I want to know them

I have been listening to some Shane Claiborne (<--short vimeo clip about him) podcasts recently and this quote is from a lecture he gave at Fuller Theological Seminary. It rocked my world.

He said, "I asked participants who claimed to be "strong followers of Jesus" whether Jesus spent time with the poor.  Nearly 80% said yes. Later in the survey, I sneaked in another question.  I asked this same group of strong followers whether... they spent time with the poor, and less than 2% said they did. I learned a powerful lesson: We can admire and worship Jesus without doing what he did. We can applaud what he preached and stood for without caring about the same things. We can adore his cross without taking up ours. I had come to see that the great tragedy of the church is not that 'rich Christians' do not care about the poor but that 'rich' Christians do not know the poor."

That leaves me with 2 things, questions to be exact...
who are the 'poor' in my world? and what does it mean to know them?

Of course the materially poor are easy to spot.  I observe them nearly every day scrounging to find coffee money and wondering if they'll make it til their check comes next week.  But what about the poor in spirit.  I see many more of these folks and my heart aches.  The fixer in me wants to fix their lives but reality is that they need an encounter with the Father's love.  And yet Jesus says, "blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" so there's an 'up side' to being poor in spirit.  I think the key is realizing it and holding your hand out for a touch from Him.

Knowing the poor is much more difficult than simply recognizing and noticing them.  It takes me a step further and it calls me to be a part of their life in some way.  This is where the rubber meets the road and it's gets messy.  Hardly ever do I allow myself to be inconvenienced too much.  I think about Jesus and what his day looked like as he walked this earth.  Probably interruption after interruption.  Outside of his time with the Father, his day, his life was not his own.  HE LET PEOPLE WEAR HIM OUT!  Don't you think so?  But that's the nature of poverty-- need.

Lord, let my eyes be open to the poor (in material things and spirit) and help me to lay my life down in order to really know them. 

Headcoverings

Just the thought of them makes me laugh.  I really don't know why.  I guess because I think about ladies who think they need to wear them in church to be holy or pray or something.  We visted a church back in the day and I saw them with my very own eyes.  Kinda made me chuckle and secretly want to roll my eyes.

But today, another type of headcovering tickled my funnybone.  Oh, it's been an ongoing thing for me.  You see, at the pool I've tried to train my eyes to not look at... well, men.  For obvious and various reasons this isn't prudent for me.  So mostly I just do my laps and chat with my bud upon occasion.  This morning the headcovering swim caps were in full bloom as spring is obviously just around the corner.  (not that it feels like it or anything)

So first there were the matching turban-like ones, elderly husband and wife.  It's been awhile since I've seen these folks but I want to say that they are baby blue and resemble one of those old-school ice packs that the school nurse put on your head.  Or maybe like Dumb Donald's hat from the Fat Albert show.  This cute couple sports theirs like a rock star but I'll betcha they call theirs a 'bathing cap'.  No shame, I tell ya.

I observed another matching set today.  Just red, bright red.  See you from the other side of the pool, red.  Another elderly lady wore hers and her helper had the same.  Maybe it was so you could see 'em comin.  Well they did have their own lane but just in case.

Then there was the lady that just brought her shower cap, I think.  It was white with simple flowers.  Functionality was her aim.  Oh, and I can't forget the dude that just wore his rug... IN THE SWIMMING POOL.  Who was he kidding?  Guess he wasn't going under although the temptation crossed my mind.  But he would've lost his glasses.

And finally, there were the cool kids.  Theirs were multicolored and simple.  Guess it makes them swim faster.

Early on, my bud and I, discussed whether we should have a pool head covering.  We decided that we didn't want to swim that fast.  and I wasn't wearin nose clips either.



SOPs?

So tonight I came home and just wanted to relax a bit, drink a beer, and go to bed early.  But I have some pretty strong emotions over tonight's happenings.  I didn't really want my first post back to be negative so I'll try and... well, you know....

Coming from 'corporate America' and having left a job where there were norms, I find it difficult sometimes when I encounter life outside of them.  Some might call them SOPs or standard operating procedures.  Such things as kindness and consideration of other's feelings, avoiding demeaning or argumentatives tones, etc. etc. are just a few things that come to mind when I think about how we treated each other back in cube life.  It wasn't even the 'Christian way' but moreso the human way.

So what I encountered tonight, within the walls of the church, made my heart sick.  And what is more-- the fact that we/I let it go on and on.  Supposedly "it's been dealt with" and I say well obviously "it" hasn't because "it" is still continuing.  If this was happening in a secular workplace, the person would have long been fired.  But is that the answer?  To release them from their service?  We are called to love and so that means we care about this person's life more than we care about the damage they are doing (to others) and to the team as a whole?

Wow, what a tightrope!

If at first you don't suceed... try, try again

After receiving some encouragement from a friend, I'm going to try and resurrect this blog and use it as a fun way to share some thoughts and stories. So stay tuned.