Stewart 5

Well, that pretty much says it all…

Questions? Comments?

I really like the shop and artist who did this. Melissa is the 10th person I’ve sent to them. No, they have not done any work on me yet.

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You see, when you’re middle class, you have to live with the fact that history will ignore you.  You have to live with the fact that history can never champion your causes and that history will never feel sorry for you.  It is the price that is paid for day-to-day comfort and silence.  And because of this price, all happinesses are sterile, and sadnesses go unpitied.

- Douglas Coupland, Generation X (LondonL: Abacus, 1991), p. 171

Friends, PLEASE don’t settle for this.  Do something with your life.  Life is meant to be adventurous, to matter.  Take a risk!!!

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I think most people are aware of the dangers of cultural imperialism in mission – when we don’t just share Jesus, but impose our culture on people as well. This is generally considered bad. And, we usually think of this in terms of our national or geographical cultures. But what about our MIDDLE CLASS CULTURE?

I think that middle classness actually has more influence over our lives, religious and otherwise, than we may think. And, we are so indoctrinated in it that we don’t even notice its hold on us. Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost address this in The Shaping of Things to Come (which I am re-reading for about the 4th time):

“We seldom stop to question some of the very unbiblical assumptions that are built into the experience of being middle class. Assumptions about security, prestige, power, money, competition, family, education, and so forth, make up the sociological category of class. And so many of these assumptions remain quite untested in terms of the gospel. And yet we would have to confess that so often our middle classness undermines and attenuates [weakens] the gospel message” (p. 155).

So I ask us, how many of our expectations about life and how things should be, what we need and deserve, are more shaped by our middle class fishtanks than by Jesus?

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I have been tagged by Anthony for this random fact meme.

Here are the rules:

- Those who are tagged need to write on their own blog eight random facts about themselves.
- They need to post these rules.
- At the end of the post, they need to tag some people by listing their names.

Here are my random facts:

1. My response to most/many questions is, “in my pants.” Ex. – Arthur where did you put the scissors? “They’re in my pants.” Where should we got to see a movie tonight? “In my pants.” You get the idea. Good for hours of fun.
2. I have trouble answering where I’m from. I was born in Colorado. Lived 22 years in Fresno, 7 years in Pasadena, 1.5 in Oxnard, and now 4.5 in South Africa. Do I go with where I was born, where I lived longest, the place I like best, the place I think of when you say “home”?
3. My favorite color is black. No, I haven’t grown out of that phase. I like to wear black. I like accessories and appliances that are black. When I was a lad, apparently some teacher or school counselor was a little concerned about me coloring EVERYTHING black and talked to my mom about it… I wear black on the outside, because black is how I feel on the inside?
4. I nickname people – generally funny or clever nicknames. If you are reading this, odds are I have a nickname for you, whether you know it or not
5. I am ok with some nicknames people have or me, not ok with others. OK: arthdogg, candyman, daddy (what all my kids call me. NOT OK: art, a-train, jerk-face.
6. I like black liquorice. No, I LOVE black liquorice.
7. I have played many instruments over the years, none of them well. Clarinet, baritone, harmonica, trumpet.
8. I went to preschool AND jr. high with the woman who would become my wife at the end of university. Melissa is a good way to finish this list

Here is my tag:

Barbonne, Cobus, Roger, JJ, Chris

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Pete Rollins suggests a very interesting form of idolotry.

Our standard idea of idolotry is anything we worship other than God.  Traditionally, we picture wooden idols, stone images, etc.  – tangible representations of a transcendent God.  Spiritually, we often move the conversation to anything that we “put before God” – material possessions, desires for attention, people…

Rollins challenges us to consider if we are guilty of committing ideological idolotry.  Do we worship our CONCEPTION of God more than God himself?  Do we confuse our limited understanding of God with God?  Rollins isn’t saying that we can’t know or worship God.  But, we must be cautious with what we are “certain” of.

“The only significant difference between the aesthetic idol and the conceptual idol lies in the fact that the former reduces God to a physical object while the latter reduces God to an intellectual object” (p. 12).   Is your God a great idea, boxed up and understood neatly by your mind?  Or, is there still room for an unknown, amazing, beautiful, mysterious God?

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