Look what I found tonight....

This makes me giggle. Seriously.........
(sorry - inside joke)

Amazing movie - Amazing Grace

Tonight I saw, by far, one of the best movies I have ever seen. Amazing Grace is the incredible - and oh so beautiful - cinema painting of William Wilberforce's fight for the abolition of slavery in England (18th century). It was such a beautiful piece of art. Please see it.

I would blog about it - but an Asbury professor does such a great job I'll just submit his blog link -it is on the side bar under 'change the world'. If you have the time, please see this movie -either by yourself with great friends....just go see it.

Favorite lines:

"We're too young to know that some things are impossible -so let's do them anyway."

"We have heard that you are contemplating between a life devoted to God or a life of political activism. We're here to tell you humbly, that you can do both."

"How can we live in houses like these when there are people living in boxes?"

The Kingdom

The Kingdom of God is not a matter of eating or drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God….
-Romans 14:17-18a


Being a second year seminary student, I find solace in the quiet corners of book stores or coffee shops-biding my time to reading and studying. No matter how quiet the corner, however, I still find myself reaching for little light green pieces of soft foam that have become my friends over these years- my earplugs. Although at first I found it silly to be sitting there, ears plugged looking like an introverted alien in the midst of conversation and living community, I soon found them to be comforting, enabling me to focus on what was important in my studies. I became engaged with the writers and their teachings, and found myself invited into scripture for reflection and consideration-free from the audible distractions of my outside environment-what a great invention.

The preparation seasons in the church are my favorite because they say to me, “stop, consider, and focus.” Lent, which can be seen as a season for denial, instead seems to me as a season of invitation. In his passage to the Romans, Paul is very clear about what we should fix our focus on – the Kingdom of God.
Paul invites us on the journey of focusing our energy and our lives to Christ’s message of the Kingdom. This journey is marked with the mile markers of righteousness and justice, peace and mercy, and the joy that comes through the empowerment and blessing of the Holy Spirit which we have been given to become such Kingdom travelers. To focus on these things, to add them into our lives- so they become our life, to move away from the mundane in order to engage and travel with the eternal, is what I believe Paul is asking of us here.
It is what I believe Lent should be about.

During this season of preparation we are invited to journey with Christ to Jerusalem and then Golgotha. Let us travel with Him, focusing on these Kingdom attributes along the way.

Consider some ear plugs, you might need them.

Wednesday nights

Tonight the new girl told me boldly the list of books - so proud of her knowledge.
I've memorized them she said - for the pure understanding that it was through choice that she should know her Bible. That somehow, for some reason it would be good and right.
She knew all the answers
trust
love
He is with me always -inside and out
and she danced in the back of the room to songs about Jesus and mystery, unashamed and fully emracing joy. It was beautiful.

They inspire me and i love them so much it hurts.

Sabbath

It's a grey rainy day in Tampa. Not Tampa weather at all really. Beging to be something she's not, this southern town is embracing the weather of the northern coasts-cold mist and drissle, beckoning sweaters and Northface. I love my friends today. They are good people - dancing and living and singing all around me. This place is hard to be, but we still sing and dance and drink glasses of cold white Oregon wine on patios still lit with white Christmas lights. Everything seems right. Today I decided I would buy a banjo -its sound reminds me of breaking free (from the prison I'm in - my therapist reminds me). Regardless, once I sell my Washburn I think I might buy one used, or cheap, or old and beautiful- to play by myself by the waters or in the cities or on Friday nights at Jakes- tunes that swirl in and out of my mind and body. What a great Saturday. Perhaps I am learing what it truly means to embrace this gift that has been given to me - known as Sabbath. Or simply the deepness and refreshment that comes from "no-ah" -God's rest.


Currently listening to (and being forever inspired by): Sufjan Stevens - "Romulus"