When things get dark.
One of my favorite books, you know, one of those ones you keep reading again and again, is “God Was In This Place & I Did Not Know It” by Rabbi Lawrence Kushner. It’s a collection of various rabbis understandings and thoughts on the passage in Genesis 28:16 where Jacob wakes up from a dream and exclaims … well, he yells the title to Rabbi Lawrence’s book. It has been a constant reminder to me to be aware of God’s presence with me at all times. It always amazes me how blind we are to the miraculous that hides just behind the ordinary, and just beneath the mundane minutiae of our daily lives. It’s one of the things about my character that I am most frustrated with. This past week was another reminder for me. Read more…
So, this morning my friend Robin sent me a link to a cartoonist’s blog name Jon Birch. I spent a few minutes looking over some of his past posts; chuckling at times, thinking at times, and even getting a little irritated. His work is definitely thought provoking and very difficult to dismiss. You should check it out!
One of his cartoons caught my eye and made me think about a conversation I had with my friend Tim a few weeks ago. Read more…
Never Stop Learning
I’m in Eagle, Idaho this weekend to speak at a retreat on Contemplative Prayer, and I’ve been enjoying the chance to hangout with my good friend, Robin and his family. One of the things I enjoy the most about Robin is that even after years of ministry and life experience and a doctorate in ministry he still approaches life with a learner’s heart. Every time I visit Robin and spend time looking around his library, I always go home with a big list of books I’d like to get from Amazon, and an even longer list of questions I need to ponder.
So what do you do to keep learning? Read more…
'Till Death Do We Part
I’ve been married for 13 years to an absolutely amazing woman. I definitely got the better end of the deal there, but I have a bad habit: I take her for granted. Now, while it’s certainly not okay that I do it, I’m pretty sure I’m in good company. In fact, most guys I know take their wives for granted everyday. It’s something we’re all prone to do, and it doesn’t just stop with our relationships. Read more…
I love this poster!
Lately, I’ve been struggling more than usual with the problem of procrastination. I have big plans, and ideas, task lists, and dreams, but I just can’t seem to get them done. It’s as if there’s always something else that needs doing, or that gets my attention. It feels a bit like high school again, when the only time I would ever clean my room was when I had a paper due the next day, and cleaning my room was the last thing I could do to put off writing the paper just a little bit longer. I’m intrigued by my struggle with procrastination and I’ve been wondering why it is that it’s been my constant companion for so many years. A few days ago I did what I always do when I am intrigued by something, I bought a book on the subject. It’s a nerdy practice, I know, but it has also led to the development of a pretty decent personal library. I even have a book on the art of mind control practiced by the ancient ninjas. Read more…
Taking an icy dip!
One of my favorite podcasts is the video podcast from TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design). I find the different topics and ideas presented to be incredibly stimulating, and I love learning how to be a better presenter from some of the incredible communicators that show up at the TED conference.
This past weekend I was watching some of the latest postings to the podcast and came across a fascinating talk by a guy named Lewis Pugh. Lewis Pugh had a concern. He watched as the polar ice cap kept creeping back and how the ice at the North Pole kept getting thinner and thinner and he decided to do something about it. He wanted to do something that would grab the business and political leaders of the world by their “collars and shake them” to make them aware of the problem of climate change. So, what Lewis did is arrange to take a little dip, only he decided that he would take his short, twenty minute, one kilometer swim at the North Pole. Read more…
"Casting their nets..."
Sometimes I chuckle when I’m reading a passage of scripture. I mean, there are some pretty funny parts in it. For example, when Matthew is telling us about Jesus going into the desert to fast for forty days he says this, “After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.” I always laugh at that. Did Matthew really think he needed to add, “he was hungry”? Did he honestly think we wouldn’t catch that? Read more…
Hey there,
The Tangible Kingdom
I have been enjoying my friend, Robin’s, chapter summaries of “The Tangible Kingdom” by Hugh Halter and Matt Smay, so I thought I would point my readers to his blog as well. He’s done such a nice job of capturing the essence of each chapter that I thought others would enjoy it, and hopefully it will encourage you to get a copy of this book for yourself.
So head over to Robin’s blog, Spiritual Regurgitation’s to read the summaries.
Blessings,
So a few weeks ago I was down in the states for a friends wedding. My buddy Aaron and his fiance, Joanna, were scheduled to exchange their vows, and commit themselves to each other for the rest of their lives and they felt that I should be present to witness this occasion.
Some people would have seen my role as a legal witness, others would have seen it as a spiritual witness, but I feel that my role was to look sexy in my tux (A role I feel I accomplished completely.) Read more…
The power of story.
Yesterday, I started writing about some of the conclusions, or ideas that came from a brainstorming session we had in our church community about children’s ministry in a missional context. Much of this comes from my fear that my children will grow up thinking that church is a place you go on the weekends, and not a force for the Kingdom of God in this world everyday. Our desire is to see our children’s ministry develop new disciples of Jesus, rather than just nice, kind Christian kids who can regurgitate all the right answers. As we talked about how to be more effective in reaching this goal we started talking about the practical issues of Sunday mornings and what it might look like. We talked about the role of music, and the role of scripture, and I will likely blog about them in the near future, but we also started talking about the role of story. That’s what I want to tackle today.
Story engages the whole person in that place where reason, emotion and context meet. Read more…
