Link to U2 World Cup ads.
I had a tough time finding a link to the U2 2006 World Cup commercials and now that I have found it I thought I would share to all those still searching.

http://www.soccernet.com/onegame/

TOO MUCH WATER!
Watching the news tonight I was reminded of how water is a unique resource. Everyone needs it to live, yet some areas can be devastated with too much water (flooding in Pennsylvania) and some are devastated by not enough (the wildfires in the West). It occurred to me that money is like water in this way as well. Too much and you can become overwhelmed and destroyed. Not enough and you can waste away. Ideally you want to always have water in plenty, hoping to never run out, but too much equals disaster. Here is where the analogy breaks down. Even a fool would not wish for too much water, and if we find ourselves in excessive supply we are more than willing to part with it to others in need. In a sense we know that if you do not use the excess it is wasted. Yet, even those considered smart among us wish for too much money. We even wish for massive, instant, excessive amounts of money. How would it sound for someone to wish and pray for a devastating hurricane? Here are words spoken 3000 years ago in the Sayings of Agur

" . . .give me neither poverty nor riches,
but give me only my daily bread.
Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you
and say, 'Who is the LORD ?'
Or I may become poor and steal,
and so dishonor the name of my God."

Are we asking for too much and not willing to give away something so excessive that we risk drowning in it?

Starbucks serves 40,000,000 people a week. They will open 18,000 new stores in 2006, 5 new stores a day, hiring 300 new employes a week. One third of those stores opened in 2006 will be international. They are currently in 37 countries, even Jordan. A $10,000 investment in Starbucks stock at its IPO would now be worth $650,000. It is amazing what you can do with really good coffee, served with social responsibility.

My brother Matt and his wife Alyson had their first baby at 12:11 am in the morning today. Her name is Adalyn Kate. I got to see her today around 10:30 am and I was overwhelmed with joy fighting back tears. She is perfect and precious and I praise God for blessing my brother and his wife with such an incredible gift. Thanks to all who prayed for her safe arrival.

I hate generalizations, but I have to make a few here to get some people talking. I am going to throw out two strong stereotypes for the purpose of discussion:

My friends who are Christians (at the least the conservative to moderate ones) are usually pro-life when it comes to unborn babies and corporate America, but pro-death when it comes to punishing criminals, the environment and wars.

My friends who are more "liberal" democrat types (I hate all of the above labels, but I have to use them for brevity) are pro-life when it comes to the whales, the environment, criminals and nation states that are "enemies" of the United States, but are pro-death when it comes to human embryos and corporations.

It seems that the only common enemy these two groups have is each other. What if we were pro-life to our political opponents. Meaning that we can disagree with someone without attempting to destroy them politically and personally. ruining the good that they try to do in the process.

Is it possible to be "pro-life" across the board, that all have the right to life: babies, criminals, enemies, the environment (even whales), people suffering from debilitating diseases that could use the research of stem cells.

How is that for the just questions, no answers blog format?

Abundance
Chicacao, Guatemala-Spring Break
Today we went to a village on the other side of the sugar refining plants. Who would think something refined to be so sweet would smell like sour milk in the process. I am learning that the refining process in life is not pretty.

Once we got to the village, we worked with the dentists. I had not been out of the van for more than a minute before I met my friend for the day, Ronald. Ronald was huge for 4 year old, full of strength, as I would later see tested, and full of spirit. Ronald opened his mouth wide for the gringos and growled letting us know with a consequent giggle he was ready for the dentist. That is until he got a taste of his own blood. Even in the make shift dentist chair on the concrete porch of the village church Ronald smiled and laughed. Then the shot. Then the shift. His demeanor changed instantly. Now he was crying and I sat by his side and tried to calm him holding his dirty little hands. I was serving two purposes. Calming and restraining. As the dentist worked on Ronald's mouth, he began to bleed and tears turned to screaming. I quickly had to move from holding his hands to laying my chest on his body to hold him down. Just leaning over wasn't enough. He was squirming so bad I had to get out of my seat and put all my weight on him to hold him down.

He was so upset we decided to only pull one tooth, instead of the three his mother had requested. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion except for the sound waves pouring out of Ronald's throat. I was desperate, feeling totally hopeless watching another human suffer. I began to pray in English, audible only to God. God help this boy, God get us out of here. The tooth came out.

I immediately swept Ronald up in my arms. We walked by his anxious mother, so she could see that I was taking care of him and walked into the empty church. I bounced and squeezed him like a father trying to soothe a crying new born, while Ronald started his catch up breathing from all the screaming. Together in our pain we felt peace not in the words offered or said, but in the silence of one human holding another. The church was our harbor in the tempest.

The scene was all to familiar to me. A life turned upside down, where no words, nor explanation will ease the pain, where one stronger has to suppress your pain, so you don't hurt yourself. Finally, the stronger one picks you up, not for words sake, but for the sake of embrace, for the physical manifestation of peace. There in the church I set Ronald down and began to give him a water bottle caps worth of water for him to sip with his bloody little mouth. My Spanish is weak, but I understood one word he repeated over and over again. Maybe I recognized it as my word in a universal language. Porqui? Why?
I doubt this little 4 year old was wise enough to understand why he suffered so much, even if I could find the words to explain. Within an hour he was our bragging to the other children waiting. He was strong again and his playful spirit was back. After he enduring great pain, he was in a land of abundance.

"You have tested us, O God;
you have purified us like silver melted in a crucible.
You captured us in your net
and laid the burden of slavery on our backs.
You sent troops to ride across our broken bodies.
We went through fire and flood.

But you brought us to a place of great abundance."

Then something happened to me. As I watched him run among his new friends, the white giants. I saw one of those giants participate in a miracle. She was playing with her new friends and without warning they grabbed her hands and dragged her into a run. Right in front of my was my wife, hand in hand with two little girls, running for the first time in 2 years. Peace after pain is a blessed place, a place of abundance.

Here is a quote from Henri Nouwen that I hope will generate some feedback and conversations. Please comment:
"Our compulsive, wordy, and mind-oriented world has a firm grip on us, and we need a very strong and persistent discipline not to be squeezed to death by it." (The Way of the Heart, 94)