Thanks to all who came out for Cinco de Moustache IV - it was a great success, and a great farewell to Saint Radar. Let me just say that, when the time comes for the Strangers, I want our last show to be exactly like Radar’s, just with less swearing.
If you missed the show, shame on you. Here’s some video.
I asked Scott if we could buy a push reel mower this spring after stumbling upon these claims:
One hour of mowing is the equivalent of driving 350 miles in terms of volatile organic compounds.
One gas mower spews 87 lbs. of the greenhouse gas CO2, and 54 lbs. of other pollutants into the air every year.
Over 17 million gallons of gas are spilled each year refueling lawn and garden equipment – more oil than was spilled by the Exxon Valdez.
After owning this one for two weeks and mowing three times, we’re scratching our heads and wondering whose marketing ploy it was to convince people they needed a gas/oil powered motor to rotate a blade to cut the grass, when people power does the same thing! And does it better!
In additon to obvious savings of gas and oil and emissions, here are other advantages we’ve discovered with our push reel mower:
–It starts every time!
–The cut grass doesn’t fall in clumps. (The mower comes with a bag, but we haven’t needed it.)
–The wheels don’t make deep grooves in the grass, so the lawn looks soft and even.
–Mowing is not such an isolating experience–we’re not trapped in a wall of sound and we don’t have to worry about restarting the mower if someone–like a neighbor or a grandchild, for heaven’s sake–wants to talk to us.
We reely like it 
When I heard about the cyclone that hit Myanmar (Burma) and killed multiple thousands of people, the news dealt a severe blow to my already shaky faith this week. My previous post about doubt as a spiritual discipline is the sanitized version of how hard it hit me. You see, I’m in the midst of some suffering in my extended family that makes no sense. Some people I love are dealing with horrendous consequences of choices they’ve made, but honestly, their choices have been no worse than some of the ones I’ve made in the course of my life.
I tried to apply a sort of spiritual checklist to see why God would allow those consequences in their lives. The checklist approach doesn’t work all that well. Some have repented and turned to Jesus, and they’re suffering as much as the those who haven’t.
I think I’m beginning to understand Job. You might take this with a grain of salt, saying I haven’t lost everything like Job–so how can I understand? The answer, I think, is that such loss can’t be measured in quantity.The story of Job was told in such cataclysmic terms, perhaps, because life was so brutal and short in the time the book was written, most people had experienced the loss of wives in childbirth, children to illness, and homes and livestock to calamities.
In the course of my life (and my husband’s), death has stolen spouses, babies, mothers and fathers prematurely. It’s no less painful to see the fullness of life and its potential stolen from people we love whose lives are strained and broken.
So when the image of countless corpses floating in floodwaters after a freak storm is juxtaposed on the image of people I know and love who are suffering, my mind and spirit reel and will not accept platitudes about God being in the midst of our suffering, or using suffering to test our faith, or even having a plan that’s bigger than it all. Sweeping generalizations might help us cope with the abstract horror, but they’re no comfort to the people whose lives were cut short , or worse yet, those are still living the horror.
Job came to the very end of his faith. But he remained faithul.
And I’m not ashamed to say that’s where I am today. I’m stripped of all my labels, categories, certainties. I’m not sure I know God at all, but here’s the clincher: I can’t take my eyes off Jesus. I don’t want to believe in a God who would allow 100,000 people to drown in one day, and let people I love suffer and lose everything–but I can’t stop trusting in Jesus. He was willing to die–not just for sin in an abstract, spiritual sense, but to show us how to disarm sin in its present, physical reality–with love.
You could put all my belief in this nutshell: if it doesn’t look like Jesus, I don’t think it’s really God.
So, if I don’t seem too excited about debates over how to make the church relevant in music and programming, whether or not Genesis 1-3 is literal science, whether or not women can teach men, or if there are five points on the TULIP, if Roman Catholics and Lutherans and Methodists are really saved, and a couple of other hot topics I wouldn’t even dare post on this blog–don’t worry about me.
I’m just back at square one. Jesus said, “Follow me.” And I know even if I don’t know what to believe, I can trust him and remain faithful.
*Note: Thursday’s Child refers to a line in the poem “Monday’s Child:
“Thursday’s child has far to go.”
As a child born on a Thursday, I’m using it as a metaphor for how far I have to go in spiritual formation.
by sarah jayne (noreply@blogger.com) — May 8, 2008 @ 5:02 am (CST)
by sarah jayne (noreply@blogger.com) — May 7, 2008 @ 9:54 am (CST)
This post is a blatant attempt to win a contest for a retreat and be linked to other bloggers who are entering.
