As the story goes, Lionel and Misha Thompson have, for years, loved giving money to people anonymously. They’d often slip it under their doors or put wads of cash in mailboxes. The trouble was that they could never be sure that the person received the gift; nor could they ever have any feedback whether it was meaningful or not.

At one point, a close friend went through a serious financial crisis.

Misha and I gave as much money as we could to them. They lived in another country at the time, so it was impossible to send it anonymously.

Much to our dismay, our gifts seemed to change the dynamics of our relationship. The warmth and camaraderie we had always shared with them dissipated.

Out of that came the idea of Giving Anonymously. It provides the feedback loop we longed to have when we were slipping cash under others’ doors. It also creates a way to give to friends in need while protecting our relationships.

Giving Anonymously was created as a method to facilitate pure generosity. There’s nothing to gain, not even a tax deduction. It’s pure giving.

We hope this inspires a new wave of giving that passes through, into, and from all kinds of communities.

[tags]giving, give, anonymously, anonymous, givinganonymously, social, barriers[/tags]

The Bible Twitters, How About You?

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything about the religious front. Some of you probably didn’t even know I was a Christian.

Ta da!

Anyway, I’m not here to convert. However, there’s been some interesting adoption of things like Twitter by the folks who produce the ESV Bible. They are twittering a bible verse a day (or a portion of it, as the case may be with 143 characters). I think this is a pretty cool way of using Twitter.

I’m not really into using Twitter personally (yet). I tried, but I find it taking up more time and spilling more beans than I care to at the moment. I’m also not sure many people care what I’m doing at every second of the day. But, to use it commercially (or organically? organisicially?… hmmm… what’s the word for using it in an organization, but not for commercial use?.. can you tell I’m still sick?) seems like a great method. Useful. Productive. Enhances communication from something big and impersonal. Check, check and check.

Bible geocoding + Google Earth = Cool mashup

On a slightly different note, another adoption that seems interesting is whoever is running OpenBible.info has taken a first sweep at geocoding anything that can be geocoded from the Bible – not, for instance, sheep. It’s not revolutionary, but it is interesting because I haven’t seen it done yet, until now. It’s a great mashup.

Apparently the first sweep is geocoding down to the city level. But, it sounds like they may go a little deeper and geocode things like specific locations inside of Jerusalem. That will be even more interesting considering there are quite a few places that are pretty hotly debated even inside of Christianity. Good luck buddy. I wish you well, and I am stalking you now to find out what other things you’ll be doing with Bible data.

Note: I’d like to thank my friend Ted for pointing out that the bible twitters which led me to the mashup. Thanks Ted.

[tags]Christian, bible, mashup, geocode, twitter, esv[/tags]

I am not going to tell you the story. But I will tell you about the story. This is not the story.

When I was on vacation with my parents, long ago, when I was an artist, we travelled to Banff, Canada. We rode a gondola to the top of this amazing mountain range and stared out across one of the most beautiful valleys I’ve ever seen. The brilliant blue sky. The dark forest green trees. The white mountain tops. The winding, icey, pale blue river that spun its way through the middle of it all. It was gorgeous. I found myself staring at it, forgetting the time, the people around me, as everything stood still for what felt like years.

I vowed never to take a photo, draw, paint or otherwise attempt to render what that landscape looked like. The only thing I could do was express in words, something intangible, what it looked like. Only the passion of my words would it really give any sense of obscure justice to what I saw that day.

This story, the one you’re hoping to read here but won’t find here, is exactly that. This story is not one where you can identify with it. It’s not a fake story, pushed into your tv with the hope that it is realistic. It’s so far fetched that you would never believe it was true unless you saw those words that said “based on a true story” before or after it. But it is real.

It’s compelling. It pushes the you not to feel pity for the person who went through it, because there really is a happy continuation (not “ending”). After hearing it, I consider my own fragile life. I consider my own frailty. I consider what I do not have the capacity to consider. Life. Death. Love. Fear.

It’s relevant. It’s happened within your lifetime (unless you’re two years old and can read already). It happened in a smallish town. Just a regular town. Just a regular hospital. Just a bunch of regular folks like you and I, but with one exception – God’s hand on their lives in a miraculous way.

The Story

So, my good friend, Misha Thompson, has written the first part of her story. Please, consider it’s implications, applications, and let it affect how you live. Please, don’t brush it off (if you can).

