Fun and Games

I thought of this picture after all the research I've been doing today... Here we are earlier in the year on Gozo, a small island off the coast of Malta. I'm chewing on some fresh baked goat cheeze pizza in one hand while keeping the kids perpetually squealing with the other.

I started the workday researching everything I could find on Trinidad and Tobago: 25 windows open reading up on the President, Prime Minister, and Cabinet; discovering they just unveiled their brand new Hyatt Regency; are planning $25 billion worth of simultaneous projects including water projects of $10 billion towards 5 or 6 new desalination plants (after recently finishing Jeffrey Sachs' "Common Wealth" I saw that coming); and of course all kinds of past and present stuff in the energy sector.

The more I play with my kids... the more I play with my kids the more I pray... the more I pray the more I travel around and around and around...

Delirious? - Break the Silence

Citizens with a secret in our hands
That could ignite our shadowlands
Light it up and let it go
Let it shine with love and grace and a redesign
A ray of hope for the common man
Light it up and let it go

Oh, oh, oh,
We’ve got to give it away
And there’s a price to pay
When we give it away

Break the silence, break the silence,
Cross ever boundary that divides us, divides us
Break the silence, break the silence,
Cross ever border that divides us, oh, unite us

We turn the page, to a future just begun
If heaven is real then let our heaven become
Peace on earth, let it flow.
We raise our voice where the colours all but gone
Paint the world with redemption songs
Stir it up, let it flow.

Stu G of Delirious? is recorded as saying of this tune, "We met Rabbi Joseph Edelheidt in India and, in conversation, he was encouraging us to write songs that cross divides. It’s much better if we find what unites us rather than concentrate on what divides us. We have to work together to get the job done!"

And if I sit here and Google another name I'll be here all night... I gotta get home to my family. I put the world in bigger hands tonight.

One Heart Revolution

Listening to Hillsong United: One Heart Revolution.

Like Bree's picture in the previous post, Luke and Nate on Gozo capture a bit of my heart for our kids amidst the nations. Luke is a singer, songwriter, dancer... seven year old triple threat... when he moves under the leadership of the Spirit I hold my breath... just beautiful to witness. And Nate is the strongest little juggernaut I've ever tried to pin down and tickle... little warrior adventurer - full of strength and justice. Nate has this Buzz Lightyear sword... and when he goes for it I have to run to get my Balian defender of Jerusalem sword... cause if I don't have my sword that kid will cut me down. We swing swords for an hour until Nate is nearly exhausted... sweaty and smiling, but he will not ever let go of that sword, and it's in my best interest to always be aware... WHACK!

Our kids will be free to be anywhere in the world and do anything with and for Jesus Christ - led by Him; leading more like Him; leading more to Him. They will learn this now. Pilgrimage is one of the greatest gifts we can give our kids. Besides our absolute devotion to they're becoming truly human and fully alive in Christ, we want our kids to grow up amidst the nations... here, there and everywhere in Jesus' name.

And what Dar and I are noticing is that we don't have to be in the nations for the nations to find us. It's like breathing. Our home is a place of peace... a place connected with the contemplation of heaven on earth... a portal of sorts... and they find us, those who are with him end up with us - the one's that he directs our way... and may that continue Jesus... may that continue to happen for the sake of all that you are in our home, and out there in the nations. It's a bit tiring following you, but I'm tired in such a good way... and a few moments by that quiet stream recharges my heart, soul, mind, spirit, joints and marrow... and it's not long before I'm ready to follow you into deeper water.

May we be examples for our kids, and all our friends - that we will continue to walk, run and dance fearlessly in the powerful loving name of Jesus Christ amidst every tower and gutter as our kids bike, run, wrestle and play on every street with no name with all their new friends - all over the world. Somewhere in the spiritual realm that unnamed street full of smiling kids will be paved with gold... even if it's in the middle of a dust bowl in Central Africa or the jungle of East Asia or stretched across the Himalayan mountain peaks. As long as it depends on us, maybe - just maybe, that street will be filled with tangible expressions of the love of God as well... so that nobody gets left behind... and every kid, all of humanity, actually has the opportunity to live and be loved all together... happy, healthy and whole before God who is the pure embodiment of love.

