I Feel Like This Today 

Easter and Terri Schiavo

I was reading this article about Easter today (N. T. rocks by the way) and then I got to thinking about Terri Schiavo.

O.K. so here is what I think...

I think that being a follower of Christ calls us to give special care and attention to the weakest in our community including the Terri Shiavo's of the world. And that by Christ's example, we should view life as sacred in a way that is not dimished by illness or disability.

And to be honest, starving someone to death just seems damn cruel.

But Easter reminds me of something else. Our bodies are a part of our everyday life and our everyday spirituality but they are not the sum total of who we are. Death is not so large a tyrant to seperate us from God's dream. In fact, it seems to me that in Christ, death is just another step in the life of faith.

All of this leaves me confused.

And angry. What is wrong with our world when politicians are making decisions about whether people live or die.

C'mon Dad 

And the Oscar Goes To...

Most of you know my opinion about the film Hotel Rwanda. In case you are one of the few who don't, let me make it clear: God wants you see it.

And I'm not the only one who thinks so.

"Then I realize that's why Hotel Rwanda seemed to me an even more Christian film than The Passion of the Christ. Forgive me if this sounds crazy to you, but try to understand; it evoked in me a wave of compassion for my neighbors around the world, whatever their color or tribe, whatever their religion or politics. And I hear our Lord saying, 'As you have done it to the least of these … you have done it to me.'"
Brian McLaren

Check out the full article here.

The Cats in the Cradle

Last week, the oldest and I were talking again. We had somehow gotten onto God and how He is everywhere. I got to share one of my favorite sayings from Dallas Willard: "we live in a God bathed world".

The boy told me that it reminds him of a brick wall.

"How's that?" I asked.

"Like we are the red parts, and God is the white." And in the visual of brick and mortar, he captured the image of God surrounding and cutting through us.

What's going to happen when He's better at this stuff than I am.

His brother is already better than me at Crash Team Racing.

It's a video game we have at home. You can choose to battle each other, which means you drive cars around loaded with missles and other cool tools of destruction. The first one to blow the other up five times wins.

The kid is a natural. We have dubbed him "the battle master". He wears the title proudly.

And it's just not right. A father should always be able to take his sons down. This will take some getting used to.

Oh well, I'm heading home right now to challenge them both to arm wrestling.

The Mysterious One 

Creed

I see his blood upon the rose
And in the stars the glory of his eyes,
His body gleams amid eternal snows,
His tears fall from the skies.

I see his face in every flower;
The thunder and the singing of the birds
Are but his voice—and carven by his power
Rocks are his written words.

All pathways by his feet are worn,
His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea,
His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,
His cross is every tree.

Joseph Plunkett

The Thinker 

Ready to Enjoy Some Time with Sam Adams

It's been a very long day, and I am exhausted. But I couldn't break the streak... 8 days and no sign of slowing down. Boyah!

We Are the Stations of the Cross

U2 was finally inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this week!

Bruce Springsteen gave the induction speech. Speaking of Bono, he said...

"Now he's a great frontman. Against the odds, he is not your mom's standard skinny, ex-junkie archetype. He has the physique of a rugby player... well, an ex-rugby player. Shamen, shyster, one of the greatest and most endearingly naked messianic complexes in rock and roll. God bless you, man! It takes one to know one, of course. You see, every good Irish and Italian-Irish front-man knows that before James Brown there was Jesus. So hold the McDonald arches on the stage set, boys, we are not ironists. We are creations of the heart and of the earth and of the stations of the cross."

Great speech. Check it out here.

My Six Year Old Hope 

Stuck in a Moment

I've not been here for days. Oh, you may have seen me. Looking busy. Taking care of business. But I wasn't really there.

You may have even talked with me. I responded to you. I nodded my head and said, "oh, yes" when it was appropriate, but I wasn't really listening.

If you are one of my children then you know. You've been repeating things to me three or four times. You know I'm not there and you hope that by the third or fourth repetition, I might actually show up.

