Archive for the 'culture' Category

weak attempts

Published by Daniel on 4/30/2006 in culture and life. 4 Comments

Areas of action (not yet fully implemented). I will admit that I do not do a very good job at these things, but I have adopted the Japanese concept of Kaizen (continuous improvement) or, maybe more aptly the Chinese Gai Shan (improvements that benefit others). I feel the burden of our choices, and want to change everything, now. It is a weight that seems impossible to handle. So I make small continuous changes toward a life that benefits others. Well, I try to.

  1. Personal:
    I am trying to take those things that I say I believe, and making my actions agree. This means, that if I believe that mass produced food is generally bad for me, I will not buy it, or eat it. It also means that if I think that large corporations have too much power, I do what I can to avoid buying from them. If I believe that creation is something God values, and wants us to take care of, my use of resources should reflect that. Every day. I should be aware of how my lifestyle reflects my values.
  2. Social:
    I have to keep asking myself if my interactions with others help them to become better people. Do they help me as well? It means that I should strive to speak only good of others. This does not mean that nothing is ever bad, it just means that I should find ways to respond constructively, and directly. I should not just ask what response would seem loving, but put on a attitude of love, and respond accordingly. Love is a choice, and I should choose it more often.
  3. Global:
    I should remain aware of my position globally, and in time. I am blessed, and I should not take that for granted. I should respond to this knowledge by being content with what I have, and using what I don’t need to help those who have less. I should be aware of how my lifestyle effects others, and how my choices contribute to suffering elsewhere in the world.
  4. Spiritual:
    My first priority should be to please God, but it is sometimes difficult to determine how to do that. So I strive to listen to God, and trust his promptings. I question what I do, and see if my activities make me more or less aware of those promptings, or more or less aware of the influence of God. I try to act accordingly, giving preference to the activities that make me more aware.
  5. Integration:
    All these things are the same. They are all spiritual, social, global, and personal. For me there really is no difference. My purchase decisions have spiritual and social implications, and my desire to please God will inform all other areas of my life. The real goal is to make my life pleasing to God, and in order to do that I need to try and see the world the way he sees it, and respond to it in a way that reflects positively on him. In every way. Parenting, shopping, sleeping, eating, driving, walking, working, playing, writing, helping, living.

Resources:

Buy foods locally:

Local Harvest – Find a local farmer’s market, or CSA

Slow Food

Eat Well Guide – Another site to locate farms, stores, and restaurants that provide local, sustainable, and oganic food.

Stewardship/Activism:

Ex-Consumer Project – choose not to buy.

New American Dream – times change, and so should the dreams.

Everyday Activist – a good start for small changes.

Mennonite Central Committee

Help others:

Kiva – micro lending for entrepreneurs in developing societies

Modest Needs – national needs assistance.

Volunteer:

Get a Mission – find short or long term ministries.

Volunteer Match – volunteer locally.

A note about Kiva: After living in a developing country, and seeing how aid programs can be abused, and the way that donations do not always produce responsibility, I am encouraged to see a program that provides micro loans and accountability. I don’t have any illusions that this is a perfect system, but I can see how it has potential to help develop communities and families in a way that normal aid programs do not.

Turn off Internet week

Published by Daniel on 4/23/2006 in InOurHouse, life and plugged-in. 4 Comments

This is turn off TV week, but since we don’t own one, we will turn off our real time waster: The Internet. Well, not the whole Internet, just the bit that connects to our house. Personally, I think one week is not enough. It takes closer to 4 weeks to form and break habits, and one might just give you a hankerin’. Yes, the Internet is a bad habit in our house, and we need to take it down many notches.

I will still be somewhat connected at work, since that is sort of my job, but it will be greatly reduced. At home we might allow checking of email, but even that is on the chopping block. Perusing blogs is definitely out, so the best bet for connecting with us is a phone call.

I will leave you with a challenge to shut off whatever is the greatest distraction from thought in your house, whether TV, radio, magazines, newspaper, netflix, or Internet. Step back, see what fills the void. Enjoy the silence and space.

Provocation #8

Published by Daniel on 4/21/2006 in culture, life and provocations. 1 Comment

It is a proud thing to dive into danger, and it is a proud thing to battle with untold horrors, but it is also wretched to have an abundance of intentions and a poverty of action, to be rich in truths and poor in virtues.

This is something I feel every day, as I drive my 30 miles to work and back 5 times a week, and rarely am out in the world doing what needs to be done. Stay tuned for some ways that we can act and live virtuously.

