Shared Moments of Trust

A few years ago, my wife gave me a collection of essays from the "This I Believe" project from NPR. If you are not aware of this project, I highly recommend you check it out. In a nutshell, the project invites people of all sorts to write their credo in about 300 words. What a discipline to begin to practice, and not just about what we believe about God or Jesus or the Church.

Here is one of my favorites from Warren Christopher who believes in "A Shared Moment of Trust". You can read or listen to Mr. Christopher's thoughts.

I invite you to poke around and see if you find a submission that speaks to you and share that in a comment to this post.

Grace and Peace.

Filters

With all the information on the internet from the news reports coming in to the many viral videos circulating around. The emails which have been forwarded 100 times to the RSS reader "bolding" with each new blog post. Twitter and Facebook. Email and Texting.

I have never felt a greater need for filters in my life. Not so much filters to keep things clean or pure, but filters to keep the extra stuff out of that which I seek. It is like these filters are able to help me focus on what "is" rather than what "is not".

There are several filters in my life I use to remove the 'noise' in this information-polooza.

Facebook filter status updates.

TodaysBigThing.com filter viral videos.

Goodreads.com filter books.

Google Reader to filter all the blogs I follow.

Kyle Roberson to filter all things emergent church related.

Wikipedia to filter all my 'unknown' topics.

Rene Girard filters the way I read the Bible.

My wife filters true love. .

Seth Godin and TED talks filter the new and cutting edge.

TIME Magazine filters the news.

Nancy Allen filters spiritual things.

Mom and Dad filter love and support.

My brother filters the a lot of fun for me.

My son filters joy and innocence.

Who or what are your filters? What sources do you trust to filter out all the noise in your life?

Worship as soccer

Last week I began to express a metaphor for worship as football. While there may very well be wonderful things about the football approach and understanding of worship, I find it to be too 'control' focused and highly protective. Rather, I wonder what would it be if worship were approached not as football but as soccer?

Soccer seems like the ultimate game of trust. Each team knows what they are doing even though they do not come together as a total unit throughout the game to check in with each other. As the plays develop each person must be keenly aware of what they are doing as individuals but must make sure their actions are connected to the overall plan of the team. There is a lot of deviation that happens throughout the course of the game, but that deviation must instantly be figured into the scheme of the game. For instance, if one player in the 'back' position decided it would best serve the team to move to a forward position, then communication happens on the fly (verbal or not) and the other team members must cover the actions taken by the former 'back'.

There are not a lot of pads in soccer, just thin shin guards. So if you want to tackle someone, you have to physically touch them. This is dangerous for both players, not just the one being hit. There is one coach, but they do not have control over the plays as they develop. There is no play to "call", only persuasion.

If you see a soccer game in Europe, the crowd is very involved with the game - and not just when there is momentum. People are singing and dancing, with a feeling that what you are doing as a crowd actually effects the game. In fact, if you are not singing and dancing in the crowd, you stand out.

The spontaneous play of the game could very well contribute as to why soccer is known as the "beautiful game".

Security at the Zoo

Went with the family on Saturday to the Fort Worth zoo to celebrate my mother's birthday. It was great and I highly recommend doing the zoo thing. However, this visit not only made me realize how much I like lions and monkeys, but also at the ridiculousness of "security" in America.

I hate the "security" at airports. Most of the time I feel they are too nit picky and not focused on what really matters. However, I also understand there are still many who fear flying post 9/11. So I will put up with what is asked of me at airports because I do not want to be seen as insensitive to those who were killed on that day. No one ever wants to see such an event happen ever again. When we step into a place where there are several people there used to be a trust between everyone that no harm will be done. Terrorism undercuts that trust and we need to rebuild that trust. So then why is there such drastic security at the airport but ZERO security measures at the Fort Worth zoo?

I am glad there are not measures at the zoo because I honestly think these extreme measures raise anxiety rather than build trust, but why are we inconsistent with these "security" measures? I guess there is not a lot of symbolic power at a zoo and therefor not that high on the list of terrorists targets? Could this explain why it took me hours to get through the security at the Statue of Liberty but only had a ticket scanned at the zoo?