Proverbs 24 provides a context for me to think about Knowledge, Understanding and Wisdom.
Juxtaposed to this the parodies of culture presented in the movie Napoleon Dynamite & Weird Al and his song I'm too White and Nerdy… and you have a cutting edge expose' of how far the collapse socially of the dominant culture is in popular culture. This collapse from dominance is what post-modern folks mean when they say that the center will not hold. I do not have any problem with this to the extent that mainstream culture has also left God out of the picture.
To me this provides a huge opportunity for the people of God… because we live in a knowledge thick world that is very thin on wisdom. It is time for fresh movements of faith to rise up and demonstrate depth… words will not be enough… Let's look back at Proverbs 24 and break down some of the wisdom in it for our times…
3Through skillful and godly Wisdom is a house (a life, a home, a family) built, and by understanding it is established [on a sound and good foundation],
4And by knowledge shall its chambers [of every area] be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.
• My First point is to try to get us to grasp where we are in our current times. KNOWLEDGE IS our cultural KING. Whether that is the heady knowledge of the Nerd, The social Elite, The Style Elite, or the Street Knowledge of the Thug. In our current cultural mythos if someone has the right Knowledge he or she will get over in life and be able to get all the "stuff" in life that matters.
The codes of knowledge… that of the academy belonging to the "Nerds" and their domain of the University, and "The Code Of the Streets" belonging to the Thugs of the world and "the hood" both have dire outcomes in terms of ultimate meaning.
As T.S. Eliot observes in this cultural decline now recognized by the academy.
"Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? "
T. S. Eliot
The Hip Hop Group" The Black Eyed Peas" share their Lament with the streets:
"What's wrong with the world mama?
People living like aint got no mamas…
Chorus:
People killing people dying
Children hurtin you hear them crying
Can you practice what you preach
Would you turn the other cheek?
Father Father Father help us
Send some guidance from above
Cause people got me got me questioning
Where is the love?(where is the lovex3)(the love2x)
I feel the weight of the world on my shoulder
As I'm getting older y'all people get colder
Most of us only care about money makin
Selfishness got us followin the wrong direction…"
This is the condition that Cornel West calls "Practical Nihilism" and Neil Postman calls it "Amusing Ourselves to Death".
The Bible Simply calls this the sin of "The Pride of Life"
The Decay in quality of thought is clearly marked out in Romans 1:21-23
21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Our Idols are pop Idols like Britney Speers who is falling from her throne to Thom Cruise and many others…
We are living in a Spiritually dangerous time because our times are stuck on the "precious and pleasant riches"... that Knowledge seems to offer… Your Cell phone and Lap top in the geek world… to your myspace and thumping bad assed tunes to bee seen on MTV that can be high contexted referenced by elaborate ring tones. What makes these days in our culture so spiritually toxic is that we live in a world that teaches people to love things and use people rather than loving people and using things. Things can stimulate, but they can not love. While many people are lacking the character depth to really love (II Peter 1:3-11).
Proverbs says, "Knowledge puffs up a person"
"Pride comes before a fall and a haughty spirit before destruction."
The fruit of knowledge disconnected to the histories and realities that ultimately matter end in ever increasing consumptions and the loss of the role of love at every level of life & society.
By the way ... I really like the use of parrody used by Weird Al in his song "White & Nerdy". Like Bill Cosby he gets us to laugh at the twisted realities too many people are living. If there were not a lot of white people buying HIPHOP... then it would not have such a large market in the US. The fact that selling out fits the old stereotype of "Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll"... or the ancient categories of sin... "The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life". Does not surprise me. But for me exposes why these forms have sold out on their capacity to communicate the deepest realities that inspire true hope and values.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
In response to an open question... "Are organized Religions a Fraud?"
Current mood: contemplative
Category: Religion and Philosophy
[Most of you know that I am very passionate about my faith. I wrote this piece on an open forum that is even somewhat anti-faith... All world views and the actions that flow from them have consequences...]
I would like to suggest that all people have a world view. Part of it is inherited via culture. Part of it is caught through experience. (The basic Nature vs. Nurture debate...)
All people want to understand and be understood. It is human to form groups out of common world views and experiences. (Family Systems theory provide better continuim categories: Rigid to Flexible, Permiable to Impermiable... with evalution being based on the qualities of life produced.)
There is a lot of motivations for organized groups to do both good in the world... like the relief work of "The Salvation Army" and bad in the world... Like the crusades... Good in the world ...Like seeking a cure for cancer ... Or ??? what ??? in the world... Like... why should Britney Speers shaving her head be all that important anyway and on national news???
It is simplistic to blame great evils on being "Organized"... lots more people also die from neglect and disorganization. Rather we should evaluate the delivery system and the qualities of what is being delivered in and through each system.
It is also simplistic to think religion is the problem... Attempts to eliminate religous beliefs as in communist Russia also lead to the death of Many people. Wars have throughout history been more about the competition over resources than a world view... even when the two seem to come togehter... like in World War II...
From an anthropological point of view... Religous experience is part of the human experience. (Denial of soul care according to AA and NA is the core cause of Addictive patterns of behavior.)
Key for me is the room for dialogue, discovery, growth, and change.
Personally, when I was a child I grew up in a family that was atheistic. We encountered as a family experiences that caused us as a family to embrace a Christian World View. I have friends who both share my world view and friends who have very different understandings about the world. (I have not met a person whom I could not learn something benneficial from...)
Personally I am concerned about systems that become too closed and therefore shut down dialogue. The worst of human nature seems to come out when meaningful communication breaks down.
or Systems that become so open that concrete actions can not be taken and evaluated. Not all roads lead to the same place. And not everyone wants to go to the same place or direction. (Kierkagaard is right at this point... All actions and choices have consequences.)
It is this part that is lacking in many human groups...From family systems to Nation States... Economic systems to Systems of belief...
The open honest pursuit of evaluation by groups is what keeps groups healthier and makes for a better learning environment.
For a good but hard read on the religous end: "The Transforming Momment: a Study of convictional Knowledge" by Dr. James Loder
Another hard read... but For a resource to think about systems and to learn how to find your way of making the world a better place that will not impose on you "A religous world view": "Children and their Families in the Social Environment" by Garbarino.
Last but not least... when approaching any faith system... get as close as you can to reading the original sources yourself. The word "Bible" means little books for example... Each little book has it's own historical context.
I like the presentation of the, "Pocket Cannons" as a simple place to explore the Bible: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_Canons
I am a poet... so I enjoy what Bono says in his intro about the book of Psalms... a rich book for any poet to read... I think I will play his song 40 just for old time sake.
Currently listening :
The Best of 1980-1990
By U2
Release date: By 10 November, 1998
Category: Religion and Philosophy
[Most of you know that I am very passionate about my faith. I wrote this piece on an open forum that is even somewhat anti-faith... All world views and the actions that flow from them have consequences...]
I would like to suggest that all people have a world view. Part of it is inherited via culture. Part of it is caught through experience. (The basic Nature vs. Nurture debate...)
All people want to understand and be understood. It is human to form groups out of common world views and experiences. (Family Systems theory provide better continuim categories: Rigid to Flexible, Permiable to Impermiable... with evalution being based on the qualities of life produced.)
There is a lot of motivations for organized groups to do both good in the world... like the relief work of "The Salvation Army" and bad in the world... Like the crusades... Good in the world ...Like seeking a cure for cancer ... Or ??? what ??? in the world... Like... why should Britney Speers shaving her head be all that important anyway and on national news???
It is simplistic to blame great evils on being "Organized"... lots more people also die from neglect and disorganization. Rather we should evaluate the delivery system and the qualities of what is being delivered in and through each system.
