I saw this on a facebook post and thought it rather interesting.

The difference between life and school is this: In school you are taught a lesson and then you get a test. In life you get a test and then you learn a lesson.

Completely true, probably not. Profound, potentially. Worth considering, definitely.

I am reluctant to write about this because I fear it may not make sense and folks will take it the wrong way. Just to be clear, I am not making a point about race or nationality, but, just a thought about some things that could happen. Kerri said I should write it for her, so, here you go honey.

With the recent increase in hostilities between rival drug cartels in Mexico the United States is beginning to see, for the first time, some of the violence spill over into the southern state's mainstream consciousness. In other words, people are started to get worried. Until now, drug running was something that happened, but, not to anyone you knew or anywhere you went. (Yes, I am showing my background.) But, I think the Mexican and central American countries are having both socioeconomic/political problems and population issues. In short, people are running out of places to live, money with which to live and patience/strength to tolerate the conditions any longer.

It has been a common practice for drug runners to push product into the American market through the southern borders for a while. Recently, however, the hispanic population in these southern states has grown rapidly. Again, to be clear, I am not saying hispanics are drug runners. I believe the large majority of non-American hispanics in America are looking for the same thing I am, a better life. Nonetheless, there are some Americans and non-Americans who really couldn't care for the law any less if they tried. For them, I think nationality and race are meaningless or, at best, trivial. At any rate, as the north-south interstates increase in drug-traffic volumes and the central and southern corridors of the United States see an overwhelming hispanic population explosion a division is being formed.

The idea I am trying to get across is a picture of events happening over decades, perhaps even a century, so, this is not a series of events that would occur quickly, but, over the course of a couple of generations. What I have seen is a situation that could stem from this influx (from the American point of view) or outpouring (from the Mexican point of view) of people. As people flee Mexico into the United States they will have to go somewhere. The people who were where the Mexicans are now moving must go somewhere too. Since racial and social tensions tend to persist from generation to generation, people will typically move in waves. These are population trends and patterns that may emerge based on the events of the past decade.

The best analogy I can think of comes from thinking of a volcano. When a volcano explodes, the cloud of ash and smoke shoots up and divides the sky above the peak in two. Envision the mountain top being just south of Texas. Now, transpose this image of an erupting volcano onto a map of the United States. The cloud is the population explosion and the sky is the current population in the United States. The exodus of Mexican people trying to escape the violence they are surrounded with just want to be safe. But, as they move north and west, so does the violence. This makes them want to move farther north and farther west/east. Likewise, a cloud expands to cool off and restore the balance that has been lost.

Translating this image into practical terms: I see the possibility that the current instability and violence swirling within the center of the central American and Mexican countries as a great source of potential danger. People today are not thinking of a United States divided by a foreign population. If they are, it is not from the same continent and it cannot easily happen. But, that is precisely the idea I see and am compelled to consider. If the drug culture currently warring within Mexico explodes past the southern United States border into Texas, Louisiana, Arizona, California and New Mexico it is very possible that civil order will disappear in the areas where the drug running corridors exist. The center of the United States could easily be invaded by disorganized, guerrilla bands with superior arms and resources. This is not a political or military struggle, not in the traditional sense. Rather, the politics would not be one of nation against nation, but, power against power. This would be like returning to the days of tribal dominance where the strongest group has control over a small area.

If it does, we would have two countries, a western United States and an eastern United States. This type of idea is way past dramatically different from anything I could imagine. But, it is a thought that has come to mind and doesn't seem to go away. So, being a planner, I ask myself, if this comes to past, where will you (meaning me and my family) go? I don't want to live near political and social instability. What will it be like? How will life be different? What would an America no longer primarily divided by the repercussions of slavery and the civil war look like? What would we be if our new great concern was for our very land and nation?

