Random Thoughts on a Bridge That Is No More (Revisited)

Today marks the eight-year anniversary of the collapse of the old 35W bridge in Minneapolis.  Hard to believe it's been that long.  On this day, I commonly revisit a post I had published on my old blog to reflect on what happened that evening.  Today I wanted to republish that post on this blog as my readership has grown since then.

I don't want to overstate any proximity to the event since through much of the construction I had been avoiding the bridge during rush hour. There are many other's who can claim a much closer call than I, but still when such a disaster strikes a location that is so familiar to you it is hard not to consider the possibility of what could have happened.

It's also strange the random nature of the memories and thoughts that come back to you when a place that has been such a regular part of your life is no longer there. These three stand out in particular.

A weekday evening in Early-July, 2007: It was about 5:00 PM. I missed my normal detour around the construction and ended up in the middle of the slow rush hour flow of the two remaining northbound lanes. It was just after the failed bombing attempts in London and Glasgow and in that moment I had a strange realization of the vulnerability of that situation and how something we take for granted could easily be turned into a place of danger. I said a prayer for safety and quickly put the thought out of my mind until about a month later. Though my thought that day primarily revolved around the possibility of terrorism, it now seems to have been a premonition of what was to come.

About 2:00 PM, August 1, 2007: Ironically I left work early to have my back checked out by my doctor due to a car accident the day before. Again I missed my detour, but the traffic was not as heavy at that time of the day. As I drove across the bridge I looked at the newly laid concrete. Having become weary of all the detours I remember thinking to myself, "Good, it looks like we're making progress toward getting back to normal."
Just over four hours later sitting at home, working through all the paperwork from my own situation, we received a phone call from my mother-in-law to check on us. It was at that moment we would find out that nothing would ever be normal about 35W again.

Evening, August 8, 2007: A week after the collapse my wife and I made our pilgrimage to the river to look at what has happened and somehow connect with this tragedy. As we stand on the Stone Arch Bridge looking down on the destruction, I catch a glimpse of an ambulance crossing the 10th Ave bridge on it's new route from downtown to the east side and it brings my mind back to a much happier memory and the role 35W has played in our lives.

I remembered back to the very first hours of May 19, 2004 as I sat in the back of another ambulance looking at my wife laying there with our newly born daughter who couldn't wait for mom and dad to get her to the hospital to make her appearance. The freeway was very empty at that early hour and the concrete glistened in the glow of the street lights as we rolled across the bridge and up the Washington Ave ramp on our way to HCMC. It was like the whole world had stopped for this special moment and this was Elaina's time in the spotlight. This definitely was a much happier memory and it is the happier memories of this place that I want to hold on to.

Lessons From An AA Meeting

This morning a friend of mine who works daily with friends without homes in Indianapolis invited me to join him at an AA meeting in order to help me better understand the program as I look to get more involved with connecting with those entering recovery programs.  Sitting in a room full of addicts in recovery is always humbling.  It's humbling because the people in that room always seem to understand life better than most of us who live in the "got it all together" world of suburbia.  They realize they're always one bad decision, one drink, from going right back into the same chaotic life that drew them to AA in the first place.  They also know they need each other to keep fighting the battle to stay away from the things that have destroyed their lives in the past.  Many understand that trying to solve their challenges with self-effort will get them nowhere because they realize the challenge is beyond them.

It's long been my conviction that every gathering of the Church needs to be more like an AA meeting than the professional productions we often rely on.  We need teaching.  We need corporate worship.  Still, we also need to be able to communicate as a community of peers sharing our stories and our challenges without fear and without pretense.  Even if alcohol addiction is not the demon that vexes our life, the reality is we're all one bad decision, one sin, away from making a total mess of life.  Some of us may be at the beginning stages of realizing what a mess we had become.  Some of us may have been on the "spiritual sobriety" road for a long time.  Still, we all share these two things in common: we're one bad decision away from chaos and we need each other to stay on the right path.

Today, I was drawn to the "Twelve Traditions Of AA" that were displayed in various forms throughout the room.  These traditions guide how every AA group should operate and how the organization as a whole should function.  As I read them, it seemed to me they were traditions that many of us who lead various faith communities and ministries would benefit from adapting into our own context.  As I read them and as I sat there and listened, I found myself praying "God help me and help Diakonos always live in this way."

What "Home" Are We Living For?

By faith he (Abraham) went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.... These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city. Hebrew 11:9 - 10, 13 - 16

Kim Schuster. September 26, 2011.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/timmielee5359/6186047030/

As I've pondered a few recent conversations, I can't help but think of how important the lack of "ownership" in this world is to our ability to serve others.  The quote above is from a section of the Bible often referred to as the Hall of Faith.  It summarizes key points in the lives of people who sought God's purposes above their own and were recognized for having more faith than many of their peers.  They may not have always achieved the perception of being rewarded in this world, but they had their view focussed on another world that had God as it's architect.