It is also simplistic to think religion is the problem... Attempts to eliminate religous beliefs as in communist Russia also lead to the death of Many people. Wars have throughout history been more about the competition over resources than a world view... even when the two seem to come togehter... like in World War II...
From an anthropological point of view... Religous experience is part of the human experience. (Denial of soul care according to AA and NA is the core cause of Addictive patterns of behavior.)
Key for me is the room for dialogue, discovery, growth, and change.
Personally, when I was a child I grew up in a family that was atheistic. We encountered as a family experiences that caused us as a family to embrace a Christian World View. I have friends who both share my world view and friends who have very different understandings about the world. (I have not met a person whom I could not learn something benneficial from...)
Personally I am concerned about systems that become too closed and therefore shut down dialogue. The worst of human nature seems to come out when meaningful communication breaks down.
or Systems that become so open that concrete actions can not be taken and evaluated. Not all roads lead to the same place. And not everyone wants to go to the same place or direction. (Kierkagaard is right at this point... All actions and choices have consequences.)
It is this part that is lacking in many human groups...From family systems to Nation States... Economic systems to Systems of belief...
The open honest pursuit of evaluation by groups is what keeps groups healthier and makes for a better learning environment.
For a good but hard read on the religous end: "The Transforming Momment: a Study of convictional Knowledge" by Dr. James Loder
Another hard read... but For a resource to think about systems and to learn how to find your way of making the world a better place that will not impose on you "A religous world view": "Children and their Families in the Social Environment" by Garbarino.
Last but not least... when approaching any faith system... get as close as you can to reading the original sources yourself. The word "Bible" means little books for example... Each little book has it's own historical context.
I like the presentation of the, "Pocket Cannons" as a simple place to explore the Bible: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_Canons
I am a poet... so I enjoy what Bono says in his intro about the book of Psalms... a rich book for any poet to read... I think I will play his song 40 just for old time sake.
Currently listening :
The Best of 1980-1990
By U2
Release date: By 10 November, 1998
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Holy Week... Now which week is not that???
AnyWay!
Current mood: thankful
For Me the Resurection of Christ reminds me that the risk of Loving and the Challenge of living is all worth it...
Here is my word of encouragement to all my friends for "Holy Week"... actually life is a gift... so it is all a miracle...
People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest person with the biggest ideas can be
shot down by the smallest person with the smallest mind.
Think big anyway.
What you spend years building may
be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack if you help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have
and you might get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
- Anonymous
Friday, March 23, 2007
Madam Guyon, Suffering... and We all get to live the Book of Job
Current mood: contemplative
Category: Life
Today I was reading a book called, "Deeper Experiences of Famous Christians" by James Gilchrist Lawson.
What was striking to me is the difference on how Guyon in her time saw suffering compared to our own time. Her response was rather consistently in suffering to turn to God. I spent a good part of the day considering her response in almost every hardship was to turn with trust to God. I tend to just get angry with God when things do not work out the way I want them to...
Job seems like a trajic story. It is our story. We all will live into it. The loss of everything. Time will eat away at our lives. In Romans 8 it says that God gave the whole of our creation over to decay... So In time we will even have to pass through death's door ourselves. Not everyone gets the chance to wrestle with God. To question him about what in the world is this all about? And to hear God's answer, "These matters are to great for you to fully understand... Did you see when I did X, Y, or Z???"
The difference between many that are great in faith and the rest of us...
is their ability to say "Naked came I into this world and Naked shall I return from where I came." No of us called ourselves into exsistence. The difference is a core trust that whether in Life or Death we belong to God.
Some of us get delusional and temporarily think that we are the ultimate masters of our own fate. I do... and I find today... that this delusion is a sickness called denial that cuts me off from humility and my humanity. God have mercy on my soul -- Amen.
Madam Guyon decided that she would start an intense relationship with God before she had to go from this life to the next. I am asking myself why am I settling for less?
Currently listening :
Blessed Be Your Name the Songs of Matt Redman, Vol. 1
By Matt Redman
Release date: By 19 July, 2005
Category: Life
Today I was reading a book called, "Deeper Experiences of Famous Christians" by James Gilchrist Lawson.
What was striking to me is the difference on how Guyon in her time saw suffering compared to our own time. Her response was rather consistently in suffering to turn to God. I spent a good part of the day considering her response in almost every hardship was to turn with trust to God. I tend to just get angry with God when things do not work out the way I want them to...
Job seems like a trajic story. It is our story. We all will live into it. The loss of everything. Time will eat away at our lives. In Romans 8 it says that God gave the whole of our creation over to decay... So In time we will even have to pass through death's door ourselves. Not everyone gets the chance to wrestle with God. To question him about what in the world is this all about? And to hear God's answer, "These matters are to great for you to fully understand... Did you see when I did X, Y, or Z???"
The difference between many that are great in faith and the rest of us...
is their ability to say "Naked came I into this world and Naked shall I return from where I came." No of us called ourselves into exsistence. The difference is a core trust that whether in Life or Death we belong to God.
Some of us get delusional and temporarily think that we are the ultimate masters of our own fate. I do... and I find today... that this delusion is a sickness called denial that cuts me off from humility and my humanity. God have mercy on my soul -- Amen.
Madam Guyon decided that she would start an intense relationship with God before she had to go from this life to the next. I am asking myself why am I settling for less?
Currently listening :
Blessed Be Your Name the Songs of Matt Redman, Vol. 1
By Matt Redman
Release date: By 19 July, 2005
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
To All My Friends who are tempted to think with the wrong Head
To All My Friends who are tempted to think with the wrong Head... This is a letter 4 U.
History is in the making. Mothers and Fathers... Who will or will not have self-control. Children need Faithful Fathers and Mothers...
Choices and consequences. There is life after the big wow. A history to live with...
Porn feeds off of the lack of the real in terms of intimacy and relationship. It can also leads to a very lonely life... If one can not trust oneself... Why should anyone trust you??? No Trust = No real Intimacy.
I don't want to be pimped nor do I want to see my friends pimped... nor my family, nor my Culture.
As KRS One Says, There is no such thing as just making love, instead we should say... "making life"...
both history and the children that become part of it through our actions are real and can never be earased.
Fantasy is just that. There are no actions without consequences. Our thought life will lead to actions.
Like I have always said... God made us male and female and knows all about Sex... It was God's idea... God made what is good in Sex good. Then he gave us some guidance aboout what good looks like... If you ignore this advice and try to use Sex beyound what it intended for... you will suffer the consequences of your thoughts and actions.
Like in bowling there can be a significant time gap between a choice and the consequences. Sometimes a 9 month or more time gap...
Do not tell me I am against good sex. Have you ever read... "Song of Solomon"? Some of you will never know real romance because you became a slave to lust... and never learned what true love is about. Time to go back and learn before it is too late.
Real friends tell the truth to real friends. When they get burned they do not lie about it... Keep it real people.
Keep the Love Real,
Jaw1
History is in the making. Mothers and Fathers... Who will or will not have self-control. Children need Faithful Fathers and Mothers...
Choices and consequences. There is life after the big wow. A history to live with...
Porn feeds off of the lack of the real in terms of intimacy and relationship. It can also leads to a very lonely life... If one can not trust oneself... Why should anyone trust you??? No Trust = No real Intimacy.
I don't want to be pimped nor do I want to see my friends pimped... nor my family, nor my Culture.
As KRS One Says, There is no such thing as just making love, instead we should say... "making life"...
both history and the children that become part of it through our actions are real and can never be earased.
Fantasy is just that. There are no actions without consequences. Our thought life will lead to actions.
Like I have always said... God made us male and female and knows all about Sex... It was God's idea... God made what is good in Sex good. Then he gave us some guidance aboout what good looks like... If you ignore this advice and try to use Sex beyound what it intended for... you will suffer the consequences of your thoughts and actions.
