She Simply Does or Caretake This Moment

That which divides us is those that do and those that do not. (Or as Yoda put it, "do or do not. There is no try.")

In this case, Bethany Hamm is a person that "does." She's a musician, a nurse and a down-to-earth girl. She's like most of us. Yet the thing that might single her out from the pack isn't some great accolade or accomplishment, it's simply that she "does."

As a part of my series to highlight "doers of the word", I got a chance to catch up with Bethany on her trip to India this January.


Jason: Describe your organization and vision.

Bethany: This January, I, along with a small volunteer team of peers in the medical field, am heading over to India. Our purpose there is to come alongside community leaders and facilitate health care and education within impoverished rural communities in India.

Our dream is to aid local leaders in creating self-sustaining, affordable health care for their community. Ideally, once one community is up and running, we would move to a neighboring community and start the vision over again as needed.

Within impoverished communities in India, affordable health care is simply non-existent. Our goal is to change that. Along with providing basic health care, we would be able to join the larger fight against life threatening diseases prominent in India such as AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria.


Jason: What personal catalyst in your life encouraged you to invest in your community?

Bethany: I have been looking for an opportunity like this for years now. While I am very active in several non-profit organizations locally and globally, I had been searching for something that would tie my passion of serving people together with my medical skills, specifically within a project that would not be short term. A friend of mine had recently returned from India with the agricultural division of our team. While he was sharing his story, he said he wanted to return with the medical team at which point we both looked at each other with a wide eyed, “Duh!” expression. He immediately gave my information to the medical team leader, and the next day I was in a meeting accepting my position.


Jason: What are the top challenges you face either internally or externally with your organization?

Bethany: Externally - financial support. Each person that is going is doing this on a volunteer basis. For each one of us, the basic cost of simply going is $3000 USD. That includes nothing else as far as training, supplies, and eventually clinic costs. If it weren’t for the generosity of others, we’d be paying these costs out of pocket.

Internally - realizing that I am going to be part of training 150 leaders, my role being specifically to train the female leaders, is a heavy, heavy thing. I feel incredibly humbled to have this opportunity and at the same time completely inadequate. As they were explaining to me what was going to be required of me, I just had an image of dropping to my knees, arms up, asking for the grace and strength to do what is asked of me and do it well.


Jason: If you had the attention of a million listeners/readers and could leave them with one message, what would it be?

Bethany: “Caretake this moment. Immerse yourself in its particulars. Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed. Quit the evasions. Stop giving yourself needless trouble. It is time to really live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now.” - Epictetus


Jason: What’s your favorite cartoon of all time?

Bethany: Calvin and Hobbes, hands down, forever. I hope I have a son like Calvin someday.


Take a moment to check out Bethany and "hang-out" with her online. You can also get more details on her trip to India here.

Twitter: @bethanyhamm
Website: www.allforjustice.tumblr.com | www.bethanyhamm.tumblr.com


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Smoking Pipes or Implementing Solutions

I often think about specific friends in a T.S. Eliot, C.S. Lewis, J.R. Tolkien fashion. As the story goes, these three literary and spiritual heroes would gather weekly with friends at the Eagle and Child Inn (St. Giles, England) to drink and smoke pipes. Many times this was the sounding board for developing each of their great works. Much like that, I have been humbled by my own periodic meetings whereas I'm surrounded by artistic greatness, and I'm fortunate enough to have them as a sounding board.

In a recent gathering, one of my peers made a suggestion. He noted how I have been blogging about Christian culture, spirituality and community for some time. Most of my entries result in some kind of a call for action. I have been making observations and recommending solutions. He suggested that perhaps I should highlight people that I believe are implementing solutions of their own.

It's a brilliant suggestion. Sometimes great things happen while drinking beers and smoking pipes.

The next several entries will be a series dedicated to showcasing organizations and individuals who are "loving (their) neighbor as (themselves)".

**Picture taken from Oxford Today

Everyone Should Go To College or Bad Advice

When I was in high school I was the kid in all of the advanced or "gifted" classes. Homework and tests came easy to me. For some reason I understood concepts quickly and so even if I blew off the homework I generally did well on tests.

Throughout my life I was being prepared for college. My parents and relatives all told me I could be whatever I wanted to be in life; that I could do whatever I wanted to do. And doing well in school was the medium to accomplish that. Once in high school, every teacher drilled the concept into my head: we are preparing you for your final destination before the real world...college.

The idea was that I couldn't succeed or get a good paying job without a college degree. Every expert would agree. There are a mountain of statistics to show that people with a college degree make a certain percentage more than those without. Because I was exceptional in school, the expectation was clear that I needed to go to college.

The advice seems healthy. How could the majority and statistics be wrong; especially when no one could deny the positive results?

