Saturday, July 31, 2004

the art of vocation...

so i am reading a cool little book that i am borrowing from mark... its called 'let your life speak' and its written by a certain parker j. palmer... good little read, a small book full of large asertations... and very compelling...

here are a few things that caught me off guard in a sort of zen way...

he speaks of how before we tell our lives where we are going to go or what we are going to be or how we are going to be identified, that we must look into our 'true selves' and find out what they have to say...

Everything in the universe has a nature, which means limits as well as potentials, a truth well known by people who work daily with the things of the world. Making pottery, for example, involves more than telling the clay what to become. The clay presses back on the potter's hands, telling her what it can and cannot do - and if she fails to listen, the outcome will be both frail and ungainly...if the engineer does not honor the nature of the steel or the wood or the stone, his failings will go well beyond aesthetics: the bridge or the building will collapse and put human life in peril.

later he speaks of how that means being brutally honest with ourselves, and venturing through the dark places and remembering them, not covering them up for some great success story... read on...

Many young people today journey in the dark, as the young always have, and we elders do them a disservice when we withhold the shadowy parts of our lives. When I was young, there were very few elders willing to talk about the darkness; most of them pretended that success was all they had ever known. As the darkness began to descend on me in my early twenties, I thought I had deceloped a unique and terminal case of failure. I did not realize that I had merely embarked on a journey toward joining the human race... [and] as pilgrims must discover if they are to complete their quest, we are led to truth by our weaknesses as well as our strengths.

i really should shower now, pick up my sisters car, and work on prepping tomorrow's discussion... and then go to a concert...

my tattoo from previous post and wanting to look cool in front of high schoolers...



that is my tattoo that i spoke of the other day... thought the visual might help... or disturb you at how ink under the human epidermis tends to bleed towards itself...

its so funny to me how i want to be esteemed and encouraged... "like me, like me" i cry out without a single word...

tonight i took my 15 year old buddy zach with some of the anchor point folks and my wife to boomers... boomers is kind of a high school hangout it seems... at least this one in north county... anyways, i just remember thinking to myself, i wonder if i look like an old guy?... like, the way i dress, is it so 1997?... and i dont really care, i mean not really, but i want zach to think im cool...

so, i am probably taking this position at a church in east san diego where i will be developing and cultivating the creative consciousness of the student ministry... itll kind of put me in a position to have some influence in some students lives and i am like, will they even listen to me?... i mean, one of the beauty of the post-structuralist, post-establishment mentality is that it thinks for itself (sorta), but the down side is, they dont listen to authority very well...

and i dont want to be authority... god, will i even know what to do with adolescents in groups?... i mean, timber i was okay, but i ended up not agreeing with half the stuff i was doing, like scolding kids for not 'worshipping god with reverance'... what a bunch of bs: i was merely wanting to create a sanitary, controlled environment to achieve a certain response (ie. get kids 'into' it)...

anyways, i am so tired, taking lisa to the airport this morning and all...

mark says i torture myself... stop second guessing yourself, ryan... or maybe i should second guess myself?...

Thursday, July 29, 2004

what is the bible and stop thinking so much, dammit!

a great thread to get in on at emergent village on what is the bible (as in, 'the word of god', 'the cradle for the word of god', not the only word/s of god?)...

drove home from santa cruz this morning and had a chance to grab breakfast with michael toy (his blog) before leaving the bay... nice... a good person to know... he is the gospel in motion... broken, happy, enlightened, dark, thoughtful, carefree, focussed, lost, found... i hope he doesn't mind that i use these words... perhaps i should check with him?... hey michael, you mind?... ... ... ... [no answer...] guess that means its cool... a complex person becoming comfortable with his own flesh...

our own flesh... so, off with the whole spiritual realm metaphor and embrace that we are this flesh, we are not 'in this flesh'... we actually are who we are, inseparable from soul and flesh... or thats my thought... i mean, glorified bodies one day?... the concept of the soul is plato's, not the jews... doesnt mean its wrong, but... hmm... dunno...

been thinking about how i gotta stop thinking and start living... thats what mark said i might consider... to stop thinking about every freaking thing and just live... thats really hard for me... am i being redundant?... did i say this already?... its way easier to philosophize about the poor or loving my neighbors, but still i love to be up here behind my laptop and in the safety of my home... clean and safe...

time to pass out... tomorrow lisa goes to the airport and i return to a busy life of errands... then, i will begin to work on our living room... redoing it just a bit... and other stuff... later...

