January 2007

There is a new park in downtown Bangkok. It is called Chuwit Park, named after the man who had the park created. Beautiful park, not too large, but a needed greenspace in the midst of concrete. Here are two pictures, one of the front entrance and the other looking into the park. Interesting thing is, he dedicated the park to Jesus Christ, including engraving a message saying so on one of the pillars of stone at the front entrance to the park. Even more interesting is that this dedication message has since been covered up.

Here are two more pictures, one showing the pillar where the dedication message is engraved, covered up by a royal banner. The second pic is trying to peer under the banner to see the engraving. Can’t quite hold it back far enough for a good picture, but you get the idea. You can pull it back far enough to still read it though. Now the important questions are, “Why did Chuwit dedicate the park to Jesus in the first place?” and, “Who covered up the dedication and why?”

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One of the area’s I’m hoping to grow in in the coming year is the spirit of grace-ful dialogue. (I.e. speaking the truth with love, constructive conflict, etc.) One of the models I look to in this is Brian McLaren. As can be seen from my other posts, I’ve gained a lot from McLaren’s writings in the last year. But I believe perhaps his greatest contribution to the church will be remembered as the grace-full-ness in which he shared his ideas and engaged critics. One of my mentors who knows McLaren personally said that he is the “classic non-bridge-burner”. He does everything he can to maintain relationships and avoid burning bridges. Especially as I continue to be shaped in my theology by McLaren, Dallas Willard, and N.T. Wright and begin to be more vocal about this new worldview and understanding of what the Good News of Jesus is (which might be pushing the envelope for many in traditional evangelical circles), I hope to learn this spirit of grace-ful dialogue so that I might point to the Kingdom of God at all times. As this same mentor of mine says, its more important to be in right fellowship than to be right.

I just read this article on McLaren’s website. It is a “friendly note” to his critics sharing his desire for grace-ful dialogue between them that would represent the Kingdom of God well rather than the mean-spirited dialogue which often predominates in religious debate. I think it is a great summary of Christian ethics for grace-ful dialogue and useful for meditating on and putting into practice. I hope you are blessed by the article as I have been and will be.

Instead of being grateful, obedient and trusting, as a naive reading of the exodus story might have led us to imagine, Israel spends forty years in the wilderness wanting to go back to Egypt, fearful of entering the Promised Land because there are giants there, and generally displaying all the signs of the fallen humanity to whose plight they were supposed to be the answer. - from Evil and the Justice of God, p. 56, by N.T. Wright (emphasis mine)

Sometimes I lament at how difficult discipleship and leadership development is among the urban poor in Bangkok. When the believers in our house church and other neighbors continue to struggle with gambling, alcohol abuse, worry, fear, etc. I wish my neighbors would soak up the Word (not just intellectually, but heart-wise) like my friends back in college used to. I want to scream, “You’re supposed to be the answer to all this! Yes this world is messed up and there is much in your lives and our community’s life to worry over and reason to flee the problems and self-medicate with gambling and alcohol - but God wants to use you to change all this mess! There is so much more to life than what you’re living!” Read the rest of this entry »

No, I’m not writing about abortion or capital punishment.  I’m talking about a weariness and heaviness of heart, maybe even depression, that I observe in many, many Thai people.  I don’t like to minimize this phenomena and I don’t think it would be too far to call it death.  Its a decay, an eating away at the bones.  I started noticing this acutely right away when I returned to Bangkok, even in the taxi ride from the airport.  Just looking at the faces of people running the shops along the streets, it struck me.  What is that heaviness, where does that weariness come from?  Especially in “the land of smiles”?  I think its partly from years of poverty, of struggling to make ends meet.  Life is just a struggle and joy has been sapped, except when special occasions and visits from loved ones revive it.  There are probably also those heart wounds - from abuse as a child, from abandonment by a spouse, from medical emergencies and financial disasters - that remain unhealed without expectation of future healing.

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I’m addicted to espn.com. Following basketball is one of those things in American culture that I’ve held onto in Thailand. Besides just the sports though, there is one particular columnist on espn.com that I enjoy, Bill Simmons, “The Sports Guy”. I realized this morning one reason why it is that I so enjoy Bill Simmons: Its not just because he’s funnier than Dave Barry and Don Miller. Its not just because he makes sports come to life for someone like me who doesn’t get to actually watch games. I think its because Simmons is a genius at contextualization and story-telling. As a missionary, I’m drawn to his craft. Read the rest of this entry »

Wow. I can’t believe its 2007. I can’t believe I’ll be turning 27 later this year. Makes me feel old…

But looking back on 2006, I have to say it was the best year of my life. The primary reason I say that is because my understanding of what the Gospel is has been transformed. Starting in September 2005, I began a journey, kicked off by a mentor telling me how “Today is the best time ever to be a Christian” (I didn’t understand what the heck he meant at the time) and introducing me to several authors. This theological journey of sorts has continued to this day and continues into deeper and deeper waters. The worldview I now have is significantly different from what I had two years ago. I love Jesus so much more. I now understand his Kingdom to be so much more real and tangible and at hand. I have so much more hope for what God is doing on this earth. I am so much more excited to be part of his family, his Body. Read the rest of this entry »

I drove home to Kansas from the Urbana convention today. The TV was on at my parents’ house. I flip through the channels. One one channel is HGTV, about planning/building homes. They’re displaying this nice three story mountain lodge in Colorado or somewhere. Really beautiful. On another channel the sports guy talking heads are arguing over who’s got better stats in the NFL this year.

Meanwhile 1 in 6 people on this planet live in urban slums. And Permsup’s not nearly the worst of them.