Start small. With the word. The word. The Word.
Sentences grow from words coupled. Words reproduce as they are wont.
Thoughts grow from sentences lifted from the page.
Dreams are thoughts' uninhibited cousins,
Making messes thoughts will have to clean up later.
But dreams make life interesting, so thoughts let them stick around.
Dreams also feed thoughts.
Thoughts take bits and pieces of dreams and string them together into
Sentences. The progeny of Words. Words made flesh as they
are written into existence from the mysterious cradle of the mind.
The mind borne of another Mind which spoke it into existence.
Start at the beginning with the word. The word. The Word.
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Who Is My "Neighbor" in a Globally-Connected World?
Kony '12. It seemed like a good idea at the time. For a day, I was inspired that perhaps change can happen if enough people want it to happen. I believed that we could stop a man who has been kidnapping, raping, murdering, and pillaging his way through Uganda, Congo, Central African Republic, and South Sudan for a quarter century by raising such a large global outcry that he would be captured and things would be magically fixed. I was ready to buy the kit, ready to spread the word, ready to join the rallies, ready to help create the groundswell to sweep Joseph Kony out of power and into prison.
Then, within a couple days, as is often the case, cooler heads prevailed on me. These articles raise the issues more eloquently and poignantly than I can, so I'll let the authors speak for themselves. I'll just say this, creating awareness will not magically bring justice, and it is the height of pride to believe that North Americans can simply throw $30 apiece at a complex issue and expect it will go away. We create more problems than we solve when we buy into the "white savior" swooping in to solve the world's problems overnight myth.
But far from letting me off the hook, this whole chain of events has forced me to do some deep soul-searching. Why did I care about this issue in the first place? Did I choose it because it was expedient, just a couple clicks here and there necessary? Did the beauty and artistry of the movie manipulate my emotions and bypass my judgement? Did I choose it because it was a sexy issue that would make me look good if I supported it? Did I choose it out of a sense of good old-fashioned Christian guilt? Did I choose it because of my personal battle with the need to "do" and not just "be"? Did I even really care about the people involved or was it just an issue to me?
The truth is, I'm not ready to invest in Uganda long-term. I have no plans to continually give to the cause of rebuilding Uganda. I'm not going to fly over there and get to know the people for whom this is a daily reality and not just the flavor of the week. I saw a movie, was moved, and in effect, pressed the "like" button on the issue. Because all I could promise was solidarity. I couldn't promise commitment.
And this is the constant dilemma of our globally-connected society. If we cared about every issue we're aware of enough to throw our weight behind it we'd soon succumb to compassion fatigue. We were not designed to bear the weight of the world like Atlas. And yet, there is a greater danger in the polar opposite: not throwing our weight behind any issue. Apathy is the imitation of death, and the ultimate surrender. So how do we decide what is worth spending our time, energy, money, blood, sweat, tears, gifts, and talents on?
I think one way to get at the answer to this question is to rephrase it and ask, who is my neighbor? You'll recognize that this very question was asked of Jesus in Luke 10. He responded with the parable of the good Samaritan:
1. Jesus always prioritizes the person who is immediately in need in front of us.
Call it triage if that's helpful. If donating to a cause will take something away from someone in more immediate need, you should give it to the person more immediately in need whom you can most directly help at that time (especially if that person is in your physical vicinity). This may mean that you choose to buy groceries for a neighbor who can't afford them (as someone in my church recently did for a couple struggling young men) rather than donating to an overseas ministry like Invisible Children (if you can afford to do both, then more power to you).
Here's a practical negative example from my own life. As I was driving to my church to feed the homeless in Chicago with a group of volunteers, I passed a family broken down on the side of the road about a block from my house. I was running late, so I didn't stop. I think it's pretty clear that I should have stopped and risked missing the van to Chicago.
2. Jesus expects us to do the work to understand the nature of the need and let that shape our response.
A lot of the criticism being leveled at the Kony '12 movement is that it misunderstands the nature of the need. Perhaps the money being used to raise awareness and fund making posters and movies and bracelets would be better spent by the people on the ground in Uganda who are rebuilding the country. Furthermore, many feel that military action against Kony would only lead to more bloodshed (as it has in the past), and that there are other, better ways to bring peace and renewal to the region.
For another example, it's easy to throw money at a homeless person, but often that is not what that person needs. That doesn't mean you pass up the homeless person and do nothing. Perhaps sharing a meal with them, or buying them a public transportation pass, or simply hearing their story and letting them know you value them as a human created in the image of God is more in line with what they need.
3. Jesus expects us to see it to completion.
"Completion" will mean different things in different contexts. Sometimes, you will be able to solve the problem completely, such as when you help someone change a flat tire. Sometimes, "completion" will mean handing someone or something off to someone who can better help and then following-up later. Sometimes it will mean committing yourself to pursuing a solution to an issue long-term, and perhaps even moving to be closer to the center of the issue.
There is a place for donating money to causes, but we are responsible to know where our money is going and carefully select those who will steward it well (after all we are only stewards of it ourselves). There are several organizations that can help you choose the right one. If you'll allow me to indulge in some self-promotion for a moment, Christianity Today published a couple helpful articles on the Church's role in fighting global poverty and the effectiveness of popular methods that are generating lots of helpful responses.
So, who is my neighbor?
I want to humbly submit that our primary responsibility is to the neighbors God puts in our way daily. That may be the neighbor we regularly see or the neighbor we only see once in a lifetime. We have to be ready to drop everything to help when the need arises.
Our secondary responsibility is to the neighbors we "choose." These are the tricky ones. These are the ones we may never see face-to-face: the sponsored children, the orphans, the refugees, the political prisoners, the persecuted minorities, the survivors of war, the hungry, the poor, the foreigners. They are tricky because they can become faceless masses or simply remain a face on a postcard. They can be a source of smug satisfaction (if we do something for them) or vague, relentless guilt (if we don't). The temptation is to simply throw money at them to solve their problems. But they are more than their problems. They are people. If we decide to help them, we must commit to understand their situation. We cannot know our neighbors' needs unless we know our neighbors.
