Monday, July 25, 2005

classroom learning

learning about wa this term.

kid 1: what's a convict?
kid 2: it's like a refugee?

i cringe and wait...

kid 3: no...na they're different...
me: how are they different?
kid 3: a convict's done something bad but a refugee hasn't.

phew...

kid 2: but they both come to australia in boats and they both get locked up right?
kid 3: yep

the liberty of addiction

my gorgeous friend elissa was studying youth work years ago. she told me that everyone was addicted to something and she had to write an assignment on what she was addicted to...intrigued i wondered what on earth my angelic friend could possibly be addicted to...'god's love' she replied. and that's what she wrote her assignment on.

the addiction of consumerism...the nicest of all sins.

heard ash barker say 'christians should sell everything they own and give it to the poor at least once in their life.' i can't imagine he'd be very interested in the latest ikea magazine.

hung out with jarryd and bonnie in their community in lockeridge. they share everything they own and are choosing a life of voluntary simplicity...inspiring. i don't think any of their furniture was from ikea either.

i've got another friend who has an equal lack of interest in shopping for furniture. she has just given birth to a child with a hole in his heart because she was stoned for most of her pregnancy.

addiction...freedom from all other values...including consumerism.

Sunday, July 24, 2005

community

this morning went to leaders brekkie. '40 days of community' was lauched to us.

had supper with a community of christians who are living together in two houses in lockridge. they share all there possessions and are attempting to discover what it literally means to be a disciple of christ.

as we work through the campaign at church and spend more time with this community in lockridge it will be interesting to compare the two concepts of community. i think i'm about to learn something...
charlie
alive...what does it mean it be truly alive? what does it mean to embrace our humanity? i've got this fascination with the concept of 'life to the full'. and i have this feeling i have severely missed the point.

'some people laugh more, they cry more, they love more, they hate more, they forgive more, they screw up more, they care more and they get burnt more.

and some people play it safe.'

had dinner with ash barker tonight. got the feeling he didn't want to have some big theological debate, he just wanted to have a good laugh and some good food with his (new found) friends. connecting with people...arrrhh...good times girls, good times :)

Friday, July 22, 2005

watched tv for the first time in a long last night...simpsons. laughed my head off :)

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

the gospels

at every turn i realise i need to know and understand jesus better - and my greatest clues to this amazing man i have so often ignored. his story not told once but four times. four short stories of my personal hero - you'd think i'd be a bit more excited about reading them. they have always been sooo accessible to me, too accessible, too disposable. their pricelessness lost on me. imagine if i had only just discovered them - like the difference between the meaning of food to a fat or starving child....but now i am hungry. my concept of 'christian' has shattered and now all i want is to be a disciple of christ.

so of i go, to read the gospels. jesus, help me find you, help me know you, help me draw an accurate picture of what you are really like...amen.

charlie

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

last week was kindoff cool. hubby was in sydney for 8 days with a mate. didn't watch tv. didn't go shopping ('cept for food) didn't drive the car during daylight ('cept once to take stuff to good sammies) in some ways didn't do a lot. hung out with my neighbours. sat home alone saturday night and knitted one of them a scarf. went a whole two days with out speaking to anyone. first time i think i've ever done that...

a year ago i would have planned and programmed the whole week and filled it up with all sorts of exciting activites. but this time i didn't. i just kind off waited...waited to see what would happen...and i think i found something. something slightly obscure and slightly profound.

i think i found the present moment...and i found the pure joy of living in it.

and my hope and prayer is that i will live the remainder of my days living in the present moment, grateful for my experience of right now.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

sacred space

'Everything has the potential to draw forth from me a fuller love and life.
Yet my desires are often fixed, caught on illusions of fulfillment.
I ask that God, through my freedom, may orchestrate my desires
in a vibrant loving melody rich in harmony.'

the more i learn to live in the moment the more i see through the illusions


http://www.sacredspace.ie/index.jsp?lang=en#counter

'absence makes the heart grow fonder'

hubby comes home tonight. tummy did a little flip this morning. yippee :)

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

my dog just over ate and spewed all over the book i'm reading, Rich Christians in a Age of Hunger.

how ironic.

- charlie

ps. sorry matt, i'll buy a new copy!

Monday, July 11, 2005

found the core values, scroll up for 'History' - really cool

http://www.whitford.org.au/church/visionmission#corevalues

each to their own

rode to church yesterday morning. a friend asked me why. ‘because cars are bad for the environment’ i replied. ‘each to their own’ she said.

