Outside the Pigeon Holes

There is too much negativity in life, and I often contribute to it...There is too much negativity in the church and I contribute to it. I have been processing some stuff since I got smacked in the face with some church-related ugliness a few weeks ago and Papa has been working on me. I have been reminded that I can only control myself and what I focus on. Life is too short to do anything but learn how to love the way that Jesus did. 'Love except," 'love, but...." are not acceptable. Jesus does not teach that way. There are never any qualifiers in the extravagant love of God. Humans are always the ones who attach limits based on our fears and prejudices. Because we have to deal with human and spiritual darkness we do have to provide safeguards, but those should be minimal and address issues that would cause harm to other people - and please, your gay neighbors  are not  going to destroy your family. Seriously, that's just goofy to even worry about. I'm b...

Summer reading fun!   (all synopses are from Amazon.com) Currently I am reading: My Mother Was Nuts by Penny Marshall Most people know Penny Marshall as the director of Big and A League of Their Own. What they don’t know is her trailblazing career was a happy accident. In this funny and intimate memoir, Penny takes us from the stage of The Jackie Gleason Show in 1955 to Hollywood’s star-studded sets, offering up some hilarious detours along the way.....With humor and heart, My Mother Was Nuts reveals there’s no one else quite like Penny Marshall. Here is what's on deck:  The Phoenix Affirmations by Eric Elnes The Phoenix Affirmations , named for the town in which the principles were created and the mythological bird adopted by ancient Christians as a symbol of resurrection, offers disillusioned and spiritually homeless Christians and others a sense of hope and a more tolerant, joyful, and compassionate message than those we often hear from the...

Don't let the spirit of religion dictate your 'fear of God'...Let your fear - the awe, the reverence for God's hugeness as the Creator - come naturally through a growing understanding of Who He is and how much he loves you. This is in great contrast to the obl igatory fear that religion teaches about a God who throws people into the pit of hell with no mercy or grace.. Religion's goal is control and slavery to rules. God's goal is relationship, restoration and reconciliation.  At least that's what Jesus teaches... :)

  Photo art credit: Holli Lynn Stevenson I am convinced that the question that God will ask when I stand before him is 'Did you learn how to love?'.  If I am to follow Christ, I am to love. Period. Jesus says that people will know his followers by their love . Kudos if you get your theology right. But it is your love that will identify you. Jesus said that anyone who loves knows God. He didn't say 'anyone who prayed the sinner's prayer and reads their Bible with the right hermeneutics and proves that they are the holiest of all knows God.' He said anyone who loves knows God . A Muslim who loves, knows God. A Christian who loves, knows God. A homosexual who loves, knows God. An atheist who loves, knows God. In my old age, I have found that it is better to err on the side of love over judgement. And that is hard. Judgment is easy. Hatred flows naturally through human veins. Some think that loving others means being soft and gushy. But that...

Just Because He Breathes  This story breaks my heart. It is stories like this that have helped to refine my perspective on this issue.

When I read the blurbs about this book I was very excited to get started reading it. The buzz indicated that it discussed the trinitarian relationship in a similar manner to books like Wm. Paul Young's The Shack - which is one of my favorites. In The Shack , the relationship between Father, Son and Holy Spirit is fluid, non-hierarchical - full of humor and love. While Trinitarian letters does support that view, it's not quite as enjoyable to read . Granted, The Shack is a novel and this book is a collection of short pieces on varying topics, but I find the style to be distracting and kind of over-the-top. Every page is peppered with exclamation points!!!! And statements in bold and/or italics to get the points across that the author wants to make (!!!). I do agree very much with what Paul Kurts is saying in his discussions (including topics such as salvation, grace, whether or not a person can fall from grace, and what exactly Jesus was accomplishing with his work o...

 My good friend recently lost her sweet dog, Tucker (pictured, along with his best friend Simba). As losses like these usually do, it reminded me how important it is to share the stories of our animal companions and celebrate the blessings that they are to our lives. Therefore, in honor of Tucker and all of my own fuzzies (the ones still with us and the ones who have gone on) and in conjunction with LightByGrace Photogtraphy I am offering a forum for you to share the stories of your beloved animal companions and an opportunity for someone in the Greater Cincinnati Area* to win a free portrait session for your fuzzy! Here's how it works: 1) Submit a photo and a few paragraphs (500 word limit) about your animal companion to lightbygracephoto@gmail.com. You can share anything - a funny story, how they came to be with you, how they touch your life, etc. 2) Beginning on Valentine's Day, each story will be featured on the LightByGrace Photography Blog . 3) On Mar...

