Or maybe two or three.
I made a decision last year sometime. I don’t remember when it was. But I remembered it this year and I had time to make good on it. The decision was that I would make our Christmas gifts for extended family members. I think the decision began sometime around “Make Something Day,” but by then it was too late for me. Especially since I had 35 people in my house that day. And it took me … uh … weeks to recuperate.
This year is different. We’re not having a big, ornate Thanksgiving. The day after LightHusband is taking the LightKids to go play paintball with one of his compatriots at work. Most importantly, we are not painting the house all autumn. On the other hand … this means that the house is all wrecky. And making me slightly insane.
So I have spent the last several days pouring through tutorial websites, blogs and magazines finding cool things to make for my nieces, nephews, siblings, in-laws, out-laws, etc. There was a condition though. I had to have most, if not all, of the materials on hand for the project. And it has to be fairly simple. In other words, these gifts have to be made out of stuff I already have and not take too much time or energy. There will be a few things I have to purchase (like some plastic mesh to make a fabric garage & doll house). But for the most part, I will be able to make these gifts with stuff I already have.
Then I spent an inordinate amount of time organizing myself. Making lists of what I would make and in what order. I’m using Evernote to keep track of all the websites and people/gift recipients, and I’m using Things to keep track of the when and how. If you’re also interested in making your gifts this year, start with Sew Mama Sew. It’s a group blog and they’re doing gift tutorials every day this month that link to other blogs, which (of course, branch out to others. For even more inspiration, they did this last year, so if you click on “November 2007” you get even more ideas. Everyday they have gift ideas centered on a particular theme (such as teachers, or books or cold weather) with tutorials, gifts to buy that are handmade, patterns to buy and then homemade food recipes (like homemade marshmallows! yum!).
Mission number two involves the hockey team (what else?). We’re traveling out of state about 12 days before Christmas to play a couple of games. This involves a hotel stay. I usually organize some activity while we’re in the hotel to prevent large groups of young women from roaming the corridors in the evening teeheeing and making too much noise for the other guests. The girls don’t seem to understand that no one else wants to hear them. So for this trip I’m organizing dinner out and then a Christmas party back at the hotel. I thought it would be a good idea (based on some discussions last year) if the Christmas party were to involve some sort of charitable activity/donation to a local shelter. So I have to call them this morning and find out what we might be able to do for them in that situation. That’s just an extra wrinkle in my planning/organizing. I’ve found a bunch of fun games for the tween/teen set that can be played in a hotel setting. We’ll be having fun.
Mission number three is to return to my old tradition of making plum pudding this year. I use my Welsh great, great grandmother’s recipe handed down to me by my grandmother. I dropped it for a couple of years because I was having such a difficult time finding suet, among other things. But I think I can find it again this year. So I’ll be making my plum puddings in a couple of weeks. Ready to go for Christmas dinner. YUM!!
UPDATE: Eureka! I found the suet at a small local butcher shop about 7 miles out of town. When giving directions, the man told it was next to some antique shops and he said, “But you have to spend more here than on antiques,” in a gravelly southern accent. I cheerfully assured him I’d rather have some good beef than an antique (never mentioning that this close to DC they’re likely to be overpriced junk in any case). I’m going to pick it up this afternoon. And dig out my grandmother’s recipe to get the rest of the ingredients this weekend.
In all, though, my missions seem to be taking me away from the computer. In addition, I’m trying to do more reading and I have some quilts that are slowly being pieced as well. So if you don’t see me very much around here, don’t worry. I’m still here. Just trying to be faithful to my missions and get them accomplished. You’ll prob’ly see more of me in the New Year. As I stay off the roads while LightGirl learns to drive!!!
Sometime during the last week or so, LightBoy came to me with a request for his Halloween costume this year.”I want to be a Blues Brother, Mom.”
