#life

The Upside Down World ~ The Blog

Apr 24, 2014
4 min

All About Pain: The Toughness Fallacy

I don’t know what the weather is like where you are, but it’s cold, rainy and windy here by me so I’ll use that as my excuse for being a Debbie Downer here. Cuz we’re going to talk about pain today. Then again, if you are the sort of person who only wants to read about unicorns making skittles droppings, you probably aren’t reading my blog. So just another day here in The Upside Down World. It seems to me that when Christians talk about pain they talk about it either very exi

Apr 23, 2014
1 min

What We’ve Accomplished

I meant to include a link to this video in my last post, but I forgot it. I did fix that. But the video is something I had been meaning to bring to your attention anyways. It’s a Ted talk by Hans Rosling, a statistician and researcher on international health. The Ted site describes it this way (which barely begins to do it justice): You’ve never seen data presented like this. With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, statistics guru Hans Rosling debunks myths about the so

Apr 22, 2014
1 min

Wounds

Pass It On! Tweet Email More Print Share on Tumblr WhatsApp #life #memes

Apr 19, 2014
1 min

Beautiful and Terrible Things

This seems appropriate for the time when death has just passed and resurrection has yet to happen . . . Pass It On! Tweet Email More Print Share on Tumblr WhatsApp #FrederickBeuchner #life #meme #religiousmeme

Apr 17, 2014
3 min

Waiting on Easter

I was raised Roman Catholic which means that I cannot go through Holy Week without feeling the urge to do something. Go to mass everyday. Attend the stations of the cross. And, of course, Holy Thursday communion (the mass most likely to make you cry every year). Even after I left Catholicism, Holy Week continued to be a time of increased spiritual activity. Get some palm leaves. Hold a fake seder. Do a special devotional. Consider doing footwashing with the kids. Cut back on

Apr 17, 2014
1 min

Security Is a Fairy Tale

Some wise but bracing words from Ms. Keller for Holy Thursday . . . Pass It On! Tweet Email More Print Share on Tumblr WhatsApp #life #meme

Apr 16, 2014
5 min

The Entrance Leads to the Whole

So, know anyone with some really bad theology? Like you hear them talk and all you can hear are the lies, errors and misrepresentations they are spouting and it makes you want to scream? OK, maybe you don’t actually care about theology that much. It’s probably better if you don’t when you get right down to it. But, we all know people who are intensely passionate about their opinions. And hey – if just putting your theology into the category of “opinion” offends you, well, pas

Apr 16, 2014
1 min

Your Wednesday Cure

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Apr 15, 2014
8 min

The Injured Easter Bird

Once upon a time, there was a farmer who decided not to go to church on Easter Morning. He’d been going his whole life, but a few years earlier he had decided that he was old enough to stop pretending that what went on in church was important enough to get up early for on his only day off. This year his wife had harrumphed when he announced that he wasn’t even going to keep up the bare minimum of appearances required to be a Chreaster (a person who attends church only on Chri

Apr 15, 2014
1 min

Late Fragment

I just love this poem. BTW, I wrote about this poem here, if you’re interested. And sorry about the silence around here. Our internet company has this ridiculous, oppressive policy of expecting their bill to be paid on time every month. Which normally we manage. But it’s been a long, crazy couple of weeks. If you’ve been following along for a while, you are already aware of the fact that this sort of thing happens from time to time. Like the one time I got 5 flat tires in a m

Apr 11, 2014
3 min

Becoming People of the Story

Christian theology, while it’s often thought of as an argument over who’s right and who is wrong, can actually be understood as the stories we use to explain the reality of God, the reality of human existence and how to live in right relationship with God, neighbor and self. Using the bible and varying doses of church tradition and reality, we’ve written thousands of different stories, each purporting to be THE Christian story. Except the idea that any of us has found THE Chr

Apr 9, 2014
2 min

So Much For Soft Hearted and Squishy Headed

There’s a popular stereotype which says that people who worry about the homeless, racism, poverty and other social ills have soft hearts and squishy heads. Those who do not share their concerns will often accuse them of abandoning logic for emotionalism. Because emotions are for silly women, queers and other people not to be taken seriously, of course. However, my friend Sonya (hi, Sonya!) recently passed on a study which shows that, scientifically speaking, this stereotype i

Apr 7, 2014
1 min

Not So Red of Tooth and Claw

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve long wondered what it says about God that we live in a world of predator and prey. Sometimes it helps to be reminded that even in this world of predator and prey God’s more gentle, compassionate nature can be observed as well: A brave baboon attempted to make a run for it. Unfortunately, a lioness caught it. As the baboon died, the photographers noticed a baby baboon slowly disengaging itself from its underside. They held their breath as the in

Apr 7, 2014
4 min

Forgiving Is Hard, Not Impossible

One of my many idiosyncratic beliefs is that Africa has a special role to play in God’s upside down kingdom. For so long, Africa has been last which according to Jesus’ words, means that the day is coming when they will be first. I suspect that we will be looking to them in order to understand God’s kingdom rather than assuming that it is our job as westerners to hand out the kingdom like a goody bag to the rest of the world. I bring this up because, as you might know, it is

Apr 6, 2014
5 min

Overcoming the Fall

At the fall, Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened to what they looked like from the perspective of someone who didn’t like them very much. Prior to the fall, they were defined by God who thought they were as cute as toddlers in a bath tub. After the fall, they realized that this wasn’t the only possible way of being seen. God looked at them through the eyes of a loving, doting father. But his is not the only perspective in the universe. We also have an enemy whose entire reason fo

Apr 2, 2014
3 min

The Genuis and Challenge of Christianity

The genius of Christianity is that it demands you give mental agreement to all sorts of things you don’t actually agree with. Love your enemies. Every man is your neighbor. You’ll be judged by how well you showed love to the least attractive, least moral, least appealing, most repulsive people you meet. Don’t judge. All those beatitudes about the meek and the suffering and the pure of heart. We don’t believe any of that stuff. We say we do, but we don’t really. Yet if we want

Apr 1, 2014
1 min

Never Waste Your Time . . .

Oh, the hours of my life I wish I could get back! Pass It On! Tweet Email More Print Share on Tumblr WhatsApp #life #memes #relationships #selfacceptance

Mar 31, 2014
1 min

When You Can’t Agree

It is one thing to oppose what you think is messed up; it’s a whole other thing to be and live the alternative. ~ Jim Palmer At some point, you have made your best case and your opponent has made their best case. You still disagree and are certain your opponent fundamentally misunderstands reality. Any further discussion will quickly devolve into “unuh”, “uhhuh” levels of discourse. Repeating the same set of arguments over and over is a good sign that you’ve entered into this

Mar 31, 2014
1 min

It’s OK To Say . . .

It’s OK to say to God, “I don’t know how to do what you’re asking me to do. I don’t know how to be loving or kind or patient or forgiving. I don’t know how to want to do any of those things!” Christians who can’t admit this inability to perform the basic requirements of Christianity are like toddlers who won’t admit they need help carrying the milk into the house. And the results can be just as messy. Pass It On! Tweet Email More Print Share on Tumblr WhatsApp #prayer #chris

Mar 30, 2014
4 min

What Not Judging Is and Is Not

I wrote last week about not judging as a form of spiritual discipline. It occurs to me that part of our problem with not judging is that there’s a great deal of confusion regarding what is meant by not judging. So I thought I’d share a couple of thoughts regarding my understanding of it. Primarily, not judging means being open to correction. My parents used to always say to me, “you think you’re always right”. Which was true. If I thought I was wrong, I would change my mind.