What's in our Eyes?

I've been writing more often in my prayer blog lately than on here, but today's awful events bring me back into the realm of violence, theology and questions.  I posted in the prayer blog about a shooting that happened in the nearby Clackamas Town Center earlier this week.  Now, only a few days later we hear about a terrible tragedy in Connecticut.

Images, sound clips and heart-breaking accounts of today's events leave us feeling numb and hopeless.  A steady stream of political posturing and religious rants have been flooding my Facebook news feed all day.  It is sad how quickly we can manipulate a tragedy into a tool for our own agendas.  We have violence towards one another in our eyes.

We have a hard time simply sighing as a nation and grieving together.  We are immediately looking for someone or something to blame.  (Yes, I include myself in this.  I said, "we".  Although I refrained from posting throughout the day, my mind went all over, too...)  We have destruction in our eyes.

Tonight, though, as the reactions begin to simmer down and the soul searching begins, I am reminded that perfect love casts out fear.

A Zombie's Look at the Important Things

Yesterday marks one month since I moved to Portland from Seattle.  This is my childhood home, where both my husband and I were born and raised.

It has certainly been a full month with lots of transitions! Plenty of mental acrobatics have come about as my internal maps of the area have been accessed and modified from the shifting roads during our seven years away. And since it's taken my MEW several weeks to get transferred down here as well, we've been adjusting both to life apart at first and now to life together again.

Our kitties are settling in well and very much enjoying being on the first floor where they have the ability, (much to our dismay and, at times, amusement) to dart out the door onto the nearby grass as we arrive home with arms full from work. It's nice to have a washer and dryer in our unit - we only had this once in our 10 years of married life - and the cats are learning that these are not scary sounds. Our apartment is mostly unpacked, (although there are still a few boxes in the office/guest room yet to be opened) and we have given several crate fulls to Goodwill now that we have time to sort our stuff.

We are releasing the hoarding zombie-like tendency so prevalent in our society.

I Live, and the Light Shines!

Grace and peace to you, dear ones!

I know it's been a long time since I posted last.  We've been in process of moving from Seattle to Portland for a month now.  Finally both me and my husband are settling into our new jobs and our two kitties are settling into their new apartment.  We have an office that is in disarray at the moment, but most of the rest of our apartment is quite nice and well put together.

Tonight, not a long post, but a bit of a reflection on Max Brooks' World War Z.  I picked up the book the first year it was published, but was unable to get very far because I had to focus my attention towards my studies.  Now that I have fully graduated, (just waiting for grades to officially post from the summer and then the degree to come in the mail a month or so later!) I now have enough brain energy to focus on this delightful book once more.

My Brain's a Bit Occupied

Grace and peace to you, dear ones!

You've come here looking for brains! You're a perfect addition to this theological zombie blog!  Just as in Jesus' arms, all are welcome here!

Just so you are aware, my brain is on hiatus at the moment.  Or rather, it is otherwise occupied with wrapping up my summer internship and last online class while preparing (along with my husband and two kitties) to move from the Seattle area to Portland.  All of this transition is coming to pass within two weeks, so please check back for new posts sometime in September.

For now, I invite you to enjoy the pictures we captured at the Red, White & Dead Zombie Walk in Seattle this summer.  And please do peruse the older posts (here's one from July which I neglected to share on Twitter) and photos as well.  Looking forward to re-engaging your brains in a few weeks!

In the Day of Trouble: A Psalm for Zombies

While reading the office for this evening at DailyOffice.org I found myself highly intrigued by Psalm 27.

Imagine yourself surrounded by a hoard of walkers or zombies and clinging to life by a hair's breath.



Smell the stench of rotting flesh.  Hear the moans of hungry foes.  See the flickering candle, your only source of light in the deep night.  Taste the salty sweat dripping down your face from your brow line.  And then read the psalm below...

The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom then shall I fear? *
the LORD is the strength of my life;
of whom then shall I be afraid?

When evildoers came upon me
to eat up my flesh, *
it was they, my foes and my adversaries,
who stumbled and fell.
Though an army should encamp against me, *
yet my heart shall not be afraid;
And though war should rise up against me, *
yet will I put my trust in him.

