another scott mutter photograph! 

Inspirational Quotes

"I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived. Curiousity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life." -Eleanor Roosevelt


"To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, be nothing." -Elbert Hubbard


"No matter how qualified or deserving we are, we will never reach a better life until we can imagine it for ourselves and allow ourselves to have it." -Richard Bach

POMO MUSINGS

I have been reviewing some of the literature that I have on the transition from modern to postmodern culture of late. In particular, I have been rereading Crossing the Postmodern Divide by Borgman.

Now, Borgman is a professor at University of Montana, and since I lived in Montana, a lot of what he is talking about seems to make sense to me. Especially as he uses the metaphor of crossing the continental divide for understanding cultural change. It is amazing what a barrier those mountains are! And how 3 hours to Kansas from Colorado Springs does not seem near as far as driving three hours from Bozeman to Missoula. And it is interesting how people's way of thinking changes depending on which side of the mountain you are on.

Anyway, I wanted to share a few of his insights and see what you all out there think

First he characterizes the current state of our American culture with two characteristics:

1. Sullenness--a sense of wounded melancholy

2. Hyperactivity--more busy doing more things going more places than ever before.

Characteristics of modern life

1. Agressive realism--The objectification and commodification of the world around us

2. Methodological universalism--a desire to come up with universal rules, methods, and definitions for everything, and to put everyone in the same boat

Postmodernism is then

1. A critique of this type of realism

2. A reaction against the type of universalism that generalizes things into absolute truths instead of putting everything in context.

3. A critique of the individualism that these two things produced by isolating our lives, perspectives and view of truth from community. (This Borgman seems to say later, still needs to work itself out. Currently, he posits, we are more hypermodern than postmodern in this regard.)

4. Most evident (says Borgman, and I had not remembered this) in the field of economics. Especially with the advent of the computer, and how that radically changes our economic future.

So what do you think? What changes do you see around you....

An interesting perspective 

A little less adventurous

I think I am doing alright. Then I get pictures below of family and I think, I sure would like to be a heck of a lot closer to them. Or at least somebody.

Almost all of my family is on the West Coast. My mom in Alaska. Dad in Washington. Grandparents in Oregon. Sister in California. And I am well...ahem...at least 20 hours drive away. Ughhh.

Most of my life I have been one who wants to go on an adventure. To seek out new places. To meet new people. But lately, I have a hankering to settle down. To move closer to home. To be near family. To find a place where I could stay for a while.

Part of it is, Colorado is a lot further away than I thought. I thought..Rocky Mountains. I forgot...two hours from Kansas and Nebraska

Part of it is, I really do not like the city as much as I used to. Especially a sprawling exurbia like I live in right now. Other than work, I guess I really do not think there is much here for me.

the twins on the couch 

The nephews bringing their mommy flowers on mothers day 

Dad, his girlfriend Beverly, and the nephews in California 

Walking on the edge 

Labyrinth Walking

Today during our staff retreat we walked an outdoor labyrynth. Very interesting spiritual exercise, and something that I think you all should try at least once.

Labyrynths have different forms and structures, and this one did not have stations in it. Just a set of brick circles leading to the center, and then you walk back out again. It took me about an hour.

It was powerful for me today. Why? First it forced me to get rid of the props that I use to facilitate my spiritual life. And, while I would not have them if they did not help me better relate to God in some way, it was a powerful experience to have a more contemplative, kenotic (there is a vocab word for you Don) spiritual experience.

Walking the labyrinth took more faith than I thought it would. Does that sound strange? I was actually a little nervous entering the labyrinth. I suppose it was in part because my Charasmatic friends are adamant that labyrinths are demonic. They are not. Even more, other thoughts filled my mind as I started. Was I going to get out of it what I am supposed to get out of it? The suggested form was to relinquish things as you go it, wait for God to speak to you at the center, and then begin to take in the presence and call of God on the way out.

But what if God doesn't speak to me I thought? What if this is all a waste? What if I do not do it right? Why can't I run? I hate walking slow! I am going to be stuck behind all these old folks doing some weird prayer thing and I am going to look weird and I am going to fail! This is what came to mind. And it is these things that praying the labyrinth forced me to look at.

As I entered I had to relinquish control, I had to relinquish efficiency, and I had to relinquish past experiences and current expectations and...well I had to let go of a lot of things. I had to just "be" with God, and accept his forgiveness and love without understanding it or defining it or quantifying it. And...as self-helpy as this sounds, I had to accept and love myself on God's behalf just as I was. And, I had to have the courage to be the me that God made me to be instead of the me that others try and make me be. Inside and out. And folks, that ain't always easy.

As I moved out of the center of the labyrinth I took on courage and honesty, I took on being a human "being" instead of a human "performance".

The strangest thing that happened was in relation to the movie, "The Tao of Steve". As I was walking and thinking and praying the thought of relinquishing desire came to mind. Then the three steps of the Tao of Steve (be excellent, be desireless, be gone)came to mind. And I sensed God saying to me "NOOO!... I created you a person with a deep heart, and full of passion for lots of things. Don't be desireless. Live from your heart."

It was truly a powerful, Spirit-centered experience.

Another Scott Mutter surrational image. 

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

From Harper's Index

Number of towns in midwest offering free land: 18

Ratio of mobile homes to houses in gated communities: 1:1

Average number of German's who died trying to cross to West Germany per year: 18

Average number of Mexicans who die each year since 2000 trying to cross the border to U.S.: 407

Top Seven Tips on gift buying for women (on Mother's Day)

I got my hair cut as SuperCuts on Friday night. Here was the advice for men that was being given on Mother's Day gifts.

1. Always buy a size smaller than what you suspect she is if you buy her clothes.
Small estimations on clothing sizes are always a compliment.

2. Electronic equiptment is not really a gift for her, it is a gift for you.

3. Never buy exercise equiptment unless specifically requested. Women read in a
value judgement about her appearance with this I guess.

4. Never buy a woman cooking equiptment either. See #2 for the reason.

5. Days at the spa are nice.

6. Never buy a weight loss book unrequested. See #3 for rationale.

7. If you enjoy it, chances are she will not.

I learned a little. How about you?

What is the biggest gift mistake a man has made that you know of.

My thoughts on Heaven and Hell FAQ--Part 1

NOTE: If you are going to read this, please go back and read some of what I have wrote and quoted earlier on the subject. This has been my area of personal reflection and study of late. As such some of my answers have a context in this blog.

Do you believe in a place called Hell?

Yes I do. It may be more of a "state" or a "plane of existence", but I do believe in Hell.


What is it like. Is all the fire imagery metaphorical or literal?

The literary context of hell, especially the words that were used for it, lead me to believe that the fire imagery is metaphorical.

In what ways are things people believe about hell influence their behavior?

I think there are a lot of people who use the fear of hell to marginalize people the do not like, and do not want to see in eternity. I think people use the fear of hell to keep others in line. So we threaten people who we don't approve of with hellfire.

Although, I think for some people, they need to choose not to do the wrong thing before they can do the good thing. So, I think people change their behavior out of fear of eternal torment. And, I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing or even an untrue thing. Jesus did it.

