money, meet mouth; mouth, money . . .

a summer's disregard,
a broken bottle top
and a one man's soul
they follow each other on
the wind ya' know
'cause they got nowhere to go
~ man in the mirror, michael jackson


file this is the less talk, more rock category: i'm doing some stuff i've been saying is important to me. or, as i phrased it in conversation with kevin yesterday, i'm living the argument instead of making it. and that is very good.

watch this.

and my tube, too

ain't nothing gonna break my stride,
i'm running and i won't touch ground,
oh no, i've got to keep on moving.
~ break my stride, blue lagoon

things i've laughed at today:
colbert to o'reilly: i'm afraid of bears; i think owls are a waste of time.
[later] you know what i hate about people who criticize you? . . . they criticize what you say, but they never give you credit for how loud you say it, or how long you say it.
[from colbert on the o'reilly factor. . . see also o'reilly on the colbert report!]

patrick stewart: you're not married, you haven't got a girl friend . . . and you've never watched star trek?
rick gervais: no.
(pause)
patrick stewart: good Lord.
[from extras]

quiet night in the library

she sits there all alone
she's reading from a chapter that she sometimes calls her own.
~ every little thing, hawk nelson

this song came on this morning while i was lying in bed. i thought it was unfair. grrr.

but life is good. and there seems to be less to blog about when that's the case. but i still feel a need to keep you updated. maybe something exciting will happen if someone comments on my posts. hmmm . . . yeah. :-) so, in sum: i am frustrated and very, very happy. :-D <-see??

edited to add: lunch in pygmy. kevin, ross, steve, and me. talking about luke/acts class.

ross: i think we have to enter the kingdom as a child, but we don't stay that way. like, we have to be humble and dependent to get in.

steve: but we always stay humble and dependent.

mara: so, as we grow, we don't grow into adults, but into Christlikeness.

kevin: notice how we talked in class about how the children and the outsiders get it but we never really talked about what it was?

(someone asks what the kids did that we should emulate...)

steve: they ran up to Jesus.

mara: oh, that's beautiful . . . oh.

kevin: you ok?

mara: yeah . . . that's just so beautiful.

ten-minute dreams

before this river
becomes an ocean
~ faith, george michael

been having some funny between-snooze-button-slams dreams . . . one involved my having gorgeous hair which - shocker! - i do. but, seriously: that human imagination is enough to make me believe in intelligent design. i don't just believe it because they tell me to. fyi.

in other news, i'm happy. and if that isn't an exciting update, i no know what is. it doesn't take care of the whole world, but it helps a wee bit.

morgan's face makes me sad, i drew a puppy in a cape ('cause i'm a girl), and i heart you all.

say say say

if you haven't done so already, please read the post below first.

excellent. so, peter copied my post on his blog, and it's been getting comments over there. here are a few thoughts of mine.

this one time, i made a promise that included the line, "i will be faithful to the purposes for which God raised up the salvation army, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, endeavouring to win others to Him, and in His name caring for the needy and the disadvantaged."

i think that means my hands are supposed to get dirty, too. it's individualistic to think division of labour applies to the church the way it does to a factory. there are some basic functions every cell performs. (btw, i think this applies to all Christians, and not just us. but it especially applies to us because we sign pieces of paper that talk about how it SO applies to us.)

this other time, i realized that worship must always be on God's terms, not mine. i doubt a lot of israelites were begging to be sprinkled with blood as part of worship . . . God still asked it. few non-Christians have begged me to tell them about Jesus . . . i still think i'm probably supposed to.

even if you don't think it's an imperative, God is certainly inviting us all into communion and baptism. why we would refuse - as individuals, let alone as a community! - is beyond me. every other denomination of Christians has sought Christ in the mysteries. why are we resisting?

p.s. i think there is something uniquely powerful about parish-based ministry because it's a real concerted effort to effect spiritual growth and change in a given community. and i think the church is more like family than like friends: you don't get to pick them.

say say . . .

. . . 'cause i'm longing to hear
i know love don't come easy
~say say, secret service

they asked. i wrote:
1) commuting to church isn't ideal: churches should focus on reaching their next-door neighbours today.

2) there is far too great a disconnect between the church and social services wings of the salvation army. every congregation should be serving meals, assisting with the street van, and otherwise participating in social services on a regular basis. if congregants are not given a challenge (paired with an opportunity) to regularly and personally get involved in saving souls and serving suffering humanity, they are not attending salvation army churches. if our good news does not include freedom from poverty, abuse, addiction, hopelessness, pride, lust, bitterness, rejection, and all other forms of bondage, we are not the salvation army.

3) too many people continue attending salvation army churches without paying heed to our core values. our leaders are in the unique position of not having to pander to congregants, since they are ultimately accountable to dhq, thq, and God. use that beautiful opportunity to push the envelope on self-sacrifice, service, healing, and holiness. don't let our agenda get hijacked by those who want to talk about whether band music and black suits define us. wounded hearts inspire us and union with God beckons us. let us march along the road set out for us, and may nothing deter us from radical, senseless love.

4) bring back the sacraments and bring them back now. educate us on them, 'cause some of us might get confused. in short: we need tradition. no, not for salvation. for that other thing . . . what's it called? oh, yeah: community that reaches beyond our clique and into the so-called church invisible we claim to believe in. also, as a means of grace.

double back

i finished watching back to the future iii this morning (yay stay-at-home-church!) and was truly moved by this one thing doc brown says: ...your future hasn't been written yet. no one's has. your future is whatever you make it. so make it a good one, both of you.

sigh.

then i went upstairs and, right there on the weather network, none other than david suzuki was talking about how the future isn't predetermined, and how our actions today will shape tomorrow. he was probably talking about global warming, but i was still stuck on doc brown.

never confuse a gift with a given.

problem solved

you will notice that what we are aiming at when we fall in love is a very strange paradox. the paradox consists of the fact that, when we fall in love, we are seeking to re-find all or some of the people to whom we were attached as children. on the other hand, we ask our beloved to correct all of the wrongs that these early parents or siblings inflicted upon us. so that love contains in it the contradiction: the attempt to return to the past and the attempt to undo the past.
~ professor levy in "crimes and misdemeanors"

quotables 2006

i'm not sad, i'm complicated. chicks dig it.
~house

mom: you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you marry one!
dad: i married a frog-kisser!

the belief that God became man in birth, suffering, and death is the ultimate mindf*ck. can i write that on the exam?
~ross

there are windows!
~kristin and mara, in the worst ever response to a proposition

ah, [evangelical complementarian] Christianity . . . the perfect balance between new age and islam.
~steve

getting dressed will make me late . . . but it is SO important.
~michelle

i always suspected that the promised land was outside this classroom.
~dylan

let's not reflect on anything, because then we might be responsible for how we live our lives!
~jen

and you probably weren't baptised into an ethiopian restaurant.
~priest at st. peter's orthodox church

i believe in an invisible man in the clouds . . . everybody cry now!
~steve

it just makes you want to get drunk and sleep with someone random so you can enjoy your wedding night.
~mara

is islamic a language?
~kevin

that's beautiful . . . in two minutes you convinced me to be a democrat.
~deniss

if that's really what happened, i'm pretty sure satan was in the right.
~ross

jones [soda] is more of a prophet than brian maclaren.
~ross

clever Christians keep me Christian.
~ross

if there's one thing bible college has taught me, it's to question the authority of scripture.
~steve

what is it about girls who can count?

house vs. God.