5.4.05

Ramen du jour


mmmm.
Originally uploaded by Greg Blosser.
Bowl Noodle Hot by Nong Shim. This stuff will put hair on your chest. HOT HOT HOT! But so tasty.

We are the strangest of all creatures.

We dwell in the deep, cold crevices of the ocean's bottom. We are crushed down by the pressure of a thousand million tons of water, salt and sea foam. We adapt. We adjust. Our tiny insides push back with an equal and opposite pressure. We survive. It's really quite amazing, actually. Even we're not sure how we do it. We just do it. Something in us pushes back. It is something in us. But it is not us.

Recently Charity and I learned that someone we love has been hurt deeply. Heinously violated. Someone innocent. It was a very bad day when we discovered the truth. You try to make a difference in the world, to make your contribution, to work some redemption into all of this deep, cold chaos and then one day you come into a moment of glaring clarity when you realize that in a matter of minutes, some sorry bastard has gone and undone a whole little lifetime of love and compassion in one fell swoop. What has been done cannot be undone. And we are pressed down by the weight of it all. But something in us pushes back with an equal and opposite pressure. It is in us, but it is not us. And we are not crushed.

So there's this shrimp that lives deep down in the ocean. Deep down where the light doesn't reach. Where the sun is thought to be a myth. A memory. A legend. But the shrimp knows otherwise. Not because he sees it. He doesn't. I'm pretty sure his eyes don't funtion very well, anyway. But at least he has eyes. Many of the creatures who live down here don't have them at all, you know. It's as if they've given up all hope of ever seeing the sun and surrendered their eyes to the blackness in exchange for boney spines and razor teeth. This shrimp doesn't have that stuff, the spines and the teeth. He's got something else. It's called bioluminescent projectile vomit. Listen to this. When he's threatened by some creature of the deep (probably the kind with boney spines and razor teeth) the shrimp opens his mouth and spews forth a dose of luminous light into the darkness that surrounds him. He pukes sunlight. And all the creatures of the dark run for cover. That's a heckuvalot cooler than boney spines and razor teeth, don't you think?

And so how do we respond when pressed down by the cold and threatened by all the creatures of this dark world which threaten to undo us and the ones we love? I know how I want to respond. I want to say "God damn the man who hurt you" and "God damn the system that failed you" and "God damn the world where this suffering happens". But boney spines and razor teeth can never do what sunlight does. They can never dispell the darkness. (Besides I sold those weapons years ago for a slice of sourdough and a bottle of chardonay). Instead, the strangest thing happens. Something in me wells up and I open my mouth and vomit sunlight forth into the black cold depths. And the dark is a little less dark. This is the turning of the cheek. It's the loving of the enemy. It's the denial of self. The selling of all we have and the giving to the poor. Its the "I love you even though" in place of the "I love you because". And it doesn't make any sense whatsoever, that the sunlight should make it's way from the surface, all the way down here without being seen, only to shine forth from the insides of a spineless, toothless shrimp of a fish. But that's exactly what happens. (And that's how the shrimp knows what he knows about the sun).

And so I still believe grace can change the world. It's the only thing that ever has. And I will not stop believing this. And I will not stop living like this is true. We are strange creatures indeed, but it's not like we can help it. It's not us. It's the one in us. Allelujah. Amen.


But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this allsurpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. - The Apostle Paul

Count the Cost

Change his world.


World Vision- Boy From Kenya
Originally uploaded by Greg Blosser.
For $30 a month you can sponsor a child through World Vision. Your contribution will provide a child with the nutritional, medical and educational supplies needed for him to be healthy and happy. Click the title of this post to go to the World Vision Website. They're legit. If you decide to sponsor a child, let us know. Then tell someone else about it.

A few months ago we signed Jack up to sponsor a little boy from Kenya named Flinton. He is Jack's new pen pal. They were born the same month, same year, but worlds apart in nearly every other way. Below is a letter Jack recently wrote to Flinton.

Dear Flinton,
Do you know the true God? I know him, but I don't remember how I got to know the true God. Church is where you find out about him and the sing songs about him. And there is also a childrens' church. They tell stories that happened a long time ago when Jesus was around. The stories are about Jesus and some other guys. Church for babies is called nursery, but they don't tell them about Jesus. But they have toys in the room. Jesus is so powerful, he can stop anything if it's something somebody is afraid of. He can even make somebody come back alive. He can do anything, but he never sins. He just does good stuff. He loves us more than anyone and theres no end of it! (When there's an exclamation point you don't have to put a period there). Jesus made everything. We can pray to him. Jesus can do all kinds of stuff.
I like to play a game called t-ball. Before, I played t-ball I played a game called gymnastics. In gymnastics you have to do these fun things, but i do not like the uneven bars. T-ball has stuff called T's and it's not the letter . It's something else called T. You put a ball on it and then you get a bat and then you swing the ball off of it. Then you run to first base and when the person who is coach says I run to second base, and then I run to third base and then I run back to the T which is called homebase. Homebase is like zero base. The mail will take this letter to your house.

