Catch ya later

Sticky

Vacation notice:

We will be in Indianapolis to meet my husbands's natural sisters (for the first time) from the 28th - 4th, so I will be scarce here.

Please pray for our trip:
a) safety and simplicity in our flights Thursday the 28th and Wednesday the 4th
b) a great time and loving bonding with hubby's sisters
c) all goes smoothly with our kids
d) Grandma keeps her sanity while playing mom to our kids for a week
e) anything else you can think of

I will be trying moblogging about our trip from my Treo while we're there ... don't know how successful I'll be at that. I'll also be checking e-mail, so you can always drop me a note at

lilyladyblue at gmail dot com

...otherwise I'll see ya'all after the 4th

LOL

Pernell Goodyear posts about his friend Bill posting about how "annoying" (personally I would use the word ridiculous) typical evangelical prayers sound....

"There's this strange evangelical prayer jargon where the word Lord or Jesus [or both] occurs at least once in every sentence, accompanied somehow by the word 'just' . . . remarkably irritating. It's a wonder at times our prayers are not followed by a voice from heaven saying 'Shut up for a minute'. Prayer is simply conversation, right. So then if we followed the same format, a conversation over coffee might sound like this:

Bill, we’re just really thankful that you are here, Bill
that you are home, friend Bill,
that we can come to your home Bill
with thanksgiving sweet Bill,"

Please, please go read the rest of the post here.



I know I'm guilty of it, I hear myself doing it, and have actually had to stifle a laugh about it during a prayer.

Conversation...conversation...have to work on that.

How strange we Christians are.

Problem with my Feed

If you are getting an error from my XML feed here's the deal:

"The http://*.blogspot.com/atom.xml Atom feeds are returning an “Invalid request URI” error. A temporary workaround until we fix this is to use the http://*.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/full URL."

For Decompressing Faith, that would be

http://decompressingfaith.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/full

Gimmeabreak

According to CNN, NBC has edited all non-historical references to God and the bible out of the Veggie Tales they air.

Fercryinoutloud.

This is what NBC has to say:

"VeggieTales" is the award-winning 3-D animated series that teaches values like honesty, kindness and forgiveness in a delightfully wacky way. The series follows the hilarious adventures of Bob the Tomato, Larry the Cucumber and a bushel full of their vegetable friends as they learn important life lessons. Each episode includes infectious "Silly Songs," usually sung by Larry the Cucumber, that help reinforce the values-based message. Since then, over 50 million DVD/VHS units have been sold, along with 7 million audio CD's and 10 million books."

But even the tagline "God made you special and He loves you very much" had to go.

As quoted at Townhall.com

"So, saying 'F--- you' is protected First Amendment speech on NBC but not 'God bless you."

Also on Townhall.com

"The cartoon's creator, Phil Vischer, posted on his personal Web log the news of NBC's increasing creative stranglehold. "At first we were told everything was 'OK' except the Bible verse at the end. Frankly, that news (never) really surprised me, because, heck, we're talking about NBC here. (Would they allow) God on Saturday morning? It didn't seem likely."

But it grew worse than that edict, Vischer reported: "Since we've started actually producing the episodes, though, NBC has gotten a little more restrictive." How so? He said, "We're having to do a little more editing." How much? So much so that Vischer implied that the God talk is landing on the cutting-room floor. Now, he's merely hoping that people will "maybe wander into Wal-Mart and buy a video with all the God still in."

My kids were HUGE fans of veggie tales when they were smaller. We had them all and watched them til they wore out.

I will be the first to admit that they were traditionally conservative evangelical and that I didn't always jive with them in their approach. But they are kids shows, not meant to teach deep theology but meant to entertain.

I never expected Veggie Tales to teach faith to my kids. I just loved the fact that I could buy one and stick it in the player without having to pre-screen it and never had to worry about what my kids would see. You could say this is true about many other kids shows (Blues Clues for instance) but the Veggie Tales were different in that my kids did usually learn something they didn't know about the bible and ended up asking hubby and I follow-up questions about them.

