"Quit your worship charades ... "

Isaiah 1:13-17 (The Message)

13"Quit your worship charades.

I can't stand your trivial religious games:

Monthly conferences, weekly Sabbaths, special meetings--

meetings, meetings, meetings--I can't stand one more!

14Meetings for this, meetings for that. I hate them!

You've worn me out!

I'm sick of your religion, religion, religion,

while you go right on sinning.

15When you put on your next prayer-performance,

I'll be looking the other way.

No matter how long or loud or often you pray,

I'll not be listening.

And do you know why? Because you've been tearing

people to pieces, and your hands are bloody.

16Go home and wash up.

Clean up your act.

Sweep your lives clean of your evildoings

so I don't have to look at them any longer.

Say no to wrong.

17Learn to do good.

Work for justice.

Help the down--and-out.

Stand up for the homeless.

Go to bat for the defenseless.

Culture Shock

"How are you?"

actually it's a hard question to answer.

I returned from India on Thursday evening and I leave for work in Hawaii on Monday. Currently, I am experiencing "culture shock" or "re-entry trauma" or whatever you want to call it.

I'm manic, sometimes irritable, sometimes ecstatic, sometimes depressed. I want to inject everyone with my experience like when Neo learns to fly the helicopter in "The Matrix"--so I don't have to attempt the impossible of trying to answer the question, "How was your trip?" At the very least I want to grab them by the shoulders, shake hard and scream, "There's a whole world out there, WAKE UP!"

That's all I got right now.

I'm home

I'm home. (Hawaii for "work" tomorrow)

more to come

steve

Super Bowl Monday

OK, it was not a “Where were you when Kennedy was shot?” moment. Do people even ask that question anymore? Has 9/11 sandwiched between two wars in the Middle East on top of the fact that every year November 22, 1963 gets further away, slowly erased, or at least subdued, that pivotal moment in American history from our national consciousness.

Anyway, for me, today was a semnial television moment. It was more like June 17, 1994. I was on a high school mission trip in the Dominican Republic and I viewed a slow white Bronco (not John Elway) carrying an armed O.J. Simpson and former teammate Al Cowlings down a California expressway followed at a safe distance by dozens of black-and-white cop cars--broadcast live to the world on CNN.

Today, in Ahmedabad, India at 5:00 AM local time, I began watching the Super Bowl live on ESPN International.

I will always remember as a 9-year old, crying after Super Bowl XX because even though my beloved Chicago Bears destroyed the New England Patriots 46-10, my favorite player, Walter Payton failed to score a touchdown. I will always remember Super Bowl XXXIV and Super Bowl XXXV because I was lucky enough to be at the games in person. And now, I will always remember Super Bowl XL because I watched it live during the early hours of Monday morning, drinking “service” coffee and eating cold pizza ordered the night before with a group of mostly soon-to-be disappointed Seattle fans from Portland.

WARNING: NOT GOOD ENTRY

So I know I haven’t written much in the last few weeks and again I apologize. I have been busy (good) and not in the blogging mood (bad).

Sometimes I am a perfectionist. When it comes to my writing, I want it to be good, no actually I want it to be much better then good. So it pains me that this entry will not be all that great, but I feel I owe something to anyone who cares enough to log on and read this blog.

Having said that, here is my half-assed attempt to begin summing up my time in India. I will definitely reflect and process and write more, hopefully better, from a beach on the North Shore of Oahu. J (Fruity drinks with umbrellas always get the creative juices flowing.)

With less than a week remaining in country, I have begun to enter transition mode between my worlds. Every trip changes, at least molds and refines me and my worldview. It’s hard to sum up for my experiences have varied. India is so big and she is so different, every state a new language and culture …

The images that the word “India” conjures up are diverse and often contradictory, suggesting that on must be the real India, and it’s only a matter of finding out which one. If only it were that simple! To understand India at all, you must be able to hold on to completely contradictory images, and realize that both represent the true India.

Gitanjali Koland, Culture Shock! India

I'm ready to leave, but my time has been good. I have seen God work in and through me. My biggest prayer request was to be used and I feel that I have been used some. The biggest blessing/feeling of actually being useful came from working with the video production guy (I didn't even know they had a video production guy until about a week into my trip). Being with the teams has been a good learning experience if I come back and do it again. I've got to observe and learn from the long-term workers here. Recently, I've gotten to work on some of their computer/email/communications/cell phone issues and we've resolved most of the technology issues. I enjoy troubleshooting, problem-solving and getting things done.

Probably the biggest thing I have learned or been reminded of is that I don't need to know what the rest of my life entails. I came to India not knowing if I would have a job or how much work I would have when I returned. A few weeks into the trip I received a pretty great schedule from The Golf Channel.

(I basically have mid November to mid-January or early February off. God-willing I will be somewhere abroad again. I’m still negotiating with mom a pre- or post-Thanksgiving Day departure :-)

I don't know if I'll ever be married, have kids or even have a "real" job, nor do I know if I want any of the three. But I know I don’t need to know now.

Once again I have been reminded that the most important thing, though I stumble often, is to love God and love others; to know Him and make Him known. All the rest is meaningless.

God about David

I will be a father to him, and he will be a son to me. When he commits iniquity, I will punish him with a rod such as mortals use, with blows inflicted by human beings. But I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you.

2 Samuel 7:14-15