Phrophets

I did a lot of thinking this last weekend. I had plenty of time to think. See, 4 guys and myself headed to Chicago for our Fall break. Between riding 9 hours to and from Chicago, sitting on Northwestern's campus and walking through Millenium Park there was plenty of time to think about a lot of things. One of my favorite things to do is sit somewhere with my journal and relay my thoughts onto paper unfiltered and unexamined. Sometimes I dislike the fact that we filter everything, because in a way it's as if we aren't even being true to ourself. We filter our thoughts and feelings and run them through some sort of analysis to decide if everyone else can understand them or agree with them. I think there is a beauty in everyone just thinking. Our world has become so uncreative in many ways. We resort to violence to solve problems that run much deeper. We let a societal framework mold us and shape us into who we should be and more than anything we dilute the message of Christ. If there is anything I have learned at school these last 3 1/2 years it is one thing. That one thing is that Jesus and my understanding of what he came to do is so much broader than I could concieve. I'm learning that he brought The Kingdom here and that changes everything and that I must rethink everything. I've learned that "my box" and trying to confine Jesus to it doesn't make him easier to understand but much harder. One of the most important thing that I have learned is that we need phrophets. We need people who are willling to speak truth. We need people to remind "the church" where they came from. Yes, we need people outside of "the walls" that we have built around ourselves, but we need people inside the walls. The phrophets were people that spoke truth to the most powerful people in Israel. They were people that spoke truth no matter the cost. I think we need phrophets. I think we need them more than ever. We need them because I believe Jesus is searching for a people to be him to the world. He is pleading for someone to join him in reimagining our world. I encourage you all to seek ways that you can be a phrophet. We need people that will reimagine a Jesus outside of our traditions. We need people that will stop boxing him in. We need people that have hope.

Breezes and Cobwebs

Ideas are awesome and in many ways they are what keep this blue and brown marble spinning. But ideas can become so much about a list of facts or information and the creativity that gave birth to the idea is taken away. I've been working on absorbing life alot. It's been working too. One thing I've been trying to get away from to some degree are ideas. For me they started being these uncreative things and more like frustrating thoughts as opposed to something magical. Ideas are beautiful like a cool blue breeze blowing in to help clean out the cobwebs, but for me they became more like a sharp harsh gray breeze from up north somewhere. I began to forget where they were leading me and more importantly what they were leading me to do. So, I've been putting the pressing "ideas" on the back burner for a while and just absorbing alot. I've been trying not to speak so much but be spoken to. The interesting thing is I've learned alot. I'm learning from the things all around me. So, to put it in perspective. That cool blue breeze is still blowing just maybe from a different perspective.

Cool Air and Mirrors

I came across the following poem this summer. It seems the weather has begun to take a turn towards fall as of late. I've been waking up to cool crisp air as I walk out my front door, and to the shimmering dew covered ground as if it were a million mirrors shining in all directions. Whenever I started thinking about the season change I could not help but remember this poem....

End of Summer (by Stanley Kunitz)

An agitation of the air,
A perturbation of the light
Admonished me the unloved year
Would Turn on its hinge that night

I stood in the disenchanted field
Amid the stubble and the stones,
Amazed, while a small worm lisped me
The song of my marrow-bones

Blue poured into summer blue,
A hawk broke from his cloudless tower,
The roof of the silo blazed, and I knew
That part of my life was over

Already the iron door of the north
Clangs open: birds, leaves, snows
Order their populations forth,
And a cruel wind blows.

The Truth

"For it seemed to me certain, and I still think so today, that one can never wrestle enough with God if one does so out of pure regard for the truth. Christ likes us to prefer truth to him because, before being Christ, he is truth. If one turns aside from him to go toward the truth, one will not go far before falling into his arms."

Yet again, this is something I have come across over the last several weeks. Maybe you don't agree with it or maybe you do. Either way the concept and the imagery of it is inspiring and thought provoking. May we all come to know what it is to wrestle with God as we thirst for the truth.

And Then the Slate was Blank

"There is danger in theoretical speculation of battle, in prejudice, in false reasoning, in pride, in braggadocio. There is one safe resource, the return to nature..."

Well, welcome back to my "new" blog. I put the word new in parenthesis because of the revamping of the site. I've said so many times that I will continue to update this site. Finally I realized that everytime I come to this boring bland site I just got frustrated with my own in adeqacies and lack of writing. So, like my mind I felt like this site needed a "spring clean." The spring clean just happened to not come until late summer.
This week I will be posting quotes and segments of things I have been reading. Some of the material will be light-hearted, some fun, and others thought provoking. So, welcome back as I welcome myself back. The above quote is from French military theorist Colonel Ardant du Picq. It was something compelling and thought provoking I came across this summer. More stuff on the way....

Washing the Slate Clean

Sometimes you just need to start over.....