Did God Just Use the F Word?

God is surprising.

In fact, He is very surprising.

He is also very big.

Let me share a story.

This past summer I worked at a large store and I spent a lot of time out in the parking lot bringing in carts. As a result I spent many hours working alone with only my thoughts and God's voice to listen to and I spent quite a lot of time just being with God. Even though the work wasn't the best I was able to enjoy many profound moments and conversations with God in that parking lot.

One day, as I was pushing carts, I was feeling extremely stressed about something. I don't even remember what it was exactly but mentally and emotionally I was just not in a good place and I was experiencing a tremendous amount of negativity. After about ten minutes or so of being in this place I was walking back out to the parking lot to get more carts and I lightly felt God saying to look behind me. As I heard Him say this I felt a strong pull out of the corner of my left eye to turn around.

So I did.

The only thing I could see was a row of cars directly behind me, and as I scanned them I couldn't tell what I was looking for... but then after a minute I knew exactly what God wanted me to see. Right behind me was a little red car with a nice yellow bumper sticker that displayed a very simple message: "Mellow the F**k Out." (I've censored it a bit)

I just stood there for a moment taking in the ridiculousness of what I had read and then I started to laugh.

As I laughed I felt God joining in and laughing with me.

All the stress and negativity just evaporated.

Now, I would never put something like that on my car and I'm not a big fan of profanity but the utter ridiculousness of that bumper sticker was just too funny to me and God knew it would be. He knew I wouldn't interpret that phrase as Him telling me, in a mean or cruel way, to settle down. God is not mean like that. He's actually the kindest person you'll ever get to know. He allowed me to see it because He knew it would settle me down and help me to lighten up.

More importantly, God was not using the F word himself or necessarily condoning it. In fact, I believe that if the word was being used in any way related to sex He never would have shown me it. God isn't crude and not everything flies with Him. He's also very sensitive to people and if I were someone who really wasn't okay with that word then He would probably never use anything with profanity in order to communicate with me.

But God is very big.

God is very big and the F word exists, and in certain contexts He's not afraid to put it to work.

God can't really be contained in many of the religious boxes Christians and non-Christians often try to fit Him into. He will go a lot of places we don't think He'll go and He'll use a lot of different means, no matter how "unreligous" they might seem, in order to communicate with us. I have consistently been surprised at the variety of movies, music, books, etc. that He has used to communicate something to me.

Now all this doesn't mean that God will use simply anything and everything to communicate with us, but still... He is very surprising.

So let go of religious boxes and embrace God for the really big God that He is and stay attentive, because you never know the surprising ways He might decide to speak to you.

The Beginning (Life of Jesus 2)

For the first of my blogs on the life of Jesus I want to start in a very simple place: Mark 1:1:

"This is the beginning of the good news of Jesus, the Anointed One, the Liberating King, the Son of God." 

(The Voice)

Jesus is always good news. His story is always good news. This is because of who Jesus is and what He does. So, I want to focus on one of the three titles given above to Him, and that is Liberating King. Many translations of this verse simply say "Jesus the Messiah." The thing is, "messiah" is a rich term with a lot to unpack. One of the things I love about The Voice translation (the translation I'm going to be using for this blog series) is that it often draws out and makes more clear the meaning of a word or phrase. So it adds the title "Liberating King," and rightly so. Part of Jesus's purpose as the messiah was to be a king, not a king who oppresses, but rather a king who liberates. Part of what makes the good news "good" is the liberation that Jesus brings.

Liberation from death.

Liberation from sickness.

Liberation from trauma.

Liberation from hurt.

Liberation from fear.

Liberation from sin, shame and guilt.

Liberation from a meaningless life without purpose or hope.

Liberation from dead religion.

Liberation from a life without knowing the Living God.

Jesus brings liberation from all this and more. Oftentimes He'll bring liberation from things we didn't even know we needed to be liberated from. He can bring all this because He is the Son. He is God entering into the human drama in a very intimate way in order to bring newness and restoration. That's part of who God is. God is perfectly good and He is perfectly free and it is His desire to share those qualities with His creation. In fact, God is not necessarily happy with people simply knowing Him and staying the same. No, He wants to give us better. He wants to give us more healing, more freedom, more wholeness, more hope, more peace, more purpose (dare I say, more fun) and more joy as we walk through life with Him. If we really want it, He'll give it.

As I continue to blog through the life of Jesus I'm going to unpack this more, sharing how I have found all of this to be true. In the meantime, I would encourage anyone reading this to risk a little insanity and ask Jesus to actually show up in their lives in a very real way. I can attest to this.

So keep it simple.

Just ask Him to show up. Do it everyday, and sooner or later He will come. And when Jesus actually shows up He'll always bring liberation and freedom where you need it the most.