living in the big dream

Does God have dreams? Does He have dreams about how the world could be? Does God even sleep? If God doesn’t sleep then He must dream awake. How would it be to be dreaming while awake? Does God dream of pain and brokenness? Does God have nightmares? When He first breathed life into the dirt of the earth, did his dream become a reality to mankind? When we lay down, do we give way to the dream of God?

I am dreaming awake, excuse me while I dream. I love exploring God’s dream with others. After spending time thinking of the Big Dream, it brings me a deep joy to explore the reality of His dream that has played out for centuries and continues to linger like a beautiful vision of healing and restoration for the heavens and the earth. Whether it is one on one or in a large group, being engaged with people in an outward discussion of what is happening on the inside is the dream in my heart. It is this dream that drives me to serve him and submit to His dream.

Sharing my all with my wife and serving others together is a day in the life of my dream.

When my wife serve others with her creative gifts,
my dream continues.
When my daughters ask questions, search for answers, and come calling on my help,
my dream continues.
When broken pieces of my family are restored,
my dream continues.

When the advancements of technology become conduits for people to be connected in the best possible sense,
my dream continues.

A blank canvas is the beginning of a new dream. When I can give creative space for others to put their hands and hearts to a blank canvas,
my dream continues.
When instruments are available for the musicians to pick up and sing the song in their hearts,
my dream continues.
When I finish working in the yard and step back to see how I have joined in ordering God’s creation,
my dream continues.

What are you dreaming? Have you been sleep? Is it at the end of the day that our dreams play out the things in our normal life that we haven’t fully processed? What if you could work through the questions during the day? What if you could go to sleep in peace resting in the solace of the night? What might Psalm 37:4 mean to you in light of delighting in God’s dream? What dreams and visions might visit you?

who are these people...

What if we actually lived out this life that Jesus proclaimed was available here and now? He seemed to have a real grasp on what people who lived in the reality of the-way-God-intended-things-to-be would look like here on earth:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Matthew 5

Could this be the character shape of a new kind of people living the reality of “on earth as it is in Heaven?" This profile is so much deeper than just external appearances. Not to challenge the words of Paul in 1Timothy in regards to a leader, but to give a fuller dimension of who kingdom people are on the inside. Jesus was always talking about this idea that it is not about what you do on the outside but who you are on the inside, or its not about a list of things not to do rather it is about the kind of inner shape of your character.

The word blessed in Greek does mean happy or fulfilled, but when Rabbi Jesus spoke he would have been speaking from a Hebrew understanding of the word “blessed” which was “barak.” The hearers of this message would have immediately drawn a picture in their mind of a person “bent at the knees.” The forefathers of the faith for centuries have been a people “bent at the knee” before the LORD their God, their Maker. They understood this “bent at the knee” not as as just a physical position but as an inner spiritual submission to the Way of Life or to as they called it Torah. Living Torah was living the Word of God in our current reality. This way of living was an acknowledgement of Yahweh or to put it another way “bent at the knee” was an inner attitude of worship to Yahweh expressed outwardly throughout ones whole life.

“Bent at the knee” is the condition of the heart to enter the “on earth as it is in Heaven” reality. To enter into that reality is to bring Heaven down here, or to restate it to bring the Presence of God into our current reality through the everyday activities of life. Living this kind of lifestyle we join in the restoration revolution of people who lived in the reality of the-way-God-intended-things-to-be.

“Bent at the knee” are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Bent at the knee” are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
“Bent at the knee” are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
“Bent at the knee” are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
“Bent at the knee” are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
“Bent at the knee” are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
“Bent at the knee” are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
“Bent at the knee” are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Bent at the knee” are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.


May we be “Bent at the knee” people before the LORD, our God, our Creator, and King.

collision....point of impact

What happens in a collision? What is the most intense point of impact? It is the point at which two moving masses impact into one. I think our point of impact is Love. Collaborating in creative outward expressions of Love, we engage the shattered and broken opening the door to the Merciful One who is restoring all things, and in so doing we join the deep streams of healing that flow on earth as they are in Heaven.

