Never underestimate the power of Jesus to speak via the iTunes shuffle algorythm
Posted by bryanzug - 2011/07/07
Here are a few of the best questions adrift in my head
Who’s driving this airplane? Did I live hard enough?
Is it gonna rain? How well have I loved?
How well have I loved?
…
Let’s walk through the jungle, put your arm in my arm
Should this ground start to crumble, we’ll come to no harm
Lean on me if you stumble, ‘neath the bright shining stars
and though the whole world may crumble, we know who we are
we know who we areQuestions by Mike Scott (of The Waterboys)
Roo & Tug —
It’s been a rough couple of months.
Jesus is teaching me to believe the best of the beautiful people around me, especially when we disagree on substantial important things.
He’s teaching me those ancient odd rhythms of being humble while not hiding from conflict — reminding me of who I am even when I am filled with doubt.
He is giving me the encouragement I need to dive deep even when it is very very hard and there is no guarantee that there will be short term happy endings all around.
And while that all sounds “worth it” in theory, I’ve found myself doubting whether this deep desire of mine to walk as a “poet + warrior + magician” is more than I can handle — whether this dream of mine to live a life alchemized of passion and grace is more pipe dream than possibility.
I wonder whether it is just a mirage that will annoy me until all the bent things are made straight in some far off age to come.
And just when I am about to get swallowed up in my doubt, Jesus shows up in the strangest of places — reminding me that these things are no illusion.
Just the other day He showed up in an iTunes algorithm when this song “Questions” by Mike Scott (of the Waterboys) shuffled into my ears.
I was heads down, cranking out the work, when all of a sudden I heard Scott’s familiar voice belt out…
“Here are a few of the best questions adrift in my head… Who’s driving this airplane? Did I live hard enough? Is it gonna rain? How well have I loved? How well have I loved?”
And then he followed it up with this ringer…
“Though the whole world may crumble, we know who we are, we know who we are”
Exactly the reminder I needed of a few important things…
1) These checksums of the self are very important inquiries.
Am I living as the best version of myself that Jesus has enabled me to be?
Am I at peace enough to risk?
Am I loving enough that the world around me gets a hint of the thankfulness that inhabits my heart?
2) A joy that trumps circumstances is real.
There is a peace that supersedes any scene I find myself in. Something beyond an identity of the moment, a transcendent unshakeable name that enables great wide living in this life.
3) That anytime I begin to doubt any of this, Jesus shows up.
He drops into the scene to remind me that there is a great deep immersive safety in this wild ride we are on.
My great hope for you both is that you would deeply explore these things on your own when the opportunity presents itself.
Much love —
Daddio
Questions by Mike Scott (of The Waterboys)
Written in London, May 1996, and appears on the album “Still Burning”Who’s the man with the potion
dressed in velvet and gloves
causing grief and commotion
talking ’bout love?
What on earth is he thinking?
Where on earth has he been?
Why do I feel like I’m sinking?
What does it mean?Let’s walk through the jungle
Put your arm in my arm
and should this ground start to crumble
we’ll come to no harmI once had a coat I was proud of
I wore that coat a long time
Just when the music got loudest
I left it behind
I could pretend that I’m dreaming
but one thing I just can’t see
Who on earth am I meaning
when I say me?Let’s walk through the jungle
Put your arm in my arm
and should this ground start to crumble
we’ll come to no harmWhat’s around the corner?
What’s around the bend?
What’s around the corner?
What’s around the bend?Questions upon question upon questions
crowding round the side of my bed
Here are just a few of the best ones
adrift in my head
Who’s driving this airplane?
Did I live hard enough?
Is it gonna rain
and how well have I loved?
How well have I loved?Let’s walk through the jungle
Put your arm in my arm
and should this ground start to crumble
we’ll come to no harm
Lean on me if you stumble
‘neath the bright shining stars
and though the whole world may crumble
we know who we are
we know who we are
A Good Friday / Easter diversity challenge to my friends from other meta-physical (or materialist) tribes
Posted by bryanzug - 2009/04/10
Roo & Tug —
It is Good Friday / Easter weekend here in Seattle and I wanted to invite some of our neighbors to church. Not to be converted to Christianity, but to gain a deeper understanding of the the big “S” story arc that informs who we are as a people.
