surely we can change

Because tonite I need to believe it …

evening prayer

Lord, You have always given bread for the coming day;
and though I am poor, today I believe.

Lord, You have always given strength for the coming day;
and though I am weak, today I believe.

Lord, You have always given peace for the coming day;
and though of anxious heart, today I believe.

Lord, You have always kept me safe in trials;
and now, tried as I am, today I believe.

Lord, You have always marked the road for the coming day;
and though it may be hidden, today I believe.

Lord, You have always lightened this darkness of mine;
and though the night is here, today I believe.

Lord, You have always spoken when time was ripe;
and though you be silent now, today I believe.

—Northumbria Community, Expressions of Faith

i love what David has to say here …

Legalize Neighborhoods Again! (Anybody else ready to start a campaign?!)

work and hope

My friend, Nathan, preached one of his best (sermons) yet this past Sunday.

calling for the common good

I appreciated this discussion on NPR a few days ago …

Neal Conan with Jim Wallis & Russ Roberts

tonight’s [now yesterday’s] unchristian lecture: take two

So anyway, the top six critiques aimed at Christians are as follows: they’re judgmental, hypocritical, sheltered, antihomosexual, too political, & proselytizers.

Whether or not the research/polls reflect actual experiences Christians have had with non-Christians (or vice versa), these findings constitute the need for some important conversation.  Reality or mere perception, the fact of the matter is that something underneath all of this is shaping the perspective of our culture as it views the Christian (sub-culture?).  Some form of Christian externalization (i.e., Christian-expression) is giving way to objectification (fixed beliefs/systems/structures), such that ALL of us (Christian or no) smile and nod (frown?!) knowingly at the one-dimensional “Christian” taking stage.  (It must be said: that Christian isn’t exactly lauded amongst either saints or sinners.)  Something seems to have gone awry …

I think one of the most important questions raised during last night’s lecture was addressed to Christians in the room: how do you (intentionally or unintentionally) reinforce such common (mis)perceptions?  (Implicit here: how do you wish to be known?  How are you working for/against that?)

Also thought-provoking: what are the unique challenges & opportunities associated with these reigning perceptions (about “the Christian”)?

As I pondered these questions, I settled on three different “ways of being” I think Christians ought to further explore.  They involve our approach to: our language (how might we encourage & host the most important questions about our faith?), our proximity (how might we be more present — or more meaningful in our presence — in spaces not yet transformed by God’s redemption?), and our fear (how might we release concerns about our own [spiritual, physical, emotional] safety & well-being in order to follow Christ in faith and obedience?)

Our approach to all of the above feels tenuous to me.  Pitfalls, I suppose, exist at every turn.  (Beyond that, isn’t such arbitrary analysis [such as I’ve undertaken here] wrong-headed from the start?  Who ever thinks she’s become that [judgmental, hypocritical, sheltered, antihomosexual, critical, oober-evangelistic] Christian?!  Better to simply get on with the business of being who God’s called you to be, no matter the perceptions?  After all, it may be only your pride pushing you to be a Christian of the other kind.)

I dunno.  (Much.)

But I do know I tried (just a little more) to be (just a little less) “Christian” when tonite over dinner I found myself in discussion about homosexuality & politically incorrect humor.  Waving back the cigarette smoke, I sat and wondered at the grace that made Jesus the unlikely (unChristian) hero of the one & only Christian story.  May that Jesus be born in me.

tonight’s unchristian lecture

Tonite, I attended a lecture at Church of the Resurrection on unChristian, a book written by David Kinnamon & Gabe Lyons helping to explain why people – as a rule of thumb – dislike or distrust Christians.  It was quite interesting.  The top six critiquescccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc
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[After Jt roused herself from sleep in the key of c, she determined it might be best for the blog post to find completion on another day.]

work without hope

My boss, Jon, launched his sermon last week with this poem (Work without Hope), by Samuel Coleridge.  Both (the sermon & poem) made me grateful for the meaning I find each day in my work.  Quite unlike nectar disappearing through a sieve … I am often overcome by moments of significance in my day.  To believe that my work can contribute to the Gospel “going public” and that one day it will be positioned (however transformed) inside of Christ’s consummated Kingdom is an incredible gift (given to me by both Leslie Newbigin & N.T. Wright).  It’s a gift that ought to be realized by every Christ-follower (whatever her vocational arena).  I’m only beginning to tease out the implications …

All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair –
The bees are stirring -birds are on the wing –
And Winter slumbering in the open air,
Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring!
And I the while, the sole unbusy thing,
Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing.

Yet well I ken the banks where amaranths blow,
Have traced the fount whence streams of nectar flow.
Bloom, O ye amaranths! bloom for whom ye may,
For me ye bloom not! Glide, rich streams, away!
With lips unbrightened, wreathless brow, I stroll:
And would you learn the spells that drowse my soul?
Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve,
And Hope without an object cannot live.

–Samuel Coleridge, Work Without Hope

i spent much of today with john perkins

It was an amazing day.  (Lord, may I manifest such spunk & sacrificial service at 78!)

Over lunch, John introduced me to an old Chinese poem–one of his favorites.  (I loved it too.)

Go to the people
Live among them, Learn from them, Love them
Start with what you know, build on what they have:
But the best leaders, when their task is done
The people will remark, “We have done it ourselves.”

our world seems so broken sometimes …

(Probably it should seem that way more often.)

In preparation for an upcoming CCC worship service, I’ve been researching orphans.  According to Saddleback Pastor, Rick Warren (and other sources he sites), there will be 40 million orphans in Africa alone by the year 2015.  Worldwide, between 150-160 million children (that’s more than 1/2 of the US-population!) will grow up without a mother or father.  115,000 children in America are currently awaiting adoption.

Even as I consider the stats, I can’t help but to think of my newest nephew, Sam.  (I’ve been burping him, holding him, rocking him quite a bit in recent days.  He needs a lot.  And I love him so much already!)  I grieve to think that millions of children around the world–just like sweet Sam–have neither care nor love around them.  It can only be the backside of a very great Fall …