For all times, for all places, and all people, and nothing can take it away.

This idea “hope as story” is not sourced in a human story.

It creates the circumstances by which we may endure, and serve each other.

It can be started through worship.

Wouldn’t it be cool if God was a genie, and if you rubbed him the right way you could get your wildest dreams to come true?

Or maybe he could be like the Lotto, and you could hit the Jackpot with him, and a windfall of goodies could come your way, with no trouble at all.

Or God could be like a butler with supernatural body toning and skin enhancing skills to diminish the signs of aging and flabbiness.

Ah, God, the big vending machine in the sky…

Except-God asks us to be familiar in relationship to him like a spouse. He calls us his “Beloved.” Hum… conundrum…

Is the Get God-Get Rich idea perhaps a bit immature? Near-sighted?

Anyway, God is a Being described as a Person, right? 

A friend of mine, Jon Acuff, has a hilarious post called “Secretly Believing in the Prosperity Gospel.” You’ll laugh out loud if you read it. His book, “Stuff Christians Like” is a great commentary on Christian sub-culture that will have you laughing non stop! (Especially if you were ever a preacher’s kid!)

Here are a few quotes from participants:

“All in all, one of the major things I gleaned from Brother Lawrence, was the similarity of my struggle to his battle, to get past punishing myself  for my failures and losing my focus on God. It seems that when BL finally internalized the concept of God’s grace, he realized that as soon as he saw the disconnect in his life it was foolish to waste time beating himself over it (asceticism, which could take that quite literally, especially in BL’s day!). He learned to immediately return to the position that was already his because of God’s grace, continuing in the joy of His presence.”

“I’m glad Brother Lawrence seems like such a regular guy. He prays things like “God, I can’t do this unless you help me,” and when he messes up, “God, I *always* do that, and if you don’t help me I won’t ever do better!” That I can relate to!”

“I loved that Brother Lawrence was his own man – it was just him and God becuase everyone elses ideas confused him, so he just went straight to God. It was nothing in between – he would just get up – own the difficulty and carry on!!”

“For me, Brother Lawrence broke down some of my pre-assumed barriers by helping to break the secular and sacred divide that has happened in my life. I have often thought… okay, now it’s prayer time, then work time, then church time, then social time… etc. In reality, those separations don’t exist, and it’s immensely helpful to integrate our whole lives.”

Learning exchange invitation to YOU!

Brother Lawrence-Practicing the Presence of God

For more on -Explaining “online Learning Groups”- click on the tab above called “Learning Groups-Updates”

Politics as Usual

Yes, for some of us–it’s getting depressing out there. The 10.2% unemployment rate is taking it’s toll. The number of people who are discouraged from looking for work pushes this number to over 17%.

It looks like “Change We Can Believe In” might have to be a kind of diaper change, because the whole package has gotten a bit soggy with, well, you know.

I want to encourage something that’s hard to come up with right now. Hope. Now, I Know we were offered “hope,” or having audacity of hope, about a year ago, okay more than a year ago, but I’m talking about something entirely different-A different perspective of the thing we term “hope.”

Hope really doesn’t come from someone’s promises, or vision-casting. It doesn’t come from having prosperity, or a cleaner environment. It actually comes from aligning/joining our own hope with a Hope that comes from something outside all of us.

The Source of goodness, the Source of Love, the Source of Hope itself, is not just something to pin a fragile string of our hope to, like a shinny balloon that sails into the sky, and makes us feel better.

It’s very much stronger than that. Ultimate Hope, Love, Goodness, is a person. The ideal we think of, with such things, is such because there is an origin to each one, in the first place. We wouldn’t even know about ultimate Hope, unless there was an Eternal Mind to be it, and eminent it, to begin with.

So really, our hope transcends circumstances. Good news, indeed!

And yet, we can do much to change some of our circumstances. When we are given a soggy diaper full of, you know what, we can start a change we can believe in.

Stay strong. Keep your confidence going.

Register to vote.
And remember that Hope is never truly found in a person, or circumstance.

I’m doing my final Ethics paper on Christian ethics in the work place, with a special focus on Christian business owners. 

Would you be willing to answer a few questions?

1. Do you feel you encounter more ethical dilemmas than your competitors/co-workers? 

2. How do you decide choices of right and wrong in your workplace? (what guides you, mainly? circumstances, consequences, natural law, governing rules, feelings, virtue, etc?)

