What is your image of heaven?

Do you envision fluffy clouds and harps? Green meadows and mountains? Do you think of reuniting with loved ones? Theologian NT Wright was interviewed by TIME magazine about heaven. He explores what he sees are common misconceptions that many christians have about heaven. It is an interesting and fairly short read.

Mother Nature reminds us of her destructive power

The big news this week in La Coruña was a shockingly big wave that came ashore during a storm on Monday. It destroyed a part of the pedestrian walkway that is above a rather large beach, and flooded out the busy road that runs along the beach and some of the businesses. It is a place that we often have visited and I would have never thought it was possible. Some of the youtube videos are calling it a 10 or 20 meter wave. That is a big difference, but that probably puts the wave somewhere between 30 - 60 feet high. I'm not very good with gauging that kind of thing, but I do know it would take a huge wave to do this. Thankfully, there were no fatalities that I have heard of. But some were injured. It broke a solid cement fence and some rather large cement benches as well.

Here is a link to a short video of a Spanish news report about the wave.

10 Millones

In November US News and World Report published this article about Santiago de Compostela, and El Camino de Santiago. It is a nice, short, and informative read about the phenomena of the pilgrimage to Santiago.

One part of the article says this:

"A lot of people set out not being really sure what they are looking for," says Laurie Dennett, a former chairman of the London-based Confraternity of Saint James, which promotes knowledge of the Camino. Dennett says that, like many others, she didn't embark on her first pilgrimage 21 years ago as a religious undertaking.

I like this quote because it brings light to the fact that many travelers, backpackers, and pilgrims are looking for something. Many of these people recognize the reality that there is something missing in their lives that is worth searching for. And many don't know what they are looking for. It often reminds me of when Paul visited the Areopagus in Acts - he recognized that some in Athens were searching for something more than the numerous gods they worshiped. He used it as an opportunity to share the answer he had found in Christ. There is a tremendous opportunity in Galicia to reach out and help these pilgrims in their search for something more.

It also says that "some 10 million visitors are expected in Santiago for the 2010 Holy Year." That's a lot of visitors for a city with around 100,000 residents.

Faith and I took this picture in 2005 of the cathedral overlooking the rooftops in Santiago.

The picture at the top of this post was lifted from the linked article.

I Live Here

Today I am in awe of the beauty of this place. Brennan and I visited a park on top of a local mountain overlooking the city and the ocean. It was an absolutely perfect clear and sunny day that highlighted the beauty of creation, and by extension, of the creator. Somewhere inside this midwesterner, there is a voice that regularly states in disbelief, "I can't believe I live here... I can't believe I live HERE!!"

Note Brennan in the foreground moving lickety-split to the park. There might not be a playground on earth with a better view.

I have no words

Seriously.... I live here.

And I love it.

Stuff White People Like

There is something about satire done well that is just so... funny.

I ran across this blog entitled Stuff White People Like, and it had me snickering. Here is a short snippet from #11: Asian Girls.

"95% of white males have at one point in their lives, experienced yellow fever. Many factors have contributed to this phenomenon such as guilt from head taxes, internment camps, dropping the Nuclear bomb and the Viet Nam War . This exchange works both ways as asian girls have a tendency to go for white guys. (White girls never go for asian guys. Bruce Lee and Paul Kariya’s dad are the only recorded instances in modern history). Asian girls often to do this to get back at their strict traditional fathers. There is also the option of dating black guys, but they know deep down that this would give their non-english speaking grandmother(s) a heart attack."

Faith and I found that particular 'thing' (they have 81 and counting so far) pretty amusing. Of the posts I've read so far, my personal favorites are: Graduate School, Multilingual Children, Study Abroad, and Standing Still at Concerts.

It's good to not take yourself (or others) too seriously.

Tearful

This video brought me to tears. Enjoy.

Crabb-y

As part of my ongoing training with International Teams I recently finished reading Inside Out by Larry Crabb. I tried to write my own two sentence description of the book but was not satisfied with the results. None of the synopsis I found online seemed sufficient to me either. In a few words, he writes about how to achieve real and lasting change by addressing the pain in our life, and the sin our pain leads us to.

For those of you that know me, I am not naturally an introspective person, or one who dwells on pain for very long. So this book was a challenge for me to go through for many reasons. In fact, if it wasn't an 'assignment' it's hard to imagine I would have stuck with it. However, that does not mean it was a waste of time. It was a valuable read, and challenged me to think in ways I normally wouldn't. I encountered a number of things along the way that I thought would be worth sharing or repeating here on the blog.

Rather than write a snazzy two-sentence synopsis of the book, I thought I'd highlight three of the significant ideas I am walking away with from this book.

