OKC history of racial segregation (fb)

Good article by Steve Lackmeyer on Roscoe Dunjee, Deep Deuce, and history of racial segregation in OKC.

Crazy Ways (fc)

A brief overview of some of God’s crazy ways

Problem:  You need a person to represent you to all of your people and to foreign rulers.  

Solution:  Have someone named Moses, who is terrified of public speaking, become the spokesperson for all of your people

Problem:  You need to destroy Jericho 

Answer:  Have your people walk around it a bunch of times and then blow a horn.

Problem:  You need someone who is trustworthy to protect the spies going to check out the land of Canaan.  

Answer:  Have a prostitute named Rahab be the contact person in Canaan

Problem:  Your people are terrified of a giant named Goliath.  

Solution:  Have a kid with a slingshot defeat the giant

Problem:  You need to feed 5000 people a meal  

Solution:  Use a kid’s sack lunch

Problem:  You need to choose a group of people to represent you and accomplish your plan to rescue the world forever. 

Solution:  Gather people who have rebelled against you and adopt them into your family and give them all of your power even though they will continue to reject you and rebel against you a lot of the time.  

I guess what I think God is saying today is that he has set his eyes on you and you and you and us and he’s not waiting for us to figure it out, work it out, make it happen… he’s asking us to stare at Jesus and his cross and let that turn us in to people of fearless trust- he wants this so that he can bring his Kingdom through us – but in a way that only he gets credit.

NYT Jobless Rate research (fb)

Check out this interactive graph on jobless rates through the recent recession.  As usual, the black community shoulders a disproportionate share of suffering.  Black women with no high school degree are hit especially hard.

War Dance (fb)

Watched War Dance last night.   Both horrifying and uplifting.  Tells the story of three children from a refugee camp in northern Uganda whose primary school has a chance to go to Kampala to compete in a national music contest.  It's the same area documented in Invisible Children.  For twenty years the LRA in northern Uganda, southern Sudan, and eastern Congo has used kidnapped children to wreak havoc on the region.  I can't begin to describe the heinousness of their common tactics.  The atrocities have gotten huge news coverage, Oprah coverage, multiple documentaries, etc...  You might assume that it is surely over.  The reality is that, despite multiple "cease fire" agreements and a huge December 2008 military offensive, the LRA is still in business and increasing its territory.  The LRA has no nuclear devises, doesn't launch terrorist attacks against the U.S. or our "interests" abroad, doesn't threaten oil resources, and doesn't threaten to "destabilize" the region.  Nevertheless, I'm genuinely horrified when I think about being a part of the generation that knew what was happening there and allowed it to continue for over twenty years, at least.

Becoming Nothing (fb)

Following Jesus is so WEIRD, so counterintuitive.  The way to go up is to go down; the way to get more is to get less; the way to be first is to be last.  Do I really believe it?

Found some simple truth from Edmund Chan this morning.  What is God doing with me, with you, right now?  This... becoming people who are becoming, deep inside of us, people with...

Nothing to prove:  a place of deep security in God
Nothing to lose:  a state of absolute surrender to God
Nothing to hide:  true integrity before God

Women in Prison (fb)

Editorial in today's Oklahoman a reminder that Oklahoma still puts more women in jail (per capita) than any other state.  Why is that?  What is the history?  What are the implications?  It's not OK.  Watch the news and start to notice the stories that highlight the condition of women and children in our state.  Prison rates, infant mortality, domestic violence, childhood obesity- we're not doing well.  The older testament prophets, again and again, reveal the heart of a God that considers the condition of the most vulnerable in society as an indication of the heart's of the people.   Change starts with awareness.