new pics and old thoughts

This week I went through a bunch of pictures. Why? Well, you´ll see that my slideshow here is updated, and I´ve also added an album there too. I was thinking about the whole viviendo la vida thing, and so I thought I should have pictures of everything. So, now you have it... wedding, Tegucigalpa, LAMB, Roatan... a little of everything. Because living the life is really about having a little of everything.

So I saw a lot of photos, some that I hadn´t seen for a while. From time in San Buenaventura at LAMB, old friends, good times from the beginning of this year, the wedding... and it really brought back a ton of old memories. Great stories, funny stuff, challenges... I am blessed because I feel like I´ve truly experienced so much of life here.

I think it is a conscious decision-- to live life. I don´t know if I talk about it much recently, but I did a lot when I started writing. It was one reason I wanted to come to Honduras. I wanted to see more, experience more. Lots of times I´ve talked about my Junior year of college when I read ¨Way of the Peaceful Warrior,¨ and that changed the course of my life. I woke up then, I started to notice things around me, and I started to really live and experience instead of letting life pass stuck in other thoughts about the past, or the future, or other things.

¨Way of the Peaceful Warrior¨ opened up a whole world of now and experience for me. It is not a Christian book, but it struck me as a good way to live. After that I started reading some philosophy, religion, self help... and it seems like a lot of smart, happy, successful, and influencial people (including Jesus) talk a lot about living in the moment... experiencing the world around you. Noticing the little things, paying attention, really enjoying whatever we have around us (the good but also the bad).

And so looking through these pictures, remembering a lot of little stories, the little moments that make up life one piece at a time. It is exhausting to live them all I think... but it is also exciting, invigoratingm motivational... man, it´s good. Then taking and feeling that life, that energy around us, those experiences that we have lived-- it can motivate us and move us forward, as well as help us to share with others. I wouldn´t call myself wise, or experienced, to well traveled, but I do try to live moment after moment and it has changed my perspective a lot. I am a very different person than a little over 2 years ago when I graduated college.

Living every moment... yeah. I still get caught up in thoughts. There are pasts or futures that attract my attention and distract my experience. It is a battle every day to live fully, and I don´t think it´s a battle we can ever win. We can just pay a little more attention, share our energies a little more, notice little things and share our love with more people. And through the battle of living fuller, through paying attention and winning gray hairs (Dulce picks too many out of my head lately)... it is so rewarding.

Why be busy if you have no experiences in the process? Why rush to the end, if there is so much of the journey to enjoy before you get there? If there´s nothing we can take with us, why don´t we leave it all on the field and take away the full experiece?

Just writing this post, I am motivated. Looking at pictures was exciting... I do feel like I have lived these two years here. That´s a great feeling and motivates me to move forward. So I hope you enjoy these photos, but I also hope you have your own photos and memories; and I invite you to reflect. And as we go forward, I also invite you to continue sharing in this journey... in this wild ride of experiences that we have and can share. Thank you for taking part in mine, and I wish you the best in yours. Please feel free to leave comments, thoughts, anything to share... and enjoy the pictures.

Oh, and thank you... because if I hadn´t started writing this, I wouldn´t be so excited to start again. I think sometimes we all need a jump start, and lately I definitely did. But I wrote this for me, and also anyone who would come by and read- so that´s for you. In that and in everything thank you for sharing in this journey.

peace.

the excitement of going home

There´s no place like home...

Sounds familiar? Well, recently I´ve been thinking a lot about that. Now we´ve been here in Roatan almost 4 months, Dulce and I are both pretty far away from home. It is much different here than living in Honduras on the mainland, so Dulce has definitely felt out of place in her own country. And me, well, it´s been 11 months since I was in the States.

Needless to say, we are both starting to want to see family and old friends... and somewhere familiar where we are comfortable. We like living here, but as the saying goes, there is truly no place like at your own place, with your own family.

