Conversations

all that is beautiful

2011-12-12T17:52:00.000-08:00

One of my favourite Canadian artists/poets/activists (Steve Bell), in describing his musical interests and influences, recently talked about how xian art/music/hymnology has often ‘spoon-fed people doctrines’. The xian tradition has often emphasized (in its art/music) doctrinal clarity and trying to get people to understand…leaving ‘no room for discernment, because we have the truth’; as an alternative, Steve called for the obscuring of the truth in poetry.

I remember wondering what exactly he meant. And then I was reminded of another thought I came across: that beauty exists in this world for no other reason than astonishment and nourishment. So I started thinking about whether our community’s art, music, and poetry invokes awe, or whether we use what should be beautiful to be functional. Shouldn’t our theology be marked by our efforts to describe divine beauty? Wouldn’t it be more effective if our faith commitments astonished and ‘fed’ us?

What I think such questions acknowledge is the notion that theology (literally, the study of God or his nature) should be less systematic and far more poetic. What if our response to the world’s questions about God and his existence looked less like ‘explanations’ or defences and more like poetry, song, or ‘sketch’? There is part of me that feels that we would be better off if we stopped clamouring for answers and did our best to hint at the beauty that He is. Like now…at Advent, when we should be overwhelmed by nothing more (or less) than the fact that “God is with us”.

Our theology should be attuned to the beauty that is in Christ, and then reflected in His world. I get the sense that we too often turn to theology…to truth…to ‘what is right’ for its function. What if, instead, we measured our theology by its capacity to astound us? Couldn’t it be argued that a theology that isn’t captivating isn’t worth entertaining?

Example? What if we looked at the words of Jesus less as formulas or tools, and more like brightness and beauty revealed? What if we looked at His name less as an incantation necessary at the end of our prayers…and more as beauty described?

He is the Way. Many of us make a point of emphasizing the exclusivity and the wayness of Jesus’ life. But what about just dwelling on the fact that there IS a way? What about standing in awe of God’s provision of light through His Son? What about quietly weeping over (tears come now) our incredible blessedness at being some of those who KNOW the way?

Theology that is systematic has a way of turning our Scriptures and spirituality (in fact, all that is life giving) into equations. And equations are only functional (in mathematics) when they are balanced…when they provide clear answers…when they are perfect. The problem is that life doesn’t always ‘balance’…and that may be why our theology often doesn’t connect with real life, and why it often doesn’t resonate in our hearts.

Am I the only one that finds our ‘explanations’ wanting from time to time? What if we chose to describe Him as we know Him TODAY? For me, that would be beautiful…and it would be enough.

not-yet

2011-10-17T07:03:00.000-07:00

There are some days when I feel as though there is a pressure just under my skin. Some days it feels like an artist’s impulse…and many times I can’t put my finger on it. There are all kinds of things that spark this feeling, but after 31 yrs I’m still trying to figure out what it means…how to respond…how to tap in and pour out.
I’m reading RT Kendall on ‘anointing’ right now, so that’s got me thinking. He talks about how our personal anointing flows in the areas of life that we engage and do without fatigue. To which I respond: what about all the people who talk about how often we must do the 80% of life that is monotonous and annoying so that we can engage the 20% that makes us come alive? Is a life of anointing really stress free? I’m just a tad skeptical.
Consider Mike Rowe and his stimulating talk (http://www.ted.com/talks/mike_rowe_celebrates_dirty_jobs.html) on how our society has declared war on hard work. Is this life really all about ‘following our dreams’? Is 'anointing' all about tapping into some hidden spring of creative genius/bliss? Have we unconsciously coddled a spirituality that says that a life demanding hard work, inspiring doubt-filled moments, and stretching us beyond where it hurts is void of anointing? What if my anointing is this pressure under my skin…this holy compulsion I sense…an ever-present and never-fulfilled hunger sparked by His Spirit to keep me moving?
I get the sense that my dreams are often God’s way of forming holy discontent in my life. Dreams are from the worlds of not-yet and oh-how-i-long. My dreams and anointing and divine compulsion and gifting and imaginations are all like winds that blow. Sometimes I capture them with the ‘sails’ of my life, and hurtle into those moments of vibrancy, passion, and engagement that I wish I could bottle up and down later on. But sometimes those winds are like a storm. They swirl, buffet and bluster…leaving me cold-faced, numb and disoriented. Sometimes it feels like there is no wind…and I nearly die of spiritual thirst in the doldrums of my life-journey. And other times the winds whisper…I feel their inklings…the sails stir…but I feel that I ‘miss’ them by not responding quickly/rightly.
There isn’t a lesson in all these thoughts so much as a conclusion that I MUST always remember that I am in transit. In them is the reminder that on the vast ‘ocean’ of my life, currents and winds are conjured and directed by One who is greater.
And…
wind or not, I ache to sail…to explore…to see…to crest a wave and discover new lands. This morning, I’m driven by dreams of not-yet…

the great pretend

2011-08-05T07:10:00.000-07:00

i have been reading scripture differently lately. Sort of losing myself in it. An immersion of sorts. What I have found has been quite overwhelming. This scandalous redemptive mystery of the Gospel is a mysterious journey of discovery. It is not an embedding process where we insert ourselves into the organizational life of a church. It IS an immersion; something that saturates EVERY moment and part of life. I find it inspiring that with nothing more than the offer of come 'Follow Me', the disciples dropped everything and walked with Jesus into this Life.

When we choose this kind of journey with HIM, He cuts us loose. Outside all borders, boundaries, and barriers...outside of our constructed comfort zones and fears. It is out in the wild with Him we come to discover that the Kingdom of God is an uncivilized place, or as Erwin McManus writes, its a 'barbarian way'. To often communities of faith struggle to make themselves 'culturally relevant' and in so doing continue to tangle themselves up in a civilized world.

There is no redemption in cultural relevance. What we need is a wild, inherently courageous and uncivilized guide. We need to recognize Jesus walking toward us, beckoning us 'to follow' Him into a world that longs in ignorance for Him.

The Kingdom of God is not a low risk blue chip investment created by the brokers of religion for consumption; an attempt to make life better or for retirement plan at a tropical resort. It can't be calmly considered, and casually digested. THIS Kingdom can not be domesticated, it can't be franchised and placed along side the other proprietors of religious goods. The King of this Kingdom can't be restrained, leashed or muzzled from His continuous challenge of our selfish way of life. He is not willing to settle for less than us being who He made us to be, which often comes at the cost of what we THINK He made us to be(but thats another conversation...).

He is a seeker. A hound, dont be offended by the picture of it. Yes, a hound, on the scent, seeking us out with incredible ferocity.

Have we sanitized Jesus, making him a spiritual guru of sorts selling a success dream? Does He come rather tamely, in a three piece suit, or as cool hipster...to tidy up a few bad habits, make us better people, more prosperous, more cool...sending us back into the world grateful for the self-help? Really? Seriously? Is that the extent of this message of hope?

I think in lots of ways, we have. And this is not the Jesus of scripture. Where the true Lord Jesus is, everything changes. Think of the words: transformed. freedom. redeemed. united. hope. life. alive. force. faith. These are words that hold power and birth movements of change. Isn't it interesting that we have had some level of success at fitting 'christianity' into our culture but trying to fit Him and His way into our normal rhythms of life is like trying to push a camel through the eye of a needle. hmmm, have read that somewhere. It don't work. Or if it does, its really really messy. He doesn't fit into anything that was, He makes all things new. And He does it at the cost of we may see as 'my precious'. And often when 'my precious' is killing me. Maybe thats why we opt for the religion over the person...hmmmm.

The reality is I think we've all caught glimpses of the Kingdom of God, this Kingdom of Jesus. And often it goes unrecognized because it is outside our comfort zones, beyond the barbed wire, warning tape, in the messy places, outside the black and white lines into which we've etched our theologies. You see, out there beyond the walls, its unsettling. Life is not in our control. We miss the 'coming of the Kingdom' because its difficult to understand what's going on. But if we would look but for a minute our hearts would awaken in ways we have secretly longed for. We would discover something so scandalously redemptive that it would shatter our way of life and change our world.

It would be like a man who has discovered a treasure in the midst of the brokenness of life. His shovel digs into the pavement of life and strikes something solid, glittering...it mezzmerizes him. He will sell everything, sell his entire life to have this treasure. He will liquidate all his life's assets just for this treasure. wow. Am I like he? hmmm...heard that somewhere before too.
There is nothing wrong with church, and for the record I am convinced that the big C Church is the hope of the world. BUT often we're in danger of going to church, reading the bible, singing songs, saying prayers, doing good deeds, being baptized, having communion so much so that we risk not making the great discovery. Maybe, we have to look beyond the building we erroneously call church so that we can be startled by discovery.

Discovery?

Uh huh. A discovery that buildings and forms matter not one whit. Its the Kingdom that lies within us that holds such incredible power. We need to stop allowing the gathering place, the building we go to, the church place we tend to hide in, to be an excuse to live the great pretend.

WHAT? yes, the great pretend. Like you don't know what's going on. Like you don't know you have a destiny, a role to play in the PLAN of the King. Like you don't really know there is more than you could possibly imagine for the one who chooses to ask, to knock, to seek...to lay it all on the line for This King.

Listen closely...have you heard the clink of the blade of the shovel against the glittering treasure? Have you?

If you have...oooo...well now the stakes are higher for you. And maybe thats why you are so miserable...because, it's redemptive beauty will haunt you...cuz you have a sense of it's worth, an idea of it's power to transform everything it touches.

Hearts.

Imaginations.

Passions.

Dreams.

The world.

A whole being...ignited by the dream of His Presence here...and the Kingdom of God made known.

oooo, I have a dream.
pj

blessings.

2011-04-02T17:54:00.000-07:00

May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships
So that you may live deep within your heart

May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression and exploitation of people
So that you may work for justice, freedom and peace

May God bless you with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and war
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and
To turn their pain into joy

May God bless you with foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor

A Franciscan Benediction

afraid of the dark

2011-01-12T17:08:00.000-08:00

I don't know if you ever did it.

Coming upstairs from the basement in your house as a kid. All the lights are off in the basement. You are walking up the stairs...

and all of a sudden an incredible urge deep within your guts compels you to run as FAST as you possibly can up the stairs. Of course, as a kid, admitting that in person to anyone or possibly breaking into a sprint/roller-derby session when anyone else is with you would be considered very uncool. But when you are alone? RUUUNNNNN!

What I find worthy of reflection is that I still get that feeling as an adult.

My adult expectation was that this fear would fade or disappear! It was supposed to be part of the result of a mystical or esoteric realization that the darkness is actually not something to be feared, but it can even be embraced. There is nothing better than blacking out all the shades of the bedroom of your home or during a hotel stay. My 9 year old daughter even sometimes wears those airplane eye cover thingy's(dont know what they are really called) to sleep! In thick darkness you sleep until no more sleep seems possible.

Today I realized that I’m still afraid of the dark. A lot of us are.

We struggle with needing to be recognized, feeling significant and wondering if the glow of the spotlight will hit us. For many, our roles or calling in life has led to places where the light shines brightly. In many cases, perhaps too bright. As someone who has a small amount of notoriety and is sometimes recognized by people in public places, I realize the light is a dangerous side effect of serving in places of influence and/or being a person who is “seen”. As someone who literally stands, “in the light” on a regular basis, I know that light can be addictive and dangerous.

The light lies.

I constantly wrestle with my fear of the dark. Do people know who I am? What if I somehow become irrelevant?
The voice inside my head can whisper thoughts that breeds insecurity and over-confidence. Insecurity that forgets that He journeys with me, that this is all about Him, and that His love envelopes me whether I’m known by anyone. Over-confidence that places trust in my own decisions, abilities, leadership, giftings, and charisma.

I am not alone.

Francis Chan suddenly resigned his church early last year. Part of the reason behind his decision was summed up in the following interview with CNN:
“When there is a large constituency, there’s a lot of voices,” he said. “It makes you arrogant or it makes you want to shoot yourself. When thousands of people tell you what they think, how can I be quick to listen, like the Bible says? I don’t want to be a jerk and tune everyone out. At the same time you, can’t love every single person and answer them.”
So after lots of prayer and soul searching, Chan decided it was best to leave the church, country, and Internet behind to focus on serving others one-on-one.

I was watching a news clip today regarding Ted Haggard. His much publicized “issues” stripped him of the spotlight he had been living in as a pastor of a large church in Colorado and leader of a large Christian organization. The darkness was a necessary place for him. It was where God can lead him to re-discover the truth about himself without the limelight. It must have been a scary place for him to be.

He has slowly begun to emerge. I have watched and reflected as he appears on talk shows and then obligatory book tour that followed.

Was the light was shouting out to him? Did he miss it?

Now he is doing his own reality show. I do not know him. I have never had coffee with him. But I wonder if some part of him, like it would me, is shouting for the lumens to be increased and cranked up brighter. “I’m over here”.

Could it be that Ted is still afraid of the dark? I know that sometimes I am. When I am around people I feel have 'done it' or 'accomplished something'...that nasty desire to do something that will make me known uncurls in my guts and I don't want to be left in the dark any longer.

Can't you see me?

hmmm. reminds me of the emporer with no clothes...cuz really, thats what we all end up being when our drivenness for the 'light' calls us out of the darkness before He has said, "Let there be light". And then what are we left with? A laughing crowd who has noticed how unattractively naked we are.

Our fear of being in the dark, when not dealt with, spawns a need for the light. A craving for the light. A yearning. But by always standing in the light, we miss what God wants to teach us in the obscurity of the darkness.

There is an alternative of course. You see He hovers over the darkness...waiting to speak His word. Waiting to create the new and the incredible. Worlds of beauty within our hearts. But of course, we know better...the darkness is bad...right?

I love Eugene Peterson's paraphrase of Jesus’ words in Matt. 5:16:
“Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to BE LIGHT, bringing out the God-colors in the world.”

I know what you are thinking. What about 1 John 1:7 says, 'But if we walk in the light...'

Well I have a thought about that. Read the rest of the verse. Thats right. "...as He is in the light we HAVE fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin."

How often do we walk in the light, but NOT as He is in the light and as a result we don't know how to fellowship and we fail to deal with sin. And we are left bereft of power and hungering for something we do not have. How many of us medicate this hunger by allowing the light of recognition to numb our longing for wholeness?

Have we got it backwards? Cuz His intention is that light emanates FROM US, not shines ON US.

And when it does, the world is a more colorful place.

Are you afraid of the dark? Don't worry. I am sure someone will be willing to leave the night light on for you.
J

in Flanders Fields...

2010-11-11T08:37:00.000-08:00

In Flanders fields where poppies blow,
Between the crosses, row on row...

We have men and woman who have sacrificed for the cause of freedom in our family.
Great Grandpa Chase - a veteran of WW1. My side. Lost most of his ability to talk due to the effects of mustard gas.
Grandpa Mcleod - a veteran of WW2. My side. A navigator on the wellington bombers.
Grandpa Moe - Trace's side. A veteran of WW2. Spent time as a POW in the pacific war theater.

That mark our place: and in the sky the larks still bravely singing, fly
scarce heard amid the guns below...

I am an old man compared to the youth they gambled with when they headed to war.

We are the dead. Short days ago we lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
loved and were loved and now we lie,
In Flanders fields...

I would have loved to have talked to them as young men. To look in their eyes. To probe the young passion and understand their courage and character. To romp and roll, as young men are apt to do, before the years and pain steal the joy of a hope-filled tomorrow.
What was the world they dreamt of? What was the future they lived for? What was the tomorrow they sacrificed for?

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw the torch: be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields...

What would they say to me now? What battlefield would they call me to? What life would they beckon me to live?

Courage.
Faith.
Hope.
Sacrifice.
Love.

Let me live. And fully live. That my life would honour the seeds sown,
in Flanders fields...

Places

2010-08-22T10:25:00.000-07:00

we're moving. sigh. tomorrow this time the movers will pack our collection of things...and the truck will roll east.
moving tends to stir up the deepest and most intrinsic emotions we have...i think. i stumbled across this reality when i took our kids to one of our favorite parks yesterday. don't know if this has ever happened to you...but as we walked up to the playground my eyes welled with tears.
i recognize that i feel deeeeeeeeeep attachment to places...for whatever reason. actually...i know that i'm attached to squint lake (and its winding, tree-shaded paths) because i've spent many a restful morning/afternoon here with my kids.
in fact, squint lake is one of the first places Hayley and i discovered together in our initial weeks in Burnaby.
and so...yesterday i said goodbye to a park. sigh...but i also said goodbye to my 'little Hayley'...and the memories of my toddler tumbling down the slide.
here's to the path (and places) ahead...

blahh.

2010-06-14T11:03:00.000-07:00

A good friend and mentor sent this to me. quite bothersome actually. God help me never be like this. but face to face, eye to eye...to step towards others with passion.
j

Today I met a man
But not really.
Rather, our paths crossed.
The private paths of our own
separate worlds made a juncture
and we were there.
We told our impersonal names
and shook each other's hand
warmly and firmly – to convey
our interest
which wasn't there.
We shared our views
on the weather, politics,
the latest news,
and other foreign things
which were not there.
And when the conversation lagged,
we said:
“Well, glad to have met you”
“Same here”
We lied, smiled, and extended our hands
again, and parted -
glad to be on our separate ways
from our little meeting.
Today I met a man
But not really.
Anonymous

J. Grant Howard, The Trauma of Transparency, (Portland, OR: Multnomah Press, 1979), p. 115, 120.

a coffee review...BONA COFFEE

2010-06-09T11:13:00.001-07:00

He walked in. And in his hand? A bag of 'House Blend' Bona Coffee. He? Luis Gonzalez and his wife Candace. Wonderful friends of ours from the Philippines who have come to Canada to convince me that there IS good coffee grown in a country known for its fruit.

Luis and Candace own a coffee company called Bona Coffee. A brilliant couple with an incredible passion to change the world.
http://www.bonacoffeecompany.com/

And yes, of course they came here just for me. JUST KIDDING. But they should have. chuckle.

Now, it has been said I am a coffee snob...but lets set the record straight. I am passionate about the process of experiencing flavour. You follow?
So as we chatted we scooped out some Bona coffee beans(which they specially delivered from the Philippines to my doorstep), ground them, put the grounds in my french press, and poured boiling water over them. Although the task takes only a few minutes, we both approached the task almost reverently, like painters handling a treasured canvas full of colours. Over the next few days, the ritual was repeated: A porcelain mug filled with the freshly brewed coffee. In real time?

