Debt Free

I spent some more time listening to Rob Bell today - in his book "Velvet Elvis." He was talking about how he had just spent some time in Turkey, and how many of the houses that he saw there were unfinished. A friend of his explained that in that Muslim culture, it was looked down upon to carry any financial debt. So, families would save up financial resources, build a portion of their homes and when they ran out of money, construction would simply stop until such time as they could save up some additional money. He went on to discuss how different that was from our Western Culture

I have a problem with debt too - though it's not philosophical as much as how I was raised. But I have been realizing something over the past little while, or, I should say that God has been reminding me of something that is likely quite obvious. I am not in need of ANYTHING . . . .

That sentence was going to continue with, " . . . though by no means are we wealthy." Even now, though, I have to stop and really think about that. What does it mean to be wealthy? I am not wealthy financially . . . . but when it comes to life and joy and satisfaction and opportunity, I am rich beyond what I ever could have imagined.

Plus, now that I'm 26 and over the hill, I'm obviously more wise than I've ever been! Perspective is a wonderful thing.

Grace,

Des

Ainsley, Aunt Kristy and Uncle Des - Merry Christmas! 

Christmas Day 2005 - More to come soon.

Mmmm, the bird. Our first Turkey turned out amazingly! See http://placesihaveeaten.blogspot.com for more!

My nano. Just as a comparison. I had a credit card placed by it originally . . . but I thought I'd rather KEEP my credit the way it is . . . . so instead compare it to the credit card sized Sam's Club Card. 

Kristy has discovered the joy of the nano already.  

Christmas Gifts for the Smiths. If you're interested heres our booty. What's funny is that I'll probably get a lot of people now who are looking for a different kind of picture because I used the word 'Booty' . . . oh well, sorry. 

Track Santa

Alright, if you have Google Earth you can track Santa in real time as he delivers presents all over the world. As I'm writing this, he is in Fujin, China.

It's REALLY neat. Check it out.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/12/this-just-in.html

You do need Google Earth for this first - but you can download it from that same site.

Des

This years holiday google doodles!

I'm not sure what it will eventually be . . . . but I know it's going to be good.

Des

Our First Checkers Game! We won! This is us with Tilden and Stephanie, and Ann and John. 

Be All that You can Be

I'm still listening to Rob Bell and still being blown away. The teaching that I mentioned before is called (something like) "Covered in the Dust." It really is amazing - I'm passively looking for a way that I can share it with you, but until I do, all I can really do is just tell you about it.

For whatever reason, I've never clued in to the fact that I need to understand Jesus in much the same way that people of the day, or at the very least the gospel writers, need to understand him. His disciples saw him as a Rabbi - the Rabbi was the center of the community. According to Bell, it was the Harvard or the Yale to study under a powerful Rabbi.

What we need to remember is that all of Jesus' disciples were chosen from vocations, called from the family trade. The practical part of all this means that they were most likely rejected by another Rabbi - they were trained in the practial Jewish Education traditions and then were told by another Rabbi that you couldn't do "it" so go back and learn to work with your father or a family relative.

The JESUS comes along and says, "I (an up-and-coming powerful Rabbi) think you are worthy to be my follower. I want to train you; I want you to learn to be like me!"

That was the greatest thing that you could be - a student of a powerful Rabbi. Not only that, Jesus selected those that were otherwise rejected and renewed them, redeemed them, essentially. Jesus, as Rabbi, wanted His teachings to be carried on LONG after his death, and selected students that He knew could do that.

He selected a band of rejects on which to build his Church.

There is still hope.

Grace.

Des

The Holidaze

I'm, by no means, a political junkie. Politics often make me cringe. Though, it's usually not the politics as much as the absurd views (and sometimes, even topics of debate) that we choose to argue over.

Admittedly, I'm getting quite sick of the whole Holidays vs. Christmas debate. On the one hand you have a few of the populace trying to cut out all of the refrences to Christ, because hearing a reference to Him somehow infringes on their rights. On the other hand, have a bunch of Christians trying to protect a sacred (i.e. as opposed to secular) symbol of a season recognizes Christ's birth. Problem is, the SACRED part is still very much non-Christian with the tradition coming out of ancient rituals of filling homes with evergreens as a symbol of new birth.

I feel much about the Christmas tree like I feel about Christians trying to protect the "sacrament" of marriage. Too little FAR too late. We have allowed the practices to become secularized, and only when we it seems endangered do we come out fighting, and then, more often than not, we sound (or are made to sound) ignorant.

However, I have to admit, that in this case I feel very much like non-Christians are 'overstepping' the rational. I can understand opposition to having 'under God' in the pledge of allegiance - I don't agree necessarily, but I can see the argument. I can understand having the right to be married as homosexuals - I can much more easily agree with that.

But, just because the vast majority of a country celebrates a holiday that someone else doesn't, that doesn't, infringe on the minorities rights, does it? I can't see it. That's like saying that the President's annual pardoning of the turkey (an obvious support of Thanksgiving) is an infringment on my rights and that the White House needs to can it.

