Journey Church: A Holistic Missional Christian Community in Dallas Texas

Lent Reflection

noreply@blogger.com (Dale) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:32:00 +0000

Lent reflection by John Loving:

The season of Lent is the on-going and never ceasing practice of Christian reflection of the final weeks of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. It is a season during which those who follow the way of the Lord contemplate the meaning of not only his actions, but of our own. We ruminate over the sayings of Jesus, and ultimately of our own. This is the season of Christian thinking, true Christian thinking, to which all theology must ultimately bow the knee and acknowledge its weakness, its incomplete nature. Christian theology, no matter its content, must recognize that it is hollow until it is informed by this season, in the shadow of both the life of Christ in these weeks, and in the practice of the Church.

But it must also be recognized that the season of Lent is not one only of contemplation. Contemplation is limited in its efficacious results, and the wisest of women and men may be far from being what, according to Christian faith and quite in opposition to ancient Greek (and even current) philosophy, is the perfect and highest life. The season of Lent is not restricted to contemplation, but is also a season of action. This is the season in which the Church, as a whole and in its individual members, either give something up or take something else in practice as a means of remembering the sacrifice of Jesus for the world. But this cannot be the end of our practice. Our practice is ultimately empty, as “filthy rags,” unless it is coupled with acts of graciousness and self-abnegation for the sake and well-being of our neighbors.

Hence the practice of Lent is to practice not only a constant state of remembrance of the grace of our God, but it is also to emulate that grace upon the world. It is to wage war against the selfishness of our being, it is to be willing to save others who need saving, even if they do not realize that they are in need. This is not a call for a militaristic form of evangelization, but it is a call to be always in realization of our shortcomings in the light of the actions of our God, who was crucified not only for our sins, but also the sake of the poor, the captive, oppressed, for whom he became bound in order that they may be free. It is for us, in order to realize the severity of our hubris and to be freed from it, and thus free to be a force that will raise our voices for the freedom of those who are oppressed by the powers of the world.

Lent, then, is not simply the season of remembrance. Lent is not only a time of the year when we give up something for a period of a few weeks. No, Lent is more, much more than that. Lent is the heartbeat of the Christian life, because Lent is the act of repentance and transformation. The death of Jesus of Nazareth is the only way to life, to resurrection, to the world transformed. The season of Lent cannot end on Easter Sunday. Lent continues through the year, and if we do not recognize this fact of the Christian life then we are guilty of the same sort of hard-headedness of those who, in the Jewish Scriptures, did not recognize that the Sabbath was a time to do good. We are commissioned to be transformed in the image of Jesus. This is the purpose of Lent.
Vicit agnus noster, eum sequamur. Our Lamb has conquered; him let us follow.

Looking at the Didache

noreply@blogger.com (Dale) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 16:42:00 +0000

Last week we had Tony Jones speak to us at Journey about the Didache, which is an early church manuscript. We will be continuing our series on this little book for the next 3 weeks at Journey. This week we will read together the beginning of the Didache which talks about the 2 ways, one of Life and One of Death.

You can listen to the audio of the reading of the full text of the Didache HERE.

You can also read the full text HERE online.

Join us on Sunday as we discuss this book together.

Tony Jones- January 17

noreply@blogger.com (danielle) — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:35:00 +0000

Tony Jones will be with us on Sunday, January 17 to kick off a series on the Didache, an early handbook on Christian practice. Tony's new book on the Didache, The Teaching of the Twelve, released earlier this month.

We hope you'll join us for what will be a great start to a great series!

New Year 2010 at Journey

noreply@blogger.com (Dale) — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:56:00 +0000

Join us at Journey on January 3rd at 5pm for our 1st gathering of 2010! Come take a moment to regroup from the holiday whirlwind and join us this New Years weekend! We will have an extended time of response as we travel through stations of meditation to reflect on the year past and consider the gift of the year to come. We hope it will be a great way to start off 2010 with intention and, of course, hope!

We will have some visually stunning representations of our hope for 2010. It's a perfect time to join us if you haven't been in a while.