I guess on the one hand, we could certainly feel like this is a milestone for the "religious right". I understand that it's seen as a positive thing for kids to be exposed to Veggie Tales values, even without the God...but in my opinion to take God out of these cartoons is like taking the chocolate out of a Hershey bar. It can't be done and still have it be what it is supposed to be.

Veggie Tales holds no secret about the religion they portray. There is no ambiguity about it. If NBC wanted a spiritually ambiguous show, they should have looked elsewhere. To modify a show like Veggie Tales to suit their broadcast policies is ridiculous.

That's just my $.02. Feel free to disagree.

Ekklesia

We were talking about ekklesia over at Emerging Grace yesterday. It's an interesting and meaningful conversation for me.

Pop over and read what Grace has to say because it will provide context here.



So I found this quote at Red Pill (HT The Blind Beggar); the quote is from "The Shaping of Things to Come" by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch (I really need to read that book).

"The traditional church makes it quite difficult for people to negotiate its maze of cultural, theological, and social barriers in order to get “in.”… and by the time newcomers have scaled the fences built around the church, they are so socialized as churchgoers that they are not likely to be able to maintain their connection with the social groupings they came from."

That quote says a lot to me, but for me it's the reverse. I have recently had to negotiate the maze of becoming re-acclimated to society after years of being a socialized churchgoer. I am reconnecting with social groupings I had lost touch with, old friends that I had chosen in my church-life to disassociate with.

My church structure and "family" met all my socialization needs. I had many friends, so I no longer needed the friends I had had before. I lost touch with many people, simply because they weren't part of my church life.

The church became my "city". I lived in it. My life revolved around it. Everything that happened in my life was related to it. As I became more involved, I began not to have time to socialize with non-church people. I even began to cease to have time for my extended family. Church and church friends were my entire world. I worshipped them.

But one thing I have discovered in recent months is that the "old" friends were thrilled to reclaim me into their midst, when my church friends all but cast me out.

These friends are real-world people. They were almost all raised in churches (Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Unitarian) and some still have church ties. But they don't live in a christian fantasy world, set apart from reality. It's not a world where they vote according to what their Pastor teaches, where they gossip about who didn't show up to bible study, or where "ministry" interferes with family life.

These women are amazing to me. They have their God, but their church doesn't have them. They laugh and talk about life, but there is no gossip disguised as "prayer concerns". We can talk about God and faith without it being the ONLY thing we talk about.

And to think I shunned them simply because they didn't live in the "church zone".

I have learned that my circle of friends should not consist solely of people from the church I attend. I have retained a few friends from my church life and I treasure them. But I feel like life is so much richer and fuller because of my rekindled relationships in the world.

This is just one example of how God has led me into a broader definition of what is called ekklesia. It's being "the body" in every context, not just inside the church building with church people. I know many people have already learned how to do this, but for me this journey is new.

Housekeeping

Between getting ready for our trip ...

... I couldn't imagine the details involved in leaving our kids and dogs and cats with my mom for a week, as well as all the planning for us. We are not seasoned travelers, you know. Delta has changed our itinerary three times so far, and all the new rules and regulations to remember because we haven't flown since 1997...and to tell you the truth I'm not a big fan of flying...four airports in 7 days ...

... to also having one of our son's birthdays this week (make cupcakes, buy gifts, wrap gifts, clean house, slumber party, and family party), and an open house at one school, a field trip at the other school, and optometrist, hair, and pedi appointments ... all in the next 7 days ...

... there probably won't be a lot of thoughtful posting here for the next 2 weeks.

Please pray for our trip:
a) safety and simplicity in our flights Thursday the 28th and Wednesday the 4th
b) a great time and loving bonding with hubby's sisters
c) all goes smoothly with our kids
d) Grandma keeps her sanity while playing mom to our kids for a week
e) anything else you can think of

I might get some little stuff posted here and there, and will be trying moblogging about our trip while we're there ... don't know how sucessful I'll be at that. I'll still be around the blogosphere for another week, so you'll probably run into me at the blogs I frequent ...

... otherwise I'll see ya'all after the 4th

It's the end of the world as we know it...

...and I'm gonna crawl into a hole for the next, oh, say 5 seasons.

The one thing I hoped, prayed would NEVER come backs...why oh why can't the next generation EVER leave well enough alone...?

