St. Patricks Day

Happy St. Patricks Day, y'all!



''Saint Patrick, for whom todays Catholic holiday is named, was not born Irish. His parents were Romano-British and deacons at the local church. At sixteen Patrick was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken to Ireland as a slave. He escaped his captives, snuck aboard a ship and made his way back to Britain. When he returned to Britain he studied to be a priest, after which he decided to return to Ireland to preach the gospel to what was then a polytheistic culture.
Saint Patrick was said to have used the shamrock to explain to the Irish people the doctrine of the Trinity. He spent thirty more years in Ireland and died on the 17th of March, 461. He is considered the principal missionary from Rome to the Irish and is celebrated as such on this day.
Today Saint Patricks day is celebrated around the world as a sort of tribute to the Irish and the culture of Ireland, a relatively small Island with a storied past and perhaps more storied characters within. It is, of course, widely known for its association with the drinking of beer. Saint Patricks day is the day in which the most alcohol is consumed by Americans. You can just see Saint Patrick now, can’t you, wandering into an American bar well after midnight, laying down on the floor next to a passed out college student, pointing at the paper shamrocks stapled to the ceiling, and explaining how much the Father loves the Son, and the Son loves the Father, and how the Holy Ghost is with us always, even on the floor of a pub." Donald Miller

Blessings,

KB

P.S. Crank some of The Dubliners today-"Wild Rover" is one of my favorites.

Just My Imagination



Five Days A Week In Latin

 I am notorious for living in daydreams. During college and high school, I would often take knitting needles to class in an effort to occupy my hands and focus my mind on the lecture at hand. Doodles on the side of the page, knitting, shredding little gum wrappers-these were signs that I was soaking up the information presented before me. If you ever saw me sitting still, eyes foreword, you could guarantee I was already gone.

This is part of the reason I love the show Scrubs so much. The lead character, J.D., is continuously drifting off into an imagination sidebar of ludicrous situations, living in his own fantasies.



As cute and funny as kittens being an appropriate substitute for CPR is, it bothers me how much that represents my day to day. That I allow my mind to circle ideas and topics of things that aren't challenging, aren't changing me. How self centered my thoughts are.

"Slow Dancing In A Burning Room" is just fantastic, John.

No matter what you think of John Mayer or his music or the girls he's dated, there's no denying that he's a very, very bright guy. He was quoted last year as saying the following and this excerpt from it eloquently shows the dangers of continually living in a safe but self centered mind set:

"I grew up in my own head. As soon as I lose that control, once I have to deal with someone else’s desires, I cut and run. I’m pretty culpable about being hard to live with. I have had a good run of imagining things into reality. I’ve got a huge streak of successes based on my own inventions. If you tell me I’m wrong or that I’m overthinking something, well, overthinking has given me everything in my career. I have a hard time not looking at anxiety disorder as being like an ATM. I can invent things really well. When I meet somebody, I’m in a situation in which I can’t run it because another person is involved. That means letting someone else talk, not waiting for them to remind you of something interesting you had in mind....What that explains is that I’m more comfortable in my imagination than I am in actual human discovery." John Mayer,  February 2010

It costs us something to think of others-it's a gamble living in community and the first step towards that risk is acknowledging others. Donald Miller said it well in his book Blue Like Jazz, "But the trouble with deep belief is that it costs something. And there is something inside me, some selfish beast of a subtle thing that doesn't like the truth at all because it carries responsibility, and if I actually believe these things I have to do something about them. It is so, so cumbersome to believe anything."

I've been spending a lot of time on the website Wrecked, a website for social action for spiritual misfits. I read an article that asked the question "what wrecks you? what can't you stand?" This question is supposed to be a compass towards your passions and your called ministry. Sometimes I think the more appropriate question would be "does anything wreck you? does anything break your heart?"

For me, it is much easier to remain insulated in my thoughts, in my fantasies than to think about ugly things. There is no guilt or cumbersome belief in thinking about bridesmaids dresses at potential weddings, or how cool it would be to play at the Ryman one day, or writing a novel that would be shelved next to The Great Gatsby in homes everywhere. How selfish I am with the mind that God has given me, a mind designed to think and grow and love and serve Him. How wasteful for me to give away precious storage space to these trite thoughts instead of thinking about the people in Japan suffering apocalyptic events, the malaria ridden children in Africa or the millions of children being trafficked in India right now. If only I loved my neighbor as much as I loved myself-I'd probably think of them more often.

This is one of my favorite quotes of all time:

"I have dreamed in my life, dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they have gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind." Emily Bronte

Here's to hoping that we can dwell on things that change us, challenge us. Ideas that run through us and alter the color of our minds. Here's to being wrecked for something.

Blessings,

KB

P.S. Mat Kearney's "City of Black & White" is bringing the sunshine today.

A Story: The Conflict

So sticking with Donald Miller's definition of a story from his book A Million Miles In A Thousand Years, "a story is a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it".  We introduced our characters a couple of days ago and Travis did a great job of outlining what these characters want a few days before that. So what do we need to overcome? What's our conflict, our obstacles?

The Obstacles

Geographical:


We're here.



They're there.

A 10.5 hr time difference.
A 17 hr direct flight from Chicago to Delhi. And it's brutal.
Money:
 

Let's be honest. A PhD student, a college counselor and a nurse don't make that much money. And it takes a good amount of money to start a rehab center. Here are a few figures to keep in mind:

-An acre of land in Delhi is roughly 2 million dollars.
-Air fare round trip to Delhi is ~$1,500
-Staff don't work for free. Even in ministry.
-Each child will cost ~$100/month to support.
-So once we add up rent, travel, food, electricity, health, education, staff, etc. we get a minimum sum of:

$180,000/year to run Ashraya Mission



Feeling discouraged?

(Another self indulgent childhood reference)

Our obstacles are many, no getting around it.

And it's going to be easy to get discouraged.

But we believe because of God's grace and sovereignty that we're called to a better story-a story where children stolen from their homes and have the titles of orphan and prostitute forced upon them can find refuge, can find redemption and not be defined by those titles any longer.

"Sing to God, sing praise to His name,

extol Him who rides on the clouds-

His name is the Lord-

and rejoice before Him.

A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy dwelling.

God sets the lonely in families, He leads forth the prisoners with singing."

                                                                                      Psalm 68:4-6





Thanks for reading.

Blessings,

KB

A Story: The Characters

A local university has asked me to come speak to one of their freshman classes next week about living 'outside the box'. As I've been pulling together a powerpoint (yes, I'm that powerpoint geek guest speaker), Donald Miller's book A Million Miles In A Thousand Years has been floating in the back of my mind along with obscure Patty Griffin lyrics. The two just seem to gel well together.

Miller's book has a very basic thesis: "A story is a character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it."


So here's our story's main characters...



The Characters

Kati H: Closet Opera Singer



Travis: Snake Charmer



KB: Above Average Hula Hooper


 

Back to Patty's "Top Of The World". Thanks for reading.

Blessings,

KB