Like in bowling there can be a significant time gap between a choice and the consequences. Sometimes a 9 month or more time gap...
Do not tell me I am against good sex. Have you ever read... "Song of Solomon"? Some of you will never know real romance because you became a slave to lust... and never learned what true love is about. Time to go back and learn before it is too late.
Real friends tell the truth to real friends. When they get burned they do not lie about it... Keep it real people.
Keep the Love Real,
Jaw1
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Please Help find my friend's Uncle!!!
If you live in LA ... take a good look at this picture and help us find Mr. Romero.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Teach the Real
Warning, "Jude says that this should be cut up into parts... that some will find these too much to digest in one sitting". So I am publishing it here with the hope of Each of these points will be a good beginning for future surmon topics... I would love to preach on these themes...
Things we Usually do not teach our Kin... and maybe we should:
1. "Lord teach us to Number OUR days". If you are 15 years Old... In 3 years you will be a "Legal Adult" making adult decisions that will set the course of the first part of your life... In 10 years you will have full adult responsibilities and will need to be able to lead others...(Possibly including your own children)... In 20 Years you will be shaping within the sphere of your influence "The Content and Quality of life" for both yourself and those within your sphere of influence... In 40 Years (which may seem a long ways away... but in truth will come sooner than most of us think...) Your Satisfaction will be based on the history you have made... both for yourself and those around you... In 80 Years the next generation will either bennefit from how you Lived or Not... They will have a reason to name you in hisotry with a sense of thanks and gratitude... or Not. Reguardless, Each of us will answer to God for the life that we have lived.
2. "Every Generation has to choose what is of value to pass on to the next Generation." This is not automatic. Whole civilizations rise and fall on the Content and Quality of What they pass on and what the present Generation learns and discovers rooted in their inheritance. See II Timothy 2:2
3. We Are born lost and not knowing our way into a world that is lost in both confusion and "Sin"... this is both personal and public.
The state of confussion is easy to see. We all struggle with it to some degree every day. Confussion simply is not knowing what we are doing and why we are doing it. Only by facing bravely this state of mind does one mature and rise above it... Sometimes for short momments... and sometimes for longer periods of time. (Humility is learned in this cloud of Unknowing when we can say we do not know... only then is discovery possible.) Groups only rise out of their own confusion when they can wrestle honestly with humility the real questions that impinge on life.
The reality of being stuck in Sin is hard for the modern/post-modern mind to see. And if the adults will not see it for what it is then that makes it even harder for the youth who are growing up to see what is going on. (Hebrew 3:12-13) Sin hides itself in our pride and without honesty it does us and the next generation real damage. The most productive word picture that I have found so far is "taking the trash to the trash can". I know in my head what I am doing. I do it any way. Much of what is in there is not good for the earth and will end up in this place called a landfill. Generations after me will suffer for and from my actions. It is really hard to stop... Recycling to the extent that I do it only eliminates some of it. Yet anything I do not address is toxic for the next generation.
(The reason why this generation finds the language of the church about sin hard to understand is because of the pride and arrogance of our times... We have spent far too much time accusing others of evil and sinfull acts while ignoring our involvement with sin ourselves... In contrast if God can through the Holy Spirit convict us daily of the sin in our own life... it will be natural that those around us will bennefit from our humility and find themselves also convicted by the same loving and gracious Holy Spirit. Currently we live in a world that wants justice done to somebody else... rather than the more hopeful view that Mercy can triumph over justice.)
4. Understanding our Times. Currently we live at a time where we are being consummed by consummerism. Materialism has lost any anchor to meaning and reason. Many desire to posses things and in turn secretely find themselves possed by them as a way of being "Cool", Comfortable, Entertained, or Significant. More simply put we know that we should love people and use things; Yet, the current dominant culture teaches us to love things and use people. In fact the way we use the worlds resources shows us to what extent we value power and things over the value of a life. Our times are very far away from the values lifted up by Jesus... who said, "Whatever you have done to the least of these my brothers you have done it to me." (Matthew 25)
Things we Usually do not teach our Kin... and maybe we should:
1. "Lord teach us to Number OUR days". If you are 15 years Old... In 3 years you will be a "Legal Adult" making adult decisions that will set the course of the first part of your life... In 10 years you will have full adult responsibilities and will need to be able to lead others...(Possibly including your own children)... In 20 Years you will be shaping within the sphere of your influence "The Content and Quality of life" for both yourself and those within your sphere of influence... In 40 Years (which may seem a long ways away... but in truth will come sooner than most of us think...) Your Satisfaction will be based on the history you have made... both for yourself and those around you... In 80 Years the next generation will either bennefit from how you Lived or Not... They will have a reason to name you in hisotry with a sense of thanks and gratitude... or Not. Reguardless, Each of us will answer to God for the life that we have lived.
2. "Every Generation has to choose what is of value to pass on to the next Generation." This is not automatic. Whole civilizations rise and fall on the Content and Quality of What they pass on and what the present Generation learns and discovers rooted in their inheritance. See II Timothy 2:2
3. We Are born lost and not knowing our way into a world that is lost in both confusion and "Sin"... this is both personal and public.
The state of confussion is easy to see. We all struggle with it to some degree every day. Confussion simply is not knowing what we are doing and why we are doing it. Only by facing bravely this state of mind does one mature and rise above it... Sometimes for short momments... and sometimes for longer periods of time. (Humility is learned in this cloud of Unknowing when we can say we do not know... only then is discovery possible.) Groups only rise out of their own confusion when they can wrestle honestly with humility the real questions that impinge on life.
The reality of being stuck in Sin is hard for the modern/post-modern mind to see. And if the adults will not see it for what it is then that makes it even harder for the youth who are growing up to see what is going on. (Hebrew 3:12-13) Sin hides itself in our pride and without honesty it does us and the next generation real damage. The most productive word picture that I have found so far is "taking the trash to the trash can". I know in my head what I am doing. I do it any way. Much of what is in there is not good for the earth and will end up in this place called a landfill. Generations after me will suffer for and from my actions. It is really hard to stop... Recycling to the extent that I do it only eliminates some of it. Yet anything I do not address is toxic for the next generation.
(The reason why this generation finds the language of the church about sin hard to understand is because of the pride and arrogance of our times... We have spent far too much time accusing others of evil and sinfull acts while ignoring our involvement with sin ourselves... In contrast if God can through the Holy Spirit convict us daily of the sin in our own life... it will be natural that those around us will bennefit from our humility and find themselves also convicted by the same loving and gracious Holy Spirit. Currently we live in a world that wants justice done to somebody else... rather than the more hopeful view that Mercy can triumph over justice.)
4. Understanding our Times. Currently we live at a time where we are being consummed by consummerism. Materialism has lost any anchor to meaning and reason. Many desire to posses things and in turn secretely find themselves possed by them as a way of being "Cool", Comfortable, Entertained, or Significant. More simply put we know that we should love people and use things; Yet, the current dominant culture teaches us to love things and use people. In fact the way we use the worlds resources shows us to what extent we value power and things over the value of a life. Our times are very far away from the values lifted up by Jesus... who said, "Whatever you have done to the least of these my brothers you have done it to me." (Matthew 25)
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
II Timothy 2:2
I am asking for prayer as I am glowing with a sense of joy mixed with sadness. My friend Roxy teaches 6th grade at a local grade school. She is having her baby dedicated to God this Sunday at our church. She took a personal day today to help a friend...
My Friend Chris has helped his wife Roxy get through school. Supported her all along the way. Now it is his turn to go back to school and get his education. He is a loving and tender father... Supportive of Roxy their baby and now Roxy's efforts to help her friend in this time of need.