It kinda took me by surprise. I had no idea where he came by that idea. I last saw that movie when it was in theaters and I think I was in high school, or maybe in college. Shortly after that there was a conversation dripping in disdain between he and LightGirl concerning the relative importance of the Blues Brothers. It ended with LightBoy reporting confidently, “Well, of course, they’re important! They INVENTED the blues.” I struggled mightily to keep from bursting into laughter at this and decided that it was time for my kids to be initiated into the comedic genius of John Belushi.
So it was that we watched “The Blues Brothers” for Friday’s family movie night. It turned out that in the intervening 25-ish years I’d forgotten quite a bit. No surprise there. It’s still a really funny movie. There’s quite a bit of, um, language in it. But since I was a naive 18 year old when I saw it the first time, I had no idea how many jazz and blues greats had been assembled to make that movie. Or how many blues tunes were in it. It was really amazing from that perspective as well.
Of course, the plot was very, very thin. Jake (John Belushi) gets released from prison. Jake & Elwood (Dan Ackroyd) go to visit the orphanage they were raised in. It is about to be auctioned off for delinquent taxes and is run by nuns, with an aged caretaker (Cab Calloway). Jake & Elwood decide to gather together their band and raise the back taxes. There are plot twists, etc. At every obstacle, Elwood responds, “We’re on a mission from God.” It’s his assurance that they will overcome every hurdle no matter how broad or high. It keeps them focused and on task. Ultimately and hilariously they do prevail, just in front of the police, the US Army, the “American Nazi Party,” and who knows else. The taxes are paid, the orphanage saved, but Jake & Elwood are triumphantly lead away in handcuffs.
I’ve been thinking about the movie quite a bit in the days since we watched it. It was funny, no doubt about it. Elwood’s signature line has been often repeated around our house with great glee and laughter. “We’re on a mission from God.” and it would lead him to some fairly nefarious behavior; behavior that inevitably involved fast cars or other silliness.
I’ve been thinking though, about how often we do that. We all do it. We think we’re on a mission from God; we’ve got righteousness on our side and so we can act with aplomb. Because our ends are right, we will somehow escape the consequences of our behavior. Or it may be that we won’t escape the consequences of our behavior, but those consequences will be worth it, just as they were for Jake & Elwood.
I’ve been wondering though about the detritus that we leave in our wake. If you watch that video (which is sped up and is really a montage), you see what happens when Jake and Elwood become so hyper-focused on getting the tax money to the office on time. The analogy has limits, I’ll admit, but then again, maybe it doesn’t . How many times do we do the same thing? How often do we think that we have to do something, that we cannot entrust a task to someone else and the cars pile up in our wake? All because, “we’re on a mission from God.”
How many times do we think that getting to an end point involves skirting the edges of the law or ethical behavior, maybe even falling over the edge, and that’s alright because, “we’re on a mission from God?” But the cars pile up in our wake.
So the question I’m posing today is this: does being on a “mission from God” excuse one’s behavior? Does being “right” or “correct” trump the commands given by Jesus in Matthew 22? Or is there something in there that will help us do both, that is be correct and be loving at the same time … without having the cars pile up behind us?
… but I might revise it later
So, as you know I’ve been on vacation. No television (thus no Olympics to squander my braincells). Lots of porch time for pondering. I’ve been doing a lot of reading. I’ve been trying to catch up on my belated Ooze reading (and I have … sort of). Then my brother came and landed a new book in my lap. My mom insisted I read it … first … so I could send it on to my other brother and his wife. Okay.
It’s an easy read. Well, the reading is easy and engaging. But it pulls you into some deep deep thinking too. Dangerous territory. The book is “In Defense Of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto” by Michael Pollan. You might recognize him as the author of “Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “The Botany of Desire.”
As I’ve been reading this book, the Lakeland Revival and Todd Bentley have been unraveling rather publicly. You can read blogger opinions about it in various places. I (of course) have been following Kingdom Grace (start with Apostolic Bullshit and then read parts II and III), Brother Maynard, Bill Kinnon and iMonk (among others). In a post the other day, Bro M asked the question whether or not Christians are more gullible than the rest of the general population. And something that has been unsettled in my head clicked into place. This post is a result of that click; perhaps it was an epiphany or maybe it’s just a rant … I’ll let you be the judge.
