You are beautiful

I just finished reading this wonderful book called Little Lamb Who Made Thee?: A Book about Children and Parents by Walter Wangerin, Jr. He writes about being a kid, a parent of young children, a parent of teenagers, adoption, children with disabilities, grandparents, when your parents get older, and being a pastor of others. So really every aspect of parenting. It is a great book and I recommend it. One chapter he writes a letter to a teenager who has just attempted suicide because of abuse by her father. I wanted to share an excerpt from it because it is so good. It was difficult to pick what I should include because it was all so well said. I hope you mediate on what he writes:

Listen to me! You are beautiful. You are beautiful. If you think you’re ugly, you’ve let a fool define you. Don’t! Touch your throat. It is a column of wind and words. Stroke your forehead. Though moves through its caverns. Imagination lives in there. You are the handiwork of the Creator. You are his best art, his poem, his portrait, his image, his face- and his child.

And if the Lord God took thought to create you, why would you let a sinner define you?

. . .God conceived of time and in that instant considered the purposeful thump of your heart- and the blink of your eyelid.

God made galaxies and metagalaxies, the dusty infinitude of the universe-then filled your mind with dreams as with stars.

You are not an accident. You were planned. You are the cunning intention of almighty God. Well, then, shall you think ill of yourself? NO! You shall think as well of yourself as you do of any marvel of the Deity.

Please, my sister, do not allow a sinner to steal you from yourself. You are too rare. No matter what filth has befouled you, your soul is unique in the cosmos. There is none like you. Whatever thing you admire-a leaf, a little cup, a sunset-you are more beautiful.

Sleep peacefully, you. God loves you. And so do I. And so ought you in the morning light, when the dew is a haze of blue innocence. But sleep now, child, in perfect peace. You are God’s, who spreads wide, holy wings above you now.

Sacredness and Heaven

Well, I recently finished reading The Sacredness of Questioning Everything by David Dark.  

This book was phenomenal.  I really think it's a book that all college-age (or older) Christians should read.  

It definitely challenged me in very good ways.  I know that I have a passion for knowing things and wanting to be able to explain things.  I'm coming 

to appreciate the freedom found in admitting that I doesn't know everything!  Praise God!  I often am tempted to give answers to people that do not leave them hungry for more...for going deeper.  I often find myself wanting to be able to give the perfect answer--air-tight, no holes, no way out.  This inevitably leads to suffocation.

Now, don't get me wrong, please please please seek answers!  Ask big questions, and look for big answers.  The problem is not with having answers...the problem is when we think our answers are the end of the line; when we think we have things sooo figured out, 

that there are no more valid questions to be asked.  When we cease to ask questions, perhaps this is the tell-tale sign that we think we are fully self-sufficient, making idols of ourselves.

Here's a blurb from Zondervan about the book: 

Is Your God Big Enough to Be Questioned?   

The freedom to question is an indispensable and sacred practice that is absolutely vital to the health of our communities.  

 According to author David Dark, when religion won’t tolerate questions, objections, or differences of opinion, and when it only brings to the table threats of excommunication, violence, and hellfire, it obstructs our ability to think, em

pathize, and live lives of authenticity and genuine engagement.

The God of the Bible not only encourages questions; the God of the Bible demands them. If that were not so, we wouldn’t live in a world of such rich, God-given complexity in which wide-eyed wonder is part and parcel of the human condition. The possibility of redemption and revolution depends on the questions we ask of God, governments, media, and everyday economies.   

It is by way of the questions that we resist the conformity that deadens and come alive to visions that redeem.

Here's a link to get it from Zondervan.  (Click here...you know you want to!)

Here's an interview with David about why he wrote it...check it out!  (Click here)

I know this is a long post already...but I haven't written in a while.

I'll try to be brief here...

I also just finished reading The Great Divorce, by C.S. Lewis.  Wow!  

I've owned it for about two years, but I only just read it.  I started reading it Friday, and I just finished it yesterday.  I think I read through it in 3 or 4 sittings.  Until the last 3 pages, it's actually a very easy read...but don't let that fool you.  It's very thought provoking.

So, I have to say, between David Dark's book, and C.S. Lewis', I think God is at work in my life.  On several occasions reading Dark's book, I would start to think about topics, or have certain thoughts...and then read further thoughts on those from Dark himself!  Like, God was preparing me to read it ahead of time.

Likewise, with Lewis' book, I had recently been thinking about our freedom of choosing Heaven or Hell...and if that still occurs after death.  I need to research more on the doctrine of Purgatory...

Here's what I've been reading in scripture that makes me wonder...

check it out

What do you think this means?

What was Jesus doing while in Hell if not preaching the Gospel?  

What does "to hold the unrighteous for punishment until the day of judgment" mean?

