Pop Culture Roundup

By
I read Jesus Freak: Feeding Healing Raising the Dead by Sara Miles this week. I loved Take This Bread, so I was really excited to get her follow-up. This is largely a collection of stories about people whom Miles has met through her work at the food pantry that she organizes: addicts and those recovering, ex-cons, the poor and homeless, the mentally ill, and a chaplain at an inner-city hospital, among others. She intersperses these stories with some commentary on Jesus' call to serve, which she takes at its most literal, radical meaning (hence the title). This commentary includes some critique of the church, and well-meaning-yet-overly-cautious liberals in particular get the brunt of it. She repeatedly expresses that the food pantry is literally open to anyone and everyone, which she contrasts with programs that place heavy restrictions and entry requirements on people either before considering or even while helping them. Through these stories, she shows how the food pantry transforms people, rather than expecting people to transform first. This is one of the big takeaways: grace open to all, and the change that comes through it.

Because I'm inevitably coerced into seeing each one of them in the theater, I saw Eclipse this past week. It...didn't suck. There was more action and mayhem in this one, it was shot better, the acting was much better. We got back stories of two of the vampire characters, as well as the wolf tribe, which I thought helped deepen the movie as a whole. A major theme in this one is that Bella is still wanting to be turned into a vampire so that she can be with her perfect, beautiful, beautiful and perfect dreamy OMG Edward forever. A half-dozen or so characters make well-reasoned arguments why she should reconsider, but of course her love for Edward is like you know OMG eternal and stuff. The movie has a darker edge that I liked, and aside from Bella and Edward's relationship in general, I liked it. Seriously, I found every scene with just the two of them to be incredibly soul-sucking, no stupid vampire pun intended.

Summer always inspires me to break out more of my jamband music. The past week has featured heavy doses of Widespread Panic in particular. They just had a new album come out, although I haven't picked it up yet; I hope to soon.

Here's Widespread Panic performing "Action Man:"

Order my books!













Sign up for my author newsletter!

powered by TinyLetter

Popular posts from this blog

Frequently Asked Questions about Prayer in Motion

By
Image
Now that Prayer in Motion: Connecting with God in Fidgety Times has been released into the world, here are answers to a few of the most common anticipated questions that might arise about it.

Wait, didn't you just release a new book in June? Why, yes, I did. The story goes that I sent a proposal for Wonder and Whiskey pretty much on a lark, just to see what would happen. When I didn't hear back for a while I assumed that nothing would come of it, and turned my attention to the idea for Prayer in Motion instead. Then in the middle of receiving some interest for the latter, I heard back from Wipf and Stock about publishing the former. So as strange as it seems for me to be publishing two books pretty much back to back, it's all due to a fortunate series of events and coincidental timing.

So, what's this book about? As a pastor and spiritual director, I've accumulated enough anecdotal evidence that a lot of people find prayer difficult either because they don't thi…
Read more

A Prayer for Opened Ears

By
Image
based on Mark 7:24-37

Faithful God, our ears are often closed to so much. We miss the needs around us because we're so preoccupied with our own desires. We don't heed the possibility of new things in our midst because we've become comfortably numb with what we've long been doing. We are unwilling to listen to your presence because acknowledging it might ask something of us that we're not ready to accept. Whether of our own making or due to complicating factors in our lives, we don't, can't, or won't hear what you wish to show us.

Our hope and prayer this day is that you take us aside to show us what we've been missing. Unstop our ears to your gifts. Speak your healing word of "Ephphatha" for us to be open to your speaking of renewing and grace-filled truths into our hearts. Through Jesus, show us what we've been ignoring whether in our own lives and in the lives of others so the movement of all your creation toward restoration and who…
Read more