I Want to Be Haggai
I was reading Haggai the other day. I love the "minor" prophets - they really have so much to say to us - but we rarely focus on them...
Anyway, God told Haggai that he was pretty mad about the fact that the people had come back from exile and had rebuilt their houses and rebuilt their lives - but not the temple - and more importantly, not their worship life. In other words, they came back from a long time out of the promise and they went about their practical, daily lives without any consideration of their spiritual life. A whole generation had simply turned its back on God...
Is there anyone who can remember this house—the Temple—as it was before? In comparison, how does it look to you now? It must seem like nothing at all! (Haggai 2:3)
It got me thinking... I'm part of a generation (actually, two generations, really) that has done all it can to not think about God. Part of the generation that took prayer and Bible reading out of school, God out of public life, a generation that has shown its true worship: materialism (gimme stuff, lots of stuff).
Now, I'm not necessarily saying that prayer in school is a good thing. God is never honored by forcing people to pray against their will. The larger issue is that in fighting tooth and nail to keep this tradition of honoring God with our lips rather than seeing the larger issue and fighting to allow people to express their faith in public. Christians lost the real battle when we insisted that everyone do what WE wanted to do - rather than saying, "Okay, you don't have to pray - but I should be allowed to, right?" Too many crazy conservatives insisting that the world conform to them rather than trying to live as faithful disciples in a world that is not like them. That has hurt us all. That has made the courts antagonistic toward the evangelical community... And so, a generation that really turned its back on God - even in trying to "do God stuff..." Sigh...
Anyway, God inspires not the Hight Priest and the Governor...but their sons... The NEXT generation.
My generation blew it. My parents generation blew it. But among the millions of 20 somethings and younger God is doing and will do great things... I want to pour myself into these generations - not because I can do anything - but because they will. I want to be Haggai - the old guy that God uses to encourage the generation that will rebuild the temple...
EDIT - MUCH later I realized that either I misread this or that whatever translation I read was ambiguous...but I think this isn't really what's going on at the beginning of Haggai...well, today that is...
Anyway, God told Haggai that he was pretty mad about the fact that the people had come back from exile and had rebuilt their houses and rebuilt their lives - but not the temple - and more importantly, not their worship life. In other words, they came back from a long time out of the promise and they went about their practical, daily lives without any consideration of their spiritual life. A whole generation had simply turned its back on God...
Is there anyone who can remember this house—the Temple—as it was before? In comparison, how does it look to you now? It must seem like nothing at all! (Haggai 2:3)
It got me thinking... I'm part of a generation (actually, two generations, really) that has done all it can to not think about God. Part of the generation that took prayer and Bible reading out of school, God out of public life, a generation that has shown its true worship: materialism (gimme stuff, lots of stuff).
Now, I'm not necessarily saying that prayer in school is a good thing. God is never honored by forcing people to pray against their will. The larger issue is that in fighting tooth and nail to keep this tradition of honoring God with our lips rather than seeing the larger issue and fighting to allow people to express their faith in public. Christians lost the real battle when we insisted that everyone do what WE wanted to do - rather than saying, "Okay, you don't have to pray - but I should be allowed to, right?" Too many crazy conservatives insisting that the world conform to them rather than trying to live as faithful disciples in a world that is not like them. That has hurt us all. That has made the courts antagonistic toward the evangelical community... And so, a generation that really turned its back on God - even in trying to "do God stuff..." Sigh...
Anyway, God inspires not the Hight Priest and the Governor...but their sons... The NEXT generation.
My generation blew it. My parents generation blew it. But among the millions of 20 somethings and younger God is doing and will do great things... I want to pour myself into these generations - not because I can do anything - but because they will. I want to be Haggai - the old guy that God uses to encourage the generation that will rebuild the temple...
EDIT - MUCH later I realized that either I misread this or that whatever translation I read was ambiguous...but I think this isn't really what's going on at the beginning of Haggai...well, today that is...
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