Joel Houston from inside the CD jacket of One Heart Revolution:

"In November 2005, we stood in a stadium in Bogota, Columbia, with thousands upon thousands of people we'd never seen nor met before. We were about to hit the first note of the night when the power went out completely - no lights, no amplification, nothing but a whole lot of people together in the darkness. For a few awkward seconds I didn't know what to do as my heart skipped and I looked frantically for someone to sort it out. But before I had the chance to worry, I found myself caught up in one of the most incredible worship moments of my life: the people began to roar. It was a shout of praise that defied the present circumstances. It was more than hype, it went beyond a cheer, this was something else altogether. The people took over and we got swept up in it, the whole band joining in the shout, at one with the people. Nobody gave a second thought to anything other that the reason we were all there - to simply encounter God and bring glory to His Name."

I remember meeting Joel a couple of years ago in Calgary. We were in a green room and I was chatting with Phil Dooley regarding some Billy Graham stuff (at the invitation of Paul Kelly of Unite Productions). Joel was sitting across the room with his swollen ankle elevated, laughing with his buds about something. I got up, crossed the room and asked Joel what happened to his ankle. A surfing thing... I asked him if I could pray over his ankle... and as I sat next to Joel with my hands on his foot and ankle I saw a snapshot of my boy Luke surfing one day in Australia... and I thought how huge Joel's father's heart is for him... and the peace in that moment was like a thick warm blanket.

In the ninth grade, for a project in anthropology, I built an aboriginal village. I don't know why I chose to do a project on Australian Aborigines.. maybe it was partly because my parents took me to see Indian villages in Ontario... where I sat amidst the pow-wow's as a kid... all that music and chants, and drums, marveling wide-eyed at hearts minds and languages open wide to the Creator... amidst their traditions. Maybe, in building that Australian village in the ninth-grade I wanted to know how people all over the world lived and worshiped God.

On the Aborigine theme, few years back I was preaching to hundreds of youth at a week long camp... I challenged them to keep unbroken prayer in their chapel for 24 hours... and they did it. And at the end of that unbroken prayer meeting they held a spontaneous three hour worship session... It was after midnight in the midst of worship.. and I was sitting at the back of that large room... listening to all those kids full throttle into the throne room of their Father in heaven... and the Spirit just burst upon the place... and there I was sitting quietly at the back, a bit tired... but expectant... I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. And in a flash of a vision I was standing beside an old Aborigine man standing beside a rack of white robes and he said in a thick accent... "You must change your clothes!"

I was so startled I opened my eyes real wide and said to myself, "Wow, that was intense! What a vivid imagination I have." Just then, independently of one another, and all during the music and singing and dance... a young man came and stood over one shoulder and a young woman came and stood over the other shoulder and both laid one of their hands on one of my shoulders and the other hands they lifted before the Father. Ok, that was no coincidence... now there were three of us in that portal... So I closed my eyes again and there was the old man again, "You must change your clothes!"

I opened my eyes again, this time getting a bit more emotional... and the girl leading worship at the front of that place... right in the middle of whatever she was singing, led the band into a transition and then looked right at me, right through that whole sea of kids, and she said, "You know, Solomon in all his splendor wasn't dressed like a lily in a field - sometimes you just have to change your clothes."

And even as I type this now I'm crying... It's snowing in the mountains here today, right outside my window is a blanket of newly falling snow... "There is nothing like" is playing in the background... augh, I'm just bursting... so much fire coming up out of this cold dark night... I'm rocking a bit now... back to the vision...

