Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Jimmy MacDonald On The Morn' Of Gay Marriages

Jimmy MacDonaldThis post was started quite some time ago after the airing of the final "Jimmy MacDonald's Canada" on CBC. There were 6 or 8 programs aired and they showed Jimmy getting more and more 'prudish' and pissed with what he saw going on in Canada.
I apologise for not finishing this sooner, but I actually took pen to paper to write the original and it has taken this long to get around to typing it out.

We are mocked publicly. On our own nation's channel, touting what is supposed to be our own Canadian view. Yet all we are presented with is a "mockumentary" of a ultraconservative view of sex. I cannot help but wonder if Mr. Martin's Canada would have aired this particular episode had his morally slanted legislation failed to pass. Some may say that I am going over the top here, but as a Canadian Christian I am tired of it. Tired of the thinly veiled mockery. I say let the lines be drawn and the arms be taken up. Now, for shit's sake, don't be thinking I am talking about AK47's at dawn or even open spewing of rants against homosexuals and others. This is about the passion which filled Phinehas' soul when he pinned the Israelite and Midianite woman together with his spear.
Have we forgotten this passion!! Again I say, for shit's sake this is not about violence in the flesh, but it is most assuredly about kicking some spiritual ass instead of taking it up the C-38. Have we forgotten the prisoners? Have we forgotten the war in exchange for pronouncing a misplaced peace? Do we say peace to the sin so that the sinner may be received, or do we kick sin's teeth in to free the captive? Remember that after Christ finished cleaning house with the pharisees that His apostles laid siege to the Gentiles giving them the same message of personal change (to put it lightly). We are so busy calling passion 'religion' that we have forgotten the purity with which our hearts were branded at the start. Perhaps the tip of Phinehas' javelin lies near our heart and it is easier to turn it aside in a mockery of holiness than to allow it to run us through, pinning us to the ground with our notions of love.
Now, before you go off thinking I am some superspiritual, always saved, overchurched, prude please understand this is so far from the truth. I have run in the night which casts its shadows on my heels. I have made my deals with the devil in the torment of loneliness. I have cried war on the heavens of brass. I have not forgotten.
What I remember most is the intolerable weight which finally crushed me. It wasn't easy love, which was offered at times. It wasn't an easy out which always slammed shut in the end. It was an offer of a place to lie down; finally. A place to stretch out in peace. A point of finally receiving the nails that would keep me there. It was a view of the sky that received my Christ from a bloody cross. The weight I had felt all along was love and mercy, and it ceaselessly crushed me till I allowed the nails to plunge through my flesh.
Let us never pray off the weight of the sweet cross of Christ.
cross_2
Let us never stop the blow of the hammer. Let us never turn aside the blows of the scourge. Let us never fail to be at the tomb to unwind the graveclothes. Let us never fear to let them fall.

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Times They Are A-Changin'

Well it has been over a year since our return to Canada from China and the time of transition is not even nearly over. It is something that we thought would be simple and not nearly so profound. We also thought that we would be prepared for what we are facing. Not so.
There was an initial and ongoing culture shock which has been hard to explain to most people without causing some offence or another. This, all unintentionally of course. This has shown us how deeply our time and experience affected us. I don't think there is a dream or longing that has not been altered, shelved or just outrightly deleted in our lives. Some of those things God had to let us actually have so that we could see that it was not what we wanted. In some ways this is helping us fit in more and in others it is leading to more separation, it all depends on which group you talk to.
Our guess is that, just like Neo, there is a splinter in our minds which can drive us mad if we let it. We know where we are heading, but we have no idea how or when. Like a bus ride through a strange city to see a concert by your favourite band.
So now we live in the tension of it and continue to prepare and trust. It is so fun and yet so frightening at the same time.
I am purposely keeping this vague because those who know what's up will be able to read between the lines and for those who don't, I don't want them to get pinched between them.

Monday, October 03, 2005

Cat Lovers Only


DSC_1278, originally uploaded by junku.

If you love cats you've gotta check out this guy's slide show. lol

Sunday, October 02, 2005

Saturday, October 01, 2005

Fast Tracking

It has been a while since I have posted anything here and for the few who travel this way I apologise for disappearing with no forewarning. My wife and I decided to do an entertainment fast for ten days and that included blogging. At the end of it I don't know what scared me more, my food-like craving for a screen or the fact that I felt that the fast should end. Either one should be a red flag.
One of the things I took away from our time in China was the simple life I saw many people living. As I walked the streets at night I saw whole families out on the sidewalk just hanging with their community. It was partly because it was too freakin' hot to be in the shacks they were living in, but it was mostly because without all the clutter that fills our lives they found each other. I have seen numerous posts regarding the impersonal nature of our communication, even blogging, or maybe most especially blogging. There are communities out there who break out of their chairs and actually interact beyond the screens, but these seem to be the exceptions.
It boggles my mind to think of how alone we have become in a world so full of communications. How I can be so surrounded by people I can't touch. TV shows showing me people all over the world, some of them even claiming to be showing me reality. iPods, podcasts, headphones, wireless, waves of people singing and playing from a million miles away. Kind of interesting that this stuff is normally recorded in an isolation booth. Gives me a deep appreciation of the guitar toting minstrels who graced our living room over the years; thanks one and all. Blogs from bloggers who are so techno-terrified that we can't even share our real names for fear. For all our bold talk we really are scared inside, aren't we?
So how do I overcome this insane drive for entertainment and screens; the deadly desire to impose the life I live in my own head on others? It crossed my mind that if I do fully unplug that I will become a distraction for those who are still plugged in, and in this increasingly wired world, become even more alone. Hmmm
P.S. This was posted by Brad Koop (Hi there)