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

cancer of goodness: echoing my own thoughts elsewhere...

cool article about the origin of 'sin'... or rather a proper understanding of it... very short indeed... just a thought...

mike devries and i have thought of this much... that perhaps the hebraic understanding allows for -- if not demands -- an understanding of evil that does not come from other (ie. satan) but rather from the cancer of goodness...

so, you begin with something beautiful, whole, healthy... and when mis-used turns into something sub-par, something off the mark, something 'sinful'... so what if, and just go with me on this, what if we have created satan (and i could go there some other time) as a personification of evil... just to have a scapegoat, someone to pin it on?... this initiator and promoter of 'bad' things?...

okay, so perhaps instead of good and evil we have good things in proper place and proper time and good things in improper places and times?... like murder, obviously bad... but death in and of itself is not bad, but the improper things surrounding murder?... maybe lustful thoughts is a better example... so loving the design of a woman is not bad, but in improper place, it can be unhealthy, unwhole, sinful?...

just thoughts... more later...

Michael's nicely done review of Farenheit 911 and my spiritual direction...

Nice review Michael.

Today was a wonderful, clarifying day. May I take you through it?

Woke up at 8am to a phone call, reminding me that I was to meet with Mark (a friend and spiritual director and jesus follower) for several hours to discuss life and stuff.

Left 'round 9am in the Santa Cruz fog. Amazing that it is almost August and there is still cold fog in Santa Cruz... perfect day for a chai latte. I hadn't had one in a while, so I thought I'd treat myself.

The fog burned off just as I was summitting 17 to head into San Jose and up to San Francisco. Clarity finally, though interestingly enough, not quite as beautiful as the mystery-shrouded fog that I had left behind. So... time to change my iPod music from Linford Detweiler's contemplative-piano to Muse's epic-rock-n-roll. Turned it up loud, rolled down the windows. I was sailing.

For San Francisco being as packed with people as it is, the foothills just south of there are spectacularly open and undevelopped... at least from the freeway. Beautiful, I felt like I was in British Colombia or Washington state. Wow.

Made it to Mark's place in the Mission District of SF. Rough neighborhood, lots of character, and lots of local places... I have never been to NYC, but I can only assume that they are sister cities on some level with regards to all the little hole-in-the-wall spots.

Talked of family and vocation and opportunity and I complained and whined and said that I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, yada, yada, yada... and it hit me: Had every conversation with Mark been like this? Had I been repeating conversations each time? I mean, had I not advanced at all since our last talk?

He said that he had just realized the same thing about himself: That we contemplate the same insecurities and doubts and issues over and over. Such is life I guess?

Some clarity by the end of the day. Things I'd love to see change in me. A need to re-center. I think I'll go to the desert for a couple days soon and just "be". The need to be inspired and inspire. The need to stop thinking so much and just live... just live for once, Ryan.

Realized again that the foggy places are where the best art comes from, that is, that good art comes from deep within and often dark places made visible through this portal of canvas or lyric or screen. So I must embrace the fog, but not shun the sunlight. For both are parts of the whole. The yin and the yang.

The other day I was sitting in downtown Santa Cruz (a great place to people watch) before I caught I, Robot, and I looked at my tattoo and thought of what it meant to me today. When I got it those years ago, it was to be a reminder that the greatest virtue I can live by is brokenness, that is, being flexible and moldable and broken before my Creator... and I still hold this true, though perhaps in a different way.

But I realized that the tattoo now took on another meaning: I am a broken human being, my opinion is slanted, my understanding is limited, my vision blurred, my language slurred, my life dimly lit sometimes, my hope often selfish. I am broken; who am I to tell the world how to live "exactly"?

I am here to testify to my own brokenness. My authority on any thing does not come from my perfection in any area, but rather from my recognition that perfection is not a possibility. I cannot tell you how to do something from a place beyond you; I can only tell you what I have learned, how I have failed, how I moved, how I still move.

