Back to Middle School

The start of another school year.

Same building. Same hours. Same humidity.
New classroom. New team-mates. New content. New kids.
Re-newed love-of-the-game.

my 6th Grade Reading Classroom : )

Saddleback Forum

Did you guys see this over the weekend?

At Saddleback Church in Lake Park, CA, evangelical pastor Dr. Rick Warren (famous for his book, The Purpose Driven Life), interviewed Barack Obama and the John McCain, asking them many moral-based, but intriguing questions including:

What is your (and America's) greatest moral failure?
What's a position you held 10 years ago, that you've since changed your mind on?
What was the most gut-retching decision you've had to make?
What does being a Christian mean to you?
What does your faith look like on a daily basis?
What Supreme Court Justices would you not have appointed?
What's worth committing American lives for?
What will you do to support religious freedom in the world?
What will you do for orphans in the world?

It's a little bit of a time commitment, but definitely worth watching. Yes, as politicians they're of course still going to be "scripted" but because of the nature of the questions, this interview helps you see a little more of the character and convictions of these men.

It's called "Saddleback Forum". It's broken up into 4 parts.
As an American voter, go check it out.

Knots and Amazing Grace

So. It's been a while, huh?

... I just finished reading Philip Yancey's What's So Amazing About Grace? In his book, Yancey sets up the dichotomy of "grace" and "ungrace." Unfortunately, as he points out, Christians tend to have a reputation of "ungrace" with the rest of the world -- a reprimanding tone, verses one of love and forgiveness.

Yancey uses politics and world events (and Christians' roles in both) to make sense of this dichotomy. He writes powerfully towards an open-handed grace between Christians and non-believers rather than judgement -- a lesson that I often found lacking in the church I grew up in, but that my current church lives out pretty well. Overall: very interesting, and also a very in-depth conversation ... so much so, I have to admit, I had to skim a little bit here and there.

I fell in love with one word picture of Grace:

"God in heaven holds each person by a string. When you sin, you cut the string. Then God ties it up again, making a knot -- and thereby bringing you a little closer to him. Again and again your sins cut the string -- and with each further knot God keeps drawing you closer and closer" (273).

I think this is precisely what Jesus tried to model as he unashamedly, and unconditionally, spent time with the sinners ... not the saints.

Yancey closes his book by urging his readers to take up radical honesty. Wow. Radical honesty. About ourselves. Our junk, not "theirs." Think about that for a minute. He quotes Lewis Meyer as saying:

"It's the only place I know where status means nothing. Nobody fools anybody else. Everyone is here because he or she made a slobbering mess of his or her life and is trying to put the pieces back together again ... " (276).

He said this about an AA meeting .... but what if this was true of every church you walked into?