Quoting from Luci Shaw’s book Adventure of Ascent…
Today, an email message from an organization known as Training Summits, inviting me to become part of a team of executives and visionaries—trainers whose agenda it is to help their trainees to “outperform.”
I’m willing to admit that there’s a certain value in efficient, forward-looking planning and training, but the word outperform bothers me somehow.
Schadenfreude is all too likely to… Read More
A story… a fable.
Once there was a little boy who learned that God loved him and would be his friend.
One morning he became very angry with his mother. He pulled his wagon into the kitchen and began to fill it with food. He chose two root beers, a half eaten box of crackers, a cheese stick, a kiwi fruit, and two apple-snacks.
“I am leaving,” he told his mother. “I’m going to find God who will be my friend.” His mother wisely let him go, watching him from the upstairs window.
The little boy walked part way down the block to the bus stop and… Read More
One of my influences as a Christian / pastor / thinker / writer is Miroslav Volf – the Croatian theologian, author, and professor of theology at the Yale Divinity School. Three of his books, in particular, have shaped my views: Exclusion & Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Otherness, Identity, and Reconciliation, Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace, and The End of Memory: Remembering Rightly in a Violent World.
There is a beautiful video on The Work of the People’s website featuring a short interview with Volf. Here are some quotes…
1 Peter 2.17 “Honor Everyone”
The injunction to honor everyone is really revolutionary and extraordinarily significant.
I think it also contains a promise – a promise of possibility – of living with others in a way that… Read More
Angela Hagebusch shared this video with me – it’s shot in and around Bethlehem.
I love the ending – where a man says:… Read More
There’s this song by Seabird – Don’t You Know You’re Beautiful…
Don’t you know don’t you know that you’re beautiful
I think sometimes we forget.
And need to be reminded.
That’s what this video illustrates.
Shea Glover, a high school senior, decided to… Read More
I read this poem by Rupi Kaur that spoke to me as a man, a father of a daughter, and a pastor.
* * * *
to fathers with daughters
every time you
tell your daughter
you yell at her
out of love
you teach her to confuse
anger with kindness
which seems like a good idea
till she grows up to
trust men who hurt her
cause they look so much
like you
* * * *
I am thankful for this poem.
It reminds me that… Read More
I read something the other day from Jonathan Storment on the subject of panic that captured my attention. Here’s a brief snapshot of what he wrote…
“Man alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear no other creature endures. A fear of time running out.” —Banksy
John Ortberg once asked the great theologian Dallas Willard what one word was that he would use to describe Jesus, and he gave a word that I thought was surprising.
Willard said “relaxed”
What an interesting way to think about Jesus.
In Jesus’ day, there was a Greek god named Pan, who was worshipped in certain places – even in Israel (just a few days walk away from where Jesus did most of his ministry). One day Jesus took his disciples down to the very area where people worshipped Pan to teach them about the Kingdom of God.
He told them that the kind of movement that He was starting was not going to withdraw from these types of places but rather go right into them.
Pan was a half-goat/half-man god, and the place where he was worshipped (Caesarea Philippi) was cave they thought was bottomless; they considered it a Gate to the underworld.
The reason people worshipped Pan was because they were terrified of him. They were always worried that Pan might come out and “get you” at any time… and this is where we get the word panic from.
So Jesus marches to this place and says, I’m going to start a movement of people that are different than this, but they are going to be among places like this.
Jesus says things like “don’t worry about tomorrow” and calls our attention to the way God cares for the flowers. Jesus repeatedly tells us in a variety of ways that to follow him is a light burden.
Which raises the question, who am I being influenced by?
Jesus… or Pan.
Go to Jonathan’s full post HERE.
This video shows the focus, determination, attention to detail, and clear view of what is wanted as well as what isn’t for the brewery, restaurant, and bar known as Magnolia Dogwatch.
I find the process to be inspiring and the end result is absolutely jaw-dropping. It makes me wonder: what if the church had this kind of commitment to detail, clarity of vision, and creative energy put into the building of the local church?
I think we have a lot to learn from… Read More
You should see The Cruise. It’s a documentary about Timothy “Speed” Levitch, a completely not normal seeming guy, who’s a double-decker tour bus guide in Manhattan. There’s a great scene where he’s recalling a conversation he had with one of his tourists. He’d been talking to her about “the grid plan,” the layout of avenues and streets in square blocks all over Manhattan. Talking about how the grid plan emanates from a lie and how he’d really like to blow it up and rewrite the streets to be (as he puts it): “much more a self portraiture of our personal struggles rather than some real estate broker’s wet dream from 1807.”
Apparently the tourist is a little taken aback. She says, “I never even thought of that. I can’t even imagine that. Everyone likes the grid plan. How could you not like the grid plan? It’s so functional. Everyone likes the grid plan.”
As he’s recalling this conversation in the film Levitch is really… Read More
note: picture above is from the field at the end of my favorite walking/running trail near my home – the trail ends in a wide-open field – the stacks of wooden boxes are bee hives, and they are from Yakima, WA – some 137 miles away from Maple Valley.
* * * *
The following is a poem entitled “We Are The People” by Naomi Shihab Nye…
* * * *
We are the people
always going somewhere else. What is this peculiar attribute of our households, our days, our nation? We will not be here long enough to get tired of it. Does this make us less responsible? It’s that relationship you have with a towel when the towel belongs to a hotel.
If we can’t go anywhere else, are we more encouraged to enhance and protect the place where we are?
Hmmmmmm. Bzzzzzzzz.
We should do all we can to stay out of jail, but now and then it is quite uplifting to… Read More