Gifts for The Well

noreply@blogger.com (danielle) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:15:00 +0000

This year as part of our Advent Conspiracy we are continuing our tradition of adopting Well members at Christmas and bringing them gifts. (The Well is a ministry for people with mental illness.) For many of them, our gift will be the only one they receive. In the past we've purchased items from personalized wish lists but this year they are trying something new. They are asking us to bring $40 Wal-Mart giftcards. It is a real treat for them to be able to go shopping and pick out exactly what they want; something we often take for granted. They will be able to purchase clothes as well as toiletry items and food. There will be a designated day when all of them will load up in the bus and go shopping together, so it will be a communal activity also.

Thanks to all who have already signed up to bring cards! You can find the sign-up sheet on the blue table in the entryway. Checks can be made out to Journey. And don't forget, you can also go in on a card with friends! The deadline to bring money for the cards is Sunday, December 13.

Journey participates in Advent Conspiracy

noreply@blogger.com (Dale) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:48:00 +0000

We talked last Sunday about ways that we could live out the meaning of Christmas with our actions this season. Advent conspiracy is a unique way to look at it.

Why spend money on things they don't need or don't want?
Why get stressed about money and shopping this year?
We think there must be a better way, so here are some things Journey is doing to spread the love...

-We encourage you to re-evaluate how you spend Christmas individually, as a family, and as a community.

-Below are some links to great organizations you can give to if you spend less on Christmas - or - if you want to give a gift to someone as a donation to one of the organizations.

-Think of creative ways to give the gift of 'presence'.

-Join Journey as a community as we work together to reach our goal of raising enough money to help one family for one year (details on whether this will be done through Heifer international or The Well community to be announced next Sunday at Journey)

Some Links:

Living Water International
Kiva
Heifer
Trade as One

If you need some others ideas you can check out the Advent Conspiracy site.
Here is the video for this year:

Release Party For 'The Boundary-Breaking God' Nov. 9th

noreply@blogger.com (Dale) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:52:00 +0000

Come join in celebrating the release of Danielle's 1st book, "The Boundary Breaking God." This is going to be fun people! Bring your friends or neighbor or someone who you think would like the book! Big thanks to Misty Keasler and Brian Gibb for hosting at the amazing art gallery, The Public Trust. Light hors d'oeuvres and drinks will be provided.

You can buy the book at the party and have it signed! They will be available for $16 (list price is $20!)

Read some excerpts at the books page on Amazon HERE.

When: Monday November 9th 7-9pm, Click HERE for google map

I'll leave you with the endorsement from the Front cover of the book:

"I am more than grateful for this book. It is not only true, it is also beautiful to live with God's promise in the heart and God's enlarging horizon before your eyes."
-Jurgen Moltmann

Anniversary Party Pics!

noreply@blogger.com (danielle) — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 05:11:00 +0000

In June we had our 10 year Anniversary bash, and while we spent most of the evening mingling, eating and singing, we managed to take a few shots. Enjoy!

Movie Night At Journey on Friday July 17th

noreply@blogger.com (Dale) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 21:43:00 +0000

Join us on Friday at 7:30 pm for the movie screening of KING CORN.

FREE! Bring Your Friends!!!

From the website:
In King Corn, Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, nitrogen fertilizers, and power herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America's most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions about how we eat -- and how we farm.

A Pentecost Reflection

noreply@blogger.com (Dale) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:19:00 +0000

Well, last night was a first for Journey. Our Pastor (who was ready to lead the gathering at 5pm) got stuck in an airport in a different state with a canceled flight. Needless to say she couldn't make it on time. Despite not having Danielle to lead the gathering the community had a great discussion on Pentecost. It is so encouraging to be a part of a community that doesn't rely on only one person to 'preach the word.' But instead we can all chime in with our reflections in order build each other up. This is fitting for Pentecost, since it was at Pentecost when the Spirit was released and all followers of Jesus were able to be spokespeople for God. We are all now part of the ongoing story of God. Thanks to all who shared thoughts!

Below is the video that we were unable to show due to technical problems.

The reflection that Danielle wanted to have was this:
There’s a great song by the Fireflies called “Autumn Story,” and it happens to have a stunning video. The lyrics of the song itself speak in many ways about this life-giving way, this life of paying-it-forward, this act of watching the Spirit move and morph the story along from one thing to another, with our help. We are going to show this video as part of our response. And I wonder if during the lovely visuals and lyrics we might think about how we feel like passing on this great story in our lives- what visions we see, what dreams we dream, what people or issues we hope to speak about as the prophets we are all called to be...

