Moving to wordpress....

Hey Readers

I will be moving my blogpage to www.nathanaelbaker.wordpress.com

As such this blog will not be updated from now on.

Good Cheer

Sam Ng, a freind of mine has been recently exploring how to social projects in Wellington. His first project he is implementing is Good Cheer. The idea is this:

1. They pick a project – some type of good deed. For example, buy the homeless a hot lunch.
2. They have a sponsor, for example, a local bakery.
3. They have a reward, for example 50% off your next purchase at that local bakery.

The first project was to give out coffees at the Mary Potter Hospice, and they have been so successful that they are thinking of stopping donations.

Best Practice Series

Mosaic starts a new series tonight. Blub below

Budding out of the hope series comes a conversation about the best practices that lead to life. Breaking the idea of “best practice*” out from its cubicle container into the open air of life:

What are the best practices to live life to the fullest?
Sound big?

Don’t worry this is a series of the small practices, the disciplines, the things you build your life around that build us into the best people we can
be.
Series starts August 1st.
Sundays, 5pm at Massey University
Massey, Wellington Campus,
Lvl 1 Student Union Building,
Click here for location map.
Free parking available.

Area 51 Art Panel

Heres the Art panel that we created on Tuesday night.

Expressions of Community

Last night our flat held its flat night. This is a time for us to get together, discuss things, and also have a bit of time hanging out with one another.

Last night we went to work creating a flat panel. This is a colloborative peice of art by us all. What was awesome was to see our different expressions of art come together, to create a beautiful peice of work. We all told different stories, expressed ourselves in different ways on paper, but the story is interconnected and interweaved.

The artwork is to me is a visual expression of our flat, a group of individuals, made out of different brushstokes marks and shadings from thier different journey, who come together to make something new which is beautiful, interwoven and connected.

Hopefully I can put a copy of the artwork up online in the coming days.

Journey of Area 51

I am hoping to do a running set of posts on living in community and in Area 51 (my flat) in particular.
This is because most of my last 6 months has been figuring out how to create a awesome flat culture and community feel in a flat. This has been a dream of mine since I went flatting. I wanted to be about creating a space where people could live well together, caring for one another and growing in relationship with one another.


I moved into Area 51 (our flat) one and a half years ago. We had a pretty cool group of flatties, but we never wrestled with what it means to be a group journeying together. I tried to gain momentum, during the first year, but failed miserably.

At the end of last year, I began discussions with some fellow freinds who live across the road who have created a awesome community of people, who principly came out a church youth group and have now formed a community of 20 people (from both christian and non-christian backgrounds) who are trying to live well in community together. Principly it started a discussion about whether area 51 would like to house members of the community, but also as a way of develioping a flat culture and community in my beloved flat.

At the end of last year, my now good mate, Chris Silvester moved into the flat. Chris' strength is activation, he lives and breaths the ability to create things, and enjoys new expressions. Me and him went about the process of trying to gain momentum in the flat, and then in March our flat began the process of transformation, when Kate another member of the flat community moved in from across the road.

What I have discovered from this experience has so far has been the importance of partnering wtih others with the same vision. I often crave autonomy, but a key principle for facilitating change and creating moment is to partner with others. Real momentum in area 51 was gained when a greater part of the flat held on to the dream and vision for living well in community. Once thisn ocurred we began change.

Newtown Art Collective

My mate Chris Sylvester has set up the Newtown Art Collective. A space where budding Newtown artists can exhibit thier latest works. Check it out.

RandR

This last weekend I went up to Auckland. The reason I went up was to see Rob Bell speak. But due to unexplained reasons this had been cancelled. I had booked cheap flights on Air New Zealand, so decided it was worth me going up and taking some time out from my busy schedule.

What I discovered from taking this short time out was the importance of rest. I have been so busy lately I have not taken stock on whats been going on.

Another great part of the weekend of spending some time in kingsland with Auckland Mosaic, i had the joy of relating with them and their friends, and had some great conversation with people.

A fail was not to get any writing done, but it definitely was a good time to process ans be thankful for rest,

Learning to let Go

I am writing this blog on my phone on the bus as I go to work so please forgive me if there are even more mistakes than normal.

Last night I led Mosaic expressions. The theme was around letting go. It was inspired from me listening loads to the artist Lauryn Hill, and particularly her song "freedom time."

Lauryn Hills music often tells the story of her struggle with fame, the persona that was put on her by the industry and who she really is, and her spiritual jounrey to wholeness. Which she ascribes to letting go of those things the world held dear and focusing on those things that a true wealth.

Galatians 2:20 sums up this nicely; "Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impressed God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine", but it is lived by faith in the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me"

One of the great motiffs in film and culture for letting go is to throw a stone out, i led an activity around that idea.

Activity
What unhealthy practices are you attached to (e.g. Unhealthy self talk, sarcasm. Aloofness, temper tantrums)

What response would you like to cultivate instead?

Throw a stone into thhe water to represent you letting go of the unhealthy practice.

New Zealands explaination on the BP Oil crisis management

Great Satire

Dim-Post has a nice little reflection on the political headline of today. As usual, political satire is often the best way to tell the truth in politics

Lower Hutt based Countdown retail worker Richard Loa announced today that he was deeply embarrassed by revelations that he had been taking items from the store without paying for them. 

Loa, a 41 year old checkout operator and frozen foods section assistant team leader came forward today to admit that over a period of four years working at the Wellington supermarket he had taken home bottles of wine, frozen chickens, vitamin pills and razor blades on a weekly basis
.
‘I now accept that this was wrong and I apologise for it,’ Loa said. ‘In my defense the rules around whether or not I could smuggle out bottles of shampoo in my gym bag were vague and unclear.’

It is understood that Loa came forward after Countdown management announced that they had installed security cameras in the staff changing rooms. These showed footage of Loa eating two large boxes of Lindt chocolates valued at $44 while on breaks during a busy weekend shift.

‘That’s when I decided that coming clean and explaining everything was the right thing to do,’ Loa said, adding. ‘The chocolates were consumed while I was doing my job although I concede that the security footage is not a good look.’

‘I would have paid for the chocolates myself but I didn’t have any cash and it seemed more convenient at the time to stuff them under my shirt and eat them in the toilets,’ Loa explained.

Loa announced that he would repay the value of the chocolates and other items consumed but would not be stepping down from his position as frozen foods assistant team leader.

‘I’ve made a mistake and I’ve done the right thing and fronted up to it,’ Loa said. ‘I acknowledge that it’s not a good look but frozen food placement faces a lot of challenges and I have some exciting ideas on how to tackle them so I’d like to put this whole thing behind me and move on.’

This attitude is not shared by Loa’s employer Progressive Foodstuffs who have dismissed him without notice or by the New Zealand Police who have arrested Loa on five charges of theft.

Mosaic: Originals

Mosaic is holding a artistic showcase Mosaic: Originals, on Saturday 19 June 2010.

The aim is to show off some off wellington's unknown and budding talent, and is including performances from
Andrew Fruean,
Leah Hutchison,
My Dear Watson.

The will also be storytelling, poetry and any other original pieces

Entry is free but donations towards helping Habitat Humanity in Wellington can be made at the door.

The Deets are:
Saturday 19th June, starts 8.00pm
Level 1, Student Centre, Massey University, Entrance E, Tasman Street, Mt Cook

It would be great to see you there

The Jesus Manifesto

I was lucky today to recieve an a not so advanced copy of Len Sweet and Frank Violas latest book Jesus  Manifesto (it came out on the 1st in the State). Following through with the publishers desire, I will blog a few thoughts every few days on the chapter.