Below are some links that suggest the natural progression of population increase in Texas alone.

http://www.dallasfed.org/research/pubs/fotexas/fotexas_petersen.html

The Pauline presidency

As I was praying this morning, it occurred to me that our president is the perfect man for the job. Many Americans feel he is too far to the "left". Many are not only dissatisfied with where he is going, but, also, with what they expect him do based on his history and present path. I think there are some amazing things that could come from where he is. Imagine if one were to meet Paul before his conversion. As a Christian, he would be the last thing you would want to run into. Yet, God turned a powerful agent against good into a powerful man for Christ. Please hear me clearly. I am not saying our president is evil. I think he is young and has ideas that make it hard for him to see God's spirit. But, I see a man whose heart is for healing and change. Imagine if Paul's crusade, conversion and transformed ministry were played out on the world stage! Billions could be saved by such an awesome act of God.

I hope people will begin to see what can be instead of what they think is. Lord, let people have a vision of our situation inspired by the possibilities you want to become reality. And, let the prayers of those who see this vision be filled with your power. I pray that God will turn this man's heart the way he turned Paul's. Lord, let Barack Obama SCREAM the name of JESUS CHRIST AS LORD to the world, glorifying You, Father, to the world. May he be a surprise attack from heaven oh God. Surprise the world with this man more so than has already been done. Surprise this man with your Holy Spirit. Let what people see as danger become a great light through your transformational power and glory oh God. Take his radical point of view and use it to guide this nation back into a place of righteousness and holiness in radical ways. Begin to hold the pen he uses to demonstrate authority in pause before he approves wicked plans with his signature. Cause him to take pause. Blind him on his current mission and make him stop, wait to hear you. Speak to him every time he acts. Take him away from the glory and prestige of the moment to a place where he and You speak. Pour your heart into his and make him realize in countless small moments the directions he is redirecting our country, our world every single time he acts. Give him a greater perspective, a supernatural understanding of who he is and who You are oh Lord. Bring him to the point where he stops in a public way, chooses not to approve something previously thought to be a given as a sign of his faltering as a man. Begin the work to make him an agent of the kingdom of heaven, of eternity, not of a four year reign. Let him be a man who makes mistakes as a leader AND accepts responsibility for these mistakes. Place on him the crown jewel of wisdom that comes from gracefully admitting one is wrong; from recognizing the power of humiliation. Lord, let this man repeal his approval of abortion and publicly declare his mistake. We as a people can use such leadership. Let him cry from his heart at the mistakes he makes. Fan what is good in his heart Lord and make it grow from a small flame to an explosive fire. Fill Him with the Holy Spirit. Let him prophesy truth over our nation, over our age, over the spirit of this country. Create in him a pure heart oh God. Pour onto him supernatural wisdom and rewrite the history books with his life Yahweh. Glorify the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit with your lips, your heart, your soul, your spirit and your leadership Mr. President.

Time banking

A while back the idea of time banking got in my head. I can't recall how or where, but, it stuck. After mentioning something to Kerri about it today I took a moment to see if anyone else had started a similar initiative. As it turns out, the term time banking was coined by Edgar Cahn. (Here is their website.) It has been around since the 80's and seems to be fairly well established in communities where social justice movements and liberal ideals have taken root and succeeded. This also explains why it hasn't gotten much exposure in my homes to date: Baton Rouge, Memphis and Dallas. At any rate, the concept is simple; one hour of my time gets me one hour of someone else's time.

My first response, before I found the website, was to try and figure out an algorithm for translating one person's work effort to another. I was originally envisioning a system identical to the existing economic structure we use in everyday life without exchanging money. When I read their website, however, the hour for an hour makes perfect sense. At first I was a little insulted. Doesn't an hour of my time mean more than an hour of a gardener's. Of course, I immediately realized there was another lesson in that (stemming from our church's sermon on pride). So, God was mentioning that everyone has the same time and we truly have been given equal opportunity to help others. In other words, this social construct we use to navigate our everyday lives based on wealth, worth and value is horribly corrupted because it inherently causes people to determine the value (or perceived value) of themselves and others. In short, everything becomes a competition.

