Hallucinogens.
September 19, 2009
I haven’t watched the news in seven years.
Not the local news or the national morning shows or even the big breaking stories. I didn’t hear about that big typhoon in Asia for weeks. But I have welcomed the breath of fresh air from propaganda pollution. It’s been a beautiful release, really. Read the rest of this entry »
Sweet Nothings.
September 11, 2009
“When we hear a little voice in our ear saying that we are failures and losers, it is the voice of Satan trying to convince the bride that the groom doesn’t love her.”
I copied this quote into my scribble-scrabble journal from Don Miller’s book Blue Like Jazz. (I know I ranted about it a couple weeks ago, but it’s still rocking my world, so it’s still on top of the desktop of my mind…have you read it yet, by the way?) It seems obvious that God wouldn’t be taunting me with Read the rest of this entry »
Leaders of Faith.
September 8, 2009
You know, I am surrounded by Christian leaders and industry heroes. I hang around people who spend every day in ministry vocation and fill their calendars with missions trips and inspirational quotes. But today I wanted you to meet the people who actually inspire me. More even than my extensive and impressive list of Blog Celebrities…
Two young girls from a youth group I used to work in: Read the rest of this entry »
Lost and Found.
August 28, 2009
The lock button on the door of my Explorer hasn’t been working lately. Last week, I didn’t think very much about it, but this morning I found myself anxiously pushing and pressing and mashing the button as the palpable tension mounted against every invisible fear. Why? Because of the phone call I received last night.
This week, two teenagers with whom I worked in Virginia were gunned down in a “brutal double homicide.” David and Heidi. Nineteen and eighteen years old. Brilliant and humble and kind and in love. Beautiful, innocent children who were shining lights of hope that the emerging generation could do great things. Yet suddenly that light has been snuffed out. The details seem horrific; the reality feels, well, surreal. Read the rest of this entry »
Seasons and Tail Winds.
August 21, 2009
Did I ever tell you about The Summer That We Were Homeless? It rivals the Winter at Madison Street, in that the temperatures were extreme and the living conditions were sparse and demanding. Before I tell you about the former, let me tell you a bit about the latter, so that you can appreciate the comparison.
623 Madison Street. It was a dilapidated old house, whose three stories stood abjectly on the corner, anchoring a long block of tired, ignored houses. If you squinted and cocked your head to the side a bit, you could perhaps imagine what turn-of-the-century life would have brought to this historic street, but upon making direct eye contact, the chipping paint and broken windows sighed an undeniable air of abandonment. Of life inhaled from the parlors and porches and instead exhaled into distant suburbs and rubber stamp duplexes somewhere on the outskirts of town. This was how we found her. 623 Madison Street. Read the rest of this entry »
The Breaking Point.
August 1, 2009
Politically correct. Complacent. Lethargic. All things that I am not. So when resounding silence is the predominant theme here, it possibly screams even louder of all the things that I am not saying. Thinking – always – but not saying.
A couple of weeks ago I was advised that I needed to be more guarded. More general. More generic. But I have found that these also are things that I am not. Things that, in fact, I have spent my entire life running from. I would rather be genuine. Intimate. Individual. But I have days and seasons, as I presume we all do, that are bleak and challenging and filled with questions and complexity. And it is from one of these seasons that I was told that Read the rest of this entry »
Benchmark Moments.
July 25, 2009
Sometimes life can so easily blur between days and duties and the details that get us up in the morning. But often it is the little benchmarks along the way that offer us a little bit of “scrapbook-able” distance to see the difference between then and now. Christmas pictures. Journal entries. Distinguished annual events. For me, it is this trip to the Michigan lakehouse. Because this cottage is plopped on a quiet lake in the middle of a miniscule town in the middle of nowhere, you don’t have the easy vacation distractions of tourism, commercialism or any of the other -isms that chip away at creativity and invention. There is silence. And nature. And wonder.
Ten years ago, Read the rest of this entry »
Inhale the Purity.
July 12, 2009
- The random speckle pattern of rain on a bleached sidewalk.
- The moon-lit silhouette of branches and blossoms against a frosted glass window.
- The happy jumping of tiny cricket-bugs with each step across a grassy field.
- The texture and character of the moon on a clear night.
- The fresh smell of air. Pure and unadulturated by potpourri, detergents and anti-bacterial everything.
- The three bunnies that eat clover from the patch of land just beyond the Walmart parking lot. Read the rest of this entry »
