Tag: u2

Justice and equality #justicefriday

From the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast:

It’s annoying but justice and equality are mates, aren’t they? Justice always wants to hang out with equality. And equality is a real pain in the ass. Seriously.

I mean you think of these Jewish sheep-herders going to meet with the Pharaoh, mud on their shoes, and the Pharaoh goes, “Equal? Equal?” And they say, “Yeah, that’s what, that’s what it says here in the Book, here. We’re all made in the image of God, sir.”

Eventually the Pharaoh says, “Look, I can accept that. I mean, I can accept the Jews — but not the blacks. I mean, not the women. Not the gays. Not the Irish. No way.”

So on we go with the journey of equality.

On we go in the pursuit of justice.

What issues of equality do you struggle with?

Watch the full speech:

10 (additional) spiritual lessons from U2

As I mentioned last week, I’ve been reading “We Get to Carry Each Other – The Gospel According to U2.” A great read from Greg Garrett (who also wrote “Stories from the Edge – A Theology of Grief).

As a closing section in the book, Greg shares 10 spiritual lessons we can learn from U2.

I thought I’d share an additional 10 that I’ve learned along my journey as well. So here they are, in no particular order…
Continue reading 10 (additional) spiritual lessons from U2

We get to carry each other

Serving at the Mission

I’m reading the new book “We Get to Carry Each Other: The Gospel according to U2” (by Greg Garrett) right now and it talks a lot about community and how the band has always emphasized helping those around us and the privilege we have to actually GET to carry each other. Yet for some reason we seem to think its a burden to build community, to open up to others, to share and serve.

How different (my) our outlook and lives could be if we saw serving and loving others is actually a privilege – a calling – a purpose in our lives…
Continue reading We get to carry each other

Monday Briefs

briefs1

highlight(s) of the week ::
We paid off our credit card debt this week! WOOT WOOT! Thanks to Uncle Sam for saving some of our money this year. We made our annual withdrawal and put it towards closing out our credit card balance as well as paying off a CT scan. Now we just need to finish paying off the rest of our medical and parental debt and we’ll have met our goal. We’re thinking we can get there in 10 months or less (maybe a lot sooner if folks want to have more freelance web work done or folks will start buying stuff from our Amazon store! :-)).

Friday night we made a trip to Frisco to see Baby Ben. Had a great time with his mom, dad and big sister.

Also, last night we had a planning meeting to discuss JustOneDallas – a very cool initiative that I’m looking forward to being a part of (I’ll write more soon). But just for now, save the date :: May 16. That’s the scheduled launch/kick-off date for the Dallas hub. And for a little more background you can check out our podcast chat with Max Fincher.

music i’m digging ::
In between listening to U2’s No Line On The Horizon, I’ve also been digging The Damnwells’ album “One Last Century.” Downloaded the album for free last week and hope to feature some of the tracks on some upcoming podcasts.
And two weeks later, I still can’t get enough of U2’s No Line On The Horizon
right now. Having them on Letterman all week probably didn’t help matters either.

podcast i’m digging ::
I finally took the time to listen to the Mars Hill 10th anniversary podcast this morning. Good stuff. Encouraging stuff as well.

new web hack/trick ::
I figured out how to build a “table” using unordered lists in HTML and CSS. Boy did that make updating the CWF bio page a breeze. Was worried I’d have to rebuild the whole table to insert seven new bios.

freelance work ::
Part of filling our our withdrawal from Uncle Sam this year (aka our IRS taxes) meant filing the income I’ve made from freelance work this year. I think this is the first year I’ve had anything over $100 or so. Once I totaled it all up, I made just over $2,000 doing freelance work this year. That’s just a mere drop in the bucket of most people – but it makes that $100 seem like even more of a drop in the bucket. I’m trying to do what I can to move away from “freebies” for folks and only doing work I can bill out. Not that money is “everything” but it sure makes doing the work that much more enjoyable when you know the client’s really appreciate your work enough to pay you for it.

misc ::
I bought a new webcam this week with birthday money (thanks mom, dad, dan and martha). So I’ve been enjoying using video chat via Skype and Tokbox. If you’ve got a webcam look me up (jdblundell as always) and lets chat.

looking forward to ::
I get a day off of work on the 20th for “Spring Break.” Sure wish I got the whole week, but one day is better than no days.

We interrupt this broadcast…

I was debating on if I’d stay up and watch U2 on Letterman tonight, or simply let the DVR do all the work.

As I was thumbing through my Google Reader before heading to bed I’m glad I made another stop at Homebrewed Christianity.

Cornel West via WikipediaTripp shared a series of videos put together by Jamie Moffett, of Cornel West at Eastern University (the alma mater of both Jamie Moffett and Shane Claiborne ).

The videos are broken into 10 minute segments and will take you about an hour to watch all the way through – but I’m certain you’ll learn a lot and take a lot away from them. If you don’t… well….

Anyways, take some time to watch them. Chew on what Cornel West has to say. Think about Scripture and “how then shall we live.” Then share your feedback. I’m anxious to hear what you think. Good or bad.

One nugget that really stood out to me…

“The black freedom struggle is the best example of bringing together the quest for unarmed truth and unconditional love in the face of American Terrorism for 400 years. Instead of a Black al-Qaeda you get Frederick Douglas and Martin Luther.”

Thanks to Jamie for sharing the videos and thanks to Tripp for posting them on his site.

U2 on Letterman

For my friends in the UK and elsewhere who either don’t get Letterman – or missed seeing U2 last night, YouTube’s got the video (for now).

There’s nothing from the band’s performance on Letterman’s Website yet, but there is a hillarious “Ask U2” bit that I’d encourage you to check out.

Every day I die again, and again I’m reborn
Every day I have to find the courage
To walk out into the street
With arms out
Got a love you can’t defeat
Neither down nor out
There’s nothing you have that I need
I can breathe
Breathe now

This song is quickly becoming one of my favorites on the album. It’s getting harder to pick a top song now.

Now that the album’s been released, what’s your favorite? What’s your favorite lyric? What songs are you dying to see and hear in the stadiums?

BTW – I picked up the “Limited Edition CD/Digi pack” today from Best Buy thanks to my sister and brother-in-law, who gave me a gift card for my birthday (you can order a copy from Amazon through the link above). Very pleased with the packaging — except that the poster is glued to the cardboard! That’s not frustrating at all!! Not that I expected Laurie to let me put the poster up in our living room — but I did have a spot for it in my cubicle at work! I’m hoping I can get it off without damaging either the poster or case too much. I’ll keep you posted.

Oh and BTW – I just noticed U2.com has been completely redesigned. Check it out.