20061127

may Your people be as one

what do resources people have to offer?

time
needs (yes, needs are a resource)
vision
experience
money
skills
space
materials

how can we connect these pieces to bring action?
specifically in the Church?

these must usually be locally provided:

time
needs
vision
skills
space
materials

these are usually free of spacial constraints:

experience
money

i want to help the Church bring these pieces together to act more unified and more efficiently as the Body of Christ.
my vision is not for all the congregations of the city to be one, but to be as One.
and i want the city to know us as One by our love, not merely by our shared beliefs or labels.

how can this be done?

20061113

repetition

as this is where i am moving my words, i am continuing to add old and odd writings to this blog. as such, i think it is good to repeat the disclaimer...

take care what conclusions you draw from these words.
the danger of words is sometimes we don't know what they really mean.
context is useful.
so here's a little of mine.
i write when i'm thoughtful.
i'm more often thoughtful when down.
i write emotions no less than beliefs.
these are only rarely careful articulations of my mind.
i reserve the right to disagree with myself.
people change.
but i'm trying not to revise the past.
so these are a piece of my yesterday.
think what you will.
say what you think.

20061027

from notes on Micah

i found an old poem in notes on the book of Micah.
i haven't read Micah since then so i don't know if it's related or if i was off in my own world.
nothing particularly great about it,
but it's entertaining to read something of mine of which i have no recollection.
might as well share it here.
=======================
broken hands that try to mend
broken hearts all scarred and bent
work to hold the soul in peace
but they're always failing

can human hands heal human souls
can works of flesh fill us all full
what hope is found in mortal man
have we a rock on which to stand

so who are you to stand so tall
in time you know you're sure to fall
this life throws more than just bad curves
all you've gained, what is it worth?

20060916

daughter

i have a daughter now.
two months old tomorrow.
unbelievable.
i didn't realize what an identity shift it is to become a parent.
why do the most significant parts of reality feel so surreal?
how can it be that this small person smiles so big when she sees me in the morning?
how can she be part me and part my wife?
never, never doubt the bond created by sex.
whether or not it does each time,
the mere fact that it tends to create a new person
who is part you and part your lover
is enough to prove it.
no, not even that it tends to do so,
but merely that it can.
that alone is enough to prove the dramatic significance and power of sexual union.
it is holy.
the very power of God.
the God who gives both life and meaning to flesh.
i thought i held sexuality in high esteem before Adelle was born,
but now...
consider me awestruck.

20060815

blindmandesign

...is at it again. Google updated Blogger, so i thought i'd best give it a try, eh?

This may be the new home for blindmandesign. Or it may not. We'll see. Or we won't and just i will.

Let's see if at the end of the day this post pops up in Duvie's latest web frill. If so, then "Hi Adam."

20060629

Sylvan's request

"Will you color with me?", asked Sylvan.

"Not right now, I'm going to go do..."

Something important.
I went to do something I needed to do, didn't I?
Oh no.
What a glorious invitation i passed on today.
i could have colored!
i never color anymore.
I saw i wasn't good at coloring, so I stopped.
Growing up is dangerous like that.
It's so easy to forget that playing isn't competing,
so easy to confuse the serious with the important
or the skillful with the valuable.
Sylvan wanted to color while Leo hid in a box
and Violette carefully balanced a pillow on her head.
How silly they are.
How wonderfully, worshipfully, beautifully silly!
But me?
Well, I had to do something important.

20060605

the here and now

can you see beyond the here and now?
to worlds a thousand miles away
can your mind conceive what happens there?
your heart feel a stranger's pain?

can you see beyond the here and now
to where eternity awaits
do you mourn as one who has no hope?
where does your treasure lay?

