I have a friend who is working on the restoration Book-Cadillac Hotel in downtown Detroit. He told me that when they entered the building to begin the restoration, the basement was so full of water that it took weeks to pump all of it out. Today, I came across some picture of the Book-Cadillac taken before the restoration began at Forgotten Detroit.
According to the website,
“Detroit is known for one of the most stunning collections of pre-depression architecture in the world. The past two decades have seen several of these treasures sit vacant, waiting for economic revival”
I don’t know about the “stunning collection” part but I can personally vouch for the fact that Detroit is, “waiting for economic revival”.
I’ve been following the situation in Kenya as closely as possible over the last several weeks, and thankfully the situation seems to be stabilizing. One of the great things about the age that we live in is that we have access to so many sources and voices giving eye-witness accounts of world events. I’ve read many articles and reports on the internet lately and this one stuck me as particularly poignant:
SoulPastor: “In one of the poorer areas of town we came across an unusual sight. Amongst the narrow trails between the houses there were many piles of burnt personal effects outside poor people’s houses. The paths had been cleared of the boulders but these were still strewn along the road side as though in preparation for the next wave of violence. But as we drove behind one house we saw on one pile of ash all kinds of furniture and other personal effects. You couldn’t help wondering why the things had not been burned. Did the youths run out of petrol? Or had they expended their hatred? Or did they maybe break into the wrong house?”
I had two separate conversations today dealing with the thorny issue of two human beings trying to get along. One of the people that I spoke said that he craved order and the prospect of a new relationship was stressful because it might mess with his plan. In the other conversation, a couple of good people were struggling to get along because the rules and expectations that have been placed on them are preventing them from really engaging each other.
When we pursue a better system rather then relationship it like we are shrink wrapping our furniture. We may keep it clean, but we’re not leaving anyone with much to enjoy. This doesn’t only apply to two people, it also impacts our ability to have a relationship with God.
I came across this quote today by Dietrich Bonhoeffer while reading The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch:
Discipleship means adherence to Christ and, because Christ is the object of that adherence, it must take the form of discipleship. An abstract theology, a doctrinal system, a general religious knowledge of the subject of grace or the forgiveness of sins, render discipleship superfluous, and in fact exclude any idea of discipleship whatsoever, and are essentially inimical to the whole conception of following Christ… Christianity without the living Christ is inevitably Christianity without discipleship, and Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.
Christianity is not a doctrine but a person to whom I trust myself without reserve.
It sounds so obvious but I understand the temptation to get cozy with comfortable theories rather then encounter the unpredictable person of Christ. I’ve also found recently that our need for a systematic approach to life can actually be a hinderance to all relationship, not just our relationship with God.
In this, discipleship and friendship have a lot in common. If our plans, theologies or need for order come between us and our encounter with each other or with God, we have completely missed the point.
God, may we get pass our need to control and learn your heart for the freeing, unpredictable and beautiful dance that a friendship can be.
I came across this article last week by Kimberly B. George while digging around The Ooze. In her first paragraph, George says that in the evangelical church, feminism is functionally equivalent to the “f-word”. I’m not sure that’s quite my experience, but I have to admit that I was a little bit hesitant to dive into this essay. What I found turned out to be one of the most powerful essay’s I’ve read in some time. Continue reading ‘A Letter from a Feminist’
It’s not exactly in style these days, but I think there’s still something great about. No worries about factory farms, antibiotic fed animals or confined cages. Just man, beast and wide open spaces. Dad Hunting 2007
I am making a presentation to parents of teenagers next week. Part of my talk is going to be talking to them about their kids and the culture that they live in. One of the things that I’ve been trying to figure out how to get across to them the effect that living in a culture that pushes teenagers to be criminals because of the way they interact with media.
Today, I watched a TED Talk by Larry Lessig that I think should help to get the point across nicely. The video itself is rather lengthy (19:08) but I think the last two minutes sums it up nicely. These are difficult issues to grasp and my hope is that both myself and the parents will grow from the experience.
It a pretty simple one really. I’ve been trying to blog for the last six months or so but the truth is this; I don’t think I really have much to say at all. I don’t know why that is. I like to talk about stuff. I even like to write, but for some reason I don’t really like to blog.
And well were are on the topic of realizations, I also think that I managed to design one of the most horribly unattractive and busy blogs on the entire internet. I’d say I feel victim to the “I think feature and that feature is cool, so I’ll toss them ALL in” trap.
