Calling them duties makes the job sound like an obligation. But it’s really more of a joyful responsibility.
Rabbit trails. Rabbit trails. So last month, HighCallingBlogs.com had great success with the Odd Jobs writing project. Presumably, that’s why G. L. Hoffman gave me this award:
Thanks, G.L.! Too often it feels like I’m posting this stuff into the ether. That great joy of the net is the world wide reach. The great tragedy is that reach often reduces people to mere numbers. That doesn’t mean we are touching and changing lives though. And it doesn’t mean we aren’t making an impact.
That’s why I appreciate what G.L. has done here. He’s a number that stepped up and introduced himself with a little peace-flashing dog graphic. You rock, man.
AND stay tuned for a super cool, super awesome new writing project. It’s got a short turn-around, but we’re going to be giving away a LARGE LARGE SUPER COOL PRIZE. You won’t want to miss this. I’m serious. Check back on Monday.
That’s all you’ll hear for now. My lips are sealed until we finalize the details…
There’s been a lot going on lately. And yet I still stumble across these poems from time to time like I was telling Heather this morning. This particular poem came from my son. He likes pirates. A LOT. Every day we play pirates at lunch. Nearly every night we play pirates.
We hung cheap hammocks in our backyard, not because we want hammocks, but because pirates sleep in hammocks.
Then one day on the way to church, I discovered the pirate stickers on my son’s Gideon Bible. Hmmm.
Is this sacrilegious, I wondered. A jolly roger Bible? Of course, to my son, pirates are everything that is infinitely cool. He doesn’t understand the ins and outs of theology and ethics. A pirate sticker on a Bible is just his way of playing pirates with God.
So I figured there was a poem in this. I was expecting something like the little boy version of “Barbies at Communion.” Instead I got this darker poem…
Freedom
The pirate gospel pleases people
so anchor your soul with profit.
Make your own hope. Bite diligence
like a steel blade and swab the deck
until your face burns with zeal,
a red effort to promote yourself
first mate. Most pirates swear
by stuff of earth. O Man. Holy flesh.
Blast it all. Sex and defecation
words destroy. Anyone who signs up
can board and learn the tongue
that preaches this bloody hope.
Atonement anchors pirate priests:
I will bless you. Follow me.
And because poetry is an auditory art, you can hear me read the poem by clicking play below.
Recently, a friend asked me, “Are you frustrated with God?”
Always. Part of it is a frustration with myself for not having the discipline to listen for him more. But then I think, I am a disciplined listener. I’m good at listening to people (good compared to some, anyway).
But listening to God is different. HE DOESN’T TALK BACK. Not like a regular person. And I get frustrated with that. It’s probably tied up with freewill in some complicated philosophical way, but I just want God to cut through the crap at some point.
I know, he cut through all of the mess in a powerful way when he sent his son 2000 years ago. He still does this through his Word. Through his Holy Spirit.
But darn it. You can’t touch the Holy Spirit! I want to put my hands on it. I want a Holy Spirit hug. A Jesus kiss. I won’t say all of the things I want because they feel a little shocking, suffice it to say I get tired of faith sometimes. I want a real connection with God, but it always eludes me. At night when everyone is asleep, sometimes I’m just a little suspicious that the whole thing is a self-delusion and a scam.
Like my friend said. I’m frustrated. I want agape love, and I don’t know how to find it.
It’s a long dark night, “without light or guide, save that which burn[s] in my heart.” When? When? Will the night ever join Beloved with lover?
Here’s something for poetry Friday. Hat tip to Steve McCoy one of our authors at TheHighCalling.org for pointing me to Billy Collins on YouTube. (Here’s a link to Steve’s articles at THC.org.)
Just found this via a Twitter from Michael Hyatt. It’s five parts–and he spends the intro of part one centering everyone on the reason for the industry with bits and pieces of his personal testimony. “At 16, I found religion… and became an atheist… It was my first faith experience–being an atheist.”
Later he gets into a list of specific things in the industry that encourage him. As he says in part 5, “It’s easy to complain about your industry, but some retailers are experiencing real growth.” You can read a summary of the presentation at his blog.
As the Senior Editor for HighCallingBlogs.com, that question really interests me. Don’t worry. We’re not looking to rule the world or anything. But a self-sustaining model of non-profit entreprenuership would be nice. If you’re in the network, I promise not to pull any kind of Facebook stunts. You’ll know well in advance if we cook something up.
To that front, I’ll leave you with this quote from eMarketer:
eMarketer anticipates US user-generated content advertising revenue will reach $824 million in 2012, up from $162 million in 2007.
Just saw this on Publisher’s Weekly. It was announced yesterday. That’s right. Thomas Nelson will no longer attend the primary CBA tradeshow, ICRS. I’m not sure whether this means they are leaving the Christian Booksellers Association, or just no longer attending the tradeshow.
Update: Michael Hyatt weighed in on this in the comments. They aren’t leaving the CBA, just no longer attending ICRS. He pointed people to a Q&A about this specific issue on his blog.
At any rate, you need to know this stuff. So keep reading and be sure to click through to the articles as well.
I’m updating our Odd Job page as quickly as I can, remaining committed to annotating each post. As my regular readers know (both of them), I don’t believe in trading links without also trading conversation. Neither does Robert Hruzek, but he’s a lot faster at this than I am! At any rate, we’re up to 31 posts now, and I have 15 or 20 more to add.
There’s been a lot going on lately. And yet I still stumble across these poems from time to time like I was telling 
Recently, a friend asked me, “Are you frustrated with God?”
