Bookstore ramblings...

I am back in my hometown for the week. It has been nice to see old faces, but I hate the question "so what are you doing with your life?" How do you explain to people that you now live in intentional community and have taken a substantial pay cut? ... It's harder than you would think. Most people you bump into only want a 5 minute conversation, and explaining intentional community takes at least 15 minutes...without taking a breath, hence why I have been trying to avoid people.

I did, however, slip into Barnes & Noble for some R&R...reading and refocus. I found an empty chair near the kids books (I figured I wouldn't be bumping into too many people there) and proceeded to read from C.S. Lewis' "The World's Last Night, " a book lifted from the increasingly smaller section of Christian Inspiration. The first essay was written about the Efficacy of Prayer. It was a lot to think about, especially after my prior musings about why people use prayer like it's a slot machine. Throwing quarters in, and hoping for a good outcome. C.S. Lewis must have thought the same thing because he said:
"For up till now we have been tackling the whole question in the wrong way and on the wrong level. The very question “Does prayer work?” puts us in the wrong frame of mind from the outset. “Work”: as if it were magic, or a ma­chine—something that functions automatically. Prayer is either a sheer illusion or a personal contact between embryonic, incomplete persons (ourselves) and the utterly concrete Person. Prayer in the sense of petition, asking for things, is a small part of it; confession and penitence are its threshold, adoration its sanctu­ary, the presence and vision and enjoyment of God its bread and wine. In it God shows Himself to us. That He answers prayers is a corollary—not necessarily the most important one—from that revelation. What He does is learned from what He is.

I like how Lewis works out the dimensions of prayer. I particularly like the last part about the enjoyment of God being the bread and wine. There are two reasons I like this analogy.The first is because the way you drink wine. You drink it slow, in order to get the full effect of the alcohol dancing around. Secondly, much of the reason for drinking wine is for the benefits. Wine has certain compounds that neutralize the negative effects that digestion has on the body. So like wine, my prayers aren't just hitting the ceiling, they are perhaps neutralizing the negative effects of my selfish heart and mind. Prayer is keeping things in perspective, lending itself to the created being connected to the creator.

A note to myself.
No more slot machine prayers Emily. No more crossing your fingers hoping you get your way. Pray in a manner that invites Him in. Savor the moments with your Father.

Cyber Social Networking: kills community.

It's true. The hours we spend searching for hometown friends, uploading videos, and tagging friends, kills the Body. My next project lends itself to researching trends among college students. So far so good. I've compiled information on the top ten trends (I think), and I've started processing in my mind how some of these known facts about college students are actually killing the physical body, as well as the other Body, the Church Body that is.

We have entered an era where almost every Westernized individual is always CONNECTED. We are known not for our physical network of friends, but rather how many mutual friends we have on facebook. We stalk, talk, and balk on profiles. "We've never met, but I've seen you on facebook." or "That's ok, I don't need your number, I'll find you on facebook."

Social Networking through the web can be a wonderful thing, but when it hinders our ability to connect with the real world, what can be said of it then?

I am not advocating for or agaisnt, or putting my marker on either side of the spectrum, but I am bringing to light (eventually) how being so connected actually disconnects us.

I will admit that as I write this blog, the next tab over says: "Welcome to Facebook!"

Continue to think about thinking,
Emily

Why don't women write more?

I just finished reading "Soul Survivor" by Phillip Yancey. Interesting story. He talks mostly about a fallen world, and people who try to weasel their way out of the reality of that fallen world by attending a church service. They put on their heels and suit coats, comb their hair, and blow the dust of the family Bible that sits on the edge of a chewed up corner table. They hear a message that tickles their ears and makes them appreciate the fact that "they," once sinners, have escaped the near fatal death of the world. And when they return home, they praise God that they aren't as bad as the folks they hear about on talk radio, or secular news reports. These are the people that Yancey speaks of in his book. The misfits of the Body. But on the outside these misfits seem to fit together perfectly. Like a 500 piece jigsaw puzzle on your Grandma's table. What some of these misfits do not realize is that their slight bent towards cynicism and utter outrage of all the "worldliness" that occurs today, is driving the message of Jesus out the back door. (it smells like burnt rubber) If I took a survey, I am almost positive that more than half would agree that they too have experienced this type of behavior within the Body.

This is precisely Yancey's point. Today's churches have done more damage than good. Those who teach, and who realize this, are having to de-churchify the gospel message. Yancey was raised in an era of segregation. And not only was it segregation, it was Southern segregation. His home church preached a message of love for God, but hatred for those of a different skin color. And while they sang: red, yellow, black, and white they are precious in his sight; just try and let one of those who were red, yellow, or black, slip into a church service. It's infuriating to think about it now some 50 years later, but the roots are still there. And I think that's why Phillip Yancey wrote "Soul Survivor." To help the soul of the one who realized that Church and Faith were different than what had been taught. He tells the story of how 13 unlikely mentors helped his faith survive the Church. 12 men and 1 woman. All who had some horrible flaw, but all had incredible wisdom regarding faith and truth. 12 men and 1 woman. And it's that one woman that has been bothering me since I finished the book.