Provocations are taken from Provocations: The Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard

worship growth

Published by Daniel on 4/3/2006 in church and life. 3 Comments

Corporate/group worship is an odd thing. If I recall correctly (which I will not claim to do), in the Bible it was usually done within a context of a shared experience. After the flood, when God performed some miracle, when the early church met secretly, and that type of thing. We do it as part of a routine, not necessarily because we have experienced God first-hand. I think that group prayer is similar, only more awkward. I have a hard time talking to more than one person at a time, so talking to someone who already knows my heart in ways I cannot express, in front of mostly strangers, or even in front of family, is somehow less than open, and more speechy than heart-to-heart talking. You know you are being listened to and that is difficult to just ignore. I feel the same way when someone is standing next to me while I am having a conversation with someone else. I cannot really express myself because of this observer off to the right, who is listening, but since I am not talking to them, I am not reading their responses to see if they understand. I could just not care, but I do.

…

Growth as a sign of health. Understandable, living things grow when they are thriving. What about organizations? Sure, I think it is true there too. But here is the tough part: what kind of growth? Not all growth is healthy in nature, take mutations, tumors, and cancer for instance. So, in a church, some type of growth is good, yes? What type of growth? I suppose it depends on how you want to measure health.

Measure is the crucial word. We want to measure things, and reason tells us that you cannot claim any objective knowledge about something unless you can measure it. In a church, what does healthy mean? I would think our primary concern would be for healthy relationships with God and each-other. How do we set about measuring that? Here is the rub: you can’t.

Think about it, if someone asked you to measure the health of your marriage, how would you do that? You could measure in years, but that only tells you one thing: endurance. You could measure in how many gifts/fights, but that says nothing about the actual growth, only how volatile it has been. You could come up with a survey, but that is only measuring your perceived relational health at that point in time, and is subject to the wording of the survey, and the last week or so of the relationship. If you combine all those things, you might be able to extrapolate some scale of evidence of relational health, but that is the closest you can get, and it still does not quite tell you anything. Yes, measurable results, and a desire to obtain them, has reduced my spiritual health to numbers. So, if the health of the church cannot really be measured objectively, how do we know if it is healthy? Hmm… good question.

Let’s try a more subjective approach. Are the people in the church known for their love for one another? Are there tales of the ways that those people have fed the hungry, clothed the naked, and cared for orphans and widows? This to me would speak of a healthy church, even if it consisted of 20 senior citizens with blue and magenta hair that like organ music and have been meeting in the same building for 50 years. It would not be a dead church. To contrast, a church that grows from 180 people to 1000 in 10 years, but is only known for their music, their new age building, and shocking promotions; is that really growth? All those new-comers to the faith, that find Jesus, but never take Him out past the church doors, do they count toward health? Sure, there are great programs for the kids, and musicians that do wacky stuff, but how would you measure healthy growth there? Offerings? Weekly attendance? What do those have to do with the way we relate to God or each-other?

In the end it comes down to pleasing God. I have heard that phrase all my life, but not until I was a husband did I really understand it. I see how much B wants me to be pleased with her, and I realize that the way her desire to please me makes me feel, is probably similar to how God feels when we desire to please him. I want to protect her, and provide for her every desire. I want her soul to flourish. So far, that type of feeling, and my own desire to please God, has not been able to understand the purpose of church. There are parallels; I want B to expand her influence because I know she is a good woman, and I want her to influence others to also strive to do good. I am sure God desires the same from us. But what is this institution of the church?

Feel free to comment, but if you have something debatable to say, just email me direct.

Provocation #7

Published by Daniel on 3/20/2006 in church, life and provocations. 4 Comments

Teach me, Lord, that the fight of faith is not a fight with doubt, thought against thought, but a fight for character. Enable me to see that human vanity consists in having to understand. Save me from the vanity of not being willing to obey like a child, and of wanting to be like a grown man who has to understand. Help me to realize that he who will not obey when he cannot understand does not, in any essential sense, obey you at all. Make me a believer, a “character man,” who, unreservedly obedient, sees it as necessary for his character’s sake that he must not always understand. Make me willing to believe even when I cannot understand.

