A Now Future

I will be leaving Denver today at approximately 3:15 PM Mountain Time. And--Lord Willing--I will travel with my group to Atlanta, and then to Tel Aviv, Israel. Thus, we will begin our Journey of Understanding (see my previous blog for an explanation).

I anticipate the next ten days to be a whirlwind of activity, intensity, deep learning, soul-searching, discomfort, and memories. As I write this, I am not completely packed, though I have the list all checked off. All of this is so surreal.

For weeks, I have glanced into the future, eyeing the upcoming trip into Israel/Palestine. For weeks I have learned the foundation of the conflict there. The foundation is Cerberean; each head of the conflict (Religious, Historical, Cultural) is connected at the shoulders, but lives with its own ferocity. I was mindful of the people in Israel, though I hadn't met them yet. Especially after I read a book about the Israeli and Palestinian church by Brother Andrew called Light Force. It has been a gradual education, with none coming from experience, until now.

As I looked into the future, I always snapped myself back into the present, for I still had homework, and the musical, and soccer, and baseball. One by one each of those activities was completed. I have arrived at the event I have been planning and fundraising for six months. The future is now.

I felt the same before the New Zealand trip. Is this really happening? What is God going to do? How are my expectations going to be shattered? What are we going to learn about people? How are we going to change? What stories am I going to have? I have all these, and I may still have these questions when I return. Thank you for listening, and pray for us.

Forgetful me

I am currently reading The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. It is waking me up.

Caring for the marginalized, the lesser, the wronged in any circumstance comes innate to me. Some of this comes from my days in elementary school when I got picked on, some of it comes from the incessant repetition of losing soccer seasons. Sounds weak, but I know that identification with the oppressed is a unique theme in my life. I forget this theme sometimes because

1. I am a broken human being.

2. I am wealthy compared to the rest of the world

3. I go to school in a wealthy neighborhood with economically well-off students.

So I am naturally insulated from the poor. A bad thing if I dare call myself a "Christian."

The Irresistible Revolution has convicted, and then reinvigorated me to pursue the "least of these" in Denver, when I go to Israel, and then beyond until the end of my days. That is why for this month's quote, I choose a statement not written by Claiborne himself, but one that he referenced in his book.

"The true atheist is the one who denies God's image in the least of these."

-Dorothy Day

Forgets could be placed instead of denies. We must always remember the way Christ lived his life, if we are going to live in such a materialistic, sterilized culture. If we remember Jesus, we are bound to remember the poor.

How do I write?

I will be honest, I don't actually know what to write sometimes on these blogs. I feel torn between writing emotive essays off the cuff, or placing a lot of time and energy to craft every blog. On one hand, I feel self-centered and solipsistic if I continue to write just about myself all the time. Yet if I place so much energy, so much consciousness into every essay, will it be real. Will it reflect who I am? So I think I am going to begin putting in entries that I have already written in a journal that I own. I used this journal when I spent six months in New Zealand, I wrote in it when I got back, and I intend to put it to good use during the Israel trip. The essays in there are raw, honest outpourings of my spirit. Some is written in poetry, some in prose.

Now for anyone who is wondering if I'm going to write with less emotion now in my journal, I do admit that I am not putting everything from my journal onto here. Therefore, my journal will maintain an authentic essence, while my blog will still reflect a summary of my feelings, insights, prayers etc... Please feel free to comment on anything.

Small Arms Trafficking

I've included a link on the bottom of the blog that leads to sites concerning the illicit trafficking of small arms. I encourage a visitation by one and all.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a research paper that delved into some of the grim facts of the small arms trade. By the way, a small arm is not a miniature limb, but is defined as a weapon that can be used by one or two people or mounted on a vehicle. The easy accessibility of weapons like this, plus the explosion of globalization in the last fifteen or so years has quickly distributed lethal weapons all over the globe with little to none international tracking efforts. It is the AK-47s that are used by children in the ethnic cleansings in Africa, it is those small rockets and bazookas used in the Middle East by Jihadist groups. One site calls them the real Weapons of Mass Destruction.

What makes all of this even more unjust, is the level of media the United States has given to this problem: nothing. While I was researching on the Internet, I found nothing in the major magazine or television archives concerning the black market trade of small arms. Granted, I didn't pay the money to become a member of the archive club, and thus have access to everything, but if an issue like this was considered with authentic and deserved importance, I wouldn't need to pay that money.

Now I desire to avoid the ridiculous nature of a conspiracy theorist, but this lack of attention to this issue is startling, especially when the statistics show that the US is one of the main importers and exporters of light weapons. The United States must lead the way in organizing and limiting trade of small arms. The only way we can stem this quiet crisis is to get educated. Otherwise, we create our own problem through the continued distribution of small arms and weapons.

An inspired inkling

A discovery of the enormous breadth contained in the human experience is a staggering event, but is only part of the journey to discover humility in the midst of the human experience. For in the revelation of our own insignificance to the revolution of Earth, we find incalculable grace in the Author who dares to recognize each of us as individual characters in His Story, and the indescribable love He expresses when He empowers us to become significant again together.

Dead Men Whisper

I just added a new feature on my blog obviously called "Quote of the Month". I am one of those people completely intrigued in the power of a single quote. There must be something remarkable in a masterfully assembled sentence that makes people remember it.

Just as the title says, the quote will be changed monthly, each one attempting to summon a thought, any inkling of depth, into the minds of the reader. If you wish to see a quote from a month past, simply click on "Quotes" in the blog archive and all my postings concerning the quote and my thoughts upon it can be found. Usually, the quote has come from a book I have read, as does the first "quote of the month." Charles Dickens wrote the following in his emotionally prisoning story, Oliver Twist:

"If we heard but one instant in imagination the deep testimony of dead men's voices, which no power can stifle and no pride shut out, where would be the injury and injustice, the suffering, misery, cruelty, and wrong, that each day's life brings with it?"

Oliver Twist is merciless to the mood. Charles Dickens placed perfect injustice (what a sick oxymoron) upon the poor orphan Oliver, and let the reader follow along, helplessly wallowing in misery. I see this selection as a hope for eventual justice, a want for better understanding.

Dickens himself was a consistent humanitarian, determined to improve the social conditions of London in the nineteenth century (Learning this fact while on a Dickens tour in London motivated me to read Oliver Twist). A deep theme in each story he writes is the unlimited power of redemption. Almost no other author I know has come up with such beautiful portraits of good arising out of evil circumstances.

So take that, all you Dickens haters.