What is the value of this community?

It is hard to ask this question because our culture tells us to liberate ourselves? From parents, restrictions, rules, and just be yourself. But in our community we have been given a freedom that transcendences these temporal freedoms. It is the freedom that comes with belonging/security/ walking into a big old mansion and being able to call it home. Not because of the space but because of the faces, those bonds that we have made here. These bonds differ between all the members of the community but on a more general scale, we have lived together in community and there is no way to deny that we share something. The ironic part about the whole situation is that the sharing has made us richer – we have shared struggles, laughter, first-things thoughts. This sharing is the value of community.

The challenge to myself and to our community is to posture ourselves in a stance of gratitude for this experience. More than just the delight that comes from saying “I did this awesome program” but the gratitude that comes from sharing in the richness of God’s plan for his people. This is a mysterious thing but through our grateful eyes, we must realize its greatness.

As Wendell Berry once composed:

We live by mercy if we live.

To that we have no fit reply

But working well and giving thanks,

Loving God, loving one another,

To keep Creation's neighborhood. (1-5)

"...in order to detect divine agency, we need a larger number of events before a pattern emerges so that God's intentions become manifest". (Diogenes Allen 174 "Divine Agency in a Scientific World")

This happens in both the historic and present community/ individually. Some examples to think about - Israel, Joseph, Jesus, SSU, Forestview, most of us.

Wilson's Warbler

Yesterday, I joined my friends on a trip to the museum of nature. Best in this trip, was the final floor - BIRdS. Birds are symbols of the soul, freedom, and power.

These flying creatures seem to be a new trend these days but why? I think I can relate to those who buy shirts with birds designed into landscapes. It is a form of expression, one that shows our common longing for the symbols of a bird. What's more, I realized that there are hundreds of varieties when discussing just one bird. Just like youth who want to have their own identity, unique from the rest of their peers, so to birds have become one of the most diverse and distinctive creatures. Yet, their songs have the ability to unity them all!

• The Wilson's Warbler is found in a large diversity of environments in the winter. It is the only migrant warbler regularly found in tropical high plains (paramo).
• Identified by the black cap.
• The Wilson's Warbler trends toward brighter, richer coloration from the eastern part of the range to the west. The Pacific coast populations have the brightest yellow, even orangish, foreheads and faces. Western-central and Alaskan birds are slightly larger than the eastern and Pacific coast populations.
  

A small variety of Warbler's:

Bay Breasted Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black Throated Blue Warbler
Black Throated Gray Warbler
Black Throated Green Warbler
Cerulean Warbler
Chestnut Sided Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Golden Cheeked Warbler
Grace's Warbler
Hermit Warbler
Kirtland's Warbler
Louisiana Waterthrush
Northern Waterthrush
Ovenbird
Pine Warbler
Prairie Warbler
Palm Warbler
Townsend's Warbler
Yellow Breasted Chat
Yellow Throated Warbler

Dancing Beams of Light

Walking downtown streets is normally filled with the filing cabinet feel.

Paradoxically, looking uptown was the moment of beauty in my day today. The sun broke through branches and buildings. IN FACT, the beams of light were honest enjoyment for my eyes. It was magic as the colors merged and intensified.

God still fills the city with nature...

SWITCHTFOOT!

You guys seem to be always recording, always pushing toward the next release. Anything you can tell us about the next band album yet?

The reason why I love music is because it has this intangible spark, this once-in-a-lifetime urgency that breathes down the neck of my soul and makes me cry or laugh or throw something. So you dive into music and begin to learn how things work, the mechanics, the rules. And suddenly it becomes math instead of magic.

I feel like the most dangerous place for us to be as a band is to be comfortable. The rule for this record is that if you’ve done it in the past you can’t do it again. We want the music to move us. I heard somebody say -- “If you ain’t crying, why you playin’ it?” I like that…

We recorded 14 songs with Charlie Peacock [producer of Switchfoot's initial trio of indie albums] this summer. Our first approach was to take a song and play it for an hour or two and then listen back to what we achieved and move forward from there. It's completely new for us -- we've never "jammed" before.