All this to say, if you decide to give to Invisible Children and support the cause of Kony '12, do it with my blessing. It would be wonderful to see a man with a shockingly warped mind who is guilty of such heart-wrenching atrocities be brought to justice. But if you do give, please be sure you know why you are doing it. Bringing Kony to justice will not be as quick, simple, and violence-free as the movie implies. We see but through a glass darkly, and do not know the full repercussions of bringing down a warlord (see Iraq/Afghanistan). Ultimately vengeance and justice are in the Lord's hands. We are simply called to love.
Then, within a couple days, as is often the case, cooler heads prevailed on me. These articles raise the issues more eloquently and poignantly than I can, so I'll let the authors speak for themselves. I'll just say this, creating awareness will not magically bring justice, and it is the height of pride to believe that North Americans can simply throw $30 apiece at a complex issue and expect it will go away. We create more problems than we solve when we buy into the "white savior" swooping in to solve the world's problems overnight myth.
But far from letting me off the hook, this whole chain of events has forced me to do some deep soul-searching. Why did I care about this issue in the first place? Did I choose it because it was expedient, just a couple clicks here and there necessary? Did the beauty and artistry of the movie manipulate my emotions and bypass my judgement? Did I choose it because it was a sexy issue that would make me look good if I supported it? Did I choose it out of a sense of good old-fashioned Christian guilt? Did I choose it because of my personal battle with the need to "do" and not just "be"? Did I even really care about the people involved or was it just an issue to me?
The truth is, I'm not ready to invest in Uganda long-term. I have no plans to continually give to the cause of rebuilding Uganda. I'm not going to fly over there and get to know the people for whom this is a daily reality and not just the flavor of the week. I saw a movie, was moved, and in effect, pressed the "like" button on the issue. Because all I could promise was solidarity. I couldn't promise commitment.
And this is the constant dilemma of our globally-connected society. If we cared about every issue we're aware of enough to throw our weight behind it we'd soon succumb to compassion fatigue. We were not designed to bear the weight of the world like Atlas. And yet, there is a greater danger in the polar opposite: not throwing our weight behind any issue. Apathy is the imitation of death, and the ultimate surrender. So how do we decide what is worth spending our time, energy, money, blood, sweat, tears, gifts, and talents on?
I think one way to get at the answer to this question is to rephrase it and ask, who is my neighbor? You'll recognize that this very question was asked of Jesus in Luke 10. He responded with the parable of the good Samaritan:
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”There are a lot of things I could say about this passage, but allow me to make three observations related to this discussion:
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
1. Jesus always prioritizes the person who is immediately in need in front of us.
Call it triage if that's helpful. If donating to a cause will take something away from someone in more immediate need, you should give it to the person more immediately in need whom you can most directly help at that time (especially if that person is in your physical vicinity). This may mean that you choose to buy groceries for a neighbor who can't afford them (as someone in my church recently did for a couple struggling young men) rather than donating to an overseas ministry like Invisible Children (if you can afford to do both, then more power to you).
Here's a practical negative example from my own life. As I was driving to my church to feed the homeless in Chicago with a group of volunteers, I passed a family broken down on the side of the road about a block from my house. I was running late, so I didn't stop. I think it's pretty clear that I should have stopped and risked missing the van to Chicago.
2. Jesus expects us to do the work to understand the nature of the need and let that shape our response.
A lot of the criticism being leveled at the Kony '12 movement is that it misunderstands the nature of the need. Perhaps the money being used to raise awareness and fund making posters and movies and bracelets would be better spent by the people on the ground in Uganda who are rebuilding the country. Furthermore, many feel that military action against Kony would only lead to more bloodshed (as it has in the past), and that there are other, better ways to bring peace and renewal to the region.
For another example, it's easy to throw money at a homeless person, but often that is not what that person needs. That doesn't mean you pass up the homeless person and do nothing. Perhaps sharing a meal with them, or buying them a public transportation pass, or simply hearing their story and letting them know you value them as a human created in the image of God is more in line with what they need.
3. Jesus expects us to see it to completion.
"Completion" will mean different things in different contexts. Sometimes, you will be able to solve the problem completely, such as when you help someone change a flat tire. Sometimes, "completion" will mean handing someone or something off to someone who can better help and then following-up later. Sometimes it will mean committing yourself to pursuing a solution to an issue long-term, and perhaps even moving to be closer to the center of the issue.
There is a place for donating money to causes, but we are responsible to know where our money is going and carefully select those who will steward it well (after all we are only stewards of it ourselves). There are several organizations that can help you choose the right one. If you'll allow me to indulge in some self-promotion for a moment, Christianity Today published a couple helpful articles on the Church's role in fighting global poverty and the effectiveness of popular methods that are generating lots of helpful responses.
So, who is my neighbor?
I want to humbly submit that our primary responsibility is to the neighbors God puts in our way daily. That may be the neighbor we regularly see or the neighbor we only see once in a lifetime. We have to be ready to drop everything to help when the need arises.
Our secondary responsibility is to the neighbors we "choose." These are the tricky ones. These are the ones we may never see face-to-face: the sponsored children, the orphans, the refugees, the political prisoners, the persecuted minorities, the survivors of war, the hungry, the poor, the foreigners. They are tricky because they can become faceless masses or simply remain a face on a postcard. They can be a source of smug satisfaction (if we do something for them) or vague, relentless guilt (if we don't). The temptation is to simply throw money at them to solve their problems. But they are more than their problems. They are people. If we decide to help them, we must commit to understand their situation. We cannot know our neighbors' needs unless we know our neighbors.
All this to say, if you decide to give to Invisible Children and support the cause of Kony '12, do it with my blessing. It would be wonderful to see a man with a shockingly warped mind who is guilty of such heart-wrenching atrocities be brought to justice. But if you do give, please be sure you know why you are doing it. Bringing Kony to justice will not be as quick, simple, and violence-free as the movie implies. We see but through a glass darkly, and do not know the full repercussions of bringing down a warlord (see Iraq/Afghanistan). Ultimately vengeance and justice are in the Lord's hands. We are simply called to love.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Why Young Men Aren’t Manning Up
Where have the good men gone? Chances are you’ve counseled a frustrated young single woman in your church who has asked you this question. Or perhaps you’ve asked it yourself. This question is the catalyst for Kay Hymowitz’s book Manning Up: How the Rise of Women Has Turned Men into Boys, an indepth analysis of the state of the average middle-class American male in his twenties. ...
