Under The 110

We spent yesterday afternoon under the 110 surronded by crackheads, bums, drunks, scene & hardcore kids. I thought that I was going to have to drag Amy out of the truck. She was pretty nervous to say the least & I can't blame her.

The day was beautiful. Our gathering was simplistic yet real. I'm still kinda taken back by the whole thing.

The Reverend Tyler Monk presided over the service and seemed to relate well to all in attendence. He's all of 21, yet has a passion for folks that's contagious. I met him afterwards & feel a need to help w/this ministry, but am yet to know how.

I keep thinking how I, @ 21, was only concerned about scroungin' up the $3 bucks for the next beer bust. I also think about all of our local churches & their wonderful services, programs & teachings & how they still may lack feet. I feel like I got feet in some 10-15 minutes under an overpass surrounded by what some would see as the scum of P'cola, while I may not have ever gotten them in untold years of traditional church attendence.

I'm not knocking any churches, especially those that I've attended in the past...

It's just that somethings have really been brought to light lately for me & perspectives have been gained in some most usual surroundings. Just goes to show you that His will may not be where you'd expect to find it nor carried out in the way that you'd think. I'm afraid I just let God out of the box...

In Pursuit of Truth

Ever thought that you had it all figured out, get challenged by something & come to realize that maybe you didn't quite get it? I had 1 of those experiences yesterday. I was sitting out back grilling some ribs, doing a little reading & came to see something that I hadn't before.

Check it. The passage is John 4:23. Christ addresses the woman @ the well & says something like this...

God is Spirit. Those who worship him must do so in spirit and in a true way.

Worldwide English

or

Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth.

The Message

or

Even now the true worshipers are being led by the Spirit to worship the Father according to the truth.

Contemporary English Version

or

But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

King James Version

I've heard this phrase used before in many different ways, but I don't think that I fully grasped the concept. The context that I got used to hearing it kinda directed me to thinking that to worship in truth is to listen to preaching, due to worshipping in spirit is to worship in song or singing.

I would venture to say that this could be & is true, but seems somewhat limiting. Guess it just goes to show how dogmatic I can be & have been. I mean, if we are to worship correctly & are to do so in spirit & in truth, versus in the pursuit of truth, we aren't truly worshipping until we all sing through choice songs & listen to a preacher.

I'm not trying to say that there is anything in the world wrong w/this. I'm trying to say that thinking this way has cheated me out of a plethora of opportunity to worship the Living God. This may just be semantics, but I don't think so.

If God's glory is being made manifest in & through His creation, the entirety of my life could be & should be worship. After this light bulb went off, it explains a lot. I've finally started to see the prove of His handiwork in places, people & things now that I never thought possible.

I feel as though I've finally come to realize that life more abundant, becoming the Glory of God in the process as St. Irenaeus would say. So this may just be semantics to some, or a rather moot point to others, but to me is has made all the difference.

Tho I had lived, I had never been alive...

No Words

There are no words for this
To effectively articulate this feeling of complete bliss
To try seems vain
For the answer remains the same
It simply can't be done

How do you describe the sun to the blind
Especially when they've never felt it's warmth
Or the grey of the moon as it lights the blackened sky
Shining as a mere reflection of something more majestic

The road to my redemption began some 34 years ago today
It's been progressively subversive at the very least, I say
It's been 34 years that have passed like an eternity
It's been 34 years that have passed like a day

So I sit and stare and try to capture the essence
Wonder and awe in light of her presence
She knows me like no other
She's my wife, my friend, my lover

She lifts me high and steals my pain away
Makes me long for just 1 more day
I say this risking idolatry, but with total honesty
She's ever more like Christ to me

Why You Should Love U2 Too

17Learn to do good.
Work for justice.
Help the down--and-out.
Stand up for the homeless.
Go to bat for the defenseless.




Who knows, it may turn out that it's Christians who have misunderstood U2—and, possibly, the Gospel itself.