I guess what I am saying as I try to ramble through this question I set up for myself a week ago is that we should let the reality of hell influence our view of the world and our behavior. However, we should not use the belief in hell to marginalize people we view as more sinful than us. If anything, it should move us to embrace them more.

How do you deal with the fact that you may be "partying in the living room" (heaven) while your friends are "being tortured in the basement" (hell)?

In the Bible there is a parable of the prodigal son. At the end, after the prodigal son comes home, the elder brother refuses to come inside the party. This, I believe, is the better metaphor than the one the question suggests. Some would rather stand outside the party than not be able to have the party on our own terms. Those people are the ones that choose hell for eternity

Jesus and Hell--Thinking through the Issues--Part 4

Nobody talked more about hell than Jesus. Nobody in all of Scripture.

People often talk about how Paul puts a hard edge on Jesus, but the apostle Paul's mention of hell is miniscule next to the amount that Jesus talks about it. The Old Testament has less of a sense of eternal damnation than the gospels do.

Why is that?

This is in part because of the historical context in which Jesus lived. A context which has similarities to our own.

When Jesus comes around, he spends a lot of time conversing with the Pharisees. The Pharisees were religious liberals and moral conservatives. They believed in a resurrection, which was a liberal Jewish idea. They believed in heaven and hell. Another more progressive idea. Many believed they borrowed this idea from the Babylonians. Thus, many people think the word Pharisee is derivitive of the word Farsi--or Persian. Thus, some scholars believe that the Pharisee's theology of hell was borrowed from Greco-Persian influences.

Having come from exile in Babylon, they longed for freedom. And saw their oppressed situation as a direct result of moral impurity. So they begin to talk more about following the law, and talking about what the eternal results of what certain behavior was. They came to the belief that certain behaviors that went against the family values of their day would damn people to hell.

This is where Jesus comes on the scene with his message of grace and forgiveness. And while sharing this message, he deconstructs some of the Pharisee's views of hell.

Jesus challenges their attempts to create a religious elite, and shows them that their grab for power and their attempts to pigeon hole people and judge them runs counter to God's whole plan for them.

This happens throughout the New Testament. Jesus turns the tools that the Pharisees use to oppress those in their community around so that he can use their language, especially the language of hell, to get to the heart.

Perhaps it might be easy to understand what Jesus is doing by discussing the word righteousness. The word is derivitive in a lot of ways of the word SHALOM in Hebrew. And the Greek word for righteousness is also often translated as justice. The word for righteousness and justice in Hebrew thought are one and the same.

The Pharisees get to the point where righteousness means being sure of what is right. Knowing right from wrong, which according to Genesis, is the essence of sin--the desire to know right and wrong. Jesus calls them back to righteousness as justice and mercy instead of just being right. Righteousness becomes doing God's will by loving your neighbor and your enemy. It becomes what it always has been about "doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with your God."

Jesus continues his conversation about heaven and hell with the Pharisees. And what he continues to point out is that the Pharisees are destroying community and subverting justice with their crusade for moral purity. Thus, they are doing the work of hell instead of the work of heaven. If they wanted their faith to be what God wanted, their faith would be more about loving God and loving neighbor. So, Jesus explains that hell is for those who dont give thirsty people they meet food (Matt. 25). Jesus talks about the kindgdom of God as the goal instead of avoiding hell.

Now, I dont have this all figured out, but this is what I see. The Pharisees define themselves by what they are against. And because they are against everything, they miss the boat. Jesus offers an invitation to be a part of the Kingdom of God. A Kingdom of grace and love. A kingdom that reconciles with neighbors instead of judging them. People that choose to trust Jesus enough to pledge their unwavering allegiance to trustign and following him become a part of the Kingdom of Heaven. And they gain eternal life. People who reject the Kingdom of Heaven get what the result of what choose. Eternity with their lonesome, sinful, neurotic selves, without any of the grace and love of God. What could be worse than that?

From Brea's Blog 

Cheese Test: What type of cheese are you?

Moby quotes from Relevant Magazine

It just makes sense to invite God into our lives

You can never be a follower of Christ and think you are doing a good job

As a Christian, I feel very shut out by a lot of contemporary Christianity

In the Gospels, the only people who are subject to God's wrath are self-satisfied religious leaders....if I had to characterize mainstream Christianity in the United States, I would say it's self satisfied.

The idea makes me uncomfortable--the idea of didactically trying to get someone to believe what I believe.

(In response to Christians taking offense at Janet Jackson's bare breast in the Super Bowl:)

"Why not be offended by the Super Bowl? Why not be offended by the crass commercialism...why not be offended that grown men beat the shit out of each other and get paid $15 million a year, while school teachers in the inner-city get $24,000 a year. That's offensive. If we are going to start talking about things that are offensive, a bare breast is at the bottom of the list."

It just makes sense to invite God into our lives and ask Him, "You made me, what should I be doing."

INTERESTING FACTOID: Did you know Moby is a direct decendant of Herman Melville? Thus the name--from Moby Dick.

Quotes from Flynn Atkins--member of music group LA Symphony

Work is like a bowel movement--crappy but necessary

Homies take note: If your girlfriend doesn't have any friends, there is a reason...

Remember when you point the finger, it can easily be broken.

Some New Stats About Youth and Related Issues(From Youthworker Journal)

Federal Money given for abstinence education in public schools: $168 million
Percentage of US Teens who have premarital sex after taking abstinence pledges: 88%

Percent of teens have the following items in their ROOMS
VCR/DVD player: 54%
Computer: 31%
Cable: 37 %
(Chicago Tribune March 2005)

Kids age 10-17 who gambled in the last year: 70%
(UPI, March 2005)

Median age of marriage:

Women in 1970: 20.8
Women in 2003: 35.3

Men in 1970: 23.2
Men in 2003 27.1

Number of music tracks legally purchased and downloaded in:

2003: 20 million
2004: 140 million

2004 Music Sales

2004 Cd Album Sales: 651.1 Million
Change from 2003: +2.3%
(2003 was 3rd consecutive year of decreased sales before 2004)

Genres
R & B and rap--up 8%
Alternative--up 3%
Country--up 12% (Clint's note: The new soft rock/pop music)
Metal--up 2%
Christian--down 7%
Latin--up 16%

Kayleigh and Emily after food fight at youth group 

Two youth group girls in a baby food eating contest 

Four Words For Hell

The Bible has four words for hell in it--each of them with unique history and imagery.

Old Testament

Sheol--(at least 12 times)

Place of the dead. Although some are rescued from it, it seems that at least some Old Testament Biblical Writers seem to think that the dead all went to the same place. In the Psalms sometimes this is translated "the pit". The imagery is hunting imagery.

In the stone age people often hunted communally. One way they did this was to create a hole in an inescapable place called the Pit. The animals were herded into a corner until the only thing they could do was accidentally fall into the camoflaged pit. Two tools were used to do this. First a crowd of men that had a kind of funneling effect. The crowd drives you to your death. Also, the temptation of bait. Often our appetites lead us to our destruction, or so the biblical imagery teaches us. Then the hunters would then stone the animal until it was dead. This is the picture of eternal perdition in the Old Testament.

