some great finds

I love the library book sale! We found some really great books this afternoon.... and at $1 each... what a deal! BTW, the sale continues Saturday 10am-5pm in case you want to drop in.

One of the books I was excited to find, one for which I have been searching for a while, is "The Prophets" by Abraham Joshua Heschel. I have read other author's quotes of this book over and over, speaking of need for prophetic vision and message in our times. I'm anxious to look anew at the prophets of the Hebrew scripture, and consider what they have to say to us today, to all peoples of all times.

Spring Book Sale!

You can find great bargains on gently used books at the Friends of the Durham Library book sale. Held in spring and fall, book sales at Main Library offer thousands of used books categorized for easy shopping, as well as audiobooks, CDs and DVDs.  

Paperbacks begin at 50 cents and hardbacks at $1.

Friday, April 9, 4 – 7 p.m. Friends members only—join at the door!
Saturday, April 10, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Everyone welcome.
Sunday, April 11, 2 – 5 p.m. Everyone welcome. $7 Bag Sale.

a Vision of the Kingdom

I have a rule. It's really more of a guideline than a rule, but I still try to follow it. My rule is this:

Whenever I go to a place at which I think I'll have to wait, I bring a book along, to read while waiting.

Here are some examples: going to the DMV, mailing a package at the Post Office, or going to a doctor's appointment. You get the picture. It's really a brilliant idea (not my own, I stole it from a minister's wife I once knew), an idea which has enabled me to read untold hundreds of pages over the years. It's a really, really good rule... most of the time.

The other day, I broke the rule. Well, not exactly, because I wasn't expecting to have to wait. Silly me. Anyway, in I went, sans-book. I had stopped by the eye doctor to get the nose piece replaced on a pair of glasses. It was a small repair, so I thought I'd be in and out in no time. Again, silly me. It was late afternoon, the office was short staffed, and more than a few folks were already there, at various stages in the fitting of their glasses.

So I sat down to wait. There was a really nice looking iMac computer on the counter (maybe to entertain kids while waiting), so I fiddled with it a bit. But it was not connected to the internet, so my interest quickly waned. "Drat" I thought. What WAS I thinking, not bringing a book in?!?! As I quickly surveyed the other patients waiting ahead of me in the queue, contemplating a trip out to the truck to retrieve my book, my eyes rested on a young dad and his little son, perhaps 7-8 years of age. I watched the optician cleaning a pair of glasses as the man, already wearing glasses, and boy watch. The little boy's eyes were growing wide with excitement and anticipation. It was at this point that the Spirit snuck up behind me and peeled back my Eyelids so that I could See, really See, the wonder and holiness just across the room from me.

The boy was getting his first pair of glasses. His dad wore glasses, and now the son was getting some of his very own. As the optician finished cleaning them and gently fit them on the boy's nose and over his ears, I was overcome by the holiness of the moment. The circumstances that had foiled my obeying my "rule" had provided me an opportunity to be Still and See. I was given a priceless Gift, I was given a Moment of Stillness and Silence in my heart to set aside my agenda, my schedule, my "rule", in order to view something priceless... a proud child taking a step in his father's footsteps and beaming in the Joy of the Moment. It was a moment of Enlightenment for me.

As I sat across the room from this Holy scene, I prayed a prayer of thanks for being given such an undeserved gift. My agenda was to read some pages in a book about God. But instead, I was given a Glimpse of God Himself, and his Holiness. Thank You. I go forward from that day with the determination to open my eyes and ears more to those around me, hoping to catch another Glimpse of the Kingdom right in front of my face!

Grace and Peace

Happy Pi Day!

Wishing all you fellow Pi fans a happy Pi Day 2010! (see Google's tribute at right) Pi was the first irrational number I met in my mathematical life, and has proven to be a faithful friend and extremely useful. At those times when, try as I may, I cannot maintain a rational mood or worldview, my friend Pi reminds me that rationality is not a prerequisite for success in our beautifully mathematical world. Sometimes one has to walk on the wild side of irrationality to fully describe the circle of life in which we find ourselves. We do not have a perfect circle without the irrationality of my friend Pi. We need to embrace the irrationality in our lives that make us perfectly rounded (if that is not too corny to say). Here's to irrationality! Here's to my friend Pi.

interesting thoughts...

I really like this guy Kester Brewin. I loved his book "Signs of Emergence". Check out some of his recent postings...

