Social media, video loops and Christian faith...

Is Adapt social media creations for worship an item on our Time & Talent Survey? If not, why not? This is an interesting blog post about new social media, what the millenials and high schoolers are gravitating to and what it has to do with Christian faith. Check it out.

Fair Use or Common Sense?

This week in class we have been reading and discussing the many layers of fair use in the the complicated world of digital technology in which we live. We have, at our fingertips, a plethora of music, video, images, sounds, written works, etc... and so how do we make sure what we "find" on the internet and then incorporate into our own works, we are doing in a manner that is respectful, lawful, moral and fair. This is the basis for which we have done our readings and blogging this week. I am not going to summarize any further as you would be welcome to read any number of my classmates blogs for wonderful summaries of the readings. The blog list can be found here. I am going to think out loud here for a few minutes about the gaps that I am left with within this conversation.

First, there are two very long documents that you could read through about Fair Use if you are interested: Love to Share (a document produced by the World Council of Churches) and The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use in Media Education

The documents are interesting to say the least and FULL of information. Information that to be honest and frank is hard for me to sift through. I am not really interested (although there is great need to have awareness concerning this very important topic) in sifting through all the grey areas. Why does it have to be so complicated? This topic makes some people very anxious to the point that they don't use any images, musci, video, etc.... they don't even share their own. I am a sharer! This does not make me anxious, but it does make me take pause... now.

So the gap I have, is what is it that I do in my ministry that will require me to abide by these fair use rules and regulations and when, how, and where will I access the information. This weeks class topic is a great place to start. What this week has done more than anything for me is
1) given me some basic resources and places to begin thinking about this
2) shined a light on a very important topic
3) allowed me to step into the work of other's and think about it from a new lens (how would I feel if my music was taken and someone profited from it)
4) opened a door to be more conscientious about images, music and videos that I currently use and in the future will use, to be sure I am playing and sharing nicely!


For my final project I took a song by Rachel Kurtz and made a video of scripture text and photos set to her song Hallelujah from her album Broken and Lowdown. The photographs I used were all taken by three people (me, and two friends and I asked permission to use them). The Biblical text came from my NRSV Bible. I am pretty sure everything I did was on the up and up. At the end of the video I have a "credits" page in which I name the photographers. I totally forgot to list Rachel as the artist of the song (I will change that for my final). I did not credit my NRSV Bible and I wonder if I need to do that. I will consult my small group and Professor Hess to see about that. When I took a look at Rachel's website I found this written next to the description of her latest album Broken and Lowdown

All words and music by Rachel Kurtz, except the music to “Hallelujah,” which borrows the music and chorus to the song Hallellujah by Leonard Cohen and used here in the spirit of fair use [Supreme Court Appeal (No. 92-1292)]

So here we are in the midst of this fair use conversation and the song I chose for my final is claiming "Fair Use" rights to her rendition of Leonard Cohen's original piece. I wondered about this and just assumed she was on the "up and up" in doing what she did because she is making money off this piece as well. Her version of Hallelujah was used in front of 40,000 ELCA Lutheran youth and adults in July 2012 in New Orleans at the National Youth Gathering. A great way to get "your music" out there.

This discover doesn't clear things up for me, it just leads me to more questions and wonderings about how I know and when I should and what if I don't.... It seems to boil down to common sense, but then if we lived in a time and place where common sense was a reliable state, we wouldn't need 73 page documents telling us what we can share, how we can share it and all the other information in between and side ways.

A Time for prayer...

I was sucked into the television last Friday as we received over a foot of snow over night and school was canceled for Friday. This gave me the time to literally sit in front of the tv and watch the manhunt ensue as reporters and news stations did whatever they could to get those of us watching "breaking news". It wasn't too long that they same information was just being regurgitated and although I should have, I didn't turn the channel or turn the tv off, I found myself in prayer for the suspect. I could not seem to shake some internal sense for the need to pray for him. Every time his picture came across the television there was something, something that just didn't make sense. Well, some of you will say, of course it didn't make sense, he intentionally killed innocent people. Yes, I know; that isn't it though. I can't explain the overwhelming urge to pray and want to love like Jesus would love this person I don't even know. I really hesitate blogging about this, but the reality is that there aren't a whole lot of people that will read this and if they do, well I think that what I was being called to that Friday was / is something we as Christians and followers of Jesus are all called to. It isn't easy to pray for the enemy.... but we are called to do just that.

