January 14, 2004
Meetup Download
So Tuesday evening marked my much awaited second Meetup with IndieAllies. The more time I spend at meetup the more I realize how strange a title "Independent Christian Thinkers" is. Not that we aren't thinkers, but the title both sounds so official, and like a misnomer of epic proportions. Not one of us is truly independent. We all came to that table with so much of our own history, experiences, loves, hates, regrets and passions. And, I would argue, that is what makes our meetups so great.
Our topic was some monolithically large question along the lines of: What are the foundational beliefs of the emerging church? So Lisa started us off with a constructive counter: What are the foundational beliefs of the Institutional Church? That sure got us started. I didn't find that part of the discussion as interesting as the latter half, which took place at a different venue. We opted out of the live music just as the soundcheck was underway and moved to a bright, lively coffee shop down the street. The conversation just seemed to flow from student loans to debt in general to forms of church, what community is, what makes a leader worth following, where Mike and Lisa were in the "church" sense...
Maybe it was just me and my medicated brain (which was evident - there were few complete thoughts that came out intact that night with me) but things seemed a little more awkward than the last evening, but not for lack of trying. I generally had a really good time and enjoy the fellowship. It was a little hard for me to turn my chatter off at first, but the relocation helped and I enjoyed the conversation a lot more when I wasn't drowning it out.
If you haven't tried a Meetup yet, I recommend it. the Vancouver IndieAllies group is pretty great. Oh, and thanks Jamie for all the technical know-how - and Jimmy for being my designated driver!
So Tuesday evening marked my much awaited second Meetup with IndieAllies. The more time I spend at meetup the more I realize how strange a title "Independent Christian Thinkers" is. Not that we aren't thinkers, but the title both sounds so official, and like a misnomer of epic proportions. Not one of us is truly independent. We all came to that table with so much of our own history, experiences, loves, hates, regrets and passions. And, I would argue, that is what makes our meetups so great.
Our topic was some monolithically large question along the lines of: What are the foundational beliefs of the emerging church? So Lisa started us off with a constructive counter: What are the foundational beliefs of the Institutional Church? That sure got us started. I didn't find that part of the discussion as interesting as the latter half, which took place at a different venue. We opted out of the live music just as the soundcheck was underway and moved to a bright, lively coffee shop down the street. The conversation just seemed to flow from student loans to debt in general to forms of church, what community is, what makes a leader worth following, where Mike and Lisa were in the "church" sense...
Maybe it was just me and my medicated brain (which was evident - there were few complete thoughts that came out intact that night with me) but things seemed a little more awkward than the last evening, but not for lack of trying. I generally had a really good time and enjoy the fellowship. It was a little hard for me to turn my chatter off at first, but the relocation helped and I enjoyed the conversation a lot more when I wasn't drowning it out.
If you haven't tried a Meetup yet, I recommend it. the Vancouver IndieAllies group is pretty great. Oh, and thanks Jamie for all the technical know-how - and Jimmy for being my designated driver!
A Daily Reading
I was introduced to Anne Lamott over Christmas by the proprietors of my favourite bookstore, the Next Chapter, down in LaConner, Wa, and also partly by Mike over at Waving and Drowning. Anne is a fantastic writer who I don't even want to mar by calling her Christian and lumping her in with some of the stuff you might find in a Christian Bookstore. In fact, I'd be willing to say that no Christian Bookstore would grace their shelves with her highly irreverent, witty, completely broken and mostly humble books. You see, she has a salty tongue. And [GASP!] she's a liberal! Nevertheless, she has the kind of faith that slowed my running from God and made me believe that possibly He was a nicer guy than His actions seemed to suggest right now.... I digress. If you have never read Anne Lamott, go do so right now! I finished both Travelling Mercies and Operating Instructions within four days each. Travelling Mercies was one of those books that I felt like God waited and waited just to drop on me right when I needed it most.