As I first jumped into the book I found it striking how closely it paralleled the Christian sub-culture. Quotes such as this jumped out at me:
“The story of how the most basic questions about what to eat ever got so complicated reveals a great deal about the institutional imperatives of the food industry, nutrition science, and – ahem – journalism, three parties that stand to gain much from widespread confusion surrounding the most elemental question an omnivore confronts. But humans deciding what to eat without professional guidance—something they have been doing with notable success since comgin down out of the trees—is seriously unprofitable if you’re a food company, a definite career loser if you’re a nutritionist, and just plain boring if you’re a newspaper editor or reporter. (Or, for that matter, an eater. Who wants to hear, yet again, that you should “eat more fruits and vegetables.”?) And so like a large gray cloud, a great Conspiracy of Scientific Complexity has gathered around the simplest questions of nutrition—much to the advantage of everyone involved. Except perhaps the supposed beneficiary of all this nutritional advice: us, and our health and happiness as eaters.”
Then there’s this:
The first thing to understand about nutritionism is that it is not the same thing as nutrition. As the “-ism” suggests, it is not a scientific subject, but an ideology. Ideologies are ways of organizing large swaths of life and experience under a set of shared but unexamined assumptions. This quality makes an ideology particularly hard to see, at least while it’s still exerting its hold on your culture. A reigning ideology is a little like the weather—all pervasive and so virtually impossible to escape. Still we can try. (italics mine for emphasis)
Well, I won’t bore you with the quotes on all of the pages I’ve flagged, just tell you that this book looks like a veritable rainbow when you see the long page edge of it shut.
Michael Pollan does a masterful job telling us that it is highly likely that the source of many of our health ills (from diabetes to depression, heart diseases to hyper-activity) in the modern world is the so-called “Western Diet.” That diet composed of refined sugar, refined grains and refined fats. We have so depleted our soil that we are now both overweight and starving ourselves to death. It’s the Modern paradox.
(Aside … I’m particularly fond of Michael because he outs soy as a modern evil. I’ve been convinced for years that soy will be our downfall and refuse to consume it in any form if I can help it –I’m also highly allergic to it–but now you know what my tinfoil hat is 😉 )
So what, you would be correct in asking, does any of this have to do with Todd Bentley and the unraveling of the Lakeland Revival? Nothing at all. And … well … everything.
You see, a long time ago, and not so long ago when you look at it in the grand scheme of things, we humans relied on each other for advice. We relied on our elders to teach us how to walk in the world, how to behave, what were good things to eat, what weren’t, who the charlatans were and who they weren’t. We lived in close community with one another. Sometimes that was painful and ugly. Sometimes it was beautiful. But regardless, the advice we got from each other was given by people who knew one another with some level of intimacy and (here’s the important part) the giver of the advice didn’t have a horse in the race. In other words, the giver of the advice wasn’t going to receive remuneration or paybacks for any kind of change in the behavior of the receiver of the advice.
Things have changed rather dramatically in the last 100 or so years. Now we pay for advice that used to come from the elders in our communities. Not only do we pay for it, but in paying for it, we subsidize those who stand to gain the most from our receiving their words of wisdom. We change, and they get paid twice. Something is amiss.
Or this example: meningitis. A drug company has developed a vaccine for meningitis. I know this because LightGirl recently went in for a physical. She was offered a vaccination for meningitis. We took it. But I was blind-sided by it. I’m not so certain it was necessary or right. The doctor presented it as a good thing, the insurance company covered it. So … no big deal. Not really. But she’s young enough that she’ll need a booster before college and no one really knows the long term effects of this vaccine. Really. And what is this vaccinating against? What are the realistic chances that she’ll contract viral meningitis? Uh … slim and none … realistically. When I look at it, the doctor had every reason to “sell” this vaccine to me and the drug company had every reason to “sell” it to him. I had virtually no opportunity to sit back and peruse the situation from a dispassionate vantage point and the doctor? He had horse in the race. I was not getting unbiased information from him. Now he’s a good doctor, LightGirl is not disadvantaged by having this vaccine that we know of. My point is … we don’t know enough. I don’t have enough information to make an informed decision. I only have enough information to make a decision that benefits the person giving me advice.