Has it Been 10 Years?

noreply@blogger.com (Dale) — Fri, 15 May 2009 16:00:00 +0000

Why, yes. Yes it has. On June 7th Journey will host it's 10 year anniversary celebration. Mark your calendars to be there at 5pm for a great event. More details to come... but you can look forward to: multiple presentations from journey members past and present, an interactive art experience, and journey music throughout the years.

Parody of journey announcements

noreply@blogger.com (Dale) — Fri, 15 May 2009 15:52:00 +0000

Some funny guy (cough, Luke) made a video of Dale doing the announcements at Journey with this funny animation. I don't know how accurate it is, but...

Lent, Round Two

noreply@blogger.com (Dale) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:53:00 +0000

By Joe Chambers

It's Lent again, which reminds me that a year has passed. My inaugural Lent experience was one year ago. I didn't participate, really. I just hung out and observed. Somewhere there's a digital archive holding the blog of my experience, which concluded with my hope that in the coming year I would be more inclined to join in.

Sad though it may be, I felt less inclined this year than last. It's slightly pathetic. There are a few reasons why I resist partaking in Lent. One is that I hate the idea of fostering a sense of depression just to make the joy of Easter more abundant. Today has enough troubles as it is, why drive myself to despair with self-inflicted difficulties?

The greater reason though, is that over the last year my level of spirituality has plummeted to new lows. I say this not so much as a lament, but more as an honest statement of fact. I could proceed to list my reasons, whether to repent or justify myself, but I'll refrain. Basically, in this season of my life (hooray for seasons), I find most spiritual disciplines annoying. Lent included. I guess I'm at a point where I question all the ideas of being "closer" to God due to any actions I would take. Right now I feel God to be more mysterious, and honestly, more distant/unknowable than ever before.

Still, in spite of my reluctance, I am a sucker for peer pressure. When everyone at church started talking about it, I felt like I should join in regardless of my misgivings. There's also the small fact that my girlfriend took up the Lenten discipline of reading the Bible daily. This is her first time to ever read it. She's already finished Mark, and has started on Genesis. When she first informed me of her plans, the repressed evangelical in my head began tearing his robes with guilt. And how did I atone for my shortcomings?

I decided to make a point to attempt to work out three times a week.
. . .Thus far I've managed to make it to the gym about 5 times, which puts me about 7 workouts behind schedule. This is the point where I could concede defeat, and reinforce my anti-liturgical tendencies by feeling guilty. Instead of that, it seems proper to wrap this up by stating what I'm learning:

First, it seems that lack of discipline in life-in-general precludes any chance of benefiting from specific spiritual disciplines. I haven't made it to the gym because I haven't managed to be efficient with school, and therefore I'm always playing catch-up with the time I would otherwise dedicate to everything from working out to praying.

Second, and most importantly, Easter is merely the extension of Lent. The problem we get ourselves into is thinking that Jesus' selflessness in his march toward the cross was something he conceded to do reluctantly. I don't get the idea Jesus was particularly excited about the prospect of dying by torture, but it seems that he was so compelled in his way in life that the threat of death was something he merely disregarded.

In other words, the joy of Easter is only an extension of the joy of Lent. Jesus' life, even in the shadow of his death, was not characterized by a bitter, muttering consent for the trials he would endure. It was an joyful extension of his faith in a loving God, even in the shadow of a cross. That same joy is continuous through his death into his resurrection. If Lent is depressing to us, then I hardly find it believable that Easter will manage to cheer us up. Our attitudes toward the trials of Lent extend into the dawn of Easter.

Thus, my difficulties in finding any enthusiasm for this time of the year can be traced back to the fact that it seems whether I add something for Lent, or take something away, it seems that life will be characterized by more of the same. Easter then is mediocre at best, and Lent a sequence of drudgery that precedes it. Obviously, it doesn't have to be that way. Realizations are seeds of change for the days to come. So, maybe, hopefully, Lenten realizations can transform heavy obligations into ways of rest.

