call & reponse

did you know there is more slavery right now than at any time in human history?

call & response ...

"There is a sea of change happening in human rights activism. The world’s issues cannot be solved alone by governments and non-profits, but require community-based participation. As a feature film, CALL+RESPONSE has the unique position of being not only a ground-breaking genre-bending film, but due to the fact that this project was funded completely through donations, it operates as a powerful movement with 100% of profits going to fund global field projects on the front lines of this issue.

CALL+RESPONSE is creating interactive field projects for each aspect of human slavery: sex slavery, labor slavery, child soldiers and child slavery. All profits from the use of the film, dvd, soundtrack, itunes downloads will be directed, by the viewers, to these projects with clear start and finish points (ie a landrover for a child soldier rehab camp, sewing machines for a after-care training facility). Our goal is to fund and celebrate completed projects together in community. We are closing the loop by allowing viewers to become participants in the solution."

weekend updates

by the way - chips is still swimming in his bowl. he's the terminator of goldfish.

VX22

walking with the crowds
carried along by the pressing forward.
each one eager to get ahead
but each starting the same:
born as a baby, and from then on, struggling towards
meaning, power and influence.
be someone
be remembered
make a big impression.
leave some indelible mark in your 3 score years
and 10.

from birth, a struggle to find eternity, to burst
through life with such dazzling intensity, that
everyone will remember forever.
but walking the other way, picking out a route
against the crowds, a solitary figure passes me......
passes all of us - all straining away innocence, to
be someone,
and he passes us, a quiet chaos in the crowd.

Christ, eternal, omnicient, creator, beyond time,
source of wisdom and beyond petty claims of
influence...in very nature God, slips into reverse
and walks back past us - away from Kingship,
away from power, away from influence, away from
eternity, away from wisdom...toward infancy.
calmly stepping into the body of a tiny child.

and even as this baby grows, figuring out how to control
the body he himself designed, he still walks
the other way, realizing that life cannot be found in the
struggle for permanence, but in giving it up.

this Great Reversal subverts me. tired of pressing forward, i realise i need to turn, for what i have been searching for has just walked past me the other way.

(from 'signs of emergence' - VX22. emphasis mine)

slow down, baby

wednesday. middle of the week. grey skies and girls on the couch watching nicole c. mullen on dvd. nothing is shaking the earth here today... for the first time in a long time. how can summer, the laid back season, be so busy & stressful? the idea of a day with nothing and no one is luxury.

there's not enough going slowly in our world. not enough couch sitting. not enough reading. not enough front porch-ing with friends. so when life surprises you by slowing down for a minute, pay attention and slow down with it. there's a gift somewhere in the quiet moment, if you don't march right on past it...

don't give up on me yet, baby!

many of know, or have heard of, the good "colonel reverend doctor captain chips" - our fantail goldfish. "chips", as we call him, has been swimming on my counter top for 3 1/2 years! i don't need your goldfish anecdotes - i know they can live for ages - but, really? 3 1/2 years? in a little bowl? needless to say, this is about 3 1/4 years longer than i anticipated him living...

so last night, when he was belly up, tail down - nothing twitching but an eyeball - i figured, "ah, well, chips. it's your time." and decided to leave him in peace over night so the girls could participate in his funeral today.

BUT

when i got up this morning, who was swimming around his bowl, all chipper and coming up to the top to eat his breakfast!?!? THE COLONEL! honestly! i think the cats are rubbing off, cause chips seems to have 9 lives...

beautiful monday

(did you hear the thunder last night? it shook me in my bed.... i woke to pouring rain & cool, grey skies... beautiful. i hope it pours all day.)

if you're looking for something to read, here's a little list of what i'm reading right now...

signs of emergence - it's interesting, not what i expected. it's not about the "emergent church movement" .... but i'm not sure what it is about! i'm not far into it, but the first chapter is all about waiting - how we need to wait & let God form us slowly. so you know it's speaking to me!

cost of discipleship - bonhoeffer is a bit like reading romans to me... the arguments fold back onto each other, and require diligent attention. the book is rich and full, and even the parts i'm not sure i agree with make me think. he helped me understand the idea of costly grace for the first time.

velvet elvis - i am not a rob bell devotee, but i do like him. most of you have probably already read this one, so i'll leave it at that.

job - well, i'm not so much reading job as i am reading the OT, and happen to be in job. i usually skim along to the good part - i like it when God shows up - but i am trying to read slowly this time, and give it my full attention... oh, and i'm sprinkling in a few psalms here and there.

TGIF

TGIF, faithful readers!

my week came like all weeks do - with good news and bad news, great disappointment & huge joys. here's hoping all of our weekends are more full of the good than the bad!