Absorbing Anger... Together

Anger? Are we angry enough? Are we too angry? Is there a place for anger within our faith? Simon Barrow of Ekklessia says this:

"What marks out the Christian community is its vocation to be ‘a holy nation’, unlike all the other nations and religions with their standing armies and hierarchies. Moreover (and this is crucial) it is the self-sacrificial blood of the Innocent One – not the slaughter of the innocents (or the guilty, for that matter) – that lies at the heart of a radical re-visioning of who God is, who we are and what God’s true purposes are about. The Body of Christ is about absorbing rather than inflicting suffering so that the grounds of enmity and division between human beings can be healed and overcome."

http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/

Have a look at the following clip from Jonathan Porritt, director of Forum for the Future, who questions the lack of our angst (sorry for the quality of the sound):

What could absorbing anger look like in our communities? Would it mean that we stand in solidarity with creation... wherever it is suffering? What could it mean to suffer together?

Deep fixes... not making the News

A columist of Newsweek, Fared Zakaria, in Greed is Good (To a Point), June 22, 2009, concludes:

"We are in the midst of a vast crisis, and there is enough blame to go around and many fixes to make, from the international system to national governments to private firms. But at heart, there needs to be a deeper fix within all of us, a simple gut check. If it doesn't feel right, we shouldn't be doing it. That's not going to restore growth or mend globalization or save capitalism, but it might be a small start to sanity."

I love how God keeps on reminding and suprising us.

The Power of Community

Due to artificial plunges in oil imports, the Cuban people had to radically, yet naturally cope with the hardships of profound change. After the labors of rebirth, there are advantages there that the world can benefit from, aside from higher education and health care. Communities coming together in gardens. 2006 Community Solution © Community Solutions Inc

This documentary is a must see, the world can learn from the crisis that Cuba faced.

How Cuba Survived Peak Oil crisis.
http://www.livevideo.com/media/playvideo_fs.aspx?fs=1&cid=CD893609A0CB495D9A9CF04AC9E4AEFF

To view other documentary's visit:
http://illuminatenetwork.blogspot.com/

Events to be aware of...

Some great things are happening, be a part of it.

Sign on: A petition to reduce NZ 's emissions by 40% by 2020.
http://www.signon.org.nz/

Start Freedom: A campaign for young people, youth groups etc. Oct 14th
http://www.stopthetraffik.org/startfreedom/october2009/

And

World March: For peace and non violence, starts here in NZ. Oct 2nd
http://www.fusecreative.co.nz/worldmarch/index.html

What a Difference it could make.

Be sure to watch my house my castle, Mons 8:00, tv2, and check out my husband's handy work. He was the one contracted to do all the painting and how proud I am of him. They worked for less than what their used too, worked longer hours to meet the deadline all for a family they didn't even know. The entire team worked long hours, from early morning through to late at night to try and get it finished.
What they did was great but the fact still remains that their are lots of families, people who not only need this kind of blessing, but desperately.
What a difference it would make if this was the response to a family in need, people dedicated to working long hours, working for nothing all for the sake of blessing someone who needed help and the response was a team working till the job was done. I bet you could probably think of someone right now who could use this kind of help. What ever your talent, what ever your job it's worth blessing someone with.

Also volunteer for habitat for humanity.
http://www.habitat.org.nz/

A Targum for the Recession

I've linked this blog to a targum of Brian Walsh on James 1.1-18. Its a heavy hitting piece of Scripture that continues to speak today. Have a peek... stay a while and with the Word re-imagine a new world.

http://empireremixed.com/2009/07/02/when-the-bottom-falls-out-a-targum-on-james-1-1-18/

Alternative approach

The Five Best Anti-Viral Products to Beat Influenza, Swine Flu, Bird Flu and SARS

This is worth browsing through, has interesting ideas on the origins of swine flu.With the resistance to Tamiflu emerging, maybe it's time to let nature take it's course.

Just don't do it

A couple of comments from Dorothy Day and Eugene Peterson that have been "jarring" me into a new kind of thinking. Some context. I'm driven; I get a "kick" and a lot of my esteem from over-committing and over-producing; in fact, I feel the deepest anxiety and the most frustration when I'm empty handed, frozen stuck without something to say or show. Dorothy Day challenges my frantic "doings" with some forgotten images of Jesus:

"We are told to put on Christ, and we think of Him in His private life, His life of work, His public life, His teaching and His suffering life.  But we do not think enough of His life as a little child, as a baby. His helplessness. His powerlessness. We have to be content in that state too. Not to be able to do anything, to accomplish anything."

Dorothy Day, 1983, By Little and by Little.

Eugene Peterson says it like this:

"If we are not to simply contribute a religious dimension to the disintegration of our world, join company with the mobs who are desecrating the creation with their hurry and hype in frenzy and noise, we must attend to what we have been given and to the One who gives it to us. One large step in the renewal of the creation today... is to not take the next step: stand where we are, listen to our Lord: attend... adore."

Eugene Peterson, 2005, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places.

Simply stated: I'm learning to stop (and to be o.k. with stopping).