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

enflamed tastebuds and the need to listen...

three days ago, i realized i had what felt to be overenflamed tastebuds all across my tongue... perhaps 3 or 4 in all... or maybe they were kanker sores or something else that i dont even know about...

the point is, i had no idea just how painful these small things would end up becoming... sunday for lunch i took a walk down the beach to the harbor and got a slice of pizza... i was so excited about the pizza... i could smell it cooking... and each bite was a great pain to bear through... every time something just barely skirted across my tongue, i felt it, and with amazing pains... ouch...

hopefully, these sores or whatever they are, are just passing through... and hopefully theyll be gone before i know it...

but in the meantime, it makes it hard to speak even... perhaps this is a time to hold my tongue?... i dunno... but yesterday, holly and i were driving to santa cruz and i got in this phone conversation with someone with whom there had been a miscommunication and boy i lashed out... it was a bad day... i mean, i had peed on my shoe on accident earlier that day... but instead of listening, i just lashed out...

listen, ryan, listen...

so, we all love to talk, me especially, but perhaps when you become in a social setting 'the talker' then its hard to hear others' perspectives... feeling like you want to be understood, you talk a little more to make sure you are being understood, when the other person just wants to be understood and validated as well...

this was to be my week of listening... tomorrow i am going to san fransisco to see a friend who is a kind of spiritual director for me... kind of a rabbi... and today i am with my in-laws... listen, ryan, listen... i will try...

Monday, July 26, 2004

moral example atonement theory...

interesting article i just read on the moral theory of the atonement.

cynicism and the gospel...

i am such a frickin' cynic-negative-energy-deconstructionist-antiestablisment-bastard sometimes... are you?...

i swear, i can critique like an american idol judge... and i think i need to stop... not even just stop, but repent, change ways, move to a more beautiful place...

i read two books this last week... "blue like jazz" (a spiritual memoir by a christian in portland) and "the davinci code" (a pop fiction best seller that contains a great deal of history of the church)... as i read them, i found myself quick to embrace "the davinci code" stuff... was mary magdelene married to christ, did the church suppress certain pieces of information regarding christ or even change his nature... i really tried to buy into dan brown's character's ideas... they were different and refreshing and i guess i am a sort of conspiracy theorist...

"blue like jazz"... well, i like _some_ of what he had to say, but mostly it kinda annoyed me... reminded me of "the catcher in the rye" which i love, but i love it for what it is... an adolescent coming into adulthood... reading "blue like jazz" was an adult's memoirs... non-religious memoirs he said, but... and it bugged me how he used holden caufield's voice as his own... and it bugged me how he kept reducing chrisitan fundamental beliefs into the following: jesus christ is god, the devil is as real as jesus, the bible is the word of god...

okay, so i am not here to explain why i have issues with each of these issues... i mention all this instead to show he easily frustrated i get towards other christians and how open i am to people outside of formal christendom...

i went to a church service last night in carlsbad... kind of a young adult service... lame... we got up and left... i wasnt angry or anything, just couldnt handle being there...

somehow i feel this is all very un-christ-like... and one virture i want to live by is living in the way of jesus...

the gospel is a perspective change... its a free-ing from our present reality to see beyond ourselves, our hangups, our annoyances... to see where god is working in perhaps different ways in others...

god, help me in my cynicism... help it turn to love... not just love to make a change, but love to see that i am broken and see through my own lens of what is right and best and wrong and destructive... help...

Sunday, July 25, 2004

walking the balance between social activist and active consumer... and a cruise ship...

so, we are back from our cruise to the caribbean... what an amazing place... i mean, i have been in california for the past 10 years, been to hawaii (even kauai) and other little islands such as catalina and their waters are beautiful, but this... dis caribbean was amazing... the colors are unexplainable, the culture rich in both tradition and need...

its hard getting off a cruise ship and thinking about the whole 'harder for the rich person to enter the kingdom'... it really messes with you...

but we are so thankful to have gotten this 'survey' experience... now we can head back to central america ala my friend frank, who went for a month to belize, honduras, guatamala and just found his own way around...

so, here are some pics i thought you might like...



here is me scuba-ing in roatan, bay islands, honduras, home of the 2nd largest barrier reef... amazing...



here each of us are on a catamaran in cozumel... free bar... so my father had some too...






mayan ruins in tulum, mexico... most think the mayans came from the orient... interesting... ive always wondered where people in the americas had come from prior to the 1500s...



some girls in belize who begged holly to take their picture...



ya, go ahead and laugh... we had to stop a tour bus for me to get off and pee on some guys private property in mexico... i swear i thought i would take a bullet for this one... but alas, i returned safe and sound...

lots of thinking this week... but i need to get to laundry right now... so the explanation of the title will come later...

cheers friends,
ryan...