The first retreat of my life lasted about three minutes. As a spunky three-year old, I got up from bed one summer morning at my grandparent’s house in rural Southern Illinois to sneak out, all by myself, and sit on the back porch steps to watch the sun come up.
I don’t know what drew me–perhaps it was the restless bliss of no-boundaries-except-love-where-grandparents-rule. But when the hazy eastern horizon burped up that great, molten red orb–and the sun sat on my chest and lifted me to my feet–I wanted it. Not in the same way a three-year-old wants a lollipop, but in the way a soul longs for union with Transcendence. I didn’t want to grasp it and hold, it. I wanted it to grasp and hold me.
I’ve been trying to come to terms with that first retreat for my whole life and my entire spiritual journey. I’ve interepreted it with different categorial labels during various stages of life, but never satisfactorily.
I no longer view it as evidence of my eternal pre-existence with God, because my understanding of the soul has become less dualistic based on study of the Jewish roots of the Christian faith. My emerging interpretation suggests it represents the first evidence of my sprititual hard-wiring–my body mind, soul longing for God.
That longing consumes me even today, but in the clamoring cacaphony of life, I struggle to follow where it leads me consistently.
But I take heart in Elijah’s experience. The point of the whirlwind and earthquake and fire was not to show the contrast of God’s gentle whisper in the still aftermath of the cataclysm. This is apocalyptic imagery, designed to be taken as a whole, to shake cosmic foundations and rip the veil of mystery from top to bottom.
I’d love to sit metaphorically on my grandparents’ back porch steps again someday and watch the sun come up. To have the courage to retreat and the strength to endure the cataclysmic longing for God–to surrender, once and for all, to the mystery.
ll.by sarah jayne (noreply@blogger.com) — May 4, 2008 @ 12:35 pm (CST)
If my blogging slows down, it’s because I can’t keep my hands off my new keyboard. It’s by far the nicest piano I’ve ever played.
Daniel Kirk’s post today,“Only Human” ironically set me to thinking about the mixed uses of “alien” in the new testament. Paul used the term to negatively (as in you are no longer foreigners and strangers) to integrate the Gentiles into the family of God, and Peter used it as a positive condition to show Christians how to live in unity and distinctiveness in contrast to a pagan world.
Some of the original hearers of those words about aliens and strangers might have been refugees on the one hand, and others might have been agents of the Roman empire sent to conquered regions to set up homes and shops and governmental outposts. At any rate, they had become resident aliens who didn’t expect to return to their homelands.
And so are we. We are citizens of the kingdom of God, resident aliens in this world. This earth is our home, but the world and its systems will pass away. We can’t go home. Home is coming here.
So, are we human or alien? I believe Jesus came to show us and provide us the only way to be fully human. That’s our ultimate destiny if we trust and follow him. We’re aliens who are becoming fully human in Christ.
I know I have far to go in becoming fully human and formed in Christ.
by sarah jayne (noreply@blogger.com) — May 1, 2008 @ 2:23 am (CST)
So, for a (prompt) follow-up to my last posts: The Lone Strangers took 1st place in the Veishea Wildcard Round (second year in a row) and 2nd place in the overall Battle (up one step from 3rd last year), and played the best outdoors-in-the-snow set that we have ever done. It was a lot of fun, and we’re always glad to get a chance to play.
Here’s a video of the show at the M-Shop… wait through the first 2 bands to see a full performance of Let You Go.
Finally, Cinco de Moustache IV: Quatro, Cinco, ‘Stache. Details below. It is Saint Radar’s last show, so don’t miss out.
Sometimes burdens for the world, the church, and my family can overwhelm me. For reasons too complex to explain here, I got physically sick on Sunday and excused myself from our small group meeting. I went home and cried for an hour.
Despite some achiness, lethargy and nonfebrile chills on Monday, I plowed through all my professional and domestic commitments.
I was feeling wrung out on Tuesday, but I’d promised to make an egg casserole and bring it for breakfast at Beyond Welfare’s training session.
I didn’t plan to stay, but it seemed rude just to dump off the casserole and run. So I ate breakfast with people from as far away as Duluth, Minn. and Manhattan, Kans. who’d come for the training. One woman said the event was the first “vacation” she’d had in 15 years.
As I’ve said before, BW is not an explicitly Christian organization, but it’s founded on Christian principles. Some of its guidelines have turned into practices that, over the years, have formed a sort of liturgy. One example is the practice of going around the circle announcing what’s “new and good.”
On Tuesday, some people shared “news and goods” based on struggles and hardships. But they framed those negative things according to the larger good they hoped would come of their effort to work through them.
