random

Random thoughts from my brain to yours this week . . . have at them.

“Jesus for President” is one of the coolest books. I am thankful for our study group. The discussion has been awesome. Quotes that got me thinking:

“It is hard to imagine a gospel that is more of an antitheses of Jesus’ gospel and the Beatitudes than what we hear today in the church: “Blessed are the rich”; “Blessed are the troops”; “We will have no mercy on the evildoers.”

So are we saying the United States of America is not a Christian nation? The United States is Christian inasmuch as it looks like Christ.p174

The more the early Christians reflected on the life and message of their rabbi-messiah, and the more they tried to live the way of the gospel, the harder they collided with the state and its hopes and dreams, militaries and markets. In fact, Christians in those first few hundred years were called atheists because they no longer believed in the Roman gospel; they no longer had any faith in the state as savior of the world. p141

[John] did not simply argue that various aspects of the market exploit this or that; rather he placed his concerns in light of a cosmological struggle between right and wrong…is is possible we can’t see the destructiveness of our economy not because we don’t know it’s terrible but because deep down, we feel that it’s necessary and that therefore it’s hopeless to criticize it?p153

Restaurant chips and salsa are the bane of my diet, or should I say lack thereof? Following a close second are those chocolate covered coffee beans Sylvia brought to study group last Sunday. Ack! Although, I was able to beat my whole team in three games straight later that night at bowling league. Secret weapon? Hmmm.

There simply needs to be more time in a day so I can catch up on books. Of course, if I’d stop acquiring them, then I might actually do it in 24. Yeah, right.

Change is good. Change can hurt. Change is really the only constant in life. How’s that for an oxymoron? Nothing like living in THAT tension.

Looking forward to the CSM mission trip to Philly. I’ve got a feeling this is will be life-changing service in less than a month for all of us. They always are, anyways.

How can people refuse aid to help all the suffering in Myanmar? How horrible to be thirsty and have children suffering like that. What makes people refuse aid? I don’t get it. I just don’t get it.

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Church politics. Another oxymoron, but true in every place I’ve ever been. Even this one. Guess it’s time to read a few pep-talk letters to churches from Paul. I swear humans will never get that part right. Great googlymoogly.

I got a bowling ball for Mother’s Day. The color is called “Black Raspberry”

which is a combination of black, silver, deep red and sparkles. I’ve named it “Rocket Dog”. I have no idea why I named it that. Yes, I know it is a shoe brand, but the name is cool and I’m keeping it.

I am reading a book now call, “The Gutter: Where Life is Meant to be Lived,” by Craig Gross What are my gutters? Where am I afraid to go that Jesus is calling me to go? Am I listening and following? I really do live in the Suburb desert. Gross. Quotes from that book:

“When I accepted Christ as my saviour, I was lifted out of the gutter, but I was not made better than those who remained.”
—————
“Don’t blame the dark for being dark. Blame the light for not shining on the dark.”
—————

“While the Church at large is great at telling people to avoid their gutters, I’ve found that this approach just doesn’t work anymore. … Things have changed, and people don’t do things just because they’re told to do them or because those things are expected of them. So we as a Church have to change our approach and get dirty. Modern Christians must take risks and get out of their comfortable pews and classrooms and do something for God. If we don’t, who will?”


From the Save Darfur website today: “Reports indicate that the government is detaining, torturing and killing Darfuris in and around Khartoum, and that janjaweed militias have commenced attacks in North Darfur. The international community must demand an immediate end to atrocities, speed up deployment of peacekeepers, and make clear to all sides that there is no violent solution to this conflict.”

I can’t stop thinking about the people of Darfur. I wonder if I am doing enough to help them. I know I am not. I am not sure what else to do. I would go to Sudan if I could swing it in a minute. (Now that’s something I would have never said a year ago.)

Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a bystander. Holocaust Museum, Washington, DC

The green of spring trees and plans, the chartreuse of nature is my favorite color followed closely by the orange-red of fall. Nobody does it better than God in nature. Nobody.