In a Place of Waiting

noreply@blogger.com (Dale) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:46:00 +0000

Written By Scott Childress...

This Lenten season is very personal for me - and the ideas of journeying, geography, movement and change hit even closer with what I have experienced in the past year.

In May of 2008 the church that I had pastored for seven years dissolved. We moved from our home of 13 years in Virginia and came out to Dallas sight unseen. We have no family here, no deep friendships and (at the time of the move) no job.

Since coming here it has been a roller coaster of situations and emotions. The spiritual upheaval (that I had thought I had worked past) started all over again and I began questioning even my questions. Some mornings I woke up an atheist and would go to bed a believer - sometimes the other way around.

And then - long-ignored marriage issues began to surface. In some ways the pressures of being a pastor, along with the insane expectations of the congregation, had helped us to continue this charade of happiness. But eventually the truth finds you, doesn't it?

We are now both in therapy, trying to re-learn what it means to be a husband and a wife. I want to tell you everything is going to work out fine, and I hope it does. I just wish that I could have dealt with one issue at a time, instead of trying to figure out where I am with God, the world AND my wife.

I feel like I am IN Lent right now...I am IN this place of waiting (and suffering to some degree).

I realize these feelings aren't unusual. I think that many of the folks who attend Journey have experienced the disorientation that can come from major shifts in world-view and perspective, and while I think this is a common theme that brings us together, I think that most of us have had this sense that something was never quite right all along. It was as if there was always something slightly "off" about what we had been told was true.

So maybe that's the point of this post.

I hope I don't come across as self-absorbed. I also hope you don't read this and feel uncomfortable at the honesty. I hope that you DO feel a little less alone. We are all in this together.

And Easter Sunday is coming.

Halfway there

noreply@blogger.com (danielle) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 21:12:00 +0000

A quote for you as we reach the halfway mark on our journey toward Easter:

"The pilgrim sets forth, tethered to the past by unseen bonds of memory, yet cloaked in hope, afoot in sandlas of determination, trudging toward something new."
-Denise Levertov

May our pilgrim sandals move us with hope and determination to Easter morning, where we celebrate the One who is making all things new.

Some Pics from the Journey Retreat 09

noreply@blogger.com (Dale) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 22:53:00 +0000

We had fun as you can clearly see...

Lenten Journey

noreply@blogger.com (Dale) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:08:00 +0000

Written by Derek Koehl

As I was contemplating this Lenten season within the current context of my life and the world around me, I came across the following views of Sandra Tsing Loh in an article in The Atlantic.

It will be interesting to see, now that the [financial] apocalypse has arrived, how various modes of American status-striving will be rejiggered, particularly those predicated on amassing large amounts of debt. […] Surely now the honestly eco-conscious will lead a bold return to—gasp!—tap water. (Because what’s worse for the environment than drinking water … out of plastic bottles … flown in from Fiji?) As Starbucks stores close around us, what’s more nostalgically amusing than Folgers Crystals? […] As Borders stores shutter, perhaps we’ll see a reflowering of public libraries. In any case, unable to secure those astronomical loans, more [of us] will have to start rubbing shoulders with The Other, living in truly mixed neighborhoods, next door to such noncreative types as Kohl’s-shopping back-office workers and actual not-yet-ready-for-their-close-up-in-Yoga-Journal immigrants. […]life will be all about the hearth, the candlelight, the guitar (and not a vintage Les Paul).

I hear in these words a description of a less consumer-oriented life—a life less defined by urban “affluent hipdom”. A simpler life often described within Journey as radical contentment and generosity (RCG).
This year, as with past years, I embrace Lenten season practices—one a putting down that daily calls my awareness towards Good Friday and the other a taking up that calls my attention outward toward those walking through life around me. I also determine a taking up that extends, far beyond this Lenten experience. I purpose to take up ever more of the RCG way in my life. Embodied in RCG are attitudes toward a way of thinking, acting, and relating that stands in contrast to the consumerist pull in whatever manifestation it appears. I purpose an orientation toward others and a posture of sharing rather than acquiring. In an ever more simple way of living I seek the space to contain expanding complexities in the relationships that I form with all the lives that surround me.
This is what I seek during this Lenten journey. As it draws to an end, having found in the seeking, I will stand in the twilight of Good Friday looking with hope not just toward the coming Easter sunrise, but also a continued better way of being.

