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Well i know this post is a bit late but here it is.
This picture of the Christmas beard was taken the day after Christmas.
Pretty beefy if you ask me!
But i will post the final shots tomorrow or sometime this week.
I love my Christmas beard!
Tags: beard, Christmas beard
Advent is coming to it’s emblematic culmination for those who follow Jesus.
Christmas :: this is the day, the sign, that the Kingdom has been born and we now have a God with flesh and bones on to follow into this new way of life.
During this advent season my incredibly astute wife has been asking me what my heart longs for. A great question and one that stirs up the very essence of advent. But the answer for me has been hard. But sitting here at the Barnes and Noble on Christmas Eve I think I have found my answer.
Answer :: a God with flesh and bones, a voice box and all, to follow.
He is here and I am wanting to tune into his voice, his presence in my life.
That is what this longing heart is wanting this Christmas.
What should you strive for? Greatness? Mediocrity? Balance?
If you strive for greatness it seems like you have to focus in and forget so many areas of life to pursue greatness in one area. True?
If you try to NOT be mediocre what does that look like. Some would say they are a “jack of all trades and a master of none.” Is that the optimists way of saying I am not really great at anything but ok at a lot of things? Is this a vice or virtue? I think that’s a hard question to answer.
Can one really lived a “balanced” life? It just seems to be that your either going to be great at one thing and poor at most other things or you are going to be mediocre at everything at great at nothing.
IS THERE SUCH A THING AS A BALNCED LIFE?
And as people who follow Jesus what should our aim be?
Greatness? Mediocrity? Balance?
I think I live a fairly mediocre life. I am might say I’m a jack of trades but is that really just a nice way of saying I am not great at anything? Maybe. And the things I think I could really be great at mostly depend on other people. I think I could be and maybe I am a great friend. But so often the people you want to befriend don’t allow your friendship to really be great. I think I am a great driver but that’s an opinion and my wife would harshly disagree with me.
I think I could be a great speaker but I am not sure I want to put in the hard work it would take to become this. To lay aside so many other things, focus in on this art of preaching. To do this, to be this would call me to neglect so many other things in my life and would challenge me to the kind of discipline I have never been very good at.
So, should I embrace my balance, some might say my mediocrity?
OR should neglect some things to be great at one?
I was just thinking about this yesterday as I was reading.
Peace
Erik
PS :: here is a definition that might be helpful to the conversation.
Me`di*oc”ri*ty\, n. [F. m['e]diocrit['e], L. mediocritas.]
noun
1. ordinariness as a consequence of being average and not outstanding [syn: averageness]
2. a person of second-rate ability or value; “a team of aging second-raters”; “shone among the mediocrities who surrounded him” [syn: second-rater]
3. The quality of being mediocre; a middle state or degree; a moderate degree or rate. “A mediocrity of success.” –Bacon.
4. Moderation; temperance. [Obs.] –Hooker.
Tags: thoughts
I sitting here reading at the coffee shop and ran across an interesting perspective, what do you think?
Gustavo Gutierrez, the father of liberation theology, suggests that, to have a healthy spiritual life, we must feed our souls in three wahys: through prayer, both private and communal; through the practice of justice; and through having those things in our lives (good friends, wine-drinking, creativity, and healthy leisure) that keep the soul mellow and greatful.
What do you think about that?
I like it!
Shalom
Erik
PS :: this is my third post of the day! I’m working it!
Here are my 2 favorite advent read…
and a little video action.
“Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet;
Righteousness and peace will kiss each other.
Faithfulness will spring up from the ground,
And righteousness will look down from the sky.
The Lord will give what is good,
and our land will yield its incread.
Righteousness will go before him,
an will make a path for his steps.”
[ Psalms 85:10-13 ]
“Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to jerusalem, and cry to he
That she has served her term, that her penalty is paid,
that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
A voice cries out;
“in the wilderness prepare the ways of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”
[ Isaiah 40:1-3 ]
Here’s a little video with some great words on advent.
Take 10 and listen, be inspired, pray, WAIT!
Experience some advent!
I need to.
Tags: advent, rowan williams, video, youtube
I am working on three books right now. The goal is to get them done by the end of the month. I’ll let you know how that goes.
