Shalom!
It's of interest to me how Millard Fuller turned his life around and about, as well as how he chose to be buried.
www.koinoniapartners.org/
Fuller got his idea for Habitat for Humanity from the housing work done at Koinonia. What Christians do does matter!
And, in addition, Koinonia sells the best chocolate products!
Additional info from Habitat: http://www.habitat.org/how/millard_feb2009.aspx
Shalom!
dave
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
The Grand Slam
Shalom!
Well, Spouse and I ate breakfast at Denny's yesterday, right along with hundreds of our newest friends. See http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/03/news/companies/dennys_breakfast.fortune/index.htm .
So we "splurged" and she had a cup of tea and I a cup of coffee. Did you know that each drink is $1.80 now? No wonder we usually have just water. Anyway, our free breakfast only cost $8--four for the two drinks (I didn't wait for any change) and four for the tip for our busy but pleasant waitperson. (That works out to about a good tip for the usual bill. No sense in shorting the waitperson because the company had a promotion.)
So I looked around. Folks were pretty happy given the free breakfast. There were several single adults with children. There were some families with several young children. I suppose it was a good way to have a "treat" for the whole family without paying too much. There were a lot of laborers in for a snack and out for the work load remaining. I didn't see a lot of older folks, and I didn't see persons that were "apparently" homeless. They would have had to travel some to get to the location where we ate.
The article cited above suggests that this was a great success for Denny's. They hope to capture or recapture market share with this promotion, and if enough of us paid for drinks, perhaps the "breakfast food" might pay for itself. Good deal all around!
Grace. I thought about grace. Here's a business in business to make money inviting everybody to come in for a free breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, and pancakes. (Spouse saved part of her breakfast for later; I ate the whole thing; we went walking afterwards.) People responded well to the gracious invitation. Hunger? Value? Freebie? Just checking? I don't know.
What happened at this one Denny's, however, was that people waited patiently and spoke with one another. One young man came out to catch us before we left. We had come in and found the lobby jammed; he came out to tell us it would be just a short wait and he had heard it was worth the wait. People were smiling. People were grateful for this offer on the part of the restaurant. People were wondering out loud just how Denny's could do it and would it help them. The article suggests that it may help: giving away free meals may help business!
Do we in the Church offer gracious invitations to our free meals? (Do some churches continue to have high-priced communion?) When folks come, do they find smiles and conversation? Is the service friendly and good? Is the food nourishing? Do guests wonder how we can do it in the church? Do we share the secret: it's grace!
Shalom!
dave
Well, Spouse and I ate breakfast at Denny's yesterday, right along with hundreds of our newest friends. See http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/03/news/companies/dennys_breakfast.fortune/index.htm .
So we "splurged" and she had a cup of tea and I a cup of coffee. Did you know that each drink is $1.80 now? No wonder we usually have just water. Anyway, our free breakfast only cost $8--four for the two drinks (I didn't wait for any change) and four for the tip for our busy but pleasant waitperson. (That works out to about a good tip for the usual bill. No sense in shorting the waitperson because the company had a promotion.)
So I looked around. Folks were pretty happy given the free breakfast. There were several single adults with children. There were some families with several young children. I suppose it was a good way to have a "treat" for the whole family without paying too much. There were a lot of laborers in for a snack and out for the work load remaining. I didn't see a lot of older folks, and I didn't see persons that were "apparently" homeless. They would have had to travel some to get to the location where we ate.
The article cited above suggests that this was a great success for Denny's. They hope to capture or recapture market share with this promotion, and if enough of us paid for drinks, perhaps the "breakfast food" might pay for itself. Good deal all around!
Grace. I thought about grace. Here's a business in business to make money inviting everybody to come in for a free breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, and pancakes. (Spouse saved part of her breakfast for later; I ate the whole thing; we went walking afterwards.) People responded well to the gracious invitation. Hunger? Value? Freebie? Just checking? I don't know.
What happened at this one Denny's, however, was that people waited patiently and spoke with one another. One young man came out to catch us before we left. We had come in and found the lobby jammed; he came out to tell us it would be just a short wait and he had heard it was worth the wait. People were smiling. People were grateful for this offer on the part of the restaurant. People were wondering out loud just how Denny's could do it and would it help them. The article suggests that it may help: giving away free meals may help business!
Do we in the Church offer gracious invitations to our free meals? (Do some churches continue to have high-priced communion?) When folks come, do they find smiles and conversation? Is the service friendly and good? Is the food nourishing? Do guests wonder how we can do it in the church? Do we share the secret: it's grace!
Shalom!
dave
Monday, February 2, 2009
Parker Palmer's "The Broken-Open Heart"
Shalom!
Got my copy of the March/April WEAVINGS the other day. The issue offers insights from and about the work of Parker Palmer at the Center for Courage and Renewal. In his intro to the theme, editor John Mogabgab writes this interesting line: "The uncontainable energy of God's desire for life in abundance topples the tidy logic that governs our days."
The first article is Parker Palmer's "The Broken-Open Heart: Living with Faith and Hope in the Tragic Gap." He begins the article with some comments that I really appreciate--so much so that I share them. I'm a bit uncomfortable with his phrase "primitive brain," but it sheds light on some things I've been thinking about lately.
