No Better Than You

Bleeding Hearts

2009-03-22T13:35:00.000-07:00

Oh Lord, please let my heart bleed.

Please let my heart bleed for the cold, the hungry, the fearful.

Please Lord, let my heart bleed every minute of every day for those who are powerless, who are disadvantaged, and who are sick.

Please God, let my heart bleed for those who die by the hundreds, and thousands, and tens of thousands from war, disease, and poverty. Let my heart bleed for the hopeless, the destitute, the injured, and the orphaned.

Oh Lord, please let my heart bleed for the earth we pollute, the land we poison, and the air we make toxic. Let my heart bleed Lord, for the species we annihilate every day.

Please Lord, don't let my heart stop bleeding until I have done all I can with and through you to bring everyone to your table.

Please Lord, let my heart bleed.

दोन'टी वास्ते थे Recession

2009-02-26T06:23:00.000-08:00

Don't Waste the Recession.

There is much good to be found in the recession, if you look in the right places. Our consumer society and economy had overheated as Americans and citizens of other developed countries craved more and more consumer goods--material objects that are purchased, used, and are eventually relegated to storage or a landfill. The hunger for an increasing amount of consumer goods led many to live beyond--well beyond--their means, often using expensive credit--money they do not yet have--to buy what they want NOW. Most of all that excess we purchased has now lost its glitter as individuals and families watch all they have worked for shrink and disappear. Vacant houses, repossessed autos, and returned “toys” are now becoming the norm for a large part of our society. The economic downturn also destroys families.

Don't Waste the Recession.

This economic "contraction" is a lesson and an opportunity. It is a lesson that, in part, reminds us that the most durable sources of joy do not come from a factory or a homebuilder. We can see (if we look) a bit more clearly, now that there are "things" that mean more and that have greater and more lasting value than "stuff." Maybe we can even learn that "he who has the most toys wins" is not at all true.

Don’t Waste the Recession.

A Baptist preacher by the name of John Piper made this list of God’s likely purposes for this recession:
1) He intends for this recession to expose hidden sin and so bring us to repentance and cleansing.
a) Think of Madoff, robber-baron CEO’s, and all those others who have cheated and robbed so many others. The recession has brought their transgressions to light. We now openly question: “how much is enough?
2) He intends to wake us up to the constant and desperate condition of the developing world where there is always and only recession of the worst kind.
a) John cites how blind prosperity makes us to the miseries of the rest of the world. A mother in Ethiopia is so starved that she can’t produce enough milk to keep her baby from dieing; tens of thousands live in resettlement camps eat wild grasses and tree bark; AIDS orphans are turned into prostitutes or are forced to carry automatic weapons and kill in myriad wars. Billions ALWAYS live in a recession.
3) He intends to relocate the roots of our joy in his grace rather than in our goods, in his mercy rather than our money, in his worth rather than our wealth.
a) God should and can be the source of all our joy.
4) He intends to advance his saving mission in the world—the spread of the gospel and the growth of his church—precisely at a time when human resources are least able to support it. This is how he guards his glory.
5) He intends for the church to care for its hurting members and to grow in the gift of love.
a) Unbelievers as well should strive to care for the hurting members of society and to cultivate love for their fellow human beings.

Don’t Waste the Recession.

The opportunities of this recession include the potential to discover what is really important, what really matters, and what has REAL value. Then, when all of the “stuff” we once coveted is either in the junk heap or belongs to someone else, we will find that what is of REAL value is still ours and can’t be stolen, broken, trashed, or “recessioned away” from us.

Calling home.

2008-07-23T06:24:00.001-07:00

My examination into prayer is leading to some pretty interesting areas of thought and, in some cases, disagreement if not outright controversy.
So far, my understanding of prayer leans towards the basic and rather simple belief that prayer is God's desire for us to actively seek Him, to enter into his presence, and to open our hearts and minds to him in purposeful communication.

Yes, He already knows what we want and, better than we ever can ourselves, he knows what we need and what we are experiencing. I believe that Father God has us pray for what praying does to us.

