Winter Gallery
Gallery is working again. Thanks Siteground!
We’ve had quite a winter here in Lake Arrowhead so far. Just about a storm a week, with a fair amount of snow. I haven’t shoveled this much snow… well, ever. It’s a great workout. And not too bad in 35 degrees as opposed to 0 degrees.
I finally posted a Gallery of selected Winter pictures, mostly from January. Enjoy.
a reading of It’s a Dance: Moving with the Holy Spirit
I’m trying something out. Or practicing at least. I got a new webcam and I thought it would be interesting to do a reading of my book. Here’s the first installment, the beginning of chapter 2.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UenC-nuBp6U&rel=1">
Air Mouse!
I don’t just get the chance to review books in Amazon Vine. Occasionally I get another kind of product. A sports snack bar, or deodorant. Sometimes even a more expensive product. Like the Logitech MX Air Rechargeable Cordless Air Mouse
I’ve been using this for a couple of days now and I love it. Part of my responsibilities is designing web and multimedia material for use in a classroom setting. In the last decade the use of multimedia has gone way beyond popping a video into a VCR or using a stack of transparencies. With the tools available there can be an amazing array of interactive material that a teacher or presenter can use to augment their efforts. The best I’ve seen this work is not with each student hunched over their separate computers but with effective use of a projector that allows the teacher to involve the whole class in a multimedia exploration of the topic.
The only problem is that the teacher is tied to their computer. They can step away but always have to keep returning in order to interact with the material.
This mouse solves that problem, letting a teacher or presenter of any kind free to move around, interact with students, completely untethered. With very simple movements of the wrist the cursor moves just as with an earth bound mouse. With essential buttons that control volume, play/pause, scroll up/down, along with the standard mouse buttons this mouse is absolutely perfect for use in a dynamic classroom setting.
I found the mouse is most effective with some distance from the computer. It works fine at the desk, and close up, but there are more difficulties keeping it aligned. Step away from your desk and this mouse is amazing. Very exact in movements. Almost magical in its spatial recognition.
If you work at a desk, this just isn’t worth the money. If your work or play would be enhanced by having freedom to step away from a fixed point you can’t find anything better. It does take a little while to get comfortable with the movements and the buttons. You can’t hold it the same way as a regular mouse and everyone likely has a more steady way of using it. But once I got a feel for it I moved around the web, enjoyed a movie, and practiced a presentation without hardly even thinking about the mouse. It becomes like an extension of the hand.
While it seems to be marketed as more of a remote control for computer media such as music or movies, I see this much more as a tool that could help interactive teaching go to the next level.
I’m going to be highly recommending this mouse to the teachers I know and everyone who uses a computer as a presentation tool.
The Making of a Tropical Disease
Last month I took a bit of a detour from my normal reading and had a go at The Making of a Tropical Disease: A Short History of Malaria (Johns Hopkins Biographies of Disease)
Once upon a time there was a mosquito. And this mosquito carried something with her and gave it to everyone she met. Men in peculiar outfits sprayed all over the land, and the mosquito was banished, in that land at least.
This is the story of malaria. The story that I’ve heard.
But the actual story of Malaria is a lot more complex. Who would have, for instance, expected a history on a supposed tropical disease to begin with a study of a city in Northern Russia? The Making of a Tropical Disease does just that.
Honestly, this isn’t always a fun book to read. Some books are very good about inspiration and motivation and glide along in presenting the chosen perspective. This isn’t about inspiration or motivation. It is more ambitious. There are times in which it slows down and gets into details and spends a long time one what might seem a minor point. But, this negative isn’t really a criticism. These seemingly minor points are in fact important, and it is the tendency to gloss over such points that undermine so many attempts to respond.
This certainly is a well written book. Randall Packard is a very good writer, and even with my above comment I must add he does a wonderful job of making personal connection. In his journey through the history of where malaria spread he does not only relate facts and figures. He tells a story, and in telling that story has written a very, very solid history.
But more than a history The Making of a Tropical Disease is also really a book on global policy. Packard does not hide this fact. He is making the point that malaria is not simply a story about random mosquitoes who live in unfortunate places. Rather, malaria is a disease that responds to human interaction, and throughout history there is a direct correlation between policy, politics, land use, economics and the occurrence of malaria. Humans interact with this world, and this interaction is not neutral but rather creates changes. These changes can bring open the door to ill effects.
This is not simply asserted and then policies recommended that fit some pre-conceived political bias. Rather, Packard is very scientific and very good in his history, laying out clearly the practices and results that led to malaria in certain regions. He respects the use of sources and when making a leap in interpretation or dealing with a situation in which clear records might be sketchy he admits this. His interpretation of data, however, seems solid even when he must depend on inference.
