Along with being sick and tired of Christmas... I have been sick and tired of churches for awhile now.
Yesterday, the Columbus Mennonite church though really helped to snap me back into a more loving and peaceful mindset when it comes to churches. The last church service I went to, at a church I won't name, we heard about the mysteries of santa and the mystery of Christmas... keeping Jesus at the center of Christmas. Typical sermon, unfortunately, for this time of year. Hearing that message just added to my current annoyance of the american church who ignores the problems of the city and the world around them.
Well then yesterday... I heard the best message from the alter that I have ever heard in any church anywhere. They spoke of the mass slaughter in Gaza... the women telling of the hellish acts was in tears over it, confessing to the body that she has had violent thoughts towards those doing the slaughtering, tearfully asking us to pray the lords prayer with her, then had us meet her in the lobby to sign a petition begging for this mass murder to be stopped. They also spoke of the Matthew 25 way of meeting Jesus. A man spoke of meeting Jesus last week through a little boy with his shoes on the wrong feet from the west side of the city. Then again meeting Jesus through a little girl overseas affected with AIDS.
It really got me thinking... and comparing the last two messages I heard from two very different churches. I was sick to my stomach at the thought that a majority of churches in this country are speaking of the mysteries of santa from the pulpit and a minority of churches are speaking of the shit that really matters.
What matters is that there is unrest and violence all around us. Hundreds losing their lives in a mass slaughter in Gaza. Children being murdered by our government in Iraq. Innocent men being accused of being terrorists and in result being tortured to the point of insanity or even worse, death. My own friends in this very city sleeping outside in the freezing cold, being ignored by most of the city.
What doesn't matter is the mystery of santa... the mystery of Christmas... or building your church bigger.
Harsh, maybe. But seriously? Stop ignoring the horror of this world going on all around us. If you go to church every week and don't hear about what issues are currently ruining the city or the world you live in and what you can be doing to make a difference beyond writing a check then you should ask yourself what you are doing.
These two hands can only do so much.
"This is a disaster.... where the fuck are the rescue workers?"
Monday, December 29, 2008
Goodbye Christmas... at last
Kelly and I cleaned the apt today like mad women... in doing so we ripped down all the christmas decorations and it feels good to be back to normal.
Dad was in the hosptial over Christmas this year... so it was not a special christmas by any means and I am just glad it is all over. The Young and Reitz families were very good to me this year and I felt welcomed and loved like they were my own family. I even got a bottle of Baileys from kellys mom, along with a bunch of other presents from that family. It was lovely.
This year I was most thankful for unconventional family... something Jesus figured out long ago that I am just discovering... (one of the many things).
Dad was in the hosptial over Christmas this year... so it was not a special christmas by any means and I am just glad it is all over. The Young and Reitz families were very good to me this year and I felt welcomed and loved like they were my own family. I even got a bottle of Baileys from kellys mom, along with a bunch of other presents from that family. It was lovely.
This year I was most thankful for unconventional family... something Jesus figured out long ago that I am just discovering... (one of the many things).
Thursday, December 25, 2008
What a Christmas
Right now I feel like there is so much turbulence and hostility and violence and anger in my life... in my heart... and in my mind. It is really disheartening and terribly disturbing.
It feels really foreign and not feeling peace can be really ugly.
I wonder if, the more I let PEACE rule and reign in my heart, in my body, in my mind and in my spirit... I will react differently.
The more I let peace rule me the less I will react and the less I will fight and the less I will anger when I'm feeling hurt.
Feeling anger is an ugly ugly thing. But like my dear friend Thich says... acknowledge your anger. Let it know that you know it is there... that you see it... that you feel it. And let it know that you are going to take good care of it and nurture it. I wonder what made that man angry and even more how he thought to be so gentle to his anger. Gentleness is definitely not on my mind when I'm mad.
Maybe that is the problem. Maybe it should be.
Peace meditation, here I come.
In the words of my sister,
"Merry fucking Christmas"
It feels really foreign and not feeling peace can be really ugly.
I wonder if, the more I let PEACE rule and reign in my heart, in my body, in my mind and in my spirit... I will react differently.
The more I let peace rule me the less I will react and the less I will fight and the less I will anger when I'm feeling hurt.