I let the steam and the aroma envelop my entire face. There is always the adding cream and sugar(sorry for you purists...i love strength, creaminess and a sweet punch). I take a small, tentative sip.
Whoa. I throw my head back, and my eyes shoot wide open. From a single sip, I can tell...again...i have captured something of heavens reality in my mouth.

The first time I had this cup of the divine, Luis saw my initial reactions and nervously said, 'what do you think?' I grinned and shook my head. Then I took another sip. This time I could taste more of the full flavours as they slipped over my tongue. By the third sip(cup...chuckle) I was hooked.

SO...my review? Here it is:

Sumatra is one of the world's most distinctive coffee origins. And it has curried my favour and whole hearted commitment from the first moment i tasted it...sometime in 1998. The reason I say this is that what struck me initially was Bona Coffee's assertion that their 'House Blend' was smoother than sumatra. Bold statement. It had BETTER be married with a brilliant coffee. chuckle.

To their credit, it is. Brilliant, I mean.

Bona's House Blend:
Full-bodied.
Resonant.
Low-toned and elegantly comfortable.
This coffee will be attractive(almost giving off pheromones...chuckle) to coffee drinkers who find the powerfully acidy coffees of Kenya and Central America too high-pitched and softer coffees like Konas, Mexicos and Brazils too delicate. Bona's relaxed power doesn't depend on acidity, rather on depth, weight and an echoing dimension. What is really incredible is that the they have successfully blended coffee beans to highlights the best parts of acidity, not remove it. In the process they have produced a blend that has greater breadth than any I have had! Wonderful.
They have created a richly ambiguous complex of flavor notes and the deep, rugged, pungent blends allows the coffee's intensity to linger in your mouth.
And the concentrated spicy, herbal notes and earthy flavour are sure to be the telltale signatures of this well-loved coffee.

So today, when you lift a cup of coffee and offer thanks to the Creator...curse your fate...cuz more than likely(unless you live in Manila) you are not drinking a beverage that is as good as the one I am drinking.

Bona Coffee's House Blend...heaven in my mouth.

Cheers.
Jonathan

success discussions...

2010-06-04T18:06:00.000-07:00

the following are late night thoughts after incredible convos with incredible people: CnL...chuckle.

And the Lord said, “Go.” (Genesis 12:1)

The pilgrim said, “Go where?”

Lord: “Go.”

Pilgrim: “How will I know the way?”

Lord: “Do you trust me? Go.”

Pilgrim: “How will I know when I get there?”

Lord: “Will you trust me? Go.”

Explorers ventured out on strange seas to unknown places and, in so doing, re-made their world. Buy a book or take a course on history and you can read about about Vasco de Gamma(Portuguese explorer who established the first the trade route from Europe to India), Columbus (You know Chris...opened the Americas to European exploration), and Jacques Cartier(discovered Canada and sailed down the St. Lawrence to where Montreal would be born)...totally inspiring stuff. Then there is Ferdinand Magellan...left his homeland in Portugal to join the Spanish court in search of a king to sponsor his mad dream of sailing west to discover Spice Islands that lay to the East. So bold...so crazy...so imaginative for his day! I read an article that was an overview of a book based on this first circumnavigation of the world by the stubborn, determined, amazing navigator, Magellan. Laurence Bergreen’s book, Over the Edge of the World described how almost no one believed in the possibility of Magellan’s dream.

"Few would risk such madness. Magellan spent years forging alliances with brilliant and odd friends who brought the skills and resources to his venture. Finally, Magellan had the resources and people for the adventure. But the maps of the world in those days were piteously inadequate. Maps were the equivalent of the secrets to making nuclear weapons. No country would share them with another. They were kept locked in vaults and viewed as the most important of state secrets. Magellan, therefore, had few maps with which to work with and those he had were terribly inaccurate. They represented the Atlantic as a huge body of water but the Pacific as a tiny pond surrounded by a huge land mass. With such maps, a deeply suspicious crew and co-captain, he set sail down the coast of Africa then made a mad dash across the south Atlantic on the Trade Winds landing on the coast of South America several hundreds of miles from the terrible waters which later came to be named the Straights of Magellan. A little band of people, with all their venality, pride, power, needs and shortsightedness sailed the winds of an uncharted world in tiny boats and changed the face of the earth."

Alex Roxburgh writes, "There are times when ventures are waiting to be birthed. There are tides and winds which, if risked, bear us to places and worlds our imaginations could not comprehend from this shore."

My heart burns when I allow myself to feel through this...
So...some ramblings as I 'burn' tonight:

Life does not come with a clearly defined road map.

We take one step after another.

We move forward without the ability to forecast the results of each step or decision.

Plans change. Situations morph. Life throws us curve balls. Things seldom turn out according to our wish, plan or anticipation.

No one really knows what is going on.

I am often asked, “Does God have a specific plan for my life?”

Yes, God does have a plan. God’s plan is that we might become the deep, fully alive, loving human beings we were created to be. We exist to manifest in the visible realm that invisible beauty that is our true nature created in the image of God. As William Blake wrote in “Songs of Innocence,”

And we are put on earth a little space
That we may learn to bear the beams of love

That is the only plan I know of. The specifics of how that plan works out in our lives are basically irrelevant.

The beauty of God’s plan is that you can fulfill it anywhere, doing anything. It does not matter what the external circumstances of your life may be. Anything and everything can be used to help you become radiant with the life of Jesus that is your true destiny.

You don’t need an academic degree, a particular career, or a special relationship. You only need a heart that is open to the Spirit and willingness to grow.

The wonderfully unique detail about God’s plan that usually spins us right out is that it works best when we don’t know what is going on.

God’s plan is most effective when we don’t understand.

When we cannot make sense of what is happening.

Because the essential requirement for God’s plan to be all that He intended is: trust. Trust grows in the soil of uncertainty; it thrives in the land of doubt and confusion.

The prophet Jeremiah says,

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
They shall be like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots by the stream.
It shall not fear when heat comes,
And its leaves shall stay green;
in the year of drought it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit. (Jeremiah 17:7,8)

We do not know where the journey of our lives will lead. All we can know for sure is that there will be times when we feel nourished and sustained AND there will be times when life seems barren and dry. If our roots go down deep, we will pass through times of feast without attachment and survive famine without fear. The wind will blow; but the life with deep roots withstands and even THRIVES in the storms.

These contrary and painful life experiences are gifts given to us to help us develop the muscles of trust. If life were all smooth and the skies always sunny, we would never develop the inner resilience of faith that can stand firm no matter what circumstances we face. Men and Women of character are forged on the anvil of trust...taking the repeated blows of life.

With trust we are able to step into the unknown, confident that only good can come.

The good may not look the way we had hoped.

The good may lay on the other side of great pain.

But it will be good because it gives us an opportunity to open more deeply to that inner reality that is the imprint of Christ at the core of our being. Our attachment to Him, rather than to any particular outcome or plan, is the crux that allows us to journey in joy and freedom.

The beauty of trust is that no one can take it from me. I may lose my career. My family may abandon me. My investments may tank or evaporate. My health may be gone...my strength will fade.

But I can always choose to trust. I can always give myself to the reality of Jesus...who is holding my life, sustaining my heart and enabling me to grow and deepen in my ability to love.

No one knows the future.

We never really understand the past.

We move forward with courage because we trust that whatever we encounter, it will be another opportunity partner with Jesus in the plan of redemption. And in the process He will call us to "Come further up and further in…"

And I love the ongoing discovery that "the further up and the further in you go, the bigger everything gets. The inside is larger than the outside.”

So stop stressing about living a successful life.

Sometimes you have to the roll the dice and go all in...and not worry about 'what now?????". Success is not in the accomplishment of something.

Success is in the going. Or as my brotha Luis said last night, 'Success is in the obedience.'

It's in the growing.

J

iphone considerations...

2010-06-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

These are personal reflections based on my own experience...chuckle:

Oh stop, you’re embarrassing both of us.

Let’s be honest, we both know you’re not using your iPhone strictly to look up Bible verses during the sermon. It might have started that way, but it never stays that way.

You started by taking a few quick notes during the “margin moments” of church. You know those, the few minutes while the people on stage are magically changing whatever is on stage or they’re preparing for a baptism or going through the list of announcements....

Those are perfect little chunks of time to do some “worship multitasking,” because the truth is that the easiest place to write a to-do list is church. Something about prayer makes us all think of a million things we need to do. So you begin to make a few notes.

But you have to look up one of them online, so you open Safari and next thing you know, you’re searching the Internet in the middle of church. O and wait, it makes you wonder what so and so is doing...SOOOO ya gotta open facebook! right? I mean come on!

Pull it back together. Get your head in the game. Gotta get your head in the game...getcha getcha getcha head in the game. (movie anyone? ok, i will tell ya, High School Musical...shut up)

But wait...i need my phone to follow the flow of the message...it is has my bible app. I’m only going to look at Youversion, the Bible app or Biblegateway.com, this is serious business. This is church.

BUT I wish iPhone Bibles had a little jingle that let people around you know that you’re looking up a Bible verse. I wish they quietly whispered when you opened the online Bible and would say, “Reading the Bible, we’re reading the Bible.” It’s bad enough these punks don’t know I direct deposit my tithe and think I stiff arming the offering every Sunday.

But that’s me, you? You’re playing Civ Revolution right now on your iPhone. Or maybe popping bubbles. Or Tap tap revolution or All Recipies or Sally’s Spa or Cooking Dash or HarborMaster. Ridiculous! And if I hear the sound of Bejeweled 2, I might come across the aisle and hurt you.

Did you really just shazam a hymn? Did that happen?

That’s when you know you’re a sweaty heathen, when you have to try to use a service that can identify and name of a song. (87% of songs sung at church are “Blessed Be the Name” by Matt Redmon, there’s really no need to look them up.) Plus, you should know by now, only about 17 Christian songs are loaded into the shazam service. I swear, I could play a Lady Gaga song on a washboard and it would identify it, but it never knows Christian songs.

Put your iPhone away, no one, and I mean no one, has the moral fortitude to only look up Bible verses on an iPhone during church. That’s what Paul was talking about when he said “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.”

That was about using the iPhone at church.
Seriously, google it.
Just not right now.
Wait until church is over.

musings...of a wandering pilgrim

2010-05-31T22:24:00.000-07:00

I believe that as we step into the places of need within the lives of people we rub shoulders with every day, we will find Jesus already at work there. And we will also find that even in the darkest of places, He has been there waiting for us.

SO…what do we do as representatives of this scandalous friend of the unloveable? This reckless saviour who would risk it all for the undeserving(like me)? We pursue people. And love them with all that we are. And point them to the dangerous lover, Jesus the Christ.

How will we do that? Well now, that is the great adventure.

Even as i read this again, i am reminded by how many people really struggle with a non-linear life plan - one that is not framed within a set of goals or markers...and some days i am one of them. But I love the idea that the Glory of God is a man fully alive. And that is what we truly believe Jesus gives us. Full life.

Redemption is a mystery...why and where did we get our perspective on conversion? and how did it become so pragmatic? As I read the words of Jesus, being converted was never something He addressed. We truly believe that Jesus travelled with people and they ended up following Him...changed by His tenderness and His teaching.

Is that not our call? To redemptively move people towards Jesus, with His tenderness and His teaching? "His kindness leads us to repentance...", ever heard those words?

Some followed Him closer than others....but where was the line of saved or not? I am not sure that there are answers to that questions outside of the questions of what does it mean to be fully alive? Fully drawn by the Jesus story. My heart needs to be captured by what it means to be a fully committed husband, father, and friend...fully believing that we are to be full of His Spirit so that as His power is at work in us it changes my street, my community, coffee shop, school, etc. I want to believe that His presence in me is enough.

There is the crux. St. Francis said, 'preach the gospel at all times and when necessary use words'. Do I believe this gospel enough to live it out in all of my life?

The people of God should be marked by an unwavering belief in the world's ability to change...which is what makes apathy so dangerous...it is an affront to the Holy Spirit's work in my life and world. HOPE.

WE HOPE.

He is not a private club or a corporate strategy...nor is His kingdom something He is holding onto like a old man on unsteady legs who white knuckles his cane. The days of the church portraying it that way must end. We must paint a picture of a God who offers His Kingdom and grace daily...o what a compelling picture.

So what do we do? We intentionally step into the lives of the people around us. Into the lives of the people on our street, school system, neighbourhood, gym, workplace...into every level of culture. And His presence in us makes those places potential places of worship.

I am convinced that when my life is clothed with His, and I choose to live for His glory...all that I do, all that I am, what I see, what I taste, what I hear, what I say...becomes holy and truly sacred. This IS the message, the KINGDOM OF GOD IS NEAR TO YOU NOW!

Something i wrote several years ago strikes me as fitting:

I love that when I play basketball with Caleb or wrestle with Rosie, and I do it with Jesus in my heart... it is holy and His Presence is there.
I love that when I cook a magnificent plate of steaming curry, and I do it with Jesus in my heart...it is holy and His Presence is there.
I love that when I have a cup of coffee in the morning as the sun rises with a book in hand, and I do it with Jesus in my heart...it is holy and His Presence is there.
I love that when I sit a table with people I love and listen to them talk and watch them describe life, and I do it with Jesus in my heart...it is holy and His Presence is there.
I love that as Darlene walks the hallways of the hospital being an instrument of healing, and she is aware that He has placed her there...it is a holy place and His Presence is there.
I love that as Erin works in her office as an instrument of integrity, and she does it aware that He has placed her there...it is a holy place and His Presence is there.
I love that as Brian mediates crisis in teenagers lives, and he does it aware that He has placed him there...it is a holy place and His Presence is there.
I love that as Lani works with the poorest of the poor and helps them step back into the society, and she does it aware that He has placed her there...it is a holy expression of Him and His presence is there.
I love that as Scott walks the hallways of academia as a missionary to the mind of our culture, and he does it aware that He has divine purpose there...it is a holy endeavor and His Presence is there.
I love that as Tracey captures God's signature on people by ripping back the veils that hide true beauty and captures who they truly are on film, and she does it aware that Jesus has placed her there...it is holy and His Presence is there.
I love that as my kids go to school and learn to love new friends, and they do it knowing that Jesus is smiling...it is holy and His Presence is there.

I love that where ever we live, and we live there for Him...it is a holy, sacred place, and His Presence is there.

and maybe that's what this church thing is all about. maybe that is question we need to be answering...Is He here? Is He honoured? Maybe we need to be mission-aries who are guides that help others discover that He is here now.

I think that a gathering of people who understand this...that when we, together, live in the name of Jesus, His presence is real; the places we live in become holy.

and maybe, just maybe, that is enough to change the world.

hmmm.

2010-05-26T21:08:00.000-07:00

“The church today should be getting ready and talking about the issues of tomorrow and not the issues of 20 or 30 years ago, because the church is going to be squeezed in a wringer. If we found it tough in these last few years, what are we going to do when faced with the real changes that are ahead?… One of the greatest injustices we do to our young people is to ask them to be conservative. Christianity is not conservative but revolutionary. To be conservative today is to miss the whole point, for conservatism means standing in the flow of the status quo and the status quo no longer belongs to us… If we want to be fair we must teach the young to be revolutionaries, revolutionaries against the status quo”

Francis Schaeffer (1981)
He was an American Evangelical theologian, philosopher, and Presbyterian pastor. He is most famous for his writings and his establishment of the L'Abri community in Switzerland.

to the hilt.

2010-05-22T09:18:00.000-07:00

"be courageous."
I have said it, had it said to me...but i have some questions...

Is courage a spiritual quality? Or a natural quality? Do some people have it and some don't?

I stumbled across this in some reading late(very late) last night. The word courage comes from the Latin word cor, which means "heart".

A courageous act is an act coming from the heart. A courageous word is a word arising from the heart. The heart, however, is not just the place where our emotions are located. The heart is the centre of our being, the centre of all thoughts, feelings, passions, and decisions. Its the womb of our dreams, the place of our divine DNA (who we were meant to be as His kids).

Being courageous is living with your heart. Putting it all on the table and givin' er...

with that on the table, I have some thoughts...so follow me for a sec...

Life provides us with opportunities to catch glimmers of who we are, or who we could be.

I had a conversation regarding 'religion' once and it made me think about the word 'courageous', in its best sense. James talks about religion of value. Religion you ask? Yeah, religion; something that describes an area of life and experience where in some way or another we have stumbled into mystery and heard a summons to follow. An encounter that overwhelms us in that we have glimpsed something (or Someone) so far beyond us and bigger than us that we are captured...either by fear or love.

I think in some way we are all mystics, filled with a hunger for the supernatural...the taste, the touch, the feel, the awareness of that which is beyond us...we all carry a yearning for mystery.

AND really, we have all seen more than we let on...even to ourselves. Through moments of beauty or pain we catch glimmers of what the "saints" or "hero's" of the faith were absolutely fixated by. But what separates them from the average person is not the experience. Rather, its their response. The reality that captured and held them, we tend to miss or DISmiss in order to go on as if nothing happened. No pause. No reflection. Little more than a pulse fluxuation.

Come on. Stop pretending you don't know. Relationship break up - cry for a day, find a new one. Sharp word spoken in anger to you - speak one back and move on. Loneliness - pick your medication...food, TV, porn, work, people. Insecurity - find something that you are good at and don't venture out ever again. Positives? Personal relationships - eye contact, a moment that creates opportunity to express love...and there is that uncomfortable pause and desperate lunge towards escape by cracking a joke or saying something sarcastic. Quiet - an opportunity to sit, to pause, to reflect on who we are and who we are becoming. Instead we look for the remote or something to do. A Divine Moment springs from a conversation or a prayer, where God once again stirs the dreams of your heart - find a way to stuff them back in and move on, cuz I mean, its not reasonable to think that stuff...are you following me yet?

We find ways to regain control...regain the flatline. But a truly alive and courageous heart has peaks and valleys...highs and lows...pain and joy...regularly...and each of those moments are filled with the awesome, overwhelming, mystical reality of the alive Lord Jesus...not our fake, serene looking deadpan Jesus, the one in most paintings. BUT the inescapable passionate Jesus who created us to live fully alive.

To allow something to be as it is, to admit something HAS happened in us even though we are not sure what it is, or where we are supposed to go with it...that is a powerful part what this journey of FAITH is all about.
Don't shut it off. Don't shut it down...let it be what it is and embrace it...Because He is in the middle of all of it. In order to engage the reality of Jesus, the path goes through your heart. Does it mean we live by emotion? No, we live by following the LIVING WORD...and feeling the tension, struggle, hardship, joy, exhilaration that colours and shades our lives is part of the incredible experience we call FAITH!

