I'm thinking.
- That I find it rather disturbing that on the first day of spring it snowed here in North Texas. 1.3 inches at the airport 10 miles away. Just recently I had done some spring planting and bought seedlings, assuming that the last freeze of the winter had come and gone. Wrong! Oh well. I covered the plants with plastic sheeting (more like a tent than a sweater) and even kept a candle-lit lantern under one of the coverings to keep the temperature up. I thought it was kinda brilliant. And the plant survived.
- That it's been a taxing time on my brain recently on many fronts. I've heard it said that 90-percent of the struggles we face in life come from that 6-inch space between our ears. Maybe that number is a bit too high but the principle is definitely true. We can think ourselves into a frenzy quickly and with quite a fervor. I've had several emotional burdens in the past week that have weighed my mind and heart down. They aren't caused by me nor can they be solved by me. I just carry little pieces of burden around for others, it seems. I asked a counselor and pastor friend of mine once about how he handles the burden of listening to people's problems or comforting them in their grief. He hears burdens every day as part of his calling. He told me he has to compartmentalize his life otherwise the troubles would weigh him down more than he could bear. But when he goes home after work, he leaves what he's heard behind and switches "modes." I imagine such a skill didn't come easily to my friend. I've always struggled with compartmentalizing burdens. On one hand I feel most alive when I'm helping people with their spiritual or personal burdens. As if it is part of my role in the kingdom. On the other hand, my heart hurts for people so much that what they say impacts me to the point it weighs me down. It's as if their problem has, in some way, become my problem because they are my friend, my brother, my sister. I have the utmost respect for counselors. How they stay sane is a mystery to me. I'm just glad they do!
- That it is very important for a church to cease its striving to be everything for all people, for in its striving to please all it can easily lose its identity as a church and its God-given mission. If your goal is to please man, you will not please the Lord. Be authentic. People can smell a fake.
- That it is very important for a church to cease striving to be like another church in its community, for in its striving to be like the other it can destroy its own identity and set itself up as a rival instead of a sister. Again, be authentic.
- That I thought the younger generations were unique in their attraction to social justice and social action. Then my dad reminded me yesterday that his generation did it when they were our age. And the world called them hippies. Like us, they also didn't think their parents were awake to the social needs in their communities and their world. That the men who returned from the War set up homes and built industries but then tried for to shut out the world and its problems. But I think that as the Boomers have aged, they have grown comfortable with their world and their kids are now the ones awake to poverty, slavery, racism, and the other forms of injustice that plague the world. I now wonder if my grandparents did the same with their parents, and so on back? Maybe this interest in world injustice corresponds with the rise of mass media? I don't know. It has me thinking, though.
- That the music of John Michael Talbot continues to offer great spiritual encouragement, refreshment and worship to my soul, just as it first did when I stumbled across it back in 2005. I knew then that John Michael was a friend of Michael Card, who is one of my favorite artists, and their styles share many similarities. So I bought a discounted collections album at a Lifeway store and was hooked from first listen. I later found out that John Michael is the biggest-selling Christian musician in history, with 50 albums to his name over 30-plus years. He is the most famous Catholic songwriter and performer in church history. What I also did not know was that he's the Franciscan father of a unique community of Catholics in northern Arkansas called The Brothers and Sisters of Charity at Little Portion Hermitage. It's unlike any other religious community in the world. Like all monastic communities, it is open to those who choose to be under vow to the Franciscan order (monks, nuns, and the sort). But it is also open to singles who have not taken vows but choose to live in chastity and service, married couples who choose to serve and worship there, and to those seeking retreat and spiritual refreshment. I know of evangelicals who have sought and found refreshment in the Ozark hills. It is a "charismatic catholic" community, which means they dance, love to sing, and are not always solemn and stoic, which is the religious stereotype. They are very ecumenical and, I think, very spiritually alive. Which is how JMT's music makes me feel. He sings the psalms, words of Christ and the apostles, and words of the saints and church liturgy. His songs uplift my soul and my heart must respond in the emotions praise. Very cool. I highly recommend his music, whether you are Catholic, an Orthodox sympathizer like myself, or an evangelical "fundamentalist" (whatever that means!).
- That writing blogs takes time. I started this when the dishwater was warm. That was two hours ago! It's after midnight now. Good night!
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