Hope in Forgiveness

I came across this quote from Miroslav Volf recently, and its challenged me to think and act! Read it slowly or perhaps a few times as I did.

"Forgiveness is the boundary between exclusion and embrace. It heals the wounds that the power-acts of exclusion have inflicted and breaks down the dividing wall of hostility. Yet it leaves a distance between people, an empty space of neutrality, that allows them either to go their separate ways in what is sometimes called 'peace' or to fall into each other's arms and restore broken communion.

Much more than just the absence of hostility sustained by the absence of contact, peace is communion between former enemies. Beyond offering forgiveness, Christ's passion aims at restoring such communion--even with the enemies who persistently refuse to be reconciled."

The truth is, this forgiveness thing has been on my mind for some time. If I'm honest, I have to admit that I've got a lot of work to do in this department! So I've built a daily habit of "forgive - release - bless". Simply put, I reflect and pray about people, situations, conflicts, etc., and then ask for insight on who I need to fully forgive, then release them and ask God to bless them.

Note that in all these cases, the presenting issues or conflict are over. Where needed, I've asked for forgiveness and in some cases, I've been asked to extend it. What I'm working on now is finishing the job ... doing the remedial work in my own soul so that I can truly "release and bless".

As I've practiced this simple ritual since December 2010, I've been surprised by:

1. The number of people I've needed to "release and bless"
2. The cumulation of negative stuff that needs active attention to dismiss
3. The freedom and "more positive" outlook in my own soul

Recently I was prompted to add one more feature to this soul work. That is, in the case of a very old wound, I needed to call a trusted friend and tell him that I had forgiven, released and blessed someone we both knew. It felt good to bless and be blessed by my friend ... by healing the old wound, not reopening it! 

I wish I could say, "follow these three simple steps and you'll be fixed for life", but I can't. Somehow God cherishes us in our journey away from brokenness, so I imagine that people like you and me still have a lot of work to do in this soul area.

However, I can say that in each situation (or person) that I've released and blessed ... I feel much less blame or self-justification and ton more compassion. I've begun to feel that 'neutral space between', that is peace. This is a huge reward in my own soul.

So join me in changing the world, by finding hope in forgiveness. Try the ritual of "forgive - release - bless" for a week and see what happens in your own soul.

Your smile didn't matter [seth godin repost]

Your smile didn't matter:

If you worked on the line, we cared about your productivity, not your smile or approach to the work. You could walk in downcast, walk out defeated and get a raise if your productivity was good.

No longer.

Your attitude is now what's on offer, it's what you sell. When you pass by those big office buildings and watch the young junior executives sneaking into work with a grimace on their face, it's tempting to tell them to save everyone time and just go home.

The emotional labor of engaging with the work and increasing the energy in the room is precisely what you sell. So sell it.

Conservation of Ethiopia’s Church Forests

Conservation of Ethiopia’s Church Forests by bugcounter:

Closer view of Debresena church forest- South Gondar, Ethiopia (Photo–Alemayehu Wassie)
My primary reason for this trip to Ethiopia is to lend a hand to a team of researchers who are working to conserve the biodiversity of Ethiopia’s church forests. Ethiopia’s Christian heritage is about as old as the religion itself. The land that churches are built on are considered holy land and are spared the harvesting of trees for building material, fuel, and agricultural land.

Some of these forests are 1,500 years old and exist as “hot spots” or reservoirs of biodiversity. We will survey the relative distribution and abundance with special focus on assessing the ecosystem services that insects provide (as pollinators, herbivores, seed dispersers, and agents for seed germination, and nutrient cycling). With this data, we will make recommendations for conservation and management of these last remnants of Afro-montane forests of Ethiopia.

Another important part of our work here is to empower Sunday school children as the future stewards of these forests. We will engage children in the observations, surveys, and appreciation of their local insects. Because this conservation priority, the sites that were selected are adjacent to elementary schools with active Sunday school programs.

A New Idea

A Reflective post by my son Brett ... from his blog "Life in Manila" 

A New Idea: "Yesterday I was in class and we did this Bible reflection thing called 'Lectio Divina.' After relaxing ourselves and our minds, our teacher read a paraphrased version of Genesis 1:1-6, then paused, then read it again. After the second reading we were to write what stuck out, or was special to us, or really anything. I am ADHD, which means I don't sit still, I have a hard time paying attention to a speaker, and the 'H' stands for hyperactive which speaks for itself. For me to calm my brain down and meditate is border line impossible. But I gave it my best, because I know the importance of slowing everything down and just focusing on God. I did ok, but I think I would have needed a much longer amount of time.