My reply to a blog post discussion with an atheist...I was not attempting to convert him. Just sharing my story.  What a neat discussion...I love it when people can talk about these kinds of things respectfully. How much we can learn from each other when we know that the other person is not going to ridicule or go off or resort to insults. THANKS! For what it's worth, my two cents are below. :) I grew up in Evangelicalism, but my faith became the most alive when I ditched the rules and the play-book of 'making converts' through arguing the Bible and defending God (God doesn't really need me to do that anyway). I made it about 'me and God', not 'me, the rules and how I can convince everyone that my religion is right by explaining the Bible empirically'. You can't do that. The Bible isn't a science book. It is a book of experiences and intepretations of experiences by other people - humans as jacked up and confused by life as I am than I was ...

One way of studying Scripture that I really enjoy is called Lectio Divina. (The folks at Darkwood Brew call it "Pneuma Divina"). From time to time here I would love to offer a passage of Scripture and hear the thoughts, 'downloads' and ideas that you get from it. Here is an overview of how to practice Lectio Divina. I have been struggling through the questions of how much violence I should be supportive of as a follower of Christ. Did Jesus ever teach that violence is his way of solving problems? And if not, what do I do in situations where violence seems to be the 'only answer'? How does one follow Christ's admonishment to 'love your enemy' but still hold that I could shoot them in the face? What about 'Just War'? What about WWII? What about the civil war? - violence that seems to have successfully solved very terrible problems? So, today I will offer up a few verses to choose from that deal with the issue of violence and ememi...

New name, a few new colors and hopefully more posts this year! This year on the blog, I hope you will find: - Deep thoughts about living unabashedly as a red-letter, incarnational , evangelical, post-protestant/liberal/conservative, mystical, biblical, charismatic/contemplative, methodist, vineyardite, environmentally conscious, animal-loving, frustrated-yet-hopeful, unfinished Christian (Thanks to Brian McLaren for the original post that inspired that title). -Book reviews for the Speakeasy blogging network -Linkage to all things LightByGrace Photography (that’s me!) and my friends in the Greater Cincinnati Fellowship of The Lens.  -Great discussions. If there is anything else all of you, my (perhaps two?) faithful readers, would like to see here, please let me know!

http://forum.xcitefun.net/beautiful-picture-of-space-earth-blue-moon-t13275.html I was meditating today on a reality, which is a mind-bender for me. God's identity and feelings are not dependent on my behavior. A reactive God whose emotions are tied to the behavior of man is a God of human construct. This idea led into some really deep thoughts...and some humbling things... God is not codependent. God is complete on his own and does not need my perfection to make him happy or fulfilled. Following the way that God leads is for my benefit and/or the benefit of others/the earth. God is completely secure no matter how badly I screw up. I don't need to worry that my mistakes disappoint Papa so much that he is driven to drink. He is not taken by surprise or shocked by what I do. Those feelings are my own - they are useful in helping me realize where I have gone wrong, but they are not a reflection of God's feelings. They come from the limited perspective I have as a human....

We will not solve today the myriad of issues that leads to murderous evil. Today is the day to mourn with those who are mourning and pray for those who are wounded. For just a moment, may we put aside our politics and simply unite around fellow humans who need love.   Maybe there we will find what we are looking for.

You don't have to ask me twice to read a book that begins with an essay by Brian McLaren. If not for McLaren and his courageous steps to remain evangelical while embracing a generous orthodoxy (which is also the title of one of his best books!) I'd still be cowering in the theological corner.                                                                        (www.chalicepress.com)   A New Evangelical Manifesto begins with McLaren and moves onto writings by numerous other theologically-minded folks who see our role as Christ-followers a bit differently than the status quo. The essays cover a lot of ground and tackle tough topics like the death pe...

"As comforting as it may be to perceive ourselves as a nation set apart by God, a 'City on a Hill', a light that shines in the darkness, if it can be sufficiently proven that the Bible forbids such a mixture of religion and nationalism, the question that we in America are going to have to ask ourselves is, are we a strong enough people to abandon our myths and see truth or will we continue to perpetuate the myths in favor of cultural cohesion?" These are words from an American evangelical Christian who found himself face to face with a Radical Fundamentalist Muslim during the 2009 filming of a documentary entitled Holy Wars . In his book, Alone with a Jihadist - a biblical response to holy war,  Aaron D. Taylor discusses this encounter and the major overhaul of his own perceptions (from 'just war' to American Zionism) that resulted from it. Taylor set out to  re-examining Scripture and his home-grown ideal that the American system is the form of governm...

