One of the better books I’ve read on leadership is David Logan’s book on Tribal Leadership According to Logan, no matter where in the world we live, we are all tribal people forming into groups in one of five stages of maturity. Our personal and tribal maturity is dependent on our view of the world. Here are Logan’s stages and the view of life held in each. Continue reading “What’s Your Tribal Worldview?”
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Put Down Your Phone and Pay Attention to the Ones You Love
On Easter morning, not one of Jesus’ followers were awake to the possibility of new life after a great loss. They may have learned a lot from Jesus, but what they missed in all their new knowledge was an ability to pay attention and see what they couldn’t imagine or didn’t expect. Learning through studies adds knowledge. Learning from experience adds wisdom – an ability to pay attention even in the simplest situations. Here is one of my favorite stories as an example of the dangers of inattention.
Before you throw away something, or even worse, someone you care about, put down your phone and pay attention to those you love. As Jesus said in John 13:34-35, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Don’t Worry, Dorothy…
Jesus said, “Do not worry…” Did Jesus know how hard that is? To not worry, to try and force yourself to not worry, to command your mind to not think about the future, is like telling yourself, “Don’t think about pink elephants.” Try it, tell yourself, “Do NOT think about PINK ELEPHANTS!” As soon as you make such a demand, it’s hard to think about anything else. The pink elephant in the room becomes the pink elephant in your brain. Continue reading “Don’t Worry, Dorothy…”
Reconciling to the Race
In this podcast/sermon, Bishop Calvin Ward and I address such issues as “Waking Up White (or Black)”, Racial Reconciliation, and Reconciling Ourselves to The Race God has set before us. https://macland.podbean.com/e/august-26-2018-two-by-two/
Pray for Daily Bread and Let It Be Enough
“The Lord’s Prayer” contains many phrases that can lead us into life more in tune with Jesus and his way. “Give us this day, our daily bread,” helps us to slow down and enter into each moment. To focus on our daily bread requires an ability to distinguish between what we need and what we want. The current global economy not only encourages no distinction, it is dependent, at least in the short run, on blurring the distinction so wants are treated with the same passion and urgency as needs. And since wants never satisfy when removed from needs, our desires become insatiable. Consider the buying practices and the changes a century has brought. Continue reading “Pray for Daily Bread and Let It Be Enough”
Accept Your Unchangeables to Enjoy
We often face unchangeable problems. How we face them can keep us from living our moments. We may try to relive the past as if doing so could get it right or prelive the future to solve our problems ahead of time. To come into any moment, especially a moment of worship, it is helpful to recognize where we have power and where we don’t as our path to peace can be found in The Serenity Prayer,
God grant me, the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Want Peace Magic? Let it Be.
I have difficulty accepting the world around me and letting anything be. I am easily distracted and noise can shatter my focus. My motto is “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with everyone and everything else.” My attempt at gaining peace is by trying to change the world and avoid my inner turmoil altogether. Even though it doesn’t work, I keep trying the same thing hoping for different results. Continue reading “Want Peace Magic? Let it Be.”
Be a Nowist
While w
orking on The Moment, I encountered this Ted Talk by MIT Engineer Joi Ito who suggests that the key to future creativity is to be a Now-ist. Here are some excerpts from Joi Ito: Want to innovate? Become a “now-ist” Continue reading “Be a Nowist”
Practice to Become
The idea of praxis emphasises the importance of doing in order to become. In athletics, the image is simple, no one excels at swimming, playing tennis, or any other sport without years of practice and development. If we believe that we are simply good at math or bad at it, if we believe that either we can swim or we can’t, then we never envision what we can become. One great example is the artist Vincent Van Gogh. Michael Michalko wrote of Van Gogh’s development as an artist with little talent but a strong work ethic.
A Wrinkle in Time: A Lesson for Church and Country
A Wrinkle in Time was one of the first books I just couldn’t put down. I’m excited to see what the new Disney movie does with it, but it already laid a foundation for me for writing Out of The Crowd.
If you ever feel lost in a crowd, then you understand what Meg was feeling in the climax of A Wrinkle in Time, Meg struggles to find life as a person out of the crowd. The crowd is a planet called Camazotz. The lines are marvelous. On this strange planet, she struggles to both live out her calling as an individual and as a person in relationship 
to her brother. Here are some of my favorite lines.
The houses in the outskirts were all exactly alike, small square boxes painted gray. Each had a small rectangular plot of lawn in front, with a straight line of dull-looking flowers edging the path to the door. Meg had a feeling that if she could count the flowers, there would be exactly the same number for each house. In front of all the houses, children were playing. Some were skipping rope, some were bouncing balls. Meg felt vaguely that something was wrong with their play… This was so. As the skipping rope hit the pavement, so did the ball. As the rope curved over the head of the jumping child, the child with the ball caught the ball. Down came the ropes. Down came the balls. Over and over again. Up. Down. All in rhythm. All identical. Like the houses. Like the paths. Like the flowers.
The brain of the town, the central consciousness of the planet, was in the CENTRAL Central Intelligence Building, and the brain, devoid of personality, was called IT. And IT monitored all the planet for any distinctiveness among the people. Meg resisted the uniformity of Camazotz. Later in the book, Meg faced IT to rescue her brother from the control of the over-sized brain who spoke to her through her brother. She decided to confront IT. For encouragement, she recited The Declaration of Independence. Continue reading “A Wrinkle in Time: A Lesson for Church and Country”
Doubt as a Path to Faith
“Don’t be a Doubting Thomas,” was a charge I heard both at home and church. Doubt was bad. It was below lying and stealing, but doubt was otherwise high on the list of nonchristian characteristics and Thomas was the icon for doubt like Judas was the icon for betrayal.
