When will we ever learn?

Today Saddam met Allah. Hopefully God is merciful and forgiving.

Somehow i am not really sad. Oddly i am surprised, but somehow not sad. Perhaps that is the saddest part of this whole ordeal. The irony is that i am reading a book that examines Jesus' sermon on the mount, and its implications on our lives as disciples of Jesus.

What a painfully hard thing it would be to tell the relatives of those that Saddam ordered executed that they also sin by rejoicing over his death. That they supported the execution.
Shame on we disciples of Christ if we rejoice over his death, and yet say that we walk in the Light of God's law. For if we do this, it is not God's law that we teach, but America's law, and the two are very different.
While Saddam was alive, his actions condemned him. The more he lived, draped in evil, the more he had to account for.
But now, we, and the Iraqi people have condemned him, and some Christians, added to that for which we will be accountable.
But how can this be? He was an evil man, you say.
i don't dispute that. But if we claim to follow God's law, but do not follow Jesus' teaching, then what God do we follow?

"You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles."

"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

"Forgive us our debts (sins), as we also have forgiven our debtors (those who have sinned against us)."

". . .everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man. . . "

These aren't my words. They aren't Paul's words. These are Jesus own words. God's words!
i am not here to justify the actions of an evil man, but i am here to make sure that our own actions are consistent with the good news of life that we share.

Be at peace friends.

The kingdom of heaven belongs to the little children.

Often i wondered about that concept.
Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
And elsewhere he said, "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."

Never before tonight was this point driven home in such a poignant matter as tonight. My eldest son James, who is five, suffers from "i can only focus on the coolest thing at the moment, thank you" disorder. If you tell him to do something, if you let him side track for even a nanosecond, the previous instruction or thought is gone forever.
Tonight, i was running out of time before i had to leave for work, and i was trying to get the house in order for mommy, who was coming home from work. If this transition is not smooth, it can really wreck the mood for the rest of my wife's evening.
James, who has the week off for Christmas, and i had been pretty busy today running about, and he had asked to take one of my Audubon society books with us while we were out. When we returned home, he left it on the dinning room table instead of returning it to the book shelf.
i had asked him to return the book to the shelf as i was getting ready to leave. Unfortunately he had developed a strong interest in one of his brother's toys and immediately forgotten that i had asked him about the book.
Long story short, this has been an ongoing issue and i lost my temper and sent him to his room. i admit that i was a jerk and could have handled the situation a lot better. i used tones in explaining the situation to my wife that were not nice, and James had been present and heard them.
Before leaving i went and spoke with him and explained my perspective of the situation, and apologized for my short comings, and we talked about the need to listen and pay attention.
He amazes me. He went from really sad, to forgiving me and giggling and playing with me at the speed of thought.
No grudge, no conditions for forgiveness, no second thought, no trepidation about our relationship and how it may be different because of my behaviour. He was just back to plain ol' happy silly James. It was truly awesome, and it made me think of these verses, even as i am starting to re-examine the sermon on the mount, and how to put it into life.

Thank God for little ones. Thank God for God!

When the storms of life swirl. . .

. . . i usually duck for cover and wait them out. Man, oh man, though, recently they have been hitting and hitting hard.
i had what i have come to believe was a nervous system breakdown last week. Twice i was reduced to a sobbing pile of goo on the floor of my house. The latter event didn't happen until after all of the raging energy in the universe found passage through me and back out into space.
i generally pride myself on being impervious to these kinds of things, and i don't take much stock in every Tom, Dick, and Harry leaning on the crutch of depression, or ADHD, or some other overdosed psychosis that can get one a prescription for Ridlin or something more fun. i firmly believe in taking responsibility for ones self. The world is what you make of it, even in hard times.
Last week rocked my thinking on that. i still am trying to come to terms with my own anger and feelings that the world is out to get me. Now. . . i can succumb and go find a shrink and get the quick fix, but i think that i will work through it. i think i have to. i think we all do. If life seems to suck, then change your circumstances. We are only locked into our predicament when we fail to think outside of the box.

This is a far cry from what i wanted to write about. . . love, God. . .love. But perhaps this was important. An outlet perhaps. i hope that it doesn't seem too terribly insensitive. i guess sometimes blunt ideology seems cruel in the face of sheltered polity. We can hide behind things our whole lives, or reach out and suck the marrow from life find solace in the sunsets as well as the sunrises. My friend Jerry is like that. Where is a creature of habit, he likes change.

So back to work, and on to my task of how to explain God to someone who doesn't believe in any such thing.

Thanks to our friends at ECM

East Central Ministries is an outfit in Albuquerque, New Mexico. i have been a subscriber to their periodical updates, but an unfaithful servant financially to them. They seem to really be movin' and shakin' these last few years, and it is awesome and amazing to read about how the seek to serve others and be the living hands and feet of God to those in need. They do not discriminate based on anything (including the possession of a green card or citizenship).