Relevant TV

Fans of Relevant may already know 'bout this, but if not be sure to stop by...



http://www.relevantmagazine.com/TV/

Guilt K's

There has never been a more critical time than now to examine faith. I've personally spent the last 2 yrs deconstructing & allowing the proper re-construction of all that I thought that I knew. Last night taught me that I've still got work to do.

I was on my way into work when I pulled up to the light right behind an old chevy suburban. I did what you probably do & started to study the stickers on the back when the light changed. In my haste & excitement (I was listening to game #5 of the NLCS on XM) I tapped the gas sending my truck right up behind the long 2-tone suburban in front of me.

Come on! What's the deal?

The closer my front bumper edged towards the other chevy the slower it seemed to move. So I did what any good red-blooded american male would do. I gassed it, whipped into the other lane & glared @ the driver like she was wasting my time & momentum.

You'd think that it'd end there wouldn't you? But you just have to know that it doesn't. Guess what? Yep. You got it. I get to the next light & pull in the left turn lane to only be passed by the old chevy heading straight. Yep. You got it again. She glared back like I was some kind of highway menace.

I then begin to think back to the stickers adorning said chevy's backside. What a hypocrite! I mean, who drives a suburban w/stickers like 'i brake for animals' or 'nothing taste as good as being thin feels' or 'think green' for crying our loud!

Why the nerve of some people...

I proceed to work not thinking of much else, save for the expeditious filling of the hospital's med carts & keeping my eyes peeled to the game broadcast of my beloved cards. They had just taken a 2-1 lead when I arrived & all was right w/the world. It's destiny. God loves me, wants me to be happy & therefore my cards win tonight.

This was the case until Berkman's 3 run dinger in the bottom of the 7th. My heart just sank. This couldn't be happening to me or to my cards.

Then I thought about something that I hadn't in a long, long time. God was punishing me. Through my own beloved cards. Crazy right? Nope. He's God & He can do what He wants. I mean after all He punished His own people w/heathen nations right? Why couldn't He use the very heathenistic 'stros to teach me a lesson?

Remember the suburban & the 'green' hypocrite? God saw that look I gave her & didn't like it. He was now exacting the measure of my sin through million dollar athletes to teach me something.

Then I thought, boy this is really stupid. So I had to dig to see where this came from. It didn't take long to find.

As a kid my team was the Dallas Cowboys. I lived & died w/them. I also distinctly remembering that their ultimate success or failure depended on my spiritual state.

If I behaved, did well in school, prayed regularly & stayed relatively quite in church my 'boys won, cause God rewarded me through them. It had absolutely nothing to do w/injuries to key players, game plans or weather conditions. God heard & watched me alone in determining their fate & ignored the prayers of other little boys who offered pleas up for their own rams or eagles or whoever.

Funny how something so ridiculous rides w/you all your life & you don't even really think about till something similar happens. I retire to the back of the department to find solace in a protein bar & to feel sorry for myself. I curse the 'stros w/everything that I've got & decide to get back to work.

Dumb, mis-guided faith...

The cards enter their half of the 9th. Lidge is on the hill & has owned them. Hitter's #8, 9 & 1 are up & all is lost.

J-Rod k's. So does Mabry. It's official, God hates me...

Little Eck gets on w/a bleeder. Edmonds walks & here comes Albert! Maybe, just maybe...but, he's 0-4 & Lidge gets A.P. They just don't lose after bringing a lead to the 9th. They're something like 136-1 over the last 2 yrs when getting to this point. Besides, God's still got a lesson for me to learn here due to my unchrist-like behavior.

The count goes 0-1 then I see it. HOME RUN flashes across the screen & I can only pump my fist in silence as everyone else, unaware of the life & death importance of this game, looks @ me as if I'd been struck w/an epileptic seizure.

Izzy closes out the bottom of the frame & my cards live to see another day. All this despite my sinfulness. Silly hunh?

Another erroneous construct of my faith tumbled last night. I also resurrected the innocence of my youth & all the L's I caused Tony D & the rest of the 'boys. More importantly Truth showed up, accepted me despite my shortcomings & solidified another facet in my life.

Silly hunh?

Nope...

