Archive - humanity RSS Feed

What could you do if time didn’t exist?

January 1, 2012 in creation, culture, humanity, life, time with 12 Comments

I feel so different today. It must be a New Year.

Last night I was so glad to see 2011 go. It felt exactly like it did on New Year’s Eve of 2010, 2009, 2008…

It’s the same “time” of year that we desire to be the type of person that we didn’t become last year. To make the type of changes that we didn’t make last year. But why does this cycle seem to continue year after year after fantastically-too-quick and full-of-letdowns year?

Time is something that we made up to make sense of our finitude. As humans, we are limited. We can’t grasp the idea of infinity and we struggle to think beyond the confines of our minds. So we created time. We made a calendar. We determined that the rising and setting sun and the rhythms of the seasons and harvests determine for us when we are supposed to do things. To wake up. To plant. To eat. To go.

As if humanity is not limited enough to begin with, our quantifying creation limits us even further. We’re late. We don’t have enough time. We can’t get things done. We can’t make things happen.

We can’t dream. When we sleep, it is typically too short to dream. When we are awake, we are too tired and frantic to dream. And if we do dream of something we think, “I’d like to do that but I just don’t know when I’ll do it. There’s just not enough time.”

We made clocks that tick and tock and move aimlessly into a future that doesn’t even exist. We wait for things to pass only to look back and discover what we could have done with our “time.”

What could you do if time didn’t exist? Oh, wait. It doesn’t.

Bathtubs

December 20, 2011 in family, giving, global, hope, humanity, love with 0 Comments

Originally from February of 2010, this post is worth re-sharing during this season of advent. Even if you’ve already read it, please read again. Tears flowed down again:

I’ve been publishing a series of posts entitled “Teaching Little Kyla…” documenting and sharing our  journey of parental flubs, flaws, failures and accidental^ fortune. Posts that would normally be included as part of the “Teaching Little Kyla…” series will now be uniquely titled. At times we are teaching little Kyla and at other times little Kyla is teaching us. More falls in the latter.

A couple of weeks ago Kyla had just finished receiving her evening bath. She had been playing in the water with a foam alphabet system, sorting the letters more by color than by consonants and vowels ordered to spell certain words. She calls the foam characters her “super letters.”

Sarah was nearly finished drying and dressing our little one when for no apparent reason Kyla began to pray. The only plausible explanation was genuine gratitude.

“Dear Gawd, phank you for my baphtub… and… for my super letters.” Sarah responded, “Kyla, those are great things to be thankful for. There are some kids around the world that don’t have bathtubs or super letters.”

The world. Stopped. Instantly.

There are some kids around the world that don’t have bathtubs or super letters.

Kyla immediately had a frown across her face complete with angry and confused wrinkled eyebrows. As I watched from across the room I could see the deep trouble and grief that Kyla felt. She turned and looked up to Sarah and said, “No. They do. They have baphtubs and super letters.”

Sarah replied, “No. There are a lot of children – like the children we’ve been praying for in Haiti – that don’t have bathtubs or super letters.”

With anguish… and confusion… and agony… and distress on her face, Kyla looked down. And in the next moment, she looked up… and narrated the gospel.

“I will give them my baphtub and super letters.”

And the tears that welled up in my eyes began to run down my face.

Without agenda. Can’t we all love like a two year old?

 

|
|
^ There is someone(s) greater than me/us (a divine being and a community of people) that intercede with grace and giving.

Obama’s Afghanistan Plan.

December 1, 2009 in death, empire, family, freedom, global, government, humanity with 21 Comments

“What do you think about Obama’s Afghanistan plan?” That was the question posed by RELEVANT magazine. “Tonight, President Obama is giving a speech detailing his new Afghanistan strategy, which includes a surge of 30,000 troops. What do you think of his plan?”

Response of Travis Keller:

“Peace is love. Violence is not. Militarization brings death… either physically or by fear. What if Afghanistan sent 30,000 troops to the U.S.?”

