Would you hike this?

El Caminito del Rey. I believe that is translated as "The Crazy Way." Just kidding - it's actually translated "The King's little pathway." At any rate, this is a pretty amazing video. This has really nothing to do at all with the Camino that ends in Santiago. Except perhaps that they both are in Spain, and share the word 'Camino.'

If you want to learn more you can here at Wikipedia.

So it's been 4 months...

Ok - great way to keep readers coming right? Blog once every 4 months. We had a busy summer, highlighted by a successful 10 week visit to the states. It's not that I don't have stuff to blog about. It's just I havn't been taking the time to do so.

Like for instance, I could blog about how today is the 8 year anniversary of 9/11. I could review my memories of the day and try to come up with a serious, solemn, appropriate, and thoughtful comment about it. But I think that's both beyond me today, and being done in far better ways by people far more talented than I am.

I did drop the all-important recommendation below for Owl City today.

At any rate, it's my intention to be a more proactive blogger. I'm in a couple of good books that should give more fodder.

Stay tuned!

Buy this album

C'mon. You won't regret it!

Just go on out to iTunes and click buy. This is one of my favorite finds of the last several years. I havn't enjoyed a discovery like this since Hem, or maybe Sufjan.

Simply put, this is happy music. It's joyful. It's playful. It puts you in a good mood, and makes you want to dance like a 3 year old.

You can watch a video here (for some reason, Youtube removed the embed option).

I discovered Owl City (just one guy from MN, actually - some city) via iTunes song of the week - by far the best lead iTunes has ever given me.

Would Jesus make a good lifeguard?

About a month ago I was musing about things Jesus says that don't sound like he would say them.

In general, I've been rediscovering how hard, challenging, confusing, and seemingly random Jesus can be.  Because of this I've started to read Robert Farrar Capon's book Kingdom, Grace, Judgment:  Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus.  I'm only a few chapters in, but it is promising to be a really good and thought provoking book. 

He had this to say about the Jesus presented in the Bible: 

The New Testament proclaims an unlikely Savior.  The work of Jesus in his incarnation, life, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension makes no worldly sense at all.  The portrait the Gospels paint is that of a lifeguard who leaps into the surf, swims to the drowning girl, and then, instead of doing a cross-chest carry, drowns with her, revives three days later, and walks off the beach with assurances that everything including the apparently still-dead girl, is hunky-dory. 

What a great way to explain how upside-down God's plan seems to us.

Jon Troast redefines the "Intimate Show."

Our friend Jon Troast (he's almost family - I think we need to coin a term for 'my cousin's brother-in-law) is doing something that is adventurous, enterprising, and just plain cool.  

See, Jon is a musician who does most of his concerts in living rooms.  For $100 dollars you can have Jon give a one hour concert in your living room and invite some of your friends (or people you'd like to become your friends!).  That in and of itself is pretty cool.  But right now, he's doing 100 concerts in 100 days as he drives around the country.  You can get a sample of how it might look by watching this bit from youtube:

I've found 6 of these 8-or-so minute montages of his tour on youtube.  You can also check out his website here, or his myspace page...

My parents and sister hosted Jon for a concert last year, and they enjoyed it.  We couldn't make it for obvious reasons.  My personal two cents is that this is a really fantastic experience, and a great way for folks to come together and enjoy the magic of music and community together.  I wish him the best of luck.  If you are looking for something unique to do with your friends, check him out.  You can contact him through his site above.  I'm not aware that he has any plans for a European tour, but if he does, he'd have a stop in La Coruña.  

Oh yeah, his music's pretty good too :-)  You can sample it as he's giving away a free download every week on his site.  If you are interested you can find his 5 albums on iTunes, among other retailers.  

Pilgrim Life

A friend sent me a link to a blog that contained this video.  In addition to watching the video, read the blog for a different take (two friends hiked: one made the video, the other wrote the blog).  It's a nice concise description of the camino experience.

I have only walked 6 days myself - but watching and reading this certainly excites me to walk the whole thing someday (I just made the observation to Faith that it will likely not be until we're into our late 40's or 50's before we'll get to hike the whole thing together).  

While it is a nice window into the pilgrim experience, I hope that you find it a reminder that it is not necessary to walk the camino to live life as a pilgrim.  Life is a journey - slow down and enjoy it.

Inspired Biking

Color me impressed!

Magical Exhibition

Wednesday nite Faith and I had the privilege of attending the inaugural night of a friend's art exhibit. Our friend from church, Luis Guillermo Guerra Aguilera (Lucho for short), is a talented watercolor painter. Originally from Chile, he has been living in Galicia for a number of years, painting primarily in and around one of our favorite spots - Finisterre (Fisterra in Gallego - translated 'end of the earth'). The event was held in a very fancy social club in Coruña. We enjoyed the chance to get dressed up and go out without the kids. The night consisted of a short but mesmerizing concert by a accordion player. We then heard several people speak, including a friend who helped him coordinate the event, one of the club members who knows Lucho and helped organize the event with the club, a short blessing from the pastor of our church, Roberto, and then some words from the artist himself. After that we had about an hour to mix, nibble on some appetizers, drink a little champagne, and most rewardingly, take in some 40 or more of Lucho's paintings. We've known him for most of our time here, and seen just a few small samples of his work. It was a blessing to see his talent on display. I also really enjoyed hearing him as the artist give praise to the Lord. It was a fun and refreshing night.