Awful Reminders

What if your every move was scrutinized? What if your judgment was constantly called into question? What if the only time that you got recognition was when you screwed up?

A major-league umpire for 31 seasons, Denkinger is best remembered for being at the center of the most controversial play of the 1985 World Series. The St. Louis Cardinals led the Kansas City Royals in the Series 3-2 and were ahead in the ninth inning of the sixth game, 1-0. Denkinger called the Royals' Jorge Orta safe at first on a grounder to the Cardinals' Jack Clark, but TV replays showed that the throw to pitcher Todd Worrell had beaten Orta to the bag. Kansas City went on to rally for two runs, averting elimination, and the next day won the Series.

Though infamous in St. Louis, Denkinger was a respected umpire who was served as an American League crew chief for many years. He retired in November 1998, but stayed involved in the game as an umpire evaluator and supervisor. (RTM/AG)

It's been 20 years, yet when asked you could still see the pain in his eyes. He just knew that he got the call right, but after the game he came to find out that he hadn't. Not only had he missed it, but he did so in front of millions.

When the crew toured his home & showed a wall dedicated to an outstanding 31 year career, it was there. A picture & a painting of that infamous play showing that Don had it wrong. When asked why he would have such an awful reminder of what was his lowest point of his career, he simply replied that sometimes you're up & sometimes you're down. These pieces serve to remind him of that & he even seemed to cherish & embrace them just as much as the rest.

I sat stunned. I watched a man that had received death threats on himself & his family & readily accepted who he was. A man that missed 1.

I wondered if I could do the same. If I were willing to put all my works on a wall in glossy 8x10's & lithograph for all to see, even my screw-ups. To come to grips w/your real self, scars & all is an amazing thing.

We've all got to be able to reconcile the past if we're ever to proceed in the future. We've all got to be able to learn from our mistakes to be able to move on. Hidden away, our flaws can only hurt us. Only when we face them w/honesty are we then ready to learn & grow.

Who's Will?

If you're like me, you read George today & came away with something to chew on. I know that the earth groans w/the birth pains of the new creation to come, but some suppose to know more than others. Some would say that this or that is judgment or merely an allowed act or whatever. Times & things are often not that simplistic. I know that all things pass through the hands of providence, but that passing isn't necessarily what we think.

Will talks of a new text that deals w/quakes & the study of plate tectonics that revolutionized geology some 40yrs ago. The latest in american disaster seems to leave easy answers to the why problem when we see N.O.,our modern day Sodom, & the gamblin' gulfcoast slammed from Katrina, but they don't come so easy at other times. Other times take the form such as found in this article about the great quake in 'Frisco in '06...


After Earth's heavings subside, they reverberate in people's minds. San Francisco's 1906 disaster prompted the explosive growth of a Pentecostal movement based in Los Angeles, a movement then embryonic but now mighty. Yet when A.P. Hotaling's whiskey warehouse survived San Francisco's post-quake inferno, a wit wondered:

"If, as some say,
God spanked the town
For being over frisky,
Why did He burn the churches down
And save Hotaling's whiskey?"

Good question.

I've Got My Hands on a MIracle

Mark this: Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in.

The day was perfect. The sky was without blemish & a slight breeze wrapped everything. All is right in the universe as Cam, Aly & I head to the ballpark.

The radio blares U2's Beautiful Day & the Lord doesn't disappoint. He's painted the horizon w/a radiance that I feel unworthy of as I head into it @ 60mph. The waters are alive w/the intricate reflections of an unbelievable world above.

Who's playin' daddy?

We're going to see some special ballplayers today Cam.

Who are they?

You'll see.


We're on our way to the Miracle League park here & I can't wait. Our neighbor's sister plays for the Cards & Cam & I are donned in said t's & hats. There is no doubt that we are fully alive @ this moment.

I wonder @ the reaction that Cam's going to have when we get to the park. We're not there 5 minutes & he's already scouted both clubs & gives me full report.

That brown guys fast daddy.

Is he?

Yep.