When the poets and the musicians celebrate together, all of creation turns its ear to hear the divine harmony. Who can resist the melody of faith, hope, and love? We stand together putting all our trust in the Father of all families knowing that he is stretching the cords of his great tent. This invisible tent stretches across generations of yesterday, today, and tomorrow, across cultural traditions, and geographical boundaries.

The Winn Family, a people of the Real Zoo, has joined hands and hearts with the people of Crash to form one community of faith.

The project of the Real Zoo is not ours but rather is guided by the One who is the Breath of Life. The truth is mobile. It goes wherever we find ourselves. Our faith is not based on our location but rather where our hearts reside. Through what can only be explained as divine intervention our location will transition from Tallahassee to Panama City (June) and finally to the Island of Hawaii (Jan-Feb 07). I guess you could say we have made the jump, we are selling all our possessions, leaving our successful careers, in order to “go.”

The pieces are beginning to fall into place. The shape of God’s project looks like a creative community of families living under one converted warehouse roof in order to share in the incredible story of love and hope expressed locally to the people of downtown Honolulu, but still reaching far beyond the island because of the transient nature of the culture and people.

This is a new chapter in the book of Life. We are so excited just to be invited to sow into a new expression of love. May we look with eyes of faith and hear with ears of compassion to the hearts of all that might enter into the narrative of Restoration.

Who do you say God is?

Having stepped out of “Big church” nearly 18 months ago, I have wrestled with what does it mean to be an expression of faith on earth today. Over the last several months it has become increasingly clear that it really doesn’t matter what I say I believe about God, what matters is what does my life speak about how I live who God is.

Here are some questions to explore:

If I say that God is like a Father, but yet I hold a grudge against my father till the day I die, then do I really live what I say to be true?

If I say that I believe that Jesus was the atonement for the wrongs of all generations, but at the same time I consistently refuse to forgive others, then do I really live what I say to be true?

If I say that I believe that God created the heavens and the earth with the power of his words, and yet I consistently choose to rip people apart with my words of criticism and slander, then do I really live what I say to be true?

If I say that God is best expressed in my limited vocabulary as a Community of Oneness (Father, Son, and Spirit), and yet I can’t stand to be around other people and have no interest what-so-ever in getting together with other people who are curious about God, then do I really live what I say to be true?

If I believe that Jesus conquered death so that I might know true life, and yet I walk this earth as a dead man without hope by constantly refusing to face the decay and pain in my heart by numbing it with materialism, chemicals, or any other substitute, then do I really live what I say to be true?

If I believe that God gave up his only Son for generations of people he has never met, but I can’t part with my favorite _______, then do I really live what I say to be true?

If I believe that “church” is the expression of Jesus on earth now, and all I do is go to a building with a steeple on the top once a week and label myself as a “church-goer”, then do I really live what I say to be true?

If I believe the words of Jesus when he says “anyone who wants to find real life must give up his life now,” and yet I wouldn’t dare risk leaving my successful career in order to share and give my life away to a group of people that I have never met, then do I really live what I say to be true?

This was just a starter list for me…what if I went through all the list of things I say that I believe in and I find that nowhere in my life do I see evidence that I am living out these core beliefs? Is it possible that I am not really who I say I am? As much as society would have us to believe that our identity is based on a list of things we say we believe in, I just don’t think that is a reality of who God sees as an expression of faith on earth today.

sick and tired of being sick and tired

Monday night I checked into our local Urgent Care facility after battling with sinus pressure and sneezing for the last seven days. The diagnosis was a viral infection to which I was prescribed a nasal spray and a magic pill that was supposed to make feel better. Mostly I feel weak and light headed with a runny nose.

All of that said, I am very excited about meeting Darla’s friend Candace and her husband Brian last Sunday. What an incredible journey they are on! I think about them everyday. My hope is that the One who holds all things together will give them wisdom and focus for the path that He has laid out for them. After sharing our stories together for eight hours straight, I got a sense that we share the same passion to see the movement of love-hope-and-grace move forward.

The Creator only knows how far reaching his Project will bring together families, friends, and strangers to fulfill his purpose. May we all keep our eyes and ears open to hear what the Spirit of God is saying. May it be on earth as it is in Heaven.