Get out your AquaNet and hold onto your leg warmers ladies...







Stirrup pants are comin' back.



Please. Someone. Just shoot me now.



(Oh, and look out for leg warmers and leggings and oversized sweaters, too. Can shoulder pads be far behind?)

Church Visiting

Anyone know any emerging-ish-type churches in the Indianapolis area that would be fun/cool/good to visit?

It would be Sunday October 1st.

Sorry...

...if you visited here in the last day or so and my blog was screwed up. Not sure of the cause, but I just restored from my template backup and all seems to be well again.

I was messing with my template the other day, but I was sure to view it after every change I made, still, it was probably me.

Or it could be something Beta did. Who knows.

Whatever.

I'm just gonna let this one speak for itself...

...there is nothing else to say.



The Holy Land Experience featured at Addison Road.

It's a "Phreaky Phriday" post titled "Phreaky Phorever". Posted by Zack.



No phreakin' kidding.

Air Travel

Just a quick question.

We will be flying to Indiana in - let's see - GAH! - 13 days - to meet my husband's biological sisters.

We haven't flown since 1997, so a lot has changed since then.

I'm really nervous - we have never left our kids behind like this. Especially not for a whole week. My mom is staying here with the kids, and I'm sure everything will be just fine - they are really close to her and I completely trust her ability to care for them. She also has my dad and my sister and my two brothers to help her if she needs it. But I'm nervous about being so far away. I'm nervous about flying, which is totally new territory for me, I used to LOVE to fly. I'm out of practice of this flying thing. I'm actually nervous about what other previously inconceivable restrictions the TSA will suddenly come up with while we are waiting to be screened, and what we'll have to dump in order to meet those restrictions.

I just want to know if anyone has any advice, experiences to share about flying in a post-9/11 world, especially in recent months.

Anything we should know that the TSA or Airlines don't tell us? Do we REALLY have to not wear any metal? Do we really have to be at the airport 2 hours early for a 6 AM Thursday flight? Anyone had any unforeseen problems getting through security? Anything else you can think of?

We'll be flying out of Portland through Houston to Indianapolis and returning through Atlanta.

Anyone... Anyone?

How Much is Too Much? And Stranger-Danger.

When it comes to being neighborly, how much is too much?

I was reading at Emerging Women today, and there's a post about someone who has neighbors who seem to have a new need every day - from baby formula, to using the phone, to borrowing a saw or a pot or a cup of sugar. This neighbor has made reference to needing to call his parole officer, and the person posting is feeling uncomfortable with this situation.

If you can, read the post there, it's not very long. If you have a chance, read the comments, too.

Then read the rest of this.

::::::::::

One day a man I had never seen before, about 40 years old, came to the door asking if we had any pop cans. We did and I gave them to him.

About a week later he was back. And again. This was fine, we do *happen* to drink soda and almost always had at least a few cans for him. One day I asked my neighbor, out of curiosity, if she knew who he was. She told me he was mentally disabled and lived with his parents on the next block over.

He continued coming to the door on a regular basis, but his visits began to make me a little uncomfortable. He began trying to have long conversations with me, telling me about his daughter or his parents. Then he began telling me things about himself that, while not *crude* were *inappropriate*. Then he began to ask me every time he came to the door if I was married to the man who lived here, how old I was, if I had been married before, how old my kids were. He began to ask if "that man who lives here" was home and what hours he works. This went on, the questions becoming more uncomfortable all the time.

I began to choose not to answer the door when he knocked. I know this is rude, but I have children to think about.

Then one Saturday when my husband was home, this man came to the door. I asked hubby to answer it and tell him that from now on, if we had any cans we would leave them out by the garage. We began to leave them out about once a week, and still do.

It turns out over time that we have come to realize he is relatively harmless, and has trouble with social skills, hence the inappropriate comments and questions. His parents are financially comfortable and able to care for him, it seems his can-collecting is more of a hobby than anything. He collects from all over the neighborhood, I see him making his "rounds" a couple times a week. I have not felt that it was safe to befriend him, having young children and not knowing his background, but this didn't mean we couldn't continue to support his *habit*.

