Rooms I painted

Proverbs from CT magazine

If you can talk, you can sing
if you can walk , you can dance.
African Proverb

Worry often gives a small thing
a big shadow
Swedish Proverb

Man plans; God laughs
Yiddish Saying

A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's book
Irish proverb

When elephants fight, the grass is always the one that suffers
Swahili saying

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, the second best time is today
Chinese proverb

From Friday in OCC with Jen

From right to left:
Kayleigh, Paris, Emily, and Ben...
the C-Springs kids from FBC of Colorado Springs and Emmanuel Baptist Church 

Pictures on Gulfport Beach

Am I painting the wall

I spilled pain in my pocket twice. How embarassing! Here is the picture of me finishing up the room. Here is more of the story of our week including a reflection by me HERE

The Friar fails linguistics

Most of the day today on our work trip I have been running errands in the van. I am the driver on the trip so it meant lots of errands and such while everyone else does home renovation for victims of Katrina. However, I did get to the owners of one house. He was describing how being handicapped and being in a FEMA trailer is not the most healthy thing when trying to get healthier. And then he pointed to his son, and in a deep Southern African-American accent pointed to his son and said what I thought was "That is Harry, and he is our autistic child"

So I went to talk to Harry, and after one minute of carrying on a conversation with him (or trying) he said a bunch of things that did not really make sense, and said something I did not quite understand. Then I realized that I need to get a better ear for the accents in these parts, because he identified his son not as ARTISTIC but AUTISTIC.

I am a moron.

At the waterpark in Gulfport

Starting tomorrow I will be on a mission trip to Mississippi to help rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. 

A good reminder

 

Actually it is Matthew 3:1

 

Standing Bold, Standing Strong

I just turned down a job today. I took Monday and Tuesday off of work to interview for the job, and on the drive home decided that it was not for me.

There were several things that were interesting about the whole process. First, I never imagined I would spend so much time in an interview process talking about the content of my blog. In your blog you said this about your current position.... and In your blog you seem to deal with this.....it was surreal. I almost felt like a rockstar facing the poparazzi.

In particular they focused in on two things. One was my personal journey of ministry, especially as it pertains to being here in Colorado Springs. I have made no bones inside and outside of this church community that this has been a difficult road for me here in Colorado Springs. I have went from feeling accomplished and successful to feeling trapped and destined to fail in many ways. In many of those posts I was raw, and straight forward about what I felt and how I felt. And it was out there for all the world to see. And, to this day, I dont regret talking about those things at all. Not only is my openness and authenticity one of my key strengths in my blog, it is one of the key strengths in my life and in my ministry. And it is a key step in my journey toward health and wholeness, even if it hurts me a little in professional circles.

The other, strangely enough, was my occasional mention of moderate use of alcohol (I have never been drunk). One person on the hiring committee was concerned that this would affect the youth ministry adversely. An somewhat understandable concern. The committee wanted to be unanimous, so they decided to enter a two week discernment process on what they should do. And that they should review my blog for concerns in the meantime.

In the process I was told that I was too open and too self-disclosing in this forum by other members of the hiring team. I honestly think that this was more about them than me. I think that these people wanted me to come work with them and were frustrated that what I shared was hurting that process. And since I like these people and respect them, I wanted to see if they had a word of wisdom for me. So, I went back to December 2004. I re-read my entire blog over the last year and a half. And I asked myself....should I be sharing what I am sharing? Am I too open--enough so that I dont have proper boundaries?

And I discovered about 3 things that I wondered if they should have been shared. One was about struggles with dating, and included discovering someone was married in the middle of the first date. (I did admit to also having a drink she made on that date, I did not mention that she was African-American). But being as I did not do anything wrong on that date...and the story was pretty dang funny, I kept it on my blog.

Another was the purchase of a calandar called "Prarie Girls" this spring. I was a fairly modest calandar of women looking pretty and appearing to work on a farm. It was $4. This probably was not the wisest decision to blog about or to purchase. I was feeling ornery. Which, for anyone who knows me, tends to happen a little bit. So, I regretted posting it, but I left it anyway.

Finally, I posted a joke about a pretend forthcoming film with Halle Berry and Jessica Alba called--"Brokeback 2: America's Next Blockbuster". It was a fake movie poster. A little wrong I admit. But several months later I still looked at the pic and thought....dang that is pretty dang funny. So I left it up there as well.

In the process, I got to look back at my journey since that day in December 2004 when I started this blog. And that was a very enlightening experience.

I started blogging to somehow, someway begin devleoping my writing skills and demonstrating them to a broader audience. I do that still, but less often than before. Then it also became a social endeavor, getting to meet and know people throughout the world. That continues to go well. Also, my blogging experience has allowed me to network with leaders in ministry and youth ministry. I am grateful for that, and even got a few books out of the deal. And, my bloggging experience has become a learning experience, getting to read about lots of different things and different perspectives.