This seemed like as good a place as any to post it.
Much love —
Daddio
: : :
A Good Friday / Easter diversity challenge to my friends from other meta-physical (or materialist) tribes
Amigos and Amigas —
It’s a very humbling experience when someone graciously lets me know that I don’t know what the fuck I am talking about. There is a kind of love wrapped up in that sort of exchange that runs deeper than most of the surface levels we usually connect on.
One context where that has happened to me in the past is when I’ve made drive by comments about tribes and sub-cultures that I really have never spent any substantial time interacting with or trying to understand.
Gay tribes. Muslim tribes. Online community tribes. Blue tribes. Red tribes.
You get the idea.
I’ve learned a ton and become a much more generous person by meeting and getting to know real people (with real names!) from tribes very different than my own.
And since it is Good Friday / Easter weekend, I thought I’d issue a little challenge of my own.
If you are not a Christian, go to church for a Good Friday service and an Easter service.
Most Christians agree that Easter cannot be understood if it is divorced from the horror of Good Friday. And if you have no appreciation for the horror of Good Friday, and that Christians believe that we are personally responsible for that horror, well, as they say, you don’t understand much.
So please come. Seriously. 4 hours over 1 weekend doesn’t seem like a lot to ask to me.
The Zug’s will be at our church in downtown Seattle on Friday at 7 and on Sunday at 9. Look for the geek film crew with the tripod in the front and come say hello.
Much love to you all —
Bryan
Taking notes is my hack for paying close attention
Posted by bryanzug - 2009/03/01
Roo & Tug —
I’m always trying out different ways to take notes.
Note taking, for me, has always increased my retention of information. It’s one of the hacks I do to make sure I’m not just being passive as I sit in a seminar, or lecture, or sermon, etc.
One of my favorite ways to take notes is with what is called a mind map — a visual way to map out information and show how various ideas and bits are related to one another.
I’ve been using a new mind map tool the last couple of weeks called MindMeister, that let’s you share your maps via the web (kinda like a YouTube video).
So I thought I’d show you the notes I’m taking this morning at our church campus in downtown Seattle.
Here they are.
Much love —
Daddio
Jesus takes a holiday
Posted by bryanzug - 2009/02/15
Roo & Tug —
This is one of my favorite questions —
What do you suppose Jesus’ favorite holiday is?
It is fun to ask in a group and watch things play out.
Almost every time, someone quick hands the buzzer — Christmas! Easter!
“Naw”, I say, “don’t think so — Those are work days for Jesus. No way he’d pick those.”
The adults usually look at me with some variation of an “OK smartass” grin — but the kids are different.
“Really?”, they ask, leaning in with all sincerity.
“If it’s not Christmas or Easter, then what is it?”
That’s when I tell them it has to be the 4th of July.
: : :
After the guffaws die down, I continue.
The 4th of July is obviously Jesus’ favorite holiday — not because of the fireworks or a “God bless America” twinkle in His eyes.
Nope.
The airtight proof that the 4th of July is jesus’ favorite holiday comes down to one indisputable fact —
God loves to BBQ.
The most arresting story in the entire Bible is that of the prodigal son — the boy who squanders his inheritance, is knocked to his senses while grazing in a pig trough, and turns back home.
The story up to that point is standard issue Sunday School 101, but then God throws in a twist (just to make sure we are paying attention).
He relays the reaction of the father, his response when he saw his son coming from a long way off. And his reaction was this —
He was overjoyed.
But, he was not “overjoyed” in an abstract, disembodied sort of way.
Not at all.
His joy was made manifest in this — He said, start the BBQ.
: : :
I once told that story in a small church my ex-wife and I were a part of in Cokedale, Colorado. (Yes, I was married once before mom — more on that later).