The other option was salvation, which literally means to move into a Wide Open Space (yes just like the Dixie Chicks song). The idea being that you escaped the mob herding you to your immanent death, and ran into a wide open space where you could once again frolick and play, and eat and drink. You are free to go where you want and do what you want. This is the picture of eternal life.

New Testament--

Gahenna--(10 times)
This is literally where the word hell comes from. The valley of henna. The original translators got their ns and ls mixed around, and thus the term.

The valley of Henna at one time was a place where idolotors offered their children as sacrifices.

It was a constantly burning garbage pit. People brought their garbage and human waste there to be burned. They also brought the bodies of criminals of people who were considered unworthy of a proper burial. It was visible from Jerusalem, which was built on top of Mount Moriah in Israel. It was a living metaphor about what life without God was like.

Hades--(4 times)

Borrowed from Greek literature. It is interesting to note how Hebrew and Christian thought on hell is influenced by the beliefs of those around them. It is also interesting to note how uniquely Jesus and the Hebrew people formed their theology of the afterlife in this conversation. Perhaps the communication of the gospel has always been embedded in dynamic conversation with culture. To believe this however, means that true faith both speaks a challenging word and a redemptive word to culture. Not merely affirming it.

Tartarus--1 time

The lower hell of Greek mythology, where the most wicked and unredeemable went. While everyone human spent some time in Hades, the worst punishment was to be banished with all the other utterly wretched in Tartarus. This occurs in 2 Peter 3:4.

The Last Word, and the Word After That.

NOTE: You may wonder, why so many thoughts on hell? The answer is that I have just read a book that is the title of this post. It is a conclusion to a Trilogy of "creative nonfiction" that starts with "A New Kind of Christian" (on issues of modernity and postmodernity within the church) and then is followed by "The Story We Find Ourselves In" (A Narrative Theology of Redemption) and then this last book which has to do with struggles about eternal perdition.

For me, the guiding metaphor for understaning eternal life is Luke 14, and the parable of the great banquet. Many are invited. Several offer up excuses and do not come. The invitations continue to go out further and further as God seeks to bring more and more in. Yet, there are some that exclude themselves from the table, from the feast. In fact, one of the most common metaphors for eternal life is a wedding feast. Where all the estranged relatives come together, and yet no one is a stranger.

After reading the above mentioned book, I still find the "Great Divorce" by C.S. Lewis to be the most powerful extra biblical book on the nature of heaven. Yet, even that I do not take literally, although I think it speaks to an important truth. In the great divorce, the folks from hell are brought up to a middle ground, where they have a second opportunity to ascend to the heavenly city. Each of them is given a guide for the journey. What happens though, are those things which kept them from wanting to be united to God in their earthly life still keep them from God on the other side of eternity as well. A woman will not go unless she knows for sure her son that died as a child is there, but the guide can only help her with her journey, and not answer her questions about another. It is a fascinating novel. But as Brian Mclaren's articulation of C.S. Lewis's theology states, "hell for Lewis is not an imposed consequence where God gets vengence on us for mistakes or inaccurate beliefs or retaliates for misdeeds we have done. Instead it is an outward expression of what we have done." McLaren goes on to say through one of his characters,

"God's presence is then a place that some would find intolerable. They have become incapable of enjoying the highest good, having formed their affections around smaller, meaner, less noble or less glorious ends. So I've asked myself what would it mean to be saved (in the life I am living now)---not only from guilt but actually from becoming and being that kind of person?"

So then, what do I believe about hell. Are people going there? Yes. But by their own volition. And although some believe that people on the other side of eternity will automatically change their mind, I with CS Lewis beg to differ. Eternal life begins in the eternal now. And the direction you are heading in now will not change on the other side of death.

Sometimes I wish I could check my brains at the door.

I took my youth to a 14 hour youth convention today. Boy am I bushed.

Yet, for some reason I cannot turn my brain off. I wish I could. But the whole time I am listening I am having to discipline myself to listen and take what I can instead of to criticize and to analyze. And then my critical thoughts make me feel like a bad person. And I see all these masses flocking to this person who is speaking, and agreeing with him whole-heartedly, and yet I have a very difficult time getting people to read my blog, come to youth group, etc etc. So maybe he is doing something more right than I am.

Something about a full-scale warefare scene with flares and explosives and a woman yelling at her friends that they needed to enlist in the battle turned me off. I know the heart of what they were saying, which is like "faith is a whole-hearted passionate commitment" and "faith is an action word". But I keep thinking that it is a thin line saying that we need to enlist in the battle against evil and apathy in our world, and lining up and naming enemies that you are doing battle against instead of loving them. The kids seem to get the main point, let it all roll off their back, and then chase down Ethan from Albequerque for his phone number. But some sort of discomfort stirs in me. And I wonder if I am not being a team player. The youth are asked to shake their fists up in the air and scream. Christian group think scares me. But should it? Maybe some need that sense of support and belonging.

Also, they kept quoting this only four percent of teenagers in the next generation are expected to be biblical Christians. Where do they get these statistics? And why do they come immediately before the offering when you paid $50 a person to get in?

Then they pitch affiliated programs. I was frustrated with that too. It seemed like a lot of what they did was pitching their other programs and merchandise.

Why can't i be less cynical? Why can't I turn off this critical attitude?

On the other hand, one of the messages moved me to tears, and really challenged me. Helped me let go of some things I have been holding on to and shouldnt be. Yet, why does this other stuff keep creeping in on my thoughts?

What the Hell? Quotes on the Prospect of Eternal Punishment

Those who finally reject salvation suffer in both body and soul.--
Augustine of Hippo

Scripture clearly speaks of hell as a place of fiery torment and warns us we should fear--
R. Albert Mohler, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

If there is no heaven and no hell, there is no pursuasive reason to be moral.
Jerry Walls, Asbury Seminary

It is improper and disobiedient to try to speculate on the eternal destiny of others. Our approach should be...to focus on ourselves--believing, following, doing the will of God, joining in his mission, coming to the light, etc. (Leslie Newbigin)

Rather that a place, hell indicates a state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God...symbolic language that figuratively portrays a pool of fire for those who exclude themselves from the book of life, thus meeting a second death. (Pope John Paul II).

She's Hot, I'm Not

DISCLAIMER: SOME PERSONS DEPICTED IN THIS POST ARE COMPOSITES. SO IF YOU THINK IT IS YOU...IT IS PROBABLY NOT. ALSO, THIS IS MEANT SIMPLY AS GOOD HUMOR. PLEASE DON'T TRY AND READ IN ANY UNDERLYING ISSUES OR CONCERNS. I JUST GOT ON A ROLL AT ABOUT MIDNIGHT THINKING ABOUT THIS AND CRACKING MYSELF UP, SO I THOUGHT I WOULD SHARE WITH YOU.

