We should find people of great influence in our peer group and in our discipline and listen to them. Because they differ slightly from us, these people sharpen us. Sometimes they are achieving such greatness that we feel a drip of depression looming in our seeming lack of accomplishment. But that only remains when we focus on our accomplishments or lack thereof.

Many would call this sort of activity “self-centered.” I contend that it is probably not “self-centered” enough. Perhaps we need to go even deeper into searching ourselves - we need to search inside of ourselves to find the still small voice instructing us. This voice trumps all external, peer-reviewed comparison. It says, “Keep running the race” and “fight the good fight” and “I will give you rest.” Man, I love that still small voice.

When I first heard of the social networking site, Facebook.com, I thought - “Great, just another way to collect loose associations - my friends are now baseball cards.” I could write twenty blogs on this topic. Many of my friends were interested in engaging with this media (they are early adopters, I suppose), but I just felt frustrated. (Partly because I’m somewhat introverted and I value loyal relationships… even when it gets difficult, and the whole machine seemed to be straight from the CIA and everyone reads / has access to what everyone writes, which makes it shallow at best.)

At the time, I thought these networking sites would become a substitute for good old-fashioned relationship… You know, the old pastime of face-to-face conversations with multi-sensory communication. As the years went by, I managed to avoid signing up to any social networking sites, until after I graduated, and my job required it. Then I became very active on these online communities, primarily with the goal of being able to communicate effeciently.

But rather quickly, I’m seeing the perks and the drawbacks. This kind of communication changes life and numbs us to some extent. It’s one-sided, layered with covert messages, “disposable” yet permanent, and rather time consuming (if one allows it to become so). Now, I’m seeing people treat other people as disposable in ‘real life.’ It’s almost as if these sites teach us to dehumanize each other. I’m not quite sure why this is, but I do not like it. It’s almost like our full color lives have turned “black and white…” (more specifically into binary code 0101010101…) I don’t think the answer is to boycott the sites - they’re a part of the culture, but at the same time, I’m looking for some constructive ways to engage in activities that value people and honor God in that context. Any ideas?

I’ll get back to talking about brain dumping again soon. I promise.
In the meantime, I want to share with you a little Christmas cheer. The other day I had my good friend Jennifer over. She was telling me about how she is planning on heading to meet with family for Christmas. Apparently, her parents rank at the top of the stack for dreamers at Christmas time. They want it all - -and they send her an itemized list prior to the holidays, so she can prepare… and save up her money.

Well, this year, she decided to buy them a llama. “A LLAMA?!?” You heard me right: a llama. I could hardly contain myself. Her logic went something like this, “Well, Katrina… It generously helps a family in the south, and it cost about the same amount of money I would have spent on them, and if they complain about it, they’ll have to live with themselves… it’s great.”

Needless to say, I could barely stop laughing out loud. At first, I thought she had physically bought them a pet. Then she mentioned Heifer International. She proceeded to describe a little toy llama she had bought for her family as well. “I’ll put in a box with a card, so they’ll have something tactile.” Brilliant. And the heifer website gives you a printout of the gift you’ve purchased, too. It’s great.

I knew about Heifer before this, but I never connected it with Christmas time. It’s great if you’re doing some last minute shopping. You don’t have to walk into any stores— you just print the card and hand it over. And it’s a great conversation piece. Merry Christmas!

My friend and mentor, Kent Smith, has recently made publicly available a book he’s been working on for over a year. It’s small (about 40 pages) but its profound, and I believe it has the potential to revolutionize one’s spiritual life, as well as how North American’s understand what following Jesus looks like.

Think about the universe, think of a flower, think of your DNA, think of just about anything we consider beautiful…what do they have in common? A repeating pattern around a center. But what are the patterns in your lifestyle? What is your center? Or rather…WHO?

Kent is interested in a little experiment - and needs your help. Read below to find out more.

Friends,

I want to invite you to join me in testing an exciting new tool I have developed with the help of some friends. It’s a short gift book called Centered, and it is designed to help people take a deeper look at what it really means to follow Jesus.

Last Sunday 250 Million people in the U.S.A. did not attend church. That’s five people out of every six—and their number is growing by about 10,000 per day.

Many of these people are very interested in spiritual reality, just not church. Chances are you know some of these people. If you’d like to take your conversation with them to a deeper level and help us learn from your experience, here’s what you can do:

1) Buy a copy of Centered at the website listed below, read through it and jot down your impressions, good and bad.

2) On reflection and prayer, give or lend the book to one of your friends who seems open to spiritual things with the offer to discuss what they think of it over a cup of coffee (or whatever!).

3) After that conversation, write out your impressions of what impact the experience has had on you and your friend and e-mail them to me.

That’s it. Early indications are that this tool will make a big difference for many people—and I will be delighted and grateful if you choose to be part of the team that helps us refine it even more. (But still love you if this isn’t a good time for such a venture!)

Here’s the website

Blessings in this season. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Kent

So go ahead - purchase a copy; help out a missionary here in North America, and then be blessed by a great message! If you don’t have Kent’s email, feel free to drop me a line by commenting on this post. We’ll make sure the message get’s back to him!

Its been a good weekend for movies. Last night we watched The Last Mimzy, which was like E.T. and the Matrix somehow combined. Tonight we watched Edward Scissorhands one which I YET to EVER see. Both were absolutely wonderful allegories…parables for life.

The Last Mimzy reminds us of the pure nature of the child, and therefore humanity, and how our world’s culture of distrust and isolation ultimately leads to complete annihilation. It is a commentary on the preciousness of human life, and how each person has a crucial role to play in the desperate fight to reclaim that preciousness found in themselves. This movie suggests that as we mature, we lose our ability to actualize the divine gifts we’ve been given, and spend the rest of our lives trying to convince ourselves that we are in a world destined for destruction. For me, it was a powerful reminder of who I am in Christ - a child of life.

Edward Scissorhands was hilarious and awkward, as are all Tim Burton/Johnny Depp films. I was drawn into the heart of the “monster” (Frankenstein anyone?) and the “beauty and the beast” elements were pretty clear too. But the real villain was our humanity; we humans can’t be happy without social equilibrium. If something (or someone) too “other” comes too close to us and what we cherish, we are at best temporarily intrigued, and ultimately we are threatened and outraged. The townspeople in this flick use and abuse the gifts of love that Edward shares (he gives a mean haircut) but then turn on him the moment he is vulnerable. The only friends he has are those who accept his differences as more than just the “fascinating new thing” and see his pained soul deep within. What might happen if we were to learn from diversity, rather than wallowing in our culture of homogeneity?

— — —

In both the theme of “isolation” is given comment. Mimzy says that our isolation breeds distrust, war and destruction, while Ed says that mixing together only brings confusion, conflict and death. How does humanity deal with the fact that we are so very different, yet in absolute NEED of one another? Can we ever learn trust? Or…do we even need to?