Wine is the most offensive thing ever created

I for one, like my Jesus to party.

I love the fact that Jesus's first miracle was turning water into wine.  And not just wine, the best wine the people at the party have ever tasted.  And not just some wine, over 900 bottles of wine.

Literally, my favorite Biblical story, meme, story arc, whatever, ever.

But let me dig into that a little more, let me tell you why I think that this miracle had a little more to do with some deeper things than just tuxedo t-shirts.

Satan can not create.  It is a critical distinction that satan himself hates.  That is why, above all, he abhors women.  Woman initiated the fall in the garden, but from a woman Jesus himself was born.  Women create life, literally.

Satan can only do two things: Lie and distort the truth.

So Jesus comes down, he is getting ready to be all, you know, God on earth.  His mother comes to him and tells him a fact (they are running out of wine), and Jesus responds (so what).  Without regard to Jesus, Mary turns to the servants and says, "Do whatever he says".

This is astonishing.  Jesus literally confronts his own mother, and her faith is so strong she simply pushes straight through it.  This wasn't even supposed to be part of the blog post but I picked up my Bible and that part slapped me in the face.

So Jesus turns water at a party into wine, a miracle, end of story right.

He didn't turn WATER, he turned ritualistic cleansing water.  He took what we, human beings, used to ritually prepare ourselves the way the Bible tells us in the old testament, and turns it into wine.

So Jesus turns water at a PARTY into wine, a miracle, end of story right.

It's not just a party, its a wedding.  The bride and groom.  Jesus loves weddings even though he is single his whole life, why is that?  It's because when a man marries a woman, they become one, and in becoming one they get as close to God as anyone can.

God created man and he created woman, God is neither.  That means man has something from God and Woman has something from God.  When they get married the Bible states "They become one flesh".  I believe that in that oneness, a married couple who both have the holy spirit are as close to the trinity as can be understood.

So Jesus turns water at a party into WINE, a miracle, end of story right.

Do you know what wine is.

Wine is grapes, grown in a vineyard (back to this later), stored for a set amount of time (back to this later) and then consumed (back to this later).

For a vineyard to create wine, they start growing grapes.  And then for seven batches of grapes they throw them away, because the vineyard has to mature.  Once the vineyard has matured then the grapes are ready to be turned into wine.

Next, the grapes are crushed, turned into juice and then stored so that they can ferment.  This can take anywhere from six months to many, many years.  Since this was the best wine these guests have ever tasted, we are to believe that this wine had been resting for quite a long time.

Lastly, after all that hard work of preparing a vineyard, waiting for the grapes to mature, watching the juice sit for year after year, the wine is poured into a cup and drunk.  What a waste.

Satan can not create anything.  But Jesus, in his first miracle, takes something that is a creation of it's own, grapes, twists time on its head and serves fresh wine (also impossible) that is the best the wedding goers had ever tasted, and all they do is say thank you and drink it.

Jesus bends time, he bends work, he bends religious practice and he does so flippantly directly after saying "it's not my time".  He slaps Satan in the face, almost just for fun.  But Jesus himself was this very wine.

He bent space and time, he poured himself out and he wants nothing more than us to say thank you and drink from the well, filled with the best wine we have ever tasted, that never runs dry.

stop renting your life

How many habits do you own?

When you own a car you can park it in the garage, stop paying insurance on it and not use it for a while, you don't even have to keep plates on it.  It just sits there.  It literally doesn't cost you anything. Then take it out get insurance back on it, slap some plates on it and drive wherever you want.

That's what it's like to own a habit.  You probably want to use it every now and again so it doesn't get spoiled gas in it or flat tires, but you own it free and clear.

Think about a habit you rent like a payment on a car.  It cost's extra money to protect that habit because it's fragile, at any moment you might just stop doing it.  You have to make payments on it all the time or it will be taken away (payments of time and energy and money).

Most people don't own very many habits, they rent them or borrow them.

I work out, but only with my personal trainer.

I eat healthy, but only when I can buy expensive pre-made organic fresh squeezed juice.

I give money to a charity/church, but only when they reach out to me and ask and my heart feels something.

The problem with this is you don't own it and not owning things is expensive.

1) Know how little you NEED.
2) OWN everything you need.

I know I need to be in shape.  If I've got a gym membership great, but when I'm travelling and I own my health I just wake up thirty minutes early and go for a walk before everything starts.

I know I need to be spiritually recharged.  If I go to church great, but some Sundays I miss and it's ok because the rest of the week I'm still reading and praying to get spiritual replenishment.

I know I need to have a good relationship with my kids.  But instead of renting that relationship from our soccer league sometimes I just take them out to lunch and sit and talk face to face.

I lot of self help movements and motivation blogs are shortcuts for how to rent a habit or an emotion.

Buying a habit is expensive, it takes quite a huge amount of time before you own it. But once you do it's yours.  Peace is not a breathing exercise that takes five minutes (although that is a great way to rent peace immediately).  Peace takes years of having trust in the right place and living with integrity.

Think about buying a car, for most of us that is a lot of money (even if you are wealthy you just want a more expensive car).  What I find is most people want a car that cost's somewhere around six months of their total salary, almost no matter how much they earn ($500k is usually the break point).  To buy that car with cash takes a ton of work, but owning feels great.

Owning a habit of having the nicest clothes no matter how much you are currently earning or what your closet is already full of is a habit not worth owning.  In the white trash neighborhood I grew up in, when a car died and you didn't want to own it anymore you got drunk with your friends, pushed it down the road to the empty lot and lit it on fire.

I'm not sure you can do that with a bad habit but something close will suffice.

Know how little you need, then work hard at owning that.  Make a list and then realize it's expensive and you can probably only afford (again in time/energy/money) to start to aggressively buying one habit at a time.

Maybe you rent to own up front, but the best thing in the world is to just throw everything at one habit and work until you own it.