Social Justice.

"Social justice isn't about money, it's about bringing people to the realization that they're valuable." ~ Lindsey A. France

Damn I love this girl.

Lindsey was talking about how poverty isn't just about money, but that there's poverty of spirit. This is the true plague. The suburbs are just as screwed up as the ghettos. I'd even venture to say that it's more screwed up in the 'burbs because there are so many ways to cover it up. Families fall apart, kids are doing/selling drugs, people hate each other, cops act unjustly, people use their money in lame ways. We just don't see it because of the wide yards and the large fences surrounding them.

This is sort of a piggy-back off of my previous post. Presidents and governments cannot legislate love. They cannot pass laws that make people care genuinely for other people. Sometimes a law may be passed that makes it slightly less difficult to hate others, but our nature takes over. I honestly believe that the root of the issues is our own selfishness, and if we can seek Jesus to cure us of that, things will not get worse. Jesus said that a good tree does not bear bad fruit, and that a bad tree does not bear good fruit. If we are seeking him above all things, everything else will fall into place. There will be good fruit.

We don't need Barack Obama. We don't need his change. We need real change. We need Jesus.

Jesus Christ, son of God. Have mercy on me, a sinner.

Giving to Caesar.

I registered to vote today. Actually, I just changed my address so I can vote in Philly. The guy asked me what I thought of Obama. I told him I think he's the lesser of two evils and then he gave me this "why Obama is awesome and so much more than the lesser of two evils" spiel. I should've just said that he's the guy or something and not talked about it.

Good frames won't save bad paintings. You can't drive a totaled car. Bad trees don't bear good fruit.

NHL Divisional Predictions.

This is sort of arbitrary, but it's what I'm feeling right now and it's fun. The season kicks off Saturday.

Western Conference:

Pacific Division:

1. Dallas Stars

2. San Jose Sharks

3. Anaheim Ducks

4. Phoenix Coyotes

5. Los Angeles Kings

Northwest Division:

1. Minnesota Wild

2. Calgary Flames

3. Vancouver Canucks

4. Colorado Avalanche

5. Edmonton Oilers

Central Division:

1. Detroit Red Wings

2. Chicago Blackhawks

3. Nashville Predators

4. Columbus Blue Jackets

5. St. Louis Blues

Eastern Conference:

Southeast Division:

1. Washington Capitals

2. Tampa Bay Lightning

3. Atlanta Thrashers

4. Carolina Hurricanes

5. Florida Panthers

Northeast Division:

1. Montreal Canadiens

2. Ottawa Senators

3. Buffalo Sabres

4. Boston Bruins

5. Toronto Maple Leafs

Atlantic Division:

1. Pittsburgh Penguins

2. Philadelphia Flyers

3. New York Rangers

4. New Jersey Devils

5. New York Islanders

New Neighbor.

Leroy Barber, the president of Mission Year, has a book coming out in the next few weeks called New Neighbor. You should read it as I consider Leroy both a mentor and friend. Many of the stories are from Mission Year team members from last year, and both myself and my teammate Joe have an article in the book. The links are to the posts on our M.Y. blogs that are in the book. I'm pretty excited about it.

Job. Learning. Philly Weekly.

Today I got the job at Qdoba working as a bike delivery guy. I'll be balancing it with working at the thrift store, but I'm pretty psyched about it. My job will be to take, make, and deliver the orders. Should be fun.

One of the things that's haunting me in post Mission Year life is wanting to fix things that I can't. For example, this lady yelled at me on my bike today for something that I was not wrong in doing and all I can do is dissect why she would do that and how I wasn't in the wrong. I know it's not actually a big deal, but choosing one's battles is really freaking hard.

I'm praying that God gives the ability to react more quickly and peacefully in those situations.

On a completely unrelated note; check out this sweet article in Philadelphia Weekly about mewithoutYou and their church network. They go to Circle of Hope, and Joshua Grace (the pastor) is mentioned in it. It's solid stuff.