On the long list of hopes that have driven our ancient and unfinished project called "becoming civilized," overcoming the tyranny of the primitive brain is surely at or near the top. No one who aspires to become fully human can let the primitive brain have its way, least of all Christians who aspire to a gospel way of life.
When the primitive brain dominates, Christianity goes over to the dark side. Churches self-destruct over doctrinal differences, forgetting that their first calling is to love one another. Parishioners flock to preachers who see the anti-Christ in people who do not believe as they do. Christian voters support politicians who use God's name to justify ignoble and often violent agendas. When the primitive brain is in charge, humility, compassion, forgiveness, and the vision of a beloved community do not stand a chance.
The primitive brain contains the hardwiring for the infamous "fight or flight" reflex that helps other species survive but can diminish, even destroy, human beings. The moment we sense danger, real or imagined, that hardwiring induces a state of tension that we want to resolve right now, either by eliminating its source or by removing ourselves from its reach. That's a good thing when you are about to be attacked by a tiger or hit by a bus. It is a very bad thing when you are dealing with an attitudinal teenager, an idea that threatens some taken-for-granted belief, the challenge of racial or religious "otherness," or a local or global conflict that would best be resolved non-violently.
Unfortunately, the fight or flight reflex runs so deep that resisting it is like trying to keep your foot from jumping when the doctor taps your patellar tendon. But against all odds, resisting is has been key to the project called civilization ever since we climbed down from the trees. Learning how to hold life's tensions in the responsive heart instead of the reactive primitive brain is key to personal, social, and cultural creativity: rightly held, those tensions can open us to new thoughts, relationships, and possibilities that disappear when we try to flee from or destroy their source.
He goes on to list several "cultural inventions" which help us hold the tension. Among them are language, the arts, education, and religion. Palmer quotes a most wonderful Hasidic tale about the need for our hearts to be opened, and he quotes "the Sufi master Hazrat Inayat Khan: "God breaks the heart open again and again and again until it stays open.'"
"In Christian tradition, the broken-open heart is virtually indistinguishable from the image of the cross."
Great article. I recommend reading your copy of WEAVINGS or finding someone who gets it and will share it. ISTM that with our Wesleyan emphasis on the warm heart, we should have an inside track on what it means to live life today with a "broken-open" heart!
Shalom!
dave
(Posted also at Holy Leftovers and 7Villages)
Got my copy of the March/April WEAVINGS the other day. The issue offers insights from and about the work of Parker Palmer at the Center for Courage and Renewal. In his intro to the theme, editor John Mogabgab writes this interesting line: "The uncontainable energy of God's desire for life in abundance topples the tidy logic that governs our days."
The first article is Parker Palmer's "The Broken-Open Heart: Living with Faith and Hope in the Tragic Gap." He begins the article with some comments that I really appreciate--so much so that I share them. I'm a bit uncomfortable with his phrase "primitive brain," but it sheds light on some things I've been thinking about lately.
On the long list of hopes that have driven our ancient and unfinished project called "becoming civilized," overcoming the tyranny of the primitive brain is surely at or near the top. No one who aspires to become fully human can let the primitive brain have its way, least of all Christians who aspire to a gospel way of life.
When the primitive brain dominates, Christianity goes over to the dark side. Churches self-destruct over doctrinal differences, forgetting that their first calling is to love one another. Parishioners flock to preachers who see the anti-Christ in people who do not believe as they do. Christian voters support politicians who use God's name to justify ignoble and often violent agendas. When the primitive brain is in charge, humility, compassion, forgiveness, and the vision of a beloved community do not stand a chance.
The primitive brain contains the hardwiring for the infamous "fight or flight" reflex that helps other species survive but can diminish, even destroy, human beings. The moment we sense danger, real or imagined, that hardwiring induces a state of tension that we want to resolve right now, either by eliminating its source or by removing ourselves from its reach. That's a good thing when you are about to be attacked by a tiger or hit by a bus. It is a very bad thing when you are dealing with an attitudinal teenager, an idea that threatens some taken-for-granted belief, the challenge of racial or religious "otherness," or a local or global conflict that would best be resolved non-violently.
Unfortunately, the fight or flight reflex runs so deep that resisting it is like trying to keep your foot from jumping when the doctor taps your patellar tendon. But against all odds, resisting is has been key to the project called civilization ever since we climbed down from the trees. Learning how to hold life's tensions in the responsive heart instead of the reactive primitive brain is key to personal, social, and cultural creativity: rightly held, those tensions can open us to new thoughts, relationships, and possibilities that disappear when we try to flee from or destroy their source.
He goes on to list several "cultural inventions" which help us hold the tension. Among them are language, the arts, education, and religion. Palmer quotes a most wonderful Hasidic tale about the need for our hearts to be opened, and he quotes "the Sufi master Hazrat Inayat Khan: "God breaks the heart open again and again and again until it stays open.'"
"In Christian tradition, the broken-open heart is virtually indistinguishable from the image of the cross."
Great article. I recommend reading your copy of WEAVINGS or finding someone who gets it and will share it. ISTM that with our Wesleyan emphasis on the warm heart, we should have an inside track on what it means to live life today with a "broken-open" heart!
Shalom!
dave
(Posted also at Holy Leftovers and 7Villages)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
