Blindness

What would happen if one day, the world's entire population were suddenly afflicted by an epidemic of blindness?

Think about it for a moment.

How would you find your way home from work if you were suddenly blind? How would you collect your children from their schools? How would planes land, or goods be transported, or utilities maintained?

How long would any one of us have before we experienced the complete breakdown of this civilized, thoroughly modern society?

If those questions intrigue you, and if you are up for reading a piece of finely wrought literature that will challenge you in surprising ways, then I suggest you read "Blindness", a novel written by Jose Saramago.

I've just started reading......and I have to tell you, it's brilliant.

The Shack

A kidnapped daughter is presumed dead.

Her father is overwhelmed with grief and anger.

Four years later, in the midst of this father's Great Sadness, he receives a suspicious note, (apparently from God), inviting him back to the scene of the crime....back to the shack.

So begins the novel written by William P. Young, entitled, "The Shack".

It's an incredible book; and even though I cannot say that it is particularly well written, it is perhaps one of the most spiritually influential books I have yet to read in my lifetime.

Sage Words

Dropping Christmas
by John Buchanan

You cannot live in this culture without experiencing how the air is let out of the holiday balloon on December 26. The Magi may not arrive in Bethlehem until January 6, but the culture abruptly drops the whole matter practically before Christmas Day is over....

Almost anybody can be touched emotionally by the birth of a baby. But the church knows and remembers that the baby grew up and became a man who taught a revolutionary ethic of unconditional love and practical forgiveness and who overturned cultural convention by welcoming the marginalized and excluded. The church remembers that the baby grew up and got into trouble with the authorities for living out his notion of what God's kingdom looks like---a new social arrangement without all the old barriers and boundaries, an arrangement in which all are loved and welcomed at the banquet table.

The church remembers that the baby grew up and challenged social convention by forgiving enemies, turning the other cheek, responding to violence not with violence but with love.... The birth is a sign, for people of faith, that God is alive and at work in the world. Christ comes again, is born again, when lives are transformed by his love, when forgiven and restored men and women begin to live new lives in a world that is suddenly new because he was born into it. The culture may drop Christmas like a hot potato, but for faith it is a beginning, not an end.

Source: The Christian Century, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas

Ok, so this song and dance is a little hippie-esque.

But hey, I love Jars of Clay...and even though we all know Mary didn't ride a unicorn, they did get one thing right in the song.

Love came down at Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Hilarious!

I read this and I almost peed my pants.

I always get dressed up to shop at Walmart. Don't you?

The good life

H2O color tree I painted and collaged last year....

Early this morning, I delivered teacher presents (See's chocolates), some board games (checkers, Sorry, Clue and Scrabble) for a fourth grade classroom in need of games, and oatmeal cookies for our elementary school's Christmas party.

At 10:00 am, my husband and I are helping the homeless single dad and his teen son move into their new apartment! As some of you may remember, this family lived with us for a brief period, while they waited for a family shelter placement.

All I can say is, "Eat your heart out Santa! You might deliver presents one night a year, but I'm blessed to have days like today all year round!"

Hot damn! Life is good today! Very, very good!

The darker side....

Recently I received this e-mail from a friend. He's someone who has completely devoted his life to Christ and is actively serving the poor in our community. Here's a portion of what he wrote:

Now, I will also let my hair down and share some frustrations in my journey to be available to those in need. Maybe you can help me.

I will confess that, as I work with families in distress, I tire of their inability to make deadlines and do the (often simple) things they need to do. For example, there's a family that lived in our neighborhood for years who has benefitted many times from the generosity of the church. Neat familiy. And yet they still forget (every year) to register for the Christmas-basket program and then call me to lament how they won't have anything for Christmas. With almost a tinge of "it's the churches fault we missed the deadline."

I love the family and we will help again this year . . . and I will also give them my encouraging pep talk about being proactive and responsible, and they will say "yes, we will," and then right back to square one.