Friday, July 16, 2004

tomorrow and the emergent gathering...

so, tomorrow morning, holly and i leave with my dad and step-mom for the caribbean via the norwegian sea cruise ship... we will be playing the role of rich white american tourists trying to fit in as natives...

our itinerary...

sunday - at sea
monday - cozumel, mexico
tuesday - roatan, bay islands, honduras
wednesday - belize city, belize
thursday - cancun, mexico
friday - at sea

should be great... mayan ruins, scuba and snorkelling... wow...

and there is another pilgrimage in the works for october with our friends at emergent... dig... check it out...

photos whence we return... be ready...

Thursday, July 15, 2004

my relationship with the ocean...

so, the thing is is that i have never been that fond of the ocean in reality... now, moving to california back in '95 there was a certain 'fondness' that i was required to have towards it... just to prove that i loved california over texas (my homeland)...

so, i never got into surfing... i never got into sun-bathing or bathing suits for that matter... i am bleach white... er, used to be bleach white...

the last week (just about every day) i have been out boogie boarding each evening... wow, what a change it has made... i feel tired this evening, not frantic... excercise is such a spiritual discipline in utilizing our inspirations and energies on something...




so, i love metaphors... and i have been looking for what the ocean, the waves, the surf, the riptide... what do they all mean?... not like what sermon illustration can i make out of it, but rather, how does it reflect our human condition and god's characteristics?...

so, i swim out and see people, even children, finding ease getting up on the waves... not so much for me at first, but once i find the rhythm, it becomes understandable... once i find the rhythm, then i begin to move to the rhythm... now, i get out of rhythm with the ocean all the and the rhythm changes (or at least seems too...) and i get smashed up by the rhythm that carried me just moments ago... how can this all be?... this ocean is at once simple and supportive and powerful and angry... no sense made of it... i simply cannot explain it... there are those who can... those marine biologists or whoever they are that can see the formula...

anyways, there is this awful riptide this evening... another current that pulls me in another direction... its constant, and sometimes i have to get out of the water, pull my board to shore and walk the beach until i am back to where i started and go out again braving the water that beats me up and then carries me like 100 feet...

so, i am now in love with the ocean... it is saving my soul, one wave at a time...

i wonder if some of my neighbors (who never have darkened the door of any religious establishment) realize how nature reflects the greater story?... hmm...

sandcrabs and systems...

so last night was our bible study that we have every other wednesday... we are going through the book of revelation in an attempt to try to understand what this book has to say... you see, i (well all of us in the group, really) was raised to think this is a book about the end of the world... some squirrely vision that some guy has that has turned into best-selling books (gag) and a ploy to get people to 'get right or get left' as the t-shirt says...

as i have been re-evaluating my own theology and concepts of god this last year, i realized that revelation was probably not what i thought it to be... not a step-by-step-literal-things-to-come type thing...

okay, that was just a set-up... this week, we watched a video of rob bell connecting the roman caesar, domitian, with the book of revelation and unveiling many similarities between john's vision and what was going on in the roman empire at that time... the video resolved with the challenge to not bow to any domitian, even if we loose our lives... the conversation quickly went to one person saying that if they were asked to renounce god or die, they'd die... at that point, i felt loss... here's why...

it is way easier to say something like that... it is way more difficult to say that i will lose my life now in an attempt to follow jesus... and so we must explore what living like that means, you know?... we must see that there are other tyrants asking us to bow to them... the biggest tyrant?... the one that tells me that i am my own god, here for my own good, here to get all i can, here to rule, here to make right by my opinions, here to get my own rights, here to cast judgement...

okay, so jesus walks the earth... some think he was god, some think he was the highest form of god's expression of love towards humanity, some think he was a prophet... either way, he walked here and was amazing... he walked amongst the roman empire... he walked our western world... and what did he say?... i can only do what i see the father doing (forfeiting his will), i am here not to judge, but to bring goodness and love, i am here to lay down my life (forfeiting his most basic of rights... to live), i am here to give all i can, to value others, to heal the world (tikkun olam), to live the shemah...

so, it seems clear to me that there is a real death that we as christ's followers must be ready to go through... a very real death to our system of approach to life... and in loosing that life, we live... that's how it works right?...

so, this next month begins an experiment in this way...

holly and i have names for the next 4 weeks... rest/sabbath, listening/inspiration, learning/understanding, evaluation/reconnection... im not gonna go into all this, but on that last week, i suspect we will layout the good and beautiful things in our life up against the self-seeking, convenient things in our lives... then, begin (by god's grace) the pruning process...

time to wake up my friend... time to live...

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

open source theology...