Courage. Living with your heart.
What did God say to Joshua? 7 times in 3 chapters. BE STRONG AND what?
Yeah. my translation? let me give you the strength to live out the dream(s) of your heart. a promised land. ignore the nay sayers, the people who will never believe and RUN.
The key? Don't shut your heart off. Your heart speaks the language of courage.
And the pain and joy that is a part of the pursuit? Do something with it. write. paint. speak. sculpt. design. do. start. live. love.
Let your heart feel and breath and speak and sing...in the words of the martyr Jim Elliot, wherever you are, be all there, live life to the hilt.

Embrace it all, and maybe you will learn something about the profound mystery that is you...and the God who made you.

Let me leave you with a story I read about Blaise Pascal. No room to tell you who he is...look him up.
After he had died a servant found this paper sown into his jacket "since about half past ten in the evening until half past midnight. Fire. Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace." This great man, stammering it out like a little child. But he had to...its what we do when we are courageous...we find a way to get it out.

read the book of Joshua...or at least the first 5 chapters...you'll see what I mean.
yearning,
Jonathan

Trust and Creativity

2010-05-14T21:32:00.001-07:00

fully rambling...chuckle. creative writing right? my mother is after to me to start editting...i may...one day.

Trust.
Creativity.
What are the first things that come to your mind when you think about those two words?

The first thing that comes to my mind is failure.
How we deal with failure and mistakes is actually the best measure of the level of trust in a community, whether that community be a family or an organization of thousands. When you trust people, you will always find moments when you’ll be disappointed...where someone has failed or really made a wrong choice. We can use it as a basis to not trust people...and end up using it against them...or we can learn something else.

Have we learned to love in such a way that people feel free to fail? Have we created places that are safe...where you can roll the dice, risk it all and make a mistake? Are we creating environments that are based on confidence in God and in people? Or are we creating places that are filled with fear?

Can we learn to create places that are full of love and freedom?

I am learning that the more people I love, the more I make decisions that are not based on myself. I look at people who lie, cheat, steal, murder, rape, etc...and in that moment of their lives, they’ve decided that their personal satisfaction as more important than all the pain they might cause everyone else their actions touch....

The more people you love the more difficult it will be for you to make lifes destructive decisions. Seems to me there is a Jesus message in their somewhere. I get asked lots about how to grow your faith. And I am learning it has alot to do with how much I value me. Mother Theresa said it like this:
If faith is lacking, it is because there is too much selfishness, too much concern for personal gain. For faith to be true, it has to be generous and loving. Love and faith go together, they complete each other.

I have been wrestling with this as a leadership issue. If we choose to trust and develop creative environments, what is the balance between freedom is control? How much control should i have?

What I am realizing is that every organization, group, community, team, etc. has places of tight control somewhere. All of us have had experiences with organizations that want to control the end product, which is not a bad thing. But what would it look like in our circles of influence, if we pushed for having control over the quality of people we trust.

When I trust a person’s character, I can let them have an immense amount of freedom—yes, even freedom to mess it up...cuz God knows i have destroyed a few things in my path once upon a time! And it was the wise and patient people that God placed in my life that shook their heads, winked at me, helped me clean it up, asked me what i learned, and told me to go for it again!

Unfortunately, so many of us are so afraid of making mistakes that we don’t; that’s why so many people that I have talked to say they are not creative. The creative process always dies in the atmosphere of fear. Because creativity and failure are twins. Maybe the problem is that there are not enough wombs of trust that birth children who dream of a different world...and have the courage to fail until they succeed.

Chuck Swindoll said, "In vain I have searched the Bible, looking for examples of early believers whose lives were marked by rigidity, predictability, inhibition, dullness, and caution. Fortunately, grim, frowning, joyless saints in Scriptures are conspicuous by their absence. Instead, the examples I find are of adventurous, risk-taking, enthusiastic, and authentic believers whose joy was contagious even in times of full trial. Their vision was broad even when death drew near. Rules were few and changes were welcome. The contrast between then and now is staggering."

In the leadership push of the last ten years, we have been taught to focus on excellence. The last couple of days has taught me something. Ready? When your focus is excellence, and your focus is execution—in terms of it having to be executed precisely so it’s efficient—excellence and efficiency actually become enemies of the creative process.

Maybe instead of talking about finding ways to be creative in effectively administering the mandate of the gospel...we need to be creatively finding ways to express that which is beautiful about the Gospel. Calling people who are weary, worn, overwhelmed and overcome by the darkness of sin to the majesty of a wondrous Savior who is able to bring His light into the darkest night. And when His light appears in the darkness, the darkness cannot stop it...redemption happens.

As the people of God, we are all artists. Our lives are the painting of God crying out to a world with His love, with the powerful message of redemption! Is it clean, sterile and disinfected process? no. Efficient? no, but really, art is never efficient...but it does move our souls. We are His masterpiece. What is more moving than a redeemed life living with joy and wild abandon in following the dream of His Kingdom?

I don't want to live with fear...trying to find rules and regulations to control "end products". We are stretching to base our entire life mission on the reality of Jesus actually transforms people. So much so that I feel no pressure to try to make people act or be a certain way. I’m banking everything on the fact that Jesus is the redeemer of broken lives. AND when we call people to Him, everything changes.

Maybe that's what faith is. Banking it all...on Him.

Influence...just a thought

2010-05-10T14:12:00.001-07:00

Influence.

We either influence, or are influenced.

Why is it that Mother Teresa could stand up before crowds of thousands and simply repeat simple New Testament phrases, and a hush would sweep the room?

She didn't say anything new: "Jesus loves you," she assured you. "We're sons and daughters of God and we have to love Jesus' poor." Yet people walked out renewed, transformed and deeply challenged. I remember reading through her message at the National Prayer Breakfast several years ago in the United States. She was speaking about the moral destruction that a pro abortion society experiences. And then she said, "if you dont want your children, give them to me...I will take them."

She wasn't a priest. She wasn't well educated. She didn't have a position with authority. Her influence came from her life-style.

What influence does your life-style give you?
j

Thomas Merton thoughts...

2010-05-10T11:13:00.000-07:00

“We must expect to be making mistakes all the time. We must be content to fail repeatedly and to begin again to try to deny ourselves for the love of God…

We want to shake off the hateful thing that has humbled us. In our rush to escape the humiliation of our mistakes, we run headfirst into the opposite error, seeking comfort and compensation.

And so we spend our lives running back and forth from one attachment to another.

If that is all our self-denial amounts to,

…our mistakes will never help us.

The thing you do, when you have made a mistake, is not to give up doing what you were doing and start something altogether new, but to start over again with the thing you began badly and try, for the love of God, to do it well."

When I Stand

2010-05-07T16:10:00.000-07:00

When I stand at the judgment seat of Christ
And He shows me His plan for me,
The Plan of my life as it might have been
Had He had His way, and I see

How I blocked Him here, and I checked Him there,
And I would not yield my will --
Will there be grief in my Savior's eyes,
Grief, though He loves me still?

He would have me rich, and I stand there poor,
Stripped of all but His grace,
While memory runs like a hunted thing
Down the paths I cannot retrace.

Then my desolate heart will well-nigh break
With the tears that I cannot shed;
I shall cover my face with my empty hands,
I shall bow my uncrowned head...

Lord of the years that are left to me,
I give them to Thy hand;
Take me and break me, mould me to
The pattern Thou hast planned!

Martha Snell Nicholson

remembering the works....

2010-05-06T14:59:00.001-07:00

Hey...
Need some help here. Have spent some time over the last week reminiscing...working my way through some of the incredible ways that Jesus has transformed lives over the last 10 years....

If you were are a part of The Revolution; FireHouse; G.C.; SuperCamps; Summer Camps; Conferences; Missions Trips...you name it. Whether in the Philippines or in Canada...

Tell me about what happened in you. What did Jesus do in your life? What did He say to YOU? What did you walk away with? How has it altered the way you live, see, think, breath?

believing.

pj

Influence. Part 2

2010-05-04T13:35:00.000-07:00

Daniel 4:36-37 and 6:26-27 records royal decrees of two kings. Both of them ruled at one time over one of the greatest cities and nation-states in the ancient world.

These two men came from different cultures: one was a Babylonian by birth; the other was born a Medo-Persian. They also belonged to different generations. Yet they were both tied together in history by their relationship with one unique individual - a Judean prophet called Daniel.

Daniel, or as he came to be known in Babylon, Belteshazzar, was born a Jewish prince in the 6th century BC. As a teenager he was forcibly taken from his home and heritage and transplanted to the Babylon of king Nebuchadnezzar. There, Daniel and his peers were trained for service of the Babylonian empire. Their training involved a process of changing the essence of their personal cultures. How you ask? Their names were change, their cultural food was forbidden and their connection with their homeland was severed. Some 'mm, mm good' stuff to think about right here...but another time!

Daniel was a slave who rose up through the ranks to become a trusted advisor, a confidante, to not one but five successive kings of this ancient city.

In the process of Daniel's service, he led two of the kings to faith in God - this in a nation that virtually invented astrology and worship of the stars.

Whether they liked him or not, all the kings who knew Daniel respected him. AND all agreed: the spirit of the gods were in him!

Daniel's incredible and eventful life reminds us, again, of one great fact: We were created for influence. Regardless the scenarios or situation, we are architects of atmosphere and engineers of environment.

Let me say this again, Genesis 1:26-28 outlines the first calling God placed upon the shoulders of humankind - the mandate to influence the world.

How do we win this tug-o-war for influence? How can we shape our culture more than it shapes us? How can we transform our life situation before it transforms us?

Be a Culture-Creator in your world.

Having real influence is about creating a culture -- a new way of seeing and doing things, a fresh way of interpreting what is right, normal and acceptable. Without this kind of cultural definition there can be no leadership. The person, or group, who has the strongest culture will inevitably rise to leadership.

Wherever Daniel was involved, the prevailing culture changed. People, even those in high status positions, were forced to rethink what was right, normal and acceptable.

To influence your world, you must define and build a culture in your own space that is stronger, more dominant than the culture that surrounds you. People must feel that when they're around you, certain things are normal, right and acceptable.

Proverbs 29:18 is about setting goals for our lives. Its about you and me redefining the culture of our immediate environment, our sphere. The Hebrew text says: 'Without a redemptive revelation the people lead undisciplined lives.'

God wants to give you not just a set of goals, but a redemptive revelation of himself. He wants to show you something of his own nature; something so revolutionary that, if you live it out, it will actually redeem things around you for the kingdom of God.

Because of that revelation, you will be able redefine what it means to be in business, to build a family, to study in school, to do whatever it is that you do!

Now i know it is easy to become overwhelmed, so hold on. In my last post, i quoted Abraham Kuyper the nineteenth century journalist, theologian and Dutch Prime Minister who wrote: 'There is not one part of our world of thought that can be hermetically separated from the other parts, and there is not an inch in the entire area of our human life of which Christ, who is sovereign of all, does not cry "Mine!"'

While some churchmen of his era taught that Christians should retreat from everything relating to the secular world, Kuyper borrowed from Paul’s teaching to give us the idea of ‘sphere authority’.

This is the idea that church and state are both of divine origin, yet both serve different functions.

Each must obey God's laws: the state must not try to be neutral towards God, but must recognize his supremacy over the civil sphere of authority. Government policies and procedures must respect God's moral precepts, so they must uphold the sanctity of marriage and the family; they must restrain and punish.

No one is entitled to rule absolutely, for that is a divine prerogative alone. God delegates authority to human agents in family, church, school and state, and those who govern in such spheres are accountable to God in the discharge of their duties and in the exercise of their limited authority.

This means, for example, that neither the state nor the church is to intrude upon the other spheres. Each should seek to protect the rights of the other to operate freely.

Kuyper's concept of sphere authority contradicted the basic principle of socialism that would give the state the right to regulate life in practically all of its aspects, economic, political and social.

According to Deuteronomy 28, God’s people are destined for leadership; AND leadership on any level begins with creating a culture.

There are, I think, two fundamental questions we need to answer, if we're each going to win our battle for influence.

The first is this: what kind of neighbourhood, city and nation do I want to see around me in 10 years from now? What kind of city and nation would God want me to be living in by that time? What changes would he want me to make; what things would he want me to redeem around me?

The second question is this: seeing that preferred future, what am I now prepared to do to set that in motion? I quoted him already, but he bears repeating: As Bill Wilson, the great apostle to children in New York, likes to say: 'It's not important what you achieve in life; it's what you set in motion that counts!'

dreaming...
Jonathan

25 Things

2010-05-03T23:20:00.000-07:00

i have been asked to re-post this...so i have...welcome to my world...

hmmm....I have been tagged a bunch of times and am usually very disinterested in responding to such things...BUT, for some reason this one has provided a spigot for inner musings...here we go:

**
once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. at the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. you have to tag the person who tagged you. if I tagged you, it's because i want to know more about you.

(to do this, go to "notes" under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)
**
1. i love to journal. the discipline of articulating thoughts, fears, dreams, prayer, love, etc on paper provides me a place of stillness. good for my heart. BUT i have been wrestling with switching to some sort of computer program, cuz when i die NOONE will be able to read anything i wrote...which is great for the immediate privacy problem - i don't have to worry about someone reading something - but terrible for posterity.

2. coffee. hmmmm. finding/making the perfect cup of java is a truly noble endeavor. earthy. bold. well balanced. and just about boiling. perfect. sigh.

3. i had 5 concussions my junior year in highschool. one of which left me with amnesia for 3 days. highschool wrestling was the cause of 4 of them. and the amnesia causing one was the result of a crack the whip on roller skates gone bad. forehead...cement...blood coming out of nose and ears...you get the story.

4. Tracer, my lover, is truly the most gifted photographer in the world. The way she captures people is incredible. She has the ability to capture who people are in a moment...quite often moves me to tears.

5. Which leads me to this thought...i cry alot. I never know what may cause tears. The sight of the Pacific Ocean can do it...or a piece of music, or a face i've never seen before...or maybe one that i haven't seen in a really long time. A look. A smile. An expression. A moment. Almost any movie that has the heartbreak of loving and loosing. A high school basketball team running onto the floor at the end of game, exultant in victory...or the opposite team, broken in defeat. Two young lovers exchanging a look and a kiss on a train, or two much older lovers, exchanging a years-filled glance and a gentle caress. Memories..and dreams...i can never be sure. But of this i am sure. Whenever i find tears in my eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is wise to pay very very close attention.
example? I was reading a Berenstein Bears book to Rosie this evening...and those unexpected tears came on the last page. Why? Gran and Gramps has swept brother and sister bear into their arms and were saying how thankful they were to have them as granbears(grandkids - for those of you who don't know Berenstein Bear language).
I was thinking a little later, after Rosie asked me what was wrong and I quickly moved along, that those tears tell me something about the secret of who I am. What is it that strikes the chords of my heart in such a way that I am moved to tears? As I think about those moments, more often than not, God is speaking to me through them of the mystery of where I have come from...and is summoning me, if my heart is willing, to where I should go next.

6. I cannot stand the Toronto Maple Leafs. Sorry...gotta keep it real.

7. I love airports. love em love em love em. Back in the day, when Trace and I were dating, we used to go to the Calgary airport, sip coffee, flirt and watch the planes land. There is something awe-some about watching people and wondering where they are going, or coming from and what their life is made of. My favorite airport is the Hong Kong Airport, followed closely by the Vancouver Airport.

8. My Caleb, my 12 year old son, amazes me. The mixture of boyish roughness (his love of violence...whenever we are looking at movies is standard line in response to a movie that is rated beyond what is acceptable for 11 years olds is 'Dad I love violence, its not gross kissing stuff') and tender compassion (Trace dropped a TV on her toe the other day and it was hard to tell who was crying more...her or Caleb. And Caleb was crying out of pure empathy) is very moving...and challenges me to be a more balanced man.

9. My Rosie, my 8 year (going on 18) old, inspires me. She sings constantly. And is always asking for a hug. Since she was a very little girl she has been able to find someone who is hurting or feeling left out...and make them feel loved. Sigh. When she says, 'you are my favorite daddy'...i want to give her the world...and warn her future suitors, you mess with my little girl and i promise to hurt you. seriously.

10. food and friends...food is every cultures relationship vehicle. Around our tables, we engage each other better, especially when we do it over a meal we love. Think about where we do our most important relationship things…our dates, our relationship stepping stones, our family gatherings, our celebrations, our reflections…all are couched, encouraged and augmented by the food we eat. In an urban environment and a racing global village, many people find themselves sucked dry, and left barren. i love creating spaces that allow us to experience food, culture and people. Spaces that return the color to a pale and bleak rat race. I think of words like inviting. Stimulating. Inspiring. Soulful. Moving. Expressive. Safe. Alive. From the perfection of a dish, to the painting that hangs on the wall. From the musical ambience to the color scheme. From the lighting to something gentle and complete offered by a group of people committed to restoring your soul after a long day...sigh.

11. Top 3 places i have yet to visit: Scotland. East Coast of Canada. Aushwitz.

12. I own every Louis Lamour book. yup. all of em.

13. Speaking of books...i love love love to read. I have lots of em...everywhere. It is bad news for me to go into a book store of any kind. I have a long list of 'to read's. My goal this year is to read a book a week.

14. I notice that i pace. When i talk on the phone. When i am thinking. When i am fretting. When i am longing. I am a pacer...funny enough that is the name of our dog. Pacey is his name but we call him pacer....

15. Someday I am going to go to a Steelers game in Pittsburgh and wave a terrible towel and howl like a mad man. My son has informed me that is sooooo coming.

16. Someday I want to see U2 live in Ireland.

17. We are going to adopt some children someday. How can I not be moved by the plight of the worlds orphans?

18. We recently got rid of our big screen TV. How can our home be a place of rest when the center of attention is a big TV that constantly 'feeds' our minds. We have decided to rest more, reflect more, read more, play more, laugh more, and intentionally engage the people we care about more. Do I really need my mind numbed by a world of fiction?

19. I am deeply challenged by the words of Jesus: 'if any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross daily, and follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life.' What does it look like to live life not for yourself...but to truly live in a way that gives all that you are for the good of others. i constantly rub shoulders with people who are desperately trying to outrun the feeling of emptiness inside. Fear of failing, fear of disappointment, fear of pain, fear of being alone...and I am one of them. And these words i find true mission...the power of leveraging all that i am and all that i possess for the sake of someone else...something deep draws me there.

20. i grew up in the Philippines. My mom ran a medical facility that provided care for the poor and specifically focused on providing a safe environment for pregnant mothers who could not afford hospital care. So by the time I was 16 i knew more about pregnancy and giving birth than most women. Did many a homework assignment holding baby.