Here's my quandry--I know that a family in poverty can't be expected to be all tip-top orderly like a family who's not in stress. And yet, poverty doesn't have to mean a person is irresponsible or inept. I often wonder if we "enable" rather than "empower" with our gifts. I work really hard to encourage "empowerment" and yet "enabling" still seems to be the outcome.

That, of course, shouldn't mean we give up. I am just trying to have the Lord help me understand how to be more effective (in Him). I realize that our job is to "simply engage" not "fix," that servanthood is a two-way street of transformation for both me and the family/person I'm helping . . . and still it breaks my heart to see people stuck in first gear.

Thanks for letting me unload. I'm not upset, just mildly frustrated. Please enlighten me!

In Christ,
"Bob" (name changed for anonymity)

My response was as follows:

Dear "Bob", I regret to tell you that I am unable to offer any enlightenment with regards to your "enabling" versus "empowering" dilemma. What I can do, is tell you that I've had similar struggles and if you have the patience to read through this entire e-mail, I would be more than happy to share some of my personal journey as it relates to living life in the trenches with hurting people.

I think you already know that when I was young, I experienced an abusive childhood where I was verbally and physically battered. You also know that I've battled addiction and thus, I am well acquainted with the soul numbing anguish that comes with losing every shred of self respect and dignity in the bottom of a bottle. It might surprise you to know that I've also known what it is to be dirt poor, and to literally live without a pot to piss in....

...and still, knowing all that I have known and having experienced all that I have experienced in this life, I've gone on to make two regrettable mistakes as I've tried to carry out Christ's desire for me to be His heart, His hands and His feet for the broken, the poor and the hurting among us. As inconceivable as it might seem, my first mistake was made in romanticizing the plight of the poor in our community; and my second, more egregious error, was made in condemning those individuals who gave only marginal assent to their own responsibility regarding the difficulties and challenges they face in their own lives.

Let me be clear. I am not suggesting these are anybody's errors but my own. I own these errors, and I own them gladly because they have taught me much about God's grace and His over-powering love and forgiveness.

Here's what I've learned.

There is a darker side to living and loving with compassion and I believe that darker side of compassion is best exemplified by Christ's willingness to choose death on the cross. Christ our Lord, our Saviour, the Holy Lamb of God died on the cross for an eternity of idiots. He died for all of the connivers, all of the ingrates, all of the belligerent ones; and miracle of miracles he died for you, just as he died for me. Christ died for all of us, precisely because God loves all of His creation...even the idiots, the whiners and the nare-do-wells.

Oh "Bob"! I could weep for the sheer beauty of it! God is so full of grace and so full of compassion for us, that through Christ, God has cleared the path to true freedom. God has given us His spirit of abundant compassion and His wellspring of love in order that we might love as God loves. For me, this is true freedom.

I will admit that I have often struggled with trying to discern where I have enabled versus empowered others. Rarely has this dilemma been about truly discerning whether my helping was actually hurting. More often than not, it was all about my judgement of another person's worthiness to receive my care, my time, my money, my love. Or worse still, it was about looking good before my brothers and sisters in Christ, and trust me that knife cut both ways. All too often, I wasn't doing enough or in other instances, I was doing too much. Take your pick, but it all boils down to my letting the opinions of others sway me from doing what I knew was the right thing to do.

We both know that many of the people living in poverty, live with a sense of entitlement. Many are conniving. Many are dishonest. Many, by this society's standards anyway, are unworthy of my care, but here's where the darker side of compassion rears it's beautiful head. I am free to love them anyway. I am free to engage and to aid and to care without limits or expectations. Do people take advantage? Yes. Do I have a responsibility to refuse to enable where I clearly am? Yes; but in all honesty, I have to say that those instances are fewer and farther between than one might expect.

