[Just a beautiful video done by one of my colleagues, Elger Oberwelz inspired by a project he did]
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Monday, February 18, 2013
Silent Retreat
The theme of this weekend's silent retreat was "The Wilderness Journey". Throughout the day there were specific group meditations around Matthew 4:1-11 and Jesus' journey in the wilderness which serendipitously intersected with my personal readings during the retreat.
For the past couple of years I have been slowly making my way through "The Gift of Pain" a memoir by Paul Brand. I decided that a day of silence in the beautiful seaside town of Bolinas was the perfect opportunity to finish the book! Dr. Brand spent his life working with leprosy patients around the world. The essence of his book is that a life without pain is actually a terrible life. He said, "If I held in my hands the power to eliminate physical pain from the world I would not exercise it. My work with pain deprived patients has prove to me that pain protects us from destroying ourselves."
When it comes to our lives, I find that "pain and pleasure come to us not as opposites but as twins, strangely joined." Everywhere greater joy is proceeded by greater suffering. "We dare not allow our daily lives to become so comfortable that we no longer challenged to grow, seek adventure, to risk." In a society that works endlessly to reduce and eliminate pain, the 'wilderness' is an essential part of our spiritual life. The wilderness for all of us is a life changing, spiritual experience; like Jesus, at the end we are free from distractions, from those addictions we use to dull or negate our pain our discomfort. Its an opportunity to learn self-restraint, to gain trust, and clarity. Anyone who wants to follow Christ, needs the clarity that only comes from the gifts of the wilderness. Emerging from the wilderness, we learn to employ those spiritual disciplines throughout our daily lives -- to live on less, to practice a life of subtraction and not addition. Lent is an annual opportunity to walk through the wilderness. 40 days to remember what life is like without the usual painkillers, the chocolate, the white carbs, the cussing, the over active social calendar, and to deal with our spiritual insufficiency.
So this lent season I'm walking through my own wilderness to embrace those painful, awkward places in my life. What will you learn in the wilderness?
For the past couple of years I have been slowly making my way through "The Gift of Pain" a memoir by Paul Brand. I decided that a day of silence in the beautiful seaside town of Bolinas was the perfect opportunity to finish the book! Dr. Brand spent his life working with leprosy patients around the world. The essence of his book is that a life without pain is actually a terrible life. He said, "If I held in my hands the power to eliminate physical pain from the world I would not exercise it. My work with pain deprived patients has prove to me that pain protects us from destroying ourselves."
'If I were to choose between pain and nothing, I would choose pain.' ~William Faulkner
So this lent season I'm walking through my own wilderness to embrace those painful, awkward places in my life. What will you learn in the wilderness?
"Happy are they who bear their share of the worlds pain: In the long run they will know more happiness than those who avoid it." ~Jesus
Friday, February 15, 2013
Weekly Reading List [2.15.13]
A Little of This and a Little of That...
- IT'S 2013, AND THEY'RE BURNING WITCHES [Warning Graphic photos and content]
- THE SOCIAL ARCHITECTURE OF A SEX TRAFFICKING CASE [Mild Graphic Content]
- HOW TO SAVE THE REPUBLICAN PARTY - “Nothing is more certain in politics,” wrote William Safire in the wake of this Democratic fiasco, “than the crushing defeat of a faction that holds ideological purity to be of greater value than compromise.”
- WHAT GEORGE W. BUSH DID RIGHT - "Bush did more to stop AIDS and more to help Africa than any president before or since...Bush paved the way for an era in which global health assistance has become a prominent new instrument of U.S. statecraft."
- THE ART OF INFINITE WAR, CTD - "I would just suggest that in weighing that balance, the choice is not between "infinite war" and "peace," but between "infinite war" and "persistent violence."
Monday, February 11, 2013
In Case You Missed It....
JOHN E. KARLIN, WHO LEAD THE WAY TO DIGITAL DIALING, DIED AT 94.
An amazing man who has certainly changed the way we live today, check out his obituary here.
Friday, February 8, 2013
Weekly Reading List [2.8.13]
This week I want to share a few articles related to aspects of religious freedom, domestic and international.
DOMESTIC ~ Health and Human Services (HHS) mandate [part of Obamacare]
- THE CONTRACEPTION MANDATE AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
- HHS MANDATE INFORMATION CENTRAL
- A FLOOD OF SUITS FIGHTS COVERAGE OF BIRTH CONTROL
- THE WHITE HOUSE'S CONTRACEPTIVE COMPROMISE
- HIGH COURT OPENS WAY TO SHARIA DIVORCE
- CHINA: SHOULD RELIGIOUS FREEDOM BE A 'CORE INTEREST'
- HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH (HRW) URGES KYRGZ COURT NOT TO EXTRADITE UZBEK CLERIC
- FOR 40 YEARS, THIS RUSSIAN FAMILY WAS CUT OFF FROM ALL HUMAN CONTACT, UNAWARE OF WWII.
NOW...SOMETHING OTHER ~
Friday, February 1, 2013
Weekly Reading List [2.1.13]
A couple of weeks ago John Kerry said something that I found very interesting. He said, "China is all over Africa. I mean ALL over Africa...They're in places where we're not in the game and we've got to be in it." In light of China's own growing economy, and their habit of buying up our big debt, and their lack of concern for human rights, I think this is VERY important. A few days prior to that Secretary Clinton said "This pandora's box of weapons coming from North Africa...is one of our biggest threats." She also insisted that more attention needs to be paid to AFRICOM, because she predicts increased demands in the future.
In a report, "The Next Chapter, President Obama's Second Term Foreign Policy" in their summary they state that "In the coming years, US foreign policy is likely to be driven more by economic, developmental and diplomatic tools rather than military ones. When the military is engaged, Obama will tend towards its targeted use through such mechanisms as drones, Special Forces and action in cyberspace. Given the strong desire by the US public to pull back military forces, and their high cost, Obama is very unlikely to deploy them in large numbers except as a last resort." "The challenges and contraints that the US will face in projecting power abroad will also make it more important, and more likely, that the US will seek to collaborate with key partners, international institutions and other stake holders in order to achieve its objectives." I think we are already seeing this policy trend taking shape in the current conflicts (Libya, Syria, Mali, Yemen, etc.)
I could go on and on with stories, stats and commentary both positive and negative, and I wonder will 2013 be the year of Africa?
Check out some of these social enterprises and indivisuals who are doing amazing work in Africa -
As Louise Arbour from the International Crisis Group said, "If Africa's dividends of democracy, prosperity are not shared, they can trigger a huge conflict." From the cross-roads which way will the continent go?
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