Dulce also thinks about it recently because she is going home very soon. Next week we have a couple days off, so she is going to take them to make a trip to La Esperanza and be with her family. Originally she wasn´t going to go, but now she´s going to bring her sister back here to Roatan. Fabiola will be staying with us for 3 weeks from Thanksgiving to our Christmas break, so she will come back with Dulce after Thanksgiving.

It´ll be a quick trip, she leaves Thursday and will come back Saturday, but she is still very excited. Her little pueblo is definitely special so that should be very nice.

I also itch to go back to the States. I´ve talked about it before, but we´re really hoping a visa comes through to move up there sometime after this school year. We go until June, so maybe in July we´ll both take the trip up there? We want to start thinking about establishing ourselves up there. She wants to finish college, and I would like to get into something up there too. Not to mention it would be great to be close to family.

Of course, if we are up there we´ll be very far from her family. That´s just a balance that we´ll always have to work on. We´ve always planned on going to the States, and we´ll get there soon. Of course then we will take the time when we can to head back to La Esperanza, Honduras to be with her family too. It´s good to spend time with family.

Something really great is that we both feel very comfortable with each others´ families. I love being in La Esperanza, and she gets along very well with my family too. We also hope that she´ll like the States :) Of course, we´re all family now, so it´s great that we all get along and like each other. I guess having two families is a compromise sometimes, but feeling like you are with family in either place is definitely a blessing as well.

So here I am grateful for having great family. Being with Dulce, visiting her family, her excitement to go see them, and for my family way up north there. It may be a challenge to see everyone always... but how great is it that we have them everywhere and that sharing we can have.

Yeah, family... it´s good. And there´s no place like being with them, wherever that is.

invisible children in honduras and around the world

This morning on CNN.com I found a great article on something that is important here in Honduras, but also in poor countries all over the world. Within my last 2 years here I´ve heard a lot about Hondurans without any identification. If parents don´t register their children it´s like they don´t exist. It is a problem that LAMB has sometimes, but is also all over the world.

Anyway, so this article on CNN.com is a great one. We take for granted birth certificates and other ID´s in the States... but some people in the world don´t have any identification or even a birthday.

Check out the article here.
or
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/11/16/birth.registration.plan/index.html

random thoughts

Well, I definitely lost as far as blogging this week. Only 5 posts and it is November 15th already... the month isn´t looking so good. But this past week was pretty crazy, so now things will slow down and I´ll have the chance to write more.

One thing this is tough for me about writing often is that so many posts go by so quickly. That teacher´s devotional post I wrote and liked a couple weeks back, or the thoughts about prayer, or now my last ¨Reggae Theology¨ will be gone soon... into the oblivion of old blog posts. There are so many old posts I was very fond of, so it´s hard to let them go and think that now no-one will read them again. Obviously, it is moving forward and the opportunity to incorporate those thoughts into my life and live them out every day.

This week 6th grade had to do a presentation for ¨Chapel¨ at school on Friday. Chapel is a 40 minute ¨class¨ we have every Friday where all of elementary school gets together and one grade does a drama, sings, or something else as a devotional. It´s a fun opportunity (albeit stressful to prepare for), and my kids were great. I wrote an ¨American Idol¨ take off called ¨Who´s Your Idol.¨ As I said, I incorporated a little of Reggae and ¨Don´t Worry About a Thing,¨ and then some other popular music for these kids. Of course I had a mean judge, and in the end he decided that loving people around him and not worrying so much was a better way of life than being angry and mean to everyone all the time. My kids were really great, and we had a lot of fun. I think other grades really liked it (especially Casey, a great dancer who danced to Michael Jackson´s ¨Bad¨ and stole the show), and while I´m not sure the message sunk in for all the littler ones, we all had a good time.

Yesterday we had parent-teacher conferences at school, so I was there all morning. It actually went quite well, I had 8 parents came in and they were all pretty happy. I have an awesome bunch of kids that I am so greatful for, and they are really doing great work.

