by the numbers: my morning commute

15 minutes to get ready



10 minutes waiting for the anti-theft lock to turn off so I could drive to work



16 lights to the highway



30 miles to work



40 minute commute

yes, sometimes i do speak

Today I got the privilege of speaking at work for their weekly Wednesday morning chapel. My little speech is below in its entirety. I stuck to the script for the most part, only straying away from it a few times so you will get the basic gist of what I had to say. We also sang two songs. The music was great for both, but neither song was well known so the singing was a little quiet. The hymns were sung one at the beginning and one at the end. The first song was “Worship the Lord in the Beauty” and the second was “Living and Dying with Jesus” which I thought fit quite well. At the end I also gave a benediction. I had never done that before. Kinda weird. Overall I think it went well. I was a little nervous, but after that I was able to speak with solid rhetoric.



What are we doing with grace?

2 Corinthians 6:1-13 (TNIV)

As God's co-workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain. For he says, "In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you." I tell you, now is the time of God's favor, now is the day of salvation.

We put no stumbling block in anyone's path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. As a fair exchange—I speak as to my children—open wide your hearts also.

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Faith and grace – it doesn’t seem to come at a cost anymore. Martyrdom is a thing of the past. (I’m not saying it doesn’t still happen. Occasionally we hear a story here or there.) But in general we don’t hear the stories of people like Paul who boasts of his hardships or a modern day martyr like Dietrich Bonhoeffer. If you don’t know who Dietrich Bonhoeffer is – he was a German pastor and an author who during the Nazi reign stood-up against what was wrong and was eventually imprisoned and killed for it.

Grace is often called the quality that makes Christianity unique to other religions and the rest of the world. So, what does grace look like? And, what are we doing with it?

Grace is more than proclaiming John 3:16 – to say this gift God gives us is free. But we are cheapening God’ grace when we leave the proclamation at that. It’s only half of the equation. But it is hard to proclaim repentance, confession, discipleship, and even sometimes a life of hardship; like that of Paul who had been beaten, imprisoned, hungry, who cried out about being poor and dying.

And yet… Paul rejoices!

Has the church lost what Paul rejoiced in 2000 years ago? Have we lost grace in the church today? We talk about living our best lives now. We make Christianity into Americanism. And even sometimes we proclaim that grace maybe isn’t for everyone, creating moral barriers of superiority and division. All of those examples are completely the opposite of what Paul was trying to teach. Now this would be the time where I would do a PowerPoint. But, because of Annual Conference all the projectors are in San Diego. Instead I’ll do the little PowerPoint verbally. I’ll name a person or group and you will decide for yourself whether they deserve grace or not.

Hitler… the KKK… Mother Teresa… Martin Luther King Jr… Obama…How about George W. Bush… Your favorite athlete or singer… Sadam Hussein… the homeless.. Enron or Madoff …

How far were you willing to extend grace?

Did you extend grace to Mother Teresa or Martin Luther King Jr? How about Hitler or Enron?

Yet, grace goes beyond hate, beyond racism, beyond any sin of this world.

Are we keeping grace under a rock? Are we hiding it in the ground? OR – are we giving grace, are we being unconditional in our love as, God is for us? In the parable of the workers in the vineyard (Matthew 20)… Do you know this one? Where the owner of a vineyard hires some workers at the beginning of the day for a denarius, then at noon hires more for a denarius, and again in the afternoon for a denarius. At the end of the day all the workers from morning to afternoon are all paid the same amount one denarius. This grace doesn’t make sense to the world. It doesn’t even make sense to us most of the time. This is not just the second half of the equation, but it is like adding 2 + 2 and it equaling 5. It’s as if God has changed the fundamental truth of the problem to not equal 4 anymore, but 5. Just like the math problem grace is beyond what the world sees as ‘good’. God’s fundamental truth of the equation of grace is different from the world’s it is extended to all.