21. I really want to learn how to speak another language. Top of the list? Mandarin. But could be easily sucked into learning arabic or french.

22. I play the saxophone. the guitar. and would love to master the piano.

23. I love to sing. am not sure i have ever written that before.

24. I run my own business. So does my wife. Two entrepreneurs. We were made for each other. uh huh...woot woot!

25. i love the friends we have chosen to journey with. life is full because of their love.

ranting...

2010-04-30T22:03:00.000-07:00

Do you ever get that question emerging in your mind that's like a nagging persistent itch that just has to be scratched? I have dove into the depths of the gospels from it's shores in all directions. And breathless, I come to the surface gasping, empty handed. I can't find it.

Where in any encounter does Jesus confront someone who is living without hope like a hostage and then give them a life threatening decision, "believe...or it's to hell with you." You might ask where such a question stems from. Well suffice it to say, several heated conversations with 'christians' who are unhappy with the lack of intense conviction in gatherings that I have had the privilege of being in have spurred such fodder.

From the opening chapters of Matthew's gospel, after the imprisonment of John, Jesus moves to Capernaum, by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali...

People living out their lives in the dark
saw an incredible light;
Sitting in that dark, dark place of death,
they watched the sun come up.

This Isaiah-prophesied image came to life in Galilee the moment Jesus started engaging and talking to people. He picked up where John left off: This is the dawn of a new day; it's a new page in the story of humanity; there's a new road to travel. Turn your lives around, it's time for humanity to be restored to what I intended it to be. 'The Kingdom has come near to you NOW!'

From there it's the Jesus journey. A wandering of sorts, by the shores of the Sea of Galilee inviting friends to join him on the adventure of proclaiming, revealing and building this Kingdom. Absolutely fascinating that there is no conversion moment in the selection of disciples. No statement of faith. No scratch on the scroll for confirmation of membership. We're not even sure they were baptized in the Jordan. If ritual proof was prerequisite, one would imagine Jesus pulling his disciples out of the baptismal fount.

Again, we are left to guess. There is no believe in me ultimatum. It is nothing more than the profound simplicity of an invitation to "come and follow." And in the following, you will find what your soul longs for.

Countrysides.
Villages.
Towns.
The beach.
And dusty roads.
Jesus shared stories of the radical, scandalous, redemptive, imagination of the Kingdom. As wild as the stories were, it left people in awe to see them come to life before their eyes. People were brought to him who were sick, the were lame, blind, and plagued by spirits. AND in the presence of Jesus they were healed. Again, this uncontainable, unpredictable, scandalous, forgiving, gracious and healing Kingdom turned the world upside down...it was hope re-imagined.

The essence of the Kingdom is so powerful, so beautiful, so miraculously good that it captivates the human imagination. This was the ministry method of Jesus.

The Kingdom is like a treasure hidden in a field for years and then accidentally found by a trespasser. The finder is ecstatic—what a find!—and proceeds to sell everything he owns to raise money and buy that field.

The Kingdom is like a jewel merchant on the hunt for excellent pearls. Finding one that is flawless, he immediately sells everything and buys it. (The Message: Matt 13:44-45 )

The Kingdom is so profoundly precious that you will sell everything to live in it...it is so spacious, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in it without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of the Life of Jesus. A life we all have access to, a life we can all enter into. A life, through the power of the Spirit of God, we can let Jesus live through...if we are humble enough to sacrifice our lives...to let him live.

This good news of the Kingdom is not a gun point threat of "heaven or hell." It is about life, abundant life. It is about a full-blown re-imagining of all creation. It is about a profound mysterious journey across the threshold of this world, into the redemptive imagination of Jesus and his Kingdom. The good news is the truth, that the Kingdom is here, now. It's not a place where we drift off to in some spiritual trance, a place where we visit occasionally as a tourist. Jesus calls us to live in it, during every moment of our daily living. Not only to live in it...but to build it with him.

We have become so consumed with the destination that we have behaved like landlords or inn keepers, micro-managing as to who is getting a room in what place.

Maybe we have created this great conundrum. We have become content with just mending our lives, throwing on a patch here and there. A nice three point sermon, a life application in a 25 min pill form that we can pop into our mouth like a soother. Then we cross our fingers and hope it at least makes us feel better.
Better is only as good as us, and the problem with better...it doesn't last long.
Like tylenol, it's better for about 4 hours, and then you back to where you started.
Maybe, it's time to ask, to knock, and to seek with all we have, and cross the threshold into Jesus' Kingdom.

Humanity is lurching down this long corridor of history, frantically looking for the horizon where hope might rise. Profound uncertainty leaves us scared...it breeds fear...and the weight of hopelessness falls like a curtain as the actors prepare to exit the stage.

But there is hope. In the gospels people sat enveloped in darkness until Jesus began to live amongst them and engage their hearts with truth. Truth that cracked the ceiling of darkness, a great light that pulsated with freedom, life, rest and hope.

It was this person of Jesus that was enough to call them from the life they knew, NOT the if you don't impulse. When we are left resorting to the fear scenario, does that say something about the reality of His presence in us?

The church, and every follower of Jesus must re-imagine the gospels beyond heaven or hell. I am not saying they are not realities. BUT we must hunger, thirst for the mind of Christ...the redemptive imagination of Jesus. Jesus and His Kingdom are the hope of all humanity, the hope of all creation. Our words and our actions must reveal and build this Kingdom. It will become that hidden treasure to the by-passer in our neighborhoods, that precious pearl that a friend will sell everything for...just to live in. The hope of humanity is within you. The risen King. And His Kingdom rule flows from the redemptive imagination of God.

Maybe the transformational hope we all long for is found there...instead of the bunkers of fear behind which we have hid for far too long.

J

Influence.

2010-04-23T06:41:00.000-07:00

Hebrews 12:2
1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

I remember the first time I saw Michael Jordan play basketball. His agility. His command of the ball. His ability to defy gravity. A man in flight. His incredible competitiveness. His insight into his teammates that enabled him to summon their best.
But what made him great? Was it simply a matter of physical ability or team spirit?

I submit it was something that he shares with anyone who has ever been truly magnificent in a team sport.

He could read the state of play.
He could understand the game at any given point and knew how to act to change the outcome. He could see the present in the light of a preferred future. And he knew how to build, in the present, a platform for his desired future.

He discovered the key to real influence.

I have been travelling over the last several months, speaking in various settings, to a wide range of ages and audiences. Several observations have been nagging me:
Why does the church, for all her beauty and function in creating a place we call home, seem so irrelevant to the culture at large?
And
Where is my generation?

I decided I wanted to journal some of my rambling thoughts on Generation X, the Church as we know it, and what our role is in the development and redemption of world culture.

So...here we go.

Influence.
We were designed for it! We were not born to be ignored. Or overlooked. We were created to be influencers.

AND I submit that if we truly want to engage the work of God in our time we desperately need to recognize that we were designed, crafted and formed to wield that influence.

It is fundamental to the Christian world view that human beings were created to impact and influence their environment more than the environment should impact and influence them.

The very first instruction that God gave human kind was a directive that called on our influence-ability.

Genesis 1:26
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

This is a command to influence. To influence our environment more than your environment influences us.

But if this is Gods intention, what has happened? How did we get where we are? a place where it seems as though the church in so many communities lives playing perpetual defense, disconnected and without a voice to bring hope?
It goes back a long way. We made a decision at the tree. The fall. And sin entered the world. In that moment...we lost some of that ability to change the world more than the world changes us. That fall from grace cost us our capacity for influence, and we became in many ways the influenced rather than the influencers.
Long story made short, through the redemptive work of Jesus on the cross, everything we lost in the garden was redeemed to us again. Including our ability and calling to influence and shape our world.

Hear me: When you choose to become a Jesus follower, you inherit a ‘re-position’ as a person with an incredible capacity to influence.

Influence is hardwired into the human condition.

One way or the other, influence will flow. All around us everyday, this battle rages. For most of us this is a dormant memory of a forgotten year...something that stretches back to pioneers of faith that have gone before us. A memory locked deep within our spiritual psyche. “You were created to change your world. You were created to be a hinge on which the culture of your sphere of influence swings.”

Whether we understand this or not, the reality remains: either we will influence the egocentric (all about me) culture around us or it will most certainly force us to become like it...and the result is a selfish, emasculated form of faith that carries no authority, wields no power and settles for whining from the edges of culture about the darkness that we don’t like.

And be assured...it is a fight. Not against people...but against a system of thought and power brokering that is broken, decrepit and diseased at its very core.
Light vs. Darkness
Flesh vs. Spirit
The temporary vs. the eternal
Spin vs. Truth
Political correctness vs. Prophetic correctness.

Either we will invent the future or someone else’s vision of the future will re-invent us!

Romans 12:2 says,
With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.

This is a statement about culture.

It’s a sociological fact that whichever group in society has the strongest sense of culture, the most well defined sense of identity, that group becomes the leading voice in the country.

That is why in Canada, and in every country and culture in our world, small groups of people have very great power. They have established a very strong sense of who they are. They have built a stronger culture than the culture around them.

What Romans 12 is saying is that we have the right, as our mind is renewed, to NOT allow the system of the world to squeeze us into its mould. BUT instead, we were made to live out and PROVE that a life lived Jesus’ way is stinking incredible (my translation).

It is our right to define the culture more than the culture defines us. Who, more than the people of God, have such a clear and profound identity? Such a dynamic and powerful mission? Such a beautiful and hope-filled message?

Abraham Kyper, the nineteenth century journalist, theologian and Dutch Prime Minister, wrote:
'There is not one part of our world of thought that can be hermetically separated from the other parts, and there is not an inch in the entire area of our human life of which Christ, who is sovereign of all, does not cry "Mine!"'

Who will you be?

Jonathan

Its Time: Part 2 - the MORE info as promised...

2010-04-05T21:20:00.000-07:00

We have received so many responses to our last email that we have been overwhelmed. The responses have been so positive and filled with requests for more info on what we will be doing and how others can be involved. I trust that this note will provide you with some of those answers.

The big question has been why? Let us chat with you a bit about this...chuckle.

Have you ever been afraid of what the world has become?
We have all pondered how the world might become a better place. We’ve all experienced that warm, fuzzy and motivating change-the-world feeling after watching an inspirational movie based on a true story. You know the one – where the average person does something extraordinary...and the world changes. And we sit there and say, I wish I could do something like that...and it stirs us deeply...how long does it take for that feeling to fade? And why? I mean, the feeling was so strong...where did it go quickly if it was so authentic? Could much of it be that we don’t really believe we can change anything? That we have succumbed to just accepting the world as it is?

We believe that the average person can change the world. Stephen Lewis commented that “the world desperately needs our voices”, and we want to use ours. We want to take creative ideas, connect them with great passion, what we love doing and be catalysts for something potentially powerful. We want to partner with people from every walk of life and inspire them with a belief that God has placed in the heart of each man, woman and child, the ability to do something that has world changing potential. We want to release the heroes among us...the hero in you.

“A hero is someone who understands the responsibility that comes with his freedom”
Bob Dylan

Here are some more details:
Where?
We ARE moving to the Philippines.
When?
Our goal is to be there by Christmas 2010 or Summer 2011.
Why?
We are going with a deep sense of destiny. We want to be world changers.
What?
3 specific areas in which we will serve:
We are going to work with Gentle Hands;
We are going to work with a leadership development network called D.E.L.;
And create an opportunity for people from 1st world countries to engage the 3rd world with hope. If you are reading this, that’s you! Most of us find it easy to live our lives against the backdrop of our own reality. Our goal is to challenge that. Too often we have opted to intellectually engage the issues of our world and hide behind incomplete views of reality. The result is a culture that feels sorry for those who live in the darkest parts of our world, but no responsible connection that calls us to invest some of who we are in being a change agent. Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

Gentle Hands
Gentle Hands is an accredited child and youth welfare agency meant to be on the front lines of rescue and rehabilitation of the medical, social and educational needs of at-risk children and youth, working towards improving human community life through the love of Jesus and family-centred care.

We care for children all in various stages of rehabilitation, legal paperwork, adoption, and reunification.

Our accreditation with Philippine social services makes us one of three in Metro Manila who can serve as Foster Care Placement centre and adoption agency.

We are the only centre in the Philippines that will take sick children. The result is steady referrals from hospitals, police, social services and the community.

We are the only facility that takes undocumented children- meaning children without papers, birth certificate, or proper government documentation. Hospitals will not take malnourished or undocumented children so we get a lot of those.

The following is a short documentary (make sure you watch Part 1 and Part 2) on Gentle Hands:
Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtQxBy1gsyQ
Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqLFYFCGSLU

“The curse of poverty has no justification in our age...the time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

D.E.L.
Developing Effective Leaders
The key to any sociological or cultural shift towards change is local and national leadership. There is much to be said here, but suffice it to say, we will be working with national leaders giving them tools, training and education to become progressive leaders in all sectors of society. DEL’s goal is to develop 1000 national leaders who are committed to personal growth, professional development and positive change.

Here is the invitation:
We want you to invite you to partner with us. Living in the Philippines as humanitarian workers and missionaries means that we cannot work. We need to raise support to live there and do the work that God has placed in our hearts to do; AND we cannot go until we have done so...

How?
We need 220 partners who will choose to invest in us:
10 people who will commit to investing $100 a month
40 people who will commit to investing $50 a month
80 people who will commit to investing $25 a month
100 people who will commit to investing $10 a month
*all donations are tax receiptable.

I have had lots of people say to me that if they can’t contribute large amounts they feel like they are not really doing anything. That is not true. The power of participation lies in cooperation. Everyone doing a little bit creates a movement with great potential. Helen Keller said, “I am only one, but I am still one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something.”

This is the short version! Chuckle. Would you consider partnering with us?

If you want more details, we would love to chat with you. Give us a call or send us a note and we will send you more information on how that can work!

Dreaming a dream,
Jonathan, Tracey, Caleb and Rosie.

IT'S TIME: we are moving back to the Philippines

2010-03-26T23:23:00.000-07:00

“Faith is the daring of the soul to go farther than it can see.”
19th century theologian William Newton Clarke

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go”
T.S. Eliot

3 years ago we started on a journey. Long story short...we purchased a home in Burnaby that we affectionately dubbed “the house”. Many people partnered with us as we dreamt. We loved on the community. We explored the dream of living out the reality of Jesus in this city. And we have had so many wonderful encounters with Him and with the people He loves in Vancouver. We lived something that I truly wish everyone could live. Faith. Hope. Life...in the midst of the chaos that we all live through.

I love that following Jesus is a journey. It is not about accomplishment. But it is about obedience. It is about authenticity. It is about walking with Him. It is about pursuing the dream of the Kingdom.

I was recently reflecting on where we are and how we have gotten here during a conversation with a young leader in Western Canada. He asked me if I still believed in what we were doing. We have worked hard to get here. We have had to spend lots of time raising money and travelling, which is a tiring endeavour. We have chosen to engage our community and learn to breath the air of this city. And sometimes we have had less than kind responses to our passion from fellow believers who ask ,‘What exactly are you doing?’

This is what I know today:
God has a dream. And the dream is called redemption. The transformation of men and women, boys and girls; of people of all races and colours; of all cultures and belief systems; of all languages and geographical locations; of all perspectives and theological persuasions; of all political perspectives and intelligences; of every kind of brokenness and sinful reality; into a people who are called His.

I am more convinced than ever that Jesus has an incredibly high view of humanity and through the dream of redemption, people have the potential of greatness. I truly believe that He thinks we can change the world.

I think He calls us to dream a dangerous dream of Kingdom Reality. Where the systems and rules of this temporary world are brought into submission to a higher law; the laws of His Kingdom, the law of love. This idea is foreign to so many who have been taught to hunker down and hold on till He comes! God forgive us for allowing the fear of darkness to scare us away from venturing into a place of influence in our communities.

We truly believe that everyone is longing for Jesus. They are yearning and hungering for what only He can bring. We believe that the role of the Christian in our time is to become translators of the deepest longings of people’s hearts. People are yearning for that which they have no language for…and yet it is a language we speak. The language of His Kingdom.

This means stepping into people’s lives. Into their darkness. Into their brokenness and forsaking the elaborate structures we have built within our own hearts to protect us from the world. A world who desperately needs who we are.

It’s messy. It's unpredictable. It’s dangerous. Scared? Look at that word. SCARED. Rearrange the letters a bit. S A C R E D.

We believe that Jesus invites us to venture out...out of where we ‘know’ what we are doing and into places that sometimes require great risk. And sometimes...sometimes we have to venture over mountain ranges without a clear idea of what’s on the other side.

Having said that...we are in transition again. For some time we have been feeling that we are ‘finished’ here in Vancouver. I wish I could explain it more clearly. But that has just been our sense. Whats next? We have had no clue...until now. Chuckle.

As some of you know I have been helping Gentle Hands raise funds. If you are not familiar with what Gentle Hands does, check out www.gentlehands.typepad.org

They are a child and youth welfare and intervention agency based in the Philippines. They are on the front lines of rescue and rehabilitation, providing for medical, social and educational needs of at-risk youth and children. They work towards improving human community through the love of Jesus and community centred care.

We have decided that it is time for us to head back to the mission field and throw our energies, efforts and gifting to the work of redeeming the young people of the Philippines and Asia.

I know, it seems wild. But you have to run with passion. And we choose to.

When? Sometime in the next year. We have much to do in preparation.

We will keep you updated on our journey. I am sure you have questions. Feel free to email us and we will fill you in on the details.

Let me leave you with a prayer by Sir Francis Drake that my best friend, Scott Wall sent me. It has captured my heart and urged me on. May it be so with yours.

Disturb us, Lord, when
We are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.
Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision
Of the new Heaven to dim.
Disturb us, Lord to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And push us in the future
In strength, courage, hope and love.

Jonathan, Tracey, Caleb n Rosie.

Good Ole St. Paddy...

2010-03-17T08:51:00.001-07:00

I wrote this last year...and have been asked a bunch of times about it...so here she is.

Do you ever wonder where St. Patricks day came from??? Let me answer that...

I bind to myself today
The virtue of the Incarnation of Christ with His Baptism,
The virtue of His crucifixion with His burial,
The virtue of His Resurrection with His Ascension,
The virtue of His coming on the Judgment Day.
St. Patrick

For the more than 240 consecutive years, New Yorkers will line 5th Avenue in celebration. Chicagoans will pour green dye into the river that winds through their high rises and train bridges.

Pubs, sports bars and frat houses will display cardboard clovers and lime lights as revelers across the nation raise their collective Guinness’ high in staged reverence. On March 17 several nations will celebrate a dim memory—a memory that will quickly fade from national consciousness like the remnants of a bad hangover.