As I have been searching blogs and other internet postings on this side of the issue, I have found two posts that have made me feel OK about praying for Dzhokar. The first came Saturday night on the Facebook clergy page. Rich Melheim posted what he was going to be doing for his children's sermon on Sunday. When I read it, I wished I was doing the children's sermon at my church...

Rich Melheim A CHILDREN'S SERMON THAT CAN GET YOU IN TROUBLE TODAY (A Jesus kind of trouble, that is...)

Here's what I'm preaching for the children's sermon at Trinity in Lansdale this morning, after handing out paper and crayons:

I follow a Jesus who said, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."

Any kind of kind kid can write a kind letter to the families of the victims of the Boston bombing, and every kind kid should.

It takes a Jesus kind of kind kid to write a kind letter to the boy who did this terrible thing.

Please take this back to the pew with you, and if God puts it on your heart to act the way Jesus would act toward people who hurt him, draw a picture of yourself, your house, your family or something beautiful that you love.

If you dare, explain that you are a Christian, and since you follow a Jesus who teaches you to love and forgive, you love and forgive him.

Close your letter saying Jesus loves him, and that you are praying one day he will know love and forgiveness. Tell him you hope and pray that one day love will crowd out the hate in his heart, and that he will be known as the kindest, most loving person in prison.

Rich Melheim

To: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
330 Brookline Avenue
Boston, MA 02215

To read the whole thread if you are a member of the ELCA clergy Facebook page click here.


The next came today, which prompted me to go ahead and blog this off my chest and out of head and heart. Professor Mary Hess from Luther Seminary and the professor for one of the classes I am taking this semester (Gospel and Global Media) posted on her blog something she read on another blog. I am going to link you to the blog of James Martin, SJ. His blog post is entitled, "Praying for the Dead, for Peace and for our Persecutors." I hope you take the time to read the entire blog, but here is the same excerpt that Professor Hess reposted:

But at some point in this process Christians are called, by Jesus, to pray for those who persecute us, to love our enemies–and even to forgive them. This doesn’t mean that we in any way condone what they did, or that we don’t hope that they receive a just punishment, or that we don’t do everything we can to capture criminals and bring them to swift justice. But we are called to do something more by Jesus: pray for them, love them, forgive them. As he said, if we pray only for those who do good to us, “what are you doing more than others”? Yes, it is hard. For me, it’s almost impossible. But this is what we are asked to do.

When they read this part of the Gospel, some people say that Jesus didn’t know what he was talking about. Jesus didn’t know our world, people say. Or maybe he was just naive. So, therefore, they say, we can ignore this statement. And so some Christians dismiss this part of the Gospel. But if as a Christian you say this, then you must admit that you are saying, in essence, that the Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, God Incarnate, didn’t know what he was talking about. Or that Jesus of Nazareth, who himself lived in an extremely violent time, when life was held cheap, didn’t understand violence. Or that Jesus, who was himself the victim of a violent and unjust death, and who nonetheless forgave his executioners from the cross, didn’t have the moral stature to ask us to do this hard thing. And if you refuse even to try to love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, and forgive those who sin against, then you are also saying that you are taking the first step in walking away from Jesus, just like some of the disciples did all those years ago. And where, I’ve always wondered, did they end up?

Here is a link to a Facebook conversation on the flip side saying that

It is disrespectful to those murdered and those maimed, and their families, to quickly jump to the Christian "we love and forgive the bomber" attitude. Michael Cofey

Here is a link to the conversation (if you belong to the ELCA Facebook clergy page)

It is indeed hard to pray for the enemy and for our persecutors, but we have too don't we? This isn't about saving the enemy from the justice system or punishment, but it is about being called to Love Like Jesus.

"Larsen Bay Paranoia" my crap detector

So as soon as I started reading from Rheingold's Net Smart this week on crap detection, I couldn't help but think about what I call my, "Larsen Bay Paranoia". You see I lived with my husband for four and a half years on Kodiak Island in Alaska. We lived in a primarily Native village called Larsen Bay. In the winter there were about 70 -100 (kids included) that lived there. However, this little village thrived and grew by leaps and bounds during the summer months. The village had about 5-7 different lodges (resorts) that brought clients out fishing and hunting. As you can imagine you get really good at knowing your neighbor in such a small community and this might not be exactly how or what Rheingold would define as "crap detection" but my Larsen Bay paranoia, alerts me when the trust doesn't seem to be told, or something doesn't just add up. There was a huge need for crap detecting in a small village and small school (30 kids, 2 teachers), it was necessary to know the truth about what was going on so kids would be safe, we would be safe. So that we could stay healthy, so I could do a good job of teaching, so many reasons. This paranoia built because there always seemed to be drama and it was hard to keep up with what was truth telling and what was gossip making. My Larsen Bay paranoia lives on today (June will be 9 years that we have been back in the States). I guess through this weeks readings, I realized it has another name "crap detector".

