Tag: love

A moment of surrender, a moment of eucatastrophe

September 11th, 2001
Sept. 11th, 2001 | Photo by nostri-imago

I understand hurt.

I understand pain.

I understand loss.

But may we as a country, as a people, as humankind learn to overcome our hatred for the unknown and for one another.

May we remember that even two brothers, whose descendants were sworn to fight each other for — generations to come — still came together to bury their dead.

Abraham’s sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, the field Abraham had bought from the Hittites. – Gen 25:9-10

May we, as Insurgents of Love, remember that hatred never wins — it has a 100% rate of failure.

May we, as Insurgents of Love, remember that we’re called to something greater.

May we, as Insurgents of Love, remember that there’s only one thing that’s ever won — and only one thing that will ever win — and that’s love.

May we, as Insurgents of Love, learn to love deeply, strongly and more generously than ever before.

May we, as Insurgents of Love, find moments of surrender, where we lay aside our own wants, needs and demands and build spaces of grace for all.

May our love outshine the hatred that surrounds us.

May our love permeate the darkness of night and may our love bring forth eucatastrophe.

eucatastrophe
eucatastrophe | illustration by Jonathan Blundell

“I’ve seen too much hate to want to hate, myself, and every time I see it, I say to myself, hate is too great a burden to bear. Somehow we must be able to stand up against our most bitter opponents and say: ‘We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We will meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will and we will still love you — But be assured that we’ll wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and one day we will win our freedom. We will not only win freedom for ourselves; we will appeal to your heart and conscience that we will win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.'” — Martin Luther King Jr.

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Want more? Listen to my interview with Eric Bryant as we talk about diversity and my interview with Jamie Moffett as we talk immigration and our country’s fear of the unknown.

1 Timothy 5:8 – How do you read it?

A good friend shared a video from Mark Driscoll on Facebook yesterday.

I saw it a while back and it got me worked up then… and when I saw it again yesterday (I need to work on that).

In it Driscoll and his wife discuss the role of a husband in “providing for” his family. He points to 1 Timothy 5:8 in saying that a man who does not provide for his family has lost the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

But I think we’re missing something when we read the verse in that manner.

I tend to believe there’s a lot more going on than the point Driscoll is trying to make.

1st, I don’t believe 1 Tim. 5:8 has to be read as gender specific as Driscoll wants us to believe. The ESV, KJV, NIV and other translations begin with “anyone” or “if any.” Our modern translations use “his” later in the verse but I don’t think we have to read this text as gender specific, simply because it’s been translated with “his” – which can also be used as gender neutral.

2nd, I don’t believe “provide for” has to mean working a paying job every day. Provide can simply mean “to make preparation to meet a need.” And I think a better explanation of provide in this use would be “care for” which is what several translations have opted for instead. When I read this verse I see a picture of a family working together to be sure all needs are met. If a husband has a journalism degree and doesn’t make much money – and his wife has a doctorate and makes loads of money – it might make a lot more sense for the wife to work while the husband stays home with the child — and vice versa.

Providing for and caring for a family can mean any number of things and I don’t believe we should be limiting ourselves (or others) in what it should look like in one another’s family.

3rd, I also think Driscoll is playing a game of proof-texting here. This verse takes on an entirely new meaning for me when you read it with the verses before and after it. When you read from verse 1, Paul tells Timothy to care for the elderly men in the community as fathers (or as family) and then he instructs Timothy to be sure to care for the widows as well. But… he adds, if there’s a widow in my family — I should be certain I’m caring for her and not expecting the church or anyone else to do that. “But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.”

It’s after he makes these points that Paul says not caring for/providing for your family shows someone has denied the faith.

After all, our faith is the outer expression of God’s love in us. We are to show love to the world — but it’s really hard to show love to the world if we don’t first learn to show love to those at home.

But this is just how I read it… how do you read it?

Agents of grace

Fail
Ice Cream Fail | Photo by jblndl

We all have certain expectations of others, don’t we?

We expect our bosses to treat us fairly.

We expect our friends to return our phone calls in a timely manner.

We expect our spouses to treat us right and fight with us on our side.

We expect our neighbors to keep their yard freshly manicured, just like ours.

We expect the other drivers to observe the same laws we observe and to properly yield to us.

But sadly… no one will live up to our expectations 100% of the time.
Continue reading Agents of grace

Insurgency of Love & Weapons of Mass Beauty

Grace Bombs
Grace Bombs | Illustration by Jonathan Blundell

The Outlaw Preachers (#outlawpreachers) have a great practice known simply as Grace Bombs.

Essentially, when someone’s hurting, feeling down, needing a hand to hold or a shoulder to cry on, everyone’s invited to record a short video or voice mail and the messages are collected and sent directly to that person ASAP.

Grace Bombs can also take the shape of a Flash Mob of Love via Twitter — with a mass of messages of encouragement directed towards individuals in need.

Imagine if all the Insurgents of Love put our heads together and found ways of putting Grace Bombs into mass production.
Continue reading Insurgency of Love & Weapons of Mass Beauty

Be a blessing

…Be agreeable, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble.

That goes for all of you, no exceptions. No retaliation. No sharp-tongued sarcasm. Instead, bless — that’s your job, to bless. You’ll be a blessing and also get a blessing.

Whoever wants to embrace life and see the day fill up with good, Here’s what you do:

Say nothing evil or hurtful;

Snub evil and cultivate good;

run after peace for all you’re worth.

(1 Peter)