On our own, attempting to give grace to everyone without any sort of conditional filter is impossible. We’re human, and we are going to become frustrated with our co-workers, with bad drivers, with irritating neighbors. It is only when we live in the depths of God’s grace, and allow his strength to pour through us, can we seek to live in a different way. And it is this grace-filled lifestyle that has the power to really change the world for the better, as Jesus did. Are you up to the challenge?

tipping point in life

What’s the tipping point of awareness? It’s seems these days everyone wants to make everyone aware about something. If we just know, the world will be a better place. That appears to be the motto of the philanthropist today. It today’s over-stimulated world, does it not seem that we already know about everyone? Indeed too much. I mean I know about hunger issues around the world, racism, sexism, cancer, heart disease, autism, Vets without proper medical care and on and on, and on, and on. And there isn’t just one organization trying to stop cancer or help hunger around the world. There are hundreds of people reinventing the wheel each year. Yet, it seems that only a few have made it to the tipping point of awareness, and that is only because one involves a person who can ride a bike exceptionally well and another who is well very famous. How did anyone get help before rock stars?
And what about the whole green thing? Now that the economy has tanked it seems the only green that people want is in their wallets. Although the economy had a lot to do with the slump of being more environmentally conscious, was it more the economy or people’s constant search for the next thing (aka societal ADD)? With everyone saturated with knowing everything, the will to help has been displaced by a lack of community organizing. An example of this can be seen in the average family life. In an average family with kids, there is so much going on that there is a lack of concentration in one thing such as a single activity, hobby, or even being too busy to include a weekly church service. Life has become so busy that some of the fundamentals of life such as a sit-down dinner, family night, or Sunday morning worship have been left off the to-do list. Has the tipping point already happened in many families’ lives? Is anyone noticing? Is anyone looking at living beyond just physical and material things, or is family, friends, and daily living too much to expect in today’s culture?

the echidna

I’m often stated as loving squirrels. And that statement is true, but only because of my love of all animals. When I go for a walk or look outside my window there is usually a squirrel doing something at some point. There is an encounter. I don’t get to see penguins or anteaters everyday; and not surprisingly since they are only at the zoo. And although I see a fair share of deer, groundhogs, and opossums they are usually only glimpses, not encounters. The squirrel represents my fascination with all animals. It helps that squirrels are interesting creatures (check out the Youtube video below) and not mundane.

But seriously, how often am I going to see a long-beaked echidna (only found in the area of New Guinea)? In a recent article in the NYTimes they honor this shy creature. Usually the platypus gets all the publicity as the weird animal and the joke of the animal kingdom, but I have to say that the echidna is fairly weird looking itself. The popularity of the platypus may be because you can see a platypus swimming down a river in Australia, but you may never come across an echidna in the jungles of New Guinea.

I’m sure if I could follow one of these creatures around I would drop everything to do so. For now I have the squirrel to watch.

birding in chicago

You don’t usually think about there being a lot of species of birds in the city. Or at least I don’t. I’ve recently started to get into birding after receiving binoculars for my birthday. I’ve been interested in birds for years, watching many of the birds coming to the feeders at my parents’ house. But, that is only a small amount of birds and only a select few even go to home feeders. So, in May when I went on a North Park Nature Center migratory birding walk, I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw.

They gather early - the bird watchers. At eight o’clock in the morning on Saturdays they gather for two to three hours to see (and hear) all the birds they can. I wasn’t sure how many people would show up. I mean, it is eight o’clock on a Saturday morning and it is birding. I was surprised by the amount of people each week (probably around thirty). We had to split into two groups each week. From there we would walk around the grounds with our binoculars and search out what we could find.