One thing that blew me away was my classmate's reflections. A Korean classmate humbled me with an amazing insight and beautiful poem. I am actually going to try and post it here because it was so wonderful. But after listening, suddenly I had an idea to write a series of reflections on the glory of God. I want to take some of my favorite passages and write about how it displays the glory of God. Sometimes we can get lost in the Bible, and without some important insights, we can be misguided, so I hope to take some not-so-common verses as well and maybe even try some of the challenging passages and expand them and show how glorious God is.

So here we go, I hope you can join me in constantly being stunned and in awe and wonder of God, and how truly wonderful He is:

His Glory Reflection Series - Part 1

'Look! The Lord is coming! He leaves His throne in heaven and tramples the heights of the earth. The mountains melt beneath His feet and flow into the valleys like wax in a fire, like water pouring down a hill.' Micah 1:3-4

Maybe you have tried to read the books of the prophets and read a passage like this and wondered what on earth God was doing? I would call this a stereotypical view of God, He is off in heaven holding His lightning bolts waiting for us to sin, and then fry our butts when we sin. Now, when I read this it makes me excited, and I begin to grasp a little more of the seemingly endless torrent of His glory.

What's important is to know why the author used this metaphor. At this time the Israelites were in a wonderful time of blessing. They were living it up, and people were getting rich, and in turn more were getting poor. If you read the book of Micah you can't miss the theme of justice. Micah's words are powerful, I like to call him the 'drop kick prophet,' because every time he spoke it was like a drop kick in the chest for the people he was talking to! Here is an example:

'Should you no know justice, you who hate good and love evil; who tear the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones; who eat my people's flesh, strip off their skin and break their bones in pieces; who chop them up like meat for the pan, like flesh for the pot?' Micah 3:1-3

Wow, imagine if you are the one he was saying that to. But Micah was burning from the inside out because of the injustice his nation was committing. They were in a wonderful time of blessing, but instead of living virtuous lives, they were like dogs fighting for all they could get. They cheated the poor, forgot the laws God had set before them, and choose to worship other Gods.

I get excited about God when I read the first verse I wrote because God was angry about the injustice. Imagine what it means for the poor to hear that God cares and sees injustice? Think of the picture that Micah is painting - a giant god coming down from heaven and smashing through the mountains and making them crumble like nothing. Micah was disgusted, and God had had enough! The chosen people of God had forgotten their purpose, they were to be the priestly nation, demonstrating the ways of God to the world, but instead they got entitlement mixed up with responsibility and lost sight of it all.

God's glory jumps off the pages because the one who made everything, I mean think about it - everything you have ever seen, person ever talked to, thing ever touched was spoken into existence by Him, and He cares and is even angered over the injustice He sees? Wow!!!!

Tonight I was speaking with a 9 year old boy in a squatter area. His dad pulled up in a pedicab(a bike with a side car on it used to take passengers around) extremely drunk. He hobbled over to me, sat down, looked at his son, the boy I was talking to and said the boy was bad. I wanted to drop kick him right then and there. I know him, and he has been a drunk for a long time, beat his wife till she left him, and he embarrasses his family waddling around drunk everyday and never provides for them. Go to any squatter area in the Philippines and he is a dime a dozen - but why? The easy thing to do would be to drop kick him, but the reality there is a lot more to this story. But the bottom line is injustice. It's having a life time of dignity stripped away from you, every chance to lead to an endless road of turns that will never get a person anywhere. It's a government who has got entitlement mixed up with responsibility. It's leaders who forget justice and love personal gain. Seems though Micah penned this down about 2700 years ago, but still the same thing is going on.

I celebrate God because He did not forget the people at the bottom! Those whose voices went unheard, were heard and God cared then, and He cares today, and the same way He burned with anger then He burns today! But where are the Micah's to call out the mutilators of flesh and declare that justice be upheld? Where are the intelligent, educated, and connected Issiah's elegantly rebuking a nation and guiding back to God? Where are the men and women who like Micah are seemingly burning from the inside with disgust? Where are the Amos' coming from the farms but willing to call out all those above him for their injustice?

I celebrate God because He uses people like these incredible men, to fearlessly preach to the nation what no one wanted to hear! Gods glory becomes tangible in these verses because He cares and when I see the poorest of the poor I know that even if no one looks twice my God sees them sitting there and has not forgotten. I see Gods glory in these verses because every time you have to look into the eyes of a child who has no hope, I know the one who breathed life into them truly cares about them!

I celebrate God in all His glory!

