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Happy Thanksgiving

"Thanks be to God for his gift that is too wonderful for words!"

(2 Corinthians 9:15)

With Thanks

Fr. Ray Browne and Timmy Donnelly at our Thanksgiving Dinner.

Mary Concar, Brenda Ray, Jolene Hanson, Anne Donnelly, and Chris Collins at Thanksgiving Dinner.

Thanksgiving in Four Mile House, Co. Roscommon, IRL 2007

Our thoughts this Thanksgiving are with our friends and neighbors in Roscommon, Ireland. Last year, we held our American Thanksgiving Dinner with 29 of our dearest Irish friends and our Hope family. Although we cannot be there this year, we are grateful for the few years we had with our Irish friends. They have continued to be wonderful neighbors, even in our absence. They have looked after our home since we have returned to the states and have been better neighbors at 3,000 miles distance than many folks have right next door! The Lord is good to us as He surrounds our lives with such wonderful people.

To all of our Irish friends, we wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving! We remember you with gratitude today...

"So here's to you and yours and mine and ours. If mine and ours ever come across you and yours, I hope that you and yours will be as kind to mine and ours as mine and ours have been to you and yours!" -- an Irish toast.

Wha?

?

Regarding my previous post...

I've been getting a few emails, comments, and messages from people who read my previous post, and some of them have been fairly comical. Take this one for example: "hey mark, i read ur blog and i was like no. like for real im glad i read the rest of it. like i read the first part and was like what is going on here. u no the hole um, in god we trust stuff. it didnt sound like u and im not going to lie i thought the world was going to end. my heart was beating really fast."

Cracks me up! If you read past the large caption under the photo of the coin, you'll see the real point I'm trying to make. Enjoy!

"Making a Strong Statement"

"U.S. Governement to Release New Dollar Coins

You guessed it...

'In God We Trust' is Gone!!!

If ever there was a reason to boycott something, THIS IS IT!!!!

DO NOT ACCEPT THE NEW DOLLAR COINS AS CHANGE.

Together we can force them out of circulation.

REFUSE NEW COINS!

This simple action will make a strong statement. JUST DO IT!

Please help do this...refuse to accept these when they are handed to you. I received one from the Post Office as change and I asked for a dollar bill instead. The lady just smiled and said 'way to go' so she had read this e-mail. Please help out...our world is in enough trouble without this too!!!!"

About every six months or so, I receive an email much like the one above from a Christian who has received it from someone else and thought to pass it on to me. It just so happens that I received five this week all relating to the same, false story. I never bother responding to the emails to let them know that these urban legends have been floating around for years. I figure they will find it out themselves eventually.

Somebody somewhere comes up with these things and floats them on the internet just waiting for somebody to get upset and perpetuate their myth. I'm sure some clever lad is sitting around somewhere getting a kick out of his last chaotic creation! People swallow these things whole...and it provides a great deal of comic relief for those who spun the yarn!

The "In God We Trust" legend is one that particularly interests me. It gets circulated with great fervor, as if the removal of those four words was a wholesale persecution of Christianity. I do not agree with the secular progressive agenda to remove all references to God and faith from public life, but I am also not surprised that there are those who would want to. I fully expect that someday those words will be struck from our coins and currency, but to be honest with you, it doesn't bother me that much.

Does anyone really believe we are a "Christian" nation anyhow? Does our government act in a Christlike manner in all of it's policies and practices? Does our governement represent much of anything other than it's own self interests? And does anyone really believe that an engraven image on a coin makes us a Christian nation? Jesus said that we should give to Caesar what is Caesar's (refering to his image on the coins in Jerusalem). I'd say that the goverment can do what it wishes with the government's money, but the people of God should be concerning themselves with what concerns Jesus. Jesus wasn't terribly concerned about currency!

If we are going to "make a strong statement" as the people of God, there is no stronger statement than to live out our faith as followers of Christ by loving and serving our brothers and sisters and our neighbors. Remember, it was Peter who drew the sword to defend Jesus in the garden and Judas who wanted to take the zealot approach when dealing with the government. Jesus didn't accept either way as his Way! I don't recall him boycotting or making political statements, although I do seem to remember a story or two about him protesting against money-making in the Temple.

I know that in our America, it seems that everything is political. I just don't think everything should be political! It's easy for us to rally around a cause, brandish our swords, and feel like the whole world is against us. We're really not to concern ourselves with all of that. When our coins have turned to rust and our bodies have turned to dust, it is the Kingdom of God that will remain...and it is the Father's business that should get our energy and attention!

"My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight..." (Jesus, John 18:36).

Centering?

