America the Beautiful (But irrationally disturbing)

A short, true story.

Sam & Amber relocated from Lexington, KY to Tampa, FL. Sam & Amber purchased a new home. Sam & Amber realized that they needed garbage can lids for the garbage cans that they had. Sam went to home depot. At home depot, one cannot buy a lid separate from a trash can top. In HD's defense, they had the exact same number of cans and tops, so it kind of made sense. One of the Sales associates sent Sam to Wal-Mart in search of the elusive standalone garbage can lid. Sam entered Waltonland full of hope, and left questioning the future of his country.

Upon entering the hardware area, Sam located approximately 15 lids that didn't seem to have a matching can and thought "This is going to work perfectly. Great!" Sam asked the hardware worker if they were sold separately and the worker told him that they were not, and that the lids would most likely be thrown away. Sam took 3 lids to check out of the store hoping someone with half a brain would sell him the lids and was asked to remove himself from the normal line and go to customer service. Sam then talked to two successive customer service managers and was denied buying said lids because "they don't have a barcode." Sam contemplated walking out of the store with the lids since the inane inhabitants of Waltonland would not accept his polite remuneration for the product they seemed to sell.

Sam left dejected and without hope. He just wanted trash can lids and got a reality check regarding the future. A representative government might not be a good idea in countries where people have no ability to think.

THE END.

Wilderness Camp

It would be astonishingly and offensively presumptuous to imply that I truly experience wilderness times. I am blessed beyond belief. But for many of us, even when life is good, it is challenging. It gives us opportunities to learn, improve, or to break, walk away. I thought it would be useful to put down some thoughts that I've either learned or heard in the last few months during some hard but hopefully fruitful times. So here you go...Wilderness thoughts.

1. You can walk in the same circle many times, but ultimately, you are still going somewhere. You're just going to take a lot longer walking in circles. "You'll know you're in the right place when you've never been there before." Often the difficult time makes the good time possible. If we do not suffer, we often do not know good to be good, or at least as good as it it.

2. Going into the wilderness yields riches (though likely not monetary ones). When the Israelites left Egypt, they took plunder while being set free from slavery (are those reparations?). We can take many riches with us if we are willing to ask. I'm hoping one of my great riches out of this time is an increased faith. I think it already is to some degree as I continue to lean onto God, realizing I have very little to offer to situations. There are many others that need not be mentioned here.

3. Complaining is bad. Don't believe me? Look it up. That's the simple answer, but we have the ability to choose a good deal of how we feel and what our life looks like. I'm not implying that we won't have gut reactions, nor that difficult things do not require grief, mourning, and sadness. Only that we often miss the mark because of our selfishness.

4. You aren't in the wilderness because someone brought you here to die. You're on a journey. You'll get there faster if you learn from wilderness camp.

In contrast, life changes are extremely hard and put great stress on relationships, faith, income, and everyone around you. I am blessed to be surrounded by so many good people who have made this transition a sad, amazing, heart-breaking, hopeful thing.

Further up and Further in, Part 2

Referencing an older post, a better picture has been found. Of late, the realization of life as a journey of transformation has become much more acute. Life as a journey to death which yields more life. It's a confusing idea that I'm just beginning to wrap my head around. Henri Nouwen does a much better job of describing it in his book, Life of the Beloved. He describes the process of death as one which should open us up even more to God and to loving other people. This is a difficult concept for me to grasp, though I think I'm getting better at it. Applying the idea to other areas, it's intriguing to see what "dying to oneself" looks like in myriad situations. Through some personal unscientific study by someone who knows very little about it, it's reasonable to say death yields life.

Ya, I'm engaged...what's it to you?

Amber has hindsight bias. She now thinks she knew it was coming. She didn't. I tricked her into marrying me, and now it's too late. If you want the story...man I'm tired of telling it but here 'goes.

We went out to eat at Gaetano's. If you don't know what it is, it's in Dunedin, FL and you should go. Great food, good time. Nice atmosphere. As we were leaving dinner, Amber had to use the restroom, so I went out to the car and put the ring in my pocket. I snuck it out while she was in the shower after our bike ride.

We stopped in dunedin and looked out over the water and talked about stars and tampa area geography. Next on the plan was going to the Botanical Gardens for the Holiday Lights. We walked around some of the other areas, and then went into the wedding garden. I asked Amber if she wanted to stand under the gazebo and practice. She said no, that's dumb. I was able to convince her. Then I tricked her into marrying me.

One of the highlights of the evening was a couple walking past charging us to make it last 40 years like they had. It's encouraging stuff.

We wound out the evening hanging out at the beach, letting some people (who were awake) know of the night's festivities.

2 people looking HOTT!

It's gonna be a fun life together.

Husbands, Fathers, Manhood

1. Load and Install iTunes on your computer.

2. Go to iTunes store and Podcasts.

3. Download and Listen to "Mars Hill Church Sermon Audio" - Get the one from 10/1/2007 "Fathers and Fighting"

4. Repeat as Necessary.

Sometimes people need a slap in the face. I think sometimes is fast becoming often in our brave new world (Oops).

Decisions...

Don't you wish they were less like this... and more like this...

Church essential number one: Brokenness/Wholeness

It seems a key element in any kind of effective church is the ability to grieve healthily. A corporate outpouring of this character is stoked by all of the individuals' willingness to sit in hard places, and believe and hope for redemption.

