Smoooooooooooooke

This smoke sucks. It is all up in my grill and it is testing my patience. The first time I encountered it, my wife and I were driving through Prineville and it was so thick that it made my eyes hurt and look bloodshot. I have already been coughing like maniac over the past month and the smoke isn't helping. Not to mention that it makes it hard to see all the amazing sights that this time of year has to offer. Funny story, I read on twitter the other days that people in Portland were being reminded to only call 911 if they see an actual structure on fire or the source of the smoke, not just because there is a lot of smoke. That means there were enough people out there who were so panicked that they decided to call 911. As if the police and everyone else in the Northwest couldn't see the smoke too. Seriously though, it's brutal because you know our beautiful state is straight-up on fire right now and people's houses and out-buildings are burning down with it. It is a tragedy and no matter how close to the fires you are, we are all dealing with the haze.

Here's the thing about the smoke though, it reminds me so much of my life right now. Let's just say the fire is like bad news and the way it makes me feel. Dealing with the emotional, spiritual, and mental results of the bad news feels like a heavy smoke over everything in my life.  There have been moments where the fire has been burning in my heart but for the most part what I have been dealing with is the smoke. It makes where I am going hard to see, makes where I'm at seem unpleasant, and makes me worried that the fire will grow. The fire burns hot for a short time but the smoke lingers for much longer and seems to cause a lot more struggle in my life.

But I had a moment of clarity, an epiphany of sorts, the other day. I was driving and looking at the sun through the smoke and, I have to be honest, in a weird and dark way it was beautiful. It showed me a different perspective of the sun and the light it is emitting. It was a crazy red color with vibrant shades of red and orange around it. It was only because of the smoke that I was seeing this colors. That is the exact same thing the haze of our adoption has done to my perspective of God. I have seen the beauty of God's love with new eyes and Scripture has spoken to me in a way it never would have without the crappiness of dealing with bad news after bad news. Now, much like a wild fire, I would never ask for it. It's miserable and many tears have been shed because of it. But, since this is the situation we find ourselves in, we might as well appreciate the view.

A Message to Share

Okay, I must get something off my chest. I will most certainly lose friends over it, I may need to be prayed for, and could even face church discipline but it must be said. I like The Message. ***Waits for screaming to stop*** I know this is a shocker and I appreciate your graciousness in continuing to read despite my Message affliction.

I know what you're thinking to yourself right now. "How could he read anything other than the ESV study Bible? He certainly couldn't learn from such a egregious departure from the one true translation of the Bible, the NKJV." Seriously though, I have hidden that I prefer The Message from certain people because I just don't want to get into it. I don't want to have the long debate about translations vs. transliterations and hear about how the plain language that is used in The Message is not direct a translation from the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek that it was originally written in. I have been shamed for quoting this gem edited by Eugene Peterson. Isn't that kind of sad? No, not just that people get on me about it. That I actually CARE when they do. That I actually get embarrassed about it rather than being confident in the reasons that I love it. I legitimately spoke in a hushed voice in the store when I bought it. I didn't want anyone to know that I struggle to comprehend what I'm reading when I read the ESV (and even the NIV sometimes) and I need something that is a little more...simplified. So before you grab your leather-bound Bible with your gold-embossed name on it and sprint over to save my soul motivated exclusively by your righteous anger, let me explain my reasons.

1) The Message is much easier for me to understand as I read. Other versions can be really hard for me to comprehend if I am trying to digest long passages. Especially with those epic 10 verse sentences that Paul would write. Some sentences have so many commas that I feel like I am doing a jigsaw puzzle as I am reading. I think, "So this part is connected to that part and this was an aside to something 2 verses ago. Therefore? I'm supposed to ask myself what it's there for. I'm so confused" After about 10 minutes of reading, I'm just like...

2) The directness with which Christ spoke comes through a lot clearer. Because of reasons I have laid out above, I often times miss how direct and authoritative Christ was when he spoke. 

3) Some verses actually capture some humor and make me laugh. I believe the Bible has tons of humor in it but I have always missed it before. I laugh a lot when reading Proverbs or when I read the manner in which Christ responds to the Pharisees. When's the last time you laughed while reading a story in the Bible? The directness and relatable language makes me laugh. Here are a couple examples:

Proverbs 15:17 

Better a bread crust shared in love than a slab of prime rib served in hate.

Hosea 2:5 

Face it: Your mother’s been a whore, bringing bastard children into the world. She said, ‘I’m off to see my lovers! They’ll wine and dine me, Dress and caress me, perfume and adorn me!’

I mean, why make something like that look fancy? Hosea was being...ummm... blunt when he said it and the Message communicates the bluntless quite effectively. 

Anyway, I love the Message. It speaks to me and helps me learn. Give it a shot sometime and if you have a friend who loves it, they aren't a lesser Christian than you. They may just struggle at jigsaw puzzles and need concepts to be presented in a straighter line.