often times the seemingly mundane can provide a great deal of insight

4.20.2010

my mom is my hero: guest blog three




I sat in the waiting room remembering the last time she fought this battle...

She was my hero. She battled hard against that cancer, and the whole time held her head up high in a way that allowed her to serve others who were in her view. She conquered cancer! Beat it! Destroyed it! While she killed the beast she was giving hope to others around her and loving others patiently.

My mom is my hero. While I watched her selflessly loving others while she was going through pain and discomfort, I sat around feeling self pity. I wondered...

Why would God do this to my mom?

What did I do to deserve this happening to my mom?

What happens if God takes my mom from me?

etc., etc., etc.

Even though I was a miserable, whiny, selfish jerk, God decided to cure my mom!

We celebrated! Man, did we celebrate! I even promised God that I would never be so selfish again. I promised God that I would show hope and love to others even if I feel I am in some sort of pain or discomfort.

Well, the time has come. On April 8th, 2010 I found out that my mom has an inoperable cancerous tumor. Round 2, similar to the last time except this time it is inoperable.

I sat in the waiting room remembering the last time she found this battle...

The same questions pop into my head, just elevated and less trusting towards God. Is it ok for me to be angry with God? Why the hell do truly evil people get away with rich, enjoyable lives, while my mom (I'm biased, but ask almost anybody who knows her, and they'll agree) who is one of the nicest, selfless people on the planet suffers not once, but twice?

Then I see my mom, her face clearly saddened and filled with questions, but shining with the hope and love of Jesus...



My mom is my hero.

(This blog was written by Dallas Verity )

4.15.2010

naked holy men: guest blog two





I’ve been on a search for spirituality in India. You must be thinking, “Oh, that’s so awesome! India is such a spiritual place!”

Let me tell you, it is, but far from the way you are thinking. I think the Orientalist view that many Westerners have of India, of yogis on mountaintops and of the Beatles staying at an ashram isn’t quite what the reality is. Currently in Haridwar, a city on the Ganga not far from where I live, the Maha Kumbh mela is going on. This is a massive once-every-four-years Hindu festival that attracts pilgrims and sight-seers from all over the world. There are mass dips in the river and the Naga sadhus (naked holy men) come out of the woodwork to hang out (so to speak). Foreigners also arrive en masse to catch a glimpse of the bizarre, the mystical, the spiritual. Room rates are quadrupled.

I got to travel around India this past winter, traveling from unfortunate tourist spot to unfortunate tourist spot. One place after another I saw signs catering to another sacred cow of India- the cash cow- the spiritual seeker. Ayurvedic medicine treatments, spiritual tutorship for cash schemes, and yoga classes abounded. I should say I have yet to see an Indian doing yoga after 1.5 years in the country. Almost every foreigner I met and talked to was enthralled by what they saw as Indian spirituality.

As a Christian, I see spirituality differently. To me, spirituality is not found in the bizarre and mystical cosmic forces of the Universe, but in the knowable nature of the infinite God. While many foreigners willfully ignore the trash, the poverty and the suffering to go catch a glimpse of the Dalai Lama or do yoga on the beach, I find a spirituality rooted in the hope that there is a New Jerusalem coming; these problems so far beyond my ability to fix are not beyond the abilities of God.

While many come here to find the most secluded shrine, the holiest cave, or the highest mountaintop ashram, I have found spiritual food at the colonial-era, centrally located building owned by the Church of North India. A whopping twenty-five people showed up for Easter Sunday, the preaching involves folksy stories prepared with as much care as if the homily was being given to a thousand, and the hymns are so old, Calvin might have grown up with them.

