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Archive - March, 2011

the day i stopped caring for the poor

March 31, 2011 in oneword2011, reflections with 8 Comments

This week, Christina May Gibson and I are blogging about ego. Look for a post from Chris later today and throughout this week. (She’s got a lot on her plate and is always on the go, so we might not have our posts sync up perfectly. Review older posts from her, however, because they are gems.) She is such an inspiration and delight.

We need to help the poor. That’s our job as Christians. We’re supposed to help the poor. And if we’re not helping the poor, we’re bad Christians, right?

Right?

After two decades and one year of church activities, youth groups, choir practices, and mission trips, I have been wired to believing that in order to change the world, I need to sell all my possessions and move to Africa. It doesn’t matter where in Africa, because all of Africa is just one giant place and one giant pit of poverty. Continue Reading…

all that glitters

March 30, 2011 in oneword2011, reflections with 9 Comments

This week, Christina May Gibson and I are blogging about ego. Look for a post from Chris later today and throughout this week. She is such an inspiration and delight.

All that glisters is not gold; Often have you heard that told: Many a man his life hath sold, But my outside to behold: Gilded tombs do worms enfold. Had you been as wise as bold, Young in limbs, in judgement old, Your answer had not been inscroll’d, Fare you well, your suit is cold.

– Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice

I am an awful person to try and be friends with.

I can be brash, insensitive, forceful, disrespectful, and incredibly arrogant. I can be really arrogant. For a long time, I let this interpretation of me go. People perceived it was that way, so I didn’t bother correcting them. It was easier than the truth. Because while they were not wrong to think me arrogant, because I often am, they misunderstood the cause of it.

It’s not because I think I’m special. It’s not because I think I’m better than anyone else. It’s because I have felt so guilty and so ashamed of my past that I would do anything to cover it all up so that no one could see it. Continue Reading…

and my paralyzing fear of death

March 29, 2011 in reflections with 7 Comments

This week, Christina May Gibson and I are going to be posting some reflections about ego and pride. But before that, I wanted to share a short post with you and a brutally candid one at that. You see, I’m not the best Christian in the world.

Because …

I am terrified of Heaven.

Not the experience of Heaven. Not the opportunity to be in the uninterrupted presence of God. I’m excited and expectant for that moment in which the reality I know will be tabernacled by the Reality I want to know.

But I’m not ready for eternity. That is an unknown too great for me to be comforted by. Continue Reading…

monday muddlings: june in new york

March 28, 2011 in monday fiction with 2 Comments

This week, I bring you another piece of fiction for a Monday. This was a tricky one to write and perhaps not my best, but I owe a lot of thanks to Grant Shellhouse, who poked and prodded this into a better draft than it began.

—

“June in New York”

It was June in New York.

They had gone to hear Diana Krall sing at Carnegie Hall and then had taken a taxi down to the Village—or was it Soho?—to a luxury bar that was notorious for ignoring the city’s ban on smoking.

Bohemian royalty. Three men and two women, young, enjoying the first part of the season home from Ivy Leagues, too early to go to the Hamptons and too late for Martha’s Vineyard.

They drank Tanqueray gimlets. They smoked Parliament Kings. They ordered too much food and picked at each other’s plates. They laughed loudly and often. Two gimlets in, one of the women began to cry quietly. No one seemed to notice, but they did switch to wine.

“I dreamt that I died last night.” She giggled. She straightened herself in her chair and tried to look serious. Every time she focused on one of them, her eyes began to drift to the left. Continue Reading…

the sixth formica friday

March 25, 2011 in connections, formica friday with 6 Comments

It’s that time again, another Formica Friday, a treasure trove of hodgepodge, random tidbits, and a bit of this and that. What exactly is Formica Friday? Check out the tongue-in-cheek, I got away with this?, definition from the first post.