Make sure, I do not believe in the heretical doctrine of Universalism...I believe Jesus is very clear about this (see Matt. 25)...but what is currently happening after life before the Day of the Lord for those who never knew Jesus before death?

Anyhoo...I was discussing this with a student, and then he asked if I had read The Great Divorce.   I said, "no," but it's here in my bag, I've been wanting to read it for a while now.  Now I know why he asked me...because Lewis deals with this very topic in the story he tells therein.  I highly recommend it.  Check it out.

hello again! re:Jubilee

So!  This past weekend was Jubilee 2009 at the Westin in Pittsburgh.  It was a fantastic time of personal renewal for me.  The theme for the weekend was the same as the title of my bi-monthly CCO Ministry Newsletter:  Every Square Inch.

Some of the Keynote Speakers included:

Gabe Lyons: co-founder of the Fermi Project and co-author of UNChristian

Bill Strickland:  founder of Manchester Craftsman Guild and winner of MacArthur Fellowship "Genius award."

Leroy Barber:  Presider of Mission Year.

and Lauren Winner:  Prof. at Duke Divinity School and author of several books....

But one of my favorites was Andy Crouch:  author of Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling.

I've started to read his book now, and so far it's really good!  What do you think when you hear "the Culture"?  After only two chapters, this book has helped redefine culture for me. 

During one of the Plenary Sessions, Andy talked about 4 "Postures" the Church has taken toward cultures during the past century (i.e. the 20th Century).  The Postures are to:

Condemn

Critique

Copy

or Consume.

Andy postulates that all of these are reactionary.  They are reactions to a certain "culture."  However, the Cultural Mandate (Gen. 1:26-28, see also 2:15&19) precludes these reactionary postures though sometimes they are appropriate gestures (i.e. we should never be stuck or bent in any of those positions, but sometimes make those temporary motions).  Instead, there are only two appropriate postures for the people of God which leave us free to make the above gestures appropriately:

Cultivating

and

Creating.

Andy says that cultivation is taking what is already good in the world, and passing it along in at least as good of a condition as it was before!

Creating is asking what is missing, and creating what is missing!  This is NOT a blasphemous statement, rather embracing the creative nature which is an aspect of being made in the image and likeness of God: The Creator.  

I'm still mulling over these things, and I'm digging deeper as I continue to read his book.  But I am attempting to seriously ask myself if I am stuck in one of the above problematic postures rather than in one of biblical postures....

Anyhoo...

practically speaking, at the end of the conference, Andy Crouch asked everybody two questions:

1) What one thing do you want to start doing in response to this weekend?  (note: you cannot say "Change the world," that's too broad.  What can you practically start doing.)

2) What one thing do you want to stop doing in response to this weekend? 

I immediately thought of something to the second question.

Kelly and I choose not to have internet in our home, for many reasons, in order to be faithful to Christ.  Some of the reasons include cost, when we get free internet just down the road at Kenyon, and also the distraction it can cause at home instead of focusing on our own family when home, as well as being able to in part "disconnect" while with our family.  Anyhoo...

Because we don't have internet at home, and because I have an iPod touch, and because Kenyon has wifi almost everywhere, I have tried to "spend" my time well by checking email while walking from place to place on campus.  However, in so doing, I have woefully been ignorant of those around me.  The people Jesus informs me are my neighbors!  Leroy Barber, earlier at Jubilee, discussed the need for Christians to be good neighbors.  The Church at times has skipped over the Greatest Commandments to get to the Great Commission.   It is a problem when Christians essentially say, "God loves you and wants to have a relationship with you--that's why Jesus came and died for your sins--but I don't really want to be friends with you.  I don't want to know you, so if you don't agree with me, I'm moving on to the next person."  

THIS SHOULD NOT BE!!!

Wow, anyway, I'm getting pretty long-winded here, but I felt convicted that I was not "neighboring" well.  

Something I've told my students before is that love is not efficient.

While I believe that, I was idolizing the efficiency afforded me by wifi and the iPod touch...and ignoring my neighbors passing by all around me.  I was seeking efficiency rather than love.

Forgive me Father.

So, my response to the second question, is "stop doing email while walking around."

And I've started to notice soooo many things in the short 4 days I've been practicing that!  For one thing, God's creation is soooo beautiful!!!  I had gotten so ingrained and myopic that I was losing the joy of seeing God's goodness all about me!

I'm still not 100% sure what my response is to the first question, but one of the things I've thought about doing is blogging more often!  Just sharing my thoughts, and "thinking out loud" if you will.  So I've finally gotten rid of a few sections of this blog that have not been used, and perhaps I'll add some other sections later.

I hope that you'll join the discussion.  I don't want blogging to become a soapbox, but rather a place of dialogue.   Won't you join me?

Shalom to you!

caesar, colossians, poetry, and things...

