disintegration

I have 417 friends on Facebook. 417 friends who survived my last mass-deletion.

I talk to maybe 20 of them on a regular basis. Maybe 15 through text/e-mail/Facebook. Maybe 10 in person or on the phone. About 3 of them know me really, really well.

All else is just background noise.

So what's the point?
How has this "social networking" actually done anything for my friendships? If anything it's made me lazy and unintentional with my friends. I don't have to remember their birthdays because Facebook will remind me. I don't have to call and see how they are because their status updates inform me. I don't have to ask them what's new in their lives because I can just look at their pictures.

I have this on-line community that actually breaks down the essence of what real community means. 

So, I ask again: What's the point?

gorgeous autumn sunset

beauty

There is beauty all around us that is waiting to be found, we merely have to go out and discover it.

tightrope

"We are all wretched. We are all beautiful."

"I'm walking the tightrope of identity. I've got Jesus in my heart but sin on my sleeve."

Christianity is a walk of careful treading. We must be careful what we think, what we say, what we subject ourselves to, what we consume, what we believe. It is laborious. Impossible, if not for the power of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.

One of the most difficult things I have found about the Christian religion is the principle upon which the whole religion builds upon: that we are sinners and yet that we are forgiven. "I am wretched!" My thoughts often echo the apostle Paul's sentiment from Romans 7:24. "Yet, I am beautiful!" Through the power of Jesus Christ I myself can finish with the same conclusion as Paul - that I am redeemed; delivered through His blood. 

There is a fine line that Christians must locate. It is the line between insecurity and pride. We cannot be so insecure as to think that we are not worthy of God's love, but we cannot be so prideful as to think that we are above His grace. This is a line that I have struggled to walk in my days as a devoted Christian. I have struggled with issues of guilt and condemnation because of  things that I have done and the way that I was brought up. But the Bible says that "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom" (2 Corinthians 3:17). Through no strength of my own, I find the power of Christ Jesus; the power of His love and forgiveness. This is a radical thing. That the Almighty God would be forgiving of sinners. But it is the truth that the Christian religion clings to. It is the truth that defines us. If we choose to believe anything other than this truth, we will not be able to walk fully in the light, but will habitually be walking in darkness. We should not be prideful, but we should have full confidence in Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit. We should not be insecure, but rather secure in His blood that has washed us of all unrighteousness. 

So, my friends, I pray that you have accepted the wonderful and fundamental truth. If you have not, I pray that by the power of the Holy Spirit you would turn from the lies that Satan has told you regarding your sin and run into the embrace of the Holy and loving God. I can promise you that if you do, it will save you life

Jacob's Story

"It's Jesus who changes abusers into protectors,

He changes addicts into free men,

He changes traffickers into rescuers."

first world problems

The ridiculousness of this thechive.com post made me feel a little guilty... I have definitely done the charger one...  but alas, life goes on and we recognize that though "it's all relative," some things are just plain ridiculous! Let's admit our ridiculousness (at least the bad parts) and then commit to changing it.
http://thechive.com/2011/08/29/20-first-world-problems-20-photos/

New music!

out of your poverty

Lately I've been diving into the pool of information about simple living and community building and it seems to me that the two go hand in hand. This has been both a refreshing and daunting concept for me to learn. Refreshing, because I have seen movement by the wealthy toward being willing to live with less and recognizing the wisdom of the phrase, “live simply so that others may simply live.” But daunting because, though I subscribe to the belief that it is close-knit communities are what will help change our individualistic, selfish agendas, I also find it hard to get out of my comfort zone and take the initiative to create these types of communities. However, my values outweigh my fears and it is for this reason that over the past year I have tried to reduce my consumption and the amount of ‘things’ I have that clutter my life. I have also worked on building communities that care about their neighbours (you can ask me if you want details). But I have also recognized that individual change is not the only thing that will have an impact. Not everyone is going to want to ‘regress’ to a simpler life and live in these close-knit communities (though I could give you many reasons as to why having less things and less money and living in community is, in fact, no regression at all). No, we will need change on a larger scale. We will need economic and social change; we will need policy change. People are becoming discontent and this, oddly, makes me happy, for discontent breeds change!

Today I will be continuing my exploration by heading to the Occupy Newmarket movement’s first general assembly at Fairy Lake. The Occupy movements started this September in New York with a group of protesters sitting in on Wall Street to protest the wealth gap and the gross power that major banks and multinational corporations have over the global economy.

As I head to the Occupy Newmarket GA I take the time to recognize that I myself am part of the global rich. I am in the top 15% of the wealthiest people in the world (globalrichlist.com) and therefore am not innocent. It is a scary and overwhelming thing at times, this thing called ‘having money.’ Scary because most of the time I don’t feel very rich; overwhelming because some mornings I wake up and feel anxious about all of the things cluttering my large bedroom. There is a balance that I am trying to find, one that has never been easy for me, even when living in a less-developed country for 4 months. But I hope that as I continue to read stories of people who have transitioned to simple living and as I read my Bible and support social change initiatives such as the Occupy movements that I will begin to discover what this ‘balance’ thing means for me as an individual, and through that I will be able to reveal truths to others about the danger of our consumption habits, and the hope we can find in old ideas and new passions.

I really do hope that the Occupy protests will be productive and inspire the policy change that we need, but I also want to take the time to highlight my personal beliefs about social change and helping the poor. These beliefs are not based on government responsibility for taking care of the poor (though this is the widespread view), but rather that  I as a Christian am part of a body of believers that needs to step up. The Church is Christ’s hands and feet and as His body we need to respond to our mission. This is not just about giving donations to important projects or spending a few hours every month volunteering at the soup kitchen (though those acts are important too). This is about loving our neighbours as ourselves in an honest way. Jesus blessed the woman at the temple not because she gave those two small coins out of her wealth, but out of her poverty. Jesus is calling us to love our neighbours sacrificially. He is calling us to enter into suffering with them as He entered into suffering with us both in His life (John 11) and in His death. This doesn't mean that we necessarily need to sell all we have and become poor (though there are Christians who have been gifted with the spiritual gift of voluntary poverty; Google Shane Claiborne and Brandt Russo for more info), but rather that we need to build solidarity with our neighbours (poor or not) through offering our time, our hearts and at times, our wallets. It isn't going to be easy, at least not if you try and do it through your own strength, but through the power of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit we can begin to sacrifice for the sake of Christ.

Mark 10:25 says that “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God." It is hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom because the rich often fall in love with their money and end up committing idolatry. It isn't impossible (for nothing is impossible with God - Luke 1:37) for a rich man to enter, but it is increasingly difficult. This is why Jesus talks about money so often and warns His followers of its snares. 

This isn’t about being ashamed of your wealth, we've talked about that before. It’s not about what you have but what you do with what you have, or what you would be willing to do if called to do so (Matthew 19:21). It’s about building solidarity with the poor and about giving out of your poverty, not just out of your wealth. It’s about being willing to sell everything you own for the sake of Jesus Christ; it’s about valuing eternal things over earthly things; it’s about storing your treasures in the right place. It's about not committing idolatry with your money. It’s about loving your neighbour as yourself and maybe, just maybe, acknowledging that loving your neighbour could hurt sometimes.  

I would hurl words into this darkness and wait for an echo, and if an echo sounded, no matter how faintly, I would send other words to tell, to march, to fight, to create a sense of hunger for life that gnaws in us all. 

-- Richard Wright