Goal: Debt-free in 5 years. Goal: Look for something else to do with my life in 5 years besides feed the corporate machine.

Storms of spring this year bring a rollercoaster of emotion. Betrayal. Bitterness. Joy. Love. Heartbreak. Depression. Happiness. Purpose. Shame. Wait a minute, it will change again. Funny thing about riding a rollercoaster is that if I stick my arms up in the air and scream, no one will really know if it is fear, pain or joy. I am not looking forward to Wednesday night.

I want to design a shirt from a saying I saw in Chicago. It said, “Social Justice isn’t Just for Rock Stars.”

UMCOR, UNICEF, Darfur….a dollar. All for world aid stand up and holler!

I bought a hand bag today that is so big that I could cut two holes in it and stick it on my head all the way and wear it like a mask, but it’s GREEN. The only thing that frightens me a little is that I can truly stick ¾ of my arm in it digging around. I wonder if clerks think I’m going to pull a rabbit out of it?

I owe both my sponsor children Stella in Tanzania and Betty in Uganda letters and pictures. I have to get that done by Saturday. Jeez, I used to be much better at writing letters before the internet and email.

Wayne finally went with Kevin to a pawn shop and picked up the most beautiful abalone shell inlaid blue guitar. I am jealous. I want to learn to play it too!

We must not allow ourselves to become like the system we oppose. Bishop Desmond Tutu

bovine reflections in boogie wonderland

Friday afternoon I commuted home on the back roads. It has been a solid 2 months since I’ve taken this route. I’d forgotten its bucolic feel, the winding roads and open pastures and fields. I was lucky this time and didn’t hit the railroad crossing “in use”. I could see the last rail car pass in the distance as I approached and the string of cars clear before i reached the crossing. Good timing, Hartman, except I hit the highway light on ‘orange,’ so stopped for the full 3-4 minute cycle.

Thursday night our area had violent storms with intense winds, strong flooding rains and pea-sized hail. Perhaps this was the reason the air seemed so clean and clear, even with a strong wind. Stopped at a highway light, I saw the herd of Holstein cattle grazing in a field. The starkness of black and white cattle against the new greens of the spring landscape was striking, startling in fact. I took notice of the herd.

Often I can see cattle at a distance in a field along a highway or farm road. Rarely am I going slow enough or are the cattle close enough for me to take time to look at them. This time, I had the full span of a highway light to watch them.

Cows are immense, as big as my car. Okay, yes I do have a Aveo, and perhaps, pound for pound the car and cow are equal, but still, that cow looked way bigger than I remembered. Seeing them at a distance most of the time, I was amazed at their size. I’d also forgotten the sway of a cow’s head to and from as they walk. Back and fourth. . . back and forth. . .back and forth. . . .a cow crossed the field in rhythmic, choreographed steps.

A gust of wind whipped by, rocking the car in a disco-bump jiggle. Fur on the dancing Holstein ruffled, then went flat again. Other cattle grazed, ripping tender new-green grasses from the earth, grinding them with their jowls only to end up in one stomach or another. They left dark, wet footprints in their wake in the soggy ground. The entire herd, moving slowly as a large amoeba, across the landscape.

The light turned and I was off, making my way home.

I think that much of popular culture, our society in general, teaches us to be outline people. Outline meaning, just ‘give me the high level”, “executive summary’, “overview” or ” the 30 second news byte on yahoo or CNN” By keeping out of the weeds, by not ‘going down that rabbit hole” we miss much of the details in life, an astonish hive of activity everywhere.

Details at a stop light by a pasture on a back road.

Details in nature as it unfolds blows by on a windy day, rocking cars from tire to tire in a strange boogie dances.

Glimpses of the extraordinary in the everyday are the memories we keep, not the those big pictures and snippets of sound on the TV.

Take the long way home tomorrow. Take a blacktop or gravel road. Roll down your windows and listen to the dance of spring unfolding.