So without further adieu, let me commence with a daily reading (I'm channeling my anglican roots today... more on that later):
I don't know why life isn't constructed to be seamless and safe, why we make such glaring mistakes, things fall so short of our expectations, and our hearts get broken and our kids do scary things and our parents get old and don't always remember to put pants on before they go out for a stroll. I don't know why it's not more like it is in thie movies, why things don't come out neatly and lessons can't be learned when you're in the mood for learning them, why love and grace often come in such motley packaging.
All those years I fell for the great palace lie that grief should be gotten over as quickly as possible and as privately. But what I've discovered since is that the lifelong fear of grief keeps us in a barren, isolated place and that only grieving can heal grief; the passage of time will lessen the acuteness, but time alone, without the direct experience of grief, will not heal it. San Francisco is a city in grief, we are a world in grief, and it is at once intolerable and a great opportunity. I'm pretty sure that by experiencing that ocean of sadness in a naked and immediate way that we come to be healed - which is to say, that we come to experience life with a real sense of presence and spaciousness and peace. --Anne Lamott, Travelling Mercies
She's a great writer. Check her out. She also writes for Salon.com
I was introduced to Anne Lamott over Christmas by the proprietors of my favourite bookstore, the Next Chapter, down in LaConner, Wa, and also partly by Mike over at Waving and Drowning. Anne is a fantastic writer who I don't even want to mar by calling her Christian and lumping her in with some of the stuff you might find in a Christian Bookstore. In fact, I'd be willing to say that no Christian Bookstore would grace their shelves with her highly irreverent, witty, completely broken and mostly humble books. You see, she has a salty tongue. And [GASP!] she's a liberal! Nevertheless, she has the kind of faith that slowed my running from God and made me believe that possibly He was a nicer guy than His actions seemed to suggest right now.... I digress. If you have never read Anne Lamott, go do so right now! I finished both Travelling Mercies and Operating Instructions within four days each. Travelling Mercies was one of those books that I felt like God waited and waited just to drop on me right when I needed it most.
So without further adieu, let me commence with a daily reading (I'm channeling my anglican roots today... more on that later):
I don't know why life isn't constructed to be seamless and safe, why we make such glaring mistakes, things fall so short of our expectations, and our hearts get broken and our kids do scary things and our parents get old and don't always remember to put pants on before they go out for a stroll. I don't know why it's not more like it is in thie movies, why things don't come out neatly and lessons can't be learned when you're in the mood for learning them, why love and grace often come in such motley packaging.
All those years I fell for the great palace lie that grief should be gotten over as quickly as possible and as privately. But what I've discovered since is that the lifelong fear of grief keeps us in a barren, isolated place and that only grieving can heal grief; the passage of time will lessen the acuteness, but time alone, without the direct experience of grief, will not heal it. San Francisco is a city in grief, we are a world in grief, and it is at once intolerable and a great opportunity. I'm pretty sure that by experiencing that ocean of sadness in a naked and immediate way that we come to be healed - which is to say, that we come to experience life with a real sense of presence and spaciousness and peace. --Anne Lamott, Travelling Mercies
She's a great writer. Check her out. She also writes for Salon.com
January 12, 2004
YAYYY Tuesday is Meetup Day!
find out more at indieallies.meetup.com
If you're in one of the hundreds of cities with an indie allies meetup, I hope you'll sign up for a meetup. It's a great experience!
find out more at indieallies.meetup.com
If you're in one of the hundreds of cities with an indie allies meetup, I hope you'll sign up for a meetup. It's a great experience!
The old "re-start"
I've had the feeling for a few days that God is attempting to jump-start my spiritual dead battery. For want of a better analogy, let me say that it is hard to open the hood if you're not so sure about the jump-start itself.
Let's just say that it's been awhile since I spent any really meaningful time with God. It's amazing how tiring running can be. Somewhere before Christmas I began to feel like I was somehow cursed or disliked by God. I can't remember how it started, but I first realized it at a prayer meeting, when my pastor asked me to come up and join in praying for someone. Suddenly I felt like I was the last person you wanted associated with you; that my presence at your side while praying would render all your prayers null and void.