I saw about forty-eight different species of birds. Many of them common to the area, but many more I’d never seen before. Here’s what I saw:

Permanent Abundant
Canada Goose, Mallard, Mourning Dove, House Sparrow

Permanent Common
Ring-billed Gull, Downy Woodpecker, Northern Flicker, American Crow, Northern Cardinal, Song Sparrow, American Goldfinch

Permanent Uncommon
Red-headed Woodpecker, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker

Summer Abundant
Chimney Swift, Tree Swallow, American Robin, Red-winged Blackbird

Summer Common
Green-backed Heron, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Willow Flycatcher, Gray Catbird, Brown Thrasher, Red-eyed Vireo, Blue-winged Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Indigo Bunting, Brown-headed Cowbird, Baltimore Oriole

Summer Uncommon
Eastern Phoebe, Scarlet Tanager, Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Summer Rare
Cooper’s Hawk, Veery

Migrant Common
Magnolia Warbler, Palm Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, American Redstart (warbler)

Migrant Uncommon
Solitary Sandpiper, Brown Creeper, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Northern Parula, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, Wilson’s Warbler

Migrant Rare
Black-throated Blue Warbler

The Saturday mornings brought adventure, thought, and a birding community. One of the best things I learned from this birding experience is that identifying birds is a skill and it takes time and practice. I hope to do more in the near future.

not simply happiness

Joel “happiness” Osteen. He’s the one-stop-shop to happiness and seven steps to a better life now. He is the definition of Marx’s “opium of the people.” If you’ve ever read Marx’s quote beyond the one phrase, there is much more to what Marx is saying, and ironically enough even an average student of religion like myself can easily refute Marx’s statements.

Unfortunately, Osteen’s church has become a catalyst for a watered down Jesus and Christianity that brings well deserved criticism from non-Christians. No wonder in today’s world non-Christians find it hard to distinguish between a liberal non-Christian who seeks out equality and justice and a moral-induced Osteen follower. The essence of Christianity has been left out.

Fortunately, Christianity is more than happiness and fuzzy kittens. It’s more than optimism. It is about hope. It is about the beatitudes that Jesus talks about in Matthew chapter 5. A radical way of living that is far from an opium, happiness, or seven steps. Christianity is beyond instant gratification, beyond the American Dream, beyond simple living, beyond ‘going green’, beyond pro-life, beyond day and night, it’s beyond just living. In a world of hurting, suffering, and starving - Jesus brings an alternative.

burb nation: a review

I recently read Suburban Nation. It’s a book that lays out what is wrong with Suburbia and how to fix it. The authors are neighborhood planners, so the facts, claims, and evidence for their thesis are fairly concrete. The overall book is great. A must read for anyone - whether they live in sprawl or not. The book bases its ideas on practicality, function, and economics. Although the book does reference racism and sexism as issues in suburban/urban problems, they are not the theme. I think this is an important prospective, as it can convince the average Joe White that the sprawl that is going on is bad without turning average Joe off with harsh language and realities he would rather not face. For example: claiming that much of urban decay began in the 60s (although racism and redlining was a factor), the policies that were in place to build a mass highway system, and housing laws back then (and today) that allow developers and such to cater to the ‘burbs and care less about the urban city.

In the end the book gives excellent reasons to move away from Suburbia the way it currently exists (and even more reason in a recession nine years after the book was written). I am still left with some questions though, and wondering this: is the idea that the authors present actually possible in the United States?

First, let’s address the idea of the neighborhood being less car reliant. In the neighborhoods that are created, it would create towns that depend less upon the car. It would allow people to walk almost everywhere they need to be including work, school, grocery store, and shopping. In an every growing globalized world is walking really the way America is going to go? Kids have travel soccer in the next town. That takes a car. Now, the authors at no point say that cars are bad and should be done away with. They just want less driving, especially since as a nation we are too dependent on cars and oil. But, for example, for a Chicagoian one day to be working in Chicago, the next to be vacationing in Wisconsin, the next to be carpooling a kids’ group to Indiana, public transportation certainly can’t accommodate the demands of American life.

