Time

Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.
-H. Jackson Brown, Jr., writer

True... True...

So what is the question that will lead me to understand the chasm that I see between me and thee?

busy-ness

The baby coming is feeling very real. I feel really pinched by time demands. There are house projects to finish... but no weekends to do them in (tomorrow pm is hang-out with my friend on leave from Mosul Iraq and meet his new fiance'. Saturday is go to a morning music planning meeting then a skeet shoot that I've helped plan for a few minutes before leaving for a wedding... and ending the day at a different friend's bachelor party... which of those do I say no to?)
I know that my wife is seeing the days slipping by... and the task list is not getting much shorter. I feel like I've got a little more than I can chew going on... it makes me pretty ineffective at almost everything. I can't quit work. I can't stop worship at church. I can't quit birthing class.
Forgive me if I'm sounding like a whiner. I really don't mean to. Every one of these things is a blessing in my life. It's just hard to see a way through that includes everything getting done. I can see my margin running thin on some days. I start to get angry at "safe" things like the publication project at work that I can't seem to get done.

On our own

Bridger talks about what he is discovering are the most important things in his life. At one point he says - "Taking people where they can't go on their own."

I think that phrase captures an enormous amount of meaning. It's also something that resonates strongly in me. There is a huge joy in seeing someone(s) arrive at a place they long to be, but don't know can actually exist. I guess that's also what I want someone to do for me. It's something (in very tangible ways) that Jesus Christ has done in my life. I am so thankful for the amazing amount of life that He has granted to me... in spite of my unfaithfulness, and even unwillingness to cooperate along the way. I am extra thankful for the moments of clarity that can make the world more beautiful than I thought possible.

Consumerism

I'm starting to read through "Man in the Mirror" with a few other guys. In Chapter 2 the writer explains the history, logic, and consequences (statistically) of Consumerism as an economic system and its impact on our culture.
The basic principle emerged in the wake of WWII as economists worked to keep the US economy growing in the absence of the demands that the war effort had placed on the nation. (wars are incredibly expensive.. and consequently a great deal of money is to be made... this is not a reflection on war itself). They believed that the only way to maintain growth was to maintain a growing level of product consumption. People had to buy more than what they actually needed. It was around this time that a shrewd businessman connected with a curious and entrepreneuarial (yes that's spelled wrong) psychological community. They began to study what motivates us. They began to experiment with actually doing it. What was born was the infancy of the out-of-control marketing industry that we face today. I suspect that there is no way to trully know the degree to which we as individuals think and function differently because of the inflences of advertising. (part of me gets really excited about how all that works) The advertiser's job is to convince us that we aren't satisfied until we have whatever it is they are being paid to sell!
It makes so much sense... and at the very same time its fallacies are blindingly clear. Consumerism can only work in a culture that allows lying to be normal. Consumerism invites us to believe things that are easy to believe on one hand... and mercilessly cruel on the other. That we all "deserve" the perfect life.... but we are never allowed to actually get there.
Deserve is a word that can only be used in connection with pride.
A perfect life has only happened one time... and it didn't look anything like a skin-cream ad.

Projects

I was just working on a logo for a group that I help with. We're trying to build a leadership team that can duplicated itself. The big picture goal is to help build men into better men. To help them know Jesus Christ in a real tangible life changing way... and to see Him change their lives. The idea is to build through relationship and purpose rather than regiment and program. Make disciples instead of workers. The goal is to give men a desire to grow instead of a command to change. At some levels this stuff has got to seem painfully obvious... I remember phrases like "you can't make a flower grow by pulling on it" well.. duh. However, its a challenge to rebuild a way of thinking. For many people (especially people that have grown up in christian culture) we have a knee-jerk reaction to events, phrases... almost anything. Our reactions are governed by christian culture... but not necessarily the Bible. Our attitudes are shaped by christian expectations... but not necessarily the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, many of us.. if not most of us.. have a hard time seeing the separation between our christian culture (the social heritage we've been given) and a walking relationship with God. Its understandable to live that way.. there is safety in following what others have done... but also danger. God is a living God. He has no special love for the "christian" way of doing things. He takes joy in a righteous heart. A humble heart. A heart that chases after the life that he is offering to anyone that is willing accept the challenge.
In my experience, God doesn't care about glitter, or glamour. He only cares about real value. We could never impress him with our cool clothes or sleek tan (a relief for those of us that don't have either). He's not impressed with our pride... because He knows the truth of who we are. Good... the bad... the really bad. Its pretty scary to trust someone.. anyone with our real selves. God has spoken to me at times throughout my life from my earliest memories. (and before that based on things my mom has said) But even now (maybe especially now), It is a greater joy... but also a much greater challenge to surrender the image I have of myself. To go back to square one. To admit that I've been selfish again. It hurts to be wrong. Somehow God is faithful to lift my head again.... true humility is not to think bad of yourself... its to see yourself as you trully are... both your strengths and weaknesses. Pride is what happens anytime we step away from a true image of who we are. Pride is simply a lie... It just happens that the nice lies are the easiest ones to embrace.
Abraham Lincoln once asked; "if you call a dog's tail a leg... how many legs does it have?" The answer is "Four. It doesn't matter what you call a tail... it is still a tail."
Okay I've wandered a lot... its time for bed.

The Heart of man

Bridger asked the question, " are people good... or evil?"

Here are my first thoughts.

People are flawed. We have inherited the conseqences of the wrongs that have been done before us.. by our parents, and theirs.. all the way back to Adam. At the center of our flawed nature is a break with truth. We all lack truth. We are all deceived. We must seek to know the degree of our deception. People are absolutely capable of "good" things... Even an evil man will not give his son a serpent when he asks for bread. However our capacity and even our desire for good is distorted by the deception that we are under. We cannot cure our own deception by thinking our way out or learning our way through. It is our thinking and learning that have been affected! It is something that we need to be rescued from and healed of... and because you can't give away what you don't have. Truth can only come from the one that has never been decieved.

All Square Worship

Eternal Truth in Street Shoes

Sometimes I have the fortune of encountering people that have a true desire to understand the truth of God. Some even have a heart to see truth expressed in their lives. To be Christ in this world. That heart is the heart that I believe we are to have... honest curiosity, simple dissatisfaction coupled with a positive expectation of what is to come.
I welcome any honest questions for discussion. Especially those relating to an effort to apply what learn about God to our every day lives.