The Jesus Manifesto's writers conviction is that Christology is the central to our modus operundi as communities of faith. Sweet and Viola's beleif is for communites of faith to rediscover thier purpose, they must rediscover Jesus. Sweet and Viola state that "to faithfully represent  Jesus in our time requires re-presenting him."

This idea follows through a conviction I hold dear, from some hard learned experience - for us to be faithful to the message of Jesus we must know Jesus and continue to dive into knowing who Jesus is. For us to do this, we often have to cut through layers of filth and grime, put in place by religiousity and past christianese. We often have to become like archeologists cleaning away the grime, to rediscover the beauty beneath. This is often painful. Through the expereince of trying to follow Jesus - I have learned what my prejudices are, where my selfishness plays out, and how far I will really go to care for my neighbour (often not far enough.) I have learned that I continually try to domesticate Jesus, so that I can continue living my blase life.

I am looking forward to reading the rest of this book. Should be interesting

Communication fails...

As some of you I have recently taken up playing ultimate with a group of mates regularly. Its a way to keep me fit and get to know a group of people better.

We had a game yesterday - and some interesting developments occured in this game. Our team was not doing very well and two of our players who were both passionate about the game started to try and sor the issues out. But what happened was an amazing example us failing to communicate. The two were trying to sort out the issues, but began talking past each other. Both were annoyed at each of other and thier team mates as they felt as if they were not being appreciated by the others. 

You could see both players get increasingly frustrated and angry with one another, leading to a failure in our performance as a team.

 What was interesting was how the conflict permeated through the rest of our team as we were playing. Another member of my team, who was suffering from a bad cold did something that on the face of it was small but was blown up to needing a negative remark.  Another player at the end of the game was remarking with disconcertion about the fact that everything was being blown out of proportion for what was a social game.

The lack of cohesion in our team was a result of our lack of communication. We had no communication for most of the game. When we did communicate and talk and take stock, we played loads better and scored some great points.

Communication is so key for community, and for teams. We need to learn to be healthy communicators, this means being proactive listeners and sensitive communicators with one another.

Gulf Coast oil spill

This is a useful site for comparing the significance of the Gulf Coast disaster - 
http://paulrademacher.com/oilspill/#

I have created one for Wellington, New Zealand, my home city, here - 
http://paulrademacher.com/oilspill/#Wellington

The Challenge

Ok, I will let you, my readers into a little secret. I want to write a book, it may not be published, but I want to write a book.

I have decided I will use some of the material that I produced during my time doing lent this year.

The challenge for you is to identify which posts from the lent series were your favourite, and let me know why. You can either email me, or put your posts up on the blog.

Feel free to identify any other blogs that I have written as well.

Peace out.

Nathanael

Untitled

Look at all creation, it is good. God created it for his pleasure.

Look at yourself, past the outwards appearance, past your inward feelings of awkwardness and anxiety, you were created by a loving God, for his good purposes.

To be someone of change

You are more than just a number to God, more than just an avid consumer, to be had by the market. You are his child, to be in relationship.

God he sees past the pimples, the freckles, the blochy makeup.

God loves to see your inquisitiveness, he loves to see you create, make. He loves seeing you grow.

New eyes

I wrote this poem for an expressions session a couple of weeks ago back for Mosaic. I don't really think its that good, I was stressed and tired when I wroted this poem, and the next poem, but I thought I would share them with the world anyway.

Fresh eyes

Have new eyes – see the world through kids eyes.

When a kid views the world, they see unseen possibilies.

When an adult looks at chairs and tables, they see them as objects to sit on. When a kid sees a chair and table, he sees the possibility to build a fort to fight away his enemies, and to hang with their friends.

When an adult sees a pile of mud, they see a inconvenient pile of mud, when a kid sees this mud, he ses the ability to make mud pies.

When we see lines, we see constraints, kids don’t worry about the lines, they see the possibilities

Sexy Coal

Dismantling Me

Dismantle me Lord.
Make me new-
take the scales out of my eyes, make me see a new again
Let me have fresh eyes, for all your creative beauty

Let me not view the world through my eyes -
damaged through years of cynicism.
my eyes which have become too sensitive to your light and beauty.
replace them, be the optometrist.
give me new eyes,

Let me see the beauty in those who mourn, let me see beauty in the poor. Let me see beauty in those who long for justice, let me not see the beauty in those who long for you.
Let me not focus on the temporary, but focus on that which is last, faith love and hope

Performance - Les Murray

I starred that night, I shone:
I was footwork and firework in one,

a rocket that wriggled up and shot
darkness with a parasol of brilliants
and a peewee descant on a flung bit;
I was busters of glitter-bombs expanding
to mantle and aurora from a crown,
I was fouéttes, falls of blazing paint,
para-flares spot-welding cloudy heaven,
loose gold off fierce toeholds of white,
a finale red-tongued as a haka leap:
that too was a butt of all right!

As usual after any triumph, I was
of course, inconsolable.

from
Subhuman Redneck Poems, 1996

Reflections on a banquet meal

..."A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, 'Come, for everything is now ready.' But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.' And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.' And another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.' So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, 'Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.' And the servant said, 'Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.'   And the master said to the servant, 'Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.  For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.'" (Luke 16-12)

Jesus once described the kingdom of God as a feast that we are invited to. At Mosaic last night we were asked to reflect on this, and write dear God responses to God on the feast. Here are my responses:

• Dear God, I find it hard to give up my own agenda, I mean, isn't this party all about me. But it isn't its about celebrating you.
• Dear God, you put so much effort into this moment, and I take it all for granted. I should be grateful that I was even invited. 
• Dear God, the food is so good, I have never had food so tasty, the ambiance is amazing. I should have invited my friends.
• Dear God, why are there so many hookers and junkies at this party, I can deal with there being respectable people. But the person over there, he was throwing up on the street last night. You deserve more than these folk. It would be easier if the person sitting next to me didn't should out obscene words every couple of minutes. I then look at myself, I am just the same, maybe I don't want to look at my own reflection. That I don't deserve this as much as everyone else in this room.

Dim Post on Daylight Saving

Danyl from Dim Post Blogs

Setting my clocks back this morning had me thinking about what a great little trick daylight savings is for maximizing use of sunlight hours, but also how impossible it would be to bring in such a scheme today: Labour would launch a protest bus tour (‘Stop the Clock!’), the Business Round Table and CIS would insist that we had to set our clocks forward a thousand hours to catch up with Australia, Herald columnists would thunder about Wellington bureaucrats kidnapping the sun for an extra hour every night, the unions would strike for the right to set their clocks back two hours. The government would compromise and set clocks back five minutes for a week in mid-June.

Reflections of Jesus' Feetwashing

John 13:4-5

…[Jesus] got up from the table, took off
his outer robe, and tied a towel around
himself. Then he poured water into a
basin and began to wash the disciples’
feet and to wipe them with the towel
that was tied around him

I got to admit, the story of Jesus washing his disciples is pretty weird to me. To a western christian who lives in the west - why was the experience of washing feet so important, and what does it mean for me today.

Unlike today, feet in Jesus's time were the prime mode of transport, particularly for peasants living in the backwater part of a backwater country in the Roman empire. Jesus and his band of disciples would have spent all day walking down the roman roads, in only their sandles.