'cause there is life there (out) beyond you
and there is life right where you are
and that tension that can tear you (apart)
is same that makes you whole

can you be right in the here and now?
live life like you could die today
can your eyes perceive the meaning in
the things that you see every day

be where you are
let your eyes see far
don't fear a broken heart

be where you are
let your eyes see far
let love break the calloused heart

20060403

the questions

an amateur poet's epistemology
or an amateur epistemologist's poem,
part 1 (i make no promise of further parts)
------------------------------
yeah i know that we don't know
just how much that we don't know
or even why we know
all that we think we know

and it's true that Truth is real
or even nothing can't be true
and you can't question your existence
if there's no such thing as you

still the questions are always bigger
than the answers i can find
so there must be something more
than just me, myself, and i

but if there's more here than just me
that must include what i perceive
for what use is it to doubt
all that i can hear or see?

because the gap between thinking
and living such a thing
would divide me from all of you
that are listening to me

so the questions are still bigger
than the answers we can find
and there must be something more
than just you and i and why

20060121

the beauty of creating

i received an encouraging email today.
from a woman who was encouraged by the words on my website.
in response, i shared that i, too, am often encouraged by the words,
even those that are my own.
that is the beauty of creating, in whatever form:
it sets something beyond yourself that can give unto to others
and even back to you.
what a delightful thought then,
to think of how God,
the Creator,
might be encouraged and blessed by His creations...
including us.
He has set something beyond Himself
that can give to others
and to Himself.
sixpence none the richer, indeed!
the economy of God is truly strange and beautiful.
i am grateful to be made in the Imago Dei,
with the power to create.

20060118

if i ever

if i ever knew just how you love me
if i understood the way you feel
if i ever called just at the right time
i might know what i'm supposed to do

if i ever saw the view from your side
if i only knew all of the truth
if i could hold my gaze at your eyes
i might always agree with you

but i'm calloused on the inside
i've been crooked way down deep
i am used to just pretending
that i'm as good as i can be

if i ever told you how i love you
if i could ever show the way i feel
if i can stand naked before you
i might have your point of view

but i am calloused on the inside
for so long crooked way down deep
and i'm used to just pretending
that i'm as good as i can be

save me jesus, kill me quickly
i must die a thousand times
before i will believe you love me
before i stop buying my own lies

these words fall easily from my lips
like so many words before
but have i ever really meant them
if i never love you any more

someday i'll see the bigger picture
and not this dim and mirrored view
but until then i'm just trusting
that you love me and i love you

still i'm calloused on the inside
i'm still crooked way down deep
i'm just trying not to pretend
that i'm as good as i can be

20060103

rights

i don't think i believe in unalienable rights.
at least, i'm pretty sure i don't like the modern american version of them.
right to choose, right to life,
right to privacy, right to liberty,
right to pursue happiness, right to marriage,
right to vote, right to health care,
right to this, right to that...
i see no end to claims of "rights" these days,
and i'm sick of the idea.
it has become unabashedly selfish;
perhaps it has always been intrinsically so.
i can see no love in it.
if unalienable rights do exist, they must be divinely endowed.
the only way a "social contract" can make an "unalienable right" is to qualify the definition of "unalienable" until it is meaningless.
for a truly unalienable right to exist, it must come from an eternal Authority.
it must be a gift, as life itself is.
it is grace.
and i see no grace in our modern claims of rights.
debates over human rights largely amount to "deserves"...
"i deserve better!"
"we deserve this!"
"they deserve that!"
there's no grace in giving people what they deserve.
rights have become justice without love.
i think very little of things lacking love.
besides, we truly only deserve very little that we want and very much that we do not want.
a demand for justice can be a dangerous request.
love must rule or we are in serious trouble.

so i don't believe in a right to life.
i believe in a divine command to love one another.
i don't believe in a right to liberty.
i believe in a call to be gracious and patient with one another.
i don't believe in a right to pursue happiness.
i believe we are to love God with our all, for He loves us all dearly.
and if we love Him, we must love those He dearly loves.

so take whatever hotbutton political issue you like,
ignore all the foolish bickering over so-called rights,
and consider, "God loves them, how can we do the same?"