If you are the Queen Mother then you know. You've seen me staring into space, glassy eyed, and wondered where I really was.

What have I missed out on by not being present? What has my absence cost me?

"If you can live through a moment, you can live through a day, and how you live a day is eventually how you live your life. I spend so much energy on the correct way to live in general that I miss the specific moments that are actually the only way I can live."
Philip Yancy

Eternity Sits Dense Today

I buried a friend last week. Yesterday I sat with others whose tears witnessed to their struggle with their 25 year old handicapped daughter. Today I listened as a wife told me how she kicked her husband out of the house.

Sometimes the air is thick with uncertainty, and I suffocate on it.

And then there are times, rare though they are, when eternity is density.

Faithful in the Small Things

I read this quote from Dag Hammarskjöld this morning...

"The “great” commitment is so much easier than the ordinary, everyday one - and can all too easily shut our hearts to the latter."

The future of God is caught up in the actions of ordinary people living out the ordinary, everyday moments of their lives.

Dream a Little Dream for Me

I talked with a lady today who said that she dreamed a dream after her mother died.

In it she met Jesus. He looked different than she thought he would. He had dark hair, olive skin, and stood short enough that when she hugged Him she could lay her head down on his shoulder.

When she saw Him, she realized she had seen Him before. In every picture showing the aftermath of a natural disaster. In news footage revealing people who had suffered injustice.

She told Him she was going to stay right there with Him from then on.

He took her to a large, white mansion where she saw her mother. She was cooking. Leading a large team of people who were all cooking. And she looked younger (do people get younger in heaven).

I thought, "wow, that must have been some spicy meatballs you ate the night before." Then I thought, "crap, why don't I get any cool dreams about Jesus. (Last night I dreamt that I was playing basketball in a championship game, and it was a close game when with five minutes to go, we quit and suddenly there were round tables on the gym floor and we sat down and were served broccoli pizza.)" I could use some Jesus in my dreams.

Last Night at the V.P.

Mike (www.spiltwine.blogspot.com) and I were talking last night about about Adam and Eve and their life in the garden. Their world just seemed so complete. They were there, co-creating with God. Making babies, beginning a family, eating, enjoying and interacting with nature; all very earthy things. But they also took strolls in the garden with God.

Some people view the world as being nothing more than what they can see and touch and experience. It is a materialist view that says that the world is made up of nothing more than the atoms that make up the material world.

Other people view the world as having something transcendent, something beyond the material. These dualists often see the material world as second-rate and the spiritual world as greater.

I think Adam and Eve had the best view of the world. There was no separation for them between the natural and the supernatural. For them, what was material was spiritual and what was spiritual was material. It was all one and the same.

They lived in one beautiful, integrated world. Where God and stone and bread and wine and man and planets all existed together.

And my kids are laughing right now in another room. I know that the laughter is the stuff of the material world. There are voice boxes and sound waves making it possible. But it is also far more than those things. There is the playfullness of their spirits and the communion of siblings and the most joyful Being in the universe.

One beautiful, integrated world.

I Think He Was Refering To His Brother

This story is closely related to the previous one, just in case you get the impression that the Howard kids are only full of brilliant, philosophical conversation.

Last night I sent the boys in to clean their room.

"But it will take us all night," I heard.

"I'm not really in the mood."

"I'll help," piped in the little sister, brightly.

Then came the complaining and arguing with one another.

Then I overheard one of them say, "I'm not in the mood. Do you know why I am not in the mood? Because I have a buttache."

So you see, from prejudice to buttache's we cover it all.

God Loves the Little Children, Red and Yellow, Black and White

The family and I were spending a slow afternoon watching documentarys. What can I say, it's what we do.

We were watching and learning about Rosa Parks and the racism she faced when the oldest turned to me and said, "Sometimes it makes you wish you weren't white."

I love the way that kid thinks.