if you haven't seen this you need to

saw this on espn this morning.

truth like the 53 bus

i am not good at philosophy. really, i am not, and i have proof. it was one the only c's i received in my college career. my brain easily gets tangled in a complex web of thoughts, ideas and feelings. i often find myself paralyzed after only a few short minutes of contemplating anything remotely complex. the ironic part of this is, i love it! it is frustrating not doubt, but i can't stop! so this brings me to my "thoughts for the day."

truth has many dimensions. like n.t. wrights writes: "the sort of thing we could and should mean by "truth" will vary according to what we're talking about. if i want to go into town, it matters whether the person who has told me to take the number 53 bus is speaking the truth or not."

but not all truth is like that - we know this. yet in many of my discussions we want to take this "53 bus" approach - "is the number 53 bus going to town or not?"

think of the questions we ask as we search of truth. recently i was asked these below 3 questions:

1. Can angels fall now/today?
2. Will we have free will/be able to sin in the new creation?
3.(a new one but along same lines) Does God have a free will? Can he tell a lie?

we think all truth is reducable to the "53 bus" approach.

but what about our experiences with love and beauty? how do i get to the truth of how i met my wife (god led me by the way) and the love we share and continue to share? how do i begin to articulate or talk about the different dimensions of love and grace i experience with my kids?

"does bus 53 go to town?" just isn't very helpful here. the amazing thing about how jesus taught was he was always pointing folks to these "deeper truths." this was his whole approach to teaching. "what must i do to inherit eternal life?" someone asked him. remember his response? "the kingdom of god is like...." and then you have all the parables. we aren't to "mine" the parables for more facts about god. we are to "enter" into the story being told and allow it to change us. we are to "unpack" all the many and "mini" truths to be found and cherished.

tons more could be said, but i can feel my brain beginning to slow with all the twists and turns.

i will leave you with another quote from wright to help understand how we can begin "knowing" the "deeper kinds of truths" - "it's a kind of knowing in which the subject and the object are intertwined, so that you could never say that i was either purely subjective or purely objective."

that kind of truth has to drive the "bible scientists" nuts!!

my friend

 i am not into worshipping "sports heroes," so don't take this blog as such. but i wanted to introduce everyone to my new friend. his name is jay bruce and he is a 21 year old outfielder, recently called up from louisville, that plays for the cincinnati reds. he made is major league debut by going 3-3, with 2 walks (that means he reached base 5 consecutive abats), with 2 rbi's. now this was very exciting for me, b/c he was the #1 rated prospect in all of major league baseball. my new friend has an amazing future ahead of him (god willing - and i mean that, b/c we all know anything can happen).

the reds, although they stunk it up tonight, seem to be "righting" themselves a little bit. they have a tough june ahead of them, but all indications are they will be up for the challenge. lets hear a "hearty" GO REDS!!

the shack, starting small

so i finished the shack a couple of days ago. all in all a good read, and i would recommend it. a lot of the imagery he uses reminded me of the ted decker series black, red and white. i think he did a good a job as any, attempting to articulate the relationship between the father, son and spirit. one part in particular sticks out in my mind - god the spirit takes the main character to a garden and begins tending it. this garden turned out to be his "heart," which is woven together from his own choices and god's eternal purposes. pretty fascinating stuff, to say the least!

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emily and the kids returned home safely friday night! mom and dad were here, to help get some things done around the house. we installed a new sink and faucet. emily loved it, and it makes it much easier to "do dishes" now!

today we started a small little garden in our back yard. i played in the dirt for about an hour to get a little piece of our land ready for some tomato and cucumber plants. hopefully, this summer, we will be eating some of our juicy vegies grown in our own backyard. if all goes well, we will expand our little experiment a couple of more feet. who knows, in a couple of years we may be planting some corn back there. won't our neighbors just love us then!?

the shack

so i have bought into the hype, and went out this afternoon and purchased the shack. since the family is out of town, i will probably finish it in the next couple of days. i will let you know what i think after that.

watched "into the wild" last night. it is based off the book (true story) about a young man, who after graduating from college, gives is $24K savings to charity, and burns the rest of his money to set out as a nomad. he is basically rebelling against the consumeristic/capitilistic culture. it ends tragically with his death in the alaskan wild, but it is a good story.

