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