Improv(ing) God's will

Many of my favorite moments took place in any given improv class I took or as part of the traveling improv comedy and drama team I was part of for several years. While there is technique to improv, it is a lot of creating details around and within a framework of smaller prompts. Many of our classes took place outside where we could receive these prompts from passers-by...or from the audience at shows.

You may only know where your character is (setting) or a problem to overcome (conflict). You may only know a character trait. The rest of the plot you fill in with improv. You learn how to best interact with fellow actors in order to make your character stronger and help the scene stay alive. You follow improv rules and technique to help give to the scene and your fellow actors.

When many of us wait to hear God's voice in our lives, we are thinking we get to be character actors like Moses with God's cosmic voice speaking the script in perfect English (or at least in KJV Old English). When he does not do this for us, we start to doubt and assume he no longer speaks.

Today, God gives you a setting and a scene. He gives you a conflict to overcome. The rest is improv.

The rest is opportunity for your character to grow. To learn. The rest is opportunity for you to learn his rules and contribute to the scene, to give to your fellow actors.

Some scenes will fall drastically flat and fail miserably, but that is improv. It's life! Tomorrow God will give you another scene with new prompts to interact with.

You're Welcome: Seryn

I commonly come into various obsessions with bands and artists. Right now, I cannot stop listening to Seryn. There is not much I could say to describe them in comparison to other artists. It just really is fantastic music. Here is a live performance of Beach Song. It is not even my favorite song on their album, but the video is pretty good quality. Enjoy! [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aOiaBW6HBRw&w=420&h=315]

Book Review: Father Hunger by Douglas Wilson

Books about manhood and fatherhood are beginning to pop up everywhere for good reason. Fatherlessness is an epidemic in our culture today. Douglas Wilson addresses this enormous issue with this book. With very heady information, he walks the reader through the original intent for men and fathers. This leads well into a revelation of the ways the culture has drastically neglected those intentions. That neglect has lead us into several saddening realities in our culture as we know it today. 

The title interested me, which is why I accepted the offer to review the book for Booksneeze and Thomas Nelson. As a new father, there as encouragement in the possibility of good information regarding leading a family.

The larger surprises were found in the amount of discussion regarding sexuality, gender roles, masculinity and feminism. It grew to be a bit much at several points along the way.

There were different ways he handled certain topics, which were very enlightening. His connection of modern atheism to the fatherless epidemic is very intriguing. The connection to education is also very clear and easy to recognize.

On the other hand, there were quite a few topics addressed which felt like a great stretch. There are some generalizations that strike me more as an opinion, which smacks of conspiracy theories and “hell in a hand basket” outlooks. Even with the offerings of advice and challenges to step up as fathers, there remains a lack of restoration.

Finishing the book proved more daunting than I had expected.

A Bird's Life

I might take someone up on the offer of a bird's life.  I suppose I'd take the offer of nearly any animal's life.  Who wouldn't, really?  The most prevalent reason is the lack of responsibility.  Who wouldn't want to fly around above the earth you live off of?  No bills or telemarketers!  No drama or expectations.  Only instinct!  You still get to enjoy things like fast food.  How many times have you sat outside a fast food restaurant and watched birds eat dropped fries and hamburgers? I'd be a smart bird though.  You would not find me flying around any freeways or abandoned trucks.  I'd be very careful around houses and windexed windows.  So don't worry about any of that or anything.

I'd spend a lot of my days atop things humans could never just hang out on.  I'd spend a lot of time taking advantage of my new ability to be scared of no height.  I'd also take advantage of the amazing ability to sit on an electrical wire.  I would sit there and make fun of the humans below at the outdoor Starbucks table wishing they could do what I do.

Of course I would want some liberties that birds do not actually get.  Like I want to be a sort of Disney/Pixar bird.  No!  I just want to speak English.  At least give me that.  If I am going to live like as a bird, you have to give me something.  That would make the taunting that much easier.

I cannot wait to fly south when it gets too hot or cold here...or there...or there.  Its the cheapest airfare I'll ever have.  Its not that tiring either.  Even chubby birds fly great distances.  Regardless, if I got tired I can could pull over at the next watering hole or fast food joint...like I do now.

I think I would also find some homeless man in Chicago and land on his shoulder to be his best friend...one of his only friends.  We would talk for hours upon hours every day all day.  Of course, people would think he was crazy when he told them his bird talked to him...in perfect English, but people thought he was crazy before he ever met me anyway.  Of course, there would be one time he says to someone, "Look!  I'll prove it.  Say something, PC."  Then I'd cock my head, look at him in the eye, and just squawk like a dumb bird.  Its a little joke my buddy and I would do.  Its hilarious really!  We'd both laugh, and he'd say, "My bird doesn't talk, man!  You're crazy!"  We'd both get it.

