micah's prayer

a few weeks back, my 5 year old son spent the weekend with grandma. he sat with her in church that sunday morning and as he is prone to do, got out his notebook and began to doodle.

last nite - i found that notebook. he had scribbled on one of the sheets the following prayer...


(below)










prayer.

O father,
let us love and be safe.
be your self's.
to believe from the cross of
heart to
the heart of
all.
we love you
forever
and ever
and ever.

a-men
father.

loving Jesus.

Go Buckeyes

the art of balance (possibly part two of two)

"but is perfect balance the end goal?"

i don't know that it is. certainly lots of things in our lives need balance and stability. being a parent, i realize that my children need a stable patterns of consistency.
but i don't want my quest for balance to become some sort of idol - that consumes my every being. i think my life should be more about values than balance. my values - hopefully rooted in Christ's solid foundation - determine what really matters to me. (thanks Marko for the inspiration for this).

in my quest for balance - those rare times when life is perfectly balanced, seem to be the times when i am standing still.

i don't want to be standing still.

the gymnast, in the spot light... on the beam, 4 and a half feet off the ground - she's only truly balanced when she is standing still. Standing still is not what a gymnast was designed to do. It's her movement that amazes.

Think of a teeter-totter: i remember when i was a kid, the cool thing to do was to walk up and then down a teeter-totter. when you got to the middle, you could balance it. life and faith are filled with many peaks and valleys... just like walking up and then down the sea-saw. Using sea-saw imagery, when you're on the ground, you have to walk up the plank to reach the sky. You'll have a moment of balance in the middle before heading down to the ground again. Balance comes in between your ups & downs. Then you repeat the process all over again...

i think that if i want to be a radical follower of Jesus, i don't think i cn have long periods of perfect balance. I don't know, maybe i'm wrong or contradicting my self... But i don't see the life of Christ and his example set as being balanced. Jesus didn't map out a 'to-do' list and he didn't seem to follow a daily agenda. He just was... always doing. being. serving. loving. I'm not saying we need to be irresponsible and that we can't plan things - i'm just saying the following Jesus should be our top priority.

We are called to be faithful to Jesus... sometimes during moments of balance - but mostly during moments of craziness.

My quest is to follow no matter what the circumstances. He can provide us stability - even in the midst of an the unbalanced reality of life.

luke 18:28-30
philippians 3:17-21

art of blanace. (possibly part one of two)

Imagine you're in the middle of a jam-packed arena. It's dark - but you are about to go on... for your performance. Center of the ring, there is a long shadowy plank. The spot light illuminates what proves to be a balance beam. 4 and a half feet off the ground. 4 inches wide. 5 meters long.

It's your turn. The crowd is chanting your name. Time to go on.

One problem. You are not a gymnast. You've never performed on a balance beam. ever. But your up. It's on. Time to do your best at something you know little or nothing about. You can't fake it. You can't balance. Especially with the spotlight shining on you.

What do you do?

Such it is with life and faith. Hard to balance. Hard to manage. Seems like the spotlight is always on us, too. Like everyone is watching. The thing is, that's kind of how it really is - at least for those who "claim" to be followers of Jesus. The world is watching - waiting for us to fall off the balance beam... to skrew up.

Balance is crucial... life. school. job. faith. How can we possibly balance it all?

Learning to balance.









But should perfect balance the end goal?

pro-life quote

a quote on election day from our local newspaper's website...

UPDATED 5:01 p.m. Sign-holder delivers personal message

Not everyone was out stumping for Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama on Tuesday.

For a few hours, Dustin White, 25, stood on Central Plaza South, holding up a handwritten sign: "What's So Pro-Life About Poverty, the Death Penalty And War?"

White, who also stood on the square on Monday with friends, said the provocative question has prompted reactions from passersby — both positive and negative.

"It's not about partisanship, it's about awareness. I'm a Christian," he said. "It's frustrating to see my faith being hijacked by a political party. ... 'Pro-life' goes beyond pregnancy. It's also about treating our neighbors right."

White, who attends City Hope Church, added that real change is not generated by political leaders, but by individuals coming together for a common cause.

let your voice be heard - vote

i waited 45 min to vote today. it felt good.





(click to enlarge)
photo by me / downtown pittsbugh / nov 2, 2008