Joshua Graves: Exploring the Collision of Culture & Faith » Death

Imagination

josh — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 19:38:52 +0000

Josh Ross shared this with me today. His niece, nine years old, wrote the following–just a few weeks following the sudden and tragic death of her mother, Jenny.

If Imagination Were Real in Different Ways
By Malaya Bazillion

If angels and spirits could talk . . .
If Mom were here . . .
If clouds were windows and the sun was the entrance to heaven . . .
If no one could leave this earth . . .
If hearts weren’t broken . . .

If there were no color . . .
If there were no sin in the world today . . .
If death were defeated . . .
If heaven was earth . . .
If my heart was still full of pride and not broken . . .
If people could keep promises . . .

Gone Baby Gone

josh — Sun, 24 May 2009 19:22:00 +0000

Today, during the teaching time at church, Patrick made the point that one of the primary reasons life is precious is because it is temporary. “There will be a last time. A last time to hold hands with your spouse, children, grandchildren, and friends.” If life was permanent, it would be altogether different.

Kids won’t always hold hands with their parents. Fall fades into Winter. Excitement morphs into ordinary. Mountain peaks become valleys.

Two people were on my mind this morning. First, Lucas (of course). There will come a day, not to be depressing or dramatic, when Lucas and I cannot play catch, watch a movie, talk about politics, listen to good music (I’m hoping he’ll like U2 as well). My grandfather grandmother held Lucas yesterday at my parents home. My parents both held Lucas. Lexi (my niece) held Lucas. My brother and sister each held Lucas. There will come a day when none of these people will hold Lucas.

These moments are temporary.

I sat in the home of a friend this afternoon almost four years into battling cancer. She has four kids. Beautiful kids. Smart and passionate. During the conversation in which our shepherds encouraged and blessed, we broke bread, drank of the cup, remembering Jesus who teaches us the temporary-ness of our existence. We celebrated Jesus. This Jesus had the uncanny ability to make every conversation, moment, friendship, opportunity–he made them all count. Probably because he recognized that to be human, on some level, is to live within the confines of the temporary. I’m a follower of Jesus, in part, because he teaches us not just how to live but how to live well.

The friend I spent time with has already buried a close friend due to cancer. She was from Hawaii, an amazing life-giving person who’s smile is still remembered fondly in our church community.

But, it doesn’t last.

One of my favorite poems is a Percy Shelley poem. It’s called Mutability. Essentially, the point of the poem is that life has moments of sheer eternity. But the moments of eternity are short. Fleeting. Gone baby gone. “The flower that smiles today, tomorrow dies.”

Part of being a Christian, then, is learning to live in the God-tainted moments of our lives. Those single moments become, by the grace of God, a thousand moments.

Life . . . Today

josh — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 03:44:00 +0000

My friend Wade Hodges made a big announcement today. You can read about his courage to hear God’s call on his life by clicking here. Wade–you have lots of people who believe in the ways God’s gifted you. Count the yes votes, and don’t worry about the naysayers.

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Our small group is reading Sex God right now. I read the book when it first came out a few years back. I think it’s a fantastic work about the “endless connections of sexuality and spirituality.” If you have not read it, you’ll love it. I know few folks who read Bell and fail to learn a great deal about the collision of scripture and life as we know it.

I particularly appreciate Bell’s dichotomy of the temptation to be an angel (soul with no body) and animal (body with no soul) in light of God’s work of creating humanity (body and soul). While I wish Bell would’ve at least footnoted C.S. Lewis (the 20th century “catalyst” for this anthropological distinction), I think Bell’s right on. While many Christians bemoan the “animal” messages of our culture (What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas), the church offers an equally toxic one. Instead of talking about the possibilities of being human, we settle for stuffing sexuality and spirituality deep inside.

I also love this line from Bell. “Lust makes a promise it can’t deliver on.”

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One of our students at Rochester College (and dear family member at Rochester Church) lost her stepmother in a car accident. Sara (pronounced Sarr-ah) Ageno is from Jinja, Uganda. When she was a young girl, her biological parents were both killed in a similar motor vehicle accident. Another family from her local church took her in. Now, her second mom’s life has been taken. Pray for Sara. Pray for peace. Pray for mourning. Pray for her to ask big questions. Pray for her to take those big questions to God.

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I preached from Jacob’s prayer in Genesis 32 today. It’s a remarkable prayer really. Walter Brueggemann says it is the only real full prayer in all of Torah. The thing that blows me away about this prayer is not that Jacob has the chutzpah to pray it (compared to some other stuff this is actually pretty mild). The thing that blows me away is that God goes along with this con-man, huckster. It seems God would rather work with a shady somebody than a pious pretender. I needed to hear that today. Because, before I’m a minister, I’m first a follower.

Random Thoughts

josh — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 15:37:00 +0000

Some random thoughts on a Tuesday morning…

When the weather turns cold in the motor-city, the first thing I think about are my friends living on the streets and in the shelters of Detroit and Cass Park. I’m grateful for a roof, warm bed, and fridge full of food.

Patriots Head Coach, Bill Belichick, gets the “the pot calling the kettle black” award for the week. Unreal. This guy has some nerve.

If you died tomorrow, would you want to be cremated or buried? Do you think there’s anything wrong with cremation? FYI: Did you know that in the State of Michigan, it’s estimated that nearly 40 percent of all people are now requesting cremation? That’s up significantly–fifteen years ago, the percentage of cremation requesters was somewhere around twelve or fifteen percent.