So all that just to continue to say that the last two weeks of Gospel and Global Media class have been tough in that I have been enlighten or found sight so to speak on two issues I have been naive about. Last week was the digital divide and this week mass incarceration, the "War on Drugs", and social statements.

In an interview with Charlie Rose I learned so much in 25 minutes.
* The War on Drugs isn't about people it is about politics
* Prisons are highly profitable business venture today.
* The public is blind to the mass incarceration issue our country faces.
* Mass incarceration isn't about crime prevention and control, it is about racial and social control.

We have been asked to think about how the issue of mass incarceration ties into our churches social statements. In the Charlie Rose interview, Michelle Alexander said this, "Real change has to be a movement from the bottom up." This is exactly what the tie is between these social justice issues and our church. We can right all the social statements we want to, BUT the question for me is, "so now what?" What are we going to do about it?

Another student blogged about churches finding the one or two issues they can be passionate about and doing a good job ministering, caring for and making change. If every church was charged with "doing something" about every social justice issue, little would get done. What are the needs of our communities? Are their prisons near by? How about the homeless? Poverty? Housing? AA, NA? Sex Trafficking? There are so many....

This can be an overwhelming topic for churches and there are churches that don't reach out in these social justice issues. Or their reaching out is more about themselves than about others. Or maybe their reaching out is quiet and less publicized and I wouldn't want to take that work away from them. Maybe their reaching out is for the neighbor they can't see and not about the neighbor next door. I think that the church in the writing and adopting of the social statements is good place to start, but we really can't stop there. We must ask, "what's next?"

Digital Divide

This week for Gospel and Global Media class we have focused on "digital divide." According to Susan Crawford, author of Captive Audience,she defines the digital divide as "1/3 of American’s don’t have Internet access. The rich are getting gouged and the poor are very often left out and we are creating two Americas and deepening inequality through the communications inequality."

Before watching the interview, I did not realize there was a digital divide and if I did think there was one, I would not have imagined as an American we would be on the "bad" side of the divide. I just assumed that the US was leading the way for technology and had state of the art internet access. Well, according to Susan Crawford, we are being gouged. We are paying a lot of money for mediocre service and there is nothing we can do about it. I guess that is where the questions of the week comes in. How can we as church bodies advocate to close the gap of the digital divide or erase it completely.

Internet access is becoming a necessity or "utility" as Susan calls it. Kids are going to McDonald's to get internet access so they can do their homework, because their families can not afford access at home. This isn't about wanting or not wanting to admit that internet is a universal utility that has been necessary (not so everyone can us Facebook or Twitter or keep a blog) but applying for jobs, getting your kids report cards, paying bills is the "new norm." Internet access is no longer just for business people or the rich, but it is a basic utility that should be accessible by all people for cheap no matter what their economic status is.

There is a huge push for churches to be on Facebook, Twitter, to have a social media presence and yet this week, we learn that 1/3 of American's don't have access. This makes me wonder where this puts the churches social media usage. I don't suggest that we stop, because there is a large percentage of young people that are connected and we need to stay connected, rather I think about how can we as a church make it so people can get internet access.

On the class blog Professor Hess noted that some churches, both rural and urban, have offering their internet access in a sort of "internet cafe" kind of way. I think this is a marvelous idea! What a way to engage the community, break down barriers, and be a place of welcome and hospitality to the people in your neighborhood. The coffee is always on, there can be a designated space for this and even "open" and "closed" times. Why not??? I know of churches that password and lock their internet access so people cannot "steal" internet access from the church. I have always wondered about this. What is the harm? Why can't this be looked at as "sharing" or "serving" with/for our neighbors? I look forward to the day I have the opportunity to explore my future church's space as a possible "internet cafe"!!

This is a big topic and there are so many questions and options to explore further. It looks like we will continue thinking about this into next week. For now.... that's it and good night!

