I went to Saver's yesterday and got some canvas bags to use at the grocery store. I was very proud of myself. We've recycled for a long time (and it also always makes me feel proud too), but have alway just used paper or plastic bags at the store. When I was in line at the store the lady behind me said to her daughter, "Hey we need to get some bags like that as well." That made me glad. She had seen it on Oprah (also who reminded me) and though she looked a little bit like a hillbilly I thought, that is really cool.
So, what are you doing to consume less, reuse, recycle, etc? I'd love to hear your ideas.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
A New Kinda Preacher
Angie's post about earth day got me thinking a bit. She asked if any church goers heard a lesson about "Earth Day" last Sunday, kind of like you would hear a lesson about Mother's Day, or Father's day on their appropriate day's. Rich Mullin's has a quote about Mary; in speaking about certain groups feeling uncomfortable how much Mary is honored in certain other christian groups. He said "Maybe it's not that we're honoring Mary too much, but maybe that we're honoring eachother too little." I wonder if it isn't the same with Mom's, Dads, eachother, Mary, and maybe other aspects of creation as well like...planet earth. It's not that it's such a dangerous thing to think about creation, be in awe of it and even love it, but it comes up as a big contrast to our general self-centeredness and non-respectful attitudes. All that to say, it would be a good thing to love, honor and cherish all of God's creation a little more.
So, I didn't hear any lesson about Earth day at church, but I think it's a super idea. Paul has been talking about wanting to be a "new kinda preacher." Maybe one that would speak about our responsibilities to be stewards on earth day, but what else? We've been trying to figure out what that would look like. What would a new kind of preacher look like to you? Ideas Please!!!
So, I didn't hear any lesson about Earth day at church, but I think it's a super idea. Paul has been talking about wanting to be a "new kinda preacher." Maybe one that would speak about our responsibilities to be stewards on earth day, but what else? We've been trying to figure out what that would look like. What would a new kind of preacher look like to you? Ideas Please!!!
Monday, April 16, 2007
Be A Blessing
I guess I’m doing a series on our kid’s prayers without even having planned it. Maddi has said another thing in her prayers that I think is neat, though probably not typical, and if it came out of an adult’s mouth would sound very self righteous. But, it is an opportunity to brag and to lead into something that I’ve been learning that I think is so important. It doesn’t come up as often as her “thank you for all things new” statement, but more than once Maddi has said “thank you for the blessings I do.” At first it caught me off guard and I wanted to correct her. I thought we don’t “do” blessings, we “have” blessings. But as we all know, we have so much to learn.
I better tell you right now that this bit of preaching I’m going to go into is due mostly to readings Paul and I have done of various Brian McLaren books. He talks about this on more than one occasion and it really hits home. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the actual passages where he talks about this, and so all of what I have to say is going to be from memory (and might be a huge mess by the time I’m done with it).
Here’s the gist: God says to Abram in Genesis 12, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing.” God is making a promise to Abram and in hindsight we see that from his descendants Christ came, began a movement and those who follow Christ began to meet together…and on it goes. Now, we current day Christians seem to quickly grasp the first part of the promise. We are blessed. And there is no doubt that we are. We are blessed with freedom, grace, peace, forgiveness, wholeness, unity with God and others, and so much more. But, it seems that in our wanting to claim our “blessedness” we have wanted to make sure we could map out, chart out, and draw exactly how it is that we are blessed and the exact steps we took to get here, define who are (and inherently who are not in the blessed group), and then make sure that all of the people we have categorically placed in the out group know that we are blessed and they are not. But, in all of this exaggerated and true portrayal of what we do sometimes we have forgotten the second part of the promise-that we also we would be a blessing to others. God didn’t bless us, so we could sit and praise ourselves for being in this state of blessedness, but so that we could bless others irregardless of where they sit on our charts or labels. We are to be a blessing. No strings attached. Not only if they agree to x, y and z. We are to be a blessing. Period.
Now, I don’t think we should start thanking God for the blessings we do, though it is quite an amazing thought that God has entrusted us to such a great and really fun task! Thank you God for letting us be a blessing in spite of all our weaknesses.
I better tell you right now that this bit of preaching I’m going to go into is due mostly to readings Paul and I have done of various Brian McLaren books. He talks about this on more than one occasion and it really hits home. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the actual passages where he talks about this, and so all of what I have to say is going to be from memory (and might be a huge mess by the time I’m done with it).
Here’s the gist: God says to Abram in Genesis 12, “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing.” God is making a promise to Abram and in hindsight we see that from his descendants Christ came, began a movement and those who follow Christ began to meet together…and on it goes. Now, we current day Christians seem to quickly grasp the first part of the promise. We are blessed. And there is no doubt that we are. We are blessed with freedom, grace, peace, forgiveness, wholeness, unity with God and others, and so much more. But, it seems that in our wanting to claim our “blessedness” we have wanted to make sure we could map out, chart out, and draw exactly how it is that we are blessed and the exact steps we took to get here, define who are (and inherently who are not in the blessed group), and then make sure that all of the people we have categorically placed in the out group know that we are blessed and they are not. But, in all of this exaggerated and true portrayal of what we do sometimes we have forgotten the second part of the promise-that we also we would be a blessing to others. God didn’t bless us, so we could sit and praise ourselves for being in this state of blessedness, but so that we could bless others irregardless of where they sit on our charts or labels. We are to be a blessing. No strings attached. Not only if they agree to x, y and z. We are to be a blessing. Period.
Now, I don’t think we should start thanking God for the blessings we do, though it is quite an amazing thought that God has entrusted us to such a great and really fun task! Thank you God for letting us be a blessing in spite of all our weaknesses.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
New
Maddi has been lately thanking God for "all things new." I don't really know where it came from, but I like it. Spring is here and she has been thrilled about the trees and flowers blooming and has declared spring her new favorite season. We are glad winter is ending. We'll see where this blog goes...I may prove yet again to start and not follow through, but just to get started I'll repeat Maddi's words and be thankful for all things new.
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