We've been visiting different religious centers for our Urban Religious Movements class and we're facing the reality that we, as Christians, hold more in common with many other religions then we think. And that not all the theology and methodology is crazy.

So we're asking hard questions about what that means for us, and where that leaves us.

And i don't have better answers to those questions than anyone else, but i do know that when were in the Hindu temple and one of the teachers dropped the name "Jesus" my heart leapt within me. Honestly, it took me by surprise. I was overtaken with the mention of my love.

My spirit recognizes the one that made it joyfully and calls back. So i don't know what conclusions we will come to, but i will claim this as my home and my reality.

I am in Love, and out of it I will not go. - C. S. Lewis

May i blush every time His name is spoken, may it remind me whom i love and to whom i belong.

Such Singing in the Wild Branches

It was spring
and finally I heard him
among the first leaves -
then I saw him clutching the limb in an island of shade
with his red-brown feathers
all trim and neat for the new year.
First, I stood still and thought of nothing.
Then I began to listen.
Then I was filled with gladness -
and that’s when it happened, when I seemed to float,
to be, myself, a wing or a tree -
and I began to understand
what the bird was saying, and the sands in the glass
stopped
for a pure white moment
while gravity sprinkled upward like rain, rising,
and in fact
it became difficult to tell just what it was that was singing -
it was the thrush for sure, but it seemed not a single thrush, but himself, and all his brothers,
and also the trees around them,
as well as the gliding, long-tailed clouds
in the perfectly blue sky - all, all of them were singing.
And, of course, yes, so it seemed,
so was I.
Such soft and solemn and perfect music doesn’t last for more than a few moments.
It’s one of those magical places wise people
like to talk about.
One of the things they say about it, that is true, is that, once you’ve been there,
you’re there forever.
Listen, everyone has a chance.
Is it spring, is it morning? Are there trees near you,
and does your own soul need comforting?
Quick, then - open the door and fly on your heavy feet; the song
may already be drifting away.

-Mary Oliver

Occupy Wall St.

The mainstream media is refusing to cover it so if you haven't heard yet, there is a massive protest going on across the US. It's called Occupy Wall Street and is a movement toward a lot of things, but everyone is united under the understanding that 99% of this country are being screwed by the 1% that holds the power and resources. This has come at an interesting time for me because I have been learning for the past four weeks how broken our country is and how our systems perpetuate inequality and generally do the opposite of what they were created to do.
The healthcare system has become so convoluted and exorbitantly expensive that it is no longer providing heath care for normal people. The criminal justice system (we sat in on a murder trial this morning) favors the rich and removes the poor from society by incarcerating them in a prison system that acts as a holding tank for violence instead of as an institution of reformation. Our politicians are being paid by corporations who are passing laws that favor them instead of the people that elected them into office.

And I don't know how effective this protest will be, but I know that things are broken and I want to get behind a movement that recognizes these problems and demands change. I don't want to be part of a generation marked by silence. I want something better than what we've been given. I want change.

Bailey/I Know You Know
Punch Brothers