ppppssssssttttt

One of the best books I ever stole is called The Greatest Words in the Bible and in Human Speech by Clarence Edward McCartney. Yeah I said, "stole"...sorta like borrowed for an extended period of time...from my dad's library. He knows I've got the book now (he reads my blog all the time)!
Anyway, this book was written in 1938, (I think my copy is one of the originals) 1938! and is a gem. I frequently pull it off the shelf and read a chapter or two and ruminate on things from the sublime to the ridiculous. It's simple, it's got crazy 'worketh' language, it's a bit pie-in-the-sky, but it has a certain...truth and profundity that is like finding candles in a power-outage. Here's a clip to ponder:

What is the meanest word because it is the most cowardly word? What is the meanest word because it is the cruelest word? What is the word that is conceived in malignity and born in hatred? What is the word that many use lightly and carelessly, and yet thereby ally themselves with the cruel and cowardly man? What is the word that has destroyed friendships, disrupted churches, devastated homes, engendered war and strife, saddened and clouded the lives of men and women? What is the word that the devil first used in the Garden of Eden when he spoke against God, and which he has employed ever since? What is the word that has broken more hearts than any other? What is the word that has the lowest and softest sound and accent, and yet the loudest and noisiest echo? That word is "whisperer." "A whisperer separateth chief friends." -- Proverbs 16:28
The Old Testament description of the godly man still stands. "Who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart, he that backbiteth not in his tongue, nor doeth evil against his neighbor, nor taketh up reproach against his neighbor." In the Royal Gallery in London, there is a portrait of himself by Salvatora Rosa. In his right hand he holds a placard on which are written in Latin these words: "Either keep silence, or speak things better than silence."

Here's how Eugene Peterson conceives of that Proverbs 16 verse: "Troublemakers start fights; gossips break up friendships." Just a bit more 'in your face' eh! Or here's his take on the other passage: "God, who gets invited to dinner at your place? How do we get on your guest list? "Walk straight, act right, tell the truth. Don't hurt your friend, don't blame your neighbor;"

This is what the bible refers to as letting our speech be 'seasoned' with grace. Speaking the truth is good and necessary, but speaking the truth in love is essential--is a Jesus trait. Not only what we say, but also how we say it is crucial to healthy communication. And gossiping (unless it's the good kind) is like eating rotten meat.

If you are tempted to reveal
A tale someone to you has told
About another, make it pass,
Before you speak, three gates of gold--
Three narrow gates: first, 'Is it true?'
Then 'Is it needful?' In your mind
Give truthful answer. And the next
Is last and narrowest: 'Is it kind?'
And if, to reach your lips at last,
It passes through these gateways three,
Then you may tell the tale, nor fear
What the result of speech may be.

--Anon.

Detoxing From "Church"

...food for thought:

As our understanding of being the Church changes, the role of proper Christain community changes.

Truth or Dare

I've always known that my friend Bart is a deep thinker, it's also good to know that we're both out of the theological mainstream. Here's a post he wrote (reprinted with permission) entitled "Take my God...please!" it is intensely honest and profound:

On the one hand, I've been on the road, unable to write, and feeling bad about not posting. On the other hand, I have this bit of corrospondence I keep meaning to turn into an article. If it's too long or theological for you, check back later for something short and snappy. Otherwise, here's an example of the kind of thinking that keeps me out of the evangelical mainstream...

Bart-
This might be kinda wierd, but I have a question for you. I did Mission Year last year and when you came to visit my team you told a story about how you saw a 9-year-old girl get raped and thought that God was a bastard. You sort of said the words inside my head out loud, words I had wanted to say for a long time.
Anyway, after putting this off for almost a year (i've been wanting to ask you for a long time), I want to know how you reconciled that. How did you go from, "God is a bastard" to "I can trust Him"? I can't seem to make that leap. Sometimes I think I begin to really trust Him but as soon as I think about my past abuse and those i know and love who have been abused...it just doesn't add up. I want to know the God you know- who apparently allows for horrible things in this world to happen, but remains pure and holy and trustworthy and faithful and loving.
I don't know if any of that makes sense to you, but as I was wrestling with it today I was reminded of you and hoped you might be of some help. Sarah

Dear Sarah,
Thanks for writing to me. Over the past few years, I have become convinced that yours is actually the single most important question in the world. As Rabbi Kushner points out in his wonderful book, ‘When Bad Things Happen to Good People’, practically every conversation we have about God ends up there. While I am sure my answer will not be as eloquent as his, I will do my best.
First of all, while I believe my ideas about God are supported by the Bible (what Christian says otherwise?), I must admit they did not originate there. On the contrary, most of my ideas were formed during that difficult time I described to you, when I was became disillusioned by the injustice I discovered in the inner-city, and suddenly trusted the Bible not at all. At that point, for the first time, I realized that everything in life does not depend on whether someone believes in God, but rather on what kind of God that person believes in. I also realized that, for better of worse, the only evidence I was could rely on was that which I saw for myself.
What I saw then, and still see now, is a world filled with dazzling goodness and horrific evil, with love and hate, with beauty and ugliness, with life and death. In the face of such clear duality, it seemed to me then, and still seems to me now, that there are but a handful of spiritual possibilities:

