The Prodigal Life

Mark Driscoll got into hot water several months back for his rant that he doesn't want to serve a God that is puny or weaker than him. And I have to agree. If God isn't bigger, stronger, wiser, more powerful, more merciful, and more loving than what I can muster, then I'm a little concerned. So, Mark proceeded to describe his Jesus as a powerful, untamable, unrelenting warrior-like God. But I wonder if we've still missed out on what Jesus is really like. The Jesus I read about in the Gospels is gentle and loving enough to attract the children from the crowd. I like to imagine Jesus sitting on the grass with two or three wiggling kids crammed onto his lap, a few more telling him stories with squirmy excitement--dancing around his feet to reenact their tales. Still more hang around his neck and on his hands. And yet, like a great dad with lots of little children, Jesus has so much love and joy that each child feels that they are the most important in the gaggle. The Jes...

Tonight my celebration of the Giant's victory was tainted... not just by the fact that I'm a Broncos fan but also by the commercials. Quite frankly I was angry. Angry at how women AND men were portrayed... and I think both sexes should be equally angry! I think women should be angry at some of those commercials. Angry that women were portrayed as little more than objects for sexual fantasies and having little value outside of physical appearance. I think women should be angry that, though the feminist movement was supposed to deliver greater equality with men, their value is still largely based on sexuality, particularly in the media. We're portrayed largely for attractiveness--not for what we can do or for who we are, but for what we look like. But I am more. My sexuality is only part of who I am... only part of who God has made e to be. But I think men should be personally offended by the same commercials. When women are reduced to sexual objects for the entertainme...

I know the Lost  phenomenon is long past... that television show that gathered a cult following. However, I've been re-watching the entire show... largely in hopes of finally understanding it... well, and making it past season 3. I'm not sure I understand it any better now than the first time around, but I have made a few observations. Take the character, Desmond, for example. He is taken into the service of the Dharma Initiative to type in a series of numbers into an ancient computer every 108 minutes. He fully believes that, due to a strange accident long ago, typing these numbers saves the world. When Jack, Locke, and Kate find Desmond, living in the underground hatch with his ancient computer, everything seems to unravel. Jack challenges Desmond--"How do you know the numbers do anything?" It's a fair question... I would wonder after years of typing numbers if I had been duped or become the victim of a psychology experiment. Desmond cannot prove the world w...

When Jesus was born that night, the angels appeared to shepherds watching their sheep on the hills outside Bethlehem. Today, we sit in church on Christmas and talk about mangers and shepherds and angels singing lullabies. It's a nice, peaceful image. We show pictures of Mary and Joseph gazing wide-eyed at their newborn wonder. I walk past nativity scenes and all the figurines are smiling and everything looks so peaceful. But that night, when Mary gave birth to Jesus, I don't think the angels sang lullabies. I think they shouted battle cries. Have you ever stopped to think about it? Jesus didn't come and move into our neighborhood as God in human form just to prove He could. He came to love, to bring life. He came to declare war on sin, death, disease, and all the evil in the world. The angel's proclamation was good news of great joy--a lullaby to the shepherds and to us. It was a war cry of the deadliest form to the Devil and all the sin and brokenness in the world. I...

It's been some time since the earthquake in Japan--just enough time for us to begin forgetting about the tragedy. I've moved on with my life. It's easy when the media outlets no longer keep us conveniently plugged in and up to date. The other day NPR/BBC jarred me out of my ill-informed state by a story about the Fukushima Power Plant restoration process. During the earthquake and ensuing tsunami, the nuclear power plant went into partial meltdown, releasing deadly levels of radiation. Now, as the clean-up process continues, someone must go into the radiation zone and begin the process of stopping the radiation leak. A group of over 200 retired Japanese, all over the age of 60, are volunteering to tackle the nuclear crisis. They call themselves the Skilled Veterans Corps and they are mostly retired engineers and other skilled laborers. The founder of the Corps, Yasuteru Yamada, said he was watching television when he decided it was time for his generation to stand up. The...

It's funny what memories we become attached to when we return from foreign cultures. One of the fondest memories of my time in Haiti was bathing. Every morning Helyn and I awoke around 7 am and stumbled down the path for a splash/bath in the ravine. In the cool of the morning the water, running from the mountains a few miles away was cold and refreshing. The ravine in which we often bathed. Life is very communal in Haiti and bathing is just another group activity. Women bathe and wash clothes together, chatting and socializing. Children splash and wash in groups, enjoying the simple pleasures and adventures of childhood. I quickly took to bathing multiple times each day--usually a full "bath" in the morning, a splash of cool water in the heat of the afternoon, and another full "bath" in the evening to wash off the sweat and dirt of the day before crawling into bed. When it was too late to walk to the ravine, I took bucket baths behind a curtain next to...