Bitter Journey

I thought this was a pretty neat interpretation of the Passion of Jesus, although the music is a little annoying.

check it out and I hope it helps you as you get ready for the Holy Week.

A Franciscan Blessing/Benediction

May God bless us with discomfort
At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships
So that we may live from deep within our hearts.

May God bless us with anger
At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of God's creations
So that we may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless us with tears
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war,
So that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and
To turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless us with just enough foolishness
To believe that we can make a difference in the world,
So that we can do what others claim cannot be done:
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and all our neighbors who are poor.

Amen.

Some Days You're The Hammer...

and some days, you're the nail.

Gotta feel bad for the goaltender on this one. Being scored on from 180 feet out makes for a tough day.

But honestly, who hasn't had days like this one?

Today's Reading From Reliving The Passion

Every year, I attempt to read through a book called Reliving The Passion by Walt Wangerin, Jr. It is supposed to coincide with the Lenten season, and it is truly a remarkable journey. The problem in the past has been because it was only in physical book form, at some point every year during this time, I would lose it.

Thankfully, there is now an e-book edition, so I can take it wherever I go and read it whenever I can.

Today's chapter is wonderful, so I thought I would share it. The scripture reading is Mark 14:1-9, where the woman took the jar of ointment and poured it over Jesus' hair.

--

Woman!

What a blessed contrast you make to the rulers in Jerusalem! They would preserve their power; you come with no power at all. They vaunt themselves; you have - except for one remarkable characteristic - no self at all.

What is your name that I might address my praise to you? I don't know. Where you someone's mother? I don't know. Were you old, bent by years of experience? Were you a prostitute? Or else praiseworthy for purity and virtue? Were you poor, the ointment and impossible expense for you? Or rich, with easy access to a hundred such flasks? I don't know. Mark never says. I know nothing about you save this: that you anointed the head of my Lord.

Ah, but that's enough to know! That deed alone is your identity, your entire being: your self. It memorializes you forever. "What she has done," says Jesus, "will be told in memory of her." Woman, now you are that deed, neither more or less than that deed. I marvel at you. I pray God that I might do - and therefore be - the same.

For what was your gesture? An act of pure love for Jesus particularly. It was an act so completely focused upon the Christ that not a dram of worldly benefit was gained thereby. Nothing could justify this spillage of some three hundred days' wages, except love alone. The rulers who sought to kill Jesus were motivated by a certain reasonable logic; but your prodigality appears altogether unreasonable - except for reasons of love. The disciples, in fact, were offended by an act that produced nothing, accomplished nothing, fed no poor, served no need. They reproached you as a wastrel.

They were offended by the absurd, an act devoted absolutely to love, to love alone.

But Jesus called it "beautiful."

Who else anointed our High Priest, as priests should surely be anointed in office? Who else anointed our King, the son of David? Who else anointed the body of our Savior for burial? No one but you. I don't know that you consciously recognized these offices of the Lord; but love instinctively sees the truth. Love enhances and names in truth. No one else anointed him and by that gesture declared him Messiah, the Christ. The act, therefore, was more than beautiful. It was rare and rich with meaning.

And since the act is all there is of you, since humility has reduced you to this single thing alone and now you are no more nor less than your love for the Lord, you yourself are beautiful and rare and rich with meaning.

You are the beauty of faithful loving.

To those who do not truly love, you will ever be ephemeral or else an offense, either a shadow or an idiot. To me you are a model. You gave up all; you became nothing at all save love for the Lord; and exactly so you are remembered. Here, "wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world," is love's monument!

You, nameless, anonymous, lovely indeed: thank you.

And so it begins...

my self-imposed moratorium on Facebook (except for posting stuff related to Miamisburg Christian Church and the Love146 Dayton task force). I am doing this, if you didn't read my last blog post, because I feel like Facebook has become an idol and I have spent way too much time and worry on it. I have let Facebook become an approval addiction.

There are a couple other reasons too. One is that I am attempting again to celebrate Lent. I am not Catholic, but I think out of all the Catholic traditions, it is one that I cherish. My recently deceased grandmother was Catholic, so this is a way to honor her as well. Plus, our leadership at MCC is trying to be the example by giving up something over the next forty days and praying for our church and our ministry expansion plan when we would normally be doing whatever we are giving up.

