Archive for March, 2007

Letters from Leavers

Published
by
Justin
on March 28, 2007
in To Think About...
. 3 Comments

Picture_1I want to take a quick second to tell you all about a cool new site that is starting up. It’s called Letters from Leavers. Tim, one of my roommates in college…the most ruggedly good looking of all the roommates…he might ad…started this project with a friend from school.

The idea is to give a place for people who have been hurt by the church a place to be heard and to tell their stories. If you have gone separate ways or are at enmity with the Church I would encourage you to read the stories and know you’re not alone.

Growing up as pastor’s kid I am sure that there were other kids that did not come back to youth group because of me…shoot maybe they’ve already posted on this site. The good (and sometimes hard) news about the Church is that it is made up people who are finite. People who cannot BE perfect, but who are becoming perfected through Christ. The Church will always be a community that lets people down…this awareness leads us towards freedom to let people be people. But in the bigger picture this truth reveals the necessity of living by grace…especially among other followers of Christ. Unfortunately, along the journey people get ran over and treated…uh…not like people…by the people who should be treating them the best. It is to these people that we must acknowledge our sins, seek their forgiveness, and live out the gospel of grace.

A lot on my mind…

Published
by
Justin
on March 15, 2007
in Books, Leadership, Life and Movements
. 3 Comments

I realized today that I haven’t posted on here in a while…It’s certainly not because there’s not much going on in our lives or because I don’t have anything to say…I’ve probably had too much on my mind and too much to say to put anything worth reading on here.

Here’s what fresh on the top of my mind…

A book was recommended to me called “Leadership and Self-Deception” and at first was like, “I’m not self-decieved…I know my weakness.” This should be proof in-and-of-itself that I needed to read a book with this title.

I have to be honest about this. Within pages I was already learning A LOT about how I am self-decieved…not to mention how I treat others as objects and not people, betray myself, justify my own perceptions, and how all of this leads me to be emotionally distorted in my view of my world.

Over the last few weeks, and even months, I’ve been doing a lot of processing about my life. After reading this book I realized that most of my processing has been based upon the hidden assumptions that the way I see the world is the way that it really is. How I view people is how they really are. How I see ideas as they really are…but all along I was certainly seeing thing more out of focus than I thought was. This is what self-deception does.

I can’t even begin to describe the freedom that learning this has brought. Sadness over how ‘grey’ the created world in my head was and how I began to view people that I love. But now I am free to see things more for how they really are…and grateful for the grace that is given so that I can start over every day.

This realization is helping me answer some of the larger questions that I’ve wondering about for a while. Questions about leadership, influence, personal loneliness, being misunderstood, not being able to communicate the way I used to, and some others. This has been helping see ways where I have even began to see Jesus’ teachings in ways that fit with my views…Which has lead me to being further from the real Jesus, even though I thought that I wasn’t, and His good intentions in my life. This is the type of thing that self-deception can do over time.

There is a radical reorientation going on in my head…it makes me feel dizzy sometimes, but I know that in the end I’ll be planted more firmly on the ground.

If this post has made you think at any time “I should read this book.” Do yourself a favor and listen to yourself!

World Press Photos

Published
by
Justin
on March 3, 2007
in Photography
. 1 Comment

In the past two years photography has become a hobby of mine. It seems like everybody these days has a camera out pointing and shooting at nice looking stuff. However, truly great photos act as windows into bigger stories. They take our imagination captive to what was happening in the before and after of the sound of the shutter.

The World Press just posted some of the best photos of the year…check out these ‘windows’ here. Just as fair warning…some of these stories are one’s we’d rather not know or see…if you get what I’m saying.

More Maisie Pics

Published
by
Justin
on March 1, 2007
in Life
. 1 Comment

I’ve added some pictures of Maisie to the photo album…some people were giving me grief because my dad was updating his pics of her more than me! So here’s a start to putting a stop to that! - Justin

“You Should Have…”

Published
by
Justin
on March 1, 2007
in Head to Fingers
. 0 Comments

One thing that continually trips me up is an inability to let go of the past. The phrase ‘You/they/I/we should have done this or that’ is one that has too often come out of my mouth. There is a lot revealed about our hearts in these few words. The things revealed in my own life are how I don’t forgive well and have a tendency to think that if something had been done my way there would have been better results. But the reality is: speaking critically of the past doesn’t change the fact that it happened.

I think we have two choice…We can either move on by putting negative experiences in their place and finishing the sentence “I can learn from this by…” Or we can walk backwards into the future, letting our fixation on what ’should have been’ cause us to not see what may lie ahead in the future. One keeps us humble, helps us give grace, and teaches us. The other only entangles us in a web of blame and disappointment. The choice is so clear to me now!

I don’t think Jesus meant for His teachings on forgiveness to only have eternal effects. Being able to let the past be the past and move on is part of being able to live fully in the present as well. And certainly the future. Grace enables us to live like this when we let it because it both does a work in us and in the process does word for us.