From the website, it looks like there is software, organization, message boards...things to make money for this foundation. Well, that fine and dandy, but, the idea alone seems to have enough power in and of itself. So, I am going to try and create one of these banks here in Frisco and see if it takes. In our economic climate, people are looking for ways to save money and still meet their needs. The notion that money is not the only way to survive (and more importantly thrive) seems to be rudimentary to this group. They have more in mind, like social reform, community building and the kind of grassroots effort that America as a nation lacks these days. Yet, it is exactly what we need. We need to return to community. We need to regain control over what we value and stop letting our things (and those who make them) dictate what our time and lives are worth.

They say 150 is the ideal size for a time bank. So, the Frisco time bank currently has a count of 2...if you count myself and Kerri. We'll see how well it goes. To me it is a little different from the Christian churches did back in the day where folks freely gave to those in need (a la Acts). Nonetheless, the notion that people do not have to operate by the rules of society as society dictates seems like a powerful place to let God speak. And, in our times, it seems like an even more powerful opportunity to minister. People are looking for ways to save money. They would be more interested in reaching out, more likely to try something different. And, therefore, more open to hearing God in unexpected places.

If anyone is interested, email me and we'll see what we can come up with. I'll probably be starting a blog here shortly to the effect of what I'm talking about here.

Dreams and things

Last week Kerri and I briefly discussed the stimulus package. She said she kept hearing the word "corruption". The fact that the president is surrounding himself with people of questionable character is disconcerting to say the least. Regardless of how smart and honorable he may be, if he nothing but bad choices are presented to him, how could he make good ones? With funds being dispersed into a wide array of funds, the ability to track and verify that funds are being used properly will be very difficult. In other words, it seems like a huge shell game.

On top of that, I had a dream last night. The gist of the dreams suggested, as I talked with Kerri, that we, as a nation, are broken. From the outside, we cannot be clearly recognized to stand for anything. From within there are major discrepancies between the leadership and administration of the government. In the dream, I wept and was rejected for the sorrow I had over the country. Tying into the previous paragraph, it would seem, based on what Kerri and I discussed, that the devaluation of the US dollar caused by the stimulus package will severely decrease the American economy. When further instability leads to collapse, it is possible that the US will be pushed to conform to a new currency, similar to the EU's eurodollar.

One specific note I found interesting was the fact that, within the stimulus package, there are plans to cover mortgages. Yet, not mentioned, at least within the media, is the fact that seven years from now, these mortgages will need to be repaid. So, just looking at this from a long range plan: if people are unaware of this they will gladly support it and probably remain ignorant of the conditions of this scenario. In short, they'll most likely continue to live as they are now. In 5 to 6 years, the media will begin to discuss the situation and mass awareness will rise. This will precipitate another mortgage industry crisis. Only this time, the government (not free trade) will be in control. And, the party that will have the solution will be the democrats. All this is to say, I see one more instance of a crisis-generating solution being created with this plan. It's not meant to help, but, to control. I really don't think people are taking the crisis with a long term perspective. What good is a free market economy if it is never allowed to succeed and fail?

Lastly, in John Paul's the Perfect Storm, he laid out the observation that social security was designed to work prior to Roe v. Wade. When abortion became a legal option, it eroded the effectiveness of the original plan. So, we suffer from the wrong perspective when discussing the social security system. The plan would work perfectly, but, illegal laws were set in place and the long term goals were made irrelevant because the original assumptions on which the plan was made are not realities today. I think this type of observation, one in which the consequences of sin are considered as legitimate sources of all of today's problems, are the only kind that will make sense. Everything else is illusion and farce. Sadly, people work so hard to make things that are meaningless and will never do anything to solve the problem but only contribute to worsen the existing ones.

Research ANd Development

I found out that's what RAND stands for. When I was in college, I wanted to become part of a "think tank". These appealed to me as beautiful, ideological factories, creating cutting edge ideas and transforming the world. In fact, I went so far as to look at the CIA and NSA for jobs along these lines. If you are bright enough, apparently, you can get a job for doing research and analysis. All along, however, I felt that that level of intellect was not where I was supposed to go. If I have completely given myself over to the line of work, I could have, but, would never have been able to say, should have.

