If you’re like me, you’ve been watching the news and stocks as we witness history in the making.  Yesterday, after the House defeated the bailout plan from the Senate, the DOW Jones Industrial Average fell 777 points, the largest one day fall in its history.  Economically speaking, we are in the middle of a major turning point in our country, and our world.  The days of unfettered spending and reckless, limitless greed are numbered.

The national debt hangs at about 9.3 TRILLION dollars.  I’m no economic expert, but even I understand that’s a big, hairy problem.  I can’t even type that number out on a normal calculator!  US families aren’t much better; and now that teens can hold credit cards in their name, they are graduating HIGH SCHOOL with an average of $6,000 dollars in debt.  What a way to start a life!

Trina and I left college in debt.  School loans were sold to us like a bottle of snake oil.  Trina talks about how signing her name on that first “financial aid” package was a major negative turning point in her relationship with God.  What sounded like “aid” before our college days now sounds more like “bondage” and “debt.”

Around the time I graduated in May, we had some friends point us to Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University.  We listened to all the sessions during our long move from Texas to Chicago, although we had begun to learn some of the principles while in Abilene.

Ramsey describes his plan as, “Giving you the same financial advice your grandmother would, (only we keep our teeth in).”  His main goal - help people live within their means, and climb out of debt.  Through sort of a baby step process, he gives couples, churches, and businesses steps out of the insanity of credit, mortgages, car leases, and much of the monstrosity that comes from living on the thin wire of excessive debt.  He was against the $700 billion dollar bail-out, and after hearing from both sides of the issue, I side with Ramsey.  The market will course correct - we are not headed for the Great Depression Part 2.  The Government in the ’30’s developed the FDIC to secure banking deposits - there is more regulation over private banks (and doubtless there will be more in the near future because of this mess).

What is more likely to happen is that banks will not be able to sell 30 year no-money-down mortgages for families looking to buy a mansion they can’t afford.  Along with that, it will be tougher for people to be approved for credit cards or car leases that they have no business applying for in the first place.  Businesses and banks will have to reel in their liquidity rates that resemble some sense of sanity, while other banks and institutions will undoubtedly continue to fail, the wise will survive.

We are not moving into the Great Depression, we are entering “The Great Moderation.“  This is the time when Cash is King - pull out some envelopes and follow a budget.  Save money, don’t spend it.  Live simply, give generously.  This is a time when the whole nation may begin to heal from its drunken hubris.  Followers of Christ can learn much from their earliest brothers and sisters - “who shared their possessions, and had everything in common, and not a needy person could be found among them.” (Acts 2)

This is not the end of Capitalism, but in this age we must think about a Creative Capitalism that doesn’t only reward a few and neglect millions more.  Do what V-8 Juice is doing, giving away fresh produce to the working poor with some of the profits they make on their nutrition drinks.  Or do what Ethos Water does, putting many of their proceeds on bottled water toward water-well development in Africa.  Or do what the first century Christians did, in sharing a common purse.  Health insurance would be a lot simpler if you were paying into a pot shared by others who actually care about you and worship Christ with you on Sundays.

We as a nation are learning from our mistakes - many of them were lessons already learned during the ’30’s - we can not live beyond what God has given us.

…Give us TODAY our DAILY bread.

Katrina here. Blog #2. I was painting a young lady this afternoon downtown, and I noticed she was staring off into the buildings. I asked her what she was thinking about and she said, “I’m trying not to.” What a profound statement! We conjured up a business proposition: contemplative prayer meets fine art. Hmmmm… (It’s more like performance art, I suppose…) The question on many brains that needs attention is “HOW does one dump their brain clutter?” So, let’s talk about how to clear your brain. Well the parts are not difficult to understand, and naturally, this will look different for different people. I don’t have a recipe, but I have been trying some things. Here’s what you need to know:

1. Learn to trust more

2. Take your time, be graceful with yourself

3. Only say what you intend to do / only say what you mean

4. Do what you say / mean what you say

5. Be diligent (ask, seek and knock)

6. The door will open

Transparent Practicality — Here is what this has looked like for me. I haven’t perfected this at all, and this may only work for a season, but here is where I am at the moment. As I mentioned in my last post, I have just read David Allen’s Getting Things Done and Armchair Mystic by Mark Thibodeaux. And as Mark mentioned in the comments, these books seem quite opposed at first glance — one is about efficiency and the other is about the art of being. Doing vs. being. Are they really at odds?

