“What do you , Rhett, do when you feel distant from God?”

That is the question that I received this week from an anonymous student. Even though I field tons of questions from students throughout the week I instituted something new this week. I leave 3×5 cards up at the front of the sanctuary next to a basket. And I told students that if they ever have any questions, and maybe they don’t want to ask them out loud, or just don’t have the time, they can write any question they want down onto a card, and place it into the basket. The questions can be about anything that is on their mind, from something I said in a sermon, to something they are struggling with, to listing doubts, or fears, etc.

So this is the first question?

I have some thoughts on this issue, and I will come back to that, but I would like to hear from you.

If you were to answer this question for yourself in a paragraph or less, what would you say?

One of my favorite bands to listen to right now is Death Cab for Cutie. I have been especially drawn to the song Soul Meets Body, and have been wondering ways to implement my love for that song into a blog post. Why? I’m just drawn to the lyrics and the haunting melody and music. The song begins with these words:

I want to live where soul meets body
And let the sun wrap its arms around me
And bathe my skin in water cool and cleansing
And feel, feel what its like to be new

I am captivated by this concept of soul meets body. In the book by Rodney Clapp Tortured Wonders: Christian Spirituality for People, not Angels he says this:

Theology, or thinking about God, who by definition has no physical body, usually is a highly disembodied practice. It links to textual artifacts (especially the Scriptures) and ocasionally to archeological artifacts. But it is not hard, when one is doing theology, to forget about the body. Maybe thinking and writing about theology, and spirituality, should be done in the course of physical examinations (although it would be hard to concentrate). That would keep us down to earth and aware of the bodies that we possess, that we are, as human creatures. There are, I learned that day in the doctor’s office, few pretensions to angelic, ethereal spirituality when your elbows are on the cold plastic of the examination table and you hear rubber gloves being snapped on behind you.

The Scriptures affirm this idea of flesh, and in John 1:14 we read, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” In Philippians 2:7 we read, “…but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form….”. In Colossians 1:19, Paul writes, “For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.” There is certainly an affirmation of God in the flesh in our Scriptures, and his life was not a disembodied spiritual existence.

The other day I was watching the movie The Doctor with William Hurt. Hurt plays a California surgeon who is basically aloof from his patients until he becomes a patient himself. And it is only through his own bodily cancer, and his experience as a patient, that he then begins to understand and empathize with his own patients. I remember watching this in my Ethics class a few years ago, and it made me think about my own current work in Marriage and Family Therapy. It has been said that for us to be therapists, and to have never gone through therapy ourselves…that could almost be considered unethical. If I have never sat on the side of a client and understood their experience how could I counsel them.

I think the same should be said for pastors as well. I think that as pastors we often point people to only spriitual things, while disembodying them, and failing to acknowledge the flesh. Not only the flesh of Jesus Christ and his humanity, but the flesh of our own lives, for good or for bad. When we live lives that are wholistic/holistic, acknowledging both the role of soul and body, then I believe we can best live integrated lives as Christians. Sometimes as pastors we sit behind our doors locked away in books and we fail to walk in the shoes of the lives that we minister to. That seems unethical.

So as I listen to this song “Soul Meets Body”, I am reminded of the colission between diety and humanity, and how that colission cleanses our lives, and brings something new out of them.

As you alread know if you read this blog….I am a LOST addict. My wife and I Tivo it on Wednesday night, and we watch it on Thursday. Yeah, I know, we can hardly wait till then, but then there is the issue of the college ministry I pastor. I didn’t think they would be cool with changing nights based on LOST. Just kidding. So I am addicted. I think it is the most amazing show on TV, and one of the best ever. And there are many reasons for that. And now my students are getting addicted, and Tivo’ing it as well.

And I have been trying hard to resist any other shows since there is only so much time in my schedule, and there are only so many good shows. But for over a year plus now I have listened to everyone rant and rave about 24. My students are obsessed and I have to say that I was pretty much hooked from only one episode, but I resisted.

Maybe until now…..I was over at Hugh Hewitt and read this from him:

BTW: “24,” which I watched for the first time on Sunday and Monday nights and to which I am now completely addicted –has there ever been a faster, more compelling drama set in our times?– seemed to me to use a different ad strategy of many more, smaller breaks that keep the viewer in place for fear of missing the opening of the next segment, an opening wherein crucial plot developments could occur.

Then I read this today:

More on “24″
by Hugh Hewitt
January 18, 2006 09:54 AM PST
Melinda Penner helps write the superb Stand to Reason blog, and this morning sent me this e-mail re: “24″:

UPDATE: Melinda has written about “24″ at length in an aearlier post.

SIgn me up…..how should I do this? Shut down my weekend and sit in front of the tv for days on end….just pick up this season? What to do?

I have not been thinking about this issue that much, so i’m not quite ready to make anything more than an initial observation. And it is this: That there is a deep correlation between our interaction with God, and of that with humans. Meaning for ex. Until we truly feel forgiveness from God, we might be unable to forgive others, or experience that forgivness from others. Another example maybe is that when we experience the grace of God in our lives, I think we are better able to extend grace to others as well.

Does that make sense? Rare is it that we are able to go the extra step, if we have yet taken that step in our relationship with Jesus Christ.

Why do I talk about this? For a couple of reasons: 1) I have been thinking more about this issue as I work on my MFT degree, and begin to integrate it more fully into my M.Div. degree. 2) I was thinking about a beatiful passage in Gen. 32-33 that I have been reading.

This passage is much more effective in Hebrew, as one is able to pick up more on the play of words but it is a beatfiful passage nonetheless.

In Genesis 32:29-30, after Jacob has wrestled with a “man” he says:

Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.”

Beatiful passage….Then we find in Genesis 33 Jacob fearful of his coming encounter with his brother Esau whom he has not seen since he stole his birthright and fled. The passage in Genesis 33:10 says this:

Jacob said, “No, please; if I find favor with you, then accept my present from my hand; for truly to see your face is like seeing the face of God–since you received me with such favor.”

This passage is a beatiful play on words and this concept of face to face.

But I wonder if Jacob would have seen Esau the same way if he had not earlier wrestled with the “man”, leaving knowing that he had seen God face to face. I think this experience prepared him for this face to face encounter with Esau, an encounter that truly revealed the grace and forgiveness of God.

I think that our encounters with God often lead and prepare us to better encounter those in our lives.

Nothing ground breaking, but something I am thinking about.