Justin Bieber Acting His Age?

Just when you thought you had heard enough, here I go with my comments prompted by a CNN commentator:

"Boys will be boys and that's all he is doing....it's a phase and he will grow out of it."

Really?

Hitting your limo driver?  Egging a house for $20K damages? DUI in a sports car I cannot even spell!  C'mon!  Pitty perhaps...  I did hear another commentator wondering just how long he would live. Prayers needed here instead of pity for a kid with an undisciplined life in search of what he therefore will not be able to find.

Richard Foster, author of Celebration of Disciple, is clear that we need boundaries and a life in which we are accountable with consequences.  That goes for any of us at any age.  There is no such thing as an EZPASS for life.  The bill comes due unless we first run ourselves into the ground.  The gift and fruits of the disciplined life is living into the image of God--recognizing your life as a gift and offering it to God and others as a gift.

Atlanta's Snow Bowl

This picture was about the same one that drivers all over Atlanta and its suburbs encountered with their recent snow storm which crippled the city with--what?  Did you really say 2-3 inches of snow?  The incredible mayhem was unleashed less by the snow and more by those officials from the governor on down who knew it was coming and then chose to ignore it--sending kids to school just before the known storm arrived.  Makeshift shelters were set up in schools, private homes--even grocery stores and--that's right, Home Depot. 

Now I was there when there was a real blizzard with +12 inches of snow, temps in the teens, and winds 30-40 miles an hour.  People knew it was coming, bought every roll of TP and bottle of water and hunkered down.  Nothing like this snow bowl mayhem emerged.  We all went nuts with the kids home for more than week, the power flickered on and off, but we saw the signs and we heeded them. 

Over and over, Jesus asks us to read the signs--know what skies bring what weather and then prepare for it.  But can we read the forecast of our own lives right down to their souls?  Do we recognize when life unfolds in a journey for us--and when life seems to drive us into the ground?  If there was one distinguishing mark about Jesus, first and foremost, he knew that he was on a journey for the Father--and that made him the Son, giving his life for the Father.  What makes us Christians is reading the signs of the world falling on us (aka Chicken Little) and knowing where the Pole Star, true north is to be found on our journey.  There are those times when we read the signs of our times and know when to seek shelter and when to climb the highest mountain. 

State of YOUR Union

The President's State of the Union Address is the most analyzed and quickly forgotten of all executive actions--it simply has not been the effective platform to set policy agenda or to unify the nation.  My opinion--but the memorable speeches are those that come in the wake of disaster in any form--and politicians with a nation ready to listen and work together unite for a short time. 

Yet, what would you say to the question--what is the state of YOUR union--how are things with your soul?  Do you know the sound of your heart beat? Or, peace that settles within?  Your mind at rest?  Of feeling centered? 

It is said that the most valuable 5 mins that we spend is with ourselves in some quiet place--where for a millisecond, the door opens inside and the Spirit touches the soul.  That is THE state of union--when Holy Spirit touches and draws out human spirit -- and we know that we are not only made for that moment--but for eternity in that Presence. 

Captain Phillips Gems

Tom Hanks as Captain Philips (left) The real Capt (right)

The movie saga is a +12 on a scale of 1-10 for suspense. However, I am going to avoid that high drama plot for two gems that I found in the movie.

The first gem was just watching Philips' eye contact with the pirates, and their leader called "Muse"--as you can see above, he showed no outward fear in his connecting with his eye contact before engaging them with his ongoing bargain--"take the $30K and call it a day."  He also used his eye contact to convey what came across as genuine concern for the pirate who had his foot slashed with glass and the other who had a deep gouge from a knife wound.  Retaining humanity in that saga is truly a gem.

Which leads to the second gem--when Tom Hanks just does not understand what makes a pirate.  "What are you doing out here as a fisherman with a gun in your hand," says Philips to their leader, Muse.  "You're supposed to be a fisherman."  Muse responds:  "This is not America."  Needless to say, we have our own brand of pirates, some of them driven by financial necessity, war lords of our version, and gangs who prey on others.  All of this Hanks as Philips fails to connect the dots in these guys who take his vessel.

The Jesus I see in scripture helps the down and out--the lawless, mentally ill, all of the marginalized to regain some vestige of their humanity.  The best we can muster on the high seas is the careful execution of the US Navy and 3 sharpshooters to save the life of Captain Philips.  I suppose that in "the real" world that's what matters.  In God's Kingdom, there is room for all -- but the way is narrow, very narrow indeed. 

 Muse: It was supposed to be easy. I take ship... ransom... nobody get hurt.
Captain Richard Phillips: You had thirty thousand dollars. And a way to Somalia. It wasn't enough?
Muse: I got bosses. They got rules.
Captain Richard Phillips: We all got bosses.

Coumbia Mall Sooting

Darion Marcus Aguiliar

None of us would know Darion except for his tragic shooting in the Columbia Mall which took two lives before turning the gun on himself.   The 19yr. recorded a life of unhappiness -- which resulted in his taking a taxi with a 12 gauge shotgun to the mall -- please tell me how somebody can do that without being reported?  Then an hour after arriving at the mall, the event happened without any yet apparent connection between him and those he shot.  How many more times must we watch another "unhappy" albeit emotionally disturbed person get loose with a gun and take the lives of others?  It seems even more compounded in tragedy to recognize that nothing will be done to prevent the next incident. 

Please excuse this inane comparison--of all things, I do not wish to gloss over the deceased and their families with this comparison to a Star Trek episode.  The Clingons and the Federation have two small bands in a shootout on a planet.  The residents get so sick of "your violence and primitive lives--they are too painful to observe" that they immobilize all weapons between them. Nobody can kill anyone anymore.  Kirk and the Clingon Capt shout at the residents that they have a right to their violence. They are told--"then go elsewhere."  Where is the button we all long to push to immobilize weapons?  Or, is that degree of science fiction reduce us to muzzled animals who cannot bite each other.  Is the price of our freedom to give it up entirely? How do we grow and advance into a civilization that does not murder? 

The only possible answer lies in a society that will finally have no use for guns and will give them up because live will seem too priceless, the great pearl of great price, and we will tire of such a primitive way of life./ 

Harry Potter & Snowy Owls

The sudden appearance of the snowy owl for Harry Potter was the sign of revelation--of things to come from another world.  The wise old owl with a new truth for Harry and the reality of the journey ahead.

Fact is that these owls do just drop in on occasion where they are not supposed to be.  Nobody knows why they suddenly take flight and end up on light poles at Dulles Airport--to name just one incident. 

We only know that they are free spirits beyond just a food source. Something sets their sights outside of their normal domain and off they go. 

This is the season of Epiphany--the shining forth of God's Light in Jesus.  All we know is that the Spirit took him beyond where he was expected to go, to people who never expected to see him, and with words that revealed him as the Word itself.  Those who follow after him find themselves in flight beyond where they ever dreamed--as no mind could conceive, eye see or ear hear what was in store for those who love him. 

Lines Composed for Winter

Lines for Winter

Tell yourself
as it gets cold and gray falls from the air
that you will go on
walking, hearing
the same tune no matter where
you find yourself—
inside the dome of dark
or under the cracking white
of the moon's gaze in a valley of snow.
Tonight as it gets cold
tell yourself
what you know which is nothing
but the tune your bones play
as you keep going. And you will be able
for once to lie down under the small fire
of winter stars.
And if it happens that you cannot
go on or turn back
and you find yourself
where you will be at the end,
tell yourself
in that final flowing of cold through your limbs
that you love what you are.

 

by:Mark Strand