I think we are getting out of touch with island life. It´s been a while since we were at the beach, and I´ve definitely been more stressed with so much going on lately. It is time to take a cab to the beach, feel the sand between my toes, the water up to my knees, and breath that fresh air. Maybe this afternoon we´ll get out of the apartment and do something to chill out a little bit.

Enjoy what is left of your weekend, and come back soon!

peace.

every little thing is gonna be alright

How did this classic Bob Marley hit get into my Chapel service drama for a Christian Bilingual school? Here´s how...

Don´t worry, the whole skit isn´t about ¨Reggae theology,¨ even though that might be fun and interesting to do. It does go there a little bit though, and we have definitely gone there with my 6th graders in devotionals the last week or so. It has really connected, so I wanted to share a little more about this relaxed, dread-lock view of Christianity.

Where did I get it from? If you´d like, open your Bible to Phillipians 4:6...

Do not be anxious in anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Paul says ¨don´t worry... pray!¨ Where else does it come from? Please turn again to Matthew 6:25-34...

Do Not Worry

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?

"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

We actually got into this idea when we talked about prayer for a couple weeks. We finished up memorizing that verse from Phillipians. So we got into it by thinking about how to pray, and then why to pray. When we pray, God will answer our prayers. If we are praying and trying to go God´s way, and He says our prayers will be answered, why worry?

That´s what Paul tells us, and then what the passage in Matthew confirms for us. Phillipians 4:7 (the one right after that first one) is one of the most quoted verses ever for a benediction:

And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will gaurd your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

So why pray? For that peace. If you are praying about something, you don´t need to worry about it. If the birds find food, you will also find food. If the lillies in the fields are well clothed, you will be too.

I don´t know if you can remember, but in 6th grade I bet you worried about a lot of things. I´m pretty sure I worried about a lot of things, and I am definitely sure that my students have a lot of things on their plate to worry about. This year they will graduate, they have a community service project, regular school work, and big end of the year exams that only 6th graders take. They also have stuff going on at home, and it isn´t easy there for all of them. Not to mention that one or two of the boys´ voices are starting to change, and they have that whole puberty thing to look forward to. One boy is very tall, and the other boys I´m sure will catch up. 6th grade is a worrysome year.

But it helps us to know that Jesus says don´t worry. We started the year talking about God having plans, good plans, big plans. And if God has big plans, God will take care of them. That doesn´t mean it will be an easy road. That doesn´t mean no exams or no homework or no problems at home or it´s easy to be on honor roll. But what it does mean is that if we give God that control, if we let go of our anxiety, of our worry... God tells us to have peace.

One of Dulce´s favorite phrases in English (probably in either language) is ¨don´t worry, be happy.¨ Anytime I start to stress or look stressed, I know exactly what she is going to say, ¨don´t worry, be happy.¨ It´s a good philosophy, you know. People who worry less are happier, and people who are happier will do better work and be more successful. Sounds like a pretty good way to go to me.

I mean really, who likes to be worried or stressed? And then I get stressed, and I think more about being stressed than what I need to be doing. It is an awful down-ward spiral... being stressed and worried.

To end it, I like to put things in perspective. Is it the end of the world? Is it going to kill me? If the answer is no, why kill myself about it? I know, we have deadlines and important stuff, we´re busy... but really, stressing doesn´t fix anything. It makes us less happy, people around us less happy, and pretty much everything worse.

So stop worrying. Let God be in control. Be peaceful.

Does that mean it will always work out like a garden of roses? Well, it hasn´t been that way for me yet. I don´t think that really happens. But I do know, even though it isn´t always easy, even though sometimes I don´t like how it all works itself in the end... it is always better if I wasn´t too stressed about it, if I am relaxed and peaceful instead of stressed like crazy.

