Worldly Holiness

Friday Foto–Framing Rainier

Framing Rainier w Sail Boat, originally uploaded by papalars.

I have been exploring a little more with my bike recently in the Seattle area. What a wild [meaning GREAT] place when it is nice out. I should mention that the days like the one above depicted in this photo are few when looking at the span of the entire year, but when it is nice I can't think of another place on earth as golden and enchanted as this. Might be exaggerating a little bit. Maybe not though.

This photo is from two weekends ago and it was probably 10 miles or so from home along the path I took. Great conditioning for Rainier this summer. Great refreshment for the soul as well.

Did I mention we climbed to Camp Muir earlier in May? Don't think I did. Now that was truly wild [meaning CRAZY]. For starters, Camp Muir is just above 10,000 feet on Mt. Rainier and is the base camp for most who make the summit attempt on Washington's greatest mountain. We are training with a group of folks who have the goal of climbing Rainier this August [including the 3 Larsen boys]. Our fearless leader has us all on a training routine that is pushing us to be in condition and mentally ready for a climb. Our trip to Muir was a test.

We hit a day that was "inclement" to say the least with white-out conditions for a good part of the assent. Even lost our trail for about an hour. We also had strong winds and precipitation. I guess the wind chill was below freezing and the winds, which blew horizontal for most of the climb, were hitting over 30 mph.

Rainier beckons to many people in the Puget Sound region. Growing up in its shadow as a kid, I always heard tales of intrepid climbers who climbed this peak and others who trained on this mountain in preparation for climbing Everest. Some of this was legend, but then every once in a while you would read a story of someone who slipped to their death or was caught in white out conditions and lost orientation. One sad story from a few years ago was about an uncle/nephew team who were found frozen to death about 50 feet apart. They had all the correct gear in their packs but somehow lost orientation and hope, failing to rely on their equipment and each other.

In the journey of life, sometimes discouragement hits us, like the 30 mph horizontal winds that intimidated us on the mountain. The storms of life and "white-out" conditions make us lose the trail. The temptation is to just sit down, failing to utilize the resources at hand or find help from others. Don't do that. Let the words of the Psalmist direct how we navigate these hard times: "From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe. I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings." Psalm 61:2-4. Let this be your heart's yearning and may God direct your steps to the right resources. May his comfort sustain and strengthen you. Have a great weekend.

May 30th, 2008 Posted by andres | Daily Journey, Friday Fotos | no comments

Every Inch in Jerusalem, Conditions at Year 60

Candy Store in Jerusalem, originally uploaded by papalars.

This is a foto of a little shop inside the old city of Jerusalem where I visited in March. The man was kind enough to let me take his portrait. I found his square unit very interesting if not a little claustrophobic. Space is a premium inside the walls. In fact space in the entire region seems to be a premium. It is sad that each inch has to be contested and that people are displaced and killed in an effort to get the upper had, to take possession of the Holy Land. How ironic. I wonder what God thinks about this? The Associated Press early today ran a story about the Birthday celebrations in Jerusalem for Israel's 60th birthday. The first part of the story read like this….

AP Story / JERUSALEM - Israel staged its 60th birthday bash with fireworks, air force flyovers and a great sense of pride Thursday, but also with uncertainty about its future and doubts about prospects for peace with the Palestinians. Across the country, Israelis held barbecues in backyards and public parks, and were entertained by parachute jumps. Israel at 60 is a paradox of exuberance and despair — a country enduring near daily rocket attacks from militants while producing scientists who have pioneered Wi-Fi and instant messaging. Six decades after rising from the ashes of the Holocaust, the Jewish state is still plagued by threats from abroad and an identity crisis at home.

I am not an expert on Israel's place in the Middle East, nor the world for that matter, but it does seem to me that indeed the country is in a delicate if not precarious place these days. In my recent trip to the old city in Jerusalem you could feel some of the underlying tension that reflects the broader conflict in the region. In all honestly, it felt a bit like a tinder box.

The ever present security forces and cameras seemed to monitor every step of every citizen and visitor alike, making sure nothing came out of joint in the balancing game within the walls of the city. At one point I had difficulty accessing a stairway to the ramparts on the city wall. I thought I would just leap a small fence and be done with it, thereby gaining entry to the coveted perimeter wall and viewpoints around the city. My friends persuaded me to think otherwise. Then I turned and saw a camera. I wasn't in Kansas, that is for sure.

The city does seem to thrive with commerce, but not like what I grew accustomed to in Europe. Things began to close down much, much earlier in the evening and it became hard to find a place to eat after 9:00 in the evening. That is kind of when things get going back in Barcelona. And here in the States you can at least get fast food almost 24 hours a day. Not in Jerusalem.

I left the city with some good memories but also a lot of questions. I also found, in comparison, that the city of Amman, Jordan was much friendlier. I have no major conclusions to draw at this point as to why. These are just the simple observations of my first trip to the region. I wonder what Jesus thinks about the city today. Does he still weep?

May 8th, 2008 Posted by andres | Daily Journey, Friday Fotos | one comment

Downtown Chicago from the Hancock Building

Downtown Chicago from the Hancock Building, originally uploaded by papalars.

