Social Action

So, my good friend, Doug has asked me to partner with him in facilitating a conversation among friends next weekend. It sounds like fun. We'll be covering general topics like ecclesiology, community, culture and social action (the topic laid on my shoulders). The topics are general enough to be mined for quite some time. So the set up is this: 20 minute presentation followed by 45-50 minutes of question driven discussion.

My responsibility is to talk about social action in 20 minutes, packing enough fodder for an in-depth discussion.

As I've been praying and thinking over this, a three step process has come to my mind as a way to understand a persons or community's movement toward social action.

From ignorance to awareness.

From awareness to compassion.

From compassion to action.

As I discussed this with Doug, he thought that covering each step would be too much for a 20 minute session, so for the time being we're going to explore what it looks like to bring a person/community from ignorance to awareness. Here's where I'd like some feedback.

1. What do you think keeps individuals/communities from being aware of the needs of those around them?


2. What do you think are some steps that faith communities can take to raise awareness?


3. How do communities choose which issues to shed light upon?


4. What do you think are the most pressing issues?
   
   

Congratulations to the Conrad's

Well, my friends RJ and Tracy have now welcomed their daughter into the world! Congratulations, my friends!!!

Experience

Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.

C. S. Lewis

Heroes Returns

My favorite new show returns tonight. Click on the pic and watch the previous episodes.

I love the idea that each of us has something to contribute to saving the world and this series plays that up to the hilt.

Warm Weather and Beautiful Baby

Cadence in one of her fav positions, flying around.
Yes, she smiles like crazy. This is our favorite kind of smile, reminiscent of the wassup commercials but rarely caught on camera, because the red-eye reduction flash freaks her out.
Before the bath (a dangerous position for dad, with the risks of urine or stool samples flying on his arm)
And how cool is this baby with glasses! Check out her googly eyes!

Ikiru

“The best way to protect your place in this world is to do nothing at all. But is this really what life is about?”

Darfur Crisis on Google Earth

Many of you know about the genocide and extreme crisis happening in Darfur. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has partnered with Google Earth to highlight the tragedies and bring global attention to these atrocities. Click on the picture and find out what they're doing. Use it as a way to pray and seek God's justice for this place.

Why Thursdays are my favorite days...

Because I get to stay home with the coolest girl in town. She loves to fly and holds her legs straight out when I hold her up like so.
And she likes to read. Quite a bright young lass.
Here she is instructing me on the nature of spheres.
And here she is holding her head up (a major feat for a person of her stature).

Every Thursday it's Dad day with Cadence. And I love it. I love this baby of ours.

A Psalm has been running through my head:

As a father has compassion on his children,

so will I have compassion...

God

Online Treasure

For my most recent birthday, my in-laws gave me the gift that keeps on giving: a book of common prayer. We have greatly enjoyed using it as a family and I've greatly benefited from using the daily office for my personal time with God. On Easter, we decided to follow the liturgy provided and it so happened that my parents were online at the same time. So I quickly stumbled on the online book of common prayer. We were able to use this and have an Easter service with my parents who were on the other side of the world! My dad and I served as the deacons and Aubrey and Sus read the scriptures. It was awesome!

If you don't know how to use it, it takes a bit of perusing to figure out. But I use the Daily Devotions for Individuals and Families under the Daily Office section. Check it out!

Children of Men

A movie worth watching.

The movie takes place in a world torn apart by greed and lack of hope. The world is haunted by the reality that no children have been born for 18 years. It is a world with no future.

There is a scene in this movie that I will remember forever. As a battle is a raging between British officials and a rebel group, the cry of a baby is heard in the middle of the explosions and screams of the injured. And something mystical happens. The residents hiding in their rooms, protecting themselves from the random bullets straffing through their building, begin to poke their heads out into the hallway, reaching out to touch the baby as her mother and Clive Owen walk by. The sergeant leading the charge into the building changes his commands from "Charge in" to "Cease Fire". As he yells "Cease Fire", you hear his followers echoing his command throughout the building. "Cease Fire". The soldiers put up their weapons. Some cross themselves. All are amazed. All are taken with the newness. Everything stops.

This stopping. This cease fire. There is something in the newness of the baby. In the middle of the fray of the battle.

There was an earthquake two thousand years ago. An opening of a tomb. A surge of hope.

abandonment

Love so amazing

so divine

Demands my soul

my life

my all



These words have been running through my head today.