Tonight I simultaneously sipped some herbal tea and Martin Luther King Jr. writings. I came across an exquisite sermon he wrote in a Georgia jail entitled, “Shattered Dreams”. As I took in the flavor of MLK’s sermon about ‘absorbing the most intense pain without abandoning our sense of hope’ (Strength to Love, King, p.95) freshly painted pictures and video’s of Haiti’s crisis of the devastating 7.0 earthquake plauged my mind that I had just viewed on the Al-Jezeera news website.
The dreams and hopes to trade a better future for a weary past in Haiti were smashed in a matter of seconds. Death. Agony. Destruction.
MLK Jr’s dreams of non-violence, freedom, equality and ‘transforming the dangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood’ (I Have a Dream) linger on unrealized in the midst of violence, wars and greed that plauge our nation.
MLK asks the question in his sermon, “what do we do with unsatisfied hopes?”
He preaches to us to honestly confront our shattered dreams. This is the first step toward redemption. Applying this ointment of MLK’s preaching to our wounds today; What if we honestly confront our own smashed hopes of a better world and a better life? What if we honestly confront what has happened to our Haitian neighbors to the south? What if we daringly stared at these shattered dreams and mustered enough faith to believe that God dwells with us and with those in life’s most confining and oppressive circumstances?
I don’t know what would happen. I’d like to hear your thoughts.
I’m left thinking what else can we do but keep caravaning into the mystery of the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazereth as the gateway to find hope in utter brokenness.
Hello all, here are a few goals for incremental advancement in this human experience in 2010 that I’m thinking about….
My New Year Intentions:
-Be a damn good husband to Tiffany and love her in the cruciform style of the Messiah and learn to dance in the two becoming one mystery… (I’m getting married in March!!!)
-Seek God through; contemplative prayer practice, embedding into the scriptures, creative compassionate actions and experimenting new ways to celebrate and lament.
-Start back up with my interviewing habit.
-Write songs and rap my heart out, record raps, freestyle when the opportunity comes and make quality art and share it all over the land.
-Learn a bunch about gardening, vegetables, and herbs as I grow stuff at my house and at Roosevelt.
-Be creative and imaginative in my youth advocacy
-Being open to surprises….
These are a few of my new years intentions, what are some that are stirring in you?
In September of 2009, I made a trip to London with the Agents of Future crew from The Bridge in Portland and walked away with God asking me to let go of what he’s given me. Robert and Vickie Schellert are two American missionaries in London who are living out a vision for a community that loves God and loves people. They call their community of people “The Bridge” (www.thebridgecollective.com) and are located right off of Brick Lane in London. Our crew was blessed to be hosted by these Jesus freaks. Robert and I had a chance to talk about human nature’s broken condition. Some people call it sin – for the sake of conversation and to gain a better understanding of it, we referred to sin as selfishness. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m doing this writing exercise where I get two sets three synonyms form my vocabulary book and read a Thomas Merton passage and from there write a rap for the day. Here is one that I did earlier today…. please enjoy you freaks of nature.
Allegedly there is a light switch inside of our ribs. Not the up and down, fully on or fully off kind you normally find, Thank God its the circular type that when its turned to the right it gives increments of light life to figuratively illuminate the mystery of the hush hush, and touch the untouchable and love the unlovable. Inside our chest you could turn the nob to the left to vex our lenses dimmer and darker, farther and further, virtually its a murderous potential that exists in the essence of these exasperated inner caves, thirsty for forever sun rays and plauged from these dark days. Its annoying to leave it undefined and trust it’ll be fine. Trust that if we seek we’ll find where the light switch is located so our inner inmate can be emancipated from the cell block of Son block. And be free to almost touch the sunrises and taste the sunsets. And never have to turn that nob back to the left.
To celebrate existence my brother in both births, Zachary Paul Bryan Gardner, and I went on a glorious hike up to Angels Rest in the Columbia Gorge. Here is a little freestyle action after a glorious time of saturating in the cloudy mist being aware that God is pretty much closer to me than my jugular vein. Beloved soakage. And we keep it goofy, youknowwhatI’msayin?!
Here is a quote that I have been coming back to that I read in a obscure little book called ‘Death and Life-an American theology’ by Arthur C. McGill.
“No American child is taught. ‘You will constantly find yourself with needs that cannot be satisfied, with destructive circumstances that cannot be controlled. Therefore, learn courage and endurance to bear needs and in need learn how to receive and how to give. Learn not to be emotionally overthrown by unrelieved pain and unforeseen disaster.’”
I’m convinced that this sort reality thinking is needed in our context to combat our American optimism that preaches a gospel of having. That if we just have the right resources, knowledge, wealth, and opportunity than the worlds ailments will be soothed and cured. I just can’t buy that even though I find myself aligning with this thinking most of the time in my advocating for youth. What is truly liberating is to recognize our need and in our need to giveand receive in interdependent relationships- in seeking to love God and one another. A New Us forming in recognizing the reality of our condition and our need for life beyond ourselves. This is where I think McGill is headed in this book. Any thoughts?
This video showcases many beautiful people of Portland, OR coming together in celebration of the New Us that is coming and the New Us that is already here. A big thank you to all those who come out and make these shows live! Big ups to AP for putting together this event (Rock tha Block 2009). Peace and much love to all the paricipants and viewers!
