usually when things has gone this far, people tend to disappear...

Someone involved in "Jacob's Well" (http://jacobswell.ca/) in vancouver came to talk at the Mustard Seed here in Edmonton. My roommate happens to work there and passed this on to me. I am still thinking through what she means by some of these claims, but I think she's on to something here. Something very worth thinking about:

1. Justice embodies mercy, but mercy does not encompass justice

2. The biblical mandate is that we love others, not save others

3. Intervention=mercy; Prevention=justice

4. The Year of Jubilee should be the governing principles of church embodied justice

5. The church has abdicated her responsibility for the marginalized by paying taxes to the government and thinking that's enough

6. Justice cannot be relegated to a department of the church but rather should be the function of everyone who claims to follow the way of Christ

7. Guilt massaging does not satisfy the poor or the heart of God for the poor

8. The kingdom of God cannot be confined to a program

9. True Christianity always includes care for the marginalized

10. Serving the marginalized is not a special calling or gifting for some Christians, it is God's requirement for all his people

11. God calls us to participate actively in the redemption of all of His creation which includes care for the earth and all that is in it

12. Culturally implicated understanding of spiritual gifts lead people to think in hyper-spiritual terms and in personal benefit/consumptive ways

13. The gospel is way more that Jesus dying for our sins

14. The church has predominantly taugh both verbally and in praxis that it's your church participation that matters to God, not your participation in the world

15. The enlightment led us to individualism that is rampant in the church and completely contrary to the Kingdom of God

walked a mile just to find the edge, some place low enough to step right in...

Thoughts while cleaning my room at 10:41 on a saturday night:

"Clutter and mess show us that life is being lived. Clutter is wonderfully fertile ground - you can discover new treasures under all those piles, clean things up, edit things out, fix things, get a grip. Tidiness suggests that something is as good as its going to get." - anne lamott

I kept quiet so you'd think my heart was tough...

I spend most my days lately with some sort of lawn mowing device, headphones and my own mind. I was thinking today about how I can't really say that I think a lot while I'm at work. I mostly just listen to music, watch the height of the blade, avoid rocks, gravel and hidden ruts, sleep in the truck or lay on the grass in the sun during lunch, listen to more music, go home, snack on something, go to bed, wake up and do it all over again. The thing is, I can't really say I've been thinking a whole lot in the past while. Usually my mind races so fast that I can hardly keep up with it, and not that it has stopped doing so, but I've found that nothing its rambling on about inside my head is really compelling or interesting or of great importance. Maybe that's it maybe I'm realizing that it never was all these things. I don't know yet. I'm still thinking on it...so I guess I am thinking every once in a while these days!

no more left and right, come on take my side...

Sometimes time stretches out in front of you like it will never end. Standing on this side of the May Long weekend, I work 10 of the next 11 days...10 long days. Its not that I dislike my work, in fact, I usually have a lot of fun with it, but its hard to swallow 10 days of probably over 10 hours each that lie in front of me. Not that I'm complaining either. I just spent the past 5 days taking off work to be at my best friend's wedding. She was stunning. And I know lots of people describe brides that way, but she really was stunning, even with kneehigh stripped socks under that wedding dress. Its strange to have two of my closest friends married within two months of each other. But in both Amy and Cait's case, I am so excited and proud of them because I respect the men they married so much. As Mr Bennet replies to Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice: "I couldn't have parted with you for anyone less worthy!"

I know we've all had a bumpy ride, I’m secretly on your side...

I sometimes have these overwhelming moments when I realize that I have really REALLY great friends. Here are a few of them:

My legs fail me the ground hails me, distant lights are calling...

I feel like I haven't really been keeping up my blog lately. other than the odd quick post here and there with a promise to write more, write better, write later. Its still before 7 am and I'm sitting eating my breakfast of lemon pie filling, reading the paper and wondering what today will bring. Well, I know in some senses what today will bring. I will chase a weed whacker around new subdivisions in Southwest Edmonton, but I don't know, in a larger sense what awaits me today. and that is a wonderful feeling of open potential. I'll hold on to that as I trim grass today.

And I know it's easy to say but it's harder to feel...

I've only been working landscaping/maintenance for two days now, but already my body is falling apart. If I were to list all the muscles in my body that are sore, no, more than sore...seizing, the rest of this blog would be full. I have pulled muscles that I was not aware I would ever use in my lifetime. But on the up side, I've been seeing a lot of the sun and my skin is losing that pasty sheen and taking on a more complimentary glow (despite the fact that it's a little more reddish than brown per se). And regardless of the fact that in this moment it's falling apart, I know that this is only the beginning of my body rebuilding into a fantastic muscle machine!

That's right, two days in and I'm already on my way to being tanned and ripped.

You fall, feeling like it's just begun...

I'm lying on the front lawn in the sun with all my roommates. Its kind of funny to see...all these older people on their sunday walks enjoying the sunshine, strolling past our house and seeing 6 girls laying out on the lawn suntanning. And in this moment, this perfect moment of early summer weather, I realize just how easy it is to lose it. I'm reminded of this poem I once read by Charles Simic, called The Altar. It ends with the lines:

An alter dignifying the god of chance.
What is beautiful , it cautions,
Is found accidentally and not sought after.
What is beautiful is easily lost.

Depressing? maybe. Compelling? without a doubt. I like this poem because it reminds me of timing. of young men in wars. of that split second between the gas and the brake. of Romeo missing the friar's letter by that chance moment.
I think about my cousin training to go to Afghanistan in February, I think about Nathan all the way over in Kelowna, I think about my aunt dying of ALS the day I flew home from Bangladesh, I think about life and it overwhelms me because life, like comedy, is all about timing.

wake up its time, we need to find a better place to hide...

Its already may! How in the world did this happen? Time is flying past me. The intensity of that thought makes it impossible for me to say something intelligent...I will post again later.