::::::::::

Do you think that personal safety ought to be a factor when aiding someone, or should we just trust God that if He puts someone in our path who has a need we can fill, that God knows what He's doing?

Was there ever a situation when you chose not to help someone, even though you could, because you felt uncomfortable with the person or situation as far as your safety was concerned? For instance a homless person or a hitch-hiker?

Is there a limit to how hospitable or charitable we should be to near-strangers? If a neighbor repeatedly asks you for things, is there ever a time to begin saying no?

Do you have homeless or jobless people who stand on street corners or freeway exit ramps, hold ing signs asking for money or work? Do you ever give them anything? I have always hesitated to give them money because they might be supporting a drug or alcohol habit. Do you think that is judgemental? My sister always give them money, telling me it's about helping someone, regardless. Someone once suggested keeping some McDonald's gift certificates in the car so this person could get something to eat. What do you think about that?

What is your approach to helping strangers? What about helping neighbors that you might not know very well?

::::::::::

Speaking of strangers, we have taught our kids that there are three kinds of people.

"Safe people": people we know well enough to trust them with our children's safety. These are the people the kids can open the door to without asking. I tell them that if it's someone who we have left them (the kids) with, then they are a "safe" person. Basically family members and close friends.

"People we know": These could be neighbors that we might not know very well, but know well enough that if there was an emergency our kids could go to them for help. The kids aren't supposed open the door to these people without asking, but if they tell us who it is, we will either say "you can open it" or "let me open it". With the pop-can man, we tell the kids they are not allowed to open the door for him. While he is *probably* perfectly harmless, we are not comfortable enough to take the chance.

"Strangers": People we don't know anything about. This could be a grocery store clerk that makes small talk, someone standing on a street corner that we have never seen before, or a solicitor who comes to the door.. These people the kids are never allowed to open the door to.

Does that make any sense? Does this seem judgemental or unfriendly to have this kind of policy?

Do you have (or had when your kids were small) a policy about who they could open the door to? What was it?

What do you think about Police and Fire people? Should kids be taught to trust them, open the dor to them? It's so hard to know these days, around here we have had child molesters dress up like them.

Update: Does God want You to be Rich?

In my post the other day titled "Does God want You to be Rich", I commented that Internet Monk Michael Spencer was quoted in the referenced Time Magazine article.

Well, he blogged today in part about the background behind being interviewed for the Time article.

Dreampt of living in The Shire?

Builder sites Middle Earth in Central Oregon

The Shire - The Bend village may look quaint (check out the PVC thatch), but cottages top half a million.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006
MATTHEW PREUSCH
The Oregonian

BEND -- Ron Meyers isn't given to long discourses on Hobbits, elves or any other inhabitants of J.R.R. Tolkien's imagination.

In fact, the man building The Shire -- a new subdivision recalling the mythical home of Tolkien's most famous characters -- hasn't read the author's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, though he does own the DVDs.

It was a friend who came up with the name for the development on Bend's east side. "He is the one that's the Tolkien freak," said Meyers, The Shire's sire. "Not me."

Meyers has taken the liberty of renaming an irrigation canal next to The Shire as Brandywine Brook. He's happy to show off two Hobbit holes otherwise known as storage sheds.

"If you look inside there right now," said Meyer, pointing to one, "you'll find a lawn mower."

But for now the spot is overrun -- not by orcs but by backhoes, dump trucks and surveyors. You have to overlook the Caterpillar equipment and the mobile home park next door to grasp The Shire's magic.

Still, the parts of The Shire that are complete -- the small amphitheater, paved pathways, flowery gardens -- have an undeniable Middle Earth quality.

Meyers said he hasn't been flooded by Tolkien groupies eager to live in a re-creation of the fanciful Hobbiton, though his Web site has gotten a lot of hits originating from LOTR fan sites.

"I'm not selling 'Lord of the Rings,' " Meyers said. "I'm selling finely crafted homes with a European flair."

Read the rest at Oregonlive.com or visit The Shire.

Skinny Models Banned

MADRID, Spain (Reuters) -- The world's first ban on overly thin models at a top-level fashion show in Madrid has caused outrage among modeling agencies and raised the prospect of restrictions at other venues.