The muck the disciples received on thier feet represented the journey they had been on during the day, the collection of activities they had been in, both the good and bad. In this act, Jesus connected personally with the past journey of the disciples, and served them in an intimate way.

I wonder if the closest thing to this in our day to day life, would be going to each of our neighbours, and serve them by putting thier rubbish out. Collecting the materials and rubbish that they have collected on thier journey and serve them, in such connecting intimately with them.

All I know, is that people struggle with being served, it strikes at our autonomy as people, especially in the west. We personally beleive that we can get on on our own, and that also other people can cope on thier own as well.

Peters reaction was the same, he remarked - Rabbi, do not clean my feat. One because he thought it was below Jesus to do so, but also because he was embarrased at what Jesus would discover in cleaning his feat. In doing so Jesus intimately connected with his servants and actively showed that to be a follower we are to serve those around us humbly.

In serving, we intimately connect with the needs of those around us. We show people that they have worth in thier humanity. Serving is an act of love that brings shalom to those around us.

Take time to look, and take in. What are the needs that people are facing around you, how can you serve your neighbours. Maybe the first act is to introduce yourself to your neighbours?

What would be an act in our time, similar to cleaning the disciples feet? 

Those who understand grace are full of grace...

While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the
home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman
came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume,
made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the
perfume on his head. Some of those present were
saying indignantly to one another, "Why this waste
of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a
year's wages and the money given to the poor." And
they rebuked her harshly.

"Leave her alone," said Jesus. "Why are you bothering
her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor
you will always have with you, and you can help them
any time you want. But you will not always have me.
She did what she could. She poured perfume on my
body beforehand to prepare for my burial." (NIV) 

As a young kid, I remember looking forward to the gifts that I got for christmas and birthday, I remember looking forward to getting a electronic brick game, which I cherished for years after, or when I got my first bycicle. I remember being blown away by these presents, as a result I wanted to cherish the joy with a freinds and family, sharing the expereince with others.

When we read the story of the women who anointed Jesus, we often focus in on her and her possible trangression. But we fail to see the heart of the story. This women notices Jesus is the ultimate gift to humanity, and comes to show the whole room who is in the midst.

This lady, who we think is involved in a form of dodgy vocation, notices something that none of the religious people in the room notice, that Gods agent salvation is in the room, and he is offering a gift for anyone who comes and takes on his new way to live.

The women is grateful and shows her gratefulness through pooring expensive purfume on Jesus's feet and washing his head. The lady recognises that Jesus is someone special and shows her gratefulness to him through the ultimate act.

I beleive that Gracefulness results from understanding grace, taking the time to realise our brokeness, excepting it and then being thankful for it, and acting on it.This may mean doing something crazy to show our awe at what was done on the cross. But, "As a writer of an artical I was reading confesses ... "I am not so sure I am that guy. When I read about the actions of this unnamed woman in Mark 14, I find it easy to wonder about the fiscal responsibility of her actions..." I am too focused on my needs, I do not comprehend the fact that my father in heaven did everything he could do for me, so that I could find shalom. I often think I am alright, that I can rely on myself at best, often I forget the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus made by dying on a cross for the whole world.

Take some time to think about the salvation act this easter and allow yourself to take some time to be thankful. Do something crazy to show your thankfulness.

Reading the Paper is painful

I read the paper last night and it had the stories of the hardship that people are facing in the depression. According to the media, Wellington's food banks are running bear and there is increasing pressure on this.

I can't help but get upset about this. I can not get upset at the New Zealand government, its not just thier responsiblity to deal with social issues, but I do get upset at myself, for being apathetic to the pain people face in thier life.

I make excuses not to engage all the time, I don't have the time resource, money. But in reality, I am a lot richer than most people, I just prioritise my resources in a way that bring benefit to what I see as most important.

Often it is my need for pleasure, I need to dress well, eat well, be happy with the way others see me, and in the way I do so, I show that I am more important than others around me. Rather than giving up my resources, I can often desire to put myself first above others.

I need to engage in dealing with the poor and the lonely, to bring health to my own life, my modus operandi cannot be myself, but always looking to bring redemption to those on the outter.

Reflections on the peacemaker

Tonight, my friend Phil told the story of a freind of his who works in the field of brokering peace in some of the worlds most troubled hotspots. In the story, the person gave himself up to say that spy to stop a town from being masecred by a genocidal regime as it was the only way to save the town. As a result he was held captive and tortured.

To save this town, he had to sacrifice himself.

Our sacrifice for peace is not often like this, but it will be costly, it may be giving up time to help a signgle mother, it may be spending time with refugees, it may be stepping out and confronting a bully who is bullying our best mate, it may just be taking in orphans and treating them as our own. But it will be costly.

Phil told another story, of how his mate was arrested for armed robbery, and asked him to journey with him in his healing process. Phil reluctantly agreed to journey with him through a five year painful process while he was in prison, while the painful mending process occured. Phil knew that the time would be a sacrifice and costly, but also wanted to love his friend.

Redemption is costly, Jesus showed this by the most epic example of sacrifice and love through going through death on the Cross.While it is costly, it has eternal conssequences, the healing act of redemption has greater returns than the cost ever has.

some views from a conversation on money

Today I had an interesting conversation with a flat mate, it was interesting how quickly both of us took positions on the subject, the subject was money and the use of money by the flat. I got defensive and went about taking a position, which I wanted to argue was right no matter what.

I realised after this conversation, how big an issue we can make the issue of money in our lives, I think most of the time I have a healthy view of the subject, but I realised from the conversation, that my view still needs work and needs to change.

Money is a taboo in our culture, we don't talk about it openly. It is interesting whenever I hear a subject on finances from anyone, I often get agitated, and defensive. We are often individualistic about money, viewing it as "ours" to be used for our own pleasure.

Living in a flat or community, you come onto the conundrum - how do you view the resource as needing to be used for the benefit of the community, how do you use it, and how are you a good steward of that money?

Forgiveness is healing

Forgiveness to me is an essential part of peace making, because it is the medicine to our pain.

I beleive that forgiveness is key to healing both the pains in the human journey, but also in criminal law national conflict and internation conflict.

Many people have believe that Justixe can only happen through retributive means - people beleive that the one who does, I beleive that the justice to be truly justice has to be restorative rather than purely about punishment for ones actions. The type of justice Jesus promotes in the scriptures in one that says, yes you are broken, yes you  have done wrong, there are consequences, but I will do all I can to show you that you have worth, that you can recieve restoration.

I think one of the most powerful examples of restorative Justice was the truth and reconciliation commission in South Africa. The commission was set up at the end of te brutal  unjust era of racism in South Africa, and was the brain child of the leader Nelson Mandela and one of the great peace activists, Desmond Tutu. One of the stories was how a lady confronted a secret police officer, who had killed her family members. In response to his brutality, she responded by saying that she would treat him  like family, and show him love and forgivenss. This story made me cry when I first heard it, and showed me that while we need to confront violence and brutality, we also need to allow for redemption as well.

My freind  recently told a story at Mosaic of how him and his brother got caught shoplifting when they were overseas. They were arrested and taken to the jail for thier actions as little kids. They waited for the grilling of thier parents. Thier father came and signed the papers and took them home. On the ferry home, they waited for the oncoming judgement. Their father opened his mouth, and told them how he too had been caught shoplifting and he had to deal with the shame of being caught. He finisehd by saying "lets not tell your mother about this." His act was an act of grace to these two boys, and showed redemption. He confronted the issue, but allowed for wholeness and forgiveness to reign.