Here’s the other really weird thing. I don’t really want to stop having this blog. I like the idea of having a blog and I haven’t given up on the idea of blogging at some point. Maybe even some point soon?
Well I have been trying to figure this whole thing out I have also created a profile on Facebook, Myspace and Virb. Here’s my quick thought on all three.
Facebook: really great community features. Simple. Attractive (in a Web 2.0 kind of way). Myspace: don’t get me started. I don’t know much but this site make me feel weird every-time I log on. Ugly. Slow. Not bad for finding new music though. Virb: this one is a bit of an enigma. You can certainly create really cool profiles and some people have but I think that as more people sign up, you’ll start to see a lot of really ugly Myspace-esque profiles start to show up. The community features seem pretty solid, but there needs to be more people online to really get a feel for it.
Verdict: For now, Facebook. Ask me again in a few months and Virb may have stolen my digital heart
And for everyone who cares… one last look at my old blog:
I read an article today in the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune by Gregory Boyd today titled, “My Church has been hijacked by politics“. In the article Boyd contends that,
As passionate as Jesus was about transforming society, he refused to mix his faith with politics. Jesus lived in politically hot times, and the people of his day were looking for a political leader and savior. Consequently, people were constantly trying to get Jesus to throw his weight behind this or that political issue, but Jesus consistently refused. He never so much as commented on the politics of his day. We know that two of his closest disciples — Matthew (a “tax collector”) and Simon (a “zealot”) — were farther apart politically than Michele Bachmann and Patty Wetterling could ever dream of being. Yet Jesus never said a word about it.
The first thing that comes to my mind is how Jesus acted in John 6:14-15. After Jesus wowed a crowd of 5000 by filling their stomachs it seems that they were so impressed that the crowd took it upon themselves to attempt to make Jesus king by force. Jesus responded by withdrawing to a mountain by himself. You could argue that this doesn’t have to be interpreted as a rejection of politics as much a rejection of the crowds tactics or chance of success. I would agrue that even if Jesus was only rejecting the crowds tactics that their is a profound lesson for Christians in today’s political climate.
Boyd’s American context is different then my Canadian context but his article definitely speaks to an increasing trend in the Canadian political and religious system. My prayer is that we can redirect the evangelical church in Canada’s newfound interest in political activism into a transformational activism - one that seeks to change hearts, not only systems.
As Boyd says, Yes, Jesus was all about transforming society — but not by political means. This is why he said the movement he came to bring was “not of this world.” This simply wasn’t the kind of power Jesus was interested in.
I also hope that we continue to think, pray, discuss and study about the kind of power that Jesus was interested in and the kind of kingdom that He was and is trying to build.
It took a while but we’re all set up. Cogeco told me that they would be there to hook up the cable on friday sometime between 9:00 AM and 5:00 PM. If you’ve ever been told to expect a technician somewhere in a eight hour period you would know that what they really mean is that we are going to come five minutes before the last possible minutes and make you sit on your -insert your word here- all day.
And that’s exactly what happened. At 4:55 PM, two trucks showed up at my house to do a total of five minutes of work. By work, I mean that the one guy dropped off the cable modem and put coaxial connectors on the ends of a peice of cable. Oh, and I paid $30 for the privledge of waiting all day. It’s not those guys fault, but I can’t help but wonder if one truck might have done the job and been here a little earlier.
Later that night, I actually had a chance to try the internet. After a call to tech support to get them to clarify the sloppy password that the technician left we were good to go. At least Cogeco has 24 hour tech support. Once up and running, I had my wireless router and my Primus VoIP router plugged in and running in no time.
Four days into both Primus TalkBroadband(VoIP) and Cogeco Internet Lite and I am very impressed with the service. Internet is basically internet so there’s not much to say about that, but Primus is really cool.
I keep telling Michelle how much I like our new phone. I don’t think she thinks that is very normal but she’s tolerating it.
$19.95 a month or $15.95 a month if you buy the $60 router (that’s what I did)
Call display with names
Voicemail
5-Way Calling
Call forward
A personal website that:
Has your call history
Stores your voicemail
Stores your phone book
Let’s you adjust your settings
Let’s you forward your voicemail to an email account
Call follow (if you don’t answer at home, it will transfer the call to your cellphone)
So the catch is that rather then connecting to your normal phone line, you connect a VoIP box to the internet and your phone calls travel through the net. You then connect the VoIP box to a regular phone. In our case, we plugged in a 5.8 GHz cordless phone that has two base stations and two handsets.
Presto! Sweet phone system for $12less a month then Bell charges!
