Non-geographic community

Thanks to the People of Praise, non-geographic community is possible for me. I'm living a life in Shreveport, Louisiana that looks very much like the life friends of mine are living in Portland, OR, South Bend, IN, Minneapolis, MN, and even friends who are traveling to schools or jobs but still belong to PoP.

Over the past hour, I've heard a talk given by a friend in Minneapolis, played correspondence chess with a friend in Indianapolis, and chatted with a friend in South Bend. Glory! Technology knitting the world together.

The New Paradigm: Brevity Is A Sine Qua Non

5 minutes is the most
dynamite per package
i can sling out here per day

Update after review

August has taken on the facts of my oratory from yesterday and, I must admit, some of what I wrote was posted in haste. In my moment of reveling in the life I lead in this wonderful body of people, I did not do well to ignore the stores of knowledge and experiences from outside the People of Praise that have been, and will continue to be, so helpful to us as we seek to build the Kingdom of God with one another. From masters of education, such as Mortimer Adler, much was gleaned at the beginning of the discussions to start Trinity Schools. People of Praise is also a body that has grown up with support and help from many Christians. Our foundational documents point to explicit influences such as the charismatic renewal, the Cursillo and by the Ecumenical and Liturgical Movements, and as an ecumenical community, we've obviously benefited from 2,000 years of Christian history and from many different streams of Christianity and diverse Christian traditions. Neither Trinity nor the People of Praise was started in a vacuum and I certainly don't believe I am living in a vacuum.

Here's the real point of my post from yesterday: "Look at this place! Look at these people! Look at their obedience to the Lord! Look at the sacrifices they are making! I love these people! I love this place! I want to obey the Lord! I want to pay whatever price is asked of my by the Lord!"

Thank you, August, for pointing out my over-exuberance. I'm happy to set the record straight here.

i think the triumph of freedom in Christ over the patterns of culture is the thing i like most about People of Praise.

this has occurred to me afresh lately but it's been a part of our life for, well, forever i think.

PoP has set out to start culture and community all over again from the ground up

just as with Trinity schools, we took a very good insight (for Trinity, that young people need to be taught things to do well in life) and we took nothing from the current instantiations of secondary education that were out there

in fact, we've only altered that model to better compete and influence the scholastic world's flawed systems (eg. grading changes and capital campaigns)

likewise, with culture we've taken the stance that what really matters is Christ and what really matters about Christ is that he wants all things to be one in him

that means that we need to strive to be one with one another as Christ is one with us and share our lives (read: hopes, dreams, aspirations, work, play) as he shares his life (read: hopes, dreams, aspirations, work, play) with us

to do that well, we do not need to pare away the poor state of the world's cultures; we need a whole new culture

we need a culture where property equally declares the individual and the group into the world

we need a culture where experiences are shared freely and yet regulated by right speech patterns

we need a culture where men and women are not simply "dating" or "ready to date" but first and foremost brothers and sisters to one another in Christ.

we need purposeful, fulfilling lives for people with full-time jobs (eg. parents, young singles) and people without full-time jobs (eg. kids, students, missionaries, retired people)

and those lives need to be intertwined and share relevance within the community

so we build it. we borrow very little and invent almost everything

we do what Jesus is doing, the way he does it, with him

he is our king, and he calls us his friends. it's his world and he invites us to share in its rule by working with us to create a society that, with his power, his love, his cross, can govern and nurture the universe

To serve as Jesus served

I think that Jesus often lead with his service. He served people as a way of opening their eyes and rescuing their lives. When he washes the disciples' feet he tells them that they must serve one another like this. He prays all night after preaching all day, losing sleep but gaining insight and saving souls. He calms storms right after he wakes up.

Last Friday I seized an opportunity to save a woman's life. I heard shouting outside my store and looked out to see a woman stumbling along the road shouting at anything and everything. She was draped in a shirt and jacket, had stocking hat on to combat the 30 degree weather but was only wearing slippers. I saw her lose one of those briefly and then go back to retrieve it.

I was not sure what to do about her for a while. At first she seemed to have no real aim, just spouting off and venting. But I kept my eye on her and realized after a while that she was starting to work herself to step in front of one of the cars racing off the exit ramp for the freeway that runs a few yards from the store. She stepped off the curb just as one cruised up and screamed at the car as it braked and swerved around her.

I knew the Lord wanted this woman to live and I did too. I left the store and strode down the sidewalk across the street from her, telling her to come over to my side. She told me to leave her alone. She cussed me out. I looked both ways and jogged across to her. She sat down on the guardrail which ran about one foot from the curb and separated the roadway from a steep ravine with a 30 foot drop a yard beyond it.

I asked her to come with me inside and get warm. She said no one loved her and she wanted to die. I said that Jesus loved her and I loved her. She told me to get away from her and leave her alone. I said I really did and I didn't want her to die. She said she tried to kill herself many times and showed me her wrists.

I asked if there was anyone I could call. She gave me her sister's number and said she wouldn't answer. I dialed it as a cop pulled up. As cars drove between the cop on one side and me and her and the guardrail on the other, I shouted to him that I was calling her sister. She didn't pick up. I left her a message, told her that I was with her sister and that she needed her.

I told that cop that I worked the store just over there and I could take her with me. I turned to her and said "Do you want to come with me?" and she said yes. The cop said, "That's fine with me if it's fine with you". It was. She came with me; I held her wrist as she sobbed and told me how terrible her life had been. She could not win the fight against alcohol to keep walking a straight line without my hand on her wrist. As we walked she stopped weeping long enough to ask "What's your name?" I said "Josh" she said "Thank you Josh" and I got some of my treasure on earth.

That was the Lord. That was me. That was the Lord. I don't know that there's a more true way for me to think about it.

Frustrations abound

When you can't plan because customers can't make up there minds and then 1.5 hours later you've totally lost track of where you were going with your day and then you find out that there's been several hitches in the plans you already made and you have to go run a long errand only to find out that you're going to have to run it again.... how to do you get to sleep?

I'll tell you. you have dinner with your best friends. you talk about their days, tell them about yours, realize that everyone at work actually learned a lot that they needed to learn today.

you let it go a little. then you plan to talk to more guys, see if their interested in joining you in your work.

hours before you were wondering how anyone thought you'd be any good at training people and here you are trying to find ways to get more people.

the you turn on some good music, find a good blog, take it in. write your own. read some comics. tell the Lord all about it. *(hint: it's good to do this more often)

What more can I do?

I often wonder. Where are the spare minutes in my day? What am I thinking about that is not worth thinking about? How could I get from bed to work with less time used? Can I plan more and get more done or will planning take up more time than it's worth?

Every day brings new evidence to the table. I find something new to do and strike something from the old to-do list. I take stuff out of my calendar and add new stuff.

What can I do for the Lord? What am I doing that is slowing him down? (I'm pretty sure there's no middle ground here)