//A Break from Blogging

I am taking a break from blogging, potentially for the summer, in order to read and spend time taking in rather than putting out.
I will post a blog when Olivia is born! We are very excited and would appreciate your prayers!
Thank you so much!
May God's Grace and Peace be with you!

//Evil

How do we deal with the problem of evil?
In cases like Darfur, what can we do to rule over the evil that is destroying and slaughtering thousands of people?
Is there a seperation of good and evil people, or are we one in the same? [would you agree that there is no such thing as an evil person?]

//Outside

It is a beautiful day.
Go outside and contemplate Creation.

//Redemption Come

Father of Grace and Mercy

Let Redemption come.

Redemption come.

//Violence

"Through violence you may murder the murderer, but you cannot murder murder.
Through violence you may murder a liar, but you cannot establish Truth.
Through violence you may murder a hater, but you cannot murder hate.
Darkness cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that."

//Words from the great theologian Martin Luther King, Jr.
March 4, 1967

//Ride a bike

It is amazing to feel the sun on your face and the breeze.
I know it sounds dramatic, but it really does feel amazing.

I love Creation.
I think it is sad that Christians rarely (if at all) think of Creation.
We would much rather be comfortable.
We are comfortable in our faith.
We are comfortable in our service.
And most of all we are most comfortable in our transportation.

We are quite lazy.

I think there is something amazing about intentionally seeking to make the world a better place by riding a bike instead of driving.
I know it sounds simple.
But I think life should be simple.

I love the feeling of not rushing around.
I love hearing birds sing.
I love the feeling of all those cars rushing past me, with there drivers to urgently speeding around to get where they so desperately need to go.
I love actually seeing people, and if I feel like it, pausing to stop and talk.
I love seeing flowers coming up in the green grass.
I love the feeling of people complaining about gas prices, and knowing that biking causes me to contribute less to the raping of a nation for it's oil.
I love seeing little kids getting off the bus and walking home from school.

Yes, I still drive when I have too, and I am not saying that you should sell your car and buy a bike, because I know that for some that is irrational. But with each person that decides that enough is enough and chooses to bike, the earth gets greener and our dependence on foreign oil decreases.

Give it a chance.
Ride a bike.

//Be one less car.

//Decontructing Evil::N.T. Wright

I just started reading a book I borrowed from my good friend Tim, entitled "Evil and the Justice of God" by the great theologian N.T. Wright. I am currently concluding chapter 1, which was a synopsis of the problem of evil as defined by modern and postmodern culture. Wright, with the backing of other great philosophers and theologians from the past and present, insists that we have come to look at the world as slowly getting better, it seems as if there tends to be less evil in out midst. We are progressing towards utopia, even if it means there must be violent means to get there.

Progress.
Progress.
Progress.

Wright goes on to discuss the common thought that Western civilization ("Westernization") and democracy are looked at as the solution to end the evil that is in the world. After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair declared that there was an "Axis of Evil" that needed to be dealt with and that it was the their (the politician's) job to "rid the world of evil".

Wright then states that he has seen three things that characterize the "new" problem of evil. First we ignore evil when it doesn't hit us in the face. This is seen greatly in our response to the AIDS epidemic, the genocide in Darfur, the illegal sex trade, sweat shop labor, and many other important global issues that are destroying our world. We are not responding to these desperate pleas because they aren't directly effecting us.

Second, we are surprised by the evil when it does actually hit us in the face. This can clearly be seen in our response to the attacks of 9/11. We were aware of the terrorist groups and knew of the damage they were causing in their own areas, but did not think to look into non-violent ways of stopping it before it was to late. Also, we should have known and acted as Christians on the sanctions the U.S. put on Iraq from 1991-2003, which by 1998 had already caused 1 million deaths due to mass starvation and lack of medical supplies. (Read more here at http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/MiddleEast/Iraq/Sanctions.asp) It is certain that these sanctions caused severe unrest among the civilians and aided to continued conflict between U.S. and the Middle East. During the imposed sanctions, which included banning imports of food, medicine and educational supplies, we offered them the generous "Oil for Food" program. "You give us oil, we will give you some food...but not til you give us OIL!"
Disgusting.

Anyway...I'll rant more about that on a later post.
Third, after the evil does hit us in the face, we react in immature and dangerous ways. Wright goes on to site our response to the attacks of 9/11: "One of the most obvious and worrying instances of this phenomenon was the reaction to the events of September 11, 2001. That appalling day rightly provoked horror and anger. But the official response was exactly the kind of knee-jerk, un-thinking, immature lashing out which gets us nowhere." He continues that the event was un-imaginably evil and that thousands of innocent victims died an undeserved death. "But the astonishing naivety which decreed that the United States as a whole was a pure, innocent victim, so that the world could be neatly divided into evil people (Arabs) and good people (Americans and Israelis)..."

