Month: October 2008

end poverty!

Today is Blog Action Day 08 – focused on ending poverty. I caught on to this a little late. Sorry about that. But if you’ve read my blog for any length of time I think you’ll know how frustrated I get to see people living in poverty.

I think you know it rattles me crazy when folks refuse to help a brother or sister in need.

I think you know I think our reaction to the poor and to the hurting around our world is a direct indication of how we view God (and yes that can be taken multiple ways).

I don’t if I have amazing words of wisdom to share today, but thought I’d share some visual media with you to help us each reflect on the issue of poverty in the world around us.

All the media is from real people, whom I’ve had the honor and privilege of meeting and sharing life with in some way shape or form. I wish I could do more and God willing — I will. Most of the pictures are from Nigeria. The videos are from Waxahachie, Nigeria and Dallas. The point? — There are hurting people, living in poverty everywhere — all around us.

I was hungry and you gave me no meal,
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
I was homeless and you gave me no bed,
I was shivering and you gave me no clothes,
Sick and in prison, and you never visited.


Check Judaism. Check Islam. Check pretty much anyone.
I mean, God may well be with us in our mansions on the hill… I hope so. He may well be with us as in all manner of controversial stuff… maybe, maybe not… But the one thing we can all agree, all faiths and ideologies, is that God is with the vulnerable and poor.
God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house… God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives… God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war… God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them.

How M. Scott Peck saved my life

Well not me specifically — but Dave Schmelzer’s.

I’m reading Schmelzer’s book, “Not the Religious Type.”
In it, (chp 3 I believe) he gives a great explanation of how M. Scott Peck saved his life.
I hate to steal his thunder but this explanation really hit home with me and thought it was worth sharing here. After you read it, you can go out and buy the book for yourself :-).

Peck (via Schmelzer) says our spiritual lives are a lot like our regular physical lives in development but the timelines don’t always match up.
Peck says our spiritual lives can be categorized into 4 stages.

Stage 1, the infant or the criminal stage. We do what we want when we want with no regard to others or the rules.

Stage 2, the rules-based stage corresponds with ages six or seven. In this stage we’re suddenly concerned about pleasing the parents (or God) and concerned about what the rules are (and how we can follow them and ensure other people follow them). We suddenly want to be sure we’re following the rules all the time.
Schmelzer writes, that the institutions that best serve this stage are the military and the church. Both offer discipline and boundaries — and most churches and those in them are in stage 2. (I would add that educational institutions as a whole are also very much stuck in the stage 2 mindset.)

Stage 3 is the rebellious teen years. We question everything we learned in stage 2 and thus begins the battle between stage 2 and 3. If you’re in stage 2 in a religious community everyone on the outside is either a lawbreaker (stage 1) or a rebellious libertine (stage 3).

Schmelzer also notes that the Republican party could be easily be viewed as stage 2 and the Democrats could be stage 3. Stage 2ers will heap scorn on stage 3ers by using words like “liberal” — and use it as a word that’s so shameful you don’t even have to say why it’s shameful. Stage 3ers will scorn stage 2ers by just spreading the idea that they’re all idiots for believing all that they do.

Unfortunately most people in stage 3 don’t realize there’s a stage 4, the mystical stage. Suddenly in stage 4 you realize that most of the things you learned in stage 2 are probably right, but they’re much more richer and more mysterious than you ever would have imagined.

Stage 2 says, “Ok as of 3 p.m. I believed in Jesus so I’m going to heaven no matter what.” Stage 4 however would say “I think I believe but what does ‘believe’ actually mean? Am I believing now? Do I have to continually believe? Am I saved once, or is it a continual thing?”

Stage 2 folks would then look at stage 4 folks with tons of suspicion and say, “They seem to be saying the same stuff, but every word out of their mouths is slippery. Why wont they just stand on the truth. What kind of tap-dancing cowards are these people?”

So there you go – how M. Scott Peck saved my life – or sort of. Or something like that. What does “saved my life” really mean? 🙂

Looking forward to the rest of the book.

FREE download “Prince of Peace – God of War”

Shawn Groves tipped me off to a new movie (and the free download) :: “Prince of Peace – God of War.”

The movie’s premise sounds “simple” enough ::

How did the command to “Love Your Enemies” get so complicated? This was the question I had for years both when I was a minister in the church and ever since I left it. It seemed to me the religious right, more a political force than anything else, who embraced policies of violence, killing and destruction, all in the name of a God they claimed to follow seemed to be at odds with the teachings of the founder of their faith.

I’m downloading it now and haven’t had a chance to watch it yet. But Groves said he’s disappointed in it – just like he was with Fireproof. And I understand where he’s coming from (however in full disclosure I haven’t seen either film yet).

Oh, my brain ate up all the information, history, scripture. Something deeper in me was even inspired several times to be more like Christ. But most of the time I just sat there wishing: I wish this movie wasn’t head after head talking about theology and history. I wish just one of these bright guys talking right now would let this camera man follow him home. I wish one of these guys would show me what it looks like in their neighborhood/office/church/Palestine to live justly or non-violently. I wish this movie wasn’t all telling and no showing. Yep, I wished that again.

A friend made a similar comment after we watched The Ordinary Radicals on Saturday night. He wanted less “telling” and more “showing.” And while I really loved The Ordinary Radicals I could see where he was coming from. He wanted to see how the homeless advocates were actually living out their missions — not just a 2 min. sound bite. He wanted to know how it was working and see it lived out.

For me however, The Ordinary Radicals sparked ideas (and many at that). After all, perhaps even if I had seen how a homeless advocate lived out her mission in San Fransisco, it’s going to look a lot different in Red Oak, Texas. To me the movie showed that Another World Is Possible.

But perhaps that’s what’s missing in our faith overall. We’re telling people how to live and giving them the rules to follow — but we’re not living it ourselves. Lots of telling — but not much showing.

All that to say — there’s a movie out that you might be interested in – for free. Check it out.

this is not this

from The Work of the People and Floodgate Productions ::

During financially challenging times, it’s so easy for us to forget who we’re putting our trust in. Are we trusting in Wall Street, or in the God who created it all?

TWOTP have a great selection of videos for your church, group or wherever. They’ve also put together a great selection of videos geared specifically for the current times we find ourselves in. The above video is a free download as part of that collection.