You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. Isaiah 55:12

sick

Most would agree that being sick is no fun. Being sick away from home is even worse. This week I was both away from home and sick. In a hotel, no familiar remedies at hand, no liquids at my fingertips to hydrate me. No familiar bed or extra covers. No comforts to help through the fevers and chills, no family, no friends, just me and the germs for company. It only takes an experience like this to force into the forefront the importance of home, friends and family during times like these, or any other sorts of stresses.

My home dilemma was solved on Friday when I flew back from North Carolina to Kansas. For me, it could not be soon enough.

Millions of others face this fact every day, but instead of a temporary displacement, their loss of home is permanent. Across Darfur and Chad, over 2.5 million Darfuris live in displacement camps, some away from family, friends or tribe due to war or death from war. Their lives uprooted, often with the clothes on their backs as their only possessions, fleeing from bullets often at any hour of the day and night. They fled from their homes, soon burned to the ground. Entire villages erased, leaving nothing but smoking piles of rubble.

Living in camps alone would be a hardship enough, but their means of sustaining their life now depends on organizations across the world struggling through red tape and rebels to get their shipments to the camps. Living in camps also encourages disease and sickness due to close proximity and limited medical supplies. And of course, there is always the threat of more attacks by the Janjaweed rebels and government forces attempting to exterminate these peoples. And so it continues.

What hope would you have?

What will happen to them next?

For he will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help. He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death. He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight. Psalm 72: 12-14

Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 1 Corinthians 12:27

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. Ephesians 4:2-16

You are their best hope. Yes, you.

Visit www.savedarfur.org to learn more about how you can help right now.

If you are in the Kansas City area, you can learn more about this region by attending a movie and conversation around, “The Devil Came on Horseback” on Thursday at 7PM. 138 Main, Gardner, Kansas. Contact me if you can attend. We’d love to have you there.

sacred spaces and other environmental thoughts

People have no peace in the world, but they have no disturbance when they are with God. — Bernard of Claiveaux

For more than 3 years, I’ve been a part of a group of folks at FirstLight who create a sacred space for worship each Sunday. This effort takes people and time to transform a cafeteria into a place of worship. Tables are rearranged, chairs added. Signs for where things are place around the worship area, screens and sound equipment put together. Then the Ambiance team sets to work with table coverings, candles and the like, all to create a space for worshiping God. In the end, FirstLight the church plant, the mobile church, opens it doors to all seeking God.
There is a Celtic saying that heaven and earth are only three feet apart, but in the thin places that distance is even smaller. A thin place is where the veil that separates heaven and earth is lifted and one is able to receive a glimpse of the glory of God. A contemporary poet Sharlande Sledge gives this description:

“Thin places,” the Celts call this space,

Both seen and unseen,

Where the door between the world

And the next is cracked open for a moment

And the light is not all on the other side.

God shaped space.

Holy.

What the roadies do on Sunday is very important for worship, but it is not the full story. You see, sacred spaces exist outside what we can create for FirstLight. We often compartmentalize our spiritual practices, our spiritual existence by defining them by place or time. We come to ‘worship’ on Sundays and read Bibles in the morning. We have a ‘workplaces’ and an ‘family life’ all defined by spaces or locations and times in the day.

The kicker is that this perception is very far from the truth. The presence of God exists outside of the Sunday mornings, outside of Bible studies, outside of Prayer chapels. Family. friends and work all blend together in a myriad of everyday life events and our spiritual lives themselves are an outflow blanketing all our activities. God’s presence is in our homes, our workplaces, with friends, at the supermarket, in an open field, and driving to work.

The carpenter can do better work if he talks quietly to God about each task, as Jesus surely did when He was a carpenter. — Frank Laubach

There is a saying that you get what you measure. I think this is the case with God as well, but should be rephrased. Where you look for God, you see God. Where you feel or see God at work . . . that is a sacred space.

Tuesday, April 22 is Earth Day. Take some time this week to find ways to improve God’s world. Take time, also, to thank God for the world around. After all, no matter where you are this sacred space is probably less than three feet from you right now.

