Digging Deep in the Walmart Garden

So, about a week ago, I decide to go to Walmart and look at getting a plant. I am trying to make my small deck more about beauty and prayer. Part of the plan is adding some plants to my little outdoor space, so that the space can be a small personal worship and reflection space.

So I looked, and looked and looked. After wandering around Walmart for a while, I decided to sit with Jen in the rocking chairs in the garden department. After exchanging pleasantries about how nice it was outside, how good it smelled, etc. I started to think about owning a plant. I told Jen, "I am not sure I am ready for the commitment of owning a plant. Owning a plant is a big commitment. First you buy the plant, then you have to repot, buy pots, soil, and so much more. Its a big commitment if you are going to do it right."

There was laughter, then there was silence.

"So what does that say about me ever having kids if owning a plant is too big of commitment." I said.

"Exactly" Jen replied.

And then we both laughed really, really hard.

Then, I went and bought a couple of plants.

My moto robs my mojo

Update: The problem, it turned out, was that the positive battery cable was not properly attached. Thankfully, the new mechanic did not charge me. It makes me very thankful that I was well taken care of, and very angry at Walmart. I am trying my best to boycott Wally World now.

There are lots of wonderful things about my car. She has a wonderful heads up display, a fairly decent stereo, she handles fairly well, and she gets fairly decent gas mileage. But right now I am angry with her. And Walmart.

All of this started in November, when I discovered everytime a storm mosied through our area, my battery would have a hard time getting the car started. So, I would be flagging down folks here and there to help me get her batteries recharged.

Well, the frequency of these difficulties became such that I had to take my car in to get a new battery the night before my mother was scheduled to arrive for Christmas. And, the only place affordable to get a battery that was open was Walmart. So I drove up the hill in the beginning of the big blizzard on the 18th to get a new battery in the car just in time for my mother to arrive.

Mom did not arrive until the 26th. And on the 27th we went to a movie and as we came out from the late movie the car was dead and once again needed a jump. After we got home and we could not get the car started the next day, I called a tow truck to get the car to a shop to get the battery looked at again. As the tow guy came out, he recognized that my problem was a loose battery cable and fixed the problem temporarily. He recommended I take it back to the shop I got the battery from and have it reinstalled. When I went back to Walmart they told me that the problem was not the battery but the alternator. In the middle of another blizzard I slid down the road to the nearest Firestone. They ran an electrical system check. Guess what the problem was! Loose battery cable.

Fast forward to this week. This time my car died completely. With passengers heading home from Bible Study. My friend Ken came to jump me, and in order to get it started he had to wiggle the fuse box. Everything seemed fine. Then, Saturday I am showing Jen the clubhouse at my apartment, and we jump in the car to go watch a DVD at my place. Again, the car goes blank. The key is stuck in the ignition, and this time the doors are locked with no possibility of unlocking them. We are stuck in the car! Once again, I had a friend come bail us out, and he gets the car started by moving the fuse box around.

The car died again this morning. Luckily the door was unlocked. And as I investigated the wire work I noticed that the fuse box is completely unmounted in my vehicle, and that although none of the cords seem damaged, the plastic tube all of the electrical wire was bundled in has a clear cut (as opposed to a break) in it for 2-3 inches. In other words, the folks at Walmart not only messed up installing my battery cables, they messed up my fuse box and electrical system in my car. And, from the looks of things they did this knowelgably and without communicating with me what they did. The problem is, I have no recourse since I had to go to Firestone to get the vehicle running right.

So now, until I can get in at the shop I have start the car with the door open, and keep the doors unlocked most of the time. I have to be prepared to go manipulate the fuse box to charge the battery to get myself from point a to point b.

This car is now both embarrassing and scary. The sad thing is....I still have a ways to go to pay the darned thing off.