got to spend a little time at the bashford manor rehabilitation facility. it was nice to see where a good friend works and has an amazing opportunity to bring joy to people suffering. hope to get to spend some more time down there in the future. these people are viewed as "broken," but we know how broken we all are - and the worth god has placed on each of them.

reds have swept the homestand, and winners of 6 straight. hopefully, this will be the beginning of their surge to nl central division champs!

i am off to make some dinner. emily left me all kinds of good stuff, that just needs a little baking. wish me luck!

everything is spiritual

i listened to all these - very fascinating! i would recommend them. i included this one for obvious reasons.

we're baaaack!!

had a fantastic time at norris lake with my brothers and their families. it was a great time of relaxation, sharing and having fun together. some highlights of the trip were:

1. kylie hitting speeds upwards of 30 mph on the tube. you should have seen her. she was all by herself screaming "faster, faster." it was a proud moment for me.

2. kylie learning to go completely underwater. i wasn't there for this one, but jason assures me she did it a dozen times in the hot tub. wish i could have been there.

3. taking the girls out on the boat by themselves. this was one of the most relaxing parts of the trip. emily, maurie and mandy allowed me to drive them around the lake and look at all the lakehouses and beautiful scenary.

4. eating every meal together as a family. we all gathered around the big dining room table and ate fantastic meals together. it was mostly loud and chaotic, but i wouldn't have wanted it any other way. we have a great family.

5. playing the wii in the evenings (and most of our down time in the cabin). it was fun playing the wii with hunter, jason and josh. we all had a good time with guitar hero and wii sports.

6. getting to visit my mom and dad on mother's day. we ended our trip in cincinnati, and got to spend the evening, and this morning, with mom and dad. it was a perfect end to our trip and we thoroughly enjoyed the short time with mom and dad.

we arrived home safely around 1:30pm. i listened to some shane claiborne on the way home, and was reminded about the peculiar people we are called to be, but often times don't live up to that calling. more than anything, the jesus i have come to know, is one that has opened up the possibility to experiencing "true life" in the here and now. a life that is marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. a life that is spent pursuing simplicity and peace. a life that is empowered by the same spirit that rose jesus from the dead, and works to make us into the very image of jesus. one that transforms my family, church and vocation into the "kingdom now." this is the jesus we seek to incarnate. this is the jesus that, when followed, will bring persecution and hardship. this is the jesus, i want my kids and the people i meet to be introduced to.

may god, as revealed in jesus, so capture our imagination that we lose our lives, in order to find true life.

pure and faultless religion

i know a lot of "religious" people. in some ways i am proud to be one of them, but in others i am not. james tells us that "religion that god our father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

i think if we do a good job of heeding the first part of that verse, we won't have much trouble with the second part. learning to see and care for, people on the margins of our society, tends to work against the "pollution of our world."

jeremiah 7 proclaims that god did not give us commands about sacrifices and burnt offerings, but rather he gave us the command to obey god. god is telling us through the prophet, he wants nothing to due with our "religious acts" if we are not embodying the way of our king. jesus echoes these words in matthew 25 with his parable of the sheep and the goats.

i once heard a preacher say, "get the people right, get the scriptures right. get the people wrong, get the scriptures wrong." so often we claim to know what the scriptures say, with little change in our lives. we may "believe" all the right things, but we have missed the truth behind the scriptures. the scriptures scream for justice and reconciliation, while our institutions scream to "just believe right."

james goes on in chapter 2, to remind us "we can't fake what we believe." he says, "faith without works, is dead." he claims we should show others what we believe, by the life we live. what if we all took this approach to witnessing for the gospel? what if we learned to "shut up" and let our lives do the talking? i am betting, not much would be said. we would witness to the fact, we live in much the same way as the rest of the world. we trust in our money, jobs and status in much the same way as the pagans we judged worthy of hell do - while proclaiming the good news of jesus!

may our lives proclaim the good news of jesus. may our lives bear witness to a god, who came down to rescue us from our sin, and mark out the "better way."