Deana

He is your praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. Deuteronomy 10: 21

drawing conclusions

“No one shall be subjected to torture, or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment”- Universal Declaration of Human Rights

I revisited an old drawing of mine in a family Bible today. It was a story I wrote when I was 9 years old. It was a story about my favorite person and a drawing. The story said:

Language
September 27, 1973

Deana

My favorite person is grandpa arends. He doesn’t have much hair but a little hair in the back and brown eyes and glasses and I liked him taking me to the zoo. He is still alive.

On the back was a simple, quickly drawn picture of my grandpa and I walking. Many of my memories of my grandpa Roger were of walking. Sometimes it was the zoo, other times in the neighborhoods of Grimes, Iowa where we’d occasionally make it to Main Street, talking to friends on porches or in yards as we made our way through town.

Spending summer weeks at my mother’s parents conjures up other fond memories. There was no pool in town, so my grandma got out her old wash tub, filled it with water and I splashed in that. They grew raspberries (my favorite fruit to this day) and we enjoyed them with half and half or in a fresh pie. There were zoo trips and dinners out with other great aunts and uncles. Sometimes cousins visited and fun was had by all. I learned how to fry chicken and crochet. I showed my prowess around scrubbing out sinks after doing dishes. I helped bake bread and count the number of canned vegetables and jams in the basement. I learned how long it takes to polish a rock in a polisher. And yes, I did catch fireflies in on of grandma’s old mason jars for a nightlight, only to release them each morning to start again that night.

These memories are in stark contrast to the collection of drawings I looked at this week from children in IDP (Internally Displaced People) camps of refugees from the Darfur area of Sudan. Instead of pictures of family life and events of joy, children in these camps, witnesses to the ongoing genocide in that country, drew frightening and consistent pictures of homes being burned and people being attacked. For them, there is no peace. The drawings can be viewed in full here. Here is one of them.

The five hundred drawings collected by Waging Peace amount to a form of criminal evidence from silent witnesses. The killings, bombing and looting shown in the drawings directly contradict the Government of Sudan’s version of events over the last four years of bloodshed. The pattern that emerges from these drawings corroborates what we know has been taking place in Darfur and shows a worryingly similar pattern of attacks developing in Eastern Chad.

There have been 5 years of conflict in this region. Now there are school age children who are living in camps that no nothing of peace. Over 1 million of Darfuri children know only a life of destruction, not of home.

This young boy was 8 when his village in Darfur was attacked in 2003 by Janjaweed and Sudanese armed forces. He is now 12 and living in a refugee camp in Eastern Chad.

In this drawing the attackers, on camel and hose backs and in armed vehicles, are setting the houses on fire and shooting at civilians from all corners (note how the bullets are crossing each others paths). The villagers are also fighting back with spears and arrows, while the Janjaweed and Sudanese forces are attacking them with machine guns.

The skin colour of the attackers is lighter than that of the victims, clearly denoting the ethnic character of the attacks.

The tribes of the Darfur region in Sudan are African, not Arab. As the Janjaweed rebels (backed by the Sudanese government) put it as they slaughter villages, “They are too black.” At the crux of this conflict we find race, not religion. More than 400,000 Black African people have been killed, and more than 2 million Black African people have been forced to leave their homes.

Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. Deuteronomy 24:17

“Never again” was the rally cry after the Holocaust. “Never again” was shouted after the Rwandan genocide in the early 1990’s. Yet, it is happening again. A child is a child of God, no matter where they live, how they worship, or what color their skin happens to be. It’s time to LEARN about this conflict and genocide. DO something to help. TELL others.

Start here.

blackbird

Driving around town on errands this weekend, I had a Wayne and Garth moment. Some will recall the SNL skit with Dana Carvey and Mike Meyers and their skit, “Wayne’s World.” Their show on Cable 10, out of a basement in Aurora, Illinois sometimes included the “tolululu, tolululu, tolululu,” noises and the wavy fingers simulating going back in time.