Montreal Canadiens 100th Anniversary Dollars.

The Montreal Canadiens are having coins minted to celebrate their 100th anniversary.

This is so awesome. You think the Yankees could get a Yankee Stadium coin? I don't know.

A Day Off.

So starting last Monday I worked 8 of 9 days. I know this doesn't sound like a big deal, but with it came starting the job (including opening by myself the first day), working all week and getting into the swing of it, trying to balance things like when I would eat with getting sleep, and spending time with my girlfriend (still an understatement) Lindsey as she came up from Virginia last weekend. There hasn't been time to stop and think about what's going on in my life in the bigger scheme of things. That might be good, because things are pretty rocky right now.

Today I had no plans. None. No work. Nothing. I woke up and read for a while. I'm reading The Politics of Jesus by John Howard Yoder and The Magician's Nephew by Clive. I read Clive's book because as I said, it's my day off and I wanted something light like a purely fictional story. It went nicely.

I got up and took my time finding my way to making breakfast and then took a shower before going to meet my dad for lunch. He's working in North Philly about 10 minutes from my house. I got back, read stuff about hockey and rode to Center City (a Philadelphian term for "downtown") and applied for a job as a bike delivery boy/guy/human at Qdoba. It looks decent enough and I'll get to ride my bike. I had a really good ride back and forth from Center City.

I was thinking about how we can share the love of Jesus with people doing the simplest things. I had cut a pedestrian off while working my way through a light and instead of criticizing him for not paying attention (the Philadelphian thing to do, always blame the other person), I looked him in the eye and said "Oops. Sorry man." He looked at me as if we knew each other and said "Don't worry about it." In those situations, the tendency of people is to stare at you like you're the worst slime to ever ooze out of a grimy crack in the sidewalk on earth. Proverbs 15:1 says "a gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." The point is that expressions of Christ's love are not/don't have to be these huge Times-Square-New-Year's-Eve events. They're very subtle, humanizing, everyday things. 

Small tasks done with great love.

Cell and Missionaries.

Missionary: A member of a religion who works to convert those who do not share the missionary's faith; someone who proselytizes. ~ wikipedia

Tonight at cell we talked about missionaries. It's a scary word because of the "we know what's best for you" attitude that has made Christians notorious over the centuries.

I remember when I got my acceptance letter for Mission Year I showed it to my dad. His response was "you're going to be a missionary!" I quickly told him that I in no way wanted to be associated with the word. The word missionary is frightening to me because it brings up images of going to "God-forsaken" places and "enlightening" people as to the wonders and superiority of western culture with little to no regard for the culture that's been lived out for who knows how long.

Being a missionary shouldn't be something noteworthy that only certain Christians are called to. It's a way of life that comes with following Jesus. The inside-the-box thinking of what a missionary is needs to stop. Spreading the love of Jesus is a day-to-day, week-to-week, year-to-year, life-life, beginning-to-end thing. The word "missionary" shouldn't need to exist. It only exists because we fail to live out Jesus' call on our lives everyday.

Don't tell someone why they need to be like you. Show someone you care about them. That's what Jesus did. And we're supposed to be like him.

Animal Farm.

So last week I read Animal Farm by George Orwell. It was disturbing. I kept shaking my head going "no, No, NO, NO!" as it got more intense and the lies of the pigs became more blatant.

I loved it.

It said/says a lot about power and what those who are hungry for it are capable of doing. That's what makes a book like this so troubling, everyone's capable of turning into a power-hungry monster that can't get enough. We can start out with the best intentions. But if we don't watch ourselves and have a network of people who we trust to keep us in check, we'll ruin something beautiful and drag others down with us.

Selfishness. That's what it's about. When one puts the self ahead of others, one can destroy the best and most indestructible of ideas and relationships. It's the most slippery of slopes. And the worst part is that the whole time we're destroying something, we can convince ourselves (and maybe others) that we're completely right. By the time you realize you're a monster and you've become what you set out against, it's too late.

Just ask Old Major. And Jesus.