Yesterday someone posted in a Facebook community forum a request for people to be on the look out for a vehicle that was involved in a hit-and-run accident with her father.  (Thankfully, her father was fine.)  It was interesting how quickly the conversation in the comments turned to speculation about the socio-economic status of the person who hit her father's car.  Our section of Indianapolis has many upper-middle class neighborhoods, but there are pockets of lower-middle working-class neighborhoods dispersed throughout the area as well.  Posts of this nature are often met with a course of replies about how bad the community is getting as more people from the urban core move here.  I often find myself distressed by these comments, because I know so many good people who feel unwelcomed by this.

As I read through this thread, though, I noticed a trend.  Many of the people complaining about the bad element in our community (one in particular) felt justified in their response because they had experienced loss or knew someone who experienced loss at the hands of another.  When we have experienced loss at the hands of someone who fits a certain stereotype in our mind, it's easy to become jaded in our attitude toward "those people."  The only way to avoid being hardened to others is to have an open-handed attitude toward all possessions.  It's only then that we can fully be open to blessing others even when the risk is high that we may suffer loss in the process.  Otherwise, it's totally understandable to become suspicious of others whenever a problem arises.

Abraham lost much in his quest to fulfill God's purpose of seeing all people groups blessed through his descendents.  He lost his homeland.  He lost contact with most of his family over time.  He lived as a nomad in a land he knew his descendants would eventually posses.  He had items stolen many times.  Still, he walked with grace toward his neighbors, knowing that God had higher purposes in mind.

It takes the perspective of Abraham to keep an open hand toward all our neighbors when we know that there will be times we suffer loss as "reward" for caring.  It takes keeping in our view the realization that our eventual home is a heavenly city "whose designer and builder is God," even as we seek to be fully vested in the community around us for the sake of His purposes.  This requires faith.  And this is not easy.

Getting Beyond the Dogma of Personal Reponsibility

James Tissot [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons

Yesterday my friend Robert Charlock submitted a letter to the Indianapolis Star regarding the need for a Homeless Bill of Rights in Indianapolis.  The self-righteous on-line comments of those who assume poverty is usually the result of personal choices quickly emerged: "How many brought this upon themselves? When having a place to live and a job is no longer a priority for oneself, why should we fix their problem?", "So a select group of people need a special 'bill of rights'?", and such.  If you stand with those on the margins, you're sure to encounter the finger pointing of those who espouse the dogma of personal responsibility.

As I read those comments, the story Jesus told of the Rich Man and Lazarus came to mind:

Jesus said, “There was a certain rich man who was splendidly clothed in purple and fine linen and who lived each day in luxury. At his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus who was covered with sores. As Lazarus lay there longing for scraps from the rich man’s table, the dogs would come and lick his open sores.

“Finally, the poor man died and was carried by the angels to be with Abraham. The rich man also died and was buried, and his soul went to the place of the dead. There, in torment, he saw Abraham in the far distance with Lazarus at his side.

“The rich man shouted, ‘Father Abraham, have some pity! Send Lazarus over here to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. I am in anguish in these flames.’

“But Abraham said to him, ‘Son, remember that during your lifetime you had everything you wanted, and Lazarus had nothing. So now he is here being comforted, and you are in anguish. And besides, there is a great chasm separating us. No one can cross over to you from here, and no one can cross over to us from there.’

“Then the rich man said, ‘Please, Father Abraham, at least send him to my father’s home. For I have five brothers, and I want him to warn them so they don’t end up in this place of torment.’

“But Abraham said, ‘Moses and the prophets have warned them. Your brothers can read what they wrote.’

“The rich man replied, ‘No, Father Abraham! But if someone is sent to them from the dead, then they will repent of their sins and turn to God.’

“But Abraham said, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Luke 16:19-31

I wonder what the rich man's response was when he walked by Lazerus.  Did he assume Lazarus was where he was in life because he brought this situation on himself?  Or that he no longer considered a place to live and a job a priority?  Given the context and the reference earlier in the chapter to the Pharisees' love of money I wonder if the rich man in this story was the type of man society as a whole viewed as a righteous man.  Perhaps he faithfully performed his religious duties without flaw and would have been considered a prime candidate for paradise by others.  Could he have been one of those Jesus rebuked for being "careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law--justice, mercy, and faith"? (Matthew 23:23)  Apparently, God had a different view of the situation.

When we presume that our own prosperity is the result of our own work and other's poverty is the result of their bad decisions or behaviors, we tend to assume others just need to get it together and do the right thing to get out of their situation.  It's easy to assume others deserve the misfortune they experience while we are entitled to the good things we have earned.  Though we cannot totally minimize the role personal decisions may play in a situation, we are on shaky ground if we assume it is not our responsibility to watch out for and care for those experiencing poverty.  God calls on us to care for those who are suffering and stand up for those who are ignored and oppressed.  From the experience of the rich man in the story Jesus told, it appears He considers it a serious matter.  So should we.

 

 

Atypical Christmas Songs: #1 Cry Of a Tiny Babe

This is the continuation of a collection of posts I'm doing this year about some of my favorite "Christmas Songs" that most people may not think of when they think of  Christmas.  This is a re-post of a blog from 2012 about my all time favorite song in this category.  Merry Christmas!