Continue reading ...
Friday, January 13, 2012
Rage Against God Book Review
Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau: the story of feuding brothers is one of the oldest in the book. Now it's time to add another chapter. In The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith, Peter Hitchens challenges, head-on, the claims of his older brother, Christopher, and like-minded atheists. As the provocative title suggests, Peter shares his brother's cheeky style. His approach is simple. He pulls back the curtain on post-Christian societies of the past and examines the wreckage.
continue reading …
The Rapper in Rehab
Theology and rap are hardly kissing cousins. One is the purview of academics laboring in seminaries, the other was born in the South Bronx in the 70s. Turns out they were made for one another. Rising rap star Lecrae seamlessly blends gospel-saturated lyrics with the hooks of southern style hip-hop, and the result is something you have to hear to believe.
continue reading …
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Quarters
When I was a young boy, one of my favorite things to do when my family went to Wal-Mart was to "play" the arcade games near the entrance. As the demo version played on the screen, I would press buttons and swivel the joy stick, pretending that I was playing the game on the screen.
Sometimes I would get really lucky and someone would insert a couple quarters and start actually playing the game. I would stand there looking over his shoulder (at that time it was invariably a "he"), and as the action on the screen got more and more intense, I would begin to bounce up and down with excitement. Who knows what the people around me thought of this, but I didn't care. I was totally absorbed in what was happening on the screen.
I remember a few times when my dad took me to a real arcade; the ones with aisles and aisles of arcade games. The rooms were filled with seizure-inducing flashing lights and a garbled cacophony of music and sound effects. Each console seemed to compete for your quarters like a street vender in an Arabian bazar, playing its music loudly and calling out to you as it hawked its most engaging game footage to lure you in to play it.
I'd follow my dad over to the change machine and watch him feed paper money into it. The bill would disappear into the bowels of the machine, some hidden gears would whir, and magically, change would spill out into the tray below. It felt like winning the jackpot in slots. With change in hand, he and I would set off together to find a game. At that time, I was a huge fan of any game starring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. When we found a Turtles game, my dad would reach down and drop a few quarters into the slots below as the game chirped its acknowledgement of the money. With much anticipation, we poised our hands over the "start" buttons and together we pressed them. And the adventure began.
After a few minutes, one of our characters would die, and dad, without a word, would feed more quarters into the machine and the character would be resurrected to battle some more. I think this memory stands out in my mind because it was one of my first realizations of the prodigal nature of my dad's giving toward me.
Now let me quick clear something up for those who, like me, thought prodigal meant "runaway" or "lost," as in the parable of the Prodigal Son. Tim Keller, in his book Prodigal God points out that prodigal actually means "profuse or wasteful expenditure," and the parable is talking about the wasteful spending of the son, not the fact that he was lost and wandering. But Keller points out that prodigal can also be applied to the father's freely lavish and extravagent giving in providing a feast for his son when he returned.
Back to the arcade. To my young mind, quarters were a lot of money. My dad was relatively frugal and normally didn't throw money around. Now he had a pile of quarters that he got from his paper money, and he was spending them all on me. Every time I let my character die, he just put more money into the machine to bring him back to life. He didn't tell me to be more careful. He didn't make me feel like I was wasting his money. He just let me keep playing with his quarters. I could tangibly see his quarters disappearing, yet he didn't care. He just wanted me to have fun playing.
I think you probably see where I'm going with this. We serve a prodigal God. Every breath we take, every new day we are alive, every wonderful experience we have, every kiss from a puppy's tiny tongue, every delicious bite of rich chocolate cake, every burst of laughter that leaves you gasping for breath and shedding tears, every clear starry night, is like another quarter dropped into the machine. Our God continues to feed quarters into the arcade game despite the fact that He could play the game better Himself. It's an incredibly prodigal act if you reflect on it. Every moment is a vote of confidence from God that says your life, your pleasure is worth His time—more than that—is worth surrendering His very life.
Spend some time with God. He's got a pile of quarters with your name on them.
"In Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever." (Ps. 16:11, NASB)
Sometimes I would get really lucky and someone would insert a couple quarters and start actually playing the game. I would stand there looking over his shoulder (at that time it was invariably a "he"), and as the action on the screen got more and more intense, I would begin to bounce up and down with excitement. Who knows what the people around me thought of this, but I didn't care. I was totally absorbed in what was happening on the screen.
I remember a few times when my dad took me to a real arcade; the ones with aisles and aisles of arcade games. The rooms were filled with seizure-inducing flashing lights and a garbled cacophony of music and sound effects. Each console seemed to compete for your quarters like a street vender in an Arabian bazar, playing its music loudly and calling out to you as it hawked its most engaging game footage to lure you in to play it.
I'd follow my dad over to the change machine and watch him feed paper money into it. The bill would disappear into the bowels of the machine, some hidden gears would whir, and magically, change would spill out into the tray below. It felt like winning the jackpot in slots. With change in hand, he and I would set off together to find a game. At that time, I was a huge fan of any game starring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. When we found a Turtles game, my dad would reach down and drop a few quarters into the slots below as the game chirped its acknowledgement of the money. With much anticipation, we poised our hands over the "start" buttons and together we pressed them. And the adventure began.
After a few minutes, one of our characters would die, and dad, without a word, would feed more quarters into the machine and the character would be resurrected to battle some more. I think this memory stands out in my mind because it was one of my first realizations of the prodigal nature of my dad's giving toward me.
Now let me quick clear something up for those who, like me, thought prodigal meant "runaway" or "lost," as in the parable of the Prodigal Son. Tim Keller, in his book Prodigal God points out that prodigal actually means "profuse or wasteful expenditure," and the parable is talking about the wasteful spending of the son, not the fact that he was lost and wandering. But Keller points out that prodigal can also be applied to the father's freely lavish and extravagent giving in providing a feast for his son when he returned.
Back to the arcade. To my young mind, quarters were a lot of money. My dad was relatively frugal and normally didn't throw money around. Now he had a pile of quarters that he got from his paper money, and he was spending them all on me. Every time I let my character die, he just put more money into the machine to bring him back to life. He didn't tell me to be more careful. He didn't make me feel like I was wasting his money. He just let me keep playing with his quarters. I could tangibly see his quarters disappearing, yet he didn't care. He just wanted me to have fun playing.
