good friday

It's Friday morning. Good Friday morning. And that word "good' won't let me go.

"Good" is possibly one of the most important ideas to ever find its way into our theology.

In most cases, good is not as good as great. But today, I can't help but think that good is greater than great. Confused yet? Here's what I mean...

Anyone would assume that if there is a God, then He is great. By pure definition, He would have to be. If He is God, then He is immensely powerful, unrivaled in strength and might. To create and control all that we know, and have yet to discover, would require utter greatness.

That God is great is no surprise. Anyone would expect that. Even assume it.

But here is the surprise. Here is the 'better than you could have hoped for' revelation. Here is the twist in the plot that even the most optimistic and romantic among us would never dare to dream. God is more than great. God is good.

While limited power has corrupted the best of us, His purity of intention and motive only enhance His strength. His is a power that is not fueled by pride, but by humility. He demonstrates His might by mercy toward us. He moves with kindness and compassion. When our sin separated us from Him, His love launched a rescue mission to come and win us back. Setting aside His greatness, He became one of us. He embraced humility, and on this day on the cross, even humiliation.

He died, and took our sin with Him to the grave. He was raised back to life, and leads us into the new reality of resurrection.

Our selfish pride sealed our fate. His humble love changed the stars.

Yes, God is great! But, even more, He is good. He is full of mercy. He moves with kindness. He pursues us with forgiveness. He captivates us with grace. God is good.

weddings

Been thinking a lot about weddings lately. This week 'the story' discussed the 'water into wine' miracle of Jesus, as he gave a glance of his glory at a wedding. Sunday night Sarah and I visited greenleaf vineyard, another church plant in Chapel Hill, where my new friend Rodger Otero gave an excellent sermon on the parable of the wedding banquet. And a couple of weekends ago I had the honor of officiating the wedding of close friend and former student Jimi Moore.

I'm swimming in wedding imagery. And it's deep water.

This union-- two into one through love-- is a small glimpse of a larger story being told through Scripture. It is more than a ceremony. It is mystery and theology all dressed up in tux and gown.

Weddings wake in us ancient memories and early longings. They remind us of the God who fell in love at first sight in the garden. Who proposed to His people through Abraham. Who literally wrote His love in stone by way of Moses. And when looking for a perfect way to communicate His love, He calls His Church a beloved bride and names Himself the strong groom.

It's no mistake that the whole story is bookended by a wedding. It begins with a husband and wife in perfect union with God and each other. It ends with a wedding feast at the restoration of all things.

Weddings whisper the hope of a God who gave all He had to win our hearts and secure our rescue. This is the kind of Love that turns submission into strength and surrender into victory. The kind of Love that embraces sacrifice as its most eloquent articulation.

The kind of Love we have always hoped is real.

i am a tree

My good friend Jeremiah introduced me to a beautiful song, ‘How He Loves Us.’ You should watch the video on his blog and read his post about it. (Disclaimer: In about 2 and a half weeks this song will probably be huge and possible overexposed, and I’m gonna look like a dork for writing about it. But as my older brother Kris would say, ‘Oh well.’)

What strikes me about the song is the creative language and imagery used to describe the utterly indescribable love of the Father. The beauty is not only in the writing, but in the truth that the writing is somehow able to capture. Lines like ‘If grace is an ocean, we are all sinking.’ And the first verse which says, ‘He is jealous for me. Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree, Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy.’

Last weekend I took a quick trip down to North Carolina’s Outer Banks to visit my grandma on Harkers Island. With this song still ringing in my heart, I noticed something. I noticed the trees.

The trees on Harkers Island are flat out mangled. They are twisted and bent and often the branches look like they are all leaning in one direction instead of sprawling outward in different directions from the trunk. Like many coastal communities, HI has experienced the blunt power of hurricane force winds barreling up the coastline. Long after the gusts have died down, and the boards are taken off of the windows, and the gas prices return from their astro-adventure into the outer reaches of the earth’s atmosphere, certain signs stay behind. The trees still bear the marks…proof of the pathway of a violent storm… forever bent beneath the weight of the wind.

He loves like a hurricane. I am a tree. I am mangled up and twisted by the sheer force of unbridled Grace. Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy, until I am utterly reshaped, unable to return to the stately posture I once held, when I once held my ground.

5 years!

Today we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary! It was a great day of reflecting back on the moments that have made up our journey so far. God is true, beautiful, and good. And He has used these five years to continually reveal that to us.

Thank you to our friends and family who have added rich layers to our lives together. We are blessed by your wisdom, encouragement and grace.

Photos by the talented Carissa Martin.