Loving Embrace

Laura and I are project people. We are do-it-yourselfers.

We sit around and daydream about all the things we could be doing

with our house.

With our sidewalk.

With our back patio.

With our basement.

With the community garden.

And then?

Then, we sit on those ideas. For a while.

This weekend, our Lord embraced our (growing) family with His family. We had quite a few projects that needed completion before little man Twilley comes out of the womb, but we didn't have a ton of time with which to do it. So our friends (using just first names, if you are a friend - and you are reading this - let me know if you'd like your name to link somewhere such as another blog or web page or if you want me to include your last name) Dusty, Haley and Jason, Jason, Joanna and Zac, Justin, and Karen came along to help us paint, put up bookshelves, and add some nice touches to the basement.

Libations, snacks and dinner were provided, but those are a measly thanks for the amount of work that went into this past Saturday.

So... those people (or you, if you are one of those people and are currently reading this) are the physical manifestation of Christ in this world to us. It consistently amazes me that the link that we have to so many people in this city comes under the umbrella of a relationship with Jesus and that the same relationship would, in all likelihood, not exist apart from that umbrella.

Most of the people listed live in West Philadelphia (University City) - how would we have met them apart from meeting Jesus first? We have no business in U City except to worship on Sundays.

Jason met his wife Haley through a church here. I met Jason through his sister at my University. We (his sister and I) met because we were involved in a ministry together.

I have been accused, on many occasions, for over-spiritualizing things. However, I think I tend to over-think things more often than I over-spiritualize them. Part of the territory of believing in a God thats sovereign is believing that nothing exists without purpose (regardless of whether I know what the purpose of whatever exists is) so it's often hard for me to imagine a world where everything doesn't have a spiritual aspect to it (even while I still don't always behave as if I believe that).

We are thankful to our friends.

We are thankful for our friends.

There is a lot that happens in our neighborhood, our city, our country and our world that can have the tendency to overshadow the reality of Christ moving to remind us, who are undeserving, of his abundant mercies. There is a lot that I could dwell on (and that I do dwell on) in regard to poverty, oppression and the sin(s) that so easily entangle.

But Saturday was still a reminder that He is the God who lives.

That He cares.

That He loves His people.

That He loves us through His people.

Uncertain, scared and mentally blocked...

One of the things I worry about in this fantastic experiment (mentioned in yesterday's post) is the fact that, at some point, there has to be a form of creative exhaustion. There will only be so many times that I can write about washing my hands before things become truly OCD on my part.

In any case, I've made a hard stop to read a book that I received from Amazon while I was out of the office - Street Shadows: a Memoir of Race, Rebellion, and Redemption.

Already, the book is sounding like a repeat of the Night of the Gun (David Carr's own memoir - you can find my review of that book by clicking here and searching [ctrl+f] for my name), which would not be such a bad thing as it is much shorter.

I picked the book because I thought that it might help me to understand some of the culture that I currently live in.

We'll see how that works out.

In the mean time, I'll think of something witty (or not so) to say. One of the things I've been thinking about lately refers to a comment I overheard at a recent holiday party. Essentially, this person asserted that the Bible couldn't be trusted because the people who wrote it were doing so with an agenda. I can agree to that - postmodern criticism would push us to the understanding that no one writes, thinks, speaks, etc. without an internal or underlying bias. But, the argument of what that agenda means and the implications of that agenda is something that's been on my mind a lot today.

Plus...that one's a lot easier than the other points brought up - inequality as practiced by the church, hoarding of wealth, denial of guilt / wrongdoing, etc.

I only mention it without writing about it because I'd like to handle it in a somewhat scholarly manner - you know...with footnotes and stuff.

So...is anyone still reading [this] blog anymore?

By the way...I head that agenda was to [in the future] sell vacuums and anything else that would look nicer with Jesus posted all over it (dental services, medical services, real estate, restaurants, etc.).

Outrageous

This much is obvious - when I read what some of my friends from the South write on Facebook about their distrust of our President, of the current administration or of the government in general a vast majority of what is written is not as an outrage against injustice. More than anything, what is written is an outrage against a democratically elected Democrat led government.

Lets be honest - for most of those referred to, there was no outrage upon the revelation that we (America) have tortured individuals for the sake of "truth." There has very rarely been any outrage for the plight of those who slough through the swamps of poverty and destitution. The orphan and the widow remain on the margins, but what comes to the forefront on the minds of those who would carry the banner of Christ in America is the downfall of capitalism by the likes of a president who pushes to enact universal health care and fix the financial & budgetary problems left behind by a previous (Republican) administration (that I, admittedly, voted for - both the current and the former).

All the while, the hungry are still hungry.
The sick are still sick.
The marginalized are still off to the sides.

