Dreamers

Posted Tue August 25 at 5:23 am

I've been preparing this week to discuss definitions of mercy, justice and social transformation in the course so named. Part of the discussion will circle around music written by social dreamers.

"One" is one of U2's greatest songs and speaks of personal responsbility for engagement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq4Jh39KJ8U

I went back further to John Lennon's song "Imagine." Lennon could imagine a better world but he could not imagine this world with a sovereign, loving, just Creator.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okd3hLlvvLw

I think the gospel calls each one of us to be a "dreamer," those who dream about a better world and those who then act within the context in which we find ourselves.

When we stop dreaming, we stop living.

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About Me

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.

Reading

Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-1963
by
Branch, Taylor

Parting the Waters by Taylor Branch, winner of Pulitzer Pride, is brilliantly written. It is about America in the King Years 1955-1963. This is the first of three substantial books, the other books covering the years following through King's assassination. The book begins with post-Civil War Georgia and the changes in worship--the formation of distinctly black churches. Branch writes descriptively and pulls the reader into the story. 1060 pages, it is worth the effort and forces one to look racism in the eyes and celebrate God's use of a flawed though gifted leader.

A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Solder
by
Ishael Beah

If you've watched the movie "Blood Diamond" you have a small picture of the horrors of child soldiers in Africa. It is estimated that in Africa alone there are 200,000 children that have been pressed into combat, forced to face horrors and to do atrocities that overwhelm the spirit. This book is one of the most important stories in bringing to light the dehumanizing plight of children in war.

The Faces of Forgiveness
by
F. Leron Shults and Steven J. Sandage

Forgiveness long has been the domain of theology but in recent years many disciplines are considering dimensions of forgiveness. This particular book is an integration of theology and psychology through the metaphor of faces.

Dreamers

When we stop dreaming, we stop living.

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