Provocations are taken from Provocations: The Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard

Provocation #6

Published by Daniel on 2/23/2006 in culture, life and provocations. 0 Comments

Faith’s conflict with the world is not a battle of thought with doubt, thought with thought. It is a battle of character. The person of faith is a person of character who does not insist upon comprehending everything. Now comes the conflict. The world insists that to believe what you cannot comprehend is not only blind obedience but obscurantism, stupidity, and so on. The world wants to alarm the believer against such foolishness. This is precisely why faith is a task for the person of character.

Provocation #5

Published by Daniel on 2/5/2006 in church, culture, life and provocations. 3 Comments

Every once in a while, EZ will ask a question that just cannot be answered. I feel the same way when trying to “explain” my faith. I cannot. Anything I offer as explanation seems to reduce, or dilute it. I can offer a history of those who have also found this faith, I can point to explanations that others have written, but I can not offer any more than my experience, which words still seem to dim.

All the objections to Christianity — what are they, after all, to the person who in truth is conscious of being a sinner and who has experienced belief in the forgiveness of sins and in this faith is saved form his sin? One conceivable objection might be: Yes, but is it not still possible for you to be saved in some other way? But how can one reply to this? One cannot. It is just like a person in love. If someone were to say: Yes, but you could perhaps have fallen in love with another — then he must answer: To this I cannot reply, for I know only one thing, that this is my beloved. As soon as the person who is in love tries to reply to this objection, he is by that very fact not a believer.

Thanks, Dale

Published by Daniel on 2/5/2006 in culture and life. 6 Comments

After 6 months of abstinence, I have finally decided to say yes to haircuts. Tired of the expense and results of mallish shops like Bo Rick’s and Supercuts, I sought out a local alternative here in out little town. I found a place right off the main street called Dale’s Barber Shop. It is a tiny little place, and when I walked in, Dale was sitting in the sole barber chair reading the news. We greeted each other, I mentioned that I needed a trim, and he accurately determined the last time I had one. At the other shops, conversation was a little strained, with so many people around, and folks waiting for your seat. Dale took his time, and we chatted. He has been in this town since `71, and operating his shop since `88. He knows the people on our street, and knows of all the major events in their lives. As we chatted, two other men came in and started reading the paper. It was what you would think of a small town barbershop: small, bare, dated decor of hunting scenes, and men, silently waiting their turn under the buzzer. When he neared the end of the trim, and showed me how I looked, I had to try not to laugh. He had cut my forelocks (male bangs) high and straight across. I suppose I could have lived with it. I told him that I normally mess up my hair, and he got out his wax stick for flat-tops. He did trim it down, and now it is nice and short. When I got home and redid my hair in the usual messy way, I noticed something peculiar:

I rather like my aging hairline, and I especially like that they are identical twins at my temples. Well, they were identical. For some reason Dale decided that one needed to be straight.

Although I did not leave thinking that I got a good haircut for a good price, I left thinking “that was fun”. I learned about my community, connected with my masculine side, and had a good conversation. Thanks, Dale.

Provocation #4

Published by Daniel on 1/28/2006 in church, culture, life and provocations. 2 Comments

I think that there are many people, from all sorts of backgrounds, that are finding themselves at the tail end of the process given below. That is where I find myself.

The law of existence: First life, then theory. Then, as a rule, there comes still a third: an attempt to create life with the aid of theory, or the delusion of having the same life by means of the theory. This is the conclusion, the parody, and then the process ends — and then there must be new life again.

Take Christianity, for example. It came in as life, sheer daring that risked everything for the faith. The change began when Christianity came to be regarded as doctrine. This is the theory; it was about that which was lived. But there still existed some vitality, and therefore at times life-and-death disputes were carried on over “doctrine” and doctrinal formulations. Nevertheless doctrine became more and more the distinctive mark of being a Christian. Everything then became objective. This is Christianity’s theory. Then followed a period in which the intention was to produce life by means of the theory; this is the period of the system, the parody. Now this process has ended. Christianity must begin anew as life.

Provocation #3

Published by Daniel on 1/26/2006 in church, culture, life and provocations. 2 Comments

Recently I have had more than passing thoughts about the importance (or lack thereof) of doctrine to living the life of a Christian. The tomes of theology do not seem to bring me any closer to acting on charity, compassion, mercy, justice, or love. If it is less important to pass on in-depth theology than to model the life of Christ, what then is the role of preaching to Christians? Why do Christians sit and listen to it every week?

Christ did not establish any doctrine; he acted. He did not teach that there was redemption, he redeemed. Christ’s relationship to God, nature, and the human situation was conditioned by his activity. Everything else is to be regarded only as introduction.