Renovare, Part II

Sorry for the delay. Other stuff kept coming off and my Saturday wrap-up got pushed back almost a week. But here we are again.

The first session on Saturday morning was titled "A Balanced Vision for Spiritual Renewal." In it, Richard Foster talked about living your life in six "streams" (his word, not mine) traditions. Here's the seven:

1. Contemplative - A life of intimacy with God
2. Holiness - A life that is functional and whole
3. Charasmatic - A life immersed in, empowered by, and under the direction of the Spirit of God
4. Social Justice - A life dedicated to the love and care of our neighbor
5. Evangelical - A life founded upon the proclaimed and written word of God
6. Incarnational - A life which seeks to make present and visible the realm of the invisible Spirit.

Now all that sounds a bit complicated and confusing. But it comes down to this: living every minute of your life as an active, spirit-filled believer.

In the following session, he talked about how to develop a practical strategy for spiritual growth. It's pretty hard-core stuff. Foster talked about creation spiritual formation groups whose sole purpose was spiritual growth. Not your normal weekly Bible study, but a brutally honest and soul-bearing weekly interaction with other believers. Here's a link to some information on the Renovare site about these SFG's. Be sure to read through the "Questions of Examen."

During this session I was one of six volunteers to be called up on stage and role-play for an SFG demonstration. We read through the first three sections and then each of us shared on question #3a. I spoke about how God showed me that bad drivers are no better than I am and that any anger I have toward them is unwarranted. And sometimes I don't drive very smartly either.

Again, it was very good conference, and if this is your cup of tea (which I hope it is), you should consider learning more. It definitely got me out of my comfort zone and I interacted with people that I never would have spoken to otherwise (plus I discovered why there are so many United Methodist churches on Simpson Ferry Road).

Sanctuary

This is one of those topics that I may have discussed in one of my prior 992 posts, but I can't recall it.

Over the weekend, I had the opportunity to sit in an empty church sanctuary. I had showed up for the Renovare sessions a bit early and decided to head into the sanctuary (the sessions were actually being held in the gym) to pray. It was a beautiful time. Just to be able to pray and rest in God's presence in a space where the Church regularly meets was wonderful.

I love hanging out in church sanctuaries. I don't know for certain why that is, but I always seem to find peace there. And it doesn't even have to be a small sanctuary (like I was in on Saturday morning). I also enjoy just resting in my church's rather large sanctuary. When there's no one else around, there's an air of anticipation. For me it's kind of electric, but in a very subtle way. I don't know that that makes much sense when you read it, but it jives in my mind.

Look for the conference wrap-up tomorrow (hopefully).

Rocky Top

I'll get back to the Renovare conference in a few days, but I wanted to take a quick little detour. Don't worry, it's quick and painless.

Tonight, the Tennessee Lady Vols play Ole Miss for the right to go to the Women's Final Four in Cleveland. I happen to like the Lady Vols. I really like their coach, Pat Summitt. She's a great coach.

Well, I was researching the Lady Vols this morning and looking through their roster. I found a Senior guard by the name of Elizabeth Curry. Take a look at her profile and see if anything strikes you. No, I'm not talking about her involvement with FCA or Habitat for Humanity. Look at her basketball career. She did not play for the Lady Vols her first three years. That's because she was the student manager. But at the beginning of this season, Coach Summitt and her staff asked Elizabeth to join the team as a walk-on. How many people can say that they were a walk-on with the Tennessee Lady Vols?

I think it's great that Coach Summitt would give someone an opportunity like this. To be willing to bless your manager with a spot on the team shows a lot of kindness and love. And I think it's really neat.

Friday night

The first session of the Renovare conference was led by Juanita Rasmus. The title of her session was "Touched by the Transforming Power of Grace." She talked about the role grace plays in our lives. She used the word "TOUCH" as an acronym.