Annie Dillard was her name. From the stories in the book, I imagine her to be a simple woman who would have survived the era of the 60's far better than most hippies. She smokes one too many cigarettes, french I presume, and has a voice so low that, well I've never heard it, but it's raspy I'm sure. I kind of picture her as a Janis Joplin imitator, who sits in a centered blocked wall office with no windows. Lighting cigarette after cigarette, waiting for her next big idea to flow onto paper. Phillip Yancey talks about her in a way that is as moving as a ballerina hitting center stage for the first time. It was this one woman (and 12 men) that helped shape his faith. And it's still the one woman part that keeps reeling through my mind. Why don't women write more about their faith? And not the faith they wrap neatly to sell. And not the faith that pertains to raising spiritual children, being the Proverbs 31 woman today, or how to lead as a woman. No, it's none of that. (Which by the way is important) It's a woman who is willing to write in a way that uncovers a depth to faith. A woman, whose writing will be passed from the hands of my child to their child. Writing so powerful that Phillip Yancey will write a book entitled, 13 women mentors/writers who helped my faith survive the church.

So I am on a mission to find "truth/faith" writing by women that is sustainable for a lifetime.

Any suggestions?

Shane Claiborne...chance meeting

O.k., so I didn't actually meet Shane Claiborne this evening, but I did hear him speak, and I stood close enough to realize that his clothes are definitely homemade. For those of you "googling" Shane Claiborne by this point, let me just say, he may have the monopoly on the market of simple living. Of course, that in itself is an oxymoron. Shane Claiborne has created this intentional community called The Simple Way, where they are surrounding themselves around the idea of laying down their needs to meet the needs of others. Part of their ideology is that : "The life of the simple way is the story of that struggle to love and to be loved." And I think that is all of our struggle in this life. We try to find balance between loving others, and finding love for ourselves. More times than not, we focus more heavily on the latter. So back to the point about Shane Claiborne.

He used the illustration in his address to Furman Students (yea, we sort of snuck into the chapel for this one) about the time when several homeless families found an old abandon church building and decided to move in, as opposed to being on the street. Well apparently the church folk didn't like the fact that people were staying in their abandon building. And so they got their religious underwear in a wad and decided to kick these families with no homes out on the streets again. Well, the media had a field day with this. Because I'm almost positive that the entire red-lettered parts of the Bible talk about giving and loving others. So, instead of giving, they decided to be a little less harsh and twist the message around saying it wasn't safe for the families to be taking up residence there. Smart religious folk they were. So they get the fire marshall involved and all the other officials to investigate the building. Interestingly though, the night before the big search, the entire fire department shows up to the church building, not to kick them out, but to help them get up to code on all safety issues. So the next day, the fire marshall had absolutely no reason to kick them out. I'm sure this posed a problem for the religious folk, because now they were faced with the problem of following Jesus, or following a societal flow...

So this may be an extreme case of choosing to give and love others, but in reality, I think it sets the tone for how we should see things. What are we called to do? Who are we called to give to? Who are we called to love? It's pretty simple if you think about it. Hence The Simple Way. Everything Jesus ever talked about was Kingdom living, and with the right lenses, it's a pretty simple way of life.

I don't have much more to add to this post. Just a quote from Shane:
"We've got to be more committed to creating communities and a society where the right thing to do is easier."

Welcome to the dysfunctional family of Yahweh

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately. My life has changed a bit since my last entry on wordpress. I vaguely remember talking about coloring and being a kid again. It's a nice thought, but far from reality.

In fact, my life has changed so much that I now live in a new town, with new people. I'm part of a little experiment called Community Discipleship Home. We talk about Jesus, the Kingdom of God, and sharing life with others. There are 8 of us, all with internships, and all with some sort of hang up about what it truly means to be One Body, living as discipled and redeemed individuals. I don't think any of us signed up for CDH (Community Discipleship Home) listing out our most visible flaws, I think it is just gradually happening. We are seeing who we are as individuals, and I think we are all noticing things about ourselves that hinder our effectiveness of being the "light" of the world. Hence why I choose the title I did. We are a dysfunctional family of God. We all have these fixed ideas about what it means to live for another world...I guess you could call it Kingdom living. I think we all desire something greater, something real, an authentic way of life. So we are here, living in COMMUNITY, discipling, being discipled, and redefining the doors of normalcy and conformity.

I've learned a lot about myself within just a month or so. I'm cynical sometimes, and a bit jaded by the religious monotony of our world. We do things only out of ritual practices, and forget about people. And, I admit, I'm selfish at times. It's hard to maintain the idea that serving God also means serving people. And for the record, living with 7 others + 2 "adults" + 2 kids is not always easy. So I digress, life has been different.

Here's a side note.
Rich Mullins used to say that Christianity is for sick people. Shane Claiborne would agree. Shane said whenever people tell me that Christians are hypocrites, I said: Well duh, every time we come together we are confessing that we are hypocrites, weaklings in need of God and each other." We know that we cannot do life alone, and the good news is that we don't have to. We are created for community."

And that's what we are doing, all 8 of us. We are changing the way we define what it means to live in community with others, and what it means to help the sick, needy, and poor in spirit.

Last thing. There is a narrow way that leads to life. I'm finding it.

Emily