I'd be one of those birds that get caught in an airport terminal or large department store.   Except, I think I'd sneak my way into much nicer and more useful places.  I'd sneak into movie theaters and Broadway playhouses.  Free movies for the rest of my life.  I'd watch all the Broadway plays...like Cats...the irony alone of humans acting like animals would be hilarious.  I would set up in the rafters laughing like a human, and no one would ever expect the little bird to be the one causing such an interruption.

I suppose the only thing I'd have to be careful of are hunters and little junior high brats with bee bee guns.  Hey, just because I'm a bird does not mean I escape danger.  Though I would escape danger...every time.

Medicine Man

A man's heart was terribly sick. He came to meet a traveling Healer who gave him a bottle of heart medicine. Not sold, but gave! The bottle is shiny and clean, but more importantly, it is rare. Without opening it, the man attaches the bottle to his jacket to wear as a medal, but it is only one. So he goes to find the Healer to ask for more bottles. Many trips later, his jacket is full of shiny bottles of heart medicine.

He thanks the Healer that he has been gifted all these bottles no one else has, especially that poor slop of a woman on the other side of town.

The woman? Oh she is another story who encountered the same Healer. She had also come to him with a sick heart, but her heart was sickened by her own poor choices and worse actions. She came in search of the Healer to work tirelessly serving Him and paying respects.

The Healer gave her the strongest bottle He had. She drank the entire bottle and found complete healing for her sick heart. Her love for the Healer was greater than anyone has ever known or heard of again.

God, you are my God. You are my Peace, my Desire, and my Drive. You created the entire world and universe and space with your voice, and yet you are capable of relating intimately with my heart. You are able to relate to my heart so tenderly and intimately while simultaneously relating just as intimately with every other human being on this planet. Should there be life on other planets, which we cannot even conceptualize, you are capable of relating intimately and tenderly to them as well. Do you know the numbers of hairs on each animal? Do you know how many hairs are on these strange characters from other planets (should they exist!)? Do they have hair at all? God you expansive existence is one I will never fully know; I could never contain it. Every human on this earth could have a phenomenal revelation of you, and together, we would never be fully capable of praising you for what you are worth. I have no idea why you love me, why you bring me up to you in intimacy and love. How, oh God, could you love such a spec as I am? I could never praise you enough or give you enough (though you have everything), and yet you give me so abundantly much. I will never fully understand it.

My best friend Augustine

Augustine and I have been hanging out together so much lately that I may need to create a nickname for him as well.  All my good friends have nicknames (or I refer to them by their first name at least...the real friends right?)...Brennan....Ozzie....and Augy?...The Saint?...Stine?...I'll work on it. Today, Augustine said something that actually made me smile right here in the coffee shop.  He is talking about the wonders of being a baby and asking questions of God regarding where was before the womb...what was he before the womb?  After asking many great questions, he writes,

"Do my questions provoke you to smile at me and bid me simply to acknowledge you and praise you for what I do know?"

What a great image and challenge in and of itself!  I love the image of God smiling at all my crazy questions.  I find myself smiling when a child asks, "Does God have feet?" "Whatcha doin?"

I have to think God sits up there and smiles when his children ask him questions.  I'm sure he just smiles at Augustine's questions because they're brilliant, and if he smiles at Augustine, he roars with laughter over my questions.

I can imagine myself telling my daughters, "You know what; just enjoy what you do know and go play."  I can certainly see God telling me, you know a lot of other things about me.  Do not overlook those.  Praise me for those things.

Invited but Unwelcome

The room is full of those people. You know the ones! THOSE people. They are the ones we have learned to hate. They are the ones who look nothing like us physically, morally, spiritually. We do not want to SAY we are better, but... The room is full of them, and there is Jesus just hanging out with them as if He did not see what we all see in them. Why are they all there anyway?

Only a few hours ago, Jesus invited one of them to follow Him. The man did leave all the things that make him one of them to follow Jesus. We will give him that, but then Jesus went to hang out at his house. Now Jesus is with the one who is unwelcome. He invited the man to follow Him, and then went to the man's home.

For the first time ever, here is a holy teacher willing to take one of them under his teaching and care. Here is The Epitome of one of us taking on one of them.

Now the house is full of them.

Of course it is! All these people are crammed into the man's house to follow and hear Jesus. Though the call and invitation was to one, it seems to have drawn all the others.

Which 'sinners' do you like to avoid? Who of them need finally to be invited into your life, your love, and your care? Who of them would be able to tell all the others about you being different from the rest of us who avoided them?

That one invite into your life just may draw many others to Jesus.

the time I prayed for strength

I found myselfbroken on the floor in tears. I did not know what to do or where to go who I had become.

So I asked for strength for wisdom.

Rarely do I ask for much I am more content to pursue intimacy than to ask for things

brokenness makes you ask for things

I started asking and I waited...

........

 

........

 

I listened until I was frustrated with the silence Just before I fell asleep, I lay there with dried up eyes and I heard:

"I am not a genie. I am your God, and I love you. If you want strength, I am not just going to GIVE you strength. It will start to get really difficult now. Will you be strong in those times or not. I am not a genie; I am your God who loves you."