PS. I am glad Jesus’ mission includes healing the sick, especially those like me who are sick and tired of being sick and tired.

the formation of a family of faith in Tallahassee

Over the last few years it has become apparent to us that there is more to this life of hope than just attending a church building on any given Sunday. Not to discredit the fact that despite our miserable attempts to “do church” the One who is Truth seems to redeem our acts of service and worship in any given setting. In our journey over the last 18 months, we have experienced a variety of seasons, extreme pain (leaving the Intuitional Church & enduring the after effects of a SUV roll over accident involving our entire family), acknowledging our wounds (admitting the self inflected wounds as well as those from our friends and family), a healing time (being willing to forgive others and ourselves and to move towards re-entering the larger community of faith).

By no means does this mean that we have it all figured out, far from it. What it does mean is that we are passionate about what it means to Love God with all of our being and to love others in the same way that we love ourselves. We sense that we have been brought through these various seasons for a reason. One is to connect with our ancient fathers of the faith who experienced the painful departure of what they knew as home, deal with their own inner demons, and then make the turn towards a life of giving hope to others who are afraid to step into real life. Two is that we are meant to be connected with people who are searching for a real expression of faith that is not dependant upon one fixed headquarters but that is good news goes where ever we go.

It is at this juncture that we find ourselves today. It seems the next step is to ask the One who gathers together those who wander in order that we might be brought together in his expression of faith in this community of Tallahassee.

May you the Creator of all things bring about the formation of a family of hope. Let not our eyes be blinded or jaded by the outward appearance of our new brothers and sisters. Rather give us the eyes of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to see your hands at work in the hearts of our fellow man. Come with haste lest we grow weary in the journey. May our divine mission be as was yours: to bind up the broken hearted as you have bound us, to proclaim liberty as you have liberated us, to open the prison doors of despair as you have release us, and as we go about our day may the good news about what the LORD has done for us be on our lips. Thank you for hearing our prayers for you are the Faithful One. Amen.

stories from the road of faith

With permission of a close friend, I am sharing this email with my fellow travelers on the road of faith.

Last Friday I was driving from Denver to Colorado Springs in a little 1994 LeBaron (picture it...not very studly). Right outside a little town called Monument, the serpentine belt slipped off and the temperature gage shot up. I drove it to the only mechanic in the town and had a rental agency come deliver a car while he kept mine for the weekend.

Getting back on the freeway, in a much nicer ride, I saw and old Indian or Hispanic man with luggage standing by the road. I just had a strong feeling I was supposed to pick him up and give him a ride. Maybe it was because I had just experienced the desperation of not having transportation. As it turns out, he was on his way back to Phoenix after visiting a relative that was sick in Denver. His name was Ordell Iron Shell. After some small talk about his native Indian culture he told me how similar some of the old Indian spiritual lessons were to those found in Jesus' teachings. Then he spent the rest of the way to Colorado Springs telling me how Jesus had changed his life after being in the military. He explained several ways he's experienced having new life in Christ...being dead to self but alive in Him. He sang one of the Christian worship songs he has set to traditional Indian rhythms/chants and told me how he is focused on sharing Christ’s message through his music.

Listening to this extremely optimistic and focused man caused the trip to pass really quickly. I dropped him off in a parking lot close to where the Interstate splits toward Phoenix. He thanked me and I thanked him for reminding me how God cares for us in all situations, especially those in which we can’t see the future. I drove off with him standing at the edge of a big restaurant parking lot sprinkled with cars. As I made a U-turn, I thanked God for the image of a man that had “nothing”…no transportation, no financial security, no impressive job tile…but who continued to openly praise God. After making the quick U-turn, I glanced back to wave. The big lot was still sprinkled cars, but I didn’t see Ordell anywhere. I thought about the scripture of “entertaining angels an our midst” and just thanked God for my powerful life lesson.

After reading this I couldn't help to realize that the One who holds all things together is larger than I could ever image, but small enough to squeeze into the knicks and crannies of everyday life.

