Saturday, April 29, 2006

Vision

4.29.2006

We were praying for youth. I was listening to the music and I closed my eyes.

I saw Godzilla rising from the sea. He was enormous, larger than any of the buildings in the city. The people were afraid of him, some ran and hid. He was on a mission to take over the town. The people feared he would destroy the town. What he did was destroy the evil monster that was in the town that the people did not know about. When the evil was destroyed the people loved Godzilla.

God said to me the youth today are like Godzilla. They are in some ways covered in a sea; a sea of the filth the media is using to keep this generation in bondage. But the generation is rising up. As they rise up some people will be afraid of them; they are different that anyone who has come before them; they are radical. Some people will be afraid of them and try not to get involved with them. But they will be heard. Like Godzilla was taller than the buildings and could be seen so the youth will be louder and will be heard. They will take the cities. They will take the cities by destroying what is evil. The city will be destroyed and rebuilt-transformed. And then the people will love the youth; the youth that are radical, loud, warriors.

Monday, April 24, 2006

Hope

A family in my neighborhood once brought in two cocoons that were just about to hatch. They watched as the first began to open and the tiny butterfly inside squeezed very slowly and painfully through a tiny hole that it had chewed in one end of the cocoon. After lying exhausted for about ten minutes following its agonizing emergence, the butterfly finally flew out of the open window on its beautiful wings.The family decided to help the second butterfly so that it would not have to go through such an excruciating ordeal. So, as it began to emerge, they carefully sliced open the cocoon with a razor blade, doing the equivalent of a Caesarean section. The second butterfly never did sprout wings, and in about ten minutes, instead of flying away, it died.The family asked a biologist friend to explain what had happened. The scientist said that the difficult struggle to emerge from the small hole actually pushes liquids from deep inside the butterfly's body cavity into the tiny capillaries in the wings, where they harden to complete the healthy and beautiful adult butterfly. Without the struggle, there are no wings!!!!

Friday, February 17, 2006

Dream

Dream 2.25.2006

I couldn’t sleep last night. The last time I saw the clock was 5 am.
-This was for any number of reasons-

But I did dream….

I was in line outside of one of the larger buildings in tm Clemens Michigan. I was in line with Carmen Schneider. It was definitely winter but not too cold. Everyone wore there winter jackets etc.

We were in line for a guest speaker about martin Luther king junior. It was 10 dollars to get in, and apparently came with a free ice-cream cone.

After I paid with a 20 dollar bill I moved to get to the end of the line maze, Carmen was at the end and the guy who sold tickets was asking her why she had an ice-cream cone. I said I gave him a 20 and he laughed and said oh yeah I just took the money and thought it was a ten. He was bald and of light brown complexion. He gave me another ticket and an ice cream, but mine was in a cup- I don’t like cones.

We entered the building and it was setup with tables- round tables with chairs around them. The carpet was a grayish blue. There were cubical dividers dividing the room into two, we went to the half with the chairs and the people. I saw my program director from family youth interventions. I also saw my friend Erin from Macomb community college. I tapped her on the shoulder and said hi, she waved, but was bus talking. So we took our seats, I did notice that Carmen was no longer Carmen, but Sonja from work ( they both have similar glasses).

The speaker of the lecture-, whom I don’t recall ever seeing, said lets play that game, I can’t remember the name of the game, but everyone there knew how to play, that is everyone but me. They are got these excited looks on there faces and smiled and counted in unison while smiling from one to ten. And the speaker said ok find our groups, I was like what the hell….

So everyone began scrambling around getting in there groups, apparently for this game you had to either be mouthing the numbers and saying other things or saying their numbers and mouthing the numbers. After a couple tried with some over excited people I gave up on figuring out he rules and asked people what group they were in. some of them asked me to count aloud. I found the twos and threes, someone thought by the way I counted I might be an 8 or 9. so I went to a large group, a woman with short black hair said she thought they were nines, I thought I might be an eight, but it seemed I was the only person not in group so I stayed there. Ell, the speaker said congratulttions o the nines because we were all in the right group, everyone cheered, I didn’t know why.

Next we took our seats and some one had on display some art work that was created for jesus near the time of the cruxifiction. (I’m thiking of reproducing it, since I can still remember it clearly). It was made of clay and had red blood on it, and a scene of david and goliath- it was really quite inspiring. We all examined it and passed it around.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Final Edition

Final:

The text is true. Our intrepratations of it are not.

For spiritual direction the state of ones soul in intriciately linked to the state of ones body.

Christians are like a heap of fresh living coals, warming one another as a great strength, freshness, and vigor of life flows into all.

In approaching others there is a newfound need to be honest about our lives, to tell our personal stories rather than some grand narrative that may seem exclusive, and to speak of the limitations of our ability to know god.

More

Part 6:

They are in the moment , listening attentively, focusing on others in ways that invite them to experience something of god’s abiding care for them. ( a good leader)

A small group that operates with spiritual direction as its leadership model will not be a grouip that tells people what clothes they should wear, who they should hang out with, or what they should do with ther lives.