So I just recently finished reading Colossians Remixed by Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat. It is an incredible book by this Canadian husband and wife duo who work extensively on developing students who will live out a biblical worldview through Christian Reformed Campus Ministries. There was one or two chapters in the book that I'm still trying to think through (i.e. I'm not 100% if I understand or agree with), but largely, I can recommend this book hands down to anybody who is a Christian living in a consumeristic society.
While reading this book, poetry welled up within me, and I wrote it down. I haven't written poetry in years! The following blog posts are all poems inspired from reading Colossians Remixed, in response the all pervasive "empire" -- as Walsh and Keesmaat say -- of consumerism. The subtitle of the book is: Subverting the Empire. Basically, it takes the Epistle of Paul to the Colossians as a very subversive text within the context of the Roman Empire. It discusses what "empire" is, exactly, and how following Christ is -- necessarily -- in conflict with empires and their violent domination. Jesus, quoting Isaiah (who in turn was using Jubilee imagery from Leviticus), said in his first sermon,
"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

He preached this in the midst of an empire who claimed that its leader brought prosperity to all -- but expanded its territory by conquest and had slaves from the conquests. This Pax Romana supposedly brought peace to all the many, many different kinds of people it brought together, and yet, Jesus was subject to capital punishment on the cross...and so were many of his followers. We must ask why? If Caesar was god and offered peace and prosperity...then anybody else claiming to have peace and fruitfulness from another claiming to be God was committing treason! But who was God, and who gave freedom, peace, and fruitfulness?

Anyway...the next few posts will be some of the poems that resulted from me reading Colossians Remixed.

Christ's Shalom to you!

MLK Day

This morning Jeff and I had the opportunity to attend a breakfast to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. We got to sing "Lift every voice and sing" with the rest of community present at the breakfast. I've heard this song before, but never actually read the words. The song is about hope and trust in a God who has led through hard and bitter places.
I think Martin Luther King must have been a man of hope to be able to see a vision of what the kingdom and this earth should look like, on the way things God intended them to be. A hope that was not only for himself, but for all people to be reconciled to God and each other. I have been reading a book entitled, "Engaging God's World: A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living" by Cornelius Plantinga Jr. He discusses the hope we should have as Christians. He states, "It's natural and healthy to hope for ourselves, but it's provincial and unhealthy to hope only for ourselves. . .If we hope as the prophets and apostles did, then we shall hope not only for ourselves but also for people we must struggle to understand. We shall hope for people we may never have met, such as Indonesians of Chinese descent, mercilessly persecuted by their own military, or Korean Christians haunted by memories of Japanese cruelty and struggling to quiet their anger over it. We shall trust God to bring forgiveness and peace for generations we can only imagine. . .To summarize this way of thinking, we might say that biblical hope-the real thing-must have faith on one side of it and love on the other." He goes on to discuss this in more detail, I suggest reading it, it's quite good.
I see Martin Luther King, Jr. as a man who had this kind of hope and love for his neighbor. I'm glad that we have a day to remember and to hopefully catch his/the biblical vision for each other.

Divided by Faith

So I finally finished reading Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America. I started it in June during CCO NST, and for various reasons including busy-ness, or other readings, (or laziness) I didn't finish it until a week and a half ago. Now a good chunk of the book is publishings on findings of the authors' 2,000 phone interviews and 200 face-to-face interviews with American Evangelicals, so that fact alone makes it a little hard to read at times. That having been said, I think every single White American who claims to be Evangelical should read this book! Yeah, seriously...Emerson's and Smith's findings are extraordinary and convicting.

By and large they've found that -- although there is but one Jesus Christ -- because of our places in life, Americans are literally divided by faith. The stronger one's faith is, instead of seeing things the same way, it turns out that the further on one side of the spectrum or the other their view of the race problem in America based on the color of their skin. It's fascinating and amazingly sad, especially since as The Church we're supposed to be united. At any rate, they've done extensive work documenting how/why we aren't united particularly along the lines of race, which are arbitrary physical characteristics, according to most definitions.

Kelly read an article while working on her Master's in Social Work entitled White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack. I believe it was in there that I heard the metaphor of walking along a moving sidewalk -- you know, the ones that they use in airports -- and you're heading towards a bad place (i.e. reinforcing racialization). You can stand still because it doesn't seem to be affecting you, but still in fact move towards it; you can actually walk towards it, speeding up the process; or you can take on the arduous task of actually walking against that sidewalk. I want to be walking against the grain, but because this is something that does not confront me daily like it would if my skin was a different tone, it's hard to notice that I'm moving in the wrong direction.

This book convicts me, and the sad fact that it took me so long to read it, despite it being rife with statistics, is another indication that I'm not working hard enough at walking against the sidewalk--in the right direction.