One of my teachers has described grace as, “unmerited, unearned, undeserved favor.” Proper Christians believe that salvation is unattainable by yourself but freely given by God. Fair enough. The counter doctrine to Grace is Depravity. This is where proper Christians believe that human beings are intrinsically, utterly and thoroughly evil and flawed in design and intent. They would say that humans are incapable of any good thing unless God has redeemed the person.

Ok…so this is a context statement, doesn’t reflect my belief, and will be dealt with in another blog. These two doctrines play out in some interesting ways. On the one hand, we Jesus people can and ought to be quick to declare the attributes and wonderful deeds of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, we Jesus people can be almost as quick to brutalize and self-deprecate our own persons.

We’ll refuse to take credit for an accomplishment. We’ll see ourselves as impotent, even helpless. We won’t trust our thoughts or feelings. We’ll be indecisive, not trusting our “only evil” desires. We’ll tend to unfairly look at many our problems as being primarily our fault. We’ll think of ourselves as evil. Ok, so…people have big and severe problems. True. People do f@#$ing horrible things. True. But how does reinforcing to ourselves that we are a strictly evil people actually help the situation?

If you tell someone she’s evil long enough, eventually she’ll believe you and live in a way that makes it true.

I suppose that the function of these ideas of depravity is to make us appreciate the free grace even more, praise Jesus even more, love and celebrate our faith even more.

But there are many occasions where I don’t see it playing out that way. Instead I see beautiful people thinking they’re ugly. I see smart people second guessing themselves. I see good people hating themselves. I see people with brilliance and ideas settling for mediocre unrealized lives. I see people accepting abuse and staying in miserable situations because they believe it’s all they deserve and all they have and that that it’s ok because it’ll all be better after they’re dead. I see people subjecting themselves to verbal and psychological abuse from spiritual leaders and thanking the leaders. I see people who have been hurt by others blaming themselves for their pain. I see people who ought to be celebrating God’s grace and favor obsessing over what they consider faulty behaviors. I see people who say they’ve been saved and redeemed still living and thinking like they’re evil and helpless and untrustworthy and wretched wretched scum.

Didn’t you just tell me that in Christ you’re a new creation? White as snow? God is faithful to forgive all sin? Why do you still hate yourself? I think we’re missing something about Grace. We say we believe God saves us. Do we really believe this? Do we believe He saves all parts of us, or only out eternal soul? Does He save us in body? In the mind? Does He save us only in the afterlife, or does He care about this life too? Does He give us peace with God only or does He give us the capacity for peace with others? Peace with self? Does God make people smart? Wise? Talented? Insightful? Resilient? Does God make us good? We are created in God’s Image which is very good. We believe that God has redeemed us and is interested in having relationships with us.

Why do we still look ourselves as evil and incapable of doing any good thing? Why do we second guess the people God has made us to be? Why do we put ourselves down instead of embracing who He wants us to be? And who does God want us to be but free. Free to love. Free to learn. Free to find beauty and hope.

Sometimes God saves by miracles. Sometimes the sea parts, the loaves multiply, the dead come to life again. Sometimes angels intervene. Sometimes God saves and there are tears. Tremors. Tongues. Happy feelings and someone plays the guitar. Sometimes change is seen quickly.

More often I think God saves in ordinary ways. He gives a man a realization that he needs to change, one day at a time. He gives a woman courage and cleverness to change her situation, one little bit at a time. He puts caring people in our path. Gives us other people to care for as well. Gives us awareness of small problems and the means to fix them. Gives us a desire to be better people and the means to undertake that journey. Gives us second chances after big mistakes. Gives us people who will forgive us and still love us even after we do mean things.

I’ve come full circle and have begun praising God by finding Him in everything. What I wanted to do was put out the thought that we can stop hating ourselves. And really, how does proclaiming our own self-hatred actually proclaim the goodness of God? And maybe I still can. God saves us in every little thing. He makes us new and makes us good. If we really believe that, we can stop hating ourselves. We can be responsible, insightful, compassionate and beautiful people. May you find God’s peace and comfort. May you know real love and new life.

Unfortunately there seems to be a trend toward responding to injustices– real or perceived– with vitriol. I advocate not simply complaining about the violent, coarse, or disparaging speech, but taking the positive step to consciously not engage in it. No need to argue with people who use these expressions, but let us temper our own speech. Let us say what we mean without hyperbole. Let us not participate in hateful conversations. Peace and justice cannot flourish in a society that treats violence so casually. While words do not physically kill, they do contribute to a state of mind in which violence is normalized. Let us be voices of reason tempering an increasingly unreasonable social climate.

And besides again, I just finished a post on “dqhall2″ concerning bullies, boors, political rhetoric, violent speech, the Tucson shooting, stupid talk radio….and a gaze out my study window at another surprise visitor here in the high desert feels a bit healing and cleansing after a verbal handling of garbage.

Admittedly, my surprise visitor is certainly not a flower to be smelled (although some desert plants on my property do bloom in January)….nor it is something rare and seldom-seen.  It’s a sizable moth, clinging to the stucco outer wall of my house, near the main entrance.