To contextualize my comment I will disclose that I am neither anti- or pro-Obama. I did vote for him. I would also qualify RELEVANT’s question by noting that the plan is not “his” plan but rather a plan that was developed by a team of people which includes military strategists and advisors. Additionally, I have a brother-in-law who is in the United States Air Force. My wife and I love him. He has been to Afghanistan and currently is stationed in the U.S. where he controls mechanisms on the Predator Drone planes that fly in Afghanistan.

What is your response to my response (or the original question)?

Music and Orphans.

October 15, 2009 in Church, college, community, Ecclesia, friends, giving, global, humanity, justice, kingdom, love, mvnu, religion with 1 Comment

Do you like music? Do you like orphans? Admittedly, the second question is awkward. Awkward and real. Awkward even in three senses: 1.) Most people reading this blog probably do not like the fact that any child would be orphaned; 2) The term and idea of “orphan” is not the core identity of any child; and 3) Questioning one’s commitment or lack of commitment to acting on behalf of the fatherless may create some discomfort and/or conviction.

Two students at MVNU approached me last year with the idea to do a benefit concert as a social event in order to raise money for resources needed at an orphanage in Brasil. I said “do it.” The short version of the story is that they did do it and they are doing it again. Please visit the Extended Melody Project (EMP) page and become a Fan on Facebook. EMP will be held at Ibiza 33 in Mount Vernon, OH on Friday, October 30. (4) or (5) bands will be playing and all funds from admission and t-shirt / concession sales will be donated to an orphanage in Cambodia.

The church is being the church.

Anyone want to sponsor the event? Any creative ideas?

Informational video to be posted after editing and processing finalized. Updates to our adoption page will be posted soon as well.

Is Independence Day Marxism?

July 4, 2009 in culture, dependency, freedom, government, humanity, jesus, justice, kingdom, religion, sociology with 10 Comments

Adapted from a post on July 3, 2008:

I’ll be honest. I’m not a fan of Independence Day. I’m trying to sort through whether that opinion is fueled by the despicable taste in in my mouth when I see red, white, and blue waving as a symbol of national allegiance and empire worship or simply by my struggle to intellectually and philosophically value independence. Freedom is good and necessary but cannot exist through the supposed provision of an earthly empire. Freedom is in the person of Jesus Christ and is quite different from that with which it is quite often confused, “rights.”

My reading on July 3rd proved to be rather timely for the upcoming day celebrated by most citizens of the United States. From Free of Charge by Miroslav Volf:

“Here is roughly how sin works in relation to God the giver. All things are from God and through God, and yet we want to be independent of God, standing on our own two feet, claiming God’s gifts as our own achievement. The young Karl Marx, barely twenty-six years old, put this sentiment as boldly as possible. In a text that remained unpublished during his lifetime, ‘Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts,’ he gave an expression to the heart of his rebellion against God:

‘A being only counts itself as independent when it stands on its own feet and it stands on its own feet as long as it owes its existence to itself. A man who lives by grace of another considers himself a dependent being. But I live completely by grace of another when I owe him not only the maintenance of my life but when he has also created my life, when he is the source of my life. And my life has necessarily such a ground outside itself if it is not my own creation.’

Marx held firmly to human independence. It almost seemed to him a value that lies at the bottom of all values. Because the reality of God as creator is incompatible with human independence, he denied the existence of God.

Most of us, especially the believers among us, won’t deny God’s existence in order to secure our independence. Instead, we think that we can have it both ways. We believe that we can stand on our own two feet, independent of God, and still affirm that God is the creator of everything. But that doesn’t make sense. We can be both dependent on God and free; dependence on God is the source of our being, and therefore, our freedom. But we can’t be created by God and independent; God sustains creatures in being and in freedom. When we assert our independence, when we ascribe to ourselves what comes from God, we wrong God – at least as much as I would wrong an author whose ideas I would peddle as my own. That’s our main sin against God the giver. If, like Raleigh Hays, we see ourselves as more or less honest, hardworking citizens, we may believe that we deserve what we have, and even a bit more because an evil world is cheating us of our proper reward. We might not feel particularly grateful for what we have because we think that, rather than receiving it, we earned it. And we want to dispose of our hard-earned goods the way we please; they become not so much gifts given to us to enjoy and pass on, but rather our exclusive possessions.