One of the things I enjoy most about the Christmas season is the music.  I enjoy the traditional carols with their images of silent and holy nights and a peaceful scene in some manger far away.  There have also been some newer songs that capture my attention with a new twist to the old themes we find in Christmas carols.  Then, every once in a while, an unexpected song comes along that connects the timeless truth of the Incarnation with the hard realities of the world we live in every day.  These songs usually come from mainstream artists who spend most of their time speaking to the world in which we live, but have a sense that there's a bigger story that needs to be told.

While at a Christmas party in the mid-90's a friend introduced me to "Cry Of A Tiny Babe" by Bruce Cockburn.  As an aspiring philosophy student with a bent toward social justice, I was just beginning to discover Bruce's music and the prophetic way he addressed many of the issues of the day we lived in.  His music showed a faith that was sincere, even if it was edgier than what I was accustomed to.  As I listened to his telling of the Christmas story in song that night, it had the same edgy, but truthful, feel to me.  Over the years it has become my favorite Christmas songs.

It's the edgy and down to earth nature of this song that captures something often lost in our more traditional carols.  Jesus' birth did not happen among the acceptable people of his day, but in the midst of scandal and on the margins of society.  Jesus spent much of His life dealing with the messiness of human existence.  He cared for and restored dignity to many who lived on the margins of society.  These were the people Jesus said He came to touch.  One verse especially captures this point:

There are others who know about this miracle birth
The humblest of people catch a glimpse of their worth
For it isn't to the palace that the Christ child comes
But to shepherds and street people, hookers and bums

This remains true today. Whatever there is in our lives that brings shame and messiness, that is the part of our lives Jesus wants to enter into and bring healing and wholeness. Even as it was for those on the margins in Jesus' day, it is true for us today that "forgiveness is given for (our) guilt and (our) fear." In a single moment in history, redemption and restoration ripped "through the surface of time" and the ripples of that moment carry on to our day.

Merry Christmas.

Guest Post by Tina Longard: Christmas: The Heart of the Battle of the Ages

One of my favorite writers lives under my own roof.  I really liked a couple of pieces Tina has written lately and asked her permission to include them on this blog as a way to share them with others.  The first is a reflection she wrote early in the Advent Season, after one of our family devotion times.  It seems very appropriate to the challenges our country and world face leading into Christmas this year.

Christmas:  The Heart of the Battle of the Ages

By Tina Longard

“So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” Genesis 3:15 (NIV)

Throughout the ages the battle has raged between the offspring of Eve and the serpent.  The battle raged as the people of Israel cried out in agony in their slavery in Egypt.  God’s hand was on Moses, “son of Eve.”  The Serpent through Egypt’s pharaoh, reared his ugly head--struck, but missed Moses, as God “hid” Moses under Pharaoh’s very nose.  Other infant sons of Eve died from that strike of the Serpent.  Moses grew up to lead the people of Israel out of that land of slavery, into the Promised Land.

But many years later, the blessed Land of Promise, lay under siege—occupied by the Romans.  Again the ugly serpent is rearing his head—this time through King Herod.  This time the offspring of “Eve”, is also the offspring of God Almighty.  Jesus is the target of the serpent.  The serpent knows that this Offspring of Eve has the ultimate power to destroy him; but right now Jesus is only a vulnerable infant.  Now is the time to strike!  The serpent coils and strikes, but God has warned Joseph in a dream, and he and Mary have already fled humble Bethlehem.  Again, other infant sons of Eve die from the strike of the serpent.

How ironic it is, that the Israelite Land of Promise had become the land of danger; whereas Egypt, former land of slavery, had become the land of refuge.  Jesus is sheltered in Egypt until Herod’s death. 

Jesus will battle the serpent again and again during his time on earth—in the wilderness, in the garden, but ultimately on the cross.  At Golgotha he will be lifted up on a cross—just as the serpent was lifted up on a cross in the wilderness in the time of Moses.  As the Israelites who looked upon the bronze serpent were healed of the effects of their snake bites (Numbers 21:9), those l who look upon Jesus will be healed of their sin.  What appears on the surface to be Jesus’ death and defeat, is actually Jesus ultimate victory over the serpent, and over sin and death!

Yet, here we are 2000 years later, still feeling the vibrations in our world, as the serpent writhes in the throes of death. In reading the book of Revelation, we see that the serpent is doomed; yet, right now we see around us the far-reaching effects of his destructive strikes against the sons of Eve.

“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” is the Christmas carol/prayer that most resonates with my heart in this Christmas season. 

“O come, Thou rod of Jesse, free Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
from depths of hell Thy people save. And give them vict’ry o’er the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice!  Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel .”
~ Verse 2, Latin Hymn, 12^th Century

“He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”
Amen.  Come, Lord Jesus.”  Rev. 22:20 (NIV)

Atypical (and modern) Christmas Songs: Baby Boy

This is the continuation of a collection of posts I'm doing this year about some of my favorite "Christmas Songs" that most people may not think of when they think of  Christmas.  They're not in any particular order and I'm not sure how many I'll come up with, so I wouldn't exactly call it a countdown.  Perhaps that will be a future year.  This one may be on this list due only to how new the song and the artist are.  Time will tell if song enters the realm of modern Christmas classics.

