sorry to hear about this...

Some readers of this blog may know the above two men. They are Ted and Lee, a comedic duo, skit writers, and very talented men. They've used their gifts to bring laughter and relief and rest to many. Mennonite Youth Conventions, churches, Youth Specialites NYWC, and the Zondervan NPC are just a few of their credits.

Lee, pictured above on the right, recently took his own life.

Sad.

He lost a long battle with depression. One that brought so much goodness to many...

...crap...

He leaves behind a wife and three kids. If you think about it, send one up for them.

You can read more here.

an interesting sight...

My workout regiment now includes bicycling. The past few mornings, I've found myself on the streets of town trying to break a sweat on my Wal-Mart special bike. This morning, while riding past a local dining establishment, two folks were out talking...no biggie. I finished my ride and started my day.

This day included a ride out to jOURney...'some' schmuck left his cellie at work :) On my way out, on my bike again, I passed one of the folks that were out talking earlier that morning. He was on a bike too...a sweet chromed out one. You know, the one's that look like a chopper. Cigarette hanging out of his mouth, milk in one hand, and a 24 of Natty Light in the other.

It was a sight to behold...apparently not everyone in town is on their bike for health reasons. If I really think about it, I knew that, but the picture was enough to make me chuckle...

...I'll probably wreck next time I'm out...

-rc

how bi-partisan politics is making America dumber

With an election coming up in my town next week, I am reminded of how much I love our country and it's freedoms to vote and have a say. At the same time, I despise the party system. I think it's making America dumber. Here are my reasons:

First, very few people investigate what candidates stand for and what it will mean in the long run. Most people have been inundated with rhetoric that has become it's own language. Problem here? Everyone simply repeats what they've heard for years and years...no thoughtful conversation there. No conversation equals no exposure to alternate ideas. Why re-learn the same thing over and over? What's worse is that we end up arguing using someone else's brain, someone else's words...no real way to get real solutions.

Second, speaking of real, party politics deal in the ideal rather than the real. Or said this way, "If I was ______________, things would be better." There's no effort to work together for solutions now, just an effort to gain power to fix the 'other guy's mess.'

Third, don't ever EVER change your mind. That's political suicide. It's also the way most people live their life. Suppose you're driving a car. You see a cliff coming up. You decide that the current plan of action (going in said direction) will end badly or at least your GPS shows a better way. You stop, or turn, or at LEAST ASK FOR AN IDEA... There seems to be some pervasive idea among politicans that there's something to be valued by 'driving off the cliff.' Maybe there is, but if I mature, have a set of experiences...anything that illicits a different response than one I would've given in the same situation years before, I am dumb (and spineless).

Fourth, people have to take sides. Suppose I agree with policy from both sides. Person A tells me that one issue the biggest deal. Person B tells me that another is. Worse, my church tells me I'd better vote one way on an issue or another. "Jesus hates abortion" (I think he does), but Jesus probably also hates poverty, injustice, killing (read war) and a number of other things. So, what does Jesus hate the most? Who knows? All I know if I hate abortion and poverty and would like programs to end both...I have no candidate? Freakin' sweet...

I'm sure y'all can think of other reasons, but what it all boils down to is that we've been stripped of the reward of thinking for ourselves. We re-tell the same thing over and over...nothing new. We don't have to think anymore, we just have to look for the elephant or the donkey and they we un-critically digest and thus vote for said symbol. I am convinced that there would be a people that would vote for a person that 100% end all abortions and make them illegal even if said person jailed all those that had ever had an abortion in the past...and then killed them, just to get even...

That's stupid...

insert random title here...

...because honestly, I don't have a quip-ish one today.

I'm just at home with the boy watching Mickey Mouse and now he's asking for 'muziks' which is the plural form of music...which means he wants to wear my headphones and listen to iTunes.

Perhaps by now some of you have noticed the red music@jOURney picture to the right side of the page. That one of many things on my plate over the past few days. The jOURney house band (or JHB*) recorded 6 originals. It's worship music that is part of our community. Although it took 10 and a half hours, it was awesome! When it drops, please consider purchasing one as all the proceeds benefit the Global AIDS Fund and blood:water mission.

It seems as though I've been the middle of a whirlwind of activity, and I'm just trying to keep my feet on the ground. Lots of great things happening, just overwhelming. In the meantime, I've been wrestling with a question: If a Jesus-centered life is to be distinctive, then how am I living distinctively?

