From the category archives:
I’ve had this photo on my computer for a number of years (I’d credit it if I could recall where I got it).
It’s always fascinated me.
What are your thoughts?
Do you relate to her?
You can also explore more at our Solar Crash: Broken Beautiful live event.
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I can’t recall where I was, but I had to take a photo of this art exhibit.
It’s intriguing because it’s making art out of something broken.
It demonstrates the truth that all of creation is broken. At the same time, it’s completely false in how everything is broken in the same places.
Sometimes sweeping statements like everything is broken, doesn’t really help.
We’re all broken, but you’re not broken like I am broken. We don’t fall and crack in the same spots.
Even shared experiences doesn’t allow us assume we’re fractured in all the same ways.
He’s a minority, she’s gay, they’re poor… they must feel like this…
Is that really true?
If people knew how you were truly broken, hurting,and struggling, how might they treat you differently?
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You’ve probably seen this viral video before, but I’ve never gotten bored of it.
Matt Harding a video game designer figured there had to be more to life than his day job (been there before?), quit his job, and traveled the world.
This might not be what we typically associate with beauty, but beauty is written all over it.
The very act of leaving the status quo in search for something more is an act of beauty.
These sites and landmarks shown are glimpses of the spectrum of beauty that marks our planet.
I absolutely love the song (fyi – It’s called Praan by Gary Schyman sung by Palbasha Siddique), I have no idea what it’s saying but somehow it screams of beauty.
And the fact that people from all sorts of cultures can get together to do some silly dance is nothing short of beautiful.
This video has almost 30 million hits because something about it deeply resonates with all of us. Sometimes it may seem impossible, or too ridiculous, but every one of us long to be a part of creating and expressing beauty.
Your thoughts?
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Deconstruct this.
You’re in a large room hanging out with a bunch of people. They don’t appear familiar but you’re having a great time.
Someone enters the room and begins the gathering.
Everyone in the room takes turns sharing, mostly meandering about their past sins and tragic mistakes.
This scene of friendly chatter followed by a time of confession seems to continue over and over and months seem to pass.
And then during one of the ‘circle times’ you finally connect the dots, and it dawns on you that everyone in the room is either a murderer or a rapist.
You’re shocked wondering what you’re doing there.
You tell the person leading the therapy session, you don’t belong here.
He says he knows, he’s seen your file.
You explain to him got you’ve nothing against these folks, and that although you have your share of issues, this isn’t for you.
He responds “Do you think you’re better than them?”
Confused, your mind goes to a complete blank.
Actually this was a recent dream I found myself in. Except in the end, the confusion overloads my dream, and I find myself awake unable to go back to bed.
Tell me doc, am I just another self-righteous dude who doesn’t honestly want to identify with ‘the least of these’?
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i am not a television watcher, but i just watched all four seasons of battlestar galactica over a span of two months earlier this year, and I’ve got to say the series rocked. There’s so much in there, I wish I blogged about it throughout each season.
I don’t want to give away too much if you haven’t watched it, but it’s a sci-fi oriented post-apocalyptic drama – a bit like the explorations of noah’s ark in space. It sounds kooky but the characters and the questions it provokes are phenomenal.
What I loved about the show:
How humans have an incredible capacity to survive the toughest conditions
Questions of why we of all species deserve to survive?
How humans were either atheists or polytheists, while the ‘evil’ robots were monotheists
What it’s like to become that which you hate
pressing the limits of what it means to love and value – regardless of beliefs and even origins
How they managed to mix themes of technology and progress with mythical stuff like angels
The cyclon robots seemed to have a type of militant evangelicalism.
Themes of Islamic jihad and even Buddhist reincarnation were explored (ie. the downloading to new bodies)
Questions of who your creator is, why he made us, and what good is he?
I didn’t like Baltar’s christ-like evolution, but I loved the subtle bits of him despising his farm boy childhood and re-embracing it.
Whether we truly value the soul, or the shell it’s encased in?
I could go on and on. Anyone else love Battlestar? See incredible themes that tie in issues of faith and humanity?
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Did everyone catch the live streaming U2 rose bowl concert? They should be rebroadcasting it here soon. I got a ton of hits from people searching for song lyrics and meanings. There’s so much great stuff in One, but did you ever notice the lyrics in this verse?
It’s too late
tonight
to drag the past out
into the lights
Besides being profound and rhyming, every line here starts with a different variant of the sound 2… yet the song is called One… intriguing eh?
Here’s an awesome rendition with Mary J. Blige
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I’m fairly blown away by this video below from Ukraine’s got talent. No it’s not one of those funny ones, the artist Kseniya Simonova retells the story of Russia’s ‘Great Patriotic War’ against the Nazis in the 1940’s. Definitely check it out.
My thoughts were, wow. How do we get her to do something for our church? And this is just another example that goes in the face of people who always mutter “it’s all been done before”. There is talent, creativity, and beauty, yet to be seen…
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This must be one of the top five most overplayed U2 songs ever. But it’s still worth mentioning.
I have climbed the highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with youI have run I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
Only to be with you
But I still haven’t found
What I’m looking for
But I still haven’t found
What I’m looking forI have kissed honey lips
Felt the healing in her fingertips
It burned like fire
This burning desire
I have spoke with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of a devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone
But I still haven’t found
What I’m looking for
But I still haven’t found
What I’m looking forI believe in the Kingdom Come
Then all the colours will bleed into one
But yes I’m still running
You broke the bounds
You loosed the chains
You carried the cross
And my shame
And my shame
You know I believe it
But I still haven’t found
What I’m looking for
But I still haven’t found
What I’m looking for
This song still resonates today because it connects with the struggle of the human spirit.
No matter how much you’ve steeped yourself in routine and the mundane, there’s something inside of us all that remains unsettled, longing for more.
We try everything we can to satisfy that craving. Relationships, children, love, significance, unique experiences, and yet something still gnaws at our souls.
Some of us even discover God. The last section of the lyrics speak of Christ, and not what we can accomplish, but what God has already done. Taking the chains and our shame away. Replacing it with freedom.
Yet we’re still running, searching. At least I am.
Because with all that freedom and grace, I still find myself rejecting it. If it’s true what the Scriptures say, that belief must lead to actions, then the truth is, I spend my days not really believing.
And so, I still haven’t found what I’m looking for. Though I sure hope to someday.
* btw, that lyric “I believe in the Kingdom Come, Then all the colours will bleed into one” I’ve got to say is sheer brilliance. But how much blood must first be shed? Or has it already been shed, but then why aren’t we ‘one’?
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Exploring the intersections of Leadership, Creativity, Church, and Culture