Packard is laying an absolutely solid foundation to a holistic policy in regards to malaria, and more than malaria. In a way this is a very post-modern book. The pre-moderns suffered from nature. The moderns sought to conquer nature, overwhelming it. The mass application of DDT resulted. Packard builds a middle ground, arguing that we should neither be victims but nor should we deny our own impact. Instead, by understanding nature, malaria and mosquitoes and land and water and humanity, we can develop intentional policies that that reflect the unintentional answers to past malaria outbreaks.
This really is an extraordinary book. For those who are interested in diseases it makes for an interesting read. For those who are interested in global politics and policies it pushes beyond the usual responses and builds a solid case for real, lasting and healthy actions that can literally save lives and entire regions from decay.
My perspective on malaria was at the same time begun and provoked, leading me to see so much of global realities with a new understanding. Very few books can be considered transformational, but Packard really did transform my thinking.
This should be a required book for anyone involved in global studies.
“stuff white people like”
Stuff White People Like. Or “how to fit into the emerging church scene”.
There’s a great website that is dedicated to listing what white people like. Things such as gentrification:
“White people like to live in these neighborhoods because they get credibility and respect from other white people for living in a more “authentic” neighborhood where they are exposed to “true culture” every day.”
Or study abroad:
“If you need to make up your own study abroad experience, they all pretty much work the same way. You arrived in Australia not knowing anybody, you went out to the bar the first night and made a lot of friends, you had a short relationship with someone from a foreign country, you didn’t learn anything, and you acquired a taste for something (local food, beer, fruit). This latter point is important because you will need to be able to tell everyone how it is unavailable in your current country.”
Or knowing what’s best for poor people:
It is a poorly guarded secret that, deep down, white people believe if given money and education that all poor people would be EXACTLY like them. In fact, the only reason that poor people make the choices they do is because they have not been given the means to make the right choices and care about the right things.
Or, maybe, Apple products:
On the surface, you would ask yourself, how is that white people love a multi-billion dollar company with manufacturing plants in China, mass production, and that contributes to global pollution through the manufacture of consumer electronic devices?
Simple answer: Apple products tell the world you are creative and unique. They are an exclusive product line only used by every white college student, designer, writer, English teacher, and hipster on the planet.
I woke up this morning thinking about a writing a post talking about some of my critiques of the emerging/missional church movement. I tend to be a cheerleader of it, and I think this hides some of the reasons I stepped away from it for a number of years, and only found my way back in a roundabout way. But, then I saw this site, and realized it’s getting at a lot of my pet peeves in a funnier way. And, getting at a lot of what I do like. I’m white, I know. I’m fine with the fact.
Well, well worth going through all the posts they have there. Hilarious stuff.
the standard of our faith
I got into a little conversation over at Shoutlife with a very sharp man named Aaron. I think we’re talking past each other in some cases, but the core issue is the place of the Law in Christianity. He has been very influenced by a Jewish Rabbi, who enlightened him to see the reality of Jewish foundations of Christianity. Yet, I sense he’s pushing too far.
He asked if there is no adherence to the Law, then what is the standard by which we know we are serving God?
I answered. And it took enough writing time for me to want to post it here as well:
What is the standard? How are we to know the fruit? What is the measurement of the Law? The Mosaic law spelled this out in detail. And gives a very good marker of wrong and right, a very orderly way of determining where we stand. Hence Paul could say, “If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.”
Yet, he doesn’t stop there. He’s not just suggesting a renewed emphasis on the Law. He goes a step further, which involves him letting go what he once saw as his identity.
“Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”
All he had before he considers loss, rubbish even, letting go the identity of righteousness that comes from the law, and instead embracing Christ. How do we know the markers of this embrace? He tells us that it is the same way we know that Abraham was a follower of God. He had faith. He followed God. Same way as Noah. He had faith. He followed God. The fruit is that of the Spirit which is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Paul continues in Galatians 5 “There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.”
If we live by the Spirit, the very mark of a true follower of Jesus, then we must be guided by the Spirit. It is the Spirit who is to be our counselor now, our guide, our standard, our marker, our leader, our discernment. And through the Spirit we can know the mind of God.
This is not contra to the Hebrew Scriptures at all. The Spirit shows up all throughout, coming upon men and women, prophets and kings and the occasional artist. I think of Oholiab and Bezalel in Exodus 31. The Law told the specifications of the Tabernacle. These two guys were filled with the Holy Spirit to bring it all together, to know in their very being what was commanded and go beyond it. They, themselves, were the bearers of God’s creative plan, so they taught and they made.
