Notes from the Trail

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I think Jenny may have said it the best, but hear it here as well:

YOU’RE INVITED TO JOURNEY!

We’d love to have you join our group of imperfect people in imperfect pursuit of a perfect God. It’s been my life motto for a while now, but I really believe our purpose is to magnify God as life’s ultimate joy.

I sent my mom an email this morning in response to her retirement reception that my family attended ysterday. She concluded a 33-year tenure at Pulaski Academy as the lower school librarian (she usually corrects me and says “media specialist” since she has a Master’s in that area). However, I and all the students whom she’s touched over the years simply know her as the “librarian.”

As I grazed the snack table and visited with the dozens of new faces and old friends in attendance yesterday to honor her, I was moved by the tribute to a life well lived (Not that she has ceased living well!). However, the immense gift of learning and a love for reading prompted me to dash off these lines to her in an email this morning:

Mom, it was an awesome tribute to your life of teaching, love for learning and reading. You deserved it all and more. I was nervously contemplating a “speech” when you suddenly called Amy up there to help you. I didn’t know if I was going to be next, but I would have said…

“My mom instilled in me so many things. First and foremost she and my dad helped lead me to have a love for Jesus Christ. That was the first and best gift to me. However, I count my love for reading as perhaps my mom’s second greatest gift to me. It is through reading that I am most influenced. In reading, I learn, discover and am further shaped into the person that God has created me to be. Especially as I immerse myself into the depths of God’s Word.

However, it is also in reading that I laugh, swim, explore, fight off pirates and bad guys, solve crimes, and boldly go where no man has gone before… until I’m interrupted by the telephone or one of our kids. The joy of losing oneself in a book or verse is an indescribable gift that a person can never take lightly. For that I am sure, I will be eternally grateful.”

As I reflected more this a.m., I know it was a privilege for me to be able to attend P.A. Mom’s employment there made that possible; our family would not have been able to afford me and my sister’s education there otherwise. Having your mom work at your school from first through twelfth grades presents certain challenges. For one, I was never sent to the “principal’s office.” For me, it was always the threat of “do you want me to send you to your mother’s room?” Nooooooooo!

After graduating from college, I struggled deeply for several months with what emerged into a “call to ministry.” Since the fall of 1991, I have continued to seek and allow God to use my life “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up” (Ephesians 4.12). Throughout the past 16 years in full-time and bivocational ministry service, it has been the Word of God that Christ has used to distinctly speak, guide, shape and direct me.

I thank my mom again for instilling within me a love for reading, for reading not only has shaped my life but enabled me to help shape others as well.

Who would have thought that a a vocation known for “ssssshhhhhhhhh” could impact so many?

Jason has a great blog entry questioning the need for an ongoing sales tax in our town when the city cannot even fully account for where it’s spent the last $15+ million. For those of you wanting to know, I’d encourage you to attend tonight’s Council meeting (May 30 at 6:00 at City Hall).

For those of you familiar with Wikipedia, you know that it is a user-contributed encyclopedia. Articles on any topic can be edited, added to, and revised by users. First of all, that should make Wikipedia your first stop, but definitely not your last, as you begin to research information about a subject.

Knowing that “information” can be changed by anyone should make you wary of its authenticity or accuracy. However, with that said, there is a surprising amount of veracity to Wikipedia articles. It’s amazing to me that people have that much time that they care enough to make sure that something is “right” or historically accurate about a subject.

It places informational power squarely in the hands of the individual and removes it from a publisher.

It was fascinating to me to discover this article that says that Jesus tops the list of the most highly revised Wikipedia articles. You can read about the Top 20 there. There are also interesting graphics that show you the activity that the site sees as it grows and flows.

For guys like me who are computer jockies, really hard work is rather inconsistent. Most of the rest of you do your best to avoid it as well. However, since Monday, I’ve been putting in anywhere from 5-8 hours of work up at the new Journey location, and as I prepare to head back this a.m. (for our 10:00 workday), I marvel at the sheer joy of quietly drinking a cup of coffee.

Blog reading and blogging have fallen by the wayside all work as I’ve joined a ton of the hardest-working, (and laughing-est) people I know to work side by side on a project that will enhance our church’s ability to minister to our community in wonderful ways. One of the more special things that we’ve seen take place this past week are the friends we have (or just met) who have joined us with mud knife or hammer in hand to help us work. Friends that have been reading our blogs, friends that go to other churches, and even friends who have resources for us and have given them to us freely.

The story of the Journey renovations is not one of sheer human effort. It’s a story of the magnitude of God’s love and grace. I’ve seen it in simplicity and in complexity. The mounting expectation of God’s continued work in us and through us is palpable. While the facility will be a unique and wonderful tool for us, I see it as more of a beachhead. It’s a place from which we’ll minister and bring others in to equip for ministry. However, the bulk of our ministry will continue to take place in homes, schools, work places, and ball fields.

Irresistible Revolution…

Alternating between wanting to throw it against the wall and taking copious notes out of it, I’ve found Shane Claiborne’s book to be nothing but perspective-challenging. I guarantee it will offend Bible Belt Christians. Praise God.

Get ready for a review of it here soon.