May you experience great joy no matter what lurks just around the curve of life.

we're all travelers on the road of faith

Today was so beautiful. The sunrise service at Lake Ella was just inspirational. We worshiped in song and prayer in remembrance of the resurrection of Jesus with our family and with family from Watermark and other neighboring churches.

We celebrated God’s restoration project by walking around the Lake and observing all of his creation. It was in the cool of the morning, did we hear the steps of the LORD among us?

Maybe it was the fountain springing forth from the water that gave the sense that we were walking on holy ground or maybe it was the love of our our family enjoying a worship time together or maybe it was both.


At Maclay Gardens we once again returned to remember where it all began, in the garden. As we walked through the rows of flowers and shrubbery, Darla commented, “This must have been what it was like to walk in the way God intended it to be.” I agreed.

Just as we were about to leave, we stopped at the gazebo looking over Lake Hall. We came upon a young man and woman. He was reading a bible, she was leaning back talking on her cell phone. We talked for several minutes about life and God. It was really amazing. We shared our journeys. We realized that all of us knew that there could be something more to this walk of faith than just going to a building once a week. They also were into the Hebraic roots of the Christian faith. As we drew our conversation to an end we prayed and thanked God for his goodness and for Yeshua. It was an amazing time of community. We will continue to remember Tim and his sister Bethany as they walk out their expression of faith and love in their local community.

Today was truly a day that the One who holds all things together has made! Amen

return to the Garden

Last year, as a tribe of the Zoo people, the Winn family made a tradition breaking exploration to celebrate the Day when the way it is in Heaven broke through on earth. It is a day to celebrate, a day when Love covered a multitude of hate, Good defeated evil, and when life conquered death. In America, we call this day Easter.

For the first time in many years, we woke up Easter morning not in a frenzy or frantic pace to adorn ourselves in our newly purchased attire, but in a state of anticipation of what the day might hold for our family. Packing up a basket of food and drinks, we made our way to Maclay Gardens. I had been thinking about how truly brilliant the Creator is, and how he crafted the most life-giving message that began and climaxed in the setting of a garden. So off we set to find ourselves in the story of the garden, literally.

“The LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed.” Genesis 2:8

A garden is a place of fully loaded potential. On many levels a garden is a place where something comes from the source of all things. What was once just dirt becomes an incredible organic mystery. The garden is where Hope emerges.

“Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.” John 19:41

As we roam this earth and see all the death and decay, it is easy to question whether or not all the good, the fully load potential, has been pushed out or destroyed. But alas, Hope is not lost, for someone has restored the original beauty of the garden. He is One.

Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, "Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!" John 20:15

So once again, we will find our way to Maclay Gardens this Sunday to celebrate the LORD’s Day. With our hopes alive, we will look to find Him, and see that He is with us. With His fully charged potential, we will grow as a one, a family, the core of community.

No matter where you plan to be this Sunday, may you find yourself in the story of the Garden. May the Gardner of souls make His face shine upon you. And may you know his Love once more anew.

catalyst....or......conductor

Actively bringing about a change...or ...Keepin’ it all in line

Catalyst...or ...Conductor

Moses…or …Aaron

Who are you?

the cactus story continues

About nine months ago we started a thread on the Ooze.com labeled "church planting," we had no idea where the journey would take us. There was a post about a Cactus, a wedding gift that Darla and I had been given nearly 14 years ago. The gift was a small cactus in a 5-gallon planter. The cactus saw 9 different homes in our first 10 years of marriage. Needless to say the cactus is a good metaphor for our marriage, sometimes prickly and other times it is the aloe of healing like no other natural remedy.

It wasn't until moving to Tallahassee that we finally planted it in our garden. This picture is the cactus after our surgery some nine months ago when we removed some branches that were too heavy, causing the plant to fall over and to start to uproot itself. It must have really needed pruning.

After removing the branches, we placed them in a wheelbarrow and put them in our garage. It took some very careful preparation and care to deal with these prickly branches. In our marriage, we have also carefully given each other space to grow and grapple with our own thorny inner demons.

Over the last few months the branches have started growing in the wheelbarrow. I am just blown away by how this cactus can grow inside my garage with no water, no soil, and very little sunlight.