The kids take to the field w/an enthusiasm that I've not seen in quit some time. Both sides cheer every player as they all hit, all run the bases & all score. The p.a. gives a bit of play-by-play as I choke down a few tears.

I see the beauty in His creation out their giving their all, even though it's not all that much. Nobody seems to notice or care. The players absorb the energy from the crowd as the sand does rain. Too much could never be enough.

I meet the founder & he tells me of making memories for these kids & their families. He also tells me of the son that's alive only in this way. He wants this for them too.

I guess that it'd be easy for me to feel sorry for them. Some locked up inside a body that obeys them not or a mind that functions only partially. But these are some of the most loving, carefree & happy people in town.

They don't worry about the newest fashion, having the best car in the lot or finest house on the street. They love w/reckless abandon & find joy in the smallest of places. Their bodies house some of the largest hearts on the planet.

What'd you think of those special ballplayers man?

They're good! Real good!

Even the 1's in the wheelchairs?

Yep! They're good too!

If we all could only see w/the eyes of a child. Looking beyond the outer trappings that we sophisticated, high-minded, mature adults get all hung up on, they are able to see something that we don't. A heart that beats w/all the joy & love as the Creator Himself flows & surrounds these precious 1's & all that'll come near.

Held Accountable

If you're like me & you started your day by reading Reese in your local paper you were greeted by the very painfully factual account of how our today & tomorrow is filled to the brim w/an overwhelming ignorance of yesterday. He states sorrowfully of how we managed to learn nothing about the past & all of it's horrors. This is quite evident as he uses The Experience of World War I, by J.M. Winter as exhibit A.

Although Charley uses the text to promote an anti-Bush agenda, which I'm very ambivalent to, he does manage to makes important truths known. Reflecting back over the past week as I read, these statements began to resonate from deep within as the words began to bounce within the friendly confines that I like to call my cranium. It has been a tumultuous past few days to say the least, but in reflection, I'm glad for them & wouldn't have done a thing differently.

One error that leads to certain conflict is demonizing the enemy. When you do this it makes real the possibilities to justify just about any act or any assortment of words to try & prove your point When we have to be right at any cost our perceived adversary becomes less than what they actually are, so they are quite deserving of whatever you have to dish out to them.

In our minds tough love serves as a thinly veiled disguise for soft hate, because you're only doing it for your own perception of their own good. Correction must be made or our duty has not been served. The flag is to be captured at all cost, up to & including martyrdom.

Another error & perhaps the most serious charge to me is the practice of calling into question one's level of commitment to the cause. This method is used to crush dissent, but most fail to see that one's dissent isn't the only thing found under the rubble after the smoke clears. Questioning the heart of one, even after much civil debate, appears to be the ultimate trump that very few are afraid to use.

These are very worldly practices that I'm sad to say have found their way into the hands of the Elect. We are to be set apart, but apparently not when it comes to this. I'd like to say that I'm surprised, but 2k years would just prove me a fool.

I say all of this to lead you here. By all means, say whatever you like here. Feel free. Get passionate, get pissed off, get inspired, but most of all get real & honest (especially w/yourself).

This is a very public record whether you'd like to think it is or not. I direct anybody that's interested & know's me here, so they'll know right away if what I say is true or not. My life is a very open book & I hide behind no one or nothing.

So feel free to speak your mind here, but please consider your words wisely. I've put much effort into choosing words wisely & would hope that you'd do the same. After all, we are to guard our speech & will be held accountable for all said & done.

Community

The staff here are working on short little statements that describe who we are & what we are about. Here's your chance to let us know what you think. Get your rocks ready, but please be sure that you've got all your windows boarded on your glass house first...


Community

Everybody longs for connection, for recognition, for acknowledgment. To be heard and understood is at the very heart of our existence and validates our reason for being. Why is that?

We believe that this is because we were created with this in mind. In the image of something greater and more magnificent than we could ever imagine. In the likeness of One that is many and many that is One.

A Trilogy of Persons to be exact, that are in perfect communion with each other and co-authored the creation with us in mind. To invite us into relationship that is Love incarnate and to do so in unison with our fellow created. This is our reason for being.

