Blisters...

I was in Chicago yesterday for the first time in...I don't even know how long! I went shopping along Michigan Avenue-- I didn't purchase anything too exciting-- a couple gifts, but not for my family...I did get some ideas though! I was supposed to head into Chicago again tonight, but it's freaking cold, so I'm not sure-- we may change plans!

I just finished reading the best book that I have read in a long time--Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. It was simply amazing! It falls under the "postmodern" writings, but I didn't find it as repulsing as some of the postmodern writings that I've read...Or at least those that claim to be postmodern writings. This was an incredible book! Page after page, I realized that I had said most of the things that were written in the pages, although not quite as eloquently...And that I believe pretty much everything that was in the book...Simply stuning! I would highly reccommend it to anyone and everyone. Chapter after chapter was just wonderful-- There wasn't any one thing that particularly stood out, it was everything-- after having read two or three books over the last couple of months that I just argued with several things in the book or wanted to throw it across the room, this was a welcome change! After the first few pages, I breathed a sigh of relief!

I've got several that are on the burner now, so I'm trying to figure out what I want to read next...I think I want something that's not quite very difficult to read rhetorically, but has some difficult and complex information.

Of course the challenge is then what to do with the information. It's one thing to read and collect information, but there comes a point when we must act on the information that we have. Some would call it a conviction of what it is that we are all called to do and be, some would call it living out our understanding...I think that's both-- it is through our convictions that we understand who and what we are called to be as children of God.

This takes both acts of justice and acts of mercy...A conversation that arose when I took a Mission & Evangelism course at uTs back in the day...Mercy comes in the immediacy of things-- working at a soup kitchen, providing heat, gas, food, money, etc...Justice comes in long term struggle in order to change the system in which people are oppressed. Justice is often carried out in more boisterous ways like rallies, protests, letter writing...If we were to focus only on one, we would miss other opportunities.

That's enough deep thinking for today...I need to do some laundry...