I think you probably see where I'm going with this. We serve a prodigal God. Every breath we take, every new day we are alive, every wonderful experience we have, every kiss from a puppy's tiny tongue, every delicious bite of rich chocolate cake, every burst of laughter that leaves you gasping for breath and shedding tears, every clear starry night, is like another quarter dropped into the machine. Our God continues to feed quarters into the arcade game despite the fact that He could play the game better Himself. It's an incredibly prodigal act if you reflect on it. Every moment is a vote of confidence from God that says your life, your pleasure is worth His time—more than that—is worth surrendering His very life.
Spend some time with God. He's got a pile of quarters with your name on them.
"In Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever." (Ps. 16:11, NASB)
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Sci-Fi and the Future of Humanity
continue reading …
Friday, October 07, 2011
10 Ways the Modern World Isolates Young Adults (In No Particular Order)
1) Birth Control – Children have become a choice to be made instead of a blessing to welcome with a humble openness. An emphasis is placed on the couple over the family. Sex is divorced from procreation so that it becomes about maximizing personal pleasure.
2) Delayed Marriage – Marriage takes on more gravity because it’s a choice that needs to be made and there is a fear of making the wrong choice. Then no-fault divorce becomes the white out for a bad choice and is the nagging exit clause that hangs around in the back of both partners' minds for as long as they are together. Men and women are interchangeable to the degree that any type of role distinction is gone. Trial marriage and serial monogamy has become an acceptable norm.
3) Social Media – Information is wide-open so that the intimacy created by shared private information is gone. We are constantly connected and eternally present to anyone who has our contact information, so that face-to-face communication loses its urgency. Twitter encourages short bursts of impulsive aphorisms over carefully thought-through responses. Communication is more and more depersonalized and egocentric.
4) White Noise – There is little to no reprieve from media so there is little opportunity to change patterns and habits and to seek deeper intimacy with friends and family. We have little time to process emotions and thoughts about the media we are consuming. Time spent talking with people is typically time spent away from media and entertainment and we have shorter attention spans and lesser tolerance for silence and time spent simply being in the presence of another.
5) Schedule Segmentation – We continually divide our daily lives into smaller and smaller segments in order to fit more and more activity. This gives us the illusion of productivity, but mostly it just adds to our stress and fatigue. There is no rest from activities because our lives are scheduled down to 15 minute segments. No one shares the same schedule and there is no flex time built in to accomodate chance meetings or conversations that extend past their alloted time. So, no one is sharing life.
6) Specialization - Jobs are becoming more and more specialized so that no one has the same work experiences, and we lose sight of how our particular job fits into the whole of society.
7) Independance - The philosophy of suburban life is built around reducing necessary interactions with and dependance on other humans. Many of our amenities are self-initiated and sustained or completely automated: self-check outs, self-serve stations, self-driving vs. public transit, single-person apartments, grocery stores with endless options, etc.
8) Customization - We all have a personalized radio station, playlist, netflix cue, DVR folder, facebook page, twitter, RSS feed, etc. which we prefer to what everyone else is watching or listening to. Conversation topics are drying up as we retreat into our own personalized niche worlds.
9) Individualism - We are training ourselves to expect instant gratification and get frustrated and impatient when things don't go our way. We expect everything to work out for us all the time and overreact when it doesn't. When we are not satisfied with something we have ample forums to vent through and endless options for upgrades.
10) Pain avoidance/pleasure indulgence - Why risk hurt, pain, disappointment when your every need is satisfied? Conviction has been muted in favor of tolerance. No war is worth fighting, no sacrifice is worth making. Live and let live is the motto of the day. We are no longer seriously striving together to make a better world, though we talk about it a lot.
2) Delayed Marriage – Marriage takes on more gravity because it’s a choice that needs to be made and there is a fear of making the wrong choice. Then no-fault divorce becomes the white out for a bad choice and is the nagging exit clause that hangs around in the back of both partners' minds for as long as they are together. Men and women are interchangeable to the degree that any type of role distinction is gone. Trial marriage and serial monogamy has become an acceptable norm.
3) Social Media – Information is wide-open so that the intimacy created by shared private information is gone. We are constantly connected and eternally present to anyone who has our contact information, so that face-to-face communication loses its urgency. Twitter encourages short bursts of impulsive aphorisms over carefully thought-through responses. Communication is more and more depersonalized and egocentric.
4) White Noise – There is little to no reprieve from media so there is little opportunity to change patterns and habits and to seek deeper intimacy with friends and family. We have little time to process emotions and thoughts about the media we are consuming. Time spent talking with people is typically time spent away from media and entertainment and we have shorter attention spans and lesser tolerance for silence and time spent simply being in the presence of another.
5) Schedule Segmentation – We continually divide our daily lives into smaller and smaller segments in order to fit more and more activity. This gives us the illusion of productivity, but mostly it just adds to our stress and fatigue. There is no rest from activities because our lives are scheduled down to 15 minute segments. No one shares the same schedule and there is no flex time built in to accomodate chance meetings or conversations that extend past their alloted time. So, no one is sharing life.
6) Specialization - Jobs are becoming more and more specialized so that no one has the same work experiences, and we lose sight of how our particular job fits into the whole of society.
7) Independance - The philosophy of suburban life is built around reducing necessary interactions with and dependance on other humans. Many of our amenities are self-initiated and sustained or completely automated: self-check outs, self-serve stations, self-driving vs. public transit, single-person apartments, grocery stores with endless options, etc.
8) Customization - We all have a personalized radio station, playlist, netflix cue, DVR folder, facebook page, twitter, RSS feed, etc. which we prefer to what everyone else is watching or listening to. Conversation topics are drying up as we retreat into our own personalized niche worlds.
9) Individualism - We are training ourselves to expect instant gratification and get frustrated and impatient when things don't go our way. We expect everything to work out for us all the time and overreact when it doesn't. When we are not satisfied with something we have ample forums to vent through and endless options for upgrades.