And, as I do more research for my words book, I think I am beginning to see why. I started off looking at the word "telios ", the Greek word for "perfection". Through some side-tracking I went through "telios" to "techne" (a word I was curious about last week anyway) to "poiesis". This last one really caught my attention. Here is a snippet I got from Wikipedia that spoke to me a lot:

Poïesis is etymologically derived from the ancient Greek term ποιέω, which means "to make". This word, the root of our modern "poetry", was first a verb, an action that transforms and continues the world. Neither technical production nor creation in the romantic sense, poïetic work reconciles thought with matter and time, and man with the world. It is often used as a suffix as in the biology terms hematopoiesis and erythropoiesis, the former being the general formation of blood cells and the latter being the formation of red blood cells specifically.

In the Symposium (a Socratic dialogue written by Plato), Diotima describes how mortals strive for immortality in relation to poieses. In all begetting and bringing forth upon the beautiful there is a kind of making/creating or poiesis. In this genesis there is a movement beyond the temporal cycle of birth and decay. "Such a movement can occur in three kinds of poiesis: (1) Natural poiesis through sexual procreation, (2) poiesis in the city through the attainment of heroic fame and finally, and (3) poiesis in the soul through the cultivation of virtue and knowledge."

I have always had a fascination with the idea of creation. When I read the first line, I sensed this was essentially the same meaning I have focused on to this point. However, the fact that I have always had a longing to be poetic makes me think I am onto something. Looking more closely, I see this, "This word, the root of our modern "poetry", was first a verb, an action that transforms and continues the world. Neither technical production nor creation in the romantic sense, poïetic work reconciles thought with matter and time, and man with the world." In my posts on genius and creativity, I touched on a variety of issues, but, poetry (this transforming, continuing action) was at the heart of it. Genius, in this context, was merely represented the state of inimitable blessedness one receives when doing God's unique will for their life. As we are all unique by God's design, this transforming, world continuing action (poiesis) is the mechanism through which thought and space/time or matter/time are reconciled.

The more I think about it though, the less I see a true reconciliation as being possible. God's kingdom and the work of the world are two wholly separate and distinct things. Scripture marks the holy and the secular or the profane as a clear line of distinction between what one is supposed to do for God and the world. I am beginning to think that Plato's note was more about the struggle, not the holy end of one wrestling with the "poetic" or "creative" aspect of one's self. As was noted about Diotima in the Symposium, "how mortals strive for immortality in relation to poieses" was a major theme.

More explicitly, "In all begetting and bringing forth upon the beautiful there is a kind of making/creating or poiesis. In this genesis there is a movement beyond the temporal cycle of birth and decay. " This sounds very much like the struggle of Christians. Yet, to compare the poetic (as it is "naturally" considered) the end result of the struggle it towards making God's will be done, more so than the satisfaction felt when the expression of a creative urge has been realized and completed. In other words, it's not just about the creating, but, creating for a purpose, for God.

The fact that the article goes on mention three classical forms of poiesis make me think back to John Paul's three (or four) G's: girls/guys, glory and gold. The list the Wikipedia article provided was: 1) sex/reproduction 2) heroism and 3) self-fulfillment. Another way of looking at them would be relational, social and personal integration. So, the "poetic" work (that is the process of creating), or at least the struggle, is a very real element of the Christian life. There is a strong similarity there between the hellenistic ideal and the Christian process. But, when the ends of these two worldviews are concerned, I think the similarity ends and the any comparison between the two have to part ways here.

Day 1

So, I declared war on my laziness. To be all militant, I went for a run at 8:30. 2 kilometers into my run (yes, I know exactly when and how far), I was hit with a spiritual grenade. The result, a nice new injury. You know what I say, "Praise God!"

Does God really want me to be excellent?