When the family network fails to be the support network... Where can people turn... "Who is our Neighbor?"
Families... Valued or thrown away... Roxy's friend needs to escape an abusive addicted boyfriend/father who says he does not want or need her and their kids anymore. So her friend takes a step towards freedom and hope for her children without their father. Roxy's desire is that the love and life that has impacted her life will be passed on to others... A love rooted in God (Ephesians 3:14-21).
What we live and teach is intergenerational. It all is about the quality of lives we live. We need to entrust the best we have learned to those who will pass it on as a heritage -- II Timothy 2:2.
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Dreams and Jacob's Ladder
I am struck by how Jacob in Genesis 29 responds so profuondly to a dream. His world view connected what he dreamed to reality. This became a doorway for his relationship with God to grow.
These days I am staying up to late to dream... taking in too many images in the form of movies, TV, and Advertisments... Lacking the stillness to dream...
There is a connection to dreaming, hope, and praying. When our deepest desires get burried in the imeadiate we forget to pray. Satisfaction is so different than entertainment. Sifted desires... to be left to long for holy longings and then to pursue those longings -- this is the true fruit of prayer.
The integrity of my life is bound up with the integrity of my dreams and my prayers.
Dreams are only as reliable as the soul that has them. Initiative can come from God and even very tainted souls can be touched by the devine in their dreams. The integrity of our response.
Anywhere where we can dream is Holy ground.
These days I am staying up to late to dream... taking in too many images in the form of movies, TV, and Advertisments... Lacking the stillness to dream...
There is a connection to dreaming, hope, and praying. When our deepest desires get burried in the imeadiate we forget to pray. Satisfaction is so different than entertainment. Sifted desires... to be left to long for holy longings and then to pursue those longings -- this is the true fruit of prayer.
The integrity of my life is bound up with the integrity of my dreams and my prayers.
Dreams are only as reliable as the soul that has them. Initiative can come from God and even very tainted souls can be touched by the devine in their dreams. The integrity of our response.
Anywhere where we can dream is Holy ground.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Genesis 23
Today I have the joy to have my first full day of a two-week vacation. Jude and I are currently at her brother Peter’s house near Santa Barbara. The hospitality here is incredible because, Thea, Peter’s wife is so fond and gifted at hosting.
Tube… They have cable and by choice Jude and I do not… Last night I watched some of the history channel about the history of the Ottoman Empire, Some Japanese Animation, and the military channel on some of the history of tanks… plus the tail end of the godfather III…
This morning…
I Watched the US women’s soccer team play China… left off from that when they were winning 4 to 1… and watched Farscape flicking back and forth from these two programs. (This habit of channel flicking drives Jude crazy). Farscape left some very good questions about addictions. The best of fiction and the best of theology – as I see it -- raises the questions that matter about life and really living. Questions, not just to float with… but rather to press into the gift of life for what it is…
My Old Testament scripture for this day… Genesis 23 is sobering for me literally… having been intoxicated for a short time by the tube. Genesis 23 is about the death of Sarah and the work of honoring her life through burial… including purchasing a field with a cave for that purpose…
The existentialists are right a this point. Death forces us to consider the meaning of our life and the ways in which we spend it… Reading this encourages me to move away from the tube and to sit and enjoy the patio of my brother-in-laws house with Jude… To again appreciate her in life rather than staying self absorbed.
I could stay self absorbed and morbid. Since 2000 I know 26 people who have all gone to their grave. Visiting Gravesites of those whom I have loved has really begun to inform my soul not to take the times and days I have for granted. The gift of this space for reflection and prayer has also been more fruitful than I like to admit.
So much of our current culture ends in dissipation and various forms of “drunkenness”. Pain buried and sensitivity to joy diminished for the sake of ???
As a Christian, poet, and artist… I want to remain awake and alive… yet swim in the current culture.
I have started a myspace… / jawpoetry I find it quite a flesh market. It will take real accountability not to get sucked in. I have started this space at the request of various friends. If I have a burial site will it feed the souls of others the way visiting the burial site of Dr. James Loder has fed my soul? The unexamined life is not worth living or remembering… Maybe that is why those who are disconnected from hope and vision are so given over to addictions and dissipation?
Jude sits here reading The Chamber, by Grisham… good story plots she says… good vacation reading… Brueggemann says we live in a multi-storied universe. The existentialists say that it is the personal story that ultimately matters. I have come to believe it is what God would say about our story that really matters. Some lives deserve to be memorialized. Sarah has a sacred life and a sacred tomb. The scriptures choose a very different slice of humanity than what typical historians would choose… both to praise and to vilify. Don’t try to make Abraham and Sarah into super human people. Abraham questioned the promises of God at times and Sarah laughed… They schemed, lied, tried to figure things out their own way, and loved each other in their lifetime. What set them apart literally and figuratively is that when God asked them to go on an undefined journey they were willing to go…
So Sarah was buried in a foreign land away from much of her family and at a very high price… (Compare 400 shekels with 17 in Jeremiah 32:9…) Having Inter-generational hopes, visions, or dreams will mean that when we die some… if not many / or most of our hopes and dream may remain unfulfilled. Like MLK Jr’s, “I have a dream”. Tombs are meaningful when the hopes, visions, and dreams of those we visit have the power to continue to inspire us. Relevance comes from the choice of those who reference the past intermingled with the divine that anchors the past with sacred meaning.
LA is filled with a culture that works at forgetting and starting over. HipHop thrives on the triumph of the present moment. In contrast, Judeo Christian roots and the Scriptures as well as our history continues to give us a lot to reflect on and remember. This invites us to our own journey with God where ever it will lead.
I hope that either the core visions, hope, and dreams that I have will be lived out in my lifetime… or what is more likely the case… that it will be worth while for some living souls for me to have a tomb, gravesite or grave marker. Yes I crave significance… and the existentialists are partially right, “nothingness haunts being”. Yet the stories of the scripture are not a tease where only others get to have a relationship with God and we get to watch and read about it… In the midst of life we get to go on our own journey of faith, doubt, and laughter… until we too are gripped by dreams and visions that have intergenerational vision.
Jude reminds me that true meaning comes from our being part of God’s story and that gives us meaning in life… and that I like most of us forget that and get sucked into a more ego-centered perspectives.
Tube… They have cable and by choice Jude and I do not… Last night I watched some of the history channel about the history of the Ottoman Empire, Some Japanese Animation, and the military channel on some of the history of tanks… plus the tail end of the godfather III…
This morning…
I Watched the US women’s soccer team play China… left off from that when they were winning 4 to 1… and watched Farscape flicking back and forth from these two programs. (This habit of channel flicking drives Jude crazy). Farscape left some very good questions about addictions. The best of fiction and the best of theology – as I see it -- raises the questions that matter about life and really living. Questions, not just to float with… but rather to press into the gift of life for what it is…
My Old Testament scripture for this day… Genesis 23 is sobering for me literally… having been intoxicated for a short time by the tube. Genesis 23 is about the death of Sarah and the work of honoring her life through burial… including purchasing a field with a cave for that purpose…
The existentialists are right a this point. Death forces us to consider the meaning of our life and the ways in which we spend it… Reading this encourages me to move away from the tube and to sit and enjoy the patio of my brother-in-laws house with Jude… To again appreciate her in life rather than staying self absorbed.
I could stay self absorbed and morbid. Since 2000 I know 26 people who have all gone to their grave. Visiting Gravesites of those whom I have loved has really begun to inform my soul not to take the times and days I have for granted. The gift of this space for reflection and prayer has also been more fruitful than I like to admit.
So much of our current culture ends in dissipation and various forms of “drunkenness”. Pain buried and sensitivity to joy diminished for the sake of ???
