Peace by Piece - day two

Snapshots from day two of the Peace by Piece conference:

* Peter Rollins continued his thoughts on Christianity having become a story we tell ourselves rather than a transformative experience (we say we believe in something, but our actions remain unchanged). In Christianity we are called to be the incarnation, to be the site where resurrection happens. Look forward to another post on his ideas about rebound relationships, horrific marriage proposals and their relation to faith.

* Geoff Maddock from Communality shared insights and stories from his experience in community. I have much to process from that conversation, but for now I'll leave you with the impromptu money quote:

God didn't come to break up marriages with homeless people...

* Karen Sloan shared her heart about what a major commitment choosing to enter community can be, and how it needs to be approached as a process, built on a series of small steps, moving toward deeper relationships of love and trust.

* The Castanea community shared about the courtship that was their visioning process, and gave numerous examples of questions they asked themselves. It's not only essential to identify what commitments are important to your community, but to what degree you plan to implement those commitments... and what each of you even means by the terms you use...

* Karen Sloan and Matt Pritchard with Formation House spoke on money, sex and power in community formation and sustainability. We squeezed a lot into that short time, so I'll save most of it for a latter post when my pillow isn't calling my name...

* Danielle Shroyer presented a practical and powerful discussion on conflict resolution and peacemaking, which I almost skipped and am immensely glad I didn't. Again, I'll share more later (I'm getting very sleepy...)

* Chris Haw from Camden House (see: Jesus for President) gave the final keynote of the day, focused on pursuing holiness in the midst of exploitative economy. He talked about Wendell Berry, logs in our eyes, the relationship between cult-culture-cultivation, sacramental imagination, and a host of other ideas I'll explore when Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz...................

Peace by Piece - day one

Snapshots from day one of the Peace by Piece conference:

* The Dogon Team talked about the importance of commitment (to each other, to a place, to common values) in the formation of intentional community - and how that very commitment can be what scares us from pursuing intentionality.

* Karen Sloan reminded us of the cloud of witnesses of early Church leaders, and what we can learn from their writings. A highlight from the Rule of St. Augustine:

The Lord grant that you may observe all these precepts in a spirit of charity as lovers of spiritual beauty, giving forth the good odor of Christ in the holiness of your lives: not as slaves living under the law but as men living in freedom under grace.

* Ragan Sutterfield explored the relationship of soil & shalom, and asked us to consider what it means (and doesn't mean) for a person to flourish. We discussed seasons, presence, cultivation, rest, humility and grace.

* Peter Rollins made us laugh and think... and laugh... I took some video, but it is slow to upload on this hotel connection, so you may have to practice the discipline of patience. Here is an extremely rough misquotation of one of my favorite parts of his talk:

Spiritual direction, journaling, community, etc. brings the story we tell ourselves about ourselves in line with the reality of ourselves.

~ On Chaos and Crap ~

The work God needs to do within a local body of believers will always be messy, but Institutional Christendom keeps peons & yokels from participating precisely because they make messes. The shift is: who says messes are bad? Antiseptic works well for hospitals and elementary schools, but not in gardens or forests. After all, crap makes good fertilizer, and God is a gardener.

~ Bill Heroman

(via zoecarnate)

Damn you, Paula Deen!

Dear God,

How are you?

I’m good.

I know I should always start off by thanking you and being grateful and stuff, so I wanted to say thank you for making food that tastes good and nourishes us and is pleasing to the eye and all that.

There’s just one thing that bothers me, and I have to say – I think you messed up.

I know, I know – everything in moderation… I read that manna story… I get it.

I just wonder, wouldn’t it make sense if the size of the food matched the calories?

Like, shouldn’t you only get lots of calories from stuff that actually fills you up and keeps you from wanting to eat more stuff?

While were at it, in case you wanted to go back and make some adjustments to your original design, what if taste was directly related to fullness?

What if, once your body was full and had reached its processing capacity, your taste buds shut down and you no longer craved another bite of creamy mashed potatoes or slice of chocolate pie?

Just think how much more effective and energetic all of your creation would be if we only desired stuff that was good for us… and then only as much as we truly needed?!

By the way, please don’t bring up that whole fruit-and-snake incident. It’s too depressing.

Sincerely,
Kimberly

continue on, always striving

RIP Gideon Addington

Corrido por Buddy ~ Jolie Holland

Oh, listen my dear friends and I’ll tell you a story
About someone I barely knew at all
He was a friend of my friends and they told me about him
How he had nothing to break his fall

He had that bad religion in his blood
The kind that brings you down
And can never lift you up

He was a beautiful young man on the streets of Austin
He was a ghost faced junkie on the streets of New Orleans
I could barely recognize him when I saw him
He had to look me in the face and say my name
Before I knew it was him

Oh, Buddy – I wish I’d been a better friend

What if they only gave you love when you lied?
It’s bound to really rip you up inside
Pressures a person into that horrible mouth
That leaves a bloody aftermath
Everything minus one is everything

He treated me with what I consider kindness
When I crawled off to sleep in my car
He was worried about me
When we paid our respects to the moon
On the outskirts of Austin
I’m sorry to say, I was too shy to stay in touch with him

Oh, Buddy – I wish I’d been a better friend

And I wonder what it takes just to save one little life
Icarus almost made it back to the shore
When I was really down, there were three little words
From a couple of good people that kept me holding on

Oh, Buddy – I’ll never get a chance again
Oh, Buddy – I wish I’d been a better friend

~ lust, flesh, eyes, pride ~

Well, I feel
Like I have to feel
Something good all of the time
With most of life I cannot deal
But a good feeling I can feel
Even though it may not be real
And if a person, place or thing can deliver
I will quiver with delight
But will it last me for all my life
Or just one more lonely night

The lust, the flesh
The eyes
And the pride of life
Drain the life
Right out of me

Well, I see something and I want it
Bam! Right now!
No questions asked
Don't worry how much it costs me now or later
I want it and I want it fast
I'll go to any length
Sacrifice all that I already have
And all that I might get
Just to get
Something more that I don't need
And Lord, please don't ask me what for

The lust, the flesh
The eyes
And the pride of life
Drain the life
Right out of me

And I love when folks
Look right at me
And what I'm doing
Or have done
And lay it on about
How groovy I am
And that I'm looking grand
And every single word
Makes me think I'll live forever
Never knowing that they probably
Won't remember what they said tomorrow
Tomorrow I could be dead

The lust, the flesh
The eyes
And the pride of life
Drain the life
Right out of me

(lyrics by The 77's; image by Jakyll Dye)

~ advent ~

Burt and Elvis in the Red Room
my daughter's dancing in the next one
there's a poem in every turn

there's a baby in our bedroom
and he's crying like a small bird
I am praying he will sleep soon

Oh, am I not tired?

there's another world in this one
and it's spinning like my dancer
something tells me that this is so

and I can feel the turning
like every woman waiting
for the life inside of her

we cry, "oh, are we not tired?”

now the bathroom is a temple
for existential mothers
crying when no words will come

on floors across the big world
they are knelt upon by grown girls
wondering if they've done enough

And they cry,
"Love, when are you coming?"

~ Sarah Masen, Burt and Elvis
(from the album Women's Work is Alchemy)

(image attribution)