A Must See: Crash

Movie: Crash
This is by far the best movie I've seen in a long time. The way the story line unfolds is masterful. It definitely made me think more about the world in which I live.

I'm going to go see my parents this weekend. It has been too long since I've been able to make it down there, but getting a two-day weekend hasn't exactly been easy.

No, last Sunday's sermon has not made it to the podcast yet. I will get that out there as soon as I can.

My shopping for the cheapest internet service is going to take me into the arms of Insight again. I was looking at the possibiliy of dish plus DSL, but DSL requires phone service, which cranks the price up to Insight levels. Oh, well. I can deal.

This Sunday evening, the High School Youth Group will be going out to Chamberlain's Nursery to check out their mazes. They have five. One of them is a corn maze for which we need flashlights. This ought to be a lot of fun.

Heir to the Empire came out back in the early 90s. It's the first book in the trilogy that continued the Star Wars saga beyond Return of the Jedi. I'm finally reading it all the way through. I like it. I need to go pick up the second book before I run out of this one.

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I Like This Quote

I just read a great quote from Parker Palmer's To Know As We Are Know: Education As a Spiritual Journey. I wanted to share.

On the one side, prayer is our capacity to enter into that vast community of life in which self and other, human and non\human, visible and invisible, are in-tricately intertwined. While my senses discriminate and my mind dissects, my prayer acknowledges and recreates the unity of life. In prayer, I no longer set myself apart fro others and the world, manipulating them to suit my needs. Instead, I reach for relationship, allow myself to feel the tuggings of mutuality and accountability, take my place in community by knowing the transcen-dent center that connects is all.

On the other side, prayer means opening myself to the fact that as I reach for that connecting center, the center is reaching for me. As I move toward the heart of reality, reality is moving toward my heart. As I recollect the unity of life, life is recollecting me in my original wholeness. In prayer, I not only address the love at the core of all things; I listen as that love addresses me, calling me out of isolation and self-centeredness into community and compassion. In prayer, I begin to realize that I not only know but am known. (p. 11)

This book is one of my personal fav's regarding the field of spiritual formation. I recommend it for anyone who leads small groups.

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