I would venture to say that the art of being and contemplative prayer are a means to efficiency. I get much more accomplished when I am fully aware of my surroundings and my time than when I am quickly rushing from one thing to the next. I am also a nerd/geek. I love technology. I was taking apart computer hardware with my mom as a young girl while other girls were playing with Barbie dolls. So here is a tool I’ve been using to dump my brain. It’s a tool I’ve had to come to learn to use, and I like it. (And ultimately, true security is only found with God, and if it falls apart for some reason, I trust that He will provide and take care of me.) The tool is Toodledo, a free online software that manages tasks and assigns them priority. I use it in conjunction with Google Calendar. (You can see the little green checkbox next to the weather icons.) Here is a screen shot:

I like the fact that I can sit down to the checklist, take five minutes and dump everything that needs to get done (with a priority level and due date, if needed).

I used to do the same thing with checklists on pencil and paper, but I always dropped it because I would lose the checklist, and I was tired of transferring all of the tasks that I didn’t do onto a new sheet — I felt like a failure. Ultimately, I didn’t really trust the process either. I didn’t trust that I would do what I had said I would do.

Now, I use Toodledo as a referral point and a sacred space. By placing these things in this “silo”, my mind is like water. If I don’t intend to workout that day, I won’t write it on there! The only way this works is if I make the tool an authentic representation of what I truly desire and need to do. Otherwise a great deal of time and resources has been wasted. Once I’ve dumped those action items, I don’t think about them again (until it’s time for me to think about them). The process has been freeing and helpful.
This tool is one helpful lifestyle change that has really brought me peace of mind. Everyone’s approach will look slightly different. Please leave a comment if you have any suggestions or examples of what this looks like for you.

What about brain noise resulting from non-task based items? Like philosophical concerns or relationships? See you for the next post.

From the Irresistible Revolution:

“Too often we do what makes sense to us and ask God to bless it.  In the Beatitudes, God tells us what God blesses - the poor, the peacemakers, the hungry, those who mourn, those who show mercy - so we should not ask God’s blessing on a declaration that we will have no mercy on evildoers.  We know all to well that we have a God who shows mercy on evildoers, for if he didn’t we’d all be in big trouble, and for that this evildoer is very glad.  Rather than do what makes sense to us and ask God’s blessing, we’d do better to surround ourselves with those whom God promises to bless, and then we need not ask God’s blessing.  It’s just what God does.”

He’s talking to America when he says, “we should not ask God’s blessing on a declaration that we will show no mercy to evildoers.”  How many times have you seen God’s name associated with the political agendas of this nation?  Or of this world?  “God bless America!”  “God bless this nation!”  Did you know that people in Iraq look at what those in our government leading the war in Iraq and call them “Christian extremists”?  I’m thankful thaht so far they haven’t written all of the Christian faith off over such insanity! Whatever happened to Christians following a Prince of Peace?

Maybe the answer to this nationalistic religion which breeds violence of the foreigner (whether Muslim or Christian) is learning to begin following the Way of Christ.  His teachings on God’s propensity to blessing the poor, the peacemakers, the hungry, etc. is closer than we think to a simple yet profound strategy for world peace.  When we stop following our own “God-blessed” propositions and begin getting to know those whom God has already blessed (see the above list), we begin to discover the mighty ways of God’s Kingdom.

See, American Christians can be so turned around that they read books like the Prayer of Jabez and conclude that God wants to bless them with tons of money and success.  I don’t think Wilknson (the author) necessarily saw how people were going to take his book.  It just tells me that we think that we know better than Jesus does what God should bless.  “It shoure ain’t the poor, cuz that’s what I am now, and I don’t feel blessed!”

