Weekend Wanderings

It has been a while since I have put up a weekend links post. Things have been kind of crazy around here the past few weeks. It has eased up somewhat so I'm going to post a few of the things I have been reading lately.

So, without further ado, here are the links:

Being a slow church.
First, be viable.
Truth Pharisees.
Being brave.
Living with less.

This is a crying shame.
Oooooookay.
Keith Giles on grace.
Interesting church buildings.
Mark Osler on Facebook.

The fruitfulness of contingency.
Quotes from Spurgeon.
iMonk classic.
New Moses and new people.
Items on the list?

The difference an "s" makes.
Zack Hunt on the narrow gate.
A wooden spoon.

Have a blessed week!

Weekend

I'm sorry there is no Weekend Wanderings post this week. My father-in-law fell Thursday and broke his hip, so we've been busy with all that goes along with that. There is a great deal of the unknown ahead of us, so we would appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

World Vision Wednesday

The perils of being an uncounted child.

Blast From the Past: Gluttony

I went to an all you can eat pizza place today with the kids I work with today. It reminded me of this post from January 24, 2011. In the interests of full disclosure, I ate fair amount of pizza myself.

One night a couple of years ago we went to Ci-Ci's for dinner and I realized that one of America's biggest sins is gluttony. In the traditional sense of overeating yes (I admit I was rather stuffed when we left), but also in the larger sense of over consuming and wasting. As we were eating, Jan pointed out the amount of crusts and entire pieces of pizza that were left on plates. People go into a place like Ci-Ci's and see the tremendous amount of food displayed before them. So they load up their plate and begin to eat. Since this is an all-you-can-eat buffet, they go back for a second plate. Then, if they don't go back for a third plate of regular pizza, they have a few pieces of dessert pizza. The problem is many of those people find that they can't eat all they have taken. So they leave it. They leave it to be thrown away and wasted.

Then I thought about our culture. Gas prices keep going up, and how many really change their driving habits. There are many examples of wastefulness in our society. Most of you could come up with a few.

My question is: What does this say about our culture? More importantly, what does this say about those of us who claim to belong to Jesus? Are we doing what we can to conserve and not waste the things God has given us? These things include gas, food, natural resources, time, talents, relationships. Christians should be the best environmentalists. Not in a worship Mother Earth, man is a virus type of way, but in a way that recognizes that this world was created by God for us to wisely and compassionately use for the Kingdom. God didn't give man the right to abuse creation. We are stewards and are to take care of the gift we have.

Weekend Wanderings

This weekend is the more or less official beginning of summer, even though the season itself doesn't begin until June. Here in the United States, there will be parades, picnics, and ceremonies remembering those who have fought and died in the service of their country. School children across the country, along with their teachers, eagerly await the end of the school year.

Enough small talk. Here are the links:

Good article from Jack Levison.
Interesting problem for the U.S. government.
You never know. This might work.
I think this might be carrying celebrity worship a bit too far.
Boz Tchividjian is grieving.

John Frye begins a review of The Story of God Bible Commentary: The Sermon on the Mount.
10 foreign films worth watching.
The cross challenge.
The wrong way to approach the poor.
Is education for life or ideas?

A church that imagines a flourishing community.
"Christian" individualism.
Seven states are running out of water.
Josh Ross on scars and stories.
The Hokey Pokey.

Maybe this is why he was excommunicated.
There's a series on good works over at the internet monk. Part 1 is here.
I think this is going a bit too far. Quite a bit.
Carolina BBQ! Part 1. Part 2.
I guess you've seen the Sprint commercials. Does anyone know what it is the ad agency people were smoking?

Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and a blessed week!

Sports? Yes, Sports

There was an on-line discussion a couple of weeks back about sports and the impact, positive and negative, that it has on people. I have been involved in sports, as an athlete or coach for fifty-two of my fifty-eight years. Currently, we are part of a church that has just a few folks interested in sports. It can make for some interesting conversations.

Our community's mission is to show the truth, goodness, and beauty of Jesus to our city so that it flourishes. One of the ways we do this is through the arts. We have a number of artists and musicians, and there are many different ways in which they seek to carry out this mission. Jan and I love being in this spiritual environment and we are learning a great deal. I've even had a few artistic stirrings my self. As I see my artist friends do what they do as a way of bringing the kingdom of God to bear, I am thinking more and more how that can be done through sports.

Sports is one of those things that can do a great deal of good, or a great deal of harm. I am well aware of the problems in the sports world. I have known my share of athletes who were sure they were going to make it in the pros, and didn't bother to study. I have known coaches who have been fired from their jobs, not because they didn't produce capable student-athletes who were good citizens, but because they didn't get into post season tournaments every season. I have seen the athletes, and coaches, who believe that the rules somehow don't apply to them as long as they win.

Unlike the arts, sports has not been neglected or shunned by the wider Christian church. In fact, it has been embraced by the church as something good. That is not a bad thing in and of itself. The problem comes when we begin to make idols out of athletes, teams, etc. Don't tell me that we don't follow the lead of the culture when it comes to putting athletes up on pedestals. We just have a different set of criteria for who we put up there. Unfortunately, when our idols fall off the pedestal, the fallout is usually worse.

Yes, there are problems in the sports world. At times it can seem like the bread and circuses of the Roman Empire. On the other hand, sports can be a beautiful thing. I would even go so far as to say that one can find art in sports. The arc of a shot from behind the three point line, a soccer team moving the ball up the pitch with short precise passes, the graceful lines of a high jumper clearing the bar, the power of a sprinter exploding out of the starting blocks. All of these things have a beauty to them. Sports can also teach lessons that are life-long. The ability to work with others to accomplish a common goal is a useful thing. The discipline of practicing and constantly trying to improve skills comes in handy in many situations. Persistence learned in the heat of competition goes a long way toward helping one to not give up when things get tough.

As a follower of Jesus, I try to see the good in all of the abilities that God gives to those made in his image. Whether it's a painter, an illustrator, a writer, a musician, or an athlete, all of the abilities we have are gifts to us from a creative God. As a Christian, I believe we have a calling to show the glory of our Father to a watching world through through those gifts. I believe that we can show the truth, goodness, and beauty of Christ through sports. Hopefully, I'll have opportunities to explore ways to do that in the near future.

What do you think?

World Vision Wednesday

Last May, a series of tornadoes devastated Moore, Oklahoma. A church stepped up and turned its building into a warehouse for supplies to help those who were affected.