A Corinthian Lifestyle

     Paul has written a letter in 1 Corinthians, chapter one, to a church he began on a small, 4 mile isthmus, connecting the north and south parts of Greece together. It was small in size, but Corinth had a big reputation for serving up a good time to rich merchants and sailors. Every nation in the civilized world, Arabia, Phoenicia, Libya, Babylonia, Cilicia, Lycao and Phrygia all had reason to visit this small, but very important piece of property, because it linked them to Rome. Instead of sailing around Italy, sailors saved 202 miles by hauling boats and their goods across Corinth, and launching them on the other side of the island. Corinth had much to offer a tired, hungry and lonely sailor. There was the temple of Aphrodite that loomed above Corinth, on the hill of the Acropolis, home to the goddess of love and her 1000 sacred prostitutes. But there was nothing sacred about their evening journey to work their sex trade on the streets of Corinth.


     Paul is addressing certain actions that are everywhere evident in our culture today. I don’t know about your town, but we have more bars than grocery stores, only 50% of our teens graduate from high school (CASA 2010), and there are a host of habits and addictions keeping us from holy. I like the way Eugene Peterson decribes holy in Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, as something blazing - a community bonfire. But is there a desire to be holy in our culture today? We want heroes and idols, but do we want holy?

History Repeats Itself Again

     It’s not the first time Egyptians have been oppressed. Possibly, sometime between 1300-1200 BC Moses was given charge over approximately 1.5 million complaining people. They were oppressed by Egyptian leadership. The book of Exodus describes a God who saw this evil oppression and was intensely personal in His response.  He hears their cry in the midst of their oppression and comes down to rescue and deliver them from the power of the corrupt Egyptian leadership. God also gave them a picture of where they were going – into a land that was already occupied. They will have to fight to get it back. It could be described as a '12-step' plan. This didn't happen overnight. Like an alcoholic who has given over the land of his mind, body and soul to consumption, he must fight and battle his way back to possess the territory of his heart. Once again, Egyptians are fighting oppression and I hope and pray they receive their land. 

"Write With Precision and Restraint"

This week on PBS Newshour, Art Beat, Journalist and Author, Roger Rosenblatt talked about his new book, Unless it Moves The Heart, The Craft and Art of Writing. He believes that what we write must be useful to the world, and it’s important, because what we write can make suffering endurable, evil intelligible, justice desirable and love possible. He is teaching the craft of writing because he wants to give himself to others for an hour or two each week, and encourages others to do the same – give to others.



The noun he says is important. Emerson said the noun carries its own power, and Twain said a writer must find the right word, because it’s the difference between the lightening bug and the lightening. And so Rosenblatt tells his students that they are in the lightening business, and so, strive for anticipation rather than surprise, imagination rather than invention and make the world better. He calls this the ultimate definition of useful.

God At Work

     It was a small, intimate gathering of fellow bloggers. We meet monthly to be encouraged and enriched in our blogging endeavors. We learn about various tools our instructor explains and sometimes demonstrates for us, giving us examples about writing inside our blogs. And we are introduced to ideas, lots of ideas about why we blog, the importance of sharing our passions, and even serving the community with the writing in our blogs.

     But tonight was special. We were wrapping it up, going past our 2 hours which is easy to do, even with busy schedules and other priorities screaming for our attention. And then it happened. Our attention was brought to something higher than ourselves, way beyond this drive to write out the surf on our creative edge. It began when our instructor just wanted to be thankful. She reviewed how God spared her daughter from harm after she had been mugged recently. She was not injured, and after finding some of the cards in her purse that were thrown on the ground, accounts were closed and nothing was lost. Even though she was quite shaken, there was someone at work on her behalf that night that brought hope to a rejoicing mother. When her daughter ran back to the restaurant for help, one of her customers had given her daughter a hand-written note containing $50, announcing that it was the help of God that brought her back safe and unharmed. We were all recognizing God at work in different ways in our lives, and then our attention was turned to confessions of our fellow bloggers’ practice of praying. She talked of her preoccupation of communing with God in the mornings. Often after her morning prayers, she would hover in the silence during the next moments, waiting and listening for a response spoken in a language only her heart could understand, telling her that God did indeed hear her prayers. When she mentioned a list of names she had a habit of praying for everyday, our instructor asked if her name was on that list. Oh who wouldn’t want to be on her prayer-list! It was like listening to Mother Teresa revealing secrets to partaking in the divine! And then as some of us were heading for home, I was struck by this rare phenomenon. I wish it wasn’t so uncommon, but how often do we hear people rejoicing over the things that God is doing? It was sweet and holy and very special.

