Several months ago, maybe even a year, a guy e-mailed me and asked to have coffee. He just wanted to find out more about LifeSpring. The visit was pleasant.
We got together for coffee a couple more times, and then he moved back east. It was a short relationship, although it has continued via e-mail and discussions about books and ideas. All in all, it has been a brief relationship.
Today was the date of our Second Sunday Social. LifeSpring has been scheduling these regular monthly get togethers for the past several months, and we only change the date when it interferes with the kind of social we want to schedule. Continue reading Second Sunday Social
Last Tuesday a group of about 20 took an all-day trip to Apple Valley, California to visit a Wal-mart Distribution Center. Touring this Center required about 12 hours of riding and flying, but that’s another story. Continue reading Advocating for the Jobless
When I was a child my father once pointed out a ramshackled house that sat near one of the major thoroughfares of our home town. The thing he wanted me to see was the fancy brick facade on the front of the house that masked a falling down-awful house behind it. Continue reading Facade
When you enter our house, you pass a picture on our foyer wall. It is of a road that disappears into a forest. The leaves are tinted by Fall. It makes you want to walk down the road to see what lies beyond. Continue reading Funerals
I really enjoy conducting weddings. My most recent occurred at a local museum. The individual that was first asked to conduct the wedding couldn’t, so I was asked if I could take his place. It was an honor to be asked. Weddings are deeply personal occasions, and to be asked to enter that space is really humbling. Continue reading Weddings
It’s Friday, and I’m at the Pines Resort above Oakhurst, California, near Yosemite. It’s a beautiful sunny day, and the temps right now feel like they are in the 70’s, maybe even the 80’s. I came up early to get some work done before our Chamber of Commerce retreat begins this evening.
A luxury I don’t normally have is to be able to stay basically on one task. In this case that is to write sermons, read, and rest a bit. Most of the time tasks are broken up by conversations, meetings, and ministry—all good but still interfering. So this Chamber retreat has opened an opportunity to get additional things done.
One of the things I’m going to complete while here is reading Redeemed by Heather King. The byline of the book reads “A Spiritual Misfit Stumbles Toward God, Marginal Sanity, and the Peace That Passes All Understanding.” I just finished writing a sermon about the importance of having contact with fellow disciples. Then I read this from King’s book.
The Eucharist is the ultimate participation in something greater than myself, and the fact that it require participation reminds me that, much as I’d often like to, I can’t trod the spiritual path alone…I think maybe he [Jesus] was saying that the flesh-and-blood human encounter, in all its messiness, its awkwardness, it’s necessary incompleteness, is the way we come to God.
Our Chamber retreat begins tonight. I’m looking forward to that a great deal. I think there’s no end to the good that people can do when they create joint visions. Our Chamber board is made up of extraordinarily talented people, and it will be interesting to see what they dream.
It’s easy to become a whiner. Life gets hard. Challenges arise. Obstacles interfere. “God, where are you? Why aren’t you making my life easier?”
At those times it is helpful to hear about how others negotiate trying times. People like Nick Vujicic in this video put life in perspective and eliminate the whining. Watch this and be inspired.
Don’t be frightened away by the Japanese subtitles. The entire video is spoken in English. The link below will take you to the video site.
It’s Saturday as I write this. Tomorrow is Easter. All day long I’ve been thinking about Tony Campolo’s now famous sermon about the resurrection. I recommend it. Listen to it at this link: Sunday’s Coming.
Brian McLaren included a link to a Bread for the World video that is poignant and convicting. I’ve attached it below because I think it identifies a too common belief that organizations, not individuals, are responsible for bringing change to the world. The same abdication of responsibility can be seen at election time when a pitifully small portion of the electorate turns out to cast a ballot.
So take a look at Bread for the World’s take on this. It will make you squirm.
MonoLogue 