I can never have enough information to make that informed decision … because I cannot get outside the box of the medical ideology that permeates our culture to find that kind of information.
Here’s where I find my theory of everything in the nexus between this book and Lakeland. My generation (Gen X believe it or not) and Gen Y and Millenials and maybe even Boomers and really anyone alive today have been raised to be distrustful of their elders. We’ve all … all of us … Christians, atheists, Hindus, whoever … religion has nothing to do with this … been taught to believe that only professionals can teach us what to do next. That’s why we look to professionals in every area of our life. We have professional Christians, professional nutritionists, professional child rearing experts (of every stripe) … you name the issue … we have professionals to tell us what to do. Often confusing professionals who dole out conflicting advice which changes every few months or years. So we must keep changing the stuff we purchase … the gadgets, gee-gaws and books … more and more books on every subject under the sun.
The reality is that most of us know … we know … what to do. We know what’s best and good and right and true. We know the right way to be and how to be that way. Or maybe we don’t … but an expert is cannot tell us the best road to choose. Only someone who knows us can give us advice. Only someone who is intimate with what is important to us, can ask the right questions. Sometimes we do know in our heart of hearts that when Sara Lee markets a loaf of bread as “Soft & Smooth Whole Grain White” bread it’s an oxymoronic crock of smelly dung so deep and wide that not even God’s grace can cross it. We don’t buy it and we shouldn’t buy it … not literally and not metaphorically.
It’s not that we (Christians … or anyone else) are necessarily gullible. It’s that we’ve been taught to suspend our native intelligence over and over and over again on so many issues. We’ve been taught by our governments and our religious leaders; our politicians and our teachers to listen to the experts. Listen to the experts and the professionals … they know what they’re talking about.
But they all have a horse in the race. No one ever told us that part. They all … every DAMN ONE OF THEM has something to gain by getting the lot of us to suspend our good judgment and believe their twisted un-truths.
So … are Christians gullible?
Not any more gullible than the Congress of the United States who believed George W. Bush when he said that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, yet it patently did not … according to every single unbiased study that had been done. Hell, I knew it didn’t … a stay at home mom in Virginia.
Not any more gullible than the hordes of people who believed Bill Clinton when he said he hadn’t had sex with Monica Lewinsky or hadn’t smoked marijuana because he hadn’t inhaled.
The problem is not that we’re gullible. The problem is that we’re listening to the wrong “experts.” For hundreds, even thousands of years we listened to people who knew us and were in relationship with us. People who know, for example, that I get wigged out when faced with unexpected trouble (like a car breaking down on my way to college is likely to ruin my entire college career). I have learned over time how to manage those issues better, but my elders who know me, also know to ignore some of my outbursts as, “she’ll get past it.” Not, “let’s medicate that.” Or they might ask a few pertinent questions, such as, “How important is this?” Now we think we need to see an “expert” or a “professional” about the many different issues in our lives … these experts, these professionals have a vested interest in “selling” us something … a way of life, a medicine, a book, something …
So, the next time you get all hyped up about something, remind yourself that you live in a capitalist system. You do. Every thing. Every damn thing costs. So when you ask for or receive advice from an expert or a professional, ask yourself what does that person stand to gain from their advice … even if it appears to be as wholesome as a revival in a church.
So … here it is. Today’s the day. The day of the big synchroblog. The big hitters are writing about this. Fifty of us are writing to define the word “missional.” When Rick sent out his call for this by blog and by e-mail (thank you, Rick), I thought, “Yeah … I do have something to say.” In the intervening weeks though, my scattered thoughts have not gathered themselves.