Too often we stew, we beleive that punitive action is the best way forward, we do need to confront injustice, and the pain caused by selfishness, greed, wrongdoing, but we have to do it in a way that is understanding, and is forgiving, allowing the person to confront the wrong they have done, but also moving on, showing grace.

This is harder said than done, as I said, I often get caught up on the small things, and let those wrongs stew, I don't know how it would be to forgive a murderer. But I realise the cry of Gods heart is that we forgive and show redemption. This is the only way we can find healing ourselves.

How many conflicts in the world could have been stopped if the injustice was confronted gracefully, realising it is wrong, but also pushing for redemption? How do we confront the wrongs in our lives with grace and long? What resentment do I need to face in my live.

Forgiveness is....

.... difficult.

For me personally, I think I can get caught up on the most petty issues. Someone will say a snarky comment and brood on it, and take to heart and stew on the wrongs that people

I remember a freind once saying in a talk that resentment is a poison that kills both people. Its a lose-lose situation, and we can not find emotional, spiritual or relational health by resenting people. We will become more unhealthy, and the pressure will build up in our lives, destoying not only the relationship we had with one person, but creating bars in the relationships we have with others.

Last week, I read a story as part of expressions to the Mosaic Crew. It was a story from the life of Corrie Ten Boon. Corrie Ten Boon was a dutch christian who during the second world war who was imprisoned in the  Ravensbrück concentration camp for housing Jews. She tells the story of meeting one of the gaurds after the war who imprisoned her and was responsible for the brutality she faced in prison. She tells of how she struggled with a moment where he asked for her forgiveness. She had to rely on the grace and power of God to extend her hand in forgiveness. As she did this she felt the love of God sweep over her and her former gaurd.

I think forgiveness is really difficult, but as people, we are called to it. I beleive the only way for people to receive restoration is through forgiveness.

Practicing peacemaking means forgiving people, no matter how big the crime they have made against us.

Jesus's example is ultimate.. He went to the ends of himself to show Gods love for humanity, and extend the hand of grace to all the world. He showed ultimate forgiveness for our trangressions against God. Forgiveness is a grace filled gift, we struggle to give it, but we need to give it to find health. Who is there who you need to forgive in your life?

Congratulations Obama!

I have watched with fear over the last few months the debate on Obama's healthcare bill. I feared that obama would go down in history with both Clinton and Jimmy Carter as pretty ineffectual presidents, who promised much, but did not deliver.

I am glad for the people of America that they now have a public healthcare, it may be modest, but it is a much better than having nothing.

To be honest, most western democracies have watched in confusion at the fact that the U.S.A was confused over a public healthcare option. Most western democracies have public healthcare, provided by the state. Sure it may not be perfect, but I am happy that people will receive the help they need at the time they are most vulnerable. To be honest, this is 15 years too late, and its a shame that Clinton never got through his healthcare bill.

Obama has been couragious in passing this bill, especially in a time of fiscal hardship and deficits and for the fact that it has damaged his political approval ratings so much.. It is much needed. It will be interesting to see what will come next from Obama's presidency.

Community = sharing life together, no matter what

I went and watched a group of friends play ultimate today, it was the final game of their season. I enjoyed hanging out with this group. Particularly hanging out with my friends joel and kates little kid ania going on walks and playing games with her.

Communty for me equals committing yourself to journeying with a group of people and sharing life with them, no matter what, both the good the bad and ugly. In community we have to be willing to open up, be willing to share with others, and then be willing to let others share with us.

This is difficult, I know sometimes there are people in my own spheres of community, who I can find it really difficult to relate to and I do not really want to share with. One big challenge for me is to process through issues with people when they come up,  rather than hold them in.

The most powerful moments are those moments that gell a community together, these events are often those that shake the community up. Early last year we had an event like that happen. It was interesting to see how the community process through, praying for those affected, listening to one another, coming closer together to care through the grief we went through. For those involved it was an eye opening view on how good community can work and how good community can be a testiment to the love of christ.

As you know, I beleive that we were created to live in community with one another, and that only through community we can find health.

One of my favourite memories of our community was when Mosaic organised a party for my good mates Justin and Lacey before they went home to get married. It was great as it allowed us to involve Justin and Laceys network of freinds be involved in celebration of Justin and Lacey wedding and life together and show our appreciation for thier involvement in the community. The night was one where we could celebrate together and show off what sharing life together really emans 

I beleive that a healthy community is one that can laugh together, celebrate together, grieve together,create together. I beleive that as we figure out how to be community we begin to discover how to be truly human.

Questions without answers....

Last night, my good friend lacey blass led expressions. She talked about how we often focus as Christian on what the answers, rather than on the question. In our world, we love to pin things down, have answers. Not having answers scares people, because in our world, having an answer means we contain something - we can label it and control it.

We were given bunch of photos and we were to create creative questions around it. My one was of a lady in a lab with a giant bug behind me. The questions that came to mind mind were.

- If I was a bug, how far could I climb and how high could I jump.
- How would I view the world I I was a bug.
- What would my natural impulses be as a bug.
- Would my personality be any different if I was a bug (if all my experiences etc were transposed into a bug)

I have any interesting relationship with questions and questioning. When I was in my late teens, early 20's. I struggled with questioning. I had a beleif that as christians we should have all the answers, and if we didin't have the answers, we were somewhat doubting thomas' and we should review our faiths and confess our doubt. But, as I have grown older, I have realised, more and more, that the mature response is questions. God tells us to come to him like a child, have you ever seen a child, they are taking every moment, and they ask the most awesome questions, they dumbfound many adults through the questions we ask.

My flatmates girlfriend was over the yesterday, reading the bible trying to figure out a bible peice to do an exegesis on for a university paper. It was interesting listen to her questions, for some reason I wanted to answer them, and I did, try and answer them. I realised afterwards I was missing the opportunity to allow those questions to knaw at me, to come to new understandings, rather than answer out of what was really imperfect knowledge. For example why, oh why does the gospel of Mark only have passing mention of the ressurection of Jesus, when we hold it out as a key message of the christian faith?

What are the questions going on in my own life, we heres a flavour of the questions.

- How can I be a peacemaker, when I do not like someone and want to punch them out?
- How can I allow peace reign in my life?
- If God is a God of Justice, why is there so much hunger in the world?
- Why do I find it so hard to engage with pain in peoples lives? How do I leave the comfort zone, and become an agent of peace in the lives around me?

Growing the muscle of hospitality

Area 51 (my flat) hosted a 21st party last night for my flatmates freinds boyfriend. It was a real interesting night and a real interesting crowd from a whole lot of different backgrounds. Nate-dawg (the guy I was talking about last week) was invited and came along and many other people with no christian background came along.

On wenesday night, we were talking about peacemaking, and the need to be in proximity with people if we are going to be peacemaker. We are going to have to relate to those who are seen as outcast, or unrespectable in our culture.

For me the first step is opening up my flat to those around me, and being hospitable,  to develop the muscle of sharing the place that I live with others and to share my life with others.

I really enjoy hosting a cool party, and it was good to provide the place, to serve in ways when I could to help provide an inviting environment to those who were there.

Hospitality is a key value of Christianity, Christians became well known for sharing their lives with the lost and lonely, and it was a key reason for the growth of the early church. As a christian, I want to continue to give my time and effort to share with those who come across my path, to break out of the moulds, and share life in real ways with people no matter thier background.

