Forgiveness

Over the past several weeks my wife has been diving in to a deeper understanding of Biblical forgiveness, through scripture, sermons and conversations. Last week I asked her to describe the process she has developed to forgive others whom she has struggled to forgive. As she laid it out step by step over fries and a sandwich at Friendlies, I couldn't help but think, "People need to know this!"

Forgiveness is hard. It's supernatural. But bitterness and unforgiveness are weeds that root into our souls and poisons us from the inside out. I'm a process kind of guy, so this naturally appeals to me. But I think everyone can benefit from examining their relationships, and uprooting bitterness with the healing power of hard forgiveness. And the path the Belinda outlines to do it is a beautiful guide.

A Process of Forgiveness

Fear into Confidence

If you haven't read my wife's recent post titled "Pregnancy," it will be worth your time. God is in the business of using our fears to help us trust him all the more.

"I Feel" -- The Sand Dollars

I highly recommend reading the lyrics to The Sand Dollars new song, "I Feel" at least twice.


Without further commentary, here they are:

Beat thou O heart
Thou heart of mine
Fill ev'ry part
—with life-blood of thine

O my sweet dear
My spirit yearns
O come thou near
I long to learn

—from thee to take
Sustenance clear
Articulate
Refractions of a tear

The movement of rhythm
From my chest to my eyes
Rainbows from a prism
Flow down as I cry

It is the joy and the pain
The hope and the spite

It is the joy and the pain
The hope and the spite

It is the joy and the pain
The hope and the spite
A soft gentle rain
A river flowing at night

The silence of snow
Slipping into a lake
The sunrise rays show:
Words whisp'ring "Awake!"

Awake O my heart
How long wilt thou slumber?
Thou didst beat from the start
But thy beating is numbered

For I beat my body
to make it my slave[1]
Purge these passions not me
A pure person to save

My life-blood to shed
To mingle with Him

My life-blood to shed
To mingle with Him

My life-blood to shed
To mingle with Him
Purify the marriage bed
From the defilement of sin

O my Lord Jesus Christ
Thou alone canst do this
Thou art the breath for the beat and the blink for the blind
to save humankind
empty out all things
self-emptying in love—for the likes of me

But O my heart!
...your stone, hard granite muffles the pulse of my vibrance...
...it obscures the infinity of my personhood...
...and stifles the life-giving creativity of love...
...it contracepts my love / it sterilizes the union / it prevents life
...it prevents life

O my Lord!
O my Lord!
O my Lord!
O my Lord!

All these layers of stone
With Thine own hands peel
—pierce through to my bone
Then mine own heart may say...

All these layers of stone
With Thine own hands peel
—pierce through to my bone
Then mine own heart may say... 

All these layers of stone
With Thine own hands peel
—pierce through to my bone
Then mine own heart may say...

"I feel."

Then I will never be alone.


[1] 1 Corinthians 9:27


Watch the live demo here (beware significant shifts in volume that are characteristic of The Sand Dollars):

Would You Move?

My wonderful wife's most recent blog post--Would You Move With Us?--is a perfect follow-up to my last post.

What difference would it make if 5 Christian families moved to two streets (with a total of 50 houses) and committed to praying together for their neighbors? What would the neighborhood look like 10 years later? Are you willing to consider being one of them?

New to the Blogroll

Two new blogs I'm adding to my list!

1. a spinning mind (R N W). This is a long time coming. Ryan's currently working for Puma in Germany, and his experiences, insights, and cool photographs make the blog worth a follow.
2. Nonsensical Ramblings of Mark (Mark Dudley). Mark is a friend/acquaintance from my church who I've admired from afar for quite some time now. I finally discovered his blog today. His humble insights from everyday life are both challenging and refreshing.

thoughts on homosexuality

My philosophy regarding homosexuality, homosexual marriage, government, abortion, birth control, the family, etc. are in a constant state of flux. Interesting conversation going on over at pseudoblog (Matt Marsh). I really appreciate Matt's ability to penetrate to the heart of issues and arguments.  His post and our exchange in the comments is worth a read, if you're interested in the subject.

Currently Reading

I'm consuming literature and ideas like it's my job these days (and it kind of is... after all, leaders are readers), so it's time for another edition of Currently Reading.

Finished!
The Peloponnesian War
Thucydides
You can learn a lot about human nature from history!

The Republic
Plato

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership
John C. Maxwell
Half way though this with a mentor at a rate of 2 laws/month. Maxwell is "leadership lite," but provides good talking points at the very least

Depression: A Stubborn Darkness
Ed Welch







Finished!
The Abolition of Man
C.S. Lewis
The dangers of a valueless society are expose in this series of lectures by Lewis. Read this book before you send your children to school!


Finished!
The Tipping Point
Malcolm Gladwell
This is an absolutely fascinating look at how ideas catch on, how massive cultural changes can occur over very short periods of time the way diseases become epidemics. I think the chapter on group sizes has very practical implications for churches. Groups cannot maintain cohesion and connectivity beyond 150 people...it's programmed into our brains. Hence the extreme importance of small group communities for churches to grow beyond that barrier (and I'm convinced one of the reasons that campus fellowships very often approach an attendance of 120-150, but rarely grow larger).

