It's New Year's Eve.

from Psalm 51 (the NIV version)
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight,

from Psalm 51 (the Message version)
8 Tune me in to foot-tapping songs, set these once-broken bones to dancing. ... 10 God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.

This psalm was written after Nathan had the guts to tell David what he had done wrong when he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and arranged to have her husband killed. Terrible wrongs that hurt many people. But David knows his greatest sin was against God.

Sins that hurt "only ourselves" are also sins against God.

This is a good time for a "Genesis week from the chaos of my life."

Deep calls to deep

7 Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.

8 By day the LORD directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.

-from Psalm 42

The Spiritual Formation Group at Shelfari is starting a study of Foster's Celebration of Discipline, which for many of us is a re-read. I'm using Foster's Study Guide to "lead" discussion. I put "lead" in quotes because I'm not so concerned with who follows, but that I am more accountable. Foster recommends this psalm to get started and all the images of water make my heart skip a beat, because it is images of water that have spoken most to me from scripture. (can I say "roared"?)

Running the Numbers

"... looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 426,000 cell phones retired every day. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. My underlying desire is to emphasize the role of the individual in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming. "

-Chris Jordan

Christmas traditions in media

My parents loved to listen to Dylan Thomas recite "A Child's Christmas in Wales". Thanks to the internet, I can share this with you.

And thanks to StumbleUpon, I've found another kind of music site, Songza. This one plays exactly what you want to hear (provided its on the web someplace). Today I've got my playlist set to play Handel and Bach.

Life Together/ Our Multicultural Church

Matt's blog really got me thinking. Here's my end of the conversation.

So I went to church yesterday. Our new pastor looks like Rowan Atkinson and speaks on two pitches - high note, low note, high note, low note - like a Mr. Bean pastor.

But I really am glad I went. There was a true feeling of communion and joy. And that's why I go to church. I get better sermons on the internet, and I can do better "Sunday school" study on the internet, but I can't get communion and joy anywhere else as I can in my church. Deitrich Bonhoeffer was right.

I read another article on Matt's blog and it makes me reflect on why my church has its great diversity (I think about this a lot.)I don't think it is because of the efforts of our current leadership. Our deacons are generally good old boys, complete with puffy hair and cowboy boots. Our retired former pastor was an important factor ... but so far, the misfits, such as me, that became part of the church, still feel very welcome.

The multi-generational families contribute a lot to age diversity. And even though I am the only one in my local family who is Christian, I love to see that at my church some couples CAN stay married, and whole families can worship together.

Another factor is my son's mother-in-law. She is from Panama and is as wonderful a Christian example that I know. She hosted a family of 5 in her very small house so that we could have Spanish-speaking associate pastor. When that family got their own house, she hosted another family so that we could have a Portugese-speaking congregation. She used her own money to fund the beginning of our ESL mission, the one that I'm involved in.

Then there are the African-American members who are really quite diverse from each other, but who I think have great guts to go against social pressures from their community and attend a historically "white" church. Our youth group really sticks out at a Southern Baptist gathering.

But, as our former pastor said. this a delicate thing. A precious thing, but something we don't talk about, something we don't promote. We are all pleased about it, but we don't know how we've succeeded. Generally folks in our church don't gripe and analyze and squirm the way I do. I'm pretty sure if there were a lot more INTJ's we'd probably spoil the wonderful diversity we have. But I'm not too worried that a lot of folks like me will be around.

I'm not doing a good job at leading to this conclusion, but here it is anyway. I think we have diversity because the amazing work of individuals. And that is not easy to create.

How to Survive Church

It's Sunday again and I'm again uncertain of if and where I'll be going to church. So I'm stalling on the internet and stumbled across a great blog entry . Who says the blog is dead?

Listening to Pandora

I have enjoyed Pandora for almost two years now ... maybe more. Right now I'm listening to mostly classical Christmas music. Non-stop, no commercials, no station breaks ... and, the BEST PART, if I don't like a selection I just give it thumbs down and it goes away!!
So, it occurs to me, dear Readers (all three), that you may have not heard of Pandora. If, not, here's a link. And it's free!

Pick your battles

"Christianity won't rise or fall on whether Wal-Mart employees say "Merry Christmas". But its future does depend, in part, on how God's people advance God's kingdom as we help establish his peaceful rule in the present historical moment, until Christ reigns in all his glory." - C. Colson

Mr. Colson has put into words something I've been thinking since I became a Christian about 11 years ago. I am grateful for those prominent Christians who advocate FOR something more than against something.

A good kick in the pants

I'm reading a wonderful book on teaching. It evokes so many of my feelings about teaching and reminds me of the true rewards of the profession.

What Would Jesus Buy?

From the guy who made "Supersize Me" comes this holiday movie:

"What Would Jesus Buy? follows Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Gospel Choir as they go on a cross-country mission to save Christmas from the Shopocalypse: the end of mankind from consumerism, over-consumption and the fires of eternal debt!"

http://www.wwjbmovie.com