The other night, I was talking to my friend and former student Chris Dooley about the loser's club I was a part of as a freshman in college. Then, I was talking with Michele, and as I was thinking about what book I could write, I stumbled on something I know. Thus, the emergence of the seminal thought for what may be a literary masterpiece...she's hot, I'm not.

Now, as an overweight, underfinanced minister who is slowly losing his hair, and moving quickly toward middle age, I run into a lot of women who are single like me. While some can see the diamond in the rough that I am, many cannot. Thus, I run into women of all kinds with which I think I have romantic possibilities, only to find out I don't. Let me tell you about a few of these women.

The girl across the hall--
The first time I saw the girl accross the hall I was sitting in my car talking to Mom on a Saturday night, and was struck speechless. She walked down to the car, and all I could see was leg. And this was January. With a trenchcoat and a mini-skirt she walked down the stairs, waived hello, and got into her car. I gasped for breathe.

The girl across the hall enjoys that a.) you notice her AND b.) you know that you have no chance with her so c.) she flaunts everything she has every chance she gets. She runs around in her short shorts and white almost see through tank top with no bra when she knows you are out. She bends over to pick up something and about falls out of her shirt. It is always something she really did not need to pick up. Yet, in a myriad of ways, she makes it abundantly clear you ARE NOT IN HER LEAGUE. Then she talks about how she has to run to the ballet room later so that she can remain her normal, freakishly flexible self.

The Grey Poupon Woman

This woman does not even try to be friends with you. She rolls her eyes when you talk to her. You ask her the time of day, she takes a deep breathe, and then turns away from you to talk to her friend. She mentions she would not date anyone who had a car older than five years old, and talks about how lucky she was to get her outfit on sale for only $200.

Missionary Friend--But Just Friends Gal

Any of you who have been in my position know this one. A gal sees you and feels bad for you. Invites you to hang out with her group of friends. She is nice to you, she is nice looking, she is smart, and she treats you with respect. She makes a special effort to include you in everything. Everytime you see her around she seeks you out and talks to you. You think, hey, maybe this woman could be interested in me. Then you realize somewhere down the road that she was not really interested in you. You were just her outreach project.

If I Weren't Married Woman

This person has two variations. One you think is available, but she isn't. The other is obviously taken, but want you to know if she wasn't you would have a chance (even though you wouldn't.

I had this thing going where I would bring the new women in our apartment building cookies I would cook. Trying to be a good neighbor and all. Anyway...the new next door neighbor was complaining because I had brought the girl across the hall cookies, but I had not brought any over to her. Then she asks you to come over to her apartment for drinks. You oblige. The girl across the hall comes in and says that she is ready to go to the club. The gal you are drinking with says no thanks. She shows you pictures of her child. She tells you what she does. You begin to talk about tatoos and she pulls down her pants to show you the tatoos on her rear end. And you met her 15 minutes ago. Then she lets it out. Her husband drew the picture on her ass. She is recently separated. You finish the drink. She is tired. She will talk to you tomorrow. Two weeks later, she asks you to help her move all her furniture to a bigger apartment. You help her, and now you know what it was all about. She just wanted to use you for your body. Too help move that is. Because after she moves a half a block away, you never see her again.

A variation of this is the woman who likes to tell you that you are just her type, if only she was not married. Of course, you knew this person when they were single too, and she would not give you the time of day. She just wants to instill hope in you. And she wants you to want her, and yet at the same time know that she is clearly out of your reach.

OK DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO ADD? IF SO, LET ME KNOW.

5.....4....3....2....1.....Lights, Camera, Action

Five Movies I want to see

1. The new XXX:State of the Union

2. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

3. Kingdom of Heaven

4. Million Dollar Baby

5. The Longest Yard (the new one)

Four Videos I want to Rent

1. Hotel Rwanda

2. Meet the Fockers

3. Signs

4. Monte Python and the Search for the Holy Grail (again)

3 Movies I Dont Want to See

1. House of Wax

2. Robots

3. Because of Winn-Dixie

2 Movies without a plot

1. Napolean Dynamite

2. Sin City

1 favorite old movie

1. Casablanca

The Pessimist in the Shadows

With the exception of a little better compensation at work, my life could not be much better.

Work has been going tremendously well. I feel like I have as deep a relationship with some of my middle school girls as I have had with any middle school girls in all of my ministry. We have plans to go to the gym together all summer. We have secret waves going on. I hear all about the news on which boy is hot, and which boy is a certain gals current crush. Last week one of the students said after youth activities on Saturday and Sunday of last week as we were cleaning the floor after youth group, "This was the best weekend of my life!"

My boss is elevating me into positions of greater influence. I am leading a small group of pastors discussing how we will respond to issues facing our denomination in our national meeting in July. I am baptizing one of the children in June. I am preaching as much in the last five months as I did in the last 14 months.

For the first time in my life, the scale seems to be heading on the downward direction. Clothes are fitting looser. I seem to have a lot more stamina and energy for my life in general.

I had the courage to send flowers to someone I had romantic interest in for quite a while. And, she responded favorably. Especially considering all the possibilities that were running through my head.

So, what is this sense that I am due for something bad to happen to ruin everything? Why can't I just trust that I deserve to be happy for a while? Why can't I accept that things are going good at face value, without constantly listening to the pessimist in the shadows?

Last night we talked about how faith was trust, and it was essential that we learn to trust God. Yet, when things are good, why don't I trust that God is good?

"I have come that they may have and enjoy life, and have it to an abundance"
John 10:10--Amplified Bible

A pic of Thomas Merton 

Quotes from "Thoughts in Solitude" by Thomas Merton

Temprament does not predispose one man to sanctity and another man to reprobation. All tempraments can serve as the material for ruin or salvation (9)

The things that we love tell us what we are (10)

It is the lack of self-denial and self-discipline that explains the mediocrity of so much devotional art, so much pious writing, so much sentimental writing, so many religious lives (14)

Laziness and cowardice are the two greatest enemies of the spiritual life...laziness and cowardice put our own present before the love of God. They fear the uncertainty of the future because they place no trust in God...cowardice keeps us double-minded--hesitating between the world and God. (23)

We do not find Him (God) merely by finding our own being (71)

A man knows he has found his vocation when he begins to stop thinking about how to live and begins to live (84)

The martyr is a man who has made a decision strong enough to be proved by death (102)

Those who live with God also live for Him, but they do not live in what they do for Him, they live in what they arebefore Him. (117)

Outcome-Based Faith

We live in a world in which everything is supposedly controlled by very specific cause and effect. There are definitely cases where this can be controlled in science. However, much of the world does not surrender itself to our outcome-based society.

Everything has become prescriptive. Everything has become technique. Everthing has become propositional. And when everything becomes technique, propositional, and prescriptive--God and grace are thrown out the window.

The simple truth is that we are not God. We do not have control over what happens in our life. We do not have control over the responses of others to us. Hell, we often stuggle with control over ourselves.

So how do we deal with this?

Acknowledge that God is God and we are not.

