happy MLK day – I have a dream

the text of the speech:

I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

music Monday

some music I’ve been listening to…

The Avett Brothers – I and Love and You

What Matters More by Derek Webb

Swell Season — Feeling the Pull

a poem

for my wife Michelle:

Marriage

How hard it is for me, who live
in the excitement of women
and have the desire for them
in my mouth like salt. Yet
you have taken me and quieted me.
You have been such light to me
that other women have been
your shadows. You come near me
with the nearness of sleep.
And yet I am not quiet.
It is to be broken. It is to be
torn open. It is not to be
reached and come to rest in
ever. I turn against you,
I break from you, I turn to you.
We hurt, and are hurt,
and have each other for healing.
It is healing. It is never whole.

- by Wendell Berry

prayer(s) for the week

A prayer from our friend Maria, here at Kairos:

Our great and mighty God
You are far beyond our grasp, beyond all understanding
In the wake of the earthquake in Haiti
we, your children, cry out to you
in unison with the Church around the globe
We do not understand why you allow such destruction in our world
But we cry out for your mercy, Lord
Bring your mercy upon our brothers and sisters in Haiti
Comfort them in this time of grief
Provide for them in this time of need
Love them in this time of desperation
Hear their cries
Order the relief efforts from around the globe
Send doctors and healing
Bring supplies and provision
Raise hope and determination
Bring protection to all those involved
And as your Son taught us to pray,
May your kingdom come
and your will become
on earth as it is in heaven
amen.

Also, from Jesus Creed

Here is one of my favorite prayers from The Book of Common Prayer, and it was in our daily prayers this morning. It focuses on prayers of petition, and this weekend in our prayers for Haiti this prayer might be an encouragement:

Almighty God, who has promised to hear the petitions of those who ask in your Son’s Name:
We beseech you mercifully to incline your ear to us who have made our prayers and supplications to you;
and grant that those things which we have faithfully asked according to your will, we may effectually obtain,
to the relief of our necessity,
and to the setting forth of your glory.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

And from me – in my reading in Psalm 36 today:

Thank you Father for waking me to this day in which your light exposes the stingy cheapness of sin, and at the same time, reveals the wild, open beauties of your love in Jesus. Amen

Saturday links

from my meanderings from the blogosphere, internet & through the googlely web thingy…

If there were a god – would he let this happen ?

Haiti: Where is God?

Donovan shines in Everton debut

Much fear in many churches

A new “new years resolution” dieting towards someone’s education

Idealism and Reality in Joshua

this post – made me pick this book up again & re-read it…
Starting 2010 with “Too Busy Not To Pray”

since we use Netflix much – I found this very interesting…

some foreign policy news…
A Summer in Yemen
‘Since women cannot bear the hot sun, why would they want to get a job?’

a couple of quotes:
“One afternoon, a group of children stop playing to ask me whether I wish to enter Islam to go to heaven. “No? Then you cannot go to heaven.” Another day I wear pink instead of black. A boy spits on me.”
“Perhaps he passed the boy who travels a mile to obtain a fresh bottle of water for me when his shop runs out—sprinting the whole way—and sweetly responds to my thanks: “You are welcome, my sister.” Or the cook who gives me a chair hidden from the strong gaze of men chewing qat. Or the motorcyclists narrowly missing the small boys selling tiny bottles of perfume in cardboard boxes on the ground. In the poorest country in the Arab world, would Abdulmutallab have noticed the gentle smile of the cook as he hands me fresh bread at no cost?”

Women & Religion

Did Christianity cause the crash?

praying w/ the Psalms

Father, I pray for all who feel that they have been forgotten by you; who feel rejected and alone. Reveal yourself to them as the one who will bring good news to the oppressed and bind up the brokenhearted (Is 61). Even in Jesus Christ. Amen.

Relief organizations for Haiti

“Self-righteous religion is always marked by insensitivity to issues of social injustice, while true faith is marked by profound concern for the poor and marginalized.” ~Tim Keller

If you are looking for an organization to give through (& you probably should be) — here are some options:

Food for the poor

Beyond Borders

Compassion International

World Relief

World vision

Mennonite Central Committee

Doctors without borders

The International Committee of the Red Cross

devastation in Haiti

this is a re-post of an email that I sent out to my Kairos community here today:

The events of the past couple of days motivated me to send a quick email out to you all. By now, you are well acquainted with the fact that two days ago on January 12, Haiti was hit near the capital of Port-au-Prince with a massive, level 7.0 earthquake — the most devastating earthquake in the nation’s history. The damage to buildings in some areas is almost total and the number of injured or dead is unknown at this time. Yesterday, President René Préval described the destruction as “unimaginable.” The Haiti Red Cross says the toll maybe be 50,000, while Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive said a preliminary assessment led him to fear that the number of dead could be “well over 100,000.” One magazine called it Hell on earth, and these pictures back up that assessment.

One is rendered speechless when reading, and looking at the utter devastation. We can find feelings arising within us of senselessness, sadness, anger, frustration and even helplessness…

Yesterday, I found some perspective when reading thoughts by Scot McKnight:

“…I read this from Randy Harris, God Work – Confessions of a Standup Theologian:

One of the things we do as Christians is to try to pay attention to what God might be able to do in the world, especially with the broken places in our lives. These aren’t good things. They generally aren’t things God does to us. This Romans passage [chp 8] says God can crawl in the middle of it because he works in all things and nothing can stand in the way of God reconciling all things to himself. …

We have to believe and live out the reality that God is taking things somewhere and that nothing can stop it. And our task then is to join God in his reconciling work that that he began before creation. … So we join God in what he’s trying to do in the world.

I make no claim to know what God is doing in Haiti, but I do know that God’s intent is to reconcile all things to himself and so, in prayer, in giving, and in mobilizing humans to help the suffering of Haiti, we commit ourselves to enter now into the work of binding up the brokenhearted and healing the wounded. May we crawl, with God, into this rubble and be the presence of God, bring the presence of God, and lead Haiti into the healing presence of God .”

Amen to that!

There are many great organizations to give to for the relief effort. I would strongly encourage you to do something, no matter the amount. (Self-righteous religion is always marked by insensitivity to issues of social injustice, while true faith is marked by profound concern for the poor and marginalized. ~Tim Keller) I have listed just a few on my blog – that could help you know where to start.

Another thing — Ben Witherington also has some excellent thoughts on Where is God in all of this? I would encourage you to read it.

One last thing — if you are interested in these kind of things, Don Miller, and Andrew Jones have thoughts on the sheer silliness (& stupidity) of comments that have been made about how this disaster came about…

Colbert settles the debate – Science vs. Faith

more about "Colbert settles the debate – Science …", posted with vodpod

HT: BW3

thought for the day…

“The onslaught of mobile technologies and social media addiction is sucking up our attention in the virtual world while we are attempting to do other things in real life at the same time, and it is getting a little out of hand.”

HT: jonny baker