. . .

I've been surrounded lately by a lot of people practicing this thing called "centering". I was at a church not long ago that spoke of "centering ourselves for worship". I spent the weekend with a non-profit organization that used their inter-faith meditation time for some "deliberate centering". My Hare Krishna neighbors realize themselves as they center, and my Buddhist friends (yes...I have Buddhist friends) practice centering on a regular basis. I teach my students how to center a heading on their papers, but I don't think that counts.

I suppose I am curious about what or whom I am to center on? Some religions teach us to center on our own consciousness while others say that we should center on nothing...emptiness. To be honest with you, I'm not sure what good centering on myself is really going to do for me (or for anyone else for that matter). Centering on ourselves is nothing new afterall...and I can't really see that being self-centered is much of a good thing. Self-centered people make selfish decisions. Our selfishness puts us at conflict with everyone around us. We don't need to look very far to see the effects of self-centeredness.

One doesn't need to look beyond the church to see the effects of self-centeredness gone wild. My personal Jesus will shower me with what I want when I want it if I do the right things and say the right words (in Jesus' name...). Seems to me that when we focus on ourselves, we start believing some pretty strange stuff about Jesus, and our sense of self-importance begins to muddle his message.

I don't think centering on myself is the answer.

Centering on Jesus, on the otherhand, is dangerous...it's a threat to my selfish tendencies. When I focus (center, concentrate, fixate or zero in) on Jesus, I am profoundly aware of the shame of my selfishness and the embrace of his grace. My heart trembles and dances almost at the same time. There are a few themes Jesus highlights that can make me feel pretty good about myself...and there are more than a few -- such as deny yourself & take up your cross -- that shake me to the core.

While there are many voices telling us to "get centered", there is only one voice telling us to "lose ourselves" (Matthew 10:39). You would think that the teachings of someone who taught a sell-all-you-have-and-give-it-to-the-poor-lose-your-life-deny-yourself theology wouldn't stand much of a chance in gaining a following, but he has! Those self-less moments of Christ brought us life, and the countless self-less acts and sacrifices of those who have follow him continue to bring life.

I know I am not The Answer, so my journey of faith can't begin or end with a concentration on myself. Our redemption comes from outside ourselves, so it only makes sense that our fulfillment should as well. When I meditate, I think on Christ -- his goodness, his faithfulness, his calling -- and I am reminded that my purpose in this life is found beyond myself as well.

"For you know it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you by your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ..."

1 Peter 1:18,19

What Matters

Together

Fra Sands on the guitar and Ben Purner.

Just a few years ago, none of us knew each other. This weekend, we enjoyed being together again.

When I stop and think about it, I am intrigued at all the different people who come and go from our lives. We cross paths with some folks only momentarily while others seem to become written into our stories. This past weekend was spent with some of those who have been woven into our lives, and it was good to be together. There is a sense that we belong to each other because of what we shared in Ireland and the love in our hearts for each other.

It felt a bit like being back in Ireland as we swapped stories, shared songs, and laughed together. Just about the time I would start to feel doleful because of our loss, I would be reminded of how great our life is with such people in it! We are thousands of miles from our former home, but our Irish friends are in our living room! What is shared between us is wider than the miles...

I am a grateful man!

From left to right: Brenda Ray, Jon Stalls, Mark Ray, Ben Purner, Fra Sands, and Jolene Hanson -- a part of the many who shared life together and fell in love with a small place called Corradrehid. Also visiting for the weekend were Evin and Amy Turley. Evin and Fra were part of one of Mark's youth groups in Northern Ireland.

What You Leave Behind

Respect

Feeding on Fear

"Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learned here."

I've commented before on The Wayfarer about the culture of fear that I see being so widespread in our American society. We are bombarded daily with media messages that feed us fear. If you are like me, I've had enough of the smorgasbord of dread and despair that is handed to us daily by politicians, economists, and those other agitators of alarm. Our fear benefits those who want us to be afraid!

Jean de La Fontaine said, "Everyone believes very easily whatever they fear..." I've learned a lot about myself in 2008, and I've come to realize how easily my life can be gripped by fear. I have felt the tug and tension of both fear and faith pulling at my life simultaneously. I've learned that faith does not eliminate fear but is an awareness of the presence of God when I am afraid. And I am learning that faith is not the antithesis of fear: love is! (1 John 4:18).

Since fear is a learned behavior, I suppose it is something I can also unlearn. I can hand back any fear that is handed to me and choose, instead, to rest in that place of peace and security, love and mercy that is found in Jesus. I am certainly happier in that place, and why I choose to accept the fear handed to me remains a mystery.

Fears