By far, my favorite new artist emerging on the Christian Music scene is For King & Country.  Everything I have heard from this brother duo up to this point has appealed to me in one way or another.  "Baby Boy" is no different.

Between their debut major-label project and their most recent release, For King and Country released a four song / five track (includes both a studio and live version of "Baby Boy") Christmas EP titled Into The Silent Night. Of the two traditional carols and two original songs, "Baby Boy" has received the most airplay on Christian radio stations.

The imagery of the official video tells a great story.  The entire EP revolves around an animated tale of a Confederate drummer caught in the middle of a fierce Civil War battle played out against the backdrop of a peaceful winter landscape.  In this video, our battle-weary drummer ascends a hill carrying a sword left by a fallen soldier.  After a time of at reflection at the top of the hill, the drummer descends the hill carrying a white flag he made from a sheet hanging on a nearby clothesline.  It's a sign of surrender to the unexpect King that came down in the form of a baby boy.

In a time when the world seems very divided and we get battle-weary, we need songs like this to remind us that there is hope in the midst of the battle.

Atypical (and modern) Christmas Songs: Better Days

This is the continuation of a collection of posts I'm doing this year about some of my favorite "Christmas Songs" that most people may not think of when they think of  Christmas.  They're not in any particular order and I'm not sure how many I'll come up with, so I wouldn't exactly call it a countdown.  Perhaps that will be a future year.

No list of modern Christmas songs would be complete without "Better Days" by the Goo Goo Dolls.  I'm not sure if I would define it as "atypical" since it has been a mainstay of pop culture Christmas and New Years events since it's release in 2006.  The song definitely has undertones of John Rzeznik's Catholic upbringing in it.  Still, for those of us who grew up in and around the Evangelical church culture this one may not be as familiar to us.

To me this is a call for a missional understanding of Christmas.  It's a call for the Incarnation to be about more than sweet, sentimental feelings once a year or initiating a personal transaction that buys us our ticket to Heaven someday.  It's a call for real transformation in the world around us as we embrace "the one poor child who saved this world."  It calls us to embrace God's mission to restore the world He created to Him again and reminds us that the opportunity is there for re-creation to happen in our lives and our world ("tonight's the night the world begins again").

I don't know if this is what Rzeznik had in mind when he penned these words and some of the finer points of theology in it can be debated.  Still, I can identify with this prayer found in the bridge:

I wish everyone was loved tonight
And somehow stop this endless fight
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days

Atypical Christmas Songs: Peace on Earth

By Visitor7 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

This is the continuation of a collection of posts I'm doing this year about some of my favorite "Christmas Songs" that most people may not think of when they think of  Christmas.  They're not in any particular order and I'm not sure how many I'll come up with, so I wouldn't exactly call it a countdown.  Perhaps that will be a future year.

14 “Glory to God in highest heaven,
    and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

The news this week of a hostage situation at a chocolate store in Australia and the Taliban massacre of over 130 people, mostly children, at a school in Pakistan remind us of how far we are from complete peace on earth.  It's the paradox of living between the initiation of the revealing of the Kingdom of God through the incarnation of Jesus (Christmas) and the final fulfillment His second coming.  It's a reminder that Satan is still active in the world and still about the business of destroying any sense of peace in our world.  In seems all the more poignant when tragedy involves children.  My wife responded to hearing the news of the school massacre in Pakistan by saying, "It seems like Satan always likes killing children at Christmastime."  Looking at the number of such tragedies in December, it would be hard not to agree with her.

As I thought of the tragedies of this week the song "Peace on Earth" by U2 came to mind.  This song strikes me as the "I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day" of our generation.  It captures the paradox of living in world where peace is promised at the time of Jesus' birth, but has not been fully realized yet.  The choice when facing such paradox is to either try to shelter our lives from tragedy and just focus on personal peace, give up on the possibility of true peace on earth and despair, or to continue to pursue the final fulfillment of the promise of peace while recognizing we are not there, yet.  This song seems to take that third way.  It acknowledges tragedy and suffering, while calling out to Christ to bring peace to those who suffer.  It's not done in a cynical way, but in the form of a prayer asking for this peace to be fulfilled.

I like this particular video version.  It captures the paradox of simultaneous peace and tragedy very well.

Atypical Christmas Songs: Christmas at Denny's

I've previously mentioned wanting to assemble a collection of posts about some of my favorite "Christmas Songs" that most people may not think of when they think of  Christmas.  I've decided this will be the year.  They won't be in any particular order and I'm not sure how many I'll come up with, so I wouldn't exactly call it a countdown.  Perhaps that will be a future year.

For those not familiar with Randy Stonehill, he is known as one of the pioneers of the Jesus Music movement of the early 1970's and what later became known Contemporary Christian Music.  He's best known for his high energy, quirky songs such as "Shut De Do," "American Fast Food," and "Can't By A Miracle."  He also has a gift for folk-style storytelling and ballads, though.

