Hey, quick post here.
I've got this plant in my bedroom that has leaves and vines around the room. It's green (no, I haven't killed it yet) and usually is in good health. I must admit that while busy with work and friends, I have neglected it at times. I came home a few days ago and noticed its leaves were drooping.
Naturally, I realized it had too much water so I threw it out the window....err, just kidding. No, I watered it (as obviously it needed water) and the leaves came back to life. Not only that, when you water it a lot (of which is okay for this plant), water gets soaked up and moves up the vines to the leaves where it forms little water droplets at the ends of each leaf and sometimes along the vine its self.
Life with Christ is very similar. When we're filled with his water (Holy Spirit), it will naturally move through us and be visible to others, even dripping on those around us. Oh I long to be so full of the Spirit that I just glisten with him and where others would desire the Spirit as well. Of course it's not water but rather love, peace, patience, kindness, mercy, grace, charity, humility, compassion, righteousness, etc. In that place, I find my Savior and He helps to show me my purpose -- to love Him and others. There's such a joy in being in the Spirit and being used for His purposes, not mine but His! That is as he calls and directs and provides for, not as I assume and try and fail and stumble.
For those who we don't chat on a regular basis, know this. Life has been hard for so long and I think it's because I like carrying my yoke. I like trying to do things and seeing my fruit. I regularly reject God on a daily basis so that I can do things my way and under my power. This is obviously foolishness but you don't see that until you believe it in your heart. I'm getting there but in the mean time, I think I'm going to start the Holy and needed practice of giving up stuff. Rather than a spirit of apathy -- "Oh, I just give up, I can't do it, this is too hard, etc.," this is a spirit of freedom -- "I give up on this and release this in the Name of Jesus Christ." It is for Freedom that Jesus came and as followers, we should embrace that freedom.
And the rubber hits the road in two avenues right now in my life.
1) I need to give up on the aspirations of becoming a leader or really of becoming anything. It is all as loss, it is all vain, it is all not of God. I'm not saying that being a leader or anything else isn't good, but if it's not what God's (audibly) calling you to right now, for-git-a-bout-it. As personal experience can testify, this issue of calling and desires for positions and authority can lead to great anguish and frustration, driving a wedge between you and other leaders, believers, and really God. These things become idols and our God is jealous, our spirits are able to worship one thing and God knows that. We will eventually realize it (and hopefully sooner rather than later).
2) I need to stop living life as if I am in control and pursuing what I want. Simply put, I need to be immersed in the word and prayer daily and more if possible. I don't and I reap the consequences -- my leaves are withered and I am disheartened ... and that's on good days. On bad days, I am angry and anxious, under attack and just going crazy. I think everyone's out to get me and that no one loves me.
Imagine it like this... we have beautiful temple courts inside our minds and it is in these places where we are to meditate on God and the Word and keep it near. These bad days feel like Katrina, a rush of flood waters carrying up the lies of my past and accusations of the enemy and layers of guilt and anguish just cover everything. If you've had the privilege of cleaning up after a flood, you know what I'm talking about. When we're in God and in the Word, there will be some protection against these floods ... but without, we are like lambs being leading ourselves to the slaughter, we are like children playing tag with knives, we are like people who are standing in the rain and scolding God for it despite the fact that shelter is near by. Should you find yourself here, know that God is the best "contractor" to clean up the flood waters (think ServePro). He will come in and clean things out, he will comfort us, he will make things new again! God will bring us comfort and help us move past these times, and as he sanctifies us, we can only hope that our trust and faith in him will grow and that we will stay closer to him.
So I don't have this down but I pray that I grow closer to God on a daily basis, enjoying the Word and his Spirit. This is the way he intended it and this is not the means to some end. The end must be God, otherwise you'll be chasing an idol and let me tell you that it will not satisfy!
As Donny says, "Stay Thirsty" for the Lord as only he can satisfy.
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Resilience — an interesting concept
I liked this article and I wanted to keep it as well as share it with others so read it if you'd like. Very interesting.
Resilience and smart growth
By Robert Steuteville
We’ve written that New Urbanism and smart growth offer advantages in “sustainability,” a term that expresses the capacity of society and the environment to endure for the long term. Sustainability is a popular and useful word — yet one that also has shortcomings. It begs the question, for example, of what we want to sustain. Those who are invested in suburban, automobile-dependent living may contend that their way of life deserves sustenance — regardless of its impact on carbon emissions. The federal government’s recent bailout of bad mortgages is a policy that kept many suburbs afloat.
Sustainability implies judgments that divide people. We run the risk of sounding self-righteous when we argue that urban patterns are more sustainable than sprawl. So the question must be asked: Is there a less divisive and more precise way to make this argument?
Andrew McMurry, an associate professor at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, argues that “resilience” is a better word. “To be resilient suggests an inner toughness: the strength, as its etymology tells us, to ‘jump back’ to a previous state,” McMurry says in “The Rhetoric of Resilience,” published February 17 in Alternatives Journal. “Sustainability, by contrast, suggests a defensive posture: a desire to stay the same, to resist change, without the attractive ability to push back against change and win out.”
The idea of resilience is appealing because it gets beyond arguments that plague “sustainability.” Many who resist this term attack the science of climate change or projections of shortages of resources like oil. They are successful in casting doubt because both the best scientific judgments and the future are inherently in doubt.
