Change Is Coming…
The Motorcycle Diaries
A few nights ago I finally got to see the Motorcycle Diaries, a film I’ve wanted to see for a long time. It was brilliant…
“The Motorcycle Diaries” is based on the journals of Che Guevara, leader of the Cuban Revolution. In his memoirs, Guevara recounts adventures he, and best friend Alberto Granado, had while crossing South America by motorcycle in the early 1950s.
There were a few notable quotes that stuck in my head…
“We travel just to travel.”
This really struck me because of how much we in the West insist on things have an objective, a purpose. We are purpose-driven, efficient, and so on. Why must we be? It’s not always wrong, I admit, but why can’t we do things anymore simpy for the love of them? Simply because they are life-giving and bring us great joy? Traveling is one of my favourite things in the world. I rarely feel more alive than I do when I travel – meeting new people, seeing new places, new ways of experiencing life and culture and JOY.
“We could feel the world changing… or maybe it was us?”
Think that says it all… everything is changing…
Bethlehem Speaks in Many Tongues
Every homeless refugee, desperate for a bed for a night, understands the agony of Joseph of Bethlehem.
Every frightened teenage girl, pregnant and lost, comprehends the bewilderment of Mary.
Every executive, trying to reconcile commercial realities with moral imperatives, identifies with the local innkeeper.
Every working person, in a daily routine awakening to a sudden reverence for life, experiences the awe of the Judean shepherd.
Every ruler or intellectual, coming to the limit of human power, evinces the humility of the Magi.
Every tyrant who keeps in control by means of ruthless and harsh practices knows the insecure fear of Herod.
Every infant, born on the rubbish heap of a city slum, shares the indignity of the Holy Birth. Bethlehem speaks in many tongues….
Every working person, in a daily routine awakening to a sudden reverence for life, experiences the awe of the Judean shepherd.
Every ruler or intellectual, coming to the limit of human power, evinces the humility of the Magi.
Every tyrant who keeps in control by means of ruthless and harsh practices knows the insecure fear of Herod.
Every infant, born on the rubbish heap of a city slum, shares the indignity of the Holy Birth.
Bethlehemspeaks in many tongues….
[Zoughbi Zoughbi]
H/T: Kester
Open My Eyes
Open our eyes Lord,
Especially if they are half-shut, because we are tired of looking
Or half-open, because we’re afraid of what we might see
Open them wide so that we are aware in the midst of the darkness this Christmas, of signs of hope and light speaking to us of the birth of liberation.
Open our eyes to see the hope that the hungry will be satisfied.
Open our eyes to see the hope that change can come in oppressive regimes;
Open our eyes to see the hope that the baby brings.
And lest our courage fails us,
Open our eyes today, tomorrow or this week, to one person, or one place where we can be the very embodiment of hope. In the countryside, in the cities, through the corridors of power and the streets of despair, to help, to heal, to confront, to convert.
O Come O come Emmanuel
Amen
H/T: Glenn
Current Stuff
Posts are coming soon-ish! For now, here’s a brief run-down of the latest…
Finished term with a very hectic last week of work.
Spent a week doing very little in Latvia.
Walking on a frozen lake in Ruzina.
Christmas shopping in Riga.
Cili Pica and Double Coffee… wonderful simple pleasures.
Read some books (The Barbarian Way, For What It’s Worth, The Four Loves, Race Against Time)
Pictures are slowly coming on flickr here.
Drafted new ‘life’ statement for life/this current season/however long…
Live Simply. Love Extravagantly. Pursue Jesus.
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