‘each to their own’ now what does that mean? “good on you but don’t expect me to?” maybe. “get of your high horse” maybe. “you can hold that value so long as I doesn’t interfere with the dominant values held by this community” maybe.

in my little church community i wonder which values are in the core, not negotiable, every body has to have a category and which values are in the ‘each to their own’, if you can be bothered category?

charlie

Friday, July 08, 2005

'like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural - it is man made and can be eradicated through the choice of human beings' -nelson mandela

watched some of the G8 concerts. heard nelson mandela say ' whilst poverty exists, no one can truely rest'... really? but i'm a christian...shouldn't beautiful waves of peace constantly wash over me?

parts of the body are living in extreme poverty. parts of the body are living in extreme wealth. that strikes me as odd. it doesn't seem to line up with things like sharing and being nice to your family. all the stuff we teach in kindy.

'we dare not rest until the scandal of starving christians is removed' sider

'it is a sinful abomination for one part of the world's christians so grow richer by the year while our brothers and sisters ache and suffer for lack of minimal health care, minimal education, and even in some cases-enough food just to escape starvation.' sider

'we have failed to comprehend the concept that the church worldwide is one body' sider

'would we build lavishly furnished buildings if members of our own congregation were starving?' sider

imagine if we christians actually shared our wealth equally with our global brothers and sisters. i've done the sums (based on If the World Were a Hundren People) and we (western christians) actually wouldn't come of to badly. turns out god really is a god of blessings and abundance. there's heaps for all his children...if they would just bloody learn how to share.
charlie

hillsong on hack

just listened to Hillsong Christian Conference report on triple J's hack.
interesting. sharky and osturk recorded part of the program on tuesday night inside the auditorium, darlene zschech and joice myer in the backgroud.

little excert
reporter: hi, i'm from triple j radio
attendee: yeah...you think we're like christian freaks hey
reporter: no i don't think your christian freaks, i think your christians...
why do you think that i think you're freaks?
attendee: cause you just looked at me like 'what is wrong with you people'...
reporter (smiling) : i didn't look at you like that...i looked at you as a potential interviewee...
attendee: aw right...

lots of people shared about the amazing music and the connection with god that they feel.
some people rang steve cannane about why they had both attended and left the church.
one woman says she's been banned from the church and is writing a book about hillsong (presumable from a less than supportive view point). a few mentioned the mansions and flash cars that seem to be the norm for hillsong staff.

often when viewing media i find myself trying to side with someone, and in this instant i knew who i was suppose to side with, but i actually heard my thoughts resonating with people from both sides of the fence. i have felt the majesty of god during hillsong worship. i'm sure i heard him whisper to me during a hillsong sermon...but i just can't swallow the widening gap between rich and poor christians. it makes me angry. it infuriates me. it want to screem to rich christians CAN YOU NOT SEE? DO YOU NOT CARE? OUR SISTERS AND BROTHERS ARE DYING. HAVE YOU ABSOLUTELY NO COMPASION. HOW CAN WE GO ON SPENDING? and then i realise i'm screaming to myself. because compared to my starving sisters i am rich. i'm a bloody princess in their eyes.

i spent $9 on a movie ticket last night.

and my urge to judge subsides. when ever i want to judge someone i just think of them as a little kid (i love little kids). so i think of brian houston the way god thinks of him. as a gorgeous little kid. fully in love with god, adoring his wife and kids, trying to do something amazing for his heavenly father. perhaps misguided, perhaps selfish, perhaps spoilt, but at least having a crack.

and i hope that the next time i put my needs before the needs of my christian sisters you would extend the same grace to me.



to listen to the half hour program click on last wednesday's show
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack/default.htm

Saturday, July 02, 2005

I Stand Alone - The Story Of Lord Shaftesbury By Jenny Robertson (kids book)

imagine that you are walking along a london street 140 years ago. the air is smokey from thousands of coal fires. the streets are dirty with horse droppings. a ragged man is scraping up some pieces of horse manure to sell for a few pence.

not only their way of life but people's idea were different then. the feeling that some people had a right to be rich while others would always be poor was very strong.

but one man did not accept the status quo. he dedicated his life to fighting for the rights of poor children in london. anthony ashley-cooper (later lord shaftesbury) stopped five-year-olds from working sixteen hours a day in factories. he rescued boy chimney sweeps from getting stuck up chimneys and made the practice illegal.

he looked at the conditions for children in london 100 years ago and could not reconcile apathy with his faith.

i wonder what i would have done if i was living in london 100 years ago? - charlie