Madrid's fashion week has turned away underweight models after protests that girls and young women were trying to copy their rail-thin looks and developing eating disorders.

Organizers say they want to project an image of beauty and health, rather than a waif-like, or heroin chic look.

But Cathy Gould, of New York's Elite modeling agency, said the fashion industry was being used as a scapegoat for illnesses like anorexia and bulimia.

"I think its outrageous, I understand they want to set this tone of healthy beautiful women, but what about discrimination against the model and what about the freedom of the designer," said Gould, Elite's North America director, adding that the move could harm careers of naturally "gazelle-like" models. -- Courtesy CNN.com Read the rest here.

:::::::

Do you think the fashion industry encourages bulimia or anorexia? Or do you agree with Cathy Gould that the fashion industry is just a scapegoat?

Did any of you ever struggle with an eating disorder? Would you be willing to share if/how the fashion industry encouraged you?

Do you think anyone is really "naturally gazelle-like" as in the photo?

I think as women (as are most of the readers here) we need to be careful how much emphasis we put on size. It's one thing to be trim and fit, it's another to be 5'8' and 105 lbs. Aside from an illness that could cause such weight loss, I think that is ridiculous.

I have always struggled with weight, ever since adolescence. Up and down and up and down. Weight Watchers (4 times) and Nutrisystem and several others. Fortunately I have always had some sense of how to avoid an eating disorder, although some people consider overeating as much of a disorder as undereating.

I'm not afraid to say at this point that I was a size 20 at one point. I was 5'5" and 205 lbs. I have come a long way in the last two years, beginning with a serious bout of bacterial pneumonia a year and a half ago, where I lost almost 25 lbs, to most recently my diagnosis with Type II diabetes and the ensuing changes in my lifestyle. I (finally) bought a pair of size 10 jeans the other day. Haven't seen that size in about 13 years, and then only briefly.

But I have no goals of being super-skinny. For me at this point it's about health. I'm not a fanatic, I just aim to be active every day and not overdo it on stuff the I shouldn't eat much of. It's a lifelong adjustment for me, and I don't worry too much about going overboard on the diet/exercise routine, because I am a food junkie. But I realize after half a lifetime of overindulging, it's time for me to moderate my enjoyment of food and incorporate it into a healthier lifestyle.

I think it's our responsibility as mothers (even if you don't have a daughter) to be realistic and healthy as an example to girls we come in contact with. In Titus 2 we are asked to be an example to younger women "to be self-controlled" among other things. I would read that in this case as not only helping encourage them to lead a healthy lifestyle, but also not to get carried away.

Do you think we adult women have an impact on younger women and girls, specifically on their eating habits and tendency toward eating disorders? Or do you think society's encouragement to be skinny has a stronger pull?

Worship

My blogfriend Cindy Bryan posted today "Thoughts on leading Worship Music". I was gonna post this as a comment, but like I told Cindy, it got so long I decided to edit it a little and post it here so I can monopolize my own real estate. I recommend you read her post before reading here.

:::

I, too, have been one to criticize contemporary worship. I will be the first to admit that I have been unfair (Lily raises her hand). I got to a point where if I heard "Blessed be Your Name" (a song which I LOVE) one more time I was gonna croak. I used to think, "Why the heck do they have to drive these great songs in to the dirt? Where's the variety? And who's in charge of this stuff, anyway?"

But now, since I haven't participated in organized worship for about 5 months, and because of my *other* issues with the church, and honestly because I have no musical talent whatsoever and therefore have never been in that position, I no longer consider myself to be objective. In other words, it's easy to critique what I don't understand. (That's part of my learning process in a big way.) All the points Cindy just made help me understand, to a much greater degree, what worship leaders are up against.

Let me ask ya'all a couple questions, not directed at anyone personally or what you or your church may do in worship, just seeking opinions based on experience.

Do you think that the "center stage" (i.e. like a concert - where you have a band and an audience) manner of worship that is so common today is somewhat perpetuated by church size?
What I mean is, in a smaller church it is (at least theoretically) much easier to have broader participation by many members rather than a "worship team". In a bigger church there have to be more controls in all areas of the service. When you move from a service size where someone can ask the Pastor a question in the middle of the sermon to a congregation of several hundred or more or more you obviously can't let things get crazy.

