Why soooo serious?

Well the kite flying went well! But now on to more serious things.
As I consider friendship I am forced to think about the state of the present Church (all denominations and cultures that believe in a God named Yahweh) and why there is such a need to find a comfort zone and remain in it for tens if not hundreds of years. God is called a Shepherd because He leads and according to scripture He leads us from place to place with a final destination in mind. When we get to the green pastures we tend to lay down and not just rest, but develop a doctrine around why it is good to remain in this place. Just have a look down your street and see how many have found a pasture that was good at one point, but now they defend it to the point of saying to others 'your pasture is not as good as ours, but it doesn't make you bad'. (We look like everyone else and we wonder why the others say to us 'and you are a Christian?')
What is God to do? And is there something we should do?
Not to promote a product, but a mindset rather, consider the brain trust of the people behind Mac and Ipod, they stay in the 'game' by looking consistently into the future and they do it well.
What does the Church see when it looks in the future? There is two basic views 'God is coming back to get us' (escape mentality) or 'we are going to go through horrific times then God is going to change everything'. (prepare and brace yourselves mentality) Over all, the mindset of the Church is not to follow/change as God requires. The view of the future and how we walk into in is overall not very well oiled. There is hope though, remember God is a shepherd and I suspect a pretty good one, so I think it is upon us to lay aside our comfort which is our structures and territories and start looking to where the Church is suppose to be.
Here is the WOW factor, I think we have a peek at what the church of the future will look like and it happens once a year out in the Nevada desert where people from all over the globe gather to exchange freely gifts, pain, artistry, and hope through and to the extremes.
www.burningman.com This gathering for one week out in the desert has the potential of growing into something greater than itself and it's done by those who don't have the same outlook as the 'Christian folk' and it is the Good Shepherd that has made/allow it to come about, maybe just to shake up stationary individuals and corporations. It is an extreme environment with extreme people populating it, but that is the view from my hillside of what the whole world is. Extremists are not just terrorists, they come in many shapes and sizes, LOL I've been call one!
Thats all for now, I'm leaving for the desert where I'll be looking into the future,,,
Latrz

So whats a boy ta do!!???

When you ask someone to fly a kite with you and you have other intentions besides flying a kite, is that a lie? Do you like to be lied to and are you okay telling a lie? That's another subject for another time. The question for today is, what is friendship. Is it what you can get or is it give and take or is it just giving without any expectation.

Finding friends in the city can be a jungle in the dark while having a hundred people yapping at you at once, it makes it hard to sort out what is the unimportant from the necessary. And if you are in need of something out of a friendship it is already at a loss and it makes it hard to recover towards a 'healthy' relationship.

So, can you ask a stranger to fly a kite with you and you provide the kite AND not have anything go through your brain that even hints towards 'I want something in return'.

In my neighborhood with its mix of Asian, Italian, Mexican, and plain old folk who have been here since the birth of Chicago, the desire for friends to be just friends is a hard concept to consider. Some Chicago neighborhoods have bred a attitude of suspicion, which in some cases is deserved, but most of the time the idea of fear and that 'everyone is going to steal from me' is imagination gone wild and is a big reason for friends never finding each other.

It's an experiment that is worth the effort (which depends on the kind of kite you have) and yet the word 'experiment' is fully on what I will do, not what they will do.

Well, I'm off to fly a kite, latrz!

Where do we go from here?

Have you ever thought, 'I am not getting what I need' from my circle of friends or the place where I just hang out or even, dare I say it, at my church? It is good for a moment, but it was just surface talk.
The question is, what makes a 'good' conversation? Is it the subject or is it the people?
Anyone can introduce a subject, but can the people deal with it? Anyone can be there, but what should the subject be?
There are book clubs and there are 'Think Tanks', but is there something in the middle where everyday things can be discussed and everyone walks away 'feeling' nourished?
Church folk talk about "Iron sharpening iron" its a great scripture, but most of the time it is one person dominating the other through debate. Just a quick look at the phrase, it says that both come out of it sharpend. so the feelings that should walk along side it are "though this was a hard conversation, you are still my friend and I have taken a piece of this and added it to my own."

So how does this happen in the busy city and can we be intentional about it?