One thing have I asked of the LORD;
one thing I seek; *
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life;
To behold the fair beauty of the LORD *
and to seek him in his temple.

For in the day of trouble
he shall keep me safe in his shelter; *
he shall hide me in the secrecy of his dwelling
and set me high upon a rock.

Even now he lifts up my head *
above my enemies round about me.
Therefore I will offer in his dwelling
an oblation with sounds of great gladness; *
I will sing and make music to the LORD.

Can you imagine, dear ones, what it must have been like for the psalmist?  When they composed this song of love and trust they must have been in the midst of a terrible war!  Yet even in the midst of crisis, they raise this song of praise knowing that God is truly the One who will deliver them.

Are we, in the midst of our daily struggles, able to offer such praises?  Can we sing songs of trust and love while we are surrounded by terrors of the night?  I desire with all of my heart to say yes.  I want to stretch my hands up in the air and trust that God will deliver me from the pains and struggles of this life.

Let's pray, dear ones, that we might experience the uplifting of our minds so that we, too, can sing with joy in the midst of the trial.  Let us run to the holy places where the Spirit of God is magnified, so we might feast on our Maker rather than one another.  Let us gather in the sanctuaries and be renewed by the Living God who enters into our midst and brings peace to us - body, mind and soul. 

Let us sing and make music before the Lord.  And then, dear ones, let us go into the hoard and do our best to offer the antidote of Christ to our zombie brethren, for we all know what it is like to have a hunger for flesh.  But we know the One who can fully satisfy this hunger and bring us (and all to whom we minister) peace and life to the fullest measure.

Feeling Dry?

Grace and peace to you, dear ones!

At several points this year, while clambering to and from various gatherings and trying to push myself through the final quarters in my seminary career, I have found myself feeling a little dry, (I wrote a little earlier in the summer about this very thing) and wondering where our Beloved was.  I felt as though I was in the midst of a terrible storm of thunder and lightning but was lacking the refreshing, cooling downpour of grace upon my thirsty soul.  As one born and raised in the pacific-northwest where rains are quite abundant, this is saying something!

On account of my geographical location, I don't often identify with the imagery of desert sands and arid places; the landscape surrounding me is usually quite lush and green.  However, during certain points in my life, and particularly poignantly in the last few months of seminary, I have had very strong sensations of being unceasingly thirsty, dry and in a time of waiting for our Beloved to come and take some powerful action.  In these times, this vision of Ezekiel is particularly profound:

"Feeling Dry" - Photo by Trista Wynne

Reaching for Freedom

Watching the sun settling on the horizon this evening, gathered with friends, family, neighbors and community members, we give thanks for the tremendous freedoms we have in this country.  What are you thankful for today?  I'm several days into a thirty-day celebration of praise and thanksgiving, using Twitter to offer prayers and observations of joy in honor of my thirtieth birthday which just past last Saturday.  I invite you to join me, and to offer your own #30DaysofPraise during the month of July.

"Reaching for Freedom"
Red, White & Dead
Zombie Walk, Seattle, 2011
Photo by Trista Wynne

Often around Thanksgiving, and sometimes around Christmas, we pause to take stock of what we have and to offer thanks to our Creator.  But for the rest of the year we seem to take our friends, families, food, clothing, freedom and even our very bodies for granted.  Dear ones, our founding fathers and mothers who fought and strove and prayed and sacrificed so that we might be free from tyrannical government, slave-labor and oppressive taxes did not give of themselves just so that we could be comfortable. 

We as a nation, and each of us as individuals, are called to reach and to work for the freedom, justice, equality and fair treatment of all people everywhere.  And we still have much work to do on our own soil, in our own homes, in our own churches and in our own workplaces.  We cannot simply say that inequalities, injustice, oppression, slavery, abuse and neglect only happen in other places.

The zombie virus is alive and spreading, dear ones.  Everything that our founding mothers and fathers worked so hard to obliterate has seeped into our very bones.  We still fight against it every day, even in our own bodies, minds and spirits.