In addition to this, Dallas Willard advises that we act with God, and abandon outcomes. Abandon outcomes? Yes, abandon outcomes. Focus on being with Jesus where Jesus would be. Focus on doing what God would want you to do. Live this way as best as you know how. Then abandon the outcomes to God.

Giving up on controlling everything? Trusting God to take care of the outcomes. Sounds like a definition of faith if I ever heard one.

Inner Space

When I was younger, I watched this movie called Inner Space. It was about a spaceship that was reduced to microscopic size, and then inserted in the human body. It was like instead of moving outside of ourselves we needed to move inside of ourselves.

Oddly, this is reminicent of my adventures lately. Although I have been busy, I have also been immersed in thought and in my own inner space. In part this has to do with some things that I have been reading. In part this has to do with circumstances in life. In part it is just something I need to do with my personality to be the best of who I am.

First, I just read "The Last Word, and the Word after that." It is "creative nonfiction" about a person who struggles with the concept of hell and eternal punishment. I don't go as far as the person in this book, but I do have to resonate with many of his questions, and to a certain extent enjoyed his narrative that did a lot of paraphrasing of Elaine Pagel's "The Orgin of Hell". It made we think about some things....some questions I will also pose to you:

Do you believe in a place called Hell?

What is it like. Is all the fire imagery metaphorical or literal?

In what ways are things people believe about hell influence their behavior?

How do you deal with the fact that you may be "partying in the living room" (heaven) while your friends are "being tortured in the basement" (hell)?

What does God's justice look like?

Do you think God cares more about ideas or action? If action....then dont you endorse more of works righteousness? If ideas, is all existence just a series of passwords. Isnt asking someone to pray the sinners prayer to be "saved" and pray the right prayer just an extension of the tyranny of ideas over and above action..the heresy of gnosticism?

What do you all think?

What do I think? I am not saying yet. I want to hear you first, including all you silent readers.

Also, I am thinking a lot about what Dallas Willard says about the abuse of withdrawl. He says withdrawl can be just as abusive in relationships and in community as aggression. To some extent I believe he is right here.

Think of childcare and child rearing. I remember reading "The Lost Child" by David Pelzer. What was shocking about the story in parts was the active neglect and withdrawl of parental love. ABANDONMENT is a form of child abuse, and is even grounds for dissolving a marriage. Yet somehow we seem to tolerate this abandonment or withdrawl in community and in relationships, even when it is abusive.

This also makes me think about my struggles in being a pastor, and why I still do what I do. Why? Because to reject the church, with all its ugliness and faults is to abandon the "sheep" or "children" I am called to love on his behalf. And that makes me as wrong as the people who use the church to push their agendas in an agressively forcing their way around. I dont pretend to be the savior of any church, but I am not about to pretend like I am powerless to make a difference either.

Alright....enough of my inner space ramblings....more of the normal fare to come.

Naked and alone with only the cross to combat the powers of the world. A picture of faith. (The Temptation of St. Anthony by Salvador Dali) 

The Consuming Consumer Christianity

The more I am a part of the church, the more I feel like its consumer-driven qualities are clouding the central message of the faith. And it hurts.

Take my job for instance. I have 4 years of college education, and three years of graduate school education focused toward ministry. Yet, what did I do tonight? I basically arranged a play date for middle school girls. (Ok there were a few guys and a few high schoolers, but you all get the point). What do I do tomorrow? Lead a fundraiser for our mission trip, come up with games and a lesson for youth group, go to a "welcome" class where I sell the church to perspective members. I spent years learning the intimate details of vocabulary words like eschatology and soteriology. Yet, what am I doing? Volunteer recruitment and development, recreational leadership, raising and managing budgets, developing a new, less formal worship service to reach out to our younger members and people outside of our church. None of these things are bad things. Yet, I feel like more of a middle manager than a minister of the gospel.

Furthermore, much of what we do in the church is about developing and maintaining constituences. In our church here, people who have the greatest voice and places of leadership are constituencies that are either well-monied or have made other "collateral" investments.

The local church is not the only place where Christianity and marketing are yoked. Everytime I turn on the TV James Dobson is pushing the values vote, lobbying for support and influence in the media. Of course, part of his visibility is to market the Colorado Springs religious right behemoth known as FOCUS ON THE FAMILY. An intentional decision to keep the ministry financially healthy was to make Dobson more visible on the national scene on shows like "Larry King Live". Thanks to THE PASSION, Christian media has become more marketable. So, there are going to be all these "faith-friendly" TV shows. TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL TIMES 10. God help us. (I mean that literally). It has become fashionable to have a copy of the PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE on the bookshelf right between the Bible, and all the Harlequin romance novels.

The fact is, after the election of 2004, it has become fashionable to be a Christian in many circles. Yet, this is the opposite of what the movement of Christ was all about. Churches spend millions on state of the art sanctuaries designed to compete with other churches to bring in middle class families with financial resources. Jesus walked on the earth as a homeless man, depending on the handouts of women. Jesus said the greatest will be the least, while the church has stiven to take on worldly power and lord it over people at every possible occasion. The early church grew through suffering, while today we try to grow the church through making people as comfortable as possible. The church is about being a worldly success, while Jesus suffered the scandal of the cross. And when people walk through the doors of many of our churches, they sense that something is not right. They love Jesus, but shake their heads at the church, because intuitively many people know it just does not make sense.

Don't get me wrong. I am PRO-CHURCH. Especially when it at least in part embodies the movement of Jesus. And, truth be told, I am a registered Republican, who voted for many of the same people as the religious right wanted in office. I am not after a perfect church full of perfect people, because I would not even come close to being welcome there.

What I long for is the church as a counter-cultural movement of Christ. A church that is less interested in what celebrity converted to evangelicalism and more interested in the single mom with a toddler in tow in their neighborhood. A church less interested in being powerful and more interested in being faithful. A church that listens to God before it makes decisions instead of sticking its finger in the winds and playing the polls of the popular opinion. A church that loves homosexuals, but does not necessarily feel they have to adopt a "gay-rights" or "family first" political agenda to do so. In short, I long for a church with strong convictions, and humble grace. A church not driven or led by market schemes, even if they are marketing schemes of a large Christian organizations or political parties.

OK, glad I got that off my chest.

A Latin American Creche scene 

Another Garden of the Gods Picture 

Annotations of my recent reads

I made my way through three new books this week:

A Living Reminder--Henri Nouwen--A very short very good book about bringing the story of Christ alive in your world by the way that you live your life.

Plan B--Anne Lammott--Apart from the regular mini-crisis about her thinking George Bush is ruining the world, and the obviously feminine aspects of the book, it was a compelling spiritual memoir.

God is Closer Than You Think--John Ortberg--A book about recognizing the presence of and listening to the voice of God. A good partner book to HEARING GOD by Dallas Willard.

