Peace Pilgrim

"This is the way of peace: Overcome evil with good, falsehood with truth, and hatred with love."
Peace Pilgrim? Sounds like what you get when you combine a Zen Buddhist with a hippie. Mildred Norman Ryder is her name, walking more than 25,000 miles across the U.S. to spread a message of inward and outward peace is her game. Maybe I'm not so far off with my intitial perception. A couple weeks ago, I was reading up on her on the web, and ordered a free book from peacepilgrim.com. It is very difficult for me not to order a book when it is free. Anyway, the more I read from it, the more interested I become in learning from someone who "is fully engaged in what they believe is the most important thing in the world." So fully engaged, in fact, that she decided to walk until given shelter and fast until given food. Sounds like a modern day Saint Francis.

The Greatest Danger

"During the first period of a man's life the greatest danger is not to take the risk."
--Soren Kierkegaard

I found myself staring at this quote on a computer screen last night on one of my random quote reading explorations. Sometimes I wonder, have I ever taken any serious risks? What is "the risk" that God is calling me (and you) to right now? Is it more dangerous to take a risk, or not to take one?
Oh Jesus, help us to see You as the greatest Risk-taker of all. And yet, in leaving your indestructable home, You found the greatest safety in doing the simple will of your Father, and living and dying among us. Help us, oh help us, we pray! to walk with You--to step into the uncertainty of life that is truly Life!

The Purposes of this Blog

1. Story-telling
2. Book-commenting
3. Poetry-writing
4. Laugh-producing

Sufjan and the joY of sadness

It's a funny name--Sufjan. This guy, Sufjan Stephens, is a musician who is planning on making an album for every state! So far, he's done Michigan and Illinois, and Illinois is one of the most unique folk-rock albums I've ever heard. He combines brass instruments with banjo/guitar melodies, and a soft, whispery-sounding voice and lyrics that are accented by his background in literature.

I think I like his music so much because he's kind of goofy, or at least unique (one of his songs is called "They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From The Dead!! Ahhhh!"), and yet his songs carry a deep sadness mingled with peace and joy that really makes me feel. And it is good to feel.
In one of his songs, he sings about the slow death of one of his friends through cancer. In the end, as he describes seeing a sort of vision of the face of God, he sings softly, "And he takes, and he takes, and he takes." Would that we could understand how in God's taking away from us, He is also giving something which could not be had any other way.
One of my coworkers, Michael Quilantan, is not going to be able to continue living at the church that I work at, as he has been for the past 6 months. He is supposed to leave with all his stuff in two days, and as yet, he has no place to lay his head (or, for that matter, his heavy DJ sound equipment). And yet, he laughs at Satan. He laughs, because this time--this time, he's not gonna drown out his pain and disappointment through depression, or anger, or girls.

Hope for the Homeless

Well, today I got a call from Kevin, of Hope for the Homeless, and I got accepted to a position in their Resource Center--meeting with homeless people and referring them to an appropriate service provider!

I'm so excited I could eat.

I already ate. Oh well.

Che

Just finished watching Motorcycle Diaries, about the youthful exploits of Che Guavara and his friend as they travelled across the length of South America. I looked him up online, and found this great article on his life from TIME>

Perhaps in these orphaned times of incessantly shifting identities and alliances, the fantasy of an adventurer who changed countries and crossed borders and broke down limits without once betraying his basic loyalties provides the restless youth of our era with an optimal combination, grounding them in a fierce center of moral gravity while simultaneously appealing to their contemporary nomadic impulse. To those who will never follow in his footsteps, submerged as they are in a world of cynicism, self-interest and frantic consumption, nothing could be more vicariously gratifying than Che's disdain for material comfort and everyday desires. One might suggest that it is Che's distance, the apparent impossibility of duplicating his life anymore, that makes him so attractive.

This little paragraph reminds me of myself and my tendency to be highly attracted to great men and women who have made great sacrifices and taken great risks, and yet, here I am, a young man who has borne little sorrow or sacrifice in my 22 years. How hard it is to actually jump!