Partly that's because I know that it's easier to wallow than to reach; it's easier to "settle" for something than to believe for more. Maybe at some point when that utter lie entered my head, my heart just sort of gave up trying to make sense of God and what He is doing in my life and settled for the "sitting in the ashes" stage of my struggle. Understandably I've been reading Job a lot lately; when I get around to reading that whole book, I am always struck with what a process his struggle is. Just like Elisabeth Kubler-Ross was able to outline the stages of grief, I read Job and can see that he went through stages of his own. Twice Job sat in ashes and in praised God, but after Job 2, he seems to change a little bit. Okay, a lot. He curses the day he was born, rather than God Himself. At the very end of the book, Job comes around to desperate questions of who God is and why he has been left in this place.
For the last several weeks, I feel like I've been stuck in the ashes. Life's been hard, there's no denying that, but it feels now like I must have decided not to leave the grief for brighter vistas because it would entail change I'm not ready for, and work I'm too tired for. And, (gasp!) perhaps a change in life direction. Who knows?
In the end, Job doesn't ever seem to get an answer to his questions. God never restores his old family, old house, or old life. But once Job seemed to be able to come out from under the wallowing, the pain, the accusations and unhelpful comments of his friends, he asked the questions that were in his heart, then was when God "schooled" him. I'd be willing to bet that Job, as a righteous man, wasn't terribly excited about being schooled. He probably was more interested in having his life and health restored, and hearing some proper answers from God. To be honest, it irritates me that God doesn't answer Job's prayers for restoration the way he prays them, perhaps because I'm in that situation myself. But there's a little tiny verse that gets lost a lot and that means so much:
The Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first. - Job 42:12
Job died old, full of health, I'm assuming, and surrounded by family and twice what he had originally owned.
So, how does this all relate to the spiritual "re-start?" After weeks of ignoring God because the pain of facing his questions, his beckoning out of the ashes (or even presence in them) was too great, last night just two or three random words in a worship song brought a sense of God's personality closer to me than I had had in so long. I finally didn't feel so abandoned to this 'fate.' I found myself absolutely undone. More importantly, I was able to worship Him in faith that maybe one day I would be able to see the good, understand the bad, and worship him for both.
I've had the feeling for a few days that God is attempting to jump-start my spiritual dead battery. For want of a better analogy, let me say that it is hard to open the hood if you're not so sure about the jump-start itself.
Let's just say that it's been awhile since I spent any really meaningful time with God. It's amazing how tiring running can be. Somewhere before Christmas I began to feel like I was somehow cursed or disliked by God. I can't remember how it started, but I first realized it at a prayer meeting, when my pastor asked me to come up and join in praying for someone. Suddenly I felt like I was the last person you wanted associated with you; that my presence at your side while praying would render all your prayers null and void.
Partly that's because I know that it's easier to wallow than to reach; it's easier to "settle" for something than to believe for more. Maybe at some point when that utter lie entered my head, my heart just sort of gave up trying to make sense of God and what He is doing in my life and settled for the "sitting in the ashes" stage of my struggle. Understandably I've been reading Job a lot lately; when I get around to reading that whole book, I am always struck with what a process his struggle is. Just like Elisabeth Kubler-Ross was able to outline the stages of grief, I read Job and can see that he went through stages of his own. Twice Job sat in ashes and in praised God, but after Job 2, he seems to change a little bit. Okay, a lot. He curses the day he was born, rather than God Himself. At the very end of the book, Job comes around to desperate questions of who God is and why he has been left in this place.
For the last several weeks, I feel like I've been stuck in the ashes. Life's been hard, there's no denying that, but it feels now like I must have decided not to leave the grief for brighter vistas because it would entail change I'm not ready for, and work I'm too tired for. And, (gasp!) perhaps a change in life direction. Who knows?
In the end, Job doesn't ever seem to get an answer to his questions. God never restores his old family, old house, or old life. But once Job seemed to be able to come out from under the wallowing, the pain, the accusations and unhelpful comments of his friends, he asked the questions that were in his heart, then was when God "schooled" him. I'd be willing to bet that Job, as a righteous man, wasn't terribly excited about being schooled. He probably was more interested in having his life and health restored, and hearing some proper answers from God. To be honest, it irritates me that God doesn't answer Job's prayers for restoration the way he prays them, perhaps because I'm in that situation myself. But there's a little tiny verse that gets lost a lot and that means so much:
The Lord blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first. - Job 42:12
Job died old, full of health, I'm assuming, and surrounded by family and twice what he had originally owned.