Now before you’re apt to think, “What the Rev. Dr. needs is not a break, but a full-fledged vacation.”….this particular moth is truly interesting and remarkable.  It surprised me, because even here it got cold last night, and virtually no insects have even been active enough to approach our windows or lights.  (Even now it’s just inching into the 40′s.)

It is one of those marvelous examples of natural adaptation and mimicry – somehow developing over time to look like something else, unthinkingly possessing its own superb camouflage, and avoiding a lot of potential predators by hiding “in plain sight.”  I stepped outside for a close-up look.  It’s gray, darker-gray, black flecks, and looks for all the world as though it’s just a piece of tree bark.

In fact, it even has a little crest of sorts on top of its head (picture a cardinal, tufted titmouse, or some other crested bird).  I did a mental head-scratching for a second about that feature; but it made sense, too.  With its tapering body and wings, sloping up to a fatter, crested head, it looks just like a little piece of bark flaking off the branch or trunk of the tree or bush.  Good job!

When the day warms more, and the temperatures become more conducive to some insect activity (and perching on the south/sunny side of my house will help with that), I imagine it will fly off to wherever moths of its kind need to be right now.  But it will leave me with “hope springs eternal,” hoping – for what seems eternally in mid-winter – for the coming of Spring.  And when it does, let us rejoice in its Coming.

I’ll start with the clean energy story: potential development in the San Luis Valley that is being looked at by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar as part of an effort to build solar power infrastructure on public space in six Western states. Unlike Rep. John Salazar, who would rather condemn the planet to thousands of years of harsh climate than stand up to oil and gas corporations, Sec. Salazar’s Interior Dept. obviously understands the dangers involved. And while Sec. Salazar might have a level of political cover that Rep. Salazar doesn’t enjoy, one need only look at Rep. Markey’s principled vote and courageous stand against Colorado’s most extreme politicians to understand that that political cover isn’t necessary to act.

Some details:

Salazar said he has signed an order setting aside more than 1,000 square miles of public land for two years of study and environmental reviews to determine where solar power stations should be built.

Parcels include 10,000 acres that sit on the east side of U.S. 285 between Antonito and the state line and just under 6,000 acres west of Romeo. A fourth parcel covers 4,000 acres northeast of the intersection of U.S. 160 and Colorado 150.

Salazar vowed to have 13 ‘‘commercial-scale’’ solar projects under construction by the end of 2010 on lands that have what he called excellent solar energy potential and limited conflicts with wildlife, other natural resources and land users. He set a goal for the projects to produce a total of 100,000 megawatts of solar electricity.

More below.

It’s not clear from this article what kind of solar technology would be employed at the sites. Most people think of solar photovoltaics (PV) when they read about solar power. Other technologies, which I have discussed before, would provide much more bang for the buck. I would love to see Concentrating Solar Power, CSP, (especially Concentrating Solar Thermal, CST) facilities built up across the West. A simple way to describe them is parabolic mirrors act to concentrate solar energy on a tube filled with a fluid. As the fluid is heated, it is used as a heat source in a power generation system. Two clear advantages of these systems emerge: the efficiency of this system is greater than for PV and the energy collected during the day can be more easily stored during the night – providing a boost to solar baseload.

Regardless, an additional 100,000MW of clean energy is indeed very good news.

Okay, onto the violent speech news. Rep. Laura Bradford, who surprisingly beat Rep. Bernie Beuscher in last year’s election, put her wingnuttery on full display in a discussion about the extractive regulations that went into effect in April (the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) rules). Check out the language she chose to use [emphasis mine]:

“Our stance is the erosion of private property rights has gotten to the point that the pitchforks are about to come out here,” Bradford said.

Really? Really, Rep. Bradford? Pitchforks are about to come out? Cons are so intent on supposedly protecting rights, they forget that along with rights come responsibilities. Her comment is clearly designed to portray how horribly angry landowners are about the regulations. But who carries pitchforks around because of their mindless anger? Rioters and mobs. Is every landowner on the Western Slope planning on joining a riot with a pitchfork anytime soon? They (some of them) might be frustrated, but the rules clearly impact large-scale gas and oil drilling operations – not every West Slope Coloradan.

What responsibilities does Rep. Bradford have in this situation? She has the responsibility to clearly explain the effects of the regulations to her constituents and neighbors. She could have spent her time and energy encouraging her constituents to call and write to other legislators and the Governor. Instead, by using the language she has, she is inciting their anger – trying to direct it so she can benefit from it politically. That’s immoral and it’s dangerous. She has the responsibility to work with her colleagues on this legislation. Ultimatums and poorly-veiled threats of violence in the media aren’t the actions of a responsible person, regardless of how well she works with other Representatives.

She proceeded to throw out a series of unfounded claims regarding Division of Wildlife powers and the state’s reputation and image. What I wouldn’t give to have more “journalists” ask for substantiation of wild-eyed claims. The language that is passed through the media today is a sad commentary on the state of that media. We know the Cons would have a one-week hissy-fit if a Democratic Representative mentioned pitchforks in a statement about their constituents’ anger. I guess it all boils down to that values stuff…

Cross-posted at SquareState.