A man is stumbling through the woods totally drunk, when he comes upon a preacher baptizing people in the river. The drunk walks into the water and subsequently bumps into the preacher.
The preacher turns around and is almost overcome by the smell of booze. Whereupon he asks the drunk, ‘Are you ready to find Jesus?’
‘Yes I am’ replies the drunk, so the preacher grabs him and dunks him in the river. He pulls him up and asks the drunk, ‘Brother have you found Jesus?’
The drunk replies, ‘No, I haven’t.’ The preacher, shocked at the answer, dunks him into the water again, but for a bit longer this time. He pulls him out of the water and asks again, ‘Have you found Jesus, my brother?’
The drunk again answers, ‘No, I have not found Jesus.’ By this time the preacher is at his wits end, so he dunks the drunk in the water again, but this time he holds him down for about 30 seconds.
When the drunk begins kicking his arms and legs, the preacher pulls him up. The preacher asks the drunk again, ‘For the love of God, have you found Jesus?’
The drunk wipes his eyes, catches his breath and says to the preacher, ‘Are you sure this is where he fell in?’
To label me is to ignore me.
Dana Carvey
So thanks to Louise at Husk for the link, I took the little test found here that helps you work out which party you’re beliefs most align with, and here’s my result:
Now even I’m surprised by that…
There’s not much to say really. We got to watch what will be known by future generations as one of the most historic moments in all human history – regardless of how well Obama performs.
My hope and prayers are that he turns out to be one of the truly great leaders of all time.
It’s extraordinary to me that the United States can find $700 billion to save Wall Street and the entire G8 can’t find $25 billion dollars to saved 25,000 children who die every day from preventable diseases… Bankruptcy is a serious business and we all know people who have lost their jobs… But this is moral bankruptcy.
Taking time to be human is a deep contrast to the drivenness of the acquisitive life that is always on the make and that ends in fatigue that has no energy for humane living.
Walter Brueggemann
I was working on a post on this, and then read this post by Andrew Menzies which says everything I wanted to say, more eloquently that I would have done. Worth a read right now.
The most perfect political community is one in which the middle class is in control, and outnumbers both of the other classes.
Aristotle
One sunny day in 2009, an old man approached the White House from across Pennsylvania Ave, where he’d been sitting on a park bench. He spoke to the US Marine standing guard and said, “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.”
The Marine looked at the man and said, “Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.”
The old man said, “Okay” and walked away.
The following day, the same man approached the White House and said to the same Marine, “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.”
The Marine again told the man, “Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr. Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here.”
The man thanked him and, again just walked away
The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to the very same US Marine, saying “I would like to go in and meet with President Bush.”
The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man and said, “Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here asking to speak to Mr. Bush. I’ve told you already that Mr. Bush is no longer the president and no longer resides here. Don’t you understand?”
The old man looked at the Marine and said, “Oh, I understand. I just love hearing it.”
The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, “See you tomorrow, Sir.”
I’ve had three emails today asking me when I’m next “on tour”… truth is, I’ve dialled things back a bit recently, because I just want to be at home more, and doing less. Less is more right now.
But… I’m looking forward to spending the morning out at Life Leadership College next week, and will be teaching into the idea of “intentionality”. Then we’re off to Matamata for the St Paul’s annual camp where Mark & Sue Strom will be with us thinking about “living well in the 21st century”.
My next “on the road” speaking gig looks like it will be at Soul Survivor in tidy Fielding next January.
I’m trying to get my head down to some writing in the next few months – I’ve got a lot I want to say on paper right now. Stuff I’ve road-tested for a while now, played around with, and refined.
Currently I’m actually working on two projects. The first is a possible workshop around “setting life vision and aims”. I come across so many people who just aren’t sure of what their life vision and aims are. And whenever I go through my little spiel with them, they are so grateful. I figured it might be something other people would value.
The other is a book, provocatively titled “Rescuing Jesus from the church” or something like that. In reality it’s perhaps better titled “Real Christianity in a hyperreal world”, but one sounds better than the other ! I want to say two things – the kind of Christianity we need and want is the kind of Christianity Jesus talked about, so what does it take to get out of churchianity and into the dust ? And then, what the heck does it mean for someone to thrive spiritually as a fully sold-out Kingdom person ?
Problem is… I can write the first one, but I’m out of my depth on the second, because I’m surviving not thriving.