As a Christian, poet, and artist… I want to remain awake and alive… yet swim in the current culture.
I have started a myspace… / jawpoetry I find it quite a flesh market. It will take real accountability not to get sucked in. I have started this space at the request of various friends. If I have a burial site will it feed the souls of others the way visiting the burial site of Dr. James Loder has fed my soul? The unexamined life is not worth living or remembering… Maybe that is why those who are disconnected from hope and vision are so given over to addictions and dissipation?
Jude sits here reading The Chamber, by Grisham… good story plots she says… good vacation reading… Brueggemann says we live in a multi-storied universe. The existentialists say that it is the personal story that ultimately matters. I have come to believe it is what God would say about our story that really matters. Some lives deserve to be memorialized. Sarah has a sacred life and a sacred tomb. The scriptures choose a very different slice of humanity than what typical historians would choose… both to praise and to vilify. Don’t try to make Abraham and Sarah into super human people. Abraham questioned the promises of God at times and Sarah laughed… They schemed, lied, tried to figure things out their own way, and loved each other in their lifetime. What set them apart literally and figuratively is that when God asked them to go on an undefined journey they were willing to go…
So Sarah was buried in a foreign land away from much of her family and at a very high price… (Compare 400 shekels with 17 in Jeremiah 32:9…) Having Inter-generational hopes, visions, or dreams will mean that when we die some… if not many / or most of our hopes and dream may remain unfulfilled. Like MLK Jr’s, “I have a dream”. Tombs are meaningful when the hopes, visions, and dreams of those we visit have the power to continue to inspire us. Relevance comes from the choice of those who reference the past intermingled with the divine that anchors the past with sacred meaning.
LA is filled with a culture that works at forgetting and starting over. HipHop thrives on the triumph of the present moment. In contrast, Judeo Christian roots and the Scriptures as well as our history continues to give us a lot to reflect on and remember. This invites us to our own journey with God where ever it will lead.
I hope that either the core visions, hope, and dreams that I have will be lived out in my lifetime… or what is more likely the case… that it will be worth while for some living souls for me to have a tomb, gravesite or grave marker. Yes I crave significance… and the existentialists are partially right, “nothingness haunts being”. Yet the stories of the scripture are not a tease where only others get to have a relationship with God and we get to watch and read about it… In the midst of life we get to go on our own journey of faith, doubt, and laughter… until we too are gripped by dreams and visions that have intergenerational vision.
Jude reminds me that true meaning comes from our being part of God’s story and that gives us meaning in life… and that I like most of us forget that and get sucked into a more ego-centered perspectives.
Friday, June 16, 2006
Firsts and a reminder to pay attention!
Yesterday, for the very first time, I won a game of scrabble. I am at CRM's Missions conference that happens with staff once every 4 years. I don't play Scrabble very often. Spanish is the dominant language in Westlake - Pico Union Los Angeles neighborhood. They do not play scrabble... They do play soccer!!! Yet almost every week I do something new or have a first. It is the nature of being alive to God, to the city, and to my neighborhoods. I have forgotten to notice and take note. I want to get back to blogging again more often. Short is sweet. I will use firsts as another way to get me blogging more often. So if you are tired of not hearing from me... You can have hope that this will change.
My friend is free for now.
Free yet not free. Addiction creates blindness. If fines are not paid then it will mean another trip into the system. If community service is not served it means another trip into the system. It woulld be more helpful if real guidance was offered. If we have no self-control. We will have no control. The momentary desire to escape pain could rob my friend of life. Pray for grace in whatever form it may come.
Friday, January 27, 2006
Prayer for a Friend now down for the counts...
Today a friend of mine lost it in my nieghborhood. He got taken off the streets by the police... I hope I get to see the day when this will just be a bad memory or even better yet something to laugh about... Remeber that crazy day when...
Was it the size of the questions rolling through his mind?
Was it the need to be seen, heard, somehow noticed?
Was it the drugs that he had added to the mix?
Was it a cry for help deep within the soul?
Was it the deception of an evil spirit?
I saw a group of friends hanging together by the some steps. A bong set up ready to smoke... and the general uneasiness of those who are anticipating getting high when confronted with those who don't.
I invited everyone to the donut shop with us. They cleared out and followed a different direction... following the bong...
After hanging at the donut shop for a while...
Two of my friends, who I saw earlier, showed up and were headed to the local liquor store. I hoped they had come to join us. I called out and noticed that one of them seemed almost posessed by a spray can. He walked up to a parked van and spray painted a big bright orange "Why?" on the back of it. I tried to stop him and said', "Do you know what you are doing?" He said, "Yes, i know exactly what I am doing"....
He walked right into the liquor store, spray painted a name on the door and an F@#$^% on a sign, got a bottle of beer and tried to walk out of the store. I intervened and the owner fo the store got his bottle of beer back and while they left. I then helped the owner clean up the paint hoping that the police would not have to get involved. (I never know that WD-40 could clean up freshly painted spray paint). I did this to try to spare him from ending up in jail... but I had saved the beer bottle for the store owner, and failed to get the spray can.
I was shocked to see other cars marked with strange questions or tags... Why?, Really?, ___ Oner, an Anarchy sign,... etc.
When the police caught up with him his statements to them were not defiant but rather those of a soul trying to grasp at the last straws of reality: "It should not be like this... I have a right to exsist... We should all be family and love one another... Can I go home now or do I have to come with you... Ok let's go then... or let me go... then let's go then..."
The soul needs an anchor or it becomes lost. When family doesn't know how to help... Friends are not trying to help... and no one is going to acknowledge the deep scream for meaning, purpose, and identity...
Spray paint can make your neighbors hear you silently scream... until the police arrive to take you away.
If God anchors your soul... pray for us.
Was it the size of the questions rolling through his mind?
Was it the need to be seen, heard, somehow noticed?
Was it the drugs that he had added to the mix?
Was it a cry for help deep within the soul?
Was it the deception of an evil spirit?
I saw a group of friends hanging together by the some steps. A bong set up ready to smoke... and the general uneasiness of those who are anticipating getting high when confronted with those who don't.
I invited everyone to the donut shop with us. They cleared out and followed a different direction... following the bong...
After hanging at the donut shop for a while...
Two of my friends, who I saw earlier, showed up and were headed to the local liquor store. I hoped they had come to join us. I called out and noticed that one of them seemed almost posessed by a spray can. He walked up to a parked van and spray painted a big bright orange "Why?" on the back of it. I tried to stop him and said', "Do you know what you are doing?" He said, "Yes, i know exactly what I am doing"....
He walked right into the liquor store, spray painted a name on the door and an F@#$^% on a sign, got a bottle of beer and tried to walk out of the store. I intervened and the owner fo the store got his bottle of beer back and while they left. I then helped the owner clean up the paint hoping that the police would not have to get involved. (I never know that WD-40 could clean up freshly painted spray paint). I did this to try to spare him from ending up in jail... but I had saved the beer bottle for the store owner, and failed to get the spray can.
I was shocked to see other cars marked with strange questions or tags... Why?, Really?, ___ Oner, an Anarchy sign,... etc.
When the police caught up with him his statements to them were not defiant but rather those of a soul trying to grasp at the last straws of reality: "It should not be like this... I have a right to exsist... We should all be family and love one another... Can I go home now or do I have to come with you... Ok let's go then... or let me go... then let's go then..."
The soul needs an anchor or it becomes lost. When family doesn't know how to help... Friends are not trying to help... and no one is going to acknowledge the deep scream for meaning, purpose, and identity...
Spray paint can make your neighbors hear you silently scream... until the police arrive to take you away.
If God anchors your soul... pray for us.