The War Against Girls

Jonathan Last's review of Mara Hvistendahl's book "Unnatural Selection" is a must-read. Hvistendahl, despite being very feminist and pro-abortion, may have written the most influential anti-abortion publication of the decade.

Read it here.

"Today in India, the best predictor of violence and crime for any given area is not income but sex ratio."

Introducing....

Hometown in Motown.

This is my new favorite blog!  Tyson gets some deep thoughts in his head, they build up, and suddenly there is a deluge.  Take a gander.

His latest story is one of deep personal pain that has ultimately led him to deeper faith! Praise God!

Beaver Stadium 50% Louder?

This is amazing.  Go science.

Penn State's New Twelfth Man is Science

Raison d'être

Invariably, when I tell people about living in Detroit or about my quickly approaching move to the city of Rochester, NY, people ask me, "Why?"

In fact, after showing us several houses for rent in the specific area of the city that Belinda and I are moving to, the rental agent finally stopped and said, "Can I ask you why you want to live in this area?"  And a very nice discussion ensued.

One of my housemates, Michael, wrote an amazing article answering the question, "Why did I come to Detroit?" It's a beautiful, compelling, scholarly work (and he may try to add a bit more personal flavor in a second edition).

Please read Mike's Raison d'être.

True Liberation

"For this revolution is not, in fact, concerned with liberating us from our poverty and misery, but rather from our wealth and our totally excessive prosperity. It is not a liberation from what we lack, but from our consumerism in which we are ultimately consuming our very selves. It is not a liberation from our state of oppression, but from the untransformed praxis of our own wishes and desires. It is not a liberation from our powerlessness, but from our own form of predominance. It frees us, not from the state of being dominated, but from that of dominating; not from our suffering, but from our apathy; not from our guilt, but from our innocence, or rather from that delusion of innocence which the life of domination has long since spread out in our souls." - Johann Baptist Metz, Christians and Jews After Auschwitz

I don't claim to know much about Metz, nor do I know to what "revolution" he refers.  But is this not the power of the gospel, to free us from self?  I say amen.  Let us be truly liberated.

From "Liberation from Wealth" posted by Boyd on Nonviolent Jesus

New Blog

Belinda and I have started a blog to write a bit about what we're experiencing as we prepare for marriage: Matt and Belinda Get Married.

Belinda actually started writing! (and very well, I might add)

Chilean Quake May Have Shortened Earth Days - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Chilean Quake May Have Shortened Earth Days - NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Posted using ShareThis

Detroit In the News

Teach for America May Return to Detroit!  TFA places college grads who don't have teaching degrees in inner city school districts.  They came to Detroit for two years back in the early 2000s.  The amazing thing is that tfa is designed to serve poor urban schools, and they had to leave Detroit because it was too bad here.  Very few of the teachers lasted.

A Possible End to a Favorite 'Ruin.'  Previously I wrote about exploring the Packard plant, which has been empty for 40+ years.  Now, investors are looking into using the building once more!  Between blowing it up for Transformers 3 and retooling it to manufacture new green energy vehicles, I'd vote for the latter.

Welcome to Palestine!

The Viva Palestina Convoy that I reported about previously was finally allowed into Gaza yesterday.  Though many were arrested and/or wounded in clashes with the Egyptian police, no one was left behind. Many vehicles were not allowed to cross, but all the supplies were unloaded and taken in.

Here's the personal report of an RIT student who is a part of the convoy.

Check out this video of the crossing:

tears

Tears for our sisters and brothers in Egypt.

Is there anything lower than drive-by shootings at a funeral?

Viva Palestina

I just got word that an RIT student is involved in a convoy of relief vehicles that has traveled from London to bring aid (in the form of US$1 million of food, medicine, and school supplies).  The Egyptian government would not allow them to cross the border into Gaza, so they staged a demonstration.  The government responded with force.  Ten members of the convoy have been hospitalized, and their encampment is basically under siege.

It's in the news.

Rochester Activists are gathering at 4:30pm January 6th by the Federal Building to "demand the US government pressure the Egyptian government to let the Viva Palestina humanitarian convoy deliver its aid into the Gaza Strip and release any convoy members currently being detained."

the plants are alive!

Interesting article in the New York Times about plants:  they have senses ("touch, sight, hearing, speech"), and their own versions of immune response systems.

What does this do to the vegetarian or vegan who opposes killing intelligent beings for food or clothing?

1000 anarchists arrested in Copenhagen

I'm not an anarchist, but I've made friends in Detroit who lean that way.  If the global climate summit was in Detroit, I probably would have been arrested too.

Read the story.

Politics are so frustrating.

Today after church Luke, Jon and I joined five others from NuVision (the young adult group at New St. Peter's) to pray on the four corners of our block.  It felt so good to join hands with my brothers and sisters and intercede for our church and our block.  It's exciting to me to see God beginning to put a fire in the hearts of the people in our group to see real change in our community.  And I know that as we continue to pray (now every Sat. morning at 10am) God will shape our wills to his own.  As we pray that God would restore the vacant and broken homes of our neighborhood, how long until God puts in on the hearts of others to move into the very homes they're praying for.  Jesus commanded his disciples to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send laborers.  And in his next sentence he sent them.

I've also been praying for friends from Detroit, people my own age who aren't other suburbanites moving into the city.  And after the meeting yesterday and praying today I think God is answering that prayer through NuVision.