3. What are some examples of ethical dilemmas that challenge you (Specifically, situations where you have to figure out what is right and wrong)?

4.Of some of the issues that have come your way, what has been the most difficult one/s, specifically? (explain why, and if you are willing, explain the outcome/decision)

Please note:

While you encounter plenty of tough choices, some will be “crisis of conscious issues” more than ethical dilemmas. A true ethical dilemma is not a tough choice between doing the right and wrong thing. It is when the right and wrong thing are difficult to determine. Things like stealing, lying, cheating, etc. in themselves, are not ethical dilemmas, because these things are already know to be wrong. (In that case, it’s not an ethical dilemma, but rather a crisis of conscious as to whether you will choice what you already know to be right.)

Thanks -
Lisa

(Feel free to leave a comment here, OR leave a comment that I should contact you, if you need privacy. No one will be mentioned by name in my paper.)

thank you!

 ”Only YOU can stop disease-We recommend you wash your hands five times before you leave our restroom.”

Okay I made that up, but signs like that could be in the restrooms soon. People have stopped shaking hands, starting wearing masks, and might die of embarrassment if they got forgetting to cough into their elbows. Life is getting strange.

When I saw this picture, it made me think that the stress of H1N1 panic, and hand washing is starting to get a bit blown out of proportion…maybe to über hyper stage. I’m thinking, maybe a cultural fetish, or neurosis?

I’m all for clean hands. It really is important for good health and hygiene. But please-be assured, even with all the hype, H1N1 is very similar to the typical flu. It spreads very easily, many will get it, and some casualties will come, but mainly to the very old and the very young, and the ill.

It all had me wondering, Do people really wash their hands after using the facilities, or just when others are looking? I found this information below, after I started looking.

Here is an interesting article from cleanlink.com. It might make you want to bring your own paper towels along too!

Survey: Handwashing Statistics and Paper Towel Preferences

In an online survey conducted this spring, 94 percent of U.S. adults said they always wash their hands after visiting a restroom. However, when asked what percentage of other people they thought washed their hands each time after using a public restroom, 99 percent of U.S. adults felt that other people don’t do so each time, and almost half (48 percent) felt that people wash their hands less than 50 percent of the time after using a restroom.

Not surprisingly, visiting a public restroom is the situation that ranks highest in terms of health and hygiene concerns for U.S. adults. Asked during which situations they would be most concerned about health and hygiene risks, adults selected:
• Visiting a public restroom, 44 percent
• Preparing food or meals, 26 percent
• Contact with other adults, 9 percent 
Other answers were: contact with babies/children, 7 percent; contact with animals, 3 percent; other, 2 percent; and not sure, 8 percent.

“Clearly people think public restrooms present a hygiene risk and claim they are washing their hands after using those restrooms,” said Mike Kapalko, Environmental and Tork Services Manager, SCA Tissue North America. “But their observations of others in public restrooms indicate that a large percentage of them are not actually doing so.”

The survey results show that most people, given a choice in a public restroom, would prefer to dry their hands with paper towels. Asked how they would prefer to dry their hands in a public restroom if they had a choice, among those who visit public restrooms: 55 percent selected paper towels followed by high velocity jet air dryer, 25 percent; hot air dryer, 16 percent; linen or cloth towel, 1 percent; and not sure, 2 percent.

The majority of respondents, 59 percent, also selected paper towels as the fastest method for drying hands, followed by: high velocity jet air dryer, 25 percent; linen or cloth towel, 8 percent; hot air dryer, 4 percent; and not sure, 4 percent.

Asked what they thought was the recommended length of time to actively wash hands with soap and water after using the restroom, 38 percent said 30 seconds and 28 percent said 20 seconds, followed by: 60 seconds, 14 percent; over 60 seconds, 8 percent; 40 seconds, 6 percent and 10 seconds, 6 percent.

‘The recommended procedure for washing hands in restrooms is to wet them, then thoroughly wash with soap for 20 seconds before rinsing off and drying them completely with a paper towel,” said Kapalko. “If faucets are not touchless, it is further recommended that the paper towel be used to shut them off to keep from re-contaminating their hands.”

The survey also asked questions to determine opinions on the most hygienic and effective ways for drying hands and reducing bacteria levels. In both cases, the opinions reflected in this poll have been disproved in a controlled experiment conducted late last year by Westminster University in London.

Asked for the most hygienic method for drying wet hands, respondents selected: high velocity jet air dryer, 41 percent; paper towel, 31 percent;  and hot air dryer, 20 percent. Not sure was selected by 6 percent and linen or cloth by 2 percent.

