God gives us all different gifts. I’m not to keen on using the word blessings as many do but i was looking at this picture and was filled with gratitude for the amazing gift God has given me in my children. It’s not because they look like me (though they do)  but it’s because the depth and beauty and joy they add to my life. I’m thankful!

I put these images together, little me is in the middle, to be able to see how much my kids look like me. It’s kinda crazy! Especially Reese! WOW!!!

My kids and my wife inspire me! In so many way.

The Collects for today; Pentecost Sunday.

Almighty God, on this day you opened the way of eternal life to every race and nation by the promised gift of your Holy Spirit: Shed abroad this gift throughout the world by the preaching of the Gospel, that it may reach to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

or this

O God, who on this day taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

And i’m really not into pinterest (did i even spell it right?) but i do like to post a few things every once in awhile. One of those things i post are icons. Today was pentecost, i thought i would share a few icons for you to remember pentecost and to be inspired by the the very Holy Spirit that God has send to us.

That kinda sounds like a replaced a curse word with the word “blogging”   — “A new *&$%@#% goal” or “A new blogging goal”. I didn’t mean for it to sound like that way but actually, it’s fitting. Blogging is a torn in my side. I like it, i love, i hate and often i feel like it hates me. But whatever, i’ll keep blogging. I do feel like it has some value and for me, a wanna-be writer, it’s great practice. And for you the reader, just enjoy or don’t but don’t be an editor. I’m gonna mispell stuff (get it) that usually means my wife (who is a professional editor) didn’t read the post. I’m ok with that, if you’re not… well you should probably just go read someone else’s blog.

SO…

My new blogging goal is to write at least one post a week.
I also hope to just toss up little bits of interesting inspiration as they come across my plate. We’ll see how that goes.

I’m currently working on my 2nd book, which is a devotional for the season of Advent. It’s a follow up to the Lent devotional i wrote this past year. I’m realizing that this writing muscle is not something i have really built up, despite my many years of lackluster blogging. So this is my small attempting at working out. And God knows i suck at working out. But i’ve made a goal (something i don’t often do) and i’m gonna give it a go.

So here goes!

I read this article from Relevant Magazine online this week and it’s an old conversation but one that keeps coming up. And i think i agree with the primary krux of the article although i didn’t like the tone. I’ll explain, but here is a link to the article…

So the article surrounds the lead dude from Mumford and Sons (a band i really dig) saying he likes Jesus but not the church or Christians. Nothing new right, i mean check out Dan Kimball’s 2007 book and a dozen other articles and conversations i’ve read since i was in college. But the fact that the writer of this article acts like it’s a new fad isn’t the most annoying part of the conversation to me, the attitude and tone is what really what put me on edge.

If we were honest, us self-proclaimed Christians would have to admit there is tons of junk and labels that come with the territory. If you want to be really screwed add the title pastor to that. Try to have a conversation with the gay guy at the coffee shop or bar after you tell them you’re a Christian pastor. So yea, i understand where Marcus Mumford is coming from. Part of me wants to join him. My hope would be that as Christians we would own up to our shit. Admit in the name of Jesus the Church has done some pretty horrible things and discriminated against a lot of people, we’ve used the Lords name in vain quite a bit.

Don Miller in his book Blue Like Jazz comes to terms with this and he and his friends set up a confessional booth. But instead of taking confessions they give them, on behalf of Christians. This is the postures i think we, the Church, the body of Christ and dare we say, us Christians must have.

Overall i like this article, it said some good stuff and it did own up to some of the Christian baggage we have but for me, i just want to make sure that when i fight for a label like Christian i take a posture that redefines it instead of supports the notions lots of people already have.

James chp 1 says some important things about this…
here is verses 26-27

²⁶ Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tonguesdeceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. ²⁷ Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

As i mentioned yesterday we are about half way through our Lenten journey. How’s it going?
Well i posted this little quote on the WWW.LENTWEBGUIDE.COM the other day and it came to mind again yesterday as i talked about Lent being a hard season to describe. It’s hard to say it’s good, it isn’t only hard and dry… so how do you really explain it. Fr. Alexander Schmemann in his book Great Lent: Journey to Pascha describes it as a “bright sadness”. Here is the quote…

“The Lenten season is meant to kindle a “bright sadness” within our hearts. It’s aim is precisely the remembrance of Christ, a longing for a relationship with God that has been lost. Lent offers the time and place for recovery of this relationship. The darkness of Lent allows the flame of the Holy Spirit to burn within our hearts until we are led to the brilliance of the Resurrection.”

WOW!
Let me know repeat, “The darkness of Lent allows the flame of the Holy Spirit to burn within our hearts until we are led to the brilliance of the Resurrection.”

YES!
and YES!!!
(you should hear Amen)

I also ran across this blog that also quotes Schmemann and another bit of his book, it’s good! Check it out. 

You can also download Great Lent: A School of Repentance Its Meaning for Orthodox Christians — a free kindle book by Schmemann on Amazon. I haven’t read this but i read The Great Lent  and image there is some overlap and it was great!

So…

May you experience this bright sadness of Lent that leads to the flame of the Holy Spirit bring bright in your life preparing you for resurrection!

Grace and peace
Erik

How is your Lent going?

It’s kind of a hard question, right? I mean i want to say good but that doesn’t sound very Lent-ish. So i want to say dry, hard, horrible… but that’s pretty depressing and i don’t want to make people cry when i talk with them. But really, my Lent really is going well. My primary disciplines are hard and yes, i’ve failed a few time but for the most part i’m sticking to it and feel as though God is drawing me down this Lenten path that will through the power of the Spirit lead to death and ultimately to resurrection. I’ll probably share more about my specific disciplines later but it as been good and hard.