In 1989 he released "Christmas at Denny's" as part of his Return to Paradise album.  It's the haunting tale of a drifter who's spending another Christmas Eve with other nameless lonely souls at a Denny's restaurant because they have nowhere else to go.  It tells a story that has become all too familiar to me as I have gotten more involved in the lives of friends without homes these past two years.  It's not a song that you can ever say you enjoyed, but it sticks with you over the years and touches your soul if you're willing to let it.

As our nameless drifter reminisces of the life he left behind and the circumstances that brought him to this place he has one simple prayer, " I don't need no miracle, sweet baby Jesus.  Just help me find some kind of hope in my heart."  When you reach a point of total despair, this is sometimes the only prayer you know how to speak.  It's the kind of prayer Jesus entered this world to answer.

So, here we have "Christmas at Denny's" by Randy Stonehill:

Humility Critical For Real Change To Happen

This past Monday I watched our local city-county council get bogged down in petty politics as they debated a proposal to provide legal protections to our neighbors living without homes.  As I watched this, I kept thinking of how important the quality of humility is if we are ever going to see any substantial change in the treatment of our friends without homes.  In his book Spiritual Leadership J. Oswald Sanders called humility one of the essential qualities of leadership.

Humility is needed by the current ensemble of professional service providers in our city to admit that, although they have done much good, there are still many not being helped by their services and some people fall through the cracks in the current system.  The assumption can be that the ones not being helped are choosing not to receive the help, but reality is more complex than that.  They must also recognize that grassroots efforts to bring necessities to those living on the street are not about enabling the homelessness, but about building trust in order to assist our friends off the street.

Humility is needed by those of us involved in grassroots faith-based efforts to recognize that many of those in the professional service industry entered the field with good intentions, though it's not always apparent by the way things are operated.  It's possible that some of them have lost sight of their original purpose in the struggle to keep their organizations afloat, but the heart that got them involved in their mission must still be there somewhere.  Perhaps our efforts will yield fruit in seeing these providers spending time in self-examination and stepping up to meet the challenges they face in a way that yields the type of results we would like to see.  So, we need to see them as colleagues in the fight against poverty and not obstacles.

Humility is needed by conservative politicians to recognize that the dogma of personal responsibility does not define the story of every person in poverty and some may need help pulling on their "bootstraps."  As someone who lives among you and grew up with many of the same views I had to learn to listen to people to find out what they really needed instead of just giving them what I thought they needed.  I had to take time to listen to their stories instead of hurrying to find a "solution" that would make me feel good, but not make any real difference in their lives.

Humility is needed by those of us who champion the cause of the poor to recognize that we don't hold the corner on compassion.  Sometimes questions asked by political conservatives are simply an effort to understand the issue better and have answers to bring back to their constituency that will be looking at the cost of our efforts.

My hope is that all involved will find the humility to come together for real change and not simply stay entrenched in their divisive views while our friends without homes struggle through another winter.

The Paradox of Awe and Anxiety

My blog has been silent for the last three months.  With the beginning of a new school year, fall usually brings about the slowing down of writing activity.  This fall has been particularly active in a number of ways: adjusting to a regular part-time teaching routine at my daughters' school, new relationships in and around Diakonos that put us on the cusp of something exciting for the years ahead, and small victories in the lives of people our community touches that increase the load of face-to-face mentoring that goes with leading a missional community.

Times like these can lead to feelings of awe and anxiety at the same time.  They bring awe because you realize little to none of it is a product of your own creating.  Instead, it is the result of God seeking to build a piece of His Kingdom through you.  They bring anxiety because you realize your own limitations and your need of a power greater than yourself if you hope to see the fulfillment of God's plan through all this.  The choice is to step ahead or to shrink back.

You get the sense in the writings of Paul the Apostle that he felt these same feelings many times.  In one of his most vulnerable letters he confides to the followers of Jesus in Corinth the paradox of feeling awe and anxiety at the same time in the pursuit of God's Kingdom.  Early on he compares the paradox to having a valuable treasure hidden in a fragile clay jar.  Though the outward pressure appears ready to crush the jar, the inward presence sustains it:

"We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.

We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed. Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies." (2 Corinthians 4:7-10 NLT)

Later he speaks of a what he calls a thorn in the flesh that keeps him from being too self-confident, even in the midst of great spiritual encounters.  It keeps him seeking God for a relief from the torment, but finding the answer is to trust God's strength in the midst of weakness:

"Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time he said,'My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.' So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me." 2 Corinthians 12:8, 9 NLT)

So, as we face the paradox of awe and anxiety, we need to press ahead and trust the presence of God's strength and grace to shine through our own feelings of inadequacy and weakness.

Being At The Mercy Of Another

This past weekend I had the "opportunity" to experience just a piece of the helplessness many of the most vulnerable people in our city experience on a daily basis.  This was not a staged learning experience where you know no matter what's going on it's only pretend, but instead a situation where you are in the wrong place at the wrong time for just a moment and you feel totally at the mercy of another person.