Sometimes new growth comes in the most hostile environment. There must be something special inside that cactus that can cause it to withstand being out of its natural habitat. (I can't help but to think our spiritual journey from the "institution of church" into "becoming the church.")

As Darla shared in her post about our oldest daughter giving up "running to home plate," we are really beginning to see growth in our marriage and our children as we have been in this season of "intensive family care." Thank you to the One who wants to heal our souls, our families, and all our relationships. He has done good things for us!

Is this cactus gospel ready to go mobile? Can it be planted into the rich soil of those who want to receive the seed of Jesus and his incredible message of hope and restoration? This is my prayer.

We also planted a couple of sprouts in two more large 5-gallon planters and here is what they look like today.

Every day I walk by the wheelbarrow in the garage and the plants in our garden and I wonder when the time will come to go out and plant more? What are we waiting for? I think we are just scared we are going to mess it up or something... I pray for courage and humility. I pray for wisdom and guidance. Did I mention we also have 5 bags of 40 pound potting soil in our garage too?

noticeably different

“When God delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt, he gathered them together at Mt. Sinai in order to give them the law (the Way). He instructed them, through Moses, about what it meant to be his special people. The law was not a way for Israel to earn God's favor; rather, the law was meant to tell Israel how to live so that they would show the rest of the world what it meant to serve the living and true God. In his Commentary on Exodus, Old Testament Scholar John Durham writes that to be a holy nation meant to be "set apart, different than all the other people by what they ate and what they are becoming, a display people, a showcase to the world of how being in covenant relationship with Yahweh changes people." Allen M. Wakabayashi author of Kingdom Come

You know I always heard the "set apart" as a way of justifying the Christian sub-culture. But now I hear it differently, more as "noticeably different" but still right in the middle of current culture to "put on display" the Way of living in harmony with God and restoring His creation.

“So when God gave Israel laws about how to treat one another and how to treat the alien, the poor, the orphan, and the widow, God did not mean to say, "Ok, you do this; then you get into Heaven." Rather, he meant, "Do this to show the rest of the world what I am like and what I desire for humanity. Act in these ways so that the world knows that I desire loving relationships. Show them that I love the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the alien." The law was meant to reveal the true and living God to the world through his people.” A. Wakabayashi

Sad to say, most of the time I don’t feel “noticeably different,” but I really want to know the Way!

an invitation to the secret message of Jesus

Darla and I just ordered Brian McLaren’s new book The Secret Message of Jesus. I flipped through it at Barnes & Noble and it looks like a good book to wrestle with. We are opening up a discussion forum on theRealZoo mBoard for this book. Maybe this will give us some “off the map” territory to roam together. This might be a good way to explore questions, doubts or whatever as they come up. Our hope is that this will create some space for spectators to become participants in the uncharted waters of faith.

In addition to that topic, we also added a link to the daily Lexionary readings here (side colomn under the clock)and a corresponding discussion forum for the readings. I was encouraged by RJ’s reading of Jeremiah 31 on Sunday, and was compelled to seek out the history of the ancient liturgical readings. I find it somewhat romantic knowing that I am joining in with my brothers and sisters across the globe in reading the sacred text and praying the laments of the patriarchs of the faith. For our story is their story and their story is ours. May we all experience a deep connection with those who have come before us and with those who will come after us.

church 2 church

Tonight I had a great evening with some of my brothas’ and sistas’ from another motha’who meet in a rented coffee bar in mid-town Tallahassee as a new community of faith called Watermark. They have been sharing life together for about a year or so and have a small group of college/post-college folks who seem very interested in being Jesus to the community.

It was cool to come from “www” to the “real world” and connect with other disciples of Jesus. RJ, the guitar guy, introduced me as the guy he met online who has an online community of faith called theRealZoo. When he said that, I realized that an online community is just one slice of God’s Big Project that I see people of faith being called to be in the world today.

My dream is that theRealZoo will continue to be an online community but that also has real world connections with the people we find ourselves in natural connection with locally and nationally. From the schools our daughters go to, to the people we work with, and the places we patron every day like the Library or Tropical Smoothie are all part of theRealZoo community because when we are there we bring the community of faith with us. I believe we are all part of the mobile Gospel on the largest network of history.