Christmas List

This will be a continually updating post, and is for you my dear mother:

MUSIC
U218--released Nov 21
Anything by Nickel Creek
ACDC--Back In Black
Best of Frank Sinatra
Classic U2 Albums such as October, Rattle and Hum, Zooropa, and War
Brad Paisley--Time Well Wasted
Three Days Grace--One-X
Willie Nelson--Songbird
Johnny Cash--The Legend of Johnny Cash, American I, II, and III, and V,
Walk the Line Soundtrack
Best of Rolling Stones
Best of John Mellencamp
The New John Legend Album
Target CROONERS album


SUBSCRIPTIONS
Blockbuster (in-store)
AT&T or T-Moblile Wireless
Interpretation or NIV Application Commentary Series

TOYS
I-Pod
Atari Flashback
Console Cooler for the car

VIDEOS
McClintock (John Wayne)
Da Vinci Code
Second Season of LOST
Any year of Simpsons
Nacho Libre
The Third Miracle
The Passion of the Christ
Better Off Dead
Gospel Road (Johnny Cash's movie)


BOOKS
J-Pod by Douglas Coupland
The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard
The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan

GIFT CERTIFICATES
Safeway
Firestone
Casual Male XL
King Size Male
Itunes
Best Buy
Target
Walmart
Albertsons
Starbucks
Subway
Applebees

New Theory: We are all part squirrel

The other day I was walking through Walmart. As I walked a certain item caught my eye. What was it you ask? It was a bucket. This bucket was better than most buckets I see. Why? First, it was on sale for just over a dollar. Also, it came in colors like neon orange and neon yellow. The bright colors excited me, and I had to have these buckets. So I threw them in my basket, and told myself I would use them to organize my cleaning supplies.

Then I got to the front of the line. And I saw something else! Qtips! These were not ordinary Qtips. No way! They were Qtips with colored sticks. They had purple and green Qtips in my aisle. I wanted them, but I restrained myself. And, as I was standing in line I remembered a truth that I had discovered a while earlier and buried in the recesses of my brain. That truth is that we are all part squirrel. We all like squirrels are drawn to bright and shiny things, and when we see them we want to make them our own. Especially if we think we are getting a good deal.

Our nations history was founded on the squirrel principle. How did we get the island of Manhattan from the Native Americans? We gave them shiny trinkets (and to be fair they thought they were sharing not selling). What drove westward expansion in the United States. Shiny yellow rocks in places like Colorado and California. Where does most of our population live? By the shiny Great Lakes and seashores.

Men, how many of you go for shiny technological gadgets that you will never need? Women, how many of you have more shoes that you can keep track of? Rednecks, how many of you have more cars or parts for cars than you need in your front lawn? Book lovers, how many of you have looked at an old raggedy book on your bookshelf and thought you would want the same book with a nicer cover? How many of you women have more knick-knacks than you know what to do with? Have you ever bought a book, CD, DVD, or tool that you did not remember you had until you brought it home and went to put it away? Why is it that we do all of this? It is of course because we are all part squirrel.

You might even relate this principle to the attraction of the opposite sex. How many of you women are more attracted by a shiny, sporty car or nice big pick up truck? How many of you want the big shiny rock on your finger from your man? What about our attraction to nice shiny teeth artfully arranged by a dentist? Even in dating we can be part squirrel.

What shiny and/or useless things are you drawn to? What store are you a sucker for a bargain in? Do you agree with the squirrel principle?

Half-Content

Contentedness is a fickle thing with me. Sometimes I am very comfortable in my little job in my little place. Other times I struggle because I am antsy for something different, but I do not know what that is.

I admire stable people. People who are deeply rooted in their community, and who have lived in or near the same place most of their lives. I admire people who work in the same line of work doing admirable work for a humble salary their whole life. I envy people who have had the same friends since they were children or teenagers. Those folks that worry when they buy a new house after their kids leave home. The problem is, I am not sure I am one of those people.

I am not sure most people see this. I am the goofy, overweight youth pastor who has a mean Chris Farley impression. I am the bookworm who has always read something insightful or interesting. I am the storyteller whose eyes light up when I share something that happened to me, or a theory that I have about something I have observed. I am Friar Tuck, the minister with a little bit of an ornery streak.

