the return
I am flabbergasted that it has been almost a year since I began (briefly) to write this blog... after a staggering 4 entries *chuckle* I apparently fell right off the ole' blog-wagon...
at any rate, fatherhood is fast approaching (2 weeks until anticipated birthmother due date), house construction is mostly complete...
I have decided to abandon my earliest preconceptions about how this blog should work (i.e. dedicated and more or less polished writing with a specific sort of audience/mindset paradigm).
Instead, I'm going to attempt to renew this enterprise by utilizing tidbits of writings that I am doing for other purposes, less purpose-built and a much lower threshold for polish. As well as providing simple linkage and commentary on other content that I have already put "out in the 'verse".
In that spirit, here is the text of the testimonial that I gave at church (http://www.austinuu.org) this morning:
Good morning! In my few years as a member of this church I have stood in this pulpit on several occasions, the three sermons that I have had the privilege to write and deliver have all been delivered here first. In this process of learning how to write and deliver a sermon one of the most important lessons that I have learned is that when you stand in the pulpit your capacity to impact the hearts and minds of the people in the pews stands in direct relationship to your willingness to expose and lay bare the most precious, tender, and vulnerable parts of yourself and your own spiritual struggles.
I have money issues. It was easier for me to stand up here a few months ago and tell a room full of near-atheists that I had spoken in tongues and danced in joy for the lord Jesus Christ and cast out demons, and that I was proud of that past, it was easier for me to stand in front of you and bear that truth, than it is for me to stand here before you today and bear my soul about money.
I have a love/hate relationship with money.
As the embodiment of value in our culture, how can I help but love it, how can I help but measure myself, measure my worth, measure my world with it? How can I help but worship it?
How can I help but hate it. How can I help but feel trapped by its omnipresence, its insistence, its ubiquity? How can I help but recognize that every single day I make real choices that place money above time with my family, above social justice, above environmental sustainability, above my own callings in life. How can I help but resent it?
In its role as the abstract representation of value, money has done its job almost too well. For us it has become another form of mana, another form of life-blood. Its flow in and out of our lives seems to determine so many aspects of our quality of life. Is it any wonder that we cling to it so?
As it is for us as individuals, so it is for this church.
Money both is and is-not our lifeblood.
Just as money both is and is-not the lifeblood of this church.
This church would love nothing better than to disavow money altogether.
But...
This church cannot come alive without money.
This church cannot seek truth without money.
and ultimately,
This church cannot heal our world without money.
at any rate, fatherhood is fast approaching (2 weeks until anticipated birthmother due date), house construction is mostly complete...
I have decided to abandon my earliest preconceptions about how this blog should work (i.e. dedicated and more or less polished writing with a specific sort of audience/mindset paradigm).
Instead, I'm going to attempt to renew this enterprise by utilizing tidbits of writings that I am doing for other purposes, less purpose-built and a much lower threshold for polish. As well as providing simple linkage and commentary on other content that I have already put "out in the 'verse".
In that spirit, here is the text of the testimonial that I gave at church (http://www.austinuu.org) this morning:
Good morning! In my few years as a member of this church I have stood in this pulpit on several occasions, the three sermons that I have had the privilege to write and deliver have all been delivered here first. In this process of learning how to write and deliver a sermon one of the most important lessons that I have learned is that when you stand in the pulpit your capacity to impact the hearts and minds of the people in the pews stands in direct relationship to your willingness to expose and lay bare the most precious, tender, and vulnerable parts of yourself and your own spiritual struggles.
I have money issues. It was easier for me to stand up here a few months ago and tell a room full of near-atheists that I had spoken in tongues and danced in joy for the lord Jesus Christ and cast out demons, and that I was proud of that past, it was easier for me to stand in front of you and bear that truth, than it is for me to stand here before you today and bear my soul about money.
I have a love/hate relationship with money.
As the embodiment of value in our culture, how can I help but love it, how can I help but measure myself, measure my worth, measure my world with it? How can I help but worship it?
How can I help but hate it. How can I help but feel trapped by its omnipresence, its insistence, its ubiquity? How can I help but recognize that every single day I make real choices that place money above time with my family, above social justice, above environmental sustainability, above my own callings in life. How can I help but resent it?
In its role as the abstract representation of value, money has done its job almost too well. For us it has become another form of mana, another form of life-blood. Its flow in and out of our lives seems to determine so many aspects of our quality of life. Is it any wonder that we cling to it so?
As it is for us as individuals, so it is for this church.
Money both is and is-not our lifeblood.
Just as money both is and is-not the lifeblood of this church.
This church would love nothing better than to disavow money altogether.
But...
This church cannot come alive without money.
This church cannot seek truth without money.
and ultimately,
This church cannot heal our world without money.
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