Thursday, July 30, 2009

Homeless Man Leaves behind $4 Million

Another incredible NPR story (notice a trend this week?) about a homeless man who recently passed away. Oh, and left behind $4 Million to varous worthy charities. Huh!?!?!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Your Brain on God

NPR just took an depth look (is there any other way NPR looks at things?) at the human brain of those who profess faith or had spiritual experiences. I didn't understand all the big words, but it's a pretty interesting read. Check out the article here. It will blow your mind!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Flickering Pixels

I'm in the middle of a great read, Flickering Pixels by Shane Hipps It's a look at how technology shapes your faith (the subtitle says so!) As I find myself in battling my Twitter/FB/Web addictions, I must say I picked it up with a bit of trepidation. But I know my man Rob Bell is a big Shane Hipps fan (the quote from Bell on the back of Flickering Pixels says that Hipps constantly "blows my mind." Works for me!) so I figured it was worth checking out.

I figured right.

I'll have a full write up when I finish. But here's one passage (at the end of chapter 4) that has really spoken to me:

"Knowing God comes through direct experience. This experience blooms in a wide-open heart where desire burns fiercely and freely. In this way, desire is the path to experiencing God. Desire in all its forms. Even our dark desires, the ones we're most fearful and ashamed of, the ones we call sin. Even those desires are merely disfigured drives searching for the divine in counterfeit form. If we pay attention to them, own them, and push beneath them by peeling back layer upon layer of desire, we eventually find our Original Desire -- the deepest longing that leads us home."

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Picking Cotton

Over the weekend, 60 Minutes made me cry. This normally doesn't happen. Unless I watch the entire Andy Rooney segment at the end. Kidding! (sorta)

But the story about How Accurate is Visual Memory was mind blowing. It tells the incredible story and saga of Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cotton.

To read the transcript or watch video of the show, go here.

In a nutshell, when Jennifer Thompson was 22 she was a victim of a brutal rape. She picked Ronald Cotton out of a police lineup and he was tried and convicted of the crime. 11 years into his life sentence DNA evidence proved that he was innocent and he was released. Thompson was devastated that her eyewitness testimony had caused a man to go to jail and lose 11 years of the prime of her life. She requested a meeting with Cotton and here is her account of how it went:

"I started to cry immediately. And I looked at him, and I said, 'Ron, if I spent every second of every minute of every hour for the rest of my life telling you how sorry I am, it wouldn't come close to how my heart feels. I'm so sorry.' And Ronald just leaned down, he took my hands…and he looked at me, he said, 'I forgive you,'" Thompson remembered.

"I told her, I said, 'Jennifer, I forgive you. I don't want you to look over your shoulder. I just want us to be happy and move on in life,'" Cotton recalled.

"The minute he forgave me, it's like my heart physically started to heal. And I thought, 'This is what grace and mercy is all about. This is what they teach you in church that none of us ever get.' And here was this man that I had hated. I mean, I used to pray every day of my life during those eleven years that he would die. That he would be raped in prison and someone would kill him in prison. That was my prayer to God. And here was this man who with grace and mercy just forgave me," Thompson told Stahl. "How wrong I was, and how good he is."


The two have written a book, Picking Cotton, that I can not wait to read. They are also good friends and travel the country sharing their story and speaking about the dangers of eye witness testimony.

An amazing portrait of grace and mercy. Beautiful!

Friday, July 10, 2009

Drop Your Stone

Excerpt from Bishop Joseph W. Walker's eulogy at Steve McNair's service yesterday:

"People around this world and even here now, have a tension in their spirit. What is the response of the church in a moment like this? Oh, I know that is the big elephant in the room. What says the church in a moment like this?

People want to know. I stand between two places as priest and prophet — as priest to this family and ministering to them, and yet prophet to speak to the nation of what thus sayeth God.

There was a woman one day caught in adultery, and the religious people brought her to Jesus. And they said to Jesus, the law says she should be stoned. Jesus knelt down and drew in the sand. He looked up and said, 'Ye without sin, cast the first stone.'

They began to drop their stones, from the youngest to the oldest. And I have come to declare from the youngest to the oldest in America and over this world, it's time to have a stone-dropping service.

Drop your stone.

Next time you write about Steve McNair, drop your stone. Next time you text somebody, drop your stone. The next time you Twitter, drop your stone. Those of you in the barbershops, those of you walking the streets or on the corner, drop your stones.

What I do know about this man is that he loved God. And he was just like us. Imperfect. But he knew God."

Amen.

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Six Prayers God Always Answers (Results May Vary)

I just finished one of the best books on the subject of prayer that I've ever read. It's called Six Prayers God Always Answers *Results May Vary by Mark Herringshaw and Jennifer Schuchmann. Put it on your "to read" list. It's excellent!

All of us offer up prayers. Even those who say God don't exist. Prayers such as:

"Oh my God!"

"Please Lord, don't let that cop pull me over..."

"Please, God, don't let him die!"

"Why me, God?"

"God, she's beautiful..."

The concept of the book is simple. Whether you believe God answers prayers or he doesn't, there are six types of prayers He always responds to. Of course, God being God, rarely are these answered the way we expect. (He is God, afterall!)

Bargaining prayers. Questioning prayers. Prayers for justice. Desperate prayers. Audacious prayer. Prayers for beauty and happiness. Even selfish prayers. This book takes a really interesting and entertaining look at how Gods responds to each of these. Often in ways we often don't understand. But always with our best interests in mind. He answers. The trick is for us to learn to listen. This book helped me to understand how to do that a little better.

To learn more, check out the Six Prayers web site. The authors also have a new book out, Nine Ways God Always Speaks that I'm gonna track down next.

(If your a fellow Church Streeter, you can find Six Prayers in our Church Library!)

Monday, July 6, 2009

Fearless

Max Lucado's new book, Fearless, is coming out soon. You can read the excellent first chapter here. for free.

Stay fearless.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Who Will Cry When You Die?

The last two weeks have been intense.

On a national scale, of course you had the deaths of MJ and Farrah.

On a personal level, my father in law has been in the hospital. A woman who was like a 2nd mother to my wife passed on after a long, courageous fight with cancer. I caught word that a business associate, a guy I interviewed with for a job a few years back, had a motorcycle accident and died at the age of 48.

48!?!?

And that's just my little corner of the world. Death has been all around. But then again, it always is. It seems to be in the spotlight these last few weeks, thanks mostly to the sensationalism of MJ's death. (I mean, the guy's funeral is going to be in the LA Staples Center of all places!)

In watching one of the non-stop news memorials on MJ, I was struck by the number of people who were absolutely bawling uncontrollably at the news that he was gone.

It made me think a few things. One, to each their own, but I can't imagine being that torn up over a death of a person that I had never met. I shed some tears when Johnny Cash died. I imagine I would if something happened to Bono, Steve Nash or President Obama (now there's a trio!). But for the most part, I can't imagine getting that worked up over someone who I only knew through watching them on TV or the Interwebs.

Now, somebody I know and love...that's a different matter entirely.

Which brought me to my second thought: Who will cry when you die? That's the name of an incredible book by one of my favorite authors, Robin Sharma.

It's also a powerful thought. What do you and I need to accomplish to make our short life here on Earth count? Who are the people we want to become, so that when we pass from this life into the next, tears on Earth are shed from the people that we've helped - just as tears of joy in Heaven are shed as we're welcomed into Eternity.

So that's what's on my mind.

Who will cry when you die?


Who do you think? Who is it for you?