But what happens to the masses of people who get a degree spending thousands of dollars for something they never use? What happens to the people who change careers five times so that eventually their degree doesn't remotely resemble the work they now do?

My head was somewhere else during high school. I was going to be a musician. Who needed college? In spite of all the warnings, I didn't continue my education right after high school. I pursued music and did moderately well, but not well enough to make much money. Eventually, I attempted college, but hated it. I found most of the general education that was being taught I was already familiar with through life experience, and I dropped out.

Now, I do what I love in writing and am still playing music. In spite of all the statistics against me, I hold a very good "day" job without a college education, though 90% of my peers at work do.

Maybe the good intentions of the majority were wrong, at least clearly for me.

Sometimes I feel like that is how the Christian culture and church can be today.

In my last post I mentioned a guy in the Bible named Job. He was said to be "blameless - a man of complete integrity". In the story, he has everything taken from him (wife, children, wealth, possessions, health, etc) as a test to see if he would curse God. The premise is that it's easy to love God when life is going your way. What would this guy do when everything was taken from him (essentially punished) when he did nothing wrong - he was blameless.

Like any person who has life's calamities befall on them without apparent reason, Job asked why; why did this happen to me. Like most of us would, he went to his friends for their opinion and assessment. Basically, his friends all gave him advice that in many circumstances are true just like the advice given to me to go to college. In similar comparison, there was nothing inherently wrong with what they told him. Essentially they all said that God is just, and he punishes those who are living in sin in order to correct them like a father would a child. They concluded that the reason for Job's turmoil was that he had sins in his life that he needed to repent of. Sounds pretty solid, right? Sometimes God does allow those things for that exact reason/purpose in my opinion. At the very least in spite of what one may believe, that characteristic is consistent with other passages of the Bible.

Here's the thing, they were wrong. Their assessment wasn't correct in this circumstance. They weren't even close.

That's how I feel our Christian community is today. We are so confident in our lists of do's and don't's that we flippantly prescribe it to everyone. We judge people's "fruit" without truly knowing their circumstances. We speak without inspiration from the Holy Spirit guiding us. We know not what we do.

In my own life, reading the book of Job with a new set of eyes has caused me to think a little more before I speak. What if the customs that I grew up knowing to be true and right were really wrong in certain circumstances? Just like not going to college wasn't a detriment to me perhaps the things that other Christians partake in that I don't agree with aren't a detriment to them.

What if I focused on Love and stopped focusing on non-essential things? What if I stopped putting God in a box like Job's friends?

Maybe God would show Himself in great wonders and beyond our own expectations.

Perhaps for all of our "Godly" wisdom, we are many times fools and should be humble leaving to God to give lectures and correction as the rule allowing our own thoughts the exception.


**Picture taken from Tanya B

We Fail or Made for Community Pt2

Church fails. The efforts of the church are a failure...

...if it doesn't realize that the point of its existence isn't to make a bunch of people feel good, to build alternatives to the "world" or to be a sociably acceptable crutch to cope with life.

The point of its existence is to care "for the orphans and widows in their distress".

Or at least it is a point that we don't put enough emphasis on. The Bible says that it is "pure and genuine religion" to do that. Yet often times Christians put the onus on only a certain group of people to do it (i.e. missionaries, the hospitality group, the soup kitchen group, etc.)

As I mentioned before, we are all threaded together. It isn't a job for some. It is a calling for all of us. We live in a Christian subculture that erroneously creates tag lines like WWJD (What Would Jesus Do) to help us not swear, lie, drink, do drugs, etc but it somehow doesn't urge us to DO the right things like feeding the homeless on a Tuesday night. It only seems to urge us to NOT do the wrong things.

We miss the point entirely.

The same text that said "pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress..." also said that if you just listen to God's word but don't act on it or obey it, you are only fooling yourself.

We live in a culture that seems to be fooling itself.

There's a guy in the Bible named Job. He was said to be "blameless - a man of complete integrity". One of the things he mentions several times is social justice.

Here is an excerpt: "All who heard me praised me. All who saw me spoke well of me. For I assisted the poor in their need and the orphans who required help. I helped those without hope, and they blessed me. And I caused the widows’ hearts to sing for joy. Everything I did was honest. Righteousness covered me like a robe, and I wore justice like a turban."

I think being called "blameless - a man of complete integrity" is something to strive for.

There seems to be a consistent message, and I wonder how we've gotten so far away. We live in a society full of idle hands that cause us to struggle with depression, partying, drinking, drugs to numb pain, greed and other vices that drive us to psychiatrists.

If we spent more time understanding the dynamic of community and actually concentrating our time being doers of the word we might find our time better spent helping the orphans and widows. We might find our struggles diminished as we won't have time for them.


