when it's cold outside...

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?

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...

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...

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

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

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...

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).