Hallelujah Moments

I thought the “Night of Favorites” went really well.  Our music ministry is sounding really good these days.  But I was struck by Kevin’s comments about Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”.  That song’s always been a favorite of mine since they used it in “Shrek”.  So when Kevin said he wasn’t sure what it meant (tongue in cheek, I’m sure), it started me thinking.  Here’s how I understand the song.

         It’s really a song about the human condition and our frailty in this existence under God.  We see a holy man like David who is supposed to have all kinds of access to God and yet, he falls short because of his temptations.  The same goes for Samson who’s tied to the chair and has his hair cut.  It’s as if he saying, even our best are still just human beings.  What does this mean for us?

         In the second verse he focuses on our relationship with God.  He wonders why our attitudes and frustrations with God really matter.  With God so powerful, why do our feelings and actions toward him mean anything, good or bad?  It’s a disappointed feeling of powerlessness that he sits in.  But by the end of the same verse he’s found some hope.  It’s a hope that comes with the realization of grace.  It’s as if he goes from saying, “God, you’ve left us so vulnerable and weak in this human state.”  To “God, thank you for loving me despite these my weakness.”

         The final verse is his claiming acceptance of himself as child of God, both sacred and powerful.  Not only will he feel loved because of weakness, he will feel loved through his weakness.  Our lives are this constant journey of muddle to ‘hallelujah’.  Feelings of weakness and hopelessness move to feelings of joy and ‘hallelujah’, then back again.  But it’s these ‘hallelujah’ moments that we live for.  These moments where God’s strength and peace life in our hearts and in our lives.  Yes, our lives can be muddled in our humanity, but it’s in God that that muddle becomes a Hallelujah.

- submitted by Pastor Darren

Finding Your Passion

So you should all see the new “Night at the Museum” movie. It’s very fun with some great additions to the first movie. Hank
Azaria as the Egyptian king is really, really funny. And Amy Adams is always a breath of fresh air. It’s getting to be where I’d watch her in anything. Maybe what’s best about the movie is that you can take your kids and everyone will enjoy it. That’s a little too infrequent for me.
I don’t think I’m spoiling anything to let you know that the main message for the film is, ‘you’ve got to do what makes you happy”. The idea here is that your profession should be something that matters to you, or what’s the point? In Christian thinking we call that a theology of call. Check it out in Ephesians 4 as well as 1 Corinthians 12. It stems from a belief that all of us are created with a certain purpose or role to play in the building of God’s world. The idea is that God has blessed and gifted you with skills and passion for something that can serve God’s world. And the closer you get to finding that passion and living it, the more fulfilling your life is.
Have you found that passion?

- submitted by Pastor Darren