Thirsty

Not sure how often I will do this, but I'd like to try something called " fisking ," though what I actually produce will usually be a poor example of it. I would rather get my thoughts out, in a broken form, than miss getting them out there while I wait for the opportunity to more clearly articulate them. My first one is based on an article that I encountered in my Del.icio.us network (that links to my own bookmarks, but I'm referring to a bookmark somebody else in my network posted.) The article is: How to Respond to Conservatives , and my response to it is: The first half of this document is basic conversation/debate tactics. It makes the claim that conservatives are emotional and unreasonable, even though you could easily swap in a person with any ideology for that. They are attacks on the person, not the topic. They highlight the flow of the conversation over the content. The problem is he slides in content: i.e., diverting a pro-lifer by saying "by...

Interesting thing I'm discovering about myself: I grew up thinking it was a selfish thing to say, "I want to be a saint." That probably sounds absurd. All Christians aspire to sainthood, and even non-Christians know that it's something important to us. I grew up thinking it would be an amazing gift from God to be a saint, but would honestly feel ashamed ever expressing a desire to be a saint. Pretty crazy! I realize now that what I saw in sainthood was miracles and eternal life and joy and comfort and good food and being "better than everyone else." What I see now is a life of poverty, humility, and humiliations. An ardent desire for God's unity and peace and justice, so ardent that you would daily lay down your life for it. As this understanding grows, I'm beginning to realize how good it is even to desire sainthood. To be Christ here today. Who wants to be a saint?

This week I have been in a neighborhood in Shreveport, Louisiana, called Allendale. A few years ago a few young men in the People of Praise did some research and praying for where God would like for them to spend their energy and help usher in his kingdom. They settled on Allendale, one of the poorest places in the country, and there has been an ever-increasing presence here, being and bringing Jesus Christ to a struggling people. Just a few pages with snippets of the Allendale work are here , here , here . As an inadequate summary of the week, I'm just going to briefly describe the pattern of life, and what I did each day beyond the pattern. All of the local full-time employees of One:Ten , except me, are members of the new Work College in South Bend. It's a collection of undergrads, recent grads, an older single, and a largish family, that share a large part of their life together, meeting together for most dinners, praying together, learning together, playing together,...