Folks in the church would measure out bits of Scripture and Story before we took weekly communion — framing that small meal we would share together with some particular rhythm of the Gospel that God had brought to bear on whoever was up there on a given week — reminding us of the practical ways God goes about hammer and tonging a people unto Himself.
Many months after my little table story, Doris Berry came up to tell me how her kids were still talking about Jesus’ favorite holiday — and how they had been convinced that it surely had to be the 4th of July.
: : :
I am some miles outside of Trinidad this morning. It is the summer of 1999 and I have a shovel in my hand.
Pastor Ed had suggested it, after I asked what I could do to help.
The message he left on July 5th said eight-year-old Stuart Berry had been killed. Hit by a car while on vacation.
My understanding is that Stuart died on the 4th of July.
: : :
I always feel helpless in times of tragedy. What do I do? What should I say?
I had a teacher once — in public high school — who would tell us things he probably shouldn’t have. But he was close to retirement and I don’t think he really cared if he got into trouble.
We were talking about what to do in times like these — and he said that the best thing he’d ever come across was to say this —
I know. I care. I am praying.
The instant he said it, I recognized the pattern — mourn with those who mourn.
Don’t try to solve. Don’t cliche it away.
Just weep with those who weep.
So when I heard about Stuart’s death, I sat down and wrote a letter to Dan, Doris and the kids.
I recounted the silly speculation — that inside story we shared about how Jesus is most at home at a BBQ — and how I imagined a place setting for a little boy at a picnic table with a checkered table cloth — where God was saying hello to my friend Stuart.
May the God of BBQ attend your sorrow.
: : :
It is funny how we do not know the effect we have on other people. “It’s a Wonderful Life” is Cliche with a capital “C” for a bunch of really good reasons.
A couple of days after helping dig Stuart’s grave at the church cemetery outside of Bon Carbo, I went to his funeral at the blue roof church in Cokedale.
I had not seen the Berry’s for many months. My first marriage ending had made my participation in that community too painful. So, the first time I had seen Doris for a long time was after the service.
The receiving line was very long. I felt really awkward.
I never know whether any of the stories I tell are a good use of time — or whether other people are just nodding along politely.
But when I got to the front of the line — I got a hug from the frailest of women.
I got a hug that felt like I was getting tackled by the starting center for the Broncos.
Doris wept and thanked me for the letter.
She said, “Thank you so much Bryan, I just read your note yesterday.”
“I was starting to forget Stuart’s face, and you reminded me what he looks like.”
: : :
I’ve got some other “that didn’t really happen, did it?” stories, that I will write down later. God has a way of kibutzing with my rational mind exactly when I need it most.
Keep an eye out for this in your own lives. I am pretty sure He is still active at coordinating Coincidences (with a capital C).
Much love —
Daddio
My Mother is an engineer, My Daddy is a healer
Posted by bryanzug - 2009/02/08
Roo & Tug —
There is a common theme to the works of art that move me. One that goes back to this notion Blaise Pascal wrote about ages ago.
Man is neither angel nor beast; and the misfortune is that he who would act the angel acts the beast.
Blaise Pascal, Pensées (678). 1670
Whether it is a masterpiece like Magnolia, a song like Bruce Cockburn’s The Burden of the Angel Beast, Andrew Bird’s recurring theme of the Noble Beast, or The Choir’s rollicking list of the multiple personality disorders of our humanity in Kissers and Killers.
Peter Kreeft has a wonderful exposition on this idea of Pascal’s in his book “Christianity for Modern Pagans” where he writes —
The two fundamental human heresies, the two banes of modern philosophy, are animalism and angelism. Man has lost his place in the cosmos, the place between angel and beast.
Chesterton says, describing St. thomas’ philosophy of man, that “man is not like a balloon, floating free in the sky, nor like a mole, burrowing in the earth, but like a tree, with its roots firmly planted int he earth and its branches reaching up into the heavens.”
Some examples of “angelism”, which ignore the concrete earthy, embodied nature of man, are Platonism, Gnosticism, Pantheism and New age humanism. Some examples of “animalism”, which ignore the spiritual nature of man, are Marxism, Behaviorism, Freudianism, Darwinism, and Deweyan Pragmatism.