T is for Truth. Truth balances out grace and one without the other could lead to problems like "licensed lawlessness."
O is for "Cthers centered," the focus of grace.
U is for Cnconditional love and acceptance. She called this the "work-out" of grace, or putting your words into action.
C is for Community. Community gives us an avenue in which to express grace to those around us.
H is for Hope. Hope is the gift of grace that allows us to look beyond out current situation.

I enjoyed this message as it helped establish the important role that grace plays in all of our lives. I learned a great acronym for Ego: Edging God Out. I was also stretched in the session as Juanita had us turn in our seats to people we didn't know and to say to them "I love you." That was hard. It was even harder when I had to do it again with another person AND hug them. That's definitely not a strong area for me.

In the second session of the evening, Richard Foster's talk was titled "Transforming Grace: Ways and Means." In this talk he recapped his spiritual disciplines and talked about their role in grace. There were a couple key points that I got out of his message. First, discipline does not mean rigidity. You can be disciplined and still be flexible in your life. Second, there are many ways to hear from God. I knew this to some extent, but I had forgotten. God can speak to us through anyone or anything. What's key is to be in tune with Him so that you know when He is speaking. And the third thing I wanted to share, is this eye-opening truth: There is always a problem between the promise and the provision. Think about that the next time trials come your way.

I love you and there's nothing you can do about it.

I think it would be best if I addressed the Renovare conference over a series of posts, instead of one big clump. So that's what I'm going to do.

The title of today's post is the motto of the home church of Juanita Rasmus, one of this weekend's speakers. She and her husband are on staff at St. Johns United Methodist Church. Follow the link to see how they are involved in their community showing practical love to those needing a hand-up.

I really enjoyed the conference. It was rather informative and there were some real moments of stretching. And that was good. Plus I made it on-stage. Stay tuned for more fun stuff like that.

In the meantime, I discovered the perhaps the best sandwich using jelly outside of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Ladies and gentlemen, I made myself a Nutella and raspberry preserves sandwich this evening. And while not being divine, it was pretty dang close. I shall eat it till the preserves run dry. Then I shall go buy some more.

Renovare (accent over that last "e")

I'm pretty excited because tomorrow and Saturday I'm attending a Renovare conference. What's Renovare you say? Well, it's Latin for "to make new." And if you're not inclined to follow the link, it's an organization founded by Richard Foster with a sole focus on spiritual renewal. I just finished reading his book on spiritual disciplines and found it to be rather insightful. I'm looking forward to hearing what he and his team have to share with us.

I should also say that I'm a bit nervous because I'm not going with anyone I know, yet there will be people there I know. I'm purposely making an effort to try to get to know people outside of West Shore. I'm not the outgoing-type, so that's what makes this adventurous. But I am expecting good things.

Look for a follow-up on this conference on Monday (or Tuesday).

Pirates

World's End

More from me

So today, I was going to post a link to the new Pirates of the Caribbean film. What I didn't know, was that it wasn't releasing until 10:00 EST tonight. I'll still post the link, just don't expect to see it for several more hours.

Also, the David Crowder Band has started recording their next album. You can follow along here. I think they upped the number of cameras this time, but I'm not certain.

Snaps are sooo Rufus

Despite the snow, it was a good weekend (still is for another few hours).

I called one of my old roommates Friday night lamenting about the snow.  He lives in Texas and remarked to me that he was about to go running in the park.  I complained about the snow and sent him a picture for some sympathy.  He promptly sent me a picture of the sunny park that he was running in.

Last night I ran into an old friend that I hadn't seen in a real long time.  It was so good to see her and her family.  I'm glad that God brought me to the Bass Outlet to look for khakis last night.  She also told me that I should keep blogging.  I forgot to tell her that YANKEES SUCK!