The folks on the Ohio Valley Camera Club rave about it, some people are snobs about it and some people pick and choose when they use this thing called RAW when shooting photography. I recently took a workshop that introduced me to this bit of the craft. This is what I gather... -RAW is not at acronym (which is why I have stopped spelling it in all caps most of the time, because if it's not an acronym, then there is no reason to capitalize all the letters. That's confusing....But I digress). Raw is, just that, the raw information that is given to the camera when you press the shutter release. It is like a digital negative. It is unprocessed information. In fact, there is actually no such thing as a raw image. There is only raw data. It only becomes an image when the data has been processed through a program (such as Adobe Camera Raw, Lightroom, Photoshop or Picasa) that converts it into an image file.  -Raw files are HUGE. If I set my camera (her name is Natasha and she is...

This next part covers the sections of the book that expound on the details and history of the fundamentalist fight against the gay community as well as the more hopeful side of things. What I liked: -White makes a pretty darn good case for there to be more awareness of what some groups of Christians believe and put forth regarding the gay community. -One of the best lines in the book comes when White is discussing the 'gay agenda' that many anti-gay groups talk about: "It was fairly obvious from my first days as an activist that a room full of gay men and women could hardly agree on three toppings for a deep dish pizza, let alone lay out an agenda to 'destroy the nations values'". -I love that Mr. White allowed the non-violent/pro-community teachings of Martin Luther King to influence him when he was turning bitter toward the fundamentalist Christian community who wouldn't even meet with him to discuss the inaccurate information they had been pedaling...

I have been invited to do book reviews for the Speakeasy blogging network. It's a pretty cool dealio so I accepted the invite... Yeah - this first one is kind of an explosive topic, but I guess that's just the way I roll (wait'll ya see the book that's on deck!)...I seem to find that I mix and mingle with and love people from diverse viewpoints. I have a penchant for trying to find common ground without compromising my own convictions. For this topic I will state up front that I am politically independent with libertarian leanings. I support the rights of gay couples to join together in a legally binding committed relationship. I also support each church's right to choose whether or not to perform religious ceremonies for homosexual couples. I believe we all should be free to disagree and engage in healthy debate, but I don't care for bullying from either side of any issue or using the political system to override individual and religious liberties (for any ...

This road of love is not an easy one to follow. But it is, I believe, the narrow road that Jesus spoke about. The way of love is so much more than living a 'clean' or 'moral' life or having 'the right beliefs'. Jesus spoke pretty clearly about that when he discussed whitewashed tombs ( Matt 23:27-28 ).   'Living right' is sometimes not much more than outward appearances that can become, if we let them (Lord, forgive me, because I have let them) leverage for pride. I may smile at someone while inside criticizing them. I may go to church and pay a tithe and remain faithful to my spouse (all of which are hugely honorable) but at the same time my heart wallows in a life of 'anti'... It's easy to be 'anti'. It is a hard road to see every person and every creature as belonging to God and worthy of honor. It is a narrow, sometimes stifling, claustrophobic journey to be the only one in a group that is speaking 'anti-_...

I hate to be the bearer of bad tidings... But... Facebook isn't actually FREE. There's another recent push by FB users, trying to deny Facebook and other entities the right to use their personal information. Well, this is kind of silly... See, when I signed up with Facebook, I was making an agreement...The same agreement everyone makes when, you know, I voluntarily told Facebook my full name, address, e-mail address, etc.  The Agreement:  I get to enjoy the benefits of the social media experience and they get to use my information and things that I do on Facebook for their financial benefit (I.E. - marketing to companies with money who make it possible for me to enjoy Facebook without having to pay cash money). What I allow Facebook to do with my information can be only partially limited by adjusting my privacy settings. I have restricted them as much as is allowed, but I understand that my basic user information is out there. It can and will be used. I AM being...

I used to believe that when I entered a situation that might need God's help that I, being a Christ-follower and trained in prayer and scripture, was the chosen one, called to be the illumination that ushered in God's presence (because obviously God was not working there before my arrival). It's funny the things I have believed in my time Thank Jesus that my high horse is getting shorter the older I get. The other day I got a cool download. The place I work has a few classrooms in it for a program that deals with what we call 'behavior kids'...Basically these are the 'bad kids' that can't be in a regular classroom. Sometimes you hear outbursts coming from down that hallway. I happened to hear one such outburst and just as a passing thought wondered how much of the stuff that happened down there was spiritual as opposed to emotional and mental (though I think those things tend to overlap a lot since it's all connected). I had a quick flash of the ...