I've run into several people over the past few weeks that are rather stand-offish in their attempts at being distinctive. It's almost as if it's been a bass-akwards way of saying 'I've got something you don't.' While it may be true, it doesn't feel like an approach that might illicit the kind of view of God that should be distinctive.

If you've read wifey's blog, you know that we've been growing more and more concerned with our 'footprint' in the world. Where is all this going? Well, it seems that we live in a time where alcohol consumption/abstention and not watching R-rated movies (just examples) don't speak in the same way as showing sacrificial love for others might. In many ways, Jesus style sacrificial love is counter-cultural as we acquire more and more stuff while the gaps between the have and have-nots grows bigger...especially here in the states.

We may be "God's chosen country" (hope you can hear the sarcasm), but we haven't chosen Jesus back for some time now...we'd rather just choose the comfy stuff that we then baptize with our church's name and call it God-honoring.

I am so far from the ideal that I project in this post. I have not arrived, probably never will. jOURney hasn't arrived either, in case you were wondering :) But we're trying. And maybe that's the issue.

We're all trying, maybe we shouldn't try to convince everyone else we're not...

Every once and a while...

...there comes a day or at least an evening you kinda wish would never end. It's like you've escaped everything else and the only thing that matters is being with the people you love. For me, my work life and consequent to-do list is a hard thing to unplug from...

Tonight was different...

As far as I'm concerned, the hours of 5-11:30p were better than any 6 hour block I can remember. Amazing music, A. at my side, great conversation, many laughs...



Thanks, friends...

I thought this was funny...

I saw this in the paper this morning...

it's better in color...

just treading water really...

People like to follow visionary leaders.

These days, I am not that person, and I don't like it.

I have visions and ideas, but I haven't the time to try to put them into practice. I haven't had the time to sit, and look strategically at where things might be going.

Personally, job-wise, not really anything to speak of, but...

...today that all changes.

I pitched some ideas to my team. I like them, and I think God gave them to me. We'll see...

Starting a new book too:



I'm hoping it'll be a winner.

Past few days=

30 Hour Famine...sweet...
St. Marks and jOURney articles in the paper...sweet...
no time with the family...

Next few days=

Ellery concert...sweet...
recording CD...sweet...

Sitting down with A. to look at my calendar to block out time with her and the boy...best...

Praying for you...

Hiwote, we hope you're okay...

Check out my Slide Show!

just to clear something up...

I love the action on the last post. Woo hoo!

BUT, it seems that I may have put too much emphasis on something when my point was going somewhere else.

I was not trying to give credence or support to any one theory over another concerning this 'Jesus Family Tomb' thing.

Angry Old Hack, if you remember the character's name, but more importantly, his manner, was the real reason for the most recent post.

I'm tired of hanging around a church, or seeing more and more evidence of a church that puts 'being right' and 'winning the debate' over compassion and conversation.

I don't need to see it on TV, I've seen enough of it already...

There, done, that's it...

...by the way, I'm not angry or frustrated, so I hope you don't hear that being the tone of this particular post; just wanted to set the record straight :)

too long

First, let me start by saying that my lack of postings have no bearing on how often I actually read everyone else's blogs. I guess I'm just not keeping up my end of the bargain. So, now that the boy's had the flu, I'm on the mend after passing the flu bug without actually getting the flu and my wife is asleep on the couch doing the same thing, I feel like I have some time to put some thoughts down.

Out of respect for my sleeping wife, I'm in the office at our house using the Dell. Can I just say that I LOVE my Mac? It completely destroys this thing. I'm never going back...I'm such a convert that I was watching tv today and say a commercial for the Motorola Q and I was like, 'Windows based piece of crap. Where's my iPhone?' Just the other day, my buddy showed me his Q, and it was cool. I think the next time I have to get a phone, I'll hopefully be able to get something that talks with the ol'Mac a little better than my Razr.

Can I also say that the Cingular software for the razr completely blows? i guess I just did...

Anyway, Wifey and I were watching the Today show a couple of mornings ago and they set up my favorite thing that happens on television: religious 'debate' that makes for good tv. Super conservative old guy versus middle aged agnostic. Problem is it ends up making the rest of us look bad, so there it is...

