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Lessons From The Man Who Ate New Orleans Part 2

Two of the seven cardinal virtues of New Orleans are generosity and resiliency. It may seem strange to put these two things together, but I hope to be able to relate them to each other. In Webster’s dictionary, generosity is defined as freedom in spirit or act, especially readiness in giving. Resiliency is defined as the ability to recover from or adjust to misfortune or change. Both of these virtues are characteristic of New Orleans, and both should characterize those who follow Jesus.

Children of God should be the most resilient people. We should be able to adjust to change and recover from misfortune because we have resources to draw on. First, we have a Father who is sovereign over everything, who loves us with a perfect, everlasting love, and who always does good to us. We also have the Holy Spirit to comfort us and guide us. The third thing we have, or at least should have, is a family, a community of believers through whom God works. It is in relationship to others that we can be loved and comforted, and we can then love and comfort others who go through similar troubles. I don’t believe any of us can become resilient outside of community and relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

We tend to think of generosity in terms of giving money or material things. That is one aspect, but being generous involves much more, and it is in that much more that this virtue is related to resiliency.As we become more resilient through the stuff we go through, we are called to freely give to others what has been given to us. We may give money or other material things. We may give work of some sort. Our gift may be words of encouragement and comfort, or simply a listening ear and a shoulder to cry on. Again, we must be in community. We cannot truly be generous with our resources unless we are in relationship. Without relationship, our words and actions can be empty or they can even cause further harm. The flip side of being generous in giving is being willing to be generous in our receiving. It takes humility to admit that we need help, to let others know what is going on in our lives, and to allow them the privilege of being generous in their giving to us. That is something that is hard for many of us, myself included. But it is a vital part of living in community.

Let us be generous to our brothers and sisters. Let us freely give and freely receive. As we serve one another, let us be strengthened so that we are resilient when tough times come.

Part 1 is here.

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Weekend Wanderings

It’s been about three weeks since I’ve posted the links of the week. It’s been a little more busy around here on the weekends than usual. Things have slowed down a bit, so hopefully I’ll be posting on a more regular schedule. Here in the sunny South, we’re waking up to a beautiful day with everything covered with snow. We had a quick moving storm some through Saturday evening, leaving about three inches on the ground. That’s a fair amount of snow around here. We even had lightning and thunder. It should be all gone by the time school is back in session Tuesday.

Without further ado, here are the links:

What makes Jesus angry?
Busyness or gluttony?
Ash Wednesday with Pancho and Lefty.
Die before you die.
Fasting.

Len on love.
Good post from Keith Giles.
Arthur Sido on the strong and the weak.
Alan Knox on the “Sunday thing.”
Stephen Watson on being uprooted.

Nice.
Values.
Vulnerability.
Faith.
Beards.

The jasmine filing cabinet.
In case you were wondering, evidently alligator is seafood.
Zealotry.
Here’s an article about an interesting exhibit.
VIPs in the church.

Have a blessed week!

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Lessons From The Man Who Ate New Orleans

Back in January, Jan and I took part in A Place at the Table, a forum on food and togetherness. The first night of the event, we watched a film titled The Man Who Ate New Orleans, about a minister who ate at every restaurant in New Orleans to learn about the city and its people.The film discussed the seven cardinal virtues of New Orleans: community, generosity, openness to outsiders, celebration, resiliency, diversity, and tradition.

Most of you know how I feel about community. I believe community is one of the most important things in life. I would put it in the top three, after our relationship with God , and our families. In a sense, these three are intertwined. God calls us into community with the personal, communal Trinity, and we learn how to live in community in the family.

Eugene Peterson states, “There can be no maturity in the spiritual life, no obedience in following Jesus, no wholeness in the Christian life apart from an immersion and embrace of community.” We are called into community and are given the power to live in community by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because of the resurrection we are given the Spirit who fills us and enables us to live the Jesus life. Unfortunately, over the centuries, following Jesus has been reduced to a “me and my Savior” mentality that sees the Christian life as an individual thing that really doesn’t concern anyone else. Multitudes of folks go from church to church in an attempt to find one that “feeds” them or that caters to their preferences. Others sit at home and watch a preacher on TV telling them what they want to hear.

Learning to live as a follower of Christ takes more than hearing a sermon, singing songs, or sitting in a class. It is not a private thing. It must be lived out in community with others, and that must go beyond what happens in a once-a-week gathering. The second greatest commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus takes this further when he commands us to love as he loved us. That is a sacrificial love that can only be shown in relationship with others.

Living in community is messy, whether that community is a neighborhood in a city or a group of Christians. We’re dealing with human beings here! If we seek to live in community with other believers, we will get dirty helping other believers, we will be frustrated by other believers, and we will be hurt by other believers. Look all through Scripture and other histories. You will not find a Utopian community. We will sin against one another. That is why we are called to be people of grace and forgiveness. When we have a true view of sin, we can forgive others and love them. Forgiveness is one of the things we must practice in order to live in community, along with being a friend who listens and understands compassionately.

Father, help us to live in resurrection community, loving one another by giving our lives, and extending grace and forgiveness to one another.

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World Vision Wednesday

In 2011 an historic drought struck East Africa. The cattle that are the people’s livelihood were in danger. World Vision responded in an effort to save these vital animals. To read about the project and how it helped the people in the region, check this out.

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God’s Camera: Repost

This was originally posted on October 2, 2008.

