*Chad Jarnagin

Separation from definitions is most unlikely in life. Most would say that everything is either black or white. I’m not talking about color, or race. The grey areas can be a little taboo. We tend to gravitate towards big “hot button” issues, but that is not what we’re talking about here really. It seems as though we do our best to set up borders & rules to protect our way of faith, but what we’re possibly doing is robbing our lives a full dimensioned journey.

I’m finding that life can’t always be black and white, cut and dry. As much as we would like for it to be, sometime it just isn’t. What if God doesn’t want us to live in a black and white world? A black and white world is created by man. The Creator breathed color into life. WE define the black and white. We may use our moral code and what we have learned from the scriptures to form it, but it is still our formation. If we are setting up the black and white perimeters, what do we need God for? If we are depending on our own, accepted definitions of right and wrong, we have no need of God and His grace. Scripture says that hope in what is seen, is not real hope (Rom. 8:24). Lines might need to be blurred in order for us to actually see God clearly. Does God live in the grey area? The uncertain area? He is bigger than our boundaries and definitions. He is most definately larger than our words and intellect.

“The choice in politics isn’t usually between black and white. It’s between two horrible shades of gray.” – Thorneycroft

“Shades of grey wherever I go. The more I find out the less that I know. Black and white is how it should be. But shades of grey are the colors I see.” – Billy Joel

“Light is meaningful only in relation to darkness, and truth presupposes error. It is these mingled opposites which people our life, which make it pungent, intoxicating. We only exist in terms of this conflict, in the zone where black and white clash.” – Louis Aragon

“When you’re the victim of the behavior, it’s black and white; when you’re the perpetrator, there are a million shades of gray.” – Laura Schlessinger

Schlessinger’s quote makes me think “Why shouldn’t we want to see life in a million shades of gray”, (or vibrant color for that matter)?

So much of the Christian sub-culture can preach that if you have a checklist of things TO DO, and then one for the things to NOT DO, we can live safe, happy, good Christian lives. Throw a little money in the plate, bag, or basket PLUS no smoking PLUS no cussing EQUALS good Christian. Doing what I have heard and been told to do PLUS asking no questions EQUALS good Christian.

I haven’t seen many big life changing things happen in safe controlled, calculated environments. I believe that “magic” happens in the uncontrolled, unexplained place of faith and mystery.

Following Jesus & worshiping our Father is obviously not centered around us as humans, but we cannot overlook how we were made / wired. Not tending to issues that are possibly laying dormant under the surface of our lives, is more detrimental to our faith journeys than we sometimes realize.

Matthew 22:37-40 (MSG) Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence.’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.”

Self-hatred, as well as pride, are two of the biggest obstacles to true worship of our Creator. They distort the true image of God. We were made in our Creator’s image. When was the last time you let yourself be loved for who you are, and not for who you should be?

“If you want to benefit from [worship], I suggest that you allow yourself to be loved…as you are, and not as you should be. Christianity does not exist in what we do for God, but what God does for us. It always starts with what God does for us. All He asks is that you be astonished at the fact that He bothered at all”. – Brennan Manning.

How effective can we be at loving each other, like we love ourselves, if we don’t truly allow ourselves to be loved?
Read this passage from Psalm 139, and let this sink in. “Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! 
I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, the days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day.”

“A glimpse of God will save you. To gaze at Him will sanctify you.” -Manley Beasley. Our personal, relational, and spiritual evolution will move us more and more towards Jesus as we pursue truth (John 4:23) and surrender our control to the One in ultimate control. By resolving to allow ourselves to be loved as we are, we will change.

I believe that being at peace w/ who we are and how we were made (in the image of God), will define how we live and how we treat each other. Ultimately, it will help define the mark that we leave on our society, family legacy, and communities. Godspeed on your journey.

Worship leaders, musician, writers know what I talking about here…

The line in “How He Loves” (John Mark McMillan) that says “Heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss” is this point of conversation. David Crowder came out w/ his cover of the song with his edit that says “Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss”.

I’m not going to talk about my opinion on the lyric change. I just wanted to express my take on why I sing “sloppy wet kiss”.

There is something beautiful and intimate in the line. Our Creator meeting us in an intimate exchange. When my son Elijah sometimes leans in to me and kisses me w/ the most joyful playful affection, it could be described as a sloppy wet kiss. Personally, the simple idea that God leaned down and allowed us (the earth) to be met w/ on such an intimate level brings a smile to my face and worship up in my soul.

So, for those that wonder, discuss, and converse on this type of approach of thought provoking lyrics, please dream and compose on. Part of my philosophy is to teach people within the Church through songs that not only encourage and cultivate a spirit of unity and volume in singing uplifting songs to our God, as well as to learn, think, and even contemplate the layers to the lyrics that we sing every Sunday. Conversation over lunch afterwards, in community group, or even at home w/ the family is a good thing. Especially if it is honest.

Lent, in Christian tradition, is the period of the liturgical year leading up to Easter.

The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer — through prayer, penitence, and self-denial — for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Lent was also traditionally the term used to describe the period leading up to Christmas before the term of advent was officially recognized.

Conventionally it is described as being forty days long, though different denominations calculate the forty days differently. The forty days represent the time that, according to the Bible, Jesus spent in the wilderness before the beginning of his public ministry, where he endured temptation by Satan.

Many have different perspectives on Lent. Check out my new friend David’s thoughts HERE.

This has come to be a very powerful practice of mine. Some say that we should have a spirit of Lent all year long (much like the spirit of Christmas). The reality is, we do not. So, w/ this season of Lent may we see, hear, sense Him more clearly.