I am no theologian. I am not trained in exegesis or any of the other long scary unknowable words that people use to make themselves seem smart. I am, at the end of the day, a teacher. And a quilter (I love color) And a story-teller. So I will tell a story and teach a lesson about how I and my family are missional in the suburbs. In our house missional means lawncare … among other things.
It all began with a door to nowhere. Or more precisely, a door to our backyard with a 5 foot drop for a first step. We lived in our house for 3 years with a french door that we could not use because, well, “Watch out for the first step, it’s a lou-lou.” So we had a deck built.
Two guys built it. I think they spoke about 10 words of English between the two of them. Just enough to ask for the bathroom and water when they needed it. We’d go out and admire their workmanship occasionally; they’d smile and nod.
During this time I was caring for a friend’s four children once a week while she and her husband went to marriage counseling. It was the tradition for she and her kids to have dinner with us when the counseling was done. One evening, it happened that the deck makers were also there. We invited them to have dinner with us in the back yard. We’d have eaten in the house, but we had no way to get the grilled meat into the house because of the construction. We set up a plastic banquet table and paper plates. BlazingEwe and her FlamingLambs were here too. The kids ate all over the yard and the grown ups ate together at the table. I remembered about as much Spanish from highschool as they knew English. So we were able to communicate over sticky drumsticks and gooey potato salad. We all ate and smiled until our stomachs and faces were full. It was one of the happiest meals I remember.
We’ve carried on the tradition since then. Whenever people come to work on or around our home, we bring them water or share a meal with them depending on the circumstances. This year, we’ve finally broken down and hired a lawncare service. This has turned out to be a Hispanic man and his sons. We don’t do lawn care with any regularity and our lawn has always been the po’white trash lawn on the block … a certain disgrace to a particular neighbor of ours. It is the elder son who does the talking and negotiating with us. He must be about LightGirl’s age, but sober and sturdy. Responsible, quick and dependable. They come whenever to mow our lawn, if we’re here we pay them, otherwise, they come another time for payment. If we’re here, we take them water. One evening the father was taking a little too long with his part and the sons played joyfully on our trampoline. LightBoy joined them. And the joy was exponential. Our lawn has become beautiful in their capable hands, but more importantly we are slowly building a friendship with them. Our goal is to invite them to a meal soon. To share our hospitality with them.
You see, to me, missional is about giving hope in a world of gray. It’s about smiling at people who routinely wear frowns. I may never have the chance to speak the words of the Gospel to them in my outloud voice. But I can say to my (agnostic) friend when her sense of being gets too tied up in her website, “You are more than that. You are not your website. You are beautiful and created for much more than that.” Help her move beyond despair and into grace.
Missional is about loving my neighbor and that can be expressed in thousands of ways, but the thought that came into my head this morning and will not leave is the verse from Jeremiah that most people use in very different circumstances. Jeremiah 29:11 … “1 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Plans to give hope and a future. You see that’s so often lacking in our world today. Hope … AND a future.
So I speak hope into the lives of the people I know and the people I meet. I try to know them and find the hope that is there. Find the light that leads to the future and together we will walk towards God.
********************************************************************************
This is part of a synchroblog that has been organized by Blind Beggar (Rick Meigs) that is hoping to clarify and define the term “missional.” I have more than likely just muddied the waters with my craziness here. But these other folks will have done a much better job than I, so please read them:
Alan Hirsch Alan Knox Andrew Jones Barb Peters Bill Kinnon Brad Brisco Brad Grinnen Brad Sargent Brother Maynard Bryan Riley Chad Brooks Chris Wignall Cobus Van Wyngaard Dave DeVries David Best David Fitch David Wierzbicki DoSi Doug Jones Duncan McFadzean Erika Haub Grace Jamie Arpin-Ricci Jeff McQuilkin John Smulo Jonathan Brink JR Rozko Kathy Escobar Kent Leslie Len Hjalmarson Makeesha Fisher Malcolm Lanham Mark Berry Mark Petersen Mark Priddy Michael Crane Michael Stewart Nick Loyd Patrick Oden Peggy Brown Phil Wyman Richard Pool Rick Meigs Rob Robinson Ron Cole Scott Marshall Stephen Shields Steve Hayes Tim Thompson Thom Turner
Blind Beggar (Rick Meigs) has put out a call for a synchroblog on Monday, June 23 to discuss the idea, the topic, the notion of missional. The word is losing it’s boundaries and becoming a catch-all word that people use because they think it’s the latest cool ministry word to throw around.