I usually keep my current reading list up to date, you can check it out on “the shelf”. That the page on this blog where i talk about what i’m reading and stuff like that. Check it out.
(the link is up top)
So these are the three books i am working through right now. All three are really good and all three are worthy of some blog time. I will do that soon!
Grace and peace
Erik
Well here is the latest picture of the Christmas beard, taken today!
It’s getting beefy!
I also took a picture a while back that never actually made it onto the blog.
So i thought i would show you a little progression and include that pic.
Here ya go!
I’m not sure why i am doing this. i am sure no body cares but it’s an enjoyable Christmas activity for me. So play along! She has another couple weeks of growth. We’ll see just how beef she can get!
Tags: beard, Christmas beard
I saw this kid play at Third & Lindsley tonight, really good! And this song is STRONG!
Well who knew this would have worked out so perfectly. I have made it known that i protest listening to Christmas music for months upon months! So i have set my Christmas music capacity at 10 days. So unlike many who have been listening to Christmas tunes for 20 plus days already i am just starting! We have 10 days till Christmas, it’s a monday, let’s get started!!!
Here are my top 10 (plus some) Christmas tunes.
i would imagine you could find most of these on iTunes.
(If not i’m sure you could find them on limewire for sure. Not that i support stealing music?)
MY LIST :: in no particular order
Christmas Song — Dave Mathews
// This is actually my favorite Christmas song. It’s on repeat right now and i have a video of Dave saying a few words and singing it below. Classic!
Glorious, Wonderful, Emmanuel — Brandon Heath
// Brandon is a friend of mine and i love his music but this is a great Christmas tune for sure.
Emmanuel — Shane & Shane
Put the Lights on the Tree — Sufjan Stevens
ANYTHING off Sufjan’s Christmas CD — Sufjan Stevens
White Christmas — Martin Sexton
Blue Christmas — Martin Sexton
Maybe This Christmas — Ron Sexsmith
Have Yourself a Merry Christmas — Coldplay
City Trucks — Paper Route
The Last Christmas — Sixpence Non the Richer
Drummer Boy — Jars of Clay
All I Want — The Weepies –
Snowed in With You — Over the Rhine –
Darlin’ (Christmas is Coming) — Over the Rhine –
The Christmas Song — Mindy Smith
Those are 15 of my favorite Christmas tunes. Find them and enjoy!
(i have included a couple links)
Here are some video, including the aforementioned Dave Matthews Video.
Tags: Brandon Heath, Dave Matthews, Jars of Clay, Martin Sexton, music, Paper Route, Sufjan Stevens
Well i am plugged back in after my day of unplugged-ness. It was a good day and honestly, it’s harder for me to fast from my electronic gadgets than it is for me to fast from food. I think that says a lot! I was a pretty good electronic free day. I felt like i got a lot done and i felt like i was able to focus on some spiritual things a bit more. So that was good.
Confession :: It was date night, my wife and i try and do that once a week and we did end up watching a movie. I didn’t as much as touch the remote so i technically didn’t turn on anything electronic but i did enjoy the movie. Maybe cheating, maybe not.
Anyway…
I just started reading this book The Holy Longing, the search for Christian Spirituality. I just started reading it today actually but so far so good! And it really ties into our desires and our “plugged-in” life.
Here are a couple really good quotes.
(probably more to come)
He talks about Mother Teresa as a very erotic women. I thought that was humorous. In context he makes a really good point.
“A saint is someone who can, precisely, channel powerful eros in a creative, life-giving way. Soren Kierkegaard once defined a saint as someone who can will on thing.”
“Most of us are quite like Mother Teresa in that we want to will God and the poor. We do will them. The problem is we will everything else as well. Thus, we want to be a saint, but we also want to feel every sensation experienced by sinners; we want to be innocent and pure, but we also want to be experienced and taste all of life; we want to serve the poor and have a simple lifestyle, but we also want all the comforts of the rich; we want to have the depth afforded by solitude, but we also do not want to miss anything; we want to pray, but we also want to watch television, read, talk to friends, and go out. Small wonder life is often a trying enterprise and we are often tired and pathologically overextended.”
i think that pegs me perfectly and many, many people i know. We want to will one thing but more often we will many things.
So far, so good. i probably keep you updates as i read.
Shalom
erik