What was the trigger for my cheesy flashback? The sound of the red wing black bird. The trill, noted as some websites as, “Cong-a-lee!” call of the male bird defending his territory. I was immediately transported back to a back road outside of Hudson, Iowa. I was on my way to visit my parents when, about 4 miles out of town, our car died and coasted to a stop. This was pre-cell phone time, so after trying to rouse some help from Wayne my brother’s family at a local farmhouse, I decided to walk back to town. Our dog, Doogie was with me, but I had no leash, failing to pack it with all the sewing supplies I’d packed to quilt with on this trip. So, I fashioned a leash two extension cords and off we trotted in the summer afternoon.

In fast cars with air conditioning, rarely do we hear the sounds of the countryside, nor see the constant buzzing of activity. Dragonflies and bee hummed in the distance, occasionally passing close by to Doogie and I. About a mile into our walk, I heard the trills of red wing blackbirds as I approached marshy ditches by a small river. Perched on reeds spaced a several yards apart were males with their brightly colored yellow and red striped wings sounding the intruder alert. Somewhere in the foggy recesses of my brain I remember my mom telling me that this type of bird was territorial just as the first dive-bombed me. By the third or forth pass, growing ever so close, even the dog started cowering. In a flash of inspiration, I took the slack from the homemade dog leash, swinging it like a lasso above my head. Protected! We lassoed through territory after territory, making our way home.

“So that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.” Isaiah 41:20

Often God gives us tools to resolve a problem. What I’ve come to realize is that usually instant fixes are not just plopped in our laps, ready to apply like a tonic or out-of the box functionality, an instant result without much work on our part to help along a situation. God is a God of creation. Creation of the world teeming with constant regeneration and creativity. Every spring comes with new growth and new life. Our lives are the very testament of learning, changing and renewing as we mature in Christ. Creativity is one of those skills we are taught that we ‘have it’ or we don’t. I say, we all have it.

As God’s children, we are all give the ability to be creative. Perhaps creatively coming up with new approaches to solving problems? Or maybe it is planning events or teaching others? The key is to discover that our own creativity extends past talents we traditionally perceived as creative or ‘artistic’. Past the visual arts, the sports and musical arenas into other areas our lives. God gave us this creativity. We must actively seek out how to use it to benefit the kingdom here and now.

Time to look past traditional view of creativity. Time to remember we are all creative beings made in God’s image. Time to fly.

Blackbird

Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Take these broken wings and learn to fly

All your life

You were only waiting for this moment to arise

Blackbird fly,

Blackbird fly

Into the light of the dark black night.

Black bird singing in the dead of night

Take these sunken eyes and learn to see

All your life

you were only waiting for this moment to be free

Blackbird fly,

Blackbird fly

Into the light of the dark black night.

Blackbird singing in the dead of night

Take these broken wings and learn to fly

All your life

You were only waiting for this moment to arise,oh

You were only waiting for this moment to arise, oh

You were only waiting for this moment to arise

By the Beatles

In Christ all things are possible,
Deana

flushed away

Visionary science fiction television show writer Gene Roddenberry inspired our generation ideas for ‘furthering’ our society with auto-opening doors, laser beams, colored screens for computers, walkie-talkie communicators (cell phone and blue tooth), and a variety of medical tri-cordery thingies for scanning the body. We all benefit from these futuristic visions.

Often, society creates new inventions and processes that improve our lives in the name of progress. Take the dishwasher for instance. This tool is a way to get around dishpan hands, hours washing dishes, while also efficiently sterilizing our plates and forks using less water. Truly something that helps us and helps the environment. A win/win.

The same can not be said about auto-flush toilets, the bane of today’s restrooms.

I never gave these inventions much thought until the past couple of years when my daughter went from preschool to the new elementary school in town. The preschool was ‘old school’ with the standard flush handles on your basic institution toilets. No problem there. The new elementary school has auto flush toilets and auto towel dispensers. I guess in the designers mind, this is considered 21st century restroom design. And, perhaps, it also helps keep the bathrooms clean with less, er ‘waste’.