He did not offer then five steps to avoid tempetation or give them a set of rules and principles so they could live this out. They had to figure it out on their own.
Sin is real. It needs to be dealt with. But to point fingers at each other and declare”here is your sin” denies the reality that god has arrived in this person’s heart before you did.

It is not so much a place of accountability- which suggests one party is watching the other-as a place where lives are lived and struggles shared.

Sometimes silence can be a meaningful gift. However it is usually obvious if silence is honoring someone story or if it is there because noone knows what to say.

When Yahweh shows up there arnt many words for it.

We represent jesus

When we gather, we come othergeer as image-bearers, redeemed sinners, abe to experience god’s love and presence through our fellowship.

Jesus was the master storyteller. The bible tells us that god chose to tell the great cosmic story not thru a list of doctrines and rules to follow but through scenes from the livesof god’s people. The parables jesus told were stories that were often subversive, provocative, even ambigious. The stories of faith and life are the substance of our journey toward god.

Part of ourcall as followers of chrsit is to become good storytellers. We are also invited to become good story receivers.

The invitation to love in groups is not s sugar-coated, positive thinking kind of love. It is love that is willing to sit in places of grief and doubt, to wrestle alongside others as they struggle with god, and to celebrate moments of goodness, forgiveness, and joy with another. Love embodied in these ways transforms broken hearts and heals fragmented lives.

Spiritual Direction Excerpts

Part 5

Harmony and comfort ar more important than grappling with hard issues. ( a problem).

Such groups miss out on the fullness of life with god’s people.

Christians throughout history have been a pendulum swing between being too accomadating toward culture and too separate, seeking refuge in cloisters, the desert, or the halls of a church building. (hmmmm)

Whatever sharing the good news looks like in the new mellinuim it will have dialogue at its core.

If we knew our enemies secrets and stories, their pain and suffering would defuse our anger toward them.
In the face of difference, we have an opportunity to enter mystry that reminds us of our need to trust a god who is begger than our boxes for god.

“it took me years to figure out that god is my anchor. It is not my grip on god that matters but his grip on me. God is bigger than my adversaries who want to damage my faith. God is bigger than my doubts and questions.”

Everyone has the potential to teach us about god.

When the search for truth is reduced to an insistence on comformity to dogmatic principles devoid of love, it does not model jesus’ insight into the care for the hearts of others.


If I am willing to show up the holy spirit will do the work

Until I felt heard in my pain I wasn’t able to hear others who tried to challenge me.

Conviction can happenwhen people know then are cared for and loved for.

We can live with differences because we know truth not just as proposition but as relationship weith the savior who dies that we might be one with him and his father.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

part 4

Part 4

Spiritual direction is not a systematic process..

God is not limited to our western ideals, ethnicity, and social standings.

Searching for meaning in the organized church can often be frustrating. It is not uncommon for conservative churches to exclude people.

Finding our voice is a biblical notion: god’s voice was the power to create the cosmos. Jesus spoke words of healing, freedom, and liberation. The gospel is the “good news” –words spoken and tasted. As image bearers, our vices are symbolic of our freedom and responsibility to be creative, liberating beings.

Without the harmony of diverse voice and perspectives, we miss out on the fullness of god.


How we live on behalf of others will bear the greatest evidence of gods love.

“the more I think it over, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic that to love people….christ is more of an artist than the artists. He works in the living spirits and the living flesh, he makes men instead of statues”. –van gogh

Spiritual DirectionQuotes

Part 3

God literally called Samuel, but Samuel didn’t recognize gods voice. It is eli who after numerous interruptions to his sleep, realizes this call is different. But eli doesn’t pull rank on Samuel. He doesn’t say “let me handke this you can watch as I take care of the incoming divine business for this household”. Instead, eli invites Samuel to await anther call and give a reply. In doing so eli invites Samuel to open his heart and mind to the possibility that not only does god exist but that god also wants to bless and speak directly to him.

The cure of souls in the scripture-directed, prayer-shaped care that is devoted to persons singlur;ly or groups in settings sacred or profance.

We are created to be in community with others.

It is stepping into a position of vulenabrility and awreness that we may leave the moment as a changed creature. –encounter with god.

Storytelling allows the group to talk about faith as it really plays out rather than in idealistic astract terms.

The witness of scripture is that faith for Israel and the church is communal and meant to be a shared experience, not a solo venture.

The power establishes a great divide between clergy an layity.-in religion

Relying on gods spirit to serve as a catalytic force for spiritual maturity is good.
Spiritual direction can be a place of com

Monday, February 06, 2006

Thoughts on the Cross

As with most midnights i have some thoughts. These are some thoughts that i have about some things in the Bible and of course some things that are urely christian tradition. Well here goes.

  • first off it is a good thing that jesus chose to come in the form of a man at the time he did. that way the cross was used as his means of execution. just think if it was very earlier it may have been a rock, how would that look on a bumper sticker. or if it was during the french revolution time peroid... a goulitine? like max lucado says, would preist do a karate chop instead of the sign of the cross then. and thank god -ironicly, thank god that jesus did come now when the symbol hat people wear as necklaces might be an electric chari, a lethal injection needle, a gas mask, a gun, or a bit older a hangmans noose. this tells me that god's timing is fitting or our reality would be quite different.

