Ben Myers for the New Year

January 1^st seems like the perfect day to write a blog-post. Too bad I depleted any and all creative magic and intellectual muscle while writing my Action Project for Hebrew Prophets (ew!). So, go instead to Ben Myers blog and enjoy his latest, Why pray?

Praying seems like a good way to start off the new year, no?

Embracing Bianca: Christian Hospitality (or lack thereof)

So there’s this movie called Lars and the Real Girl. Have you heard of it? In it, Lars, a socially-awkward young man, imagines and lives out an elaborate relationship with Bianca, a sex doll, purchased on the internet. Lars’ brother and sister-in-law have a difficult time adjusting. Ya no duh! But over time, by attempting to help and understand Lars, his family, co-workers and even church members all come around to accept Lars and his girlfriend and the shenanigans that entails.

Obviously it’s just a movie, but I was struck by the depth of hospitality and care that Lars’ community extended toward—yes, Lars, but more profoundly—Bianca. Eventually Bianca was being taken out to live her own life, presumably. This weirdly-attractive, awkward (to stare at, at least), plastic sex doll was a part of the community, completely accepted, loved and looked after. A doll! How strange right?

After recently visiting some friends at their church’s youth Christmas party and mingling with some of the church’s employees beforehand, I can’t help but wonder if they would greatly benefit from having Bianca around. Besides the pastor and a volunteer youth worker, no one welcomed me. In fact, most seemed unfriendly, disinterested and too busy to care. This is somewhat understandable. Working for a church can be a lot of work, especially when preparing for a big youth event or whatever else!

But hospitality and welcoming the stranger are important, no? If people who work for churches and other Christians like me don’t embrace a fellow Christian, what are the chances we’ll ever embrace a stranger or, better yet, an alien? Maybe Christians just need to practice and if this is the case maybe Bianca could help us.

It seems absurd, right? But really think about it. Would accepting, embracing and loving a doll help Christians accept, embrace and love people? Could welcoming Bianca be Christian practice?

I'm not sure whether or not I am actually advocating practicing Christian hospitality on a doll, but I am convinced humans deserve to be welcomed, embraced and understood, just like Bianca.

Knowing Darkness: quotes & a brief reflection

I was curious (and obviously daydreaming), as I study in the library, wondering about whether or not the library had the books of one of my favorite living theologians: David Bentley Hart. I searched his name. Immediately I read the intriguing title: Knowing Darkness and the even more intriguing subtitle: On Skepticism, Melancholy, Friendship, and God written by Addison Hart. After retrieving it, checking it out and delving in, I began referring to it as a God-send, though reluctantly. I don't care for that spiritual language normally. I didn't seem to mind this time since I actually felt that way.

Addison Hart is Parochial Vicar for the Newman Center at Northern Illinois University and has written a m

arvelously pastoral exploration into melancholy which he defines as "thoughtful sadness." I appreciated how he put melancholy in the title since I probably would of never discovered it. My interest in this has been increased lately upon finding out, after taking a personality test in psychology, that I am deeply melancholy. I always viewed this as one of the worse personality types since people with this type seem consistently sad and emotional, which I had been nearly all semester. Because of Hart's work on the subject I am learning to work with and in it, even appreciating it. Here are some quotes from chapter one:

"There is room for both skepticism and deep melancholy, for 'darkness,' in the life of faith. Christians who find these perplexing and troublesome things occupying a place in their minds should not be ashamed of them" (5).

"It [melancholy] should never be too easily dismissed as utterly invaluable to us, something only to be escaped. It may 'hurt,' but it also may in fact teach us wisdom, and its causes may be real, objective, and impossible to write off. To say it bluntly, there may be real reason why we sometimes feel like hell and want our life to end" (6).

Melancholy should never be shamed or viewed as invaluable. It can be a great teacher, as I am learning, if one is willing. Knowing darkness can even yield beautiful and nourishing fruit. More quotes and reflections to come.

this blog?...

I've done a horrible thing. This wonderful blog, where I used to engage my thoughts and friends' intentionally, I have neglected sorrowfully. But, this is not a day for mourning but of celebrating, for I here by declare that I am resurrecting/kickstarting this blog... right now!

untitled...

when will this pain stop
when will this anguish end
when will this torture cease
when will my desire, my heart
this longing, be satisfied
when will this life encompass
all i dream it to be

?

[written a couple sundays ago]

my condition

i am a pastor
am i a pastor because i love the church
or do i love the church because i am a pastor
being a pastor has absolutely nothing to do with titles
most would agree
it has everything to do with condition
i find myself doing, thinking and saying things
that are an overflow of this condition of being a pastor
alot of times its super overwhelming and it just takes over
what a shame to think that i would need an
office
or desk
or button-up shirt
to be a pastor
or to be overwhelmed by my condition
freak that!

i am thinking of my friends
some in newport
whittier
kauai
east coast
and everywhere else
we all have these
these conditions
i think the trick is letting our condition take its coarse
if you encourage, let your encouragement take its coarse
if you instruct, let your instruction take its coarse
if you create, let your creativity take its coarse

and if you love, let your life takes its coarse

kauai day 2

its muggy and the mosquitoes are out. you can't escape this combo in kauai in july. but i wouldn't want to be any other place. we, jordan and i, are filling our hears with some instrumental ambiences thanks to the world of pandora radio. jordan contemplates some nursing materials. i peruse randomly on the internet. both, resting from an intense bike ride to Lihue.
sarah's ma and pa flew in last night so we stopped by their hotel room only after getting lost in a myriad of hallways and winding parking lots. they seem enthusiastic about their luxurious room.
before this we got to cruise the beaches, well a beach, of kauai. it rained like mad earlier and since the earth here is red the ocean looked like watered-down tomato soup. we swam despite the color. the water was ridiculously warm. i could have stayed there for hours. not very many tourists, but enough to frustrate the locals.
i think my favorite part(s) of the trip so far (and it's my prediction that they will continue to be my favorite) is dinner. i am like sarah and jordan's adopted son. i keep telling they to freakin adopt me but i think i am too old. freak that! anyways, the three of us will sit at their small dinning room table occupying three of the four sides. its intimate. reminiscing about the past and dreaming about the future we stuff our faces with homemade tacos. the conversation is always prime. my minds wanders to 1 john and how he wrote so deligently that we ought to love our brothers... (and sisters) and even it's this act, these acts of love, that we know we are children of God. i am encouraged because i know that i have love overwhelming my veins for these two. i am reminded we are bonded with love. i am reminded that we will always be.
kauai is good.

love quotes

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers.
Anyone who does not love remains in death.
Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
There is no fear in love.
We love because he first loved us.
Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

extracted from john 1..

for those of you who love, be assured, you are children of God..