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Snapshot of a Neighborhood Yard Sale
My husband John loves yard sales. I have always been more cautious – they are a lot of work, and I have wondered if they are worth the effort. But our neighborhood yard sale yesterday was a truly remarkable event, and was about so much more than buying and selling stuff.
To be accurate, it is not really a yard sale, since we don’t have yards in our neighborhood. It was more of a sidewalk sale. These sidewalk sales are found wherever there are people trying to make a few extra dollars to survive. Near our apartment, on 6th street, the sidewalks are transformed into a market every weekend – families come for the day with some things to sell, hoping to make enough to pay the rent, or feed their families.
Thus our yard sales are an appropriate place to practice redistribution, sharing the wealth of one neighborhood with another less affluent neighborhood. We also like that they are eco-friendly, and things that might have gone into a land-fill find a new life.
This particular yard sale began with my colleague Dan Shaw, whose precious wife died suddenly in October. He asked if perhaps we could use her clothes. It then turned out that Dan’s neighbor, from La Canada Presbyterian Church, had collected 300 pairs of shoes that needed to find new owners. When John found out we would receive these 300 pairs of shoes, he was ecstatic. Truly. He gets that excited about the possibilities. Seeing him so excited, I decided to join in the fun.
At 7:00 am, our team joined in and helped unload the truck of shoes. Within an hour, various people had filled up a bag of clothes and shoes to send to relatives in Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala (redistribution across borders, even better!).
My favorite part was the box of barely used children’s books – we love to see books go into the homes of the local children, and these were really nice books, of the kind that people here cannot afford to buy. We kept some of the books for our community room, to be used for our activities there or for kids to borrow.
Throughout the day, neighbors hung out together in the area of the yard sale. Two girls were able to connect with Miriam, who works at a tutoring center at a local church, and were able to go with her in the evening to a fun Christmas event on a boat in Long Beach. Other kids were able to buy shoes they really liked for $2.00.
Why do we sell the shoes instead of giving them away? Our neighbors are not homeless. They are the working poor. They have some resources, just not enough. To give the shoes away would be to turn our friends and neighbors into “charity cases.” Buying the shoes gives them choice over what to buy, and retains their dignity. It is a reciprocal exchange, they benefit, and so do those selling.
At the end, there were still plenty of shoes, and clothes. Some went to another yard sale, to support a youth ministry of a local church. Thirty pair went to the St. Francis Center, where our colleague Kathy works with the homeless as a Physician’s Assistant on Mondays. Two bags were given to a neighbor going to Mexico at Christmas. Beyond the sale itself, we wish we could convey the substance of the relationships that were nurtured and the tangible sense of love and community that has grown in our neighborhood through these kinds of events.
Thank you for your continued prayers and support.
John and Jude Tiersma Watson
InnerCHANGE LA
To be accurate, it is not really a yard sale, since we don’t have yards in our neighborhood. It was more of a sidewalk sale. These sidewalk sales are found wherever there are people trying to make a few extra dollars to survive. Near our apartment, on 6th street, the sidewalks are transformed into a market every weekend – families come for the day with some things to sell, hoping to make enough to pay the rent, or feed their families.
Thus our yard sales are an appropriate place to practice redistribution, sharing the wealth of one neighborhood with another less affluent neighborhood. We also like that they are eco-friendly, and things that might have gone into a land-fill find a new life.
This particular yard sale began with my colleague Dan Shaw, whose precious wife died suddenly in October. He asked if perhaps we could use her clothes. It then turned out that Dan’s neighbor, from La Canada Presbyterian Church, had collected 300 pairs of shoes that needed to find new owners. When John found out we would receive these 300 pairs of shoes, he was ecstatic. Truly. He gets that excited about the possibilities. Seeing him so excited, I decided to join in the fun.
At 7:00 am, our team joined in and helped unload the truck of shoes. Within an hour, various people had filled up a bag of clothes and shoes to send to relatives in Mexico, El Salvador and Guatemala (redistribution across borders, even better!).
My favorite part was the box of barely used children’s books – we love to see books go into the homes of the local children, and these were really nice books, of the kind that people here cannot afford to buy. We kept some of the books for our community room, to be used for our activities there or for kids to borrow.
Throughout the day, neighbors hung out together in the area of the yard sale. Two girls were able to connect with Miriam, who works at a tutoring center at a local church, and were able to go with her in the evening to a fun Christmas event on a boat in Long Beach. Other kids were able to buy shoes they really liked for $2.00.
Why do we sell the shoes instead of giving them away? Our neighbors are not homeless. They are the working poor. They have some resources, just not enough. To give the shoes away would be to turn our friends and neighbors into “charity cases.” Buying the shoes gives them choice over what to buy, and retains their dignity. It is a reciprocal exchange, they benefit, and so do those selling.
At the end, there were still plenty of shoes, and clothes. Some went to another yard sale, to support a youth ministry of a local church. Thirty pair went to the St. Francis Center, where our colleague Kathy works with the homeless as a Physician’s Assistant on Mondays. Two bags were given to a neighbor going to Mexico at Christmas. Beyond the sale itself, we wish we could convey the substance of the relationships that were nurtured and the tangible sense of love and community that has grown in our neighborhood through these kinds of events.
Thank you for your continued prayers and support.
John and Jude Tiersma Watson
InnerCHANGE LA
Saturday, November 26, 2005
On 10 of the Ten
This was something I hadn't thought of before.
Susan
From: Francis Schaeffer's _True Spirituality_ ON THE GIVING OF THANKS
"You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's
wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or
anything that is your neighbor's." (Exodus 20:17)
"Coveting is never an outward thing, from the very nature of the case. It is an
intriguing factor that this is the last command that God gives us in the Ten
Commandments and thus the hub of the whole matter. The end of the whole thing is
that we arrive at an inward situation and not merely an outward one." (TS, 7)
"Does this mean any desire is coveting and therefore sinful? The Bible makes it
plain this is not so -- all desire is not sin. So then the question arises,
when does proper desire become coveting? ...desire becomes sin when it fails to
include love of God or men. Further, I think there are two practical tests as to
when we are coveting against God or men: first, I am to love God enough to be
contented; second, I am to love men enough not to envy." (TS, 9)
"A quiet disposition and a heart giving thanks at any given moment is the real
test of the extent to which we love God at that moment."
(TS, 9)
Susan and Mark serve with InnerChange in Cambodia.
Susan
From: Francis Schaeffer's _True Spirituality_ ON THE GIVING OF THANKS
"You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's
wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or
anything that is your neighbor's." (Exodus 20:17)
"Coveting is never an outward thing, from the very nature of the case. It is an
intriguing factor that this is the last command that God gives us in the Ten
Commandments and thus the hub of the whole matter. The end of the whole thing is
that we arrive at an inward situation and not merely an outward one." (TS, 7)
"Does this mean any desire is coveting and therefore sinful? The Bible makes it
plain this is not so -- all desire is not sin. So then the question arises,
when does proper desire become coveting? ...desire becomes sin when it fails to
include love of God or men. Further, I think there are two practical tests as to
when we are coveting against God or men: first, I am to love God enough to be
contented; second, I am to love men enough not to envy." (TS, 9)
"A quiet disposition and a heart giving thanks at any given moment is the real
test of the extent to which we love God at that moment."
(TS, 9)
Susan and Mark serve with InnerChange in Cambodia.
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Thanks Giving.
At the core of my heart has been a growing grattitude.
I have never created one day of life.
Each day comes to me as a gift... and the fact that I get to make a difference with my life is an amazing gift.
There is a joy that comes from embracing the gift of life in the midst of pain. We have a choice to either accept and embrace the challenges of life... or to complain about them.
