Choices

"Hatred and bitterness can never cure the disease of fear, only love can do that. Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illumines it."
page 35 of "Soul Survivor" by Philip Yancey

Let's see, if I had to choose between love and hatred......

....hmmmm, I think I'd choose love.

Which would you choose?

Introducing....

Tenth Avenue North



Awesome band.

Awesome music.

Awesome message.

Veeps

This morning, Youngest Daughter (age 7) and I were watching CNN's discussion of Barack Obama's selection of Joe Biden as his Vice Presidential candidate.

"So," says Youngest Daughter, "the President gets to pick his own Vice President?"

"Yup," I replied.

"Well," she began confidently, "if I were President of the United States I'd pick you, Patti and Terry to be my Veeps."

"Veeps?" I asked

"Yeah Mom, that's what the news guy called Obama's friend....his Veep. I'd pick you, Patti and Terry to be my Veeps."

Of course, I had to laugh when Youngest Daughter said that. After all, doesn't the word "Veeps" sound like some perverted form of the word "Peeps"? But hey, nothing unsavory would ever issue forth from the mouth of one of my progeny, right?

I think what I found even more interesting than the whole "veeps" thing, was Youngest Daughter's selection of individuals for her venerable Veep crew.

I am certain that I made the list because I am Youngest Daughter's mother; and as such, I am imbued with an otherworldly knowledge of well...just about everything.

Patti, a family friend, was undoubtedly chosen because she knows how to make people feel special and loved.

...and Terry, well Terry is perhaps the most interesting person chosen for Youngest Daughter's Veep Squad.

You see Terry is our neighbor. He's a gruff kind of guy. Some might even say he's a bit crude. He's been known to drink too much and when he does so, salty language can be heard far and wide.

A lot of people probably wouldn't want Terry as their Veep; but I happen to think Youngest Daughter got it right when she announced Terry was one of her chosen three. You see, Terry for all of his gruffness, has a heart of gold.

Not only does Terry mow the lawns of our three elderly neighbors; but he edges all of our lawns as well.

Need help getting a cat out of the tree? Terry is there with his super-d-duper extension ladder to help.

Need help hauling something to the dump? Terry's there with his muscle and his truck.

Need someone to organize the neighborhood block party? Yup, Terry's there to find a band, and basketball hoops, hot dogs and sodas. Then Terry turns around and invites the whole neighborhood to the block party, not just the folks on our block. In fact, he will even invite the people who walk through our neighborhood. And the funny thing is, because Terry is so genuine in his invitation, most people come and we have the best damn block party in our city.

I'm not kidding, we really do have one of the best block parties any neighborhood could hope to have. The Latino families come. The white folks come. The gay couples come. The alternative teens down the street come. The families with little ones in strollers, the singles, the widows...they all come.

And because Terry's heart is golden, we all bask in his joy and goodness. We come together and we laugh, and sometimes we cry, but we come together.

I happen to think that's what this country really needs....we need a "coming together", like some giant national block party. We need the time and the space to speak our truth and to share our pain. To comfort and to be comforted. To dance in the streets, to shoot hoops and to slide like children on old fashioned watery slippery slides.

We need to remember our common humanity.

I don't know if either Presidential candidate is capable of delivering this; but of the two, my money's on Barack Obama and his Veep, Joe Biden.

Of course, if Youngest Daughter were running, well now, that would be an entirely different story. She'd have my vote hands down!

Freedom

Josh Garrels.
This kid's got talent.....



freedom

mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yeah-ah-ey-ey
professional or beginner, doesn’t matter
every sinner is a prisoner
in a body that is subject to time now
my entwined mind tries to form a straight line
not like twisted scoliosis of the spinal cord
construct, cross-eyed carpenters are cuttin’ crooked lines can’t construct man-made shrines when
the winds and the water move the sands of time
many minds on a deadline yet live life like a livewire
I’m not tired of blood and fire
the Spirit’s movin’ higher
than the green grass ever lifted me
the Spirit’s movin’ higher
than anything else ever lifted you
see, we got spirituality
it’s livin’ in us like one in three
injustice is concerning me in a nonlinear eternity
I’m speaking paradoxically
but you can nod your head when you understand me
this is for my free men
whose backs won’t bend in the lion’s den
with their eyes on the end and
this is for my free women
they fight with their love, the bearers of our children
( x 2 )

we shine like lights
exposing what lies underneath decomposing
unearthed old chains that are rusted
oh sweet Lord, is that what I trusted in?
that sin, that tom-foolery?
what it is is mental jewelry
that I adorned myself with
the enemy’s gifts, the man-made myths, the ignorant bliss of marijuana splifs and alcoholic fifths, and I got so sick and tired of it
delivered and redeemed, by Christ I mean
time to start livin’ and get a reason for the rhyme
I don’t wanna be dead wrong on the deadline
standing on the dark side and all out of time
like a blind pantamimes fantasized
climb up his own ladder to the sunshine
nothing’s mine that has been given
and no one’s alive now that ain’t been risen
for 19 years I was trapped in a prison
feenin’ my escape by means of derision
but every man-made attempt failed just when
trapped in the jail of my own guilt, shame and iniquity
I was looking for freedom...how'd I find freedom?

He said believe.
He said believe
who are you telling me to believe?
He said, "I am the Christ."

He said, "I am the Christ."
So I believe.
Freedom.
mmm-hmmm,
mmm-hmmm,
mm-hmm, yeah-ahh-eey

Comments

Today I left a comment on a favorite blog of mine.

I was surprised when the comment I left resonated with several individuals and rankled several others.

One individual even went on to quote me and to blog about my comment.

Now that's never happened to me before.

I don't feel self-important, or validated in anyway and I don't place any special importance on the fact that several someones replied to my blog comment. I'm just surprised. Surprised that my comment amounted to diddly squat in the first place.

I sometimes forget that I am not alone in the world. I sometimes forget that there are others who thirst for justice and long for God's Kingdom to be made manifest in today's world. I sometimes forget that whenever the truth is either spoken or written, it is imbued with the power of God.

I forget a lot of things I suppose.....but at least I have not lost my capacity for surprise.

..and I am thankful for that because I needed to be surprised today. I needed to be reminded that I am more than nothing.

If God had a blog and you could leave him a comment, what would you write? What precious part of yourself have you forgotten? Do you need to remember your own belovedness? Do you need healing in some inner recess of your being? Do you thirst for justice and long to see God's Kingdom come?

I know I do.

What about you?

Religion

The Cost of Religion
Flannery O'Connor

What people don't realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course, it is the cross.

Source: Flannery O’Connor’s Library: Resources of Being by Arthur Kinney

Eavesdropping

Here's something I overheard in a coffee shop recently.

"You know, I really hate it when people tell me that I should pray more, and how prayer is so powerful and how prayer really works...blah, blah, blah."

"You do?" the other queried.

"Yeah. Don't you get it? Prayer isn't all powerful. God is. C'mon, think about it. Prayer doesn't work. God does."

.....Wow.

I get it.

Do you?

Rattled

beaded rattle project

Lately, I have found myself lost to my own longing.
I long for new experiences.
I long to see new places and to meet new people...
...but mostly, I long to be a new me.

I long to be a new creation, to be born again.
I love the risen Lord.
I am His.
Why then, am I the same old Jerri?

*****
Do you see the face on my beaded rattle project?

Do you see the over-bright eyes?

Do you see the worry etched across the forehead?

Do you see the sleepless nights under the eyes?

Do you see the protestation in the open mouth?

If you do, then you've seen me.

That face, is my face on the inside.

I am well and truly, rattled.