So I took off my clothes and I put on one of those robes... and immediately I started to ascend the mountain city of God... whole mountain ranges full of a massive city of glorious light and love... so many levels... so many beautiful things... so many gorgeous people from every nation... and then I was out over the nations... cities... locations... and I would be taken to one, and then another... and you know what... I've been to many of those places since that vision... I've stood in many places globally and many more to come... and I saw them in that vision... and you know what I'm doing in those places amidst the people of God in those places... I'm proclaiming the name of Jesus Christ over the city, and the people of God, and the people who are yet to realize they belong to God already.

And I'll tell you this much... when United plays and sings I am in the very flow that first called me... something so very familiar about the DNA of this stuff, the flow that captivated my heart as a kid as I walked and prayed all those miles alone with God in my hometown of London, Ontario.

I didn't learn to walk all over cities and pray into every layer - by accident. I didn't pastor and shepherd and preach to youth in Churches and out on streets for ten years - by accident. I didn't work for Billy Graham for ten years - by accident. I wasn't discipled by Leighton Ford's (Billy's brother in law) Arrow Leadership Program - by accident. I didn't drink up all that spiritual theology James Houston taught me at Regent College - by accident. I didn't join forces with a 65 year old Canadian orphan who's father was an RAF pilot shot down over Normandy waters and who's grandfather was Chairman of the Trustee Savings Bank in the City of London - by accident. We are not going to raise up 10, 000 choice master cadets of the kingdom of God - by accident. Those 10, 000 won't lead hundreds and thousands and tens of thousands themselves into the wide open gates of heaven - by accident.

And as I share snippets of our growing story with you... please know, there is nothing accidental about these mounting kingdom waves for any of us. We can't slow down following Jesus Christ. We can't leave anyone behind. We are all in this together and we are anamchara - soul friends on the journey... everywhere in the name of our Father, through His Son, in His Spirit... dressed in His armor of Light. We already have everything we need in Him!

Strike the Tent

I just love this recent picture of Bree in Malta within the canvas backdrop of a refugee camp. Her knowing adventurous little look takes some of the sting out of the phrase "refugee camp". This picture reminds me of the God of all refugees showing up to Samuel in a little tent at Shiloh. God tented all over the map with Moses and Joshua... and then of course David and Solomon had their plans for more than a tent... and then there was a modest rebuilding of a second structure and Herod's tinkering with that one (and now, for some reason the feverish pitch over a third)... and after a number of centuries of silence God came and tented among an occupied depression in the incarnational embodiment of Jesus Chirst... and then he was a baby refugee in Egypt... and for most of his ministry had no pillow to lay his head upon... camping out most nights I guess... the embodied word of heaven a meandering canvas of sorts... and sure, we can stretch that metaphor out a bit... pun intended.

You might stretch God out and nail him down for a moment, just long enough to paint something... he'll even provide the finger paint. But, poor Thomas, you'll barely get close to God's original intent with your finger in that paint... Then again, you may want to keep your fingers to yourself... He'll invite you to put those fingers into his side... but I'm not sure you'll get too far before falling on your face crying out, "My Lord and my God" which, coincidentally was a confession no other disciple was ever recorded as saying while Jesus was on earth.

Now that I think about it: if Thomas had put his fingers in Jesus' side I don't think he'd have come out with any red paint... all Jesus' blood was spilled down upon the ground at the foot of the cross. Besides, Jesus spoke about being touched and not touched after his resurrection... I don't know, I guess it's a touchy subject... a resurrected holy God in between two kingdoms :)

Certain renaissance painters, when they painted the crucifixion, painted a squatting crapping dog in the foreground of their paintings... It seems it was their way of putting themselves on the canvas... Amidst that kind of eternal moment before the cross, the artist was nothing more than a dog... an old school route to humility. That wouldn't work in today's psychology... naw, you're a god... dog is too derogatory, unless you're dyslexic.. then - well, choose your own adventure.

This god dog stuff reminds me of a story in Matthew 15:21-31,

From there Jesus took a trip to Tyre and Sidon. They had hardly arrived when a Canaanite woman came down from the hills and pleaded, "Mercy, Master, Son of David! My daughter is cruelly afflicted by an evil spirit." Jesus ignored her. The disciples came and complained, "Now she's bothering us. Would you please take care of her? She's driving us crazy." Jesus refused, telling them, "I've got my hands full dealing with the lost sheep of Israel."

