Thursday, February 23, 2006

I'm Walking Once Again!

If you've been reading this blog for a while, you already know that I volunteer at an AIDS hospice in Houston. This year the annual AIDS Walk will benefit the efforts of Bering Omega (hospice, dental clinic and more) even greater than in years past. So if you would like to support the cause, go to my profile page and make a donation. You'll feel good all over, I promise!!

Monday, February 20, 2006

Science Isn't My Thing and Yet . . .

She said, "My kids were both having to study the law of the conservation of matter at school. We got to talking about the fact that it means that all that has ever been created still exists in some form . . . even the fingernails of Jesus are still floating around out there or has already taken on a new form."

Me interrupting, "So that means the body of Christ is still out there somewhere but just may have taken on a new form, right?"

Us, "Hmmmmmmm. . . ."

Friday, February 17, 2006

Don't Thank Me

Twice this week I've been told, "Thank you for your patience. I'm sorry you had to wait."

That's assuming a great deal, don't you think?

Am I patient simply because you didn't hear my angry thoughts and detailed instructions on how you could vastly improve the ineptitude of your system? Or because you didn't see on my face the utter amazement I felt as employees ignored requests or worse, provided incorrect information?

My silence does not indicate patience. So if you must thank me, get at least that much right.

How about . . .

"Thank you for not revealing how utterly frustrated you are with us at this moment."

or better yet . . .

"Thank you for not taking 'customer service' too seriously. Obviously, we don't either."

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Crop This

Been thinking alot about perspective lately. As a result, I've been looking at alot of photographs lately.

I LOVE the crop function!

I can take pounds off a person just by using that little dotted line to reframe the shot. Then moving the mouse to Image/Crop . . . voila! Magic happens at the touch of a button.

I can also force someone to focus. "Forget the grass in the foreground. Ignore all that trash behind the flower. LOOK!! See it, and only it."

But visual doesn't translate into verbal does it? No matter how hard I try, I can't take away your pain. I can't make you see what you cannot see.

I can't fix anyone but me.

Taking on that perspective changes everything. I can move you toward new thinking with questions but I can't make you think a certain way. I can suggest possibilities but I can't make you accept a new path. I can offer options but the choice in the end is yours.

So my definitions are evolving. Evangelism has nothing to do with the end result and everything to do with storytelling. Church has nothing to do with membership and everything to do with community. Friendship has nothing to do with forever and everything to do with now.

At least, that's way I'd crop it.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

I'm Not Going There

It's too easy. And anyway, the professional comics are just having too much fun with it. So all I'll ask is that you read this slowly and aloud:

The Vice President of the United States shot a 78-year-old man in the face . . . while hunting quail . . . on a farm . . . that raises quail . . . to be shot at . . . by the Vice President of the United States and 78-year-old men

'Nuf said.

Monday, February 13, 2006

Wisdom?

Perhaps one definition of wisdom is learning from your past. Last Thursday I traveled to Newark, NJ to work with an African American church on vision. The experience was incredible and I walked away from those 50 or so leaders having learned as much as I shared.

However, I walked away a day early.

On Friday evening we heard the news of the impending snowstorm. We checked to see what changing my Sunday flight to Saturday would cost. When we discovered that Continental was going to waive the cost of changing flights, we knew this HAD to be a big one coming our way and made the change.

Yesterday, under the blankets in my very own Houston home, I heard and saw the impact of the storm. I had flown out just as the first flakes were falling.

I have been in the air or in a foreign country during all of the following: Tinnamen Square, the Oklahoma City bombing, Tropical Storm Allison, Sept. 11, and more than a few internal squirmishes such as strikes, etc.

This time I got out while the getting was good!

Whew!

Monday, February 06, 2006

Talking the Walk

The minute I left Walk the Line, I called a friend with Louisiana roots.

"Hay! This is Kay-run. And I jest left that movie 'bout Johnny Cash and feel absolutely a-okay 'bout reverting back to my true Tennessee twang for at least a couple o' minutes. Since you're 'bout the only one who can understand me when I talk lack this, I thot I'd call and say how much I liked it. And I did . . . like it, I mean."

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Tresblogging on a sick day . . .

My stomach didn't want to cooperate with me being in an upright position today so I left work after a few hours and headed for my couch. A bit of rest and I'm not standing but I can at least allow the laptop to merit its name.

In my search for amusement I once again fell in love with Waiter Rant's wit. While tagging Chardonnay as the "Missionary Position of White Wine" may not be Exhibit A in defense of his incredible storytelling, I did have to giggle in the reading of his insights into the public's drinking habits.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Oscar Talk

Today's paper listed the Oscar nominations and when I got to the documentary category my eyes were failing to pick up all those tiny newsprint commas and the list became a strange run-on sentence that somehow "spoke" to me:

Darwin's Nightmare Enron:The Smartest Guys in the Room March of the Penguins Murderball Street Fight

Perhaps those not living in the Houston area and so therefore void of the daily updates on who's who and what's what regarding the Enron trial will not share my amusement, but I was, yea verily, amused.

YES! I get this ... don't always like it but I get it

Waiting
from www.vaux.net
and reworked in The Complex Christ

As Sarah waited...Ninety years for a son to fulfil God's promise.
We wait in hope for what we thought had been spoken to us.

As Moses waited...40 years in the desert
We wait for emptiness and humility

As the Prophets waited -- 1000 years of salvation promises
We wait for the signs of presence

As Mary waited...9 months of her 14 years for the child of God.
We feel the birth-pains, yet fear for the child.

As John the Baptist waited -- scanning the crowds for knowing eyes
We long for an experience of the Divine

As Jesus waited -- 30 years of creeping time,
40 days in the throes of temptation,
3 years in the midst of misunderstanding,
3 days in the depths of hell . . .

So now, we wait.
Our turn to toil on levelling mountains and straightening paths.
Our turn to watch time's horizon.
Our turn to hope that He who promised is faithful, and will return.