Tall Monastic Guy

2 Readings

Two readings for me from this morning... To be read slowly and probably a few times through.

Twitter of Faith

Twitter is a social networking tool in which you post your status in 140 characters or less. This Twitter of Faith thing was an idea started by emergent blogger pioneer, Adam Walker-Cleveland. I thought it was a great idea and challenge to be able to give your statement of faith in 140 characters or less. You can see Adam's original post here. That will tell you how to participate if you so choose. 

And here's my Twitter of Faith:

ryanctaylor: The One Triune God has invited all to participate in his redemptive justice & love through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus #TOF

Even if you don't participate in the twitter experiment, I'd love to hear YOUR statement of faith in 140 characters or less. 

Advent Conspiracy Promo Video

That's 450 BILLION.

bullets

• Helped coach the middle school girls team last afternoon. I walk over thinking about offenses and quick feet drills but upon arriving I learned that the only reason some of these girls are in the gym is due to their parents wanting them to stay away from home as much as possible. I told them they need to be working on some basic ball handling drills at home and then I asked, “How many of you have basketballs at home?” -about half of them raised their hands. Yikes. We’re not in Indiana anymore, Toto. When we started practice the girls brought all the available basketballs out of the locker room… most of them were flat, so before we got underway, I had to search for a pump. I’m thankful for all the recent opportunities to serve there even if it doesn't look the way I had hoped. May God grant me an attitude that would reveal his redemptive grace and love. 

 

• Last year I wrote a post called Jenga Theology in regards to how our attempts at orthodoxy can feel a lot like playing the game of Jenga. The analogy was revisited last week in two separate conversations with friends who are wrestling through theological tensions. We talked about how our life is about knocking out blocks we once believed to be orthodox, attempting to replace some after re-considering, and watching the theological tower fall and starting all over again. And again and again. I found the following C.S. Lewis quote last week that fits this pursuit,

My idea of God is not a divine Idea. It has to be shattered time after time. He shatters it Himself. He is the great iconoclast. Could we not almost say that this shattering is one of the marks of His presence… all reality is iconoclastic. From "A Grief Observed"

 

• JP rolled over last week. Angie and I were out of the room and didn't get to actually witness it. But he was on his belly and a couple minutes later was somehow on his back.

 

• I’m still looking for a job. I’m not a big fan of job hunting. I'm usually shown just how little I trust in God in seasons like these. I don't like what is currently being exposed, but I suppose it's been a necessary part of me becoming what he is making of me. In the mean time, I've been helping my friend, Jarrod, who owns a business that maintains foreclosed homes. It's very sexy work. I go in and take a bunch of pictures to prove to the bank that we've been there and I make sure things are clean and orderly and that there are three air fresheners.     
• The Hoosiers have a perfect record so far this season.   

Branding vs. Being

In my previous post I linked an article that explains the hipster lifestyle, an entire sub-culture devoted to relevance to what is most hip, non-mainstream, and cool today. Tomorrow may likely require hipsters to change their brand of cigarette, shoes, or hair style and the sad thing is they won’t think twice about it. It is an entire culture whose dreams and imaginations are held captive to the systems of consumerism and the plastic rewards of relevance.

I linked the hipster article because I think they are a good representation for an entire western culture’s misguided notion of what it means to possess a validated and meaningful identity. Creating an identity in today’s culture involves the sought after craft of smart branding. Like Tyler Durden’s quote in fight Club, “What dining set defines me as a person.” For me, “what style, theology, or design of ministry defines me as a person?”

As one often caught up in the consumeristic milieu myself, I tend to desire to create or to follow someone’s else’s carefully marketed brand.  And branding isn’t a bad thing when it comes to creating an identity for an organization, program, or idea. The concern as I’m seeing it is when a brand goes beyond identifying a product or organization and begins defining and identifying the core of a person.