Journey Retreat 09

noreply@blogger.com (Dale) — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:57:00 +0000

Join us this Saturday, March 7th for the Journey retreat! We will meet at a retreat center in Richardson from 10-5 for a day of fellowship including games, music, silence and reflection, sharing our stories, and, of course, kickball!! Snacks, drinks and lunch will be provided. Activities are planned for children as well, so bring them out to be part of the fun! Sign up by Friday to give us a head count, and bring $20 to cover the costs. See you there!

Location: Springhill Retreat Center: 3991 E. Renner Road Richardson, TX 75082

Lent Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Dale) — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 18:00:00 +0000

Written by Lindsay Hampton...

This will be my first year to 'do' lent. Growing up, I knew what lent was, but never really understood why it was practiced. I guess I'm still working on figuring that out, really. When I was younger and the topic of lent would come up, I would breathe a quiet sigh of relief, because 'we' (the tradition of faith I grew up in and have in adulthood swiftly abandoned) didn't 'do' that. So not only did I not have to deny myself of some wonderful worldly pleasure for six weeks, I also didn't have to think about it or ponder the idea that maybe I should.

And now here I am, doing that, and I'm still not exactly sure why. maybe because it's because I want to prove to myself that it is possible to experience God in ways that are outside the traditions and ideologies that grew up with. Maybe it's because all my friends are doing it. Whatever the reason, I knew as lent was approaching that I wanted to participate this year. The day that I realized it was fast approaching and I needed to decide on my act of self denial, I was already sort of grumpy. I was at work and indulging in a little self pity, and that quickly turned to wanting to indulge in something else. I was suddenly craving some good old fashioned southern comfort food. I wanted pot roast.

Immediately, I knew I had to have pot roast for lunch. The more I thought about it the more deeply the craving set in. It took up residence in my appetite. That's sort of ridiculous, I know. But I have this problem. I want what I want when I want it. To say that this problem has much bigger and messier manifestations than what I eat for lunch is a grave understatement. No matter how impractical, I want it deeply. I cannot be swayed by logic. I just want what I want.

So I went to The Black Eyed Pea for lunch. It was good. It was friggin delicious, actually. But I knew it wasn't as good as the crock pot recipe my mom made, that I could have easily set up on my lunch hour and enjoyed for dinner. So as you tend to do when you accept cheap substitutes, I felt a little cheated.

Last year I decided on a tattoo on my leg. It has a candle and an hourglass, with banners swirling around a lush garden of roses that read "love is patient- life is short." Two polarizing but equally true statements to remind me that some things are worth waiting for and some are not. I was hoping that some how the act of having these words carved into my skin would somehow make this wisdom my own. That I would absorb these words and they would become a beautiful part of who I am. And I sort of feel like that's working, but not surprisingly it's taking longer than I'd like.

This year for lent I decided to give up eating out. To sacrifice the convenience of immediate gratification in hopes of finding something more lasting. I know it will be hard, but I don't want approach the Lenten season with a half-hearted commitment. Go big or go home, right? I don't know if I will come out of the season with any spiritual awakenings or epiphanies on practicing patience. It is entirely possible that the only benefits that i will see from these coming 40 days will be in my wallet and my waistline, but I'm hoping that's not true. Hopefully I can learn to wait, if not patiently, at least purposefully. Time, somewhat ironically, will tell.

Join us for Ash Wednesday service

noreply@blogger.com (Dale) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 23:34:00 +0000

We will be having an Ash Wednesday prayer service this week. Please Join us!

