This is a truly tragic situation.

Wow, God. It's hard to see the good in this. I can't even imagine going through something like this. I'm not even sure how to pray about something like this. God, I pray that this family will somehow be able to experience your grace and love, right now.

If you're the praying kind, or even if you're not, pray for this family.

ht: Carlos

Labels: indiscriminate

Jeff rocked it on Sunday. I liked the message he delivered then, and the more I hear it and think about it, the more I like it. I think it could change your life.

He's been working through a series on the Sermon on the Mount for a few months now. This past week he got to Matthew 7:1-5, which talks about judging. It's a well known passage, but he opened it up in a new way for me.1

There are so many things in there I thought were awesome that it's hard to put it all in here. The best thing would probably be for you to listen to it and then for us to go to lunch. That being said, I will try to give you some of the highlights.

Jesus says, "Do not judge". We (the church and those outside of the church) have some misconceptions about what this means, or how to handle it. Two of the big misconceptions are: 1) Those outside the church look at it and say, ‘Jesus didn’t judge the world, so obviously the world doesn’t need to be judged.’ In other words, ‘Leave me alone’ and 2) The church looks at it and says, ‘Jesus didn’t judge the world, so we better do it for Him, because this place is really screwed up.’ Jesus must’ve forgotten. He was a really busy guy.

Jeff breaks down those two misconceptions in some really good ways. That's the part that I think could change lives. I'd love for some of you to listen to it, for the first time, or again, and for us to talk about it.

1. back The funny thing is that I talked to Jeff about it and he says this is like the fourth time he has preached on that passage. I've been listening to him for at least four years now. So, there's a good chance I have heard one of those other ones, but for some reason this time it really hit me.

Labels: church, podcast

In the past two days, my family has been shopping at BJ's and Harris Teeter. We now own enough food to feed our neighborhood. Our refrigerator is packed and so is our pantry. This is normally a good position to be in, but I am a little overwhelmed by it.

I am by no means the cleanest person in the world, or in my house. I don't have a problem with bacteria that I cannot see. I do, however, have a problem with clutter that I can see. I can stand it up to a certain point, but then I have to do something about it. The situation in our kitchen is past that point.

There is so much stuff crammed into the refrigerator that I feel the need to eat something just to get rid of it. I just finished off the Kool-aid and some cake that was leftover from a shower. I know it's late and it will go straight to my hips, but I just needed to make some room in there for my sanity.

Have you ever had this problem before?

Labels: food

Nooma has put out another video. They are giving a free preview on Facebook for today only. You can go see it here.

Here's the description of the video...

It's easy to get overwhelmed with appointments, gatherings, to-do lists. But what are we really doing with our time? Many of us are running from place to place and it seems like life is just passing us by. We're doing so many things, a little bit of everything, and yet it doesn't feel like much of a life. But most of us find it hard to say no. We feel obligated. There are so many good things to do. So many good causes to join. But while we're busy doing all these good things, are we missing out on something great? Maybe saying no would be easier if we knew what it meant to say yes.

The message in this video is one that I have been trying to put into place in my life for awhile now. The idea that we should say "No" to a lot of things so that we might be able to shout "Yes" to a few things.

Andy Stanley said once that he was the only person in the world that could play the role of husband to his wife and father to his kids. Those are two of the things he says Yes to. I'm trying to do the same.

What are you saying Yes to?

Labels: church, video

There's an interesting video today on ESPN.comabout athletes, specifically NBA players, and their role in international human rights issues. The video speaks on China's human rights history and their involvement with Darfur. It's about eleven minutes long, but I thought it was worth watching.

Description:

Shelley Smith explores an athlete's responsibility to take a stand and why many refrain from discussing political issues publicly.

What do you think?

Labels: activism, sports, video

You may not know it because it is very under publicized, but May is Bike Month. I'm not even sure what that means, but one of the events during Bike Month is National Bike-to-Work Week. That week happens to be this week, May 12-16. Also, Friday, May 16, is officially Bike-to-Work Day.

The initiative is sponsored by the League of American Bicyclists. Their mission is...

To promote bicycling for fun, fitness and transportation and work through advocacy and education for a bicycle-friendly America.

I hear Zack is riding 90 miles round trip. Does anyone else plan to bike to work this week?

Labels: activism, cycling, green

The first Wednesday of every month, our home group has dinner together. Last night, we decided to have breakfast for dinner. I brought my macbook along and sat it on the counter and used iMovie1 to capture the action in the kitchen. The movie below is the result. I captured a frame a second and it is played back at 30 frames per second.

Enjoy.

1. back I had to download and use iMovie 6 because iMovie 7 has had some functionality removed, which seems a bit odd. One example of removed functionality is the ability to record time lapse videos.

Labels: community, video

Yesterday, May 7, 2008, was the 7th World AIDS Orphans Day.

World AIDS Orphans Day is a grassroots campaign to draw attention to and advocate on behalf of the over 15 million children orphaned by AIDS, founded by FXB International and supported by a network of partners.

At Visio Dei we have partnered up with the Africa Hope Center to try to do our part to help a handful of AIDS orphans in Kenya.

What are you doing to care for orphans?

Labels: activism, aids, orphans

At Visio Dei, we believe that "we have all been uniquely created and gifted [and] this requires us to not only seek, but pursue our own talents, giftedness, and passions so that we can offer them back to the world." In part, I think this value is talking about spiritual gifts. However, I also think this could be expanded out into practical talents and skills.

