is it that simple?

jesus was once asked what the greatest commandment was. he responded(summary) ---love God, love people. he could have said anything. he could have said go to church, vote republican, don't do this, don't do that. but he didn't. it wasn't a laundry list of things to do. it was simple. simply hard. Love God, love people.

there weren't four spiritual laws, there wasn't the romans road, the colour book didn't exist. no religion, no fancy club to join. just love God love people. why do we always make it complicated? i think that people are drawn to love and the love shown to people.

now don't get me wrong. these four words are incredibly simple. yet...ridiculously hard to live by. i really have simplified my faith over the past year and tried just to live by these four words. although there is no religion to worry about. following these four words is far harder than trying to be religious.

so how are you doing with those four wonderful words?

what can you do?

I had the privilege to spend this weekend at the mid-Atlantic Orphan Summit. 400 of us talked about how we can help and what we can do about the crisis. It can be overwhelming. There are somewhere around 150 million orphans in this world. Many of them are hurting and unloved. They fall into anything from drugs to crime to slavery, sometimes even as sex slaves.

The horror stories are truly horrific. And when listening to this I was at first just completely overwhelmed. But as the weekend continued, there were two main points that everyone agreed on. The first was that every single person should do something. The second that we should start with just one child at a time.

Everyone needs to get involved in some fashion. There are multiple biblical mandates for this. There are so many ways to get involved, whether from adoption and foster care, or moving into orphan care. Ministries like World Vision and Compassion are great stepping stones into helping out.

Secondly, one child at a time. If we try to fix the entire problem for 150 million people, we will fail immediately. We need to just see how we can start helping. Start with asking questions and educating ourselves. And then see how we can get involved in a small way. We can't get overwhelmed by everything, but we just need to start with one. Changing one life will lead to changing many.

So what can you do? Today is Orphan Sunday. Visit their website. Secondly, I have a way that you can start helping. Visit Forgotten Voices. There are many suggestions of what you can do. Consider joining in helping to change one life at a time.

Circumstantial Relationships

let's suppose that you are in a relationship. that could be a friendship or dating or even familial relationship. you are close with this other person and you talk all the time and care for each other. one day life takes a drastic turn for you. it turns hard and things get bad. maybe you lose your job , a family member gets sick or dies. maybe you break up with your fiance or you yourself get really sick.

through all of this your friend has done nothing but be there for you and care for you. they haven't always known what to say, but they have loved you. but you decide that you don't like them anymore or maybe you just don't know how to feel about them. so you pull away from the relationship. this person has done nothing to you, but your circumstances have caused you to react in this way.

crazy isn't it.

isn't that what we do with God?

isn't that what i do with God?

my circumstances have changed. they have gotten hard. there is no one to blame it on, but as humans i think we always want to know where to put the blame. so we put the blame on our relationship. we pull back. God has done nothing but love us and care for us, but because of our circumstances, we become apathetic. we hurt a relationship based entirely on our circumstances.

the crazy thing about this. now we have done something to the relationship. we have hurt it. we have caused hurt to one who love and cares for us. and you know what he does...

...continues to love and care for us.

Back to the Future

let's go back to mid 2004. i had recently ended my job after they were forcing me to move to philly and change my job function. i had strong ties to my church and was really involved and making a difference. therefore i decided to stay in harrisburg.

in spring 2005 i got a three month part time consulting job. in fall 2005 i got a temp job that lasted until germany.

fast forward three years and i am back from germany. no employment until december 2009 and that is only part time which is currently yielding about 4 hours a week.

that's three years of three part time jobs. now not to discount germany because it changed my life, but i have tried to live respectfully and follow where i believe i am led.

i just can't do this. multiple job rejections a week and lack of steady employment. i don't know how to deal with so much hardship. and continual feelings of being let down. i'm broken and struggling with no encouragement and what feels like abandonment.

ugh. here i am in the future and the past doesn't have much hope.

thimbels

when you don't have anything nice to say, you should say anything at all. it's not been a good week and any post on a subject would just not be a good thing to put on this internet. so some random tidbits.

i commented on don miller's blog and the moderator deleted my comment. what's up with that! it wasn't offensive or anyting. a bit disagreeing but who are they?

art - is following directions to make something art? i do not believe so. i feel that art happens when one uses their mind to create something new, not just copy and follow.

photography - it is really hard to get that sunset shot. either the background is colorless or the foreground is black. it has taken me 10 or so minutes at times to get the right shot.

do all these politicians really hate each other that much? that is what their ads say.

i love 'much ado about nothing'

i am glad that it is turning to fall.

have a great week. i mean that sincerely. i don't know who reads this, but if you are, I really hope that your week is special in an unexpected way.

