Entries Tagged 'inspiring' ↓

Buddy Greene plays Harmonica like nobody’s business. Just open his site in a new browser and listen to his music while you read this. I was reading through the lyrics on his site this morning and was struck by these lines from “Jesus Has Left the Building”:

There’s a big crowd gathered at First Church
They’re dressed up and lookin’ so fine
They lean forward in their pews to hear the good news
And get a handle on God’s design

Isn’t that just like Christians? I go to First Baptist Church Kerrville, so these lines hit home. And they remind me of something I read in Christian Century at breakfast. In his essay “Reasons to Join,” Garret Keizer talks about the importance of paradox and ambiguity as agents against heresy in the church. (Whew, suddenly this post got all theological on me!)

Seriously, though. We try so hard to “get a handle on God’s design,” we turn church into a collection of religious autodidacts who are seeking the way to know God’s will and stick to the letter of the law. We turn into people of jots and tittles. We prefer the “pseudo-clarity to the many sidedness of truth, tidiness to the mess and complexity of reality.”

That’s the same warning I hear in Buddy Greene’s song–though he makes it all folksy and fun. The warning is still the same. And we need to know where we’re headed if we fall into this trap. Garret Keizer explains it well:

The fate of most  autodidacts, a fate I happen to understand only too well, is to be perpetually reinventing the wheel, and in the course of that needless reinvention, never to achieve the wing, the propeller or the time machine.

This is another reminder why it is so important to retreat. Retreat! Retreat! When we step back, when we slow down, we have a chance to hear voices other than our own. Sometimes we just hear the crickets. Sometimes we hear the wisdom of our neighbors. Sometimes we may eve hear God in the stillness.

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If you missed yesterday, Laity Lodge is sponsoring this month’s High Calling Blogs Group Writing Project: Retreat! Retreat! Retreat! You could win a FREE retreat just for participating in the project. But get hopping—you have to post before noon on Friday to be in the drawing. We’ve already had some good entries from L. L. Seedling, Carl Gyrovague, Gordon Real Live Preacher and Kathy Beyond Words. Also, Jacob Share is helping us promote the project again. Thanks Jacob! You’re welcome to participate too.

Yesterday, I promised to talk a little bit about the three retreats we’re featuring during this writing project. Buddy Greene is coming up first, May 29 through June 1. That’s right around the corner, and it’s going to be awesome.

Here are the details:

Musical Conversations with Buddy Greene and Company
(REGISTER HERE.)

May 29-June 1 (Thursday-Sunday)
Buddy Greene (AWESOME HARMONICA!)
David Dark (AWESOME WRITER!)
Sarah Masen (SUPER COOL SINGER!)
+ Raku Japanese pottery Larry Matthew (there’s a kiln and everything!)

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.

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The first HighCallingBlogs.com meme is spreading around the net. We’ve got people reflecting on lessons from some really odd jobs - a BBQ busboy, a Venus Fry Cook (not really), a sorter of phone cords (phones have cords?), and one really frightening picture of gas masks.

Drop by our main page to read some of these fun articles and insights.

And if you’ve ever had an odd job, write about it! Then shoot me an email so I can include you in the group. My Editor-in-Chief for TheHighCalling.org has tentatively agreed to let us publish the best meme entry on TheHighCalling.org. It could be you!

Guy Kawasaki brings you 59 feeds about faith. In one sense this isn’t surprising to see. After all, Beliefnet has been around for awhile, bringing together lots of faiths under the banner of one URL.

Still, what Guy Kawasaki is doing seems significant. Last year when I approached the b5media group to ask why they had no religion category, they said the topic was just too explosive.

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Yesterday after we had our new pastor over for an old-fashioned pot roast lunch, complete with my wife’s to-die-for homemade chocolate pie, I found myself weeping while I did the dishes.

The pie really was that good, but it didn’t make me weep. And the pastor wasn’t picking on me. Or at least, he didn’t make me cry.

Stephen Eley, Ken Scholes, and Edward Bear did that.

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I’ve been talking to Ken Mann a bit via email lately. He directed me to this video that wrestles with relativism and the human need for absolute truth–and a rowdy discussion of the video over at ThinkingChristian.

The video is not quite three minutes. (Click here if it won’t load.)

So here are my thoughts and questions for you.

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Here’s a little poem since I haven’t posted one in awhile. Comments to follow.

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L. L. Barkat tagged me for an interesting meme that reminds me of the Oulipo group (especially N+7 poems). Yes, their site is in French. No, I don’t speak French, and you don’t have to either to appreciate the 1-2-3 meme.

Here’s what I had to do.

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A few months ago, I had the opportunity to interview Francis Collins for TheHighCalling.org. (You can read part one here.) Dr. Collins is the author of the New York Times hardback and paperback bestseller, The Language of God.

As far as I’m concerned, this book should be required reading for all Christians.

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At Laity Lodge, we’ve had a close connection to J. I. Packer for many years. Every year, I get the chance to hear this man speak and open the Scripture. At first, his style seemed dry to me, but gradually I came to appreciate the incredible wisdom he has. One Laity Lodge director described listening to Packer as being something akin to drinking from a firehose.

In the first ever posted Laity Lodge video, here’s J. I. Packer describing his calling to write. (I’d be curious what you think of the video, too.)