Asked to rate each method as extremely, very, fairly, somewhat, or not at all effective in drying hands and reducing bacteria levels,  poll respondents gave extremely or very effective ratings to::
• High velocity jet air, 65 percent of respondents
• Paper towels, 53 percent
• Hot air dryer, 50 percent
• Air drying or drip drying, 19 percent
• Linen or cloth towels, 15 percent

“These opinions giving high marks to hot air and jet air dryers are fairly widespread among consumers, but scientific research shows that paper towels are not only more hygienic and effective but that hot air and jet air dryers actually do more harm than good when it comes to reducing bacteria in public washrooms,” said Kapalko.

“Controlled experiments conducted in December 2008 by scientists at the University of Westminster found that paper towel drying reduced the average number of bacteria on the finger pads by up to 76 percent and on the palms by up to 77 percent,” Kapalko said. “By comparison, electric hand dryers actually caused bacteria counts to actually increase.”

Test results of the Westminster study showed:
• Traditional warm air dryers increased the average number of bacteria by 194 percent on the finger pads and by 254 percent on the palms.
• Jet air dryers increased the average number of bacteria on the finger pads by 42 percent and on the palms by 15 percent.

The scientists also carried out tests to establish whether there was the potential for cross contamination of other washroom users and the washroom environment as a result of each type of drying method. They found:
• The jet air dryer, which blows air out of the unit at claimed speeds of 400 mph, was capable of blowing micro-organisms from the hands and the unit and potentially contaminating other washroom users and the washroom environment up to 6.6 feet away.
• Use of a traditional warm air hand dryer spread micro-organisms up to 31.5 inches from the dryer.
• Paper towels showed no significant spread of micro-organisms.

“The Westminster results confirmed previous studies that show thorough hand drying with a paper towel is not only the most effective way to dry hands and reduce bacteria but also the most hygienic when it comes to preventing the spread of bacteria in public restrooms,” Kapalko said.

The commissioned survey was conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of the Tork brand of SCA Tissue North America and drew 2,516 U.S. adult respondents 18 or older — 46 percent male and 54 percent female.  It was conducted Feb. 26 through March 2, 2009.

working too much?

 

It seems like with too much work, we get in too little worship. Our priorities push it to the side, out of the main focus. That just our relationship with God suffers, but so do all the other ones, right?  Family, friends, and neighbors get less of us. And, what’s left over it’s really our best. Sometimes, it’s our worst. We can be frustrated, exhausted, anxious, or pre-occupied. We’ll take phone calls, instead of carving out time for them. We’ll miss meals, or events because of the demands of our high-paced work-style, which has become a full-blown life-style. Time to unwind, do nothing, or just really enjoy something like a sunset, a wonderful meal, a walk, or talk with the son or daughter, is pushed far into the margins, most of the time, overshadowed by a hectic schedule, and work, work, work.

My pastor brought this sort of thing up today. Yes, some jobs automatically come with a heap of obligations. But, when our living becomes much more about getting things done, than it is about being, in truth, we are robbing ourselves of life itself.

How fascinating that the Hebrew root word for work and worship turn out to be the SAME thing. “Avodah” This suggests that our work isn’t something different than worship, as we typically treat it. Everything we do when we work can be done as a worship practice. Work is offered as worship, and a pleasing sacrifice to God. Perhaps this way, it won’t be so much of a curse to our selves either. Maybe this way, we will make better boundaries because it is in God’s realm. He wishes for us to have abundant life, rest, peace, even as we work at our best for him.

Leave your comments, please

We all have our troubles, and our issues. We all have pain, and problems.

In American, Jesus has often been sold like a product. When there is still struggle, disappointment,and  pain, the “Jesus is the Answer,” for some people just feels like a broken promise. Maybe even, a crappy snake oil kind of product. It’s quite a consumerist mentality.

Asian depiction of Jesus painted c.1880s

 

In many parts of the world though, being a follower of Jesus means one pays dearly. Perhaps in health quality, comfort, safety, status, personal/family economics, and in quite a number of cases, with one’s life. Is Jesus still the answer? Well, in the gobal South and East more adults have willingly claimed Jesus as Savior and Lord in the last 35 years, than in ALL the last 1,500 years combined. Christianity is booming like never before worldwide, and greatly outpacing any other belief system. One missiologist suggested, where there is struggle, oppression, and suffering, Jesus shows up.