**Picture taken from Cora Marshall

We Fail or Made for Community Pt1

We fail. Everyday our efforts are a failure…

…If we don’t realize that our life is a part of grandeur story thread together with those we encounter daily. It is a domino effect. Or a spider web where the single touch of an insect reverberates throughout the entire network.

We are made for community.

Even when we’re isolated we’re clearly not as the iPod is playing, the movie we are watching is unfolding or the points in the video game we are playing are stacking up. In those moments, we are still somehow connected to the creator of that particular art. Entertainment, then, is only another form of community, albeit a poor one many times.

Art is an embellished vehicle for expressing the feelings we want to relate to, the stories we wish we were in and the escape we are frequently longing for. It’s healthy and even encouraging when it doesn’t replace the role we play in other people’s lives or stories we are in as it were.

The truth is the exaggerated stories and feelings that we find in art or entertainment are distorted reflections of life; of our own personal, real-life entertainment. The problem is that most of the time we don’t recognize this. By nature we are selfish. Sometimes we are bland or mechanical living life through a series of steps that promise a certain result; a result that will give us our selfish desires. The two qualities (being selfish and mechanical) numb us from the entertainment that we are partaking in daily whether we intentionally choose to or not.

We are not only the stars of our own book, but we are the supporting cast of those around us. Everything we do or do not do impacts people both directly and indirectly.

So it’s not a choice. We will always touch the lives of people whether we actively participate in it or not. For better or for worse we leave an imprint on each person we encounter. Whether we are the protagonist, antagonist or a prop that is barely noticed, we are important to the book. An author is taught to be lean in his writing giving only necessary detail down to the adjectives he uses in a sentence. No matter how minor the detail if it’s in the book and has made it past the several edits, then it is an important detail to the story.

You are an important detail. Not only in the obvious stories that you perform in every day, but the not-so-obvious ones where you may only feel like the brief description of a house on page 1.

We are made for community.

You are not only important, but an essential piece to a greater purpose. What you do or do not do matters. Who you are or are not impacts those around you.

Your very existence gives your life meaning.

**Picture taken from Cora Marshall

Guest blog: Art vs Faith? or Life Worth Art

I've never believed in God, but I believe in Picasso—Diego Rivera

“Christian artist”---is this an oxymoron? I've been tweeting (@sleepthatkills) lately about my experiences in the creative community. I'm convinced that I've met a lot of weird people, maybe even some eclectic people, but not many artists.

By their very nature, an artist will explore the realm outside of normalcy. Anyone familiar with the historical Jesus (never mind whether you believe in “Savior Jesus”) knows that he contradicted social norms in a romantic, philosophically beautiful way. It can be discouraging to see our 21^st century, bastardized version of Christian expression---especially in light of the genius narratives in scripture, the community forums for intellectual thought of the early church, or even Renaissance era depictions of biblical adventures.

Our lives, in contrast, aren't much of an artistic adventure. They are compartmentalized. They are organized to accommodate the compromise of full-time employment (or whatever thing we've convinced ourselves is worth doing to pay the bills that we begrudgingly commit to). Our lives are orchestrated to avoid confrontation. Our “art” is safe. sterile. clinical. Our lives are too.

The biggest challenge for a Christian artist is to live a life worth imitating through art.

Christian artists who have attempted to “create dangerously” often experience the simultaneous rejection by their own community and the misunderstanding of the secular world...but that truly doesn't matter to an artist. The intrinsic desire to forge forward is undeterred by criticism or praise.

In my experience as a Christian musician, I have received album reviews either praising my ability to weave in supernatural elements or criticizing my overt spirituality.

All true artists manipulate and interpret their experiences with ambiguity. We allude to the complexity of life issues, even if we choose to represent them in simplicity. We understand that there are unknowns to not only be identified, but to also be respected. We don't ignore or dismiss uncertainty, we name it...we use it to portray a human experience.

The term “Christian artist” has been made synonymous with: arrogant, ignorant, myopic, and unoriginal.

I submit to you that we should first live a life worth imitating---and then the resulting artistic expression will be elevated to a place worthy of respect. In that regard, I'm anxiously awaiting resurrection day? Anyone with me?

Michael Signorelli is an author, musician, and overall amazing person. Don't be jealous that I'm his friend. You can check his work at www.myspace.com/moreinsorrow and sleepthatkills.com

Here Comes the Mullet or Tuxedo Shirt Jesus Pt2

Ok, the long awaited Part 2...

Mullet.

Did it send shivers again?

True, there is a general need for balance - "Business up front, party in the back." It comes through in our daily interactions with our friendships, relationships, etc. More specifically though, a great need for balance becomes evident in our proclamations, our fights for causes and our intolerant beliefs.

As I said before, motives matter.