10) Pain avoidance/pleasure indulgence - Why risk hurt, pain, disappointment when your every need is satisfied? Conviction has been muted in favor of tolerance. No war is worth fighting, no sacrifice is worth making. Live and let live is the motto of the day. We are no longer seriously striving together to make a better world, though we talk about it a lot.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
The Beginning
The first article I had published in Christianity Today has made its way onto the our SemGrad site. Check it out:
http://seminarygradschool.com/article/Smuggling-Theology-into-Banking
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Let it Go
William Borden (1887-1913) epitaph: "Apart from faith in Christ there is no explanation for such a life."
Let it Go. This seems to be the theme of the week for me.
I'm struck with how tightly I've been hanging on. The suburbs are designed with this idea in mind. Houses are built in safely tucked-away neighborhoods. Cars take us conveniently from place to place without having to interact with strangers. Every need is immediately met. If I'm uncomfortable in the slightest, I can immediately get rid of that discomfort by retreating or sleeping or turning up the heat or eating a snack or watching TV or reading a book or seeing a movie.
My reason for mentioning all of this is not to knock the suburbs. I believe the suburbs are a blessing. Life is good and friendships are rich and full. It's a lifestyle that can feel heavenly at times. Just as city or rural life comes with unique temptations and struggles the suburbs have unique temptations and struggles. Each are just places.
I think the danger comes with the natural impulse to hang-on to these things. We are strangers here, and we can't forget that. We can't have treasure here and in heaven, seek comfort at all costs, neglect our neighbor, be self-sufficient (or self-centered) ... pick your facet. It all comes down to the fact that we are travelers, just passing through. Beyond this, we have been given an assignment by the Creator and Sustainer of the universe and a finite amount of time to complete it. We are actors in His play, written to bring Him glory. We are His image bearers in this dark world. When we forget that, people get hurt.
Gandhi is rumored to have said: "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." This is a loaded statement and much could be said in response (that's why we worship Christ and not Christians, there are may Christians who do live as Christ did, etc.), but I think it gets at a deeply felt need that non-Christians have to witness authenticity. If you want me to believe what you say, you need to back it up with what you do.
In Revelation 2 & 3, Jesus gives loving warnings to the first century churches that they need to remember their first love and stop being lukewarm. I've been thinking about that message a lot. It means something different for each of us. We need to be diligent and aware for opportunities to shake-up our dead patterns and empty religious rituals and live lives defined by the gospel.
As Dr. Litfin used to say: "Crown time will come, but now is cross time. You can't do everything, but you can do something."
Amen.
Let it Go. This seems to be the theme of the week for me.
It started with the CD my dad got me for Christmas. The poor guy bought me Inception, not knowing that I had already gotten it for myself. As we were browsing through my parents' local Christian bookstore, I found the new LeCrae CD on one of the racks, and he gamely asked if he could give it to me for Christmas. Of course, I agreed.
It has been a huge encouragement already. The lyrics are saturated with scripture, and the beats are incredibly catchy. Hip-hop has always been a guilty pleasure of mine. It's refreshing to have some that's not embarrassing to play.
Anyway, the theme of the album is: "Let it Go" (money, cars, fame, ego, control, addiction, etc.). Just let it all go. Reminds me of Mark 8:35-37:
35 For whoever wants to save his life[a] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? 37 Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?
My reason for mentioning all of this is not to knock the suburbs. I believe the suburbs are a blessing. Life is good and friendships are rich and full. It's a lifestyle that can feel heavenly at times. Just as city or rural life comes with unique temptations and struggles the suburbs have unique temptations and struggles. Each are just places.
I think the danger comes with the natural impulse to hang-on to these things. We are strangers here, and we can't forget that. We can't have treasure here and in heaven, seek comfort at all costs, neglect our neighbor, be self-sufficient (or self-centered) ... pick your facet. It all comes down to the fact that we are travelers, just passing through. Beyond this, we have been given an assignment by the Creator and Sustainer of the universe and a finite amount of time to complete it. We are actors in His play, written to bring Him glory. We are His image bearers in this dark world. When we forget that, people get hurt.
Gandhi is rumored to have said: "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." This is a loaded statement and much could be said in response (that's why we worship Christ and not Christians, there are may Christians who do live as Christ did, etc.), but I think it gets at a deeply felt need that non-Christians have to witness authenticity. If you want me to believe what you say, you need to back it up with what you do.
In Revelation 2 & 3, Jesus gives loving warnings to the first century churches that they need to remember their first love and stop being lukewarm. I've been thinking about that message a lot. It means something different for each of us. We need to be diligent and aware for opportunities to shake-up our dead patterns and empty religious rituals and live lives defined by the gospel.
As Dr. Litfin used to say: "Crown time will come, but now is cross time. You can't do everything, but you can do something."
Amen.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
The '20 Obsolete Words that Should Make a Comeback' Dare
When I sent this link (http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/20-obsolete-english-words-that-should-make-a-comeback/) to a coworker he challenged me to use all 20 words in a sentence. This is what I came up with:
"During his Friday twitter-light brannigan, the ludibrious jollux, a little bibesy after deliciating over his drink about as much as sanguinolent man at war, spotted an illecebrous woman at an adjoining table and tried to corrade his thoughts from his widdendream, but they came out a bit jargogled and perissologious, so he began a quagswagging freck instead; causing even the most malagrugrous brabblers at the surrounding tables to kench and exclaim, “Take a look at that yemeles hoddypeak over there!” and inciting a journalist from the local newspaper to much scriptitation."
For fun, see if you can come up with another sentence using these 20 awesome words.
"During his Friday twitter-light brannigan, the ludibrious jollux, a little bibesy after deliciating over his drink about as much as sanguinolent man at war, spotted an illecebrous woman at an adjoining table and tried to corrade his thoughts from his widdendream, but they came out a bit jargogled and perissologious, so he began a quagswagging freck instead; causing even the most malagrugrous brabblers at the surrounding tables to kench and exclaim, “Take a look at that yemeles hoddypeak over there!” and inciting a journalist from the local newspaper to much scriptitation."
For fun, see if you can come up with another sentence using these 20 awesome words.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Restoration and Incarnation
Lately, I've been thinking about the idea of restoration; specifically, as it relates to the work of Christ.