The book builds an idea of more community in neighborhoods in a world that is expanded past its city limits. Although the book addresses many of these issues, it doesn’t fully address the problem of cars verses public transportation. Until there is a full overhaul in public transportation that makes it not only easier, but also faster and cheaper than a car, cars will the mode of transportation. This means when I do need to travel somewhere beyond my community that public trans will actually be a better idea. In today’s world if I travel from Chicago to Elgin it would take about 2 ½ hours compared to 45 minutes in a car. I don’t have to continually wait for a bus or train, or to transfer. Plus, to go to Elgin by train I would have to go south several miles even though Elgin is directly northwest. And in the end when the authors call the car “free-good,” it is actually cheaper for me to drive to Elgin than to spend money on two buses and two train fares one-way.

The authors present the idea that the car is “free-good.” It’s the idea that I can travel places, park places, etc for free. In the end it is more expense overall compared to public transportation. However, as I stated above, until it is made clear to the public’s perception that public transportation is easier, faster, and cheaper the “free-good” will always win.

Secondly, like many Americans, members of a household do not necessarily work in the same town. Many families live in between workplaces or live in one workplace area but the other may be miles away, thus making car travel inevitable for someone in the family. I think many of the ideas for a traditional neighborhood, the type of neighborhood that the authors present, would bring less driving in the community but may never address the practicality of multiple job locations.

Thirdly, American culture loves the one-stop shopping of big box stores. The book doesn’t fully address what to do with big box stores. In such a capitalist country that is driven by low prices, big box stores are not going away anytime soon. And every town can’t provide a Wal-mart, Target, IKEA, etc. within walking distance or even in each town, which will inevitably just create the same traffic and parking problems that the book is trying to disperse.

Burbs verses the traditional neighborhood layout


Finally, can the culture of the suburbs be really tamed? Isn’t the idea of driving run by the spirit of freedom? Don’t people like driving? Don’t people like living in cul-de-sacs? I mean, I pass by thousands of people sitting in traffic everyday trying to get to work in Chicago who would rather sit in traffic and have a big house with a big green lawn than an overpriced smaller house with no lawn in the city. The book again addresses many of the problems of creating better laws for the city to compete against the city, but would it create cheaper housing? Isn’t Chicago about location? The junky house at the end of my block isn’t selling for $700K because it is nice, but because it is in Chicago. Until the city can compete in pricing there may always be traffic jams (either that or like I stated above do an overhaul of public transportation).

The books also states over and over again about a priority for narrow roads over wide roads. I agree with this statement as the authors claim the roads function better for pedestrians. The authors also claim it will slow traffic down. Do people want to slow down? It seems as though everyone is in a rush today to get anywhere and everywhere as fast as they can. Just yesterday standing next to a narrow road a car buzzed by at an alarmingly high speed (for seemly not reason except to speed). Although narrower streets, and especially shorter streets (compared to long streets that are uninterrupted by street lights, stop signs, and speed limits of 55) I am still not convinced that the narrower, shorter streets fully address the safety issue.

At one point in the book it is stated or inferred that there is no end to sprawl. There is no tipping point. An example is that if instead of creating a four lane highway we created a ten lane highway that it wouldn’t exhaust any of the traffic problems. The best example of proof of this is in Atlanta. The idea is that if we create more people will come and use it and fill in the spaces that were created. Therefore requiring more lanes, etc to be created. I’m not sure that the amount of lanes are the problem as much as the problem of diverging and merging traffic of multiple highways. An example where I live is by O’Hare airport where three intersecting highways convene at once, creating traffic jams not because of the amount of lanes, but because people have to merge to a different highway or merge onto the existing highway. In the end the authors are probably right: there is no end to sprawl. And that’s a scary thought.

I loved the book. I am just not convinced and unsure about everything the book addresses. Much of American culture, developer and building laws, and city, state, and regional laws would have to do a complete 180 to make many of these dreams a possibility. In the end, the traditional neighborhood is a direction I would like to move toward rather than the ever growing sprawl that America is moving toward.