Last Sunday, our missional community had its biweekly service Sunday where we deliver food to people living in tent cities at different locations throughout our city.  Our final stop was near a railroad track with several camps lined in the woods along the side.  As our team wrapped up this final food station and prepared to go to our favorite coffee shop to debrief, I heard some commotion back by the tracks.  I went back just to make sure everything was alright and saw two trucks driving along the track to deliver firewood to the people living in the camps.  Shortly after that the Railroad Police vehicle appeared from behind the tree with lights flashing.

Though we always park off of railroad property when we deliver our meals, my standing on the property at this moment placed me in the middle of the whole situation.  From the officers position, he saw six individuals on railroad property (three people delivering wood, two friends who live in the camps, and me).  He exercised due diligence and collected all our ID's in order to run checks on any outstanding violations, warrants, etc.  I complied and waited as most of the conversation revolved around one of the individuals delivering firewood.  The rest of my team watched from where we were parked, wondering if they would need to back up my story or bail me out of jail.  After what seemed like eternity, my ID was returned and I was able to head back with no further problems.

Even though I knew there was little to be concerned about, in a moment like this it is not hard to feel like you are at the mercy of another person.  Thoughts about the possibility of a ticket or being detained begin to enter your mind.  And for a moment I understood how harassed and helpless my friends without homes feel on a daily basis.  They have run-ins like this on a regular basis where they are left at the mercy of another person for their sense of security.  There are not only the run-ins with police that they have to be concerned with, but they also deal with any number of strangers every day that could take advantage of them.  So, I can't help but have empathy for their plight.

This makes me think of Jesus entering our crazy world.  He lived among an oppressed people.  He experienced hardship and injustice.  I wonder how many times as a young man he was forced by a Roman soldier to carry the soldier's equipment before he said, "If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles." (Matthew 5:41)  How many times did he have his shirt taken before he said, "If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well."? (Matthew 5:40)  Jesus identified with the harassed and helpless.  He lived among them.  He identifies with us when we feel the same way.  He's walked in our world.

So, we can take comfort in knowing that Jesus identifies with us in our moments of vulnerability.  He can also help us empathize with the most vulnerable citizens among us.  For this we can be thankful.

Secure Your Own Mask First

Recently a friend posted a quote on Facebook from Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero.  I found the quote so good I decided to check the book out at our local library and read more.  Having been on a journey towards a more emotionally healthy faith over the past nine years (I'm sure I still have a ways to go), I've found it to be a very refreshing book.  There is much in this book I have experienced in this time and it's encouraging to find others who have come to similar conclusions.

Whenever I spend time reflecting on a topic like this I often am reminded of the pre-flight safety instructions a person hears when flying on a commercial airliner.  During the section about the emergency oxygen masks, passengers are reminded to make sure their own mask is secure before they attempt to help someone else.  The logic behind this instruction is simple.  If you haven't made sure you have enough oxygen to survive in an emergency, you won't last long and won't be able to help others.  So, for their sake, it's best to take care of your own mask first.

This is sound advice for anyone who has committed their life to serving others to remember.  We need to prioritize taking care of ourselves if we are going to be of any use to others.  When we are involved in serving others, it's a challenge to resist the feelings of guilt if we take time for ourselves.  If someone comes to us with a request we can feel a compulsion to always say "yes" regardless of the effect on our own lives.  In that process it's easy to neglect the most basic points of self-care, but if we do we will be of no use to those we seek to serve and will begin to resent the very people we say we love.

There are times for self-denial and many in the United States have elevated the level of the "bare necessities" to the level of excess.  Still, there are basic boundaries every human needs to put in their lives to operate at their best.  So, for the sake of those we seek to serve, let's remember to make sure our own mask is secure first.

Wise Leadership: Get The Full Story

There is an interesting story in the history of ancient Israel.  It occurs near the end of the Book of Joshua as the fighting men of the two-and-a-half tribes that had been given land east of the Jordan River are released from their obligation to fight alongside their fellow Israelites that will settle west of the Jordan River.  Before they cross over the river, these men build a replica of the official altar that is placed in the tabernacle of Yahweh (God).  They did this as a memorial for future generations to remember that people living on both sides of the river were worshippers of Yahweh.  The initial reports among the people living west of the Jordan River, though, was that this was done out rebellion against Yahweh.  In response they prepare for civil war to remove the offense from the people of Israel.

A delegation is sent ahead of the army to find out what has happened.  It is lead by Phinehas, the current priest and grandson of Aaron.  Phinehas would not be considered a "bleeding heart liberal" by modern standards.  When there was obvious offense against the Law of Yahweh, he was not afraid to take swift action in punishing the offense.  In this case, though, he took the time to listen to the men from east of the Jordan River and find out their reason for building this replica.  Upon hearing their answer he replied, "Today we know the LORD is among us because you have not committed this treachery against the LORD as we thought. Instead, you have rescued Israel from being destroyed by the hand of the LORD." (Joshua 22:31) Civil war was averted.

Both positive and negative examples from several years of leading others and serving under other leaders has shown me how important this skill is in leading wisely.  It's easy to look at another person's actions and assume an offensive intention.  This can especially be true when we feel defensive.  We can assume someone has our ill will in mind when there may be no malice intended.