I believe God has an inner fire in each of us, but so often we let it die because we are broken by life, sadness, pain...

A friend of mine once related a similar situation to me using an analogy of a broken glass (paraphrased):

"Sam for such a long time, all I could do was sit and say look at the broken glass; what am I going to do? My glass is broken...After some time, I realized there was glue, and the glass could be put back together. It wouldn't be put back together, though, without blood-without your hands being cut over and over again. It also would never look the same as it did before. How could it? with glue holding glass together like mortar with bricks. However, it can again serve its purpose." That purpose? A vessel. "Be filled and spill" also comes to mind. This cannot happen if we believe we, in and of ourselves, can do it. We can't. We break, we weary, we despair. But there is much to say for our past pains becoming strengths that can be used by a perfect Creator as he deems fit. Not for our own glory, but for his own. We are broken, but our brokenness can be made new, can be re-sculpted for good (what was intended for evil).

(I'm really thinking out loud here and trying to dream a little bit. I welcome your input and thoughts, criticisms and questions. I'm hoping to think of more of these and bring them together for a more cohesive whole.)

Going green with your H20 (Public Service Announcement)

It has come to the attention of the author that many people (the author chief among the offenders) use far too many disposable containers to hold food and beverage.

Sure it's easy to just grab a plastic cup or plate and throw it away, but it would be a whole lot better to ease up on filling landfills and the like and lessen our need for mass quantities of plastic. It's also cheaper.

There are other alleged repercussions involving the ways in which we live affecting things like cancer in humans. Some of these questions are raised by Michael Sleeth of A Rocha

He also gave a good talk about Conservationism, simplicity, and a bit about the whole cancer thing. You can find it here (you'll want July 8th, "Serve God Save the Planet"). The sermons around this one are also intriguing.

The picture above illustrates some of the author's efforts to change the way he effects the world around him. Small yes (well the liter mug isn't small, but the effort is). Is it a little odd to use a beer glass for water in the workplace? Maybe, but it's also a great way to start a good conversation about taking care of what we've been given. Appreciating our blessings without exploiting them.

Peace and Punishment, a not so Common Sense thing

It is a difficult thing, forgiveness. It's also a very difficult thing to not punish wrongdoers. Is there compromise? Does it depend on the outcome. Is peace the greatest good, or just a figment of our imaginations? If we offer amnesty, do we encourage more violence by evil people (read: if there is no punishment/discipline, what's to keep people from repeating the offense?)

How do we move on when so much wrong has been done by all sides?

What hope is there to answer the injustice? This is a brief venting of frustrations. I believe the best answer is to work to prevent most of these things from ever happening (Easier said than done, I know). But how do we do that? I don't know, but there are some things I'm willing to do to attempt to sway myself from apathy.

1. Be Content. I don't need your stuff.

2. Promote Peace in my relationships

3. Promote Peace with my words and actions in other public spheres.

4. Find new ways to be an agent of change for good.

More is Less

No, that's not a usage error of the colloquialism in the title. It's the beginning of a question. In regards to making money, having things, and doing things, why do we constantly need more? It often requires more of our time to work extra hours for more money, to take care of the things we've bought which we don't need or use. Yet we as a culture are still obsessed with it. It's very easy (and not that inaccurate IMO) that one of the reasons it's done is to avoid slowing down and facing the fears of silence, simplicity, and calm. The problem is that this way of life has no true center and roams around the spirit like a devil pac-man eating up any substance that exists until all that remains is a shell, just a sketch of the former and intended whole person. The difficulty arises in having to say no, in having to pay bills, in feeling the need to maintain the "everything's just fine (even though I'm losing my mind)" view for the world to see.

All the time and money that we've accumulated has done nothing but rob us of true purpose. The things and the love of money do not inherently bring life. In fact, the opposite is the case more often than not. To walk away from a world of wealth is a difficult thing. But is it worth your soul?

Dissonance

I have been meaning to post about some challenges I've encountered in the past year dealing with things that should be part of a normal Christian mindset (Love, hope, preserving the natural world, encouraging freedom and justice, wholeness and hope, etc.) In addition to that, had hoped to make some points about what flowed out of those things. People who eat better, drive better, exercise and think critically and with a keen mind. I still hope to do that, but Zach beat me to it. You should check his post on eschatology and diverging views.

Here, now, but what about tomorrow?

It is difficult to remove many of the sources of noise from one's life. It is especially difficult in the modern mindset to fiercefully guard times of true relaxation. The battle is largely within the self, as silence and calm is a thing to be feared. It is a challenge to go there, to be quiet, to sit, but is something we all must do if we hope to truly have peace.

Something many people struggle with, myself fully included is the question of "what's next?" It's so hard not to ask, not to want to know, not to have the drop on the guy next to you... But today has enough troubles of its own, and it will take care of itself. We have but to realize that we are in fact the people we are right now. We will do different things, think different things, know different things; but who we are is who we are. We must stop lying to ourselves about the person we are and face facts. Be honest and stop cutting ourselves slack. Look at our own lives with the same keen and critical eye we see others. Change is possible, but even that ability or desire to change is part of who you are right now. If you're currently unwilling to undergo painful change, then you will likely remain that way and always speak of things you will or could do differently. For those of us who can't say anything without it having a futurist bent, it can be put a different way: we are the people we are becoming. May the mysterious and merciful peace of God rest in our minds.