the Way, the Truth, and the Life

The flies buzz around but they don't bother. They are part of the setting and sense of place. It's a a garage with a big swinging barn door, This coffee shop with a high ceiling. Dark green and dark gold appears as the Logo accents and the barn doors swing wide. Wooden beams serve as part of the support, The brick walls are painted white. The seating is communal as it should be, No more islands. Let's sit at the long table Together and sip coffee as it wafts, pushed by A September breeze rushing in through the barn doors. Finally you are settling in because place Matters more than I ever imagined compared to Others. Much more. We access the same place. But do we sense it similarly? The obvious answer should have been addressed Back in elementary school when you found yourself Gasping at sunsets, struck by vivid colors, felt sounds And never removed a childlike wonder about seeing Something for the first time and drawing it in your mind's eye. W...

The man ambled out of the cafe to look at the tree up close, Someone was pouring water from a mop bucket at the tree roots. The man pouring the water stated how the decade old tree Had not been tended to carefully enough and manual watering Is required, though he wonders what the future of this tree Holds given an already wasted decade. The other trees in the same Right-of-way will need the same sort of adjusted care. The ambling man took all this information in and added to the conversation With a knowledge only capable by spending time on this block. An entire conversation unfolded about the history of the trees in the Right-of-way on a city block which has witnessed its share of Change in a decade, let alone decades. Knowing that there are people that know this much about the Trees in front of you, it’s hard not to sense the thing which Has kept you restless for months, years, maybe longer. By being everywhere you have finally found yourself nowhere at all. Even wh...

You were there all along, Kept tucked away under layers, Preserved in damaged splendor Without defect other than naivety, Streams of idealistic thought Observing the Unseen within the seen, Hidden all this time while an Expedition in far country to find the lost Diverted focus from the closest possible Place to look, to seek, to find: Your chest. Within your chest. All along. Clear words pinned to your chest. Make up for what you will but there is No false sign when the heart leaps, A signal to the seeker there is much to Save from taking identity back. Swirling traps deflected and distorted, Preventing required efforts to Simply go where the trail marked a Return home for the chance to leave again, Knowing the distance created was your Own doing, wandering away from Sacred practices, rehearsed back to life just Prior to finding your archived heart.

A person may lose their voice, they may lose their way, but they cannot lose themselves. They travel with them always. A funny thing happened on my way towards re:re:re-self discovery. I took a peak into this original blog of mine. With a caricature formed in my head regarding this blog (my own blog!) during an incredibly critical transitional period of my life over the past 2 years, I only took a peak at a couple blog entries now and then. Some of the absolute last ones posted on here. But no further. In the interim, for extremely specific reasons, I decided to launch an entirely different blog . It's too much to lay out here and is besides the point, but the new blog was rooted in describing how much my focus on several critical issues had changed and the need to play catch up on a radically different life I had formed. When I would think about blogging in general over the past 2 years, I of course laughed with a 'that's so 00's' sentiment. There are alread...

When your work has a face, a heart, a mind, a soul, then it is all worth doing.  After just completing a set of maps at work for a meeting of the minds, maps identifying vacant and dangerous homes surrounding select schools in the Detroit Public School system, the maps came alive. Working within the conceptual has its limits.  Maps are simply representations of the physical environment, and can be portrayed in many ways.  The hope of utilizing such data are important, one tells oneself, because it is for the children (at least in this case).  Or for the betterment of all so decisions are made with better data.  But what is this really for?  Who exactly are the ones walking home looking at abandoned buildings everyday?  Staring at dots reveal there are a lot of dots on a plain sheet of paper, minus the stories of those dodging the dots on a daily basis. Cafe Con Leche, Detroit, MI.  Elementary band performance. After finishing the maps I go...

9 Jesus also told this parable to some who were confident that they were righteous and looked down on everyone else.  10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  11 The Pharisee stood and prayed about himself like this: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: extortionists, unrighteous people, adulterers - or even like this tax collector.  12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of everything I get.'  13 The tax collector, however, stood far off and would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, be merciful to me, sinner that I am!'  14 I tell you that this man went down to his home justified rather than the Pharisee.  For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."  -   Luke 18:9-14  The Parable of the Pharisee and Tax Collector.  From www.Internetmonk.com This is a parable that I find myself going back to c...

What happens when  I wait for things to happen, not much.  Nothing really happens.  But when I take what has been given me and run with it, things happen.  And this not of my doing, so that I would boast about it.  It is all given to me from God, and yet I squander much of what is going for me.  Christ is just too important to be taken advantage of.  I don't simply want His grace alone, I want to be able to run with that grace that has been given, with the peace that passes all understanding.  This is true witnessing of Christ, that what has been restored restores others.  That what has been given is shared.  Then, and only then, is someone curious as to where I got this grace from. 