In my experience, I have often seen that material and financial care/assistance without relationship, can and often does lead to the kinds of situations you have described in your e-mail. I've seen this reality play out in my own life and in the corporate life of our church as I/we care for our neighbors. I suspect that the issue of dependency, and the sense of entitlement like the one you described in your e-mail often evolve out of lack of genuine community/relationship between the resourcer and the resourcee. (I'm not saying this is what has happened in the situation you have described, just that in general, this is a pattern I have observed.)

For me personally, my response isn't to cease caring or offering succour. My responsibility is to reach deeper into myself and where I am allowed, to reach more deeply into that other person's life. I've resolved to never give up anyone, because Christ never gave up on me. It took Him 40 some odd years, but His persistence finally won out. I want my persistence to win out too because I believe that in spite of my mistakes, in spite of any instances where I may have enabled rather than empowered, God will persevere through me.

"Bob", I cannot offer you any clear cut advice on how to be more effective for Christ, but the fact that you are wondering about things such as these, suggests to me that God is moving you towards something new. Perhaps that "something" new will be some new, life breathing insight, or a new idea on how best to serve others, or maybe it will simply be a deeper understanding of God's love for you. Either way, let me just say, that it is good to be questioning and to be wondering. I believe that we have much to learn from our own questions and so I honor you as you speak and search out the truth of your own pondering.

Well, I've gone on long enough and while I doubt very much that I've provided any clarity for you in this e-mail, I can offer to pray for you and I can encourage you. Whether you see the results you long to see, whether you can measure the benefits your loving actions give to others, I am here to tell you that what you do matters to God and to the people you serve. See through our eyes and rest in the knowledge that what we see is good.

Merry Christmas "Bob"and thanks for all that you do on behalf of our community!

The Answer Man

This past Wednesday I rambled on about the rampant numbers of homeless children in my city. I then went on to offer a few suggestions about what the average individual might consider doing in order to help end homelessness.

Today I happened across this guy's video.

He's got the answers, my friends.

Just play the video and see for yourselves.

PS~I positively LOVE Hugh Laurie!

39,000 and counting.....

Yesterday I conducted a site review of our city's Homeless Education Program. Our Homeless Education Program identifies, tracks and assists homeless youth and their families by providing resources and support to achieve stability and confidence for success in school.

I learned that there are in excess of 39,000 homeless children in the State of Oregon and those figures do not reflect the alarming increase in our homeless population.

In our city alone, recent statistics indicate that there is a 23% increase in the numbers of homeless children since this same time last year.

I don't know about you, but I find that 23% increase to be both astonishing and alarming.

I mean seriously, can you believe that we have so many homeless children in one of the richest nations on earth?

I am sickened by the the whole situation.

Tomorrow I will conduct a site review for one of the two family shelters that exist in our community. I'm planning on taking a roll of Tums along. Seriously. My stomach is already upset just thinking about all of the new numbers, the new statistics I'm bound to learn...each of which, represents a homeless child, or a homeless teenager, or a struggling parent.

As we move into this Holiday season of commerical gluttony and self-indulgence, I find myself well and truly sickened. We spend so much money buying crap we don't need, or buying gifts for people we don't even like. Why? Why do we do this when there are so many who are going without so much? Why do I do this?

Something's gotta change.

I've gotta change.

What about you? Does any of this bother you? Do you care? Are you willing to make any personal changes in order to benefit a homeless child in your school district.

What can you possibly do, you ask?

Start by praying. Pray for those children. Pray for the committed people in your community who are serving and addressing the many needs created by poverty and homelessness.

Or what about volunteering with an agency that serves the homeless? I can tell you that those many agencies are crying for volunteers. They need all kinds of volunteers to do all kinds of things.

Or what about buying one less Christmas present for yourself, or your spouse, or your child, or your grandchild and contribute that money to one of the many programs that serve the homeless in your area?

I don't know. Be creative, but do something.

No state should have 39,000 homeless children and counting.....

No child should be homeless. Not one. Period.