Today I am reminded that joy comes mixed with sorrow... and that sorrow can not be eliminated, yet it makes each choice that I do have radiate with more Joy... because today is another day I get to embrace the love of God and share it with others. Ephesians 3:14-21
Those who know me know the love I carry in my heart for each of you.
Those who don't know me... there is a greater love waiting to embrace us all if we are just willing.
Joyful Thanks Giving!
I have never created one day of life.
Each day comes to me as a gift... and the fact that I get to make a difference with my life is an amazing gift.
There is a joy that comes from embracing the gift of life in the midst of pain. We have a choice to either accept and embrace the challenges of life... or to complain about them.
Today I am reminded that joy comes mixed with sorrow... and that sorrow can not be eliminated, yet it makes each choice that I do have radiate with more Joy... because today is another day I get to embrace the love of God and share it with others. Ephesians 3:14-21
Those who know me know the love I carry in my heart for each of you.
Those who don't know me... there is a greater love waiting to embrace us all if we are just willing.
Joyful Thanks Giving!
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Another Request for Prayer
Jude Writes:
Hello All — I am inviting you all to join me in prayer for my younger brother Ben, his wife Jeanine, and their three little ones. (This is the brother who is now on the family farm).
Last week Jeanine was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had a lumpectomy this past Friday, and today the results are back. It is not the result we were hoping for. They removed the malignant lump, and several lymph nodes, but there are residual cancer cells that they were not able to remove. So on December 8, she will again go into surgery and have her breast removed. After that she will have a season of chemo and radiation.
Right now they need wisdom about treatment. Some are suggesting they go outside the San Joaquin Valley for treatment, but with three kids aged 3, 5 & 6, and Ben’s 14 hour work days on the dairy, it is not that easy to leave.
Also pray for me (us) to know how about my (our) time, when I (we) need to go be there with them. Ben and Jeanine are the family that live next door to my mom and have been looking out for my mom, so obviously this will impact what they can do for her as well.
Thanks for your prayers.
Jude
Hello All — I am inviting you all to join me in prayer for my younger brother Ben, his wife Jeanine, and their three little ones. (This is the brother who is now on the family farm).
Last week Jeanine was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had a lumpectomy this past Friday, and today the results are back. It is not the result we were hoping for. They removed the malignant lump, and several lymph nodes, but there are residual cancer cells that they were not able to remove. So on December 8, she will again go into surgery and have her breast removed. After that she will have a season of chemo and radiation.
Right now they need wisdom about treatment. Some are suggesting they go outside the San Joaquin Valley for treatment, but with three kids aged 3, 5 & 6, and Ben’s 14 hour work days on the dairy, it is not that easy to leave.
Also pray for me (us) to know how about my (our) time, when I (we) need to go be there with them. Ben and Jeanine are the family that live next door to my mom and have been looking out for my mom, so obviously this will impact what they can do for her as well.
Thanks for your prayers.
Jude
Thursday, November 10, 2005
Learning to Say Good Bye
Since 2001 over 27+ people who were somehow tied in to my conscious world have died. Some have died from violence, some from cancer, a few from old age... this has rocked my world in some ways. Growing up in a culture that was good at denying the reality of death -- in Princeton NJ. Has left me with a gap in my ability to embrace life and death for what it is...
I find myself with this quezzy feeling that I have begun to recognize as anger... but what am I angry about...
The Bible does not lie about the shortness of life itself...
slowly it has dawned on me the roots of a very dangerous spiritual toxic poison.
I live in a culture that keeps trying to get me to love things and use people rather than Loving People and using things; Death puts the value of things in perspective.
A friend of mine, has had cancer removed from his brain... He has two kids and a loving wife... he has set in front of himself the hard work of contemplating what it means to care for their life span and it's journey... even if he may not be there... he has started to write them letters for their birthdays and for their hoped for life stages... like marriage... etc.
Half the world is 15 years old or younger.
We have created a world that is extremely indulgent and does not care much about the world we are passing on to these kids. Even normal life is more twisted than we like to imagine... visit your local land fill and contemplate your contribution to it... if you think that your life is just a little messed up...
I am going to a grief group tonight because I have never really learned how to be angry in a healthy way. I am angry because we as a culture do not value life as we should... It has taught me all the wrong priorities... What thing would I not sacrifice if it meant that I could have just one more hour of quality time with Dr. James Loder, or Satoe One.
If we valued life we would honor it much more than we do... and we would struggle with what is of real value and significance much more than we do...
"NO One Gets a Second Chance To Be the Friend they Meant to Be" Mark Heard
I find myself with this quezzy feeling that I have begun to recognize as anger... but what am I angry about...
The Bible does not lie about the shortness of life itself...
slowly it has dawned on me the roots of a very dangerous spiritual toxic poison.
I live in a culture that keeps trying to get me to love things and use people rather than Loving People and using things; Death puts the value of things in perspective.
A friend of mine, has had cancer removed from his brain... He has two kids and a loving wife... he has set in front of himself the hard work of contemplating what it means to care for their life span and it's journey... even if he may not be there... he has started to write them letters for their birthdays and for their hoped for life stages... like marriage... etc.
Half the world is 15 years old or younger.
We have created a world that is extremely indulgent and does not care much about the world we are passing on to these kids. Even normal life is more twisted than we like to imagine... visit your local land fill and contemplate your contribution to it... if you think that your life is just a little messed up...
I am going to a grief group tonight because I have never really learned how to be angry in a healthy way. I am angry because we as a culture do not value life as we should... It has taught me all the wrong priorities... What thing would I not sacrifice if it meant that I could have just one more hour of quality time with Dr. James Loder, or Satoe One.
If we valued life we would honor it much more than we do... and we would struggle with what is of real value and significance much more than we do...
"NO One Gets a Second Chance To Be the Friend they Meant to Be" Mark Heard
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Thinking about my small network.
There are a few blogs that are from some friends who have come alongside InnerChange in ministry for a season. Some have continued their blogs. And some have left theirs as a record of their journey with us.
Julia an APU student will be the third APU student who has joined us and served with us as part of their studies at APU. She has just started her journey and her blog: OneUno.
Shauna & Alisha were with us last year. (Alisha’s entry on February 24, 2005 has a link to some great pictures of our neighborhood.)
Ben W served all of Innerchange through his technical skills while living with our San Francisco team.
Kathy is a Companion to InnerChange and has served with us in LA for many years. We are ever so grateful for her presence, giftedness, and passion to serve in this community.
Darren is our fearless editor of InnerChange’s quarterly publication The Inner Voice.
I could Go on and list Ginny the Poet, and JC, Jrod, and others… but my main point is to encourage you to explore my little network here. Some have just started… others have been at this blogging thing longer than I have. Not all are in the same circle of faith and works of Faith that I am in. But all have a voice worth listening to… I will clean up the list in a few weeks. If you have a favorite let me know.
Let’s keep doing this thing called life and learn to center it in the love of God. That’s what I will be seeking to do.
Julia an APU student will be the third APU student who has joined us and served with us as part of their studies at APU. She has just started her journey and her blog: OneUno.
Shauna & Alisha were with us last year. (Alisha’s entry on February 24, 2005 has a link to some great pictures of our neighborhood.)
Ben W served all of Innerchange through his technical skills while living with our San Francisco team.
Kathy is a Companion to InnerChange and has served with us in LA for many years. We are ever so grateful for her presence, giftedness, and passion to serve in this community.
Darren is our fearless editor of InnerChange’s quarterly publication The Inner Voice.
I could Go on and list Ginny the Poet, and JC, Jrod, and others… but my main point is to encourage you to explore my little network here. Some have just started… others have been at this blogging thing longer than I have. Not all are in the same circle of faith and works of Faith that I am in. But all have a voice worth listening to… I will clean up the list in a few weeks. If you have a favorite let me know.