Reflections on Travel

I spend a lot of my life travelling for my job. Every couple of weeks I fly on a plane around new zealand. Usually to the Bay of Plenty. Travelling for me is an interesting experience, my best moments are those in which I get to have an interesting comversation with someone about a subject that interests them.

There are a few stories that stick out to me. One was the day I had a taxi ride to the airport with a iranian taxi driver. The driver talked for the whole time with passion about his home country, his countries history, his pain at the current regime, and his pain at how the western media reports on his country.

Another time I was travelling down to Nelson and I ended up sitting next a seasprite captain, who told me about training sorties and crazy stuff he got up to,

Personally I love hearing stories from the people I meet. I have the joy of sharing stories and getting provided with interesting relationship advice from kuia and kaumatua around the central north island.

One of my favourite moments is at Rotorua Atirport, on a still day, lookimg out at Mokoia Island, it is just beautiful, it often reminds me that God can create beauty from what we think are destructive events (Lake Rotorua is a result of an eruption some thousands of years ago, Mokoia is an expression of cooled magma.)

Take in the moments in life, they can teach you alot. Make time to listen to the person sitting next to you. You have a new experience every time.

Expressions - 17 March 2010

At Mosaic today I set up a focal point, it some broken glass, some stones, and some broken ceramics for people to reflect on.

I had the following verses as thought provoke.

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. And his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide disputes by what his ears hear, but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of his waist, and faithfulness the belt of his loins. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples--of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.

Isa 11:1-10

I asked the following questions.

Look at the glass, pottery and stones, how do they make you feel, what do they make you think of?

Look at the glass pottery and stones in front of you, how would use to create something beautiful?

What injustice can you see around you that you need to tackle?

 What is a pain in your life that you need to let go of?

Is there an issue in your life or in friend or counterparts life that you need to confront to help them to health.

expressions on expressions

Today I led Expressions at Mosaic. Expressions time is the time where we express where Mosaic is individually and collectively with God and the world around us.

I have been part of the expressions since its inception, it has been one of the most difficult and rewarding journeys for me as part of Mosaic.

I do not think I am inherently creative, I struggle to turn the ideas in my head into something that can be presented, I will often wrestle with an idea for a whole week, before I start even preparing for expressions, then it takes me a few days to come up with something to present to the group, and I am always nervous that the whole thing is going to bomb. My flat mates must find it funny that I say a week leading out that I'm preparing for expressions, and the night before I am often still wrestling with what I am going to do on the evening (either on paper, or in my head.)
 
One thing I have learned from expressions is that you never, ever no what you are going to get. I may think through a conceprt and get a totally different reaction that I expected. I get crying, i get depression, I get hope, I get left feild ideas that I never expected when I came up with the idea. Its part of the excitement of leading expression. 

I also beleive that expressions has to be inherently participatory, I am a great holder on to that idea. I hold it as a fundamental principle. I have seen numerous great ideas fail in expressions (including my own), because people don't create a moment for people to interact. It is essential concept, and invites people in to express what is going on in thier lives, and the life of the community. I will stop, listen, and create moments so that people can express, and I am learning to do that conciously. I beleive in the concept of listening first, before talking.

The Nothing

When I was a kid, one of my favourite movies was  The Neverending Story which is based around the tale of a boy. The main premise of the story is that the world of fantasia is been destroyed by a mysterious force, the nothing. Early on in the story, a rockeater describes the fact that rocks don't taste like anything anymore and that they have lost thier flavour.

In the story the nothing represents our apathy, lack of imagination and dispair at the present order. Bastian, the human reading the story must save the world of fantasia by using his imagination to restore it back to former glory.

In my journey, I have often fallen into the the trance of the nothing, not pushing for apathy, and looking to create something new, something fresh. Or like at the moment, I am use the excuse of busyness to stop me from taking time out to think, to dream and create.

We are called to be part of kingdom building, because Jesus called us to be creative, people who pushed the boundaries.

We are often blinded by our fear that if we break the mould, we will look different from those around us. Or that if we fail we will fail badly and it will be unreperapable. But I beleive that if we honestly try out of a good heart, with a good Idea, that Gods grace will be there to pick us up. By trying, we will be stronger, growing in character as we do.

The call of Jesus is to be radical, to create, to imagine, to dream and show humanity redemption and bring redemption to all creation.

Dont fall into the trance of the nothing, be part of building Gods kingdom.

The courage to find health

And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, "If I touch even his garments, I will be made well." And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my garments?" And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, 'Who touched me?'" And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease."
(Mar 5:25-34)





I reread this story today, and I was struck by the courage of this little old lady. The lady had been suffering from bleeding for years, she had suffered physically with pain associated from her ailment, but also the pain of being made a social outcast as she was ceremonally unclean.

This little old lady broke the mores and went towards Jesus touched him and was healed.

One thing that is in about men is that we are hopeless at asking for help. I remeber about a year and a half ago, I got a bad bout of food poisoning, which lasted a week. The reason it lasted so long, was that I did not go to the doctor for the first couple of days. I thought (maybe out of delusion from the fever) that I could tough it through on my own. It was when I realised that i was not getting any better and was getting particularly weak and dehydrated, that I was convinced by the Crawfords (who I was boarding with at the time) that I should go to the doctor. Soon as I started taking the antibiotics, I got better.

It is like this so many times in our life, we faiil to take the steps to health. We know there is somethinbg out of kilter, it may be we suffer from anxiety, we are addicted to porn, we are addicted to substances, we suffer from loneliness, we are consumers, etc etc, and we fail to take the time to ask for help.

The cry for help is seen as a sign as weakness, but I think its a sign of courage, courage to say that we are human, that we want to be better people. Courage and faith that we know there is a better, healthier way to live than we have been.

Dealing with my prejudices

Today was the second part in Mosaics peacemakers series. Phil gave a very challenging talk on dealing with prejudices in our life. He told the story of Jesus with the women at the well. In this story Jesus steps in and brings redemption to a samaritan women despised by society for being a loose women. By talking to the Samaritan women, Jesus broken every cultural and religious more about interactions with the outcast.

Phil challenged us with the thought that those who don't conciously realise that they can be preducial (in any form) are unconciously not dealing with the fact that they are being such.

I know that I am prejudicial, I know when I see someone who walks down the street who doesn't fit the mold of what people should look like, sound like, I can totally dismiss them. I do not want to take the first step to relate to them, they have to "earn" the right for me to relate to them. I conciously have to work against these horrible, selfish thoughts, to challenge them

If you have ever been in Newtown, you may have seen a tall lanky guy, who wears a mettalica t-shirt and has a fetish with coke. He drinks coke constantly. His name is Nathan, or is affectionately called Nate-dog by those who know him. When I first came to newtown, I thought he was pretty exentric and never really expected to even start to get to know him, and unconciously I didin't want him in my space.

But I have been recently bumping into him and slowly getting to know him, I hope that one day he knows me by name (a priviledge which takes a while as hes very forgetful.) I was having lunch over the road from my house on Rintoul St in Newtown, and Nathan came over to say hi and he was sharing his coke with people in the room. He wanted the scones I had on my plate that I had made for lunch. I said sure, and handed him a couple.

The challenge is to think about this at the first instance, it has taken me ages to get to this point in my mind with Nathan, why? Why? What is my right to define the worth of anyone? God says that we are all his children, we are all his workmanship, created in his image, to do good works for his joy. Why do we look and define people in our own eyes?