One Step

noreply@blogger.com (Dale) — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 22:51:00 +0000

By Laura Baker

I’m scared a lot. If you’ve read any of my previous blogs, this is not at all surprising to you. But you may be surprised by this: it doesn’t bother me much anymore.
Actually, I think I have become more courageous over the past two years than I have ever been in my life. All the while being afraid most of the time.
Someone important once said to me, in the middle of a crisis, “Feel afraid. But do not make decisions based out of fear.” And I think about that concept several times a week. I’ll tell you why that statement is so important to me.
First, it recognizes that life is scary. I mean, there are a lot of ways we can all be hurt, abandoned, or just generally pummeled by people and circumstances in our everyday lives. This is not a safe place all the time, for any of us. There is much to be afraid of—in ourselves, in our loved ones, and in the seemingly random universe. So, to me, sometimes it is not helpful to hear that I should not be afraid. I like the first part of my friend’s statement because it feels like an arm around my shoulder.
But the second part is a kick in the pants. To me, it means it’s not okay to rest in that fear. Once I recognize that I am, indeed, afraid, it is then time to think, to process. And ultimately, to wait. This is the key for me. Wait. Wait. Wait.
Re-evaluate: Am I still afraid? Can I see through that fear to a decision or course of action that is rational, and that I can live with? No? Then wait some more.
How can we handle fear? Maybe we can acknowledge it, evaluate whether it’s real, and wait until we can see the next step in front of us.
And I have found that one step is all I need. I used to think I needed to see all the steps in front of me before I moved an inch. But, like the rock climbing I’m learning to do, all I have to do is find one or two holds for my hands and feet—and sometimes it’s just for my fingers and toes—but if I can really see that they are firm and stable holds, they may just be enough. I’m learning to have faith that they will be enough.
Feel afraid and then wait. Grab the next hold. And see where I can go. They tell me you can make it up an entire mountain that way.

Epiphany video

noreply@blogger.com (Dale) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 21:56:00 +0000

Here is the video we showed during the gathering last week for Epiphany Sunday. Enjoy the video. This is one of those "you had to be there" moments. So don't feel bad if you don't really get how it fits in. But trust me, it does. Danielle talked about how through all of scripture the narrative of promise looks to her a little bit like this video. It starts as one thing, then explodes into a million pieces and then all the promises of God come back together in this new way through the Christ Child.

I also love how the song fits in well "are you the one?" by The Presets.

The Christmas Roller Coaster

noreply@blogger.com (Dale) — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 23:04:00 +0000

written by Michelle Randall

It’s that time of year when silent nights aren’t really the words we associate with Advent. It’s my own fault, but frankly Christmas is usually one of the busiest times of the year for me. It is full of wonderful things I love to do like baking and going to Christmas parties, but somehow in the middle of waiting and hoping, I end up riding a Christmas rollercoaster. A dear friend once wrote to me that life was like that – “waiting in line for a rollercoaster.” We wait in line, hear the screams, question our decisions, doubt, but anticipate the thrills. And we also worry, “Will someone fall out of these carts?”

Christmas sort of feels that way, too. While we’re waiting in line to celebrate the wonder that is the child in the manger, we lose ourselves in questioning the perfect gift to get Mom, doubting we’ll make it to the next party on time, and sometimes even hearing the screams of shoppers and new babies meeting Santa at Northpark.

Our lives are FULL to the brim during Christmas. But not for me this year.

For me, I’m trying to take a quiet Christmas – one with less traveling and fewer shopping malls – far from the hurry and the noise. One where peace on earth meets my own peace of mind. I have been sort of trying to stay off the rollercoaster ride of the season.
It’s a challenging time to get out of the world’s “quickaholic” mentality that says Christmas is about rushing around and clamoring about and that there is little time for stillness and waiting hopefully.

This kind of fast-forward-through-the-waiting-parts thinking is what Dietrich Bonhoeffer calls, “cheap grace.” We’re all looking for the easiest and quickest way to get through our lives, to get to the front of the line, to make it through the holidays. But seasons of our lives, including Christmas, are not just about the “arrival,” and are meant to be more like an unfolding, not just like the sound of a shotgun. It requires quiet moments of tender nurture, reflection and endurance. There is a quiet pause between the Annunciation and the birth. There is a waiting, an in between place.

And so I rush about, but I also STOP. Gandhi says “there is more to life than increasing its speed.” And stopping is hard because it forces us to think about our lives and the seasons we have found ourselves in. At Christmas, the opportunity arises for me to remember that it is about being “holy and mild” where “all is calm, all is bright.” Maybe in the in between places, we can learn to look inward rather than just pressing forward – and isn’t that what we need during the holidays? And this year especially. For many around the world, they are being forced to stop this season to face lost jobs, lost houses, lost 401ks and even lost dreams. Many are us are in a “middle place” in our lives.

