Putting The World Back Together

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Posted 19 Feb 2007 — by nick
Category Jesus, Light, News, Social Justice, Spirituality, Videos

I’ve been listening to a provocatively titled teaching series by Rob Bell lately – Jesus Wants to Save Christians – given last fall at his church Mars Hill. I downloaded it then and it has since become unavailable online in order to make room for more recent teachings. While listening this weekend I heard Rob describe his Church as

“Counter cultural insurgency who actually believes the world can be put back together because we think that’s what Jesus has in mind.”

I find this description delightful – it pulled to the front of my mind the University of Illinois Board of Trustees decision last week to end the tradition of Chief Illiniwek. While the Board of Trustees doesn’t serve as a group of Jesus followers we can still celebrate the putting-back-togetherness of the world in such instances of social justice. Part of seeing the world put back together involves hearing the voice of the marginalized, fighting for equality and righting the wronged.

This decision is no doubt controversial – the debate has been raging for decades. Prior to arriving on campus in ’01 I had decided to reside on the “anti-chief” side of the issue (how we refer to those not supportive of Chief Illiniwek). I attribute the heartache and sensitivity to this issue to a work God did in my heart on a missions trip to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the summer of ’01. This is the location of the Oglala Sioux Nation whom the University received a set of Chief Regalia from and argues that it is in part honoring in the Chief’s Tradition. A recent quote from the Native American House at the University of Illinois in reference to the January 17, 2007 Oglala Sioux Resolution concerning Chief Illiniwek speaks to the level of “honor” these people feel:

There can be no misreading of the Oglala Sioux Resolution—those to whom the Lakota regalia belongs and whom the Board of Trustees claims to be honoring have clearly requested that the performance and charade of “chief illiniwek” end.

Just one month later they found their request granted. Further thoughts and press releases form the NAH on this issue can be found here.

Simply put I find it hard to follow Jesus and support the oppression and degradation of another people group and I believe it naive to claim the Chief an honoring symbol of a living -breathing people. I don’t believe this issue stops with Chief Illiniwek, how about the Spartans, the Fighting Irish?

Do you have thoughts on the issue, I’d love to hear them? Never seen the Chief dance: click here

News from Lake Wobegon

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Posted 16 Feb 2007 — by nick
Category Fun, Podcasts, Poetry, Technology


Many thanks to Beno for bringing this to my attention: The great story teller Garrison Keillor finally available on iTunes. Listening to GK serves as a reminder of his mastery of comedy and story. Check out A Prairie Home Companion – the APM radio show he anchors and source of the podcast. The segment on iTunes is “News From Lake Wobegon” – a standard segment of each APHC installment.

Occasionally I listen to The Writers Almanac by GK, another production of American Public Media. It highlights a poem each day and gives history on literary figures.

“That’s the news from Lake Wobegon where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average.”

Darkness

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Posted 14 Feb 2007 — by nick
Category Darkness, Jesus, Light, music, Spirituality

It’s cheesy and cliche to post song lyrics on your blog :

I wish I had what I needed
To be on my own
‘Cause I feel so defeated
And I’m feeling alone

And it all seems so helpless
And I have no plans
I’m a plane in the sunset
With nowhere to land

And all I see
It could never make me happy
And all my sand castles
Spend their time collapsing

Let me know that You hear me
Let me know Your touch
Let me know that You love me
And let that be enough

It’s my birthday tomorrow
No one here could know
I was born this Thursday
22 years ago

And I feel stuck
Watching history repeating
Yeah, who am I?
Just a kid who knows he’s needy

Let me know that You hear me
Let me know Your touch
Let me know that You love me
And let that be enough
~ Switchfoot “Let that Be Enough”

Such a simple, beautiful song, yet wonderfully true to what it feels like to be in the darkness of aloneness, wanting so badly to escape it. This is life more often than I would care to admit. I believe this to be a trait of a person who wants to follow Jesus – acknowledging I’m a kid who knows he’s needy and desiring so strongly to know that God loves me. Aloneness plagues us all, since the fall we’ve been desiring to be restored to God, to walk in-step with the living God.

All around me lay things falsely claiming they can make me happy. We’ve been down that road before, we’ve used that to try and kill the pain, to try and get out of the darkness. Jesus is the one true way out of the darkness.

Snowday?