I thought of Philippians 4:4-9,
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. “The Lord is near.Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”
BW’s “new and good” is one way to practice an attitude of trusting in God and focusing our minds and hearts on what is excellent and praiseworthy.
After a few minutes, I felt like I was detoxifiying from the negative onslaught that had made me ill and brought me to tears on Sunday.
Maybe there’s a reason Paul ended that bit of instruction to the Philippians with, “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”
by sarah jayne (noreply@blogger.com) — April 30, 2008 @ 4:24 am (CST)
by sarah jayne (noreply@blogger.com) — April 30, 2008 @ 3:02 am (CST)
I just learned that this young man (front row, green striped shirt) was killed in an accident early this morning. Bryan Jensen represented one of the reasons I’m passionate about community news. I was privileged to tell his story about his work with Food at First. Soon afterward, he received the pictured award.
My daughter-in-law worked with him at his day job and through their friendship, he became one of my son’s closest friends. The grief my son and daughter-in-law suffer compounds mine.
Bryan overcame a lot in his young life and gave back far more than he ever took.
Rest with Jesus, Bryan.
Scott and I have been challenged to by the writings of N.T. Wright. We especially benefit from his New Testament “For Everyone” series, featuring his line-by-line Scripture translation in very simple English. The format for each section flows from the Scripture to a personal illustration or insight, followed by a historical-critical exegesis of the passage written with lay people in mind.
If there’s one weakness of the series, it’s the personal illustrations and anecdotes. They’re rarely as gripping as Wright’s translation and commentary. An example cropped up in our study of 1 Thessalonians this week.
While Wright seldom pulls his punches in calling out muddled Christian thinking and practice–to the point that some American Christians are offended when he uses Scripture to challenge the sacred mythos of our patriotism, for example–he chose an unfortunate illustration, in my opinion, for the scandal that led to persecution of the Thessalonian Christians.
“The remarkable thing was the instant effect the gospel had,” says Wright. “At the heart of it–and this was never far from Paul’s mind throughout the letter–was its call to worship the true God instead of idols. This was unheard of in Paul’s time. It would be like asking people in a modern city to give up motor cars, computers and telephones.”
What a missed opportunity for American Christians to consider what it means to radically follow Jesus! I think the people of Thessalonica gave up the equivalent of far more than the convenience of modern gadgets when they stopped worshipping idols.
In turning to the true God, they stopped putting their ultimate hope in those false gods. They stopped offering the idols their best or “firstfruits” in defiance of a visibly recongizable religious practice throughout the ancient world, both Jewish and pagan. And since those idols were tied to the state religion, when they stopped serving the them, they also were abdicating their civil and public obligations and defying their Caesar–setting themselves up for arrest and martyrdom.
If motor cars, computers and telephones represent technological progress as one of the gods of our age, I can accept this illustration on some level. But the gods of our age are more insidious than that. They lull us into believing our firstfruits belong to our personal and national security, comfort, convenience, entertainment, mobility and profits.
What should we be willing to give up in order to show the world we put all our hope and trust in the true God? Maybe we should look around and see where the world is suffering–not just in terms of short-term, individual needs, but in terms of long-term trends–and take the lead in offering solutions based on loving the true God with all our hearts, souls, minds and strength, and our neighbors–next door and around the world– as ourselves.
Are we willing to risk being perceived as less cool and culturally relevant in order to be more relationally and missionally relevant? If our God doesn’t call us to be different from the gods of the age, what difference does the gospel make?
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I consider this post to be a special treat.
Every Christ-following family has “house rules”. Those rules reflect the character and values of the parents, as they seek to be an example and raise their children up as other-centered lovers of people. God has given us “house rule” in His word for how He wants us, his children, to relate with one another. And while it is one thing to read and think theoretically about those “house rules” which are recorded in the bible, it is another thing altogether to see examples of what it takes to follow those principles lived out in real life.
One example that I’ve been aware of for a few years comes from the Brad & Annette Barrett family. They established a “house rule” for their family which gives us a look at how to practically put “brotherly love” into practice. I’ve heard the oldest two (Amy and Jenna) of their four daughters both refer to this particular practice as something positive in their life that has helped them learn to get along with people - even hard to love people. It must work - Amy and Jenna have now lived together almost an entire school year without bloodshed.
Here it is for you - in the words of Amy Barrett. Think about what she says. There is way too much drama and unfinished business floating around in our midst. In order to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”, we must make the tough-but-Christ-pleasing choice to resolve all of our conflicts in a timely fashion. Thank you, Amy, for sharing this with us.
