The Outpatient Monk.

The Lightbulb Conspiracy: Epiphany reminds us to go looking for God in all the wrong places

Published January 6, 2012 by Doug Harrison

Before their were lightbulbs, what would you put over a person’s head in a cartoon to show they had a bright idea or an epiphany? Candles seem like waxy danger. Today is the day we celebrate the day people started to really ‘get’ who Jesus was and it its a little surprising who these folks end up being. Its also surprising who not only didn’t get it, they tried to shut the “Jesus” thing down. On this the day we ccelebrate Epiphany, I think “getting” who these people really were, might also give us a little epiphany about who Jesus is as well.

Tohu-Bohu

Hope is Found Between. December 25

Published December 26, 2011 by Doug Harrison

I am not one to whom hope comes easily, But it does come.

29 Days of Hope

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On the eve of hope, into such a world.

Published December 25, 2011 by Doug, the patient.

Today I listened to even more stories hard to hear, Stories that were never meant to have to be told. I am reminded there are places where life is still taken from the young, children are unwanted or used, and innocence can be traded for cigarettes and bags of chips.

It is this very world into which every child is born. This life, with all of its risks and violence, is where every human body has to live. We like to think we do our best. Not everyone does. Some tearthrough the landscape of life like a wildfire out of control. This is the world into which every baby is born.

It is in this molested, abandoned, cockeyed world that Mary has her baby. God was born into all of our danger like every child and in fact even he didn’t make it out alive, …at least as far as we could see at that time. Perhaps that is as far was we can see now.

God knew the mess Jesus was getting into and Jesus came anyway. There is no darkness God refuses to touch, or to be touched by. There is no darkness into which the light is not willing to shine.

Let this be our last night of waiting.

related post:

Yeah, Actually, Mary Did Know.

29 Days of Hope

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29 Days of Hope: A place to hold my shaky heart.

Published December 23, 2011 by Doug Harrison

Something happened to me at Roseanne’s birthday party. She can not sit up on her own let alone stand our walk. She does not speak. She can not feed herself and she can only eat soft foods. She is someone who many people see far more quickly as an “it” than a “hello my name is….” Her birthday party is one of those moments I can point back to and say, this is the moment that changed my life.

29 Days of Hope

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29 Days of Hope: A Resident Alien in Roswell Abducts Me.

Published December 23, 2011 by Doug Harrison

I liked going on tour with the college choir. The old music wasn’t much to my liking. I guess I harbored a conviction that the old church songs related to old people, that is was time for new songs

and “relevant” songs only. My sent me on a quest to stay with Don Adams when I got to Roswell New Mexico that would be a shift in my convictions. He gave me permission to believe that trying to prove Christians can be cool might be a less interesting endeavor than to learn to live a little, well, alien to what was relevant.

Uncategorized

4 ways to jumpstart the last minute holiday spirit.

Published December 22, 2011 by Doug Harrison

manhattan solstice 3 (Photo credit: Dave Kliman)

Whew! So that was the longest night of the year. I am not at all unfamiliar with its is like to be stuck in a night that does not seem to want to end. Sometimes the darkness is a habit of thinking that is hard to break.

This far in to the holiday season there are always a few folks who want to be in the spirit of things but just haven’t got there yet.

Well the night is over. The sun returns and I think surprise is an important part of a complete breakfast. So here are a couple ideas to get the ball rolling.

1) Shock yourself: Some gifts you open, some gifts open you…

29 Days of Hope

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The Better Angels of Juarez’ Nature

Published December 22, 2011 by Doug Harrison

I always thought glitter would play an important part in the revolution. In Juarez, Mexico members of a small church put it on their faces and their hand made wings. This is standard for for a lot of Christmas pageants but these angels aren’t about to sing in the annual cantata. They are headed downtown Juarez. What they are planning to do really puts teeth and nails in hope.

29 Days of Hope

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29 Days of Hope: In Defense of Giving Gifts.

Published December 22, 2011 by Doug Harrison

Swearing off the exorbitant gift giving of Christmas is something I cannot help but get behind. However, we also run the risk of being, well, scroogey. Giving gifts is something that is fundamentally human and to relinquish the practice to those who trample each other at Walmart might be as much of a concession to consumerism as maxing out the visa cards. “Spend money or don’t give gifts.” That doesn’t sound at all right to me.

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Actually, Yeah. Mary Did Know.

Published December 20, 2011 by Doug Harrison

annunciation I love the songs that capture what horror it must have felt like to be a teenage girl who God had chosen for, well, anything. I feel both a sense of honor and terror every time I think that there is good on earth God would have me do.

So songs like “Breath of Heaven,” by Amy Grant and “Mary Did You Know,” by Mark Lowry tap into our sense of how overwhelming we would have been and how overwhelmed we are right now. Through our eyes we can only imagine such a call to be suffocating, full of fear. This, however, is not at all like the song Mary actually sang.

29 Days of Hope

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29 Days of Hope: The promise of Chanukah, we have enough light.

Published December 19, 2011 by Doug Harrison

The miracle of the oil is a simple one. There wasn’t enough oil to keep the lamp lit for more than one day, but it lasted eight full days. Just enough time to get more.

This year has reminded me a lot of the fragility of history. The “year in review” videos are popping up on FaceBook, websites, news channels. Social stability, the economy, and heck, even the weather seems delicate enough to go any which way. The future has exposed its own uncertainty

Sometimes I hesitate to call it until I get a clear sense that “everything is going to be ok. But I usually don’t get to see everything, let alone be assured that it is ok. The miracle of Chanukah is not that the entire outcome of the future was revealed. The miracle was not the sudden appearance of endless amounts of oil. It was just enough oil each night for one more day, for just enough days… until they could get more oil.

I have come to believe hope carries itself with us like a small lantern: Just enough to see the step you are on, and the next one you need to take. It turns out that kind of light can take you anywhere.

29 Days of Hope

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