Category: reflections

Today in review

Don’t do this too often, but thought I’d give you all a wrap up of today’s events…

a. woke up around 5:00
b. got up around 5:30
c. made some coffee and got a txt message from Smiley around 5:50 announcing the birth of their new baby boy, Aiden Sean (jump over to their blog and wish the new parents a big congrats).
d. took my time getting ready for work
e. rode the bus to work and sat next to my new bus-mate Judd
f. slow day at work – especially after lunch
g. walked the 4 or 5 blocks to DART headquarters at lunch to get a bus pass for April
h. watched the afternoon pass by in my cubicle
i. made plans with my wonderful life, Laurie, to visit Shari and Smiley and baby Aidan after work
j. Laurie calls on her way to pick me up to inform me that there’s a tornado warning for a huge area surrounding our house
k. realize everyone else in Dallas is apparently trying to get information from WFAA.com – because it no workie
l. Laurie picked me up and we made the short drive to the hospital and visited with our friends
m. came home and saw no sign of rain or thunderstorms in our neighborhood
n. made chicken sandwiches (not chicken salad but chicken breast – like Chick-Fil-A) for dinner
o. worked out at the gym
p. went grocery shopping
q. read some more in “Jesus for President”
r. thought about working on my “lesson” for our community group tomorrow night – didn’t want to turn the alarm off and then go outside in my PJs to get my book out of my truck
s. remembered i needed to take a pic for my 365days project
t. took the pic while listening to the Homebrewed Christianity podcast
u. decided to write a summary of the days events on podcast
v. now im jealous that Laurie is already sound asleep and i’m not
w. staring to feel some soreness in my back
x. xylophone
y. y? because i can
z. time to get some Zs

Verse for the day

Ezekiel 16:49-50 “The sin of your sister Sodom was this: She lived with her daughters in the lap of luxury—proud, gluttonous, and lazy. They ignored the oppressed and the poor. They put on airs and lived obscene lives. And you know what happened: I did away with them.” (MSG)

Three years…

I can’t believe it’s been three years already. It still seems like yesterday.

Amy we love you and miss you dearly.

Walk On – U2

And love
Is not the easy thing
The only baggage
That you can bring
Not the easy thing
The only baggage you can bring
Is all that you can’t leave behind

And if the darkness is to keep us apart
And if the daylight feels like it’s a long way off
And if your glass heart should crack
And for a second you turn back
Oh no, be strong

Walk on
Walk on
What you got, they can’t steal it
No they can’t even feel it

Walk on
Walk on
Stay safe tonight

You’re packing a suitcase for a place
None of us has been
A place that has to be believed
To be seen

You could have flown away
A singing bird
In an open cage
Who will only fly
Only fly for freedom

Walk on
Walk on
What you got
You can’t deny it
Can’t sell it or buy it

Walk on
Walk on
You stay safe tonight

And I know it aches
How your heart it breaks
You can only take so much

Walk on
Walk on

Home
Hard to know what it is
If you never had one

Home
I can’t say where it is
But I know I’m going

Home
That’s where the hurt is

And I know it aches
And your heart it breaks
You can only take so much
Walk on

Leave it behind
You’ve got to leave it behind

All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break

All that you measure
All that you feel
All this you can leave behind

All that you reason
All that you care

It’s only time
And I’ll never fill up all my mind

All that you sense
All that you scheme
All you dress up
And all that you see

All you create
All that you wreck
All that you hate

re: anti-human = anti-God

Eric shared his thoughts on Jewish view of heaven and hell…

Obviously, there are a lot of different views, but I think the basic view of the afterlife in Judaism is that heaven and hell are fluid. I’ll try to explain.

One phrase used in Hebrew to describe heaven is “Gan Eden,” which literally means “The Garden of Eden.” It’s even become slang, as in “This cake is Gan Eden.” The idea is that heaven is a return to perfection on earth, not some otherworldly place.

Another phrase is “Olam Haba,” meaning “the world to come.” As in, this is the world we have here, but there is another world that mirrors this one, but created spiritually instead of physically.

I remember in high school one of my Rabbis said heaven and hell looked exactly the same. In both, people sit around a pot of delicious stew and have spoons with long handles; they can reach the pot, but they can’t bring the spoon back to their mouths. He said that in hell, everyone simply starves, but in heaven they realize they can eat if they feed each other. Again, the idea is that heaven is created in the interaction among people.

My Rabbis often described “hell” — called gehenom — as more of a dry-cleaner than a place of eternal punishment. After life on the physical earth, all souls — except those belonging to the holiest people — need to go through a period of cleansing before they are appropriate for heaven.

Hope that helps.

(re)Quote for the day

I was looking through some old blog posts of mine this morning and came across this quote:

“Consider the possibility that a church should own no property at all”
Larson, Osborne, The Emerging Church (1970), p51

Posted March 24, 2006. Almost one month before Phil and I walked into encounter for the first time. Funny how God works things out.