I’m going to add to his invitation here because he just posted the list of potential bloggers. As of now, there are 18 (eighteen). Seventeen men and me. Ladies, I’m feeling very lonely and sort of overwhelmed. Now, you know most of the men are going to post treatises that are wonderful (but long and, ahem, boring 😉 ) on definitions and complaints and they will “fix the problem.” We need to bring some balance to this mix. Some of our wonderful right-brain thinking. How do women view the concept of missional? It is a highly relational term. Hello!! This is our ballpark, jump in and write your thoughts on that concept. If you want to use poetry, or story or have a video … all the sweeter.
So, my girl friends, please either visit Rick’s blog to sign up and let him know you are participating or let me know in the comments and I will keep a list here for him.
I had a little party the other morning. A tiny little pity party. It was a party for three … me, myself and I. We were all invited and we all showed up. Lemme ‘splain.
LightGirl is fourteen. It’s a wonderful age and it’s a terrible age. There are times when I really, really love this age. This morning was not one of them. Many times she seems as if her sole purpose in life is to reject every single thing about me. To reject me myself. That hurts. As much as I know about teen development. As much as I know about how she needs to do this and it’s all part of growing up and taking on who she is going to be. As much as I know about this process of separation, maturation and how necessary it is. It still hurts. I had a flashback that morning of the few moments after she was born when she was in the basinette and we locked eyes. I completely and utterly fell in love with her in that moment. She has been the apple of my eye ever since. She’s not perfect. I know her weaknesses. I know her strengths. But she’s my girl and I love her, warts and all (as a favorite math teacher used to say). This particular part of the process seems unduly difficult.
One thing it does though is continually remind me of her “otherness.” I suppose that is part of the purpose. For so much of our children’s childhood they are in one form or another an extension of us, that we need this reminder that they are, in fact, other than us. They will grow up to be individuals with their own preferences, strengths, weaknesses, idols, and needs.
We know consciously that other people are “other.” But how often do we know this with our heart and soul, not just our minds? How often do we turn our perceptions around and begin to attempt to perceive them not with our lens, but theirs? How often do we begin to try to love others not as we want to be loved, but as they wish? Or offer an apology that is not the apology that we want, but the one that they need? What a struggle it is to step out of our own skin and attempt to perceive life not with our own senses, but with someone else’s. Not with our own memories but another’s.
Yet, is that not the call of Christ in our lives? To love our neighbor as ourselves. May it be to me as She has said.
You know how you’re reading in your reader … just browsing through the blogs, lazily looking at all the juicy writing, sipping your morning coffee (or other beverage of choice) … when all of a sudden you see your name on someone else’s blog and it just blows your mind? Yeah … it doesn’t happen too often to me either. Like maybe twice a year, three times when Bro M is telling jokes.
Well, the other day my fellow Scriber Jeremy Bouma surprised me, but good. He nominated me for a Subversive Blogger award. Thanks Jeremy!
Subversive bloggers are unsatisfied with the status quo, whether in church, politics, economics or any other power-laden institution, and they are searching for (and blogging about) what is new (or a “return to”) – even though it may be labeled as sacrilege, dangerous, or subversive.
Wow … yep, I’m unsatisfied with the status quo of just about all of those things. But like a few of the other bloggers (including Jeremy) nominated, I’ve been a little dry of late, and feeling as though it just doesn’t matter, my words are flying off into space with no effect. They likely are. But perhaps they will one day blossom into plants which will seed. So I shall write on … and there are others who should as well.
