A Few Things

Over the past month, the focus of my blogs has been that of the beauty in suffering. Ironically browsing the web has brought me to a few items, worth noting, in tune. Take a look.

--James Nachtwey is a name I have only learned recently. He has been a photojournalist known for his graphic images of war torn and devestating places. His pictures tell and heart-wrenching story, on that I hope will inspire your prayers and activism.

--Relevant Magazine recently addressed how to get through those times when it seems our faith has faded. Perhaps b/c of our society, our job, our relationships, whatever the case may be, neverthless, the concluson was encouraging.

--A young woman in Cuba is living in hiding as she boldly blogs her thoughts about the governement for which she has grown up under. Her words make a strong impact:

"No one knows better the mechanisms of censorship in Cuba that few writers in the national newspapers. The press here has become a profession that requires measurements lurid adjectives, weigh the issues and often hide personal opinion in order to keep a job. It's a life decision to be a journalist from the official media, I know, but I also know some who have been caught in the intricacies of complicity, waiting for that day when they can write what they think."

--And finally friends, i leave you hope in the world...

carving soap (~part 2)

"suffering often indicates that god is setting us free from something" (jacobson/coleman)

"how many of the most significant moments in your life came not because it all went right, but because it all fell apart?...It's strange how there can be art in the agony." (bell)

has that which you've suffered forced your honesty? perhaps you have finally had to take a look at your life and say: the plan did not work, the future must look ever so differently. and could it be that, simultaneously, you have no idea what exactly how it will turn out from here. my friends, you're not alone and it is not for nothing. not this time. not any time.

some weeks ago, i mentioned that i'd heard rob bell speak on this very topic of suffering. he noted that,

"suffering...compels us to eliminate the unnecessary, the trivial, the superficial." (bell)

the sculpture, he said, knows what to take away when creating a masterful art.

so i ask, in all your agony, what must you eliminate, so that the beauty of all that's in you will shine through? perhaps, your most glamorous moment is in the midst of your deepest struggle. and perhaps when you emerge, you will have shed your skin of a dissatisfied life.

failure provides us with an opportunity: to learn, to evolve into who we are meant to be...to grow. may i suggest, ever so boldly, that

"the failed pieces are essential." (bell)

and in the mean-time, know that you, that we are not alone: and isn't that what we desire, to know, to feel that we are not alone in our mess and that it may become something more than for nothing? a community built around suffering ironically, brings greater love and peace among enemies than any other possible commonality.

what's more, friends, is this: the Divine, in all His glory, experienced blood, pain, and agony as if to tell each human being, "i know how you feel."

trust, that, above all.

U2 Should Have Seen it Live

The crowd's voices began to rise with anticipation as U2 walked toward the stage. The twitter remarks went ballistic with excitement, and so- in all their glory, began a beautiful serenade live from YouTube.

First of all, the fact that technology has given the gift of live concert viewing is, in itself, incredible. But beyond that, I find it fascinating that U2 gave it's fans a chance to get a little more connected, as many may have missed opportunities to physically attend this year's 360 World Tour.

The concert opened up with Bono's vocals easing into the song, "Breathe" and continued non-stop for close to 2 and half hours, ending beautifully with "Moment of Surrender."

In tune with their humanitarian spirit, the band pointed to many peaceful leaders around the world that have made a difference~ such as Nelson Mandela, and a special tribute to Aung San Su Kyi, who has been the focal point of persecution by Myanmar forces. Bono even tacked on a rendition of "Amazing Grace," as if in a state of worship. It was beautiful.

This certainly was the closest I have been to a real concert by U2, and certainly plan an appearance in the coming future. I was impressed. In all his thank you's; Bono thanked and asked the crowd to pull our their cell phones, in an attempt to joke, he said, "I'll text ya later," but with the intention of a final, and cheesy wave of lights....which actually, turned out to look like a city at night or perhaps, even more, a constellation...a patter of stars in the sky.

The Rose Bowl stadium, and its sea of fans made the live streaming experience truly unique.