I need to work on this one, I have a lot to learn about what it means to deal with the predjudices I have in my life.

Are you Mary or Martha

In the gospels, there is an intriguing story. One day, Jesus goes to two of his followers place, mary and martha. They greet him and let him in. Martha goes about the house, cleaning, getting ready Jesus' favourite cookies, and other such things to be a hospitable house. She gets stressed trying to make the place spick and span for Jesus. While Mary goes and sits at Jesus's feet and listens. Martha gets upset at the fact that Mary isn't helping out, and goes to Jesus explains her distress that Mary helping. Jesus told Martha she was in fact anxious and making herself anxious on being preoccoppied with what did not matter.

This story came into my mind at prayers this week. My prayer was that we would be like mary and take the time to stop, listen to God, his heart for the world and not be affraid to do so.

I know I am often keen to do more, not to take the time to listen, to take in Gods heart.

We often think if we do more, we will be more rightious, if we serve in more ways, we will gain rightiousness. But if we do this to save face, we will run ourselves raggard, and become anxious pained people, for no reason, for the fact we need to save face. Rather than spending time with Jesus, listening to his heart

Jesus' call is that if we are to be the people we are called to be people who live out passionate lives, lives that are full of grace, full of action. But we need to come need to remember to to take time to be, to listen to God and reflect, or we will become anxious people.

A prayer for the day

Lord I pray that I would be wise, I want to be an ambassador of you in all my life, let me come and listen to you, abba. Lord let me be countercultural and rest when I need rest. Lord let me be countercultural and take steps out to defend to poor and lonely. Lord let me be couragious in the way I live.

The Peacemaker experiment

My mate Justin came up with a great idea for the Peacemaker series for Mosaic, the first experiment is to fight a small fire - read below to find out.

The first assignment is to take a little step to help bring wholeness in someone else or in you (essentially fight a small fire). A good place to start would be listening closely to those around you or just reflection. Here is some food for thought:

Is there something you have meant to do (for someone or yourself) for a long time but just haven’t carved out the time?

Is there a nagging in your gut about something you have wanted to say or do to make amends or rekindle a friendship?

Is there someone you feel you need to forgive?

Small fires are the little things that cause brokenness in us and our relationships. This is an experiment and so don’t feel the need to participate if you’re really not in the space. Experiments are made for discovery so please share you experience with us. You don’t have to share what you did or but maybe what you discovered along the way about the process or about humanity or God. Happy peace making!

Rightous Anger

"And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons."




I was struck recently by the qoute of my freind Phil Crawford recently at a core meeting of Mosaic, he said that often we veiw God through the eyes of grace, we don't focus on God the peacemaker, a God who rightiously defends the weak and lonely. The God who does his darnest to defend the outcast, to bring grace to the foreigner.




When we read the Gospels, we often read them through our 21st centuary eyes and if you are from a christian background, you read the gospels with scales on your eyes built up from years and years of hearing the story and developing a film of ideas the cloggs your vision. When I read the story of Jesus and the temple, I first go, thats interesting, forgetting its importance. At best I think, that strange, Jesus the son of God is having a tantrum, what does that mean for me?

Now context time. If you know a little about the Herodian Temple, you will know that there were a number of areas, there was the centre of the temple "the holy of hollies", which was the most sacred place in the temple, then there was the Court of the Priests, where the priests of the temple would do sacrifices, then there was the court of the isrealites, this was exclusively set aside for Jewish men to enter, then there was the court of women, for women to enter, then finally there was the court of the gentiles, where Gentiles were able to go in. The whole temple compound was considered holy (shown by the fact orthodox jews pray to this day at the wailing wall.

The place where the money changers were selling goods was the court of the Gentiles. Jesus was angry for I beleive a couple of reasons, one, these money changers were taking advantage of poor people. Mark specifically notes that in his gospel that Jesus overturned the tables of those who were selling pigeons. In the torah, it stated that if you were not wealthy enough to bring a lamb you could bring a pigeon to sacrifice instead. The point of the sacrifice system was to worship God not earn a quick buck at the sake of the poor,, and Jesus took his anger out of the commercialisation of what was meant to be sacred.

I also beleive Jesus was angry because the only area where Gentiles could come had been taken over by money lenders. It stopped Gentiles from joining in on the grace that God offered them. By doing this, the religous leaders were going against Gods call on Isreal to be a light to all nations, as they had stopped access to the gentles to this.

We often do not take this story seriously and forget its importance. But in all the gospels, this story signals the demise of Jesus. Jesus completely pisses off the authorities, they are scared by the revolutionary nature of his message and worried that he will lead to their demise.

We are currently doing a series at Mosaic called the peacemaker, focusing in on the life of Jesus, how he was a peacemaker and the call on our lives to be a peacemaker. Peacemaking does not mean we are nice people, it means we fight for justice, for the underdog, we care for the lonely and hungry. It may mean we rankle the powers to get our point across, that Jesus is a saviour who is passionately for the poor and the brokenhearted and as his followers, we are too called to be for the poor and brokenhearted.

The challenge put down at Mosaic this week was look out for the small fires in our life, the small injustices that occur, but really represent bigger issues in the world, and when are put together look like one huge fire. The call was to be courageous and take it on.

What is a small forest fire in your life?

On the bus seeing injustice

I caught the bus home today. I was getting on to the bus today and there was a guy in front of me, fully tatooed and not really all there. He got up to give money to the bus driver, the bus driver said, no I can smell glue on you, no you are not getting on my bus. I will call the cops.

For me this was a shocking experience, I know the guy in front of me was totally out of it, but the way the bus driver treated the guy I felt a druming sense that this was wrong.

Ok get me logic, I know what your thinking here, but he's been sniffing glue, well yeah the guy wasn't well, and he is doing something hurtful to his body. But it doesn't seem that different to me than a person getting on the bus late at night, fully out of it on alcohol.  I felt like the man was treated like he wasn't human by that bus driver, and likely creating further brokenness in his life.

I wish I said something, or at least provided me disproval to the bus driver by taking the next bus to show solidarity to my fellow human, no matter how broken the person.

Who's your designer?

...You are all sons of God through faith
in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were
baptized into Christ have clothed
yourselves with Christ...


I am not a big fashion fanatic. the closest I get to being fashionable is wearing a few random printed r-ahirts with ideas that I think are cool. But I do have an appreciation about fashion. I understand that designers have thier own style and flare. Some designers get know for the intricacy of their designs, or the way that they push boundaries with thier dresses and clothes. People will wear the brand because it is worth something to them. People wear Vasace or Karen Walker, or World because they recognise the hard work that the designers have put into the clothes and appreciate them for the all the hard work they put in and what they do for fresh ideas.

We are driven by the trends around us, we look at what is considered great and quest after this. How we costume ourselves throught dress is often the way  we define it. We dress ourselves to get the attention of those around us, either as trend setters, or as the sheep following the trend setter. But how we dress is often how we get our worth in society. I got to admit, that to gain the attention of freinds, when I was younger I beleive I probrably would have dressed like a bogan if people were dressing that way too (even though now I would look back very embarassed at dressing that way.) I still conform to the way people want me to dress to gain attention and status

I see God as a great designer, and he offers the finest tapestries of all (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control and other accessories.) Yet we have decided that we value other designs over Gods perfect mastership. He offers us awesome gear, yet we pursue something of less worth as we see the cost as too much. Or we buy the rip off brand name item (religion) over the real macciy (a relationship with the master craftman).

