Wednesday night is Family Night at the Third Space.  Starting at 5:30 and running until around 8:00, we are hosting this evening as church on Wednesdays that doesn’t look anything like church.  The intention is to come and do things together that really interest you.  There is a bicycle shop downstairs which the young guys seem to love.  We’ve played guitar hero through the projector, cleaned up the sanctuary (which was a lot of fun), built bookshelves for the library that we’ve been talking about, cooked together, eaten incredible meals together and washed the dishes.  So, if you’re interested in checking out the Third Space community, you can still come on Sunday mornings at 11:00, or you can join us on Wednesday evenings at 5:30.  Sweet deal.

Third Space, do not be anxious about anything.  Whether you call it worrying or being overly concerned, does strenuously thinking about circumstances you can’t change ever help?  All we can do it our best.  All we can do with certainty is love one another and love our creator.  Let us love and encourage each other in this faith.  Let us give the gifts of patience and grace to one another when we disagree.  Let us find joy in laughter and unity in grief.  May the good Lord shine down upon us and bless our community as we learn more, love more, and live more like him. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Michael – ‘I don’t know what to do.’

God – ‘Love.’ 

I’m finding that when it is the hardest to love, those are the most important times to lay it on thick. 

Here are some great clips that will get you in the reflective mood as we journey toward Easter. Click Here.

I’m double fisting it these days. with books that is. I usually try to avoid having more than one book on the go at a time. I don’t like to divide my attention. Usually what happens when i try to multi-task in the reading department is that i don’t end up finishing either. and that’s no good. for me. or the books. but here i am , trying it once more. And what’s interesting is that both of the books i’m reading right now are written by christians. This may seem like an un-noteworthy point of interest, but for me it’s very interesting.  In general I have a bit of an aversion, or at least a lack of interest, in books written by christians. Though i guess that’s not entirely true. Maybe it’s more that I have a lack of interest in books written by christians about “christian” things. Though there are exceptions to that statement. Like Frederick Buechner’s writing. I like that. But anyway, none of this is really meant to be the point of this entry (and if anything, I would rather it be a non-point, because it’s nothing that I am interested in defending or explaining…). Still, it is significant to ME that both of these books are by Christians and are both about faith/spiritual issues. okay, moving on…

The first book I am reading is The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. I have heard lots about this book for quite a while now. One of those books that a lot of people have told me to read. And enough of those people were people whose taste in books I trust, that I was keen to give it a go. As part of my reading experience, I am participating in a study/discussion group of this book at St. John’s Anglican church. Which is good. We eat dinner. We talk. We listen. We try to figure out what it means to live simply. generously. justly. in community. This book raises a lot of big questions in me. And i find myself thinking a lot about the idea of simple living. About how much stuff i have accumulated in my life. And how that stuff can keep me from seeing what is really important in life. More on this in a minute…

The second book I am reading is Sex God by Rob Bell. I have also had a lot of people tell me to check this guy out, people that i trust. I have heard lots of good about his earlier book, Velvet Elvis. But Sex God is his newer one, and the tagline was pretty intriguing to me: “Exploring the endless connections between sexuality and spirituality”. That seems like something worth reading about. So I decided to give it a go.

Now all of that was the lead up to this: today these two books, that on the surface seem to be about two very different things, became overlapped for me. Because the more that i think about my life, and the stuff and the accumulation, and the distractions, and the poor, and the idea of giving what i have away, and of living with less and of loving more…the more I come back to the idea of desire. And the more that I read about and think about sexuality and lust and love and attention and relationships and struggle and feelings…the more I come back to the idea of desire.

The idea that desire is a core part of being human. That when it’s about sex or about stuff, “It’s not about getting rid of desire. It’s about giving ourselves to bigger and better and more powerful desires.”(bell, 82).

Re-directing our desires. Desiring something new. Something different. Something better. Desiring to give more than i desire to consume. Desiring to serve more than i desire to be served. It’s about wanting something badly enough. Wanting it enough to make changes. sacrifices. to be willing to become a bit uncomfortable. a lot uncomfortable.

I can really like the way “sell everything you have and give it to the poor” sounds; but until I actually desire that kind of selflessness, that kind of generosity, that kind of love MORE than I desire my stuff, my boundaries, my comforts…then nothing is really going to change.

I desire to desire that.

But I think I still have a ways to go…

To listen to some incredible audio files from Ravi Zacarias, click on some of the following links.  Check out his wiki link to learn a bit more about him before diving in too deep.

Just Thinking (15 minutes) - http://rzim.org/radio/archives.php?p=JT

Let My People Think (30 minutes) - http://rzim.org/radio/archives.php

And the wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ravi_Zacharias

Over and out.

I once knew a girl-In the years of my youth-With eyes like the summer-All beauty and truth-In the morning I fled-Left a note and it read-Someday you will be loved. 

I cannot pretend that I felt any regret-Cause each broken heart will eventually mend-As the blood runs red down the needle and thread-Someday you will be loved -You’ll be loved -you’ll be loved-Like you never have known-The memories of me-Will seem more like bad dreams-Just a series of blurs-Like I never occurred-Someday you will be loved  You may feel alone when you’re falling asleep-And everytime tears roll down your cheeks-But I know your heart belongs to someone you’ve yet to meet-Someday you will be loved You’ll be loved -you’ll be loved-Like you never have known-The memories of me-Will seem more like bad dreams-Just a series of blurs-Like I never occurred-Someday you will be loved You’ll be loved you’ll be loved-Like you never have known-The memories of me-Will seem more like bad dreams-Just a series of blurs-Like I never occurred-Someday you will be loved-Someday you will be loved

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On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun.

Does anyone know anyone that is graduating with a Biology degree this spring (specifically from April to December of 2008)?  If so, follow this link.

e five  to everyone at the the third space - thanks for making church feel like it should - open - real - challenging - delicious - communal …

this sunday felt really good, ben and dereks video, meaghan, jesus, food, hangin out, good

thank you

chris