Wednesdays wandering and wonderings of the web...

It has been such a busy week while I prepare to leave my high school long term subbing assignment and head down to the elementary wing where I will teach 5th grade for the remainder of the year. A lot going on in the classroom, my son turned 10 today so we have been celebrating with him since Sunday, my husband returned to work (this is normal!) and will be on 12 hour shifts for the next 20 or so days in a row. Life is a little crazy right now. But, better late than never, here is my wanderings on the web this past week...

1) Sex trafficking is a huge issue that we know little about. We think it happens somewhere else. MN needs to wake up. We are ten on the list of states where trafficking is an issue. Our Indian reservations, Duluth and the Twin Cities are targets and ports for trafficking our women and children. There is a serious need for awareness to be raised on this issue. Here is an article to get you started.

2) "Can you hear me now?" You have to check this out... Cell phones turn 40!

3)This article was recommended by a pastor friend of mine. "The problem When Sexism Just Sounds So Darn Friendly"

4) Latino Reformation Read the TIME Magazine article here.


5) "Obituary for the Residential Seminary" A blog post by Tony Jones. If you haven't already read this, check it out here.

6) Living Lutheran explores "Why kids act differently in church and that's OK" Read the article about kids, electronic use and worship here.

7)I saw this cartoon on Facebook the other and had to share it here and check out the blog post.

“When people become something to convert, assimilate, or modify, they’ve become targets.”

The Gospel... it's the little things

We are back this week for Gospel and Global Media class thinking about what the gospel is/means in light of our conversations and blogs and class readings, etc... over the last several weeks. To be honest I wasn't too thrilled to have to write again what I think the gospel is. My definition hasn't changed much in the last few weeks.

However, while I was thinking this morning after reading a classmates blog who shared a story of an Easter vigil baptism that she was a part of - actually the godmother to a 60 year old (Cool hey!) I got to thinking - YES! That is it the gospel comes to us, changes us, encourages us, invites us in through the little things in/of life.

My first post about the gospel a few weeks ago was pretty theological (I suppose that I what I thought the professors wanted right?) and so this time around I just want to reflect briefly on how the "little things" in life is really where the gospel is revealed.

Before social media and internet and YouTube and Facebook we experienced the "little things" in life through handshakes, hugs and smiles. A note delivered by snail mail. A phone call from a long lost friend. Dinner with others. All of these "little things" are still around, but social media has brought into our lives a whole new realm of how the "little things" can come to us. A poke on Facebook. A private message from a long lost friend. A chat with someone in another country. A text message containing a prayer that I can access again and again. A voicemail from a loved one who has died that I can listen to over and over. These are the "little things" in which the gospel also roots itself. God reveals himself to us everyday in our comings and goings whether person to person or through our social media connections.

Don't just look for God and the gospel at church on Sunday morning, take a moment to hear, see, experience, and share the good news, the gospel through the "little things."

Praying in Color

This week for Gospel and Global Media Class we were encouraged to create a Praying in Color piece. I enjoyed the exercise, but prefer my mandalas. I guess in one way a mandala and praying in color hold the same basic concept. I thought I would share it here. If you are interested in learning more about Praying in Color check out this website.

Surprise!

Easter Sunday Sermon
3/31/13
Luke 24:1-12


Amazed at what had happened! Have you ever been amazed at what happened? Maybe something that has happened to you, or perhaps amazed at something that you witnessed. I wonder what makes these moments amazing? For me amazement isn’t usually an expected emotion, it just seems to happen or transpire.

The women, the one’s first to discover the empty tomb and the first preachers of the good news – He is risen! The women did not expect to come to this good news message and amazing moment, they came expecting to find Jesus in the tomb. Surprise! Why do you look for the living among the dead?

Here we are gathered together this morning not to discover the empty tomb as the women did that morning, we know Jesus isn’t in there. We know how this story ends but we, like the women and Peter all too often are in need of remembering because we too tend to look for the living among the dead.

The women run right to the eleven to tell them that Jesus was no longer in the tomb, but had been raised. Surprise! No one believed them.

Have you ever had an experience that when you retold it no one believed you? You almost had to be there to believe it.

Come with me back about 12 years. It is a beautiful July morning on Kodiak Island on the beach of Larsen Bay. You have just completed your morning duties at the lodge, which included making breakfast for the clients, packing lunches for the boats, and cleaning the guest rooms and cabins. The pilot has returned from the last trip to the river and surprise! We get to jump on the plane and head to the river for a few hours of fishing ourselves!

