Life goes on. Death stays forever.

Death reminds us that life may not be impotent, but it is sober.

Clean living is not sterile living, just as dirty living is not necessarily messy.

The Fallen

Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall.
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the King’s horses and all the King’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.
But soon the King himself heard of Humpty’s fate. And he was deeply disturbed. So, setting aside his royal finery, disguised as a common peasant, the King slipped unnoticed through the majestic palace gates and into the rough-and-tumble street life of his kingdom.
The King searched everywhere for Humpty Dumpty. After several days and nights, the persistent monarch found him. Humpty’s shattered body was scattered over a 10-foot circle amidst broken glass and flattened coke cans of a back alley.
The King was overjoyed at the sight of Humpty. He ran to his side and cried, “Humpty, It is I, your King! I have powers greater than those of my horses and men who failed to put you together again. Be at peace. I am here to help!”
“Leave me alone,” Humpty’s mouth retorted. “I’ve gotten used to this new way of life. I kind of like it now. I’m fine and I like it here. The trash can over there. . .the way the sun sparkles on the broken glass. This must be the garden spot of the world!”
{the rest}

[via Scott Williams]

The Next Wave

I was almost startled when I found myself at the end of the day. It is as though the path is set, and I have no control over the course....

I think that if one is not careful, this tremendous momentum would carry you all the way through one's entire life, at a ridiculous pace, all the way to the end. I think there will be crucial points in the journey, decisions that will determine whether to stay on this wave, or to get on ones with different momentum, and different courses. The challenge will be to be alert enough and discern those decisions when they are in front of you, and to not just let them glide right by without recognizing their significance.

[via Sojourn Chronicles, emphasis mine]

Recognizing someone I forgot I was
A story true, a mystery to me
{the rest}

[via Unedited Ravings]

Does Your Spirit Sink?

The more life happens to me, the more convinced I become that happiness takes hard work.

And some miserable bastards just aren't up to the job....

From the point of view of coming to terms with my life the feedback was harder to parse. Was I rewriting my memories to suit myself? Was it all a lie told to myself to make me happy, or to present an illusion thereof?

....Is it always simple to distinguish ambition from competition? No. Is it easy to avoid feeling sorry for oneself? It isn't. Is letting things roll off your back as easy for people as it is for ducks? Not usually. In other words, the skills we bring to bear on interpreting the state of our own lives are not applied without effort.

Nothing is free. The spirit, left to its own, sinks.

[via I Am A Cheeseburger]

You’ve Never Been Unloved
[via Randall Friesen]

Are Dads Dull?

(Shocked silence)

There's a Gender Studies thesis here somewhere, I think. Snips and Snails and Daddy-Blog Tales: The Sexual Politics of Parent Blogs. Mommy Bloggers get all of the attention - the conferences, the 'zines, the big-ass corporate-backed community sites and endorsements from Meredith Vieira and Andrew Shue. Dad-Blogs remain a more obscure corner of the blogosphere. Sure, Daddy Types and The Blogfathers are out there proclaiming their fatherhood and making virtual celebration of it. But Dad-Bloggers who don't align themselves with roaming blogger gangs, or openly hang with the chicks, are somewhat harder to find.

So. Evidence of anti-male, anti-father bias in Western culture?

And later on in the linked post...:

I've been doing push-ups LIKE THIS (falls into push-up position) WITH MY KNUCKLES since my wife took my daughter away and I'm gonna keep doing them 'til I get her back!!! Yes!

I'M A SUPERHERO!

Umm...just read the whole post [via Her Bad Mother], it's too hard to explain!

>Make Game.

Do you want text with that?

Inform is a design system for interactive fiction, a new medium for writers which began with adventure games in the late 1970s and is now used for everything from literary narrative fiction through to plotless conceptual art, and plenty more adventure games too. Since its introduction in 1993, Inform has become a standard tool.
Three years in the making, Inform 7 is a radical reinvention of the way interactive fiction is designed, guided both by contemporary work in semantics and by the practical experience of some of the world's best-known writers of IF.

Redemption is not the fixing of neglect; it's the overwhelming of need.

The Larger Context

The meaning of the moment depends on a larger context over time, which is yet another reason that stories of religious conversion can be tricky. I like to hear people tell stories about the moment they fell in love, but the real meaning of such stories depends on the rest of the story that follows.

[via slacktivist]

Top 'o The Day...

About an hour later I heard a little, excited voice say, "We brought donuts!" I looked over and there down the hallway at the office was my little, happy, blonde, curly-haired Madeline with a box of Timbits in her hand. I had to fight back the tears—I could have started sobbing right then and there. Moments later Dixie rounded the corner holding Luke, wearing little shorts and a little fisherman’s hat.

My family was exactly who I needed at that moment, though I didn’t realize it until I saw them. I love them so much and it’s in my down-and-out moments that I realize it the most.

[via The Eagle and Child]

A Jerk for Jesus in 12 Easy Steps
[via The Bush League Theologian]

Poor Them...Too Tame

[via Al at The Wittenburg Door's Chat Closet. Thanks Al!]

Strength through Universality. Universality through Grace.

