Lord, life’s a whirlpool.
So much to do.
I rush around, faster and faster,
intent on today,
this moment.
Never looking beyond the immediate.
M good intentions,
wet and waterlogged,
slide down the plug hole.
Gone.

Out there,
on the blurred edge of vision,
people stand, beckon, call.
I don’t see them,
except to myself.
But I rush on.
No time.
Scattering, perhaps,
a little largesse on the way.
Greasing the palm of charity.
My once bright conscious dulled
with tarnished generosity.
Encrusted rust, self-damaging.
My own collecting boxes
full of good intentions,
never cashed.


And yet, Lord,
there are moments
when I hear your voice.
Soft, yet insistent.
Your voice, coming,
not from some cloudy heaven
above, beyond,
but somehow centered
in the people I ignore.
And when I take my courage in both hands -
and doing that
means putting down my diary first –
and turn to them,
I find I’ve turned to you.
Among the lonely.
You are the neighbor I ignored.
The injured on the Jericho road.
And when I walk by,
on the other side,
I sidestep love,
and I’m the lonely one.
Self-exiled by my busyness.

Lord, help me try again.
Find time for others.
Find time for you.

From Facing the Storm

The Hush Sound — Lions Roar from Mig Reyes on Vimeo.

Sunset at Mauna Kea

The table is the barometer of family and community life. Let’s do everything possible to make the table the place to celebrate intimacy. – Henri Nouwen

This year it is happening at the intersection of Santa Monica and Madison from 2 p.m. to 10 p.m.   It’s a free event.  If you want to learn more details about the event, check out our webpage,  the press release for the event, or follow the ArtCycle tweets.  I hope to see you there!

Follow Me as I follow Christ - Photo by Firefigher with a Camera

Here are a string of posts about what it means to follow Jesus in today’s world. In this series, I share a brief summary of each of the chapters of Dallas Willard’s – The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus’s Essential Teachings on Discipleship – followed by my personal reflection on each chapter.

I trust that as you work your way through this series of posts, you will grow in your understanding of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ as well as how you can make disciples of Jesus.

Discipleship Part I: Preface and Introduction
Discipleship Part II: Discipleship
Discipleship Part III: Why Bother with Discipleship?
Discipleship Part IV: Who is Your Teacher?
Discipleship Part V: Looking Like Jesus
Discipleship Part VI: The Key to the Keys of the Kingdom
Discipleship Part VII: Spiritual Formation for the Whole Life & the Whole Person
Discipleship Part VIII: Spiritual Formation in Christ
Discipleship Part IX: The Spirit is Willing, But…
Discipleship Part X: Living in the Vision of God
Discipleship Part XI: Idaho Springs Inquires Concerning Spiritual Formation
Discipleship Part XII: Personal Soul Care
Discipleship Part XIII: Spiritual Disciplines, Formation & the Restoration of the Soul
Discipleship Part XIV: Christ-Centered Piety

More to come this week.

Best Sound Editing
Best Sound Mixing
Best Film Editing
Best Original Screenplay
Best Director
Best Picture

Kathryn Bigalow is the first woman to win an Oscar for best director, beating her ex-husband Cameron. Cameron, who was nominated for Avatar, seemed pleased that she won, from what the camera showed.  I think he can be quite happy, since Avatar has grossed $720,189,000 in the United States and when you combine it with foreign gross of $1,839,000,000, the total gross of the film is $2,559,189,000 as of March 7th, according to Box Office Mojo.  The Hurt Locker to date has pulled in 14,700,000 domestically, and $6,656,139 for a worldwide gross of $21,356,139 as of March 7th.

Avatar got the Oscar for:

Best Art Direction
Best Visual Effects
Best Cinematography

Other movies which received multiple Oscars includes Up, Precious and Crazy Heart. So do you think The Hurt Locker will pick up some steam in dvd sales as a result of winning the Oscar? And will Avatar reach 3 Billion before it goes to dvd? That’s my Oscar report for 2010.

Short Film Action: Kavi
Short Film Animated: A Matter of Loaf and Death
Documentary Short: China’s Unnatural Disaster
Visual Effects: Avatar
Sound Mixing: Avatar
Sound Editing: Avatar
Make Up: Star Trek
Art Direction: Avatar
Foreign Language Film: The White Ribbon
Original Song: The Weary Kind from Crazy Heart
Original Score: Up
Costume Design: The Young Victoria
Documentary Feature: The Cove
Cinematography: The Hurt Locker
Animated Feature: Up
Original Screenplay: Inglorious Basterds
Adapted Screenplay: Up in the Air
Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique from Precious
Supporting Actor: Christopher Waltz from Inglorious Basterds
Actress: Sandra Bullock
Actor: Jeff Bridges
Director: Kathyrn Bigelow (ex-wife of James Cameron) – The Hurt Locker
Best Film: Avatar

Chillin in nature

Originally uploaded by ojaipatrick

We know about your presence
that fills the world,
that occupies our life,
that makes our life in the world true and good.

We notice your powerful transformative presence
in word and
in sacrament,
in food and in water,
in gestures of mercy
and practices of justice,
in gentle neighbors
and daring gratitude.

We count so on your presence
and then plunge – without intending – into your absence.
We find ourselves alone, abandoned, without resources
remembering your goodness,
hoping your future,
but mired in anxiety and threat and risk beyond our coping.

In your absence we bid your presence,
come again,
come soon,
come here.

Come to every garden become a jungle
Come to every community become joyless
sad and numb.

We acknowledge your dreadful absence and insist on your presence.
Come again, come soon. Come here.

From Prayers for a Privileged People