For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God.

—Ephesians 3:14-19 (emphasis mine)

To preface, this is not doctrine. This isn’t anywhere close to it. I’m just trying to illustrate and explore what I observe to exist. I really enjoy the language of prophets like Jeremiah and authors like Robin McKinley, who use little nature vignettes to bring life and playfulness to their words.

I’ve recently come into a heuristic that there are two types of Christians. There may be more types—I haven’t embarked on an exhaustive study. But in terms of those I meet and interact with, this has been a helpful heuristic.

These two types are “Tree Christians” and “Flame Christians.”

Both are acting in good faith. Both are seeking God, as best I can tell. But the two come from different angles, which sometimes causes issues with communication and priorities. Like all human beings, we all have biases and blind spots.

Tree Christians are very concerned with Truth. They vigilantly keep watch over scripture, agonizing about translation and interpretation. They grow roots down deep and unfurl leaves, but don’t move. Woodland creatures can find rest under their branches, but they have to come to the tree—the tree doesn’t come to them.

A mascot verse might be this first bit of Psalm 1:

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And on His law he meditates day and night.
And he will become like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season,
And its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers.

Now, the opposite of this type is the Flame Christians. Full of zeal—rushing like wind—not always stopping to think. Love and Spirit shines through in their rush to do all the things that have been left undone in this world. Their failings are not in the doing, but in the understanding, the rootedness in Truth.

These Christians like to quote Acts 2:

And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.

The coolest part about this visual analogy is what happens when you put them both together—the burning bush. Deep roots, burning mightily, and not consumed. The tree will burn with faith and catch on fire; the flame will shoot down into the ground and grow roots.

We are called to speak the Truth—the Good News—in love. Action, and contemplation. Faith, and works. The burning bush that is not consumed.

I love that there are both types of Christians. Put them in close proximity to each other, and the flames burn away the chaff from the trees, which provides extra fuel for the flames. The best kind of feedback loop. Just trees, or just fire, and stagnation would occur—the cycle would break.

The trick is not to judge each other harshly, but to bear each other up in love.

If you are a Flame Christian, listen to truth. If you are a Tree Christian (and if you’re reading blogs on the internet, you probably are), contemplate why you haven’t caught on fire yet.

I’ve been checking out a new church. It’s young. It’s aggressive. The type of church that is run by Millennials for Millennials. The infrastructure is online and designed to work without “elders.” The all the trappings are specifically aimed at college students.

• Why have you chosen to use all-new nomenclature and symbols? I understand that you are trying to make a new “experience” for people in the church, but at what cost?
• If you are accepting “investors” to help pay the bills, what do they get or expect in return? Equity? Saved souls?
• What led to the decision to have nobody serve communion? Self-service is an interesting semiotic choice.
• Why is there no explicit mention of the Gospels in your church membership “vows.” Yes, someone would have to be a baptized believer to join your church, but the membership requires more explicit buy-in to the mission of this specific church than the mission of Jesus Christ.

We’ll see. I’ve seen the “invisible hand” destroy some churches in my time, and I hope to never witness that again.

We humans are so great at making things complicated.

We solidify what should be kept fluid, and refuse to differentiate those things that are dangerously ambiguous.

Traditions are handed down over the ages that we meticulously hold to, while forgetting the purpose, the telos, the soul.

And yet, instead of rediscovering the soul, we think we can do better. Chasing new for the sake of it, instead of reviving and reexamining the old.

Things survive for a reason. Most of us can’t see it.

I’m so fascinated by the old ways, and yet I see how broken they are. New ways are broken too.

Sometimes I wonder what we would do if we were forced back to first principles; then I wonder if that will happen in my lifetime.

Today I encountered a rental company that creates a huge barrier out of unnecessary rules, which it then bends thoroughly in order to become reasonable again. I ask myself: why?

To keep outsiders out, that’s why.

I feel like we do the same thing with religion, with making things complicated.

We don’t need Compline, we need a sincere and seeking heart.

And yet.

Not the metal band. Jesus Christ himself.

The phrase “Lamb of God” brings up images of sacrifice, of innocence, of docile purity.

It’s a true thing–Jesus Christ was indeed the perfectly innocent sacrifice for our sins–but like many sides of the story, it’s missing something.

The lamb symbolism very much fits the “gentle Jesus, meek and mild” imagery that is heavily pushed by cat ladies and people who desperately want Jesus to be a socialist.

But think about lambs a minute.

Lambs are not just gentle and mild and whatever.

Lambs are cheeky.

Lambs like to frolic and play.

(Mute this if you value your ears.)

Lambs jump and play and headbutt and generally don’t pay attention to rules.

Kind of like Sassy Jesus as depicted in the Book of Luke.

So next time you think of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, don’t just think about how sad it is that we sacrificed an innocent being as atonement for our sins.

Consider also how you might defy gravity out of sheer joy.

When I was younger, I remember listening to a tape (yes, back in the day) of an old Christian kid’s radio show called Adventures in Odyssey. All my suburban-raised evangelical youth group compatriots know what I’m talking about.

Anyway, there was an episode in which we listeners were ~ transported through time ~ to Biblical lands where we could be a fly on the wall in Bible stories. The only one I can remember was the ongoing saga of Lazarus, especially the bit with Mary and Martha.

You see, like most of the publications written for suburban-raised evangelical youth group kids, this was coming from a place of uber-industrious SJ-type writers. Of course everyone listening would identify with Martha.

We are all too busy Doing Things to be bothered with trivial stuff like thinking or learning. Martha was the harried-but-perfect hostess, ignoring the party because there were dishes to wash.

I have this theory that the movie Frozen was secretly written by a bunch of ladies at brunch. I’m beginning to suspect that Adventures in Odyssey was too.

The whole point of that radio spot was that we need to quit doing things and learn how to listen.

The MISSING point of that radio spot is that the writers were probably projecting their own inadequacies, and completely missed that there is another entire subset of people who are 100% going to be Mary.

No way would you catch me doing dishes if someone like Jesus was at a party with me.

I’m the exact opposite; I don’t need reminding to learn something new but I absolutely need an alarm clock to get me to bed on time and to make myself do the dishes.

There are do-ers who need to calm down and focus more on being, and then there are be-ers who need to rev up and do more.

The Christian media I grew up with assumed we were all do-ers. It tried to get “busy” people to become more contemplative, never mind that a portion of your readership is going to try contemplativeness to the 2nd power and reach levels of non-effectiveness that we didn’t think were possible.

It’s funny what you start to see when you try to grow up and live your own life.