give them what they’re waiting for

isn’t there something in you that just revels in seeing this?

a deep and profound joy just comes up in my chest when i see this little ol’ snip of a ball girl seize the moment and express her love of the sport and talent in such a wonderful display!

what was it that made her do it?

when was the last time you had in your chest the thing that made her act when all around had moved on with their lives and were just preparing for the next play?

in the words of Ferris Bueller, “life moves pretty fast, If you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.”

we only have the moment we’re in…

Mr. Incredible looks across the back of his car at a kid on a bigwheel and asked “what are you waiting for?”

the kid responds “i don’t know, something amazing i guess…”

the world is waiting for something amazing

sometimes it comes from the least expected corners

let’s give them what they’re waiting for!

like you want to be treated

lately the lesson i’ve been drilling into the boys is “treat others like you want to be treated”

it’s funny, i think it’s really for my benefit as much as for theirs.

i was reading the other day where Jesus says “always treat others as you would like them to treat you, that sums up the teaching of the torah and the prophets.”

really?

really, really?

so what you’re trying to say Jesus is that what God really wants and has been trying to communicate to his people all this time is “be nice to each other”?

he says his yoke is easy…

so i’ve been thinking about this

there was a difference of opinion between the major sects of the day.  everyone agreed on the most important law, “love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength…”  that was easy.

the big problem came in deciding which was the second most important law.  the saducees said it was “keep the sabbath”

the pharisees said it was “love your neighbor”

this places Jesus firmly in the camp of the pharisees…

but who was always getting on to Jesus for breaking sabbath?

you guessed it…

they had the right words, but their behavior betrayed them… the pharisees were hypocrits

as i was thinking about this this morning, the thought came, “i’m pretty good at loving people, i don’t treat anyone like crap or anything”

but i think the Lord took me to task a little on that.  most of us equate treating someone like crap with abuse.

but think about it

how do we treat feces?

do we abuse it?

do we beat it up?

of course not.

we flush and forget

we go to great lengths to remove it from our life and avidly avoid coming into contact with it.

i’m sorry to say that sounds a little familiar when it comes to my treatment of some people

i avoid them

ignore them

look straight through them

don’t you sometimes?

i mean every now and then God just knocks me on the head and i do some minor thing for someone not like me

but on the whole

there’re a whole lot of people i just treat like crap

the first guy that comes to mind is Little Wing.  he hangs out in the cigar shop down town.  i’ve been known to buy him a coffee and speak to him.  but he and i both know i don’t really want to befriend him…

it’s just too hard.

so i continue to avoid him by looking the other way as soon as i’ve said my obligatory “how’s it goin’?” because i don’t really want to know.

i think Jesus is asking us me to treat Little Wing like i want to be treated

not only with love and respect

but i think i’d want people to be proactive in trying to help me

i think i’d want others to not wait to be asked

i’d not like the constant degradation of begging

i think i’d like to be pursued as if i mattered in the world

i mean, that’s what Jesus did…

he pursued us

it seems to me that would be what a good disciple would do too.

just thinking about community

 

for some time i’ve been thinking about communities.  in particular i’ve been thinking about abilene.  i’m not sure but i’m guessing that abilene isn’t that different from most cities in north america.

it seems to be dying from the inside out.

what i don’t understand is why cities talk about wanting to revitalize the inner city and investing the bulk of their resources in the fringes.  most cities are like trees, they seem to have a cambium or lateral meristem from which their circumference grows.  however, unlike most trees in which the heart wood actually increases their strength, the heartwood of cities seems to be subject to blight and decay and eventually hollowness wherein all kinds of filth might prosper.

those who are left there as the upwardly mobile follow the outward expansion are forgotton by all but the police and the tax man…

so what if a city really wanted to revitalize the hollow zone?  what if there was a way to bring life back to the middle?

we’d have to assume that the city would not be interested in acutally committing any resources to the attempt…

here is my proposal.  access to affordable homes, to own not rent.  access to food.  access to jobs.

