Our time in Mason was an encouraging and fruitful couple days.  The huddle is good, it’s necessary.  But when you get that close to your team-mates you can see the bruises, the ripped and grass-stained jerseys, the blood drying on cuffed up knees.  I remember thinking about how messy community is, even when its goal is to be in ministry.  Parents had to function on only a few hours of sleep after a restless night with the kids.  We worked with young kids who were less than compliant about hours spent in planning meetings.  We stretched our patience thin, talked in circles, humor ran low… but as the fire burned down and swamped the room in clouds of sweet smoke, we began to pray hopefully and I was filled with confidence that yes, the huddle is good.  We need each other – we need the messiness and difficulty.

But it’s still so tempting to want to streamline things and do it alone.  It’s like emptying the dishwasher with the help of someone who doesn’t know how your is kitchen organized: it’s always easier to just do it on your own rather having to explain where the plates go and why you only stack some of the cups upside down and that there are two different sets of silverware that just shouldn’t be put together…
But that’s not how God does it.
He asks us to help him empty the dishwasher.  Sometimes he even lets us organize the pot cupboard.  Our God works with us.  He pulls us into the team.  And if anyone has a case for just doing things on His own, it’s the freak’n Creator of the Universe.

Community never looks like what you dream – unless you dream of having misunderstandings, confusion, irritation.  But accomplishing something alone is hardly as beautiful or as satisfying in the end as doing it with a team.  It pushes us into a new places of challenge, but it also takes us to new levels of growth.

At the start of the new year, it’s ingrained in our culture for us to think about making changes in their life.  More exercise, fewer calories, to finally finish reading “War and Peace” – whatever it may be.  And often, it’s a resolution we make on our own.
I challenge you to find a community.  Find a team of people who are dreaming towards the same things you are and bring them alongside you.  Let them frustrate and strengthen you.

When you’re on the field, playing the game, you need your team.  You need to know everyone’s in on the game plan, to know everyone is in this together.  Let’s imitate God in this… come over and we’ll empty the dishwasher together.

“O Source of all Good,
What shall I render to Thee for the gift of gifts,
Thine own dear Son, begotten, not created,
my Redeemer, Proxy, Surety, Substitute,
   His self-emptying incomprehensible,
   His infinity of love beyond the heart’s grasp.

“Herein is wonder of wonders:
He came below to raise me above,
He was born like me that I might become like Him.

“Herein is love;
when I cannot rise to Him He draws near on wings of grace,
to raise me to Himself.

“Herein is power;
when Deity and humanity were infinitely apart
He united them in indissoluble unity, the uncreated and the created.

“Herein is wisdom;
when I was undone, with no will to return to Him,
and no intellect to devise recovery,
He came, God-incarnate, to save me to the uttermost,
as man to die my death,
to shed satisfying blood on my behalf,
to work out a perfect righteousness for me.

     “O God, take me in spirit to the watchful shepherds,
     and enlarge my mind;
     let me hear good tidings of great joy,
     and hearing, believe, rejoice, praise, adore,
     my conscience bathed in an ocean of repose,
     my eyes uplifted to a reconciled Father,
     place me with ox, ass, camel, goat,
     to look with them upon my Redeemer’s face,
     and in Him account myself delivered from sin;
     let me with Simeon clasp the new-born Child to my heart,
     embrace Him with undying faith,
     exulting that He is mine and I am His.

In Him Thou hast given me so much that heaven can give no more.”

Merry Christmas!

About a month ago, Melinda Watters put up this painting for the neighborhood by one of the intersections on Springdale Road.  It depicts the East Austin locale: thick wires sweeping low over the street, cars bouncing off their wheels with music, and in the middle of all this is settled “home” in the form of a blue house and tree topped with a bright-eyed bird.  It’s simple, but it really resonated with me and I feel close to the scenes this painting describes; when I noticed the East Austin zip code in the bottom right corner I even felt a tinge of pride and loyalty to the good ol’ 78721.  It tells the story of this neighborhood, of the people here, and now of me.  It takes things like ugly wires over the street and re-makes them as a part of the beauty of our story here. 

It’s incredible how art can do that.  It takes my experiences - the Spanish music that’s blaring from down the street even as I write this, the rusted El Camino in my neighbor’s yard and the house with twenty-something cats camping in the front yard - and makes them beautiful, simply because they are identifiable as a part of the East Austin story.

With the Christmas season, Fireseed has been following the countdown of advent towards the birth of Jesus in our weekly prayer time.  This Sunday we talked about hope and the joyful expectancy that comes with waiting for Jesus’ birth.  Someone mentioned that the Hebrew word for “wait” in the Bible also means to expect or look eagerly towards something.

Hoping means waiting.  Waiting means hoping!

This rarely characterizes my waiting.  I’m usually just hoping that my wait will be short!  My hope usually looks more like optimism, or wishing for something to happen.  The word used in the Bible describes a wait that is full of rest, expectant to see something come true and joyful about its fulfillment.  

What has sparked this kind of hope in your life?  Are you waiting on something and letting go of hope?

And how would our lives look different if the hope wasn’t seasonal – if we were living in a year-round theme of sincere Christmas-hope?