Assertion of independence, pride of achievement, sense of entitlement, and absolute right to dispose with our goods – these are the ways in which we live in contradiction to who we actually are in relation to God. And in these ways, we, decent citizens, live as inveterate sinners. To live in sync with who we truly are means to recognize that we are dependent on God for our very breath and are graced with many good things; it means to be grateful to the giver and attentive to the purpose for which the gifts are given.” //

// Miroslav Volf. Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace. pp. 35-6.

Intelligent Consumption?

June 26, 2009 in coffee, community, consumption, Education, giving, global, green, humanity, jesus, journey, justice, worship with 3 Comments

Intelligent consumption. Is there such a thing? I suppose there must be such a thing. We all consume. Consumption in and of itself is not inherently evil. A human must consume food to live. If one gives, another is consuming that which is given. The basic idea of consumption is not bad even though language in different Christian conversations promotes either excessive consumption based upon a terrible understanding of God’s desire to “bless” humans or the extreme opposite idea that any and all consumption is evil.

How often do we really think about what we buy? What we put into our bodies? What we fill our lives with? Every time I make a purchase I’ve been considering, “How has/does/will this purchase effect those around me? Is anyone being marginalized or hurt do to my purchase?” I may know the name of a country from where a product was manufactured or sown but I don’t know the working conditions of those who helped produce that product. I do not know the process for harvesting the resources that compose a product nor how that process effects the earth and/or other humans positively or negatively. Are my purchases enslaving a worker in terrible conditions or stimulating a nation’s economy and sustainability? In my journey to become a more responsible and good consumer I am going to offer some ideas that I have recently (or not-so-recently) been practicing:

1) Drink water.

It is common for a soda, lemonade, or tea to cost $1.49 – $2.69 when ordered at a restaurant. Order water. Add a lemon. Your two year old daughter might eat the whole thing. Plus, 2 drinks at $3.98 adds $.60-$.80 in tip to your bill.
And don’t drink water from a bottle unless it is a reusable bottle that you fill with tap water. If all the money used for the production and distribution of bottled water was reallocated toward well digging and filtration, clean water could be provided for every human being in the world. I’m glad my daughter doesn’t have to drink disease infested water. Aren’t you (that is, if you have a daughter… or if you love my daughter)?

2) Buy Puma (or Toms).

We all wear shoes. Well, some of us wear shoes. Many in the world need shoes to prevent disease from entering their open sores, blisters, and raw skin that exist due to lack of foot protection. I stopped in the Puma store at Easton a couple of days ago and found out about a program called Souls for Souls. Here’s the deal: Take any used pair of shoes into a Puma store. When you donate those shoes to be distributed to those in need of shoes, you receive 30% off your shoe purchase. I found a very nice Speeder Mesh II shoe for $62 that ended up costing only $46.44 after tax (I refuse to pay more that $50 for a pair of shoes and prefer the $30-$40 range). I am considering taking in an old pair, buying a new pair at 30% off and immediately donating that new pair. Thoughts?
I also have a pair a Toms that I received at a leadership conference. They are very lightweight. Check out tomsshoes.com. For every pair of shoes your purchase, a new pair will be given to a child in need.

3.) Drink Socially Conscious Coffee.
OK. You’re right. The coffee itself is not socially conscious but the means of growth, harvest, trade, transport, and consumption is. I stopped in at Ten Thousand Villages, an organization that focuses on friendship with global artisans, to check out their fair trade coffee. I came upon organic, fair trade coffee which is also certified CarbonFree®. The smell of the Sumatra “Telong” from the Aceh province in Sumatra, Indonesia captured me as did the certification that ensures that coffee farmers are working in shaded conditions and receiving fair wages for their work.
I am also trying out Costa Rican Tarrazu from World Market. It is Fair Trade certified and especially useful for any of you who are attempting to complete a M.A.R. in Missional Leadership whilst being a loving husband, devoted father, interactive Resident Director, loyal friend, SGA advisor, adjunct instructor, and compassionate follower of Jesus.

TO BE CONTINUED.

The Violence of Competition: Gladiators, Guards, & Government.