They were talking about this 'Jesus family tomb' business. And this old hack comes out swinging. Not just jabbing, but throwing some serious haymakers, and I'm sitting here watching and my jaw is having a race with A.'s to see who's hits the floor first. So, angry old hack (as we'll call him) relentless bashes any sort of sound coming from the slick agnostic's mouth. And then it happened, slick agnostic says, 'there really are some strong cases for faith here, Merideth...' He goes on to say that of all the coffins in the Jesus family tomb, that Jesus' was the only one with no bone fragments or particles in it. DID YOU HEAR THAT, OLD GUY? No bones in the tomb!! Freakin' frackin' sweet, I say... Angry old hack, unphased by this sacred moment of 'seriously?!' AOH goes on to talk about these guys piggybacking on the research of some guy that everyone agrees is a fraud.

Fantastic...we 'win' the debate, but lose face...and the person...

...know what that means?

..we lose...

busy, busy, busy

That's me these days, but I did want to hop on the ol' blogger and reflect over the past several days:

I have seen joy, sadness, and numbness in those around me. Sometimes in the same person all at the same time.

I have looked at my little family and felt the pure joy that comes in moments you never think about having when you're dreaming about what your life will be like when you're a kid.

I have stared at the ceiling of my house and thought, 'How the crap did I get here?'

I have become more keenly aware that God's idea for life here involves me DOING something and not just waiting for it to happen, and it excites me and paralyzes me all at the same time.

I have written music that people tell me they like, but sometimes I don't believe them. Mostly though, I do. In the end, it doesn't matter much...

I love my wife.

I love my boy.

It's clear that God is a God of grace because I don't deserve them...

...but I do get to enjoy them; God is a God of blessing.

Probably more than ever, it's in my tiredness and depravity that I most keenly aware of God's power, God's faithfulness, God's love, and God's character. While I see it in my own life, I see it in the lives of brothers and sisters in the midst of unspeakable pain.

Who can stand in the light of God's glory?
Who is like God in faithfulness?
Who's eyes have seen the face of our Creator?
Is there anyone? Anyone at all?

Despite all my doubts and fears that I lay at Your feet,
You've made me and You've held me and you call me complete
You call me

You say I'm Your Beloved

Hail to thee dear Bluffton College

You are all in my thoughts and prayers.

I promised myself...

...when I re-listened to this last week, that I would post it.

Here's a poor soul that forgot to take the capo off of his guitar before starting the next song.

It starts nice, until it all goes terribly, terribly wrong...

Click here if you dare...

-R

ash wednesday

what a funky observance for people to...well...observe...

During the jOURney ash Wednesday service, I read a snippet of Psalm 103. In verse 14 the psalmist mentions that God is aware of our nature and knows that 'we are but dust.' Truth be told, I know that I am but dust. But, God knows it better than I do. God is aware of the extent of my dustiness.

I am aware of my limitations, but God is more aware. I am aware of my shortcomings, but God is MORE aware.

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty darn aware of my shortcomings and to think that God is more aware and knows more fully the extent of them. Well, I'll put it this way...I can't believe that God allows me to brush my own teeth.

Still, I (we) have a role to play in God's redemptive purpose in the world. It seems more and more that what I feel is my biggest weakness (shortcomings, limitations, all that jazz) might be my biggest asset. Who wants to relate to someone, or at least try to, that comes across as perfect? Not me. Not anyone I can think of...

It's a pretty amazing thing. God truly has no NEED of me, but God has a deep WANT of me...despite all that extra crap...

...and if you're reading this, the same is true of you...

...all of it...

It's been far too long...

...since I actually blogged any of my own ideas, so here goes...:)

I've been thinking about the fact that God is God and we're not. Not anything terribly profound, but kind of it is. In teenie tiny ways we establish ourselves as God of our lives. We prefer one thing to another at church. We harbor ideas about other people or at least their situations and that begins to govern our behaviors and attitudes. The result is that the line between us and God gets to blurry and that NEVER helps the discernment process. Our desires for the future become idealized in our own minds and if we marinate in them long enough, we trick ourselves into thinking that is indeed what God wants and where God is heading.