What so many will miss amid all the green beer and parading is the story of a saint who, at least euphemistically, ran the snakes right out of a nation; the story of a former slave who escaped bondage only to return later to evangelize his captors.

St. Patrick's story is a story about the call of God and the triumph of cultural relevance. It's the account of a man whose early life experiences made him the most able to speak into a Pagan culture that had previously so rejected Christianity.

The Historical Saint Patrick was born sometime in the late 4th Century to a Roman magistrate living in Britain and his possibly Gaelic wife. More than 400 years had passed since Julius Caesar had crossed the English Channel and envisioned a Roman outpost. In the wake of Constantine's religious reforms, Britain was not only overwhelmingly Latin, but overwhelmingly Christian as well.

Resisting tribes had been pushed back, north past Hadrian's wall and West, to Ireland. Nearly incessant warring between the Pagans and the Romanized British had drawn thick cultural lines, though an increasing fur trade helped to smooth the way for Christian missionaries eager to convert their godless neighbors.

At 15 or 16, Patrick was abducted in his native Britain by marauding pirates, taken to Ireland and sold into slavery. During his 6 year sojourn among the Celts, he learned the language and culture of his captors. By Patrick's accounts in his Confessio, his master was brutal and savage and only a continued reliance on God gave him the strength to suffer through slavery.

Six years after his capture Patrick escaped back to Briton, where he returned to live with his kinsman. After reestablishing a life among family, Patrick dreamt of Ireland and of evangelism and, by his own admission, heard the voice of God on more than one occasion—a call that led him to formally pursue the priesthood.

Catholic historians claim that he studied under St. Germanus, the Bishop of Auxerre until his own ordination as Bishop sometime in the early 430's. Shortly afterward, Patrick was commissioned to take the message of Jesus to Ireland. Patrick was not the first missionary to Ireland, there had been, by some accounts, quite a few before him. However, it seems that Patrick was by far the most successful evangelist of the Irish.

Here is the kicker: Patrick's success, was at least in part, due to his knowledge and application of Celtic culture. Drawing on symbols and imagery native to the Irish, Patrick used every available channel to bring the gospel to the nation of his former captivity.

Though it is doubtful that Patrick ever used the Shamrock to explain the concept of the Trinity, it is certain that he did not use the traditionally Roman vehicles of transmitting faith. Thomas Cahill, author of How the Irish Saved Civilization, says that "The early Irish Christianity planted in Ireland by Patrick is much more joyful and celebratory (than Roman Christianity) in the way it approaches the natural world. It is really not a theology of sin but of the goodness of creation, and it really is intensely incarnational."

From the way that Patrick observed the Celtic tradition of exchanging gifts to the way that he highlighted Christianity's belief in an afterlife (a belief shared by the Celts), Patrick used a tactic similar to the one Paul used on Mars Hill in Acts. Rather than convert the Irish to Roman culture, Patrick focused on the incarnational aspects of Christ, letting God work through their Celtic culture rather than letting his Roman form of Christianity work against it.

Susan Hines-Brigger, author of An Irish Journey into Celtic Spirituality, notes, "Whereas the ancient Celts worshiped pagan gods for nearly every natural setting, Celtic Christians praised God’s design and creation of all things natural." Patrick took the assumptions of the pagan worldview and spun them in a way that was culturally recognizable.

What can we learn?

What can we truly meditate on...as we see the green and the shamrocks come out on Monday? Saint Patrick is a voice calling to us. Enslaved in a foreign land whose pagan practices were often hideous and cruel, Patrick responded with faith. After his escape, his ears were tuned to God's voice, leading him, ironically, back to the very place of his captivity. Finally, Patrick made the former foreign land his home in order to bless its inhabitants with the message of the Kingdom, and we see him do it in a way that showed respect and understanding for a people so utterly different than his own.

So, this March 17th, while everyone else is celebrating all things Irish by decking themselves out in green, drinking only the darkest Irish beer, or tuning in to Public Radio's celebration of Celtic music, let us be challenged by the sacrificial life of St. Patrick, looking for opportunities to turn our enslavements into blessings, speaking the message of hope in a way that respects the culture of those around us, and in the process call them to life.

dreaming of the kingdom,
j

random thoughts on fear...

2010-03-12T22:39:00.000-08:00

Random thoughts tonight...

Fear is like pain.

Pain is an indicator that something is going on. Pain says, "Hey, yo yo...pay attention here. Step away from the flame. Stop smashing your fingers with that blasted hammer. Get that splinter out. Close your eye. Stop walking on the damaged leg. Go to a medical professional and FIX whats causing this."

Fear does the same.

Fear is not the opposite of faith. It is not something that we will ever live without. Fear is part of living. It is an indicator that something is going on. And where fear shows up, there stands Jesus...right behind me...right with me...saying,

"Yo yo...Pay attention here! I am doing something with you...in you. The timing of this situation that has caused you fear is not by accident. I want to do something within you. Let's have the conversation that needs to happen here. This is the 'why' and this is the time. Lets go there."

Cheri Huber says, 'Every time we choose safety, we reinforce fear.' and i think we choose to stop moving redemptively towards the purposes of God in our lives.

Fear is a potential supernatural intersection. It requires courage to slow down and look it in the face and ask the questions that Jesus would have us ask. Its in those moments that we have some of the most poignant opportunities in our life. Moments where we discover more of Jesus...and find more of ourselves.

hmmmm

2010-03-12T11:23:00.000-08:00

Bad will be the day for every man when he becomes absolutely contented with the life he is leading, with the thoughts he is thinking, with the deeds he is doing; when there is not forever beating at the doors of his soul some great desire to do something larger, which he knows that he was meant and made to do because he is still, in spite of all, the child of God.

Phillips Brooks

thoughts??

for the record...(so you know who said this)
Brooks has been called “the greatest American preacher of the 19th Century.” He attended the Boston Latin School, Harvard University (where Phillips Brooks House was named after him) and Episcopal Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia. He became an Episcopal priest in 1860, and became Rector of the Church of the Advent, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was known for his support of free ing the slaves and allow ing former slaves to vote. In 1869, he became Rector of Trinity Church in Boston. In 1872, he helped design the Trinity Church building, which to day stands in Boston’s Back Bay. In 1891, he became Episcopal bishop of Massachusetts.

canada...thoughts

2010-03-08T11:28:00.000-08:00

We are home.

For the Olympics, we road tripped it. All the way to the middle of Canada and back...so, for all intense and purposes, we drove across Canada. Was a blast. Just our little fam...on the road. Jerky, spits, tunes, mountains, prairies, and some fresh understanding...

Something happened in Vancouver over those seventeen days that’s hard to articulate fully. The city came alive in celebration. Huge crowds filled the downtown all through the day and long into the evening. Hundreds of thousands of people lined up for hours at venues in a spirit of celebration. Police came in from across the country and spent most of the time in conversations together, sharing stories about recollections of being in their home towns. At one point, from what I understand, a team of police officers started to play road hockey with a group of people. So much of it was spontaneous as people connected, talked, and joined one another in celebration.

This was not the Vancouver I have been a part of in the months leading up to the Olympics. We were a grumpy city. Resistance to the games had grown. We didn’t like being told what we had to do and what we couldn’t do because this intrusive event was coming. The message that it would be best for residents to leave during the Olympics was one we accidentally took to heart with our 5000 mile road trip.

Then the games began. I’m not sure what happened. It was as if we’d been waiting for a long time for someone or something to call back to life an identity we’d forgotten. What emerged was more than just a big, seventeen-day party with people from all over the world. What took place was the release of a joy over being Canadian that seemed to have been suppressed for a long, long time. Among all kinds of ordinary people something submerged, but waiting for its opportunity, broke out across the city and throughout the nation. It was incredible to see first hand what was happening in vancouver, happen in manitoba, saskatchewan and alberta. The upsurge of life, joy and celebration among ordinary, everyday men and women is something I will never forget. I have long held a furious love for my country close to my heart. Every time I hear the national anthem...tears. But I was unprepared for the unexpected and unplanned surfacing of Canadian identity...i will write more on this later...needless to say, almost every event left me in tears.

HAVING SAID THAT...currently I have the privilege of raising money for Gentle Hands(if you don’t know what that is, check out www.gentlehands.typepad.com). This past 6 months, it has taken me to many different churches in Canada. AND, what I sense among them, connects me with this moment. A common thread runs through the conversations I’ve had with leaders.

They all share an underlying concern for their churches.

Some are denominational leaders, some solo pastors, some on staff at larger churches. They all are concerned for their denominations. On their watch they have experienced decline and have had to face both bad news and criticism about the future of denominations. I don’t need to repeat all the bad news - there are already too many critical people out there who relish that exercise. Another thread that connects them is their unapologetic love for God and the ways their tradition have been formed from the Gospel. Like the rest of us they’ve tried one model and program after another only to recognize that something much deeper than these technical fixes is happening. Something has happened at a subterranean level to the forms of church life that were so effective in the 20th century. These leaders know we are in a time when multiple narratives clash and compete to be heard in this strange new place where we find ourselves.

Alongside the daily struggle to guide their systems, these leaders have a firm conviction that God is not yet finished with them and their denominations. Strangely enough, I can feel that too! I believe we are coming through a long, dark tunnel into a time when many of these already written off churches and denominations are about to discover the amazing ways God renews. The wells are being redug. Don’t ask me how or to explain that in terms of what exactly that looks like...call it a gut feeling, a sense that something is shifting...like a coming earthquake you can initially sort of sense as though your equilibrium just a wee bit off.

Over these last weeks as I watched the crowds and the emergence of this other, submerged joy of being Canadian, my heart has begun to reprocess years of conversations with leaders in Canada. Connecting these two experiences there’s something which, for me, is important to say.

Just as this spirit that is Canadian found again a voice, churches are finding a voice also. The church is not going away! They’re a part of this other, deeper, fabric of Canadian life. Over the past decades many have lost their way. As a result of endless criticism, they have lost their voices, their spirit, sometimes their identity. Our Canadian DNA is quietly pioneering. Our bloodlines call us to a place of new discovery. Our character beckons us to forge into unknown territories with the dream of something that is more than what we have known. What is interesting is that it is not a revolutionary spirit with which we dream, but with a collective sense of possibility, of hope...which completely sets us apart from any other nation...a subject for another day.

I love that God’s Spirit always works in the ordinary as He calls forth a new creation among people who have forgotten their stories and lost their way. The Spirit breaks forth with new life among those who no longer have the answers and who sense that what they have are empty and don’t know where to turn next. These are the places where God’s future breaks out with celebration just when most are critical, cynical and can’t believe anything good can come from the old systems. Gestating in the church are the elements of God’s new future. He is speaking over the chaos, over the darkness, and calling forth.

That’s why I am facing today...and tomorrow...with more hope than I have had in a long, long, long time.

middle class christianity

2010-02-02T21:18:00.000-08:00

I have had the privilege of being parts of many vibrant communities of faith. From formation to expression..from functioning in a very naïve, pre-cognitive, and instinctual kind of way...to strategically implementing well thought out ideas and plans. Ideally, in every situation we were setting out to build a community that was radically open and engaged with all kinds of people on the edges and fringes of society. And invariably things happened. It was exciting— we were focused and sharpened by a sense of destiny and mission and as a result we grew in a strange and wonderful kind of ways. We were missional, even though at the time this was as yet largely unarticulated, and as a result we experienced a remarkable form of community.

But, in each situation, something seemed to change as we grew and self-consciously became a more trendy. We moved from the dangerous vision of changing the world to desire for stability, notoriety and effective use of resources...something significant was inadvertently lost as our culture changed.

There is something about our middle-class culture that seems to be contrary to authentic gospel values. And this is not a statement about middleclass people per se; I myself am one...but rather to isolate some of the values and assumptions that that seem to just come along as part of the deal.

I remember reading a chapter in a book by Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost, where they noted that much of what goes by the name middle class involves a preoccupation with safety and security developed mostly in pursuit of what seems to best for our children.

And this is understandable as long as it does not become obsessive.

But when these impulses of middle class culture fuse with consumerism, as they most often do, we can add the obsession with comfort and convenience to the list. And this is not a good mix. At least as far as the Gospel and missional church is concerned.

Operating under the influence of these ‘bugs’ in our middleclass software, our communities of faith become marketer of particularly zesty religious goods and services vying for the attention of discerning spiritual consumers. AND too often, flattered by numerical growth, and driven by our own middle-class agendas, we thoughtlessly follow the ‘gather and amuse’ impulse implicit in church growth theory. But could it be that something primal and indispensable is lost in the bargain? We get more transfers from other churches, but the flow of conversion slows down to a trickle and then runs completely dry. Paradoxically, we become busier than ever before, but with less and less real missional impact. We move from the missional idea of ‘me for the community and the community for the world’ to the more consumptive ‘the community for me’ and it eventually destroys us. Its ends up being about ‘me’ and the fruit of such selfishness is loneliness and sorrow.

Recovery is only found in recalibrating our communities along fundamentally missional lines – this is about ‘me’ finding a way to love all the way to the margins! This is never achieved without pain and numerical loss, which by themselves seem scary, but they are accompanied by joy only known by those who are truly living out the Cross.

But maybe that is why it rarely happens...the cost is too high.

No more fearing price tags.
J

2010-01-22T14:27:00.000-08:00

Far out at sea, at close of day,
A lonely albatross flew by.
We watched him as he soared away-
A speck against the glowing sky!
Thought I: this lordly feathered one
Is trusting in the faithfulness
Of wind and tide, of star and sun;
And shall I trust the Maker less?

O soul of mine, spread wide thy wings;
Mount up; push out with courage strong!
And- like a bird which, soaring, sings-
Let heaven vibrate with thy song!
SPREAD WIDE THY WINGS, O SOUL OF MINE,
For God will ever faithful be;
His love shall guide thee; winds divine
Shall waft thee o'er this troubled sea.

Though dangers threaten in the night,
Though tides of death below thee roll,
Though storms attend thy homeward flight,
SPREAD WIDE THY PINIONS, O MY SOUL!
Though shadows veil the distant shore,
And distant seems the hallowed dawn,
Spread wide thy pinions- evermore
Spread wide thy pinions, and press on.

-Robert Crumley (Springs in the Valley)

a christmas hmmm

2009-12-09T09:39:00.001-08:00

This is incredible. My mom forwarded this to me...and I was moved to say the least. What are your thoughts?

Buy nothing for Christmas

December 5th, 2009
This is something different. It’s similar to the Advent Conspiracy, but I like it because it’s Canadian! What can I say?! I’ve been ecouraged by some of the Canadian sites popping up these days (makes me feel less alone in cyber land lol). Anyhow, my cousin sent to me via facebook. I was looking into it and thought it was interesting. What are your thoughts on it?

Buy Nothing Christmas is a national initiative started by Canadian Mennonites who offer a prophetic “no” to the patterns of over-consumption of middle-class North Americans. They are inviting Christians (and others) all over Canada to join a movement to de-commercialize Christmas and re-design a Christian lifestyle that is richer in meaning, smaller in impact upon the earth, and greater in giving to people less-privileged.

This is an Advent calendar that has a bite to it. On each day of December leading up to Christmas, count the appropriate privilege/blessing and pay the fine. Send the money to a group that fights poverty.

1. 10 ¢ for every hot water tap in your house
2. 75 ¢ for every vehicle your family owns
3. 5 ¢ for every pair of jeans you own
4. 25 ¢ if your family subscribes to the newspaper
5. 5 ¢ for every bed in your house
6. 3 ¢ for every /beauty makeup item you own
7. 3 ¢ for every pair of footwear
8. 3 ¢ for every light switch in your house
9. 20 ¢ for every tub/shower
10. 10 ¢ for every flush toilet
11. 2 ¢ for every bar/dispenser of soap
12. 15 ¢ if you have dishes to eat off of
13. 15 ¢ if you have cooking pots in your cupboards
14. 5 ¢ for every window in your house
15. 10 ¢ for every outside door
16. 20 ¢ for every television in your house
17. 5 ¢ for every magazine subscription
18. 25 ¢ if your family has more than 25 CD’s (music or video)
19. 5 ¢ for every meal you had meat with this past week
20. 10 ¢ for every non-water beverage you drank yesterday
21. 25 ¢ if you have a snow blower or a gas/electric lawn mower
22. 3 ¢ for every item of hair care stuff
23. 15 ¢ for every bedroom in your house
24. 5 ¢ for every blanket in your house
25. 15 ¢ for every gift you received this Christmas

From http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/

check out their catalogue: http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/catalogue/index.html It’s pretty neat! If nothing else, it sure makes me thankful and feel truly blessed for all that we have!

Jesus' Table...

2009-11-05T09:21:00.000-08:00

Have you ever thought about Jesus’ first public expression of who He was to the people of Israel? Me being a ‘why’ person and all...chuckle:

Why a wedding?
Why that miracle?
Why the vagueness of purpose?

It is fascinating that the introduction of the Good News would begin to unfold at a wedding. Tracer is a photographer...and her life is weddings. And there is one thing that has struck me as I have looked through the hundreds of pictures she has taken.

A wedding is a microcosm of a life. It paints us a picture of life as it was, is and could be. Even today, amidst the dismal divorce and disaster rate, it is a clear expression of the hope of what is and could be! It is an expression of Love. Life. Community. Family. Faith, or lack of it.
A wedding has all the pieces of life. The misfits. The beautiful. The dysfunction. The joy of love. The old and young. The newly wed and maybe the nearly dead.

It’s here, in a celebration of one of the our basic human rituals that Jesus begins to reveal Himself. As if to say, ‘this is what I'm all about: All of life...every speck of it. This is where I want you to live life...and give life.’

This passion that Jesus had for feasting, for celebrating, for welcoming the unwelcomed, for being thrusting himself into the middle of the reality of our humanness weaves its way throughout the gospels. It is in these very settings that Jesus' followers would learn that missional may not be some arduous journey to a far off foreign land...that perhaps the longest journey maybe just sitting across the table of a stranger or a neighbour; the sick or those how seemingly have no need; the poor, and the oppressed or our families.

Whom you eat with defines whom you won't eat with. With Jesus it never appears to be a ‘social’ program...it is radical, scandalous, outrageous...it's the Kingdom. It is the servant returning to his master's table with unopened invitations and list of excuses, and the master sending him out again. This time the servant heads to back alleys filled with syringes, skid row hotels, park benches, under bridges...any where, so his masters table will be filled to overflowing. All are welcomed and all are invited. Here at this open table, we discover the world upside down...where suddenly the host is the guest, and the guest the host. Where the host is blessed more than the guest. Jesus entered into the other's world, and let them invite his followers as their house guests. In that way grace, life, healing, restoration could be poured back and forth. Wow. Does my heart ring with that.