Splash, the yellow lab is also anxious to get on the plane and head to the river, but not today. Splash gets shooed back to shore, we get in the plane, the pilot pushes us off and we taxi out of the bay into the big water so we can take flight. The weather is perfect, the wind is almost non-existent and we sit back and enjoy the pleasant 13 minutes flight over to the river.

The pilot lands us in the river we taxi to shore and Surprise! We open the plane door and there she is – Splash shaking while sitting on the float of the plane.

Amazing! The dog rode the float on the plane and didn’t fall off. How did this happen? We thought we left her on the shore? How could this be? No one is going to believe this…

The women’s expectation of that morning had been turned upside down. They became scared and perplexed – How could this be? How could have this happened? We saw them lay Jesus’ body here in this tomb.

Then the angels appeared and the women heard “he is not here, but has risen.” And in that moment something amazing happened.
They remembered!
They remembered what was said while Jesus was still in Galilee
They remembered that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners and be crucified and on the third day rise again.

They remembered…
And now with amazing joy they returned from the tomb and told the eleven! Christ is risen!

I am not sure, but I think that the women left the tomb with yet another expectation. I think that they expected the apostles to be overjoyed with this great news. To jump around and celebrate! Christ Is Risen!

Surprise!

We prepared for a few hours of fishing expecting to leave Splash behind.

In our disbelief we hugged and loved the dog for quite a while. Happy she was alive and not dead. It was in these amazing moments of joy and celebration that our pilot remembered.

He remembered a good friend whom he took fishing similar to our earlier take off shooing back his buddies dog from the plane. When the guys got back from their day of fishing there was no sign of his friend’s dog. Though they expected the dog to be waiting for them on shore – it wasn’t. Their expectation that day was turned upside down. What happened? How could this be? .

The apostles did not respond with joy or celebration – no big Surprise right! Why would the disciples start getting it now? Why would the disciples believe such an unbelievable story? A story whose ending had been predicted many times over by Jesus himself.

They had not remembered.

Expect Peter, Peter must have wanted to believe; perhaps he had some small memory of Jesus’ words to them. Whatever it was inside Peter, he was moved to go to see for himself. And when he had the experience of the empty tomb for himself

Surprise!

He was amazed and set out wandering.

It is in the amazing moments of our expectations and experiences being turned upside down that something happens. That life inside us is transformed is made different, new life emerges.

Our expectations are not always turned upside down with good news and we don’t always respond with joy and celebration. Life is tough, we face all kinds of sorrow, brokenness, loss and pain. These experiences sometimes trump any kind of joy filled expectations. We plan for the worse think of the worst possible outcome. We live our lives in those Good Friday moments. We forget.

What just happened? I thought Jesus was dead! Doesn’t dead mean dead?
Surprise!

It was God’s amazing Divine power that transformed Jesus the Man they knew, the man they followed, ate with, cried with, shared a relationship with,

God’s amazing Divine power transformed the humanness of Jesus into a resurrected Divine Jesus that would depart this land and be one with God.

A Risen Christ that we now have the opportunity to know, follow, eat, laugh, cry and be in a relationship with. We have the opportunity to find new life in Christ. We have been given the chance like the women and Peter to remember.

We can have eternal life if we choose. We don’t have to live in the Good Friday moments anymore. Christ is risen! Christ is here!

Surprise!

We have been called into Eternal life with a God that shows NO partiality!

A God that invites us into relationship with him no matter what our expectations are, no matter where we are in our lives, no matter what we think we need or should be or whether or not we’re good enough.

How and when does the Risen Christ reveal himself to you? Where is it in your daily life that you see the Risen Christ?

Who do you share this good news with? Who has shared this good news with you? You do tell others don’t you?

Have you got the Risen Christ tucked away in a little box that you take a peek in from time to time? Say hello just to make sure he is still there? Do you have her on your night stand only to be talked to if you aren’t too sleepy? Maybe the Risen Christ is being held captive in a tomb somewhere. The tomb of money, the tomb of selfishness, of old habits, of self-centered ness, the tomb of gossip, the tomb of greed. It is kind of hard to share the good news of the Risen Christ if you have him confined.

Maybe you haven’t heard the Risen Christ call your name for a while or at all or maybe you’ve just been too busy to listen?

