blog one another

Stolen Laptop: Violence and forgiveness

This is Part 2 of a series on my stolen laptop.

Having my laptop stolen from my car left me feeling violated. I'm sure there is only slight resemblance to suffering personal violence, but the experience gave me greater sympathy for victims of violence. The daze. The fear. The uneasiness in innocent situations that would not have bothered me previously.

The incident also affected my immediate family. My wife drove the car that night, taking our youngest daughter out on a date. They were uneasy about leaving a car with one window missing, so they parked right in front of a restaurant window and sat at that window. And watched the car as they ate. And felt uneasy.

Help-Portrait: Kingdom Photography

Calling all photographers! I believe that God (or, if you like, the universe) has given you a gift: a special ability to see beauty. Consider using your gift in a new way. In the words of our contemporary prophets, "Give it away, give it away, give it away now."

Learn more at help-portrait.com and get involved. Caution: You may be changed.

Worshiping to Evanescence

I believe in you
I'll give up everything just to find you
I have to be with you to live to breathe
You're taking over me

Evanescence, Taking Over Me

Shelly: "Dad, what's this song about?"

Me: "What would you like it to be about?"

Shelly: "I don't know."

Me: "Well for me, it's a worship song."

Shelly: "I guess I can see that."

Me: "Or maybe it's just a song about obsessive love. It can be what you like. But I worship to it."

Shelly: "You worship to everything."

Me: "That's right. Because the whole world is flowing that direction, if you pay attention."

Beauty

RICKY

It's like God's looking right at you, just for a second, and if you're careful… you can look right back.

JANE

And what do you see?

RICKY

Beauty.

(Hat tip to Mike Todd. As usual.)

Missions, Misunderstood

Photo by tinkernoonoo (license), adapted by Jon Reid

One of my favorite new blogs I read regularly is Missions, Misunderstood by "Ernest Goodman," a pseudonym for a former missionary. A recent post titled Expectations began,

It usually goes something like this:

“Yay, we’re going to be missionaries! We love the nations! God’s glory! Passion! Finish the task”

Then, “It’s okay to be uncomfortable. Different isn’t necessarily bad. We can do this.”

Finally, “I’m just not cut out for missions. The missionaries here aren’t cut out for missions. I’m never leaving home again.”

Those lines in particular really resonated with me. I left the following comment, but decided to share it here as well:

Loving Your Gay Neighbor

Spencer Burke interviews Andrew Marin about what he's learned about ministry, and about Jesus, in the center of Chicago's gay community. This is terrific stuff from TheOOZE.TV.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Andrew has written a book called Love Is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation With the Gay Community.

I think this may be one of the biggest missional challenges of our day. How we approach it affects not only our interaction with the LGBT community, but also our credibility with postmodern straights.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. (But like we were taught in kindergarten, remember to play nice.) Spencer does a great job of elevating the issues beyond "progressive" and "conservative." Can we?

So Beautiful book review

What if there were a single design that explained the meaning of life — the universe — everything? What if it pulled together the nature of God with the mission of humanity? What if it were so simple that, when sliced and labeled, many will brush it off saying, "That's obvious. So what?" That was my initial reaction when I saw that the front cover of Leonard Sweet's new book So Beautiful has the words, "Missional — Relational — Incarnational: Divine Design for Life and the Church." Because those concepts are already important to me, I was inclined to respond, "That's cool," shrug, and dismiss it as something I already "get."

Friends, do not dismiss this book.

I pressed beyond my initial dismissal because the author, Leonard Sweet, had already impacted my life before. When I made the transition out of modernistic Christianity, it was a very scary and painful time; I was afraid I was losing my faith. Three things saved me:

• SoulTsunami by Leonard Sweet helped me understand my new context.
• A New Kind of Christian by Brian McLaren helped me find faith again.
• The Soliton Sessions showed me I was not alone, and created a space for me to encounter Jesus all over again.

So Len Sweet helped me get reoriented when I needed it. His latest book again catches me at just the right time. When I read SoulTsunami, I characterized Len as a Christian futurist. But in So Beautiful, I see that he is a preacher, a wordsmith.

From Eternity to Here — Q&A with author Frank Viola

Frank Viola has a new book out, From Eternity to Here, that looks like it's designed to raise our sights and capture us with a larger vision of what God has been up to all along. I haven't read the book yet, but I got the chance to ask a couple of questions in a virtual interview:

Me: You talk about how we cannot do anything for God, but that it is actually Christ living in us. How can I get more of this, and get out of his way? (Or is that the $6,000,000 question?)

Frank Viola: All of the exhortations in the NT to live by Christ are set in a corporate context. Most all the epistles are written to believing communities that had a shared life in Christ. They were not written to individuals. So the first thing is to be part of your native habitat … a local, living, breathing community of believers who are learning how to live by Christ. Some practical help from someone who has gained some experience in communal living in Christ is of great help as well. Paul, Peter, Timothy, etc. were people who served in this capacity in the first century.

Me: If it's all about rediscovering an eternal perspective of God's purposes, do church forms and models matter?

Frank Viola: Yes, very much so. The eternal purpose of God is expressed corporately. Thus those church forms and models that best express God’s eternal purpose should be encouraged and approved. Those that violate the eternal purpose or take away from it should not. I address this very question in detail in my book Reimagining Church.

A number of other bloggers are participating in the interview — kind of like a press conference spread across different blogs — and some have posted book reviews. I want to highlight two I met through Twitter and hope to meet in real life: Chad "Captain" Estes (@Chad_Estes) writes Captain's Blog, and Joel Black (@JoelBLK) writes Irreligious Canuck. If you like me, odds are good you'll like them.

God said, "Stop praying"

Photo by Stitch (license)

After a job interview, it is customary to perform self-flagellation.

At least, that's what my mind does to me. And today's interview went rather well! The time flew by and I enjoyed myself. I left happy, thinking, "I actually have a decent shot at this job." But that didn't stop my mind from playing its dirty tricks.

Replaying specific sections. Pointing out the flaws, the obvious and clear answers I had overlooked.

Help Me Listen

Searching for a job while unemployed is a soul-crushing affair, because until something comes through, all you get are rejections. It's kind of like the statement, "The keys are always in the last place you look." But searching for keys is just an annoyance; with a job rejection, it is hard not to ask, "What did I do wrong?"

It's hard when you think your chances are really good. Harder when it is from a company in which you have a proven track record from eight years of work in different positions. Harder still when you think you nailed the interview.

I am grateful for the support and prayers of friends and family. My former pastor sent me the following poem, "Help Me Listen" by Ted Loder: