A Toast

A red wine, coke zero, passion tea, vanilla latte, chocolate milk toast

Here is a toast to the friends that always make you feel pretty- no makeup, sweatpants, unshowered, sick or sad...

Here's to the friends that drag you into the truth...

and inspire you to be a better person

Here's to the friends who know your weaknesses and and don't judge...

the friends who ask how your day was and entering into the beautiful and messy soil of life with you.

Here's to the friends that make you the best version of YOU.

Cheers!

A little obsessed with McLaren lately...

I just finished reading "Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises and a Revolution of Hope" by Brian McLaren and I have been thinking (and talking- sorry team!) about it nonstop. What is so exciting about this book is that it asks a lot of the same questions about the church, salvation and what it means to be a "Christian". There is one page in the book that I found particularly inspiring- and I am going to copy it all out here- for two reasons...one, everyone should read this book. You can even buy it here-two, if I write it out it's a bit like studying or burning it into my brian.

Here we go....

The  sub-section is titled A Group of People Who Could Change Everything - and THIS my friends, is the very best definition of "church" that I have seen...

" A community of people who begin to wake up to the covert curriculum in which they swim each day and would want to band together to share their insights about it. They would help one another not be sucked in, mot be massaged into passivity, not to be malformed by this powerful educational process occurring in a multimedia classroom without walls or vacations. They would remind one another of the alternative framing story they had come to believe was good, beautiful, and true, and they would seek, together, to live by this alternative framing story, the radical good news.

The would develop practices of spiritual formation so they and their children for generations to come would be able to learn, live, and grow as a part of the solution, not part of the problem; as agents of healing, not as carriers of the disease; as revolutionaries seeking to dismantle and subvert the suicidal system, not as functionaries and drones seeking to serve and preserve it.

The would understand that at every moment, their identity as revolutionaries remains under assault; the gravity of compromise pulls and drags to hunch their backs, slacken their step, and lower their gaze. They would be on guard for ways that they themselves could sabotage themselves-by becoming preoccupied with trivia, or by working from the system's logic and values when trying to fight the system, or by slipping into dual narratives as the Pharisees and religious scholars in Jesus' day did, or by substituting talk for action or activity for fruitfulness.

So through word and deed, song and ritual, holiday and daily practice, they would seek to be the revolution they wished to see in the world, and they would work to spread the vision and extend the invitation to others to join their revolution in every way they could.

A group of people like this, functioning in a difficult environment dominated by a hostile system with a covert curriculum, would make lots of mistakes and need continual renewal. But it would be worth the effort and and sacrifice- as long as it understood its sacred and unique role as the bearers of revolutionary good news, the message of hope: another world is possible, available now for all who believe.

This kind of group would be the current expression of Jesus' original band of disciples. It would be an exciting thing to be a part of: a community that forms disciples who work for the liberation and healing of the world, based on Jesus' good news of the kingdom of God. 

Groups like this wouldn't need building, pipe organs, rock bands, layers of institutional structure, video projectors, parking lots, and so on...although having these things wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, and could possibly be useful. What they would need would be simple: a passion to understand Jesus and his message and a commitment to live out that understanding in a world in which everything must change."- Brian McLaren p. 291, 292.

wordle

click on the picture

Miniature Earth

Puts things into perspective...

from what?

Yesterday I was at a church service and the congregation was singing a song and there was a line that we sang about how Jesus has "saved" us. Singing that struck me because I questioned "saved from what?" What exactly is it that Jesus has/is saving me from? I asked Matt, and he said "death"- which is probably true, but we're not dead yet, so how can we really know.

So, I've been thinking about it and I think that I need to be able to answer that question in order to be truly grateful and to fully understand what I consider to be the reality of Christ has done in this world.

So, that's the question- if you think you've been saved, what exactly have you been saved from?
More on that later.

The World we live in...

"...In this economy we consume time and produce fatigue, consume art and talent and produce entertainment and amusement, consume work and leisure and produce paychecks and heart attacks. And ultimately we consume communities and produce extended families and consume extended families and produce nuclear families, consume nuclear families and produce individuals, consume individuals and produce consumers and finally consume consumers themselves and produce disembodied fragments called "wants" and "needs" and "markets" and "segments" and "anxieties" and "drives" that the economy consumes and excretes and reconsumes in a kind of cannibalistic ferment or rot. In the process, we commonly produce successful megaconsumers of unimaginable wealth who are more or less bankrupt in compassion for their poor neighbors. And in a stroke of suicidal genius,we simultaneously produce poor people whose greatest dream is to be like those megaconsumers who don't care about them at all."- Brian McLaren, Everything Must Change, pg 130-31.