LOVE - the finale

loves...?
loves his BFA guys
loves Muslims
loves teenagers
loves the weather we've had this week
loves the smell of fresh cut grass
loves that loving makes for positivity rather than negativity
loves air conditioning
loves grace

that finished up my august LOVE experiment. i have to admit. when it was a rough day, it was really hard to come up with something. some of the things were deep, some weren't. they all were true and the thing that most pleasantly surprised me was that by using the word love and not bashing something else led to positive comments. it seems to disarm peoples negativity a bit.

so i am going to keep going. not every day, but at least once a week. although i love many things, i am not love. i know someone who is. whether or not i feel it or believe it all the time, it is true. God is LOVE. it has to be true. there is no point without it. and let me tell you, i don't feel it right now. but i am clinging to it.

so LOVE.

PS.
loves laughing
loves the chance he is getting to change the lives of some wonderful people
loves volleyball
loves homemade cappuccinos on a rainy day
loves fall.

the church's forgotten

i have come to realize that there is a section of the population that is greatly ignored and forgotten about when it comes to churches. i am realizing this due to being in the group. churches love programs. we have programs for everything.

we have the christian ed program that covers kids from nursery to 6th grade. in 6th grade we hand them off to youth ministry where they stay till twelfth. after that they go off to college for four years. churches are very happy to welcome them back into the fold and also others that have moved into the area. if you have married, great they will through you in with some other young marrieds that maybe have very young children. if not, that is okay because you are still young and full of vigor and churches want to help you mature in whatever you mature in.

but realistically, by the time you are 25 to 30, you should be married so it is time to move into family small groups and sunday school where you learn to become a better parent, husband, wife or all around good person. then you are helped when you have kids graduate college and hopefully are in church leadership as you look to retirement. all well and good(well it may not even be good)...

except...

me. i haven't gotten married. i am in my thirties. i need community just like anyone else, but nobody knows what to do with me. there aren't many like me, so maybe we can just be ignored. maybe there is a 'singles' group that has people mostly in their 40s and 50s who have never married or are maybe divorced. i don't fit there so nothing happens.

i am the church's forgotten.

politics

politics is a rare breed. it is amazing how best of friends can turn fight-to-the-death duelers when discussing politics. they can discuss virtually anything else and remain calm and jovial, but throw in words like republican, democrat, conservative and liberal and the gloves are off.

recently, i made a foray into some political discussions over the course of the day. i wasn't meaning to attack anyone, but in mentioning a disagreement with a political person they revered, it was like attacking their own family. this is what politics does. and i am not sure why. either way, after a day of weighing into debates, i was a bit annoyed with myself for having been drawn into passionate discourses.

so i withdrew. not that i don't think that some of these discussions are important, but because there is just to much passion wrapped in all of this. For this non-republican, non-democrat, non liberal, non-conservative, it is better just to stay on the sidelines and listen. i definitely have my ideas, but others hold quite dearly to theirs and happiness is more important than having your own idea heard.

at least most of the time...

the LOVE experiment.

the past few.

loves going new places
loves reconnecting with friends
loves sunsets
loves the beach
loves you
loves coffee
loves the daily show
loves football (both kinds)
loves camping
loves rain
loves Germany
loves Herbie Hancock - the IMAGINE project
loves the fresh soreness after a hard run
loves that he gets the honor and privilege to sing and worship with Jenn and Kim at Grace Bible Chapel

Those have been the last many. Sort of all over the board. One thing I have noticed is that positive statuses lead to positive comments. Nothing to bicker over when you talk about things you like. Those are just things you like, not life or death. if we talked to people about the things we like about them i bet conversations would many times be different. also if we concentrated on the things we like about people, we would look more fondly on everyone.