Community

Yesterday, I mentioned that my family had recently spent some time celebrating a friend's Bar Mitzvah at our local synagogue, Temple Beth Shalom.

One of the many things I noticed when we joined our Jewish brothers and sisters for Shabbat, was that worship within this community was multi-generational. I saw children fidgeting, I saw older folks calming toddlers, I saw mothers quietly breast feeding infants, I saw teens smiling and poking one another, I saw parents and grandparents and singles. In short, I saw a cross section of life gathered together to pray and to worship.

In my church, children are conspicuously absent during worship and preaching. We are not a multi-generational worshipping congregation. Our children are allowed in the sanctuary if they remain quiet; but if they fidget, or snore, or need to breast feed, we are asked to remove our children from the sanctuary.

I think my church misses much of the beauty of corporate worship by not including the entirety of our lives in our worship. I believe we should be training up our children to revere the word of God, to appreciate and to actively participate in the beauty of our worship; and I believe that we should be doing this as a community of believers with patience and love in one hand and compassion and grace in the other.

Another thing I appreciated at Temple Beth Shalom, was the time that the community took to pray for the hurting and the ill. Each person in need of healing was mentioned by name. Each name was included in the community's corporate prayer. This was also done for those grieving the loss of loved ones. A prayer of mourning was recited as if to comfort each person who had lost someone to death over the past year. It was beautiful to have the mourners name their loved one, and to stand and to pray the Mourner's Kaddish.

I know that a church of our size would be greatly taxed to do this....but oh, how lovely it would be to corporately stand and to pray a prayer of love for our hurting brothers and sisters. I wonder why we do not do this? It is so healing, so lovely, so....well, so sacred.

I mentioned yesterday that Temple Beth Shalom is a very simple temple in the sense that it lacks ornamentation and decoration. The worship at Temple Beth Shalom was also simple. There weren't any instruments, or flashing lights or worship choirs. It was just God's people praying and singing together. Some of us were off tempo, some were off key, but all were joining together to praise our God. And it was beautiful.

And I have to tell you, the praying didn't stop in the sanctuary. We were blessing one another and praying in the lobby as well. It was as if the worship couldn't be contained, just as God cannot be contained, and the worship spilled out from the sanctuary into the common space of their communal life..the lobby.

Miracles of miracles, we were included. My family was surrounded and welcomed and embraced. Everyone there knew we were strangers and that we were not Jewish, but they welcomed us into their community of worship anyway. It felt good. It felt warm. It felt sacred. God was moving among His people and I felt Him in ways I've never felt God's presence in my own church.

Last Friday, on our way home from the Shabbat service, my ten year old son asked, "Mom, that was amazing. Can we become Jewish?"

My heart broke with that question, because it speaks so greatly of the lack of community we experience in our own church.

Something is broken in our church. I've said this over and over. I've tried to share this concern with our church leadership and I've been shunned and shamed. I've been told that the problem is mine, not the church's.

Now I know that things aren't perfect at Temple Beth Shalom. I know that wherever people gather, problems will arise. Human beings are imperfect and prone to petty rivalries, but I experienced something at Temple Beth Shalom that I haven't experienced in the nine years I've attended our neighborhood church. I experienced community. My family experienced community. And it was good.

Thank you Temple Beth Shalom for welcoming us, for taking us in.

We are truly grateful.

Temple

One week ago, this boy and his family invited us to hear him lead last Friday's Shabbat service at our local synagogue.

The very next morning, we attended his Bar Mitzvah.

My family felt very welcomed by the members of Temple Beth Shalom. They were kind, and patient and so willing to share the richness of their faith with us. We were all deeply moved by the things that we heard, witnessed and experienced.

Some of you know that my husband and I have been deeply troubled by the extravagance and the waste we often see exhibited within our church. One such example of this extravagance includes the recent installation of nine large, plasma screens in our church lobby. These screens serve no other purpose than to flash in bold, 21st Century style the names of key ministries within our church.