But I doubt I have ever been content. The thing is, I am just beginning to own this truth. I have always thought I was meant for more than where I am and what I am doing. That their is something huge and powerful just beyond the horizon. That someday I was going to have the white picket fence with a wife and several children. That I was going to write a book that changed the world. When I was in 5th and 6th grade, people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I said I wanted to be the President of the United States. And to tell the truth, I meant it. I thought it was possible. And I had this plan that I was going to go home and be a Congressman until I was 35, and then around my 40th birthday I would run for President.

I guess part of what I am saying as well is that I have a hard time living up to my own dreams and my own expectations. And I expect to get to these exalted places by doing everything right. And I expect that by doing all of the things that I was supposed to do or told to do that I would have somehow found success and high achievement by this point in my life. Instead I am a nearly 33 bachelor living in a one bedroom apartment, and struggling to keep a youth ministry afloat and my job in good standing.

And in those moments of discontent, I pray and I wonder, when is MY moment going to come? When am I going to find the love of my life, have the growing church, have lots of supportive friends that I can count on, and write that great work of writing that will change the course of history? When will I live up to my standards? When will I be able to hold up my head high and be proud, and know that my family and friends are proud of me? When will I emerge from being on the perpetual brink of failure to a rousing success as a human being?

It is really those things I am most concerned about. Most days I am happy living in a small place, having a decent car that runs, and being able to pay the bills. Deep down, though, there is this lurking feeling at the pit of my stomach that I am meant for something more, this hunger that my life has a lot of potential for a greater impact, and that I am failing. I tell myself (and others)--John Calvin wrote the Institutes at 26, Martin Luther King Jr. had already delivered the I HAVE A DREAM speech by the time he was my age, and the list goes on, and what have I accomplished? Nothing. No big splash. Just plodding along griding out ministry in struggling and/or dying churches.

And I wonder....am I alone in feeling this way? Am I being selfish? Am I setting myself up for failure?

Thursday I had a conversation with a former boss of mine. He was asking about my future. And I was telling him my dreams about the hope I had of leaving here at some point, and finding a church that would not require me to work at Walmart on the side to support myself. I went on that my coming here I feared had been this huge dowturn in my career that I might never recover from. He agreed that this might be possible from my perspective, and that he might feel the same way, and then he said, "Of course, when you think like this you are forgetting the Holy Spirit and how God can lead and what God can do."

Of course I tried to explain how I did include the Holy Spirit in my plans, until I got the realization that my life is not to be as much about including God in my plans as much as it is God including my life in his plans. And my job is to be the faithful servant of the King, the good soldier of the Lord of Hosts, the plodding farmer in the field. That the Holy Spirit is like a wind that blows where it pleases (John 3), and that my job is to hoist my sail to wherever that wind may drive me.

And I remembered what I tell people so often but forget for myself. That no failure is beyond redemption. That no dream is beyond fulfillment. That today has enough to be worried about. And that I can trust God with my todays and tomorrows, even when I cannot figure it out.

Keys and Kites

I am not good with being able to find my keys. It drives me crazy. I go to my friends' house to lead a Bible study. I do my work. I visit. People leave. Then it is my turn to leave. But I cannot leave. Why? I cannot find my darned keys!

At points in my life I thought more faithfulness in prayer would solve this problem. Although there are times where I have found my keys when I slowed down and prayed about finding them, prayer alone has curbed my propensity from losing my keys.

Lately, I have taken to finding the biggest key chains possible. My thinking is, the bigger the key chain, the less likely I am to forget where I placed them. This has worked. And, the the little clippy thing I got from William Jewell College has helped a little bit as well.

However, I still break into a panic when I leave somewhere and my keys are not in my hand or in my pocket.

It got me to thinking. Are there simple keys to managing keys simply? And even more, are there simple keys to anything?

Some people I know love step by step processes. They like to put their life together like you assemble a bookshelf from Walmart. Looking at the instructions. Going step by step. Or, to use another metaphor, they look at life as a paint by the numbers kind of venture.

My experience is that my life doesn't work that way. To use the analogy of the bookshelf again...I strive to go step by step and then I find that I missed a step, or a part is missing, or something like that. Now what?

