Thoughts

This morning I got up at 4:00 a.m. intending to make a long day's trip to Indiana but the guy that was going to accompany me called me and cancelled due to illness. I was found with an extra couple of hours to spend with Jesus while I curled up on the couch with my 4 yr. old son and I'll have to say it was edifying. I spent such an awesome day yesterday with my family that I was still bowing before God in thanks as I crawled into bed last night. My wife and daughters went to Battlecry in Detroit (much that I could say about this but culture happens in every stadium as well as every nook and cranny where humans interact -' living' as a human beings, to me, is in the intersection of our lives with those places and people and that includes just about anything you can imagine). My wife had mixed feelings on the event but it instilled a missional directive in my two daughters and for that we are grateful. We did have to compare some of the pro-military speech that one speaker presented with what Jesus says about violence but other than that it was a positive experience until they were headed to the buses. The Ford Fieldhouse is in a mixed-economic neighborhood with gated luxury multi-family housing as well as abandoned buildings, soup kitchens and the homeless. As a group of 200 people that my wife and daughters were walking with passed two homeless guys (they had carts and stuff so they weren't just taking advantage of the crowd, they were homeless) there was a wave created of people swinging wide to avoid the two men who were gently asking for money. The crowd was moving fast and my wife and daughters didn't have much time but they produced all the change that they had and gave it to the men. They were the only ones. None of the rest of the crowd leaving a Christian concert event that cost $25 a ticket could spare a quarter or two for these two guys. What do you do? My wife and daughters had to choose between stopping and showing love to these guys and keeping up with the rest of the group headed to the buses. It tore my wife up and broke my heart to hear her tell the story. What Jesus is it that people are following?

I watched a documetary on Global Climate Change debate done by a guy named Moyer who interviewed Evangelicals from both sides of the debate. I'm hard-pressed to believe anyone that uses scripture out of context like Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla did when Moyer interviewed him really can adequately represent the "Church" on this issue. There are a vast number of Christians that believe good stewardship means getting the most return out of mines, wells, farms, developments, etc. I cannot agree with them when I see God's hand trying to restore as soon as we mess something up. I like it to giving my kids pencils to write with and then going behind them with a 'magic eraser' to get the pencil off the wall. At some point the child either quits writing on the wall or you take away the pencil or you instill in the child that it is your job to wipe pencil off the wall. I don't like the third option but that is what many of the I don't think it is God's job to clean up our messes.

Oh, one other thing. When I read the sermon on the mount I'm not reading it like people have read it to me. I read it alot differently now that I actually view it through the 'metanarrative' or story. Jesus was adressing the crowd as well as his disciples. Christians aren't 'the' light of the world, nor are they the 'salt of the earth', HUMANITY is the light of the world and the salt of the earth so get over the pep talks and share in the life of someone that isn't from your 'church family' because THAT is how hearts are transformed.