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The Audacity of Hope

Jay — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 19:45:41 +0000

(Disclaimer: This is not a political post…just linking to a great sermon and painting)

For the past week or so we’ve been seeing video of Rev. Jeremiah Wright on tv and YouTube. Here’s the
sermon that Barack Obama got the title for his second book. At least take 10 minutes and read the sermon and check out the painting. It really is a moving message.

Brief Excerpt:

“The real lesson Hannah gives us from this chapter—the most important word God would have us hear—is how to hope when the love of God is not plainly evident. It’s easy to hope when there are evidences all around of how good God is. But to have the audacity to hope when that love is not evident—you don’t know where that somewhere is that my grandmother sang about, or if there will ever be that brighter day—that is a true test of a Hannah-type faith. To take the one string you have left and to have the audacity to hope—make music and praise God on and with whatever it is you’ve got left, even though you can’t see what God is going to do—that’s the real word God will have us hear from this passage and from Watt’s painting.”

Oh, and if you want to see the painting that helped inspire this sermon you can go here or here.

If you work with teenagers you have to see Juno.

Jay — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 20:43:03 +0000

For a variety of reasons (not least of which is that my wife and I adopted two beautiful girls in August), I can’t get this movie out of my mind. I was waiting for this movie to come out and fully expected to have to wait till it was released on DVD to see it. But, we were able to venture out on date a couple weeks ago and caught it when it opened nationwide. Packed with emotion (both from the perspective of a teenager who’s pregnant, parents who are trying to figure out where they went wrong, and a couple trying desperately to have kids).

I won’t spoil it for any of you who haven’t seen the film yet, but suffice it to say, you have to see this film. I’d totally take Juniors and Seniors (with parent permission of course to see this film, it provides a ton of fodder for discussion. If you want to check out some other things in the Junoverse go here. If you’re looking for the script, Fox Searchlight has put it up on their website.

The next Napoleon Dynamite? Juno releases this month.

Jay — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 20:58:33 +0000

I’m sure that you won’t be taking a youth group outing to see this movie, but it’ll probably be good for you to see it.

Military Industrial Complex and western christianity

Jay — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:47:30 +0000

I’ve been kicking around this thought…Eisenhower, during his farewell address, made some remarks about protecting and guarding against this “new” thing- The Miliatry Industrial Complex. I’d seen a movie a couple years ago “Why We Fight,” it got me thinking about the world we “live” in. The christian media sub-culture that lives and breathes with every best-seller that we can get. I wonder how different Christianity would look if Christian publishing didn’t exist, or Christian music, radio stations, bookstores, etc… Sure, there are some great books out there and even music, but there’s also a whole lot that’s, well…you can put your favorite phrase to use here. I guess, what I’m saying is, does anyone else feel that we’ve spoiled something?

Oh, and here’s Eisenhower’s address for you to see. Just sub out military for religious, you’ll get the idea.

One more reason to support school uniforms!

Jay — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:42:03 +0000

A new Wall Street Journal article (I don’t know either, they’ve just had a few good stories the past couple days) talks about fashion bullies. If you don’t think it’s affecting your students check this out (from the article):

“In one study, more than one-third of middle-school students responded “yes” when asked whether they are bullied because of the clothes they wear. Susan M. Swearer, associate professor of school psychology at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, surveyed a total of more than 1,000 students at five Midwestern middle schools from 1999 to 2004, with about 56% of the sample female. While the prevalence of fashion bullies was greater in wealthy cities and towns, where more designer clothing is available, she found the problem is significant in poorer communities, too.”

I have to admit, I wore Toughskins and Roebucks when I was a kid…my dad worked for Sears, and well, my parents loved the discount! I can remember the taunting comments coming when the whole parachute pants craze hit, you remember how cool they looked- those and Z Cavaricci’s or Zubaz (evidently, you can order them today), come on you know you owned a pair…

I tried, but couldn’t pull off the look. Alas, another fashion faux pas for Jay (no, that’s not me in the picture). Anyway, it seems like the topic of fashion is yet again fodder for youth groups to talk about. It really does make me think that school uniforms might not be such a bad thing.