“Have we become so moralistic that those who hear us never get a chance to discover the centre of Christianity is the fact of the Cross of Christ?” Willem Adolf Visser’t Hooft
please don’t talk about the self-centeredness of society. or if you do, make sure it is:
1. not in response to you being frustrated because people aren’t focused on you.
2. you are old and cranky and have a false view of the past.
3. you are not using it to feel superior to others (and thus being gloriously self-centered).
thanks.
browsing books to get with an amazon gift card, i order this from the list of theology bargain books. it’s outstanding, and i figured i would like to it in case it’s anyone’s speed. i only read the first chapter which was an article outlining the details of the oppression of the peasant class under solomon.
Subversive Scriptures: revolutionary readings of the christian bible in latin america and it’s only 4.95 on amazon at the moment.
http://www.amazon.com/Subversive-Scriptures-Revolutionary-Christian-Readings/dp/1563382008/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1263774241&sr=8-1
working with youth, i get to live with kids as they experience things for the first time. the homeless. the religious. those just different than them. worship. compline. communion.
but for me, nothing is more telling or more revealing than the first time they get hit in the face with a dodgeball.
4th graders and up – more than we realize – may deal with a great deal of the pains and hazards of life – but a shocking number have escaped every soundly getting hit in the face with something. the most hardened of them are left awestruck. both in pain and realization that that can in fact happen to you in the course of doing something that brings you the most enjoyment. there is a paradox there that they all react to differently.
some just stare. some cry. some have a total look of fear and just act like nothing happened. some get mad and throw the ball ten times as hard back. one just sat down.
there is a countless source of metaphors in this experience. for God. for all sorts of things.
i could see it in myself when my stuff got stolen. i have had countless worse things occur to me – even in recent times. but someone coming and stealing my pens. my lesson plans. oh yeah and my computer… while i lead the kids. that just seemed like too much. God would ask me to endure the other things… if I sat and thought about them logically, I could figure those things out, so then I could accept them.
and when you take this same thing to the extremes, as to the real and tangible devastation in the world…
some people conjure explinations – of various degrees of helpfulness. some people try to ignore it. some people try to just do something positive in the situation. some people get irrationally mad.
one can mentally grasp that God is a God of love and death. of tremendous paradox.
and then you get hit in the face in the dodgeball.
i am more of the awestruck sit on the floor kid, personally.
so they have not caught the culpret yet.
that may be because the officer was on vacation for a week, and just got to filing the report tonight.
or the thief is devious and sneaky beyond all human reason or capabilities of discernment.
whichever.
for the three of you that are pen geeks that read this…
Uniball JetStream pens are fantastic. They write like a gel pen without the smear for the lefties are and write with a boldness you don’t usually find in ball points.
Two things that held me back from using their cartridges were that they were not fine point enough AND I don’t like using plastic pens.
I discovered .5 jet stream pens on JetPens that write like at least a .4 gel pen which is fantastic, but I still couldn’t find a pen body they fit in that I would use.
While ordering at least a replacement pencil for the “Great Pen Pillaging of 2010 (and the theft of my MacBook)” I had tacked on to an order a refill for their mutli pens thinking I could find a pen I had it would fit. And alas.
Using a pair of pliers to make the indention in the cartridge to catch the spring, you can in fact use a Platinum Pro Use II Ball Point Pen, which is an all around comfortable, well balanced and cool looking pen.
So for those who had been discussing possible pen hacks with me, there is my answer. Here is where you would get the stuff (well, you have to find your own pliers)
In the aftermath of the great macbook caper, there are all sorts of theories of who or why the stuff got stolen. I have sort of stopped caring about who or why or vengence. I really would just like my pens and my files.
Since that isn’t going to happen, however, I am just trying to recover things, with the Macbook the Lesser (replacement macbook that needs a better name).
I lost all my links for:
1. Commentaries/Exegesis/Lectionaries
2. Liturgies/Prayerbooks/etc.
3. Fountain Pen/Office Geek sites where I bought things.
I remember some (jetpens, textweek, oresmus, tokyopenshop, levenger), but if you have any sites that you regularly use that fall into these categories, please point some links my direction to start rebuilding that component of my technical existence.
thanks.
when i ran the youth meeting on wednesday, during the span of 30 minutes that my bag was upstairs unattended, my stuff was stolen.
not all my stuff. just the stuff that was most important to me.
all my fountain pens.
my lesson plan and report notebooks.
my laptop with all my work on it.
so in the off chance, one day, the person sees my blog:
1. May I please just have a back up of my files.
2. I will give you more than you can get for the pens.
3. Ask the kids… my lessons aren’t worth a felony.
thanks.
what inspires someone to write an angry attacking letter in the newspaper?
in the least, please exclude your religious affiliation from the effort.
Even if you title it “the duty of christians is to love” or some such thing, followed by an attack on liberals, conservatives, “evangelicals,” catholics, etc., and thus cause coffee to come out of my nose this morning.
on a plus side, i found an obscure website that will sell me dry highlighters and a few kinds of pens that are now discontinued. the hoarding has begun.
1. People I think are awesome are not allowed to age or endure any of the consequential sufferings.
2. People will mail me free pens so I will find no need to simply pine over things or horde quarters and dimes.
3. We will genuinely find a way as a people and a church to struggle, daily, with our identity and our place in time, space, history, and God.
I would really be fine if any one of these three things occur. I think I like pens because they are the easiest option, thus far.
pentecost. no, not the season we burn heretics even though there is the fire and people with diverse beliefs in the icon. unfortunate for some and fortunate for others.