A lot of people look at spirituality as a step by step process. And for some the steps work. This is especially true in the AA community. But for me, as I look at Scripture, and look at my faith, my journey does not look the formulaic.

My spiritual journey looks more like flying a kite than building a bookshelf. I have a clear intent and vision about what I am doing, but my life and my ministry is dependant on catching the breeze of the Spirit, flying with the wind, and living a life of unique and unconventional beauty. Sometimes it means I flop down in the dirt, until another breeze starts pushing me in new directions. I don't like the flopping, but it is worth crashing to earth once in a while in order to be caught in the wind. And the more I fly around, the better I know how to land.

Right now, I am praying for the wind.

Life Update

Lots going on with me.

Usually I like to post about what I am thinking, but new thoughts are not abounding in my mind right now. So I will just give you a daily life update.

First, with the holiday I took an extra day off this week. This has put me a little behind, but it was nice to not leave the apartment complex for two days on Monday and Tuesday except for a Walmart run at 11pm. (I am a night owl).

But since when I am gone nobody picks up my work for me it has made the last couple of days, and Brittany and Kevin would say...CHAOTIC. Throw into my normal stuff that we have had a BIG SCREEN TV donated to the youth if we can come and pick it up. And, Amy came in town last night and wanted to get together for coffee/tea before her interview in Denver, so we went to Pike's Perk and sat on the cushy couches and talked this morning. That is the nice thing about being a minister....flexible schedule. Lots of work, but flexible schedule. Yesterday I worked a 11 hour day. But I got to come into work later than most of the rest of y'all have to show up at your jobs. There are always tradeoffs I suppose.

Last night we had our young adult bible study, CHOW, which is a time for dinner and discussion mainly. We discussed how to balance giving people grace with accountability within a Christian community. Very interesting discussion. Next week we will be back to the VERY SHORT books of the Bible series.

The preaching thing in Denver did not work out...which is ok. In March I start in with teaching our churches FELLOWSHIP class, which is the largest sunday school class in our church. I am a little nervous on how I will be recieved in this Sunday School class.

Well....now you got to hear how my easy week (it is easy this week) is going. And how most of my life is revolved around work.

Have a great day. Hope to post more.

Gift Certificates and the Art of Budget Maintenence

I recieved a number of gift certificates for Christmas. Which has been a real blessing. I got some faux fiestaware from Walmart, a CD, a pair of sweatpants (on clearance even), and several books. I am very thankful.

While the Walmart gift certificate allowed me to purchase some useful things for my home (like presentable dishware), the Borders and Barnes and Noble gift certificates awakened a monster sleeping within. Namely, the book buying bug. And while I got several books I had been wanting today...I also discovered several more that I really want.

And it got me to thinking...a lot of my life...perhaps too much...is lived on a binge and purge cycle. I tend to read voraciously, and then not read a lot at all. I tend to immerse myself in one type of music for a long while, and then ignore that type of music all together for a short time. Sometimes I get sucked into sleeping a lot and at odd times, and other times I go for a week or two with only 5 hours of sleep a day half of the time.

The same is true with my introversion/extroversion balance. I tend to go through long phases where I "go into my cave" and socialize as little as possible, and then I go through similar phases where I hunger to socialize all the time.

I tend to do the same at work. There are times at work when I wish I could just live and sleep there. I have so much to do, and it is so important to do it. Then I go through similar phases when I seem to barely be able to get my work done and it is all I can do to do just enough to get by.

The same is true right now is true with shopping. I loved buying nephews their playful yet cheap Christmas presents and spending my gift certificates. But I need to tighten my budget and curtail month to month personal spending here soon.

After all....April 15 is coming!

Failure at 4:30....the blues

As most of you my last couple weeks have been chaotic. Well....lets say the last couple months. The trouble with all of that is that I have gotten out of my routine of self-care. I ate mass quanities of unhealthy stuff at camp...like bacon eggs and hash browns for breakfast every morning. My trip to see my sister was not that much better. Although I think I did a heroic job of avoiding boredom eating by web surfing, I have gotten out of my routine of making my own meals, eating in instead of eating out, and the like.