Yesterday, I saw a sign in front of a church that read, “Smile, you’re on God’s camera”. I wondered what was meant by that. Growing up, I always was given the impression that God was up in heaven watching what we were doing and grading us on our actions. This would determine whether God was pleased with us or not. I was always told that I couldn’t hide anything from God in an attempt to keep me doing things I shouldn’t. This worked, some of the time. Most of the time I didn’t even stop to think that God was watching, so my “little hands” weren’t careful what they did; my “little eyes” weren’t careful what they saw; and my “little feet” certainly weren’t careful where they went.

I don’t believe that’s what the Psalmist intended when he wrote, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” It is true that there is nowhere we can go that takes us out of God’s presence. It is true that God knows our every thought and deed. But I believe that David wrote these words in Psalm 139 as praise to the God who was always with him and would always take care of him, not as a complaint that God was always watching so David couldn’t get away with anything. I am not saying that God is not watching or that we can get away with anything, I just don’t believe that’s the thrust of this Psalm.

God is not sitting “up” in heaven taking a picture of us so he can hold it against us – “Look what you did”. Jesus redeemed us, every bit of us, including the times we screw up. Anyway, does anyone really doubt that God already knows when we sin? Does he need to “watch”?

Now if the message on the sign meant that God was taking my picture just as any proud father enjoys taking pictures of his children, because he loves and enjoys them; well, I can live with that.

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Bread and Life

Two weekends ago, Jan and I participated in a forum on food, creativity, and togetherness called A Place at the Table. The event was put on by a group of local artists called Friday Arts Project. We were blessed to be able to help, in a small way, our friends organize and put on this event. A Place at the Table brought together  nationally known speakers such as Molly O’Neill, Peter Reinhart, Tom Hanchett, and local barbeque provocateur Dan Huntley. We experienced a number of thought provoking talks, a film about food and community in New Orleans, and some absolutely fantastic food.

Peter Reinhart is a professor at Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte and is considered an expert on all things bread. On Saturday, he gave a talk on bread. That’s right. Bread. As Reinhart said, all writing about food is about something else, so his talk was about much more than just bread. The talk was titled, “The Leaven Factor: Bread as a Living Symbol of Who We Are as a People.” The theme was bread as a universal symbol of connectedness. I hope my thoughts here do his talk justice.

The word “companion” comes from two root words meaning “with” and “bread,” therefore a companion is “one with whom we break bread.” Breaking bread with a person means that you accept them. It also means that you are willing to share your life with them and make yourself vulnerable. As I wrote in Table As Truth, the masks come off around the table. Sharing food with another takes us out of ourselves, if only for a little while, and allows the other to get a peek behind the curtain.

The way we get bread is a metaphor for life, especially the life of faith. When the grain is ground into flour it dies. That is the first step. In leavened bread, yeast is then added. Yeast is a living thing that brings life to the flour. As the yeast works, the flour is transformed into dough. The dough rises and is kneaded into the shape the baker wants. Then the dough is placed into the oven to be baked. During the baking process there again is death. The yeast is killed by the heat of the oven so the bread can bake without growing anymore.

After the bread has baked, it is then ready to be a source of nourishment. The death in the baking process is necessary in order for the bread to be something that is good to eat. I don’t know too many people that eat dough on a regular basis. It just doesn’t seem to have the same appeal as a warm loaf of bread. Henri Nouwen, in Life of the Beloved, speaks of the bread used in communion and how it is taken, blessed, broken, and given. The bread must be broken before it can be given.

Life as a follower of Jesus is much the same. Jesus said that whoever wants to find their life must first lose it. We must die to our own ambitions, to our own way of living life, in order to be made alive in Christ. I don’t see much in Scripture that tells us to come to Christ so all our problems will be solved, with everything we ever wanted in this life there for the taking. Jesus simply says, “Follow me,” and then lets us know that doing so means we give everything else up. In dying to ourselves, we find that we have true, abundant life. It doesn’t stop there though. The dying process is not a one time thing. Jesus calls us to take up our cross every day. That’s more than just carrying a burden through life. As we go through our our day-to-day, we are called to die to what we want and do what our Lord wants. Like the dough in the oven, we die in order to be something that nourishes others. Like the communion bread, we are broken in order that we might be given. In the process, we are transformed, like the dough, into something that brings life to those who taste and glory to the One who shapes us and “bakes” us.

Let us not despise the grinding of the mill, the heat of the oven, or our brokenness. We can be assured that they are forming Christ within us and indeed making us bread for the world.

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30 Years Ago…

…we welcomed a brand new person into our family. He was a considerate individual from the beginning as he waited until the day after the Redskins won the NFC championship to make his arrival. It was a Sunday morning and Jan interrupted my shower with the news that it was time to go to the hospital. We went, and a few hours later our son was born. We moved from the Washington, D.C. area within a few months, but the boy has remained a Redskins fan throughout his life.

We knew very early that we had someone special on our hands. (I know every parent says that, but in our case it was true). As the boy grew up we learned much about parenting, and made our share of mistakes. Through it all, we experienced the joy of watching this little boy grow into a young man, and then the young man grow into a adult. We have seen God work and shape our son into one who loves and follows Jesus. He is now a married man, having made a good choice.

It is said that there is poetic justice when a son or daughter has children who are like they were growing up. Josh, if you have a son who is like you, you will be truly blessed. We certainly have been. We love you Josh. Happy Birthday!

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A Place at the Table

This past weekend, Jan and I were blessed to participate in a forum on food and togetherness. I’ll have some of my thoughts here in a few days. In the meantime here is a recap of the event by local Charlotte food writer, Keia