Without getting into a whole lotta contextual issues, in 1 Cor 14:26 it says that everyone has a hymn, word, revelation, etc. This would suggest participatory worship (not just following along in the singing, but each person having a voice). In a larger size body, certainly allowing everyone who wishes to to share a word or a song of whatever the service would drag on for days.

Do you think this passage is also suggesting the size of the body, i.e. one that is small enough to facilitate these principals?

Do you think size is a determining factor in how worship is carried out, or is the "concert" style of worship just a function of modernity? Or something else?

I guess what I'm saying is that while I deliberately choose not to lay blame on anyone for this - because there are so many considerations and so many variables - this style of worship has always bothered me. I'm just wondering if there is another way.

Do you think there is an answer to these criticisms that Cindy mentions in her post, i.e. is there another way to "do" worship, that will work in larger bodies?

Please know I have the utmost respect for worship team members. I know (now) that what they do is hard. My husband has begun (in the last several years) to play drums for worship at several different churches of different denominations, and I know that he works hard at it and the body offers little respect.

One thing about his participation that interests me, though, is how he can play at a charismatic church, a Nazarene church, or a non-denominational church, and the only thing he has to adjust is the volume or tempo. In other words, the songs and style are primarily the same across the board.

Do you think congruency between churches and denominations in manner and substance of worship is a good thing? Does it make it more comfortable for people or does it just signify how the modern evangelical churches have amalgamated over the years?

I welcome any thoughts on these questions. I want to gain a fair perspective with the help of a your voices.

Thanks, Lily.

FYI

CNN Pipeline is running their coverage from September 11, 2001 in real-time today. It's free. Go to CNN.com and click the CNN Pipeline ad on the right side. Runs in Windows Media. It's playing in Pipe 4. There is a viewer discretion warning for obvious reasons.

Does God want You to be Rich?

Does God want You to be Rich?
By DAVID VAN BIEMA, JEFF CHU
Time Magazine - September 10, 2006

"When George Adams lost his job at an Ohio tile factory last October, the most practical thing he did, he thinks, was go to a new church, even though he had to move his wife and four preteen boys to Conroe, a suburb of Houston, to do it. Conroe, you see, is not far from Lakewood, the home church of megapastor and best-selling author Joel Osteen.

"Osteen's relentlessly upbeat television sermons had helped Adams, 49, get through the hard times, and now Adams was expecting the smiling, Texas-twanged 43-year-old to help boost him back toward success. And Osteen did. Inspired by the preacher's insistence that one of God's top priorities is to shower blessings on Christians in this lifetime--and by the corollary assumption that one of the worst things a person can do is to expect anything less--Adams marched into Gullo Ford in Conroe looking for work. He didn't have entry-level aspirations: "God has showed me that he doesn't want me to be a run-of-the-mill person," he explains. He demanded to know what the dealership's top salesmen made--and got the job. Banishing all doubt--"You can't sell a $40,000-to-$50,000 car with menial thoughts"--Adams took four days to retail his first vehicle, a Ford F-150 Lariat with leather interior. He knew that many fellow salesmen don't notch their first score until their second week. "Right now, I'm above average!" he exclaims. "It's a new day God has given me! I'm on my way to a six-figure income!" The sales commission will help with this month's rent, but Adams hates renting. Once that six-figure income has been rolling in for a while, he will buy his dream house: "Twenty-five acres," he says. "And three bedrooms. We're going to have a schoolhouse (his children are home schooled). We want horses and ponies for the boys, so a horse barn. And a pond. And maybe some cattle."

"'I'm dreaming big--because all of heaven is dreaming big," Adams continues. "Jesus died for our sins. That was the best gift God could give us," he says. "But we have something else. Because I want to follow Jesus and do what he ordained, God wants to support us. It's Joel Osteen's ministry that told me. Why would an awesome and mighty God want anything less for his children?"

You can read the rest at Time.com, if you have a subscription, or pick up a copy of the September 18th edition at your local newsstand. But there's no real need to read it, we all know what this article will say. It's not the verbatim article that I want to talk about, but the subject matter. It's definitely interesting to me that Time decided to cover this subject.

