Awake, sort of

It's almost 4:30 and I am wide awake. I don't know why. I don't feel particularly stressed or anything. Just can't sleep. I did get a few nods in the recliner after watching the Celtics come back and beat the Lakers (yippee). When I tried to lay in bed my ear kept hurting, and I was doing nothing but turning over and over. I finally just got up.

Today was a somewhat productive day though. I had breakfast with TWO other pastors this morning. That was nice. I talked with a guy who's been struggling with some stuff and has a nag for a wife. I spoke with our guy at Sweetwater about some sound equipment, and he quoted me some stuff that was one and a half times as much as I told him we could spend, and was also just the opposite of what I had been thinking we would get. I did some other stuff that - while not a secret - I can't really tell you about. Mowed the yard, and sprayed for bugs around the pavilion. Bought a whole bunch of buns and some other stuff for the cookout Sunday. And... I dunno... other things too.

I read an interesting blog post tonight from Today At The Mission. I don't know who this guy is, but he usually has some interesting stuff. The one I became most interested in was his post about Shane Claiborne's book "Jesus For President." He noted that as someone not from the usa it didn't have quite the same appeal to him. As he said,

Perhaps the authors fail to grasp the fact that America may be the only nation in the world in which religious, patriotic and militaristic zeal are hopelessly confused...

I thought that was an interesting statement. He explains it in more detail in some comments. He also raised another point:

What does nag in the back of my mind, however, is that nowhere do the authors talk about the need for a deep and personally sustaining relationship with God. My experience at the Mission has been that one simply cannot give without possessing that which needs to be given; nothing less than the presence of Christ is the empowerment for serving others. Perhaps there is much to life in an intentional community that I don't understand, but the absence of any discussion related to an intimate and individual knowing of Christ is puzzling, if not alarming. The authors may assume their audience will read the text as if a personal, knowing experience of God is unstated but understood yet, barring that assumption (and the subsequent decoding of the text it requires), Christ appears to be reduced to a political, economic, and religious figurehead.

I don't think he was being disagreeable necessarily, and I think he thinks a lot of the authors, but this is a valid point. I have often wondered about this with certain people too, and honestly, it's possibly something I can get confused about myself from time to time. I appreciate that someone spoke it.

Anyway, I have not read the book. I believe daughter Carrie has. I remember reading S.C.'s Irresistible Revolution and how impactful that was. I have quite a few posts somewhere in my archives about that.

On a not totally unrelated thought from this... I've been thinking about the need to have communion more often in our Sunday gatherings. I have to admit... communion has never really done a lot for me personally. No big reason. It just never has. But I'm feeling like maybe it's something we should do more of. As a community. I dunno.

Well... ugh... this might be a long day. I have a q-tip stuck in my right ear. It's dark. It is not raining outside. Or inside. I think I'll have some yogurt and watch tv with no sound.

'night.