In college I took a humanities class. The whole semester was focused on one word. Arete. It's a classical Greek work meaning, you guessed it, excellence. Now, I am looking between keystrokes, at a book on my bookshelf called "Hebrew Thought Compared with Greek" by Thorleif Boman. I have gone through this book many different times finding basic differences between how I think, having been influenced by the Greek undercurrent in western society, and how I suspect Jesus and members of the Bible would have thought. Excellence, or arete, being a Greek concept, is something I find myself being suspicious of. Much like the biblical distinction between happiness and blessedness/joy, I suspect there is a biblical counterpart to the idea of excellence. Now, I am not saying God doesn't want us to give Him all we have. But, I have a hunch that giving God our very all (allusions of Matthew 22:37 implied) and being excellence might be two different things. By the world's standards, and I think that is the crux of the matter, excellence in God's eyes and excellence in the world's eyes rarely line up. So, I am going to be explore the basic concepts and do a little compare-and-contrast to see what's what here because I find many Christians have not split hairs here.

At war...with everything

The past few weeks I've been feeling this restlessness and fatigue. When I started getting frayed on the edges, I tend to get edgy and grouchy myself. At that point, I usually have to start asking, "Okay God, what am I missing and what are you trying to tell me?" Typically I either missed a turn I was supposed to take. Or, I ignored the big screaming signs telling danger ahead or turn here. The usual stubborn acts of ignorance that come with being human and disobedient.

Of course, something I struggle with more is the constant sense of pressure I feel about the notion that we are held accountable for the things he has revealed to us. Typically, I think people hold this in a negative context, where judgment will fall upon those who fail to act on God's revelation. In John, Jesus said, in a positive manner,

13 You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. 14 And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet.

15 I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. 16 I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message

17 Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.

So, here I sit. I've heard God, and, recently have heard repeatedly, the same notion of the "warrior" nature of Christian men, particularly how it is not relevant and/or taught much these days.

War is hard. It's tiring. It's deadly. I guess these are things I sense spiritually and grow weary of. Yet, I have heard him say, "Be prepared, for this life is one of war." So, discipline--as I am asked the very moment I write the word about King Cake--, focus and attentiveness. These are all exciting ideas when facing with expelling demons, interceding, praying feverishly for healing! No doubt. But, it's much harder to be so thrilled about the idea of a militant readiness when it comes to changing a dirty diaper, instructing a 3 year for 315th time to do something she simply doesn't want to do or paying my bills...again. No, war can come in many guises and the hardest ones to defeat are the ones to which we turn a blind eye.

I hate to aim for New Years resolutions because it seems so artificial. Most of the time, we need to change our lives, our selves, for these declarations, these resolutions to have any power and meaning. So, I am looking forward, thinking, that there is a war, whether I want to admit or not, and, it will continue, whether I want to believe it or not. It is a war of the spirit and I need to humble myself to private, trivial tasks of simple righteousness before I can pursue holiness, purity or power. Without righteousness, my spiritual militant approach to life is nothing but self-focusing chest beating. I don't want prideful displays. I want people to know God through my life.

The war is, at this point, a moment by moment, second by second fight. And, I have to start small, otherwise it will always be greater than I can be. But, by giving God small things in which He can prove to me He is in control and He is victorious, I can allow him to slowly take over larger parts of my life. Thus, I fire the cannon shot of war into the crevices of my soul. Lord, bless me in the little things, that I may bless you in the big.

So, I originally posted to write that I am going to be focusing on discipline in my life with a militant attitude, aiming, in my best efforts, to do better with what I have. I will also be aiming to begin thinking of the future instead only of the now, a long time habit of mine. I will be making checklists (I am the king of excel spreadsheets), beginning to learn about duties I only once knew of (such as home maintenance) and trying to find a full balance in my life: work, family, church, exercise, diet, finance. I want to begin focusing wholeness in my whole life. It is so easy to turn a blind eye to some part of life and neglect to take care of it simply because it doesn't have an obvious immediate impact. I added the word immediate as I was typing because it is easy to ignore the future and overlook the truth that what we do now shapes our future. Being lazy now will prevent me from being who I can or could be in the future. So, out with laziness. I am at war with my dirty desk and my untrimmed trees, with my unreconciled bank books and my unironed clothes. And I pray God keeps me focused on the little things because there are land mines everywhere and I will not let my future be blown up any longer.

