(h/t Jon Acuff)

So, a few thoughts.

1. Congratulations to the Boston Bruins, winners of the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals. Many will say that the series turned on the Horton injury/Rome suspension, but I really think it turned after Game 5 when Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo ran his mouth about how he would have made the save on the one goal Tim Thomas let in. Result? Boston outscored Vancouver 9-2 over the final two games of the series. I suppose that Vancouver Media Relations will be working harder next season to see that this doesn’t happen again.

2. The trip to Ohio took place over the course of 2 days going, 2 days returning. For the trip, I bought a copy of Rob Bell’s controversial new book, Love Wins. It’s a quick read, only 200 pages or so, but man…what a read. It’s a very compelling look at Heaven, Hell, eternity, etc. I recommend it. Of course, that said, I’d appreciate any links or pointers to critiques of the book.

3. I also took the time to brush up on my JavaScript. You know, once you dig into it a bit, you’ll find that little language has some power under the hood. So much so that I’m looking at Sencha Touch and PhoneGap for mobile app development than any native solution.

4. Finally, I’m posting some pictures I took from the trip up north to Flickr. I’m pushing up at least one a day so come back to this post to see them. And don’t forget to click on them, I think the descriptions are worth a read too. :)

– George Lakey, address to the Friends General Conference Gathering, 7/5/10. Reprinted at The Threshing Session.

It’s for the H2O Project and in a nutshell, it encourages folks to drink water only during Lent* and to set aside the money one would use for coffee, sodas, juice, etc.

We take access to clean water for granted, while families living in Africa, Latin America and parts of Asia — just to name a few places — don’t have clean water available or have to travel many miles just for a few gallons. The H2O Project encourages those of us living in affluent nations to not only appreciate what we have, but do what we can so that all may have access to a clean source of water.

So give what you can. Give up what you can. I’m planning on starting next week.

P.S. The ONE Campaign has other ways you can raise awareness for clean water and sanitation.

*or its secular counterpart, The Month of Pleasure Denial :)

But the story doesn’t end there.

A decade later, he winds up in Damascus as a bloody massacre is underway. This man, who once devoted his life to repelling Christians in his homeland, now stood in defense of them. He faced down bloodythirsty mobs of Kurds, Druze and Arabs,  and, ultimately, delivered roughly 10,000 Syrian Christians to safety. It was an effort so bold, that the French awarded him the Legion of Honor, among other accolades from nations around the globe.

Check it out here, and stay tuned for the surprise ending.

Speaks my mind on a lot of things as of late.

Favorite part has to be this:

In the book of Job and by the cross of Christ, the vision set forth of virtue and vice, of prosperity and calamity, is not that which is so frequently proffered today by many in response to the Haitian tragedy. Rather, what this story and this Person reveal is that prosperity is neither a reward nor symptom of virtue anymore than calamity is a reward or symptom of vice.6 Following Jesus’ own commentary on the provisions of God, “[The Father] makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matt. 5:45). That God is not a respecter of persons is the greatest hope of the human. Her hope rests in knowing that she will receive exactly what she does not and could not deserve – the grace of Almighty God. “Have you commanded the morning since your days began, and caused the dawn to know its place?” asks God of Job (Job 38:12). In other words, the human has not the ability by her action or knowledge to determine the generosity or wrath of God. In a world created by the right arm of Almighty God the human is but to lay her hand on her mouth in silence (Job 40:4).

Read the whole thing.

…large numbers of America’s faithful do not neatly conform to the expectations or beliefs of their prescribed religions, but instead freely borrow principles of Eastern religions or endorse common supernatural beliefs.

Among the findings of the survey, by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life:

• Almost 1 in 4 American adults say they sometimes attend religious services of a faith different from their own.
• Twenty-four percent of the public say they believe in reincarnation, and 23 percent believe in yoga as a spiritual practice.
• Twenty-five percent of the overall public (and 23 percent of Christians) believe in astrology.
• Fifteen percent of the public acknowledges having consulted a psychic or a fortuneteller.

Others, though, argue that religious purity is a non sequitur.

“The thing that is forgotten in these discussions is that any single religious tradition is itself already a composite,” says Harvey Cox, a professor at the Harvard Divinity School whose 1965 book, “The Secular City,” is considered a theology classic. He considers the idea of isolated religious traditions to be “a big myth.”

“What we have are streams that have been fed by other streams and have fed other streams all along,” he says. “Even what is advertised by clerical leaders as the kind of ‘pure package’ is already the result of the collage.”

A large component of any religion is the stories told within it. The Jews’ journey to the Promised Land, Buddha confronting the demon Mara and Inanna’s journey to the underworld, not to mention countless creation and end-time myths. And these stories didn’t just come from anywhere; they were already present in local tales and legends. You could argue that religion is the ultimate mashup.

Some Roman Catholic leaders say their followers do not need to look outside the church to find what they’re looking for.

“A lot of young adults who are attracted to the beauty of meditation techniques are very unaware of the contemplative and mystical tradition of their own faith,” says the Rev. Donald Senior, president of the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.

Indeed. Quakers are often lumped in with the mystical side of Christianity with their reliance on silent worship and belief in the Inner Light. There was also Quietism, a movement within the Catholic Church that had its heyday during the 17th century, before it was condemned by Pope Innocent XI.

Obviously, these articles are nothing new. But what is alluded to, if not said outright in these articles is a sense that believers are just cherry-picking beliefs from a broad spectrum of religious backgrounds. A deep rootedness in one’s original or preferred faith not only means you get where you’re going more quickly, but that you miss out on seeing some of those same characteristics in your faith. If anything, one should be looking deeply within one’s own faith before looking out across the vast landscape of spirtuality systems.