Did you hear that?

There it was…

Listen now because he is calling you by name.

Empty those tombs in which you have the Risen Christ. A full tomb is hard to fill, but an empty tomb is ready to receive new life where you don’t have to search for the living among the dead.

Allow yourself to be transformed from a disciple to an apostle. It is a lot easier to stay in discipleship mode – just following along. God will call you.
Surprise! God calls all of us and sends us out to share this marvelous news. Jesus is alive!

Listen and hear your name… Release Christ from the little box in which you keep him and allow yourself to be surprised and amazed at what He has for you. Let yourself look to the parts in your life that are dead, that feel dead and know that God is at work redeeming them because he is longer dead, but very much alive, here and now.

Today is a new day. Today is the day we get to remember that He is risen! He is risen indeed for you and for me!

But today isn’t the only day to remember. We need to give ourselves the opportunity to remember every day.

Jesus paid the price for each one of us. We do not have to pay for Christ’s love in our lives. We do not have to pay for eternal life
We do not have to do good deeds to earn salvation

Surprise!
All we have to do is remember so we can accept it.

Let yourself be surprised and re amazed at all the ways God chooses to work in your life, in this church, this community, in this world! And then let go so Christ can be free to continue to transform you and then you can be freed in Christ to go and share the good news – He is risen! With others.


Easter Blessings to each of you this morning and throughout the year! May you remember God has called you by name and is working on the transformation of your life. May you continue to be surprised and amazed at how awesome our God is each and every day!

Alleluia! Christ is risen!
Amen!

Wednesdays Wanderings and Wonderings of the Web...

Here is a short list of where I have been around the web this last week:

1) TED Talks for kids. Last week I had about 20 minutes of class time to fill with 7th graders so I typed in TED Talks for kids and found 10 amazing videos. Here is the link to the ten videos or below you can find them all in one video.


2) The musical group One Republic has partnered with A Campaign By Save the Children called Every Beat Matters. The website is here. Here is the music video that was taken as they traveled around the world and recorded the heart beats of children. Guatemala was one of the places they visited and that is why this caught my eye. Here is their song and video.


3) Ely, MN calls for Social Media ban on April 1, 2013. If you didn't hear about this or read about it on Facebook, check on the article done by The Huffington Post here. It was a great April Fool's joke and a creative way to raise awareness.

4)Because it is Easter, I want to share this wonderful video created by a few professors at Luther Seminary.


That's it for the week! Easter blessings!

Public Prayer...

I find myself perplexed and wondering about the five W questions after this weeks assigned "prayers" to watch and reading through classmates comments and blogs.

I heard a lot of "Who am I praying to/for/on behalf of..." or "what is the purpose of this time of prayer?" "Why am I praying?"

In light of all these questions regarding prayer it is important to note that we are talking about public prayer. Prayer said in the public arena, in a digital media context. For ALL people listening.

Most of the week, I hesitated posting because I just wasn't coming up with anything to say about prayer because I happen to think of prayer as a conversation between me and God. It is sort of a private affair. It has taken me a while to shift myself to the public arena. Still I struggle to think of prayer as anything other than a conversation with God. How does this then inform my sense of prayer in the public arena. Another blogger posed the question of whether or not public and private prayer are different.

The public prayers we listened to for class (Gene Robinson’s prayer; Rick Warren’s prayer; Bradlee Dean’s prayer; Joe Nelms’s prayer)

What I had the most difficult time with and Rich expressed this on his blog as well, was how much social media can and does take pieces of public prayer out of context and uses it against the prayer for better but mostly worse. People are so judgmental and critical, but I guess anytime "things" are made public they are up for grabs on criticism and judgment. This is where I have a hard time telling someone that their prayer was wrong or they way they prayed was not right or that they didn't engage God or prayed for the wrong reasons. Is this really my place?
One last side thought... just like all other arenas in life, there are people who get up because they like to hear themselves talk. They want to be in the lime light. They seem to get it wrong. However, is God not bigger than all of that? All of us? Does God not use even our worst motives, our most egocentric moves for His good? We somehow have come to live in a place where we have decided that we (Americans - perhaps) know what is right and wrong. We know what it means to pray and live as Christians and we go about criticizing everybody around us all the time.

This post has been on my mind all week and I still don't know if what I said is what I wanted to and I am left with more questions... I guess this is a place where I need to continue to explore and be stretched!