It was there last update that found resonation deep inside me. For an employee wrote of their thoughts on the year past and the one coming, and she tied a bit from the letter to the Roman Church in it.
"This resurrection life you received from God is not a timid, grave-tending life. It's adventurously expectant, greeting God with a childlike, 'What's next, Papa?'" (From the message translation)
Earlier in that same paragraph Paul writes about the joy that while we must fill out our commitment to live and die on this rock, that we no longer live and die according to it's rules. When we live, if God is with us, we are filled with hope, not despair. As the world decays around us, and as we decay, we are not to think so much of the world's future, but to think on what we will come into in God's glory.

". . . the outlook of the Spirit is life and peace. . . "

Thanks Amber. Thanks John. i needed that.

Splittin' hairs to reach the point. . .

i know that i sometimes split hairs about things that perhaps don't really matter. It often times is words that i am splitting hairs over. i try to take more stock in words than not, because after all we established language for a purpose. Recently a local radio station that plays music praising God (some would call this Christian radio. . .but can a radio ora station be a Christian? See what i mean) had a little inspirational commercial that i liked. Usually these tidbits bug me. This one was different. It lacked the "religious" opinion and feel to it, and it got back to the simplicity of the church.
In their little ditty the radio station pointed out the subtle silliness of the phrase "I am going to Church."
My beef with words is this - We establish words for the purpose of communication, and while i don't want to spend the rest of my days arguing over words, we should also be cautious because tinkering with language can completely alter the meanings of words and phrases over time. Sometimes, when we stop paying attention, the littlest alteration to the meaning of a word can, over time, contort the intentions of texts and speaches from history.
So in the inspirational bit they pointed out that the words from which we derived the English word "church", roughly translated, means "a group of people that are set apart". So the church isn't the building but the people. For the sake of historical accuracy, perhaps, if you change the wording a bit the phrase may make more sense. Like, "i am going to the church." Meaning that you are going to were the church is meeting. Or you could say, "i am going to where the church is meeting."
More realistically though, the station pointed out, because the church is the community of people set apart, we should ask ourselves, "Where are we taking the church?"
We don't go to church, we are the church. So where are we taking the church? Are we stationary like a building? Or are we movin' and a shaking? Another sign i saw this week read, "True Christianity inspires to action."Love aggressively . . . i guess that is one way to look at it.

It's 0430 on the East coast

i added a counter to my blog. i like it. Not because it tells me that my blog is totally private, i think that i am the only person that comes here. But also because should someone invade my not-so-private mental universe, i will know about it.

i was just wandering through Doug Pagitt's blog and website. i leave it with a mix of joy and melancholy. i feel jealous. Not because i want fame and notoriety, but because he has, in Solomon's Porch, a forward thinking community of believers. Something that is almost totally non-existent here. But perhaps that is in part my own fault. i have been distant. i have been selfish, i have been self absorbed.
How can God bless the dreams of such a man? We (and by we i mean my whole family) are too busy. We make time for everything but each other and outward service. Or maybe just aggresive outward service. It's easier to be wrapped up in our own little world than it is to get out, especially with the kids in winter. But this is not what i really want.
Sometimes i am so confused about what i want. . . a large progressive fellowship that is able to "do" a lot of things, or do i want a small outside of the box fellowship.. . . uninhibited by me.

Splittin' hairs to reach the source . . .

i know that i sometimes split hairs about things that perhaps don't really matter. It often times is words. i try to take more stock in words than not.
Recently a local radio station that plays music praising God (some would call this Christian radio. . .but can a radio be Christian? See what i mean) had a little inspirational commercial that i liked. Usually these tidbits bug me. This on was different. It lacked the "religious" opinion and feel to it, and it got back to the simplicity of the church.
In their little ditty the radio station pointed out the subtle silliness of the phrase "I am going to Church."
My beef with words is this. We establish words for the purpose of communication, and while i don't want to spend the rest of my days arguing over words, we should also be cautious. Sometimes, when we stop paying attention, the littlest alteration of the meaning of a word can, over time, completely change the meaning of that word.
So in the inspirational bit they pointed out that the words from which we derived the English word "church", roughly translated, means "a group of people that are set apart".
So the church isn't the building but the people. Perhaps if you change your wording a bit it may make more sense. Like, "i am going to the church." Meaning that you are going to were the church is meeting.
Or you could say, "i am going to where the church is meeting."
More realistically though, the station pointed out, because the church is the people, we should ask ourselves, "Where are we taking the church?"

We don't go to church, we are the church. So where are we taking the church? Are we stationary like a building? Or are we movin' and a shaking?

Another sign i saw this week read, "True Christianity inspires to action."
Love aggressively . . . i guess that is one way to look at it.