humbled ::. so it’s over and i got rocked. but i’m done. finals are over. a stark realization that came through this experience is how much i still don’t know. i’ve been a xian now for over half my life plus i’m a seminarian which means i cram as much bible into my head as possible and yet when it comes to being examined on what i know, i truly don’t know a whole lot. the bottomline is that i don’t read the bible nearly enough.
.:: we often get to this place where we get stuck in our journey, when it’s really all about learning to love like Jesus. from henri nouwen who writes about the peak of his profession;
{{ everyone was saying i was doing well, but something inside was telling me that my success was putting my own soul in danger. i found myself praying poorly, living somewhat isolated from other people, and very much preoccupied with burning issues. i woke up one day with the realization that i was living in a very dark place. in the midst of this i kept praying, “lord show me where you want me to go and i will follow you, but please be clear and unambiguous about it!” well, God was. in the person of jean vanier, the founder of l’arche communities for mentally handicapped people, God said, “go and live among the poor in spirit, and they will heal you.” so i moved from harvard to l’arche, from the best and the brightest wanting to rule the world, to men and women who had few or no words and were considered at best, marginal to the needs of our society. it was a very hard and painful move. }}
paul miller adds about nouwen, he left a successful and prestigious career for disabled adults. in order to love the disabled, he had to go to where they were. to do that, he had to leave where he was. he humbled himself. he had to go low in order to love. love and humility are inseparable. love isn’t a one shot sortie into someone else’s need. it gets involved, it doesn’t stay clean and separate.
love requires us, as Jesus demonstrated, to go low.
{{ when you’re in the lowest place, people don’t listen to you. they often don’t take time with you, because they don’t think you can give them much. they walk over you. they don’t thank you. in the lowest place you may be used, overlooked or discounted. you feel invisible.
people take the lowest place for two reasons. either others chose it for us or we chose if for ourselves. when others have forced us to take the lower place, we are humiliated:
someone dismisses our feelings, saying, “oh you are just being touchy”
. . someone criticizes us regularly.
. . . someone publicly mocks us.
. . . . we are excluded from a group or a meeting.
but when we choose to take the lower place, we express humility.
we don’t explain ourselves because to do so would hurt someone else.
. we forgive someone rather than making an issue of it.
. . we give to someone in a way that no one will ever know.
humility is a quality of the soul, something we do from inside. humiliation is the situation where we learn humility. }}
// love on //
. . .
xian marketing ::. great NYT article on the challenge of marketing saved!
– test screening gets alot of mixed reviews. but that’s expected. is the church ready for this?
i say bring it on
abcpastor 
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