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Posted 13 Feb 2007 — by nick
Category Creation, Technology, Winter

Remember how fun snowdays used to be as a kid? You know the routine, wake up as usual but make sure to take your time getting ready. Watch the school closings scroll across the tv below the morning news casters – “I didn’t see district 300 that time, maybe the next time around, or the one after that. Surely they can’t be expecting us to go outside in this!” When in reality all you can think about doing is climbing the biggest hill in the neighborhood sled in hand – heart racing as you head for the enormous-very-dangerous-looking ramp the older boys built.

Years have passed since the snowdays of youth. Today I learned something about snowdays in the adult world that caused me to long for the ones of childhood. A blizzard-ish storm started beating on Chambana last evening and supposed to continue on through the tonight – resulting in the University of Illinois closing for at least today, maybe tomorrow as well. Since I work for the U of I that meant I was sent home this morning after working just a few short hours.

That’s how I learned that when you’re an adult a snowday doesn’t mean sledding, hot chocolate and naps, but instead means your home becomes your office. Here is a picture of my new office:

Comfy huh? It doubles as a bedroom – which is convenient for those long afternoons after a big lunch.

When you work in IT as a Network Nerd you are the people responsible for making it possible to work from home. Translation : there is no good excuse for me to not be working today. The change of scenery is nice though.

As A Mirror

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Posted 07 Feb 2007 — by nick
Category Jesus, Light, Scripture, Spirituality

I’ve been meditating on these verses recently – they cling to the back of my mind. I find myself wondering if I am reflecting the glory of the Lord, how changed am I?

“But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”
2 Corinthians 3:16-18

Ah… Norah

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Posted 01 Feb 2007 — by nick
Category music

The lovely Norah Jones released a new album: Not Too Late a couple days ago. It should come as no surprise to know I pre-ordered it on iTunes about a month ago. iTunes tells me I’ve listened to the album 5 times from start to finish – with the 6th time beginning as I write this post. She sang me to sleep last night :).

There is something captivating about her voice, something beautiful, something alluring. This holds true in this album, however it does have a different feel than the previous two. I’m pleased with it, you should check it out!

Favorite Tracks: Wish I Could, Wake Me Up

Blog Samples: Conversation

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Posted 25 Jan 2007 — by nick
Category Blogs, Books

Numerous times in past weeks I’ve sat to write and nothing comes out. I have all kinds of ideas and thoughts – just getting them out has proved a challenge. Agonizing over word choice and worrying about perfection plagues my heart and sends me running to other things, mostly reading other blogs. So today I thought I’d attempt to write but simply a post highlighting a wonderful post from Scott McKnight on Jesus Creed

The Art of Conversation 3
“Third, a good conversation operates on the basis of frequently-unexpressed but nearly always assumed, shared assumptions. I find this to be a regular hang-up on the blog. Many of us operate with a set of assumptions — and it would be fun to bring to expression what these really are — but we don’t talk about them. When someone violates them, we raise our eyebrows or start to wiggle our fingers and maybe even break into a sweat.”

Scott McKnight has authored many books and blogs on a regular basis. This blog holds a place in my regular/daily blog intake.

Toys and Vacation

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Posted 18 Jan 2007 — by nick
Category Creation, Fun, Technology

The whirlwind of holidays is over now; or more accurately, recovery from the whirlwind of holidays is now complete. The past month saw me bouncing around the suburbs visiting family, enjoying the eerie quiet that consumes the vacated campus, hosting visitors for New Years and breathing the beautiful snowy air of Upper Peninsula Michigan.

As usual I received an unholy amount of gifts from my family – including gift cards meant for a Nintendo Wii, which Best Buy has yet to get in stock. Among my gifts, Settlers of Catan, firefly and multiple excellent books. With the cash-money my job provides me I was able to buy things for people that were along the lines of their desires and meaningful to them – my brother got a burr grinder which was hard for me to part with since I so badly wanted it for myself. Enjoy it Chris!

In addition to the loot received from my family I purchased a palm treo680 for myself. For the most part I’m pleased with it, however it crashes more than I would admit is acceptable. My treo had been in my possession nearly 3 weeks when Mr. Steve Jobs announced the new apple iPhone. If you know me at all you know the past week has been quite the mind game – “should I keep my treo or return it and wait for an iPhone?”

I’ve decided to keep it and commit to buying an iPhone as my next over-powered-all-in-one-cellular device.

I leave you now with this wonderful picture of me holding my baby.