Reggae theology... ¨Don´t worry, be happy!¨

religious experience research center

I got a very interesting link in my email this morning to this news article:

Face to faith: The Religious Experience Research Centre's evidence
of everyday divinity is a joy, says Roger Tagholm

The Guardian, Saturday 7 November 2009

About three times a month a letter or email arrives at the library of the
University of Wales at Lampeter. So far, so unremarkable, you might think – until you know their contents

The library is home to the Religious Experience Research Centre (RERC), which today celebrates its 40th anniversary with an Open Day at Harris Manchester College in Oxford, its former home. The letters and emails are from members of the public who believe they have had a "spiritual or religious experience or felt a presence or power, whether you call it God or not, which is different from your everyday life".

"Vauxhall station on a murky November Saturday evening is not the setting one would choose for a revelation of God," runs one account. "The whole compartment was filled with light. I felt caught up into some tremendous sense of being within a loving, triumphant and shining purpose. All men were shining and glorious beings who in the end would enter incredible joy. In a few moments the glory had departed, all but one curious, lingering feeling. I loved everybody in that compartment. I seemed to sense the golden worth in them all."

The centre has some 6,000 such accounts, which, it could be argued, form an "evidence" of sorts for some unspecified "other". The RERC was established in 1969 by the marine biologist Sir Alister Hardy, who was both a Darwinian and a member of the Unitarian church. He believed that man did indeed have a spiritual nature and that there was an extrasensory reality beyond the individual self. Appeals for people's religious or spiritual experiences were placed in the religious media, and then, later, in the wider press, beginning with an interview in this
newspaper written by Geoffrey Moorhouse who would go on to recount his own spiritual journey in his Indian travel book Om.

Today, the centre's director is Professor Paul Badham, who taught theology and religious studies at Lampeter until retiring last year. MA students and postgraduate students working in the field of religious experience, as well as researchers and writers from around the world, use the centre's archive and library.

In 1990, the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Runcie, suggested it extend its work to other cultures. A grant from the Templeton Foundation enabled it to explore religious experience in China, and the University of Istanbul has carried out similar research in Turkey. Professor Cafer Yaran of the faculty of theology at the latter is due to give his findings at today's celebrations.

It is easy to mock those who claim to have had a mystical experience. Richard Dawkins dismisses all such experience as simply a function of "the mind's simulation software". But Badham notes that all human experiences are mediated through brain activity – it doesn't mean the experience is simply a product of the brain. "When I see something with my eyes it brings about events in my brain, which is how I interpret what I see. This does not mean that what we see isn't really there. So with religious experiences. Of course they are associated with something going on in our brain, and increasingly neuro-specialists can locate
where in the brain. But this does not mean that such experiences are unreal, any more than what we see is unreal."

The centre's work is heir to William James' Varieties of Religious Experience. It quietly points towards something that the mystics have long known: that religious or spiritual experience is common to humanity, part of "our evolutionary heritage", as Badham puts it. Sir Alister, who died in 1985, would surely be gratified at the centre's continuing survival and its international reach – and would echo Badham's words: "Dogmas divide, experience unites."

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009

Interesting stuff, huh? You can find the link to the University of Whales research department here, where they have much more information on their program, studies, and also several stories that they have received detailing peoples´ religious experiences.

thoughts about labels

The teachers at school and some of our friends have been doing a Bible study on James Thursday nights. If you don´t know the book of James, I suggest you check it out... it´s right after Hebrews and a couple before Revelation. It also happens to be a book that I enjoy a lot and find very encouraging. It is very practical.

The study has been really good, we work slowly and really think about little details (it took us 3 weeks to finish the 1st chapter!). Alright, maybe a little slow, but we have gotten into some good, deep conversations. John the 4th grade teacher, leads the study, and I really enjoy his insights as well as thorough research.

So last night we started with the end of the 1st chapter, which is a really good part. I like James a lot because it is very practical. James is a present tense kind of person, and he is all about action. Last week I gave my teacher devotion on the Kingdom of Heaven being here, now... and James definitely talks a lot about religion now.