this would bring life back to the middle because it brings a life giving economy back to the middle.

i have long maintained that ownership is one of the best things for individuals of any community.  how can anyone be expected to invest in something they have no interest in?  so my thought has been to make ownership more accessible.  at first, and up until a few days ago, i thought that affordability must come through the use of alternative materials.  however, i realized that the powers that oversee the construction of homes would be very slow to accept alternative construction materials and methods regardless of how much sense they made.

and it struck me that it isn’t through medium that affordability could be realized but through scale!  most of the people in the world live in accomodations that are tiny compared to what i live in.  in fact, in most apartment complexes the small one bedrooms start at somewhere between 500 and 600 square ft.  and in all but the scummiest you can expect to pay about $500 for those same one bedrooms.

what if we could build and sell 500 to 900 square ft. houses for about the same monthly payment you would have in an apartment complex?

what if we could arrange no interest financing for these houses?  if we could build a 600 square ft. home for $75 per square foot and finance the cost with no interest and payments of $500 per month…

it would pay off in 7.5 years!

and you’d have a home owner living on a formerly vacant city lot.

if we super-insulated these houses and built them with passive solar design they would cost little to heat and cool meaning that the money being spent on climate control would be a fraction of that spent to heat and cool an apartment.

what if we opened cooperative micro-groceries in the hollow zone so that those who lived there didn’t have to find transportation to the big box groceries on the fringes or across town… in abilene there are areas of town that require a major investment in travel time to get groceries of any quality.  i believe that we could compete with the big boxes if it was a totally non-profit driven cooperative style retail system.

and they would employ a few of the people who lived there.

in fact, there really is no end to the application of the small non-profit providers of mercantile.  most any merchandise can be made available using the same system.

i don’t know…

there has to be a better way.

if you have better ideas, i’d love to hear them

our heart is the same

last night Caleb came out to the garage just before bed.  i was piddling around out there and he wanted to hang out.  he’d been told to go to bed with the other kids because he was grounded and i asked him if they weren’t already in bed.  he said “no” and so i let him stay out.

pretty soon his mom came to the door and inquired as to his whereabouts.  i said he was with me and she asked if i had some special reason for him to be out there.  i said no, he was just hanging out.  she said he’d been told to get into bed…

uh-oh

another week of going to bed early

he went on to bed and when i went back to pray with them all i noticed that he was pretty bummed out.  i told him to get up and go to the living room so we could talk.  when i got there we read the story of Cain and Abel.  we talked about how Cain knew what he was supposed to do but how he’d tried to get out of it by “technically” obeying.  he’d not wanted to give up the best of his harvest so he tried to get what he wanted while “technically” obeying God.

we talked about what God really wanted was Cain’s heart.  how Abel loved God more than anything he had and was ready to give up what he wanted in order to have good relationship with God.  we talked about how Cain was angry that his ploy hadn’t worked and how God asked him why he was angry…

that God gently reminded Cain that if he did what was right, wouldn’t he be accepted?

we talked about Caleb knowing what his mother and i wanted and how he’d tried to get off the hook on a “technicality”…  but if he did what was right, wouldn’t he be accepted?

we talked about God telling Cain that if he didn’t do what was right then sin and separation from his loved ones was “crouching at his door to devour him”

he was deeply troubled

i let him wrestle with this for a bit and then asked him what he was thinking

he told me he couldn’t say

i asked him if he was afraid to say or if he just didn’t have the words

he said he didn’t have the words

so i let him wrestle with it a little more

then he said something that sounded like a complete departure from the topic

i started to scold him but God shut my mouth and opened my ears

he said

“dad, our fingerprints may be different…

but in my heart i feel the same as you“

wow

what a wonderful way to communicate that he wants what i want

that he wants to do right

that it was a desire to be with me that led him to make a poor decision

we talked about how doing the right thing is very hard sometimes

how daddy does the wrong thing a lot

but how if we turn again to God and one another

and do what is right

we will always be accepted

i’m pretty darn sure he taught me more than i taught him last night