On one hand, you have something happening tomorrow that most would have never thought would happen, and on the other you still see so much racial injustice in our society. But I do think that what he did was definitely not in vein, as sometimes you never see the result of the seed you've helped to plant. Here's to devoting(and giving) your life for something much bigger than yourself.
"When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing... not healing, not curing... that is a friend who cares."
Henri Nouwen
...I want to be more like this type of friend in 2009.
So, I just came across this today and was quite intrigued. It's from May of this year, but it's completely new to me. Wright defends his opinion that the obscenely massive debt that Africa owes to Western countries and banks should be cancelled. Here are a few quotes from Wright to get you started. Read the entire thing HERE.
In the 1970s, for example, Western financial institutions loaned the best part of a billion dollars to Idi Amin of Uganda - a vicious psychopath and known to be such. By doing so, they not only saddled that impoverished country will a millstone of debt, but financed the dictator's reign of terror. These actions were both financially irresponsible and morally reprehensible. After Amin's fall, the debts were inflated by massive rates of compound interest (up to 20% p.a.!) resulting mainly from economic policies pursued by the developed world, not least as long-term results of the Bretton Woods agreement. At the same time, the bottom fell out of the market for Uganda's main exports.-------Here in North East England, Christian Aid received an unsolicited email from Dr Simon Challand, when he was working in southern Uganda with the Church Mission Society. He wrote that: "Debt relief means money stays in the country instead of pouring out to Europe and the US and there have been huge improvements in health and education...The Ministry of Health has just increased the grant to all the health centres by 85%... four years ago they got nothing. Many health centres are able to provide immunisation, growth monitoring, health education and antenatal care to remote rural areas...Everywhere you go you can see new classrooms going up to support the Universal Primary Education programme which gives every child 7 years of free schooling." [Uganda used its first tranche of debt relief to improve basic medical provision and to abolish fees for primary school.]
So, I've posted earlier entries on this blog regarding living life as Jesus would and called them "Gut Check." These were posts that dealt with things that I personally struggle with doing as a Christian. But, I don't know if I've ever really posted any opinion(s) that I have on the church, partially because I have some guilt with it and more so because I know several of you that read here are directly involved in church leadership. But, blog communities are supposed to be the most authentic, right? Well, here goes...
I came across an article yesterday morning that really confirmed a lot of things that I've been thinking about church since I moved to Arizona just over two years ago. The article was titled, "How Many Christians Does it Take to Unscrew the Church?" (you can read it by clicking on the title)
Let me say that my church history (if you will) would be that I came from a church with 100 attendees on Easter that had a very inward-focused congregation to a much larger church of ~1200 attendees that seemed totally outward/community-focused. It was definitely a big culture shock for me. What I found with this experience, along with many others since, is that I feel that what we're making "church" in our culture is a far cry from what Jesus designed it to be. Keith Giles gives his take on this in the article, and says that we have changed the model of church to an organizational one versus the organism model that God designed it to be. Here's a quote from Giles:I know that Jesus had something amazing in mind when He designed His Church. It wasn't meant to be a burden to His people. He modelled and inspired a family of faith where everyone was gifted to serve and empowered to encourage and heal and edify and inspire the rest. Of course, the problem is that we have chosen to try it our own way and this is what we get - tired and empty and run down.
Read the rest of the article and let me know your thoughts. Do you agree or disagree? I'd love to hear what you all think.
...I challenge you all to conspire. See below:
Go here for more...
....for Christmas?
Mine is "O Come O Come Emmanuel."
your turn...
I'm feeling some stress lately and can't seem to shake it. There is some family stuff going on, change at work that Obama never would've promised, and the usual day-to-day ish that is life...anyone else?
And, as usual, I find comfort in the words of RSB. I've written the band before about this song, telling them that it does often find me driving in my car (see verse 1). The song is the title track from the album, Better Days. I think the lyrics are worth a look...Better Days by Robbie Seay
Awesome song, I think. I definitely find myself stumbling around in life, and the good news is that grace found me somewhere along the way and has followed me from place to place. I don't deserve that, but God is good. So today, be okay with being messed up. We all are. He loves us, and he calls us by names that we could never call ourselves. And he loves us without requirements. We don't have to have it all together. Isn't that good news? Scripture says that we should only worry about today, for tomorrow brings enough trouble of its own. What are we to do when it feels like three months of tomorrows show up at once? I think the answer is to listen to the grace of grace calling us, just to say....
vs-1: First of all, thanks for listening to our song
we hope this finds you driving in your car
or wherever you are, breathe out and breathe again
and know that life is hard but it's worth the breathing
oh listen to me now, the love of loves is waiting for you
just to say...
chorus: here come better days, here come better days
better days in a better place i know
vs-2: secondly, i'm all messed up so royally
and i stumbled my way here, but wait oh wait
grace has found me and shaken up my soul
and grace will follow wherever you go
listen to me now, the grace of grace is calling for you just to say....
it's worth the breathing.
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