And that is what the Spirit does still. The Spirit comes upon all those who call upon Yeshua. The Spirit opens hearts and minds and souls, filling each man and woman with wondrous gifts to enter into a living relationship with God, a relationship that the Law hints at but doesn’t fully fulfill.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit.
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.
Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation?but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs?heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.
Our obligation is to the Spirit. That is the standard.
Now, don’t interpret me like you are probably rightly interpreting many folks who are unfamiliar with the Jewish backgrounds. I think those who know the Law know God in an extraordinary way. The Law speaks of God in an elegant fashion. Inasmuch as the Church pushed out the Jewish understanding of Messiah and God it lost its way, something we see in obvious and hidden ways throughout history, and still in our churches. However, that being said the specific instructions now lie in terms of following the Spirit, which allows for a flexibility and relationship beyond what was possible before. It’s not a matter of parsing the details of what was given to Moses. It’s a matter of living like Abraham in our contexts, or Noah, or Joseph. The New Adam has given us a new relationship with God in freedom.
And the Holy Spirit came upon the early Church, telling Peter, for instance, in a dream to kill and eat for all that God made was clean. To accept Cornelius as a Gentile, for God himself had made him clean not through the law, but by pouring upon him the Holy Spirit.
I know this is an elusive answer. But I guess I see defining a relationship as an elusive reality that is both stricter and more flexible than, say, a master and servant relationship.
So there is a standard. But it’s not codified, as the Spirit is not codified. Certainly there is overlap, and for those who want to have a very established standard there is nothing wrong with following the whole Torah. However, those who fully follow the Spirit can reach beyond that, deeper and farther.
And again, this is not a rejection of the Jewish history or work. By no means! As Paul would say. It is the progression, just as Moses was a progression from the revelation given to Abraham, and the prophets were continuation of the revelation given to Moses. The Temple, the very marker of God’s favor and the central feature of Torah, was allowed to be destroyed, never to be rebuilt. With an incomplete Law we are not left incomplete, but are made complete instead through the Spirit.
The Church has wrongly said it is wrong to follow Torah. The early Judaizers, as Paul called them, were wrong to say all who followed Yeshua had to follow the whole Torah. We are called as we are called, and we worship God as we are called, led by the Spirit whether by the ancient practices handed down or by new forms of creative inspiration that conform to the full work of the Spirit in our contexts so that whether Jew or Greek, male or female, young or old the name of Yeshua is raised above all.
Aaron said, “Lets just start with the 10 Commandments. They are “laws” are they not? Are they still in play?”
This is a great place to start. And I’m going to be elusive again. Yes and no.
Is is still wrong to murder? Yes. But Yeshua added to this saying:
“You shall not murder ‘; and “whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, “You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire.
So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way to court with him, or your accuser may hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
Don’t murder, yes. But don’t even be angry. In fact make it your priority over everything else to resolve anger and be in good relationship. Don’t attack a person physically or with words. Don’t kill, don’t even denigrate.
That’s the law and more so, going beyond what seems humanly possible. The Spirit pushes us deeper, farther, more holistic, more flexibly, more situationally. We have to always be on our toes. We can never just sit back. We strive more and more and more. The Ten Commandments are the bedrock. But the law of the Spirit compels us to go beyond, to embrace what is right through a new freedom of relationship. Much as a person who lives in a free country is more compliant than a person who lives under a dictatorship. Not only more compliant but more participatory, going above and beyond in the service of freedom. We take the delight that the psalmist expresses in Psalm 119 and push even farther, expresses a delight in relating to the lawgiver and pleasing him because we love him and are being constantly led by the very Spirit of the Living God who knows even more than the Law ever hinted at.
placed in darkness
David, the king, was a man with blood on his hands. God himself told him that. And he was. The man was thrown into one war after another. Violence followed him all his life.
Yet he was one of the most honored men in the Bible. Even with all his sins he remains one of the key models of serving God. Because he was obedient. Because he loved God with all his being.
Solomon was a man of peace. God gave him no end of wisdom and no end of material blessings. And Solomon wasn’t near the man of God that David was.
It always seems like God should be pushing us to the place of peace and quiet. Only he doesn’t. The Bible is filled with violence, and attacks, and moments in which the person of God is put into a situation where there doesn’t seem to be a ‘holy’ response. Except that God has placed them there and the holy response is not the theologically ideal one but the one that is following God’s obedience.
We can feel so discouraged when in a place absolutely washed over with darkness. But we, and the Spirit in us, are light. There are places where the church has utterly failed to reach anymore, and the church as it is speaks hardly anything into lives of desperation and loss and frustration and despair. The American church is very good about ministering to the middle class.