My small group has been going through the book of John for the past semester, and it has been a very insightful trip through a book I have come to love. This time through, I've been struck by the way that Jesus works to restore people.
This is most obvious in his miracles and his discussions. One minute he's giving sight to a man who has never seen. Another, he's raising a good friend from the dead. One minute, he's chatting with a pharisee about spiritual rebirth, the next with a Samaritan woman about living water. Throughout the book, he presents himself as the solution. He makes all kinds of "I am" statements (I am ... Word, bread of life, living water, God's son, the resurrection and life, the vine, etc.) which tie him to God the Father and present him as the ultimate solution for which everyone has been waiting.
But there is something more subtle afoot here.
"What is the meaning of life?" is a question that everyone asks, and that we've been asking ever since the garden. Chris McGarvey, my former college pastor, put the answer this way: We are meant to be reflectors. God built deeply into our DNA an aching longing to be a reflection of greatness. Talk to anyone for 20 minutes, and this is immediately obvious.
The problem is, we've set the bar too low. Lucifer was the first one to do this. Isaiah 14 is terribly tragic:
6 Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Mirror images, right? Jesus became a man and a perfect man at that. He was the image of God that reflected God's glory perfectly. Jesus restored more than just physical and intellectual wholeness. He gave us our purpose and significance back. He healed the broken mirrors that we are, and mended God's image within us.
Now our failures are always tempered by an undying hope. We don't have to find significance in being perfect, or looking perfect, or winning a championship, or becoming the best in our field, or supporting our families, or being a faithful friend, or anything else. God just wants us to love and reflect Himself. That's it. He's already done the rest.
My small group has been going through the book of John for the past semester, and it has been a very insightful trip through a book I have come to love. This time through, I've been struck by the way that Jesus works to restore people.
This is most obvious in his miracles and his discussions. One minute he's giving sight to a man who has never seen. Another, he's raising a good friend from the dead. One minute, he's chatting with a pharisee about spiritual rebirth, the next with a Samaritan woman about living water. Throughout the book, he presents himself as the solution. He makes all kinds of "I am" statements (I am ... Word, bread of life, living water, God's son, the resurrection and life, the vine, etc.) which tie him to God the Father and present him as the ultimate solution for which everyone has been waiting.
But there is something more subtle afoot here.
"What is the meaning of life?" is a question that everyone asks, and that we've been asking ever since the garden. Chris McGarvey, my former college pastor, put the answer this way: We are meant to be reflectors. God built deeply into our DNA an aching longing to be a reflection of greatness. Talk to anyone for 20 minutes, and this is immediately obvious.
The problem is, we've set the bar too low. Lucifer was the first one to do this. Isaiah 14 is terribly tragic:
12 How you have fallen from heaven,
morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!
13 You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.
14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
15 But you are brought down to the realm of the dead,
to the depths of the pit.
We followed suit by deciding to reflect ourselves. God had designed us, in His own image, to be the crowning jewel of His creation: creatures who could think, and feel, and relate, and speak, and worship like no other being ever created. He made us truly great. We turned our vibrantly lit, blazing mirrors around toward ourselves and the light went out.
Ever since then, we've been stacking stones, trying to get to heaven, or wallowing in the mud, looking for someone who will think we are something special.
And that's where Jesus comes in.
Contrast the above passage with this one from Philippians 2:
5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
Mirror images, right? Jesus became a man and a perfect man at that. He was the image of God that reflected God's glory perfectly. Jesus restored more than just physical and intellectual wholeness. He gave us our purpose and significance back. He healed the broken mirrors that we are, and mended God's image within us.
Now our failures are always tempered by an undying hope. We don't have to find significance in being perfect, or looking perfect, or winning a championship, or becoming the best in our field, or supporting our families, or being a faithful friend, or anything else. God just wants us to love and reflect Himself. That's it. He's already done the rest.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Why Are You Destroying My Joy?
A coworker said this to me when I was complaining about my day.
Yes ... I'm aware of the irony. I just wrote a blog post on the topic of joy, and here I am stealing someone else's. Truthfully, it was a comment that was made tongue-in-cheek, and I don't think I was actually destroying this person's joy. But it got me to thinking.
Our attitudes affect other people.
It's an idea that's so elementary that it's easy to ignore. So, I'll say it again:
Our attitudes affect other people.
At times, each of us can behave like an emotional parasite, feeding off the energy of another, or performing for sympathy. I want to be careful to distinguish this from the times we are really in need of emotional support. Our friends, family, and coworkers want to be there for us when we are in need, and more often than not are totally willing to bear our burdens so that we can regain our emotional footing. I think the distinction between being an emotional parasite and accepting emotional support is that so.
What is the purpose, or the motivation for seeking that support? Are you seeking it because you want to climb out of your pit but need someone to offer you a hand, or do you want to pull someone into the pit with you for some company down there?
The idea of drowning is another metaphor that's often used for depression or emotional turmoil, and is also helpful for getting at this distinction. Are you using the arm that is extended to pull yourself out of the current, or are you pulling the other person into the raging rapids with you?
The same is the case with sin in general. When accountability fails, it's most often because it's improperly used. Sometimes it's a sin contest with one person unconsciously trying to match the other sin-for-sin. Other times, we confess without setting up any battle plan to avoid sin when it comes knocking again. We are content to wallow in perpetual defeat, confession, and repentance. There are too many passages about the power of God to defeat sin (ex.: Rom. 6:14, I Cor. 10:13, I Cor. 6:19-20, Gal. 5:1, Rom. 12:2, II Cor. 3:18, etc.) for us to be content with the status quo until we escape to heaven and are fully sanctified.
Our attitudes and the way we think about sin will shape the ways we go about defeating it. Like I said in the previous post, Christ drank the bitter cup that we might drink living water. Let's not go back to drinking nastiness when Jesus has provided a cup that is so much better. Let's also not steal our friends' cups to quench our own thirst. There's plenty of living water to go around. He is, after all, the one who made more wine when it ran out, and turned 5 loaves and 2 fish into a meal for 5,000 with leftovers.
Yes ... I'm aware of the irony. I just wrote a blog post on the topic of joy, and here I am stealing someone else's. Truthfully, it was a comment that was made tongue-in-cheek, and I don't think I was actually destroying this person's joy. But it got me to thinking.