"We have not taken the truth that our heart is deceitful seriously enough."
Larry clearly has had enough of shallow Christianity, and of Christians who pretend that everything is fantastic, and that becoming a christian fixes everything in this world. He spends a lot of time exploring the pain in life, and encouraging the reader to face the pain in our lives. At times it seemed like he was essentially saying you either have issues and deep pain in your life, or you are in denial. That mindset frustrated me at points. But the book did help me see that there are ways in my life that I seek to protect myself from further pain that are in fact relational sin - meaning that in relationships I put my need for further protection from pain above Jesus' imperative to love God, and to Love others. And for me, part of the journey of this book was to face up to the fact that my heart is deceitful in that I can explain away this deep sin of the heart and live like things are just fine. This was not the first time this year I've considered these words in Jeremiah 17 " The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" To me it speaks to the mysteries of life. As the next verse states, God searches the heart and examines the mind - essentially - God can understand our hearts, but no one else. Us humans, we seem interminably incapable of discerning our own hearts, much less the hearts of others. If it were clear why would we have centuries of art and literature focused on exploring the human heart and spirit? This means that my own heart is unreliable. And if that is true, it is serious, more serious than I often act.

"When hints of sadness creep into our soul, we must not flee into happy or distracting thoughts."
Another aspect of my life was brought into clearer focus when reading this book - my propensity to selfishly 'demand' that I have time to myself to recover and be refreshed from the daily struggles and pressures of life. It illuminates where I do not fully trust God to provide for my needs, but instead seek to dig my own wells to seek refreshment when we have "living water" available to us. It has me evaluating my use of entertainment and recreation as an escape from daily life rather than seeking more of God and trusting him to provide the refreshment I need. I havn't yet found the pattern, but I intend to build a regular and consistent fast in my life from most forms of electronic media entertainment. (ie like one day a week, or one week a month, where I avoid surfing the internet, watching tv or movies on my own, etc).

"You must make a choice to live honestly."
I highlighted this in a previous posting, but this is the broadest, simplest, and perhaps the most significant take-away I got from the book. Most of the people I admire most are the ones that are the most transparent, and are the most ready to address life as it is, not as we want it to be. It is always refreshing to interact with such people. This book was a good reminder to make an active choice to live life honestly.

While I can't promise it's a fun read, I can recommend this book to anyone who is interested. In the spirit of fairness I should also state that Faith also read the book and really enjoyed it. Psychology majors - go figure.

Politically Disaffected

While I am often quite interested in following politics, I am increasingly finding myself more and more removed from feeling connected. I definitely feel a sense of being disaffected by the state of our nation and the state of our politics.

A friend pointed out this organization called GOOOH!, which (not so) cleverly is an acronym for the phrase above. What is GOOH? They define themselves thus: "A non-partisan plan to evict the politicians from the U.S. House of Representatives." I could copy more of their ideas here, but will save space by giving you this link to their website. In addition to being intrigued, I was also somehow entertained by reading through their site a bit.

I am not at this point ready to participate or suggest others join. However, the concept was interesting enough that I thought it worth pointing it out to others. I have no idea if this is THE answer, or even AN answer - but I must admit it's nice to see some people trying to take action with the intent on making an impacting change for what they think is the better of the nation.

How is your sole?

Some pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago don't actually stop in Santiago, but continue their journey until they reach Cape Finisterre. Translated literally as 'the end of the earth.' Traditionally a pilgrim takes off their boots and leaves them there at the Atlantic coast. I havn't yet made it out to visit Cabo Finisterre, but when Faith and I were visiting a scenic spot here in Coruña on Valentines day, we discovered this old, worn pair of boots along the rocky coast. I can't say that currently my soul feels as worn down and beat up as those boots. But there are times when I wonder if that's where I'm heading. I hope that doesn't come across too dour. There is something warm and attractive about these boots despite their obviously hard life. I'm sure they were very comfortable and familiar to their owner. It looks like they were lovingly used, and lovingly left behind. I honestly have no idea if these shoes were left by a pilgrim at the end of their journey. But I like the thought. And I like to think that if my soul ever does feel like those shoes look, it won't be just a sad thought, but one to remind me of the miles I have covered over the course of my life.

A slice of daily life

This is one of the local parks we visit often. There are three within a short walk from our home. This one is the most popular park of the neighborhood, I presume, because it gets full sun in the afternoon. It has been dubbed "the ria park" by our family because it is overlooking the scenic tidal river here. It is the park that we most often run into classmates of Brennan's, and a few local families we have met. Here Brennan can shyly start to play with those classmates as he feels more and more comfortable here. Here Ryan lives as large and as loud as he wants, and blends right in with the natives. And Kathryn gets to watch even more frenetic activity and hear even louder noises than she experiences at home. She also is a great tool to help us meet other parents. No one can resist her (see my last post for proof).

This is the view of the sunset over 'the ria.'

The above and below pictures are action photos from yesterday's visit.

Another boat photo. Still addicted to them.