Truth

The staff here are working on short little statements that describe who we are & what we are about. Here's your chance to let us know what you think. Get your rocks ready, but please be sure that you've got all your windows boarded on your glass house first...

Truth

It may be where you find it, but it has ultimate inclusion of absolutes that aren't malleable regardless of where discovered. For Truth to be what it should, it is to be without tarnish or blemish and this is the only reason to seek it. Tarnished truth sheds all ideals of reliability when it changes from perspective to perspective or situation to situation. It contains no redeeming qualities when devalued in this manner.

Unchanging, unrelenting Truth retains power and dignity regardless of perspective or situation. It is absolutely timeless and transcends temporal observances. It can be trusted and is paramount to the ideals of faith.

To have no absolutes is still absolute. To reason away Truth through experience or perspective may soothe the conscience, but doesn't quiet the soul. We value Truth because Truth values us.

Criticism:Constructive or Otherwise...

Criticism is very hard to take. If a person is able to take the criticism and learn from the part of it that is true, they will be a better person for it. Almost equally as important is the ability to be able to forget the criticism that is false. Like the proverb says,

“Valid criticism is as treasured by the one who heeds it as jewelry made from finest gold.”
(Proverb 25:12).

How one lives with public criticism that gets in the public record is beyond me. You must have to grow a skin so thick that you are not part human anymore. You cannot defend nor can you ever adequately explain. Ultimately all you can do is live your life before the Lord and let Him judge your efforts and learn.

Christian Sitcom?

Oh, oh rollers. Time to mount up & attack the outer Pittsburg area...

"Does this spread the word of Jesus Christ...I'm not sure."

-Pastor Greg

http://home.bellsouth.net/s/s.dll?ep=62700&_pgoffset=107&only=y&media=mms://media.bellsouth.net/wmp/abcnews/video/700/051012christiansitcom.asf

Creativity

The staff here are working on short little statements that describe who we are & what we are about. Here's your chance to let us know what you think. Get your rocks ready, but please be sure that you've got all your windows boarded on your glass house first...

Creativity

The very act of our origin should be the very process of our existence. We are obliged to value an act that we are and became. Not to do so denies a basic element of our existence.

The Creator is honored when His creation participates freely in the creative process to bring Him glory. It is who we are because it is who He is. Are we to be any less than the One from whom we came?

Imagine. Dream. Create. Bring honor and glory to the very One who birthed us by emulating who He is by doing what He does.

Love

The staff here are working on short little statements that describe who we are & what we are about. Here's your chance to let us know what you think. Get your rocks ready, but please be sure that you've got all your windows boarded on your glass house first...

Love

Without it we're nothing and with it all things are possible. It is our most valued possession, yet cannot be bought nor sold. It is without measure and our most important command.

Hypocrosy echoes it's vacancy, humility it's presence. It crosses all barriers, heals all wounds and cures all ills. It dismantles hostility without words and constructs beauty in it's wake.

With it, we are to never yield and through it we empty self. Our fate is sealed without it and is only worthy with it. It is to be sought after with all our being.

God is Love.

Hope

The staff here are working on short little statements that describe who we are & what we are about. Here's your chance to let us know what you think. Get your rocks ready, but please be sure that you've got all your windows boarded on your glass house first...

Hope


While our needs be numerous at times, our very primal needs be few when considered in the grand scheme of it all. Even the basic staples of food and water seem irrelevent to survival when considered that we can exist for weeks without the first, days without the second, but most times even shorter without the following. It is as intangible as a cool summer breeze, but nearly as essential as the air that comprises such.

To gaze at the horizon that a new day brings without an expectation of fulfillment that is hope is nothing short of lethal. We walk on borrowed time when our trust in that distant glimpse is lost. After all, why should we continue to be when our reason for it no longer exists in all that we may cling?

Hope is often all that we may ever have and thankfully all that we may ever need. Without it strength dissapates, will dies and reason lays ravished. Cling to it and we continue to put one foot in front of the other, rising to greater heights and perservering in spite of circumstance rather than succumbing to them.