But God still works among all people. He calls and he places people to be lights, often because of their own humility, and he uses them. Even if sometimes in the course of being there they might be asked to let go some of the ideal, that’s not separating them from God. Sometimes people choose to go to such places and among such people voluntarily. But the most effective are those who are among. Who have lost, and suffered, and pined, and despaired, and endured frustration and pain. These are the people who know, and from that knowing can speak the words of God to those who desperately need good news.
We can be a light in the midst of the darkness. Like King David. We feel the darkness and see it every day. We sometimes feel in the depth of our being why people don’t minister in the hidden places, why they don’t linger, why they give up, and why they say, “someone else.” We feel the conflict. But that very conflict and darkness is why God does place people, in the circumstances they are in, to be in places like that. It’s not the well that need a doctor, though most of the church are like Beverly Hills plastic surgeons–doing cosmetic work on the already well-blessed. It can be a special work of God to be in the darkness, among the sick, besides the lost.
It is where we are placed, sometimes in the place of our own darkness, where we are being obedient. And that is the trait that brought David so much blessing and so much of a close relationship with God. Joseph was thrown into prison for doing what was right. And while in prison he became a leader. The boy who had so many great dreams was cast into the dungeon. He lost his dreams and then began interpreting the dreams of others as he stayed with God, eventually rising out of prison with God to save Egypt and Israel from famine.
a little political humor
In a conversation about Obama on NPR’s Wait, wait.. don’t tell me!
“Every single one, of the millions and millions of people who support him, are becoming more like Tom Cruise everyday. They’re all jumping on couches.”
~host Peter Sagal .
Made me laugh out loud while driving on the 210.
I’m a ministry snob
I’ve realized this for a while, only I’ve not admitted to it publicly. I’m a ministry snob. Not the kind that has the cool clubs and only lets those in with the best smiles and most radical testimony take part. No, another kind.
I’m not a music snob. My music collection is, according to the standards of postmodernity, pretty bad. I don’t keep up on major artists or independent artists, though I have been running across a few I really like. I don’t go to clubs and I can count on my fingers how many live concerts I’ve been to. I don’t mind the fact that I like pop radio stations whenever NPR gets too political. I hear a song and I like it, and I’m perfectly happy if I’m late to the party.
Some folks take pride in their musical tastes, however. They know obscure artists, and often stop listening to artists when they’ve become non-obscure. Sheer popularity is a sign of selling out to labels or Clear Channel. They are music snobs. Always looking for new or hidden or unappreciated. And they revel in the discovery and dislike being part of anything that brings in the kinds of fans who like popularity more than talent.
That’s how I am with ministry I realize. I’ve realized this is almost entirely why I’ve never read a Brian McClaren book. I also realize this is why I don’t go to all the big festivals and the big conventions and gatherings. Unfortunately this trait means that I’ve not networked near like I should, staying most hidden, even online. I don’t really care about all the cool places to gather. I have my spots and forums, but they’re not really tapping into the grand networks of people. I tend to like to be hidden with the hidden people I guess. And I have met some of the most extraordinary folks in such places. They may never get on a stage or write a bestselling book or speak at seminars or be invited to Leadership Development Extravaganza Remix!!
They’re not the kinds of people who are the emphasis of ministry training books. But they’ve lived lives and have wisdom and insight and wonderful, wonderful souls loved by God. They do the work of God in hidden places. Without ministry funding or spotlights. They’re in the trenches.
I like that. I feel comfortable with that. I think maybe I’ve always been a ministry snob, because even in college I knew what was needed to rise in the ranks of the officially approved, but I kept undercutting myself. I dropped out of a major ministry opportunity when I realized my motives were mixed. I quietly fasted, quietly endured major times of wilderness, quietly left the scene. I didn’t play the game.
And when it came time to work in a church I still didn’t play. I said all the right things to all the wrong people. I didn’t give into the usual pattern that it’s the congregation who should be lambasted, not the leadership. I kept raising points to elders and pastors and didn’t buy into the fact the church was sliding because of the then potent charge of consumerism.
Which makes it even more funny that I’m somewhat connected to the emerging church movement, that collection of hipsters who define themselves in many cases with juvenile distinctions, refusing to be what they’re parents were, just because their parents seemed repressive. I spend a lot of my public time defending this movement, for good reasons, even as I harbor a lot of criticisms, some of which leak out on occasion when I feel there are people who get what I’m saying.
I don’t like fitting in, apparently. Maybe this is an expression of a prophet, which was in fact my highest score on a certain leadership survey.
I don’t know what it is, or why I can’t keep my big mouth shut around the very folks who might help me further my own contributions. I know how to brown nose, and can see when it should be done, but there’s that whisper, that push, that prodding which constantly brings out just the thing to keep me from being part of the team.
It would make things a lot easier if I wasn’t a ministry snob. Oh, bother.