• I(con) of the Month: Apple | Selling Us Our Desires
• Theological ‘Lock In’ | I Am Not A Gadget | Bad Faith [1]
• Theological ‘Lock In’ | I Am Not A Gadget | Bad Faith [2]
• Theological ‘Lock In’ | I Am Not A Gadget | Bad Faith [3]

Good stuff!

epidemic of Good?

The following is taken from a book I'm reading during Lent entitled "Power and Passion - Six Characters in Search of Resurrection". It is written by Samuel Wells, the Dean of Duke University Chapel. This selection describes how Christ turns things upside-down as He brings His Kingdom among us:

"I have claimed that Jesus was a real revolutionary in a way that Barabbas and the Zealots were not. I want now to explain that claim under three headings, the first of which is purity. As I have demonstrated, purity lay at the heart of Jewish objection to Roman rule and at the heart of the way different parties responded to it. The high priests were content as long as their own purity and that of their sacrifices were not compromised. The Pharisees saw the land as polluted by Roman occupation and sought to develop an inner purity. The Essenes believed purity was possible only in a secluded community. The Zealots believed no purity really counted as long as the Romans were still present.
- - -
The transformation in purity Jesus brings is most vividly displayed in his encounter with the woman who had been bleeding for twelve years (Mark 5.25—34). The woman, whose sickness made her permanently unclean, came up behind Jesus and touched the ritual fringes on the hem of his cloak. Immediately she was healed. The significance of this story is the way it shows that, for Jesus, infection works contrary to the expectations of Pharisees or Zealots. It is not that the woman’s disease makes Jesus unclean; on the contrary, it is Jesus’ holiness that cleanses the woman. Jesus’ holiness is highly infectious — the woman only touches the hem of his cloak and she is transformed. No longer is life lived in perpetual anxiety about becoming defiled; with Jesus, life is lived in perpetual anticipation of being transformed.
- - -
So to say Jesus brought a revolution whereas the Zealots did not is to refer to the way Jesus transformed the notion of purity. Holiness is not an achievement secured by keeping oneself unsullied by the world. It is an infectious disease caught by keeping close to Jesus and to the people with whom he spent his time."

This reminded me at once of the "Good Infection" that C.S. Lewis described in his classic work "Mere Christianity".

"Now the whole offer which Christianity makes is this: that we can, if we let God have His way, come to share in the life of Christ. If we do, we shall then be sharing a life which was begotten, not made, which always has existed and always will exist. Christ is the Son of God. If we share in this kind of life we also shall be sons of God. We shall love the Father as He does and the Holy Ghost will arise in us. He came to this world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life He has - by what I call 'good infection'. Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else."

My hope is that I can be a part of this infectious movement, this revolution of Good, and that all of us who are smitten by this bug will band together to form an epidemic of Good that cannot be stopped, for which there is no cure, and that transforms our world and our reality.

no ordinary people...

I long for my eyes always to be open to this Truth:

"There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit immortal horrors or everlasting splendours. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat - the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden."

C. S. Lewis
"The Weight of Glory"
June 8, 1941

lets make a difference!!!

good question!

read this post entitled "After The Rapture: Who’s Looking After Your Pets?" by Kester Brewin, the author of the excellent book "Signs of Emergence"

working together!

The latest issue of Durham Magazine has a great cover story of friendship and working together for the Kingdom: in Durham, as it is in Heaven...

In the Current Issue - February/March 2010

From camps to three faithful friends to one awkward opera audition, we've got an eclectic mix of fare in the latest Durham Magazine.

The three gents who grace our cover – Bishop Elroy Lewis, Rabbi John Friedman and The Rev. Joe Harvard – have built a great friendship over decades of putting aside theological differences to be an active force for good.

clever picture

this is a clever picture that I got from my daughter...

Donald Miller's Response to Pat Robertson’s Comments about Haiti

Author Donald Miller's response... worth reading.

http://donmilleris.com/2010/01/13/1513/ 

echos of The Screwtape Letters

this letter was published in the Minneapolis Star Tribune...

Dear Pat Robertson,

I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I'm all over that action. But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating. I may be evil incarnate, but I'm no welcher.

The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished. Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth -- glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake.

Haven't you seen "Crossroads"? Or "Damn Yankees"? If I had a thing going with Haiti, there'd be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox -- that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style. Nothing against it -- I'm just saying: Not how I roll.

You're doing great work, Pat, and I don't want to clip your wings -- just, come on, you're making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad. Keep blaming God. That's working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may need to renegotiate your own contract.

