John Piper Lovefest / Joke on Linda

Got back from Atlanta this morning.  I’m really tired.  My final thought on JAMA was that it was okay, but I wouldn’t go again.  I think it really played too much to emotions and not enough to real personal responsibility.  The only thing that really saved it for me was a couple of speeches that John Piper gave.  It was my first exposure to him, and I can see why people admire him.  However, I think his message was lost on most of the younger people who were maybe looking for something maybe more crowd pleasing.

Here’s an example.  One thing that was really popular all week was that people would applaud whenever they heard something a speaker was saying that they agreed with. But sometimes it just felt like they were doing that when they thought it seemed to fit or as the speaker crescendoing was reaching the end of a long tirade.  I don’t think that people knew what they were applauding about when John Piper was speaking.  In one talk he was speaking on how our futile attempts to “do something” for God cheapens His grace if we think we can do anything as a response (or even in gratitude).  He mentioned that Americans are very resourceful (followed by a smattering of applause) and that Koreans are even more resourceful (followed by enthusiastic applause).  I think those actually listening knew where he was going with this and did not applaud… because after all the applause died down, he said, “This is a gravely DANGEROUS thing.”  Then people started laughing, but I think this accentuates just how much most people just saw this as a “feel-good lovefest pep rally.”  There were other moments where people were blindly applauding in agreement like seals each time he said something that seemed like a good point but he was actually saying to show how one is NOT supposed to feel.  I was just embarrassed for them because they seemed to be listening more at the timbre of his voice than to what he was actually saying.

Another thing that Piper said that I really agreed with is that most of the time when Christians say that they love God, it’s more because what they love is that it seems that God makes much of them.  That God’s love is really just something that inflates their ego – that the God of the Universe would make so much of them.  He said that people could be jumping around thinking they’re praising God when really they’re worshipping how singing like that makes them feel.  It really struck me hard and made me really think about my motivations of loving God.

Okay, Tom just mentioned that my posts have been really hard lately… and if you know Tom – HIM calling ME hard is really a big deal… so maybe I should end on a lighter note…

Oh, okay funny story… I was in Atlanta when people apparently decided to have an impromptu bbq at my house with Jerome there.  Well, I guess someone forgot to tell Linda Park that I would be out of town, because she called me while I was in Atlanta about what she should bring to the bbq.  Now, even though I knew there was a chance that Jerome would do this (he warned me ahead of time), I didn’t know they were actually having one…. so I said back to her, “Ummm… there’s a bbq at my house?”  I think it kinda freaked her out thinking that she spilled the beans about something that she shouldn’t have…