Another story of outrageous food and faith is the feeding of the 5000. This table is not constructed of wood and four legs...it is ‘He’ standing on a hillside with 5 small barley loaves, and 2 fish, raising arms giving thanks and blessing. Two miracles here, one that 5000 people were fed...and the second, that 5000 people shared this table. There is the outrageous reality that in faith, that we often find surplus when we welcome those from outside our boundaries and borders to share what is ours.

These stories could be the reality of what this ‘missional’ conversation is really all about. It is sacramental living. Not as a ritual, but as the redemptive imagination that is spiritual truth. It is sad, in a sense, that we have ritualized the bread and wine. This ritual of who's in and who's not...who's welcome and who's not. I wonder if Jesus imagined it to be that. Jesus’ table, the meals of bread and fish always reflected the Kingdom...surplus, and food that fed the poor. Jesus’ table always reflected the truth of the Kingdom, the truth of what missional should be about...redemption, restoration, justice, community...the reordering of a new creation.

And how can we forget the table stories after Jesus' resurrection. Jesus cooking fish on a charcoal fire on the beach. The ultimate picture of failure in the disciples having gone back to their old jobs fishing on the lake and being plumb out of luck. Jesus calls out from the shore, telling them to drop their nets on the other side of the boat. They haul in an incredible draft of fish. Peter seeing his friend/messiah, wades through the water to shore. On the beach Jesus invites, welcomes, and cooks fish for his friends on an open fire. He turns to Peter and says, ‘feed....’ And I'm not talking just feeding food, a meal in the soup kitchen, I'm talking about feeding them the incarnational reality of the life of Jesus. In other words go and invite and celebrate.

To live in the neighbourhood of Jesus...is to live and believe that all the world is welcome...to go and to come. If the world is welcome to Jesus, if my neighbour is welcome to Jesus, then every living moment is a door of hope into which ‘other’s’ are welcome.

I love this quote that I heard from Ed Stetzer a couple of years ago, ‘it's possible to be a missionary without ever leaving your zip code.’ Missional is being dispersed in the midst of humanity. Jesus’ mission started with leading of the Holy Spirit. He sends us into the world under the leading of the same Spirit. To bear witness, to build, to expand His Kingdom ...to redeem, restore, to feed, and to heal.

re-positioned

2009-11-02T09:55:00.000-08:00

The gospel spreads best not through force but through fascination. Jesus doesn't insist on who he is or isn't. When people asked Jesus, ‘Are you the Messiah?’ he would answer by asking. ‘Tell me what you see, what you hear.’

I can’t remember where I read that...but it has been percolating for a while....

Jesus never answered a whole lot of questions in the gospels. Jesus was asked 183 direct questions in the New Testament.

Do you know how many he directly answered? 3.

What a frustrating insight to ‘we’ who have grown up assuming that the very job description of a ‘Christian’ is to give people answers and to resolve peoples' dilemmas. Apparently this is not Jesus' understanding of the function of a ‘follower’.

I think Jesus' parables were designed to be re-positioners. As he illustrates, and probes, and articulates...He corners us and makes us own our unconscious biases, breaks us out of our dualistic mindsets, challenges our image of who we are, who He is in God and who the world is, ..and all the while He presents new creative possibilities.

I think, as I sift through the life of Jesus...even Jesus doesn’t usually wait for or expect specific answers.

His reality is an awakening of redemptive imagination.
His heart is relationship.
He fascinates us with the beauty and reality of the Kingdom; a reality that is captured by infinite hope and new possibilities.

For me, the parables of Jesus are a microcosm of His passion interacting with the truth of who we are. They reveal Jesus’ priorities in ‘evangelizing’. I think a better way to describe these ‘interactions’ would be conversations of fascination.

Jesus’ conversations were filled with purpose. It seems He constantly asks questions.
Good questions.
Unnerving questions.
Re-aligning questions.
Transforming questions.

He leads us into a liminal reality; a space that has the potential for deep transformation.
He leaves us betwixt and between, where God and grace can get at us, and where we are not at all in control.

Have we shaped Jesus into simply a systematic theologian who walked around teaching dogmas...and in the process lost some of the essence of the journey of the Great Pilgrim?
Have we forgotten that He is the engaging transformer of the soul? That it is His divine imagination excites and produces the flame of passion?

Could it be that the conundrum of the church began when we started looking for easy answers...instead of asking hard questions?

How many of us are laying in the ditch beside the tracks because we have pursued others in order to save them...rather than submitting to the journey of brokenness that allows Him to change us and in the process redeem the world?

a moving thought...

2009-10-01T12:24:00.000-07:00

'it doesn't happen all at once,' said the skin horse. 'you become. it takes a long time ... generally, by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in your joints and very shabby. but these things don't matter at all, because once you are real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.' ~ the velveteen rabbit, m. williams

when it's cold outside...

2009-09-09T09:48:00.000-07:00

read the following excerpt in Brennan Manning's book, 'The Relentless Tenderness of Jesus', recently:
One hundred years ago in the Deep South, the phrase 'born again' was seldom used. Rather, the words used to describe the breakthrough into a personal relationship with Jesus were, 'I was seized by the power of a great affection.'
have been spending time thinking about my own relationship with Jesus, and whether i would characterize it with similar words. i find it curious that such mystical and deeply emotive language has been lost for so many of us. the common language of being 'born again' isn't entirely wrong or offensive, but in some ways it implies the not-so-practical notion that one's conversion results in an immediate alteration of who we are. theologically, i think our conversion choice does immediately realign us with God's redemptive mercy. but salvation really is more than just being born; it's a lot like growing up.
and maybe that's why i like the idea of being 'seized' by a 'great (and transformative) affection'...because it implies His inherent work in me despite my best efforts to screw it up...in spite of my consistent languishing and immaturity.
all this brings john wesley's language to mind...how he found his heart 'strangely warmed' when encountering jesus' powerful grace. and today, when it's cold and rainy outside, this is what i seek. i long for the mystery of His love to centre me...to seize me...to warm the cold and inflexible parts of my heart.
i want to trust His mercy more than my own efforts.

proof in the pudding?

2009-08-26T07:44:00.000-07:00

some friends of mine are moving into toronto to plant a community of faith in the next couple years. they are currently doing some training in detroit, and regularly keep their friends/family updated through a blog (www.luvisaverb.com). recently, tim asked for comments on what markers a true follower of jesus can be identified by...which is something i thought we could 'converse' about.

here is a non-exhaustive list of some things i thought of:

-marked by an ability to love (John 13:35), manifesting the proof of Christ's Spirit working in their lives (Gal. 5)
-marked by tenderness and perseverance when facing adversity (James 1)
-marked by the practice of hospitality...both opening one's home, and comfortably being in the homes of others
-marked by an overarching sense of integrity...i heard it said once that the most 'mature' followers are those with the smallest gap between their knowledge and their actions...which means you don't have to have been following very long to be 'mature'
-marked by an increasing desire to see Jesus glorified in places where he is not...a longing to participate in the coming of Christ's kingdom that we pray for (Mt. 6:10)

a thought...

2009-07-31T08:44:00.000-07:00

I saw this picture the other day.
Bono, blind folded, with the font of religious symbols and broken letters that speaks something far louder than any lyric or music.
On the site I found it, many posted comments of shock, horror, and judgement...not only was it a grammatical error in word structure...something had been put together that was, well, just humanly impossible.
It shocked all religious sensibility...and our unreal religious world view.

A couple thoughts...
The high school I attended did not have the question of faith really. We wrestled with theological dogma, the most serious of which was were you Penticostal or did you believe in eternal security.
There was little or no chance that we would be friends with someone with Islamic, Jewish or any other faith.

A generation later, my children have friends who are Islamic, Jewish, Shinto and the list goes on. We live undeniably in a world where ‘faiths’ are constantly intersecting. Interestingly enough, in this mosaic culture of faiths, there doesn't seem to be much dialog and conversation. We hunker down in our fox holes of fear and judgment, content with the isolation of our own traditions and stories. This is true in regards to how we approach other faith traditions, but I notice that it is often true of how we approach other traditions within our own faith. You know what I mean...Baptist vs. Penticostal vs. United Church vs. Alliance...

And maybe the more disturbing reality is that representative voices of faith tend to be the extremes. By their volume and actions they are usually seen and heard. Its the loud bully in the playground that is usually heard above everything else. He's usually what we remember, and fear...and want no part of. The reality is that the bully is only one voice. There are voices of humility, mercy, compassion, reconciliation...from all sides.

What does it look like(or feel like) to journey in love with people who do not share our 'faith' or faith perspective?
What does it mean to stay true to Jesus...and yet love others who are searching for Him...and maybe don't even know it?

thoughts?

a convo...

2009-07-25T16:09:00.000-07:00

I have been reading much

listening much

reflecting much

And trying to digest all that I see, feel, and sense.

I have decided that I want to start writing some reflections and invite you to chew a little bit with us.

On what you ask?

I would like to wrestle with who Jesus is...and His reality versus what we have made Him personally...and corporately.

Still there?

Here is my initial thought:

Creating new structures in the Church is not our primary calling. Creating new programs, new orders of service, new strategic plans, or even having new visions or dreams are not our primary calling.
Our first calling is to belong to Jesus as Savior, Lord, Lover and Friend...and to continually find our lives nourished, enflamed, envigoured and satisfied at the well of His life. It is there that the call to partner with Him as He redemptively, compassionately and intentionally calls a lost and broken world towards Himself becomes life giving instead of guilt laying. It is in this place that we dream dreams and have visions that are motivated by love and not our need for significance.

To understand this is to allow the Christian disciplines to become places of life and not law...for how do we fulfill the command to love, except that we learn it of Jesus, and how do we learn it of Him, except that we pray, and live under His word and love His world?

I find myself asking the question often, “Would I rather be with people or with Jesus?” And unfortunately I often leave the question unanswered because it is painfully obvious.

I have lived lots of my life surrounded by books and people whose thrust has to do with ‘doing’ something significant for God. When I reflect, busyness often put me in good company...but stole the opportunity to connect easily with others because of our busyness and our collective shallowness. Religious nattering, including my own, wore me to the bone.

As I feel through this today, I find myself yearning for a ‘gray hair’ who knows and loves God, who would show me the way...the thought of which fills my heart.
How often have I exhorted, often prophetically, people to take full advantage of a liminal moment in their life and listen, listen, listen.

But what have I spent so much of my life doing? Plugging my ears and barrelling ahead hoping that my house of cards doesn’t collapse before I do.

Today I find myself longing to live a life that calls others back to where we belong and yet forget. In His embrace. Without a task list. Just an overwhelming awareness of, as Brennan Manning puts it, the furious longing of God.

Let me leave you with a poem I found...

Time past and time future
Allow but a little consciousness.
To be conscious is not to be in time
But only in time can the moment in the rose-garden,
The moment in the arbour where the rain beat,
The moment in the draughty church at smokefall
Be remembered; involved with past and future.
Only through time time is conquered…

paradox… we wait and we long and this is good..
we strive and move.. this is also good..
if only we take the stillness with us as we go..

Thoughts?

Slavery

2009-07-22T20:51:00.000-07:00

Thoughts...

I don’t know about you...but before about 6 months ago...i didn’t think about slavery very often. How often do you think about slavery? How often to do you think about it in terms of an issue that we must wrestle with today? Let me talk to you a little about the internal Pandora's box I have opened...
People trafficking is one of the greatest human rights challenges of our time. Millions of people around the world suffer in silence in slave-like conditions of forced labour and sexual exploitation.
In the West, slavery has been outlawed since the early 1800s. But the modern scourge of human trafficking is no less a form of slavery than the one endured by Africans and others at the hands of wealthy merchants and landowners two hundred years ago.

Human trafficking is one of the fastest growing areas of international crime - and, sadly, one of the most lucrative. Worldwide, people traffickers will make between seven and nine billion dollars every year, with very little outlay at all.
In fact, some crime syndicates are now switching their cargo from drugs to human beings, because the potential profits are higher.

According to the UN, there may be as many as four million people trafficked every year, 70 percent of them female and 50 percent children. Both groups are targeted mainly for pornography and prostitution. Yet it's difficult to be precise about the true scale of the problem and teenage boys and men are sometimes victims, too, being trafficked into forced labour.
There are more than 28 million slaves world wide. Perspective? There are more slaves today, by percentage to the worlds population, than at any other time in history.

Victims of people trafficking normally come from developing countries, but trafficking is also a problem for nations like the Canada and the US, where, according to the Justice Dept, as many as 250,000 American/Canadian children may be at risk of being trafficked into the sex industry within our own countries.
The Council of Europe has identified people trafficking as a major problem in Europe, too. It says that trafficking has hit "unprecedented levels" and acknowledges that it really is "a new form of slavery".

Human trafficking seems to flourish in societies that are going through, or have just come out of, long periods of conflict. For example, during the Kosovo conflict, women and girls were often kidnapped by armed gangs or enticed away from refugee camps. Today, the former Yugoslavia has become a primary trafficking destination and an important transit point for European trafficking.
Trafficking also increases when poor countries share borders with richer neighbours. Poor people look at the opportunities over the border and are easily lured by false promises of a richer life on the other side.

What can be done about the stain and horror of international human trafficking?

Some people might argue that since slavery has long been a part of human history, there's not much we can do about it. But we can't afford to be complacent or defeatist in our attitude. Either we shape the future of our world, or someone else's vision of that future will reshape us.

Some global thoughts first.
Governments NEED to maintain humane and sensible immigration policies.

Some people have tried to use trafficking as an excuse for closing borders altogether. But people will always want to migrate, especially if there are better opportunities abroad, and immigration brings many benefits. Denying people access through safe, legal channels only makes it more likely that they will fall for the false promises of the traffickers.

Governments also NEED to courageously tackle the problem of prostitution.
In 1999, the Swedish government made laws prohibiting the purchase of a sexual service, with the penalty of fines or imprisonment.
Since then, there has been a significant drop in the number of women in prostitution and a reduction in the number of men who try to buy their services. The fall in demand has also reduced the number of foreign women who are trafficked into prostitution.
Some governments NEED to reassess how they treat people who've already been trafficked into their nations. It's one thing to free a victim, but then they need to be re-educated, re-housed and basically given a whole new start, one without discrimination or legal hassles.

More Personal thoughts...

We NEED to begin to grapple with how trafficking is linked to economic reform and development programmes. Tragically, there are lots of cases where the sex trade has served foreign aid workers and even peacekeepers.

And we need more research into the factors that fuel the demand for people trafficking -- including the links between migration policies and the demand for cheap labour.

It took more than a generation for William Wilberforce and his colleagues to bring in laws banning slave-trade in the British domain. But their persistence - and their faith - paid off.
Ours is arguably a much more complex world and organized crime is the dark underbelly of globalization. But at ground level, in vulnerable areas, there are still things we can do to guard people -- especially the young -- against trafficking.

There are anti-trafficking charities that community groups can connect with. Some educate children in vulnerable areas, developing skills that will help them to avoid being trafficked. Others work to encourage children to stay in school longer, while create local jobs for when they leave school.

We NEED to be morality driven even in our necessary consumption. Meaning? Where you shop and what you buy has slave trade implications. Do we shop at stores that use Fair Trade goods? These products are traffick-free and buying them helps people to lift themselves out of poverty, making them less vulnerable, as opposed to purchasing and using goods that have used child labour and the slave trade to build their economic prowess.

We NEED volunteer more. For example, choosing to work in one of the projects that helps people find their way out of prostitution. We can donate to support a safe house for trafficking victims.

We NEED to write to local MPs on the issue, to keep the issue front and centre in political terms. Check out the following websites regarding how you can be involved:
www.freetheslaves.net
www.catwinternational.org/factbook/Canada.php
www.savethechildren.ca

EDUCATE YOURSELF. How often do we read stuff that turns our stomachs? How often do we choose to learn or push our way into understanding the dark underbelly of our world? What good is the light if it refuses to be used in darkness? If you would like a list of books that you could read, email me...i have many on this issue.
Finally, we can talk up the whole issue of people trafficking, through letters to local newspapers and the like - and even just in conversation with friends. John Pollock, in his biography of William Wilberforce, wrote that: 'One man can change his times, but he cannot do it alone.'

Like Wilberforce and his abolitionists, we must once again do whatever we can to end a vile trade, by standing for those who cannot stand for themselves...and standing alongside people and organizations who are giving their lives for others freedom.

I wanna change the world.
J

my name is don quixote

2009-07-10T10:53:00.000-07:00

dar and i went to a show yesterday in rosebud, ab (http://www.rosebudtheatre.com/)...as part of our sixth anniversary (yeah baby!!!). as a sidenote/commercial, next time you're 'in the area', be sure to drop into the rosebud valley...i've never left the theatre here without being moved.
the premiere summer production here is 'man of la mancha', or the story of don quixote. its chief character is a man on a quest...searching (despite the dissuading of others) for meaning...dreaming (at the risk of sanity) of life's true meaning. good stuff. the title song is one that we come across with some regularity in our culture (youtube it)... "to dream the impossible dream". here are some of the lyrics...

to dream the impossible dream,
to fight the unbeatable foe,
to bear with unbearable sorrow,
to run where the brave dare not go;
to right the unrightable wrong.

to love, pure and chaste, from afar,
to try, when your arms are too weary,
to reach the unreachable star!

this is my Quest to follow that star,
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far,
To fight for the right,
Without question or pause,
To be willing to march into hell
For a heavenly cause!

it's crazy how theology can jump out of the margins in our lives...how meaning can arrest us when we least expect it. watching the characters and hearing the music yesterday, i was deeply moved by how our journey of faith should be marked by 'questing'. i found myself in that darkened theatre overwhelmed by the cry of a 'faith-filled' life...the beckoning voice of god luring my wandering heart to pursue life's dream. i heard a curious resemblance to jesus' teaching, and his invitation to be a seeker/finder of men whose hearts have lost their ability to hope. this is my quest.
any thoughts on questing? on how our faith looks less like a journey and more like a 'stay-cation'? on jesus' call to dream?

What I DO believe...at least some of it...

2009-06-07T16:32:00.000-07:00

A number of conversations, real and virtual, have recently gotten me thinking through about "how far" should we go in a process of deconstruction. When we start process of dismantling previously held
convictions...you know what I mean, asking questions and wrestling with answers...it is painful and difficult. But when is the tipping point reached when it becomes easy and pain-free to be forever dismantling.