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a rundown, inner-city store.   It is open all the time yet not many enter in.   The paint peeling away on the one side of the building, the dilapidated awning, and only a couple parking spots in the front on the street deter many passing by from checking it out.   On the inside, it is part café, part coffee shop, part book store.   Much time is spent there for those who do enter into the store.   Many relationships are deepened with conversation that goes late into the night and people come to realize who they are more and more.   Causes are taken up to paint the plumber’s store across the street, to clean up someone’s mother’s yard, to take in the drug addict on the street.   And all the more, these people come to realize who they are. But people keep passing by.   People who attend churches painted well, with covered doorways, and a sea of parking available.   And no relationships are developed. But in th...

I find myself freed from something I created on my own.  It was the entrapment from what I thought was school and the push towards that goal.  When I finished my last class, with just my masters essay to go, I went to work the next day.  And that's when it washed over me that I could do anything I wanted; start another band; join a gym; begin recreational reading; become an avid bowler.  So many choices that are now available to me all of a sudden!     As quickly as that wave of emotion came, what followed was a profound question.  What stopped me from doing all that before?  I know that I may have literally been busy, but the more I realized what was hitting me I understood that it wasn't that all those ambitious things were not available to me to do, but that instead it was that I prevented them.  And more so, I was emotionally stopped.  It was the feeling of burden, and for no more reason then that I was in a self imposed ...

New header, new colors, revamped blog, again.  Detroit skyline of a picture I took when I was up on a building listening to a lecture about how to reinvent Detroit's urban landscape with art, or the artscape if you will.  I hope to speak of restoration that happens in places we do not expect.  As Detroit begins to turn corners, it is possible to witness even our lives turn corners, to claim victory with means beyond the walls we live in.  The Kingdom of Christ beckons to restore the worst of things, to set free the imprisoned. Here is a part from the Thrice song "The Earth Will Shake" that inspired my subtitle for the blog: Heartbroken, we found a gleam of hope Harken to the sound, a whistle blows Heaven sent reply, however small Evidence of life beyond these walls Born and bred in this machine Wardens dread to see us dream We hold tight to legends of Real life, the way it was before 

This may be a post where I am part convincing myself, part convincing the reader.  Maybe I should not look at it like that at all, and just spell this out. God.  It does all come down to relationship.  I was talking with a friend of mine a week ago about what makes a Christian Christian.  What separates the greatest humanitarian atheist from a meek, non-confrontational, addict-overcoming Christian is echoed in this statement: "I don't know you."  This is found in some parables explaining how God will look at some people who will cry out for Him.  But how can the God who created not know His creation?  I would venture to say the same way a wife may turn to a husband at some point in the marriage and say, "I don't even know anymore." Either asleep at the wheel follower or atheist, both are missing the relationship with Jesus.  I find this term something of a given since it has been injected into my head over and over growing up in the church, bu...

Freshly Painted Shed at Warren and Trumbull I took a stroll this morning, at about 9:30am, in the neighborhood I am moving away from.  After two years in the wonderful Detroit neighborhood, Woodbridge, it is only starting to come across how amazing this place is.  For sure it has benefited from being adjacent to Wayne State University, although in a love hate relationship (WSU was about to rip through it in the '80s, but some professors stepped up to the plate and started buying homes, see the website on the building to the right ). As I walked around, I saw the old St. Dominic church accessory building being renovated by the new church plant that is going on by  The Citadel Detroit (watch the video in the link).  They are creating something called "The Dream Center."  Can't wait to see what this will come to, but what I do know is that the lead pastor will be a speaker at this year's Christian Community Development Association national conference, so he m...

Part 1: Their is Work to be Done Here I took a bit of a hiatus on the old blog world.  It was first prompted by this complete revamping of the site design.  When I first launched this thing back in 2005, I was in a C++ computer programming course and designed the previous layout while code was running through my brain.  Then come this past December, I got the itch to get creative again and do something way different, and this is the result!  A couple friends helped guide me through the process of course, from graphic design experts to internet web masters.  They provided the proof reading and dotting of i's (and hurdles that needed to be overcome, like getting that background image up! The background image was taken by myself at this location in Detroit .  It shows what use to be a whole church mission there on Rosa Parks and Elmhurst.  There was a main church across the street, and then there was a soup kitchen and much more. In the picture to ...