Please, read it.. [Update: Sorry, she has since password protected her blog.]

[tags]story, misha thompson[/tags]

Questions

Today is Palm Sunday. What’s Palm Sunday?

Some of us know the story about Jesus going on the pilgrimage to Jerusalem before Passover, as was custom. As he got close to the city, people starting cheering him and waving palm branches around. Sounds pretty normal and blase. But, if we (those who know the story) stop taking things for granted and start asking questions, we come up with some interesting (and possibly dangerous) results.

What’s the significance of the palm branches? Why did they all of a sudden start cheering him on?

Jesus went into the temple, checked it out, left the city, and then came back the next day. But, on his way back, he cursed fig tree – somewhat out of character for the typical Jesus we think of. He then proceeded to the temple, started chucking stuff around and throwing people out. He was ticked off. Why? Is there a correlation between the fig tree and the temple?

Enough Questions Already

So, here’s the background (according to Matt; I haven’t personally researched it all, yet).

Jesus was riding into Jerusalem through the East Gate. This is significant because Jewish prophecy says that the Messiah will come through the East Gate. Jesus had claimed to be the Messiah plenty of times before, so it’s kind of nerve racking when the guy claiming to be the Messiah enters Jerusalem through the East Gate during the pilgramage (essentially fulfilling prophecy). The crowds started going crazy because he was telling the people that he was the Messiah again, during his ride.

But why palm branches? They could have waved their hands, cloaks, nodded their heads. A palm branch is the icon of future political liberation for the Jews. They waved them like we wave our flags. It was a symbol of Jewish nationalism. When they eventually did become a nation and minted their own coins, a palm branch was on it.

They’re not cookies, they’re figs

Jesus was irritated. After a pilgrimage to the holiest building on the holiest mountain in the holiest city during the holiest time of year it was anticlimactic. In fact, it wasn’t just anticlimactic, it was outright irreverance.

Passover was of the greatest importance to the Jews, and the temple priests were making money off of it. The people came with their sacrifices and were told they couldn’t be used (their sins would not be forgiven if they didn’t have a pure sacrifice). To sacrifice properly, and do the Passover properly, and to cover the sins of your family, you needed a proper animal. Well, the merchants not only capitalized on this by selling pure animals at a premium price, but made money off of an exchange rate for “temple money” so that they could even purchase it in the first place, regardless of the price. What a crock!

No wonder Jesus was ticked off.

So, he left to Bethany for the night. Hungry along the way back the next morning, he saw a fig tree up ahead. When he got to it, it didn’t have any fruit on it (although it had all the leaves pointing to the idea that it should have fruit). He cursed the tree and kept on moving.

The next day, after having a hay-day on the temple merchants, the disciples saw the tree and were amazed that it was all withered from the roots up.

Now, here’s where it gets interesting….

Oooooh, interesting

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

Many people see this verse and think Jesus is telling them that they can get anything they want. But in context, Jesus is saying something very different.

Anyway, what’s important here is that he’s not just pointing at any mountain. He’s pointing to the temple on the mountain (a.k.a. the Temple Mount). In his day, saying something about destroying the temple would be a huge deal! And he’s saying if the disciples did it (with God’s blessing), nothing would change. He’s referring to the same thing as the fig tree. They have no fruit, so what good is it?

The point

No fruit means no worth. But take it even further and we find that it’s not just results or fruit Jesus is after. The temple priests and merchants sat in the temple, but their actions had no relation to God. To use a common metaphor, they were not grafted into the vine.

The only way we’ll ever produce fruit/results that matter is if God is the source of the idea or the action. It’s like if your boss told you to go do something. You’ll be measured on what you produce for him/her. If he/she told you to do something and you did your own thing, it wouldn’t really matter would it? It’s not what he/she wanted you to do.

Why is this dangerous stuff? Because if we’re not connected to the source, if we don’t hear his voice, we’re probably going about it all wrong. And if we’re not doing what he’s asking us to do as Christians, then we’re of no worth and we might as well be that fig tree or the temple mount cast into the sea.

Our many common philosophies quickly focused into a desire to remodel the perception of our term “church.” I’m sure this isn’t new to those of you who read Relevant, but we’re not subscribing to a philosophy created by others and taught to us. Both of us have somewhat come up with this stuff on our own, in our own space, in our own time.

