Recently at work I helped one of our Ohio districts sell a house in Toledo. Through the process I've learned that Toledo is a quickly declining city, with increasing unemployment and homelessness, and lots of abandonded property: economically depressed. And of course economics are consequence and cause of other kinds of depression/decline (spiritual, personal, social).
The District Supervisor sent me the web address of the Cherry Street Mission to get to the president's blog. I encourage you to check out both (links below). The mission seems to be doing good work among the homeless and dispossessed in Toledo. And Dan Rogers (the president) has some really good thoughts on homelessness and poverty. His heart is for Toledo, but his insights could apply to any community. And for those of us who live in an area where the depression is easy to miss or ignore, there is much to learn, and much of which we need to be reminded.
http://cherrystreetmission.blogspot.com/
http://www.cherrystreetmission.org/
Enjoy! I hope it blesses and challenges you, as it has me.
Thursday, May 10
Friday, May 4
Imagination
I think my imagination is being restored.
I'm little by little becoming excited about the possibilities of a Jesus-centric life again. I've spent far too much time in the last few years being cynical about Christians and churches. Now, I'm beginning to see again (or perhaps for the very first time) that I need to be affinitied (not a real word, I know) to churches, not alienated from them. Why would we abandon people who already have a commitment to at least some of the things of Jesus (much of the time), in exclusive favor of those who have none? I, with "them" (meaning - "WE") need to together pursue Jesus and his transformation for the world.
And I believe it is God's desire to transform the world. One person at a time.
And it can happen through churches - because it can happen through the people, who are self-organized into these communities called churches. All we need is a refreshed devotion to Jesus, and de-tachment from sin and the world.
Meaning a detachment from obsession with entertainment and comfort and busyness and toys. Because what of these things will last? Only what we deposit into people, and that we do in service to God, because it is his heart to see all people loved and to have the utmost opportunity to choose Him, to choose righteousness, to choose to love people.
This is a bit rambling, but I'm out of time so I can't revise it and polish it. But just know this, oh dear reader - my imagination is being restored. I'm beginning to re-imagine the possibility of transformed people... including myself.
I'm little by little becoming excited about the possibilities of a Jesus-centric life again. I've spent far too much time in the last few years being cynical about Christians and churches. Now, I'm beginning to see again (or perhaps for the very first time) that I need to be affinitied (not a real word, I know) to churches, not alienated from them. Why would we abandon people who already have a commitment to at least some of the things of Jesus (much of the time), in exclusive favor of those who have none? I, with "them" (meaning - "WE") need to together pursue Jesus and his transformation for the world.
And I believe it is God's desire to transform the world. One person at a time.
And it can happen through churches - because it can happen through the people, who are self-organized into these communities called churches. All we need is a refreshed devotion to Jesus, and de-tachment from sin and the world.
Meaning a detachment from obsession with entertainment and comfort and busyness and toys. Because what of these things will last? Only what we deposit into people, and that we do in service to God, because it is his heart to see all people loved and to have the utmost opportunity to choose Him, to choose righteousness, to choose to love people.
This is a bit rambling, but I'm out of time so I can't revise it and polish it. But just know this, oh dear reader - my imagination is being restored. I'm beginning to re-imagine the possibility of transformed people... including myself.
Thursday, May 3
Christian Politics
Musing for today: Christianity is political. It has to be. Read the Gospels, read the prophets, and you'll see politics everywhere.
Not politics as we see it in the American media - debates, candidates, polls. The "contest," the "race," is not the heart of politics, even though that's what takes center stage today. Politics is, according to Wikipedia, "the process by which groups make decisions." It's how people live together. It's how we, together, decide to order our lives.
And Christianity is about building a kingdom - "kingdom of the heavens" or "kingdom of God." Not to be established by force, certainly not by violence. But to be informed by a particular perspective, which essentially recognizes that your purpose, my purpose, is to live for everyone else, for God.
That doesn't sound particularly political - but it is. The essence of a Christian in the area of politics is to apply this principle of selflessness as ruthlessly as possible.
High aspirations that I, for one, am afraid to fully apply. But I'm working on it.
There is a significant overlap between ethics (individual values, personal responsibility, development of good/right character) and politics (or so said Aristotle), and "a truly ethical life can only be lived by someone who participates in politics" (again, Aristotle).
I submit to you that this is true, and especially so for the Christian.
More could be said, but let me say that I am not advocating being "right-wing" or "conservative." I'm advocating living, through and through, ethically and politically, like Jesus. And for that, we need to look back into the Gospels and spend some good time identifying (and then practicing) his paradigm.
Not politics as we see it in the American media - debates, candidates, polls. The "contest," the "race," is not the heart of politics, even though that's what takes center stage today. Politics is, according to Wikipedia, "the process by which groups make decisions." It's how people live together. It's how we, together, decide to order our lives.
And Christianity is about building a kingdom - "kingdom of the heavens" or "kingdom of God." Not to be established by force, certainly not by violence. But to be informed by a particular perspective, which essentially recognizes that your purpose, my purpose, is to live for everyone else, for God.
That doesn't sound particularly political - but it is. The essence of a Christian in the area of politics is to apply this principle of selflessness as ruthlessly as possible.
High aspirations that I, for one, am afraid to fully apply. But I'm working on it.
There is a significant overlap between ethics (individual values, personal responsibility, development of good/right character) and politics (or so said Aristotle), and "a truly ethical life can only be lived by someone who participates in politics" (again, Aristotle).
I submit to you that this is true, and especially so for the Christian.
More could be said, but let me say that I am not advocating being "right-wing" or "conservative." I'm advocating living, through and through, ethically and politically, like Jesus. And for that, we need to look back into the Gospels and spend some good time identifying (and then practicing) his paradigm.
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