Near the end of the chapter, Wright, referencing Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, deconstructs the idea that there are good people and there are bad people. This idea of good and evil people permits us to have a "us" and "them" mentality. The line between good and evil runs trough each one of us.

Reflecting on a terrible tragedy such as 9/11, how do we react to obvious evil that is in the world? How do we take seriously things like Darfur? How do we deal with "Natural" evil (floods, hurricane) compared to "Moral evil (war, genocide, rape)?

//Love

Show someone Love today.
Unconditional Love.

Anonymous Blessing

God Provides.
We all know this.
We can see it in the fact that we are still breathing, or that we have food to eat, or that we have somewhere to sleep.
But I love it when you can see it plain as day.

A few moments ago I was walking up my porch and noticed a letter in our mail box.
It did not have a return address on it, only our address that was written by what looked to be a type writter, not by hand.

So I opened it.
A small peice of yellow paper that was wrapped around something was inside.
Still no writting
I slowly unfolded the paper, looking for something to give away who the sender was or a note.
I was almost brought to tears by what was inside the peice of paper.

A gift card that says "Happy Easter", worth $50.
We could not believe it!
Someone spent their money on us. It is truly humbling to be the recipiant of such an amazing gift, one of such self-less giving.
It is so amazing to see people helping others, and not wanting any reward, not even letting us know who they are so we can thank them.
That is truly doing something for the Glory of God.
The only person I can thank is Jesus.
I cannot express my feelings of gratitude to whoever sent us such a blessing.
Thank you.

It has been a while since I last posted. This has been because of some very interesting dialogue in response to my previous post. If you are interested, check it out!

//The Truth of Aesthetics

The Truth of beauty astounds me.
People are beautiful.
Beauty that is both within, but also outwardly aesthetic.

Aesthetics cannot be explained with rational understanding, which in and of itself holds beauty.
What makes a person, or anything, aetheticly pleasing?
Can you define the confines of what beauty is?
Is there an Absolute aesthetic, which if possessed makes something beautiful?
Or is aesthetics relitive to the veiwer?
If this it is defined by the viewer, and beauty expresses a Truth, is this Truth also relitive?

//Speechless

Last Tuesday, my beautiful wife and I had our first ultrasound. The doctor told us we were having a girl!

.::I am speechless.
I am at a total loss for words.
All of my mistakes and shortcomings, still God has given me this blessing.
Just the thought brings tears to my eyes.

In this world of hate, oppression, disease, war, and pain,

my little baby girl will be born.
But she will know my Father.
For He is with her now, as He crafts her body, and shapes her mind.
On that day she will breathe in His breath and Spirit.
She will be born with Hope.
Hope that God conquers death, and creates new life.

.::Father, give her life.
Let her be a beacon of Hope and Peace to your people.
May she not stray from Your path,
But humbly Follow your will.
Let her prosper in Grace and Truth.
Let her grow in your Love and Comfort, learning to Comfort and Love the Lost.
Let your Glorious Light shine and light her path.
Cast away and Destroy all evil that comes near her, keeping her pure.
Teach her now, as she grows, your laws and decrees.
Bless her way.
My purpose is found, O'God of Mercy.
Let me be a father to her, teaching her your Holy Ways.
Heal me, so that I may offer her strength and wisdom from You.
Jesus, be her Savior.
You are the Truth, the Life and the Way.
Thank you.

Proverbs 11:25-28 (NASB)

25The generous man will be prosperous,
And he who waters will himself be watered.

26He who withholds grain, the people will curse him,
But blessing will be on the head of him who sells it.

27He who diligently seeks good seeks favor,
But he who seeks evil, evil will come to him.

28He who trusts in his riches will fall,
But the righteous will flourish like the green leaf.

//Intentional Community

"It is not a bad thing if your community is in transition, it is a good thing. It means it is alive."
-Words spoken by Shane Claibourne at the Q&A time after Wednesday's chapel.

Well...
Our community is definatly in transition.
These words spoke Truth to me.

For the past six months me and a couple of my best friends decided to try to do the community thing. We lived in one house, shared all of our possesions, attempted to eat together, pray together, and live together.
I don't think I have ever learned so much in that short amount of time.
It has been amazing...
Until now...
We are moving on.
We lost focus.
We forgot why we started.
Wes and Kelly moved out today.
Josh is moving out soon.
It looks like the end...

But I believe it is the Beginning.

God is teaching me what True community looks like.
This is not the end of our Community.
It is a transition...
It is Alive.
We will continue striving for community and following where God leads us.
My wife and I are not giving up, and I am sure that Wes, Kelly and Josh won't either.
Community is not about sharing a house, it's about sharing the amazing Love and Grace of our Father.
.::Grace and Peace

//Stuff

Why is it that when we exspirience being around people of such great poverty or people that may lack the basic needs for survival, we come back to our over cluttered existance and are thankful for all our stuff?
We so often are thankful for all of our things.
Yes...it is incredibly important to be thankful, I praise God for the food, water and a place of shelter he has so graciously blessed me with.