The world around us celebrates new beginnings and victorious endings and sometimes forgets the journey. Like marriage, a new house, babies, death, promotions and we forget the importance of the in between places. Author Sue Monk Kidd says, “We live in a spiritual environment that tends to emphasize full-blown newness and a sense of ‘arrival’ in the mere time it takes to walk the length of a church aisle. Walking an aisle can be a marvelous thing, as long as we acknowledge that the aisle doesn’t end at the altar but goes on winding through life…. We’ve forgotten about the slow, sometimes tortuous, unraveling of God’s grace that takes place in the ‘middle places.’”

The Middle Places.

A time of growth, waiting, transformation.
A time of becoming and finally birth.

I hope this year that we can, in some small way, find a way to stop and cherish the middle places as we wait during Advent. I hope we can drop our consumer-driven, busy-body antics long enough to experience the gift of stillness and hope that waiting for Christmas offers our hearts.

Advent Week 3 Community Blog...

noreply@blogger.com (Dale) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:34:00 +0000

Written By Dallas Gingles

Political alliances, machinations; taxes; questions of birthplace; right to rule; terrorism – this is the story of Advent. As people who just lived through the longest political elections in United States history, these plot lines have worn thin, and we live in the self-indulged delusion that this is the reality of the world as we craft it. Advent is the confession otherwise.
Advent is political. From the little Jewish girl, Miriam's, prophetic speech promising overthrow of the ruling class, to the eastern magicians who recognize within the fabric of the cosmos a testimony to a new ruler (prompting infanticide), the story of the season is more deeply entangled in politics than the most ruthless negative ad anyone witnessed in the past two years or the most promising and hopeful of speeches.
In the Genesis account of God's creative work, the spirit is present, hovering, "brooding," and breathing into the cataclysmic "becoming" of "life, the universe, and everything," (Douglas Adams). In the Lukan account of Jesus' birth, the spirit is once again present, "come upon," the young teenage girl and bringing into the world a new reality, one bathed in the grace of liberation, the promise of hope, the promise of monetary salvation from those who have seized power in a constant succession of greed and injustice.
And, so it is that in 2008, after hearing rhetoric about all of these political realities from both sides of the aisle, that we are come to Advent, to the place of our waiting, to the place of stillness. Our vote does not count. The most powerful women and men in the world are wresting power and transferring its seat, but that does not matter. Now is the winter of the world's discontent. This is the promise, the frustration, of the Christian calendar, that every Advent we come to the end of the year, having worked, fought, pushed, pulled, wrestled with ourselves and others only to find that it matters not at all, but what God asks of us instead at this time is to wait. We are asked to see the world flung off its axis of power, and spin wildly in the cosmos as a little peasant boy is born in a barn, as a refugee, into the arms of a zealot mother who is a part of an occupied people. And, this promise looks nothing like our parades, our banners, our conventions, our so wildly misconstrued good intentions in the political system that rely on affirmation of Caesar and Herod, John Roberts and Barack Obama. We don't get a say here. We only get to confess. We confess that the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our God. We confess our allegiance is to no flag, to no building, to no book, but to a baby. This is the shock of Advent. It is to us that Jesus came, but it matters not at all if we want(ed) him to come – ever. We are left speechless, wondering, in the words of Brennan Manning, "shipwrecked at the stable."
Advent is scary as hell. More, actually. "Who can abide the day of his coming?" We do not have time to be sentimental. We cannot afford the modern lie that we are people of our own destiny, makers of our own way. No one is safe: not kings, congresswomen, not you, not me. The angels themselves testify otherwise. We are instead, the ones called by the spirit to recognize the difference of power and political structure, and as the Advent hymn puts so delicately, "come peasant, king to own him."

This Week's Advent Conspiracy...

noreply@blogger.com (Dale) — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:30:00 +0000

As mentioned on Sunday, this week our tip for a different way to participate in giving meaningful gifts comes from the North Texas Food Bank. You can get your 2009 calendar by going over to their website HERE. Or at Journey Kaitlin will have some or you can tell her to get you some to avoid shipping costs.