As for you, my flock. . . Is it not enough for you to feed on good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough? Ezekiel 34:17-18

What is also did, unfortunately, was train my daughter not to flush toilets anymore. Now, home bathrooms with none of the auto-amenities are left un-flushed for the next family member. What concerns me even more is that is also teaches my daughter that messes she leaves in her wake are not her responsibility to clean up, that something or someone else will clean it up for her. And if these messes aren’t her responsibility, how will this affect her understanding of her role in how to restore our earthly environment? I wonder if we are teaching the next generation that using what is there and leaving the mess behind is an acceptable way to live.

The land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants. Throughout the country that you hold as a possession, you must provide for the redemption of the land. Leviticus 25:23-24

In a country where consumerism is king, where we are given every opportunity to take and use and not encouraged return in kind, what is the best way to teach responsibility for resources, land and animals? Unfortunately the U.S. is #1 in trash producing countries, creating about 1,609 pounds of trash per person per year. From my standpoint, responsibility starts at home, how I live my life, how I teach my daughter to live. It’s one step, one recycle can, one commode flushed at a time. In any event, for the progress of convenience, comes a price. And we, my friends, have just begun to pay it.

I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and you made my inheritance detestable. Jeremiah 2:7

Take a step today. Do something to give back what you take from the earth.

In Christ,

Deana

a new song

“Expect to have hope rekindled. Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways. The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again.” Sarah Ban Breathnach

The first time I pulled an all nighter I was in 6th grade. It was at a 12th birthday party sleep over for Sarah Terrell. After a night of too much junk food and the threat of frozen underwear for those who went to bed too early, most settled down to whisper in their sleeping bags by 4 AM. It was around 5:30 when the last of the stragglers finally fell asleep and I was alone with the dawn. I went out on to the steps in the cold April air, thrilled with the fact that I actually made it. I stayed up all night!

As the sun rose, I listened to birds, the first time that spring. In Iowa, Spring comes later than Kansas as it is a full growing zone colder. I heard the red-wing black birds and especially robins. Hearing robins and seeing them dot lawn landscapes has always meant a change of seasons to me. A change I eagerly wait for each year. This week, I heard and saw robins, highly appropriate since Spring began in the wee hours of March 20. Unlike Iowa, spring arrives on time in Kansas.

Each year, I am amazed at how much I missed birds chirping as I take the dogs out in the morning. Hearing them usher I the day with beautiful chirps and trills perks up not only my dogs’ ears, but mine as well. The birds sing as winter straggles out the back door leaving behind a trail of grayed snow, salty sidewalks and a brown, tired landscape. The birds sing in celebration as Spring bursts off the front porch, greening grasses, pushing snowdrops and hyacinths through cold mud, and bringing warmer winds to melt petrified parking lot ice heaps.

I must admit I am happy to see any season transition to the next. Each season plays a part in a cycle, a rhythm. Our God is a process God. From seed, sprout, growth, bud, flower and fruit, each part of a plant’s existence has a purpose, a time and is necessary in the natural progression of life. The same can be said about human development. From egg to embryo to infant and child, then adolescent and adult, each stage has a time and purpose. We continuously grow to the next state of being.

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Matthew 28: 5-8

This coming Sunday is Easter, a time to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is also a good to examine where you are right now in your spiritual life. It is where you need to be right now, but isn’t where God expects you to stay. God never says, yes, you have grown in Christ’s likeness enough. Have you been in this season a long or short time? Are you moving towards the next steps of your journey? Where is God leading your heart next? What new song can you hear on the soft spring breezes? Where ever it may be, look to it with joy and anticipation.

And he departed from our sight that we might return to our heart, and there find Him. For He departed, and behold, He is here. ~St Augustine

He has risen.
He has risen, indeed.