Since I got in trouble last time ;) for slamming something I had little personal experience with, I will just say this: it seems to me that so-called prosperity doctrine is just another way of missing the point. Case in point: A local health&wealth church has just built a huge new campus, complete with business center, whose first major partner happens to be Honda. While this is all well and good, creative financing and a great way to seem less closed to the business world, but let's not get carried away. This project isn't far from my house, and I will say, it's not small.

Internet Monk Michael Spencer wrote recently, and less recently about Joel Osteen. I'm no expert, so I'll just say "Yeah. What he said".

[Edit: I forgot to mention that Michael Spencer is quoted in the Time Magazine Article: "Respected blogger Michael Spencer--known as the Internet Monk--asked, "How many young people are going to be pointed to Osteen as a true shepherd of Jesus Christ? He's not. He's not one of us."]

I believe God promises to meet our "needs". But our interpretation of the word "need" is probably quite a bit different from God's. He will rarely give us what we ask for or expect. Sometimes what He give seems like less than meeting our needs, sometimes it seems like more. But always it's perfect.

I don't believe blessings are dependent on faith, name-it-and-claim-it, or the-more-we-give-the-more-we-receive. I believe each of us has exactly what God intends us to have. I believe God always gives us what He wills, and sometimes what we ask for. Can He sometimes give us way more financial blessing than we can ask or imagine? Of course. But does He guarantee it? Of course not. I think in Ephesians 3:20, He's not referring to material wealth - but to the greater things that we cannot imagine.

Are we American Christians generally poor stewards? Don't we almost always have more than we need? I know we do, and we cling way too tightly to it, with the fear that God gave it so He can also take it away - why give it away? So I want it to become our goal, as a family, to make at least a little more effort to steer away from greed and try just a little harder to give it away.

What do you think about all this? Does God want us to be rich? I'm open to any opinion and I'm interested in anyone's experience with this prosperity kind of doctrine.

Where were you?

For my grandparents, the question is, "Where were you when Pearl Harbor happened?"

For my parents the question is, "Where were you when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated?"

For my generation the question is, "Where were you on 9/11?"

------------------------------

Being on the west coast, we were still sleeping, blissfully ignorant, when it all happened.

We got up about 7 AM (PDT) and began our morning. We don't generally have the TV on in the mornings, as most people we know (otherwise someone would have called us). I was getting the kids up and my husband left for work. I began getting the kids ready for the day, our oldest had just started kindergarten.

A few minutes after my husband left, he called me. He had turned the radio on in the car and heard. He said, "Something is happening.". I said "Like what?"

"I think we're under attack." He was so matter-of-fact, I wasn't sure what he meant.

"What do you mean?" I asked. Nothing prepared me for what he said next.

"I don't know, but the World Trade center in New York and the Pentagon blew up or something." I easily remembered the previous attempt to destroy the WTC from a few years back. I got a chill.

The kids were still in their rooms, so I somewhat reluctantly turned on CNN. I stood, frozen in silence, for probably 2 minutes. I didn't like not having known until now what had happened, but because it had been several hours, it was nice in a way. By that time the reporters seemed to feel the attacks were over.

I turned Nickelodeon on for the kids in the kitchen so I could continue to watch CNN in the living room. I didn't want my 5 year old to hear or see any of this. I didn't know what I would tell him. Our other son wasn't even 2 yet, but our 5 year old, sensitive in every way, would have been traumatized by these events, even at the level he could understand them.

[Incidentally I now often turn CNN on in the mornings now when I'm on the treadmill. I think it's the result of the fear of "not knowing", like on that morning 5 years ago.]

Then I thought about kindergarten. "Should I take him to school?", I thought. I imagined all sorts of horrible scenarios.

My next thought was, "Is this the end of the world?". I guess that was a rather prideful thought. People in other parts of the world deal with this kind of thing every day. But when it happens to America, it must be the end of everything. After all, if someone can attack us on our own soil, which is so nearly unimaginable, then there is no predicting what else might happen.