I want to guard against a glib iconoclasm(literally ‘image-breaking’): where the "old" and the "previous" is immediately disposable and somehow of no value. The great danger that we end up facing is that it can be satisfying to debunk narrowness and cultural exclusivity. That satisfaction that leaves us with our own new barriers and orthodoxy.

I think that with the wrestle of deconstruction there has to be a commitment to the elements of construction...of building.

So, as a corrective to constant affirmation of what I do NOT believe, here are a few provocations to ponder that might balance and present what I DO believe. This is not exhaustive...but off the top of my head thoughts, that may not be very well thought thru...chuckle....:

The Christian faith is not just a matter of creeds and system of belief (it is way of life - worship, community, daily witness, a holy lifestyle etc etc)...BUT unless we can talk about the historic Jesus and connect our story with the life of the church through the ages, then we end up building a new "religion" (devising our own creeds, however palatable and "humane" they may seem) which is human-centered rather than God-centered.

The church needs to be a place of safety, inclusion and welcome, NOT a place of judgment and exclusion...BUT unless we give and accept permission to each others pain, we cannot call each other to a life that truly reflects the reality of Jesus the risen Christ...and we will end up lost in our own brokenness.

The church is a place of equality where the least is the greatest NOT a place of patriarchy and hierarchy...BUT unless we can model godly leadership and authority, we are denying the transformative effects of the gospel on the structures of human society.

Teaching is just one of many gifts given to the church and should NOT be an opportunity for elitist (‘I am better than you’) monologues that are detached from the lives of real people living and working in a real world...BUT unless we build relevant means of discipling ‘Jesus followers’ in scripture and tradition, we will be left wallowing in the self-satisfaction of our own knowledge rather than sharing it with others and passing it on to future generations.

Followers of Christ are NOT just adherents to a religious lifestyle that expresses itself with vehement arguments against the cultural and/or religious issues of our day...BUT they are people whose imaginations have been captured by the power of Jesus to hope in the greatest darkness. They are a people who ask the greater more personal questions of:

What does Jesus think about our consumptive lifestyles?
What does Jesus think about the enviromental crisis?
How would Jesus respond to the ever lowering standards of television?
What would Jesus’ response be to reality of our economic position in the world and the presence of poverty and injustice?
How would Jesus respond to the sexuality of our age?
What would Jesus’ comments be regarding the shallowness of so many of our relationships...and that we hide who we are behind the masks of addictive lifestyles?
...to name a few....

Worship is NOT just a time to be joyful and proclaim personal truths but a space to come together in shared lament, protest, struggle and mystery...BUT if we lose celebration and the expectation of God joining with us by His Holy Spirit, we lose the source and energy for any gift that we may think the church has to offer the world.

God is God and we dare NOT feel that we can package and own all the truth about who God is BUT we do know something and unless we own the story we are in danger of falling into the worship of someone or something else, (our spiritual search and journey is really about unmasking that which what we hold as most dear...its His kindness that draws us to Himself...and its His kindness that unmasks our true ‘affections’...and leads us to repentance – the great affection transfer).

embedded slivers

2009-05-05T11:46:00.000-07:00

Just rambling unedited thoughts.

I was thinking this morning about life. Do you ever feel like it never plays out like you expect? You know what I mean. You are planning, preparing, expecting life to play out as it should and then BAM. Its like a bomb has gone off in a small space. And the splinters of your dreams are buried deep in your skin and in awkward places.

You too? Well then walk with me for a bit then as we chat.... When was the last time you looked at a diamond? In a catalog. A store window. Your mom's wedding ring. Or an earring.

How would you describe it?
Beautiful?
Strong?
Rare?
Wonderful?
Valuable?
Brilliant?
Shining?

How about tested by fire?

Do you know what diamonds are? They are precious minerals made of carbon. Deep within the earth's crust, these minerals work their way up toward the earth's surface when gases and heat combine. Through phenomenal heat and pressure, diamonds are born.

It's only after they are tested by fire that they become so beautiful.

In the New Testament, in the book of Romans 5:3-5 it says,
This doesn't mean, of course, that we have only a hope of future joys - we can be full of joy here and now even in our trials and troubles. These very things will give us patient endurance; this in turn will develop mature character, and a character of this sort produces steady hope, a hope that will never disappoint us. Already we have the love of God flooding through our hearts by the Holy Spirit given to us.

Now here is the thought...Have you ever felt pressured as if you were being squeezed from all sides?
Have you ever had a day that was so tough you felt as if you would be crushed?
Have you ever sat in a puddle of tears, raging against life, because it just seems that the pain is too much?
Have you have just said, ‘screw it. I can’t do this any more’?
Have you ever felt as though you were being tested by fire?

And then you read or hear some idiot say 'turn your lemons into lemonade' or 'whatever doesnt kill you will only make you stronger'.

How do YOU deal with the darkness of life? Do you hide? Drink? Eat? Shop? Avoid? Work? ...the list is long, cuz we have all found ways to cope.

Have you ever tried this thing call rejoicing? Actually choosing to be thankful? I know its a stretch...but in the middle of the pain, suffering and hard times, finding a way to express love?

I hear the voice of the Lord Jesus beckoning me, "Try it...just try rejoicing...you will grow brighter and stronger if you do!"

Why? cuz you...I...We are God's diamonds.

Yes. You.

God polishes you with His love, grace and mercy. And the pressure...the struggle...the trial...the resistance makes you stronger...they make you grow. They call you (or maybe force you) out of the dark, dirty, lonely places where you are left as a piece of coal.

The great question of course is, 'Is God doing this to me?' I will venture out on a limb and say NO. Life is hard. And unfair. And cruel at times. But it is only the precious love of Jesus that is able to take the worst that life throws at us and turn it into something redemptively beautiful.

Henri J. M. Nouwen writes,
In this crazy world, there's an enormous distinction between good times and bad, between sorrow and joy. But in the eyes of God, they're never separated. Where there is pain, there is healing. Where there is mourning, there is dancing. Where there is poverty, there is the kingdom.

See with new eyes today. Because the Father of Lights, from whom everything good comes down from, is looking at you...and me...and saying:

You are rare.
You are strong.
You are brilliant.
You are valuable.
You are wonderful.
You are loved.
You shine.
You are beautiful.
Did you catch that? YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL.
If you will allow Me, I will use ALL things for your good...and you will shine forth, brilliantly reflecting My light.
You are chosen.

Can you feel Him rejoicing over you?
I can.

Needing Him,
j

Emmaus

2009-04-12T00:29:00.000-07:00

I love the story of the two the disciples on the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-32).
Two men are walking on a road from Jerusalem to a town called Emmaus.
Two days after the Crucifixion.
As Frederick Buechner says of these two, “There was nothing left to do that Sunday but get out of town.”

That Sunday? It is not hard to imagine the gamut of emotion they struggle with as they walked a dusty road. All the hopes and dreams that came with following Jesus. Watching Him heal and set free. Hearing Him speak to thousands, yet know He is speaking directly to you. The thoughts. The emotions. The tears.

So they went to Emmaus. And where was Emmaus and why did they go there? Emmaus was a place of short-lived military victory for the Jewish people of Jesus’ day. Judas Maccabee won a battle there in 166 B.C. BUT it was no place in particular really, other than it was some seven miles distant from a situation that had become unbearable.

I have walked that road with them. Emmaus can be a renting a flick just for the sake of seeing a movie or to a pub just for the sake of the beer. Emmaus may be the mall, with its many ‘treasures’ or a new car or eating more candy than you really should or more food than you want, or reading a second-rate novel or even writing one. Emmaus may even be going to church on Sunday. Emmaus is whatever we do or wherever we go to make ourselves forget that the world holds nothing sacred, and numb the pain that echoes off the piles of broken dreams that mark all of our lives.

Maybe those two men went (fled is probably a better word) to Emmaus to try and forget about Jesus and the great “failure” of his life.

Sometimes we focus so hard on success, particularly spiritual success, that most of us do not know the first thing about what to do with failure.

But tonight as I sit here contemplating...and trying to feel through what it would have felt like to watch all I had to live for bleed and suffer on the top of a mountain, nailed to two pieces of wood...

I realize that the first mood of Easter was despair. By every account Jesus had failed, and these two men did what I know I have done at times in my life. Leave. Flee. Avoid. Run. Move on...and move on fast.

The story continues with a stranger joining the men on their walk. We, as readers, are told it is Jesus, but the two men walk all the way to Emmaus and still don’t recognize Him. Even though He does what they have seen Him do hundreds of times...He reframes who He is and who they thought He would be. But they don’t get it...until they reach Emmaus. They sit down to eat after Jesus breaks the bread and blesses it, the lights come on. They recognize him. And as soon as they do, he disappears.

Strange story.

All the stories about how Jesus appeared to people after his death are strange and maybe the strangest thing about them is how normal they are. How little fanfare there is attached to them.

I think I connect with this story because of where it happens: Emmaus.

The place of escape. I find it profoundly moving to realize that on my road to Emmaus, He has been walking with me, challenging me, pushing me, arguing with me, pulling me, engaging my heart, and reframing who He is and how He loves. And I am deeply moved to realize that I have often not recognized Him because of my own selfish anger. Anger directed at a world that has obviously been created to thwart ME and MY dreams. Anger that covers my pain because I do not understand the ways of Jesus and will never understand why He doesn’t DO SOMETHING.

Martin Luther said once, "If I were God, I'd kick the world to pieces." I know that feeling.

And so, I slow down to drink a coffee and allow my heart to still. I watch the sun rise, or set. I listen to the wind in the trees. I reflect on who I am and who I long to be. And the lights come on.

Jesus keeps re-entering my world in grace to help me realize that His heart is big enough. He pushes towards me, as He pushes towards all of us...with grace, and peace and hope. He meets us where grace and suffering intersect. On the road to Emmaus.

We all have an Emmaus in our lives...My prayer is that you would have eyes to see and ears to hear so that you may meet with Him there, cuz He is probably already there.

J

At the foot of the Cross
Where grace and suffering meet
You have shown me Your Love
Through the judgment You received

And You've won my heart
Yes You've won my heart

Now I can

Trade these ashes in for beauty
And wear forgiveness like a crown
Coming to kiss the feet of mercy
I lay every burden down
At the foot of the cross

At the foot of the cross
Where I am made complete
You have given me life
Through the death You bore for me

I'm laying every burden down
I'm laying every burden down
At the foot of the cross.
Kathryn Scott

Holy Saturday

2009-04-11T09:43:00.000-07:00

Was just reading some thoughts of Henri Nouwen's this morning...which is never a good idea if one wants to remain the same. :)

He reminds me to be quiet today...to rest...to lay silent and still. why? Because today is the day in which God's voice was silent...the living Word lying cold and broken in a tomb.

I'm struck by how little of this season's rhythm i've grown to live in. The whole world knows it's Easter...but few of us absorb the meaning of these days. The season of Christ's passion is easily engaged on friday (in corporate 'celebrations' of his sacrifice) and on sunday (when our worship and liturgy announce his resurrection). But saturday...well...it's just saturday, isn't it?

Holy Saturday is a day of passion...but a quiet, subdued, broken pathos. Jesus' family, friends and followers wept...their hearts crushed by watching jesus suffer and die. Their dreams were shattered...all hope was dead. And everyone else likely went on with life as usual. Much like i have on this day...overlooking the fact that...

God the Father was still...His heart broken...His lips sealed. All of heaven stood in somber silence...raptly looking for any sign that the story wasn't over.

And while we know that with tomorrow's dawn comes the reminder of hope reborn...today's passion is silent, internal, and dark...in remembrance of Jesus' body held by the tomb's cold efficacy.

In waiting, looking, and weeping today, we engage the darkness in our hearts...the darkness that needs the piercing light of Easter morning.

Imaginative Missional Considerations...

2009-03-11T20:04:00.000-07:00

Someone asked me the other day “what are the things that make a person ‘missional’ and how does one become missional”. Well, I have thought about it a bit, and here are my musings in task list form...chuckle.

1.) Leave the cycle of trying to find another way of doing ‘Outreach Events’. Instead focus your imagination on finding ways of connecting with people where they are.

2.) Unwrite the internal script that casts evangelism as a one time sniper hit on a target with a preconceived outcome. Awaken your imagination by seeing mission as part of regular daily, weekly and monthly life rhythms. That our job is not to take Jesus to people, but open their eyes to the reality that He is already at work in their lives.

3.) Rethink the strategic ministry model of building multiple use buildings, as if by building a gymnasium on the church campus, we will bring people into the orbit of the church. Could we engage the questions about resources that honestly asks us if we should build less third spaces, and maybe inhabit more the ones already there?

4.) Lets be clear that one-on-one evangelism and the techniques associated with such apologetic persuasion are hit and miss at best. Can we direct imagination at inhabiting places in two’s or three’s or more? Hospitals, recovery centres, the school systems, the park districts … truly believing that two or three lovers of Jesus together become an undeniable force in any environment when they are under His Lordship?

5.) Gently reject the Sunday morning gathering as an evangelistic event, for it cannot be that in the new post Christendom cultures. Can we truly imagine the spiritual formation that comes from a communal(together) encounter with the living God in Jesus Christ?

6.) Release the expectation that coercive persuasion and argument are our predominant or most effective witness. What would it look like for the people of God to be seeking “one person of peace” (Luke 10) among the lost of their neighbourhoods?

7.) Repent of the presumptuous postures of power as we live our lives among those who do not know Christ yet. Can we personally engage the way Christ always enters the human situation in humility? Can we learn to come to our neighbours humbly and in need? And instead of only offering them a meal, find ways to participate in a meal with them?

8.) Stop surveying the neighbourhoods – learn how to exegete the neighbourhood. Surveying looks at the neighbourhood as a place to market a church. To exegete a neighbourhood requires inhabiting the neighbourhood. Actually fully living there...discovering where the hurting are and where the unjust structures are...and becoming a voice of reconciliation and justice from within.

9.) Take the focus off of strategic planning and place it on thoughtful preparation. We really don’t know the future…but we know that the Spirit is birthing His kingdom among us as we respond faithfully day by day. There must be some merit to finding the rhythm of owning our brokenness on a daily basis...and discovering how to live in the joy of His grace. In doing so we learn how to be humans again, not caught in a state of denial as though we are no longer a people of need. Billy Graham described the journey like this, “I am just a beggar telling another beggar where to find bread.” The thoughtful reflection and preparation that needs to be central to the life of a true disciple prepares us for the unexpected ‘suddenly’s’ of God. Leslie Newbigin warned us that, “the significant advances of the church have not been the result of our own decision about the mobilizing and allocating of “resources” [rather] the significant advances have come through happenings of which the story of Peter and Cornelius is a paradigm, in ways of which we have no advance knowledge.” (The Open Secret)

J

living dangerously

2009-02-10T12:15:00.000-08:00

snowy afternoon reflections on our journey...

I have spent copious amounts of time sifting through the chapters of my/our church leadership and strategy, desperately wanting to be positive and proactive. I wont dare to try to articulate all that I have concluded, as I am long winded to begin with, but I do have a couple things I think that I think.

I have figured out that we/churches don’t value people who won’t be at the majority of meetings, attend all the events, and make sure that all their significant friendships are within the congregation. The word ‘value’ may cause some tension in that sentence, but at the end of the day, its true. We feel frustrated, annoyed and down right indignant that they are not committed enough to the ‘vision’. The potentially spiralling vortex of ‘fellowship’ sucks you in, and requires all of you, leaving you completely socially disconnected from your neighbours, your community. And ‘we’ are not satisfied with half-hearted allegiance or commitment. It demands your all, always…

And in the process we often create cultures that will not allow questions, probing, or nay-sayers. We control with fear and in so doing, we loose the ability to inspire with faith.

And yet I find people all over our country who long for a community of fellow travellers. They long to journey with others of faith. They dream of ‘doing’ something of significance. The yearn to change the world with others. Unfortunately many of them have forgotten how to dream. They live in paradoxical frustration. Yearning to belong to something that transcends where we are and awakens the DNA of transformation that the people of God carry. Yet frustrated and angry because the only framework that we can see in our minds eye is what we have known the Church to be. And how many people do you know who at a gut level recognize that we are striking out at the plate?

I have looked for language to describe this. Alan Hirsch said something in one of his books that captures it for me. Its the ideas of God’s people developing communitas. Communitas is an intense community spirit, the feeling of great social equality, solidarity, and togetherness. It describes the dynamics of a Christian community inspired to overcome their instincts to look inward and 'structure in a way that serves US and to instead form themselves around a common mission that calls them on a dangerous journey to unknown places'.

A mission that demands that we shake off our collective security and to plunge into the world of action. Action that produces disorientation, experimentation, risk, and sometimes failure. But also allows us to encounter God and each other in a way that would have never been possible otherwise.

Michael Frost in his book ‘Exiles’, uses the illustration of the story of a community of rabbits in Richard Adam’s Watership Down . “Fiver, a small nervous rabbit, has a premonition something terrible is going to happen to their Sandleford warren. And he’s right; a housing developer is planning to build on their field. Fiver tells his brother Hazel and they try to warn their aging Chief Rabbit, to no avail—he doesn’t believe them. Hazel and Fiver decide they must leave, and are joined by other rabbits in their search for a new home. And no sooner than they have left, the bulldozers come and destroy the warrens and all the other rabbits. To cut the long story short, the adventure takes the rabbits out of the safety of their warrens where they do very un-rabbitlike things; like crossing rivers, fields, and roads. (Rabbits, like the hobbits in The Lord of the Rings), seldom travel far from their burrows.) At nights, out of their burrows, and feeling very insecure, they comfort and encourage each other by re-telling tales of the adventures of the great rabbit hero; El-Ahrairah and they are inspired by his story to continue their journey. They come across many other warrens and they try to warn them. They even get imprisoned and escape, but they eventually do get to Watership Down which becomes their new home, and once they find females to mate with, they settle down and start again.”

This children’s story accesses something in all of us. Its the same thing that is accessed when we watch movies about the belittled underdog who nobody thinks can win, and yet in epic fashion they dig deep down and pull out something so dramatic and powerful that we are all moved and long to be a part of THAT STORY. Its why we are moved by ideas and situations in stories that are related to adventure, the role of danger in personal growth, leadership, communitas, and the innate capacity of life to adapt when threatened by mortal danger.

What will it take to inspire us in such fashion? Where collectively we are moved to get out of our burrows and do things that defy our all too human instincts to burrow down in denial and our western 1st world penchant for safety and security.

We must be re-inspired for by telling again of the incredible and dangerous stories of Jesus Christ...the martyrs...the men and women of faith who throughout history responded to this same yearning in their own generation!