Sunday, January 29, 2006

A little more

Part 2:

Group memebers need to know that the group can deal with internal conflict, hurt feelings even outright anger between emmbers and still come together as the body of Christ.

Endings break our hearts with sadness and beauty.

We can choose to take the risk to end well for the fruit it can be in ou lives and others, or we can let the pain of goodbye keep us safe, guarded, nonchalant, or avoidant.

More on Spiritual Direction

Part 1:

Faith is lost not because there is no need for it, but because we elieve God’s plans don’t make nay sense.

Stay PRESENT with others.

Start connecting with churches.

To know god and others more deeply and to be known in those relationships.

A group of people encountering one another and listening to god’s guiding voice.

When we include the voices of others, we begin to get a fuller picture of what god has to say through the bible and how we might go about finding ourselves in god’s story of redemption.

The gathering of gods people is an opportunity for people to come, taste, and see that the lord is good.

There is power in creating authentic community with one another.

Monday, January 09, 2006

Random thoughts about Spiritual Direction

Small Group Leader Ship as Spiritual direction

Intro:

The language of prayer and spiritual direction has this in common: language (whether of words for silence) in the Presence, in the context of mystery, listening for the hinting at “what eye has not seen nor ear has heard” and the “love of Christ that surpasses knowledge”.

We go looking for adventure, we play or watch a game, read a novel, travel to Zanzibar. One of the classic ways of restoring a sense of wonder tinged with adventure, the sheer mystery of life, is to enter the wilderness- a world blessedly free of domestication, permeated by what we don’t know: mountains that defy our control, weather indifferent to our comfort, grizzly bears and mountain lions unpredictable and dangerous. Life spills out of the containers of our routines. In the wilderness we become alert. We can take nothing for granted; every tree is a living sculpture, every flower a surprise, every animal a grace, each step taking us into a never- before-experienced combination of scent color and shape. Our simple sense of life, basic life, is heightened. Boredom is vanished,

Stafford’s wilderness with a map describes a great deal of what goes on in the Christian church these days. We think we want god beyond our understanding so we can worship largely , god sovereign in all our circumstances and suffering so we can be cared for securely, the god of Paul’s exclamatory, “how unsearchable are his judgments and how unascertainable are his ways”. But then we get nervous about the unsearchable and the inscrutanable. We hesitate; maybe that’s just a little too much mystery. We want a wilderness with a map.

With doctrine there is a problem, we are in control.
Spiritual direction using language, language that slowly becomes a comfortable mystery. Information is the secularized substitute for god’s answers and technology is the secularized substitute to god’s miracles.

All our lives we have gone to schools that have equated mystery with ignorance, schools promising to banish ignorance from our lives if we will just study hard enough.

Spiritual direction is another way of language.

Community With God

Section 8:

Gods truths are transforming only to the extent they are received and absorbed.

We must decompartmentalize life so that we share it all with god in a barrier-free union with him.

Sunday, January 08, 2006

Changing Power of Community Part 7

Section 7:

Being for one another.

We are gods rag dolls. He knows about our raggedness and loves us anyway.

Love is being for the one who is loved.

This is not easy to do. It doesn’t take much truth telling for me to admit that I don’t want my enemies to succeed. More humbling is the fact that, deep down, I often don’t want my friends to succeed too much.

Competition, comparison, envy- they are all anti-community.

Competition and envy cause me to mourn when others rejoice , and rejice when others mourn. They lead me to diminish others instead of building them up. They casue me to be opposed to other people instead of being for them.

Being for someone is deeper then just wanting to spare them pain. If I am really for a person, I am willing to risk saying painful things, if pain is the only way to bring growth.

True love never desires to inflict pain for pain’s sake. All too often, im not only willing to uinflict pain on someone, im looking forward to it. Probably a safe guideline is that I need to be very careful of creating pain for another person if I feel a twinge of enjoyment in the process.

And the god of the universe is for you. He longs for you to blossom and flourish. He celebrates your victories and he mourns your setbacks. He is on your side. He is in the balcony, cheering you on.

Isaiah 58

Changing Power of Community Part 6

Section 6:

The ten oclock Sunday morning hour is the most segegrated hour of the week?!

Changing Power of Community Part 5

Section 5:

What do you actually DO when you forgive someone?


The first thing you do is rediscover the humanity of the person who hurt you.

Surrender the right to get even.

We revise our feelings about the person who did us wrong

You know you are in the healing stream of forgiveness when you can get down on your knees- even if only half mean it- and pray that God would bless the person who hurt you.

Responsibility and blame are always sewed up in the hem of forgiveness.

You don’t forgive to avoid pain. You forgive to heal the pain. And you won’t heal unless you have felt the pain. “The cure for pain is in the pain” –mewithoutyou

Forgiveness is a process.

No matter what you’ve done in the past, God has forgiven you. He has rediscovred the beauty of your humanity. God has surrendered every right to ever get even with you. And every day God wishes you well!

Being forgiving is a way to live, not a commodity parceled out in units.