Food for Thought

"Two Laws that govern my life: The law of cognition: I am what I think. The law of exposure: My mind will think most about what it is most exposed to."

-John Ortberg

No reason to post this, other than that I was tickled when I found it at Google Image. It led me to a corner fo willowcreek.org that I've never been to before...

Book Meme

Scott has tagged me!

1. One book that changed your life? Where is God When it Hurts by Phillip Yancey. Along the lines of Why Bad Things Happen to Good People by Kushner except it's not UTTER CRAP.
2. One book that you have read more than once? Just one? Hmmmm. Anything by Jane Austen stands up to multiple readings. But what stands out in my mind is Mordan'ts Need (Vol. 1 and 2) by Stephen R. Donaldson.
3. One book you would want on a desert island? The Bible.
4. One book that made you laugh? Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding. One of the funnest reads ever!
5. One book that made you cry? The Black Flower by Howard Bahr. I still cry when I read it.
6. One book you wish had been written? I wish Dorothy Sayers had finished Thrones, Dominations.
7. One book you wish had never been written? Can't think of one. I've read some real stinkers though! Blech!
8. One book you are currently reading? Ombria in Shadow by Patricia McKillip
9. One book you have been meaning to read? The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs
10. Now tag five people: Steph, Noah, Lauren, Mom, and Dad

Yancey on Donne's Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions

Give me, O Lord, a fear, of which I may not be afraid.

Although Devotions does not answer the philosophical questions, it does record Donne's emotional resolution, a gradual movement toward peace. At first - confined to bed, churning out prayers without answers, contemplating death, regurgitating guilt - he can find no relief from fear. Obsessed, he reviews every biblical occurrence of the word fear. As he does so, it dawns on him that life will always include circumstances that incite fear: if not illness, financial hardship, if not poverty, rejection, if not loneliness, failure. IN such a world, Donne has a choice: to fear God, or to fear everything else.

In a passage reminiscent of Paul's litany in Romans 8 ("For I am convinced that nether death nor life...will be able to separate us from the love of God..."), Donne checks off his potential fears. Personal enemies pose no ultimate threat, for God can vanquish any enemy. Famine? No, for God can supply. Death? Even that, the worst human fear, offers no final barrier against God's love. Donne concludes his best course is to cultivate a proper fear of the Lord, which fear can supplant all others: "as thou hast given me a repentance, not to be repented of, so give me, O Lord, a fear, of which I may not be afraid." I learned from Donne, when faced with doubts, to review my alternatives. If for whatever reason I refuse to trust God, what, then, can I trust?

In his disputation with God, Donne has changed questions. He began with the question of cause - "Who caused this illness, this plague? And why?" - for which he found no answer. The meditations move ever so gradually toward the question of response, the defining issue that confronts every person who suffers. Will I trust God with my crisis, and the fear it provokes? Or will I turn away from God in bitterness and anger? Donne decided that in the most important sense it did not matter whether his sickness was a chastening or merely a natural occurrence. In either case he would trust God, for in the end trust represents the proper fear of the Lord.

Check This Out!

Okay, Mom has got us ALL beat when it comes to feel good music vids! The maraca playing alone is worth lookin' at. Check out the Manfred Mann video at her blog!

Bono at the Leadership Summit

Codex was kind enough to post an mp3 file of the interview.

Cure for the Blues

I've got the my-man-left-town-and-I-found-a-dead-chipmunk-in-the-backyard-and- I-still-have this-freakin'-cold blues. Apparently, on a day like this, Queen songs are the only thing that can make you feel better. And if someone sets them to Doctor Who clips, you might actually crack a smile. ;)

I recommend turning the volume WAY UP! (Spoiler free!!)

The Summit II

Summit quotes, courtesy Jonathan Herron.

"Everyone wins when you add skill to passion. Well, hell loses, but as they say, who the hell cares." - Bill Hybels, opening session of Willow Creek Leadership Summit

"If you, Billy Graham, Rick Warren, and Bill Hybels all jumped off a building, the law of gravity will pull all of you down. Gravity won't say, 'oh no, that's Rick Warren. Send him back up.' Instead, there will be purpose-driven guts all over the place." - James Meeks

The Summit

The Leadership Summit kicks off today at Willow Creek.

