Category Archives: From Out of Nowhere

The Future of Food

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I watched this documentary on Hulu last night:

The Future of Food

To be honest when it was over, I was pretty fired up. The thought that kept going through my head was

The love of money is the root of all evil.

I am not shocked, but I am saddened at how many in our government are creating and ruling on laws that benefit themselves while the American people are kept in the dark.

On top of the political side of the documentary, I was saddened by the ecological side as well! The diversity of foods are being controlled by corporations who make a ‘super seed’ that they can sell to farmers that will grow and with stand ‘Roundup’ because of its DNA manipulation…this just isn’t natural.

On top of the political and ecological issues, I was saddened by the ethical practices of corporations who have patented seeds, that even when scattered accidentally on a farmers property (like from a passing truck) give the corporation right to sue the farmer for ‘patent infringement’. Patent infringement? On a seed? Well, it makes money, a lot of money…just watch the video.

After watching things like this, it makes me glad that we are moving to Europe. When people in Europe fight for their rights, people hear about it because they aren’t inoculated by garbage news stories that take the American attention away from the real issues of life. And beside…When Europeans outraged against genetically altered food, their governments listened, because they didn’t have personal profit at stake!

Here’s the point though…we can speak out against things and get information out. That’s part of why I why I write on here. So watch the movie, be mad, and then start changing things…for the future.


Don’t be like Miguel…please

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I went to bed last night and panic hit me. I realized I was out of coffee. That meant one thing for me. I had to get up early and go get some! While I was out I decided to sit and read my bible for a while at the coffee shop. I’ve been reading through the New Testament for a bit, so the other day I decided to read through I Samuel…and I’m glad that I have as I felt God teaching me through this portion of scripture.

So fast forward to this morning. I’m reading the Bible and a guy sidles up to me.

“What are you reading?”, he says.

I said, “the Bible.”

He says, “What part?”

I say, “I Samuel…the part about David and Goliath.”

This is when he said, “I’m Miguel by the way.” Then he had me turn to Romans chapter 1 and proceeded to tell me about Martin Luther. He asked how long I had been studying the Bible.

I told him, “A while.”

He then told me that I needed to ‘forget about stuff like Samuel.’ And that I need to focus solely on the Gospel. That is where the power of God is at.

Then as I started talking, he excused himself from the conversation.

Let me go over a few reasons why I beg you not to be like Miguel:

a.) Don’t ever criticize how or what someone is reading in scripture. Especially, if you don’t know them at all!

b.) Don’t ever tell somebody that they should ‘forget about’ parts of Scripture. C’mon Miguel.

c.) Don’t ever preach a sermon to a stranger and then walk away as they start to respond.

d.) Don’t ever forget that the Gospel is God’s story of redemption through Jesus and we find that all over scripture.

e.) Don’t let your head knowledge of the Good News become more important than living the Good News. Jesus said that loving God with our all our heart, mind, soul, and strength was the most important thing. And the second thing was ‘like it’, love your neighbor as yourself. Our surrender to God releases us to be surrendered to others. Our love for and from God inspires us to love others. If our relationship with God gets boiled down to doctrine and intellectual enlightenment then we are missing the boat. (not necessarily saying that about Miguel, probably preaching a sermonette to myself.)

As he walked out the door I tried not to feel judged, or to judge. I prayed that he would step into the fullness of the Good News and that his life would become ‘the workmanship’ that it was created to be. I prayed that his heart would align with his head. But in the meantime…be like Jesus…not like Miguel. No offense Miguel.


Listening too Much

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Today Maisie was watching a show called Oswald. I’ve actually seen the episode with her before, but it didn’t hit me the first time. Here’s the summary of this episode.

Oswald and his dog decide to build a birdhouse. They get the supplies and build their nice wooden birdhouse. They get it ready to put out for the birds, but then a friend comes by and says,

“That’s not what birds like. Birds like polka dots.”

Because Oswald is a sweet and caring walking Octopus, he gets paint and puts polka dots on it. Once again he goes to put it out for the birds, but then another friend comes by and says,

“Oh, that smells like paint. Birds don’t like the smell of paint. You should put flowers in it.”

So Oswald goes and gets some flowers and puts them in the birdhouse. For a third time he goes to put it out as another friend comes by and tells him,

“Birds aren’t going to know that this birdhouse is here. You need to get some bells to draw attention to it.”

Oswald goes out and finds some really nice bells to draw attention to it and then goes and hangs it in the yard. Birds fly by, but none of them ever go in the polka dotted, flower filled, ringing house. Oswald had done everything his friends told he needed to do to attract birds. He didn’t understand what he was missing.

As he was pondering it started to rain. The wind started to blow. The polka dots got washed off and the wind blew the flowers and bells away. The rain and wind left and Oswald is left with the birdhouse that he started with. Just has he’s starting to talk about all the work that he had to do again, a few birds come up and go in the house.

Then came the line. Oswald says,

“I guess what the birds really wanted was a nice, plain, and simple birdhouse”

This reminded me of something.

I thought about how as church-planter, it’s easy to listen to all the voices that, with good intentions, speak into my life or work. Or listen to the new books that say to add this or that.

As we head off to start a new work, I am consciously trying to reject being over complicated, or excessively professional or slick. When I really think about what people without faith in Jesus are looking for, it’s not the newest trends or ideas that we talk about in the Church-world. (I think that a lot of this is a distraction from simple mission, and new ways to talk about keeping believers entertained and interested) I think that what people are looking for are summed up in what Henri Nouwen asks in his reflection on leadership, “In the Name of Jesus”,

“Do you love me?”

At the end of the day, I think that what people want and need to experience aren’t the polka dots, flowers, and bells that we decorate Church with…they need to experience the simplicity and significance of what it mean for God to love them.