I find spiritual food in the ordinary interactions with my coworkers and students (I teach at a school in the Himalayas). When we gather around our old, quirky houses to share each others’ altitude-induced baking failures and funny stories from the week, I am spiritually fed. When I have cafeteria-fed students over to my house for pancakes and hashed browns and we share a meal, I am fed. And when a few of us talk shop over an aloo paratha after church, I am fed. You can tell I eat a lot…

Something so typical of Jesus’ sayings and actions in the Bible are that they go against normal earthly patterns of thinking. The Messiah should come from a powerful city like Rome, not some backwater like Bethlehem. If the Messiah is going to come and deliver us, he should go straight to Pilate’s house and kick him out. Instead, Jesus went to the Temple and started turning over tables. Not exactly what they were expecting. In the same way, earthly thinking says that India is full of the mystical, the magical, and the marvelous. People come here all the time to find some connection to something bigger than themselves. Maybe it is here, maybe it isn't. But I’d bet it’s not somewhere they’d expect…

(Greg Miller wrote this post, find out more about this blogger at "many miles to go" )

4.12.2010

curing excess: guest blog one


I find myself, after many years, living in a completely western society.
I also find myself running into a familiar foe. I’ve seen him before and I haven’t always been able to deal with him properly nor have I always wanted to. Call him what you will but he’s commonly known as excess. You know, “I’ve got to have two of those”, when one or none is ok. Super size it and the American dream of getting everything we want and more with no responsibility or consequence. A dream, I might add, that we consistently sell to the world and thereby create an illusion of life in this country that causes people to despise their own. Christians are hardly immune either. Don’t get me wrong. It’s ok to have things but there is a line that we too often cross. We stop giving because the “economy” is bad but we really just want to save for ourselves. We become so bloated with stuff in our lives that giving becomes a chore and we reach a point where we don’t care about anything or anyone except getting what we “need” and have a “right” to have. We become the opposite of followers of Christ.
I was reading over the story of the rich ruler that Jesus encounters in the Gospel of Luke. Some translations say rich, some young, some just ruler, but they all point out that he was a man of standing and was surely well to do. I'm sure he had his areas of excess. Not only that, but he was pretty religious as well. He kept the Law. So this guy had it made and to top it off he wanted to add eternal life to his list of accolades. So naturally Jesus is the guy to ask. At least he knows where to look, right?
Jesus responded to this guy by telling him to sell everything he owned and distribute it to the poor and the guy got sad and walked off because it's hard for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom. Now we could leave it there and say, “I’ve heard the story”, “I’m not rich, I’ve got nothing to sell”, but I think Jesus is looking deeper. Maybe sell everything really means, well, everything. Maybe Jesus wasn’t just talking about stuff, but his very self. The poor in the Greek version of this passage also refers to people who are not only economically poor and physically afflicted but also spiritually destitute. Maybe this guy didn’t get it. Maybe we don’t get it. Our cure for excess is Christ, obviously, but it’s also selling ourselves to Him and giving ourselves to the poor, in every sense of the word. In the Kingdom things happen backwards for us. Giving somehow equals gain. Death is life. Poor is rich. It’s a weird place. The simple truth is this: if we give ourselves to the poor, (you decide what that means for you), we’ll cure our problem with excess and we might just find Jesus there and eternal life as well. As westerners we have become accustomed to having life on demand and are usually unwilling to settle for less. Hence our current economic situation. So when Jesus invites us into the Kingdom our interests begin to clash and that is very uncomfortable. Take time to slow down, read this story for yourself, draw your own conclusion and meditate on how your interests clash with the Kingdom. I recommend www.blueletterbible.org for studying. I've been challenged lately to really look at who Jesus is really and what he asks of us and therefore find myself in light of that. Then pour out into the world.

(the following was submitted by Chris Collins, you can read more of his stuff at his blog)

4.07.2010

deal with this: guest bloggers



So, this is the deal....

I have asked a few of my friends to contribute some thoughts to momentum.. and so over the next month or so we will have some guest bloggers in the momentum community.

I will not be monitoring content in the guest blog entries and have also given the contributors the option to maintain anonymity if they desire... which is my quick lil way of saying, I have no idea what will be written, but I ain't gonna stop it... If offense is caused... leave comments on the posting.. if you love what was written, leave comments on the posting.  It's an open forum to state your opinions and a safe place to dialogue.

There were very wide parameters for what could be written, so I will be just as surprised as you.

So, without further adeu.. let this great experiment of communal banter begin!