We used to talk about "refried" sermons in Mexico when you took something your preached in one church and did it again in another. Of course I never do that in the US. Ha-ha. Well, you have a refried blog post in front of you right here. You may recognize this photo from the previous post. I lost it from the original post a few weeks ago because of some editing I did with the shot on flickr. I did not want to leave a wide open space on my blog, so here it is….

I'm keenly aware of a large backlog of stories to share, pictures to upload, and thanks to be given on these pages. Life this past month since my last posting has been a bit full. I hope to share some reflections on these pages over the next few days and weeks. Let me just say, my trip to Europe and the Middle East were profound both in terms of perspective gained and relationships built in ministry.

But before I launch into some of these stories, I want to post my Friday Foto, which I have not done for awhile.

I'm in Chicago currently for some meeting and speaking. I was invited to share in a class at North Park Theological Seminary on Tuesday night about what I saw and experienced in the Middle East. That was fun. Last night I was able to attend a lecture at the Seminary as well on Islamic Christology given by a leading Muslim scholar. It was fascinating and also gave me the awareness of how much more I need to understand about Islam. Tomorrow I head to Little Falls, Minnesota where I get to preach and speak this weekend at a Covenant church, again about our work and the interesting things God is doing in the focus world.

On Wednesday night I escaped to downtown Chicago and spent about 5 hours wandering with my camera, up and down Michigan Avenue. As you may have guessed, that is not hard for me to do. I went to school here in Chicago in college plus a few years in Seminary. I have not been up the John Hancock building for 30 years. That is where the picture above was taken. Things look pretty much the same from this level. Down on the street however, much has changed. Millennium park close to the Art Institute and the Loop are a significant addition. Of course, when I was here before we were not close enough to the Millennium to have a park named after it. Anyway, I have a bunch of new photos from my long walk on Wednesday night on my flickr site should you care to browse.

Sorry it has taken so long to post to my blog. I've been busy over on facebook , traveling and speaking. Stay tuned and please keep us in your prayers.

May 8th, 2008 Posted by andres | Daily Journey | no comments

Friday Fotos–What is Your Vision for the Future?

Old Mansion, originally uploaded by papalars.

Yesterday I was invited to speak about my work with focus people in a Christian High School close to Black Diamond. Close to Auburn as well. The school is out in the woods and the drive took me on fun roads that are a little off the beaten path. Golden opportunity to drag my camera along and enjoy the views. I share with you one of my HDR [High Dynamic Range] photos for this edition of Friday Fotos. HDR is a process of making one dynamic photo and sandwich from 3 photos shot at different f-stops or shutter speed. It affords a greater range of color, sharpness and overall quality.

This is an old mansion that is also a historical site in the region. The date on the sign says 1894. To realize we lived all last year in Barcelona where human civilization of some kind was in the area before the time of Christ makes me chuckle thinking of how relatively "young" this place is. I guess it goes with the territory in these parts. When Rome was building roads in present day Spain, the state of Washington was inhabited with some Native-American Indian tribes but probably mostly trees. Our broader culture was dreaming about building a mansion somewhere.

Anyway the class I taught today was very engaging. It consisting of 10 and 12th graders and went well. They were eager to learn and hear of what God is doing in the focus world. It continues to strike me how much our youth engage the focus world and are spiritually curious. When I ask in groups of people who has a friend from the focus world, most are under 30. I think they know something that my generation does not. Our future will have more to do with religious and spiritual stuff, discussions between religions, conflicts stirred by warped religious passions and much less about the goals that gave my generation apparent meaning.

Our future is ultimately NOT about secularism and materialism which the leading thinkers of the 20th suggested. You may remember that Marx and others believed that the more educated and economically productive people became, the less religious they would be. Even though America did not officially subscribe to that doctrine [we believed in God and the other guys were atheists], we are perhaps the country that most embodies the idea–value is measured by material wealth. But David Brooks in the Atlantic Monthly states: "It's now clear that the secularization theory is untrue. The human race does not necessarily get less religious as it grows richer and better educated. We are living through one of the great periods of scientific progress and creation of wealth. At the same time, we are in the midst of a religious boom…secularism is not the future; it is yesterday's incorrect vision of the future." Atlantic Monthly, March 2003.

This weekend I take another road trip up north, with a full load of speaking engagements on Sunday. First, I get to share in worship [that means preaching], followed by a Q & A for Sunday School. After that is all over, I then take a boat trip with a bunch of men where I give a different talk on marriage, parenting and family. The title of my talk with the guys is "Relational Fidelity: Reaching the Summit, Going the Distance." I took some time in the woods the other day, thinking and praying about what in the world I could share with a bunch of men about relationships. This is a bit of a new challenge for me. I don't feel adequate to the task. I know I could be doing a lot, lot better in this area of my life. Who am I to give a word about this topic? Pray for me this weekend on this topic in two ways. 1. How I actually live the stuff I'm going to talk about in my family. 2. How I speak about it with others in such a way that God is brought into the equation, showing us the way. But for now, enjoy my Friday Foto!

Drop me a line when you have time. Would love to hear from you. What do you think of the photo? What is your vision for the future? What do focus people have to do with your future?

May 2nd, 2008 Posted by andres | Prayer & Praise, Friday Fotos | no comments