A Season of Shame

As she came riding into town that day, did she think everyone was looking? Did she travel with people that only looked out the corners of their eyes at her? Did she wear some extra clothes and try to smile extra to ease their uneasiness? Today I spoke with a great friend who helps people to see themselves better this time of year, he called it a season of shame. As I wait for the day that we celebrate the messiah's birth, I have started to look into the eyes around me just to see if I can see a little deeper than normal. It seems more often than I care to believe, the eyes contradict the smile on their face. I believe that the journey I'm on and the one I wait for should make me an open receptor for the shame of others and a welcoming hand in a world of isolation. Father, help me to feel what they feel! "Wisdom is shown to be right by it's results"---the one known as a glutton and a drunkard and a friend of sinners---the one for whom we wait

String of Lights

As I contemplate the position of peace in life and the coming Messiah, I wonder if it is more like those darned old school christmas lights than i want to admit. It seems that I can piece together a few moments or maybe even hours of thinking on whatever is pure then I run into a bad one----the whole thing just goes out. Then I go back and reconsider whatever is lovely and has virtue and the thing twinkles again. Father, help me to make longer strings of seeing your face in the midst of my journey and the strugles of others!! Soooo, am I a mad depresive or has this been your experience??

More complex times

The Yanomami Shabono

So Anita and I were talking about simpler times compared to now. Somehow hunting, fishing, gardening, and building the communal house (pictured) once every 5 years unless there's a bad storm or fire seems to be the deal. Then when it comes down to deciding what not to spend money on, all seems necessary. In this time of waiting in anticipation of messiah come as man, how do we hold firmly to the hope in front of us?? Different people find themselves focused through various disciplines. I like to sit in front of the computer investigating the thoughts of God in the morning (somehow coffee helps:D ) and reading other peoples thoughts on the subject helps. One guy was into setting his watch to alarm every hour to remind him to stop for a minute-I think this would send me for a loop. What do you do to "hold firmly" to the things that are important for you to be considering??

Hope and a new perspective

Hath Seen a Great Light!!
“What I learned about relocation in Iraq is what the monastic tradition has known for hundreds of years: sometimes you have to relocate in order to really see the world and re-imagine your role within it. That’s why Antony went to the desert and Francis took to the streets. They knew something was wrong with the church, but they couldn’t see any alternatives from where they were. Their location blinded them, holding their imagination captive. The monastics needed to see the world from a different place if they were going to see it anew. So they moved, and when they did, they started movements. The renewal of the church depended on relocation.” New Monasticism, 76

Today was a day to celebrate hope by the lighting of the first candle. I personally need the street and it's people to be able to see the hope. Without darkness there would be no dawn. I wonder if we-the church-find our expectation waning in the comfort of familiarity. We have seen the light shine in our hearts and now have grown used to the glow. I find myself living by it and working out of it and rarely looking into it. Today as I watched a lady cry under the influence of the Holy Spirit, I wondered if I need a fresh perspective. Later, as I helped a friend bring a mattress (old, dirty, and still usable) into an apartment, the owner almost in tears, I realized I need to have the perspective of lack in order to have hope.
You don't realize that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked!!!
-Messiah-

Experiencial Noticing(for Hose)

A Jew is asked to take a leap of action rather than a leap of thought. He is asked to do more than he understands in order to understand more than he does.” Whereas the term ceremony merely expresses what we think, mitzvah expresses what God wills: a mitzvah [commandment/good deed] is “a prayer in the form of a deed.”abraham heschel

As I sit here listening to Heschel's words I notice how appropriate to the season of waiting and noticing - especially to guys like hose that need to be emotionally involved :)Leap - is not the wild eyed plunge of a bad trip but the step of the martyr that understands cost and sees beyond the mechanics. In "noticing" some took me as though I were talking of not engaging. The king, in the day of the coming messiah, only saw through his interpretation and fear of loss rather than thinking about the possibility of intention outside of his human experience. Had he noticed, the act of incarnation would have overpowered him and prevented genocide....but he never noticed

"Blessings"

So,I was visited by some great friends who happened into my life many years ago now and somehow we have maintained contact. One of them is great with child-well not as great as my wife. It made me think of the season of waiting we're in and how we see waiting through some story book lens rather than maybe as intended. somehow I think waiting should be this island experience where all is bliss and some eternal waiter is about to bring me the gift of my life so I just sit here and sip my fine drink in active expectation. It seems that mary was in a very different situation as a pregnant woman 25 days from her due date. My wife was all done with glowing and on to waiting by speaking that baby right outta there. She walked around constantly and talked constantly about the "fact" that the time had come - this baby needs to come out!! I think I noticed a bigger more generous view of journey toward the good. What does waiting meen for you???

Noticing

I wonder sometimes how much healthier (emotionally) I'd be if I just simply noticed.

Seeing the world around me as intended rather than as interpreted by MY situation seems to be a better way to live. I thought advent would be a great season to notice. I wonder how things may have worked out for those that decided the coming of the messiah was cause for genocide had they paused and noticed?? Father, help me to notice your hand before I cause harm!! If anyone will come after me they must become as a little child--Messiah