When we are in touch with the ideal of Hope we beccome in tune with the very essence of our being. We've been granted the desire of our hearts through it in the personage of Christ and His work of Hope eternal. Acceptence of this rights our waywardness for the present and makes priceless our future.

Finding Commonality

Q: As an openly Christian performer, do you feel a responsibility toward the Christian community?

A: I do feel a huge responsibility for young people out there who might be dealing with the same issues. When I was younger, there were not that many people around, especially males, that were positive Christian role models. I want kids to see someone like me and think, "Hey, I can rock out to Pearl Jam and be a regular person and still be Christian."

Q: Does it bother you that people are so obsessed with labels? Would you rather known as a Christian singer or simply a singer?

A: You know, it's funny, because labels can be so misleading. I do get a little annoyed sometimes, when I read "Christian" in front of my job description, as though that makes a difference musically. I'm talking about emotions and relationships in my songs, and everybody has those, and everyone can relate. Sure, there's some people who may be uncomfortable and might not want to see me because they think, "Oh, he'll only talk about Christian things!" Then there are others who might come to see me because they think I'm only going to talk about Christian things. I'm not here to tell anyone to be Christian. I want you to accept me the way I accept you. That's all.

If you're from the area &/or read the PNJ you may recognize the above. I took it from an interview w/a local artist that is set to perform here next week. You may notice something strangely amiss tho, especially if you're really intuitive.

This is the way that I read the article & pictured it in my mind...not how it actually went. The point of contention I have is the same when looking for acceptence beyond labels regardless of the point of view. I hope that you're seated.

This ran friday & was entitled 'NO LABELS ALLOWED'. It's not about a Christian artist but a gay 1 getting ready to perform @ Come Out Pensacola! Just insert the original word gay everywhere that you see the word Christian in the above.

Sound all that different to you?

Should it?

What Dreams May Come

I don't know what to make of dreams. Are they glimpses of the things that could have, should have, might have been or to be or just fleeting flights of fantasy fueled by the ecstasy of the unexpected. Whatever the perspective may depend on the type I suppose.


I had 1 the other night between the hours of 2 & 4:40am that left me cold & wet. I shuddered like a old mutt trying to dry his mangy hide, but to no avail. The only reason that I know, is that this could've been my reality once. One that would take me from the things that I cherish most in this realm & that are the only things I consider to be of worth.

Family.


Betrayal rode low in my gut as I paced the multi-colored tile floor. I glance at the clock while it's reading was meaningless to me, it represented all that is against me now. No longer an ally, it was just a matter of it that kept betrayal from riding ever higher to consume my heart, my soul, my all. Enlarging like a cancerous tumor to rob me of all that I ever loved and to take me from them.

Walking the floor to try and resonate with the pace of my now doomed existence. All the imagery lacked, but for some strange reason I just knew. I'd felt this before, even though I'd swore that I never would again, while the cold sweat beaded.

Back in the day is where it all began. An ideal of stewardship, ownership & complete abstinence fueled my problem and fed this nightmare. It was nothing for me to wake up wet from my own urine & stained from my own emesis. That last sentence hurts more now than it did then.


I know what you're thinking...

How does stewardship, ownership & abstinence play into this at all? What kind of lame excuse is up next? This guy is a complete moron.

Please humor me.

This isn't about shirking responsibility by laying it on my folks. They're great people & yes I am a complete moron. Sorry.


I never drank, save for 1 time, prior to college. But once I got there I guess that I thought that I should make up for lost time, because I drank as much & as often as I could. I felt more love at the TKE house than the BSU and even though that still isn't an excuse, I still contend that it's a damn shame.


I only had a couple of rules that really stuck out in those days, but they were a mantra that resounded in my head & still do these days.

1) Don't be wasteful...always get your money's worth.

2) Don't let anybody & I mean anybody drive your car.

3) Don't drink.

These aren't bad rules at all. Matter of fact they are very good rules, but as they became jumbled in my polluted freshman mind they kinda came out discombobulated to say the least. When I got through twisting them with my unlimited reasoning skills I came out with this...

