Godgrown

Updates from October, 2011 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Mark 8:20 am on October 10, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  “Slow Cuts” Over Short Cuts 

  

  This is a great time of year to take the “slow-cuts” over the “short-cuts” on our ways to work, errands, etc — the leaves are changing, the final climax of 2011′s symphony is upon us!

  In our day, there’s little respect given to the longer, sometimes meandering, but always intentional paths that lead us to our destination.  We’ve devised GPS systems and shot things into space in hopes of finding the quickest, most fuel-efficient way from A to B.  The least amount of time and energy from where I am to where I want to be.  That’s the generally accepted path.  But Jesus had another route he took…

  Matthew 12:1-21 is an amazing fulfillment of the entire Old Testament – it reminds me of a mountain climber after several days of hard work, finally reaching the summit.  Or an engaged couple after months of waiting, finally hearing wedding bells.  In Jesus’ day, Jews and Gentiles alike were awaiting a traditional form of kingship – uprising, rebellion, and more – but Jesus instead quotes Isaiah 42; and remind us that the King Isaiah anticipated was different – “he will not fight or shout” –

  The route to power through force and might has been tried, time and time again.  Its the quickest and easiest route to power in our world.  It works too!  Revenge, abuse, murder, cheating… they are all names for the same boulivard in the human heart – the highway that leads to “what I want.”  Trouble is, we end up in the ditch.

  The way Jesus points to through his life (and specifically in Matthew 12) describes a new way.  Not another short-cut or get rich-quick-scheme; his is the only way not to trample over the weak and the outcast in your establishment of power.  Some people think that power is inherently bad - I disagree.  Power is like currency – it is amoral, it is the wielder of that power that invests himself into that power and through that power he becomes more of who he already is.  If you are a jerk, then with power, you will be an even BIGGER JERK!

  But Jesus saw that his power was displayed through weakness, through healing the poor on the Sabbath, through dying on the Cross, and being raised by the Power of God.

  — Jesus, I believe that you will eventually see the final victory – “Finally his cause for justice will be victorious.” I wait for that day – when we don’t have to take the compromised shortcuts in life, but all of us will be on the pathway you showed us – to the relational Kingdom of God.

  I choose today to participate in that “slow-cut” toward freedom.

  I want to find a way to cut out all my power grabs, personally, and in society. Help me Father to learn what areas of my life need a “lower-archy” introduced, so that I do not “crush the weakest reed, or put out a flickering candle…” You spoke out of a confidence of who you are as a Messiah. Let me be just as confident in my practices.

  
   

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  Mark 9:36 am on July 11, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Pickin’ and Grinnin’ 

  Yesterday was our first experience at a “U-Pick” farm.  I guess you might count the apple orchards I’ve been to before, but this was a full-out organic farm that invites anyone to step out into the black soil and pick what they’ve worked so hard to grow.

  Raspberries, gooseberries, currents, eggplants, onions, peppers of all kinds.  Peach trees were firming up their fruit and the green beans were right on the verge of being picked.  There is just something right about spending an hour in the hot sun with a straw hat and your hands stained with berry juice.

  Picking these fruits made me think a bit about the passage in 1 Cor 1 where Paul mentions that it was he who planted the seed, whereas Apollos watered it, and God made it grow.  There is a memory I have of my mission trips with Let’s Start Talking, a great missions organization doing good work around the world.  One of the leaders of that organization confessed that when there was a baptism of one of the members in the LST ministry, he would think about all those who had come overseas to contribute to the faith of the person he now had the privilege of baptizing.  They planted the seed, someone else watered, and he was seeing the “harvest.”

  Back to the raspberry fields, I was amazed at how much it takes to grow a bush of raspberries, and even with all that effort, how much it takes to pick even a single pint of the delicious fruit!  It is just so much effort, and makes you appreciate the fruit of your labor.  We brought our berries to a potluck, and they were snarfed down with lightning speed.  I watched as heaping spoonfuls were dolloped onto plates, including mine.  Could anyone else but the pickers possibly know the work that went into the getting that berry to their plate?  Could I possibly know how much it takes for God to bring someone’s heart to the point of conversion?

  Harvesting is such a wonder to behold, as is spiritual transformation – and I’m happy to be a small part it.

  
   
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  Mark 9:42 am on May 19, 2011 Permalink | Reply  

  Forget Buying Local, “Buy Social!” 

  I’ve been having a lot of fun at the farmer’s markets so far this year.  My wife Katrina over at her site Art & Table can tell you more about that, plus show you some of her delicious meals made on the cheap with fresh produce.

  But it has me thinking some about where my dollars go.  In a booming economy, it seemed no one minded giving their hard-earned dollars to big companies that moved all the money to one side of the boat – tipping us toward a capsize.  Well, I don’t want to go into the water.

  Instead, a few years ago we as a society remembered what it was like to buy things from each other.  Rather than a computerized woman checking out our oatmeal creme pies and CoCo Puffs, now we’re buying locally – handing cash (or in some cases, local currency!) across a fold-up card table in exchange for a heirloom tomato picked this morning in a farm just outside of town.

  You know that feeling you get after a cross-country flight?  That’s how your tomato feels too.  …Buying local is great for taste, and your pocket book.

  But there’s something I’m adding to the long litany in your purchasing portfolio:

  BUY SOCIAL!

  I’m finding my friends and family are taking advantage of our current economy along with the rise of Facebook and other sites like it to step into a new venture.  My sister-in-law sells wickless candles, my friend sells gourmet meals, two of my cousins just released their first album (rock and folk), and my mom sells health products.  I’m certain that I can get into the paper goods business, selling all my friends and family toilet paper and such.

  Just think – the more connected we all become, the more we become self-marketers, (every status update is a promotion of you.)  If you wanted to make money what better place to advertise than to your friends and family on a place where they spend an average of 45mins a day waiting for you to say something?

  Now, no one wants a nag – and we’ll all have to learn to continue to treat our friends and family as real, honest people – something corporations with million-dollar commercials forgot a long time ago.  Maybe with a real, honest social connection, we’ll know how to best keep our “warm market” from becoming “warmed over.”  I love my family and friends more than I want their business.  Much much more!

  And it works.  I’m finding that my family and friends involved in this new economy: 1) deeply respect the boundaries of marketing to me and 2) we are engaging each other in new ways as we talk about the products and services they truly believe in!

  I love handing money to a local farmer – but I really love handing money to a friend or family member for goods and services.  It is as if I am once again looking at changing my buying habits – why buy from Sam Walton’s family when I can buy from my own?