Then the woman came back to Jesus, went to her knees, and begged. "Master, help me." He said, "It's not right to take bread out of children's mouths and throw it to dogs." She was quick: "You're right, Master, but beggar dogs do get scraps from the master's table." Jesus gave in. "Oh, woman, your faith is something else. What you want is what you get!" Right then her daughter became well.

After Jesus returned, he walked along Lake Galilee and then climbed a mountain and took his place, ready to receive visitors. They came, tons of them, bringing along the paraplegic, the blind, the maimed, the mute—all sorts of people in need—and more or less threw them down at Jesus' feet to see what he would do with them. He healed them. When the people saw the mutes speaking, the maimed healthy, the paraplegics walking around, the blind looking around, they were astonished and let everyone know that God was blazingly alive among them.

Bread to dogs. Pearls to swine. I think it's interesting that at first Jesus ignored her, and that she drove his disciples nuts trying to get to him... and who was schooling who and surprising who with faith? He, the embodiment of God uses the word "dogs" and she doesn't even bat an eye... she responds humbly... And then to top the story off, Matthew records the immediate miraculous feeding of the 4000... I guess all those healed people had an appetite. Lots of puppy chow all around. And they'll always come back for more... though God may not feed them the same way twice. But with this woman... it's amazing how Jesus brings up bread and she'll settle for just a few crumbs... scraps!

I hope I never lose touch with the beggar puppy in me.... I'll take that crumb of manna. I'll feed off that living bread come down from heaven. I want that food that some know little or nothing about. Last thing I need to become is an existential gnostic phenomenon!

I'm sitting here in the office... We seem to have so much head spinning activity around here. Numbers and deals and pins all over maps and whiteboarding. Now, in between the office waves, I'm sitting amidst tons of books with another oddball book open in a window online; another online window open to Oprah and Eckhart Tolle; world bank publications here and a confidential executive summary of a friend there; and Time magazine open to an article entitled: "The Clean Energy Myth".

The books stacked around me today: Marsden's "Stupid to the last drop: how Alberta is bringing environmental armageddon to Canada (and doesn't seem to care)"; Stutchbury's "The silence of the songbirds": how we are losing the world's songbirds and what we can do to save them"; Houston's "Joyful exiles: life in Christ on the dangerous edge of things"; Gilmore and Pine's Harvard Press "Authenticity"; Taleb's "Black Swan"; Mason's "The pirate's dilemma: how youth culture is reinventing capitalism"; "The Cambridge companion to Kierkegaard"; Clairborne and Haw's "Jesus for president"; Barlow's "Blue covenant: the global water crisis and the coming battle for the right to water"; Fletcher's "Breaking news: NBC news bureau chief, Tel Aviv"; Diamond's "Collapse"; Krupp and Horn's "Earth: the sequal, the race to reinvent energy and stop global warming"; Khanna's "The second world: empires and influence in the new global order"; Bernstein's "A splendid exchange: how trade shaped the world"; Sachs' "Common wealth: economics for a crowded planet"; Palin's "Himalaya"; Tolle's "A new earth: awakening to your life's purpose"; Kenner's "The elsewhere community"; Broad's "The oracle: the lost secrets and hidden message of ancient delphi"; Baker's "The heart of the world: a journey to the last secret place"; McCullough's "John Adams"; Kinnaman's "unchristian"; Aikman's "Billy Graham: his life and influence"; Peterson's "A long obedience in the same direction"; Kolini & Holmes' "Christ walks where evil reigned: responding to the Rwandan genocide"; Rosenberg's "Dead Heat"; Jabbour's "The crescent through the eyes of the cross: insights from an arab christian"; and Brother Andrew & Janssen's "Secret believers: what happens when muslims believe in Christ"....