After about half-an-hour, I called my husband. I distinctly remember saying to him (because at this time there was still so much confusion as to what had happened) "If this thing escalates at all, will you come home right away?" My husband works 25 miles away from home, all the way across the Portland Metro area. It takes him about 50 minutes to commute on a good day, 2 hours on a bad one. I worried that if anything else happened, he might not be able to get home.

Then I asked him if I should send our son to school. He said "Oh, I think so." In some strange way, I was relieved. If my husband was felt we were safe, things must be OK. Not great, not normal. But OK.

Like for millions of people everywhere, when it first began to come into focus, everything changed for me. Suddenly I realized that we were no longer living in before. We were now living in after.

I took my son to school and returned home. I called my mom. I just needed to talk to her, process with her. She told me something I had forgotten: my Dad was in Houston. He was supposed to fly home later that day. With all the flights grounded, he obviously wouldn't be coming home.

My Dad had been at a business conference with his partner. They had just started a company together, it was fledgling, and not knowing how long they might be stranded in Houston, they needed to get home. They decided to take matters into their own hands. My Dad's partner's son-in-law worked for a car-rental company and could get them a deal, so they decided to drive home from Houston. My Dad videotaped their adventure, which was interesting for the whole family, because the world had changed and our perspective had changed. The scenery was suddenly more beautiful, more peaceful. It took them about 2 1/2 days, and by the end, their rental car was ankle deep in food wrappers and coffee cups and sunflower seed shells and soda cans and whatever else. I think it was a humorous rebellion against the stress of 9/11. "We can't control the world, but we can control our environment. And if it's funny to litter the floor of the car, then damnit, it'll be funny and we'll laugh about it." I don't know if that makes sense to anyone, but in those first few days, I think we were all a little psycho. We worried about my Dad those 2 days, just because we were having to rebalance ourselves and our sense of security in post-9/11 America. But they arrived safely, with an adventure under their belts.

The other thing I really vividly remember is the silence. We live in the immediate flight path of Portland International Airport. We hear planes dozens of times each day. We are generally deaf to it, it's just a part of the background noise of our neighborhood. Even as I type this, there is a plane flying overhead. But when, in those first 3 days, that background noise was absent everything seemed eerily silent. We would go out on our deck in the late afternoon and say "It's so quiet. That's so strange." Without that sound of air travel, it was almost as if the world had ended. When the flights resumed, it was such an amazing, reassuring, secure sound. It was saying, "OK, life will go on. America has resumed control of her airspace. They have not defeated us."

Now life has gone on.

We have heard all the stories, we have watched the documentaries. We have remembered the heroes: firefighters, police, private citizens. Innocent people on flights of terror. We have heard of babies being born to fathers they will never know. We have heard of painful and panicked last phone calls to loved ones, made by people who knew they were going to die.

We saw the footage of a tsunami of dust. We have heard the voices: on the streets of New York, on cellphones, on police and fire department radios. We saw the wall of faces, posted as missing people. We saw Peter Jennings cry on-air. We saw Jay Leno rendered nearly speechless.

We saw an uprising of solidarity, neighbor to neighbor, American to American, but also nation to nation. We talked to people in our community that we had never spoken to before. We heard Congress sing "God Bless America" on the steps of the Capitol. We heard the American National Anthem played at Buckingham Palace.

We saw people send booties for the feet of the search-and-rescue dogs working at the site. We saw people bring food and drinks for the workers. We saw an image of firefighters raising an American flag in the rubble of the Twin Towers.

And time went by.

Now, life has gone on. We have taken our kids to baseball. We have had the flu. We have moved, changed jobs, had a baby, retired. We have buried loved ones, we have prayed and wept.

Let's not go on with our lives too easily. Let's take a minute to remember the sights, the sounds, the people. Let's educate our children about this day. Let's be still for a moment tommorrow, to remember the voices that were permanently silenced that day.

Let's take a minute to pray that the Nation will never forget the unity we felt in those first days, weeks, months. Let's pray we learn to be more united than divided.

Note for local readers

Jim Wallis, author of God's Politics and President of Sojourners, will be speaking at First Baptist Church in Portland on Thursday evening.

Admission Thursday evening is free, you can register for the rest of the conference, which is taking place on Saturday September 16th, at the