————————————————————————
The “Barrett Standard”
Growing up with three sisters you can imagine that there was a lot of fighting. I fought constantly with my sister who is two years younger than I am. We were always arguing about something, taking something that wasn’t ours, or just picking a fight because we were bored.
Even now, when we are both out of our teen years and living together with a couple of roommates, we still fight. The coolest thing about our relationship is that even when we do fight, we know how to resolve it. We may be really mad at each other, but usually within ten minutes one of us has apologized to the other and asked for forgiveness. I don’t think we would do that if we hadn’t been trained early by our parents in conflict resolution.
My parents based their instruction on this verse: “Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam, so drop the matter before the dispute breaks out.” Proverbs 17:14
Any time we were fighting and took it to our parents they would ask us these questions:
The answers were usually “no,” so they would tell us to go back and choose one of the three options. We usually worked it out ourselves, because bringing it to our parents would usually mean that they would make us do something for our sister. They based this on Romans 12:21—“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
After we had resolved the issue we would have to choose something nice to do for our sister—doing one of her chores, letting her use something of yours, etc. The idea was that when you are serving someone and sacrificing for them it is a lot harder to be mad at them.
All these principles have been really important to me as I have grown up—I’ve learned that sitting on a problem doesn’t make it any better—you either need to work it out with that person, drop it, and/or bring it to God, and see what he would have you do.
Another great, but really hard, way to learn to love those people you don’t really like is to pray for their success and to serve them. I’ve seen my heart change for people—it’s hard to be mad at someone when you are praying that God will bless them and make them successful.
Those three little “rules” that my parents taught us growing up have been invaluable to me—they look different now than when I was six and fighting about a doll with my sister, but learning to resolve conflicts is one of our basic skills—and we need to know how to do it.
by sarah jayne (noreply@blogger.com) — April 25, 2008 @ 1:35 am (CST)
This week, I found it necessary to forewarn my family that my newspaper assignments make me look like the Queen of Vice–I’m covering a hospital fundraiser staged as a “Casino Night,” and a celebration of the local microbrewery’s expansion into the bottled beer distribution market.
The Casino Night story was the hardest. I had to grit my teeth to make the contact. I’ve never had any desire to gamble–I’m not a risk-taker, especially with money. Scenarios recreating Las Vegas repulse rather than attract me. But I made the contacts and learned what the money’s being raised for, and found it within myself to write the story.
The beer story wasn’t a problem. I love beer. I’m single-handedly responsible for corrupting my husband who drank neither beer nor coffee before he married me. For better or for worse (pardon the pun), he’s now a discerning consumer of both kinds of fine brews.
Because I don’t hold the secular world to the same standards I hold Christians, I’m not one whit uncomfortable digging for a kernel of goodness and truth when I write stories about my community. It’s my job to report accurately and fairly.
In fact, I rejoice when I find that kernel, and recognize it as a place where I can join in with God at work.
But if I were a reporter for a religious puiblication, I think my standards would be different. And when it comes to being personally involved, I’m very uncomfortable participating in situations where the Christian community looks like the world and in which I find myself digging for that kernel of Christo-centric practice in the same way I would if I were researching a story about the community at large.
There are some events coming up this summer that make me want to scratch my head and say, “that would be great if it were the Kiwanis or the Rotary club doing it. But why is the Christian community spending creative energy and money on something like that?”
I won’t go into detail here about those events. I hope they’ll be overshadowed by opportunities we’re taking advantage of that will show the world what the church is really all about.
In the meantime, yours truly, the Queen of Vice, will keep praying that Christians will realize that humble, low-visibility, relational, sacrificial service to the community and investing in people over the long-term is a better witness to the gospel than a high-overhead, glitzy carnival/concert one-night-stand approach.
*Our regularly scheduled topics have been interrupted by current events. Thursday’s Child will reappear when she’s summoned.
by sarah jayne (noreply@blogger.com) — April 24, 2008 @ 5:20 am (CST)
by sarah jayne (noreply@blogger.com) — April 22, 2008 @ 3:02 pm (CST)
I find Romans 12:9-21 to be an incredibly challenging passage to try to live. It sets the bar so high. But honestly, would we expect anything less? Paul is describing how our Father wants us to view and treat each other in His family. He wants His family to be a reflection Him. He is perfect. He loves perfectly. I.e., the bar is high.
There is one verse in this passage that challenges me like no other. Honestly, I don’t like it; at least in my flesh I don’t. There are many things in this passage that I cherish greatly, and strive for. But there is one from which my flesh recoils — one that God has had to teach me the hard way. Vs. 18 . . .
