food, glorious food!

I only think I have original ideas.

Last week, I walked into our living room and declared to the household I had come up with a great idea. Assuming the freezers at church don't get any use, I shared my brilliant plan of inviting people to bring ingredients and spend the day cooking together and freezing meals for later use. We could pull these out as needed for hospitality, for giving to a family that is going through a hard time, or for assisting agencies that feed the hungry. Fellowship and service all rolled into one.

Brilliant, right?

Well, maybe... but certainly not original.

Catching up on my blog reading this holiday weekend, I discovered a similar suggestion on the Mustard Seed Associates site. If you haven't visited their site, or The Revolution Starts at Home, I highly recommend both blogs.

In related news, I got some mesclun seeds this weekend. I figure if I'm going to pursue a green thumb, I've gotta start somewhere!

Happy Valentines Day!

(Image Attribution)

I would love to be celebrating at the Common Root conference, but instead I'm at home reading Justice in the Burbs, and being reminded about grace and unity. Locally, I am looking around me at the various expressions of the Church - downtown cathedrals, sprawling suburbans, a few decaying, and several energetic upstarts - and, I have to say, It Is Good. There is some good stuff going on in our city and some amazing people, in every expression of the Body. And it is good. And it is very good. If you haven't had a chance to visit the Memorials for Donna page, please do (and consider donating $10... I'll kiss you later!).

If the way of Jesus is about anything, it is about love… God entangled in a loving embrace with his creation, seeking to make it whole. If we are to be radical about anything, let it be love. Let us be wreckless in our love – not only for the poor and marginalized and broken, but also for the rich and powerful and proud. Let us embrace a gracious radicalism, that recognizes that the grace of God (which is really God’s gift of himself to the undeserving) is free to all.
~ Mark Van Steenwyk

~ empathy ~

Jo: You should be ashamed of yourself.

Dick: We don't usually barge in that way.

I mean a man of your ability wasting his time photographing silly dresses on silly women.

Most people think they're beautiful dresses on beautiful women.

At most, a synthetic beauty. Trees are beautiful. Why don't you photograph trees?

I do what I do for a living. It has to do with supply and demand. You'd be amazed how small the demand is for pictures of trees. My work is pleasant, the pay is excellent, and I get a trip to Paris every year.

I certainly envy you that. I'd be in Paris now if I could afford it.

You'd have a ball. You'd go to a party every night, drink champagne, swim in perfume, and a new love affair every hour on the hour.

If I went to Paris, it would be to go to Emile Flostre's lectures.

Who goes to Paris for lectures?

Professor Flostre is the greatest living philosopher, and father of empathicalism.

Oh? What's empathicalism?

The most sensible approach to true understanding and peace of mind.

Sounds great, but what is it?

It's based on empathy. Do you know what the word "empathy" means?

No, I'll have to have the beginner's course on that one. Empathy, is it something like sympathy?

Oh, it goes beyond sympathy. Sympathy is to understand what someone feels. Empathy is to project your imagination so that you actually feel what the other person is feeling. You put yourself in the other person's place. Do I make myself clear?

(He kisses her)

Why did you do that?

Empathy. I put myself in your place and I felt that you wanted to be kissed.

You put yourself in the wrong place. I have no desire to be kissed
by you, or anyone else.

Don't be silly. Everybody wants to be kissed, even philosophers.

(Funny Face)

~ proximity ~

When you like somebody proximity is a good thing, regardless of how they feel about you… or don’t, as the case may be.

~ Pacey (Dawson’s Creek - Stolen Kisses)

~ it just fits ~

Sometimes someone says something really small, and it just fits into this empty space in your heart...

People always say how you should be yourself, like "yourself" is this definite thing - like a toaster, or something - like you can know what it is, even. But, every so often, I'll have, like, a moment when just being myself, in my life, right where I am, is like, enough.

~ Angela Chase (My So-Called Life - Pressure)




(image attribution)

~ buzzing along ~

Hey - could we do that again?

I know we haven't met, but I don't want to be an ant.

You know?

I mean, it's like we go through life with our antennas bouncing off one another, continously on ant autopilot, with nothing really human required of us.

Stop.

Go.

Walk here.

Drive there.

All action basically for survival.

All communication simply to keep this ant colony buzzing along in an efficient, polite manner.

"Here's your change."

"Paper or plastic?'

"Credit or debit?"

"You want ketchup with that?"

I don't want a straw, I want real human moments.

I want to see you. I want you to see me. I don't want to give that up.

I don't want to be ant, you know?


~ Girl in Stairwell (Waking Life)

~ all we need ~

…this is all we need - a couple of smokes, a cup of coffee, and a little bit of conversation - you and me and five bucks.

~ Troy (Reality Bites)

meanwhile...

Last night's vesper gathering at Vineyard was beautiful and refreshing. We were invited to come together and seek the Kingdom:

"Prayer is not asking for what you think you want, but asking to be changed in ways you can't imagine." ~ Kathleen Norris

Are we ready to be changed? Are we prepared, if God speaks, to do what he asks? As we gather this week, we focus our hearts on repentance - on our longing to be changed beyond our ability to ask. We ask for humility in our words and for the patience to embrace the silence in which God speaks.

Last week, we invited His Spirit to show us a picture of who we are and who we might become. As we pray together this Mid-Week Vespers, we ask forgiveness for those things which have prevented us from becoming the community to which He is calling. We repent of our cynicism and fear; our pride and selfishness; our lack of faith and our lack of hope. We ask our Father to forgive us and to change us. We ask for faith where there was fear; for hope where there was cynicism; and for humility where there was pride.

We hope you will join us this evening as we seek His kingdom and ask that it come to us here and now - as it is in heaven.

Thanks to last night's prayers and scripture readings, I have had the following song running through my head all morning long (not that that's a bad thing...):

Banquet at the World’s End (Daniel Amos)

The beautiful people, all send their excuses:
Real estate and sex lives, livestock and ex-wives)

But the poor are coming, the lame are running
In their sleazy clothes and orthopedic shoes
There's a harelip spokesman shouting out the news

"Come to the banquet at the world's end!"

There's a string ensemble, and the King's court jester
Telling parables and big jokes, to mongoloids and old folks

The blind are seeing, the dead are breathing
And the mummies dance in geriatric style
The amputees are rolling down the aisles

"Come to the banquet at the world's end!"

Candlelight and party hats, duck and pheasant under glass
Aluminum walkers, thin white canes, caviar and pink champagne
The bride and the groom waltz on club foot lane
at the banquet at the world's end
The banquet at the world's end
The banquet at the world's end

Say the beautiful people (the poor are coming)
"We'll live with the lights out (the lame are running)
Leave us alone now because (the blind are seeing)
Hell feels like home now" (the dead are breathing)

Meanwhile...

But the poor are coming, the lame are running
In their sleazy clothes and orthopedic shoes
There's a harelip spokesman shouting out the news

"Come to the banquet at the world's end!"
"Come to the banquet at the world's end!"
"Come to the banquet at the world's end!"

~ medical breakthrough ~

Like getting a tooth removed, you say?