I'm on the hunt for the living Jesus Christ who is on the move in between all these lines, and some of these lines are just pure static, junky connections obtusely angled toward the transcendent, like gum that loses its taste too quickly ... But, I'm going after that golden crimson thread of heaven... and loving that still small voice weaving every step of this Way!

I think Jesus Christ has a few things to say for Himself... on His own behalf... and believe it or not, He has our best interests in mind. And oddly enough, if "The Secret" really works!!!! then Jesus must be really really real... cause so many people are going so hard after Him in every way, praying and singing and carrying on and on and on 24/7 365 - all going after Him, being found by Him ... I don't think there's another person getting so much focussed attention anywhere on the face of the earth... or above the earth, or under the earth... you just never know where Jesus Christ might allow himself to be found.

I'm listening to delirious? "Kingdom of Comfort" and I love Eagle Rider:

I feel the spirits breath moving down my neck
Closer than a summers day
You’re a lion on my back
I hear the spirit speak whispering my name
Gentle as a butterfly
In a violent hurricane

I feel the spirits breath free me from the net
Flying from captivity
And the life I called a wreck
I hear the spirit speak a voice behind my eyes
It’s time for a brand new song to sing
Now I’m saying my goodbyes

If you want to chat then come and find me. But, please don't patronize me and don't assume anything. Some days, the escapist in me feels a bit like Jason Bourne. Other days, the discoverer in me feels a bit like Horton hears a Who.

So much life blowing around every tent, word, seed, crumb... and speck!

Adventures in Parousia

I'll never forget reading Bonhoeffer's "uncompromising allegiance to a life lived according to the Sermon on the Mount" on a flight between Calgary and Toronto. It was a couple of years ago, and the future leader of Canada was sitting in executive class. God spoke to me while reading Bonhoeffer's teachings on the Sermon on the Mount, "This book belongs in the hands of Stephen Harper..." Anyway, it's a long story... and I gave him the book and he thanked me on the plane and later in a note emblazoned with the arms of Canada... (you might think I'm waving my little flag... but there's a stronger point coming).

Recently, while traveling internationally, I was in conversation with a government minister of a certain nation and we were chatting about potential components of our soon to be global company (not a subject in this blog... protecting that for now)... While sitting there discussing strategic international business developments our conversation turned to the topic of prayer... and a particular prayer room in the area hosting two weeks of 24/7 prayer... a kingdom business meeting in a government office.

We must keep in mind that some of us are not being called into those rooms to spout half-baked views of "end games" or lobby for a few dimes towards a few good causes. Some of us will actually be there to pray. We are there to discern and serve. We are there listening to God amidst others... and in that listening, we may bear in confidence the wisdom and peace of our eternal God amidst certain swirling temporal decisions. For the saints, it's about presence, in all places, salt and light at every level... Simple martyrs with no reputation in every gutter and ivory tower who carry a simple vow that no one gets left behind.

Jesus is not a republican conservative singing, "God bless America (and those who don't mind tolerating our agendas)!" Jesus is also not a neo-liberal democrat who preaches environmental ecopsychology in a godlike tone with all of humanity's best interests in mind.

God blessing America (and Canada) is a good thing on certain days. A holistic view of ecopsychology is a good thing on more days. What I'm getting at is, the god of our particular nations and the god of our best intentions may not be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ... and sooner or later, we may, or may not, want to ask Him a thing or two about the smoggy story we find ourselves in. Keep in mind, He's not really into sales...

Jesus answered, My kingdom (kingship, royal power) belongs not to this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My followers would have been fighting to keep Me from being handed over... But as it is, My kingdom is not from here (this world); [it has no such origin or source]. Pilate said to Him, Then You are a King? Jesus answered, You say it! [You speak correctly!] For I am a King. [Certainly I am a King!] This is why I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the Truth. Everyone who is of the Truth [who is a friend of the Truth, who belongs to the Truth] hears and listens to My voice. Pilate said to Him, What is Truth?
John 18:36-38 (Amplified)


May all our elemental stuff be purified by the advent of Truth....