The Vision

My good friend Sally Mars turned me on to this poem/vision statement written by Pete Greig. This is a vision that REALLY grabs ahold of me. As I continue to seek and articulate God’s vision for MAC youth & young adults I could really see something along these lines.
 

THE VISION

So this guy comes up to me and says "what’s the vision? What’s the big idea?" I open my mouth and words come out like this…
The vision?

The vision is JESUS – obsessively, dangerously, undeniably Jesus.

The vision is an army of young people.

You see bones? I see an army. And they are FREE from materialism.

They laugh at 9-5 little prisons.
They could eat caviar on Monday and crusts on Tuesday.
They wouldn’t even notice.
They know the meaning of the Matrix, the way the west was won.
They are mobile like the wind, they belong to the nations. They need no passport.. People write their addresses in pencil and wonder at their strange existence.
They are free yet they are slaves of the hurting and dirty and dying.
What is the vision ?
The vision is holiness that hurts the eyes. It makes children laugh and adults angry. It gave up the game of minimum integrity long ago to reach for the stars. It scorns the good and strains for the best. It is dangerously pure.

Light flickers from every secret motive, every private conversation.
It loves people away from their suicide leaps, their Satan games.
This is an army that will lay down its life for the cause.
A million times a day its soldiers

choose to loose
that they might one day win
the great ‘Well done’ of faithful sons and daughters.

Such heroes are as radical on Monday morning as Sunday night. They don’t need fame from names. Instead they grin quietly upwards and hear the crowds chanting again and again: "COME ON!"

And this is the sound of the underground
The whisper of history in the making
Foundations shaking
Revolutionaries dreaming once again
Mystery is scheming in whispers
Conspiracy is breathing…
This is the sound of the underground

And the army is discipl(in)ed.

Young people who beat their bodies into submission.

Every soldier would take a bullet for his comrade at arms.
The tattoo on their back boasts "for me to live is Christ and to die is gain".

Sacrifice fuels the fire of victory in their upward eyes. Winners. Martyrs. Who can stop them ?
Can hormones hold them back?
Can failure succeed? Can fear scare them or death kill them ?

And the generation prays

like a dying man
with groans beyond talking,
with warrior cries, sulphuric tears and
with great barrow loads of laughter!
Waiting. Watching: 24 – 7 – 365.

Whatever it takes they will give: Breaking the rules. Shaking mediocrity from its cosy little hide. Laying down their rights and their precious little wrongs, laughing at labels, fasting essentials. The advertisers cannot mould them. Hollywood cannot hold them. Peer-pressure is powerless to shake their resolve at late night parties before the cockerel cries.

They are incredibly cool, dangerously attractive

inside.

On the outside? They hardly care. They wear clothes like costumes to communicate and celebrate but never to hide.
Would they surrender their image or their popularity?
They would lay down their very lives – swap seats with the man on death row – guilty as hell. A throne for an electric chair.

With blood and sweat and many tears, with sleepless nights and fruitless days,

they pray as if it all depends on God and live as if it all depends on them.

Their DNA chooses JESUS. (He breathes out, they breathe in.)
Their subconscious sings. They had a blood transfusion with Jesus.
Their words make demons scream in shopping centres.
Don’t you hear them coming?
Herald the weirdo’s! Summon the losers and the freaks. Here come the frightened and forgotten with fire in their eyes. They walk tall and trees applaud, skyscrapers bow, mountains are dwarfed by these children of another dimension. Their prayers summon the hounds of heaven and invoke the ancient dream of Eden.

And this vision will be. It will come to pass; it will come easily; it will come soon.
How do I know? Because this is the longing of creation itself, the groaning of the Spirit, the very dream of God. My tomorrow is his today. My distant hope is his 3D. And my feeble, whispered, faithless prayer invokes a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great ‘Amen!’ from countless angels, from hero’s of the faith, from Christ himself. And he is the original dreamer, the ultimate winner.

Guaranteed.

Desert Psyche

What?
This flesh is stone
 
BLINK
 
Life is no more
 
BLINK
 
Life is back
 
Where does this deepening echo
                                             come from –
except the greatening cavern inside?
 
Such a hollow thing
                              filled in a moment
 
Such a fragile thing
emptied through the siphoning sands
 
One bright shines
reminder of the torrent
and the stone to come again
 

Tick Hunter!

We went tick hunting with Mum at Pembina Valley Provincial Park. I am happy to report we were very successful! Here some pics.
 
 

Skype Geek

Ok – I died and went to Techno Geek Heaven. My cubicle neighbour – Pastor D – was wondering if we could get a cell phone add on for our Pocket PC’s. Well we can’t…buuuut…I discovered that Skype has a Pocket PC version so I downloaded it onto my sweet, sweet Dell Axim X51 and it worked. I plugged in some headphones and dialed my sister in Barrie and talked long distance for free through the wireless network in my house via the Axim.
 
What more could a geek want? I think if I could dictate my blog through Skype via my Axim I would probably not be able to handle it.
 
Wheww.
 
 
If you skype my ID is PastorDadman
 
 

Sappy, Mushy, Dorky Song Dedication (eeewwwwww)

 Hey there – this is a sappy, mushy, dorky song dedication to my mum, sisters and all the important women in my life (you know who you are…).
 
This Woman’s Work
Performed by Kate Bush
Pray God you can cope
I stand outside
This woman’s work
This woman’s world
Oooh, it’s hard on the man
Now his part is over
Now starts the craft of the father
I know you have a little life in you yet
I konw you have a lot of strength left
I know you have a little life in you yet
I know you have a lot of strength left

I should be crying but I just can’t let it show
I should be hoping but I can’t stop thinking
All the things I should’ve said that I never said
All the things we should of done that we never did
All the things I should’ve given but I didn’t

Oh darling make it go
Make it go away
Give me these moments back
Give them back to me
Give that little kiss
Give me your hand

I know you have a little life in you yet
I know you have a little strength left
I know you have a little life in you yet
I know you have a little strength left

I should be crying but I just can’t let it show
I should be hoping but I can’t stop thinking
Of all the things we should’ve said that were never said
All the things we should’ve done that we never did
All the things that you needed from me
All the things that you wanted for me
All the things I should of given but I didn’t
Oh darling make it go away
Just make it go away now