The two most life-changing revolutions in modern times were the scientific-industrial revolution, which taught man to live and think abstractly, like an angel; and the sexual revolution, which taught man to live and think like an animal. the first knows onlyt he head, the second knows only the hormones. Neither knows the heart.
The angelist reduces the world to a projection of the self; the animalist reduces the self to a species in the animal world. thus angelists find Pascal’s Christian man too animalistic, to earthy, to wretched; and the animalists find him too unearthkly, too idealistic, too hopeful.
Chesterton (in Orthodoxy) says:
Suppose we heard an unknown man spoken of by many men. Suppose we were puzzled to hear that some men said he was too tall and some too short; some objected to his fatness, some lamented his leanness… One explanation… would be that he might be an off shape.
But there is another explanation. He might be the right shape. Outrageously tall men might feel him to be short. Very short men might feel him to be tall.
Modern philosophy has lost its sane anthropology because it has lost its cosmology. Man does not know himself because he does not know his place in the cosmos; he confuses himself with angel or animal. He is alienated, “lost in the cosmos”…
This is the main pattern I look for in life. The one I am always drawn back to. This question of right angles or curves. This idea of male or female. This notion of love or logic. This pitting of design against functionality.
And wherever the conversation starts to move beyond the words “either/or”, I stop and listen very closely.
When the answer begins to whisper the poetry of “both/and”, I stop to pitch camp for a bit.
When the question of “is it God” or “is it man” is answered with a distinct yes, well — it’s a pretty safe bet that you will find me smitten and hanging around.
Soooo, when you come across this pattern, ages from now, when your mother and I are gone — you can rest assured that we are in the room, nodding along and saying — hmmm, this here is something special.
Much, much, love —
Daddio
: : : : :
“Kissers And Killers” by The Choir
You know I love you
I think you’re so good
I like the people in my neighborhood
My mother is an engineer
My daddy is a healer
And everybody gathered here
Wheelers, dealersLovers, depravers
Freers, enslavers
Clowns, wicked sayers
Kissers and betrayersBones and ladder
Somehow rhyming
Man of Sorrows hanging
Iscariot swinging
A curious polarity
Finders, weepers
Why have you forsaken me
Losers, keepersLovers, depravers
Freers, enslavers
Clowns, wicked sayers
Kissers and betrayers
Saviours, deniers
Prophets, impliers
Well wishers, liars
Killers, death defiers
Killers, death defiersI light a candle
Well before dark
They tell me jesters hide out
In the park
I never was a cautious man
My brother is a broker
And everybody in the band
Jokers, fire-stokersLovers, depravers
Freers, enslavers
Clowns, wicked sayers
Kissers and betrayers
Saviours, deniers
Prophets, impliers
Well wishers, liars
Killers, death defiers
Killers, death defiers
My top movies of all time
Posted by bryanzug - 2009/01/31
Roo & Tug —
Was thinking this AM that I have not written a list of my favorite movies of all time. So I thought I’d jot it down.
You can tell a lot about a person by their lists.
Much love —
Daddio
(This’ll change over time, but I think I’ll always make this the reference location.)
My top movies of all time (2009-01-31)
- Primer
- A Simple Plan
- Magnolia
- 25th Hour
- Pi
- Children of Men
- Mean Creek
- Thank You for Smoking
- Frailty
- In America
- Holes
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- Fight Club
- The Tao of Steve
- Dexter
- As Good As It Gets
- Shotgun Stories
- Do the Right Thing
- Battlestar Galactica (the new one)
- The Wire – Season 4
- Finding Nemo
- Return of the King
- The Lion King
- The Sopranos
- Adaptation
- Sideways
- Monster’s Ball
- Little Miss Sunshine
- 12 Monkeys
- Me and You and Everyone We Know
- Mad Men
Powered by WordPress with GimpStyle Theme design by Horacio Bella.
Entries and comments feeds.
Valid XHTML and CSS.