Waterdeep: this song moves me..

I love the band Waterdeep. This song has been in heavy rotation on the ipod recently. I like the image of a river; sometimes it would be nice to be carried along by the tide of a cool river. Not in the sense of giving up, but of letting go, letting something greater than you take ahold, feeling safe, yet carried and pushed. Anyone ever jumped into a cold lake on a scorching hot summer day; feels good eh?

Homebound Henry's got a tumor in his head He wakes up every morning after dreaming he was dead He used to think that life was boring, but now that's not the case He turns to his wife in the evening, he says "Honey I'm afraid I'm gonna lose this race."

Sweet River, roll all over me

Sweet River, roll all over me

Soaking wet Juliet- she lives in a well full of tears Her husband left her for some bimbo after twenty-two years Now she's got to start all over, but she's just so terrified She thinks it woulda been so much easier if he woulda just died And I'm lookin out my car window sittin' in the pouring rain Although your house is fifteen miles away, I can still feel your pain I've thought and prayed and worked it through about a hundred times or more How your soul just cries to everyone to help you get up off the floor Right now it's morning, you're probably sleepin', totally unaware of the flood of kisses you hold back by the way that you despair It ain't me I'm talking about here, or anybody else you can touch That's all I want to say right now, I don't want to say too much except

Sweet Jesus, roll all over me

Sweet Jesus, roll all over me...

You gotta come down and just set

me free

Starting Question

I read a post that made the claim that 'every world view starts with the question, 'what is wrong with the world/me, and how can I fix it?' Many people-including myself, until recently- have began here, with that exact question. It has been the grid through which I see the world and people around me. I believe this isn't the best place to start.

The question assumes that creation is 'bad'. When God created the heavens and the earth, he said it was 'good'. I believe it is still good, corruptible by humans yes, inherently 'evil', no. If I look at my world, my neighbor, my enemies and ask, 'what is wrong with them, and how can I fix them?, I will begin moralizing their life and judging them. For me, using this question as the starting point of my world view doesn't allow me to be in awe of God's goodness; it pushes my focus into how can I fix all the problems around me. Are we really responsible for having the solution to every problem? Where does our faith come in? Or is it up to us?

I think a better question to start with is ' What is God's dream for the world and how can I participate in it?' I believe God desires to heal our world, to bring people into wholeness and in harmony with him and his intentions. Starting at this question assumes that God has a plan, and it actively at work fulfilling it. Its easy to look around us and see all the many things that need to be 'fixed', but I think that God knows that, and I believe that if we are awake to God's Spirit we can be apart of the solution.

Gerneral Election

Who's ready for the Gerneral Election? This prmary has got to end.

Quote: On Forgiveness

This quote comes from the book A Good Friend by Dr. Les and Leslie Parrott: Thoughts?

"Trigger-happy forgiveness is not forgiveness at all. Given out quickly, too liberally, forgiveness becomes watered down. The quirks and cranks of our friends’ annoying behaviors do not deserve forgiveness. Generosity? Yes. A sense of humor? Yes. Some tolerance? Yes. But not forgiveness. No. Forgiveness is reserved for a more serious mercy. Not for annoyances but for the deeper wrongs friends do us.

There’s another important point about forgiveness: When a good friend forgives another, it doesn’t guarantee reconciliation. Forgiveness requires something of the offender as well as the offended if it is to restore the relationship. My former professor Lewis Smedes is one of the nation’s leading experts on forgiveness. In his best-selling book Forgive and Forget, he said something about what it takes to be reconciled after we forgive:You hold out your hand to someone who did you wrong, and you say: 'Come on back, I want to be your friend again.” But when they take your hand and cross over the invisible wall that their wrong and your pain built between you, they need to carry something with them as the price of their ticket to your second journey together… What must they bring? They must bring truthfulness. Without truthfulness, your reunion is humbug, your coming together is false.'Forgiveness will always heal the wound in our memory, regardless of how a friend responds. But reconciliation requires that our friend own up to the truth of his or her fault and see the pain it caused. (Emphasis added.) No mask or manipulation is allowed. If you forgive a friend for breaking a confidence and your friends denies it ever happened, the relationship will remain in limbo. There’s no way around it. Reconciliation is a two-way street, requiring both grace and repentance. And good friends know it–whether they are on the giving or receiving side of forgiveness."

Extinction

This is from an article in The New York Times today about animal extinction and the evolutionary cycle. There are many who hold the view that 'if I cant seem them, they don't matter." Well, to those of use who enjoy art and nature (birds specifically) it is a huge loss when an animal or plant species-weather we have ever seen them or not- ceases to exist. Being awake to our world and what Gods doing in it is what makes being alive so great. Here's a quote:

But to me, whether we need to save other species to save ourselves is not really the point. Each time a species vanishes, the planet becomes a poorer place. It doesn’t matter if we’ve never seen them, if they go extinct without our ever knowing they were here. To live is to participate in the carnival of nature, and the carnival is diminished by the losses....

...For there is so much to marvel at. Like the spraying characid — a fish that lays its eggs out of water, jumping to stick them onto leaves that hang down over streams. (The male keeps the eggs wet by splashing them with his tail several times a day.) Or the just-discovered mimic octopus, which can assume the shape, colors and undulating swimming motions of a flat fish like a flounder. When it does so, the octopus even bugs its eyes out, so they look like flounders’ eyes.....

End of the Year

Finals begin today; this is the home stretch. This year has gone by fast and the kids were great. My reading list for the summer is going to be long. Here are some initial titles:

Surprised By Hope by N.T. Wright

The Powers That Be by Walter Wink

Christianity in a Pluralistic Society by Leslie Newbigin

A Christianity Worth Believing by Doug Pagitt

Religion and Science by Jurgen Moltemann (did I spell that right?)

The Birth of Christianity by John Dominic Crossan

God and Empire by John Dominic Crossan

Any suggestions? I could use some....

New Book

I just purchased Doug Pagitt's new book, A Christianity Worth Believing, and so far so good. Its a personal look at his faith journey and some hope-filled ideas about the future of theology....more to come...