Lives - Facebook in a Crowd - NYTimes.com.

Our Black Friday contained us missing our train back to Holland by…1 minute. Then having to pay a nice sum to get on the next train, despite our tickets being fully exchangeable. Needless to say, we weren’t happy about this and what made matters worse was that our (hopefully still) good friend Nadine had booked tickets to ride up to Holland with us for a trip of her own. She made it. We didn’t. Not cool. 

But I’m writing to talk about two stories that I saw on the news…both put the black in Black Friday quite well.

While the allure of good deals is always a temptation for me, I just am never dedicated enough to get up early and do the ‘first one in the doors’ game. Unlike some people at a Wal Mart in the U.S. who stormed the doors at 5 a.m. to be the first ones in and subsequently trampled an employee to death and injured four others. My mouth dropped open when reading about this…I knew consumerism was bad on the wallet and the soul, but never imagined that it could be this inhumane. Usually, our consumerism harms kids and workers thousands of miles away, not underneath our feet in the good ‘ol USofA. Here’s the article.

The second story is of two people who shot and killed each other in a Toys’R'Us in Palm Desert, California. Apparently, the two men were both carrying loaded weapons on their shopping spree and both happened to be willing to kill for the toy for their special little one. I don’t mean to make light of this at all, but this is just crazy. There are so many things wrong with this and I can’t get my mind around what would possess someone to carry a loaded gun to a toy store for kids. Or what would possess someone to shoot someone over a toy (allegedly). It’s a sad twist that they killed each other…You can read about this story here. 

What a depressing post…I guess the way that I would apply this to myself is just to ask, “How do my self-centered pursuits add to the ‘black’ days of the world around me? How do I give way for the light within me to battle the darkness of consumerism and lust of junk that I carry? Am I living in a way that brings light minus shame to the world around me?” That’s all I got…I hope that my next post isn’t so…black.

So the research stuff…both cities went well. Very different places and very different trips. Montpelier was virtually unknown to any of us. We had some great meetings and learned a lot about the city. It’s a really pretty place and a ton of students! People we talked to said that there were as many as from 60k to 90k students…in a city of 500,000 that’s a lot. We left really feeling like there is opportunity…also important, it seemed as though a lot of those we talked with would like to see another church planted there. Like most cities in Europe…there are only a few churches in every city that are really doing anything about the current spiritual climate here, other than just simply existing.

This has been my 4th time in Barca…and a very productive time for us. Marty planted a church here in 1992 that has since been lead by people from Assemblies of God. It’s been cool to be here w/ Marty, to hear his stories and to learn from his experience. We had a few meetings and all of them went well…Each person expressed the need for new work here and each offered to help in any way and to be a resource for us. Everyone also expressed a need to really know Spanish (and even Catalan) even though our initial work will be with internationals. We are stoked to learn Spanish and I’m really looking forward to being able to communicate here. I think that I’ll love the city even more when I feel less out of water. I saw places in the city that I had never seen and even found a great open air market with all kinds of stuff that we may be able to use someday! I feel like I have a much broader and better understanding of the work that is going on here…it’s great to know the context in which we’ll be entering…and to have the relationships with people who have experience and can provide wisdom when we’ll certainly need it! 

All in all, both places are great places where more, new, and creative forms of following Jesus are needed. I’m excited to see how Jen and I will engage Barcelona and take what I’ve learned here and put it to use…and see lives changed.

I’ve been thinking…How is it that we, in our time, display that we ‘have been with Jesus’? Being nice, going to church, talking about Jesus…these things are all good and a good start (if birthed from within). But I’m going to go out on a limb and say that exterior actions are not as convincing as we may think. Because our relationship with Jesus ultimately begins within, within our minds, souls, and hearts, then it is from that place that He lives through us. It is from the good stored up from within us that good things come out. We could say, “It is from the Jesus stored up from within us that Jesus comes out.” 

I’m wondering if there are times that we work too hard at trying to act like Jesus (or how we would think he would act) and not enough time just allowing His teachings and life to really absorb us at such a deep place that we just end up being like Him. I want this for myself so badly…I want to give up contrived efforts…and I simply want Jesus to be in my words, speech, actions, and thoughts without me having to think about it. I want Jesus to be unrestrained in me…

The ‘ouch’ question of the hour is….do I pursue friendship with Jesus to know Him well enough? You know how old married couples somehow start to look alike? Or dress alike? Laugh alike? Like the same food? Speak alike? It’s because they have spent their lives together! Jen and I have been married for seven and a half years now and there are times where we end up wearing the same colors, shoes, and styles on the same day even when get dressed separately! This didn’t happen on day one of the honeymoon…it’s kind of happened over time and we’ve just now realized it. If we started wearing matching outfits on purpose from day one that is just a little cheesy and would look like we’re trying too hard! (which another point could be drawn from!)

I’m not saying that I want to be an old married couple with Jesus…but I am saying that as I spend more and more time with Him I want to start looking more and more like Him without even knowing it…Here’s the scary thing: Jesus was persecuted, followed, beaten, admired, hated, healing, betrayed, loved, and was servant to all…this mixed bag is what following Jesus gets us in this life. Looking like Jesus can be dangerous stuff…but this is the journey of faith that we choose when we choose to follow Him…

All Politics Aside — Today is a Good Day! » Blog » Greg Boyd (Christus Victor Ministries).

His words were good enough for us (Jen and I) to both copy them onto ours…I hope you don’t mind Greg! (like he reads my blog!)

Today is a good day.