In Christ,
Deana

Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples. Psalm 96: 1-3

wastelands and desert people gardeners

Wasteland
1. Land that is desolate, barren, or ravaged.
2. A place, era, or aspect of life considered as lacking in spiritual, aesthetic, or other humanizing qualities; a vacuum: a cultural wasteland.

Wasteland is a word, when Googled, brings up 9,010,000 entries in .20 seconds. From bands to songs to poems to suburbs, our world is full of examples of wastelands. There is a song called Baba O’Reilly, often labeled, “Teenage Wasteland,” by the Who. Waste Land is one of T.S. Eliot’s most famous poems. It describes a journey of the human soul searching for redemption using a revolutionary style at that time. The Wasteland is a Celtic motif that ties the barrenness of a land with a curse that must be lifted by a hero. Wastelands shows up in Irish mythology and French Grail romances, and hints of it may be found in the Welsh stories as well. In the Bible, wastelands and deserts surround communities.

There are many stories in the Bible which show wastelands (deserts) as places of testing. The people of Israel wandered 40 years in the desert to learn faithfulness to God. John the Baptist was the voice calling from the desert of the coming Christ. Jesus was tested for 40 days in the desert by Satan to grasp the reigns of empire and spiritual power. Wastelands are testing and proving grounds.

I am being tested.

I am a desert dweller in just on the perimeter of a metro area in a community which is far from the intense life of inner city Kansas. In fact, many of the metro areas I’ve traveled through or lived in over my lifetime have a pattern of weaker inner cities (services, money, etc.) surrounded by more affluent neighborhoods and communities or ‘burbs with less visible poverty. Yes, all cities have poverty, but it seems to concentrate in the rundown areas of the inner city cores in a seemingly downward spiral of despair. The result of this isolation is a wasteland of comfort and affluence is a life cut off from people in the city, numbing my ability to recognize need, want, to the stories of the homeless. Where I live feeds the ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ paradigm through geographic separation, commuting between suburbs to work, and the lack of constant visual reminders of suffering.

This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Judah, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. Because they have rejected the law of the Lord and have not kept his decrees, because they have been led astray by false gods, the gods their ancestors followed, I will send fire upon Judah that will consume the fortresses of Jerusalem.” This is what the Lord says: “For three sins of Israel, even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. They sell the righteous for silver, and the needy for a pair of sandals. They trample on the heads of the poor as upon the dust of the ground and deny justice to the oppressed. Amos 2:4-7

I am being tested not to ignore the cry of the poor and oppressed. Tested to look past the Applebee’s and Chili’s, the Mall, the Wal-Marts and other strip mall, cookie cutter establishments that dot the suburbs to the cry of the poor and needy in the town where I live. Tested to look deeper into what I consume and ask, “Who made this? Were the people who made these garments treated with respect or in a sweatshop? Do I need another one of these things?” More and more I think, “Should it be this way?”  For the last question, the answer is a definite no. I do not have all the answers to these questions, but I keep searching and keep asking more questions. In the meantime, I look for more ways to love my neighbors, wherever they live.

Jesus did not think that only he sowed the Word of God. He was constantly sending people away, telling them also to sow the seed of the kingdom . . . a distracting, violent, and tempting world, keep sowing the seeds of love. Sow it everywhere, even when Herod cuts it down, and even when the world’s riches try to choke it.

Sowers must not become discouraged easily. The disciples were constantly butting up against Jesus’ thoughts about the way God’s reign comes on earth. ‘It will never work that way!’ you can hear the disciples thinking at almost every encounter. They thought the kingdom would come quickly like the apocalypse, as almost all revolutionaries from Marx to Guevara have insisted. But Jesus’ revolutionary patience claimed that another kingdom is coming—one that you can participate in but cannot build; a seed you can plant and water but cannot make grow. You can’t drag the kingdom of God into the world. But you can’t stop sowing the seeds either. Sow them everywhere. “Jesus for President,” (Claiborne and Haw) You can read more about this book here.