I’ve also started reading a book this past week that is dovetailing well with my Lenten journey. Todd Hunter is a bishop in the Anglican Church but doesn’t feel much like a bishop (i say that as a good thing). I’ve had lunch with Todd before and have had a couple other brief conversations with him and every time have felt connected and encouraged. I don’t always have tons of hope in the Anglican church to be honest but it’s guys like Todd that make me think maybe there is room for a vangbond like myself under this tent.
His book Our Favorite Sins; The Sins We Commit & How You Can Quite  has been pretty good so far and very Lenten in it’s direction. A large part of the books premise is about reordering our desires because temptation always starts from the desires that we already have. And this week in my Lent book the theme is DESIRE. And when i think about my success and failure in my Lenten disciplines a lot of  the conversation in my head and heart is about the desires that to often control me instead of me controlling them.

So yea, it’s all dovetailing well.
And Todd will be speaking at Christ Church (the church i work at tomorrow — pretty excited about that).

We are about half way through our Lenten journey.

May you be aware of the Spirit that is with  you even in the desert and finish the journey strong.

Grace and peace
Erik

I finally finished the book A New Monasticism by Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove. Like many books i read it was a pretty start and stop process so it took me forever but it was worth it, a good read for sure.

The book is in line with a lot of Shane Claiborn type conversation. It’s a little less on the “radical” side whatever that means. But it makes some great points and even admits that this kind of new monasticism isn’t for everybody. But i’m pretty convinced there is ALOT in this book, in this new monastic movement and in monasticism in general that Christian can learn from, especially evangelical Christians.

So buy a copy, ready it, figure out how it can inspire and influence your community!

In the very end of the book Hartgrove shares a story of a friend of his. It REALLY resonated with me. I almost titled this post  — Conservative / Liberal and something else completely… which is what this quote is all about. Maybe you will resonate as well.

(i didn’t feel like typing it all out, so picture form it is! ENJOY!)

What sort of things do you do to get inspired? Read, watch youtube videos, write until something good comes out, surf the interwebs, just look around maybe, think about a past event that inspired you? What do you do?
Do you seek to be inspired every day? To dig and till until the inspiration is found? Or are there days that are just utterly uninspiring? Is that ok?

I’ve been pondering the idea of inspiration over the last few days. Wondering if it’s realistic to seek everyday inspiration. Contemplating the idea of digging in and finding a moment everyday that inspired me. Maybe that moment will be self evident and scream at me or maybe it will be hidden in the business of a day or the difficulty of situation. However it works I think maybe, everyday there is something that might inspire. If there is, i want to find it! I don’t want to let it pass me by, unattended and even neglected like the tasty milk at the bottom of a great bowl of cereal (people dump that out… it’s the best part people

So i would love to know what inspires you. And over the next few months i’ll share some of the things that inspire me!

Peace
Erik

This is my Saturday, every Saturday! I want to write something eventually about ritual and rhythm but for now this picture says enough.

So, it has begun. I woke up this morning, walked to the kitchen table, opened my Bible and read, thought and prayed. One for one on my Lenten disciplines!

I do this discipline every year hoping that it will spill into my everyday life the rest the year… to say the least, i haven’t mastered it yet. You’re probably a better Christian than I and don’t check your email the second you wake up and look at ESPN right after that. You probably do this particular discipline anyway, but for me it’s a challenge. During Lent i always take on the discipline of “first things.” Or at least that’s what i call it. I commit to reading my Bible and Lenten devotional (of course) and praying every morning before i do anything else, first thing. Seems simple, not the kind of Lenten practice you brag about, but for me it’s really challenging. Oftentimes it’s noon before i remember to read and pray and sometimes i don’t even do it then. Confession! Also a good Lenten practice.

The Good Reverend Daniel Adkinson preached our Ash Wednesday service last night at church and . he . killed it! Preached an amazing sermon. I’m not sure if our church will post his message online but you should watch it if they do.

Daniel got to the heart of Lent in talking about truth telling. And made some great points about the ashes we wear and the disciplines we share.

I mean, it’s all about the heart, right? If you want to brag about what you’re doing and all that you’re reading, you might get a pat on the back and that will be all you get. If you share what you’re giving up or taking on as a way to encourage others or even to keep yourself accountable, you’ll get a lot more! This is what Jesus was talking about in Matthew chapter 6.

I’m also giving up being on my electronic products while in the company of other human beings. Really focusing on being more present with my family and friends. The curse of the iPad and iPhone runs deep in my life. I just love em’ so much! But my hope is that this discipline will draw me closer to my family and friends but also closer to God. Maybe i’ll read the Bible a bit more or my new Richard Rohr book a bit faster!

I thought about giving up flour and sugar. Kinda go old school. That’s why we eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, because historically people would give up for Lent all the stuff it takes to make pancakes. I decided against that. Mainly because i’m trying to do a little bit of a low / slow carb thing for my heath anyway and decided against double dipping for Lent, not that i’m against that. I’ve done it before.

So Lent is going well. I sense that my disciplines are drawing me deeper into the season and that i’m on a journey that is hard but that is leading me somewhere profound. I hope you sense this as well. And if you don’t, may the Spirit of God, the Spirit that pushed Jesus into the desert, guide you also into the difficult place of Lent so that in 40 days you’ll be more ready to participate in resurrection!

Grace and peace
Erik

PS :: I’ve been listening to LOTS of Lenten tunes. Even made a playlist on spotify. I’ll feature my Lenten music soon. But for now go find my spotify playlist — i posted a link on twitter.