Best, Satan

LILY COYLE, MINNEAPOLIS

quote

It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong.

  - G. K. Chesterton

The Gathering Storm

At the end of time,
when the many become one,
the last storm shall gather its angry winds
to destroy a land already dying.
And at its center,
the blind man shall stand
upon his own grave.
There he shall see again,
and weep for what has been wrought.

- from The Prophecies of the Dragon, Essanik Cycle.
Malhavish's Official Translation,
Imperial Record House of Seandar,
Fourth Circle of Elevation.

from "The Gathering Storm"

Christmas Grace

I remember Jean Valjean saying in Les Miserables that the real punishment of a convict begins after they are released. This story shows how one man is changing that. It's a great reminder of the Christmas spirit of giving and love and grace toward all people!

Kansas City Star - December 23, 2009 - A1 News

Car wash owner hires ex-convicts when others won't. Jobs are scarce out there, no matter how impressive the resume. If that resume listed time in a state penitentiary, imagine just how much more scarce. Nearly 700,000 people are released from federal and state prisons to their communities each year, about 25,000 between Missouri and Kansas. Where do they go? Some end up with a job and pick up a rag at the bright orange and blue All Seasons Car Wash. Here at 1510 Truman Road is found one of the grittier tales of good will...

(complete article here)

Make Love, not war.

Make Love, not war. Let's end the myth of redemptive violence.

"Violence is for those who have lost their imagination. Has your country lost its imagination?" (hospital administrator in Iraq)

"Our world is desperately in need of imagination, for we have spent so much creativity devising ways of destroying our enemies that some folks don't even think it's possible (much less practical) to love them. We have placed such idolatrous faith in our ability to protect ourselves that we call it more courageous to die killing than to die loving."

Shane Claiborne - The Irresistible Revolution

"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
 "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful."

Jesus - Luke 6:27-36

I can relate...

read the whole article on the "Out of Ur" blog.

the journey continues

It has been nearly eight months since I wrote about my friend and I completing our fantastic 18 month journey through the 11 books of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series. But our milestone, albeit a major one, was not the journey's end. It gave way to a season of pause... to reflect, to appreciate, to anticipate, and to mourn. Sadly, Mr. Jordan died before completing The Wheel of Time. His passing left a chasm that cannot be filled. He was a unique and special soul, and he cannot be replaced. But, thanks be to the Light, Mr. Jordan passed the torch, albeit indirectly, to Mr. Brandon Sanderson. Mr. Sanderson will take us on the remaining journey, a journey with the characters we know and love, to the fascinating places we have savored, experiencing the amazing events as the Wheel turns toward the Last Battle. He will bring us the story that Mr. Jordan envisioned, all the way through to the ending that Mr. Jordan himself wrote before his passing. As I pick up The Gathering Storm, volume 12 of 14 of The Wheel of Time, I'm filled with excitement. Just finishing the Prologue, I already find myself caught up in this epic tale of good and evil, of humans like us making choices which will affect the outcome of the Last Battle.

Our season of waiting is over this weekend as we set out once again to complete the Journey. Mr. Jordan, thank you for the wonderful journey. I give back to you the words that you wrote so many years ago:

"The Light shine on you, and the Creator shelter you. The last embrace of the mother welcome you home."

- Shienaran eulogy, ch.10 "The Great Hunt"

into Aslan's country

Our Maisy has gone to join Cassie and Callie (our passed kitties) in Aslan's country, where they are all talking animals now. We will miss her very much, but we are grateful for all the wonderful years she shared with us. The Pinnacles, Wilburn Ridge, the (not so) wild ponies, and Mt. Rogers were just practice for high adventure in Aslan's country. Further in and higher up!

"The creatures came rushing on, their eyes brighter and brighter as they drew nearer and nearer to the standing Stars. But as they came right up to Aslan... they looked in the face of Asian and loved him, though some of them were very frightened at the same time. And all these came in at the Door, in on Asian’s right...

“Further in and higher up!” cried Roonwit and thundered away in a gallop to the West. And though they did not understand him, the words somehow set them tingling all over. The Boar grunted at them cheerfully. The Bear was just going to mutter that he still didn’t understand, when he caught sight of the fruit-trees behind them. He waddled to those trees as fast as he could and there, no doubt, found something he understood very well. But the Dogs remained, wagging their tails...

Aslan said... “The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.”

And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before."

C.S. Lewis - "The Last Battle" - The Chronicles of Narnia