It’s easy to give into the temptation to listen too much, and add too many things to the simple practices that God has given us to participate in. I do believe that in Europe the rain and wind have come on the church and are calling us to simplify in order to be a home for the world around us.


What does this mean?

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I came across this image while doing a search for an image of the book “The Freedom of God by James Daane” (I still didn’t find the image…I might have to scan my cover for my online library)

Anyway…It was too random and I don’t know quite know the what the creator was trying to convey. But honestly, I just thought that monkeys were awesome. I love the pensive one that looks like he’s editing his new post. And I love the laughing one…He must be reading Letters from Kamp Krusty.


Simplicity

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I’ve been reading through 1 John the last few days. Today this part stuck out to me:

1 John 3:23

This is [God's] commandment: to believe in his Son, the one named Jesus Christ, and to love each other as he commanded us. Those who obey Christ’s commandments live in God, and God lives in them. We know that he lives in us because he has given us the Spirit.

The simplicity of this verse stands in stark contrast to the amount of all that I’ve read, heard, and lived in regards to being a follower of Jesus. My reasoning for this error is that we live a culture that values the pursuit of knowledge above most else. In the story of the Garden in Genesis…what does the serpent tempt Adam and Eve with? Knowledge. Abandoning the simple trust in their God, they chose it.

I wonder: In our pursuit of knowledge about God, scripture, and what we believe is Christian living; in what ways have we abandoned the commandment of God: to obey Jesus, and love each other.

I wonder: How would the world be different if we traded our talk, thoughts, and plans for loving others – for actually loving others?

I wonder: Will we ever be content with the simplicity of love? Or will we continually be tempted to add more to it? …maybe as a justification for our lack of obeying Jesus’ commandment to love?

I’m serious about this choosing love thing. We’ve done the knowledge thing for a long time and it’s gotten us only so far. I say we allow our knowledge to evolve into love and let God have a shot using that for a few generations.

**updated** The Renewed Mind Is the Key vs. Jesus is My Friend

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This is seriously amazing…I half way respect their effort, but the rest of me just can’t this ‘are you serious?’ grin off my face…you know the one: where you’re kind of smiling because it’s awkward…and you don’t know what to do with your face.

Anyway…watch this and you’ll see what I mean.

The Renewed Mind Is the Key.

ht: mike g

After a couple of comments by Erin and Kozmo this had to be put in the mix. I don’t really know which one I like more. Both have such positive messages and nice matching outfits that I’m sure honor Jesus more than unmatching ones…but this is a toughy.

Michael Phelps’ Diet

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Thanks to Jen for finding this article on the BBC…

As US swimming sensation Michael Phelps sets his sights on more gold medal wins at the Beijing Olympics this weekend, the BBC’s Michael Hirst examines the part an extraordinary diet has played in the sportsman’s remarkable success.

If it is true that you are what you eat, then here is the suggested intake if you want to become history’s most successful Olympian:

For breakfast: three fried egg sandwiches, with cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, fried onions and mayonnaise, followed by three chocolate-chip pancakes; a five-egg omelette; three sugar-coated slices of French toast and a bowl of grits (a maize-based porridge), washed down with two cups of coffee.

For lunch: half a kilogram (one pound) of enriched pasta; two large ham and cheese sandwiches on white bread smothered with mayonnaise, washed down by energy drinks.

For dinner: Another half-kilogram of pasta, perhaps with a carbonara sauce, followed by a large pizza and more energy drinks.

That combination may not sound very healthy, and at a staggering 10,000 calories, would feed five average men for a day.

But the menu is reportedly all in a training day’s eating for champion swimmer Michael Phelps, who won six gold medals in the 2004 Athens Olympics and is aiming for eight this time round.

“Eat, sleep and swim, that’s all I can do,” said the US swimmer, after winning his 11th Olympic gold.

In addition to being amazed that Phelps doesn’t sink after eating all of this, I was thinking about my own diet of spiritual food.

I got a picture of myself being a spiritual race…what kind of food and how much food would I want to eat in order to finish and even win the race? I think I’ve often convinced myself that it’s ok to live like I’m in the off-season…so I get lazy in my training, my diet shrinks, and then I have no energy to sustain me even trying to run (or swim) the race even if I wanted to.

Spiritually speaking, I need to packing in the grits, the eggs, the energy drinks, the pizza, the pasta…to sustain me in the race (battle is a more appropriate word most of the time!) that I’m in. I want to be training in a way that makes the race enjoyable…not like an out-of-shape, ex-athlete trying to set out to do a marathon without even being able to jog around the block! (not that, that was any commentary on me of course!)

Two things on the more positive side:

1. I did go jogging yesterday and had a great time! I woke up less sore than I did yesterdaay and feel great. I think I’ll be running more now.

2. I do down two cups of coffee at breakfast like Michael Phelps…Somebody’s got to beat him at something, so I’m going to go for three cups today.

Jesus the Pet Hater

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I’m utterly grateful to Mike Goldsworthy for this and this is a complete rip off of his post…but this was too good not to pass on…

This is an excerpt from this real Craigslist posting:

Surely without you there, they would be stuck inside your empty house, starving to death with no one to feed them, let them out to potty, or clean their litter box. This is probably not what you envision for your pets after you are gone. This is where I come in…

I am here to offer you pet care service for after the rapture. As an atheist, I will surely still be here on this earth post rapture and would love to look after your pets for a small fee…

They will get adequate amounts of food, water, and shelter as well as plenty of exercise and socialization as I would imagine there will be a lot of pets that will be abandoned by Jesus the pet hater that will need to be cared for.

Amazing…and the rest of the ad is good too…Thanks again Mike…Get used to your work being copied now that you’re the man…whom I greatly admire.