(note: You may have heard Islam is the fastest growing relegion in the world, but consider that Muslims claim any one living in an Islamic state (at any age from birth on) and those under newly-changed Muslim governmental regimes, or anyone converted by force to Islam are considered Muslims in these tallies. A personal faith, or a conscious and unforced decision to choose one’s faith is not considered a criteria for Islamic adherence in these statistics.)

Simply put, the gospel message, and a person’s receiving of it, doesn’t result in an easier life. Maybe even the opposite is true, but it continues to be the hope and healing many give their lives for.  The affluence of America, and other Western countries, has seemed to create an entitlement mentality or expectancy of a time of comfort or ease for the spiritual journeyer. That concept seems to be a cultural construct, more than anything. And it seems a childish one, at that. We are here to help each through life, which can be very difficult indeed. There is something about the struggle that helps us grow, and makes us better than before, by grace.

I won’t kid you. Some people honestly need to be chemically helped with medication to feel well. That is in a different category, in my opinion. A doctor, and probably both a spiritual director and therapist can assist here, for those who cannot see life as anything but gloomy, or can’t get out of bed in the morning.

How does this play out in the real world, and in the blogosphere?

It’s quite interesting. I have stumbled on SO many blogs. So many perspectives. In them, people reveal who they are, and what they really believe in, value, or to whom they sacrifice. They tell who they count as important, whether they put themselves and their comforts in the center of their lives, or if they use their time to inspire. I have been saddened to see so many negative Christian blogs, consumed with bemoaning one thing or another.

Here are two authors whose blogs I visit. X & O

They are WILDLY different, and I still get baffled by it sometimes.

I visit one more than the other. One is a professing Christian, and one is not. Since I can’t be in the mind of either author, I must admit, I really can’t know what they experience, much at all. I can’t condemn either one, I don’t want to, and I won’t. 

Yet, one insight emerges after witnessing these two perspectives, when I ask myself,

“Who would I rather emulate?”

I ask myself, “How do I want to be in this world?’

I’ll leave general observations and summations to you.

If the exploration reveals anything for you–I’d be quite interested in your responses.

Who has inspired you, as you read various blogs?

And why?

God,

Today is Tuesday.

I feel small in the world.

In the little things I do, be with me, near me, and hold me dear.

Let me not forget your faithfulness, your grace, your power, your love.

Show me, my God–or help me glimpse–that your ways,

and your plan, are beyond my sight.

(But, that isn’t so I should worry, but so I can rely on you, and  trust.)

If you are not all together good, then good does not exist.

But since I know what good is at all, surely I know you some.

Breathe into me your breath of life, and let me know you more.

When Tuesday seems like a small day, with nothing to offer,

show me that you delight in me,

just because I am yours.

Surely, you are mine.

Sincerely, with love,

Your girl,

Lisa

Some of you know that I used to claim fellow-Pennsylvanian, Andrew Wyeth as my favorite living American artist. He died this past January 16, in his sleep at the age of 91. His 7 decades of artwork are a profound legacy to the world of art, and culture in general. He was a master of the difficult egg tempera medium, and dry brush watercolor. Technically, Wyeth has superior talent as a drawer and painter, having been tutored by his father, skilled illustrator N.C. Wyeth.

At this time of year, I am attracted by the changing seasons, and the brilliant landscapes. Wyeth did many paintings of landscapes, and I’m drawn to his works at this time of year. Please enjoy a few samples, and these links to his collections. I hope you get a chance to visit them in person.

Links to museums with Andrew Wyeth’s work:
Andrew Wyeth’s website
Brandywine River Museum
Farnsworth Art Museum and Wyeth Center
Smithsonian Magazine Article on Andrew Wyeth

A sample of Andrew Wyeth’s work: (click on the image to see it, or enlarge it)

Late Fall, 1981, Andrew Wyeth

Dil Huey Farm, 1941, Andrew Wyeth

Groundhog Day, 1959, Andrew Wyeth

Turkey Pond, 1944, Andrew Wyeth

Snowflakes, 1966, Andrew Wyeth

Trodden Weed, 1951, Andrew Wyeth

Refugee, c. 1980, Andrew Wyeth

Braids, c. 1980, Andrew Wyeth

Airbrone, 1996, Andrew Wyeth

Helga series painting, c. 1980, Andrew Wyeth

Please leave your comments to this work. Thanks for visiting, today.