Last night, though, I had an interesting question. To finish the first chapter, James talks about ¨religion that is acceptable to the Father.¨ He says be careful about what you say, you need to control your tongue... because through your tongue you deceive yourself and other people. Then he says that this religion that God approves of is looking after orphans and widows, and then not being polluted by the world.

I´d like to put ¨polluted by the world¨ aside for the moment and think about this true religion, or religion that God approves of. What does James say it is? He says it is service. It makes me think of Matthew 25 when Jesus separates the sheep and the goats, He acknowledges the people who loved their neighbors, who served Him, who gave the littlest of these brothers of mine to eat, or drink, shelter, clothes, and their time. What does James say is religion acceptable to God? Caring for the least of these brothers of mine.

Ok, that´s all background for my interesting question... or maybe I´ll turn my interesting question into a statement-- James doesn´t say that Christianity is religion that God accepts. He doesn´t use any label when he talks about acceptable religion. In other words, James does not ¨name¨ the correct religion. He merely characterizes it by saying it is service to others.

Now I am no scholar, and haven´t done much research in preparing a simple blog entry, but I did want to go into it a little more. James starts the letter with a greeting to the 12 tribes of Israel, the descendants of Abraham. He is writing to the Jewish people. He uses a lot of Jewish references, the letter has a heavy Jewish influence. Does that mean he is saying the Judaism is the religion that is acceptable to God?

And I have to say no. While his letter is heavily influenced by Judaism, James makes no reference to any name in this passage about acceptable and honorable religion. He just says that it is all about service.

One word or phrase that I have been hearing a lot, or maybe I´m just starting to notice it a lot, is... ¨As Christians we need to...¨ and inevitably continuing about doing the right thing. What bothers me isn´t so much the things people say we need to be, but more the inflected attitude that everyone else is wrong. If you don´t have this label, you are out.

In our study we also touched a lot on how not all Christians live the life they should, and how many are hypocrites and taint the label of ¨Christian.¨ I do agree with that a lot, history and the present give us many examples of ¨Christians¨ doing horrible things. On Facebook (because everything is real if it is on Facebook, hahaha), I have my ¨religious beliefs¨ space say ¨Christ Follower¨ instead of ¨Christian.¨ A lot of that is because there are many Christians I don´t want to be associated with. It is also because of this attitude of ¨we Christians are better than all the rest of you.¨ And all jokes aside about Facebook, it is how I feel. I don´t want to be associated with many of the attitudes that ¨Christians¨ have.

And then we have what James writes... that religion God accepts is in actions, not in a label. I use ¨Jesus Follower¨ because for me, that is what I want to do. I want to follow Jesus. What did Jesus do? He loved His neighbors, He served those around Him. Funny enough, I don´t think he labeled His religion either... He just loved others and talked about His father, God.

Of course this lack of a label runs into a bunch of questions and problems. It´s not nice and neat like you would want a service on Sunday morning. So if no ¨label¨ or ¨brand¨ is correct, how can ¨Christianity¨ be any better than ¨Jesus Follower,¨ or ¨Jew,¨ or ¨Muslim,¨ or ¨Buddist,¨ or ¨Worshipper of the Flying Spaghetti Monster?¨

James writes that religion acceptable to God, our Father, is caring for orphans and widows. Can´t all those other people do that too?

Jesus said that whether you gave the least of these food, water, clothes, shelter, visited them, or cared for them, you did it for Him. Can people with other labels do all those things too? If they did, would they end up on the ¨sheep¨ side that He chooses to go to Heaven?

I could keep going, and keep throwing out questions and implications... and also inevitably disturb people more and more (I´m sure some of you are reading and not really enjoying my making a mess of the ¨Christian¨ label). Each faith group has more thoughts about belonging, how their members should act, and how to get in the club. Those have obviously developed and changed (or become strengthened) by different cultures and through generations and thousands of years of practice.