What we see in our church lobby, what we see in our church sanctuary stands in stark contrast with what we witnessed and experienced at Temple Beth Shalom.

The sanctuary at Temple Beth Shalom was completely without adornment. Unlike many Christian churches with their giant worship screens, ornate crosses, and their elevated preaching/worship platforms, the focal point in a Jewish sanctuary is the Aron Hakodesh.

The Aron Hakodesh is the Holy Ark which houses the Torah scrolls. The Torah, as most people know, is Judaism's most sacred possession. Many Christians often refer to the first five books in the Holy Bible as the Hebrew scriptures. Those five books (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy), constitute the Torah. The Torah is handwritten in Hebrew on a parchment scroll and it rests within the Aron Hakodesh.

The only other defining feature in this Jewish sanctuary, was the Ner Tamid. The Ner Tamid is a lamp which hangs just above the Aron Hakodesh and it represents eternal light. It stands as a symbol of God's eternal presence and is a symbolic connection to the menora of the ancient Temple of Jerusalem.

Like many Christian sanctuaries, Jewish sanctuaries also have pulpit, or bimah. In Judaism, a bimah is always located at the east end of the sanctuary so that it faces Jerusalem, which was the site of the first Jewish Temple. The bimah in Temple Beth Shalom was a very simple wooden pulpit, adorned only by a hand carved Star of David.

Maybe other synagogues have temples which are more ornate, but this temple was very beautiful in its simplicity.

I fear that my church has abandoned simplicity in favor of light shows and worship extravaganzas. Right now, our lobby is over-filled with elaborately decorated Christmas trees and nine large wall mounted plasma screens. Every weekend, I go to church and I watch the fancy worship choir and I see the powerpoint presentations and I listen to the pastor preach, but for me, it has become more like a religious circus than a house of worship.

I feel that we Christians could learn a great deal from our Jewish brothers and sisters. Adopting Judaism's practice of simplicity in our houses of worship and reverence for the word of God would be wonderful places to start.

....but more on that later, I've rambled on long enough for one evening.

Oh, and just in case some of you were wondering about Shari's husband. Well, the cancer was contained, the lymph nodes were clear and a positive prognosis was delivered.

That calls for cheers all around, don't you think?

Shari

Shari is the name of our children's elementary school crossing guard.

She's a nice lady and we all like her.

Monday morning, Shari confided to me that her husband had just had surgery for prostate cancer. I asked Shari if she and her husband had any support around them during this challenging time. For a brief moment she looked confused and then answered, "Well no, not really."

It turns out, Shari and her husband don't really have a significant network of family and friends available to them. They are doing life alone.

It's so hard to do life alone. The only thing harder, is watching someone else trying to do life alone.

This morning, after we had crossed our children to the safety of their school door, a neighbor friend and I gave Shari an encouragement card and a loaf of yummy Great Harvest Bread.

We told her that she was a part of our community, and that we care about her. We told her that she didn't have to do this alone, and that we would walk with her through this difficult time. We told her that we wanted to help, however and wherever she needed our assistance. We offered our phone numbers and our friendship.

Shari's response?

She cried.

I cried.

And then we hugged, not once but three times.

When I saw Shari this afternoon, we both smiled at one another and there was a new warmth between us that hinted at the beginning of a new friendship.

Tomorrow Shari takes her husband back to see his surgeon. At that time, they will hear the biopsy results and learn whether Shari's husband's cancer was contained in the prostate.

Dear friends, won't you join me in praying for Shari and her husband? Let's surround this couple with our prayers.

Shari and her husband may have been doing life alone before, but we can change all that. We can pray. We can pray that Shari receives good news on Thursday. We can pray for continued healing, for restored health; and we can pray that God will bring a plethora of caring, compassionate friends into Shari's life.

It might not seem like much, but we can pray. We can stand in the gap, that invisible sacred gap, and we can be the praying community that Shari and her husband both need.

I'm willing.

Are you?