Feeling poor?  Down and out?  You are not far from the Kingdom of God.  Feeling distant from God?  Head downtown, look down the alleys; you might find him there.  Head to Iraq as a peacemaker (not a peacekeeper, Clint Eastwood!).  Give away your lunch to someone who hasn’t seen one in days, comfort someone grieving…you’ll find that God and his blessing is not far from any one of us.
Next to the Statue of Liberty on Ellis Island:

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”

Does she sound American anymore?

Today is a day of remembrance. It is easy to try to push past the hard memories to focus on the superficiality of the day’s urgent to-do’s, but there is something much deeper to reflect on in the human psyche today. What happened 5 years ago this morning was a nation-wide shift in focus and paradigm. Now violence and acts of war no longer happened “out there” but the local reality of terror was made tangible for every American.

Our lives become busy so quickly. We hardly pause for a second to consider the circumstances of our fellow countrymen who died because they chose to go to work that day, and others who died saving them. So quickly we return to “business as usual”, when just a few short years ago we were utterly abhorred at the terrorist’s horrific offense.

I was a freshman at ACU at the time. I was sitting in Speech Class, and I had just given a persuasive speech about the necessities of making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich WITHOUT getting PB in the jelly or jelly in the PB (that’s an important tip to remember if you ever want to have friends invite you over for a snack ever again). Our teacher had left the room during one of the speeches, and was gone for several minutes after the student had taken his seat. With a terrified, halting voice, our teacher reported that a commercial airplane had just hit one of the twin towers in New York City, and that many people had died. He admitted that he knew nothing more, and then dismissed our class.

Of course, we all left in a hurry, looking at each other with curious expressions on our faces. I got back to my dorm, and turned on the TV just in time to watch an airplane crash into the second tower. I thought there must have been some sort of mistake – I saw the plane go into the tower, but the other tower was burning and crashing to the ground!?! What was going on here? Then it dawned on me, as it did for every American that morning: this is no accident.

Many months and years have passed since that morning. But I will never forget the attitude of the nation, and even the world, as the day’s events unfolded. Fear, anger, and rumors spiraled like a whirlwind in my own heart, as well as in the hearts of our campus, and our nation. It was a crisis for an entire people, who for a time began to turn their hearts again toward God. What might have happened if there had been wide scale repentance on America’s part? Would it have made a difference in our world and war in Iraq today? Does God still work that way?

Where were YOU when you heard the news 5 years ago? Where was God?

I have a really good friend who is engaged to a young woman in Beirut.  Of course, right now that city is under attack from Israel, and it looks very grim for even the civilians of that Lebanese city.  What makes this even more intriguing is that my friend has devoted his life to Jewish studies, and is planning some pretty amazing work on the language of 1st Century Palestinian Greek.  So to see him dealing with the hate and anger for the nation of Israel, and yet working so passionately on this project in Jewish history has got to be making his head spin.

More than anything of course, he just wants his fiancee back.  I don’t blame him.  Last night as I was laying in bed I looked over at my beautiful bride and kept thinking to myself, “Why do I get to lay close and keep safe my wife tonight, while my friend aches with fear and is riddled with the political imbroglio of the Near East?”  I don’t deserve the life I live - the maddeningly gorgeous woman that sticks with me through thick and through thin - the opportunity to devote an entire week carefully examining God’s Word, not to mention the years I have been involved in training for mission in the US… The blessings in my life are a mystery.  Last night as I lay there wondering why I had been offered the undeserved blessing of watching my wife sleep soundly, I gave up all pretenses of wondering “why” and just began to thank the Lord for the gift of the moment.  I thanked him for the gift of my wife.  I thanked him for the life he had given me and the life I was leading.  I gave thanks to him for the peaceful situation we live in, even while there is so much turmoil in the world around us.

The peace is not universal or fair, and that means the thankfulness should not lead to apathy.  But for one moment - one blissful evening, I am reminded of just how much I am to be thankful for.