Trying to follow

My wife and I have been hanging around these folks from the Mosaic Community on Sundays since we’ve been in Nashville. Mostly, we’ve just been chillin’ with some cool people and talking about things that interest us (and listen to others talk about things too). Oh, and Mindy sings a bit.

A little bit ago they did a series of talks about “Threads.” This is how they introduced it:

threads: the values from the ancient scriptures that are at the core of God’s story and at the core of who Mosaic desires to be as a community of Jesus followers.
these are the essentials that are woven into all we are and all we are becoming ? both as individuals and as a whole. They shape us as followers of Jesus, defining our role in the movement of God. This is who we are. These are non-negotiables that we hold to, that we strive for. They become the rhythms that we live by.
Mission. Love. Design. Relevance. Surrender.

I found the piece of paper that listed out the different threads and gave some verses concerning each thread. I figure I’d try and take one each day this week and just sort of think outloud about each of them. So, you’ve got the intro, now enjoy the individual posts…

I was trying to think of a creative way to get a bunch of people to wish my bro a happy birthday. Here are a few ideas:

Email him: keanefine at gmail dot com

Call him: ask me for the number

Draw him a picture: (Be sure to put “for Keane”)

Or just post a comment here. Whatever you do, please wish my brother a very happy Birthday!

Do you ever go through a day and look back at the end of it and wish you had done things differently? And not even so much wish you had done things differently, but wished you had reacted and lived more like you desire to then you actually did?

It’s tough to recognize that we are not static creatures. Too often I think we treat our own lives and the individual days that make up our lives as isolated incidents, within which we are simply who we are. Much like the frog in a pot of water, we are content to simply sit in our environment, oblivious to the water boiling us to our death.

You see, when I eat a piece of chocolate today I do not see it immediately adding pounds of fat to my waistline, slowing my biking speed or causing the onset of cancer. Yet years of those isolated days with pieces of chocolate, extra slices of pizza and ice cream sundaes will result in thirty pounds I never wanted to gain.

It’s the same with nearly all our actions. If today I responded in anger, or unlovingly, to someone I might simply write it off as justified, or just who I am. If I do not seek to be aware that this is not who I want to be, and make an effort to change it, I will wind up twenty years later with fewer friends and much more grouchy then I ever desired to become.

Today is not an isolated event. The choices I make today, the small actions I allow myself will carry into tomorrow. If I desire to be a healthier person, those choices start today. If I am to be a hard worker, I must be a hard worker today. I am not the person I want to become, but if I am diligent I can focus my actions today towards becoming that person.

If you haven’t heard of that naughty school called The School of The Americas at Fort Benning, GA, you should. SOA has trained and graduated some of the finest Military Dictators and Human Rights abusers this hemisphere has ever seen.
There is plenty information available to learn more at the links provided, but after you learn about the atrocities that SOA is responsible for it’s time for you and I to do something. That opportunity is provided below.

From School of the Americas Watch:

NEXT WEEK, the week of June 5, Congress will vote on an amendment to close
the SOA/ WHINSEC. Rep. McGovern (MA) will introduce an amendment to the
Foreign Operations appropriations bill to cut funding for the SOA/ WHINSEC!

WE EXPECT A CLOSE VOTE and need as many people as possible flooding the
offices of the House of Representatives with calls in support of a YES vote
on the amendment. THIS IS IT! And it’s the people power of our movement that
will get this amendment passed! Visit the Legislative Action Index for more
information: http://www.soaw.org/legislative.

============================================================
–> NATIONAL CALL-IN DAYS TO CLOSE THE SOA/WHINSEC <–

TUESDAY, June 6 and WEDNESDAY, June 7:
Call Congress at 202-224-3121 or toll free at 888-355-3588.
============================================================

Please take the time to call the DC office of your Representative through
the Capitol Hill Switchboard at 202-224-3121 or toll free at 1-888-355-3588.
Ask to speak with the foreign affairs legislative assistant. Here is a
suggested message for you to convey:

“I am calling Congressman/woman ________ to urge him/her to vote YES on the
McGovern amendment to the Foreign Operations Appropriations bill. This
amendment is a cut in funding for the School of the Americas/ WHINSEC. New
information indicates that WHINSEC has allowed known human rights abusers to
instruct and receive training at the school. Argentina and Uruguay are two
more countries that have made public announcements they will no longer send
students to the school, citing the negative image and history of this
institution. Voting YES on this amendment sends a positive human rights
message to Latin America and will help to improve the U.S. image abroad. As
an elected official in Washington D.C., I hope you will represent me and
vote YES on any amendment in the House that would cut funding for the
school.”

SEND AN EMAIL AND FAX TO YOUR REPRESENTATIVE:
http://www.soaw.org/legislative. (Be sure to click the „Send a Fax‰ box to
have the fax sent).

ARE YOU IN or NEAR WASHINGTON, DC? On Tuesday, June 6 and Wednesday, June 7,
we will be delivering material to Members of Congress and knocking on their
doors, asking them to join our movement and vote to close the SOA. Please
join us! If you can be with us for some or all of the day on Tuesday or
Wednesday, please email Eric at elecompte@soaw.org.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, visit the SOA Watch website at http://www.soaw.org and
the Legislative Action Index at http://www.soaw.org/legislative

I think we see babies too much and we tend to take them for granted. Next time you see a baby just take a moment to think about that little baby. There is something incredible about babies.
In our intellectual world we tend to look at babies as cute, but certainly not someone who understands. A few years ago I read this book called Wishful Thinking by Frederick Buechner and was touched by his thoughts on infant baptism. Basically, he said that we shouldn’t neglect the fact that a little baby might have a far more intimate relationship with God then any adult with all their intellectual understanding.

Babies are cute and beautiful, but they are much more then that.