The Materials of Grief and Loss: Brought to you by Sanctified Imagination

January 25, 2012

The Materials of Grief and Loss: Brought to you by Sanctified Imagination

The experience of loss is universal. Sudden, tectonic-plate-shifting loss of someone/thing you loved. A phone call from the police or the doctor's office. And small losses - the project at work that failed, the friendship you had hopes for that just stalled out at the level of okay.

The Bible shows us that God doesn't deny the human experience of loss, anymore than its healthy for us to. In fact the Psalms in particular model people praying their loss, and the resulting pain, in open-ended ways. “For I am about to fall, and my pain is ever with me." Psalm 38:17

Sunday begins the most all-in preaching series I will do for a long time - finding hope in the blues of our loss and grief. I've wanted to examine the specific experience of loss in the Bible for a long time, and now we get to do that together. I can't wait.

The parts of the Bible that deal best with loss and grief are the more artistic parts - the lyricism of the Psalms and the poetry of Lamentations. So to accompany our series, artists of Lake Forest are hard at work using their sanctified imaginations to lead us all in worship through our sensory experience and supra-rational concepts of beauty and meaning.

I walked around our entry space and worship center this morning and took a few closeups of the material our artists are using to shape our worship encounter with the living God, bringing our loss and grief for healing. (thanks to Tracy, Jerry, Robin, Debbie, Wes, Angela, Ginger and many others on their teams)

Posted on January 25, 2012 in Art, Bible, Poetry, Preaching | Permalink

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Books Beside My Bed

Jeffrey Gitomer: Little Gold Book of YES! Attitude: How to Find, Build and Keep a YES! Attitude for a Lifetime of SUCCESS
This is the number one selling author today on Sales (his 'Little Red Book'). A Lake Forest member is Jeffrey's right-hand woman who trains professional speakers and salespeople. She recently generously shared some of her expertise with me, and gave me a gift of this and other titles by Gitomer. Our family had a great discussion about this one over dinner this week - in particular the fact that 'positive thinking' can seem like a cheesy subject, but it is fundamental to our direction, productivity, and sense of hope in life.
Peter T. O'Brien: Gospel and Mission in the Writings of Paul: An Exegetical and Theological Analysis
If I continue to teach church planting at Gordon Conwell Seminary, I want to ground the lectures more firmly and consistently in the Apostle Paul's understanding and practice of mission. This is GREAT stuff
M. Scott Peck: People of the Lie
I'm rereading this 20 years later - daring, carefully, to actually name human evil in its day-to-day form, by a Christian psychologist. I've sat with so many people who are victims of the most common form of relational evil - passivity in the face of problems and behavior that left unadressed will cause harm to a loved one.
Wesley Hill: Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality
Best book out of many I've read on this topic, through the lens of personal experience of a Christian homosexual
Randy Alcorn: Heaven
I'm rereading this. I've walked through parts of this book with people who were dying, or have lost a loved one. In particular, Alcorn replaces the old, odd notion of 'heaven as floating on a cloud singing forever' with a truly robust biblical view - a physical place, with transformed bodies, doing marvelous things and enjoying other people...
Tim Chester: A Meal with Jesus: Discovering Grace, Community, and Mission around the Table (Re: Lit Books)
recommended by a pastor friend of mine in Memphis who knows how to receive food and drink as gifts from God and use them the best way - feasting with friends, family, and folks hungry for grace. this examines many of the meals of Jesus in the gospel
Marshall Goldsmith: What Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful
recommended by a trusted pastor friend - says its a good tool for self- examination and organizational self-examination for healthy practices.
Mark Pierson: The Art of Curating Worship: Reshaping the Role of Worship Leader
reading this alongside our search for a worship director. trying to keep learning from british 'alt worship' movements, and american 'ancient/future,' while continuing to care about worship that's not just cool and hippie for bored Christians who are content to not reach new people in their church, but is also winsome and powerful to large numbers of post-Christian people 'who've given up on church but not on God.' I'm frustrated that a lot of the most creative and theologically rich writings about alternative and ancient/future worship only apply to churches of less than a 100. still hoping the LORD will allow us to be a creative experiment in all these directions
Angie Moses: Flying Home
My wife Angie just published her first novel! #1 I'm proud of her. #2 It's stinkin' good (tension between dreams and duty for a young mother). #3 This book will never be published and stocked in a 'Christian' bookstore with the picture of a beatific looking prairie woman on the front wearing a bonnet - there's grittiness of real life like happens to real people, and perhaps some grace. #4 This link is to the Kindle version, look below for paperback also. #5 Angie had in mind precisely the type of 'given up on church but not on God' folks we love so much to welcome at Lake Forest as she wrote.

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