So I get to pass on the linky love and nominate subversive bloggers of my own … here are my nominations:
Adventures in Mercy by Molly
Quirky Grace by Jemila
The Virtual Abbess by Peggy
Eternal Echoes by Sally
Ravens by Patrick
The rules of participation are pretty straightforward:
And as Jake says, the award is meant to be encouragement to keep blogging, so I hope this will encourage these five to keep on keepin’ on, because their photo is next to the definition of Subversive Blogger (if there is one somewhere)!
I could write a lot on this. But my observation is that there are two main branches of Christian action. There is the personal holiness branch, which is characterized by the legalistic how to remain pure and upright before the Lord activities, and there is the social justice branch, which is characterized by how to do good works. The twain do not meet. Nor do they look one another in the eye. One tends to be quite conservative, the other quite liberal. They also call each other nasty names in private, when no one is listening. Or so they think.
There is a problem though. Both parts are necessary for a holistic walk with Jesus. I don’t think it is possible to be personally holy without concern for social justice. Nor can one have concern for social justice without personal holiness. I think it was best said by David Thewlis in the movie, “Kingdom of Heaven,” in conversation with Orlando Bloom:
Hospitaller: I put no stock in religion. By the word religion I have seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the will of god. I have seen too much religion in the eyes of too many murderers. Holiness is in right action, and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves, and goodness. What god desires is here [points to head] Hospitaller: and here [points to heart] Hospitaller: and what you decide to do every day, you will be a good man – or not.
Holiness is in right action and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves …
Who are those who cannot defend themselves? Why … interestingly, they are those who benefit from social justice ministries; women, children, single moms, impoverished, immigrants … the lowly and down-trodden. It is giving a cup of water to the least in society for no other reason than that it is the right thing to do. And, by the way … it is a holy act.
Phil Wyman at Square No More – Salem: No Place for Hating Witches Mike Bursell at Mike’s Musings Bryan Riley at at Charis Shalom Steve Hayes writes about Khanya: Christianity and social justice Reba Baskett at In Reba’s World Prof Carlos Z. with Ramblings from a Sociologist Cobus van Wyngaard at My Contemplations: David Bosch, Public Theology, Social Justic Cindy Harvey at Tracking the Edge Alan Knox at The Assembling of the Church Matthew Stone at Matt Stone Journeys in Between John Smulo at JohnSmulo.com Sonja Andrews at Calacirian Lainie Petersen at Headspace KW Leslie: Shine: not let it shine Stephanie Moulton at Faith and the Environment Collide Julie Clawson at One Hand Clapping Steve Hollinghurst at On Earth as in Heaven Sam Norton at Elizaphanian: Tesco is a Big Red Herring
Among the many treasures I brought back from the quilt show seems to be a nasty cold virus. So I’ve been spending an inordinate amount of time in my nest on the sofa. Sometimes I’m trying very hard to concentrate and read … anything. Other times I give up and watch television and stitch. I’m getting tired of listening to the mindless chatter coming from the schoolroom. The LightChildren do not talk with one another, the words just dribble out of their mouths at one another with no purpose. They are not listening to each other, nor is one responding to the other. They are each simply speaking the words which cross their brains at the moment. Ugh.
Among the few blog posts I’ve managed to read were this one by VikingFru; she called her post Us vs. Them. I think many of us have written similar posts at one time or another when we’ve become burdened by the ugliness we see in the world. I’ve spent quite a bit of my stitching time thinking about her post and meditating on how our culture has gotten to this place. I remember a song by Talking Heads and the line “How did I get here?” keeps running through my head. How did we get here? How did we get to this place where it’s sooo important to be right? So important that we’re willing to kill for it?
We are you know. We are willing to kill people to prove that we’re right. We do it every day. Each and every one of us. We imagine that we’re helping them out. We imagine that we’re helping them to “see the light.” We think we’re giving them truth, light and beauty. But really, we’re just trying to be more right than the other person. We’re trying to win.