If you read Spanish, you can read a short interview with him in a local paper.

We did take a handful of pictures as well. If you click on the slideshow below, you can view them in larger formats on the picasa website, as well as see my comments.

That doesn't sound like Jesus...

"In the middle of the last century the British writer C.S. Lewis got it shockingly right:

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with a man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left this open to us. He did not intend to.

In other words, Jesus will not be domesticated. But people still try. There seems to be something about this man for everybody. So we pick and choose in a way that shows he is on our side. All over the world, having Jesus on your side is a good thing. But not the original, undomesticated, unadjusted Jesus. Just the revised Jesus that fits our religion or political platform or lifestyle."

This quote is from John Piper's book Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ. It caught my attention as I had been thinking and experiencing this theme recently as I read through Mark. After thousands of years of Christians reading the gospels collectively, and for the countless times I've read or heard the gospel stories over my own life, Jesus still remains surprising and catches us (and me) off guard. Have you ever read something in the gospels and thought, "That doesn't sound like something Jesus would say."? When that happens, it's an indication of how we are relating to Jesus. Too often I've been in the boat of trying to fit Jesus into my worldview rather than trying to adjust my worldview to Jesus. May Jesus continue to surprise us all.

Everything is possible

I love it when I encounter something in the Bible I havn't recognized or considered before.  I was reading in Mark chapter 9 today when I was really struck by a voice that just resonated as familiar to me.  

Setting the stage a little, Jesus was returning from the Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John to discover the other disciples in the midst of a crowd arguing with the teachers of the law.  (Side note: we are told that "as soon as" the crowd recognized Jesus they were "overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him."  Nobody seems to ignite a response like Jesus.)  At the center of it all was a father who brought his demon possessed boy and asked the disciples to throw it out.  They couldn't, and this verbal melee ensued, attracting the attention of a growing crowd.  You can almost hear Jesus sigh and roll his eyes as he says "Oh unbelieving generation, how long shall I stay with you?  How long shall I put up with you?"  It struck me today how publicly he expressed his frustration with the disciples.  He sounds like an exasperated parent or teacher.  In my imagination this is directed mostly at the disciples, but it certainly could have applied to the entire crowd.  

Jesus asks for the boy and learns from the father that since childhood the demon has been throwing the boy to the ground with convulsions, gnashing of teeth, foaming at the mouth, and he becomes rigid.  What is more, the father says the demon frequently throws the boy into fire and water trying to kill him.  Can you imagine how tired and frustrated the father must have felt in the situation?  He must have felt exhausted, helpless, and hopeless.  Perhaps not completely hopeless, for he had come to the disciples looking for some relief.  But even that resulted in yet another disappointment when they could not do anything for his son, and instead, an argument broke out with the teachers of the law.  

This is the situation that Jesus walks into, and the father says to Jesus, "If you can do anything, take pity on us, and help us."  I find it interesting that in his exasperation, the request is not only to heal the son, but to help "us."  Because the suffering is not the son's alone.  Jesus' response is one that I think I would often expect from the one who created the universe, but I don't feel like we often see in Jesus.  He repeats back to the father what he had said, "If you can?"  In our culture you expect that to be spoken with incredulousness, or perhaps some mocking.  If you can??  Ha!  You don't believe I can??  I won't pretend to know what was going through Jesus' mind.  But I know that I am tempted to respond with some self-righteous defensive lecture when my ability is questioned.  But whatever prompted Jesus to repeat that phrase, he continues simply saying "everything is possible for him who believes."  

It's the father's response that sounded so familiar and hit so close to home.  His response is immediate and instantaneous, as well as desperate, eager, and contradictory.  "I do believe; help me with my unbelief!"  He does believe, he desires to believe, he so badly needs to believe.  But he needs help to get there too.  I'm pretty sure this is where so many of us often find ourselves.  In places of need, with hope and fear, faith and doubt, wanting help, and needing Jesus to show up and help us to even make healing possible.  

 I know for me it is easy at times to feel small and helpless, overwhelmed either by circumstances, or a task before me.  I know in my head God is able to do all, and be all we need.  But that knowledge is always within a context of hope and fear, and faith and doubt.  Like the father, I somehow can both believe and yet need help to get over my unbelief.  

It's interesting that the bible never follows up to share with us how the father responded to Jesus casting out the demon (if you didn't suspect this ended with Jesus casting out the demon, you can rest easy now).  That omission allowed me to take some time and reflect on my own response to Jesus bridging the gap between the two of us to act in my own life. 

Thank you Jesus that your love, faith, and power are all greater than my own shortcomings.  Continue to grow my faith to help me overcome my unbelief and strengthen my belief.  Thank you for caring.  Thank you for being involved.  All I could ever hope to become is totally dependent on you.