Feeling anger is an ugly ugly thing. But like my dear friend Thich says... acknowledge your anger. Let it know that you know it is there... that you see it... that you feel it. And let it know that you are going to take good care of it and nurture it. I wonder what made that man angry and even more how he thought to be so gentle to his anger. Gentleness is definitely not on my mind when I'm mad.
Maybe that is the problem. Maybe it should be.
Peace meditation, here I come.
In the words of my sister,
"Merry fucking Christmas"
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Ten-i-see
Lets back track... yet again...
Steph and I took an emergency trip down to Knoxville TN to visit Lisa during a time in need. We decided to go on Thursday night and Friday morning we rented a car and hit the road. We had a lovely 6 hour drive together... to talk, to sing, to cry, to laugh, to enjoy being in each others presence.
We took Buddah with us... rubbed his belly... prayed to Jesus for a safe trip and for a place to stay and we were off with only the plan to go take care of Lisa. It was a good time to meditate on mysterious things like life and death and suffering and grieving. Still none of which I understand fully. Maybe we are not supossed to fully understand things like that. Things that are not of this world. Spiritual and super natural things. Maybe that is how God keeps us close, by not revealing to us everything we want to know. Maybe not. Just a lot of things were thought about. Thinking about friendship, love, community, and solidarity. When one of us suffer... we all should suffer if we are truly connected in a deep with with each other. The presence of friends in tough times is irreplaceable. Even if all you do is sit and stare at the floor. It does more help than we know.
We made it to Lisa. We got to sit with her and hold her and hug her and cry with her and remember with her and it was a holy and beautiful thing.
Time was ticking and we still didn't know where we were sleeping. I had emailed a few churches in the area the night before and asked for some family hospitality and as expected, got no responses. It's pretty shitty that you can't even count on parts of the body of Christ to put you up for a few nights when in need but you can definately count on couchsurfing.com. We ended up couch surfing with a wonderful girl and her two roommates. We hit the town of Knoxville and got a bite to eat and some drinks at a lovely place called Urban Bar. We met some interesting friends, and hung out with our cool server Travis. We continued to walk around and even found a cereal bar!
We had a good night sleeping with our new stranger friends and really enjoyed the rest of our time in TN. I captured one shot of buddah and Yuengling... i'll leave you with that...
Steph and I took an emergency trip down to Knoxville TN to visit Lisa during a time in need. We decided to go on Thursday night and Friday morning we rented a car and hit the road. We had a lovely 6 hour drive together... to talk, to sing, to cry, to laugh, to enjoy being in each others presence.
We took Buddah with us... rubbed his belly... prayed to Jesus for a safe trip and for a place to stay and we were off with only the plan to go take care of Lisa. It was a good time to meditate on mysterious things like life and death and suffering and grieving. Still none of which I understand fully. Maybe we are not supossed to fully understand things like that. Things that are not of this world. Spiritual and super natural things. Maybe that is how God keeps us close, by not revealing to us everything we want to know. Maybe not. Just a lot of things were thought about. Thinking about friendship, love, community, and solidarity. When one of us suffer... we all should suffer if we are truly connected in a deep with with each other. The presence of friends in tough times is irreplaceable. Even if all you do is sit and stare at the floor. It does more help than we know.
We made it to Lisa. We got to sit with her and hold her and hug her and cry with her and remember with her and it was a holy and beautiful thing.
Time was ticking and we still didn't know where we were sleeping. I had emailed a few churches in the area the night before and asked for some family hospitality and as expected, got no responses. It's pretty shitty that you can't even count on parts of the body of Christ to put you up for a few nights when in need but you can definately count on couchsurfing.com. We ended up couch surfing with a wonderful girl and her two roommates. We hit the town of Knoxville and got a bite to eat and some drinks at a lovely place called Urban Bar. We met some interesting friends, and hung out with our cool server Travis. We continued to walk around and even found a cereal bar!
We had a good night sleeping with our new stranger friends and really enjoyed the rest of our time in TN. I captured one shot of buddah and Yuengling... i'll leave you with that...
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
"live your life"
Lets back track...