On All Sides

I don’t know that I am walking through these days of farewell in a good way. I mean I really don’t know how to do this. As a son I feel I’m missing it, as a father I feel like I’m not able to help my kids through these things either.

Then I realize that there’s just Randy grieving over the loss of a Dad, A dad who’s going away for a time, who I’ll see again, but who I must say good bye to for now.

And the Reverend part of me sees the stages of grief at work within me, like anger and sadness, deal makin, depression and acceptance. And I know what is happening in me.

But I’m still just a boy trying to learn to say goodbye to his dad.

[via Randall Friesen]

Rock...or Flower?

The natural world around us becomes a means of expressing who we are. For example, a child picks up a hard, cold, stone. He feels its strength; it seems unbreakable. He throws the stone, it bounces. The thing seems immutable. Later, during a fight with his older brother or sister, he imagines himself, a stone. He exclaims, "I am a rock! You can't hurt me!" The rock has become a metaphor to express who he is. At the same time, it expresses who he is not. He is not like the fragile rose petal that so easily tears. His elder sibling yells, "You are a pansy!" The child wonders, "Am I a rock, or a flower?"

[via Thoughts on Thinking]

Grace ignites faith, so that faith can ignite grace.

Simply Intricate

There's a reason I like endurance sports like running or cycling - the simplicity and purity of the aim. I can momentarily leave the complications of my life and pour all of myself into this one thing. Its tiring, there's times when you want to quit - but there's unfettered freedom in willing one thing.

Danish philosopher/theologian Søren Kierkegaard wrote a book called "Purity of Heart Is to Will One Thing."

[via allan tan's blog]

In Case I Don't Post Today...

If you can read this and are in the Saskatoon area, my friend Warren Romancia is having a come-and-go party today, Saturday June 10th at Fuddrucker's, starting at 1pm (hopefully- more likely 2pm) until closing, rain or shine! Feel free to come and bring your friends, but please bring your own money. Possibilities for discounts and door prizes as well!

I'll be "staff", wearing glasses and probably looking frazzled, as I'm not quite the social butterfly...pray for me, I know I'll need it! *laughs*

Update: Whew! What a day! I'm glad it's only once a year.

The Higher Level

How do you decide whether to attempt a rescue? Are you allowed to think about your own ambitions, safety and finances, weighing those factors against the value of an endangered human life?

Think of this as the Parable of the Good Samaritan — acted out at 28,000 feet.

[via Get Religion]

Getting the "Dirt" Off

We live in an increasingly liberal world where physical boundaries are tumbling - the Berlin Wall, the Iron Curtain, cheap flight access to the world. What is interesting is that the decrease in these physical boundaries may appear to be matched by an increase in the experience of unspoken dirt boundaries. And the result of this is increased turmoil and unrest within communities.

People know that they need to be inclusive, non-racist, liberal, and that the law defends all of these things... but they feel uneasy, feel ignored and threatened by 'dirt' amongst them. Dirt issues that the tabloids are happy to exploit.

[via The Complex Christ, HT: Jordon Cooper]

Dissatisfaction with Either Alternative

Too often when churches do "engage in culture", the desired result is to use culture to affirm church culture or to make church culture acceptable to the wider culture instead of any real engagement with it.

From my own experience, the very few churches who are actually involved in their local culture and context (not the watered down idea of culture that passes for a Friends episode) are also the ones that value theology, discipleship, and pursue truth with passion. I don't know if it is a pursuit for truth that makes these communities more comfortable with dealing with the issues of culture (rather than the facial features on a lion) or if their engagement with culture leads them to pursue theology and discipleship but I take less offense with them than I do with the pursuit of culture as a way to boost attendance or to appear cool.

[via Jordon Cooper]

On the Altar of Others?

But, I'm beginning to think that I've not wrestled with the implications of relational ethics strongly enough. I'm worried that I've equated relational ethics with keeping everyone happy. And a life lived at the expense of the happiness of others is a costly life. I've begun to feel that I've become the perfect chameleon - I make everyone else so happy so that I can't even distinguish myself anymore.

Relational ethics demand that not only I strive to honour the alterity of the Other, but also that I recognize my own personhood as unique. Of course, in the everyday rough and tumble of life, alterity is an impossible dream, but it is an organizing principle that gives my actions direction. Relational ethics requires that I work to protect my own selfhood as much as respecting the dignity of others.

So, I have work to do. Work to better define who am I, and not be so quick to sacrifice me on the altar of others.

[via khora]

Finding the Good...

I look at life and I find no excitement for the future because of the things I miss from my past. Those time are gone and we are just supposed to look forward in excited anticipation to the future and what it holds. I cannot, however, look forward to future excitements because the pain of letting go of good times far out weighs the good times themselves. Why do we have to be shown what is good only to have to give it up?

[via PhiloBoy, emphasis mine]

Isn't it interesting how family, religion and accomplishment can be used as trump cards yet lose the hand?

Being wild is not equivalent to being chaotic.
Being focused is not equivalent to being tame.

Why do we suppress the truth so often by claiming we have it?

Why bother finding truth when we can't stop going astray?