Quick Links

For those new to my blog, I like to do what I used to call 'Speedlinks.'  These are just some interesting reads around the web.

1. Here is a really cool photograph of cubes.  This guy takes great pictures at 'The Daily Dose of Imagery.'
2. How do you get to be a successful venue attracting millions of people every year?  Go away!  According to Scott McClellan, the NFL brings us football, gives us a show, and goes away for a few months.  The football void brings us back for more!  I wonder how this could apply to other businesses or organizations?
3. Seth Godin reflects on what it means that we have memories from events and from people we have never personally experienced. 
4. Also from Scott McClellan, here are some thoughts from the "Restoration Fiasco."  My two favorite:  Good intentions don't justify themselves and It's easy to offer a distorted picture of Jesus.
5. Relevant Magazine has a great piece to remember 9/11.  My favorite is the story of the woman saying she felt sorry for the young man because "Your generation will have to deal with this."  It was an amazingly astute comment in terms of governance.  Economy, military, politics, laws, freedoms, and health issues will be DIRECTLY affected by that one day for the next 50-100 years.
6. Happiness vs. Holiness?  This writer makes a case that we have made Happiness an idol.
7. Satirical Christian writer Jon Acuff, wrote a funny piece about interruping Facebook prayer.

Best Thing I've Read from the Middle East Since the Bible!

Since the invasion of Iraq, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of attacks on Christians living in Middle East nations. From Iran to Iraq to Palestine to Egypt, the Christian minorities have been threatened, beaten, bombed, and killed. Churches have become hostage sites while worship services have been rocked by suicide bombers.

Arab Christians have begun fleeing their homes and staying away from worship gatherings, fearful for their lives.

The one thing that would easily solve this problem from exploding hadn't been happening, but now it has...Muslims are stepping up, speaking out, and standing beside their cousins in faith.

This news story articulates the recent turmoils in Egypt and how Muslim intellectuals and activists are calling for Muslims to support the Coptic Christians in Egypt. By going to church with them, Muslims are becoming "human shields."

How amazing. How Christ-like! And I say that with total admiration for my cousins in faith. God bless you! May our LORD, the God of Abraham, Ishmael, and Isaac bless you and keep you. May the God of our Fathers and Mothers protect you and our Coptic brothers and sisters.

Insha'Allah, we can have peace. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Happy New Year!!!

Holiday wishes to everyone! I hope that your Christmas and New Year were fun, safe, and meaningful. This has been such a unique year, but I can say that I am learning a lot about myself lately...mostly where I need to grow as a person. As long as I can follow through with it, that's a good thing!

Speaking of growing, I've made some resolutions for myself this year. They are:

• Exercise regularly.
• Maintain a reasonable diet.
• Lose 20 lbs.
• Not lose my temper as much with my children.
• Get back to dotting more i's and crossing more t's. 2010 was a huge step back in that area!

Do you have any resolutions? Want to share?

Elections

Yesterday was an election day. Overall, I think there were some good things that came from the election. #1 being that Nancy Pelosi was removed from Speaker of the House...yikes! What an embarrassment to our nation! I'm very glad she's gone. #2 I'm glad that people are starting to take some ownership of the political process. The voters must speak discontent when the politicians aren't hearing us...or following through with our message.

However, I am appalled at the whimsical nature of this election: Basically, what came back was: We changed our mind, we don't want healthcare...we don't want higher taxes...we don't want to fix our economy. Afterall, those were the platform of the last election's winning party!

And it all boiled down to "my money." Here's some info for you, America: You payed less taxes last year than you have since 1950! Yes it's true, read about it here.

So you're expecting the American government to give you free stuff, fight wars over seas, build roads, educate your children, and they are supposed to do that without money? How?

Taxes aren't the issue...it's the spending. Yet, spending always is loved voters because we benefit from it...we just want it at someone else's expense. And right now, we lovely Americans are choosing to bankrupt our children and their children.

Here's to you voters! Getting for yourself, and ruining your children!

Confirmation

We just finished confirmation classes. There were three girls who survived the classes, and they did a great job. While it's about learning, it's also about relationship building...that they would feel included and accepted as practicing members of their church. I loved it because it's the only confirmation class I've led where students invited their friends to come. Fun!

So, on Sunday, the ladies reaffirmed their baptism, took their confirmation vows, and I awarded them some "presents" to remind them of who they are in Christ.

Princess Tiaras for the daughters of the King.

Scepters and Rings symbolizing that all authority has been given to Christ, and as his ambassadors and followers, we too have authority. But with great authority comes great responsibility. Everywhere...at church, home, school, work, etc.