But most of all, as I reviewed, it was interesting to look at the journey of my life over the last two years. It has been fun to see the highs and the lows. To relive the joys and to try and skim over the failures. To see how I have learned and grown in the process of what has become in many ways a spiritual discipline.

And, most of all, to see through all of the waves that I have riden through in the last two years, that I am still standing bold and standing strong.

Makes me miss being up north

I saw this picture of Senator Murkowski online today. She won the fishing tournament designed as a fundraiser to support fishing habitat preservation and development on the Kenai River. My first guess is that this was either taken at the college fishing hole or one of the two off the main drag in town. Surprisingly no democratic senators participated in this environmental fundraiser. The fundraiser collected $800,000 for protecting fish habitat on the Kenai.

I think this pic from the looks of things was taken somewhere in Soldotna...whcere my mom teaches school and my uncle is the city engineer. Actually, my uncle has done some stuff for habitat protection while supporting sportfishing acessability. In recognition of this they named his favorite fishing hole "Bonebrake Boardwalk" after him. or maybe he named it himself, but I dont think so.

Racism and ol' Sigmund

When I lived in Montana my final year I had a small group of freshman boys. Some of them were popular. One of them I had to drive home from church everytime he came to youth group. His name was Jim. His parents lived in a trailer. His dad was a trucker. Many would have considered them rednecks.

Thus, when I was driving Jim home one night I almost had to pull over due to uncontrolled laughter when Jim and I had this conversation:

"Clint," Jim said

"What are you thinking?" I answered

"You know after we had this conversation about racism and how it was wrong and all that," Jim relplied (Our teaching for that week corresponded with MLK Jr. day)

"Yes," I answered trying to focus on the winter road in the dark and look out for deer.

"Well...I have this theory....I think racism is stupid...and I think all racism is penis envy." Jim said animatedly.

I didn't really have an answer for him. I was laughing to hard to say a word

Birthday list--Part 1

1. Casual Male Big and Tall Gift Cert

2. A tent (that sleeps at least four...none of these tinie tiny ones)

3. Tires for the car

4. Battery for the car (still working but doesnt pack the punch it used to)

5. Itunes Gift Certificate

6. Tennis Shoes (size 15)

7. a plug in thing for my laptop

8. a year long subscription to t-mobile hot spot.

My birthday is August 13

Quote no more

Most of my quote collections will also be on the Nanook blog from now on.

I was wrong

I have read further through The Secret Message of Jesus, and now it seems to be to be more utterly brilliant and original that it was upon my first observation. Instead of NT Wright for dummies, think NT Wright meets Henri Nouwen meets Eugene Peterson. Or, if you are more comforable with a blue-collar title for a book, think Christian mysticism for anal retentives.

There is a lot to say about the book, but it is interesting how far McLaren takes the "secrecy" metaphor of living as a disciple of Christ. And in doing so, in typical humble and self-effacing fashion, McLaren slowly deconstructs American Christianity's love affair with wealth, fame, and success as measures of faithfulness.

He talks about how Jesus was born in an out of the way place. How he speaks in parables that people have to work to understand. How Jesus carries out signs and wonders that inspire more questions and answers then and now than they do answer questions.

Don't think for a minute that with this metaphor for secrecy McLaren is trying to convince us to be secretive and unopen about our faith. He talks about faith being an open secret...and our responsibility to share our faith with others. Although he does point out how Jesus teaches spiritual disciplines of secrecy, such as giving to the poor, prayer and fasting, etc.

But all in all, the secrecy metaphor is all about how the gospel of Christ defies our attempts to try and define it and control it. Faith is something that needs to be lived. And to live by faith in the God of the Bible, we will always be subversive secret agents, misunderstood mystics, countercultural advocates for love, compassion and non-violence. And that this will be true especially for disciples that are embedded in a Christian culture. When we are faithful to Jesus we will always be on the verge of failure, always being surprising people, always being revolutionaries against the status quo of the world. And the church.

Other Blogs

I have several other little blogs hanging around for different reasons:

Nanook's notes and theories--this is something encouraged by a friend who laughs at me when I say, "I have a theory about that"..which I have learned I say quite often. This is an online log of my theories as the come to me. Very brief posts.

My Space Poetry--This is a collection of poetry, all of which is also shared on this site

Scripture Snippets--This is a devotional blog I have not paid much attention to lately.

The Secret Message of Jesus

Much like John Ortberg called a lot of his books "Dallas Willard for dummies" this most recent book from McLaren could best be called "NT Wright for dummies" at a lot of points.

Which isnt a bad thing. Not at all...that is in part what I think he was trying to accomplish.

But it is what it is.