Published May 24, 2009 by

Pain

Deep hearts hollow
and low
Cradling within an emptiness
a heaviness

a gravity,
a weight,
the bottom echo
hollow

Giant marbles on a wooden floor
banging together
not sensible
people holding hearts
a pendulous echo
God listening,
just listening.

Christina spoke this morning on Job 3 and about pain relating in particular to the apparent absence of God. And this is what I wrote. To be honest, not a lot of thought went into it, or feeling, it just kind of wrote itself. Mainly because I was feeling too blah – I’m coming down with something (always at the most inconvenient time of the year!)- to bother joining others for a discussion.

Christianity Church Words

Church God job pain Ranges

Published September 15, 2008 by

Anxiety

Christianity Life Post of the Day Words

anxiety God Life mark sayers

Published July 22, 2008 by

Pick the meat from the bones (or vice versa)

Somewhat disassociated with the previous post (kind of, kind of not) was that on Sunday evening we had a guy come speak to the youth/young adults at our church.

To be honest, I wasn’t really very impressed. Yes he said some good stuff, but I don’t understand and it disturbs me when what someone is saying in regards to Christianity starts sounding like a bit of motivational guru. And although I know the intentions are good when you’re talking about being more expectant of how God can use you, but it’s such a fraying rope between explaining God’s role in this and our role, and when our role seems to wear the boots it’s just plain wrong. Just how highly can you think of yourself? There were also some other small things that made me frown…

Yes humans are fallible and I as much as any, but when you’re ‘teaching’ there surely must be some kind of extra care when choosing words? God forbid I ever have to be in such an influential role – it’d scare the pants off me.

Church at the moment frustrates me. The one I am in is growing and although that’s very positive, it comes with challenges, both organisational and personal. It was interesting to condense one very big community into a smaller demographic, I think on the whole I deal better with a smaller community. Yet I’m still trying to evaluate where youth fit in with some of those ‘smaller communities’ that I’d probably jump at otherwise. I still really, really love my youth kids.

One of the topics of the evening was prophesy (we split off into smaller groups). Anyway God gave me a good old, needed kick up the bum with something and encouragement in another area (that is also thought matter). Thanks Ruth and Kerrie!

I had a good old chat with Susannah post-prophecy-stuff about what we thought, what was good, what we didn’t really get/agree with etc. The whole evening my brain did not stay still, sifting and sorting information into take it or leave it.

Someone once gave me this helpful metaphor of eating fish. None of this battered stuff that comes with chips, but the real deal -meat and bones. Sometimes it’s like eating fish. There’s meat there, but you have to pick out the bones leave them to one side. Take the good, ignore the crap. There must come a point though when there just becomes too many bones to bother with eating in the first place…

Christianity Church

Church evalutative God kick up the bum skeptic speaker youth

Published May 24, 2008 by

Changes

I haven’t mentioned them previously due to either uncertainty or confidentiality but there have been some pretty significant changes going on.

In two weeks Geoff finishes up where he’s worked for the last three years for a new job – closer to what he originally wanted to do with IT. It’s been a slow and interesting haul working out what was happening and if he/we’d actually head down that route.

And last night Geoff and I let the youth kids know that we’d be finishing up at the end of this term. This too has been a long and interesting journey. Because to be utterly honest we don’t want to be finishing up.

I’m really not sure about the whole often held idea that God has a set plan laid out for our lives, but regardless I think this is what we need to be doing, and we’ve kind of been told. We have no idea what’s next. In some way it’s a part of establishing what it means to be a Christian and not to be a part of such an obvious ‘ministry’ (Gosh I’m starting to really hate that word). It’s a sucky thing to be leaving youth behind, it will be interesting to see what’s ahead, but for now, I’d rather be back hanging out with 14 year olds. What lies ahead for the youth at YVV is also in question, please be praying for that, there’s no smackingly clear direction or person.

Christianity Church Life Ministry

Christianity Church God plans youth

Published April 1, 2008 by

The overlap and an even playing field

soccer“Because truly responsive care goes far beyond providing a basic means of survival. If we treat every crisis as it were a survival situation, then we end up only designing for someone to live from day to day. But if we treat it as if it’s about renewal and rebirth, then we’re focused on creating and generating life. This is where design should play an incredibly important role. Our sole purpose is to provide a better environment for all, whether it be for someone from the Upper East Side or from East Africa. Using design to introduce the opportunity of rebirth into somebody’s life, whether it is something that may seem frivolous or a product or structure that would help a family grow, is just as important as having each other. So the idea of a soccer ball is extremely important because in any part of the world, if you drop a soccer ball on the ground, forth kids are suddenly talking.” – Cameron Sinclar (Interview: design like you give a damn)

This caught both Geoff and my attention (he was reading over my shoulder on the train home) and in a small way captured something really exciting. Something exciting in design but perhaps even more so in following Jesus. I love it when there is this magnificent overlap, even if it is small.

I must also exclaim over part of an interview I saw last night on the ABC – Julian Burnside is a barrister who works with asylum seekers along with all kinds of other pro-bono work. There is a short quote on the top of his website by James Thurber (…which reminds me, I never did finish the Thurber Carnival, I wonder where it went?)

“All men should strive to learn before they die, what they are running from, and to, and why. – James Thurber

It kind throws a pointer at that Vocare stuff again. And then read this (from the interview with the ABC last night),

“PETER THOMPSON: For both you and your wife Kate, your work with refugees goes beyond the courtroom.
JULIAN BURNSIDE: Yes, yes, it does. Kate set up spare rooms for refugees partly as a symbolic response and partly as a practical measure, because people who come out of detention centres need somewhere to live. Kate had the simple practical idea that many Australian houses have got a spare room, so that’s a neat way of solving a housing problem.
PETER THOMPSON: You’ve opened your own spare room?
JULIAN BURNSIDE: Absolutely. You can’t encourage people to do that and not do it yourself. So, we’ve had refugees living here since early 2002…”

He does it! He lives what he preaches. I am inspired.

And this pushes on illustrating sharing life, and diatribo (props to Kim Hammond for the word). It is inspiring, it is difficult, but when we participate then we are His hands and feet.

art link

Christianity Culture Design

Christianity Design Diatribo God Jesus Julian Burnside