Part II

Holy people are supposed to forgive. A Christian lives differently. He answers to a higher calling. But sometimes it doesn't happen. He bleeds and hurts and gets stuck in unforgiveness. It is unnatural to look the other way and forgive. We naturally hang onto grudges and remember how we got hurt. We feel the pain. It stings. People do need to be held accountable for their actions. At the same time we can also forgive them so that the action doesn't keep replaying over and over again in our minds. If someone steals something they need to give it back or make restitution. I can forgive them for their bad choice, and it would also make sense to protect my belongings and not lend to that person. It's good to set healthy boundaries.

The choice to forgive exonerates me from resentment and hate. It liberates me from living in the trap of  wrong emotional ties. People hurt people sometimes because they are hurting and have lots of baggage they don't know how to unpack, or just don't want to do the hard work. Forgiveness doesn't get entangled in another person's unresolved issues. It buries me in a new life.   

Love Someone Enough To Use The “F” Word

I am in a room filled with beautiful brilliant light from the morning sun that radiates rays of joy through the window pane. A sweet feeling sweeps over me as I stand in the warmth. Walking over to the window, I reach up for the little plastic ring connected to the bottom of the roman shade and with great ease of motion, pull the shade down, knocking out those white hot rays of gleaming bright light. Unforgiveness pulls the shade down on the window of my heart. When I am hurt, my automatic reaction is to believe I have to live in the shame of the wound and allow unforgiveness to hurl ugly taunts in my face. In that moment of pain I can choose to open my heart to ingest the putrid pieces of this lie and allow it to fester inside my heart, or reject it and forgive. I am a Christian, but have at times become disillusioned with the term, especially as I see the way I respond to those around me in light of what is written about me, as a Christian, in the Bible.



Jesus could have been saving Himself at the same moment He saved the whole world. He chose to wrap Himself onto a rugged cross with His own blood staining the wood after hours of cruel torture. He didn’t hold that horrendous injustice against a crowd of self-proclaimed judges. No doubt, I am numbered among those self-righteous judges. But He chose to let me off the hook today, and forgive my many actions when He said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” I think we do know the kind of action we take against this perfect man, but have no idea the consequences of unleashing what is inside our hearts. Some of the manuscripts from Christian scribes or ‘other ancient authorities’ lack this sentence. How could this be?

Return Wednesday for Part II

A Place For Dreamers

Bryce Courtenay writes in his book, The Power of One, in each of us there burns a flame of independence that must never be allowed to go out. That as long as it exists within us we cannot be destroyed.  I like this. My culture wants to put expectation upon us to be and complete certain tasks at appropriate age levels. It demands a kind of generic similarity. In a brief and very simplistic overview, on average, each economic level has familiar family accomplishments. Children go to school, some begin at 2 years of age if they are potty trained and thus begins a long process of education, after school sports and extra-curricular activities – as much as you can pile onto an individual and cram into a day. Little time is left to think, meditate, ponder and mull over, learning from your parents/relatives experiences, or even to be taught their ways in areas of their expertise. Media stimulation has become a huge influence on lifestyle, demanding a larger portion of our time. Parental units are working very hard to pay for everything that goes along with the lifestyle. In another economic level, more parental units don’t stay intact and home life is more dysfunctional than functional and children are relegated to whatever is available through government programs and school initiatives. On another economic level, children are afforded the best of schools, even boarding and prep schools. Some leave their homes for training at an early age during a school year to take advantage of expensive intellectual stimulation. The outcome is usually, what kind of a job/career you will engage in for the rest of our life. But these days, for economic stability, many do not have the luxury of one lifetime career, but find themselves thrown into a situation that demands them to break out of a routine and decide to get creative about their money supply, the lack of, and think outside the generic box.  These survivors are independent thinkers and their flames burn white hot. It’s the kind of flame that brings life to many precarious circumstances. Many are drawn to its heat that burns a new kind of challenge into the fabric of society. It burns out a place for dreamers.