So I got 10 cent folders at Walmart for a log of exercise and diet stuff. The thing is, I am avoiding the log. Cause I am having a hard time getting back into the rhythym of healthy eating and exercise (and it is a rhythm of life for me that makes that happen). Part of getting out of this rhythym is my summer schedule, and part of it is my workaholic ways. Either way, most of my diet, schedule, and exercise is something I need to own or take responsibility for.

So I went to the coffee shop for a standing meeting that I established that nobody else ever shows up for. And while I was waiting I had a bagel with cream cheese! I was not hungry, but I needed to look like I was doing something while I was waiting so I bought the bagel and ate it.

I got in the car, and realized I was eating when I was not really hungry. I was falling in the bad patterns of eating what is easy and when I feel obligated too. And I told myself, "Today like yesterday is a dietary failure!" (Well add some expletives in as well).

Then another thought came into my head. "It is only 4:30pm. I have had lunch and a bagel for a snack, but the day is not complete yet. Infact, if you just cut back a little bit at dinner and don't snack, the day might even be considered a dietary success!"

Why do I share this? Cause I think it fits a pattern in my life and others lives as well. Just because you failed at 4:30, doesnt mean you are a failure at midnight. Press on, and realize that there is always more time left to grow and change until your time is done.

Birthday List Blog redux

My birthday is August 13. For those who want my birthday list it is here. For those blog buddies who might want my address, I will send it to you on request.

FROM THE TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
Laptop--preferably with wireless modem

Kodak Easy Share DX7590 Digital Camera

IPOD or Dell equivalent

New cell phone with picture taking and text message capabilities

FROM THE VIDEO DEPARTMENT

The Simpsons (all seasons)

South Park Episodes

Miami Vice Episodes

Million Dollar Baby

Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Ballroom Dance Instructional Videos

Napolean Dynamite

COLLECTABLES

Simpsons stuff

Anything Friar Tuck (check out EBAY)

Anything Jesusy (I already have buddy Jesus and Bobblehead Jesus)

CLOTHES--check with me for sizes

Jerry Garcia ties (extra long)--available at Casual Male Big and Tall Outlets

White dress shirts (can never have enough)

Individual Fit Dockers pants

Bright red dress shirts (wanting 2)

NYSE shirts

Rainbow Flip-Flops (need new pair)--size 15

Birkenstocks

Tennis Shoes

Beach Shirts

BOARD GAMES

New game of risk

Axis and allies

Pass the Pigs

Scene It

Cranium

TUNES

Anything Van Morrison except the new one

Dave Matthews--Crash and American Baby

Forrest Gump Soundtrack

FUNK 1 and FUNK 2 at Walmart

Frank Sinatra's Greatest Hits

Alan Jackson's Greatest Hits Volumes 1 and 2

Alabama's Greatest Hits

Harley-Davidson Road Music (Classic Rock Collection)

Notorious BIG--Life After Death

Anything Eminem

BOOKS--CHRISTIAN BOOKSTORE

Monster--Frank Peretti

The Lazarus Trap--Davis Bunn

Prayer--Karl Barth

BOOKS--FICTION

The Kite Runner--Khaled Hosseni

.....Queen Laoni by Umberto Eco

BOOKS--LEADERSHIP

Never Eat Alone

All Marketers are Liars

The World is Flat--Friedman

BOOKS--other

A Walk in the Woods--Bryson

Art Books--Van Gogh and that Catholic sister's collection and Salvador Dali

Other gifts

Jiffy Lube gift certificates]

Best Buy Gift Certificate

Birthday List Blog

My birthday is August 13. For those who want my birthday list it is here. For those blog buddies who might want my address, I will send it to you on request.

