Merriam-Webster's defines entitlement as: 1a, the state or condition of being entitled: right; 1b, a right to benefits specified especially by law or contract; 2, a government program providing benefits to members of a specified group; also: funds supporting or distributed program; 3, belief that one is deserving of or entitled to certain privileges.
It is this final definition of which I wish to speak, entitlement:
While I have been laid up, I have really been ministered to by the teaching of Mars Hill Church where Rob Bell is pastor. Their podcasts are free for the first 12 weeks after being delivered and there is a study guide for each one. They started a series on the Sermon on the Mount last week. I would highly recommend.
I have been reading Dan Allendar's excellent book, Sabbath. He writes of Belden Lane's book, The Solace of Fierce Landscapes: Exploring Desert and Mountain Spirituality. Lane tells the story of the French bringing a few desert Bedouin leaders to Paris to see the most glorious achievements of French culture. The Bedouin leaders saw the great French architecture, the Eiffel Tower but were seemingly unimpressed. But when they were taken to see a waterfall in the forest, they stood in complete amazement. They waited for the surging, spilling flow to stop.
A friend from Nicaragua wrote today and shared this local saying: God writes straight on crooked lines. Our friend writes: The significance of this simple phrase lies in two things: first that God makes straight our crooked paths, and second, that even though life has its challenges and corners, God sees the situatiion in a different way that isn't confusing but rather makes perfect sense.
There is a great website called Sacred Space that gives guided prayer each day. It is a catholic site. http://sacredspace.ie/#advice
Today's introduction:
I am first a person whose journey with God and others is the orienting center of my life. I seek to share openly of this halting, faltering discovery of the story of God in everyday living.
I can be contacted personally at earthlytents@comml.imap.cc
After 22 1/2 years as a pastor of a Philadelphia area church, and almost two years in New Zealand at Laidlaw College in Auckland, New Zealand, I am located in Dallas, Texas, as the International Director of ALARM (African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries). ALARM is an organization that seeks to restore communities that have been devastated by tribalism and warfare.
My wife, Naomi, is an amazing person with whom I share my journey. I am blessed with two special children whom I love and admire--Ben, a web designer living in San Francisco Rebekah, our daughter, a singer/actress in Texas.
My passions: reading, popcorn, writing, photography, walking, time with friends and family, thinking about the problem of evil and suffering, peace building and reconciliation, living out the gospel in a postmodern world.
