A Couple of Slummy Thoughts

I got a whiff of this story from the News Hour on PBS. As you read at the link below the picture pay attention to the comments. Readers are pretty dialed in.



http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2009/06/10/slumdog-stars.html

Hooray for the producers of this film for setting up a trust for these children so that their income will secure a future for them instead of being squandered by families so impoverished that they do not know how to handle such wealth.

If you noticed in the comments that it is rumored that Oprah took the kids to Disney World instead of doing some lasting good, I have to agree that she made an error in judgement. Not that a positive memory would be a bad thing to give these children, just that a positive memory alone holds very little value when given by someone who has the means to change your entire world. I hope that the children will receive royalty checks from the film's income and got a piece of the DVD as well. Any other star would have gotten that as part of the deal and certainly need it less.

It seems the recent philanthropic fad in Hollywood is doing some good in our world. I wonder if that fad will ever reach the point that actors, producers and directors decide that they should receive reasonable salaries and live average American lives and purposely divert additional income from their enterprises to genuine needs. But then, that question has to come home to me. Do I live on an appropriate percentage of my income or is 90% too much for me when I could direct more of it to do God's good in the world and still live a peace-filled, healthy, rich life?

Do you struggle to keep your family focus on meaningful generosity? What have you done to work toward a healthy balance with your wealth? And I'm not looking for answers about using your money to make more money so your own retirement can be prosperous. I'm looking for ideas on how to focus on the genuine needs of others so that God's investment brings back a return for Him - NOT ME.

The Rebirth of My Blog

Hey readers,
Welcome to Bruce's Blog 2.0. Yes, after all my talk about Christian blogging and some good advice from my friend Peter, I have given my blog a new structure and a face lift.

My purpose: to continue to share my Christian journey as I grow more Christ-like daily and to encourage others to do the same, and to develop an additional community on the web to share life with along the way.

If you follow my blog via an RSS feed, and you would like to keep track of my additional pages, you may wish to add these links to your subscriptions.
http://epicbrucephotography.blogspot.com/
http://epicbrucefamily.blogspot.com/
This feed will remain the same.

Be sure to take a trip to my actual blog on occasion to leave a comment so I know that you are sharing the journey with me. I hope you enjoy the new venture.

Things I Wish I Had Never Said

I was talking with a friend yesterday afternoon and said flipidly, "that goes on the list of things I wish I had never said..." Well I got to thinking and sure enough, there is a list. My secretary at San Bernardino Community Church used to refer to the "Idle Words Room" in Hell, where we would have to listen to ourselves saying all of the worthless things we talked about during our life on earth in a constantly repeating loop. That would be Hell for me.

Anyhow, here's my list. (This list is not intended to be complete - in order to protect the innocent and guilty alike.)

"I'll be there at 5AM."
"I'll be glad to help you dig that ditch"
"Any idiot can do that!" (I don't know what that makes me then. What's lower than an idiot?)
"That'll never work."
"Super size that."
"I'll have that ready by morning."
"I think we should fire the gardener."
"I can tile all 1200 sq. ft. by myself."

Well, there's my starter list. Add one or two in a comment.

"epic"

"What does epic stand for?"

We stand for relationships. We stand for serving the world God loves. We stand for striving to find God and becoming more like Him in the way we live.

"No, I mean is 'epic' some kind of acronym or something?"

I've thought of many over the years. And I've found some in books too. There's - elephant peanuts in cans - that one is Merritt's original idea, pretty creative I think!. There's - every person imitating Christ. Or how about - exciting people in church. Author Leonard sweet uses the letters to describe imortant characteristics of a church gathering - experiencial, participative, image-full, creative.

"So, is that the one that you use for your church?"

No, we don't use any. Maybe the peanut one from time to time. But that's not it.

"Where did you get your church name then?"

Well, rather than continuing to be cryptic (which can be fun for me, but will likely frustrate you to no end) let me just tell you how I was inspired to choose that name. epic - "adjective / 1.) pertaining to a long poetic composition usually centered upon a hero, in which a series of great achievements or events is narrated. 2.) heroic, majestic, impressively great." That's from Webster's dictionary.

We are followers of Christ, the epic hero of the only truly epic story in which we have the opportunity to play an epic role. We are here to reveal that, to live that, to share that!

I've had this conversation a few times and never posted it here or on the epic website. So, now I can't say never anymore.

The Future of Christian Blogging

I've had a very interesting day of thinking about blogging. I recently spoke to a friend who is in the pursuit of increasing his blogging community. He is blogging more, evangelizing his blog through twitter and facebook, and making a number strategic moves to increase traffic through his blog. I got somehow caught up in the excitement of what he shared with me and begin researching last night about how I might increase the effectiveness of my blog and evangelize it more.

Then I read this post from one of my favorite Christian bloggers. He has come to the decision to turn off all of his social networking sites. No more facebook, twitter, or blogging (Ohhhh the humanity!). All of this for deeply spiritual reasons. It seems he has been convicted that he has a limited resource of time. It seems he has struggled with the overall spirituality of his life and the time spent on electronic forms of networking have become, to him, a interference.

I think there is a challenge here for each of us to consider. Are our electronic connections distracting us from our more personal connections? Are they disengaging us from our realistic obligations? Are we misfocused on perpetual electronic communication?

The real question is, what is the cost of all of these electronic connections? What are we taking out of our schedules for the sake of these media? Are we substituting reading about someone else's quiet time for having one of our own? Are we living vicariously through someone else's evangelism instead of sharing our faith with our own neighbors? Are we missing our own chance to feed the poor, serve the sick, visit the prisoner, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, encourage our fellow believers... and on and on so we can read about what others are doing?

Has the conversation about faith actually replaced the living out of faith?
What is the cost:
to our families,
to our churches,
to our neighbors,
to our God?

I don't want to propose the answer here. I'm just struck by the idea.

Read YSMarko's post here.

Let me know what you think.