I don´t want to end saying that having a label is bad. I think as people we need labels to be more organized and help us understand and draw differences. Over centuries these religious labels have become something we cannot change or remove from our societies.

But I do want to challenge us all, with whatever label we wear, to think about what James and Jesus tell us. James and Jesus don´t put labels on people. James and Jesus encourage us, in the present moment and always, to live a life of love towards those around us. Your attitudes and actions are what are acceptable to God, not wearing the right shirt or saying you are Mac or Windows, Yankees or Phillies, gringo or catracho, Christian or Buddhist.

Do you love the people around you? Don´t look at your label, look at your actions.

like college again

I´m generally over the college thing. I was thinking about it a couple weeks ago, and I graduated more than 2 years ago. I worked in the States, and now I´ve been working and volunteering in Honduras... and UMass feels worlds away. I´m married, I have an apartment, I live on Roatan, I work and go to the store and buy food- and it´s good.

I mean, college life was great. I could go to the dining hall, no worries about cooking, not much cleaning, just homework and chilling with people. I practiced a lot and hung out with friends a lot, and in the end I read a lot of books and thought about going to seminary.

The good life, right? I did miss it a little while, but I feel good being out. Lots of days I do itch to get to the States and find a ¨stable¨ job to settle down. That´s partly a cultural thing I still have, I think America beckons us to keep moving forward, and the next thing is to move is to get a career, settle down, and start a family.

I´m not saying I need to do the next thing, but lots of days I am starting to miss the States. I miss family, friends, church, things to do... I´m starting to feel the urge to go back. It´s almost 2 years I´ve been here now (home for a month last December), and I won´t be back in December this year. I am starting to think about goals and things I want to do when I get there though.

Anyway, I´ll get there. The visa for Dulce will work out and we´ll get there. One thing I did miss about college but don´t have to anymore is hanging out at a coffee shop. Yes, I was totally a Starbucks guy, spending quite a bit of time there my last year or two of college. That´s why I started drinking coffee instead of hot chocolate, it costs half as much, and I bought a lot of it. Oh the days of being a broke college student, hahaha.

Well something exciting happened last week- they opened Expresso Americano near our apartment. Expresso Americano is the Latin American ¨Starbucks,¨ and it is good. Great coffee, chill environment, a nice place to spend an afternoon.

So that´s where Dulce and I are chilling today. Do I feel like I´m in college again... a little bit. Although, it is harder to pay attention and write when every minute or two someone (Dulce or someone else in the shop) interrupts in Spanish. I can continue writing pretty coherently if people interrupt me in English, but the whole switching languages thing is tougher. Lots of times it is Dulce... Hondurans don´t quite get the ¨I´m blogging and need the time to think¨ thing. She said it was fine if I write and that she´d study English- but it hasn´t happened yet. Hahaha.

So, being a little random here, I feel like I better stop. But- life is good, I´ve spent almost 2 hours in a coffee shop, great coffee, relaxing with Dulce, and enjoying life. Remember- trying to enjoy every minute of it. I promise that next time I won´t write while I´m having Spanish conversations so I make a little more since. Until then, peace.

teacher devotion - part 2

So we´ve talked and discussed seeing the Kingdom of God, and I think that´s the first important part. Then, after we notice it, after we change and think differently, we can take another big step. When we see God´s Kingdom growing all around us, we can take part and help it grow too. We can share that love that we have been given, the small miracles we see in our daily lives.

We can help spread God´s Kingdom and share it with other people. Now some people would call that ¨evangelism,¨ but I don´t really like that word. To me evangelism means that we pass out tracks or tell people that they are bad and sinners… and I feel like neither of those things helps to spread the Kingdom of God. You can´t really get excited about it, you know? But seeing God in little miracles and acts of love every day – the Kingdom of God can really change minds and hearts.