I leave you with these lyrics from the ‘80’s band Tears for Fears. The still ring true after their release in 1989, almost 20 years ago. Something to ponder as you ask your own questions and search for answers.

Seeds of Love

By Tears for Fears

High time we made a stand and shook up the views of the common man
And the lovetrain rides from coast to coast
D.j.s the man we love the most
Could you be, could you be squeaky clean
And smash any hope of democracry ?
As the headline says youre free to choose
Theres egg on your face and mud on your shoes
One of these days theyre gonna call it the blues

And anything is possible when youre sowing the seeds of love
Anything is possible - sowing the seeds of love

I spy tears in thier eyes
They look to the skies for some kind of divine intervention
Food goes to waste !
So nice to eat, so nice to taste
Politician grannie with your high ideals
Have you no idea how the majority feels ?
So without love and a promise land
Were fools to the rules of a goverment plan
Kick out the style ! bring back the jam !

Anything…
Sowing the seeds
The birds and the bees
My girlfriend and me in love

Feel the pain
Talk about it
If you’re a worried man - then shout about it
Open hearts - feel about it Open minds - think about it
Everyone - read about it Everyone - scream about it !
Everyone, Everyone - read about it, read about it
Read in the books in the crannies and the nooks there are books to read
(Chorus 0

(mr. england sowing the seeds of love)

Time to eat all your words
Swallow your pride
Open your eyes

High time we made a stand and shook up the views of the common man
And the love train rides from coast to coast
Every minute of every hour - I love a sunflower
And I believe in love power, love power, love power !!!

Sowing the seeds
An end to need
And the politics of greed
With love

change

Most of us can remember times or places when significant changes happen in our lives. Perhaps these events are graduation, marriage, the birth of a baby, a baptism or confirmation, the death of someone we hold dear. All these are significant events with traditions, ceremonies and acknowledgement that things are changing. Often I’ve noticed this is not often the case in spiritual or discipleship growth, at least not for me. These changes seem more subtle, often persistent until I yield and turn to another direction or another pathway. Such is the case now as I transition to something different.

Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. Isaiah 1: 17

This change began on a mission trip to Houston almost 2 years ago. A small but mighty contingent of FirstLighters (Pastors Steven and Ben, 4 young women and myself) went to serve through the CSM (Center for Student Mission) for a week. This was my first week-long endeavor into Mission and I was nervous. This was unknown territory to the urban core and I had no idea what it would be like or how I should act, but something (God) told me I HAD to go. And so after a few weeks of hemming and hawing, I raised my hand to become an adult leader on the trip.

God presides in the great assembly; he gives judgment among the “gods”: “How long will you defend the unjust and show partiality to the wicked? Selah Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked. Psalms 82:1-4

It was mind-blowing, wholly educational and way, way different than I imagined. It honestly changed my life. You see, I can trace back the decision I made to go to Houston as the starting point for where I believe God wants me to go now.

For the past 6 months I’ve considered moving my service from Worship to the Glocal Missions area of FirstLight with Carol Zimmerman and the rest of the team. This has been influence by books I’ve read, activities I’ve participated in and even what others have said to me. Most importantly, through prayer/talking with and listening to God, this decision has been mulled over and over. Rest assured, this decision has not been made on impulse.

There is, as it should be, always a need for more leadership in Missions. Indeed, I also have a growing passion in this area that can benefit God’s Kingdom, to rally around those who are poor, oppressed and ignored on the fringes of society and world. I really feel that God wants me to serve here.

I will be transitioning at the end of March. You may still see me helping with setup or tear down or singing with the band as continued service in FirstLight ministries, but Ambiance and related duties will be taken over by Jamie Norris and others within the Worship Team. I have learned so much from these 3 years on the Worship team and I will miss it. Yet, I feel that God is calling me to do this. And what I’ve discovered is that gentle persistent voice of change is very hard to ignore.

Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. 3 Isaiah 10:1-3

In Christ we all serve,
Deana

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have too much…it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” - Franklin Delano Roosevelt