It will be interesting to see what happens. Personally, I am going through a book that I normally go through during Lent. It is called Reliving the Passion by Walt Wangerin Jr. (who also wrote my favorite allegory of Jesus called The Ragman). There are also some great resources through the YouVersion Bible app.

Unfriend Yourself.

I was in Colorado the past few days because my grandmother passed away early Saturday morning. She was 89 years old and was pretty active right up until about a year ago. A couple of weeks ago, she fell in her bathroom and was on the floor for three days before someone figured out something was wrong. They got her to the hospital in time to save her which was great but then through tests found out she had the worst stage of stomach cancer. I tried to get out in time to see her before she died, but to no avail.

On the flight out to Colorado, I started reading a short little e-book called Unfriend Yourself. Basically it talked about the perils and dangers of social network sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google+ and how although they are great tools for relationships, they are sadly becoming the end-all for a lot of people are are replacing face-to-face relationships and such. Here are a few quotes I found were really interesting:

"It seems that, while I truly believed I was becoming a part of these people's lives on Facebook, I wasn't. Many of the people 'I got to know' on Facebook are little more than acquaintances now and weren't much more during our first semester. Today, all of those with whom I'd shared my life via social media are not my friends. They were never the people intimately involved in my life, despite the things I told them online."

"In essence, Facebook's agenda is for us to broadcast ourselves (notably the YouTube tagline), to talk about what we're doing and what we like...Facebook is a digital opportunity for us to self-present through status updates, photos, and "likes."

"We present-or promote-ourselves in such a way to cause people to think of us in a certain way. When I log on to Facebook, I find that I want to put my best foot forward; as a result I find myself bending the truth and skirting circumstance, ever so slightly, to offer to my 'friends' the best part of myself, the part of me that is the coolest, the funniest."

"Facebook has a tendency to inflame a condition we already have: thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought to think."

"I am not the center of the universe, and the funny thing my friend's cat just did is not all that important. Sure, there is a laugh to be had, but ever so subtly we have come to believe that everything about me matters, when it truly doesn't. Boasting, self-promotion, and self-construction are dangerous habits of the mind and heart."

"Quality time with friends used to be spent over coffee or dinner. Now more and more of our community life is managed digitally. Some studies show that most people communicate more online than they do offline."

"Unlike a network, which is built on communication, community is built on communion. 'Too often we applaud technologies that enable us to exchange information (communication) without attending to those means of sharing that build intimacy and deepen our communion with God and with each other.' Communication is easy. A simple text is communication, but it is not communion. A wall post is communication, but it is not communion."

"Facebook activism succeeds not by motivating people to make a real sacrifice but by motivating them to do the things that people do when they are not motivated enough to make a real sacrifice." (WOW - read that again)

"Technologies, and the ideas and media they produce, have a curious power over us. Did you know that 'Facebook addiction' is searched online 350 times more than 'cigarette addiction'? Many people who are regular social media users have a difficult time being away from their profiles for too long."

"Facebook is a great tool for supplementing and augmenting relationships, much in the same way fish oil is a great tool for supplementing our diets. However, many of us are replacing the main courses of our lives - in-the-flesh, face-to-face time with friends and family - with supplemental wall posts and tweets."

The author of the book says that one of the ways we can stay grounded and to not let social media be our only social activity is tough: to unplug from all social media for three days. In fact, this book has three chapters and his advice is to do one chapter each day that you are away from Facebook, Twitter and the like. And I am taking him up on the challenge. Why?

Because like many, I have let Facebook and other social media sites take over my life. When I was reading Unfriend Yourself, there were so many times when I felt he was talking directly to me. It's amazing how my mood can go up and down based on how many people like a comment I make or a link that I share. I think for me the pinnacle of silliness on my part came when I posted about my grandmother passing and then proceeding to notice which of my friends said something and which didn't and honestly debating whether I would just delete all the friends who didn't say something or at least post something passive-aggressive on there about those who didn't say anything.

OK - I may have been a little hurt. But let's have some perspective here. A lot of people don't check their Facebook news feed incessantly. I do. And now that I have the Facebook app for my iPhone and for my iPad, it is so much easier to do so. Perhaps some people decided to say something in person. It doesn't matter. The point is - I am letting social media become (and this is tough to even write the word) an idol. Social Media like Facebook make us feel more important than we probably should think we are. When we reach 200 friends...300 friends...1000 friends - we feel like superstars. When someone retweets one of our tweets (or in my case, when one of my tweet news stories is featured in someone's abolitionist daily news feed), we feel like someone thinks we are important.

