witness.

Interesting word with multiple definitions most of which center around two very different ideas; one is perceiving, seeing, knowing by presence... an experience... and the other is retelling or informing that experience to others to convince them in some kind of manner of its validity. 

It's interesting that some religions picked up on the word "witness" as something its adherents should shoot for. 

It's an amazing idea if we're talking more about the first kind of witness: seeing, knowing perceiving a person and experience in its entirety. Listening. Seeing. Hearing. Observing. 

It's a pretty bad idea if we're talking more about the second kind of witness: retelling and informing someone of evidence to them. Validating. Arguing. Persuading. Talking, talking, talking.

Confusing the two seems dangerous.  

the wrong fear.

File this one in the massive category of "fearing the wrong thing". Obesity kills more people worldwide than car crashes, terror attacks, and Alzheimer's combined.

a gun statistic you probably haven't heard.

The Rural Suicide Rate Is Driven by Men With Guns. 

"The reason that rural suicide rates are higher is because people in these areas are killing themselves with guns," lead author Paul Nestadt of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health said in announcing the findings. "The media focuses on homicides with guns, but only one in three deaths by firearms are homicides. The other two are suicides. Most of the other leading causes of death are going down. Suicides are going up—and firearms are a big reason why."

it's not about creation or evolution.

It really never has been. It's not about gay marriage or divorce or abortion either. 

It's about The Bible having all authority or The Bible having some authority, along with experience, culture, and science. 

Of course, very few, arguably no one, actually gives the Bible all authority so I think we have our answer.

10 things I actually care about...

Here are the 10 things I actually care about right now. Today. 
(In no particular order.)

1. My own peace of mind and ability to maintain compassion, kindness, and grace in the midst of tornados of anger, hate and retribution.  

2. A teen mom I know who can't pay her car repair bill. 

3. 1.5 million people in Puerto Rico without drinking water. 

4. A refugee family I know who can't pay their rent. 

5. Racism. (Or any kind of dehumanization of "other") Of any and every kind. Any kind. Every kind. In me. In you. In our country. 

6. Religious people who travel over land and sea - or just stay in America - and their desperate attempts to convert people that, if successful, end up making them twice the Sons of Hell they are. (That's from Jesus. Yes, I care I might be one of them.)

7. The Rohingya refugee crisis, currently the worst in decades and just part of the global refugee crisis of an estimated 22.5 million refugees, the highest estimate the U.N. has ever had.  

8. Healthcare for people who can't afford it. In any country, but starting with my own. 

9. Social media and its amplifying affects on turmoil and its destructive affects on every human trying to manage turmoil. And trying to manage differences of opinion within that turmoil. And trying to manage fear. Unfortunately, fear is feasting on social media right now like an all you can eat buffet.   

10. Resisting anything that prevents me from insisting that there is color and beauty and love and wonder and awe and good in this world. And from experiencing it every day. 

Extra Bonus Care: Being distracted by things that don't matter when there are so many things that actually do. 

strong or fragile.

Strong things bend without breaking. They are flexible. 

Strong things can take criticism. 

Strong things grow and recognize failure. 

Strong things have strong souls, not just strong fists. 

Strong things are firm enough in their convictions they are okay with disruptions. 

Strong things do the most with the least. 

Fragile things need everyone to agree. 

Fragile things can't handle criticism. 

Fragile things collapse when one block is pulled out. 

Fragile things constantly need more resources to prop them up. 

Do we have the world's strongest military? 

Do we have the world's strongest country? 

Do we have the world's strongest flag? 

----

One thing I know is that love is strong and fear is weak. So I made this shirt to remind me of that. It's my mantra right now and I say it constantly. Love is greater than fear. Fear is less than love. It helps. I have it everywhere. People asked me if it was going to be a shirt. It is and you can buy it here. 

when in doubt.

It's better to disrespect an object over a person, or group of people. 

It's better to disrespect a powerful person or group of people over a marginalized person or group of people, though neither is preferred. 

IF I have to disrespect someone or something (which at some point we all will) that's how my own logic goes.

Yes, powerful people and groups of people are lowest on my list. The first will be last and the last will be first. 

eden as the mind.

The brain is constantly trying to make order out of things. That's a basic summary of why we have so many biases. It's desperately seeking order in the chaos and it manipulates your truth, in order to help you find it. 

Many talk about the Genesis creation poem as one that brings order to the disorder and chaos. The formlessness and darkness of chaos receives days and light and systems. 

And then, humanity seeks more knowledge and the chaos returns, albeit with a new, ordered, flair. 

Maybe Eden is an image of human consciousness. There is a divine order that is pretty different than an information order.

Both really wreck the other. 

brain draino.

Into my meditating this far, I recently described the process to someone as draino for my brain. 

I feel like, already, some of that impatience, fear, discontentedness, anxiety, hate, anger, and a host of other nasty feelings that congest the access to patience, kindness, calm, creativity, courage, peace, joy, awareness, and a host of other greater feelings is being cleared out.

Better mental flow. Better spiritual flow. Who doesn't want that?   

watch out for...