Yes, Abraham did bargain with God and appeared to lead Him to change His mind. Yet, that may be the exception rather than the rule. This is one area on which I am still undecided. If intercessory prayer works why do so many people suffer and die while we pray? So when I pray, I pray for what I believe to be best, whether it be for the healing of a friend with cancer, the salvation of an unconvinced friend, peace for the world, or the unification of the Church. In the end, I always finish with, “…not my will, but Thine be done…”

As I continue to examine the panoply of thought regarding prayer, at this time it appears to be that the simplest definition is the most correct. In "Learning to Pray" by K.P. Yohannan he observes, "Simply put, prayer is conversation between Father and child." Just as an earthly father may know just about everything his child will say, he enjoys the conversation, especially when initiated by the child.

Yet, I have encountered other thoughts about how and what to pray. Most recently "centering prayer" or Lectio Divina has come into the picture. Like a multitude of other ways of thinking about prayer and praying, there are believers in both directions and sides. I am inclined to believe that Christ's example and instruction is all we need to know and follow. As we pray for wisdom and understanding, the Holy Spirit will provide what we need at the right time. I am not comfortable with esoteric concepts and practices that rely on our reason rather than God's word.

In my exploration of prayer, I have quickly come to the conclusion that we don't pray nearly as much as we can and should. God has given us a direct line to Him. From what I understand, we need not do anything but talk and to have faith that He listens to everything we say and even what we don't or can't say. Nothing else ~ required. No ceremony, no chanting of mantras, no burning of incense-nothing. Just talk. It can't be much simpler or easier than that. And that's what strikes me as so like something God as a loving Father would do. Sort of like giving your teenager a pre-paid calling card as they head off to their freshman year.

As far as praying 2417, I'm not there yet myself~, but I have gotten beyond the average 7 minutes per day and ~ has had an effect on my life.

If I happen to stir awake in the middle of the night, I gladly take it as an opportunity to make contact with the Father. It may be a short prayer that quickly degrades into incoherent murmuring as I fall asleep or it may become a longer conversation if sleep proves evasive. When I awake in the morning, I often take up the prayer where I left off and manage to remain in prayer until my wife begins to stir and it's time to get up. I have found it rather easy to include prayer into my morning workout. I spend about 45 minutes on my exercise bike, most of it in prayer. The analogue of traveling or taking a journey while praying is compatible with pedaling my bike. Prayer is a bit more difficult during the weight training portion.

During the day, prayer has replaced the radio or CD player in my car on the way to meet with a client. I find that I don~ mind traffic jams so much because they offer more time to speak with God. The same for sitting in a waiting room or standing on line. I've found that waiting for anything is a great time to pray. If 1 find myself alone in a restaurant waiting for my order, l will pray for everyone in the restaurant to open their hearts and minds to God and to seek Him with all their hearts and to accept salvation through Christ. There are even very short monuments that present opportunities to adding to an ongoing prayer. When I have been writing reports and my brain is beginning to fry, I will take a few minutes to carry on the prayer.
The day offers so many opportunities that more often than not, it becomes a day-long prayer. The hardest time for me to pray is at night before bed. I agree with C.S. Lewis that the last moments before sleeping can be the most impossible time to pray.
It is turning out that prayer is both simpler and more complex than I found it to be. Prayer is also no longer a chore as it often was when I was a child. Prayer is now something I most often look forward to and enjoy. There are time when prayer comes with some effort and difficulty. But at those times, I find that praying for the ability to pray works pretty well.

Cast the First Stone

2008-07-22T11:06:00.000-07:00

I posted this on the Denver (CO) Post message board on a story about a young man who was arrested for starting a number of small grass fires. many of the readers favor what I believe to be inordinately harsh and often merciless and hateful treatment of anyone for anthing ranging from minor misdemeanors to rape and murder, especially for Latinos.

"Although recently earmarked as flags for potentially aggressive drivers, bumper stickers occasionally bear a germ of truth. The quote from Gandhi is one--"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind."

Reading the Post's message board can lead one to believe most are already missing at least one eye...

..."shoot him with his own gun"...
..."shove the perp out into traffic"...
..."stab him"...
..."beat him to a pulp"...
..."throw him off a cliff"...
..."burn him"... or even
..."crucify Him"...

