As people across the nation prepare to spend this evening eating, drinking and consuming millions of dollars in television advertisements before, during and after the Super Bowl, this story of a family in Atlanta offers a contrasting view of how American affluence might be used more productively...
Flirting with Faith
Sunday February 7, 2010
What if the Money Spent on This Year's Superbowl Went to Helping People?
Comments (3)
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUponSaturday February 6, 2010
True Confessions: (Finally) Coming Clean on My Dirty Little Secret...
Got home from the hospital last night following an unexpected three day stay that included lots of tests and a few odd physical episodes of unknown origin that quacked like seizures but didn't quite walk like them. I will spare you the details of prodding, poking and monitoring. Suffice it to say that I feel a little beat up, have as many questions as answers and will know more as results come in and further tests are conducted in the coming weeks.
But that's not what this post is about...
This post is about a sneaky bit of arrogance that masks itself as humility and results in an arms-length distance between me and the folks I interact with on this blog and in my day to day life.
I should have seen it sooner. The hints were there in my writing--or should I say my lack of writing--in the weeks since this started on the day after Thanksgiving. "I'm just procrastinating," I'd tell myself, as I wrote a sentence or two and saved them, half convincing myself I would actually return to them later. "I'm blocked," I justified as I unintentionally, one day at a time, just stopped writing.
It wasn't until it became obvious that this little health challenge appears to be lingering that I began to see that I was neither blocked nor procrastinating. I just didn't want to admit to anyone out there that there was something wrong with me...
My first thought? The illusion of perfection thing I thought I'd kicked to the curb years ago was rearing its ugly head. But a little reflection (and the fact that I have a book hitting shelves in May that makes excruciatingly clear just how flawed I am) told me that my old bravado was not the problem. Instead, something new occurred to me. By admitting that my health is in question, I open myself up to the well wishes, caring and encouragement of others.
And for some reason, that makes me incredibly uncomfortable...
Too tired to unpack this one at the moment, but thought I'd start by getting it out there. For now I'm just wondering: anyone else have trouble when it comes to accepting love, help and support from others?
Saturday January 23, 2010
Can You Reach Your Goals by Doing Less?
I was asked in an interview last week, what was my favorite Bible verse. While it seemed like an odd question to me, like asking for my favorite musical chord or favorite ingredient in a cake, I did the right thing and thought for a moment. I'm not sure where it is, I told the interviewer, but my favorite would have to be "Cease striving and know that I am God" (which he promptly told me was in Psalms 46:10.)
Later that week I was rereading a book by Watchman Nee and came across this story that, with or without intention, points toward the Psalm. Nee writes:
An engineer living in a large city in the West left his homeland for the Far East. He was away for two of three years, and during his absence his wife was unfaithful to him and went off with one of his best friends. On his return home he found he had lost his wife, his two children, and his best friend. At the close of a meeting which I was addressing, this grief-stricken man unburdened himself to me.
"Day and night for two solid years my heart has been full of hatred," he said.
"I am a Christian, and I know I ought to forgive my wife and my friend, but though I try to forgive them, I simply cannot. Every day I resolve to love them and every day I fail. What can I do about it?"
"Do nothing at all," I replied.
"What do you mean?" he asked, startled. "Am I to continue to hate them?"
So I explained: "The solution of your problem lies here, that when the Lord Jesus died on the Cross he not only bore your sins away but he bore you away too. When he was crucified, your old man was crucified in him, so that unforgiving you who simply cannot love those who have wronged you, has been taken right out of the way in his death. God has dealt with the whole situation in the cross and there is nothing left for you to deal with. Just say to him, "Lord I cannot love and I give up trying, but I count on thy perfect love. I cannot forgive, but I trust thee to forgive instead of me, and to do so henceforth in me."
The man sat there amazed and said, "That's all so new, I feel I must do something about it." Then a moment later he added again, "But what can I do?"
"God is waiting for you to cease to do," I said. When you cease doing, then God will begin."
(Excerpted from Sit, Walk, Stand by Watchman Nee, Tyndale House Publishers 1957, p 10.)
So, what do you think? Is it possible to love more by doing less? Could this apply to more tangible things like home and work? If not, then what does that say about the gap between the claims made by the faith and the lived reality of it?
(Ha ha ha...there's a little glimpse into the kind of questions swirling around this geeks head this morning...)
Friday January 22, 2010
Glimmer of Hope In Haiti...
Found this shot on my friend Jesse Rice's blog, depicting a little boy being rescued from the rubble in Haiti after being trapped for 8 days. The joy on his face and the face of these rescuers is a glimmer of hope in the midst of what has surely been days of heart-numbing darkness for these brave and courageous workers. God bless them all...
Wednesday January 20, 2010
Another Strong Earthquake Hits Haiti...Lord Have Mercy
Much has been written about where God has or has not been in the days following the devastating 7.0 earthquake in Haiti. This morning it was reported that another quake, this one a 6.1 on the Richter scale, shook the ground in Port au Prince and it is chaos. An NPR reporter described it like this...
I cannot imagine what these people are going through. I cannot imagine what I would be doing if I were hungry and thirsty and watching my friends and family suffer in this way. Lord, have mercy.
Filed Under: earthquake, haiti
Tuesday January 19, 2010
Former Sudanese Child Soldier Emmanual Jal Tells His Story
Emmanual Jal was a child soldier in Sudan who escaped to Ethiopia in an excruciating months-long journey across the desert, came to faith when he faced the dilemma of whether or not to eat his friend to survive, and...
Monday January 18, 2010
Pat Robertson, Martin Luther King, Jr. and What it Means to Love Our Enemies
I never imagined that I would (finally) find my response to Pat Robertson's controversial (and unfortunate) statement on the earthquake in Haiti in my reflection on the life and writings of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Having spent the...
Filed Under: christian, faith, forgiveness, jesus, jr, love, martin luther king, pat robertson, spirituality
Thursday January 14, 2010
To the Woman in the Rubble: Blogger Shelia Mullican Helps Personify News from Haiti
TO THE WOMAN IN THE RUBBLEby Shelia Mullican, Blogger at Anam Cara I am unable to escape your eyes. Frightened. Imploring. I wonder...what had this day been like for you? Were you on your way to the market? Were you working in an...
Filed Under: compassion international, haiti
Wednesday January 13, 2010
Thoughts and Soul Searching on Haiti...
I've done more reading than writing about the earthquake in Haiti today. Dozens of news articles and blog posts unpacking what is happening on the ground, how many millions of people have been impacted, where donations can be sent and...
Tuesday January 12, 2010
Congratulations Chris Wiles!
I am pleased to announce that reader Chris Wiles is the winner of the Stone Crossings: Finding Grace in Hard and Hidden Places book giveaway. Chris' name was chosen at random from the group of people who commented on each of the four...
Advertisement
Search This Blog
Subscribe
About Flirting with Faith
Joan Ball is a professor of communication and marketing and author of the upcoming book, Flirting with Faith: My Journey from Atheism to Agnosticism to a Devoted Life. A lifelong seeker/skeptic who was raised without a prescribed notion of God, she experienced a dramatic and unlikely conversion to Christianity at age 37. She brings to the Beliefnet conversation an insider/outsider perspective on living a faith that both delights and confounds her.