Those who had seen it told the others what had happened to the demon-possessed man and the pigs. At first they were in awe - and then they were upset, upset over the drowned pigs. They demanded that Jesus leave and not come back. - Mark 5:16-17, The Message Here is the story of the madman who was demon possessed. Jesus just got done casting the demons out of the man and into some nearby pigs. I find the above part of the story very fascinating. This little snippet and many others like it make the bible so down to earth, literally coming down to earth and meeting us in the mess of a people that we are. Can you imagine giving a response like that one above? Demons are literally gone from a man and then there are pigs jumping off cliffs. Pretty exciting to say the least. Powerful. Yet, some of the first traceable advocates of anti-animal cruelty are documented here. I can imagine a scene today. Jesus enters into a church and knows that there are a few in the congregation who are...

One Church, One Story - The Detroit Blog - TIME.com This is the church just down the street from where I live. When my friend, John, told me about the story of this church over a month ago, we were compelled to at least make a visit. John actually knew about the church a while back when Mitch Albom first wrote about it nationally in Sports Illustrated . The story in SI ran back on January 7, 2009. John and I went for a visit on a Thursday night sometime in late October/early November. We went in and found that they were sheltering people that night, and we spoke with some of the helpers at the church. Then we met Henry, the pastor, only briefly as he was busy at the moment checking with people at the time. Before John and I entered in, someone at the door asked if we were with the press. I could see why he might have thought that, because we were two young white college looking kids that don't attend the church. We soon found out why were asked if we were the press. As we w...

My thoughts are so scattered right now that there is no reason at all for writing a blog. Not at least if it is the case that people are going to be reading it. I'm currently sitting in a caribou coffee in Royal Oak, the anti-Detroit. You know how we have the capability of moving whole buildings from one place to another? Soon, I hope, we can have the technology to move Royal Oak to Downtown Detroit, somewhere closer to it at least. I have recently been thinking a lot about the parable of the prodigal son (or the forgiving Father). This has to be one of the most hopeful parables of Jesus. In spite of what the son did, even at the beginning basically considering his Father dead by asking for his portion of the inheritance, the Father had a deep Love still for this son. When I think about when I came to God, I don't remember squandering what my Father gave me. I remember being a young kid who wanted to go to heaven. Nothing really wrong with that, except maybe I was not ...

But I refuse to breathe the breath of the failure!!!! - The Chariot, 'Teach' That line has been with me for a while now. Ever since hearing it, the power coming from the lead singer's screaming lungs has upped the ante. Interpretations of this line could be numerous, that is the beauty of music and art. But here is my interpretation. He is shouting out that he refuses to breathe in the destruction of the Great Failure, aka Satan. I had been hearing a lot recently about the Breath of God. A couple sermons, a dialogue with a friend, and then this. There is something about breathing. God breathed life into us, in fact breath and spirit are the same in the Greek translations of the bible. Our spirit is the breath of God in us, and the Holy Spirit is His Breath. The word spirit won out more or less in the English translations cause it sounds better, I mean think of the concept when Jesus breaths his "Breath" upon the disciples. Kinda awkward soundin...

Some interesting sites Relevant Magazine Christianity Today Burnside Writers Collective

General Motors is now officially in bankruptcy, and with all the news channel viewing I just did one channel really brought this story to the level that will most likely be overlooked in the media for awhile. The loss of blue collar, assembly plant jobs. Much of the talk had been about the whole thing in general. The large implication that the company is basically changing and starting new, and what this means on a corporate , long term level. Which is key mind you, because without a company to hire people, people can't work. But it is the affect of the bankruptcy with all the job losses that are going to happen, here in Detroit especially, that continue pushing people down and out. The ripple affect will be a wave crashing onto shore, not a mere pebble dropping in an ocean. People will leave and more resources will be stripped away from this region. For those who remain, what hope can be found? Our incomes are so important, our standard of living is indispensable ! Hope i...

When I was forced off of I-94 heading north from Detroit due to the crazy rush hour traffic, I chose my logical substitute, M-3, a.k.a. Gratiot. I have traveled this before a few times, a straight shot from the 94 Detroit Gratiot exit all the way to the family abode. This time it was different though, I had my urban planning goggles on this time, and Christ's mercy. The trench freeways in Detroit that I have been educated so much about really do a great job of masking the truth. I have heard in class, even in my undergrad courses, that the design of the freeway system was to target the worst neighborhoods and clear them out, called urban renewal. Also, in my point of view, the freeways avoid the visual mess of surface streets and neighborhoods. It was clear seeing all the struggling people, the collapsing homes and buildings, the garbage and debris, that Gratiot in Detroit was not a pleasing site. The freeways are underground to allow for a pleasant commute between downtown a...