I tend to do this and in a few months get frustrated with the discipline that I've imposed on myself. I start hearing, "Who cares? It doesn't matter anyway." Then, I get frustrated and disappointed. After disappointment comes despair. I pray that I will not fall into this pattern. I don't want to repeat the same thing again. I want to get through the walls that have built up around me. I want the purpose of my checklists, the purpose of my discipline to be to glorify God and make my life more the way he wants it to be. That's all this is really for anyway. I just get caught up in the battle and forget why I'm fighting along the way. It's so easy to get lost in the moment and forget why. When trying to love, I am hating parts of my self. When trying to win, I am choosing to lose. A bizarre truth about loving God though life is the utter confusion that comes into the mix when we try to fight ourselves.

For instance, I have a box of paper work that needs to be filed. I have had the same box for about 6 years. I tend to get ambitious, pick up 25 things, thumb through, put a few things away, thumb through the pile 5 more times passing things up each time thinking, "Oh I know there's a folder for that somewhere. I'll find it later." This ridiculous routine has robbed me of time. I feel constantly frustrated that I haven't finished this simple task yet. And, it's still there. That is a simple thing that holds me back. So small, yet, so huge. Weird how our enemies are often the simple things.

And, the simple act of trying to keep balance, to this point in my life, has left me feeling anything but balanced. Ok, here's a simple challenge: exercise, eat a good diet, spend time with your family, go to church, keep your bills paid, do good work, make sure the house is kept in good shape and change the world with the Gospel. Not hard, right? I literally am making checklists because of the sheer number of tasks required to try and keep this pace. Anyone who knows me knows it's not keeping up with the Jones. Rather, it's keeping up with the idea of who we are supposed to be. The ambition being that if all these things are met on a regular basis it will be an outward demonstration of an inward balance and harmony. I have no idea if it's true, since I've never been there yet, but, keeping it all together seems like a miracle if you ask me. 168 hours a week is enough. I just have to trim down the 250 hours a week I spend doing those 168 hour week's worth of tasks. Be smarter than the situation I always say.

Trapped, however, is how I feel when I find myself doing this. Time is lost trying to keep up. And, without down time, being an introvert, I start getting anxious. No time to recharge and decompress. I am on this treadmill of responsibilities, running from one task to another, never quite catching up. After a while, I just give up cause I can never catch up.

Longfellow once wrote, "Genius is infinite painstaking." I often think of saints as being spiritual geniuses. God calls us to a high level spiritually and the process of being attentive to all things, not only the large or small, requires infinite painstaking. Saintliness is a task far too great for man to accomplish. All we can do is do our best and leave God to do His job.

Weird times

I admit, I have a tendency to see into things more than may or is probably there. Conspiracy theorist? Perhaps. But, a few days after the inauguration, I saw a quick blurb on TV somewhere that Toyota sales had finally surpassed either Chevrolet or GMC, one of the American lines. Within just a few weeks, a president was put in office who, 50 years ago, would have seemed impossible. A country, who 50 years ago was violently assaulted by our military forces, has overtaken sales with their products in our economy. The word invasion seems too strong. I am not trying to communicate that the United States is a place for the caucasian only. I am not trying to say that foreign competition in the open market is bad. What I am trying to say is that the world dominance we, as America, the country, had a generation or two ago is gone. People who grew up only knowing America as a world leader will have to learn to live in America as being just another force, but, not THE force in this new global community. All my life I have seen the borders and the horizons of what I knew shrink further and further into the distance, and, the notion of being a place of power seems to, as this year begins to get under way, something of the past. God's hand is moving and we as a country better figure out where its going because it is no longer here. The events of these days are only symbols of the deeper, more profound changes that are happening spiritual in this day and age. Be clear, there are changes and the way we were will no longer work. I feel this is a truth that can be felt on every level: personal, familial, community, church, society, nation. Change is in the air and I am praying we will fare well in and through the times.

