I heard this yesterday from Larry Crabb, guest speaking to a group at my local church. For some reason I find it very refreshing when people say things like this. When someone you respect says something you would normally disagree with, it suddenly becomes much more reasonable.

Jesus isn't very good at answering questions. He was talking about the passage where Jesus curses the fig tree, and then talks about moving mountains and praying for anything you want. Jesus saw a fig tree with leaves before fig season.

He walks up to it with his disciples, there's no figs (remember.. it's before fig season), and he starts yelling and cursing at the tree! Doesn't really seem characteristic of the messiah. The disciples ask him about this, and Jesus says "Not only can you do this" -- well... Jesus... I didn't really want to go around cursing fig trees... "but you can say to that mountain 'move' and it will!"

We've gotten so used to the sayings of Jesus, we miss the fact that what Jesus says is hard to understand.

It's confusing.

People who were with Jesus walked away from him because what he taught was so confusing, and difficult to accept. Jesus was extreme - "If you do not eat my body and drink my blood, you cannot follow me", "If anyone does not hate his father and his mother...".

What Jesus said is confusing. It's supposed to be. If you're really interested, you'll try to figure out what in the world he's talking about - that's seeking Jesus. Those who aren't really interested will just gloss over what he says, and ignore the difficulties and seeming contradictions in what he says.

I have a co-worker who recently began to start a life of follow Jesus - she has no church background. For her, everything is new. What in the world is Jesus talking about when he says "Feed my sheep" or "Fig trees don't grow thistles"? My co-worker has said that she has sometimes wished that Jesus didn't always talk in parables.

But what happens next is amazing. She wonders - why is Jesus talking about feeding sheep? But she really wants to know! And she figures it out, and then it just begins to make sense. It's incredibly refreshing and a huge reminder to me that I need to be walking this same journey when I read what Jesus said.

As Larry Crabb pointed out, he's in his 60s, and feels like he's just beginning to understand prayer - the topic about which he was speaking. There is always this crazy mystery in what Jesus says, and we get to figure it out.

Have you ever been telling a story or a joke and someone else interrupts and says the conclusion or the punch-line? It totally deflates the delivery: the suspense, the curiosity, and the drama that you feel and are trying to share.

For many Christians, their faith is just a sequence of story spoilers.

In my house, we're really sucked into Lost, the ABC television show. People discuss the story online, and some people have information about plot spoilers. The real fans will avoid any plot spoilers because they want to enjoy the ride of the story.

For so many of us, we don't even remember that there is suspense in the story of Jesus and what he teaches, and all we do is read and live the spoilers.

I just read this article, published today in Brittain's Daily Mail, about how this British mother finds her children excruciatingly boring. Here's an excerpt:

The lies started when my eldest son was less than ten months old.

Invitations to attend a child's birthday party or, worse, a singalong session were met with the same refrain: 'I would love to but I just can't spare the time.'

The nanny was dispatched in my place, and almost always returned complaining that my son had been singled out for pitiful stares by the other mothers.

I confess that I was probably ogling the merchandise at Harvey Nichols or having my highlights done instead. Of course I love my children as much as any mother, but the truth is I found such events so boring that I made up any excuse.

I wrote a response, but it hasn' t been added to the article yet. Basically, I said:

Finally, we have evolved in human development whence we can again justify ignoring our family and loved ones if we find them boring or inconvenient.

Finally, we can choose hair highlights and text messaging rather than reading to our children or taking them to the park.

Finally, we can cast off the burden of our loved ones if they become the least inconvenience.

Cheers! How much energy could have been saved if people didn't sacrifice for each other! How much drama could have been avoided if people stopped rescuing kids from being hit by cars - that isn't convenient at all! How much time could be saved if we could persue hobbies rather than care for each other!

Finally, our selfishness has been recognized, gratified, and idolized. Those who argue against are obviously out-dated, out-numbered, and out-performed by these psuedo mothers who don't want to deal with their kids.

I had a conversation with my wife last night about the public-ness of blogging, and how it's weird to post stuff out there for the world to see.

So I think I'll anonymize my blog - I'm thinking about Frank the Brazilian, living in Dallas.

But then I found a website, which will supply you with a Brazilian name. My name is now, Greio the Brazilian.

What do you think?

It's going to be very different when I'm no longer working where I work now, because I tend to juggle all kinds of things around the office, from tech support to paying bills, staff management, problem patients, etc.

A lot of this is supposed to be the responsibility of the office manager, but she is new and hasn't picked it all up yet...

I'm so glad I'm not going to be here after I'm gone.

Ok, so the secret agent template wasn't working for firefox. I've looked around for other pre-made blog templates that look good, and haven't run into much luck. I'll be designing my own. Sorry it's boring in the mean-time.

What a relief. I put in notice today.

I've wanted to move overseas for a very long time. When I was in college I thought I'd be overseas within 3 years of graduating. During these years we've spent a lot of time talking and praying about what we're supposed to do. We never had peace when we raced in the direction of moving overseas, btu didn't think we should have peace if we were doing anything else.

There are a few people who are extremely supportive of us, with the primary emphasis being on seeking God and doing what he wants. But the vast majority of people, from relatives to pastors have no concern about us seeking God's will for our lives. They just want us to race overseas.

We have finally gotten to a place of peace where we are so incredibly confident that we we're involved in is what God wants us to be involved in, and we have all kinds of people who just keep pressuring us to do something different.

I still think we'll be overseas in the future. I don't question that. But it's not now. And it isn't supposed to be.

I think it boils down to people just not caring. The problem is that these people who just don't care about us, are the ones who are supposed to care the most. Family. Pastors. Anyone who has taken the time to get to know us in the last six or seven years is incredibly supportive of what we are doing for our jobs, our voluteering, our growing together as a family.

It's just incredibly insulting and discouraging to be told how much we suck because we're not in a certain part of the world

My brother sent me a link to an online political survey. I just took it, here are my results. I was somewhat surprised.

You are best described as a: Centrist Link: The Politics Test