to be called "the American dream"

It's candy people - and whether it's blue jawbreakers, or red licorice whips, we've wanted it and feasted on it, in various colors for the decades. Pardon me for not thinking that returning to red licorice whips will deal with the deficit cavities in my mouth, or the insulin shock coursing through my regulatory body. It's not that I thought the blue jawbreakers were better - it's that the colors change, but the ingredients remain the same.

I need something nutritious; real food; broccoli perhaps. This real food will require some preparation, and will shock my taste buds that have been eating tax free, and even government subsidized candy for years. There's not a cry for broccoli because the truth of it is that no matter how much all of us on either side of aisle rejoice or decry what happened this week, we're addicted to the sugar of cheap gas, mind numbing television, and cool clothes and ipads made in developing countries. Me? Guilty as charged.

So I've come away from this election cycle neither afraid of the red licorice, nor believing it will make us healthier. Instead, I think we need to re-evaluate our individual and national priorities, defining what "the good life" is really all about. Is it individual or communitarian? Is it working towards global interests or American interests. Is it seeking to preserve upward mobility, or redefine the good life? These are important and needed conversations.

That project might sound too huge, so how about just munching on some broccoli? Maybe a night volunteering in a homeless shelter, or a trip to Good-will to give stuff away, or a home cooked meal with the neighbors will be a start. I don't know what it is for you, but I know I'm hungry, and taking steps towards real food is freeing.

I'm looking for a little dialogue here - what are your next steps, or thoughts?

Cup of tea party please; hold the revisionist history

Richard Dahlstrom — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 14:31:30 -0700

I was listening to the news this morning on the radio and heard some snippets of Michelle Obama's appearance yesterday in Olympia, WA, stumping for Patty Murray's re-election to the Senate for another six years. I thought about the Patty Murray ads I've watched over the past two months, as well as those from her opponent, and realized that in both the cases, the plea for my vote is based on one declaration: "I'm not as rotten as the other candidate." The Elephants and Donkeys are paralyzed to the point of disgust, because those who go to Washington are supposedly the brightest and best--yet we've nearly nothing substantive to show for it other than spiraling debt, dramatic increases carbon emissions, foreclosures, and unemployment statistics.

It's easy to see why there's a desire to return to a simpler time. Back in the day, our nation paid its way. Personal responsibility, thrift, and a sort of Amish "barn raising" care for our neighbors, were values that have been nearly vaporized from our 21st century landscape. They've been displaced by entitlement mentalities, fiscal irresponsibility, marriage meltdowns, and an educational crisis that is, perhaps the greatest national security threat of all. It's a mess! We raised our children reading Little House on the Prairie books by the woodstove in the mountains, and it's a short hop from there to longing for the simplicity of a wholesome past, believing that if the government would just quit spending for us, and trying to control us, we'd rise out of the ashes of this current crises and be great.

Here's what's wrong with this picture:

1. The past wasn't as good as Little House on the Prairie - There's a lot to cherish about years gone by, especially the values of personal responsibility, but there's a lot for which we need to repent as well. Of course, we know this, but we forget. We forget that in the era of small government and deregulation, people were free to own slaves and abuse them, free to force children to work, up to eighty hours a work. Shall we mention our treatment of Chinese immigrants and the fact that they were declared ineligible for citizenship from 1870 until 1943? The truth is that the blood of oppression is mixed in with the hard work and entrepreneurial spirit of the past. We'd do well to pay attention to both sides of that equation, seeking to revive the sense responsibility, and end the oppression. How has oppression been addressed historically?

2. The oppressions of the past were held in check by government intervention and regulation. The only reason slavery, child labor, or separate water fountains ended was because the government stepped in and mandated changes, moving us closer to the "liberty and justice" stuff we say we're about. It's romantically naive to think that if the government would just leave us alone, the market forces would fix everything, for history has proven time and again that when left alone, people will build empires on the backs of others through forced labor and unjust practices. Nobody is suggesting that governments gets it right all the time, or doesn't have its own covert agendas. Both parties have shown both their ineptitudes and their greed in past decades. Still, a realistic view of history reveals that left to their own devices, company owners and market forces don't lead to free access to a vote, or equal pay for equal work. It was true in 1800, and it's true today.

3. The call for personal responsibility is needed, and this is a strength of the tea people. They see the grave danger of our addiction to entitlements as a threat to our future, and they're right. Our government can't keep handing out money to people. Entitlements make up about 65% of our national budget. It's the elephant in the room (and donkey, if you will) that remains unaddressed there's a name for a candidate who talks about cutting entitlements: unelectable. So the Dems continue to talk about increasing taxes AND entitlements, while the Republicans talk about cutting taxes, but not entitlements. No wonder, people are mad. No wonder I don't want to vote for either party.

In the end, though, the tea party's edited version of history is trying to revive a time that never existed, at least not for women, slaves, millions of immigrants, and children who were forced to work. Let's not go back.

The answer? It comes in the form of the simple realization that, however we vote, we won't be ushering in the reign of Christ through government interventions, or even government shrinkage. In fact, we won't be ushering in the kingdom at all, not even through the church. That's why the early church cried, "Maranatha" which means "come quickly." They knew that while they're called to embody hope and truth, the visible presence of Christ's reign would be a mere mustard seed, a drop in the ocean. On the other hand, it's a still a drop; it's still a clinic in Uganda, it's still a law to end child labor, it's still vaccinations to end polio, it's still laying hands on someone and praying with them, it's still simplifying my life so that I can live more generously, it's still a cup of water in Jesus name, it's still spilling hope on the canvas of our broken world. That's all God asks of us, and living into that calling is mysteriously life giving and joyful, in spite of the darkness of our days.

I welcome your comments.