what looks like failure is success
and what looks like poverty is riches
when what is true looks more like a knife
it looks like you're killing me
but you're saving my life
but I give myself to what looks like love
and I sell myself for what feels like love
and I pay to get what is not love
and all just because I see things upside down
what looks like weakness can do anything
and what looks like foolishness is understanding
when what is powerful has not come to fight
it looks like you're going to war
but you lay down your life
but I give myself to what looks like love
and I sell myself for what feels like love
and I pay to get what is not love
and all just because I see things upside down
what looks like torture is a time to rejoice
what sounds like thunder is a comforting voice
when what is beautiful looks broken and crushed
and I say I don't know you
but you say it's finished
-- from Derek Webb's album, I See Things Upside Down
28 September 2007
14 September 2007
11 September 2007
In memoriam / reflections on the anniversary of tragedy
A collection of excerpts from Shane Claiborne's The Irresistible Revolution:
The tragedy of the church's reaction to September 11th is not that we rallied around the families in New York and D.C., but that our love simply reflected the borders and allegiances of the world. We mourned the deaths of each soldier, as we should, but we did not feel the same anger and pain for each Iraqi death, or for the folks abused in the Abu Ghraib prison incident. We got farther and father from Jesus' vision, which extends beyond our rational love and the boundaries we have established. There is no doubt that we must mourn those lives lost on September 11th. We must mourn the lives of the soldiers. But with the same passion and outrage, we must mourn the lives of every Iraqi who is lost. They are just as precious, no more, no less. In our rebirth, every life lost in Iraq is just as tragic as a life lost in New York or D.C.
[...]
Rebirth means that we have a new paradigm of "us" and "them." Our central identity is no longer biological. And our central allegiance is no longer national. Our pronouns change. Our new "us," as Jesus teaches, is the church, the people of God doing the will of the Father. [...] When we hear that "we" were attacked, do we think "we" the church or "we" as Americans? What is our primary identity? When the Bush administration said that a way of life was being attacked, it was true, but it was not the gospel that was being attacked. It is no coincidence that what was attacked wasn't the World Council of Churches but the symbols of the corporate global economy and the arms that would protect it.
[...]
Too often we just do what makes sense to us and ask God to bless it. In the Beatitudes, Jesus tells us what God blesses -- the poor, the peacemakers, the hungry, those who mourn, those who show mercy -- so we should not ask God's blessing on a declaration that we will have no mercy on evildoers. We know all too well that we have a God who shows mercy on evildoers, for if he didn't, we'd all be in big trouble, and for that, this evildoer is very glad.
The tragedy of the church's reaction to September 11th is not that we rallied around the families in New York and D.C., but that our love simply reflected the borders and allegiances of the world. We mourned the deaths of each soldier, as we should, but we did not feel the same anger and pain for each Iraqi death, or for the folks abused in the Abu Ghraib prison incident. We got farther and father from Jesus' vision, which extends beyond our rational love and the boundaries we have established. There is no doubt that we must mourn those lives lost on September 11th. We must mourn the lives of the soldiers. But with the same passion and outrage, we must mourn the lives of every Iraqi who is lost. They are just as precious, no more, no less. In our rebirth, every life lost in Iraq is just as tragic as a life lost in New York or D.C.
[...]
Rebirth means that we have a new paradigm of "us" and "them." Our central identity is no longer biological. And our central allegiance is no longer national. Our pronouns change. Our new "us," as Jesus teaches, is the church, the people of God doing the will of the Father. [...] When we hear that "we" were attacked, do we think "we" the church or "we" as Americans? What is our primary identity? When the Bush administration said that a way of life was being attacked, it was true, but it was not the gospel that was being attacked. It is no coincidence that what was attacked wasn't the World Council of Churches but the symbols of the corporate global economy and the arms that would protect it.
[...]
Too often we just do what makes sense to us and ask God to bless it. In the Beatitudes, Jesus tells us what God blesses -- the poor, the peacemakers, the hungry, those who mourn, those who show mercy -- so we should not ask God's blessing on a declaration that we will have no mercy on evildoers. We know all too well that we have a God who shows mercy on evildoers, for if he didn't, we'd all be in big trouble, and for that, this evildoer is very glad.
16 August 2007
14 August 2007
State of the Village Report
If the world were a village of only 100 people, there would be:
- 60 Asians
- 14 Africans
- 12 Europeans
- 8 people from Central and South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean
- 5 people from the USA and Canada
- 1 person from Australia or New Zealand
In the village there would be:
- 33 Christians
- 22 Moslems
- 15 Hindus
- 14 Nonreligious, Agnostics, or Atheists
- 6 Buddhists
- 10 of other religions
In this 100-person community:
- 80 people would live in substandard housing
- 67 adults would live in the village, and half of them would be illiterate
- 50 would suffer from malnutrition
- 33 would not have access to clean, safe drinking water
- 24 would not have any electricity
- of the 76 that do have electricity, most would use it only for light at night
- in the village would be 42 radios, 24 televisions, 14 telephones, and 7 computers (some villagers own more than one of each)
- 7 people would own an automobile (some of them more than one)
- 5 people would possess 32% of the entire village's wealth, and these would all be from the USA
- the poorest one-third of the people would receive 3% of the income of the village
The following is also something to ponder...
- If you woke up this morning healthy... you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.
- If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the fear and loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pain of starvation... you are better off than 500 million people in the world
- If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead, and a place to sleep... you are more comfortable than 75% of the people in the world.
- If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace... you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.
- If you can read this, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.
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