Blogging the Summit:

• Babulife
• Sixty4Three
• Random Thoughts and Associations
• Tony Morgan (best notes on the sessions so far)

Willow Creek Community Church in the News; Bill Hybels profiled in Sunday's Chicago Tribune

The Rev. Bill Hybels,
The Father of Willow Creek
by Manea A. Brachear, Tribune Staff Reporter

Rev. Bill Hybels opens his eyes at dawn, rolls out of bed and lands on his knees. For 10 minutes, he says, he kneels in prayer, thanking God.

That one-on-one time came more easily three decades ago, when Hybels was an evangelist working outside the mainstream, launching an experimental ministry called Willow Creek Community Church.

Now Willow Creek is a big part of the mainstream, the South Barrington-based megachurch at the forefront of an international phenomenon counting almost 12,000 congregations.

And Hybels has become a power broker in evangelical Christianity, the CEO of a movement. This year he stepped away from Willow Creek's day-to-day operations to concentrate on expanding the ministry to the unchurched abroad and to broaden its urban, multicultural reach at home."In the early days I was the father, the mother, the uncle, the aunt, the grandmother. I was really the only teacher, the only pastor," he said. "These days ... the church's dependency on me has gone down just exactly the way we planned it."

Last week, the church made headlines in his absence by planning to move its fledgling Chicago congregation into the historic Auditorium Theatre. This week, Hybels will attend Willow's annual leadership summit, where more than 50,000 pastors and key volunteers are expected to attend or tune in via satellite.But Hybels said none of that means much if he can't find the time to cultivate his personal relationship with God, whether it is grabbing 10 minutes first thing in the morning or taking more time away from the 20,000-member church to go to his summer home in Michigan.

"I can't do a gourmet meal if I can't get the time in the kitchen," said Hybels, 54. "If I don't have mechanisms in place to lower my RPMs and help me focus, I'll just hydroplane over things I shouldn't hydroplane over. I'm an activist personality. I like high challenge, high speed, high risk."

...

Before he escapes for the summer, there is one rite of passage he never misses--the annual baptism in Willow Creek's pond. More than 500 teens and adults wade into the water so that Hybels or another pastor can cradle them in his arms, proclaim their conversion "in the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit" and douse them.

In South Haven, Hybels has contemplated his wife's vision of expanding Willow Creek's global outreach. After a trip to Africa, she challenged her husband to respond to the AIDS crisis there by providing medical and hospice care.Hybels has also used the downtime to develop his vision of building a more multicultural church. Last year he and seven pastors from predominantly white, black, Latino and Asian evangelical churches around Chicago began meeting monthly to collaborate on a community service project. And for several summers, he and Rev. James Meeks of Salem Baptist Church in Chicago have marched with others across a bridge in Selma, Ala., to commemorate the civil rights struggle."I am one of those prototypical, white educated folks who wonder why there is still a problem. If the laws have been changed and if everyone is voting and there is equal opportunity, why is there any lingering difficulty?" Hybels admitted to a group of worshipers at the First Baptist Church in Selma.

"As the church started to grow and exposure to the world began to increase, I
began to become more aware of some of the tensions between races."

Part of his response has been the opening of the downtown Chicago branch, one of four Willow Creek satellites. The church also hired a pastor to lead a Spanish worship service.And Hybels insists on casting more minorities in the church's Broadway-style stage productions that have earned national acclaim and often bring worshipers to their feet.

While everyone in the sanctuary sways and waves their arms in praise, Hybels stands, his hands folded behind him, his eyes closed in contemplation. Even if that makes him seem a little out of place in his own church, he figures it might help somebody else in the crowd feel a little more comfortable."I'm not an arm waver and a clapper and a dancer," he said. "Music doesn't do that to me, although it stirs me inside. I think there's a contingent of people at Willow who gain some permission to stay in their true response because they know I do. They're glad I stay true to my wiring. It gives them permission to stay true to theirs."

I've just posted the very beginning and the very end of this article. You can find the rest by clicking on the link in the title.

I wasn't terribly impressed by this article. It seemed meandering to me and, for a bio piece, paints a very vague picture. Now if Cathleen Falsani of the Sun Times sat down to do this job, that would be interesting!

Hallelujah byJeff Buckley

An excuse to listen to a great song and the video is beautiful to boot. But there are major season two spoilers.

But...is it art?

But...is it John Cleese?