Give me a break. What is it a slow news day or something ? All those kids suddenly stop dying in Africa? Every homeless person in America suddenly found work and homes? Sudanese genocide calmed down?

We need to be more concerned about something other than infringing on my merry rights.

Grace.

Des

Ornaments from our tree 

Two shots of our "holiday" tree. Flash on and flash off. 

My Birthday #26 - and climbing . . . but I did get to watch Carolina SPANK the Falcons - it was a beautiful thing. 

The Kingdom

I was engaged in an interesting conversation last night . . . the topic: What (or where, or who) is the Kingdom of Heaven? If I were trying to explain the "Kingdom of Heaven" to someone - what would that be. How does one get there? Is it a place at all? Is it a citizenship?

That, I think, is going to lead me to some interesting places, and some interesting reading, and probably some interesting opinions too.

What do you think? What is the kingdom of heaven. I'll post more on it later . . . but for now, I'd like to hear some opinions.

Grace,

Des

Jesus the Rabbi

If you've never heard of Rob Bell, you should definitely look him up. He the pastor of the fastest growing Christian congregation in the US (based somewhere in Michigan, I think). I heard him speak last year at Youth Specialties in Atlanta. Then, just recently, my pastor gave me this great CD of a message that he gave talking about some great history stuff as it relates to Jesus. He was specifically speaking on the educational system in Jesus' day.

My first mistake (not, like, ever . . .) is that, while I know Jesus is real, I forget that He existed at a point in history, and that has DRASTIC consequences on how I view Him.

Bell asks the question . . . what was it about the middle east 2000 years ago that was so appealing to God that He sent his Son at THAT point in time - out of all the possible times that Jesus could have been here? It's a GREAT question. He talks about how SO much of what Jesus said and did needs to be view through the lens of a 1st century Rabbi - which is essentially what Jesus was - at least, as a human - yes, He was (is) God - but more than just a human form, He was 1st century Rabbi form.

Let me give you some simple examples - if you live near me, as me and I'll copy the CD for you to have a listen to. He talks about how learning was very different then - whereas we ask what's 2+2 (correct answer: 4) - a correct answer in Jesus' situation could be another question (what is 16 divided by 4). What they taught was not information but understanding, shown by the interplay of questions and questions and questions and answers. So, when Mary and Joseph found preteen Jesus with the teachers in the synagogue, it says that they were amazed with his questions AND answers (i.g. NOT JUST his answers to their questions).

Another example is when Jesus is talking about his Yoke, and how it's easy - well, a YOKE was basically the interpretation of the law that a particular Rabbi held . . . it differed from Rabbi to Rabbi, for example, what was permissible on the Sabbath - the entire compilation of what they allowed and forbade (is that REALLY a word?) was called their YOKE and they taught that yoke to their students. In fact, a Rabbi wanted to perpetuate his yoke, he wanted it to live on long after he was gone.

Not only does that give a completely different understanding of Jesus saying, "My yoke is easy." but also consider this . . . when a Rabbi came along, once in a blue moon, with a new Yoke (something that no other Rabbi was teaching at the time), he would often say things like, "You have heard it said that . . . but I tell you . . . "

There's so much - we can't understand Jesus fully out of His context - he was not a North American in 2005. It's MY job to get my head around that.

Father God - help us to search out and find out more of the amazing aspects of Your Character. We know we'll never understand the vast majority of who you are and how all things work together. But help us know you more, and, in so doing, know more of what we are to do!

Grace,

Des

Relatives

Christmas is coming, which makes me excited . . . but an interesting thing happened the other night. Kristy and I are unable to go home for Christmas this year, so we're making all of our preparations here and trying to send cards and/or gifts home to our families, typical ho-ho stuff.

In doing so, I made some smart-alec comment, you know the kind, where you say something and add some random number to exaggerate a quantity - so I said something about "blah, blah, blah . . . the 87 people in our families!"

So Kristy responds with, "Whatever . . . I bet you can't name 87 people in our family."

I admit, it seemed like a rather formidible task.

But, within a few minutes I had rhymed off, without much stopping to thinking, at least 87 people. It TOTALLY added some perspective to my thinking.

Those are people that we're directly related to - I stayed, I think, exclusively with just aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and parents - I can't even begin to fathom HOW MANY people we have had some kind of relationship with through our lives. I don't think of myself as having a LOT of friends . . . but this really makes you think

How many people have seen Christ in me? How many have seen Satan? How many people have I ignored because they were unpopular? How many people have noticed me because I was unpopular? What's my legacy?

You also hear about the concept of six degrees of separation: the concept that everyone in the world is connected by a chain of, at the most, six relationships. I can only imagine, even from those 87 relatives, how many people THEY know.

In any case . . . I've been thinking a bunch about how people will remember me - not in a morbid kind of way - but, for example, past camp staff that I've not seen in years, and may never see again if our paths don't cross. How do they remember me? What kind of person was I? What did I do to let them know that I cared about them? How do people see me now?

Interesting.

Grace.

Des