Jesus directed His disciples: Matthew 10:7 and 8
¨As you go, preach this message: `The kingdom of Heaven is near.´ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.¨

How is this ministry and these instructions different than a lot of ¨I can save you¨ evangelism that we see today?

Freely you have received, freely give. Show the people around you God´s Kingdom, help them notice it too. For some people, that might be listening to their problems, for others giving them specialized attention, some people need a blanket, or to visit a doctor, a hand carrying a load of groceries, or a hug…

We notice God´s Kingdom in little acts of love, moments of beauty, daily miracles in this mess… and I wonder what little things we can do to give to people who need a glimpse of the Kingdom in their life. Not hear how bad they are, or receive a booklet with smiley-face Jesus that they maybe aren´t even able to read. To experience the Kingdom.

I think it is a daily challenge to see the Kingdom of God, and then to share it with others. But I also know that if we take the time to do it, it can change our lives and the lives of others around us.

teacher devotion - part 1

I said I wanted to share a devotion I gave for teacher´s yesterday, so here is the first half. I hope you enjoy!

So I´ve been thinking more about the Kingdom of God, I think it´s something that is good for everyone to think about from time to time. I wanted to start by sharing and reflecting on a couple parables…

Matthew 13:33
¨He told them still another parable: `The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.´¨

Mark 4:26-29
¨He also said, `This is what the Kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain-first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.´¨

These both talk about ¨The Kingdom of God,¨ what do you think Jesus is trying to teach these people?

What I would like to focus on is that this Kingdom Jesus is speaking about is growing, advancing, and present here, now. Lots of times we all get caught up in our busy schedules, exams, grades, parent meetings, friends, money, stuff to do… and we miss this Kingdom, God´s presence, that is all around us.

We can go to church on Sunday, we can do Bible study once a week, we can pray before 3 meals a day – but in the rest of our lives we get consumed by our world, and it is a busy, messy one.
But that isn´t what Jesus said. Look at these two parables we started with… they are about God´s Kingdom and it is growing now, all around us, whether we notice it or not. Listen to these 2 more thoughts that Jesus gave His followers about the Kingdom:

Matthew 4:17 (remember this is His 1st message to a crowd of people in Matthew)
From that time on Jesus began to preach, ¨Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven is near.¨

Luke 17:20 and 21
Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, ¨The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation (the Spanish translation here says `cannot be submitted to calculations´), nor will people say, `Here is is´ or `There it is,´ because the kingdom of God is within you.¨

What does this tell us about Jesus´ perception of the Kingdom of God?

I´d like to focus on His thoughts to repent, change, think different - don´t worry about calculations or theories and right and wrong… NOTICE AND LIVE IN GOD´S KINGDOM, HERE AND NOW.

I wanted to share an example. I see the Kingdom of God in this moment because here we are, a great group of colleagues, sitting around after a long week of work, sharing good time, thinking about God, in English and in Spanish.

I mean, I know we all went to go home, it´s Friday! And they just paid us… we´re going out to eat! But if we take a deep breath and 30 minutes to enjoy the company of other people sharing God´s journey? It´s actually pretty cool to think about, we all play different roles in school, but we have a lot of the same goals. We have a lot of the same struggles, we have a lot of the same beliefs.

I mean, what an opportunity to share time with a great group of people. To hear the perspectives of others, to share our own, and to journey together.

That´s the Kingdom of God… isn´t it amazing that He has brought us from all over to share this little bit of the journey, here and now? We can see God´s love for us here and in so many other places if we just open our eyes and look.

Can anyone else share thoughts about seeing God´s Kingdom and presence around us?
For sure there is also a lot of brokenness around us. In school, in our neighborhood, probably in our apartments, maybe in our families that we are far away from, in some friends´ lives – the world is full of brokenness.

But in the middle of this mess, the busyness, the brokenness, we can open our eyes to God´s Kingdom too. It is working and growing all around us, like the yeast or the growing tree.