Always get your money's worth, even at $3 beer bust nites @ Antoon's. You better drive afterwards regardless of the # of drinks or if you could see the road or not, because at the very least you don't want the folks to know that you broke rule #3. Besides, if nothing else you're still fulfilling 2 out of 3 right?

So I continue to pace awaiting what's next. For some reason I know the outcome even though the scenery doesn't change. 1 year in prison for vehicular manslaugher. DUI.


It takes an hour or 2 to realize that it was just a dream. I thank God that He had mercy on an idiot that should have known better, but didn't. I still regret those I failed while in this drunken desert.

I wonder & pray over my kids in the here & now. Are they better served by a complete model of biblical abstemious or am I to risk the abstention that failed me when the time came? They aren't guaranteed my dream that thankfully didn't come.

Calling All Churchmen

The cross must be raised again at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church. I am claiming that Jesus was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves; on the town garbage heap, at a crossroads so cosmopolitan they had to write His title in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. At the kind of place where cynics talk smut, and thieves curse, and soldiers gamble, because that is where He died and that is what He died about and that is where churchmen ought to be and what churchmen should be about.

George McLeod

"I am a caffeinated Christian-"

It's no wonder people might feel uneasy around me: I am either condemning them or felling guilty for not saving them. Simply being a friend to someone who isn't a Christian is not an option for me.

I think about this and have to conclude that a good deal of evangelism is nothing short of abuse. I think it's abusive to make others your project. I think it's abusive to make them the target of your evangelical strategy. I think it's abusive to blame non-Christians for your guilt, merely because they exist. I think it's abusive to make other people a means to an end.

John Fischer (pg #90)

Christian Poker?

How good is God's sense of humor?



An advertisement depicting Jesus and the Apostles gambling at the Last Supper in an ad by Irish bookmaker Paddy Power September 30, 2005. Paddy Power on Friday was fending off the wrath of Christians in overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Ireland where the billboard posters, adapting Leonardo da Vinci's famous painting of the event to show Jesus with a stack of poker chips, Judas with 30 pieces of silver and other apostles clutching hands of cards, are on display.

Acceptance

I went to our town meeting this past Friday night. Some were there for the intended purpose, while others were there w/other motives in mind. They were there from all different walks of life & I could help but wonder why some were even there at all.


I hope to shy away from being judgmental here, because how can 1 really know the reasons & motives of another? I mean really. I'd hope to not ever be that presumptuous, but I know that I have in the past at least once or twice or a million times or so.


Even though the surface told of many different reasons as to why folks were there, I'm sure that all shared in at least the smallest bit of the primal reason for all to be there. What else brings the jocks, the cheerleaders, the geeks, the nerds, the punks, the old, the young, the misguided, the popular, the rich or the poor out but for communion & a sense of belonging? There can be no other reason than this.


I started thinking about this soon after I saw him. His hair was long & black. He had at least 1 visible piercing & dressed in all black. He wore these pants that most have had 2 or 3 hundred straps hanging from metal loops, but I'm still not really sure of the purpose.


My mind tried to process the scene as I watched him stroll by on the track. I couldn't help thinking to myself what in the hell is this dude doing here? It's not that I minded his presence, it's just that he seemed about as fitting as a square peg in a round hole.


I could be very wrong in this, but everything about Friday night @ a high school football game seems contrary to the very nature of 1 that dresses this way. So I'm left trying to sort out why 1 is present @ an event that seems the very antithesis of their being. All I can think of is the need to belong.

We all have a sense to belong to something greater than ourselves at 1 level or another. Even if that something appears to be that which we'd abhor or be the exact opposite us, we are compelled. We are compelled by acceptance.

Acceptance is the belief in something.

Could there be a more compelling picture of the Almighty than that of authentic community? After all that is who He is isn't? Genuine community believes in the something in each other that binds them together in relationship w/belief in the greatest Something of all.

Maybe that is what inspires thought of a kid in black @ the stadium on a Friday night. I'd like to think so. My hope is that I know so.