I don’t care if you’re a Democrat, Republican, Socialist, Libertarian, Communist, Anarchist or even a Christarchist who feels called to abstain from the whole political process. I couldn’t care less. The fact that Americans have elected a black man to be their president makes today a very good day!

When you reflect on the centuries of bondage and abuse blacks endured as slaves who were bought and sold like cattle and often treated worse…

when you remember that blacks were once regarded for legal purposes as just over half-human…

when you consider the extraordinary illegal and immoral ways white politicians changed all the rules to keep blacks out of power following the civil war…

when you recall the dehumanizing injustice of the Jim Crow south, the horrors of the KKK, the heroic struggles for civil rights, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. as well as the on-going systemic racism that continues to marginalize and oppress blacks…

you can’t help but celebrate the day Americans elected a black man to lead them.

All politics aside,

today is a very good day!

Greg Boyd 

No, I don’t know who won the election already because I live further east…I wrote this title in past tense because it is simply a future reality. 

It seems on Facebook that everyone is using their status to communicate something about their opinions on the election, but that’s just not enough room for me! And the thing is…what I’m writing about isn’t entirely about the candidates, it’s also about the voters. 

The truth of the matter is that either candidate is going to let us down in some way. None of their short-comings are going to be a surprise to God. In fact, it is God who allows them the authority they have. Early Christians had to wrestle over this while they were persecuted under a Roman authority that was far more irreligious than anything we’re seeing today. 

The conclusion that I come to is that God must think very little of earthy power! I think that God chooses a different form of influence in the world other than the power constructs that men erect to feel influential or in control. 

As Christians, I think we’re left with a choice: Do we put our faith, hope, and trust in the offices and kingdoms created by man? Or do we put our faith, hope, and trust in the Kingdom of God and its ways? 

Lets just say we choose the first one…

There are two possible outcomes: One is that our person wins and we feel like all is going to be right. We trust that this person will govern in a way that gives us the life we want. How does having this person in office point you to trust God and His Kingdom? Does it mask our yearning for God’s new Kingdom? I don’t believe that God’s top priorities are controlling the kingdoms of this earth. I believe that His top priorities are inviting people to live into His kingdom and it’s ways. So if we get everything that we think we want from an elected official in a kingdom of this earth, do we still pursue God’s Kingdom with the abandon that He calls us to? 

The second outcome is that the other person wins! The other group is rejoicing that they won…the other candidate is enacting policies that we don’t want. They are governing in a way that we think is wrong. And it frustrates us because we need the government and it’s policies to give us the life you want. The joys in our life depend on how man’s elected offices handle earthly matters. Maybe I’m just missing something…but how do man’s earthly policies and government control anything related with the God’s Kingdom, the one we as follower of Jesus have chosen allegiance to? If we believe the policies of man have power or influence over the Kingdom of God, then either we don’t understand God’s kingdom or we think way too highly of earthly government! 

If we are placing our faith in earthly government over the Kingdom followers of Jesus are called to, win or lose we have some issues to deal with. 

So, let’s say we choose the second option from above…

For me, choosing to put my faith in God’s kingdom allows me to be fruitful and joyful in any situation. Ultimately, my fate, the quality of my life, and my hope rest in what I find in the Kingdom of God…not in what I don’t find in the kingdoms of earth. 

As another imperfect person is elected into office, I am choosing not to trust in either of them to give me the life that I want. I choose to only trust in Jesus…I choose to trust that the Kingdom He initiated is where I’ll find the solutions my hearts deepest longings. I choose to believe that God’s Kingdom, truly lived out by those of us who acclaim to it, has more potential to impact this world that any kingdom that man could create. 

I will sleep well regardless of who becomes the next President of the United States.

The last time I was here was in February, but while we were  here then we didn’t even make it up to our the neighborhood we called home. Tonight I am staying at my friend Björn’s place and he lives really close to where we did. So, I walked up to my old neighborhood for the first time in 15 months. 

To be honest, I felt like I was walking home. It was cold so I stopped to get a café at our old hang out Place Verte. The irony is that I wanted to watch people so bad that I sat outside! As I sat there, I could remember the times that Jen and I sat there when she was pregnant, the times that we sat there when Maisie was  just days old, the times that we sat there with friends, and the time that we saw a near knife fight! 

But the hardest part on my walk was going to our old apartment…This is the last place that we called home. From the street, I could see in the windows. I could see the shades that I hung up on the doors…aparently the people who live there now like them too. I could see the mirror that I stood in front of when I sang Maisie to sleep as a newborn. I could imagine exactly how the place looked while we were there. It was if I was standing outside of my own home…except it hasn’t been our home in while. 

I had a hard time walking away from looking inside my window. Seeing that place reminded me of the memories that I have of our lives there. The laughter, the tears, the first days of Maisie’s life, the parties, the life we had in that place, and the ways in which Jen and I came together in difficult times. There were people hanging out in the living room and I could easily imagine the times that we hung out with our friends in that same space. We had a lot of conversations there that shaped who I am now. Both challenging and encouraging. 

I didn’t want to walk away from remembering these times…they were so rich with life…but I think I was starting to look creepy standing outside and staring into this building! 

As I walked away I prayed that God would help my mind go back here and cherish all the life we had there. And I heard God say, “If you think that was good, wait until you see what’s next.”

I’ve not read all the content, so can’t make any sweeping guarantees. My favorite articles so far has been: #111 - Pea Coats, and #110 Frisbee Sports…and #1 - Coffee istn’ too bad either…

*Paul, I think you would appreciate #107 - Self Aware Hip Hop References