June 2, 2009 in arrogance, community, consumption, empire, giving, global, government, humanity, justice, love, relationship, service, thought with 32 Comments

In a communicative speech given only minutes ago this first day of June, two-thousand nine anno domini, the United States empire’s president Barack Obama stated the government’s defense for the bankruptcy filing by the automobile manufacturer, General Motors. Evident by the majority shares purchase, Obama, his automotive task force, and the Department of the Treasury support the bankruptcy and the suppossed coming rise of a "new, leaner and stronger GM." Obama remarked toward the end of his address that the ultimate end is for American business to compete globally.

So…

If U.S. businesses are intended to "compete globally" then is the U.S. government ultimately seeking to send people who function within the economic system of another nation into the same type of jobless recession that the U.S. is currently experiencing? Is the drive to compete in business fueled by the longing for self-absorbtion, self-fulfillment, and self-gratification while promoting oppression of others? There are those who think that the people of the U.S. "deserve to be on top." Does such a philosophy reveal an ever-present racism?

What ever happened to loyalty? To friendship? To mutual respect and sharing? Why do our lives center around having more and being the best? What ever happened to Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream? Did that only apply to Americans?

And while I’m at it, why are we so dependent on automobiles?

Competition is violent. Just ask the gladiators in the Colosseum. Ask the guards on the offensive line. Ask the economically oppressed nations.

“Much violence is based on the illusion that life is a property to be defended and not to be shared.”
Henri Nouwen

#6 of 6: Why MVNU Students Go To Journey.

March 20, 2009 in adoption, college, community, culture, Ecclesia, Emergent, friends, humanity, jesus, journey, justice, love, mvnu, people, relationship, religion, sociology, worship with 4 Comments

Many MVNU students have been attending the Sunday morning gathering of Christians who call themselves "Journey Church." Here is the sixth (6th) of six (6) reasons why MVN(azarene)U students have been so highly attracted to the non-Nazarene gathering place that is Journey.

That’s right. This is it. It’s been over a week. The moment you all… or at least some of you… have been waiting for (or not): The #1 reason why MVNU students go to the gathering place that calls itself Journey. But first… here is a quick rundown of numbers 1-5.

1. The perception that going to a Sunday morning gathering is still necessary.
2. The 20 minute drive from MVNU in Mount Vernon, OH to Howard, OH.
3. The music.
4. The teacher who is present in the lives of students.
5. The idea that everyone is doing it.

And finally presenting number…

6. The sexual lure.

Yes, the sexual lure.

Enter the Journey gathering and the lights go down. In the dimly lit room an ever-so-happy dating couple nuzzle and begin to sway together to Salvation is Here . OK… not really… but really. I have seen this beautiful picture of hormonal overload and still remain quite humored and/or disgusted with a more-than-slight inclination toward the latter.

Before I totally lose you (too late) I’ll get into the real idea:

Fascination. Romanticism. Intimacy. Connectedness.

God created humans (and most other mammals) as sexual creatures. Unfortunately, the church has done a rather insufficient to poor job at framing our sexuality in a healthy and fomative manner. The popular media has unveiled many "church leaders" from eccumenically diverse backgrounds who have illustrated the tragic nature of distorted sexuality. Few Christian parents have properly imaged a devoted and giving marriage relationship (the previous two sentences must be developed more in separate, dedicated posts). The church has inadequately taught the full beauty of sexuality and has ungraciously reacted against what it calls sinful sexual behavior. There has emerged a fascination with sexuality from students who have been impacted by the church’s improper communication about sexuality. Experimentation and cultural adaption consequently ensue. Timmy B and I are both quite comfortable journeying with students and others through the fascination and questions about sexuality.

There is a certain romanticism that accompanies the Journey gathering. One parallel that I may draw is with the idea of adoption. International adoption may sound more heroic when compared with domestic adoption. There is a type of romanticism that comes with rescuing a child from another country compared to a child who is abused by his/her parents who are your neighbors. Though I don’t buy into that idea of romanticsm (all forms of justice are equally justice) there is a certain romanticism with the Journey gathering. It is not Nazarene. It is not a huge organization. It most reflects the grassroots movements of church that may be trendy but are not associated with a larger institution. The current generation of 20-somethings are attraced to anti-institutional movements. We are romanticized by them.