also, i have stuck to this. there have been days that I haven't felt like it. a rough day where something bad happened and i was thinking about all that was wrong. it was tough at times to come up with something, yet i always have. it makes you realize that many things are going well at the time that things are rough.

we shall see where this leads next.

love somebody

love

too many things are bringing us down. life can be hard. sucky things happen. so to counteract this and my own get caught in this swirl, i am doing something.

it is sort of a combined technology thing. every day hopefully for the month of august, i am going to put in my facebook status something that i love about life. something good about what is going on in this world. just a way to bring my mind to wonderful things and maybe getting you to think wonderful things.

My first two have been:
loves Forgotten Voices.
loves jazz.

I don't know where this leads me, but am ready to ride the ride.

Peace Aus!

vacation

i'm back. after a very busy july where i haven't been in the state most of the time, i thought i would send out a blog. i was out in kansas for a week and it got me thinking about vacations.

why do vacations work? what is it about them that refreshes us? my outlook on work after i came back was much happier. it just makes me wonder. something in our brains just changes tune when we remove ourselves from the places that cause us stress. yes, that stress is still there, but we have gone away from it for a while. we are doing something else that takes our minds off of the hardship.

but are physical vacations the only things that work. could we just do emotional vacations? what about spiritual vacations? could we step away from the things that cause emotional stress in our lives. can we take mini emotional vacations every week? just to refresh us.

spiritual vacations. is that even an actual thing? are we taking a vacation from our spirituality or are we just creating an environment where we refresh ourselves spiritually? just gets me thinking. how can i create those mini-vacations that help to keep me refreshed?

moments

it moves..it stops...it slows and speeds.

it actually goes the same all the time, but it seems to fly or go tortuously slow. in those fast times how do we pull every bit of wonderfulness out of those monents. life is made out of moments. a journey of moments. a journey is probably my favorite way to describe life and living and yet all these little moments and glimpses make up that journey.

some we miss because we are too busy with ourselves. others we wish that we would miss. but all of these moments have a part to contribute to our lives. they make us who we are. parts of us would be missing without them.

and you know what. i am thankful for them. god has blessed me with these moments, good and bad. he is making me into a unique person to do his work. sometimes it is hard to be thankful for some moments, but they do have an undeniable impact on who we are.

little blessings

well, an infamous time is upon me. it has been a year since i have been back from germany. the year has been full of heartache, pain, rejection and many other hardships. to lay it straight. it has sucked.

a pretty depressing way to lead off. i know, but there is light ahead in your reading. yes my overall situation is less than fun and has brought a lot of pain, BUT. buts are usually bad yet this time it is good. in fact maybe i should use the word 'yet' as my transition word. doesn't have the negative connotation. enough of grammar.

i have noticed over the past little while that it seems that there are little blessings coming my way. for example, this year mark, i knew would be emotional hard for me, yet on the weekend of the mark, i get to see a dear friend from colorado that is passing through. with him and other bfa friends, i will experience a weekend of happiness.

some other recent little blessings. i got to boston to see some dear friends and be loved on. i went to albany to talk about and help the lives of people far more disadvantaged than i. having a weekend of minute to minute reminders that the world is so much bigger than us is good.

and the blessings will keep coming with the ability to go to a wedding of two dear friends. thank you, mind the gap, for this ability.

so these little gaps come and make life just a bit more survivable. overall, still really hard and hurting but a breath of fresh air every once in a while.

are there little blessings in your life?

matters of importance

I have been gone for a bit sorry about that. but one of the reasons is that i have had the opportunity to be involved in something really important. changing the lives of children orphaned by AIDS. I had the chance to travel and represent an amazing organization, Forgotten Voices. I was at an event that a church in new York threw for their youth.

