Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Not by faith alone

Last evening, I ran into one of my neighbors, Bry who was sweeping up the sidewalks and the gutters. Bry and his wife are great neighborhood assets. The bought their troublesome (water problems like you would not believe) house after years of renting. They had come from Chicago, where they lived between the territories of a Latin gang and a Black gang, oh and they're white. As a way of dealing with the gangs, Bry would sweep up the trash and pray for the dealers... quite audibly. Anyway, he still sweeps up trash, usually on the weekends, but he said the weather was so nice, why not that evening?
Bry besides his pay the mortgage job of non-profit faith based grant something or another, is an artist. And we got on the topic of Christians and art and I was so relieved to find another soul who despises bad liturgical dance as I do. Sadly, I've only witnessed one example of good lit dance, most of it, as Bry said, are girls waving their arms going 'look at me, look at me.' As an artist, Bry finds that sort of thing offensive. We talked about how important it is to be skilled and programs to train Christians to actually be good at something and be in the secular world. The purpose not being to aggressively push the gospel, as agnostics and atheists might interpret the activity. But rather, to be a presence and minister when the opportunities present themselves.
So I leave you with this:
Say no to bad Christian Art
Say no to bad christian music
Say no to bad christian dance
Say no to bad christian movies
Say no to bad christian novels
And avoid the Left Behind Series like the plague.

Monday, January 21, 2008

I should be asleep

But I'm not.
My sleep has been disturbed for the past few nights for one reason or another. To be fair, I can blame a mouse for one of those nights. Right now booze is not helping and I'm not going to go with Nyquil, my fav knock out drug of choice. Guess the only thing to do is read more books.

Friday, January 04, 2008

Well the plus side

...is that Ron Paul finished ahead of Rudy Giuliani at 10% in Iowa. The downside is that he finished behind the 3rd place ties of Fred Thompson and John McCain.
Mike Huckabee looks like he's gaining weight, just saying, that or he needs better fitting clothes.
Also I'm quite happy that the Chosen One*, Obama, kicked Clinton butt. I just don't like her. I like her husband more than her, but her husband ain't running.


*Cause Oprah said so.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

So it's 2008 big deal

I was reading another blog, that I normally don't read, but I was reading the comments and a poster said that it was 2008 now and things are different. Actually, I find statements like it is the 21st Century or it's 200? and we're all supposed to beyond a certain kind of thinking or living or whatever, tiresome and meaningless. In years past I have heard that because it is whatever year it is, that Jesus, religion, conservatism is out and in the past, as proclaimed by folks who cared little for, or downright hated, those things.
It's 2008 and Jesus is still big in my life, as is the great I AM, and that fuzzy hard to explain Holy Spirit thing.
It's 2008 and I'm still cooking from scratch, because I like to know what I'm eating, and revel in the joy of creation.
It's 2008 and I can't wait till Spring when I can experience the miracle of life when I plant seeds in the soil and food and flowers come forth.
Yes, 2008 will be its own unique year, as was 2007, 2006, and so forth. And each day as I have done since the day I was born, I will change a bit by bit and the direction I grow or prune is not determined by man or other proclaimers.
And the clock is never turned back. People going back to the land, picking up old skills, near lost languages, neglected customs, revisiting practices associated with the past are not turning back the clock as those who do come with the knowledge of what it is like not to have those things as a part of their life. I return to cooking from scratch with the knowledge that though microwave cooking a prepared frozen meal might be quicker and simiplify parts of my life, that prepared stuff has obnoixous amounts of salt, contains ingredients I can't pronounce, and is limited in the kind of variety that I can get. I know what the alternative is, and though it is the future, I don't want it.

Nightmare for the new year

This is of no interest to anyone but me.
But last night I had a disturbing but good in some ways, dream.
One of the disturbing bits of the dream was a married man tried to kiss me twice. The good part, was though the attempts were made, and they weren't without their attractions, I resisted. Asking, who's driving the car? (It's a dream, these things don't make sense) and what the hell are you doing?
The other disturbing bit was I lost my job. Because I didn't show up. Showing up is one of the things I do best. In this dream, I can resist the affections of a handsome married man, good, but I can't show up to work? Bad. And on the phone I get an offer for a GS-5 job that I have to be at around 6pm, but I don't leave the house till 6pm. And that's when I woke up. The job losing/ not being able to show up on time scenario was too disturbing.