Last Sunday at jOURney, I heard myself blurt out something about how things like healing and comfort and the promise of Heaven are the benefits to a life lived with God here and now. That what matters most is that God is God and we treat God that way. It's in our constant attempt to be more like God in our lives and in this world that creates opportunities to see healing happen in our lives and in those around us. As I leaned back into my couch, I know that it was God using my mouth to speak truth into our lives...or at least mine and everyone else was there to hear it.

In a spiritual sense, I am needy, but in an everything else sense, I'm not. I think that's where most people live, but more times than not, the way we talk about God is that God is a supplier of needs that our depravity has created. And that's not an approach that is all that relevant...at least not in the suburban US where I live.

I pray for the day when people will see that living for God and each other is a better way to live and is the secret to the inbreaking rule of God's love (or the Kingdom of God). That God's way is a benefit to all...not just to me. It's not about me, and it was never supposed to be.

I live in 'God is God and I'm not-ville.'

population, 1 (at least)

The press conference

the scrollie thing on the bottom cracks me up...

THE really big favor...

I thought this was pretty funny...

"yeah, well, obviously that's the downside"--freakin' priceless...

if only...

I could ever approach the perspective of this guy:

Prayer Regarding Critics and Enemies by Serbian Orthodox Bishop

By Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic, Serbian bishop who spoke out against Naziism, was arrested, and taken to Dachau.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them. Enemies have driven me into your embrace more than friends have. Friends have bound me to earth; enemies have loosed me from earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world.

Enemies have made me a stranger in worldly realms and an extraneous inhabitant of the world.

Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter than an unhunted animal does, so have I, persecuted by enemies, found the safest sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath Your tabernacle, where neither friends nor enemies can slay my soul.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless and do not curse them.

They, rather than I, have confessed my sins before the world. They have punished me, whenever I have hesitated to punish myself. They have tormented me, whenever I have tried to flee torments. They have scolded me, whenever I have flattered myself. They have spat upon me, whenever I have filled myself with arrogance. Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Whenever I have made myself wise, they have called me foolish. Whenever I have made myself mighty, they have mocked me as though I were a [fly].

Whenever I have wanted to lead people, they have shoved me into the background.

Whenever I have rushed to enrich myself, they have prevented me with an iron hand.

Whenever I thought that I would sleep peacefully, they have wakened me from sleep.

Whenever I have tried to build a home for a long and tranquil life, they have demolished it and driven me out.

Truly, enemies have cut me loose from the world and have stretched out my hands to the hem of your garment.

Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Bless them and multiply them; multiply them and make them even more bitterly against me:

So that my fleeing will have no return; So that all my hope in men may be scattered like cobwebs; So that absolute serenity may begin to reign in my soul; So that my heart may become the grave of my two evil twins: arrogance and anger;

So that I might amass all my treasure in heaven; Ah, so that I may for once be freed from self-deception, which has entangled me in the dreadful web of illusory life.

Enemies have taught me to know what hardly anyone knows, that a person has no enemies in the world except himself. One hates his enemies only when he fails to realize that they are not enemies, but cruel friends.

It is truly difficult for me to say who has done me more good and who has done me more evil in the world: friends or enemies. Therefore bless, O Lord, both my friends and my enemies. A slave curses enemies, for he does not understand. But a son blesses them, for he understands.

For a son knows that his enemies cannot touch his life. Therefore he freely steps among them and prays to God for them. Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

out of the cold

hello friends...

posting from San Diego, CA and am very happy to be doing so after a FREAKIN' long travel day thanks to Mommie Natura. Our flight from Columbus to Chicago to SD was supposed to be in the 4-5 hours of flight time range...yeah, weather made the whole trip take close to 25 hours. Been a LONG time since I've been awake for 25 hours straight. (Trevor and Lori, you're my heroes)

I'm on the edge of what will be a wild ride of a week. God spoke very loudly last time I was here, and I think He might again. Pray that I'll have the guts to follow through with His words. Listening's not very often the problem; I just tend to chicken out sometimes.

I've already snagged a few books that I'm looking forward to reading and utilizing for study. Even though my travel company is great and the weather here is better, I miss being around my family (both church and home). I plan to put a running list of my book aquisitions and the like on my facebook if you want to keep up. (and make suggestions, Trevor...all the Zondervan stuff is 50% off!!)

I hope to blog more as the week continues with updates, ramblings, and reactions to both speakers and seminars alike.

miss you all...

-rc