Wednesday, November 19, 2008

A Prayer Attributed to St. Francis
Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.



Prayed and read through "the daily office" again today and this prayer just stuck in me as did this quote from Shane Claiborne:

And that’s when things get messy. When people begin moving beyond charity and toward justice and solidarity with the poor and oppressed, as Jesus did, they get in trouble. Once we are actually friends with the folks in struggle, we start to ask why people are poor, which is never as popular as giving to charity. One of my friends has a shirt marked with the words of late Catholic bishop Dom Helder Camara: “When I fed the hungry, they called me a saint. When I asked why people are hungry, they called me a communist.” Charity wins awards and applause but joining the poor gets you killed. People do not get crucified for living out of love that disrupts the social order that calls forth a new world. People are not crucified for helping poor people. People are crucified for joining them.


God, help that I might begin to live out these!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

one of those days!


Today has been one of those days that I wish i could repeat a lot! I got up and ran despite the 36 degree temps. Rachel worked from home all day which meant she, Lily and Ispent the whole morning just laughing and playing b/t Rach's constent beeper tones. I sware the place would fall apart if they couldn't get ahold of her in 2.5 seconds! Work was hard but rewarding. And to top it off i got to network w/ people like I once did to put projects together. Really cool peeps too!!! http://www.findingmoore.com/ and http://thomasanddita.blogspot.com/ Sometimes I really miss doing that kind of stuff. Makes me want to find an outlet for my passions, difficult road though. For now I will enjoy celebrating this day!!!!

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

proud

hard to figure out what exactly to title this but maybe "Proud" or "excited" could be it. Several years ago I was a youth pastor. One of the teens is now a youth pastor who I get to interact w/ some, more and more lately. I am so glad of that. He stayed at our house after returning from a mission's trip to Belize. He was one of eight youth pastors selected in the state to go. He has such a heart for God and he has tremendous thoughts on church, the poor and just overall life. I couldn't be prouder of him or his wife-she's great too. At one point I would have said I was glad to play a part in his life- now I am excited to say he plays a part in mine! Thanks Scottie, I am so proud of you!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

starting out

well I gues this is my attempt to actually begin to connect w/ peeps and start letting my thoughts out again through technical means. I must admit that in some ways and for some unknown reason to everyone else, and myself as well, I have avoided all the techy ways of community-myspace, facebook, etc. Then I decided today to give this a chance. I'll let a few of my friends in on it and we'll see what happens. At least I'll have a chance to chat on some of the issues I have rattling around in my head.