Ponder this...

1 Corinthians 13

This is video that Shawn put together for a recent teaching series at Oak Park. I love hearing those words from my son's lips! 

Friday Links

Some people see more possibility in the ordinary than others. Check out these examples of creativity!

10 Ways to Help Left Brainers Tap Into the Best of Their Creativity 

How could Ipads fix meetings? Seth has some thoughts that have some neat possibilities

Here is a site that makes me smile on most mornings. The power of a thank-you.

Quote that has me pondering this week:

“The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.”

-M. Scott Peck

Saturday Links

I've been quite impacted by Stephen Pressfield's The War of Art. Here is good interview with him.

Kevin Deyoung's article on The Glory of Plodding resonates with me and describes some of where I'm at these days.

I've just got to say - I can't stand the Lakers. 

A Keith Green Movie?

The Gospel vs. Religion and while you are there check out Grace, Not Gifts

Are you tempted to quit your job, marriage, church? 

Did I mention that the Laker's really bother me?

Finally, here is a quote from Henri Nouwen that I've been pondering this week:

Love is eternal. Love comes from God and returns to God. When we die, we will lose everything that life gave us except love. The love with which we lived our lives is the life of God within us. It is the divine, indestructible core of our being. This love not only will remain but will also bear fruit from generation to generation. When we approach our deaths let us say to those we leave behind, "Don't let your heart be troubled. The love of God that dwells in my heart will come to you and offer you consolation and comfort."

The Dancer

2010-05-17

Jesse on our Monday ride

Friday Links

On renewal: How do you hit refresh?  Some good ideas here

On marriage: The Silent Argument. 

On complaining: How to point out problems without complaining.

On computing: 100 Useful Free Mac Apps

On God's will for your life: from Donald Miller from John Ortberg

Swagger wagon

Yes, us parents all end up with a mini-van eventually.  You can fight it but eventually you might as well embrace it...

Beautiful things - Gungor

Believing is seeing pt. 3

I began to come to tea with a notebook in an attempt to capture what was going on. Here are some things I picked up on:

- There are worse things than impending physical death. For example, there is a deadness of vision that steals life from even (and especially?) the youngest and most healthy among us.

- Prayer becomes more dialogue than monologue when God becomes more real and close to you than your circumstances.

- You don't really need a reason to laugh. In fact, sometimes it's funnier when there isn't a reason!

- In a normal moment in a normal day there is a huge gap between what we are actually aware of and what is radically available for us to be aware of in that moment.  

- How we view life determines the quality of our life. The clarity and dimension of our vision  has a direct impact on how much happiness and contentment we will experience.

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Later that Fall God really did become more real to her than I was. She moved on past earth and I was left celebrating her life and pondering her vision.

Years have passed since those afternoon tea times and I find myself still reflecting on those conversations. I can't remember the details of the stories and my memory can't pull up the actual words that were spoken. But I can't forget the way that she saw life. Since those days I've been a part of countless religious gatherings, listened to many teachers, read from a lot books and spent time with some of the most dedicated Christians I can imagine and yet I've never met anyone, or heard anything, like what I heard over tea on those Thursday afternoons.  In fact, I've seen a few miracles since then: babies being born, forgiveness being given, relationships reconciled, lives changed and yet I've never met anyone who saw the miracle of life like that old lady. She saw because she believed and what she saw caused me to believe.

I've actually got a word for her sight...

Believing is seeing pt. 2

When I first met her I actually wondered if she was crazy...

I mean, who actually praises God for the strength of the chair they are sitting on? How many sane people do you know that break into song, start quoting Scripture or just spontaneously start giggling at any moment - usually in the middle of their own sentence or story?  It was so random that I resigned myself from trying to keep up and decided I would just hang on for the ride.

 

Shortly after being diagnosed with cancer she invited me to have tea with her on Thursday afternoons. As a young  Minister I didn’t really understand my job, but I figured that it likely didn’t include refusing tea with old ladies. So, for  two or three hours a week I found myself sipping sugary Earl Grey, in an overcrowded apartment, listened to an old lady describe how she saw life.

 

She would tell me stories of her past.  You know the kind, filled with descriptions and events of various friends and relatives. Stories of love and tragedy, of laughter and tears. I wasn’t sure what to make of them to be honest. Most of them were the kind of thing where “you had to be there” for them to make a lot of sense. In fact I realized pretty quick that making “sense” was not a high priority for this woman! The facts were questionable and the chronology was inaccurate. It all seemed rather pointless to me until one afternoon, after a several minutes of hearing another version of her Uncle’s depression and divorce I finally realized what she was doing. She wasn’t giving me history as much as she was retelling the story in light of what she now believed the story to mean. Almost as if life's experiences were all written but only now she was seeing what the Author was up to as he wrote. After that realization the stories took on new life.  She was sharing something far deeper than history. She was re-looking at her life and experiences through the lens of who and where she believed God to be.

 

The woman saw God everywhere. Literally. She had eyes for Him. Not that she mentioned his name that much, she just kind of "assumed" Him. I was never quite sure if I was more real to her or if God was. Several times I felt that I was witnessing her and God having tea and I was simply eavesdropping on an ongoing conversation. In those moments teatime became holy ground. I actually felt as she and God had teamed up beforehand and made a plan to try and teach me some new things - as if God had joined us for tea and was just bursting with delight at what this old woman would show me. So I began to come to tea with a notebook and wrote a few things down...