FROM THE TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT
Laptop--preferably with wireless modem

Kodak Easy Share DX7590 Digital Camera

IPOD or Dell equivalent

New cell phone with picture taking and text message capabilities

FROM THE VIDEO DEPARTMENT

The Simpsons (all seasons)

South Park Episodes

Miami Vice Episodes

Million Dollar Baby

Lord of the Rings Trilogy

Ballroom Dance Instructional Videos

Napolean Dynamite

COLLECTABLES

Simpsons stuff

Anything Friar Tuck (check out EBAY)

Anything Jesusy (I already have buddy Jesus and Bobblehead Jesus)

CLOTHES--check with me for sizes

Jerry Garcia ties (extra long)--available at Casual Male Big and Tall Outlets

White dress shirts (can never have enough)

Individual Fit Dockers pants

Bright red dress shirts (wanting 2)

NYSE shirts

Rainbow Flip-Flops (need new pair)--size 15

Birkenstocks

Tennis Shoes

Beach Shirts

BOARD GAMES

New game of risk

Axis and allies

Pass the Pigs

Scene It

Cranium

TUNES

Anything Van Morrison except the new one

Dave Matthews--Crash and American Baby

Forrest Gump Soundtrack

FUNK 1 and FUNK 2 at Walmart

Frank Sinatra's Greatest Hits

Alan Jackson's Greatest Hits Volumes 1 and 2

Alabama's Greatest Hits

Harley-Davidson Road Music (Classic Rock Collection)

Notorious BIG--Life After Death

Anything Eminem

BOOKS--CHRISTIAN BOOKSTORE

Monster--Frank Peretti

The Lazarus Trap--Davis Bunn

Prayer--Karl Barth

BOOKS--FICTION

The Kite Runner--Khaled Hosseni

.....Queen Laoni by Umberto Eco

BOOKS--LEADERSHIP

Never Eat Alone

All Marketers are Liars

The World is Flat--Friedman

BOOKS--other

A Walk in the Woods--Bryson

Art Books--Van Gogh and that Catholic sister's collection and Salvador Dali

Other gifts

Jiffy Lube gift certificates]

Best Buy Gift Certificate

. 



There are a lot of trends today that were first started by men named Bubba, but we get no credit.

They are:

This thing the youngsters do nowadays where your pants hang halfway down your rear end. I was doing that with Husky jeans in 6th grade, but I got no credit for being an "early adopter" of this trend.

The thing that girls and some guys are doing now where your shirt does not quite cover your whole belly. Was doin' this long before all those fancy models picked this trend up.

Walmart Jesus Candles. I know this guy in Pueblo, CO who has a latch hook Jesus hanging on his wall that his momma made him. Cheap pictures of Elvis and Jesus have been a part of the Bubba landscape for generations

Trucker hats. I had a collection of these long before they were fashionable. They are just standard Bubbawear where I come from.

Micorbrews. Bubbas in Arkansas and all over were making these all the time and selling them all over the country. Where do you think NASCAR came from? Boys named Bubba soupin' up their cars so that they could sell their "microbrews" and get away from police like Rosco B on the Dukes of Hazzard.

Quotes for Today

Putin wants to be president of a superpower, but Russia's GDP is not that much bigger than the economic product of Los Angeles County.--George Will

It is a sign of respect and affection--nothing sexual whatsoever--
Saudi spokesman Nail a Jubeir speaking about Bush holding the Saudi Prince's hand while they walked last week

In 25 years, China has moved 300 million people out of poverty, and quadrupled the average person's income (Newsweek)

Last Year Walmart imported 118 billion dolaars worth of goods from China. Of Walmart's 6,000 suppliers, 80 percent are from just one country, and it is not the U.S.A.

China's defense budget is increasing 10% annually

Pictures of God

Well, I recieved an email to bring me out of my funk.

It was a question on my other blog, footnoted as Bubba's Bible Blog below. (Hey that is a four word alliteration...yippee).

The person asked me about the use of images of God in worship. Below is why somewhat all over the place respons:

There are many people who believe that any image of God is a graven image, and thus a violation of the Second Commandment. For a very thorough explaination of this idea I would go to the library and read a book by J. I. Packer called Knowing God.

