Giving Up

It is not a command.

We have incredibly-few of these, and it does not make mention.

Directly, it is not of scripture, and is not a necessity of the Christian life.

Indirectly, however, it is a reflection and consideration of the principles of the life, essence, and reality of Jesus the Christ. 

And inasmuch, as we mimic Him, follow after Him, we do well.

In the past, I have given away 

Sweet Tea

then Iced Tea

then all liquids sans Water...

Internet

Reading.

Last year, as one who spends 2-4 hours a day driving, the most challenging of all, it was all sounds in the car.

Approaching Lent, I am thoroughly uninspired to give up the things of this world. Maggie, a voice of God, encouraged me to consider 'giving up' in a different light. 

Jesus,

in my vainglory attempt to honor you, 

to connect with you,

to hope to connect with you,

I spend Lent 2015

giving away

the parts of my life

that overcrowd my life.

This is almost completely CH2M-centric.

I take on

I am given

I am dumped on.

My shoulders are fully laden, my back is stooped. 

And I still go on. 

I pray for strength and wisdom and I still go on. 

In this Lent,

rather than put away some physical addiction,

stressing my body and then mind with the hopes that the spirit is expanded,

In this Lent,

I give away my superhero life, 

let go of succeeding, hyper-exerting, fixing, bailing out, being the man.

I will be challenged, as I leave holes in my life,

I hope to trust God to fill them, to be God,

to correct,

complete,

flourish

while I shrink away.  

Person of the Day: Eric Holder

Attorney General Holder limits civil seizure process that splits billions of dollars with local and state police. 

Today we are a better country, a less hypocritical country, a less dangerous country.
Today we reaffirm the foundational American tenet of innocent until proven guilty.

No one can be trusted with unchecked power, the power to coerce, the temptation of easy money. Not me, not you. Without checks, we walk the streets as thugs, using power and fear and the system to dehumanize citizens, to affirm that while all are created equal, not all will be treated as equals.

Today's move reaffirms our corp principles, corrects corrupt practices of the power-state against the individual, and helps ameliorate damaging perceptions (by those individuals against the power-state).

If police departments cannot fulfill their duties without stealing from citizens, then we either need to realign their duties or raise the necessary taxes to support them.

I am sure this will be twisted, will be spun; claiming that we are a weaker and a more dangerous country when police lose the legal right to steal. But protecting citizen rights is a form of courage, not a weakness. Danger is the inherent reality of a people who accept security over freedom, who give up their rights to those paternalistically wishing to keep us from harm. In contrast, we are collectively more secure when we embrace freedom over safety, when we remove the cynicism birthed in unjust search and seizures. We are secure when we no longer provide the motivation of revenge, bitterness, and fear to those who may do us harm. In destroying those our enforcement agencies believe may do us harm, we validate a dozen other's reasons to do so.

For my entire adult life, our governments (federal, state, local) have marched steadfast towards a controlled state, and we have traded perceived security for our personal freedoms. We live in a world our forefathers would barely recognize, not because of the gains of technology or other shiny objects, but by the loss of our personal freedoms and the individual responsibilities born by them.

This small but real step encourages me like very little I've seen in the public sphere of late.

tGbtg

2014 Books I Listened To

My annual list of books listened, mostly kept by me because I’m curious of the trends across time (see books label).

Awards

Sacred Clowns: Can’t Help Myself (listened to yet again)
The Center Cannot Hold: Outperformed Expectations
Rebel in Chief: Underperformed Expectations

1. Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls - David Sedaris
2. Death Comes to Pemberley - P.D. James
3. Devil's Highway - Luis Alberto Urrea
4. Death of a Scriptwriter - M.C. Beaton
5. A Black Hole is not a Hole - C.C. DeCristofano
6. Sacred Clowns - Tony Hillerman
7. Fueling the Planet - Michael McElroy
8. The Center Cannot Hold - Harry Turtledove
9. David and Goliath - Malcolm Gladwell
10. Brewmasters' Art - Charles Bamforth
11. Zealot - Reza Aslan
12. The Heretic's Apprentice - Ellis Peters
13. Truman - David McCullough
14. The Glory of Their Times - Lawrence Ritter
15. Rebel in Chief - Fred Barnes
16. And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie
17. Ballad of the Whiskey Robber - Julian Rubinstein
18. LOTR: Two Towers - JR Tolkien (BBC)
19. Anglo-Saxon World - Michael Drout

2014 Books I Read

My annual list of books read, mostly kept by me because I’m curious of the trends across time (see books label).

Awards

The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes : Fan Favorite
Gorky Park : Outperformed Expectations
The Great Divorce : Classic all should read
Pursuit of God: Most likely affected me

1. Orthodoxy - G K Chesterton
2. Gorky Park - Martin Cruz Smith
3. From Russia with Love - Ian Fleming
4. The Return of the Prodigal Son - Henri Nowen
5. The Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes - Conan Doyle
6. The Great Divorce - C.S. Lewis
7. Revelations of Divine Love - Julian of Norwich
8. Breach of Trust - Tom Coburn
9. Pursuit of God - A.W. Tozer
10. When Helping Hurts - Corbett/Fikkert
11. White House Burning - Simon Johnston
12. Moonraker - Ian Fleming

Fingertips

Bowed head, eyes closed, in prayer, in confession. 

And there comes a hand on my left shoulder. Barely a hand. Fingers. Fingertips. Just barely registering. 

Eyes open, without turning my head a glance to the left, and see the right hand of my neighbor. Not hers. 

It matters not. Eyes close, confess. Confess. 

But who is it? Whose hand is that? 

It matters not. It is an angel. Return to prayer. 

But is it really an angel? Could it dare be. Do I really feel those fingertips. Is it just an illusion? A ghosting?

It matters not. Return to prayer. Confess. 

Physical or spiritual. real or Real. It matters not. The hand, the fingers, the fingertips of God rest on my shoulder. In this comfort, I am invited to return to prayer, to confession. 

Praise be to God, through whom all blessings flow.