These are not solutions or answers; they are exactly what perpetuate the senseless violence and hateful acts against which they are targeted. To advocate violence against the violent, death to killers, mistreatment of those who torture, and the burning of those who set fire is to act just as those against whom such comments are made, only the justifications are different.

Too many of those whom we are so ready to dispose of in one way or another are no only aberrations from our societal norms, they are the products of the society we comprise and sustain. Disposing of them just removes the symptoms, but the sickness remains albeit obscured like some virus finding refuge in a remote cell awaiting the time to flare up once more.

Rather than a healthy body that has been infected by some pathogen from outside, our disorder is genetic. The more we obsess over manifestations of the disorder and respond by cutting off the abnormal growth time and time again, we miss that the cause exists within the genes, the DNA base pairs and is "coded" into the organism itself--society.

The solution? To avoid straining the analogy much further, the solution is one that has been with us forever, but which or whom we have continually rejected from the distant days of early Israel (read the book of Elijah) to this very moment. It is God the Father and God the Son who came to freely remove the burden of our individual and collective sin…
…and who was crucified as just another aberration of society."

Too Hungry To Do Anthing But Die

2008-07-20T19:08:00.000-07:00

The world is getting hungrier. Many developing nations no longer even sit at the table. An increasing number of Haitians are subsisting on "mud biscuits" made from clay, a bit of salt, and margarine or oil. Sort of adds a horrible dimension to the term "dirt poor." The US government is most concerned that the rising food prices (up 40% in less than a year!) may cause a sudden increase in the number of Haitian refugees seeking to come to this country. The Coast Guard has been positioned to intercept the possible flotilla of homemade craft. Is this the very best we can do? We can spend over $510 BILLION to date on wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to very questionable ends, while a nation that we have at times been intimately connected starves at our door step. To quote Joseph Welch of Army-McCarthy Hearings fame, "Have you left no sense of decency?" It appears that we have not.The 2 billion or so people in the poorest developing nations live on a dollar or two a day and often much less. The rising food and fuel prices push those who live on less than enough into living on nothing or if they are fortunate, maybe mud biscuits.So while we in the US, where at least 40% of the population is overweight or obese, every urban and suburban corner has some type of food outlet, our kitchen garbage overflows with wasted food, and we bemoan the price of gasoline as we drive our SUVs at least 10 mph over the speed limit spend much time and effort complaining about our miserable lot in life, our government is worried about starving refugees trying to make it to our shores on rafts made of garbage. Is this really the best we can do? Have we really no sense of decency or sense of shame? Do we expect that the poorest of the poor throughout the world will consent to just quietly go away and die so we can live in peace? Do we really believe that we will be isolated from the increasingly frequent shortages of food, fuel, and water? Will we simply dig a little deeper into our pockets to pay for all that we want while those on the margins explore making dirt palatable? The ultimate answer may be found in the 16th Chapter of the Gospel of Luke. 19"There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22"The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23In hell,[a] where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' 25"But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.'I believe that there are a few other dimensions involved in the sharing of the world's resources. With just 5% of the world's population, we consume 30% to 35% of the world's resources--non-renewable as well as renewable resources. When the non-renewables run out, that's it unless we come up with renewable replacements. But the fact is, we're over-consuming. We don't have any particular right to much of what we consume, especially when we consume the resources of a nation whose population can't afford or does not have access to their resources.I'm afraid that as Americans, we have developed a belief that we are entitled to these resources. And along with this attitude of entitlement, we have become complacent. We do not see a wolf at our door and we largely ignore the wolf blowing down our neighbor's house. With that attitude we place ourselves in the rich man's oblivion to the suffering of the poor.Developing world poverty has grown and will only grow faster as the population exponentially increases. We can no longer comfort ourselves by simple and relatively small contributions from "our" excess, but will need to return from our basic sustenance--the excess we have taken from the poorer nations. The rich man can't be satisfied with collecting and handing over to the poor man Lazarus the crumbs that have fallen from his table, we must invite Lazarus to sit at our table and to share equally of God's bounty and blessings.If we, as a nation, can spend about $50,000,000.00 to kill ONE member of Al Qeueda, we should have the finances to help feed and teach the world to feed itself.This can't be the best we can do.