Wolves in sheep's clothing. 

Jesus talked about these apparent dangerous and scary characters: the wolf dressed as a sheep. 

I've always thought of this statement - probably because I was trained this way - as referring to dangerous theologies and/or heresies, etc... 

But, I think it's much more simple.

Wolves. Violent. Bloodthirsty. Strategic. Hunt in packs. Big teeth. We write parables about them and tell them to children for all these reasons. Don't cry wolf because when that wolf comes, it'll be bad. 

Sheep. Calm. Humble. Fluffy. Nice. Cute. We count them when we're falling asleep because counting wolves, well... that would just cause us anxiety. 

So, watch out for violent, bloodthirsty, strategic, hunters who masquerade as calm, humble, fluffy, nice people. 

Yeah, watch out for them alright, and try not to be one. We have enough of them already, especially in government and religion. 

at the hospital.

I was recently at a hospital and noticed a few things. 

1. The parking garage is not free. 

2. The parking garage takes cash only. 

3. There is a $2.50 bank charge to withdraw cash from the bank to pay for the parking. 

Besides the fact that it's 2017 and someone only accepts cash, there were a few more important observations. 

1. Imagine what a gift it would be for a hospital to not charge parking. Very few people are at a hospital because they want to be. Imagine what that would mean to them. 

2. If the hospital didn't take advantage of giving a gift, imagine what a gift it would be for the bank to not charge a fee to pay for hospital parking... because very few people are grabbing cash from that machine to pay for parking because they want to. 

3. If the hospital didn't take advantage of the gift, nor the bank, imagine what a gift it would be for the lab to validate parking... because very few people are visiting that lab in that hospital because they want to. 

Think of the opportunities to be kind and compassionate, to give a gift to people who are generally not in their favorite spots in life that are around us every day, that we miss, because we're just a tad too consumed with "paying the bills". 

As our government, again, debates health care, I can't help but imagine how nice it would be if they were more concerned about being kind and compassionate, of giving gifts to people who are often in their worst circumstances, instead of being consumed with "paying the bills". 

Or, at the very least, if they were equally concerned with "paying the bills" when it comes to giving 700 billion dollars to what is already, by far, the world's wealthiest military. 

I guess all of this is to be expected when a culture pays far more attention to money and fear than kindness and generosity. 

sin.

If sin is blindness or unawareness. Which, it is, in my head. 

And the story of the Lost (Prodigal) Son is a story about two people, one of whom is blind and unaware and the other who isn't. 

Then, sometimes, following all the rules is the worst form of sin there is. 

Of course, that is what Jesus seems to say pretty often. 

Damn, sometimes it just hits you. If Jesus came to America during 2017, can you even imagine what they would do to him? 

Then it hits. Jesus has come. Multiple times. But when you're so busy "not sinning" it's hard to see him. 

simply...

You can't make both the powerful and the marginalized, completely happy. 

As in, the powerful who are afraid of losing their power to the marginalized and the marginalized who are afraid of the powerful. 

So, you have to pick one. 

And if you have to pick one, which one are you going to pick? 

Which one did Jesus pick? 

the political excuse.

I'm a little frustrated, again. Again, I've heard from someone that they love "church" but don't want to talk politics. Admittedly, I don't know what this means, exactly, but I think it means that they don't want to talk about words and ideas that come up in the political spectrum from time to time or that might be construed as political or that appear on the news from time to time...

Honestly, I think it actually means they don't want to talk about gay marriage (unless we disagree with it) or refugees (unless we are scared of them) or racism (unless it doesn't exist) or pledging allegiance to the flag (unless as Christians it's our duty). When I dig deeper that's what I always usually find. 

Either way....

We can't avoid politics, at some level or another. We live in a world where policies affect people and those policies that affect people come from political views and discussions and actions and conversations and opinions. 

If we care about people, we have to care about politics at some level or another.
If we care about people, we have to talk politics. 
I do care about people. 
I hope you do too. 

We probably disagree. That's okay. It's good. It's healthy.

Can we talk about how we disagree rather than pretend we never do?

that soccer game.

Have you ever been to one of those Jr. High soccer games where the parents are all screaming at the players? And they are screaming the same things over and over? And the things they are screaming are only being said because someone screamed them at one time and they sound appropriate for a soccer game? But, it seems no one has any clue as to what they might actually mean? 

"First to the ball!" "Recover!" "First to the ball!" "Recover!" "First to the ball!" "Recover!" "Win in!" "Cover #5!" "First to the ball!" "Recover!" "First to the ball!" "Recover!" "First to the ball!" "Recover!" "Win in!" "Cover #5!" 

Yeah you get it. 

And the players aren't listening. At all. After the game they say things like, we don't ever listen to anyone except our coach and the people playing the game. 

Have you ever been to one of those Jr. High soccer games? 

Maybe. Maybe not. But, I can almost guarantee you, you see the same behavior almost every day. Sometimes I am that parent screaming. Sometimes I am that player playing and ignoring anything that's not from someone on the field, fighting, with me. Sometimes I am the coach, wondering why all the parents keep saying "First to the ball!" and don't seem to know what it means. 