Then when I got home, I watched the first of the two chick-flicks I saw this weekend.  Reece Witherspoon was in Legally Blonde 2, which happened to be on network television.  That was a funny movie.  Am I allowed to say that?  I liked it.  Then today, I watched "Never Been Kissed."  I hadn't seen that one before either.  My roomie and I found ourselves cringing every once in a while at the embarassing situations that Josie would find herself in.  It was a pleasant suprise to see that Michael Vartan and John C. Reilly were in it, among others.

And after my workout yesterday, I was able to snag some oatmeal chocolate-chip cookies from the farmer's market.

A good weekend indeed.

Google scales back..

I've been reluctant to pick up a lot of services that Google offers because I wasn't a big fan of the information they collected about their users using products like Desktop, Groups and Spreadsheets. But it looks like they've had a change of heart. Or plan.

Choirboys

I went to a concert and heard these choirboys sing last night.


It was a rocking time. It was loud too, but I remembered to bring the ear plugs, so it turned out well. Too bad that with a 7:30p start time, they didn't take the stage until 9:30p. Nevertheless, I consider their stuff to be musical comfort food and it was an enjoyable experience.

It's snowing today. The upside of that (which happens to be totally unrelated) is that someone brought in breakfast AND we're getting free pizza for lunch. SCORE!

Come back on Monday for a link to the trailer for the final installment of Pirates of the Caribbean.

Rover, can you suggest an affordable hybrid-type bicycle? It will be used mainly for road biking, but I'd like the flexibility to ride on gravel and fairly flat dirt trails. So I don't need any sort of super-suspension. And to make your assignment tougher, I can't really afford anything over $200. Any thoughts?

Oh, and happy belated Pi day. Sorry I missed it.

Talk Soup

That's the title of a show I would sometime watch on E! hosted by John Henson.

I tried my hand at making some soup over the weekend. Never made soup before, so this was unchartered waters. I decided to try corn chowder, because I enjoy a good corn chowder. Ingredients included corn, potatoes, onion, heavy cream, and milk. It also called for green and red peppers, but I decided to just use a can of Rotel instead (cause I like the extra kick).

For my first attempt at soup, I'm relatively pleased. It's much to runny for my preference, as I was hoping for something that was a little thicker in consistency. This is my fault because I added too much water at the outset (the recipe called for simmering two pounds of potatoes in one cup of water, but I didn't see that happening). So perhaps a little less water next time. But I was pleased with the taste. The Rotel didn't overwhelm the cream and corn tastes and just gave it a little bite. I know I can do it better next time. And I will.

This has been me talking about making soup. You may now surf on to the next site on your list.

Critical mass.

This post will not be about a Catholic experience.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how critical I can be. And just so I don't feel alone, how critical you can be. How often do we find ourselves putting somebody or something under our microscope? Picking out the bad attitudes, the poor hygiene, the lack of self-control, and the mistakes.

Why do we make the biggest deal about something or someone who does something wrong, yet refuse to acknowledge when people do things right? I never thank the driver who uses his turn-signal, but I grumble to the one who doesn't.

I don't know that there's much point to this post, except to say that I am trying to do better in regards to being critical.

One movie trailer, to go.

It's been a long time since I've posted a link to a trailer. So here's a link to a movie that I'd like to see. It's called Waitress.

Less than two months until Spiderman 3!!!

Slacker!

Yeah, that's me.

So it's March now. Which means no more snow. As is often the case, God had other plans. What are you gonna do?

I am actively trying to plan a trip to Utah. Regular readers will remember me commenting several times about my interest in visiting some of the national parks in Southern Utah. I'm shooting for the middle of April. Stay tuned.

I've had pizza every day for the past four days. It seems kinda excessive, until I tell you that it was a delicious buffalo chicken pizza that provided four lunches for me. But it's gone now, so it looks like it's Turkey Ham for lunch the rest of the week.

I like oatmeal chocolate-chip cookies. And beautiful women. Who are single. And love God. Hmmm, I've probably said too much......

I'll try to be more regular with this nonsense. Maybe I'll do a post on football (American style). Or my roommate's love of tuna.