Fruity candies to encourage them to bear much fruit.

Symphony Chocolate bars to remind them that last week we talked about God giving us a lifesong...but as members of THE Church, our life fits into something better than ourselves!

It was fun, and I hope it was a day that they won't forget for in ceremony is a truth: We all must accept Christ as Lord, renounce this world, and seek to live in love with God and neighbor. Today, publicly, they said this is what they wanted.

Ladies, may God grant you the courage, strength, and grace to live out those desires.

Isaiah Reading

My son, Isaiah, officially read for the first time last night! We've been working on letters and sounds and some words.

Last night Stephanie pulled out beginners' reading material, and I sat down with him to read. He read two books "Matt" and "Sam" all by himself!!!

As I posted on FB, it was a sacred moment for me. From this day forward, Isaiah will never be the same. The wealth of human knowledge passed on through millenia is now open to him through something we take for granted: Reading.

Being an amateur student of languages, I've experienced the difficulty of learning to read and write in new ways as an adult. I've also experienced the awe of having new information being opened up to me by learning a new language and writing style.

"Matt" and "Sam" are the beginning of an adventure for Isaiah. Interestingly, he and Sophia during the night will pull books out of their bookshelves and bring them to bed. When we come into their rooms in the morning there might be 5-10 books in bed with them. They love books. They love stories, and right now they do their best to put the stories together through the pictures...

And now, Isaiah will be putting together the stories with a whole new set of tools: Words. From now on, those books will be read. Most of all, Isaiah has begun the process of self-learning. He will no longer be dependent upon another person showing him or telling him (orally). Now he can read and figure things out on his own.

My little homo sapien is developing, and I couldn't be prouder.

New Year, New Plans...New Plans!?!

I like a plan. In fact, I don't do much without a plan or an idea of what I want to accomplish/do, how I would like things to go, and about how I'm going to do it.

One of the things that I like to plan are my sermons. I usually plan them at least 6 months out. I try to be flexible, so things change along the way...But, I really like to have a "Master Plan" to guide me. It keeps me on track, accountable, and I think it adds substance to the concept that we as a church are trying to align with the vision God has given our church. Shouldn't the sermon planning augment vision goals!?!

That being said and to quote Top Gun, "I'm on vapors!" I planned to the end of 2009 with an eye to use the lectionary in January 2010. However, I am going to a few days to sit down and plan out the year.

It's more than just a sermon schedule though...To do it right (in my mind at least), it has to take into account what other teams in the church have planned....UMW, Missions, Education, etc.

So, as I meet with people this January, it becomes important for all of us to be thinking ahead and asking God what He is calling us to this New Year of 2010!

Disturbing News

Switzerland has continued the European trend of limiting religious freedom. In a surprising move, they have banned Muslims from building minarets in the entire country.

A minaret is a small tower built next to a mosque that was traditionally climbed by a person to begin the call to prayer...in a day before loud speakers, this was the best way for the call to prayer to be heard. Now minarets are a traditional architecture piece to symbolize the importance of prayer (and to hold a speaker).

The Swiss have confronted the issue in an honest, up-front way (as opposed to Brittain or the EU): They have been clear that they are against the practice of Islam that would establish its culture in Switzerland. The banners used to promote the ban, paint a picture of all Muslims being radical fundamentalists against freedom and women's rights.

Here is a quote from a Swiss citizen defending the ban:

Perhaps instead the Swiss are sending a message that they
are tired of the in-your-face practices of the Muslim community, such as the
burqas and the threats. Perhaps this backlash arose because of Muslim
pronouncements that Muslims are Muslims first and citizens of their host culture
second.

A government/civic fear that adherents of faith are loyal to something other than state or nation first is driving force. I can't help but think how this relates to laws being made against crucifixes in public buildings in other European nations. I am concerned at the rising amount of religious intolerance taking place in the world today. Be it against Jews, Christians, or Muslims, the repression of religious belief is a growing trend. Sarkozy's (president of France) comments were frightfully full of warning to all people of religion.

"Christian, Jew or Muslim... each one must guard against all ostentation and all
provocation and, aware of the good fortune to be able to live in a free land,
practice his religion with humble discretion."

In other words, "Be happy we even let you live here...Mind your place, do as we say, and stay silent." It is an eerily familiar echo of another movement out of central Europe that was quite convincing in the 1930's.

Personally, I am horrified on behalf of our fellow children of Abraham. This is wrong. Keeping Sharia out of government is one thing. Telling religious adherents that their tasteful symbols of prayer on private property are not allowed is something else.

