Thank you Neil, and I think I know what it means...

Recently my friend Neil sent this to me and I was not sure I understood.

Well, here he is at it again, however this time I think I get it.

Often times I am asked in the local church were I serve "how does one become a cultural architect of/for the Gospel?" While this is a multifaceted question with a number of answers, I think the biggest contributor to being a cultural architect of/for the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to be creative.

Creativity is often thought of like eye color - some people have "it" (in this case blue eyes) and some people do not. But the fact of the matter is, creativity is less like eye color and more like eyes - everyone has eyes to see but some people practice looking.

The post Neil sent to me is one example of a person who walked through life seeing all sorts of things. In many cases, he saw the same things every day. But one day, he decided to practice looking. In his efforts to look at the world he no longer saw a boy as a possible set up for exploitation for money. He no longer saw an old man but looked at him in his eyes. He stopped looking for a moment and saw the world and what it was intended to be.

If you want to "be the change" or if you want to be a cultural architect live out of creativity. If you do not think you are creative, then perhaps the first step is to stop looking and see the world as God intends for it to be.

Who knows what story you will experience or what you will see.

I am back - got the sunburn to prove it.

Just a heads up that I am back in town and should resume my regular "every other day" posting.

It is interesting to me that I had several posts scheduled and not one comment on them? I wonder if that was the nature of the posts, the lack of interest in the pots, my absence, or just that I have gotten into the narcissistic thought that anything that I put out will spark some sort of comments.

Indeed, my ego is that big.

See you in a couple of days.

World Cup, South Africa and God

The World Cup has uncovered many different stories of not only the players but of the host nation: South Africa.

There is a movement in South Africa called that “Truth and Reconciliation Commission”. This group works to help the nation and the people of South Africa to move to uncover the stories of apartheid as well as well as begin the reconciliation process.

This is a very powerful and lengthy process that will take more than my lifetime to uncover and reconcile that nation with their past. As I listened to an interview by Krista Tippet with Desmond Tutu, she spoke that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission makes a distinction between pardon and forgiveness.

I used the dictionary to help me define pardon and forgiveness.

Pardon – (verb) remission of the legal consequence of an offence or conviction, note: absolve (concede, remit, from Latin perdonare – “per” completely + “donare “give”).

Forgiveness – (verb) Stop feeling angry or resentful toward someone for an offense, flaw or mistake.

I have never thought much about it before, but if there is a difference in these two words and actions, I have heard two conflicting messages in Christianity. One would say that God through Jesus pardons humanity. One message would say that God through Jesus forgives humanity.

Is there a difference? Does God forgive? Does God pardon?