could not say it better myself

Reading again the book WHEN HELPING HURTS  by CHALMERS CENTER guys Steve and Brian, I was struck by just how radical their assesment of why we are here is.   This could change the behavior of Chrsitians as we know them ...er...us.

I tried to open the discussion a bit back in 8-19-2009, but these guys dare you to think it all again.

Read the first chapter , then go buy the book!

meditative links...take a minute to think on eternity

a friend just sent me this one,

and it reminded me of one of my favorite reflections on Jesus, by Pastor S.M. Lockridge....

the best version of which I found in a House Myx type thing about 20 years ago

Coffee is divine

I knew it, but now my friend, Isckra, sent me a story that confirms it.   Coffee is a great brew, and a great analogy.   Here is the story:

Carrot, Egg or Coffee?

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one problem was solved a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water. In the first, she placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs and the last she placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil without saying a word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and placed them in a bowl. Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her daughter, she asked, "Tell me what you see?"

"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.

She brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did and noted that they got soft. She then asked her to take an egg and break it.

After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.

Finally, she asked her to sip the coffee. The daughter smiled, as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked. "What's the point, mother?"

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same adversity--boiling water--but each reacted differently.

The carrot went in strong, hard and unrelenting. However after being subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior. But, after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water they had changed the water.

"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?"

Think of this:  Which am I?

Am I the carrot that seems strong, but with pain and adversity, do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the heat? Did I have a fluid spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a financial hardship or some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff? Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and a hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water, the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you.

When the hours are the darkest and trials are their greatest do you elevate to another level?

How do you handle Adversity? ARE YOU A CARROT, AN EGG, OR A COFFEE BEAN?

 

Here is  my thought: to become useful in this way, the coffee had to be harvested, stripped of its beautiful fruit, roasted over an insufferable fire, and then crushed, to free the powerful essence from the hard shell.

more insane theology

Have you heard for Brian McLaren?   Dangerous man. 

 he says:

Here’s how I expressed the issue in the last chapter of A New Kind of Christianity:

As we’ve seen, the term Christianity (like its cousin orthodoxy) has too often camouflaged something quite foreign to Christ and his message, something that is more the problem than the solution: a fusion of Greek philosophy and Roman power, alloyed or adorned with elements drawn from the Bible, which is interpreted and applied in ways that often betray Jesus’ life and teaching. Its defenders have unofficially mandated that when people try to modify that Greco-Roman orthodoxy, they must wear an adjective that brands them as aberrant, like a scarlet “A” sewn on their soul. For example, when theologians read the Bible through the lens of the Exodus narrative, they are called “liberation theologians,” but their counterparts who read it through the Greco-Roman narrative are never labeled “domination theologians” or “colonization theologians.” Similarly, we have “black theology” and “feminist theology,” but Greco-Roman orthodoxy is never called “white theology” or “male theology.” Having become utterly normative for most of us, it’s just “theology.” (p. 256)

I don't get these guys...McClaren is a white man!   I mean, we try to do the Christian thing, and let the others in, and now they want to act as if they have the same privileges as us! And he says that's OK!!!

What do you think?

Here is his whole blog, from which I took the above quote, and you can see the context by hitting the links there.  But I'm telling you!!!  Don't let your friends of color read this!!!   Your relationship may never be the same again!

vigilence

I have often wondered if Wikipedia is a good idea. 

OK as a forum, perhaps, but every time i see it quoted or cited in an online debate, I worry, as it almost seems like mob rule come to definitions.   and defining something is the way to control the actions within a society.

so, now, my fears have been shown to have some basis, in this blog by James Marsh