Life Coach...

Reading is a dangerous thing.  Having a little lunch, reading a little New York Times.  Click on an article under "most e-mailed" titled Should a Life Coach Have a Life First?  Still trying to breathe.  Can't decide whether I need to change careers or just sit in a corner praying, "Come, Lord Jesus."

You can become certified in "life coaching."  Some courses are on-line, some connected with a school.  Like every other job training in our culture, sounds like some are good and others are worthless.  I still have days that I wonder why on earth I am going to school for five years to become an ordained minister when all I really have to do is fill out a form online and send in my money.  And a number of these "life coaches" are between 25 and 30.

Though my first response is "really....25, huh?  and you think you can life coach me...hummmm,"  I realize that I probably should be more open minded and less ageist.  Moving past that one, my second response is "really....25, huh?  and you think you can life coach me...hummmm."  My third and final answer is "what on earth is going on in our culture that we need life coaches?"

Are we so bereft of community that we have to pay people to listen to us bounce ideas or help us problem solve?  Have we slipped so far into the incessant wanting of consumerism that we have to pay even for our own ideas to be fed back to us?--like somehow what we think is valueless unless someone else values it (and we write the check defining its value...).  Or, are we just crazy?

I'm torn.  I think I'd be a pretty good life coach.  I've been around awhile.  I've had lots of experiences, good and bad.  I love to boss people around.  I could definitely cash checks for what I do in my head anyway.  I could probably take plastic as well, if I hired a life coach to teach me how.

I'm shutting down the New York Times for the day.  Too insane.  Think I'll depend on politics to ground me.  And if that doesn't work, maybe I'll hire a life coach.

Dear Mr. Perry...

A miracle happened last week.  I agreed with a Republican presidential candidate.  Well not so much Republican, but surprisingly, Rick Perry.

Redemption is part of my faith, Mr. Perry says.  Me too.  But alas, we still differ.  Because, Mr. Perry, redemption is for the criminals you put to death in Texas, for the poor who need our help to get out of poverty, for the children who are uninsured, yes, even for the Democrats who disagree with you.

Redemption is not just for the rich, white, morally challenged co-candidate that might choose you as VP if he gets the nomination.  Redemption is also for all those we think are undeserving or unaware or unlikable.

Dear Mr. Perry...keep trying.  I will too.

Hate Religion/Love Jesus...

I finally watched this video about hating religion and loving Jesus...my kids insisted.  Whoever this kid is, he has articulated the its-all-about-me position of why religion is bad and Jesus is good.  Of course, I have a few things to say.

Jesus was a Jew.  From beginning to end, a practicing Jew, quoting Jewish scripture, following Jewish traditional religious practice.  He was a reforming Jew, but I do not think you can make the argument that he was a-religious or anti-religious.

Jesus was not concerned with his own salvation.  He wanted to change the world--aligning it with God's purposes.  He did so in community, not alone.  After his death, his followers did the same...bringing Jesus' work into different places and forming different communities to do God's work.

If you are going to speak in quasi-rap, or rhyme...make it good.

The end.

Reality...

I put my oldest daughter on a plane for Israel.  Actually, I put her on a sidewalk, trusting that she could get herself to the gate because one can no longer be in the airport as a spectator.  Somehow that last good-bye on a sidewalk with the car running and security staring to be sure you don't stay one minute longer than necessary just is not the same.  But I digress...

She was reading me her itinerary.  Tel Aviv, Galilee, Nazareth, Mt. of Olives, Dead Sea, Qumran, Bethlehem.  The experience was a bit surreal.  Suddently, I am thinking these places are real...like really real.  Now that shouldn't surprise me.  I know the places are real.  I know Jesus was real.  I see the reality in the lives of the characters in the biblical story.  But I forget the place is real.

It's not just biblical.  Every time you visit a new place, the "real-ness" of the people and situations permeate your psyche and suddenly they are friends and not "those people."  Those "worthless" D.C. homeless people became flesh and blood and we understood the extraordinary difficulty of their circumstances and how close we were to being in the same situation.  Elderly folks living on Social Security after having worked their entire lives were losing the houses they paid $19K for...houses now worth half a million dollars swallowing most of their income to pay property taxes.

I think it is pretty cool that my daughter will have a perspective on scripture that her mom has never had. It will be "real" in a way that cannot be argued.  God exists...always has.  But this "realness" in Jesus brings us to a new place, a new way of relating, a new understanding of what God wants from and with us.

Being Christian is not an abstract endeavor, though I think we sometimes like it there because abstract thought is never as demanding as real life and real relationship.  I'm going to try and remember that...

Maybe Someday...

Aren't you worried?  You will be all alone in that house while Carl is gone...WIll you be lonely?

Ask me later.  RIght now I am in the middle of three dogs, two kids, two games of Words with Friends, three major projects...where's my partridge in a pear tree...