So often I believe our deficiencies come through what we say and do. Our motives become apparent. While great results (even results that have a positive impact on community) can be accomplished through the most selfish motives, it still can be tragic at a personal level under the guise of something great. Just because you wear a mullet wig on Halloween doesn't make you an authentic wearer of the mullet.

Like most of us, I'm shaped somewhat by my experiences and observations. For instance, I'm not active in the vegan culture so though I know enough to have an intriguing conversation on it, I'm certainly not able to speak on it as one who is in that culture. However, my experiences for better or worse have been in the Christian culture.

These days I'm a little shy about calling myself a Christian or even the trending term, "Christ-follower". Both seem to have a connotation that says "I belong to this club," "I belong to this sub-culture" or "I belong to this special interest group." And just like each club has its set of membership rules, Christianity has it's own special rules.

The problem is that I don't follow a special set of rules nor is my faith a product of that. My faith is a progressive lifestyle choice. It integrates into who I am and how I live my life. My faith deems me incapable of being perfect in which no set of rules could establish that perfection nor could I abide by them consistently even if it could establish it.

(At the risk of upsetting a large majority of people, I'm going to throw most of us under the bus. In my opinion, if the following statements upset you it may be a good time to look in the mirror and challenge yourself. Even if what I say doesn't reflect you it should at the very least cause you to reaffirm your beliefs.)

Some of the following rules seem to be embedded in Christian culture and throw the whole ecosystem of true faith out of balance:

- Talk about Jesus in most conversations
- Talk about your church as if it is the savior of the world
- Don't drink
- Don't swear
- Don't dance
- Be afraid of exploring and understanding other religions and lifestyles with respect for those who follow them
- Use the Bible to justify your fears and take scripture out of cultural context

The list could go on. Somehow these things validate the label of Christian or at least that's the impression it gives. It seems to me that even though some of those things can actually be very healthy in certain situations, the culture has somehow taken the exception to the rule and made it the rule.

The bottom line is this: Christianity claims that Jesus is truth and the truth will set you free. If that's what we honestly believe then why is the culture so insistent on pushing an agenda that doesn't need help being pushed. Truth is truth. It doesn't need my help to be apparent. The burden of proving truth isn't on me but on God himself. I can only merely be a vessel or tool to deliver that truth in appropriate situations. It's His job to reveal it.

Let me spin it another way. When a couple first starts dating, it's exciting. They want to talk about each other ALL the time to people. It's normal and even healthy. But what happens when that couple has been together for a length of time? It's questionable if they continue to ALWAYS talk about each other. It's almost as if that person is verbally convincing themselves of their feelings for the other in the relationship. Far better is it for their day to day life and actions to reinforce the idea of a healthy relationship in others' eyes. Constantly and idly talking about your mate only disqualifies your feelings for them. Let's be honest, how many times have we seen those couples and shook our head or sighed in annoyance or exasperation for them? It's as though they are looking for a sounding board while they try to convince themselves that they're truly in love.

That's how many Christians behave. There is a constant conversation idly revolving around God or more specifically, the things of God without ever being asked to have that conversation. "Conversation" is a poor term for it. Rather, it's a dictation being forced on an audience. I recently had lunch with someone who said something to the effect of, "if you have to constantly remind others that you're a Christian and proclaim your beliefs then there is probably something wrong with your walk. People should just know that you are without reminding." I would have to agree.

You can never go wrong with a mullet. You can never go wrong with balance.

I don't want to be that annoying couple that has to always talk about the other. Actions truly speak louder than words. Let's stop giving the wrong impression of Christianity. Point in case: Let's say I have a drink or swear around someone and their response is "I thought you are a Christian." Some Christians would say this situation is the EXACT reason we shouldn't do that in public; so that to not give a bad name to Christ. I think that is an irresponsible thought because the fruit of my faith should never be whether I drink or swear and by assuming that pattern of behavior we are only under girding that false message. Instead my answer to that person would be "I'm sorry if that offended you and I'll make sure to be careful around you. But I've never claimed that those things are wrong and nor do I believe they are as a Christian." (To be clear I understand that there definitely can be something wrong with drinking or swearing but without context and in them of themselves I don't believe they are wrong.)

The fruit of my faith is Love. If I'm acting out the love of Jesus then more than likely people will not comment on whether I drink or swear but how I love other people and the acts of love that I express as it overshadows with power the minuscule things that have little impact. Jesus talked much more about that than drinking or coarse language.

The truth is if we gave people something to talk about with great power and foundation, like love and acts of love, then maybe they wouldn't be left with nothing to talk about other then petty things like whether we drink or swear.

When's the last time you've personally done what Jesus asked? Read Matthew 7:21-23 and then Matthew 25:31-46. I know I need to repent...