“If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men”
On the surface, that may seem tame to you, but there are two phrases that make it not so. This phrase is the killer — “so far as it depends on you.” Notice that it is absolute. There are no conditions. Where’s the “if” clause? I could handle “do your part”, or “meet them halfway”, or even “be a really great guy and go more than halfway when you have to.” But that’s not what it says.
The older I get, the more I understand what it takes to maintain harmonious relationships with everyone. And the more I understand that, the more I realize that what God is asking me to do in this passage is amazingly huge. He’s asking me to do everything — absolutely everything — that I possibly can to be at peace with others — no matter whether it is my fault or not, fair or not, reasonable or not, no matter how the other person responds, no matter how they treat me, no matter what others looking on think. Love and unity matter to our Father. He does not want me to accept anything that gets in the way of that — anything. Obviously I cannot control the other person and make things right on their end, but that is not the issue. The issue is whether I’m doing everything on my end. He wants me to assume 100% of the responsibility for the quality of each of my relationships.
The second phrase in this verse is almost as bad as the first. The phrase I’m talking about is “all men.” Why not “most men?” Why not “everyone who is reasonable and willing to do their part?” Why not at least “all Christians?” We know the answer to this. Our Father loves all men. He extends His love and grace unconditionally to all men moment by moment throughout every day. He wants us to do the same. He wants His family to imitate Him. But let’s be honest. We find some people much harder to love than others. In fact, we find some of our brothers in God’s family downright annoying. They get under our skin. And then they don’t do anything (or not nearly enough) to resolve it. They go on as if nothing ever happened, or they make excuses, or they blame it all on us, or worst of all (in God’s eyes), they back away and leave the relationship in a damaged condition and are unwilling to do anything to bring reconciliation.
With people like that in the family of God, how are we to maintain an atmosphere of love and unity? Not to mention trying to be at peace with all those who are not part of God’s household? Here’s how. Are you ready for this?
House Rule #3 - assume 100% of the responsibility to have harmonious relationships with everyone else
“Bless those who curse you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep [even if you don't want to]. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge . . . .”
That is heavy. It defies our definitions of “fair” and “just” and “reasonable.” But it does not defy a true definition of love. Love is God. Love is how He views and treats others. And this is exactly how He views and treats us. It is not a matter of us deserving it. He assumed 100% of the responsibility to mend His relationship with us. It is “unfair” to Him that He should have to do this. But then again, that’s just the point. He doesn’t have to. He wants to. The breach in our relationship with Him is entirely our fault, not His. He would be entirely just to stand at a distance and wait for us to humble ourselves and come to Him. But He does not. He humbles Himself, and comes 100% of the distance to us, and does everything that He possibly can to get us to enter back into a proper relationship with Him. If He had met us halfway, we’d still be lost. We would have no relationship with Him. But that was unacceptable to Him. So “as far at it depended on Him,” He made peace with each of us. And now He asks us to do the same for one another. Not because we deserve it. We do not. But because it is the way of love - it is His way - and we are His family. We are to imitate Him by putting our love and unity above fault and blame and pride.
This is definitely one of the keys to having a good marriage. This is one of the keys to being a good parent. This is one of the keys to having any long lasting, deep relationship. We are so good at making excuses, looking the other way and pretending nothing is wrong, waiting for the other person to act first, or putting conditions on it. I’ll talk to them again “as soon as they apologize,” or “when they admit what they did,” or “when they get over their problem,” or “when they start treating me the way that I want to be treated.” That is what our flesh says. And that is quite reasonable in the eyes of the world. But it is not the way of Christ. Clearly, the One who went to the cross, and then while hanging upon it, said “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,” was not waiting for us to make the first move, or to meet Him halfway, or even to make a move toward Him at all. He assumed 100% of the responsibility to try to have a harmonious relationship with each of us.
So I ask you, are you willing to do the same? Do you have any relationships which are not at 100%? Relationships where “stuff” has happened and has left things not quite right? You know what I mean. I’m not talking about what happened, or whose fault, or what’s fair. I’m talking about love, flowing from a humble heart, with an unwavering commitment to unity. Your flesh will say, “Well what about him/her?” “Why do I have to be the one to go 100% of the way.” “Why can’t I just wait for them to take some initiative?” Take your eyes off of the other person. It is not about them. Your Father is speaking to you. Look Him in the eye. He loves you. He’s asking you to love your brother.
This is the cost to preserve love and unity in any family comprised of imperfect people. Guess what? That includes us. It doesn’t just happen. Remember, “love covers a multitude of sins.” So put on love and be a peace maker in this family. We need you.
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