Two weekends ago I took a road trip out to Minneapolis with Heather T.G., Brian G., Kelly, and Emily. The girls and I were invited to go out there with the T.G.'s beacuase Heather had to speak in the MLA conference so they hooked her up in the Marriott downtown Minneapolis.
We headed out Thursday night after work and drove 12 hours through the night and arrived promptly at 6 am or something crazy. Luckily the hotel let us check in a bit early because we were about to sleep in the lobby. Heather went to work and we all crashed for a few hours. When we woke up we went in search of some lunch which led us to walk out to the ghetto and eat at a mexican place which was good at the time, and regretted later. I am not sure what we did the rest of the day except for some exploring and some sleeping and some laughing.
Kelly and I headed out about midnight for some midnight ice cream and after searching a few blocks in each direction we were only able to find some creepy men at a bar which we left and O' Dons.
On Saturday we decided to hunt for some mom and pop pizza and we ended up finding the best pizza in the mid west. The place was run by two amazing mob looking men and was just down right yummy. The day continued from there. We ran into a protest of at least 1000 people protesting for equal rights so we put on our loud voices and our femi fists and joined them. We marched all over downtown... chanting and clapping and it was a holy and powerful thing.
We met some people who recommended seeing a band later that night at a place called the Uptown Bar. We had it on our list to hit up the C C Club so decided to do both. CC Club was an old little hole in the wall and the home of some serious socialist shit back in the 60's. We headed to the Uptown Bar after and were amazed at the bands that played. Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapells were the highlight for us. Check them out.
We had a few drinks and danced back to the hotel for our final night in Minneapolis. Our cab driver was a lovely man from Africa and he was here working for his two children and I accidently gave him all the money I had on me and told him to take care of his children. Then we got out of the cab and I got laughed at for it. He needed it more than I did though... I'm sure of it.
The 12 hour car ride back was really nothing to write about... so at that... i'm off.
Two weekends ago I took a road trip out to Minneapolis with Heather T.G., Brian G., Kelly, and Emily. The girls and I were invited to go out there with the T.G.'s beacuase Heather had to speak in the MLA conference so they hooked her up in the Marriott downtown Minneapolis.
We headed out Thursday night after work and drove 12 hours through the night and arrived promptly at 6 am or something crazy. Luckily the hotel let us check in a bit early because we were about to sleep in the lobby. Heather went to work and we all crashed for a few hours. When we woke up we went in search of some lunch which led us to walk out to the ghetto and eat at a mexican place which was good at the time, and regretted later. I am not sure what we did the rest of the day except for some exploring and some sleeping and some laughing.
Kelly and I headed out about midnight for some midnight ice cream and after searching a few blocks in each direction we were only able to find some creepy men at a bar which we left and O' Dons.
O' Dons was the start of the rest of the adventures of the trip. Odons is an Irish Pub, they had a live scottish band playing and we met a lovely couple named Will and Erica who shared their table with us, made us eat some of their fries, bought us some irish cider beer, and most importantly... taught us how to do an irish dance. They made us feel like celebrities and even had the band announcing we were visiting from Ohio. We danced the night away and even taught them some Ohio dancing. Which really looks like nothing else than freedom on a dance floor. We made some fellow bike friends and included them in on our dance circle. At the end of it... I was so pleased decided to go out for some late night ice cream.
On Saturday we decided to hunt for some mom and pop pizza and we ended up finding the best pizza in the mid west. The place was run by two amazing mob looking men and was just down right yummy. The day continued from there. We ran into a protest of at least 1000 people protesting for equal rights so we put on our loud voices and our femi fists and joined them. We marched all over downtown... chanting and clapping and it was a holy and powerful thing.
We met some people who recommended seeing a band later that night at a place called the Uptown Bar. We had it on our list to hit up the C C Club so decided to do both. CC Club was an old little hole in the wall and the home of some serious socialist shit back in the 60's. We headed to the Uptown Bar after and were amazed at the bands that played. Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapells were the highlight for us. Check them out.
We had a few drinks and danced back to the hotel for our final night in Minneapolis. Our cab driver was a lovely man from Africa and he was here working for his two children and I accidently gave him all the money I had on me and told him to take care of his children. Then we got out of the cab and I got laughed at for it. He needed it more than I did though... I'm sure of it.The 12 hour car ride back was really nothing to write about... so at that... i'm off.
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