Pretty twisted isn't it?

When you don't know what to do

Recently I wrote a post on about the idea of becoming- and someone posted a really interesting comment about what I said. He or she said that "becoming is a denial of being"- interesting. Definitely something to think about. I think there is still something to be said about recognizing that we change, learn, grow WHILE still knowing that we are already loved, accepted, holy and chosen by God. I am not sure if this is what the commenter was implying, but I am grateful for the chance to think about it a little more. 

One other thing that this commenter said really struck me and seemed to be a perfect starting point for this post:

"Knowing is not enough you must apply; willing is not enough you must do."

I have been thinking a lot lately about how I know a lot but only do a little. This problem was magnified in a recent trip out west. My mom and I went to Vancouver to visit my brother and his girlfriend. They are living out there for the summer, so it was a great opportunity to see some of the country and take a quick trip to Seattle. I lived in Whistler for 4 months one summer during my undergrad, so it was amazing to see all of the changes as they prepare for the olympics. 

Let me say this; I love the west coast. A lot. I think I could live there (although I should also say that the summer I lived there and this past week had incredible, sunny, warm weather, uncharacteristic really).  The scenery is to die for- mountains, rain-for Tofino est, and ocean= amazing. I'm so envious of the surfers in, the Skiiers in Whistler and the patio dwellers on Granville Island. 

When I was in BC during university, I really didn't spend too much time in Vancouver. I have known for a long time about Vancouver's problem of homelessness and drug use and on this trip I saw it with my own eyes. I have watched documentaries about the safe injection sites on East Hastings and have heard that Vancouver is a city with completely unacceptable levels of homelessness, but seeing it first hand was far more powerful. I am sure that if I had the opportunity to meet and get to know some of the people who live on the streets, the experience would have been even more real. 

To get to my brother's girlfriend's house we had to drive down East Hastings for a while. I was appalled, surprised, saddened and confused about the number of people on the streets. I am aware of the problem of homelessness in Toronto. I have some friends that work and volunteer at a community church that lives and works in community with the homeless in Toronto, but I have never seen anything like this. There were hundreds of people on the streets, pushing shopping carts, pan handling. The sheer number of people was shocking. 

I am ashamed to say that I really didn't have an interest in domestic poverty until after I graduated. I studied international development and falsely assumed that some people were concerned about domestic issues like aboriginal justice and poverty and others were concerned with problems abroad. Thankfully, my thinking changed and I realized that I can't compartmentalize like that. 

My mom and I talked a lot about Vancouver's situation. I felt stupid and ignorant to be surprised that poverty on such a massive scale exists like that in Canada. Perhaps more importantly, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to help these people- because no one should have to live like that. 

I know part of the problem is drug abuse and mental illness. These are diseases. Can you imagine if  many of the people with diseases like cancer, parkinson's and MS faced the social exclusion and treatment as those with mental illness? The problem is, I don't know what can be done. I know that my friend who works with people in Toronto spends a lot of her time just being with people who live on the streets. She genuinely considers them friends, she is changed and bettered by them and hopefully  vice versa. I know that you cannot throw money at a problem and expect it to be fixed. I know that people need to regain the humanity that has been taken from them and that this involves genuine care, love, time and a listening ear. Perhaps we need more social workers, more funding, better social policy. But as I drove down East Hastings, the problem just seemed so huge...that is why this quote " Knowing is not enough you must apply; willing is not enough you must do" is so striking. Because its true. Thinking and theorizing are safe for me but sometimes "doing" doesn't feel as comfortable. So I have come to the conclusion that I must "do"... whatever that means...I want to be part of a solution, not ignorant, not turning a blind eye. I feel like I am back in a familiar place that I have been so many times before- I want to help but have no idea where to start. I am ashamed to say that this has been my frequent excuse for inaction too many times. I hope this isn't just another example of that. 

* this photo is borrowed from missingwomen.blogspot.com (Oct 16th, 2007)