Soda

Once again, Jones Soda is proving to be my greatest spiritual advisor. Working this month on remdeling our church into more useful space...something we thought we would never be able to do...and the money is provided, after some talk, it seems approval from the city will not be so hard, friends keep showing up to help and bring items that will help...after all this I buy a bottle of soda and the cap reads...

"There is new hope for projects you had almost given up on."

Hmm.

Mad at Oprah

Oprah makes me mad. Not really “her” but what her show does. She just did a sensational (and by that I mean “hyped up” not “really awesome”) show about child molestation. On this show, she played recordings a pedophile made while watching children load up on a school bus. Did we need to hear this? We are all well aware that there are sick people in the world, do we have to participate in their depravity by hearing all the gory details. This has become “journalism”. Oprah is this great hero who is not afraid to confront the real issues and talk about them frankly. No way.

Oprah gets good ratings and more money playing off the fears of her audience. So do all the other talk shows and newscasts. We have a national obsession with how bad it can get. TV drama that continues to explore the dregs of how evil people can be, movies that have to shock more and more with how disgusting the serial killer is, and the media jumps on any bandwagon they can. There is a kind of sick fascination with other people’s misery...talking about the latest “horrible thing that happened”.

All of this, of course. leads us to justify a society that moves farther and farther away from each other. Gated communities, vigilantes at the border, a neighborhood protesting a homeless shelter, a city shutting down a recovery house or a church wondering about men that “look bad” being around the property all come from this fear that you just never know...

Well, of course you never know. I’m not advocating we stop being wise but the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God, not our neighbor...and God says to love your neighbor as yourself. He also has a lot to say about welcoming a stranger into your home. welcoming the foreigner into your country and being good and fair to the poor in your community.

I’m not advocating that we pretend everything is sunny and nice either. Of course the world is messed up! What I’m talking about is our something nigh upon enjoying the horror. We can’t just hear that there was a shooting in the park, we have to see the blood on the concrete and the arm of the deceased sticking out from under the blanket. The camera is right in the face of a desperate, crying mother. How far will they go? As far as we keep asking them to go.

So let’s stop asking.

Books and Movies

Just spending a bit of the morning catching up on my friends posts and thought I’d add one myself.

Construction continues at the church. Most of the walls for the new apartments have been framed and I discovered on Saturday that it is really unnatural to hammer a nail into wood through a drop ceiling directly over your head while standing precariously on a ladder while having a bit of a weight problem.

I just finished “The Great Divorce” by C.S. Lewis. This book has awakened me to joy in a way that I have not thought about for quite sometime. The way we hold on to pain and hurt and smallness when God has oceans full of fish to enjoy and infinite fields of starry light and things of which we could never dream. “Eye as not seen and ear has not heard...” I would highly recommend reading it.

Also, I finished a book called “Imprisoned In Iran” by Dan Bauman. This guy is a part of Youth With A Mission and is a friend of friends of mine. The title is pretty self explanatory ... an account of the time he was um...imprisoned...er in...um...Iran (who am I to make fun of titles...my quarterly news letter is called “From the Whitlers”). Like all “YWAM” books it’s not a literary masterpiece but it is a good story told with human honesty. I really appreciate the author’s willingness to not just tell a great missions victory story but he also includes his moments of great weakness too. A good read that renewed a desire to become familiar with more missionary biographies. But next on the list is a good ole’ Steven Lawhead fantasy novel that I bought with my birthday gift certificate.

I saw “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” last week and loved it. I’m ashamed of myself that I haven’t read it...there’s still hope but it’s not likely. Josh and Sam are still singing “So Long and Thanks for all the Fish”. They loved it too and I’m proud to have boys that catch absurd humor the way they do. Looking forward to “War of the Worlds” and “Episode 3”...it’s a good summer to be a geek! Also, “Kingdom of Heaven” looks promising. We may see it today which happily is a much needed day off.

Wow, has it really been since April 14?! Oh well, guess I shouldn't make fun of other friends that neglect entries for a while. Ok, go ahead and give it to me in the comments...I'll take it.

No excuse, just a reason...we're right in the middle of a major remodeling at our church to make housing for the YWAM families and other full time (or "mostly time")church workers. It's gonna be cool and nice to live right here at the church.

We'll be building all this month and a bit of the next. Pray for us.