A picture of a church on the border of NM and CO, about 3 hours away 

The Man (or woman) in the Mirror

On Don's blog (link in sidebar) he announced the forthcoming release of his African-American preteen calandar. He got a comment on his blog who acted like a victim of sorts because being intentionally proud of your culture is ok if you are black, but not ok if you are white. Although on some political extremes he may be right, in general the sentiments he expressed were a passive-agressive way of expressing latent racism, in my opinion. Here is what I said:



I don't think people necessarily get mad when you are confident in who you are and where you come from. Even if you are a white guy who listens to country music and has a pick up truck. (I am listening to country music as I write this, and am the only adult male in my family not to have a pick up).

I have a few things to say in response to this:

1.) The problem is that every movement of "white pride" that I have heard of seems to be about putting other people down that are different, instead of building up their constituencies with opportunity and support. When white pride brings opportunity to the poor in Appalachia and to the chronically poor or their ilk in the inner city instead of burning down churches and lynching people of color, and standing at the border as a self-appointed border control in states (yes I am more liberal on immigration too.) that were historically Mexican and had nomadic people groups...well then I think they might get more support.

2.) When you are a majoirty of a population, you have much of your nation pushing images that are positive and look like you. Especially in America.

Case in point, look at most pictures of Jesus on display in America. Now we all know that Jesus was Middle Eastern, so why don't we have pictures of Jesus that look more like Saddam Hussein than a Norwegian underwear model?

3.) Aren't there lots of ethnic white pride movements? What is St. Patrick's Day if it is not a expression of pride of certain white people? Columbus Day (although there are protests of that every year in Southern Colorado)? What about President's Day? Or, more recently, the wave of the Blue Collar Comedy tour? Isn't that an expression of "redneck" culture without the racist connotations.

Ok......enough of my rant.

Fear Factor

What if?

What if something bad happens? What if I fail? What if I am wrong?

If we are not careful these questions can haunt us. They can control us. And we come to the end of our lives and ask another set of "What if?" questions. What if I tried? What if I had done that? What would my life look like if I lived it with strength and with courage?

A lot of things I have done because of fear and guilt. I look back on those things, and although there are some exceptions, I don't necessarily look back on those decisions with glowing pride. As a matter of fact, some of the things I most deeply regret were done because I was afraid. Afraid I was not good enough. Afraid I would miss out. Afraid I would be rejected. Not only am I regretful about some of the decisions I have made, I look back and am sad at the attitude I had at that time. Living guided by fear and guilt is not the life that God intended for us.

On the other hand, the decisions I have made with courage I often regret much less. Even if they were awful decisions in retrospect. I can look at them as character forming at the very least. And, even if things do not work out in retrospect, I learn that I can have faith in God and myself by exercising courage.

At least until the next time I wimp out.

CS Lewis quotes

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.
C. S. Lewis

A man who is eating or lying with his wife or preparing to go to sleep in humility, thankfulness and temperance, is, by Christian standards, in an infinitely higher state than one who is listening to Bach or reading Plato in a state of pride.
C. S. Lewis

A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is... A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.
C. S. Lewis

Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives.
C. S. Lewis

Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither.
C. S. Lewis

Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.
C. S. Lewis

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point.
C. S. Lewis

Don't say it was "delightful"; make us say "delightful" when we've read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers "Please will you do the job for me."
C. S. Lewis

Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.
C. S. Lewis

Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.
C. S. Lewis

Eros will have naked bodies; Friendship naked personalities.
C. S. Lewis

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.
C. S. Lewis

Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.
C. S. Lewis

Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement.
C. S. Lewis

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, "What! You too? I thought I was the only one!"
C. S. Lewis

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.
C. S. Lewis

How incessant and great are the ills with which a prolonged old age is replete.
C. S. Lewis

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
C. S. Lewis

If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning: just as, if there were no light in the universe and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know it was dark. Dark would be without meaning.
C. S. Lewis

If we could know which of us, darling, would be the first to go, who would be first to breast the swelling tide and step alone upon the other side - if we could know!
C. S. Lewis

If we cut up beasts simply because they cannot prevent us and because we are backing our own side in the struggle for existence, it is only logical to cut up imbeciles, criminals, enemies, or capitalists for the same reasons.
C. S. Lewis

If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.
C. S. Lewis

It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.
C. S. Lewis

It's so much easier to pray for a bore than to go and see one.
C. S. Lewis

Let's pray that the human race never escapes from Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere.
C. S. Lewis

Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.
C. S. Lewis

Long before history began we men have got together apart from the women and done things. We had time.
C. S. Lewis

Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.
C. S. Lewis

Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.
C. S. Lewis

Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours.
C. S. Lewis

Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive.
C. S. Lewis

Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.
C. S. Lewis

Some people feel guilty about their anxieties and regard them as a defect of faith [but] they are afflictions, not sins. Like all afflictions, they are, if we can so take them, our share in the passion of Christ.
C. S. Lewis

Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey 'people.' People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war... Each instinct, if you listen to it, will claim to be gratified at the expense of the rest...
C. S. Lewis

The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.
C. S. Lewis

The greatest evil is not done in those sordid dens of evil that Dickens loved to paint but is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clear, carpeted, warmed, well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices.
C. S. Lewis

The real Oxford is a close corporation of jolly, untidy, lazy, good-for-nothing humorous old men, who have been electing their own successors ever since the world began and who intend to go on with it. They'll squeeze under the Revolution or leap over it when the time comes, don't you worry.
C. S. Lewis

The safest road to hell is the gradual one-the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.
C. S. Lewis

The very idea of freedom presupposes some objective moral law which overarches rulers and ruled alike. Subjectivism about values is eternally incompatible with democracy. We and our rulers are of one kind only so long as we are subject to one law. But if there is no Law of Nature, the ethos of any society is the creation of its rulers, educators and conditioners; and every creator stands above and outside his own creation.
C. S. Lewis

Thirty was so strange for me. I've really had to come to terms with the fact that I am now a walking and talking adult.
C. S. Lewis

This is one of the miracles of love: It gives a power of seeing through its own enchantments and yet not being disenchanted.
C. S. Lewis

We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive.
C. S. Lewis

We are what we believe we are
C. S. Lewis

What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step.
C. S. Lewis

What seem our worst prayers may really be, in God's eyes, our best. Those, I mean, which are least supported by devotional feeling. For these may come from a deeper level than feeling. God sometimes seems to speak to us most intimately when he catches us, as it were, off our guard.
C. S. Lewis

With the possible exception of the equator, everything begins somewhere.
C. S. Lewis

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.
C. S. Lewis

You can't get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.
C. S. Lewis

You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.
C. S. Lewis

You play the hand you're dealt. I think the game's worthwhile.
C. S. Lewis

Another Scott Mutter surrational image 

I'd rather have two quarters

Ok a lame title for a rant against that marketing phenonmenon that is 50-cent.

I like rap, but this rapper drives me absolutely batty. I turned on MTV 2 late at night at the gym hoping to catch a few videos during my workout. Instead it was th G-UNIT POSSE on the spring break stuff. I screamed out in a loud burst of agony. NOT 50-CENT again. There he was, oggling all of the women, singing CANDY SHOP. Wasn't Headbangers Ball on about this time on the weekends?