A sexual relationship with one’s spouse is the most intimate and connected that two people may become so long as that practice of sex is within the context of a whole and loving marriage. Humans long for that intimacy and connection. The journey gathering is packaged with an intimate feel and the relationships external from the gathering itself are quite intimate. At the core of western human existence is the desire to fight against the individualism that defines our culture and seek to be connected with each other. Journey is just one more place to seek such connection within an intimate feel that fosters romanticism for minds fascinated with sex.

If you are finding yourself at all confused you may include your thoughts in a comment. I also may include a post that would further explain this idea. It would be an excert from a teaching and a piece of writing that I did about the Holy Kiss used in the liturgy.

Posts in response to comments during this series are ahead.

The Worth of an Empire: Presidents and Gladiators.

January 20, 2009 in community, consumption, election, empire, entertainment, global, government, history, humanity, kingdom, perspective, religion with 5 Comments

Sarah and I were talking about all the hype surrounding the inauguration event for the 44th president of the United States. It is, indeed, fascinating to observe the opinions and thoughts of a people who all-too-typically refuse to recognize the limited power of a supposed leader of a national empire governed by hopes and aspirations to prove its greatness over-and-above all other empires. Though Barack Obama’s position is historic and formative with globally astounding implications, a new man in office is just that: a new man in office.

The monetary salary for the presidential office is approximately 400,000 U.S. dollars (I’m not quite sure what that is in Pounds or Japanese Yen). Sarah was amazed that the elected "leader" of a nation is paid a mere $400,000 compared to the multi-millions "earned" by athletic competitors in the same nation.^ Though the inauguration events fascinate and entertain me, I am more astounded when I consider that citizens complain about taxes that provide public services and government salaries yet "happily" spend great amounts of money on their favorite team jerseys or tickets to "the big game" which supply the salaries of professional athletes.

If one worships an empire, are gladiator-type events entertaining enough to ease one’s consciousness when the empire cannot sufficiently live up to its imposed messianic expectations?

^ Quotations indicate a term frequently used that may or may not be an adequate and/or correct descriptor.

Black Friday: 2008.1 Edition

November 27, 2008 in community, conforming, consumption, culture, dependency, global, humanity, justice, minimalism, worship with 25 Comments

I have at least four posts in my head about the previously posted idea of life. Though a post on Black Friday may not initially sound as though it pertains to the question "what is life?," it does, indeed, address the issue on life on a number of levels. Here is an excerpt from one of my posts last year:

"The day marked for the celebration of the birth of Jesus is nearing. Comments are frequently made about the origination of the holiday being pagan. I would argue that which was pagan and made religious has largely become pagan again. The “celebration” that we now call Christmas has become the commercial exploitation of God coming into the brokenness of humanity. I will continue to add some posts on the repulsivity of consumerism."

Another post read as follows:

"Jesus wept. It is a sentence often quoted as the shortest verse in the Bible. On Friday, it was a reality. Not just because of Black Friday monetary spending but because of the addiction to consumption and lust for material possession and/or entertainment.
Jesus wept."

This coming Friday, millions of people will sacrifice a full night of sleep and either stay up all night or awake very early to drive their vehicles to shopping malls and retail stores across the country. Long lines, crammed traffic grids, and hateful behaviors are no deterents from the "cost savings" for the mass purchasing of items that may or may not be needed. We’ll discuss the idea of a "need" soon (for those of you coming to the Narrative Gathering on Monday nights be thinking about what a need is). Black Friday is an interesting social phenomenon. Why do consumers think they are "saving" money? Do consumers consider what money actually is? Are the majority of purchases on Black Friday for items that would be purchased even if "sales" didn’t exist? Is the purchasing of items encouraging unfair trade or even slavery in other countries? Pick a question or add a question and we’ll kick it around. Of course, my hope is that we all begin to consider the fullness of what it means to consume, buy, worship, purchase, and enslave while imagining what alternative behavior may be more life sustaining.

Page 1 of 212»