So, how does this all relate to the spiritual "re-start?" After weeks of ignoring God because the pain of facing his questions, his beckoning out of the ashes (or even presence in them) was too great, last night just two or three random words in a worship song brought a sense of God's personality closer to me than I had had in so long. I finally didn't feel so abandoned to this 'fate.' I found myself absolutely undone. More importantly, I was able to worship Him in faith that maybe one day I would be able to see the good, understand the bad, and worship him for both.
January 11, 2004
Who Would Jesus Vote For?
Who Would Jesus Vote For?
Dean Says Dean!
By TOM RAINEY (not ready for electoral politics news service)
Golgotha, USA, Jan. 5, 2004 -- The religious voters giveth and they taketh away. Howard Dean is hoping that they taketh away from Bush and giveth the presidency to Dean.
"I'm still learning a lot about faith and the South and how important it is to pander to all the god stuff," Dr. Dean, the former governor of Vermont, said, predicting he would mention God more and more in the coming weeks. "It doesn't make me more religious or less religious than I was before, but it means that I'm willing to mouth the same crap all the other politicians are."
Dr. Dean recently told an audience in Iowa that he prayed daily - that Ralph Nader stays out of the race. He named Job as his favorite New Testament book, then later corrected himself, noting that it is in the Old Testament.
"I'm pretty religious," he responded the other day in Waterloo, Iowa. "I pray every day that the economy continues to tank, but I'm from New England, so I just keep it to myself".
"Don't you think Jerry Falwell reminds you a lot more of the Pharisees than he does of the teachings of Jesus?" he added. "And don't you think this campaign ought to be about evicting the money-changers from the temple?"
In response, Jerry Falwell claimed that the Book of Job remark was clearly a cryptic wink to the "hordes of Howard Dean pot-heads who smoke marijuana with Job rolling papers". During a Sunday night sermon, Falwell added, "Howard Dean learned a lot about propaganda techniques from his Communist Junkie idol, Joseph Stalin. Dean sent that coded message to his dope fiend cadre, and the proof is that he had that 'marijuana moment brain freeze', when he forgot where the Book of Job is in the Bible".
link
Who Would Jesus Vote For?
Dean Says Dean!
By TOM RAINEY (not ready for electoral politics news service)
Golgotha, USA, Jan. 5, 2004 -- The religious voters giveth and they taketh away. Howard Dean is hoping that they taketh away from Bush and giveth the presidency to Dean.
"I'm still learning a lot about faith and the South and how important it is to pander to all the god stuff," Dr. Dean, the former governor of Vermont, said, predicting he would mention God more and more in the coming weeks. "It doesn't make me more religious or less religious than I was before, but it means that I'm willing to mouth the same crap all the other politicians are."
Dr. Dean recently told an audience in Iowa that he prayed daily - that Ralph Nader stays out of the race. He named Job as his favorite New Testament book, then later corrected himself, noting that it is in the Old Testament.
"I'm pretty religious," he responded the other day in Waterloo, Iowa. "I pray every day that the economy continues to tank, but I'm from New England, so I just keep it to myself".
"Don't you think Jerry Falwell reminds you a lot more of the Pharisees than he does of the teachings of Jesus?" he added. "And don't you think this campaign ought to be about evicting the money-changers from the temple?"
In response, Jerry Falwell claimed that the Book of Job remark was clearly a cryptic wink to the "hordes of Howard Dean pot-heads who smoke marijuana with Job rolling papers". During a Sunday night sermon, Falwell added, "Howard Dean learned a lot about propaganda techniques from his Communist Junkie idol, Joseph Stalin. Dean sent that coded message to his dope fiend cadre, and the proof is that he had that 'marijuana moment brain freeze', when he forgot where the Book of Job is in the Bible".
link