Do we value the tapestries that God offers us, are willing to give into his desires for our life, or do we want to dress as a bogan for the rest of our life.

Sacred Normality

Who would ever have thought, this moment, sitting on my couch could be sacred. God turns up in the most unexpected moments, he takes hold, to show his character to those around him. In a moment that seems utterly mundane, the God of ultimate glory can show his face and bring in the beauty.

I have been thinking about how we have set the bar too high for God. We create elaborate sets, have highly produced songs and music, but God is sitting on the couch waiting for us to just have a coffee with him and hang out. We sing about we desire for him, but he is hungry for us to hang out with the poor and the outcast. We try to create elaborate artwork, but God just wants us to go and take in the breadth of the beauty he has created in the world.

I have been thinking of the story of the Elijah and the Baal prophets. Elijah meets up with this gang of prophets and lays down the beat, prove that your Gods are true by starting a fire. You say, we thats easy, just get some matches and some wood. No no, it was a little more difficult than that, no matches, no propane lighters, It had to be pure prayer. The Baal prophets come and do thier moves - singing and dancing up a storm for thier god, Baal. Nothing happens, they begin cutting themselves and doing other things to get thier god to show its power. But nothing happens.

Elijah gets up, he puts water on the rocks, and creates a nice little wet area. Now you got to think, this aint too smart, how is he going to start a fire. But he prays to God, and the simple act God moves and acts. Very different from the way we often shake and bake to try and get God  to act.

Jesus showed us how close we are to the sacred in our life, when he took a few peices of bread and some wine, left over from dinner and declared them to be his body and blood. That when we took these two simple emblems, these two very normal things, we were partaking together in remembering the ultimate moment, where Jesus sacrificed himself to heal the world.

Iif God is present in our lives, are we remembering that he is there, are we allowing him to interact with the mundane and allowing to make it beautiful?

How can you live simply, in a way that allow yourself to interact with the God all creation in your everyday moments?

The Gift of Rest

Rest is interesting, I often view it as an obstruction to my life, I view it as an obstruction to being productive, and getting the things that I need to do done.

In our world, we push our bodies to the max, the successful person is the one who can get the most sales, the best numbers at work, the most milestones in thier workplace. We aim to get the maximum out of ourselves, viewing our body as a resource that can be taken for granted, used and abused. We live for the bottom line, for the profit, while forgetting that there is a bigger picture. We live exhausted lives, and think that it is the way to live, not realising that it is unhealthy.

Rest is needed for us. We did a reflection on sleep at Mosaic tonight. Sleep is an amazing moment in our lives. It allows us to to recover, to heal and defrag from the day. Our group reflected on the fact of how anxious we would be in our lives if we did not sleep. The act of sleeping allows us to actually process through issues and gives us a sense of clarity when we wake up. It is no wonder that people who do not sleep can end up irrational or end up suffering from psychosis.

Rest makes us realise we are human, that we are not god like.

Often the sabbath has been viewed as a religious activity, but in fact, it is a gift, a gift to be taken to help us recover, to reflect, to remove the tanons from our mind and to heal from the pains inflicted from the week.

Rest is hard in our world, we are pushed to stretch ourselves. We are told to work longer, harder for a more profitable economy, for the sake of the health of our communities, but we need to rest, it is a spiritual discipline that is counter cultural in our busy broken world. We can not be agents of change if we are bitter, anxious people, rest is essential to us being healthy, vibrant aware people bringing about shalom.

Static

"This is Russian Radio, calling you back home" - Anberlin, Cold War Transmissions

One of my most frustratig experiences when I was a kid was trying to listen to music through static, or searching through static. Static is always hard, it always makes it difficult to focus and to listen.

Often this is the feeling I have in my spiritual journey. I am trying to move the dial of the radio so that I can find the transmission, whether it is trying to listen out to the heart of God through the hundreds of messages provided to me by the world, the good and the bad, to figure out what is right and good and true.

Static has been haunting me today, as I write this post, I am searching for inspiration, searching for the point on the dial of the radio that will give me direction, but I find static, or small talk about some stars love life, but where are the things that really matter?

What is the static in your life, what messages are keeping you from hearing truth and what really matters?

Success!

What is success?

And I mean what is success really? How do we get it, when will it come. Is success important, or is it fleeting?

We are surrounded by stories about success - and these stories define what success is and how we should get it. Success is defined by those who hold have loads of money, get loads of sex or have power that they can  get what they want.

The Dream of success is that it will come, and it can be given anyone can get the dream of working oneself up to the top of the ladder within society, no matter where they have been on the table.


I recently heard one of my mates talk about success, he explained how we often see people who reach success for a moment in time as successful, their candel burns hot for a few minutes, then it burns out, while the type of success we are looking for is closer to slow burning candel.

Success in Gods view is one buit on aligning our story with a bigger story. Realising Gods sovereignty over our life, and submitting to this in the realisation that this is the only way we will find health in the long term. If you read the stories of the characters in the bible, they often seized their moments (Daniel in the Lions Den, Esther, Joseph in egypt) but they also were built on the stories before those moments in time. Daniel gained his role in Babylon becuase he was obedient to God when he did not eat the food from table of the empire. Esther, had been under the mentorship of her uncle Mordacai and his character traits rubbed off on her. David was a slow burner, he sleighed the giant when he was a kid but had to hide out for a long period of time before he would become king of Isreal. Because he aligned his heart with the heart of God for the nation of Isreal, Isreal was successful.

Success in my view isn't wealth or power, but the alignment of our heart with the heart of God. As we align our story with Gods story, we figurte out who we truly are. Our purpose may be to make the difference in the lives of homeless people, ve a social entrepreneur, a stay at home parent, a great uncle, a freind to the freindless.

Success definitely in Gods eye is not based on wealth or power, or the number of women we acquire, but a heart that searches out for what is right and seeks to bring about shalom here and now (bring about the kingdom.)

Tyson

I watched the movie Tyson tonight. It is the story of Mike Tysons life through his eyes, and it gave me some interesting thoughts.

Tyson is the most notorious and controversial figures in this generation of boxers. He is probrably most well known for his biting of Evander Hollifields ear, his conviction for alledged rape, and the fact that he is the youngest ever heavyweight boxing champion of the world.

What astounds me is how talented Tyson was. When he was in his prime he had a superquick punch and loads of power. There was no one in his league. His success was built on the strength of the trainer who took him under his wing - Don  Amato. Don Amato was Tysons mentor and freind, and installed discipline in him after a difficult childhood.

Like many stars, Tysons professional life was dogged by his personal life. He reached heights quickly. He reached success quickly in the worlds eyes. But he struggled to develop integrity.

Intregrity is the heart of character, it takes discipline and hardwork learn to live a life of integrity. In my view integrity equals working towards wholeness. Its doing the right thing under the heart of pressure.

You can see as Tyson talks, that his view on reality is totally conflicted - one moment he is saying on thing about reality, the next he is saying something completely different. As one person I was talking to afterwards described him - he is completely manic in his nature.

The second point I want to get at, is that "religion" did not seem to play a successful role in him getting character. During his time in prison, Tyson converted to Islam, and he thought his life was on track because of his religiion. But it seems to have conflicted to the lifestyle he was living (he was permiscous, etc etc.)