It's important to give people space to explain their intentions and not jump to conclusions.  Even if we find out our original assumptions are correct, it's worth taking the time to make sure this was the case.  James, an early follow of Jesus, put it another way: "You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry." (James 1:19)  That's good advice.

Being The Nuts and Bolts of Christianity: An Experiential Witness

In the opening scenes of Ragamuffin: The True Story of Rich Mullins the character of Rich Mullins is placed in the role of narrator of the film through a radio interview that interjects narration throughout the movie. This interview opens with a question about how he came to faith. Mullins responds, "I am a Christian, not because someone explained the nuts and bolts of Christianity, but because there were people willing to be nuts and bolts.” (originally from his book, The World As Best I Remember It) This quote epitomizes what the witness of a missional community should be. It's what I hope our Diakonos Community is becoming.

Too often we see witness or evangelism as presenting an airtight explanation of what Christians believe that will convince the hearer that this is the best way to believe. The Bible seems to present a different picture of witness in the early days of the church, though. There were times when the Gospel was publicly proclaimed. Still, there are many places where early Christian leaders (and Jesus himself) emphasised that the witness we live out will be as important as anything we say. Consider the following:

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:14 - 16 

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34, 35 

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:2-6 

Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. 1 Peter 2:12 

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 1 John 4:11, 12

A community of people that are living the self-sacrificial life that Jesus modeled will speak the Gospel to people burnt out on the self-centered culture of our contemporary age. Together we live out the nuts and bolts of Christianity. Together we let the light of Christ shine in the midst of the darkness of this world. When the actions of a Christian community match it's words, this is the witness the world needs to see.

Suring Up Our Weaknesses

Last night I enjoyed listening on-line as one of my favorite IndyCar drivers, Ed Carpenter, won his third career race in the Firestone 600 at Texas Motor Speedway.  I'm always partial to the smaller teams in IndyCar, especially owner/driver teams like Carpenter's, and enjoy any chance I have to see them win out over their highly funded competition.  They do everything they can to help their teams survive in a sport where it is often hard to make ends meet.  Sometimes as team owners they make decisions that are hard to make as drivers.

After winning his first career race in 2011, Carpenter launched his own team in 2012.  He has continued to experience a measure of success with 8 top ten finishes and 1 win on oval courses.  His weakness as a road and street course racer has become more apparent in the last two years as IndyCar shifts to more of these type of races.  For the first two years as a team Carpenter has an average finishing position of 8th on oval tracks and 19th on road / street courses (16th overall).  So, for the sake of the team, Carpenter the owner needed to make a decision on how to improve their overall standing for the team to survive and how Carpenter the driver fit into this.

Along came Mike Conway, a relative newcomer to IndyCar who has shown an ability to win on road / street courses.  After two serious crashes in his three starts at the Indy 500, Conway decided he was no longer comfortable with racing on ovals and became a fill-in road / street course specialist in 2013.  As a race team owner, Ed Carpenter made the decision in 2014 to split his ride with Mike Conway behind the wheel in the 12 road / street course races and himself as driver in the 6 oval races.  So far this year they have won two races and the car's average finish has improved to 14th overall (12th if you factor out the Indy 500 where Carpenter had a good chance to win until bad decisions by two other drivers took him out of the race with 20 laps to go).  Neither will have a chance of winning the IndyCar points championship, but their combined points is enough for the car to be in 6th place so far.

Sometimes leaders need to identify their weaknesses and find people that are able to compensate for these weaknesses for the bettering of the overall team.  This is not only true in auto racing, but in all areas of life.  Team will often outshine individual performance.  Ed Carpenter Racing may become a great example of that this year.

A Call To Integrated Lives and Churches: Reflections On Reading Slow Church

One of our families early encounters with missional church was being a part of Bluer (now Renewal Vineyard) in Minneapolis.  I often remember Pastor John Musick's expression for sin: "disintegrated lives."  It really caught the essence of all the ways our culture tries to pull us away from the holistic, integrated lives God desires for us to live.  Sadly, it's often hard to see how contemporary Evangelical church offers anything different from the compartmentalized lives corporate America sells us on a daily basis.

In light of this, it's refreshing when a book like Slow Church by Chris Smith and John Patterson comes along.  This book paints a picture of church that is counter-cultural to the fast-paced, compartmentalized lives many of us live.  Borrowing from the language of the Slow Food Movement, it challenges the reader to think about how to make life and church more integrated without resorting to the "church-bashing" that can sometimes find it's way into missional church literature.

Chris and John are not professional clergy trying to sell you on their program for building a church.  They are self-professed amateurs in the truest sense of the word: lovers of church-life that seek to see it integrate into every other part of their lives.  They live in two different communities and have found their way into congregations that encourage their ability to live these principles out.  Drawing from their own experiences, both healthy and unhealthy, they provide an appealing vision of what church could be.