Basically the idea of this point of view is that when you have a picture of Jesus you have an image of God which limits a persons perspective about what God is like. For instance, look at all these renaissance pictures of Jesus. What do they look like? A white, upper-class bisexual male of the time. Which is what several of the renaissance painters were (well, I dont know everything about their sexual orientation but that was a part of the renaissance recovery of ancient Greek and Roman culture) By nature some might think, any picture of God becomes exclusionary and an instrument of power. For instance, they had this negative space Jesus statue at my seminary, and his biceps were about the size of his head. Thus, the ideal Jesus in this statue looked more like a body builder. The only image I have to relate to is the happy Buddha! HA!

On the other hand, as Arisotle said, "the soul never thinks without a picture". As you read Scripture, you see that God puts all kinds of pictures of himself in our heads. He is bread, he is light, he is a rock, he is a warrior, he is giving birth (John 3), he is a parent, he is a servant, he is a shepherd. Heck there are even a few female images of God in the Bible.

Anyway....it seems to me that we can't help but having images of God in our mind. But it seems important for us to realize that all images and pictures of God are limited. Jesus is not still dead on the cross, he is risen...so even a silver crucifix has limitations. So I believe it is ok, and even helpful, to have pictures of Jesus that speak to us. But we need to keep the following things in mind. In summary:

1.) Images of Jesus are often created to let us know that Jesus is close to us and can identify with us. They should be used for this purpose, but in the back of our mind we should keep in mind nobody has a market on what Jesus looked like. There is a reason he did not pose for portraits.

2.) We should try to cultivate images of God that are also apart from us, different from us, so that we do not get stuck worshipping ourselves and people like us.

3.) We should not worship the images, but allow them to be a vehicle for worship.

4.) If a particular image of Christ allows you to grow spiritually, then use it. Ask, is this making me more loving, more peaceful, etc. (does it produce the fruit of the Spirit)

My particular preference as far a personal images of God goes, with the exception of the $1 Walmart Jesus candles and the Bobble head Jesus stuff I have, is to worship him in ways that display his attributes more than a human image. Although this giant statue of light on SCRIPTURE SNIPPETS that I saw with open arms did speak to me of God's love.

What do the rest of you all believe and think about this?

Quotes for Today

A person who has nothing to die for has nothing to live for.--
Martin Luther King Jr

Nobody thinks Bush has a brain, but they know he has a backbone--
Mother Jones Journal

Estimated Federal Assistance that Walmart Employees are eligible for: 2,500,000

Clothes make the man. Naked people have very little influence on our society--
Mark Twain

When a man loses the sacred significance of work and himself as worker,he soon loses sacred meaning of time and of life--
Carl FH Henry

God insists that we ask, not because he needs to know our situation, but because we need the spiritual discipline of asking.--
Catherine Marshall

The closer we are to God, the closer we are to those that are close to him--
Merton

Sex is not sin. Sex is not salvation either. Like nitroglycerin it can be used to either blow up bridges or heal hearts.
Fredrick Buechner

To trult care about people requires not caring to much about their approval or dissapproval.--
Ortberg

God morning God. I love you! What are you up to today? I want to be a part of it!
Ortberg

I am always content with what happens, for I know that what God chooses is better than what I choose.--
Epicetus

We recognize the nature of God best, not by thinking of his power or his wisdom, which are terrifying, but by thinking about his goodness and love. Then we are truly born anew in God, and can grow in faith--
Luther

Quotes from Christianity Today

The trick of faith is to believe in advance what will only make sense in reverse.--Phillip Yancey

On Welcoming the Stranger--

Let all guests who arive be recieved like Christ, for he is going to say, "I came as a guest and you recieved me."
St. Benedict

A story said to originate in a Russsian Orthodox monastery has an older monk telling a younger one: "I have finally learned to accept people as they are. Whatever they are in the world, a prostitute, a prime minister, it is all the same to me. But sometimes I see a stranger coming up the road, and I say, "Oh Jesus Christ, is it you again?"--
Kathleen Norris, Dakota

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.
Philo of Alexandria

Your whole life through you....seek the face you've lost in strangers' faces.
Fredrick Buechner

That is our vocation: to convert...the enemy into a guest and to create the free and fearless space where brotherhood and sisterhood can be formed and fully experienced.--
Henri Nouwen