Let’s keep doing this thing called life and learn to center it in the love of God. That’s what I will be seeking to do.
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
The Book of Common Prayer
Today like most Tuesdays, I have the privelege of praying for all of InnerChange and our work around the world. All InnerChange missionaries take some time on Tuesdays to pray for our larger movement. Today only two of us could make it to the sceduled time of prayer. Many are away, traveling, on a much needed vacation, or had pressing work this morning.
Since neither Paul nor I had time to prepare for our time of prayer... I thought since he likes "The Book of Common Prayer" as a helpful guide for prayer... I might be able to find it online. Here is a link to what I found...
Mission St. Clare seems to be an Orthodox group who have organized the daily prayers and other helpful resources for the bennefitt of those interested. We found the Morning service helpful today... even though I still prefer the Online Prayer Guide put together by England's branch of Youth for Christ.
What do you do to feed your soul???
Since neither Paul nor I had time to prepare for our time of prayer... I thought since he likes "The Book of Common Prayer" as a helpful guide for prayer... I might be able to find it online. Here is a link to what I found...
Mission St. Clare seems to be an Orthodox group who have organized the daily prayers and other helpful resources for the bennefitt of those interested. We found the Morning service helpful today... even though I still prefer the Online Prayer Guide put together by England's branch of Youth for Christ.
What do you do to feed your soul???
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Sunday, July 24, 2005
I got to share my testimony with Evelyn's "Skater" Youth
After sharing my testimony and my relationship with the God of the Bible... these youth recieved these Bibles with a lot of joy and enthusiasm.
Thanks to those who donated special extra resources in order that we could give these Bibles out to friends like Evelyn's Skater kids. Bibles and other christian resources are always useful.
I hope to speak again to this group in the fall.
Spiritual hunger often comes up to the surface when young people are talked with rather than talked at.
Friday, July 15, 2005
My first Wedding as the Pastor
Willie & Gennell... I have known them since 1993... here they are playing a little cards with my friend Steve...
It is a joy to be able to see them make this kind of committment to each other. It is the promises that we make and keep that builds honor and courage into our lives.
Pray for me. I am supposed to keep my sermon to only 12 minutes...Thank you For your prayers!!! my 10 minute sermon based on 1 John 1. Thanks!!! I will say more about this...
Saturday, July 09, 2005
Still Digging up tears from July 2001.
Sunday July third, 2005 Robert a young man that I hardly knew was gunned down a block from where I live. At first I find myself numb to these kind of realities. Then there comes the car wash on the weekend to help pay for the funeral. Seeing the signs advertising a car wash for Robert and getting a call from Jude on her cell telling me that she was at the car wash, sent my soul on a journey towards the next layer of release. (Witnessing trauma can often delay and extend the grieving process; I have not only witnessed trauma, but know over 20 people who have died since 2001.)
My soul stayed troubled all day. All things are not right with the world. Explosions in London highlight this fact. This deep sense of tension between what is and what ought to be starts to boil up in my soul. I have trouble sleeping and decide to watch a movie. I have the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy and decide to select scenes out of “The Return of the King”. After an hour of skipping forward to some of my favorite scenes I come to the end when the company must truly part and say goodbye for the last time. I sob for half an hour. Finding the release I needed, finally I could rest. This seams to be a healing door for me. “Blessed are they that Mourn for they shall be comforted.” I am like a lot of guys who have been taught not to cry. The themes in Tolkien’s, “Lord of the Rings” have helped me since I first read the novels in sixth grade. I have read them so many times that I am sure my mind fills in gaps in the movie. Meaning and sacrificial love go hand in hand; the way we give our lives away every day... that is what becomes the meaning of our lives.
Anyone who wants to watch a good movie and cry with me sometime – let me know.
Hopefully I will get the freedom one day to not need the aid of Movies to dredge up the past but will be free to cry and rejoice and release my true feelings in a friends embrace, in seasons of parting, in celebrations of life and death, and in the communion of the saints – through prayer.
My soul stayed troubled all day. All things are not right with the world. Explosions in London highlight this fact. This deep sense of tension between what is and what ought to be starts to boil up in my soul. I have trouble sleeping and decide to watch a movie. I have the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy and decide to select scenes out of “The Return of the King”. After an hour of skipping forward to some of my favorite scenes I come to the end when the company must truly part and say goodbye for the last time. I sob for half an hour. Finding the release I needed, finally I could rest. This seams to be a healing door for me. “Blessed are they that Mourn for they shall be comforted.” I am like a lot of guys who have been taught not to cry. The themes in Tolkien’s, “Lord of the Rings” have helped me since I first read the novels in sixth grade. I have read them so many times that I am sure my mind fills in gaps in the movie. Meaning and sacrificial love go hand in hand; the way we give our lives away every day... that is what becomes the meaning of our lives.
Anyone who wants to watch a good movie and cry with me sometime – let me know.
Hopefully I will get the freedom one day to not need the aid of Movies to dredge up the past but will be free to cry and rejoice and release my true feelings in a friends embrace, in seasons of parting, in celebrations of life and death, and in the communion of the saints – through prayer.
Friday, June 24, 2005
Urban Jungle and the Young at Heart
Today on the way back from Pasadena a young man desperate for help begged me to help him with directions. He was on the way to a rehab home in North Hollywood. I tried pointing out the maps available... he said I can't read maps. His anger at not being able to understand the world of words and directions fueled his desperation and undermined his sense of dignity.
Half the world is young... under 15 years old... and the modern world is a challenge to understand and navigate ... even for adults...
He carried religious books with him... but what he wanted both now to get to the rehab and in life was... "Don't tell me, show me".
I am more and more struck by how much change is happening on how the young percieve things... "The Medium is the Massage"... The youth I work with do not remeber much without a visual reference to go along with what I am talking about.
We need a lot more adults not only willing to give directions... but willing to give directions in a manner that the young can absorb. The youth I know and many of the adults are on stimulation overload. They are at the point where they say... I can't figure it out... don't tell me... show me.
I am glad that Jesus said,
"Come and Follow Me"
because I needed tangible demonstrations of
Ways to live, How to live, and Truth to live out of...
... so I can't complain when I am asked... don't just tell me ... Show me...
Half the world is young... under 15 years old... and the modern world is a challenge to understand and navigate ... even for adults...
He carried religious books with him... but what he wanted both now to get to the rehab and in life was... "Don't tell me, show me".
I am more and more struck by how much change is happening on how the young percieve things... "The Medium is the Massage"... The youth I work with do not remeber much without a visual reference to go along with what I am talking about.
We need a lot more adults not only willing to give directions... but willing to give directions in a manner that the young can absorb. The youth I know and many of the adults are on stimulation overload. They are at the point where they say... I can't figure it out... don't tell me... show me.
I am glad that Jesus said,
"Come and Follow Me"
because I needed tangible demonstrations of
Ways to live, How to live, and Truth to live out of...
... so I can't complain when I am asked... don't just tell me ... Show me...
Monday, June 13, 2005
A quick Update
Thuis week IC has it's annual conference. Pray that we grow as a community in mission... both in wisdom and strength.
Pray for Valerie as her mother Theressa has passed on to the next life. We praise God that the last year of her life she walked with Jesus and her family was strengthened because of this.
July we have Melony & Julio's Wedding -- July 9
and then we have Willie & Gennell's wedding -- July 16 (I will be the pastor for this wedding)
Thank you for your prayers for us...
Pray for Valerie as her mother Theressa has passed on to the next life. We praise God that the last year of her life she walked with Jesus and her family was strengthened because of this.
July we have Melony & Julio's Wedding -- July 9
and then we have Willie & Gennell's wedding -- July 16 (I will be the pastor for this wedding)
Thank you for your prayers for us...
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