The point is that we both want to help those in need. We both want to create something real, and now. The nice thing is that I once had something called NeedFillers, which was aimed at solving some of these unfulfilled needs in our community (and to be expandable into other communities as well). Having thought about it a lot, I think I’ve come up with many ways around some of the barriers (social and otherwise) we’ve created as a society.

We ended the coffee date with a renewed motivation to (re)create this system. Thankfully, the last barrier I had with NeedFillers won’t be a problem. James has agreed to put together a list of people who are interested in our little project. When I can get the system created, he’ll have the network of people put together and we’ll start some process training to help the social side of it to get moving.

Oh, happy day!

We eventually found that we wanted to see the direct result of our desire to help – anyone, anywhere, any time. Many times, we don’t want to be committed to a year long program where we just have it automatically withdrawn from our bank account and maybe get a letter at the end of the year. We want to send money for a particular purchase, see the item received by the person, and know that we did something practical for them, now.

In our little group, we decided it was too difficult for big organizations to help. There’s political issues, manpower issues, funding issues, etc. But, when I want to give to one person, right now, I can’t. I can’t simply send someone a blanket, or a sweater, or a bag of rice. Why? Because I don’t know anyone in need. I don’t know those people personally – and I want to. I want to see the direct results of my giving. I want to know that Mr. Smith received the food I sent to him. I want to know Mr. and Mrs. Smith were in need in the first place. And, I want my giving to go directly to them, with as few intermediaries as possible, so that there’s almost no overhead sucking up my donation.

So, with that problem in mind, we embarked on a thoughtful journey of how to solve this major issue.

The fun thing is, we came up with a solution.

What we propose to do is sign on trusted individuals as what we called “profilers.” These people may be missionaries, humanitarian workers, etc. The idea is that they would email us a photo, some basic stats, a story about the profiled person/group, and specific items in need.

The second type of person we’d need is more for the checks and balances required to keep things on the up and up. This person we called the “notary.” They would also be missionaries, or humanitarian workers who are located in the same area as the “profiler.” They would simply receive notification from us about a person/group in the area that needs to be verified as in need of the items listed, and let us know that each need is a valid one.

With those two items, we could post the need on our system which would display the profile of the person/group and each need (along with a dollar amount associated with the item).

People who wanted to give would be able to find the person they wanted to give to and the need they desired to fill, and give exactly to that specific need. The dollar amount given would be subtracted from the amount needed. When that specific item was fully funded, we’d send that money to the “profiler” (electronically or otherwise) so that they could purchase it within their area (thus reducing overhead and visibility because we don’t have to ship it in – reducing the amount of stuff looted by corrupt governments). If the item can’t be purchased in that location, we’d either purchase it here and send it to them, or have it purchased and delivered via a nearby “profiler” or “notary.” The cost associated with that would be added to the individual item. No other organizational overhead would be added to that item’s displayed cost.

Another important part of the process is the need for some method of communication of thanks by the recipient. This would help confirm and validate – at least to some extent – the recipient’s receipt of the item. It would also facilitate a feeling of relevance and immediacy to the giver. Immediate satisfaction from the results of their gift.

Essentially, the goal is to distribute help among the millions of people who can. It’s kind of like Linux, in a way (Linux is an operating system like Windows XP, which was created by tons of people adding their code to the base, rather than one company creating it all). It’s social welfare – distributed.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on our little project/idea. Please add your comment!

I’d also like to start coming up with a name for it. If you have any ideas, please say so. I was thinking like a geek and thought up “D-help” (short for distributed help), but it’s way too geeky I think.

[tags]donation, disaster, starvation, world hunger, missionaries, humanitarian[/tags]

I can’t say enough about Abraham Bates’ writing. I love it. I thoroughly enjoy dialogue with him on a weekly basis. Here’s another article of his from the Genesis Arts Report published at and for Hillcrest Chapel.

Life is Film by Abraham Bates:
We are walking films. We are narratives which piece together the bits and pieces of our families, educations, successes, pains and failures to create a story: a self. This self is the narrative of our lives. What kind of a film are you? Some of us would like to be a perfect Casablanca type person with intrigue, passion, adventure, and romance like Matt Atkins. Others want to be the silent force that holds the whole system together like Jedi Night Frank Talbot and Star Wars, still others desire a Kathy Hill kind of Enchanted April that brings life when it’s most needed. Are you a film-noir like Taxi Driver, Brazil, or Blue Velvet? Are you a film that depcits irony, humor, and wisdom in a single sentance like Wes Anderson’s Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums? There is a reason we need to begin interpreting our lives as film.