"

Return to me

Yet even now, says the Lord,
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord, your God,
[who] is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
and relents from punishing.

Joel 2:12-13

... there is freedom ...

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.


2 Corinthians 3:17-18

Psalm 36: 5,6

God's love is meteoric,
      his loyalty astronomic,
   His purpose titanic,
      his verdicts oceanic.
   Yet in his largeness
      nothing gets lost;
   Not a man, not a mouse,
      slips through the cracks.

Reading this made me feel connected.

Words of Anguish

"Confront me with the truth and I'll shut up,
show me where I've gone off the track.
Honest words never hurt anyone,
but what's the point of all this pious bluster?
You pretend to tell me what's wrong with my life,
but treat my words of anguish as so much hot air.
Are people mere things to you?
Are friends just items of profit and loss?

Job 6:25-27 The Message

I've been thinking about this passage of Job quite a bit recently. From my own journey, to those close to me who go through really tough times. Sometimes our words do "belong to the wind", because we speak from our pain. More difficult to deal with however, is the feeling that our words fall on deaf ears and we become less human for a moment.

I am thankful that Jesus hears me whenever I cry out, he hears my groans as clear expressions of a heavy heart. Yes, he does hear and I know that with certainty. But, if I'm fully honest with myself, I still need a person to look into my eyes as they listen to me, and to acknowledge my feelings. Then my humanity is restored and I can journey on and give myself to others in that same kind of 'human listening'.

Hope

Hope is the strongest driving force for a people. Hope which brings about change, which produces new realities, is what opens man's road to freedom. Once hope has taken hold, courage must unite with wisdom. That is the only way of avoiding violence, the only way of maintaining the calm one needs to respond peacefully to offenses.

Oscar Arias Sanchez

excerpted from his 1987 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.

We Belong to Each Other

Every seventh year you shall grant a remission of debts. And this is the manner of the remission: every creditor shall remit the claim that is held against a neighbor, not exacting it of a neighbor who is a member of the community, because the Lord's remission has been proclaimed.

Deuteronomy 15:1-2

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.

Mother Teresa

From the Sojourners Blog

Wages for the Poor

You shall not withhold the wages of poor and needy laborers, whether other Israelites or aliens who reside in your land in one of your towns. You shall pay them their wages daily before sunset, because they are poor and their livelihood depends on them; otherwise they might cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt.

Deuteronomy 24:14-15

Social Justice

For six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield; but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the wild animals may eat. You shall do the same with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard.

Exodus 23:10-11

Charity is commendable; everyone should be charitable. But justice aims to create a social order in which, if individuals choose not to be charitable, people still don’t go hungry, unschooled, or sick without care.

Bill Moyers,
television journalist and social commentator

Giving to the refugee, orphan, widow

When you beat your olive trees, do not strip what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, do not glean what is left; it shall be for the alien, the orphan, and the widow. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I am commanding you to do this.

Deuteronomy 24:20-22

Shock and Awe

Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness, and pride of power, and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear ... Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Fighting Injustice

"And so the poor continue to hope, while injustice is bound and gagged." Job 5:16

We fought injustice wherever we found it, no matter how large, or how small, and we fought injustice to preserve our own humanity.

Nelson Mandela

Things don't change that much ...

God was executed by people painfully like us, in a society very similar to our own ... by a corrupt church, a timid politician, and a fickle proletariat led by professional agitators.

- Dorothy L. Sayers,
The Man Born to Be King (1943)


Note: The proletariat (from Latin prollees, "offspring") is a term used to identify a lower social class; a member of such a class is proletarian. Originally it was identified as those people who had no wealth other than their sons. The term was initially used in a derogatory sense, until Karl Marx used it as a sociological term to refer to the working class. From Wikipedia.

St. Augustine

Charity is no substitute for justice withheld.

St. Augustine

‘Regard others as better than yourselves’

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.

- Philippians 2:3-7

I read this verse today while scanning the sojourners blog and it 'hit me' again. You see, I have a lot of writing and corresponding to do today and, I realize the my attitude aint a whole like like Jesus'. Sometimes I feel like I've taken on the 'role of a slave' -- but can I really take on the 'attitude of a slave'?

I know I need to get my 'tude' adjusted before I start my writing.

Comments anyone?

Problems? What problems?

"Intellectuals solve problems; geniuses prevent them."

-Albert Einstein

Leadership Intelligence

I came across this the other day and its another "wow".

Humility: Knowing the danger of getting educated beyond your intelligence.

That makes me think ... hmmm?
What say ye?