Names from the past

As we try to continue the march towards order in our house, I have been cleaning up old files, paperwork and whatnot. I came across an old phone book. Just a few names, but, it's interesting to think back to different periods in my life. Some of the names were: Wes Blocker (an old runner friend), Stephen Kamuru (a former classmate), Kara Keen (an old roommate), Sally Lavergne (another old runner friend), Tom Reinecke (another runner and friend of Wes'). It's very interesting to remember those folks and how life was so completely different then!

For those who don't know, we follow the insights of Streams ministries fairly closely. Here is a video that folks probably want to see.

http://www.streamsministries.com/index.php?page=videos&video_id=47

When I was 15 my grand father once said, "You stop learning new things when you hit 25." I was always skeptical of that sort of attitude. Now, much older (at 32) and wiser (at least onto what he was talking about) I get where he was going. Hence, lack of posting.

I did find two things I've been hunting for quite a while now:

• http://www.relevantmagazine.com/


• http://anthonyskinner.wordpress.com/

Some things to chew on for a while at least.

Free money is scary

How often does the government give you something? Free? Today, we got two $40 off coupons from the US Treasury towards the purchase of some converter boxes. Now, I know I am a little paranoid by nature. But, really, when does the government ever give anything away? Doesn't it make you just wonder a little?

Reading the Bible in a year

Sounds easy right? I've found it to be anything but. Miss a day here, miss a day there, suddenly, it's a drought of Scripture. So, on my quest to find a good calender, I found these schedules to help. (These are long, so, skip ahead.)

Straightfoward, read a bit each day

52 Week Bible Reading Plan

It is a sad testimony that this is national news:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,459247,00.html

To the few...

Something for the ball of curiosity in all of us to bounce around.

http://www.ted.com/

Thanks Doc Easson.

Marketing free Jesus - Part 2

Okay, I was hasty this morning. I didn't have time to actually write what caught my mind's ear. When I read the gospels I don't think that Jesus needed something to get people's attention. People knew Jesus was different just by being around him. I have heard for years people say in various ways, that if you have to let people know something about you, it's probably not true. For instance, if you have to remind people you're really tall, lest they forget, you're either: 1) not very tall or 2) in constant need of feeling recognized for being tall. A soft example, no doubt. But, the point remains the same: Jesus didn't need to advertise, it was unmistakable who and what he was. That is what I am hoping to become. I don't want to have to remind people, "Oh yeah, by the way, in case you didn't know, I'm a Christian." As Francis of Assisi is rumored to have said, "Proclaim the gospel; use words if you must."

Jesus without the marketing

Lately I've been feeling a bit of regret as I see churches with huge budgets, gigantic facilities, amazing radio programs... In other words the works. Would Jesus have ever considered using a marketing strategy to reach new Christians? Eternal life is not something that works well with worldly schemes and mechanisms and I feel remorse over being a part of a religious life that thinks this works. I am not trying to say I have some great insight into what is authentic and what isn't, but, the idea of Jesus using the "strategies" Christians focus on today just makes my stomach turn. I guess I want people to stop spending time trying to figure out how to be the most effective Christian with their resources and just love the world back to life. Who cares if it's pretty or not.

Spiritual ecologist

Many years ago, in an experience I will relate another time, I was told to meditate on the term "spiritual ecologist". At the time, I stumbled onto a book by Ken Wilber titled, "Sex, Ecology, Spirituality: The Spirit of Evolution". I remembered reading it as more of a collection of unfocused, rambling thoughts of a man who clearly had insights, but, no cohesive vision to tie them together. Nonetheless, I still was excited to have something to confirm the term had some real world connection. I did a quick Google search and saw 140 hits for this specific term as of today. Seems like someone wants me to look back at the concept again.