Therefore ... (things that occured to me while drifting aimlessly through Lowes)

1. Nearly all churches want pastor's who know everything that there is to know about God. Nobody knows everything that there is to know about God. Nobody ever will. It is impossible. And yet churches will not accept pastor's who freely admit that they don't always "get it." Therefore ... churches insist that their pastor's lie.

2. God expects His kids to be truthful. Being truthful often leads to undesirable results in life. Therefore ... if you tell the truth in a difficult situation and pay a difficult price for doing so, and then realize that if you had it to do over you would probably lie to avoid the consequences, you are not a godly and honest man. You have nothing to feel good about. You are simply a man without the foresight to see the results of your actions before taking them.

3. When you buy a bible that prints the words of Jesus in red you are buying a bible that assumes that the words spoken by Christ are more true, holy, and inspired than the words in black. (What other possible reason could there be for seperating them?) And yet we claim that the entire Word of God is inspired and "God breathed" by the Holy Spirit. The bible does not simply contain the Word of God, it is the Word of God. Therefore ... all of the words should be in red OR the words of Jesus are somehow more inspired than the words of the Holy Spirit. There is no third option.

4. God loves me. In my brain I believe that He said that and I believe that He meant that. The Holy Spirit whispers it in my ear. And yet my brain often refuses to assimilate this truth into my everyday living patterns. I live as though God tolerates me. Evidently in my heart I actually believe that God tolerates me. This is shown by the fact that I allow the dismal cloud of failure to float over me even when I am not failing. I only out run it when I do something really, really good. Therefore ... when I fail to live as though God loves me no matter what I have done, I am calling God a liar and I am doing so based upon my least dependable personality trait ... my feelings. And yet after thirty-nine years of knowing Christ I still, on most days, live the lie.

5. Point #4 brings us back to point #1. I am a pastor and truth sometimes is lacking in my life. Therefore ... I am going to stop thinking and try to figure out how to break the cycle. And I am going to begin with a long nap.