Now I admit, his initial release had me hooked for a while, but subsequent releases as well as his biography have turned me adamantly against his music. Why? First, there is nothing redeemable about any of his music. Wheras with Eminem you can hear him coming from a honest and pure place, bearing his heart, you dont hear that with 50-cent. All is you hear is the "hump-me hump-me" crap stated to varying degrees of explicitness. That and he is still an active member and participant in his gang and their activities in New York, and unapologetically so. His music would have been out on Columbia Records a couple of years earlier if he would not have gotten his rear end shot several times...well his rear end and about half of the rest of his body.

Now, it is not have this element has not always been in rap, but much of rap was somewhat more defensible. Even Chris Rock in his most recent stand up offering for video from HBO said basically the same thing. (That he used to be able to defend rap, but it is getting harder and harder to have an intelligent arguement in favor of.)

Then it has come to me. I am just getting old. That is what I thought when I started watching the SPRING BREAK deal with all these teens jumping all around. I just dont get it...I AM TOO DAMN OLD.

So now if you will excuse me, I am going to listen to some Bel Biv Devoe, Tupac, and MC Hammer.

BABY YOUUUUU GOT WHAT I NEEEEEEEEED. CANT TOUCH THIS!

The Currency of Love

Last night we had an interesting discussion.

One person said, "Sometimes I feel like God's love is too big for me. It is like I reach out to grab it and I cannot wrap my arms around it."

Another person said, "The fact that God and his love are bigger than me gives me comfort. If God were big enough to understand and comprehend he would big enough for me to manipulate, and I know that is exactly what I would do."

I chimed in, "Maybe God's love is not something that you try and grab a hold of, it is something you let flow through you. It is like standing in a river and letting the water flow past you, through you, and all around you. You can't grab a hold of it, the best you can do is flow with it."

I don't know if that made anyone else think, but it sure has made me think about God's love a little differently.

Another Pike's Peak Pic 

Pike's Peak--Both Pikes Peak and Garden of the Gods are right here where I live 

Garden of the Gods 

Perhaps the most interesting Scott Mutter picture yet--a revolving door inside a tombstone. Mutter notes that is important to notice that you cannot see what is on the other side of the door. 

The way I was feeling for most of the day 

Messiness and Faith

Life is messy. Faith is messy. Church is messy.

I was thinking about all this, especially since my office in directly across the hall from the staff bathroom.

Sometimes it seems all we humans are is a combination of bad smells, strange noises, and discharges of fluids. Most of the most pleasurable experiences of our lives include a combination of two or all three of these. And yet, in polite human company, we try to deny that any or all of these exist. Think of most of the cuss words you know...don't they have to do with the acknowledgement of our messiness as biological creatures?

Why do we spend so much time trying to deny our earthiness? We cover up with things that make us smell good. We get grossed out when someone passes gas. We feel it impolite most of the time to talk about sex openly. We have surgery to hide our bodily imperfections. Not that some of this is not helpful in helping us to relate, but sometimes I think we go overboard. We want to think of ourselves as somehow disembodied in an emotional and spiritual way from our spirits.

The truth is that we have resurrection bodies as well as resurrected spirits. And to be honest, our spiritual life can often be as messy as our biology. Or, at least, perhaps it should be. Maybe we try to segment our selves spiritually from the messiness of life. So we have our little spiritual life segmented off from the rest of us. Biblically, this is called gnosticism. The problem with this is that a spirit only grows when it is exposed to and encounters the messiness of life.

Think of a flower. How do we get a lot of our plants and flowers to grow. Fertilizer. Very messy. Dirt. Also messy. But it is growing through this messy soil covered with even more messy manure that life thrives and grows. Our spirits are the same way. It is through the messiness of heartache, lonliness, stupid financial decisions, anger, and frustration that we find ways to become authentic, real, beautiful, and faithful.

More Anne Lammott quotes

Age has given me what I was looking for my entire life-it has given me ME.

I live by the truth that "NO" is a complete sentence. I rest as a spiritual act.

Rubble is the ground on which our deepest friendships are built.

Its not that I think less of myself, its that I think of myself less often.

The opposite of faith is not doubt, but certainty

It is good to do uncomfortable things. It is weight training for life

Faith is not about how we feel, but how we live.

This drives me crazy, that God seems to have no taste, no standards. Yet on most days, this is what gives me hope.

Moses led his people in circles for forty years that they could get ready for the promised land, because they had too many preconceptions about what a promised land should look like.

The reason I never give up hope is that everything is basically hopeless.

Hope is not logical. It always comes by surprise, just when you think hope all hope is lost.

Fake doesn't feed anything.

....we live in darkness. People know this by the time they are twenty-one; if they don't they are seriously disturbed.

A few Annie Lammott quotes

These are all from Plan B: Further thoughts on faith

God doesn't expect or want you to get it together before you come along, because you can't get it together until you come along. (132)

When God is going to do something wonderful, He or she always starts with a hardship; when God is going to do something amazing He or She starts with an impossibility. (34)

"Help" is a prayer that is always answered. (37)

a cute little cartoon 

Dali's Battle in the Clouds 

Dali's Christ of St. John of the Cross 

God sized tasks and God sized dreams

The other day a friend and I were doing a Bible study on the call of different people in the Bible into God's service. As we read it became apparent that everyone had an excuse on why they could not do what God asked them to do. It was very interesting. It was also very interesting that most of them felt very insecure about what God was asking them to do. They wondered aloud to God if they were good enough people to do what they asked, if they were polished enough speakers to stand up in front of groups, if they were they were too young or too old to do what God was calling them to do. Great leaders like Moses, Isaiah, and Peter were scared that if they tried to do what God asked them to do they would fail. God asked them to those things anyway.

It is interesting to note what God does and what God does not say to the people he calls. God does not tell them that they are wrong about their limitations. He does not tell them that they need a little bit of therapy. He does not accept their excuses as valid. How does God respond? Very often, God simply says, "I will go with you", or "I will help you", or "I will make you into the person that you need to be." God does mess with "our reality" about ourselves, but he does not leave in the mess and mire of self-deprecation either.

Part of the reason God does not argue with the great leaders of the Bible when they offer up their shortcomings and inabilities as excuses is that he does not call us to manageable tasks. He calls us to God-sized dreams, and God-sized tasks. Part of committing to the way of Jesus is committing to something that is bigger than yourself. God does not argue with our excuses because he knows that the things that he wants to do in us and through us are bigger than what we can handle on our own. But then, he tells us that he is not going to leave us alone. It is God's presence with us that makes all the difference.

It is also interesting to note when God approaches the people that he calls out to serve him in the Bible. He does this calling in the basic, ordinary moments of life. When Moses is shepherding, God speaks to him through a bush. God speaks to Peter about being his disciple on a fishing boat�at Peter�s run-of-the mill workplace. God comes to Gideon while he is at his second job on the swing shift. God wakes up Jonah in the middle of an afternoon nap.