It was good to sip and sing with the people of Watermark. I connected with RJ as he sang about “Help us Lord to love mercy, Help us to love justice, Help us to love all people.” I believed that RJ believes what he is singing, and that makes all the difference. This is the kind of people I would gladly join hands and hearts to serve the poor, the oppressed and marginalized in Tallahassee, Florida. May the One who holds all things together by his Word bring forth his plan in his timing and may we church to church partner with one another so that no needs go by unmet.

As we left, we had candles that we lit to represent our prayers of faith that the way of Jesus would be realized in the communities we call home. Thank you Michael Anthony, RJ, Stratton, Caleb, Jim, Dave, Trisha, Jim, Rob the tattoo guy for welcoming a total stranger into your community like a brother in the faith.

May each of you who read this find yourselves engaged in bringing Heaven to earth in whatever expression of faith the Creator calls you to be. May you be the good news wherever you go.

common grounds

Last night we had a little coffee caper. It was really great. We invited our friends from the library to try some samples from Stone Creek Coffee, since we all share the love of a good cup of coffee. Over the last few years we have developed a close relationship with them; there is just something about the library that just oozes community. I guess because the library is such a natural place for people to learn, read, and explore.

The librarians have a very service oriented attitude about them. As we sat and talked last night, our conversation gravitated toward the subject of “homeless people” in our area. Maybe it was steered there by the fact that in our dining room there is the painting I did of John Carryman, or maybe there was something else guiding our conversation. Our friends shared about the various experiences they have had with homeless people coming into the library, most of them seeking shelter from heat or cold. They too had come in contact with Bill (John Carryman’s real name).

Maybe our theme “common grounds” was quite appropriate, since we all have a common thread; we have all felt like at one time or another that we have no place to call home leaving us with a deep sense of loneliness.

I really don’t know what will come of our coffee caper, but I look forward to what happens next. I start volunteer computer tutoring there next Tuesday. I am glad to be associated with the people of the library and the good deeds that take place there.

has the Kingdom Come?

I am reading a great little nugget of a book Kingdom Come. It really is helping me to grapple with some of the difficult words of Jesus. Jesus says, “But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you.” Answering St. John’s question “are you the one or should we expect another?” Jesus says , "Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me." Matthew 11.

This being said, my daughters still get incredibly sick have awful skin infections and my friends suffer great affliction in life. So has the kingdom come? It seems as though it is not on earth as it is in Heaven.

As I was reading Kingdom Come this morning, I was reminded of a real life illustration. My daughter brought home a small seed planted in a cup. The cup has her name written on the front. Darla has been nudging that we should plant it in our garden. Well I have been some what reluctant to plant the thing because it is a cabbage seed. I don’t care for cabbage. Here are the facts, the seed is in the cup, the seed has all the potential to become a 40 pound cabbage plant if given the space to mature. The question is do I want it?

God has a little cup too. On the outside it reads Heaven and Earth. Inside the cup there is a seed. The seed is Jesus. Inside Jesus is the full germination potential to grow into the on earth as it is in Heaven reality. We have yet to fully realize the magnificent garden of fully restored lives. As Paul says to his fellow men “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed” Romans 8:19

Thank you Allen Wakabayashi for helping me to scratch another layer of the mystery of God, I think you had help!

collision of spiritual significance

What does it look like when on-Earth-as-it-is-in-Heaven breaks through? According to Jewish tradition the gap between what we call spiritual vs. secular was very thin. There was hardly any delineation between the two planes. The spiritual realm for the Jewish people was a plane on which things are as God intends them to be. In this heavenly realm things remain for eternity in their “original design” state. This “original design” state is not rigid but fluid in composition and is held together by the very being of God or by his will for it to be as he intends. The atmospheric reality of this plane is one of peace, not void of war, but a sphere of divine harmony where everything is connected or integrated into one another.

The second plane was an earthly realm. This earthly realm was also created by the very being of God or by his will with “original design” intent. The atmospheric reality of this plane was also to be one of peace with the same sphere of divine harmony where everything is connected or integrated into one another. This beautiful earthly realm was given to mankind to nurture, tame, and cultivate.

