this blog is lame... so is moving... for now.

sorry for those blessed few of you who actually look at this blog and hope something new will be written on it. i tend to hope the same thing. so i'll post the latest.

as such, mel and i will be moving out of the abbey sometime in june probably. its quite sad even though we both new it would come at some point. amidst thoughts of leaving such an amazing house, where we will go from here is daunting. so sad to think about leaving (and others coming into your room and community).

the other hard part (that we're dealing with currently) is figuring out where we will go/ are going from here. its hard moving out of such a living situation without being called to something else specifically. we know we'd like to move to the "east side" where the culture is a bit more sociologically diverse, but the economics of the whole thing really suck.

the old rent v. buy predicament. sounds dumb, but we don't have much money. we would like to have a place big enough to carry on the monastic tradition (multiple poeple, garden, help community, and so on and so forth), but the initial cost of buying is ridiculous. and rent is still high unless you have a special arrangement like at the abbey (even then - the cost of living is a stretch made possible by God).

so - as we continue attempting ways to subvert the empire, the banks present a very real problem. they help keep the poor steeped in debt and the rich steeped in capital gains.

- a city with two hills sits in the center of a state. on each hill lives a hard-working family, though they haven't yet met. on one side mom works hard to keep the kids clothed, fed, and schooled. on the other side dad works hard to keep the kids clothed, fed, and schooled. on one side, a breath of fresh air via walking to the park is a vacation from the life's toils. on the other side, a first-class seat in the plane is a break as well as a reminder of why he works for life's spoils. back in their daily routines, the drive-thru window is a funny place for luxury car and hourly wage to greet one another in the seconds-long exchange of courteous smiles, dollars and cents. might these two hills meet again if the Kingdom were beckoned to come over and above the mortgage or rent?

is/are there anyone out there willing to promote a truly Christ-centered mode of economic policy that would allow for interest-free (or extremely low interest) loans so that people with less money could own property and thus help bridge the gap of socio-economic inequality?

hopefully you know a little bit about me and that i'm not talking about helping people achieve the "american dream." rather - Jesus vision for his perfect kingdom is rooted in the everyday lives of people. and though some have called me an "idealist," perhaps the better term would be "hope-ist" or something - hopefully imagining God's work practically played out in our daily lives.

Tom Sine talks a little bit about it in his book, Mustard Seed v. McWorld. not the greatest book, but it does have some helpful ways of considering economic "bootstrapping" that subvert the empire by allowing people to work less (without suffering economic disaster) so that they can give more time to their family community and world. sounds good to me.

this comes also as an alternative to "raising support." rather than a monthly check (though that is nice), its more of a stepping stone along the way or a "teaching someone how to fish" type of concept. viewing life as mission/missionary is difficult especially here in the "first world." so if we're going to share good news with people, some good news (amidst a world in which economics is god and financial oppression is control) would be that people following Christ can provide/fund an alternative financial reality. capitalism has helped make our country what it is today because personal happiness is the goal of the system. however when enough people aren't happy - it will come crashing down.

this could be much longer because this goes much deeper than simply me or you or us. at the root of america (and the world) lie the problems of epoch proportions that we simply want to cover up: racism, socio-economic injustice, corruption, fear, violence. when will real Christ-lovers be the ones to stand up and actually help one and other rather than simply hide behind masks of enculturated christianity? i'm struggling with how to come to grips with my own deficiencies while i groan for the personal and communal growth that we as the body of Christ have pushed off for far too long.

perhaps i have given away too much
in stories and jokes
trying to alleviate the choke
of a fire's raging smoke.
let the peace like rain come as such,
because the problem's soultions, today -
are simply a crutch.