Our attitudes affect other people.
It's an idea that's so elementary that it's easy to ignore. So, I'll say it again:
Our attitudes affect other people.
At times, each of us can behave like an emotional parasite, feeding off the energy of another, or performing for sympathy. I want to be careful to distinguish this from the times we are really in need of emotional support. Our friends, family, and coworkers want to be there for us when we are in need, and more often than not are totally willing to bear our burdens so that we can regain our emotional footing. I think the distinction between being an emotional parasite and accepting emotional support is that so.
What is the purpose, or the motivation for seeking that support? Are you seeking it because you want to climb out of your pit but need someone to offer you a hand, or do you want to pull someone into the pit with you for some company down there?
The idea of drowning is another metaphor that's often used for depression or emotional turmoil, and is also helpful for getting at this distinction. Are you using the arm that is extended to pull yourself out of the current, or are you pulling the other person into the raging rapids with you?
The same is the case with sin in general. When accountability fails, it's most often because it's improperly used. Sometimes it's a sin contest with one person unconsciously trying to match the other sin-for-sin. Other times, we confess without setting up any battle plan to avoid sin when it comes knocking again. We are content to wallow in perpetual defeat, confession, and repentance. There are too many passages about the power of God to defeat sin (ex.: Rom. 6:14, I Cor. 10:13, I Cor. 6:19-20, Gal. 5:1, Rom. 12:2, II Cor. 3:18, etc.) for us to be content with the status quo until we escape to heaven and are fully sanctified.
Our attitudes and the way we think about sin will shape the ways we go about defeating it. Like I said in the previous post, Christ drank the bitter cup that we might drink living water. Let's not go back to drinking nastiness when Jesus has provided a cup that is so much better. Let's also not steal our friends' cups to quench our own thirst. There's plenty of living water to go around. He is, after all, the one who made more wine when it ran out, and turned 5 loaves and 2 fish into a meal for 5,000 with leftovers.
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
Joy and Living Water blog post
A blog post I wrote for inspiredfaith.com: http://blog.inspiredfaith.com/joy-and-living-water
“My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water”
-Jeremiah 2:13
but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
-John 4:14
“My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
-Matt. 26:42
Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, “I am thirsty” … When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.”
-John 19:28,30
Joy is an elusive thing, moreso as we become adults. There’s a reason most of us are nostalgic for our childhoods. When we were kids, the world was a mystical place of discovery, safety, and fun. We were blissfully ignorant of the constant pressures of adult awareness. Adam and Eve reached out for a piece of fruit that promised knowledge and got more than they bargained for. God offered them the simplicity of living by faith, and they chose complexity. We’ve been trying to unlearn that knowledge ever since.
Joy is a close relative of contentment and thanksgiving. I think the reason joy is so elusive, is that our daily lives wage war against contentment and thanksgiving. There’s always something missing, and because we know there’s got to be more to life, we seek to fill our lives with more. Whether it’s something as obvious as the stuff we buy or something more subtle like seeking others’ acceptance, we’re always looking for something else. We are thirsty and the cups we drink from leave us that way.
So what’s the secret? How do we find the joy that’s so elusive? How do we quench our thirst?
One of my favorite passages of scripture is John 4. Here we read about a woman so broken and used that she comes to the well during the heat of the day to avoid the other women of her community. She’s had six husbands and the last one hasn’t even given her the dignity of marriage. We can easily read between the lines and see a cup filled to the brim with deep sorrow.
Jesus meets her at the well in this state of loneliness–like Isaac (through his servant), Jacob, and Moses before him–symbolically becoming her seventh husband. He offers her his right hand of fellowship, renewed hope, restoration, and the gift of living water.
This living water is costly. You can’t fill a cup that’s already full, and the woman, like us, has filled hers to the brim with other things that add up to wrath and sorrow. Jesus had to drink it to fill it. Like a dad who eats the nasty concoction his daughter created on her plate while playing with her food, Jesus took our cup, swished it around a little and then swallowed its contents. Then he filled it again, this time with living water that works a deep transformation within us to slake our thirst.
Joy starts with an awareness of this reality. When the truth catches up to us and slows us down enough so that we put down the nastiness we keep drinking, we can take a refreshing swallow of living water. Contentment and thanksgiving for what Christ has done bloom on the palate of our soul, and we can only respond with a joyful sigh.
Our lives on this earth are filled with trouble just as sparks fly up (Job 5:7), and many times we thirst for joy and relief from sorrow.
But Jesus drank the cup of wrath and sorrow that we might drink deeply of the cup of joy and quench our thirst forever.
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
CT Music interview
I interviewed a fledgling music group for Christianity Today back in August and never posted the link here. Here it is (http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/music/interviews/2010/aptlytitled-august31.html).
Re-enchantment
A friend blessed me deeply last Thursday in a way he cannot fully understand.Backing up a little, this friend and I had lunch a couple weeks ago. A couple weeks prior, I had ended another relationship with a girl. Another failed experiment in romance. Starting back at square one again. A couple years prior, I had begun an entirely different experiment: to examine my faith.
I was running out of gas, becoming complacent and lazy. God and I were in the sitting around on the couch in sweats phase of our relationship. I needed to take a step back, sweep away the cobwebs and figure out why I was a Christian and not something else. More importantly, if I was a Christian, why it didn't alter the way I lived my life. Christianity should be so much more than a supplement for a healthy, balanced life.
So, I dove headlong into philosophy and other sorts of non-fiction (until that point I'd been an exclusively fiction guy--why think about real life when I'm trying to escape into a book?). I joined a discussion group at the local community college to meet some non-Christians. And I tried to view my faith from a detached vantage point.
The short version, it was a miserable existence. I found it hard to read the Bible and pray. Though I was singing in the choir, I found it hard to worship. I felt reclusive. My former college pastor described it best: I was throwing a heavy log on the fire, and the flames were being smothered a little in hopes that the log would fuel a more sustained fire than the brush I had been feeding the fire with before. I missed the fire. I missed the intimacy I'd always enjoyed with God
Back to lunch with the friend. I told him about my situation and he offered some counsel. More importantly, he filed away the conversation in his memory. That Thursday, at our small group Bible study, he discretely pulled a book from his bookshelf and handed it to me. Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl by N.D. Wilson. Once again, the adage don't judge a book by its cover is proven true. The cover is garish and the title off-putting at first, like an attempt to be edgy that one expects to deliver the nutrition of cotton candy upon reading.