Driven by greed, throughout history, mankind has taken this gift and exploited and consumed all its resources to satisfy our lust for more. The divine sphere of how-God intended-it-to-be was fractured. So mankind roamed the earthly realm conquering it tree by tree, river by river, people by people building an empire for ourselves. Mankind’s vision was and still is to create a world where things are as we want them to be.

In history the first century B.C. was a symbolic epic climax of man’s world empire. An invisible collision, greater than any Richter scale could measure, shattered the momentum of man’s empire. Like a divine magnetic explosion, the forward progress of greed was being reversed, a reversal that results in the restoration of the “original design.”

Today we find ourselves in an internal dilemma, will we peddle the crack of greed or will we be the agents of restoration? Will we become agents restoring the sphere of divine harmony, where everything is connected or integrated into one another, restoring the beautiful earthly realm that was given to mankind to nurture, tame, and cultivate?

a different view

I hadn't watched it until tonight, but this video session with Rob Bell is in a nutshell the teaching that ruined Darla and I. And I mean that in the best way. We are ruined in being satisfied with the idea that just going to the church building is the height of the Christian life. We have been scratching our way into living the gospel today in a raw expression of faith in our little corner of north Tallahassee, Florida. When it happens, in the truest sense, it can't be explained. It's absolutely crazy. It's like a zoo! Hence the name "the real zoo," as a reminder of when we find ourselves in it. We don't have a clue as to what we are doing, but we are compelled to seek it where ever we are and where ever we go.

It is completely worth investing 40 minutes of your life time. There are a few more videos linked on the others on the journey page on therealzoo.com which is meant to be a big bucket of resources for those who want to take a swim in the deep pool of life.

365 degress of reflection

Today marks the one anniversary of stepping into the blogoshpere. Archive files make it easy to look backwards in order to see where we have been, maybe it will provide some direction as to where we are going or who we are becoming. Let’s peak inside:

March 05 - welcome to a relational space to ask questions without assuming the answers

April 05 - we are who we are, wherever we go, even to the Zoo

May 06 - inward journey… the first Abrahamic step of a meaningful journey of faith

October 05 - self-preservation vs. vulnerability in the context of community

November 05 - the deep root of the family circle – sharing life together – The homeless – John Carryman

December 05 - praying “on earth as it is in Heaven”
The Gospel has its own momentum; will I get in on The Amazing Invisible Project?
Anne Rice explores Jesus age 9, I remember fear and guilt at 10.
Narnia speaks!
(eNFp) Heralding the experiences of good and evil!
Courage to look into the unknown

January 06 – creative people must drink a cup of criticism now and then
Agents of good in a wreck of evil - entering the lament of King David
Face to Face sketch “wondering is a period of discovery and cleansing”
A slice of humble pie is hard to choke down – 2 degrees back on path
Friendship is the Blue Flame of Old sketch
Guilty of Murder you Idiot – controlling the thoughts of bitterness

February 06 – The journey of Alex and David begins
Handling the sacred scriptures with care not as a utility source
The passion of ONE
The earth-hands emerge – reading “Heaven is not my Home” by P. Marshall
Jealousy rears its ugly head like a venomous viper
Love take the wheel – a message from my valentine
A true community expressed in the “WORD” picture is my family
“the community you're longing for will be an extension of your love for Darla” Rob
Break on through to the other side…

March 06 – Lent for the 1st time – exploring what is separating me from LOVE
The hidden face of a Liar
Pay attention without going to sleep – Beholding a miracle by L. Kushner
Cleaning the inside of the bowl and the mildew on the outside of the house
Landscaping from the True Gardener
Confessional space heals the wounded heart
Alex and David – where are they going?
The Prayer of St. Patrick
The gospel goes mobile – the community of faith goes with us where ever we go
Loving the Complainer – joining the Exodus story

Well I guess looking back over the last year,

we have entered the creation story,
walked through the deconstruction steps just like Abraham,
and now we find ourselves in the wilderness with Moses and God’s people preparing ourselves to enter a new land full of possibilities where we will plant our own crops and build our owns dwelling communities.

Now that sounds exciting!