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Benediction for my Graduates!

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May God bless you with discomfort at easy answershalf truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.

*ancient franciscan benediction

The Artist

Within myself is another person; a much younger person with an imagination and an anxiety to express that imagination in endless ways.  It has no name. Perhaps I should give him a name, but it really doesn't need one. It is me. It is only me within me. It is the layer of me I've left behind the present me. No! It is all present me, only this person within me, that is still me, is the person I have left stifled by all the other me I deem more important and serious or responsible.

That younger me within is the artist, the creator, the child. The artist has been forgotten without use or engagement. The artist was once the primary voice and motivator. Then my chronological age overtook my artist. Artistry did not pay the bills or......they didn't....pay...the bills. Could that REALLY be the only thing keeping that part of me quiet? Have I stifled and nearly snuffed the artist because he didn't pay the bills?

Had I forgotten that he brought me joy, rest, love, and intimacy with God and people?  All those things begin to get lost, and it has a lot to do with my broken connection with the dreamer, the artist. All of the other things, many of them which DO pay the bills, lack creativity and forward thinking because they have not engaged the younger artist in the discussion, the work, the planning.

The younger part of me, the artist, is growing weary of being ignored and pushed down. It is time that he is not only engaged again, but that he begins to lead and direct again. The artist may not be the primary bread-winner, but without him all the others who make the money are losing joy, dreams, excitement, creativity, and passion.

My Social Fantasies are

1. I want to have an unlimited insurance policy, and a car with ramming bars all the way around it. I want to be the first car in a line at a bunch of red lights. As soon as it turns green, just gun it and leave caution to the wind and consequences to anyone trying to make it through the red. 2. I want to sit in a coffee shop and ask someone to watch my stuff while I go to the restroom. Once I'm gone, I want to have a couple people come and pack up my stuff and walk away. I want to come back from the restroom pissed that the stranger didn't watch my stuff.

3. I want to sit down with popcorn and an oversized soda in front of a couple making out in a coffee shop or any public place, as this is quite obviously why they have chosen to do so HERE.

4. I want Rob Bell to preach a sermon written by John Piper and vice versa. I want to see if their followers notice the difference.

5. I want to pull out my dry-erase markers in the middle of a meeting with a student at a coffee shop and start teaching something on the window behind me.

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What are your social fantasies?

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Yield [poem]

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Love is a relentless preference. for one person over another. any other. over you. There is, in love, the surrender of entangled fingers behind the head. This is not an emotion. it is not a feeling. It is an arrest. You are to cease your insincerity. and prohibit whatever pride you contain and

give up

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*one of those poems that started strong and just could not get finished

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Mowing the Weeds

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My lawn is beyond the point of repair or upkeep. It is beyond the point of little fixes toward maintenance. The weeds have dominated the grass, and at this point, I just keep mowing the weeds to make it look (better word: appear) nice. There is no real beautiful life but for a few patches, and the fact they are beautiful patches does not make the lawn look any better as whole. It only looks...well...patchy.

My lawn needs to be tilled up, re-rolled, and re-planted.

In what part of your life, your leadership, your ministry, are you just mowing weeds at this point?

What part of your life, your leadership, your ministry needs to just be thrown into the green waste bin to make room for whatever NEW BEAUTIFUL THING God is trying to create?

The Robin and the Lady Poet

I was meandering the internet for poets and other inspirational spoken word. I came across these two, and I loved it from the beginning. Great artistic chemistry that mixes for an unsafe explosion of beauty. Enjoy! [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlT5JM1fHfM&w=560&h=349]

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Support a Ragamuffin Movie

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A good friend of mine is directing a film about, who I might consider, the original ragamuffin, Rich Mullins. The idea of the Ragamuffin life of faith may have been communicated first by Brennan Manning, but it was first lived out in its strongest sense by Rich. Please take a moment to watch this small clip by Rich's little brother and a brief trailer for the film.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1236553116/rich-mullins-a-ragamuffins-legacy-a-feature-length/widget/video.html

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Most Important Step to Sermon Prep

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When asked, "What is the most important thing you do in preparing to preach each Sunday?" Dr. G.A. Buttrick responded: "For two hours every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, I walk through the neighborhood and make home visits. There is no way I can preach the gospel to these people if I don't know how they are living, what they are thinking and talking about. Preaching is proclamation, God's word revealed in Jesus, but only when it gets embedded into conversation, in a listening ear and responding tongue, does it become the gospel."

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CREATIVE CHANGE: Mindset

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When your creativity is waning, the most likely change needed is that of your own mindset. This could look any variety of ways. Two are strong possibilities. 1. You are Jealous Unless a speaker or writer really really impresses me or makes me think differently than I had before I heard them, I am generally dismissive of them as a speaker and author. Two things I have not pursued or gone after! But something in me is dismissive and unimpressed.

This thing within is jealousy. Jealousy is basically a part of you that is convinced there can only be one of something, and you are not that one.

The problem lies in that most things can have more than one of them. It is possible for there to be more than one artist within whatever artistry you pursue. But that part of you that gets FRUSTRATED when someone else accomplishes something you know you can do is jealousy.

2. You Don't Dream  This is just simple psychology. I have read of a few different studies that show our minds are their most creative when they are allowed to disengage from the rigidity. Our brains are most creative when they are allowed to wander without force. Set time to make that happen!

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What mindset change needs to happen for you to be more creative?