Vincent

A bit of Tim Burton's creativity...for Halloween....(wink)

Plugging IN

Coming to the close of the month, I've definitely come across a few things worth checking out:

**Bout the Web:
--Levi Jeans has launched a campaign called Go Forth. Ironically, it seems to involve scavenger hunts, artistic muse and the American Identity. I'm still trying to figure it all out, but it's fascinating. THIS video was amazing. It's about 17 minutes long and you might have to be logged into Facebook to see.

--With Cuba's history, Vangaurd journalists from Current TV have gone to see if the new generation has the itch to overthrow the current dictatorship. In preparation for the documentary, one of the journalists shares a few personal thoughts on covering the story.

--Reviews on the MotoBlur Cliq phone are here (Motorola's adaption of the Android Google phone). Interesting enough....to buy or not to buy?

--Apparently U2 will be streaming live on the Web Sunday by way of your YouTube for their L.A. concert. Personally, I'm more anxious for them to realease US tour dates for 2010.

**Blogs:
--Does Aid Work? A former humanitarian aid worker and activist looks at the dent no matter how small the efforts can make

--Joseph Thompson recently shared some incredible thoughts on Unconditional Love this past week.

**Other Stuff:
--Relevant Magazine's take on Where the Wild Things Are.

**Recommended Reads:
--I just finished Small Gods last week by Terry Pratchett. The Great God Om has been reduced to a small turtle. But he has found One believer who may be his greatest hope to reaching the hearts of all human belief.

--I've also just finished a book called So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore? Yes, seeming a awkward title for a novel, the stories unique explanation of how a Church and how belief in God might look- is fascinating. A Pastor grows weary of the very four-walled-building he helped develop and create when along comes a mysterious older man, named John, who shows him a better way. It's an interesting follow-up to The Shack.

--My thoughts on the two books and how they relate is HERE.

The Turtle Moves & Meets You Where You Are

"Belief...belief shifts. People start out believing in the God and end up believing in the structure." (Pratchett)

"It's a matter of what's real. There are lots of ways the church can celebrate its life together. At the moment, you only seem to grasp one of them. Seeing the church as a reality instead of an activity will allow you to celebrate the church however she expresses herself around you." (Jacobson/Coleman)

Two different books, belief systems, writing styles and two vastly different stories, but somehow; they seem to intertwine many of the same messages. In Terry Pratchett's fantasy (Small Gods) Disc World, the Great God, Om, now a small turtle, has found only but one true believer among the Omnian church. In Wayne Jacobson's Californian city of Kingston (So You Don't Want To Go To Church Anymore?), the mysterious John has landed upon a pastor who is frustrated and disillusioned by the very church he helped create. The same conclusion has been drawn, the structure, the system- by hands of mankind has become a valley of unsatisfying hope- a full life feeling unattainable.

My friends: I am here to say this~ the Church does not have the answers. What's more: Christians do not have the answers.

The sing-song club of "knowing something you don't know" is a farse and there is life available to all outside what the Christian crowd calls "right." The structure built by man has often trapped God in box. The fact is, there is no box, there is no limit to the Super-power "out there." Questions and concerns, by the way, are allowed.

No, this is not to say that people who involve themselves in the structure are bad or wrong. But it IS to say, that it is not what provides full satisfaction. It only takes 2 or 3, it only takes people doing life together- and if that takes place outside a routine setting, then that is and will be-- most beautiful of all.

It's true that what I have been told all my life I should or should not be doing, I am not, and what I've been defined by (or told that I ought to be identified with)- from those in an American church and out is not how I define myself. But nor is it the way He defines me. I am going beyond telling you the, "I'm fine" answer. I am beyond acknowledging any guilt for missing a Sunday or a Wednesday. I am free to live life- as I have been designed to live. I am completely drawn and compelled, by choice, to seek out why the Creator of the Universe chooses me. I am free to befriend all or any who cross my path and I hold no stones.