But I believe that Christ invites us to ask a new question, one that isn't easy to answer.

.::Why do I have all of this stuff, when others don't even have food?

When will we see the hurt in our world, we need ask ourselves that question...
It is not a guilt thing, guilt gets us nowhere.
It is not about pride in doing good, pride is death to us.
It is not a works theology, for we are saved only by the Grace of God.

.::It is about following.

Following the God of compassion and love, of grace and peace.
We are His followers.
He leads us to the homeless, the sick, the rich, the hungry and the thirsty, because they are his children too.
And he desperatly wants them to come home.

Next time we come home to our warm bed with all of our stuff (we americans like to call this stuff "blessings") consider and contemplate the words of Paul:

You will be made rich in every way
So that you can be generous on every occasion,
And through us your generosity will result in
Thanksgiving to God.
2 Corinthians 9:11

//Grace and Peace

//Silence

Silence is something we so quickly forget in our culture.
In silence we may have to contemplate what our life actually is.
Such stillness opens us up to hear the whisper of our Abba.
I think it scares us.
So we fill our lives up with material and stuff that clutters our mind and keeps us busy so we don't have time to pause and listen.
I do it all the time.

I long for silence.
No music.
No cars driving by.
No talking.
Nothing.
I long to just be.
To exist without the pressures and contraints of this life defining who or what I am.
I yern for the embrace of my Father.

.::I long for silence.

//Searching for True Orthodoxy

::Part 1
In search to figure out True Orthodoxy, we must look at what Orthodoxy was, has been, has become, and what it should be. I am on this journey, in attempt at being humble to the teaching of my Father, in hopes of discovering the True Orthodoxy.
It is important to ask questions while being taught, so I have asked these questions:
What is Orthodoxy?
Why must we first deconstruct Orthodoxy before we reconstruct it?
What has lead to the Syncretism of our faith with such worldly empires and customs?
What has our Orthodoxy become?
What Truths are we ignoring or distorting to fit our present age?

::We begin::

In the dictionary, Orthodoxy is defined as a belief or orientation agreeing with conventional standards.
Conventional is defined as:
1.following accepted customs and proprieties
2.conforming or adhering to accepted standards
3.ordinary rather than different or original

When looking at the American “church”, anyone can easily see that there is much conformity to the ways of the world. We seek power, strength, money, and self-glorification. We give into the gods of materialism, consumerism and greed.
We so quickly forget our first calling. Our eyes have been opened, but instead of truly seeing the heart of God, we turn our eyes away from the pain and hurt of the world and set our sights on “better” things.
We have become ordinary rather that different. We have conformed to the accepted standard as to not disturb or make anyone uncomfortable.

::Truth::
The way of the Cross is uncomfortable.
It is painful.
It is bloody.
It is dirty.
It will disturb you.
It just might ruin your life.

The word Orthodox is derived from the Greek ortho, which means right or correct, and doxa, which means thought, teaching or glorification.

As stated by Archbishop Averky of Syracuse and the Holy Trinity Monastery, “The superficial opinion of the majority notwithstanding, Orthodoxy is not merely another of the many "Christian confessions" now in existence, or as it is expressed here in America "denominations." Orthodoxy is the true, undistorted, not perverted by any human sophistry or invention, genuine teaching of Christ in all its purity and fullness—the teaching of faith and piety which is life according to the Faith.”

Orthodoxy is not a sum of dogmas that are to be adhered too, but rather full Truth that is not just a mental theology, but a theology put into practice, and a faith that is lived out.

In essence, Orthodoxy is to be the unaltered Truth of Christian teaching that is triumphant over all perversions and false teachings that are pressed on us by society. When looking at the Church, Jesus should be the standard and center of our faith. His teaching should form our unadulterated fundamental basis for our faith and life, which is True Orthodoxy.

May Grace and Truth be with us in our continuing search for True Orthodoxy.

//Reflection::Confession::Truth

//Saturday, January 26, 2008
The High Café/Restaurant
4:28 am

::Reflection
The High makes you think. Makes you contemplate life without hope, or maybe even the idea of a life with hope, but understanding how to relate that hope to a broken people.
Where is the Church in this?
Why is there such an absence?
Where is this “transformational Love” we speak and preach about?
Just a couple questions I have been asking for a while…

::Confession
I seek the face of Truth, many times being distracted.
I long to embrace Love, but flee from it so quickly.
I hunger to be a servant, but so many times find myself expecting to be served.
I thirst for righteousness, but so often fall short of His Glory.

::Truth
I desire wisdom, but I am finding that many times it takes the form of foolishness.
I have no earthly father, but I have a Heavenly one.
The Father dwells in Community, but also speaks in Solitude.