7pm

1137 Ebert Street Austin. Texas 78721

Come as you are. Anyone welcome.

Delicious food and conversation.

This is how Bridgett briefly explained the show to me in an email,
“An underlying thematic thread of the show was land ownership and the American dream. I thought that now was a good time to play with that theme.”

As I began this post, I was considering the “American Dream”. That lead me to wonder more specifically at the “Austin Dream”. Here are a few of my thoughts. Let me know what you would add, take away, and your reactions.

1. To be well educated and/or progressive in thought and culture.

2. To eat and shop organically and locally.(Central Market, Whole Foods, or the local Farmer’s Market for groceries)

4. To live socially active lives. (Nights out, Film Fests, Happy Hours with co-workers and friends)

5. To be healthy and physically active. (Regular runs or paddling at Town Lake)

6. To be well traveled around the world.

7. For your job to be a creative passion.

8. To be spiritual and participate in volunteerism.

9. To have a dwelling (not in the ‘burbs), a dog (that can be taken to Red Bud Isle).

10. To have a significant other that suits your tastes and fits into your lifestyle and aesthetic.

Prep time: 10 min

Bake time: 1-2 hrs

Serves: 2-6

Creativity input level: 2

Step 1: Locate a bookstore or library near you, and plan a trip there with your friends. Make sure that it is somewhere where you will have a space to sit and talk without disturbing others. If in a library, check to if they have study rooms that are available for small group meetings.

Step 2: Once at the store/ library pick a home base where everyone will return to once their hunt is done.

Step 3: Assign the group to go and pick out 3 books that either through title, cover art, content, or otherwise give answer to “the question”. The question should be something broad but personal such as:
-how are you doing right now spiritually, emotionally, physically?
-what are some hopes that you have for the future?
-what is something that you are recently learning about yourself/ God/ others?

Step 4: Give the group 20-30 min to wander around and pick out there books, then meet back at the home base.

Step 5: Once everyone has gathered back together, share your books and explain how they answered “the question”.

Bake time: 1 hr + (depending on the amount of people)

Serves: 2-8

Creativity input level: 2

Step 1: Pick out a time and place to do the life maps. This can be an event unto itself but works nicely as part of another more intimate group time such as Bible Study, Family dinner, or Roommate meeting.

Step 2: Gather paper, pencils, and writing surfaces (if you’ll be in a field or somewhere less conducive to writing) for everyone involved.

Step 3: For the life maps explain to everyone that they are going to visually depict their life histories up until now. They can use words, symbols, images, whatever, just communicate whats important. Give the 15-20 min to complete. (In some situations, it may be more appropriate to assign the Life Map before hand giving people more time to reflect and depict their lives. You may encourage them to spend 2-3 hours on their own of deeper reflection for some groups).
Step 4: Show and tell the images to each other. Limit time as appropriate to the size of the group, normally about 10 mins of sharing for each works well. (For those situations of deeper reflection, you may allow up to 30 minutes of sharing).

1.  Develop relationships with neighbors.  The bus stop and bus is a great place to sit and talk one on one with neighbors you are getting to know.

As soon as I walked out of my house, I saw Chris walking up the street.  I had the choice to either engage or go back into the house. Chris is a 20 year old guy that moved into our neighborhood about 3 months ago and already knows everyone. He asked me where I was going and said he would walk with me to the bus stop. We got on, he shared gum with the bus driver and me. By the time he got off at his stop, I had learned what he was getting for his next tattoo, that he had a girlfriend, lived with his uncle,  goes to Austin Community College  and a number of other things.

If you ride the bus for very long, you will see the same neighbors and build off of those previous conversations.

2.  Make new friends, share information:  As the #2 bus rolled by Frankin’s BBQ at 11:20 am the line was already wrapped around the building. A  middle aged woman with a sun weathered face said, ” wow, they must have some kind of good food there, people are always standing in line”. I have been to Franklin’s..and it truly is the best BBQ I have ever had. So, I piped up and said that is was BBQ and how truly great it was.  The African American gentlemen with blue eyes in front of me turned and wanted to know more. Within minutes we all shared the camaraderie of great BBQ and I got to evangelize Franklin’s to them.

3. Learn new parts of the city: The thing about bus routes is that they are rarely direct. The great thing is that you see parts of the city you wouldn’t have known existed not to mention patterns of other cultures in the city. I missed one of my transfers and got an intimate look at the area on Springdale Road between Manor and MLK more than I ever could’ve hope for.

4. Take some time to chill out and transition.I grew up in the country, so it was a 30 minute drive to get anywhere. When I rode the school bus, I was the first one on and the last one off. My school bus ride was an hour and a half. I actually loved it. I love having time to just think, stare our the window and observe a wildflower on the side of road or a woman watering her grass. It give me time to pray and remember friends. One of the bittersweet things about living so close to everything in Austin, is that my drive time is about 5-10 minutes, anywhere. The problem with this is that I don’t have a lot of buffer time from one conversation or meeting to the next. Riding the bus slows me down and lets me have a moment to be still, let someone else be in control and connect with the Lord before I step out into the world again.

Action Step:

Plan your next ride on the bus in Austin