When hope sinks

A tiny prairie church rescued for later generations to remember that faith sustained people during those hard decades of westward expansion.

Every now and then I meet or hear about a string of people who are unhappy with their life situation. Bad health, accidents, money issues, you name it, and as I hear their stories I am struck with how stuck these people are, and no amount of wishful thinking can change the basic problems.

If I am able I share the dangers of bitterness, which most of them already have tasted and they know it only makes things worse, and I can only listen and pray for them, which they appreciate.

I also pray that if and when that day comes for me when the wagons circle closer as the winds of adversity hit that I can learn to be satisfied with less money, less freedom, less health.  I think about it, because no one has any guarantees.

True Believers

Somehow this sculpture reminds of of running for president.

What is truth? Is it in the eye of the beholder?  Seems so. I am not deeply committed to the political process but as a public speaker I stand amazed at the way in which each party can make the facts slant towards their party and platform.

Clinton is speaking masterfully about all the great things that are happening and it seems to make so much sense, and yet when the commentators speak I am sure there will be some evaluations from both sides.

There's not a problem to be found in anything that has happened in the last four years? It's all good and let's keep on track. We care about the middle class. The other party will poison our future forever....etc. etc.

Oh, the joy's of a two party system.

Hunger Games

You know what it feels like to feel good because you know how badly you feel when you get the common cold.  Awake all night with a sour throat that made me keep Laura poking me all night long to stop me from groaning and coughing. You know the routine. Barely crawling through the morning.

I finally watched Hunger Games and realized why it did so well as a novel and at the box office. The survival of the couple in those cruel games was dramatic and she was so strong as a young woman driven to survive in order to help her family. A dark vision of a corrupt class system economy.

Can't think, got to go get some sleep.

RIP Micheal Clark Duncan

Some people were born to do one great thing. The role of John Coffey, the suffering Christ figure in the Green Mile was such an opportunity for Duncan.

Everything about that beautiful, tragic, and powerful story moved me deeply. The setting, the characters, the music, the slow unfolding of the plot, and that huge gentle giant, Duncan who endeared me so deeply in his portrayal of goodness standing against evil.  It is a difficult movie to watch emotionally as every part of man's brokeness is demonstrated vividly. Victims demanding justice, evil men truly deserving of death, the jailors trying to provide justice with dignity, and the mousey sycophant whose selfishness was as evil as the child rapist and murderer.

Coffey the healer did what he could, but it was not enough to escape his own death, or, was that death the catalyst for change the characters needed. Yes, John Coffey was the suffering Christ, and in real life He conquered the grave. And that figure is what gives me the comfort to know Micheal Clark Duncan will live again.

Labor Day reflections

Weight Lifting is fun.

The transition from summer to fall is less pronounced here, but for me it is welcomed. I am amazed to share that I begin my fourth year of regular exercise this month. Those three to four hours each week have built core strength and muscle definition and lung strength that would have continued deteriorating with age had I not gotten out the door to the gym, and for that habit I am thankful, no matter what happens I have made the effort and enjoyed some real results. It is a labor that makes me feel young and alive even with the knowledge that heart problems may continue.

I continue to labor to understand the relationship between faith and real life and the changes occurring in our evangelical world. I used to think that we were in a lull that would lead to a new and better reformation of faith since so many are no longer experiencing church as the center of their life. But lately I am wondering if this is a deformation that will lead to a new and better way to live our faith in the finished work of Christ in the world, one that embraces and does not exclude the world we are called to bless.

I labor with the lifelong feelings of rejection when people leave the church angry. One of the recurring dreams in my sleep time is encountering people who are angry with me, and even though years have passed they still are resentful. This is part of the cost of standing for something, and for being in a career where it is impossible to do the right thing all the time. I am not defending myself, too often I flee the pain and it paralyzes me. Some progress but no healing.

I love Jesus, because His finished work allows me to cease from Labor and find my Rest in Him.

Frank Lloyd Wright was a cool dude

 Toured Taliasen West yesterday with Laura and Brian, and was fascinated by an original thinker whose life was extended by moving to the desert in the winter. Everything he did up on that foothill was done after he was 70, and he left so much for us to appreciate about the beauty of building on the space you have.

The End of August

Leaving superstition mountain forever.

Once in a blue moon everything becomes clear, you have set out of a quest for truth, armed with enough wrong turns and humility not to grasp for anything without careful observation. You have learned about the pitfalls and the distractions and the ever present fog that keeps you from seeing the goal clearly, and for a while you see it, God's purpose for this creation.

The moment you see it you fear sharing it because you know those with smaller and meaner views will vilify you and try to stop you from sharing something so beautiful that robs them of their petty power and puffed up sense of privilege.

You know you are not alone on this quest because you see and hear others along the path reading the same markers and leaving the dusty truths of systems and sects behind and feeling free of their weight the beauty of the plan begins to shine clearer and the fog lifts.

I wish I could invite you to this banquet, but you have become so satisfied with making mudcakes beside the home you have built. But I will begin to serve it up, because it was made to be shared, and the risk is worth it to invite you to get up and travel a bit and look to the horizon, this truth is strong enough for your questions and will survive your attempts to ignore it or doubt it, because once you are back on the journey, the things you left behind will fade into the child's toys they have always been.

Now is the time, humanity can wait no longer, God's purpose for creation will not be hidden, and it is not fearful, but wonderful.