In a book I read not too long ago the author wrote about his community and how they often operate on a bartering system. He gave an example of a mechanic who needed a quilt, an accountant who needed his car worked on, and an old lady that could make a quilt that needed her taxes done. Everyone had a need and everyone had a marketable skill. In this situation, there is no need for money. The people are bartering, using their talents, not their wallets.

I believe we could do something like this within our community. I'm not sure how it would play itself out. Maybe it would be organic. A system like this takes trust and accountability. You have to be willing to trust the other party that they are going to follow through on what they have offered as payment. So, if we could get past that, I think we have plenty of people with marketable skills that they could trade.

Here's one example...
My family needs...
...babysitting. We have an eleven month old little boy.
...to have our kitchen and stairwell painted.
...to get our backyard suitable for a little boy to play in.
...to have our house power washed.

Kim can...
...type faster than four birds pecking on a keyboard.
...edit content for spelling and grammar like your high school English teacher.
...bake some tasty treats.
...clean things that you didn't even know were dirty.

I can...
...build things made of wood.
...problem solve.
...meet practical needs.
...feel inadequate about not having marketable skills.

Here's another example...
The Smiths need...
...someone to look at the brakes on their Cougar.
...babysitting.
...a fence.
...to get our backyard suitable for a little boy to play in.

Daniel can...
...create web sites.
...edit movies.
...build sheds and such.

Mandy can...
...teach young children.
...organize things.
...plan/coordinate weddings.

Most of the needs that our two families have, we could meet ourselves. Or, obviously, we could pay someone to do those things. My point is that if we really believe that everyone is uniquely gifted maybe we should leverage those gifts more.

Here are a few other skills I can think of in our community. Scott Shackleton is an accountant extraordinaire. David Fish and Jenny Profet are architects. Nate Anderson paints. Alan Wilser does landscaping. Brandon Watkins welds. John Enzor is an electrician and licensed general contractor. We have several artists, musicians, and designers. Matt Rowe can teach your kids to swim. We have several teachers that could probably teach your kids to read.

I wonder what kinds of needs those people have that could be met by someone who needs the skills they possess?

What needs do you have and what skills do you have to offer up as payment? And would you ever consider bartering with those skills?

Let me know what you think.

Labels: community

You may not know where it says it, but more than likely, you know that the bible says to love your enemies. My first thought when I think of that is, "I don't really have any enemies." Enemy sounds like such a harsh term. I don't think I view any one person as an enemy. That kind of makes loving my enemies easy.

I say that, but it's kind of a cop out. Sure, I don't have an arch-nemesis that I consider my enemy, but I don't think that is what the bible means when it says love your enemies.

It doesn't take much effort to find commentaries on loving your enemies. A quick Google search turns up a lot of them. My understanding of the passage in Luke 6, and the similar passage in Matthew 5, is that we are to not only love those that are easy to love, or the people that we get something out of loving, but we are to love everyone.

I don't think loving someone means accepting and/or condoning all their behaviors. This can be hard to reconcile. Love is not always easy. I think loving someone is caring enough about them as a person, as a someone made in God's own image, that you want what's best for them.

Now, what you think is best for someone and what they think is best for them is often going to differ. And, just because you love that person and you think you know what's best, does not give you the right to impose your will on them. No, I think a truer testament to love is standing by someone despite the fact that they are living outside of what you think is best for them.

This all comes from a blog I saw this morning. The guys over at The Plow created a poster. Then, they converted it into a t-shirt. Now, they are giving the t-shirt away to anyone that donates to Bite Back.

I'd like to know...
What do you think about when you hear "love your enemies"?

What do you think about the t-shirts?
Do you think you would wear one? Why, or why not?

Labels: activism, blogosphere, church

Saturday was the big day. It was the day of the 2008 AIDS Walk+Ride. The walk and ride is an annual fundraising event for the Alliance of AIDS Services - Carolinas and ten other organizations that serve the HIV/AIDS community.

This year the Visio Dei team rocked it. We had eight people show up for the ride. Five people did the 30 mile ride, one guy did about 60 miles before his legs cramped up, and Scott and I did the entire 100 mile ride. We had about 25 people come out to do the walk, some of which had already participated in the ride earlier in the day. All of our walkers took part in the three mile walk, even Joye who was walking with a boot on her foot.

Our team not only rocked it in participation, we also brought the cha-ching. We came in third in overall team fundraising. We only trailed to the Alliance team1 and the St. John's MCC team2. Those two teams are traditionally the front runners in fundraising. We had set a goal of raising $5,000 and when it is all said and done, we will have raised just over $6,000. Next year, we aim to take out the big dogs and raise the most money out of any team.

For me, it was a very long day. The 100 mile ride took us about nine and half hours to complete. We were on the bike for seven hours and forty-two minutes of that time. The remainder of the time was spent at the seven rest stops, where we refueled with snacks, refilled water bottles and stretched.

It was a great time. I look forward to doing it again next year. Go ahead and mark your calendars for the first Saturday in May 2009 and start training for that 100 mile ride.

1. back The team from the organizing organization.


2. back The MCC is a primary outreach to the gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender community.

Labels: activism, aids, sports