That event changed the course of 500 children's lives in southern Africa. the whole weekend i was reminded about how big this world is and how much it isn't about me. a really good reminder. so we raised money for pastors in Zimbabwe and Zambia to use to positively impact their communities for good.

it was just so neat and refreshing to be a part of something so good and to know that my service was making a difference for God in this world. i am so thankful to get the chance to serve.

now if i can just get 9 people to come together with me.

so many ideas

lots of things buzzing through my head right now.
a swirling mix of thoughts
my brain trying to escape the chaos
clarity of glasses held aloft.

some random poetry for you.

i have decided recently that people need to be nicer to each other. there is a lot of hate going around. many people hate the president or the government. others can't stand a sports team or player.

some don't like their neighbors and walk through the mall at christmas and one of the last things you see will be love. this saddens me. what saddens me more is that i act out of anger. i direct hate towards others. i don't do it often, yet i do it. we all do.

so lets start loving not hating. and that means me. this change starts with myself. so less anger and hate and more kindness and love.

except, of course, the steelers. :-)

give me some love

we need love, it is built into our humanness to be loved and to love. our heart starves and in some ways shrinks when we are not loved. in the same way, we are energized when we are loved. our hearts come alive and bring our spirits with them.

i feel like the same thing happens when we love others. it energizes us. we are called to love. we are called to serve. it is a great thing to give to others what we need ourselves.

either way, i have been loved and valued this weekend. it has been good for my soul.

slow down, you move too fast

recently i was watching a bird walk across the lan. the first thought in my head was questioning why the bird was choosing to walk when it could fly. then i realized that it was most likely looking for food. it was looking for the little things. if it had just flown right by, it would have missed so many things, but in choosing to slow down and walk, a whole world opened up to it.

i wonder how often we just fly right by in a hurry to get to the next thing. maybe if we purposefully slowed down, a whole different wonder would be right before our eyes waiting to be enjoyed.

so, you got to make this moment last and you might as well feel groovy.

communication

i'm sitting here in a cafe in downtown lancaster. got some pete yorn coming through my headphones and just enjoying myself. i'm thinking about community and communication. right now i would like nothing more to be conversing with someone and developing a deeper relationship. or maybe even starting a new one. but i'm not.

and i have a feeling that i don't look very approachable either. sitting here, typing on my computer, with headphones in my ears. it would take a remarkably gutsy person to walk up to me and start a conversation. now i am not necessarily trading anything, but i am communicating over the internet. not exactly the closest and deepest form of communication. in fact, a very safe venue.

or is it? see the things is, i seem to expect the same thing out of electronic communication that i do out of face to face. if i say something to you, you will respond because it is how it works, but over the internet it doesn't work that way. we can hide behind our computers and not respond to others. i do it all the time. i'll read an email and then 2 weeks later realize that i haven't responded to this person. not good.

or you have facebook where there may or may not be any communication, but we are looking at other's profiles without interacting with them. that seems even more backwards.

well, although this is the mode i am in now, i can tell you that i would love nothing more than to have that face to face conversation. i think that most of us want that. so what's holding us up?

probably people typing on computers, listening to their headphones.

Hope with no end

HOPE - it may just be the thing that holds everything together. without it what do we have? i wonder what it is to feel a complete and utter lack of hope. in anything. we have to hope. as humans i don't think that we can live without hope. no matter how hopeless a situation is, there must be hope. to lose hope is well...to lose everything.

"faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."

i think that we tend to concentrate on the second part of that statement. but the first may hold the power of hope. to be sure of what i hope for means that i must hope in something. whatever it is, i must hope in something. the lack of hope becomes the lack of faith. faith in the good, faith in humanity. faith in this life meaning more than just a bunch of cells.

so no matter how hopeless a situation is, i have never lost hope and am very thankful for that.

beauty in tragedy

tonight i was watching a part from 'Band of Brothers' this was the part that focused on the medic and bastogne. in some ways it is a hard part to watch but there are also beautiful moments. first off, it being about war, it is ugly. war is hell and there isn't much that one can say is good about war, if anything. through the bombings and gunfights, there was a quiet serenity at nights with the snow falling.

snow falling against bloodshed. something that wipes the world clean and brings a quiet. the horrible tragedy was still occurring but the beauty never stopped. no matter what, there is beauty. this makes me think about humanity. there are so many things that are ugly about us. things that cause us to go to war. things that cause divorce and bitterness in the relationships with those around us.

but...

there is also a beauty. a beauty in the goodness that drives us to give to others and empathy that causes us to love each other. and the best thing of all.

beauty will overcome the tragedy.