"open source theology - collaborative theology for the emerging church" is a cool website with some interesting insights...

what a cool idea, that we all participate in our understanding of god... for example, i have an okay understanding of god's fairness, that is, i have no issue with him being fair cause i have never experienced anything that is _so_ bad as to shake my acceptance of his goodness and fairness... a friend though, who has sat through her mother's bout with ms and eventual death, has a harder time grasping the ideas of fairness and prayer and keeping us 'safe'...

another friend says if you pray hard enough and have enough faith, then god will heal you no matter what... now, i completely disagree with him, but i think here we are with three different understandings of god's fairness and the way prayer works, etc... if we can all take into account each others ideas, perhaps we can get somewhere... kind of a democratic way of understanding god, ey?...

i dunno, i'm probably wrong... but maybe not?...

Tuesday, July 13, 2004

me and mike barnet...

... an enchanted evening of music and inspiration and friends and beer...

some photos?... sure, holly took a couple...





makes me really want to start doing a weekly music happening here in o-side or at least close by... i mean fullerton is great, but it is so far away...

we shall see...

dream dreams of peace and one-ness... for tomorrow we will again face our broken-ness and need to be reminded of our divinity... or is that the beer talking?... nah...

THE COBALT SEASON DISCS AVAILABLE FOR ORDER!!!

...sorry to scream at you... see what large letters i write!...

the cobalt season ep is finally mixed... here are some shots of the packaging... all of course done by my wife holly, the amazing graphic designer... here is her website...




and here are three audio clips...

track 2 - treeline
track 6 - october
track 7 - reborn

if you like what you hear, email me and for $5 (plus minimal shipping), you can have one of your own...

oh, and i am playing a show this evening in fullerton if you dare to come out... good hefeweizen on tap, but a bit overpriced if you ask me...

snow patrol is on their way back... and i dont read the B-I-B-L-E...

so i missed them last time when they were here... amazing band... 'final straw' is a great album... my buddy kenny turned me onto them... listen?...

here are their tour dates... wanna come along?...

so, i've been kinda experimenting with my interaction with god... you see, as a youth i was taught three ways to meet with god... they are the sacred triangle of spiritual discipline... they are: read your bible, prayer, go to church.

now, i dont want to get into semantics here, like how you cannot 'go to church', you can only 'be the church'... cause i could ramble on that for hours... instead, i want to look at how empty limiting oneself to those three methods can be dangerous...

actually, i dont want to look at anything except what is going on in my own personal experiment right now...

so, i kinda stopped reading my bible a couple months ago... i pull it out for reference here and there... i even use it to teach... i've ready stuff that goes along with our topics and such, but for personal betterment or whatever, i have stopped... why?... okay, perhaps this is lame, but the reason is simple enough to me: it is so hard to get away from what i think i know about the bible to embrace a fresh perspective of the bible...

now, i have to be honest, christ's teaching still rattle me and remind me of the mystery of god and the love of creator to creation especially to those marginalized by society and the church... so when i turn anywhere for leisure, its almost always the gospels... my neighbor dusty tells me he loves to read the gospels... he's a swell guy who talks loud and uses spectacularly foul words... its an artform almost... he lives downstairs... that is but a sidenote...

okay, step back a sec... i need to embrace my whole journey... we all seem to want to throw away that which shaped us in ways that we don't appreciate... that's fair, but perhaps that's not seeing how we should (or could) see it... perhaps my whole journey is important... including my fundamentalist-jesus-was-a-republican understanding of scriptures... or perhaps it's all worthless and i really need to start anew...

no real answers right now... but there is a commentary coming out on the book of colossians this fall called, subverting the empire, which looks pretty fab... brian notes it is one of the first biblical interpretations given new ways of understanding... could be cool...

okay, its time for a shower and another cup a joe...

Monday, July 12, 2004

peter pan...

... perhaps every boy (or person) has those moments of what the hell am i supposed to do with my life, but right now i feel like i am having one... and it's a lonely place... i sometimes feel like i am where i am today because of a deep conviction that i do not want to be a part of the machine that is the american dream... but then again, am i completely naive or fooling myself?... or will i forfeit the future for the present... i don't want to grow up dammit...

i look at the pictures that my wife has put across our refrigerator right now... good friends from college with nice jobs that pay for nice houses and two cars and kids and vacations to foreign lands... and i think, did i want (or do i want) what they've got?... cause if so, my system and approach to life is not getting me there... but i rail against the day-in and day-out of office jobs and being in places where i am valued only by what i can do for 'the man'... or am i already doing that and again being naive?...

i see this one picture... its a picture of me when i was a little boy with a microphone in my hand singing... probably about 6 years old... and i remember my grandma saying something like, "sure, music is a fine dream, but find a real job'... a real job... one that will allow me to buy a new car or travel to fricking europe for 2-3 months or whatever...

so what do i do?... any ideas out there?... help...

the interesting thing about relevant magazine...