*There are no spiritual forces. The material universe is all. Our lives bear no larger meaning, and those who hope for more, hope in vain. In this case, considering the 9-year old rape victim, I despair.
*There is only one spiritual force at work in the universe, encompassing both good and evil. This world is precisely as this force wills it to be, and everything—including the rapes of children—happens according to its plan. In this case, again, I despair.
* There are two diametrically opposing spiritual forces at work in the universe, one entirely good and loving and the other entirely evil. Satan (or whatever one chooses to call that evil force) is most powerful and therefore will utterly triumph in the end. The suffering of that poor little girl is but a foretaste of the complete suffering that is to come for us all. In this case, of course, I despair.
*There are two opposing spiritual forces at work in the universe, one entirely good and loving and the other entirely evil. God (or whatever one chooses to call that good and loving force) is most powerful, and therefore will utterly triumph in the end. The suffering of that poor little girl - Satan’s doing - will somehow be redeemed and she herself will be healed as part of the complete redemption and absolute healing that is to come for us all. In this case—and in this case alone—I rejoice, and gladly pledge my allegiance to this good and loving God.
I cannot prove or disprove any of these possibilities, of course, based on the evidence of my experience. What I know with certainty, however, is the one that makes me want to go on living, the one I choose for my own sake, the one I deem worthy of my allegiance. I may be wrong in this matter, but I am not in doubt. If indeed faith is being sure of what we hope for, then I am truly a man of faith, for I absolutely know what I hope to be true: That God is completely good, entirely loving, perfectly pure, that God is doing all that He can to overcome evil (which is evidently a long and difficult task), and that God will utterly triumph in the end, despite any and all indications to the contrary. This is my first article of faith. I required no Bible to determine it, and—honestly—I will either interpret away or ignore altogether any Bible verse that suggests otherwise.
This first article of faith was the starting point of my journey back to Jesus, and it remains the foundation of my faith. I came to trust the Bible again, of course, but only because it so clearly bears witness to the God of love I had already chosen to believe in. I especially follow the teachings of Jesus because those teachings—and his life, death, and resurrection—seem to me the best expression of the ultimate truth of God, which we call grace. Indeed, these days I trust Jesus even when I don’t understand him, because I have become convinced that He knows what He is talking about, that He is who he is talking about, that He fully grasps what I can only hope is true.
Unfortunately, God may be very different than I hope, in which case I may be in big trouble come Judgment Day. Perhaps, as many believe, the truth is that God created and predestined some people for salvation and others for damnation, according to His will. Perhaps such caprice only seems unloving to us because we don’t understand. Perhaps, as many believe, everyone who dies without confessing Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior goes to Hell to suffer forever. Most important of all, perhaps God’s sovereignty is such that although He could indeed prevent little girls from being raped, He is no less just or merciful when He doesn’t, and both those children and we who love them should uncritically give Him our thanks and praise in any case.
My reply is simple: I refuse to believe any of that. For me to do otherwise would be to despair.

Some might say I would be wise to swallow my misgivings about such stuff, remain orthodox, and thereby secure my place with God in eternity. But that is precisely my point: If those things are true, God can give my place in Heaven to someone else, go ahead and send me to Hell. For better or worse, I am simply not interested in any God but a completely good, entirely loving, and perfectly pure One who is powerful enough to utterly triumph over evil. Such a God may not exist, but I will die seeking Him, and I will pledge my allegiance to none but Him, because, quite frankly, anything less is not enough to give me hope, to keep me alive, to be worth the trouble of believing.
You can figure out the rest. I don’t hate God because I don’t believe God is fully in control of this world yet. Heck, God is not fully in control of me yet, even when I want Him to be, so how could I possibly believe that God is pulling all the strings out there? I don’t hate God because I believe He is always doing the best He can, within the limits of human freedom, which even He cannot escape. Consider for a moment the essential relationship between human freedom and love, and then consider the essential identity between love and God. If God is love, if He made us for love in His image, then He had no choice but to make us free, to leave us free, and to win us for His Kingdom as free agents (which, again, is evidently a long and difficult task). So He did, and so He will.
I don’t hate God because, although I suppose He knows everything that can be known at any given point in time, I don’t suppose He knows or controls everything that is going to happen. I also don’t hate God because I really believe in Satan (and in my own moving-in-the-right-direction-but-still-pretty-doggone-sinful nature). I don’t hate God because it seems to me that this world is a battleground, not a puppet show. I don’t hate God because the God I believe in isn’t hateable, and because I have chosen not to believe in the kind of God that is.
Now here is the good news: I may be entirely wrong, but even in my darkest hours, the God of love hasn’t stopped speaking to me. On the contrary, I hear His voice in places I never did before, always saying the same things, one way or another: I am with you. I’m sorry about all the pain. It hurts me too, especially when my little ones suffer. I have always loved you and I always will. Do your best. Everything will be all right in the end. Trust me.
And I do. And I hope you will too, sooner than later.
Your friend,
Bart