What is next? How does this or a future action by your government affect your beliefs? Do you think the governments are right in banning religious affections and symbols?

Speedlinking

Here's another set of great links to explore...

1. If the UMC really means this...wow! It sounds great. Now to implement it.
2. Kem Meyer has a good video for those skeptical of the social network media on internet. But then again, I doubt you are if you're reading this :)
3. People always scoff when I say that we MUST be working on the ethical considerations of AI. Will we enslave? Will we treat non-biologicals as equals? Partners? Will we marry them???? Oh, wait, someone's already doing that...yes, really!
4. Oh, please, God let this be the end...Unfortunately, Oprah might be just springboarding to something else.
5. The UMC is now actively engaging in a vigorous, 'grass-roots' marketing campaign. What do you think? Good idea to reach people in relevant ways? Or, missing the mark of what it means to share faith?
6. This blog by Kathy Escobar is truly an amazing blessing to me. Her passion for the Church being an authentic community of faith gives me hope when ministry isn't feeling great.
7. Seth Godin has a great post on "How to lose an online argument." Most of it applies to any discussion, yet...somehow we miss that!

The "New" Racism

Of course it's not new, but people are beginning to wake up to how poorly Hispanic ethnic groups are being treated in the USA. What troubles me the most is how often I hear "good Christians" using slurs or making statements like "they should go back to where they came from."

In my own perceptions, I have seen many, many more negative comments and actions against Hispanics than I have witnessed against Blacks. That's not a statistic as much as it is just a witness to the prevalence of racism against the Hispanic community.

In a special worship service led by a sister Hispanic church, I've watched white "Christians" folding their arms and saying, "This is ridiculous. Why are THEY leading worship here. They can't even speak our language!" Never mind that the mission money they sent went to help support this Hispanic church. Btw, the worship was awesome...and I have to admit that I told off the old lady who said the comment.

I've heard an unbelievable number of Hispanic "jokes." Seriously, why are these "acceptable" when our culture refuses the Black equivalent?

I hear all the time about the "Mexicans commiting crimes" near where I grew up. Right, and white people in Frankfort are model citizens.

Has the American people forgotten that we were all immigrants? Even the Native Americans are not native to this land. Since the continent split off millions of years ago, it has always been an open land, a free land, a place of new starts, and a hope for a new and better life. For ancient Europeans (it is thought they first discovered North America), for Native Americans, for European immigrants, and now for Hispanics, Indians, Africans, and everyone else. Apparently, we've learned little from our earlier fights...You know the ones where German-Americans were singled out for being Krauts. Or Irish immigrants fighting Italian immigrants. Or the established English looking down on everyone else.

Perhaps, we should look back into our history to find what makes us great...the infamous Melting Pot. Where we give and take culture. Where we borrow and share the best from each other. Where we learn to help out the foreigner in our land, because we too were a foreigner in a strange land.

Funny...I've heard that before: Exodus 22:21 says, "You must not mistreat or oppress foreigners in any way. Remember, you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt." A little bit later it also says, (23:9) "You must not oppress foreigners. You know what it's like to be a foreigner, for you yourselves were once foreigners in the land of Egypt."

Why do we never learn. Perhaps it's time for Americans to embrace each other. If you want to stop Illegal Immigration, don't attack the people coming in...Go after the US and Mexican governments that encourage the illegal trade of human labor. Go after the corporations that are illegally and unethically using cheap/slave labor.

But for the love of your own soul, treat our Hispanic brothers and sisters well.

Speedlinking

OK, I haven't done speedlinking in a while, but here we go...

1. A look at "Spiritually Transmitted Diseases."
2. Where the Wild Things Are can teach us about life & faith (thanks Kara).
3. Something is wrong when 1 in 7 Latinas (young hispanic ladies) attempts suicide. What can we do to help prevent this?
4. A new movie "Lord, Save Us from Your Followers" is coming out. It looks spectacular! I can't wait.
5. I've long been an advocate against most copyright restrictions. From downloading music lawsuits to assinine footnoting, people have moved from a culture of attribution to lawsuits (when will we outlaw lawyers?). Here is a good article explaining why FREE is good!
6. A funny one about pastors using news itmes for sermon fodder from Stuff Christians Like!
7. An interesting book and review about Emerging Young Adults.

What is Convergence?

This video is about Convergence, which most of us will understand, simply, as the amazing technology of cheaper, smaller, better helping us to reach out to each other, easier.



Red blood cells? Wow.