Through the years, I’ve gained a little more respect for Thomas, doubting, and found little use for such polar dichotomies like doubt and faith. I’ve found throughout my life that there are few opposites. Continue reading “Doubt as a Path to Faith”
Easter Good News: Every Day is a New Beginning
A friend and I were discussing our favorite writers, those who offered an amazing phrase, art in a sentence. After discussing our mutual admiration for Norman McClean’s masterful, A River Runs Through It, he suggested I read Wallace Stegner starting with Angle of Repose. When I got the novel, I didn’t have time to start the book, but I did want to know what words he chose for his beginning. I opened the cover and read the dedication, For my son, Page. My response was, “Really, you’re an author, and you name your son, Page?” I was stuck. I did move on, and so far, Stegner has delivered as my friend promised. My fixation on first words did lead me to pick my top five first lines of novels, though my list is subject to change without notice.
Continue reading “Easter Good News: Every Day is a New Beginning”
Care Enough to Share.
For independent authors and other artists, books, songs, and even some movies rise to the surface because someone cares enough to share. If you have a book you love or a singer or band you enjoy, write a review to share their art with others. Reviews on Amazon, ITunes, or Google Play are all helpful. The review also gives the artists feedback on how his or her work connects with others. Care enough to share!
If you’re willing to write a review on one of my books, then click the following link: http://amazon.com/author/dwjones. Thanks for your help.
What About Holy Saturday?
Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday – But what about Saturday?
Certainly Saturday must have been what seemed like one of the longer days of the week. Jesus had died, terribly, but burried certainly. With each moment came the expectation that those who came for Jesus might come for them, that the “Jesus Problem in Jerusalem” wasn’t going to be settled until all his followers were rounded up and seen to their own demise.
Saturday is the between time. The after the cross but before the resurrection. Continue reading “What About Holy Saturday?”
Mary’s Faith in a Painting
This week, we celebrate Mary and her faithful response to the Angel’s visit. We know the story so well, we often miss the power of not only an angel’s visit, the transforming words he offers, but Mary’s response. There is no request in the angelic proclamation. He does not ask, “Mary, God has a job for you to consider.” The only consideration is her response. Here is a painting which helps me capture the power in Mary’s choice.
Here are the details, their possible symbolism, and parts of the story we may have overlooked. Continue reading “Mary’s Faith in a Painting”
Is God a Morning Person?
I often find poets make the best preachers. They focus on each word and every line to provide in often-succinct fashion interpretation of life and scripture. Along with the images of creation in Genesis and Psalms, I hold this version of our beginning by Vassar Miller dear to my heart.
Morning Person
Vassar Miller
God, best at making in the morning, tossed
stars and planets, singing and dancing, rolled
Saturn’s rings spinning and humming, twirled the earth
so hard it coughed and spat the moon up, brilliant
bubble floating around it for good, stretched holy
hands till birds in nervous sparks flew forth from
them and beasts – lizards, big and little, apes,
lions, elephants, dogs and cats cavorting,
tumbling over themselves, dizzy with joy when
God made us in the morning too, both man
and woman, leaving Adam no time for
sleep so nimbly was Eve bouncing out of
his side till as night came everything and
everybody, growing tired, declined, sat
down in one soft descended Hallelujah.
Whether the creation stories of Genesis or poets like Miller or James Weldon Johnson, the great ones point not just toward what God has done but what God continues to do daily. This week take Miller’s poem and perspective with you. See each day, each encounter, each dynamic moment as a work of an ever creating God.
Pray to Your Audience of One
Some
where in the recesses of my mind, I have a vague memory from my childhood when I prayed in a family or other group gathering. Someone, perhaps a sibling, snickered at the words I chose in my prayer. My mother, the ever protector, responded quickly, “He wasn’t talking to you.”
Jesus taught that prayer was never a public performance but a private one.
Accident or Not?
I have friends in Orlando who live this as their philosophy,
We go nowhere by accident.
Wherever we go, God is sending us.
Wherever we are, God put us there for a purpose.
Christ who indwells us has something to do through us wherever we are.
Though I try to share their conviction, I am often the one of little faith. Walking through our yard last week, barefooted, on the phone, I have to wonder, was what I stepped in an accident? A gift from our dogs? A gift from God?
I make lots of mistakes. They seem to be life’s learning lessons for me. Only God, perhaps, never blunders, though the duck billed platypus makes me wonder. That being the case, I take this paraphrase of Psalm 53 that I came across this week as no chance reading but an assignment to study. See if you don’t agree. Continue reading “Accident or Not?”
Why Not Sell Your House?
Through the years as a pastor, I’ve counseled a lot of people about their children, especially their teenagers. Imagine you are Kevin Salwen. He picked up his fourteen year old daughter, Hannah, from a slumber party and was driving her home. At a red light, Hannah looked out their windows and saw a homeless man on the sidewalk holding up a sign asking for money to buy food. On the other side of the car, in the lane next to them, Hannah saw a black Mercedes. She looked from the Mercedes, back to the homeless man, and from the homeless man back again to the Mercedes. Then she said to her father, “If that guy didn’t have such a nice car, then that guy could have a nice meal.” It made sense to her. A less expensive car for one person could keep another off the street. Continue reading “Why Not Sell Your House?”
God is Love?
When I was a youth, we learned a song that made memorizing 1 John 4:7 & 8 quite easy. The verse is,
Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is of God; and everyone that loveth
is born of God and knoweth God.
He that loveth not, knoweth not God for God is love.
Beloved, let us love one another. 1 John 4:7 & 8.
Through the years, I have not forgotten the song, but I have had to work on trying to begin to comprehend what God is love might mean and have to do with me in my day to day living, and when I can, loving.
I gained help from some who reflect on our human experience in deeper ways than I can. One is Frederick Buechner. In Beyond Words, he wrote of love’s stages: