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Reflections on Snowmageddon: Futility

February 12, 2010

: The parking lot during Storm #2.

Post #2 on Snowmageddon… this time let’s talk about the fact that it was happening in Washington, DC. And the Federal Government shut down for at least 4 days.

This town is the embodiment of Type A. Everyone here is driven by their résumé; build it, pad it, back it up, weigh it down. Efficiency is striven for (or at least the appearance of it). Rest is for the weak. It’s frustrating though, when you have no choice but to rest.

Something else I realized, weather is far more effective than terrorism.

Remember how terrorists have been trying to bring the American government down for decades? Remember how they fail. All the time. Bombs don’t work. Airplanes have missed their targets. Wars are still elsewhere. But what is able to bring the nation’s capital to its knees? A few feet of white, fluffy, pretty frozen water flakes.

: People trying to “manage” the parking problem.

Snow.

Snow is able to stop our whole government from working. It’s able to cause accidents involving the Presidential motorcade, two as a matter of fact – one before they even left the White House grounds. The government has been closed for most of a week. The postal service has not been delivering mail every day, so much for

Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

Not that I’d look down on them for it, the roads have been crazy, even just to walk on.

So, during this week of weather mayhem the word is futile. There’s nothing we could really do about it.

: Panda-head having fun at the Dupont snowball fight.

Beyond the Government, the ministry that I work for was planning a conference in Alexandria starting today. We had to cancel it yesterday because of conditions not just here in the DC area, but all around the region. We still don’t know if we’ll be able to re-schedule it or how much of a loss it is, but I know that I’ve lost another week’s worth of work on designing the website, promotional materials and the programs for the event.

I was reading my Bible this week and came across this:

Psalm 33:10

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing;
he frustrates the plans of the peoples.

Indeed. I think this may have been a forced Sabbath inside the Beltway.

: Oh, and a $1.4M canopy collapsed on AU’s campus in between the student center and a classroom building. [NICOLE GLASS | THE EAGLE]

Classes Have Begun

August 25, 2009

in everything

Well, students are back in town here in the DC area. We’ve welcomed back the American University students, we’ve tabled twice and we’ve had our first meeting. This weekend sees almost all of the other schools show up too.

This is my excuse for not posting anything of substance.

That’s my excuse this week that is.

A Book that Every Western Christian Should Read

January 18, 2009

in everything

the Lost History of Christianity Just before Christmas I read an article that was recommended by a friend that works in the American University’s chaplain’s office. It was written by an author that works at Penn State as a history prof who focuses on the history of Christianity and particularly focuses on non-Western Christianity.

The article referred to a book that he had written that had been recently released, called The Lost History of Christianity that focused on what happened to the “Jesus movement” in Asia and Africa after Acts ended. Let me just say that this book is fascinating and eye-opening. It outlines a lot of things that we are happily ignorant to in our own histories and which is absent in most of our minds as we think about how the message of Christ has spread to the parts of the earth that are not European in historical and cultural origin.

I read some of the reviews on Amazon – yes, some of the churches that he outlines are ones that have been historically designated as heretical, but there is still value to understanding reality in relation to where the Gospel has gone before and how & why the rest of the world sees and interprets its history. The chapter that I have just finished even talks about the fact that Arab Christians were major players in the Palestinian Movements of the early 20th Century and much of the pro-Arab Identity movements that continue today. It will shed some light on how fellow followers/worshippers of Christ still influence into the wars that we’re fighting now… both on “our” side and on the side of our opponents (either explicitly or implicitly). And, it shows how complicit our own nation and government is in the martyrdom of thousands of Christians in the past 50-ish years alone.

Again, I recommend the book as a history book (as opposed to a “Christian book”) that I think that every Western person who calls themself by the name of Christ (“Christian”) should read this book – especially those who have dreams or callings towards the Middle East or Asia.

Where did the last month and a half go?

October 13, 2008

For as much time as I spend on here, you’d think I’d update my own blog pretty often. Wrong. I’d love to. One of my goals for the year was to post something of substance on here every other day. Didn’t happen. Not even close. Since August 27th, huh? I mean, “Ride the Snake” doesn’t [...]

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