And the unfortunate thing is that I walked with the mess that is the myopic strains of a faith that is more political than actualized. When it comes down to it, I think that Jesus cares less about your government than He does about how you're treating (loving) your brother.

Maybe...it's a sort of temperament thing. I've never been a huge proponent of talking politics. I just think that the weight of importance given to the American political (and lets be really honest - ideological) process is generally wasted energy and has become more divisive and visceral than well thought and unifying. And this is come about with some difficulty in a faith that declares that Christ is the head over all authority (Col 2:10) and that we are to Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution. At best, it's problematic even as we have declared our democracy to be supreme (which is why Arminianism plays such a huge part in our religious dialogue, I suspect) and, by association, God to be mistrusted even as we mistrust our own leaders.

Our failing, then...is that we are not outraged about the thing that Christ was outraged about. I don't weep over the brokenness of the world like Jesus - and in the end, this is only proof of how vast the separation is from Him and me (which is good, because I would make for a very poor Jesus). And that's the crazy thing - right - that Jesus gets outraged about how people are treated (how they are unloved, how they are overlooked, how the image of God is slandered, how the worship of God is corrupted) and not what government is in power.

I have failed to some degree by trusting that certain political powers have in mind the things of God while the reality remains that certain political powers have in mind the elevation of self and the propagation of an ideology that is not Christianity.

We cling to this false assumption that power is found in a vote - a voice amongst others in a democratic republic. We generally abhor the idea that Jesus would have us loosen our grips from the illusion of power (a vote... a voice... in other cultures, all that you have - Luke 18:18-30) and see what following and loving are...

We're moving to Canada!

Update.

I posted this a few months ago and have only just now gotten to changing things around so that my SS# doesn't show when you view my documents (thanks to Jonathan, I pulled the post quickly). At the end of the day, there was resolution on this but no apology from the IRS.

Not surprised.

I recently read through their letter again - I love how they use blame shifting to try to implicate the taxpayer with these form letters, "If you would have filed electronically..." Nice.

And if you never read the post, read it now and all of this will make sense.

"Gene, I've got some bad news," she said over the phone.
I was in Connecticut. It was already late and I was coming off a long day (having been up since 4:40am).
"Um. What is it?" I expected something about the neighborhood or something about one of our friends. Maybe something about crime in the city.
"We got a letter from the IRS."
"What?"
"Yeah, a letter from the IRS."
"What does it say?"
"Well, I just skimmed it."
"Can you read it to me over the phone?"
"It's kind of long."
"Okay, I'll read it when I get home."

For the last three years, I've prepared our taxes. The past two have been with Turbotax. I've always been worried that something like this would happen. Needless to say, my stomach's been kind of upset all day.

So what did the IRS write? They need proof of my withholding entry of $404,500.00. I looked at my 1040, the actual number on line 64 is $4,045.

So I called the number listed on the letter. After 49 minutes of waiting on hold, a person finally picked up. She basically told me that I needed to send over another copy of my 1040.

"Is the IRS going to pay me for the time and postage that is required for me to send this to you since it was a mistake the IRS made?"
"Um...most likely I'm thinking no. But you can contact your local branch to ask."
"Gah! I hate the U.S. Government!" and I hung up the phone.

Lately, on a lot of different levels, I just feel like I'm getting screwed. If you want to hear it from me, then ask because this hits on a lot of different levels. More on topic, however, is the face that our government hates to take responsibility for what it does. It's the reason we wait 230+ years to apologize for something as inane as slavery. It's the reason we destroy countries and leave them desolate and claim that it's all for the fight against terror. It's the whole reason that an ignorant, belligerent and imbecilic administration looks to destroy our natural lands in the short term for a fix that doesn't have a long tail.

My written response to the IRS:
"Dear Madam:

In regard to your letter number <> dated June 26, 2008, please check the original Form 1040 that I sent to the IRS earlier this year. The amount listed on line 64 is actually $4,045.00 and not $404,500.00 (as described in your letter). I called 1-800-829-0922 and was told that I would have to send in another copy of my 1040 but find this an unnecessary and unreasonable expense of time and money on my behalf in lieu of the fact that the mistake was that of the IRS and not of my own making.

Thank you for your time."

Hence, we're moving to Canada to escape Bush (See video below) and his authoritarian, unlawful patriot act bearing and shortsighted regime.

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

Lazy Blogger...

What's better than thinking of posts that will make one ponder, inspire others, and draw the blogosphere to laughter?

Posting videos that will do the same.

Think (Ponder - we live in a dangerous world)

Inspire (This is one of the reasons I'm leaning heavily towards the man - the speech, not the celebrity endorsements)

Laugh (we did...)

Lazy weekend. Lazy post.