I do not find what I believe to be attached to politics. I do not find it necessary to exalt "being religious," for I am not flawless. If the truth be told: I am a totally unhinged human being, abandoned to a life of great passion and above all love.

And so, only this, for now, is true: that which is real- wants you so that you may know you're not alone. Your suffering will birth beauty. Your joy will be like an infectious disease. The structure is not a true representation of what is.

The answer is "out there."

Postcards Changing the World

I have, before, spoken of the strength behind confession. I even talked about the mediums in the modern world in which people are able to find company and overcome. Recently, Relevant Magazine discussed Frank Warren, the founder and creative inventor of Post Secret.

Warren's newest Post Secret book covers the cry for spirituality from those who send him postcards. The title: Confessions of Life, Death & God display the questions, fears and admissions of people who are seeking a sense of deep spirituality ~ and desire for answers. As Warren travels and talks about the book, he mentions that this series of confessions show both the "selfishness" and the "selflessness of our spiritual selves." How ironic is it that as a people, we feel more comfortable pouring out in a piece of artwork to a stranger and yet only "fine" is acceptable in our churches and Warren says, our communities.

Nevertheless as the Post Secret project continues on, it does create an incredible way for people to connect and know that they're not alone, which when suffering, dreaming, and exploring -we all crave to know.

"Death by Wallpaper & Flooring"

Leaping to the stage in a retro button-down black shirt and his signature specs; Rob Bell already had the crowd's attention. We had all come to find out just what "Drops Like Stars" really meant.

After cordial hellos, witty jokes about making lunches for his children and what it was like traveling to Iowa and Georgia; Bell finally opened up his talk with a contrast of suffering and joy. His opening story was of a man with two sons whose families each were pregnant in the same year, while one experienced miscarriage, and the other a beautiful birth. He noted that, like this family in the maternity ward, we all "live in the hallways," experiencing a life back and forth of both pain and profound celebration.

But instead of furthering the discussion as to why we suffer~ he continued with the idea that often, incredible creativity and beauty can be birthed in excruciating pain. He observed that the most inventive minds are often out of place in the most serious, monotone, or digressing circumstances.

Since hearing, there have been many ideas and points that stuck out to me. My mind stews over each of them carefully. And for now, I will touch on just one. After acknowledging an ironic scene in Old School, he said:

"He has the life that is often portrayed as the ideal, a wife, a house, a job, security, comfort, privilege, freedom- and yet it's left him bored, numb and in a low grade state of despair. His success has actually served to distract him from how deeply unsatisfied he is with his life. I assume none of us want to starve, or be shot at or lose someone we love, but it's possible to die a sort of death at the other end of the spectrum as well, isn't it?"

Bell touched on the fact that there is often part of us that craves a sense of controversy in our lives, a sense of need to adventure and to overcome, b/c as it happens, we too find that extraordinary things can come from difficulty. It's as if when the "art of disruption" occurs, we are building the pieces back in new ways, and having to look the future with new meaning and possibility~ because the "plan" did not turn out nor was it truly satisfying. Boredom is a frustration that leads to a longing for meaning and depth that often only suffering can bring.

There is a subconscious need to come alive in something, for something because we have found ourselves in a despairing rut of "death by wallpaper."

Bell noted a Japanese writer who said: "it's precisely because of the pain, precisely because we want to overcome that pain, that we can get a feeling, through this process, of really being alive."

So what is it, exactly, that our world has us trapped in, and how or where do we get detached from it?

These Just IN

Your Need to Know:

**Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize? Apparently, the committee forgot to watch SNL last weekend. ..."Hope" is not what IS. And should not the honor go to someone who has brought something to a reality?...to what "IS"

**Apparently, NASA has plans to crash right into the Moon, and their looking for water.

**Landslides and water damage is getting worse in the Philippines. It saddens me to see so many people dead and the aid will have to provide for the long haul.

**Vincent van Gogh had a series of letters that are now being put on exhibition. It's apparent that this tortured artist was able to write with wit and entertaining thoughts. There was always a "method to his madness" or so it seems.