The book is laid out in a very accessible format that anyone can pick up and enjoy.  Chris and John begin by presenting a theological basis for the type of church they desire to see.  They follow-up with nine characteristics of slow church broken down into three "courses:" ethics, ecology, and economy.  Throughout the book they revisit several of the challenges that contemporary culture pose to living out these characteristics and ask whether the cost of acquiescing to the status quo is worth what we appear to gain by following the cultural norms of a society living at supersonic speed.  Slow Church is not simply a manual on how to "do church."  It is a call to live a more integrated life that will naturally include a different approach to how church integrates with that life.

During a time of great stress in his life, King David wrote a hymn that invited others to "taste and see that the LORD is good." (Psalm 34:8)  Slow Church invites readers who are worn down by our fast-paced culture to take the same taste and discover the goodness that can be found in living and worshipping at the pace God desires for us.  For those of us who are professional clergy, it is a challenge to create the type of faith communities that allow the weary to enter in and slowing taste the goodness of God at a pace that is healthy for their soul.  For those of us who consider ourselves "amateurs," true lovers of church-life, it is a call to examine our own pace of life and find ways to make it more "tasty" to those around us.  For both groups of readers Slow Church is a meal worth tasting and digesting.

Wisdom Found Under A Bridge

During our missional communities time serving friends without homes alongside Food 4 Souls yesterday, we served a different route than we usually travel.  Though we missed the friends we've made on our normal route, this change gave us the opportunity to meet Fred.  Fred was travelling along with one of the outreach workers from Food 4 Souls.

Fred is a twenty-five-year veteran of life on the streets.  Most recently, he spent 10 months living at a large camp on Davidson St. in Indianapolis that was cleared out by the city in August 2013.  After that experience he decided to go it alone in another area of town while maintaining relationship with some of the people he had met at Davidson St.  Fred is now getting ready to take a step back into life in the real world.

As Fred told his story, he said the key for him finally coming to a place that he could be ready to reenter society was when he began to be honest with himself about the causes of his homelessness.  It was that honesty with himself that gave him the freedom to seek the help he needed to change his life.  "If I had met you ten years ago," he said, " I would have given you all kinds of excuses of why I was homeless.  When I got honest, I began to admit the problem was within me."  That change in perspective helped him to realize he could hope for a better life as well.

As he continued to share his story, I couldn't help but think of how many people have yet to discover the freedom that comes from self-honesty.  Whether we live under a bridge or in a nice house in the suburbs, our tendency is to try to pretend we have everything together.  If something goes wrong, it must be someone else's fault.  It is only when we give up hiding behind a facade and become honest with ourselves that we find true freedom to carve out a greater existence in our lives.

This is the nature of grace, too.  It is when we come clean with our shortcomings that Jesus meets us there to offer us freedom to be different.  So often we think we need to pretend to be perfect among the people we gather with in church or in the workplace.  A healthy Christian community, though, offers space for everyone to be honest with themselves and each other recognizing that we all, in a sense, live as beggars on the street in desperate need of God's grace.

Those of us who live in suburbia are not that far removed from our friends without homes we see on the street each day.  It does us well to listen to the wisdom we can learn from those that most of society would pass over.

Nurturing the Souls of Royalty

This past Sunday my friend and ministry coach, Troy Cady, visited our missional community to observe the work we do with friends without homes and to encourage our fledgling community in our work.  As part of the evening he shared one of his Playfull Faith stories about creation (learn more here) and the special place humanity held as stewards of God's creation.  He tied it to the mission of our community in restoring a piece of what God had created in our daily connections with people.

What stood out to me in this was the royal nature God placed in humanity as we relate to the rest of His creation.  He is the Great King and He chooses to share a bit of His dominion with humanity, which was created in His image.  In that sense, each person has a seed of royalty in them that few of us ever fully realize.  It is the call of those who follow Jesus to encourage others in finding their authentic royal nature.  As a leader it is also a challenge with each of the hats I wear to remember that good spiritual leadership includes being a good steward of the souls of royalty.

First off, as a husband and father, it affects the way I lead my family.  I need to consider every decision with a focus on what it will do to encourage the fulfillment of God's royal purpose in my wife and each of my daughters.  What can I do to help them realized the full potential of this royal nature in them?  Am I encouraging them and creating the environment to live life to the fullest and not settle for the status quo society seeks to draw us all into?

Secondly, as the team leader of a fledgling missional community, how am I caring for the souls of those God has entrusted to our community?  Am I helping them to discover the unique place in God's plan or simply using people to accomplish my goals and agendas?  In my role as a pastoral leader, I need to keep these questions in front of me always.

As part of our community's mission we spend time serving friends without homes living in tent cities around our city.  This is another area where we need to remember that we are ultimately caring for the souls of people created with the potential of a royal nature in them.  Too often in philanthropy it's easy to begin to think of people as projects and loose sight of their humanity.  It's important to remember that God's desire is that our friends discover their true nature as part of His royal family.

Finally, as a part-time computer teacher, how am I encouraging my students to exercise dominion over the world of technology and not simple be consumers of what others create for them?  How can I design my projects to help bring this out of them?  How do I encourage them to think of themselves in light of their royal potential?

We are each called to be part of God's royal family.  What are we doing to live and lead that way?