Understanding life as film helps break the modern myth of living by instinct. Instinct, defined by C.S. Lewis in the Abolition of Man, is modern man’s urge to live as if the only valid judicator of right action is the instinct of the person in the moment. This modern man begins everyday repeating their mantra, “no rules, no history, no yesterday, no tomorrow, today I act as my rational mid deems necessary.” But the result is a grown person who acts like a child. The hidden agenda of the sporadic newness of instinct is the heretical notion that the personal self is perfected at this one particular-present point in time, culture, and world. Lewis rightly understands the absurdity of this way of life.

Film narrative assumes a deeper level of life than mere instinct. It embodies a series of images and scenes placed together to form a whole story. For instance, the film Momento fantastically constructs a reverse narrative by assuming the viewer understands a traditional one. Even the abstract, existential films of Igmar Bergman and Roberto Fellini assume a congruency of images and words without an overt story line. Individual scenes are absurd without a larger narrative; there is always a method, motive, or value behind their existence. For us, our moment today is one scene in the context of our life; and our life is one scene in the context of the world; and the world is one scene in God’s larger narrative.

St. James understood that we are in the middle of God’s larger narrative when he wrote the words, “Count it all joy, my brethren, when you meet various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” He wrote these words to the universal Jewish/Christian church who were dispersed throughout the Roman Empire because of persecution after the destruction of the temple in 70AD. They had become small sects of monotheistic believers, in Christ, living within larger cosmopolitan community of pluralistic deities. James was encouraging them to understand their situation, as a unified group of people called out by our God, and to live out their narrative no matter how difficult life became.

Christianity in Western Civilization is facing this same tension: our individual narratives don’t seem fit the modern way of life and it makes us feel akward. Our tendency as modern people is to focus so intensely on our life as if we are the only scenes in the narrative that really matters. The result is that we miss the larger picture of God’s movement in the world. But we must remember that our lives have entered the film at mid-scene in plot twist number three called Redemption. We have already seen Creation and Fall play themselves out and now our lives have magnificently been dropped into God’s third act of Redemption as we patiently wait for the fourth: Restoration.

[tags]film, life, god, community, narrative, philosophy, abraham bates, modernity, progressive[/tags]

I’d love to hear what you have to say about the following:

1. How does evangelism play a part in our faith?
2. How are we called to evangelize (method)?
3. Define evangelism
4. Are you ashamed/embarrassed of the exclusivity (Christ is the only way)/evangelism of Christianity?
5. How do we balance or live out evangelism in our lives (be practical)?
6. What do we have to offer the rest of the world (spiritually, physically, mentally, etc)?

[tags]Christianity, god, christ, evangelism[/tags]

During the show, an Olympia Muslim leader said one thing that resonates with me. He said “We teach that if you are not angry about something, then you are not a true believer.” What’s amazing to me is if you follow that logic out, you will never have peace. Anger will never lead to harmony.

Another caller hit the nail on the head when he mentioned that what is truely happening is that the reaction to the cartoon is displaying the innate internal anger of the Muslim, which is what the cartoon depicted.

Anyway, I think it’s simply interesting to see the reaction to the cartoon. What’s your reaction?

Here’s the actual images, also reprinted on:
Michelle Malkin’s blog and Gaijin Biker’s blog.

[tags]Muslim, cartoon, bomb, Mohammad, fuse, Danish, Denmark, cartoon[/tags]

So, I was listening to NPR the other night and it pertained a dialogue I’ve been having with some friends. There was some incident where one artist took a hammer to another artist’s work, for the sake of artistic expression. The “vandal” said that the original artist, whom he was very familiar with and studied for most of his life, would have approved of his art.

The French chick that NPR was interviewing said that the original artist probably would be polite, but not necessarily think it was appropriate. Towards the end of the interview she said a few things that really caught my attention.

First, she inferred that destruction is not art. I wonder, what do you think? Can destruction be considered art?

It leads to the opposite question, is creation the only method of art? Also, the more fundamental question, what is the definition of art? And, what is the purpose of “creating” art?

[tags]art, destruction, creation, god, france, gallery[/tags]