Turns out the opposite is the case. The title is meant to be poetic, rather than trendy, and the book more than delivers. Those who know Shakespeare will roll their eyes (I don't blame them, I would have too), but N.D. Wilson's prose is vivid and silky as if written in iambic pentameter. It's impossible to describe. You just have to read it yourself. The content of the book is as beautifully well-crafted as the word choices.
Wilson takes on the task of reminding us that creation personifies and mimics its Creator (Ps. 19:1). Using the seasons as a framing device (more often than not the kiss of death for a writer), he ruminates about his daily life, using everything at his disposal in the manner it was intended, as a metaphor through which we can understand characteristics of God, the universe, and our place in God's play.
Not really intending to review the book in this space, I'll simply say that it left me re-enchanted and challenged. As opposed to Crazy Love, which left me feeling guilty and sobered (both good emotions when put to good use, but otherwise death-spirals), this book was inspiring. To continue my earlier image, it was like gasoline for the log-choked flames of my faith.
Read the book and let me know what you think.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Inception
My New Favorite MovieIn the couple months since I saw Inception three times in the span of two weeks, I've been unable to get it out of my mind.
What an incredible movie! It's gotten to the point that I discuss it as a matter of course with just about anybody who might care and a lot of people who don't care at all.
I think what makes it so irresistable to me is the idea of dream versus reality and how one tells the difference between the two. Without giving too much away, the movie is all about the concept that someone can plant ideas in another person's mind while they are asleep. Basically, the person performing inception must share a dream with the subject, and become the architect of the subject's dream. In the process of perfecting this technique, one of the main characters appears to lose the ability to distinguish the real world from the dream world, and that is where the movie finds much of its intrigue and its emotional core.
This is an idea that really excites me, and it has proven to be really fertile imaginative ground for me. Lately, I've been on a philosophy kick for the sake of my own faith and for the sake of the philosophy discussion group I have joined with another man from my church at College of DuPage. I've read deeply and done much thinking on my own. I just finished a review of a book by Peter Hitchens (The Rage Against God) about how societies draw their morality from God, written in response to the new wave of atheists who are vocally anti-God.
So much of our lives hinge on being able to distinguish what is real and true from what is imaginary and false. And so often we are hopelessly blind. Often times we actively suppress the truth (Romans 1) and other times, we quite innocently build our houses on sand that spills out from under the foundations we've built.
Inception gave me an incredibly entertaining look into my own mind and its ability to fool itself. Another book I picked up recently called Blink by Malcolm Gladwell was all about the premise that perhaps our subconscious is actually better at making some kinds of decisions than our conscious mind is.
I am naturally an emotional guy, but that impulse has not served me well in the past, so I have very meticulously striven to rein in my emotions with a hardy dose of reason. I'm starting to believe that emotions have their place in discovering truth. Logic only goes so far before it runs into the barrier of the numinous, mystical, or miraculous. How do humans seem to be able to think about thinking with an organ called the brain that somehow doesn't fully explain the mind?
In the end, truth is relational.
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Untitled
Oh to see. I am blind.
Or at least myopic. The tip of my nose marks the
Boundary of my sight.
Are my eyes inside out?
Is everything upside down?
You. Died. For. Me.
I try to look back across centuries, millenia
To see you die for me, but my straining eyes
Fail me.
History grows stale on the page.
Give me new eyes so I can see.
Make mud again for me.
Touch my eyes with your fingers.
The same fingers that painted stars onto an abysmal canvas.
The same fingers that traced an unfolding history into the stone
For an exiled people.
The same fingers that drew in the sand to erase the shame
Of a woman condemned.
Let me see the scars you purchased with your blood.
The souvenirs of your journey into the yawning jaws of death
To snatch me away from its infinite darkness.
Show me.
I want to see.
I want to believe.
I want to be changed.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Ultimate
For those of you who have never heard of ultimate frisbee, it is one of the most entertaining fusion sports available, and also one of the cheapest. Funny how often times the simplest games are the most fun to play. Ultimate frisbee is played with a [frisbee] disc. The object is to score a "touchdown" by passing the disc to a teammate in the endzone. Whoever has the disc can't move until he/she throws it. Easy enough, huh?
The key is mastering each of the different throws, so that the frisbee will go to a teammate instead of the person defending them on the other team. There are basically three different throws: overhand, underhand, and overhead, each of which is useful in it's own way, depending on the situation. Someone who is really good, can throw the disc the length of the field and have it curve away from the defender into the hands of his/her teammate.
I've been playing every Saturday for something like 6 or 7 months [yes, through the Chicago winter...we lovingly call it "snowtimate"]. It is incredibly good exercise, has allowed me to meet several people (including single women) my age, and never fails to generate several ESPN top ten plays of the week-worthy throws and catches.
Today, the weather was gorgeous and as you would expect, we had a great turnout. One of the girls, Stephanie, has a way of sneaking into the endzone unguarded and scoring a ton of points. Today was no different. No matter how many times she scored, we could never seem to get a defender on her when it mattered. I defended another female, Lauren, who is a P.E. teacher and soccer coach. She also enjoys biking and doing triathalons. Needless to say, she was difficult to cover. By the end of the game, I was covering another guy, Steve, about my height. The disc was thrown to the back corner of the endzone. I timed my jump and deflected the disc, but somehow, Steve was able to grab it off my deflection.
One of the guys brought his dog, who spent most of the game whining from the end of her leash, longing to be a part of the game. She escaped several times, and we would have to stop the game while he retrieved her and put her leash back on. She was, however, quite well-behaved in general, and very friendly.
Keane, another ultimate frisbee regular, brought his small neice and nephew to watch the game. Both were incredibly cute, waddling around the park where we play with sippy cups full of milk. They both loved the dog, and she appreciated the attention.
It's times like these that really make me appreciate my current station in life. Sometimes I feel like things aren't happening fast enough, but I know I don't really want things to speed up. Life comes at us fast enough as it is. I'm pretty sure being content with where we are would solve a great many problems.
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