Chris documented the UP Snowboarding trip pictorially with his new camera, you can find some of them in his Picasa Album.

"Facts are not what most humans believe … "

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Posted 21 Dec 2006 — by nick
Category Books, Fun, Technology


While on iTunes the other day I noticed a free audiobook that seemed interesting enough: The Areas of My Expertise by John Hodgman. The audiobook, read by the author – John Hodgman, claims to be an almanac of complete world knowledge according to the writer. The past several days have found my office mate and I listening to the book while working – chuckling due to the absurdity.

Here is a quote from the book I found hilarious and quite summarily appropriate of the book. I’ve transcribed it here for you:

“The main advantage that this book has over libraries and indeed all of it’s almanacian predecessors is that all the historical oddities and amazing true facts contained here in are lies, made up by me. And it is this astonishing innovation that allows each entry to contain many more truths than if it were merely factual.

If this last point seems confusing to you consider the banal and truthful statement that follows:

Fredric Chopin was a Polish composer in the romantic style who wrote primarily for the piano.

I guess this is sort of interesting, as most facts are, but history has shown us again and again that Facts are not what most humans believe, they are not that which moves most men or women to love, or hate, or joy or cry.

Now compare this statement:

Fredric Chopin was a Polish composer in the Romantic style who was obsessed with lady bugs, often letting dozens of them gallop over his neck, arms and long tapering fingers while playing the piano.

Obvious the lie is so much more compelling. It shocks the mind and plays on the readers imagination with lady bug covered hands. New resonances emerge and new melodies of insight – not just into the nature of Chopin but also the art of composing, the history of the lady bug as good luck charm and colio–opterophilia (spelling – meaning ?). It also finally explains how Chopin solved his terrible aphid problem.”

You may recognize the voice and or face of John Hodgman as the PC from the recent “Buy a Mac” commercials in which he has done an amazing job encapsulating the ineptitude of a common PC/PC user 🙂

Download the free audiobook and enjoy the many laughs guaranteed through a listening, if you find yourself financially inclined, purchase the book.

A Confession

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Posted 15 Dec 2006 — by nick
Category Jesus, Ministry, Scripture, Spirituality

I’ve been thinking about this learnt behavior I have. It came to me sometime over the course of my Christian life and I’ve been trying to unlearn it for quite sometime. Maybe you can relate. It looks like this:

I’m talking to someone about their faith and there are basically two outcomes, either they claim Christian as their label or non-Christian. The latter is the easier case in a lot of ways. I say that because when someone tells me they do not consider themselves a Christian we continue to talk about life and faith and the like – in essence the conversation doesn’t shift or change. God remains the focal point of the conversation but in the practical, real ways He exist in my life and theirs. The more cumbersome case proves to be when a person claims Christian as their label. Seemingly immediately my heart enacts the learnt behavior of faith detective – the conversation shifts to checking for religious speak. What my heart is really listening for – the secret pass-phrase if you will – ‘accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior.’ Once I hear it I then have to answer questions. Did they just grow up in the Church and know the secret words, what does their heart really believe?

This is wrong. This is backwards.

The problem here lies in a disconnect in how I am listening to each person. It would seem I take a person who doesn’t consider themselves a Christian at their word, while someone who does requires detective work. I believe completely that to follow Jesus is to accept Him as Lord and Savior – only I think we measure that like Jesus suggests, by the fruit of the tree. If a person has a desire to follow Jesus and are trying to do so we see evidence of such. You see it in how they talk about others, how they talk about themselves, how they talk about God. To understand someone’s heart requires commitment and desire to know them – not just looking for conformity to religious speak.

I believe understanding if a person is a Christian to be a vital part of shepherding and caring for people, only I think in a lot of ways I’ve learned to do it the wrong way. I’ve learned to make sure they conform their vocabulary to that of Christian normalcy. I like the why Eugene Peterson translates Jesus words in Matthew 7:21-23:

Knowing the correct password—saying ‘Master, Master,’ for instance— isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience—doing what my Father wills. I can see it now—at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons, our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.’ And do you know what I am going to say? ‘You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress me one bit. You’re out of here.’

Loving people is not letting them just recite some magical incantation – Jesus is far more interested in your heart, in you being obedient, in you following Him. My gripe though is that in an effort to see if that is the case for a person I’ve learned to check their password instead.

I don’t think I’m alone in this…

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