Friday, June 24, 2005

Pointing to others, today

It's Friday in Chicago - 8 AM and 80 degrees already. Of course, it's not as bad as it could be - I could be with my brother Chris H. in Phoenix, but checking the NWS weather tells me that Phoenix is 48% humidity, where we're at 77% already, and the sun is barely up at this point. No one will be talking about "a dry heat" in Chi-town today...

High-quality hat-tip: if you haven't already made his acquaintance, you really need to go over and see Rick L. at a new life emerging. He's one of the first bright lights in the blogosphere that I connected with, and this post of his sermon intro for Pride Sunday in San Francisco is a home-run. Wish I was there to hear the whole thing, brother - maybe get someone to record it and audioblog it?...(not that I would have any idea how to do that, but I know Chris does...)

Another brother-in-spirit is [rhymes with kerouac] (don't you just wonder what his name really is?), and his post here is a real convicting piece on the standards Christians are called to live to. Makes a lot of the posturing of the so-called "evangelical right" look pretty pathetic...

It's going to be a very busy weekend - cleaning up the wreckage of stuff I should have done a week or more ago. So, since it seems I'm supposed to be channeling the spirit of Anselm, I thought I'd share these words from him, which are very appropriate for this weekend:
Come now, little man, and turn aside for a while from your daily employment, escape for a moment from the tumult of your thoughts. Put aside your weighty cares, let your burdensome distractions wait, free yourself awhile for God and rest with him. Enter the inner chamber of your soul, shut out everything except God and that which can help you in seeking him, and when you have shut the door, seek him. Now, my whole heart, say to God, "I seek your face, Lord, it is your face I seek." --Anselm, "A Call to Meditation"
I'm going to work hard to do that, today - to try, throughout the day, to "free myself for God and rest with him." That sounds like a good way to make this day go better!

6 comments:

Popsicle Pete said...

I'm curious, what is the posturing the "evangelical right" has been doing. It seems to me that the the "liberal" wing of the church is just as guilty of this.

Steve F. said...

I absolutely agree, Mumcat...I was in Las Vegas several years ago for my sisters' 40th birthday (July 27th), and when we got off the plane, it was 117 (at 4 PM!). Some 'child-of-God' tried the "dry-heat" line on me, and I told him that at 117, I really didn't care about the humidity.

Just goes to show I can whimper and simper with the best of 'em. Of course, out there, no one would think of living in an un-air-conditioned apartment, either - whereas I give thanks for just having an air-conditioned bedroom...

Michael Dodd said...

As for dry heat, I think the air in a convection oven is dry...

I think there is enough posturing on all sides to go around. What is disturbing is when posturing moves into active discrimination and worse.

~pen~ said...

ahhh, you mentioned two of my favorite bloggers :) i never float away from them (or you, for that matter) without taking a little something with me for my journey...

rob said...

thanks anselm, errr...steve, very encouraging.

New Life said...

Brother, thanks for the plug and your encouragement. I have worked the sermon over for days massaging it to get it flowing. I am a bit sick of it, but I hope that God uses it to open some hearts and helps other recognize just how they are loved.

I really appreciate you and I know one of these days we'll meet in person and share some quality face to face.

I told Martha that I want to visit her diner and have some cherry pie and vanilla ice-cream. :) Maybe if I win the lottery I'll travel around and meet all my blogger friends. If I win enough I'll invite you along for the trip! :)