There are some beautiful souls who are pure enough that they can say they are trying to spread light without harm. But most of us are trying to win the argument. Especially when it comes to the blog-o-sphere.
I can’t parse out the twists and turns of how we got here. But I do know for certain that it’s not the example that Jesus set for us. Here are two …
The story of the rich young ruler and the story of the woman at the well in Samaria.
They are both so well known I’m not going to reprint them here.
In the story of the rich young ruler, Jesus does not enter into a theological debate with the guy. RYR runs up and asks a question about how to enter the Kingdom. Here’s the kicker. We see from the text that Jesus LOVES him and gives him an answer. RYR can’t live by the rules. So he went away sad. So did Jesus. But it doesn’t say that Jesus stopped loving him. He doesn’t run after RYR beating him about the head with a theological debate. What is is what is. There’s no verbal abuse. No demeaning language. No entanglement. Just the facts and they stand by themselves. More than that … Jesus did not feel the need to “win.” Whether he won or lost was not the issue in that engagement. I think the main point of that story is that he loved the guy and would keep on loving him even though entrance into the kingdom is one of the most difficult things we can do. We need to rely on His love in order to for it to happen. We miss that in our attempts to make a formula out of the parable.
In the story of the woman at the well (I’ll call her Sam), Jesus begins talking a woman that no one ever talks to. Not only is her culture outcast, but she is an outcast within her culture. Hence she is drawing water in the heat of the day when she will not have to endure the blanketed silence and sideways glances of the other women in the town. Have you ever wondered about women who become prostitutes or men who become homeless? The people who are in the dregs of our culture. Do you ever wonder about them? I do. I wonder how they started out in life. I don’t think they began life as whores and junkies and pimps. Somewhere there is house with photos on the wall of an apple faced girl or boy that these people once were. They have parents, who had dreams for them that have been smashed for one reason or another. That little girl or boy … that fresh slate? That’s who Jesus sees. Yes, he also sees the mistakes and sins, and terrible things we do to each other, but He also sees and loves that young child of beauty that we each once were. That’s the Sam He saw that day at the well. He saw the five husbands and the fact that she was living with a guy, but he also saw all of her potential and the wonder that was created within her. He could see the becoming as well as the is.
Jesus’ example of how to lead people was not how to win an argument, but how to love. How to see the becoming, the potential and the wonder of His creation. When we focus on winning or losing, we actually lose focus. We begin to forget what our real aim is. Our real aim is to love our neighbors, not logic them.
Today is LightGirl’s 14th birthday. I write that in a much more understated manner than I feel. What the h e double hockeysticks happened? Where did the time go? How did thirteen whole years go by so fast? Why is she wearing so much makeup? So many, many questions with no answers. I feel all gulpy inside. Some days I want to hold her close and make certain that nothing bad ever happens. Most days I know that’s not possible; I have to know that she has a good head on her shoulders, a sprout of faith, and the best I can do as her mom is to prepare her to handle life with grace and aplomb. The rest is up to her. But I still feel all gulpy inside.
So … in order to deal with that feeling of gulpyness here is a list of my personal favorites from last year. These are not necessarily the posts that got the most hits (in fact some of them barely got any), or the most comments (again, most of them got zero), but they are my favorites because they are the posts that I still think about. I may revisit these ideas this year in other forms, you never know …
On The Ways of Geese – perspectives on leadership Losing Ground – decision making My Vision – for faith communities Shavuot-The Feast of Pentecost the Megillah of Ruth Slice It, Dice It, Anyway You Want It … social, cultural constructs for looking at the Bible Book Review – Organic Community – surprise! A book review. Christendom? Post-Christendom? – a look at labels. Critique, Criticism and the Gong Show – what’s love got to do with it? On Creating Space – what do hockey and church have in common? Living Within The System and Non-Violence – a look at living in the world but not being of it. Good Gifts – every parent desires to give good gifts, but what are they?