Good times

There really is nothing quite like running long distance. For me, it's an opportunity to think, to pray, to talk to someone else a bit, or to just be quiet while running with someone, or alone. It's cleansing. When I think of all the ridiculous things and traumatic things that irritate me, or that upset people in the world-my world...well, running helps to give perspective even if it comes in the form of breaths. Doctors and health professionals consistently say that the best way to address stress is to exercise. It clears the head, it cleans the blood, it opens the mind and it nourishes the soul.

Perspective, now there's a skill. To see beyond the immediate, to have a sense of the eternal, and know that there is a WHOLE lot more going on than what we see. No, running doesn't change the world, but it changes me a bit. There is something re-creating and simplistic about lacing up the running shoes, throwing the hat on, and starting to move. That's been hard at times--to move. Not so much physically (though after this race moi was a wee bit tender), but mentally, emotionally, figuratively. I'm too figidy to sit still, but people often wear me out. Don't get me wrong, I love my people (those who understand and value me), but for some reason, sometimes more than others, I think I could run forever. My dad often asks, "what are you running from?" And I think...I'm not running from so much as running with, or running to. God is a runner, well, at least metaphorically he is, which is reassuring. I'm one of His in more ways than one.

Living face to face with God

Charles Haddon Spurgeon once wrote that "The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves that he has no brain of his own."

"Trust the past to God's mercy, the present to God's love and the future to God's providence." - St. Augustine

"Not to us Lord but to your name be glory" - Psalm 115:1

Highlights

Well, the schedule is finally out, sigh. Excited? Yes, but still sick to my stomach about overpaid athletes. Even though hockey players are among the lowest paid professional athletes (and I use the term 'athletes' strongly), it still seems like one more social anomaly to pay sports players millions more than teachers (or pastors!) etc. Why should a baseball player (can't even bring myself to use the term 'athlete') get paid more in one year than a teacher or professor or author or pastor or salesman or- just about anyone else, gets paid in a lifetime? Why should someone who gets upset on the ice and nearly paralyzes another player get to waltz back into town with the same pissy attitude, get paid even more money, and contribute ZERO to society?

The answer...you and me.

Time to Run

"pressure is nothing more than the shadow of great opportunity." - Michael Johnson

"I always loved running...it was something you could do by yourself, and under your own power. You could go in any direction, fast or slow as you wanted, fighting the wind if you felt like it, seeking out new sights just on the strength of your feet and the courage of your lungs." - Jesse Owens

"It hurts up to a point and then it doesn't get any worse." - Ann Trason

"Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts." - Steve Prefontaine

"The gun goes off and everthing changes... the world changes... and nothing else really matters." - Patti Sue Plummer

"You have to forget your last marathon before you try another. Your mind can't know what's coming." - Frank Shorter

"Some of the world's greatest feats were accomplished by people not smart enough to know they were impossible." - Doug Larson

"The woods are lovely dark and deep, but I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep." - Robert Frost

"I have met my hero, and he is me." - George Sheehan

"No negative thoughts cross my mind on race day. When I look into their eyes, I know I'm going to beat them." - Danny Harris

"Tough times don't last but tough people do." - A.C. Green

"I cannot have survival as my only goal. That would be too boring. My goal is to come back in my best running form. It is good for me to have that goal; it will help me." - Ludmila Engquist (Olympic champion hurdler facing cancer and chemotherapy)

"There are clubs you can't belong to, neighborhoods you can't live in, schools you can't get into, but the roads are always open." - Nike

"What matters is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight - it's the size of the fight in the dog." - Dwight D. Eisenhower

"We can't all be heroes because someone has to sit on the curb and clap as they go by." - Will Rogers

"The will to win means nothing if you haven't the will to prepare." - Juma Ikangaa, 1989 NYC Marathon winner

Come on!!!!

I saw some guy today walking with his wife or girlfriend holding a leash and on the end of the leash was some sorry-ass excuse for a dog. It was one of the stupidest things I have seen in a while, and I just stood there with the lawn mower running, not cutting anything, but searching the files in my head for some lost document as to why a guy would do that...do ya feel pretty manly?
WHY do people buy Chihuahua's? or what's that other freakin' stupid breed...'Min-Pin' ?
PUHLEESE!!!
Keep your head up bud, some bird is going to get hungry enough some day and swoop in for your..."dog". Is there even a collar that fits these rodents?

Atta-boy-girl!

...whew, I feel better now.