In an era where many of us feel time is our scarcest resource,hospitality falters..."In a fast-food culture," a wise Benedictine monk observes, "you have to remind yourself that some things cannot be done quickly. Hospitality takes time."--
Dorothy Bass, Recieving the Day

From the News Section

God assumed from the beginning that the wise of the world would view the Christians as fools....and He has not been disappointed....Have the courage to have your wisdom regarded as stupidity.--
Justice Antonin Scalia

From "Spirituality for all the Wrong Reasons" an Interview with Eugene Peterson

"One of my favorite stories os of Teresa of Avila. She is sitting in the kitchen with roasted chicken. And she's got it with both hands, and she's gnawing on it, just devouring the chicken. One of the nuns comes in shocked that she is doing this, behaving this way. She said, "When I eat chicken, I eat chicken. When I pray, I pray."

The minute we start advertising the faith in terms of benefits, we're just exacerbating the self problem. Instead we need to get people bored with themselves so that they can start looking to Jesus.

It's very dangerous to use the language of the culture to interpret the gospel. Our language needs to be chastened and tested by revelation, by the Scriptures.

When we advertise the gospel in terms of the world's values, we lie to people.

There's nobody who doesn't have problems with the church, because there is sin in the church. But there is no other place to be Christian except the church.

How do we meet needs? Do we do it the Jesus way or the Walmart way?

I think the besetting sin of pastors, maybe especially evangelical pastors, is impatience.

Life in Singleton:

My singleness journey:

I once was young. Now I am 31 and over the hill. I am still single. Go figure.

This was not the way that is was supposed to be. I was engaged at 19. I was supposed to be married and have all seven of my kids by now. The boys should be named after philosophers and theologians like Calvin, Luther, Augustine, Soren, Dietrich, Blaise..you know. The girls should be named after biblical virtues like Faith, Hope, Charity, Joy etc. (I don't think I would name a child Chastity because everyone I knew named that couldnt live up to the name).

Everyone I have ever dated in now married, many with children. I am having to come to the point where I am not sure I will ever be married, ever have children, ever have a true, meaningful romance that lasts longer than 7 or 8 months.

Now I am sure that part of this is my fault. I am sad that I must admit that there are times when I sit in front of Walmart and watch people come in and out and wonder, how can those people find someone to love and I cannot. I see husbands that treat their wives poorly, even beating them, and they keep coming back. I sometimes think that all of this is because I am too fat or too ugly. Yet I see happily married folks that are more overweight and uglier. I think it has something to do with me somehow being too difficult of a person to deal with. Perhaps there is some merit to this. I have also chalked it up to being a total coward as far as initiating romantic relationships. This probably has even more merit.

A couple of years ago I read a book about singleness. It is by far the best book from a Christian perspective on the topic. The book is called Singles at the Crossroads and it is written by Albert Hsu. And it has to do with the Biblical understanding of the gift of singleness.

Many people have understood the gift of singleness as a spiritual gift. This is not the biblical perspective. When the Bible talks about the gift of singleness it talks about the gift of marriage (I Corinthians 7). God says through the Apostle Paul that "one person has one gift and one person has another." Paul is trying to communicate that both singleness and marriage are conditions that are blessed by God. They are both gifted states, and we should live in a way that enjoys the state that we are in and uses the unique situations we are in for God's glory. As a single person I can be more flexible than the married person. I have more freedom than a married person does. Well a married person, especially with children, must love more exclusively, I can love people more inclusively. I am more free to live out adventures that many people married with children will never have the opportunity to have. Besides, isn't it better to be single and have the freedom to marry in the future than to be married and want to be single? I look at most of the people that I know, and I would never, ever want to have a married relationship that is similar to theirs.

Well, since reading this I generally have a better attitude toward singleness. Although the celebacy aspect of Christian singleness leaves me feeling like a total freak sometimes, and sometimes jealousy gets the best of me, I try to remember that singleness is a gift. And, when I do I try to use the gift the best I can. I also try to remember that each of us has a journey that God has set us on, and a purpose on that journey.

I am 31, single, with no hope of marriage in the near future. Their could be worse things. A lot worse.