Richie.

It's official. My current favorite NHL player is the Flyers new captain. This is great new. Mike Richards is the best example of what a hockey player should be. He does so many things right.

Sweet action.

Sports!

So when I landed in Philly at 12:20 this morning, I got a text from the legendary John Kopp informing me that the Phillies had swept the Milwaukee Brewers. They're now tied for the wild card lead and only 1 behind the Mets for the division lead. It was wonderful news to get right after landing.

The Flyers are having rookie camp this week. Training camp will start very soon after. I cannot wait for the season to start.

Adult?

I'm pretty astounded by how selfish people can be. I've often seen people try to solve problems by making a scene so the "ones we love" will pay attention to them. But that's not loving. It's purely selfish and will not solve anything. It makes it worse and causes a lot of stress and pain for everyone involved.

Adults should have the conflict resolution skills to reflect their age. Please try to see things from someone else's point of view.

Phoenix.

Well, I'm sitting here in a room at the Holiday Inn Express in Goodyear, Arizona just outside Phoenix. We drove about 2,500 miles in 4 days. Driving through DC to Virginia was slowed by hurricane Hannah on Saturday and we briefly thought that we wouldn't make it to AZ on time (we actually made it early). There was a wonderful stop in Staunton, VA to have dinner and spend about an hour with Lindsey (she's my favorite).

Yesterday we drove through Petrified Forest National Park and saw the Painted Desert. On Monday we had our most efficient day, waking up in Little Rock, Arkansas and making our way through Oklahoma (saw Emily King in OK City), the Texas panhandle, and stopping in New Mexico.

Hopefully there will be more on the finer points of it later.

Road Trip!

So this morning it was decided that I will accompany my mother on her trip as she moves to Goodyear, AZ outside of Phoenix. I'll have an opportunity to go through a few states that I haven't been to/haven't spent a lot of time in such as Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. I'm pretty stoked. I think it will be quite the ride. I enjoy road trips. I enjoy time with the madre. Combine the two and it's a recipe for good times.

What if Jesus Meant it?

Last night I had a chance to catch up with an old friend back in Doylestown. She also just got back from a rather intense missions deal. We had a great talk about living as Jesus calls us and what that looks like, and coming back to "real" life and feeling totally out of the loop with how to relate to people.

The question that I'm going to be chewing on for the rest of my life is "what does my life look like if Jesus meant what he said and did?" I think this is the question that a Christian needs to be asking. I guess it's pretty terrifying, because if he did mean it all a Christian's life will be turned upside down. You hear all kinds of sermons about "being like Jesus" or "submitting to God's will for your life" and other cute phrases, but they are the farthest thing from cute. To love your neighbor as yourself is ridiculous in today's world. To put others ahead of yourself is (at this point) un-American.

People build their lives around their job. I'm starting to get involved with a church where people build their lives around the church and their church family (circleofhope.net). It's a beautiful thing.

Peace.

Mats Sundin Soap Opera.

I'm really tired of pro athletes having all this time to retire and unretire and take weeks and months to make these decisions.

First it was Brett Favre. Then it was Michael Strahan. Now it's Mats Sundin in the NHL. He won't make a decision about returning this season by the start of the season. Ridiculous. He's going to pull some Peter Forsberg/Teemu Selanne garbage where he takes forever to decide. He'll see who's got a shot to win the Cup and try to get on board with them.

I can hear folks asking "but what about Michael Jordan and/or Mario Lemiuex? They each retired and came back more than once." True. But Michael Jordan's the best ever and Mario's in the top 3 ever. And even then I think they too were stupid for going in-and-out and off-and-on about whether or not they'd play. (For the record, Mario was still awesome until he retired for good in the middle of the 05-06 season. MJ had fizzled out when he played with the Wizards.)

Mats Sundin is a solid player. (Hes the all-time leading scorer for the Maple Leafs. No small feat.) But the NHL should have him make a decision before the season starts so teams can focus on havin teams with the players they DO have and run with it.

Peace.