I wonder how we live double sided lives. Does our character reflect integrity, or are we living out of conflicting realities and trying to keep many stories going.

5 Tips For Attending a Baptist Church Without Embarrassing Yours

 From Andrew Jones at Tallskinnykiwi.

This morning we are at Bromley Baptist Church in London. Apart from a visit to the Met Tab, the last time I went to a London Baptist church was in 2004 and I wrote up a few guidelines on not getting embarrassed at a Baptist Church. Here are a few of them.

1. Sit in the back. You have no right to be in the front seat unless you are a penitent sinner, the preacher, a deacon getting ready to serve communion, an underground charismatic who is starting a revolution by waving their arms during worship, or a breast-feeding mother. If you are none of these, and if you dont want to be caught out sitting and standing at all the wrong moments, stay in the back where you will avoid embarrassment.

2. Dress smart-casual, even if you usually dont. If you dress too formal, they will assume you are Catholic or a novice, or someone vying for attention. If you dress too shabbily, you will attract the attention of the volunteer outreach program staff who assume you are homeless. If you wear Eastern fabrics, or wear a Marilyn Manson T-shirt, or have any pagan symbols, you will get special attention from the welcome committee and evangelism department who assume you are having your first church experience. However, you might get special treatment and thats not all bad. So do go casual and you will not feel like a dork. Instead, they will assume you are a church goer just like them. Jeans are OK in most baptist churches. So put your piercings back in. Trust me.

3. Be semi-somber when you pray. Unlike emerging or alternative worship churches, you should be happy when you arrive and somber when you pray. Not Anglican hard-core somber. More like a semi-somber, a soft-somber, with no facial contortion, lest you look too spiritual. And if there is an open prayer time during the service, which there sometimes is, don't go King James or retro-Shakespeare on them (novice giveaway) but stay smart casual (like the clothing) and keep it on the healthy somber tone of voice. But don't go too far on the casual side either . . dont start telling God your latest joke . . and don't go asking Him for His.

4. Sing softly and hang back a beat or two. It looks weird if you dont sing but dont worry - its easy - the words are usually projected on the wall and the music is predictable for the most part. No one will notice that you are not familiar with the songs and mouthing the words in time is a cinch. Also, hang back a beat or two on the songs. There are one or two choruses where everyone sings on the off-beat immediately AFTER the beat which is precisely the embarrassing moment newcomers make themselves known by being the only ones not singing on cue. And if you sing softly, you might even get away with botching up the songs. I know I do.

5. Follow others and do what they do. If someone sings a solo on stage or does something creative, don't be the first to clap and cheer and wolf-whistle - usually, there is no applause at the end, just a small appreciative smile or nod, You will also notice that people are not tipping the preacher or stage-diving during worship or opening a can of beer. Unless it is an emerging Baptist church but thats another story. Again, watch other people from the back and stay 2-3 seconds behind them, and I give you my word, you will never embarrass yourself in a Baptist church.

Waves

Sometimes we get caught in a rip, and we are dragged out to sea. We deal with the hard hitting waves, and we do not know if we can get back to shore. The reason we got stuck in the rip was we didn't look out and check the the area for rips, or out of plain stupidity. We tried to get out of the rip, but we struggled against it rather than waited for the current to subside or travel the corner.

Stuck in the waves of the open sea, everything can feel helpless.

I have had one of those weeks, I have just felt like I'm being crashed over waves and feel hopeless. Momentum has been hard to acheive in my major projects, and in many areas of life. I have been struggling with momentum with writing this blog, and have felt that the posts I have written this week have been half baked.

In these moments I realise I need to seek clarity, which can be hard when you are choking from the waves, but it is needed. Finding up in these moments can be difficult. Pray as I move forward in to the end of this. Pray for clarity.

A Slave to Public Opinion. False Redemption and a Jury of Peers

This is an article by the very talented writer Donald Millar, I hope you enjoy. We will be back with our regularly scheduled programming soon, I don't think it will be as good as this.

Not long ago I was having a conversation with a friend who happened to be a Christian. My friend is a writer, and a very smart man. During the conversation, I noticed he kept explaining why he was right. I wanted to test him a bit, I suppose, so I asked him a hard question, essentially, seeing if he would be vulnerable and admit he was human and made mistakes. My friend looked uncomfortable and answered the question carefully, with just enough self-deprecation to get around looking self-righteous, but very quick to explain why he technically had never struggled with the issue at hand. After about an hour of this, I looked at my friend and told him he sounded like a tortured soul. I was being kind. Honestly, my friend sounded like a slave. And not a slave to God, a slave to public opinion, specifically, Christian public opinion. He had replaced Jesus with a jury of his peers, and he lived his life to make a case for that jury as to why he was a Godly man.


To be fair, my friend is a very moral man. And to be even more fair, I am being judgmental, to some degree, not because I am saying he has a false God, (there is nothing judgmental about making an observation) but because I honestly respect him a little less. He seems spiritually and emotionally unhealthy.
The truth is, there is one judge, and God does not look around to your friends to ask their opinions.

We were designed so our identity would be affirmed in a relationship with God. In other words, my feelings of self worth do not come from within me, they come from an external source. That source was supposed to be God. But in the fall of man, that relationship was severed (it had to be as God could not mix or mingle with anything opposing him, not because He is a jerk, but because He actually defines what is good in the first place) and so after the fall, we continue to look for affirmation from an outside source, and that source is each other.

All you have to do is turn on your television to see this. People sing to get others to clap, they act, play sports, spend millions on plastic surgery and so on and so on. We learn from an early age that people will affirm us if we are funny or smart or submissive or controlling. Our entire personality developed because these dynamics are in play.

That said, in Christian circles, the whole game gets confusing. Christians rightly affirm Godliness, theological accuracy, Biblical literacy, morality and zeal. So the Christian learns from an early age that if he has these characteristics, a jury of his peers will affirm him. And as well they should. But the problem comes when the opinion of the jury replaces the redemption we find in God. I once confronted this same friend about a wrong he had committed, and he became intense and angry. To him, I was threatening his very survival, his ace card (morality and righteousness) in the game. If his redemption would have come from Christ, he could see himself more objectively. But instead, he was a slave to the jury of peers.

This morning I was reading in Matthew, going back over the account of the birth of Christ. I just loved how God did not seem to care what religious people thought of Him, or, for that matter, His own children. The scriptures say Mary became pregnant while engaged, but not married to, Joseph. Now this happened because Mary needed to be a virgin, to fulfill prophecy but also that the birth would be a true miracle and an unquestionable seed from God Himself. That said, though, she was, in todays language, a knocked up unwed woman. Even Joseph wanted out of the whole situation. And he wanted out because he was a righteous man, who bowed to a jury of his peers. It took an angel of the Lord to talk Joseph into going through with the wedding.

So my question to you is, are you a slave to a jury of your peers? Do you always have to explain why you are right? How much do you care what religious people think of you? When somebody else is wrong, do you jump in quickly to tell them so, making yourself feel righteous? My answer to these questions is yes, I do. Doesn’t that stink?

This is all a question of motives, I realize. Nobody is condoning sin, or saying to revolt against religious people. That said, I think we would be a bit more emotionally stable to understand self-righteousness gets us nowhere, and the jury of our peers is neither an accurate or authoritative judge. It really is a waste of your time to defend yourself to anybody but God Himself. And it’s even more of a waste of time to claim any defense other than Christ crucified.

Imagine the time and energy we would save if we actually believed this to be true.