Greg the watch-dog

My mom took these pictures of my dog, Greg R.N.  You can see in the pics, he is viciously territorial as this poor little squirrel invades his area.  You’ll probably need to click on the image to see it larger

Thoughts on Gardens

When “gardens” is the topic of discussion, different people will bring up different thoughts and points of view.  Some may talk about the garden they have in their back yard.  In this garden, they boast, are plump tomatoes, tall cornstalks, delicious green beans, etc., etc.  There is undoubtedly a significant group who would mention a garden of sorts near their home where they go to read, relax, play sports, or whatever to reenergize them from their stressful lives.  I know I have a garden like that.  Other people, more in the religious mindset, are bound to bring up the Garden of Eden.  I think most people have at least heard of this garden.  This is the garden where God placed the first man and woman to live and take care of the world.

Now, according to these contexts, when we boil down the basic elements of a garden, we get a comforting place where work must be done in order to cause growth to occur and fruit to come forth.  There may be other vital aspects of a garden that I am ignorant of, but for my analogy, this works. 

Now, based on our defenition of a garden, I want to introduce to you another Garden.  In the beautiful, broken city of Baltimore, MD, there is a new kind of church plant called The Garden.  The name alone is a new kind of church name.  And along with the type of church plant, and the type of name, the church itself is a new (yet ancient) type of church.  I say new because it is fresh, relevent, and different from the way churches have been in the recent past.  I say ancient because the Garden seeks to do church and life with the same passion and love as did the early church way back when Christianity started.  In the Biblical book of Acts, we read about how the believers met in each others houses.  This new movement was fresh and relevent and different from the norm of that day.  The religious up and ups of their time were arrogant and prideful.  They walked around in beautiful clothes and wouldn’t even talk to the sick and homeless because they considered themselves too good.  But when the new church was planted by Jesus, they helped the sick and homeless and did whatever necessary to show God’s love for all mankind.  The Gaden - Baltimore has the same desires.  They seek to live out the whole great commandment (Matthew 22:37-39), as well as the great commision (Acts 1:7-8).

I’ll write more on this later, but if you live in the Baltimore area, and for some reason read this blog, check out the Garden Community.  It will be worth your while.

Charlie Hall - Come For Me

This song has been a great encouragement to me. Hopefully it will be to you as well. If any of you are feeling worn out, or alone, or whatever else us humans feel that make us gloomy, remember who we are. And remember, more importantly, who we serve.

Rambo’s way

I just finished watching the blockbuster hit Rambo. There was blood, guts, and throats torn out (seriously). Ashamedly, I absolutely love these types of movies. I don’t exactly know why, but I am drawn to watch movies that involve bombs, knives, and guns as big as the guns (arms) that hold them.

The gist of the movie was that John Rambo had to go into war-zone Burma and save some missionaries that were captured. When he got there, we see the absolute tragedy of what is going on there. The villages are constantly being tormented by the army. The children are being captured and transformed into soldiers. The women are being gang raped. The men are shot on site. And their homes are burnt and livelihood destroyed.

After a few 50-caliber bullets blow off the limbs of the bad guys and a huge bomb kills dozens, Rambo rescues the missionaries and, I think, relieves the villagers of their oppressors.

When the movie was over, I was thinking.
“Why doesn’t America just send over a few thousand troops to Burma and eradicate these horrible people who are causing this hell for the innocent people?”

I recalled the holocaust and how long it took us to do anything about that. I figured that maybe America didn’t care too much because “they aren’t coming for us”.

But then I remembered that I hate war. I remembered that I don’t think violence is ever justifiable. I remembered that there needs to be another way. But then I questioned myself.

In the movie, the missionaries (pre-capture) are talking to Rambo and ask for him to take them to Burma on his boat. Rambo says no. Missionary says that it would just take a couple hours of his time to change peoples lives. Rambo replies, “Will you be taking weapons?”
“Of course not”, replies the missionary.
Rambo pauses, “Then you’re not changing anything”.

This is the mindset that I want to have and that so many people in the world do have. But the “other way” that I mentioned can be seen by what the missionary says next:
“Mindsets like that are the reason nothing is changing in the world”.

Right now in my life, I don’t 100% know what I believe about war and self-defense and violence, so I lean towards the side of love and peace, because no matter what, at least people will say nice things about me at my funeral. But what do you think? How should we as humans, as Christians, as broken images of God handle other broken images who are killing the innocent? Is there justice in killing the killer?
Does God smile when a rapist gets his head cut off?
If yes, then what kind of God would create a precious child only to one day smile at his death?
If no, then do we want to be doing something that does not make God smile??

I don’t know, tell me what you think.

Smooth Criminal

This is the bestman speech from my wedding.  My brothers, Joel and Ben, are the best men and Michael Jackson also makes an appearance.