All our heroes are people. Just like you. Just like me. The only difference between them and where we are today is a decision. One that thrusts us into tomorrow, as Jim Elliot put it, with a willingness to ‘live to the hilt’. Living dangerously. What does that look like?
j

wow...lots to chew on here. dude...you gotta learn to break it all up into little chunks. :)
your comments about what our communities of faith often value are true...unfortunately. and like we've talked about in the past, this journey missionburnaby's on has exposed some of my own tendencies. by choosing to move away from a 'career' in Christianity (which isn't a derogatory term), i've had to wrestle a lot with how ministry is often shaped and scheduled by those who are 'centred' in the church. there have been many days in the last year that i've wondered... 'is this how most people live for jesus?' the fatigue and pressures of 'regular' life often create tension within communities of faith i think. how would this be different in 'communitas'? and are we being successful in sparking 'communitas'? hmmmmm...
you said... 'Living dangerously. What does that look like?' in studying the historical jesus, i've seen that regardless of what you reduce jesus and his teaching to, there are some 'basic' assumptions we can make. one...we know that jesus was executed by the Romans...most likely because he was causing popular unrest and religious 'instability', two things the Romans didn't like seeing in Jerusalem (for more, read a history text). second...we can see from the collected teachings of jesus an obvious criticism of nominal/political religion, an clear afront to what jesus saw as being the way to God. and third...we can hear a call to a different type of life...one surrendered to love and captivated by justice, two things that our holy texts show as God's primary character traits. in the end...jesus' life and teachings led him into opposition and murderous institutions...a life lived dangerously. looking at jesus this way leads me to the admission that...
lots of days i'm not sure how to answer your/jesus' question...of what it looks like for me to live for him. some days i feel like it's caught up in choosing to engage an education that regularly challenges some our core assumptions while making me feel like an idiot in the process. gulp. and other days it feels like i'm most like jesus when i'm caressing my tired wife...and when i'm comforting my shrieking kids. sigh.
and that's part of how i end up going full-circle...wondering where we are at as a community. wondering if the choices i'm making in the 'trenches' of my life reflect the 'danger' that jesus calls US to. i'm not so sure the decisions you mentioned are always grand...or even noticeable. i think that what makes them 'dangerous' is the meaning that they carry with them. the ins-and-outs of life can be monotonous...but our daily choices to be selfless, tender, and hospitable are what make us most like jesus. they are what mark us over the span of time. it's not as if we can reduce the life of jesus to one decision to die; i'm thinking he'd been making small choices (like putting himself second) for a long time. and that how i want to live...incrementally less and less religious.
enough for now.
sw

Advent Thoughts

2008-12-10T10:36:00.001-08:00

two nights ago, our community did some advent reading/reflection. this is my favourite time of the year...probably because i'm drawn most strongly to the mystery of our faith at christmas. and to be honest, sometimes i need that 'drawing' feeling. at the end of the day...it's an incredible story.

some of you may practice advent, so this is 'old hat'. but some of you might be clueless when it comes to the age-old traditions of liturgical practice. note: all the 'tradition' stuff becomes clearer/simpler when you realize that the church has been doing what it does for two millennia. this path we walk is well-trodden.

which is why one thought on friday really struck me. advent is not about celebrating Christ's birth/coming; that feast/celebration formally starts on christmas eve. no...advent is not technically part of the celebration.

it's a time of remembering...a time of awakening to how much we NEED him to come.

have you ever stopped in the furious activity of the season to think and feel through how badly our world needs jesus? HE is what we need...

his infantile innocence
his bold and abrasive disdain for religiousity
his care for lost and broken ones
his selfless sacrifice

our businesses, our schools, our relationships.
our hearts.
we need Him.

what do you think?
sw

I have often thought about the consequences of truly encountering Jesus in the everyday. I know I often get distracted by the comings and goings and doings and beings...that I forget that He waits for me in even the most simplest of tasks. Christmas makes this come alive in my heart...Jesus, in the simplest of ways coming to me...pushing for me to realize what only He can give. Peace. Not only for me...but through me.
This becomes painfully apparent for me as I reflect on some of my current relationships. The final vision of the dream of the Church is that not only will all men and women recognise that they are brothers and sisters called to live in unity but all members of God's creation will come together in complete harmony. Jesus the Christ came to realise that vision. Long before he was born, the prophet Isaiah saw it:

The wolf will live with the lamb,
the panther lie down with the kid,
calf, lion and fat-stock beast together,
with a little boy to lead them.
The cow and the bear will graze,
their young will lie down together.
The lion will eat hay like the ox.
The infant will play over the den of the adder;
the baby will put his hand into the viper's lair.
No hurt, no harm will be done
on all my holy mountain,
for the country will be full of knowledge of Yahweh
as the waters cover the sea.
(Isaiah 11:6-9)

I am reminded at Christmas that we must keep this vision alive. “I am doing my Christmas dreaming a little early this year” is the lyric, but I think I would rather sing, I am Being His Christmas dream, a little early, and prayerfully all year...

Thoughts?
j

NEW

2008-12-04T13:07:00.000-08:00

This is a poem written by our friend Jackie. It captures the heart of a journey...
thoughts?

Life is calling out
In a language I’ve never heard
Words and cadence
That frighten and excite me
That stir and entice me
Calling
To listen

Silent rhythm
Beating to be still
Ears that don’t hear
The usual
Eyes that don’t look
For what’s seen
Skin that feels
Unfelt
And disease free

The sky speaks no lies
And the truth of beauty
I can’t deny
Vastness and abundance
Drown pettiness
Until I die
And something better comes alive

Connecting with this
Naturally perfect
So forgotten
And overlooked
Grows in desire
Until life is not lived
Unless here
In the place of
This peace
With the silent rhythm
Life calling me out
With fear and trembling
I embrace.

rubbed raw

2008-12-02T14:37:00.000-08:00

I just finished watching a documentary called "When Shall They Ask". My grandpa recommended it to me as it tells the story of the Mennonites in Russia during the early part of the 20th century. This is where my family comes from, better said, where they fled from.
Our family roots lie in religious persecution. My great grandfather and his sister fled the vicious Bolshevik outrage at anything that smelled like religion and prosperity...both of which were found in the Mennonite communities. Great-Grandpa Neufeld fled after watching his family massacred.

He never talked about what happened. Ever. Not to his wife. Not to his kids. Not to his friends. What we know has been pieced together for 90 years.

It has started me thinking about the cause of the unrest and revolution amongst the peasants in Russia. They were starving and the rich were getting richer. And someone saw the pain and anguish...and acted.

The old Marxist slogan was “Rub raw the sense of discontent”. It motivated a people who had given up life to "this is just the way it is" to acting towards change...acting at all costs. Note: *This is not something I am writing in support of Marxist ideology but rather a reflection on what motivates people to act with such passion that entire nations shift? Early Marxists knew how to create the environment of unrest, of revolution, of passionate movement.

How do we become provokers of this sense of discontent and so awaken a hunger to move hearts towards what could be?

Holy unrest.
Unsettling dissatisfaction.
Passionate inquest.
Insatiable desire.

What keeps us in the 'system' of what is? Fear.
Fear that we will not be loved.
Fear that we will be rejected.
Fear that we will be refused the relationships we so desperately want...and need.
Fear of being unpopular, of being criticized, of being seen as trouble.

And just a note: how many of us have been reading this in from the perspective of the church vs. the world?

We must look our discontentment, and that of so many of our brothers and sisters who have walked away from what we have called 'the church', in the face and rub it raw.
And maybe find some salt and rub it in the wounds...not in anger or rage or vengence or selfish frustration...but simply to bring truth to what seems overwhelmingly real. We have to stop settling for what is as though we are powerless and without hope. Love pushes us to ask hard questions...and pushes us to ask them in a way that honours Jesus.

Could lots of this come down to self preservation? I just don't want to risk me. I think the word is selfishness.

Think about it like this (to take a step away from the personal nature of trying to grapple with the church as it is):
Why do I (personally) do very little or nothing about the great injustices of our day?
Poverty
Abuse
Child Prostitution
Widows
Orphans
Disregard for our bodies, our planet, and our fellow man
Shall I continue?

"But what can I do?" Well now...that is the question. Maybe Jesus knows.

I am realizing in my own heart, that the hinge of my future is 'when will I live as though I had nothing left to loose'? Could it be that the future swings on the hinges of :When will I stop living for me...and live for Him, and those He loves.

Greater love has no man than this...
This is how they will know you are my disciples...

Love.

Maybe then...the ‘church’ we so highly criticize will be the place where miracles happen.

Thoughts?
j

good thoughts.
i think i've said this to you before...
several years ago i was wallowing in dark clouds of frustration/disillusionment with 'church'. surprise surprise. :)
i was sitting in a gathering that had nothing to do with any of that, and i sensed the Holy Spirit gently prod my mind: 'Scott, remember...YOU are the church.'
all of sudden, the source of my 'discontent' came clearly into focus. it was all clearly 'reflected' from what i projected as the 'church's shortcomings' back onto my own lack and inconsistency. i'd been projecting problems as the "organization's"...when most of them were part of a large log-jam hanging out of my own eye. the 'church' can't have issues without me having issues.
sometimes i wonder how to rub raw the spots where 'we' have fallen short...
because, if i'm not honest, i loose perspective on how it's not really about 'the church'...
And it comes down to me.
sw

Hide and Seek

2008-11-19T22:22:00.000-08:00

How to Hide Jesus by Steve Turner

By Hamo on Poetry

There are people after Jesus.
They have seen the signs.
Quick, let’s hide Him.
Let’s think; carpenter,
fishermen’s friend,
disturber of religious comfort.
Let’s award Him a degree in theology,
a purple cassock
and a position of respect.
They’ll never think of looking here.
Let’s think;
His dialect may betray Him,
His tongue is of the masses.
Let’s teach Him Latin
and seventeenth century English,
they’ll never think of listening in.
Let’s think;
humble,
Man of Sorrows,
nowhere to lay His head.
We’ll build a house for Him,
somewhere away from the poor.
We’ll fill it with brass and silence.
It’s sure to throw them off.

There are people after Jesus.
Quick, let’s hide Him.

nice...disturbing piece.
i like how the poet shines light on how the historical jesus (a first century, bi-vocational 'prophet' living under a death warrant) has been obscured by the Church proper. i agree that over time he's been dressed up and made eloquent through our repeated translations of copiously copied texts...and in some cases, he's been obscured.
was thinking though...
i read a snip-it out of a book today...another treatise on how a truly committed xian community should be marked by visible justice. and in many ways, i'm thankful for this author joining the growing ranks of evangelicals who are 'recovering' the 'hidden' jesus, the jesus certainly marked by passionate anti-religiousity and, simultaneously, traditional Hebrew expressions of justice. our particular faith strain had hidden this jesus long enough.
but i must also confess...and i don't know if we've talked about this bro...that i'm getting tired of this point being the main thrust/thesis of every 'progressive', xian book i pick up. it's not that i live a life of incredible justice, or that the Church has tilted its hear to ear the prophetic edge of these writers across the continent. no...what i'm wondering is if, by focusing on this 'lost' jesus, we're hiding him in other ways.
i wonder sometimes what our society would be like if all xian communities read jesus' justice teaching literally and radically. would xian protests again corporate greed and homelessness and immigrant exploitation then become normative? would more people 'see'/meet jesus (aka 'get saved') just because we became radical in a way we haven't been?
am thinking that while the world needs that jesus and that Church in some ways...the popular xian publishing that hinges on this concept reminds me that we don't believe that the world needs justice alone. i believe that jesus is primarily concealed when we do not share/reflect his answering of both temporal AND eternal questions. making jesus 'cool' and 'relevant' to our society's issues [by handing out day-old bread or protesting global warming] may fill our buildings and increase our public persona, but it doesn't guarantee that we've stopped hiding jesus.
thoughts?
sw

i am end up reflecting on how trend driven we are...it is as though we wait for the next brand stamp to determine who or how we should be as the 'church'.
We wait and watch...looking for the next success story, so that we can model ourselves after that, copy that, do that, be like that...and in the process we paint a picture of a Jesus who is blury and hard to understand.

Why? because He is very often seen only through the lens of success.

I am not against cool, hip, suave, or slick...i just long for something more...for me...for everyone.

It is as though we have in some way returned to the days where the priest stood as the representative of God to the people...only now we have a personal relationship with Jesus but we wait for someone to interpret the church and the church's activities for us.

The essence of the Gospel is love. for Him. and for him/her. Both require a very personal reality of Jesus that is alive and transforming.

the doing comes out of the being...it has to. and i for one am tired of strategies and ideas that do not, at the end of the day, awaken, strengthen and draw deeper my love for Him and for him/her.

does this make any sense?
j

the roar of the crowd

2008-11-05T20:28:00.000-08:00

last night, my dad and i were at the canucks game (courtesy of good friends in high places...chuckle). about halfway through the second period, it was announced that Barack Obama was the president elect of the US. and everyone cheered. a crowd of 18,000+ drunk canadians roared in approval. loudly.

i was surprised. honestly.

are the canucks that bad that Obama could inspire such a cheer...on a night that they won 4-0? :)

what else was was happening last night? what did it say about our culture...that a foreign election could inspire canadian sportsfans?

and what does it say about me when i didn't cheer?

not sure what to think.

sw

I have wondered that...what else is going on. Canada is a unique place in terms of social reality. Our Mosaic demands openness and liberality. And yet we have little tolerance for that which smacks of narrowmindedness or fundamentalism.

We have a very unique way of processing life north of the 49th parallel. It's one where we live out egalitarian ideals, the equality of people with respect to social, political or economic rights and privileges. We believe that anyone who sticks their head to far about the crowd should be decapitated...thus our mistrust of leaders, corporations, and large organizations. Its why we love potential leaders and have little use for them when they become THE leader.

I read recently B.W. Powe's take on the Canadian/US relationship. His take was that Canada is like Athens, cerebral and contemplative, during the time of Sparta(a vibrant military society).

Could it be that we respond to the recent events in the US because we see a leader who most reflects who we are and who we are becoming? Could we be responding to our love of the underdog? Could we be responding to our fear of what we have been almost forced into accepting simply because of relationship?

Or could we simply be living out what we do best: critical analysis, critique and enjoyment of proceedings that require very little of our active involvement or commitment.

I sat in meetings recently...and felt the underbelly of the entire room rumbling...even seething at times...yet very few voiced anything. It seems we are great at being vocal about things that have little personal cost or risk. How does that play out in our country? In our relationships?

I have been asked lots, who would you have voted for. I avoided the question like crazy...what does that say about me?

not sure if any of this makes sense...am thinking i would rather be watching a flames game.

jonathan

the question of faith

2008-11-05T09:59:00.000-08:00

I am coming to some realizations, dare I say conclusions, about this life of 'faith':

My faith is not a short cut that allows or provides me an escape from the reality of pain. It is my way through it.

My faith is not a underground bunker that keeps me from the dangers of a world locked in darkness. Its the lightning rod of love that asks me, no compells me, to venture to the very gates of hell knowing that He is there waiting for me.

My faith is not my personal hit man who gets rid of any and all opposition or competition. Its my faith that has them over for coffee and throws them a 5 course meal.

My faith is not the Jordan-esque finish with an acrobatic shot from the free throw line to win the championship. It is the average layup that sends me into overtime so I have another shot at it.

My faith is not a guarantee that I will not fail, fall, screw up, or sin. Its my faith that fills my heart with the knowledge that He is enough for me and all that I need.

My faith is not a system of belief to answer my longing for the divine. It is just Jesus.

My faith is not the solution or the answer to the questions that plague me...or should I say haunt me...

My faith forces me to find them.
jonathan

hey...
you said:
'My faith is not a system of belief to answer my longing for the divine. It is just Jesus'. and it got me thinking.

there seem to be two schools of thought operating within N. American Xianity at the moment. in one, we see an obvious emphasis placed on evaulation and reevaluation of both historical and biblical orthodoxy...with emphasis placed on attempts to be 'authentic' and 'true' to 'just Jesus' AND to interpreting/presenting Him to our culture. in the other, we see an obvious emphasis placed on evaluation and reevaluation of both historical and biblical orthodoxy...with the result being a reaffirmation of 'the system of belief' and a desire to remain 'true' to the fundamental assertions made by reformed theologians.

i want my faith to be 'just jesus'...but i CANNOT get away from both historical traditions about who jesus was or my own 'shoeboxes' that i've been given to carry him in. and while somedays i'm frustrated by those who balk at asking questions about interpretation/theology/application because of their belief/fear that we may end up compromising...i'm also struck on other days by a sense that my questioning will lead to an undermining of belief in my life and the lives of others.

maybe it's just my studies that get me thinking like this. i wonder sometimes if all believers listened to what i listen to, would belief still remain? the reality is that many of us believe/trust in the system of Xianity MORE than the revelation of jesus. and that system has significant 'flaws' and inconsistencies. my studies are a series of questions launched at that system; some days the questioning spawns greater faith [because questioning is healthy]...and on others, i'm left wondering if i haven't crossed some line.

do we not ask questions because we're afraid of the answers? are some questions off-limits? how much of our 'system of belief' is actually a well-charted course toward the essence of who jesus calls us to be?

which leads me to say...
My faith is at times a sturdy ship...powered by unseen winds and aimed at new discovery. And at other times it is a shattered piece of timber i barely cling to...a life 'preserver'...tossed and drowned in a rain-drenched sea.

some thoughts. sw

THE conversation

2008-11-05T09:37:00.000-08:00

Scott and I are constantly in a conversation. Giggling. Glaring. Dozing. Dreaming or sipping...wrestling with a thought, an idea or the possibility of one.
In the middle of one of these conversations Scott suggested we go global. You know, publish our brilliance...just kidding. He did suggest that we invite others into our conversation.

About what specifically, you ask?

Well...Everything. In his words, "an expression of the journey we (our community) are on...and an expression of the journey we (you and i) are on. and i think we could blog both the theological...historical...cultural...marital...and the sportsical."

So...welcome to the conversation. Join in. And feel free to add, subtract, agree and/or disagree. But please, make sure you do it with a cup of strong coffee in hand(we will allow for substitutes...as long as they have nothing to do with Tim Hortons - for our american friends this is a euphemism for really poor coffee. Our euphemism. Cuz there is actually a company that makes scads of money shamelessly selling this liquid lie).

One more thing. Please don't feel the need to sound smart, coherent, chic or 'hip'. Just journey with us...towards more of Jesus. If something that is said truly sounds like the product of a little too much sumpin sumpin rolled in some tobaccy paper...well, call it like you see it. Chuckle.

Pursuing Him...or in the words of our friend Kim: Go God!
jonathan