More Questions Than Answers

“I am only one, but I am one.
I cannot do everything, but I can do something.
And that which I can do, by the grace of God, I will do.”

Dwight L. Moody

Jesus doesn’t smell of beeswax,
plaster statues, or polished wood.

In this Franciscan church,
Jesus smells of unlaundered clothes,
of smelly socks, of sun-dried perspiration,
of soiled shoes, of urine and used underwear.

He smells of last night’s dinner, of stale beer,
of cigarette smoke and marijuana.

Here one smells poverty and weariness,
one smells not enough sleep
and lack of privacy,
and one smells the great, humble efforts
of pride and human dignity.

My mouth fills with sweetness
For the smell of God envelopes me.

There is no need for incense
to carry my prayers to Heaven.
God is here.

-Anonymous

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This one's for you, honey:

"I don't care about material things. It never meant Jack to me. … The only thing that I guess I would treasure more than anything else is the health of my kids, then my wife, then me. In that order. Everything else I could take care of easy . . . I'm here. I go to bed at night, you know, with four kids laying on your head. That's a lot cooler existence than being on the cover of a goofy magazine with the latest starlet. It only plays well to selling covers of magazines. It's a pretty lonely existence. I can tell you firsthand."

- Jon Bon Jovi -

"If God and humankind resemble each other so closely so as to essentially belong to the same category of being, the conclusion "threfore Christ was God" makes perfect sense. But this is nothing but humbug. If that is all there is to being God, then God does not exist at all! … (more…)

Yesterday was a big unveiling of the mostly-completed facelift that the education wing of my church has been undergoing the past 6 months. Just about everything is complete. However, the youth wing is still a work in progress. The tours of church members roving about the building were a prime opportunity to highlight vision I have for the youth wing and what needs to be done to fulfill that vision. (i.e. the donation shpeel)

One of the things I want to see in the students' own space is community. A cliche but classic way to help with this is little table games and whatnot. So a church member drops off a board game today… (more…)

Hey everybody… I'm back from camp.

It was an awesome time. Really. I'm very tired though.

Right now, Anina is in Monterey, helping her best friend recover from some gnarly leg surgeries. I miss her. And if she wasn't my wife, I know I'd want her for my best friend. She's so compassionate.

I'm going to guess it's never easy to return to an empty home. But juxtapose my newfound solitude with the high-energy, nonstop-relational-time experience of a week at camp, and things just seem blue.Anyway though, I'll get to see my beautiful wife this Saturday!

I'm looking forward to getting my blogging rhythm up again… before I leave for a week on Friday.

Stay tuned…

Just wondering… who has me on their aggregator? And it looks like a couple people using Feedster? Wow, I'm humbled!

Comment and say Hi! (but I don't mean that in the needy "comment me!" way, a la some desperate MySpacers)

Satudray night, I'm taking off to volunteer at summer camp for a week. I think camp settings are so awesome for giving us what we need to deeply encounter our Creator. No, that's not the bias of a recreation major that you're reading… (more…)

"The act of looking, the pursuit itself, makes possible the encounter. For this reason, Christianity has always insisted that trust and obedience come first, and knowledge follows."

-Philip Yancey

Reaching for the Invisible God (more…)