I am not saying that Facebook is inherently bad for everyone. It just is for me. So...I'm taking some steps to try and get rid of this idol. I'm not going to delete my Facebook account or anything that drastic. I am going to give up Facebook for Lent, which starts really soon (Wednesday, February 22 to be exact). Now, I still have to post some things for my task force, and I still need to post some things for my church - but for the most part I am going to stay off Facebook, as in check it every five minutes, until Easter. If you happen to have a birthday between February 22 and April 8, my birthday wishes for you will be on Tuesday, February 21 and I am sorry for not wishing you a wonderful birthday on the actual date of your birth.

We'll see how this goes. I'm a little nervous. What am I going to do with all this free time? :D

Exciting Opportunity

So...this has been brewing for quite some time, but I feel like it's finally time to let the proverbial cat out of the proverbial bag. Love146 - the organization that I and some people in the Dayton area partner in to help fight child sex slavery - has invited me and Elizabeth, one of the other co-founders of the task force, to go on a Partner trip with them this year to go to Cambodia, Thailand and the Philippines. We will be visiting some of the places that Love146 works with in both prevention and aftercare. What an amazing opportunity!

But I'm afraid.

I'm not afraid of the trip itself. I think it's going to be incredible.

I'm a little afraid of all the shots I will need to get. And those shots I need to get need to start soon. But that's not the main reason I'm afraid.

I'm afraid that this trip will change me in such a way that I will never be the same again.

And I know that is probably a good thing, but let's be honest. The things I will see, the people I will meet, and the experiences I will have will change me. And I'm afraid that once I go on this trip, I will never be able to go back. And I don't mean coming back to the USA. I just mean that once you're faced with all that heartbreak and the actual issue that you've been wrapping your head around and talking about and fighting for the last few years is no longer off in a remote country but that you are actually face-to-face with girls who have been sold, who have been held against their will, who now have a chance to rehabilitate their lives and be restored to who they were before all this mess - it will no longer be an issue. It will be my issue and I will stop at nothing to end child sex slavery in my lifetime.

And for that I'm afraid. Because that means things will have to change. And that I will actually have to...no, that's not right. I will be compelled at all cost to fight with everything I have to see this through to the end.

If you could pray for me and for this trip, I would greatly appreciate it.

Swan Song.

David Crowder's that is. Not mine! Heck, no. I have a lot of stuff to still say in this blog. When I can find the time. :D

The David Crowder Band released their final CD yesterday. 34 songs! A few of them are the typical Crowder fillers, although as opposed to what other bands do sometimes, these fillers feel like they belong on this album.

It's always sad when a band that you really like says their goodbyes. In this case, it is doubly sad because their debut big-label release Can You Hear Us? was released the same time I became worship minister for the very first time (I had done youth ministry for the eight years prior). So in a sense, I feel like I've been following David Crowder's worship music the entire time I've been doing worship music as a worship minister. Over the years, I've used several of his songs in worship services, although the last few years their songs have gotten so progressive (read: amazing) that they are hard to imitate with a amateur worship leader and an amateur band.

I thought I would do a top ten list of my favorite songs of David Crowder to pay my respects to this great band. By the way, I got to meet Crowder one time at a conference. Straight-up nice guy. Here's my list:

10. Every song that wasn't David Crowder's but felt like his.

- this would include Like A Lion (Daniel Bashta), O God, Where Are You Now (Sufjan Stevens), How He Loves (John Mark McMillan), Obsession (Deliriou5) and Thank You For Hearing Me (Sinead O'Connor). Even though he didn't write these songs, they are amazing.

9. Let Me Feel You Shine (Give Us Rest)

8. Sometimes (Passion/Give Us Rest)

7. Never Let Go/Remedy (Remedy)

- yeah I'm cheating again. But I feel these two songs are flip sides of each other.

6. Our Love Is Loud (Can You Hear Us?)

5. SMS (Shine) (Church Music)

4. No One Like You (Illuminate)

3. Only You (Illuminate)

2. All I Can Say (All I Can Say)

1. Stars (Illuminate)

Pretty good list, I think. I guess you can say that my favorite album of his would be Illuminate, since 3 of my top 4 are from that album. And if you asked me today, I would say yes. But tomorrow I might say A Collision, Friday Church Music, etc. David Crowder has created a great body of work, a great tapestry and I'm thankful for his contribution to worship music and music in general.