... is that i find them often ir-relevant to the discussion at hand...

what discussion you ask?... the one where we are re-evaluating all that we have held in our 'system' of belief... the one where we are no longer content with yesterday's models - no, with yesterday's structures - and so we are off to understand why they exist and whether they should remain... god help us...

anyways, the relevant website does provide a reader's digest to some good news clippings... but their comments can be really lame and just supportive of the typical evangelical mindset... but hey, i guess that is their lens, and it is not my own...

anyways, you be the judge... here is the article...

thoughts?... ramblings?...

Sunday, July 11, 2004

the eve of the 4400...

pretty good show... i am intrigued to say the least...

a photo of what tonight's 'service' looked like...



lovely evening... cut some of my stuff to talk about, but overall, good stuff... it's interesting looking at church history, heck, all history... gives perspective that the present doesn't fully allow for... and isn't that the point of the past is to help shape the future?... i mean, hopefully humanity is progressing and evolving somewhere better, right?...

i sure hope so...

my gnome got drunk tonight...



damn gnomes, can't take them anywhere!...

alas, i must be off to bed... no athf for me this evening... too sleepy...

good night.

new day dawns...

so i am going to look at this (probably as most bloggers do) as an online journal...

today i am prepping for anchor point's gathering this evening... oh, back up... anchor point is a small 'church plant' endeavor/experiment that 'launched' last september... meeting in homes, trying to simply figure out what it means to live in the way of jesus... all of us having our own issues with 'church at large', but not thinking that anchor point is the definitive answer to church problems... its just our own expression of 'church'...

okay, that being said, so i am prepping for this evenings's gathering... some round table discussion guided by your's truly... this evening's topic: tithing.

i came upon an article several weeks ago when i was looking for 'heretical' information regarding the book of revelation and our gross presumptions in our modern-dispensationalist-escapist interpretations of it. anyways, on this guy's website, there was another interesting article on tithing and the christian church. the article is here. interesting stuff really. take it for what it's worth.

here's the deal. i have seen way too much abuse in the church system's regarding money. everyone educated on civil religion puts money and religion together, do they not? i mean it seems like 'money-grubbers' or whatever is a thought that quickly comes to mind regarding pastors... at least of flashy churches... maybe not, maybe it's my own cynicism. hmm.

so, i have been re-evaluating my part-time pastoral salary. here i am telling people to live in rhythm with god in the 'real world' while i myself stay at home on my computer writing things like this or prepping for things like tonight. a little bit of a chasm between, no? so, perhaps i go off payroll, then no money goes to me from the church and we would be freed to do things that seemed important to the early church... ie. helping other jesus communities, meeting the needs of the poor and marginalized, etc. you know?

so, my plan is by fall to go off salary, but i want to 'increase giving' in our community. not to anchor point though.

you see, i think that in the history of the church, being a 'cheerful giver' has been used to manipulate many people into 'getting into heaven' or if not that then to 'win god's favor'... i disagree with this.

i think that giving is part of the abrahamic covenent. check out this article by brian mclaren. it reminds us that if we just seek to be 'blessed by god' and do not 'bless others through that' than we are in great danger of heresy (one that even i would not want to commit).

so, sure giving is important, but the money cannot stay 'in the church'... you know? it's not for us just to bless ourselves in this nice little tax shelter called 501c3. so the journey continues in trying to discover what a church living in the way of christ looks like... or at least looks like in oceanside, california with the people of anchor point. hmm.

okay, i gotta take a shower. its already noon.

Saturday, July 10, 2004

her paintings...

here are a few... one is in process...





pretty good stuff if i do say so myself... if you want to get ahold of her, check out her site www.sharpseven.com

as the clover turns...

...so another clover show this evening. gonna try more computer-based sequences tonight... try to walk the line between organic and electronic... analogue and digital... we shall see... again, no paula tonight.

my wife is right now in the bedroom painting. i will post some of her work soon and very soon. perhaps now? let me go get my digital camera for this. i'll post them in a second anyways... i'm new to this whole blog thing.

give me time. in the mean time, images of our july 4th bash and a company's said rendition (again) of the gospel.






whatchoo think? okay, holly's paintings next.

Test

and this begins the journey...