Resilience, on the other hand, doesn’t carry that baggage. It is based on the idea of risk — a universally accepted fact of life. Nobody can say whether a house will burn down or a driver will be involved in an accident. Yet the need for fire and automobile insurance is rarely questioned from any political perspective. Insurance increases resilience. If the worst happens, it’s better to be covered.
Parallels with smart growth
I see many parallels between New Urbanism and smart growth and resilience. We don’t know what the future will be, but we suspect that it will be warmer and will include less oil. Maybe global warming skeptics are right — and maybe ExxonMobil is on target in assuring us that massive new oil reserves will be found in the near future. But how resilient are we if the skeptics or that company are wrong, or if any number of unforeseen problems jeopardize the current system?
The answer is: not very. The communities we have built in the last 60 years, especially in the US, are mostly dependent on car and truck transport. If this system fails because petroleum gets very expensive due to declining reserves, or if global warming or geopolitical forces impose constraints on oil use, we are in trouble. Efficient walking and mass transit are impossible in most places. Some will say the answer is alternative fuel vehicles, but what about the cost and the time required for making the transition? Counting on technologies that have not been developed or adopted on a broad scale is not resilient.
Walkable, mixed use communities, by contrast, have been around for thousands of years — and they work regardless of whose vision of the future turns out to be right. If the future demands more mass transit, walking, and bicycling, then compact urban places facilitate that change.
There are many who say that everything will work out just fine if we keep to the status quo. Most experts made similar arguments when housing prices were rising to unprecedented levels fueled by lax lending standards in the first half of the last decade. Don’t worry — be happy. But that attitude lacked resilience, and we have paid dearly for the shortfall.
So here’s to resilience, and to the hope that this concept gains wider currency in environmental and economic discussions.
This article is available in the April-May, 2010 issue of New Urban News, along with images and many more articles not available online. Subscribe or order the individual issue. http://www.newurbannews.com
Resilience and smart growth
By Robert Steuteville
We’ve written that New Urbanism and smart growth offer advantages in “sustainability,” a term that expresses the capacity of society and the environment to endure for the long term. Sustainability is a popular and useful word — yet one that also has shortcomings. It begs the question, for example, of what we want to sustain. Those who are invested in suburban, automobile-dependent living may contend that their way of life deserves sustenance — regardless of its impact on carbon emissions. The federal government’s recent bailout of bad mortgages is a policy that kept many suburbs afloat.
Sustainability implies judgments that divide people. We run the risk of sounding self-righteous when we argue that urban patterns are more sustainable than sprawl. So the question must be asked: Is there a less divisive and more precise way to make this argument?
Andrew McMurry, an associate professor at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, argues that “resilience” is a better word. “To be resilient suggests an inner toughness: the strength, as its etymology tells us, to ‘jump back’ to a previous state,” McMurry says in “The Rhetoric of Resilience,” published February 17 in Alternatives Journal. “Sustainability, by contrast, suggests a defensive posture: a desire to stay the same, to resist change, without the attractive ability to push back against change and win out.”
The idea of resilience is appealing because it gets beyond arguments that plague “sustainability.” Many who resist this term attack the science of climate change or projections of shortages of resources like oil. They are successful in casting doubt because both the best scientific judgments and the future are inherently in doubt.
Resilience, on the other hand, doesn’t carry that baggage. It is based on the idea of risk — a universally accepted fact of life. Nobody can say whether a house will burn down or a driver will be involved in an accident. Yet the need for fire and automobile insurance is rarely questioned from any political perspective. Insurance increases resilience. If the worst happens, it’s better to be covered.
Parallels with smart growth
I see many parallels between New Urbanism and smart growth and resilience. We don’t know what the future will be, but we suspect that it will be warmer and will include less oil. Maybe global warming skeptics are right — and maybe ExxonMobil is on target in assuring us that massive new oil reserves will be found in the near future. But how resilient are we if the skeptics or that company are wrong, or if any number of unforeseen problems jeopardize the current system?
The answer is: not very. The communities we have built in the last 60 years, especially in the US, are mostly dependent on car and truck transport. If this system fails because petroleum gets very expensive due to declining reserves, or if global warming or geopolitical forces impose constraints on oil use, we are in trouble. Efficient walking and mass transit are impossible in most places. Some will say the answer is alternative fuel vehicles, but what about the cost and the time required for making the transition? Counting on technologies that have not been developed or adopted on a broad scale is not resilient.
Walkable, mixed use communities, by contrast, have been around for thousands of years — and they work regardless of whose vision of the future turns out to be right. If the future demands more mass transit, walking, and bicycling, then compact urban places facilitate that change.
There are many who say that everything will work out just fine if we keep to the status quo. Most experts made similar arguments when housing prices were rising to unprecedented levels fueled by lax lending standards in the first half of the last decade. Don’t worry — be happy. But that attitude lacked resilience, and we have paid dearly for the shortfall.
So here’s to resilience, and to the hope that this concept gains wider currency in environmental and economic discussions.
This article is available in the April-May, 2010 issue of New Urban News, along with images and many more articles not available online. Subscribe or order the individual issue. http://www.newurbannews.com
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