God does the same for us. He comes to us in the ordinariness of our everyday lives, and he calls us to something bigger than what we are living. We meet someone at work that challenges us to be more open about sharing our faith. We drive by a need in our community and we say, �Someone should help out with that!,� and then we realize that someone is us. We see a need in helping in the nursery, children�s church, or with youth group at church, but we wonder if we are good with children or youth. Listen! God is whispering in your ear, "I will be with you! I will help you! When you go and do on my behalf you do not go alone. I will give you the power and the strength."

In fact, the one clear way that I have discovered to truly experience God�s power and God's presence in your life is to stand up when he calls and say, "Here am I, send me!" Doesn't God�s command to bring his love to the entire world end, "and I am with you always, even to the end of the age" ? (Matt 28:18-20).

The same is true in our church as a whole. God is calling us to dream big. He asks us to see a future that is not necessarily visible yet. Some of these tasks seem manageable. Some of these tasks seem impossible. But thank God as we move forward with God that we serve a God who specializes in the impossible, and yet meets us right where we are at in the ordinary moments of our everyday lives. Let us listen for the God-sized tasks and God-sized dreams that God has in front of us, and move boldly into the future that God has in store, knowing that he will do lots more than we could ever imagine or ask Him to do.

A Funny e-mail from Becca

New Evening Classes For Men -- Starting next month.

Note: Due to the complexity and level of difficulty,
each course will accept a maximum of eight
participants each. sign up early and get a discount on
registration.

1. HOW TO FILL ICE-CUBE TRAYS.
Step by step with slide presentation.

2. TOILET PAPER: DOES IT GROW ON THE HOLDERS?
Roundtable discussion.

3. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE LAUNDRY BASKET AND THE
FLOOR.
Practicing with hamper. Pictures and graphics.

4. THE AFTER-DINNER DISHES AND SILVERWARE: DO THEY
LEVITATE AND FLY INTO KITCHEN SINK OR DISHWASHER BY
THEMSELVES?
Debate among panel of experts.

5. LOSS OF VIRILITY: LOSING THE REMOTE CONTROL TO YOUR
SIGNIFICANT OTHER.
Help line and support groups.

6. LEARNING HOW TO FIND THINGS, STARTING WITH LOOKING
IN THE RIGHT PLACE INSTEAD OF TURNING THE HOUSE UPSIDE
DOWN WHILE SCREAMING.
Open forum.

7. HEALTH WATCH: BRINGING HER FLOWERS IS NOT HARMFUL
TO YOUR HEALTH.
Power Point presentation.

8. REAL MEN ASK FOR DIRECTIONS WHEN LOST.
Real-life testimonial from the one man who did.

9. IS IT GENETICALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO SIT QUIETLY AS SHE
PARALLEL PARKS?
Driving simulation.

10. LIVING WITH ADULTS: BASIC DIFFERENCES BETWEEN YOUR
MOTHER AND YOUR WIFE.
Role playing.

11. HOW TO BE THE IDEAL SHOPPING COMPANION.
Relaxation exercises, meditation and breathing
techniques

12. REMEMBERING BIRTHDAYS, ANNIVERSARIES, OTHER
IMPORTANT DATES AND CALLING WHEN YOU'RE GOING TO BE
LATE.
Bring your calendar or PDA to class.

13. GETTING OVER IT. LEARNING TO LIVE WITH BEING WRONG
ALL THE TIME.
Individual counselors available.

Other quotes from St Francis de Sales and Luther

Those who love to be feared fear to be loved.
Saint Francis de Sales

Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections.
Saint Francis de Sales

When you encounter difficulties and contradictions, do not try to break them, but bend them with gentleness and time.
Saint Francis de Sales

Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace, so sure and certain that a man could stake his life on it a thousand times.
Martin Luther

God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees, and flowers, and clouds, and stars.
Martin Luther

If I am not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don't want to go there.
Martin Luther

Nothing good ever comes of violence.
Martin Luther

Pray, and let God worry.
Martin Luther

The Lord commonly gives riches to foolish people, to whom he gives nothing else.
Martin Luther

War is the greatest plague that can affect humanity; it destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it.
Martin Luther

When I am angry I can pray well and preach well.
Martin Luther

Who loves not women, wine and song remains a fool his whole life long.
Martin Luther

From the "Golden Tongued" Preacher of the Early Church

A comprehended god is no god.
John Chrysostom

Hell is paved with priests' skulls.
John Chrysostom

No one can harm the man who does himself no wrong.
John Chrysostom

Nothing is more fallacious than wealth. It is a hostile comrade, a domestic enemy.
John Chrysostom

Slander is worse than cannibalism.
John Chrysostom

Poor human reason, when it trusts in itself, substitutes the strangest absurdities for the highest divine concepts.
John Chrysostom

Soren's Sayings

Boredom is the root of all evil - the despairing refusal to be oneself.
Soren Kierkegaard

During the first period of a man's life the greatest danger is not to take the risk.
Soren Kierkegaard

God creates out of nothing. Wonderful you say. Yes, to be sure, but he does what is still more wonderful: he makes saints out of sinners.
Soren Kierkegaard

It is so hard to believe because it is so hard to obey.
Soren Kierkegaard

Just as in earthly life lovers long for the moment when they are able to breathe forth their love for each other, to let their souls blend in a soft whisper, so the mystic longs for the moment when in prayer he can, as it were, creep into God.
Soren Kierkegaard

Once you label me you negate me.
Soren Kierkegaard

The tyrant dies and his rule is over, the martyr dies and his rule begins.
Soren Kierkegaard

Purity of heart is to will one thing
Guess who??

Imbalanced

After reading Heather's post on wondering if she is too busy (a valid concern from the sounds of it), several people started talking about the necessity of balance.

I hate the word balance when it talks to life. It is like the word moderate when one speaks of politics. Both are passionless words. And, passionlessness to me is death.

Now, I am not always the guy to wear my heart on my sleeve. I can be downright stoic and detached at times. But, I have no concept for balancing my life so that my faith is one little segment, and my work is another little segment, and my friendships are another little segment. ICK!

For me life is life, and I throw my self into life with all my heart. And, my identity as person who has dedicated my life to loving others and loving God with all my heart. It is not something that I do with part of my life, it is something that drives my whole life.

Here are a couple of things other people have wrote that better summarize what I have to say:

I am part of the "Fellowship of the Unashamed."
The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line.
The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ.
I won't look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still.
My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure.
I am finished and done with low living, sight walking,
small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams,
chintzy giving, and dwarfed goals.

I no longer need pre-eminence, prosperity, position,
promotions, plaudits, or popularity.
I now live by presence, lean by faith, love by patience,
lift by prayer, and labor by power.
My pace is set, my gait is fast, my goal is Heaven,
my road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions few,
my Guide reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought,
compromised, deterred, lured away, turned back,
diluted, or delayed.

I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the
presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of the enemy,
ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander
in the maze of mediocrity.

I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I must go until
Heaven returns, give until I drop, preach until all know,
and work until He comes. And when He comes to get
His own, He will have no problem recognizing me.
My colors will be clear.

From Nelson Mandela's Innaugral Address:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?... Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to manifest the glory of God within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." - From Nelson Mandela's inaugural speech (1994)-

Korean Nativity