More likely than not, this post is going to get me in trouble with the elders in charge of H20, as well as an ex-girlfriend, and various other groups of people.

I was recently told that if I would just be a little more meek, my sermons would go down easier. A couple of weeks before that, I was given practically the same advice.

I was raised Southern Baptist, with this image of

“gentle Jesus, meek and mild,”

to quote the old hymn by Charles Wesley. Then I grew up and read the New Testament for myself, and it seemed like Jesus really enjoyed screwing with religious people.

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Here’s God’s providential timing for you:

Last night I posted about really needing an empowering work of grace in my life. I feel like my struggle with anger and arrogance is sin; there’s no other way to put it.

This evening when I got home from the job, I had a delivery waiting for me. Unbeknown to me, a buddy had ordered a copy of The Mortification of Sin by John Owen for me. At the moment I’m struggling, a friend that has no clue what I’m dealing with sends me a book about murdering my sin.

Then I’m trying to stay up to date on the other blogs I like by way of my feedreader, and I found this post, by Dr. John Piper.

I’m beginning to suspect that God is trying to get my attention.

So tonight will be my first night back at the CrossPoint small group here in my area. I’m a bit apprehensive about heading back after the break-up with my girlfriend. She won’t be there, but she’s part of the worship team at my church, so there will be an amount of weirdness, I’m sure.

In all of this, my reliance on Christ has increased exponentially. I’m not certain what His plan is in all of this mess, but I know that there is one, and I’m absolutely looking forward to being on the other side of it, so I can look back and see perfectly how He was shaping me.

I prayed harder last night than I can remember praying in several months, and wouldn’t stop until peace descended. God doesn’t often allow Himself to be caught hold of, at least by me, so I had every intention of bending His ear while He was amiable. I wouldn’t trade that relationship for any other relationship on the planet…

Truly, our God is great…

So I had to stop by my now ex-girlfriends apartment today to pick up some shirts that I still had over there.

So I walked to the door and knocked, so I could return her spare car key and pick up my shirts, and when she opened the door (piano student diligently practicing), she looked incredibly happy…way happier than I can remember her looking for 2 years.

So what is it about me and our relationship that seems to have drug her down for 2 years? As boyfriends go, was I that god-awful? What in the relationship could have been so bad?

Or do I just individually suck so much that leaving me has been the happiest moment in years for her.

I just honestly don’t know…

In the interest of not being guilty of theological reductionism, I thought after running across this blog post, that I should throw my two cents into the discussion. Now once you’ve clicked the link and seen the painting I’ve got on the right you’ve got to wonder what does Jesus have to do with voluptuous women and self-esteem.

The author of the linked blog, Kate Harding, might call me a male chauvinist if she met me in person. But on the question of fat politics, she and I are in absolute agreement. I think we have a sick society when one standard of beauty is force-fed to an entire population, instead of understanding some basic things about attraction.

Speaking from the Bible, I would say this to all of the men that read this webpage. Whatever your wife looks like, that is beauty for you. So if your wife is short, then short is beautiful. If your wife looks like she stepped out of a painting by Peter Paul Reubens, then that is beautiful. Don’t ever, ever, make the mistake of trying to force that arbitrary standard of beauty on some other woman. It’s destructive in the end.

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