And when you see it, so up close and in your face: such a vivid illustration..  wow, it sure makes you want to never do anything like it ever again. 

So, once, again, today I learned to shut-up more often than not. Not only do you look much smarter, you really waste much less time and get to enjoy much more of life. 

patience.

I've been spending some time meditating on patience. Ironic how impatient I usually am during those mediations. 

The theme has been that it's not about creating patience as much as it is letting impatience go.

Which is really true for most of life.

It's not about creating the sacred, it's about letting the secular go. 
It's not about creating love, it's about letting the hate go. 
It's not about creating hope, it's about letting the fear go. 
It's not about creating peace, it's about letting the violence go. 
It's not about creating enough, it's about letting greed go. 

Which is why the beginning of the story is always so important.
What is the thing that remains if we let the bad go?

It was good.
It was good.
It was good.
It was good.
It was good.
It was good. 
It was very good. 

Let the bad go.

politically correct.

Sometimes it seems like one group is politically correct and another group is tired of being accused of not being political correct. I'm not sure how accurate that narrative is.  

"Politically correct" implies not saying things or doing things that will offend a particular group of people. 

Fair enough. Like everything though, what does that mean? 

Can I offend racists? 
Can I offend the LGBTQ community? 
Can I offend the military? 
Can I offend Muslims? 
Can I offend Christians? 
Can I offend gun owners? 
Can I offend minorities? 
Can I offend privileged white males? 
Can I offend police officers? 
Can I offend the president? 
Can I offend Pharisees? 

Is disagreeing with someone offensive? 
How do I disagree and not offend, especially if disagreeing equates to an offense? 

Liberals are concerned with politically correctness. Yes. 
And so are Conservatives. 

Conservatives are sick of political correctness. Yes. 
And so are Liberals.

It's just the target groups that are different. 

I'm not racist if I'm critical of Affirmative Action... Conservatives shout. 
I'm not anti-military if I'm critical of standing for the National Anthem... Liberals shout. 

We have different opinions. We have different ideas on what the problems, and solutions, are. We arrange tribes based on those opinions and disagree with those who don't. 

Is any of this inherently wrong? Is political correctness possible? 

I don't know. 

If Jesus showed up today, I don't think Jesus would be seen as politically correct. Neither were the Pharisees. Both, arguably, complained about the other side's views and their offensive nature. 

(Of course one side solved the disagreement with violence and the other with love.) 

I wonder if we're shooting for something that isn't possible? Or even good? 

Much like a good marriage... it's not that partners don't fight. It's that they fight well. And they don't use violence. But love. (And words are often the most violent - which I think is obviously a good affect of political correctness... to use better, less offensive, words.) 

I wonder if the real problem though, is that we've lost our ability to fight, to disagree, and to still see the humanity and equality in the other. We've lost our ability to see the light of love and connection through the darkness of separation and violence.

it doesn't work.

I have a good friend who knew the victim of Freeman High from summer camps. 
I have another friend who's son is dating the sister of one of the girls who was shot. 
My wife has cried numerous times. 

I would say I understand the grief but I don't. I can't understand what a mom who lost her husband in June and her son on Wednesday is possibly feeling. I don't think any of us can. 

So, I type, with humility... 

We can't say #freemanstrong and continue to bully someone in the same feed. 

It doesn't work. 

We can't say "Praying for Freeman" and then hope the shooter "burns in Hell" a second later. 

It doesn't work. 

We can't say "When will this end?" and then "We need more guns." 

It doesn't work. 

"Thank God that he had jammed that AR-15 so badly that it was not going to function," said Knezovich.

The shooter brought two guns: an assault rifle and a pistol. The assault rifle was jammed, we thank God. We can't thank God for a gun that didn't function while refusing to help God help more guns not function. 

It doesn't work.

So we pray, sure. We support in any way we can, of course. We cry, by all means.

But we also work to love our enemies, we work to see people that feel invisible, and we work to reveal our national infatuation with guns and our national fear of any kind of restriction in regards to that right.

Jesus seemed to indicate that has a better chance of working. 

a sad day in freeman.

The virus has reached our part of the country: another school shooting. Another death of a student taken far too young a few miles south of Spokane.  

I, of course, don't have the answers to this sickness in our country. And any that do share ideas, are usually told to be quiet and stop politicizing something, or turning a tragedy into a pulpit or a whole host of other excuses to maintain the status quo.

So we grieve. We shed tears. We mourn. We try to empathize and show compassion. 

We remember.

We are the world leader in mass shootings and school shootings by such large margins that, it should embarrass every citizen of this country. We have a problem that other nations do not. Not anywhere near the levels we do. Hopefully, at some point we can stop our tears, stop our empty prayers and start doing something that prevents a tomorrow that will be filled with both... again. 

It's a sad day in Freeman for so many reasons. 

caring.

You can do anything in life if you don't care. (Think about that for a second.)

You can't do anything in life if you care too much. (And think about that.) 

So the real battle seems to be about caring... just enough.