Bye,
Jack

Artist of the Week: Max Beckmann


woman taken in adultery
Originally uploaded by Greg Blosser.
I've decided to add another feature to the 'ol blog. Artist of the Week. (Boy, you guys sure are getting your money's worth). So here it is: A painting by Max Beckmann. Beckmann was a German born painter who worked during the first half of the 20th century. He moved to the states and taught in St Louis for a while before moving to NYC where he died in 1950. His work is usually bold and colorful. He did many self-portraits, but my favorites are the narratives (like this one). Let me know what you think and you can check the web for more about his life and his art.

The Edge & Funky Presbyterian Not On Speaking Terms


1
Originally uploaded by Greg Blosser.
I paid some Irish millionaires $40 for the opportunity to order tickets to their concert before sales were opened to the general public. Ordered tickets. They were $100 a piece. The seats aren't all that great. Sold the tickets to some friends at face value. $100 for tickets is just getting out of control. Tell Mr. The Edge I'm not speaking to him until the tour is over.

Sprung?


on the front steps
Originally uploaded by Greg Blosser.
Finally, spring seems to have arrived for real. Let's all keep our fingers crossed and hope we don't get doused with another flurry of snow like we did last week! The sunshine and warmer weather has allowed me to spend a little time outside with Jack in the yard, at the park, and on the front steps where this photo was snapped. Hooray for sunshine!

What's Rockin' the Reverend?


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Originally uploaded by Greg Blosser.
I really enjoy posting about artists that many of you may not be familiar with. In fact, one of my greatest joys in life is unearthing some new or obscure musical delight from the far reaches of the cd rack at one of the local, independant rock and roll record stores here in the city. So it is with great inner conflict that I make this post. I've recently acquired Beck's new album Guero (it's a B+) as well as Over the Rhine's Drunkard's Prayer (A-). The Frames' record Burn the Maps came highly recommended as well, but I haven't yet fully embraced it. On the floor of my car there are albums by Richard Buckner, the Firey Furnaces, Iron and Wine, Arcade Fire, and Franz Ferdinand. These are on the floor, while the cd player is occupied by a quite different tenant. I've got M. Ward, I've got Anthony and the Johnsons, Blonde Redhead, and Earlimart. I could write about Kevin Thista's Red Terror and their Beatlesque pop rock masterpiece Wake Up Captain or Bright Eyes' simultaneously pensive and explosive post modern piece of folk artistry entitled "I'm Wide Awake and it's Morning". Perhaps next week I will. Alas, I cannot tell a lie. This week I have been rocked by Kanye West and his hip hop offering "College Drop Out". It is not new or obscure. Heck... It's not even rock and roll. And yet the frequency and magnitude of the rocking it has delivered to the funky presbyterian over the last several days must be acknowledged. Of course I address this record with some ambivalence. While about half of the album I heartily endorse and even recommend to the discerning listener (there is a "clean" version available for those who would prefer), the other half of the album is filled with content I simply cannot endorse. (I'm not referring to particular vocabulary which is most likely the reason for the parental advisory label). Those of you who know me, know I am not prudish as relates to my interaction with the broader culture. And still the misogony strikes me as particularly unhealthy, offensive, and inconsistent with the bulk of Kanye's weltenshaung. (Google that). Of course the possibility always remains that the objectional content is parody. I have a hunch some of it is, but I am not sure. Probably I am too presbyterian and not nearly funky enough to detect the subtleties of hip-hop parody.

Those parts of the album that are good and uplifting are very good and very uplifting to me personally. This album makes me wanna boogy. Pure and simple. Plus there is a considerable amount of incisive cultural critique, and spiritual insight. the likes of which we Christians should hope to hear in our churches and seminaries! Consider these excerpts from Mr. West's "flow" :(wow, I even sound white just typing that sentence).

"Obscene, we living the american dream, the people highest up got the lowest self esteem, the prettiest people do the ugliest things for the road to riches and diamond rings"

"We buy our way out of jail, but we can't buy freedom, we buy a lot of clothes but we don't really need 'em, the things we buy to cover up what's inside, cause they made us hate ourself and love their wealth... I wanna act ballerific, like it's all terrific, I got a couple past due bills, I won't get specific, I got a problem with spending before I get it, we're all self conscious, I'm just the first to admit it"

"And I don't think there's nothing I can do now to right my wrong (jesus walk with me) I wanna talk to God but I'm afraid cause we ain't spoke in so long"

"I ain't here to argue about his facial features, but here to convert atheists into believers, I'm just trying to say the way school need teachers, the way Kathy Lee needed Regis, that's the way I need Jesus"

And one last note, there's some guy named J. Ivy who raps near the middle of the song Never Let Me Down. His portion of the song is the most powerful piece of poetry I've heard since Bob Dylan's Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie. Every time I hear it I am bowled over by it's power and profundity. I could reprint it here, but you must hear it to appreciate it rightly.

"Take 'em to Church".