**Google has provided a feature that allows a user to access another number and forward all mail and cell messages to the users email. Apparently some lawmakers don't like the fact that big bad Google knows how to expand phenomenoal technology.

**Finally, if you didn't see it yesterday, you must today. The Black Eyed Peas and a massive crowd put on a masterful performance to let Oprah (and all of us) know that Today's Gonna be a Good Day!!

Moses, Obama & Greatness

"We are in the presence of a lot of Moseses," Barack Obama said on March 4, 2007, three weeks after announcing his candidacy for President. He was speaking in Selma, Ala., surrounded by civil rights pioneers. Obama cast his run for the White House as a fulfillment of the Moses tradition of leading people out of bondage into freedom. "I thank the Moses generation, but we've got to remember that Joshua still had a job to do. As great as Moses was ... he didn't cross over the river to see the promised land." (Feiler, TIME)

This past week; TIME Magazine had an incredibly astounding article discussing how Moses from the Bible is a character often used to compare to U.S. Presidents. Author, Bruce Feiler called attention to several scripts siting George Washington and Abe Lincoln. He also noted that Superman, written by Jewish men, drew small similarities to Moses life as well as showed how Charlton Heston's The Ten Commandments reflected American government vs. European regimes.

What caught my attention most was the suggestion that perhaps President Obama should look to Moses, rather than Joshua, for a few leadership lessons. Feiler suggests, first, that the story of Moses is one of hope...that Obama must recognize that he needs "to sell the milk & honey." His suggestion is that it was the promise of what was to come that gave people courage to cross the Red Sea. I would go further to say, that this is a fine point but only matched w/ the fact that perhaps Obama should stop trying to BE the milk and honey- as such was promoted in his campaign. And people are finding, it's just not the case. He's one man who has to work w/in a system that isn't always going to give him what he wants.

Secondly the author states that Obama has "struggled" with responding to the immigration issue. He notes that in the "Moses story" there are a number of verses, in the Torah books, that refer the treatment and reception of foreigners. Feiler never suggests exactly what Obama should do, but I gather that the point is he should not ignore the problem.

Finally, Feiler talks about Moses (and Obama's) "naysayers." Moses faced opposition, even his "birthright" being questioned, as Obama's. However, what Feiler noted was how well Moses stood his ground w/ the people~ and ultimately, Obama needs to do that same. In short? "Spine-up," which ironically has been a comment from both Liberals and Conservatives alike.

But continuing on, further than the article, for just moment: I find something else ever so interesting, something that really is just more of an observation than anything. Joshua, a name meaning "salvation" or "God saves," was a man that took the Israelites into the Promised Land. They conquered it and populated it~ it was paradise, so to speak. Many years later, a Man with a derived name from Joshua, did the same thing, for the heart of mankind...gave them a way into "paradise"- a life filled w/ the beauty of "milk & honey."

I find it awkward that many people have hailed Obama as a "Savior." Oh, no, they won't say it that way, but did you notice how many Americans flocked to him as if he would be the answer to ALL the country's problems? Not only so, but the quote above indicates that Obama "accepted" this call. A bit presumptuous to put it lightly.

Ironically, folks, he thus far has not panned out the way it was all expected. While the U.S. has pulled from Iraq, Afghanistan is a mess, Gitmo has not closed down (yet), Health-care reforms are battling, unemployment has reached 9.8%, higher than it's been since the 1980s and several other factors. Granted, I'm not suggesting the Obama can't succeed or won't. There's still a few years ahead. BUT what I am suggesting is that, just perhaps, a Utopian society is not purposed for life on Earth- and that the U.S. still may have some wrestling in the desert to do. Obama must be ok with that and realize that you can't force water out of the rock just because you don't think it's going to come through due process (Numbers 20:1-13).

The truth is: we still live in the freest country in the world, our elections are watched like hawks from foreign neighbors and while tough times are frustrating~ our leaders don't always have the flawless answers, but we will get through them. So the question becomes: are you ok with that?