of spinning plates and flying saucers

in 1989 i attended a chinese circus and was fascinated by the acts of extreme balance that were performed. one of the acts featured several girls, rolling around on the stage, dancing, posing, even standing on their heads- all the while keeping several plates spinning on long, thin sticks, like large vibrating flowers from an episode of the original star trek tv series…

if people refer to ‘keeping the plates spinning’, they’re typically drawing a comparison between the many responsibilities and interests that they have to balance in their lives. however, when it comes to making analogies about our ability to balance in life, most of us feel like we have more in common with this man…



ever start feeling like the fun is gone-
like your existence on planet earth has moved
from the pursuit of a good living
to barely surviving?

All I really gotta do is live and die but
I’m in a hurry and don’t know why…
(Alabama)

bad theology leads to bad faith, and bad faith could very well be the source of all this anxiety…

see, we have Lordship issues… we see God in the wrong way.

we fail- even refuse- to see God as the author and finisher of faith and all good things involving light and life. some prefer to see God as this perpetually frowning, cosmic spoilsport who is out to take away everything fun a replace it with christian TV, Left Behind novels and awkward attempts at collective spiritual intimacy called ‘church service’ when what they’re really looking for is a party- a celebration of the life they have left after the week has taken its pound of flesh and the taxman has taken his cut of what they got in trade…

i had an opportunity to engage in some interesting dialogue with a friend of mine the other day. it all began with a link to a fun site called The Brick Testament.on this site we find edited highlights of the bible, all illustrated with tableaux created out of lego blocks.

but why is God frowning?

it's not that i think God always smiles- that wouldn't be a real person. however, neither is a God who is perpetually frowning. i mean, why would God say that everything was good and very good if the divine was actually uniformly displeased?

my friend shared some thoughts:

I do believe that God does not have a lot to smile about when He looks at Canada.

Let's be honest about it - we are a nation of luke-warm believers. I don't think He is smiling much when He thinks about spewing us out of His mouth.

When the Bible tells us to "run the race", how many of us do you feel are actually running to win? I think we are power walking at best some of the time. How many of us praise Him as we should - He created us and protects us . How many of us truly walk in obedience - He sacrificed his only Son for our sins. How many of us search the scriptures daily and spend a significant amount of time in prayer - can any of us say as the Psalmist "As the deer panteth for the water, so my soul longeth after thee" or as Paul wrote "That I may know Him and the power of His resurection and the fellowship of His suffering"

The race that I am in - I certainly am not running. I know that is a choice of mine - I own that 100%.

I am placing no judgement or condemnation on anyone - this is just my perspective and I thought I would share it with you as my friend.

yeah, there is much to frown at in canada and around the world.

however, as he pointed out, the lordship issues are our own. the fact that we are unfaithful, disobedient and spiritually flacid is due to the choices we make- our stewardship of God's greatest gift next to life itself: our free will.

when our kids make decisions that represent some kind of sell out or compromise- the turning from what they know to be true in favour of what they just want to do- i think that we as parents typically have some degree of frustration, sure, but we also love our kids and try to walk them through this stuff, affording them grace and mercy that is only God's to give.

i think that in light of all the willful disobedience and disregard for love and provision, it's more likely that God's eyebrows / \ in sadness, disappointment and teeth gnashing pain, than they go \ / in anger, judgement and retribution. that's how i, with only a small portion of love, grace and mercy, respond to mistakes in the lives of those i love...

here's something to think about: God has agreed to withhold judgement from the earth until that final day. see, grace is really a breach of justice... 'unmerited favour' of God. God cannot be both gracious and impartial because they are polar opposites. we don't get what we deserve and will continue to live under the canopy of God's mercy until there's nothing left to say, no cases left to plead, no intercessions left to be made. then, and only then, will God rise up from the mercy seat and separate the sheep from the goats... yet even then, i can't imagine his eyebrows furrowed with the chill of retribution. not when it means losing his beloved forever. i think the expression of God will contain much more pain and sacrifice and utter hopelessness than sanctimonial fury.

speaking from experience, i think we frown at ourselves far more than God frowns at us.

in his insightful book, The Shack,
William Paul Young observes:

You humans, so little in your own eyes. You are truly blind to your own place in the Creation. Having chosen the ravaged path of independence, you don’t even comprehend that you’re dragging the entire Creation along with you… (W.P Young)

dragging all of creation along with us as we try to be God? hmmm.

what would happen if we saw God without the frown? what else might we see once we realized not only that we were safe with him, but that all of our efforts at command and control are based on bad faith?

the first worship song i ever wrote went this way:
i wish i could find the words to exalt your holy name
but things like 'wondrous majesty' are difficult to rhyme
and i wish i could put my adoration to a beautiful symphony
yet i often struggle with basic 4/4 time

but Jesus, you're the one who loved this prodigal son
even when he showed no sign of humility
upon returning home i see the glory of your throne
and i realize you're God and i'll never be

i think of the love you've given and how much of it i've never returned
it makes me want to slip away to a place where i can hide
because i feel i'm so unworthy like a beggar with a crown of gold
why do you rescue the criminal standing guilty and yet untried?

but Jesus, you're the one who loved this prodigal son even when he showed no sign of humility upon returning home i see the glory of your throne and i realize you're God and i'll never be

Jesus, in his famous talk with some of his friends, challenges us to stop trying to be God, restricting all that God intends to do by the faithless grip we maintain on the many budgets and blessings entrusted to our care. (Matthew 6.19-34)


some questions hang in the air the way plates don't:
Q: what are the plates that we are trying to keep spinning?
Q: how does controlling them with our mortal hands inhibit what God seeks to do with them?
Q: what do we need to do to release these spinning plates to God's supernatural will, allowing them to move beyond the basic rules of this physical, temporal life and into the realm of the miraculous?