Monday, November 1, 2010

Beautiful Nature Pics.

Stumbled upon this today and decided I wanted to keep memory of it somewhere.
This seemed like a good place.

Click here to see the Awesome Beauty of Creation

Monday, October 11, 2010

Learning from Seasons

Spring, Summer, Fall, & Winter…

I think there’s a lot to be learned from our seasons of weather. I’m not the first to think like this, but it just really hit me hard today as I was biking down an autumn stained bike path in Fredericton, New Brunswick.

The eccentric design of this universe is arranged in just such a way so that different regions of the earth’s surface experience different tendencies in temperature based on their relative tilt away from or towards the Sun.

Do we ever ask ‘why’ anymore? I’ve lived 24 years on this planet and I’m still discovering ‘new things’ that have existed right under my nose this entire time. The Lessons of Seasons is one of those ‘new things’ in my life right now.

I recognize that the cycle of seasons has an immeasurable number of practical reasons for existing; reasons that no doubt testify to a creator. The seasons of time proclaim design like a royal trumpet procession. But I don’t think that’s their only purpose. I think there’s more than a seasonal testimony of a creator. I feel compelled to daydream about the similarities between our human existence and the nature of each of our seasons.

Fall.

The Lesson of: A Beautiful Death.
I’ll start with Fall, because that’s where we are right now, and this is the launching pad that inspired this train of thought.
In my mind, a ‘beautiful death’ seems more like an oxymoron than a compatible combination of words, but when I think about Fall, that word choice seems best to me.
My explanation of this might have to start with a bit of self-defense… I promise you, I’m not morbid. I don’t think death, in general, is beautiful, nor do I think it’s good.

I think there’s no more potent reminder of the brokenness of our human condition than the constant reality of ‘death’. Whatever form it comes in, it is a consistent pestilent threat that lurks on the edges of all things good. It is an inevitable right of passage that all living flesh must endure (in a sense), but I still refuse to submit to the temptation of utter depression. I think that would be a nearsighted misfortune…that would be to miss the beauty.

So how does ‘beauty’ fit into… The ugliness of death? I guess I’ve lived enough seasons to hope and trust in the rebirth of Spring.
If there was no spring, we would be right to fear the temperature drop that happens in the fall; if trees did not survive the winter then the yellow colored leaves would earn the tears of the tenderhearts; and if butterflies never emerged from the slumber of a cocoon then the caterpillars that crawled into them would surely deserve our sympathy.
But that’s just it… that isn’t the way things work. Spring restores the warmth, it sprouts fresh leaves, and the time in the cocoon even imbues the caterpillar with beauty; transformed into a new creation and ready to fly.

If fall was the only season, creation would be a downer. It would be a constant display of decay, a reminder of death’s power. But with the expectancy of Spring, the Fall season is robbed of its sting. Suddenly the temporal nature of this ‘death’ is strangely comforting because we know that as the old passes, the new will have place to sprout up. Renewal is on its way.

I like fall. It’s a reminder that some things are temporary. At the same time, it reminds me that we are wise to be expectant; to foresee the eventual rebirth, and to live in light of this new life. In my mind Fall and Spring compliment each other; they give each other meaning. While new life is more obvious in the spring, the fall speaks to me more about expectant faith. Despite all the evidence of decay and death, I feel encouraged that there will be rebirth… there will be a season that’s just as persistent, just as trustworthy, and just as certain as this visible presence of death.

So I think I did a lousy job at justifying the ‘beauty of death’… It seems more like I find rebirth to be beautiful. But I think that it’s not simply the rebirth I like… I like that there’s a time to suffer the absence of leaves. The yellowing leaves are beautiful because they cause me to deal with the reality that death is near… I guess I like to see the beauty in the midst of the death. Let me put it this way: Death is like the gateway to rebirth, I like the whole process. I don’t like one more than the other, and I find it impossible to segregate the two pieces of the relationship. I just know this: if trees never lost their leaves; if new leaves just sprouted up amidst the full foliage, we would probably forget to appreciate the leaves. The yellow, red and orange colored leaves call out to me. They beg me to appreciate them before they go.

I guess I’m just thinking today that Fall is really really beautiful even though it’s laced with death (or slumber, if you prefer that term).

I think Death can be beautiful because it teaches me to hope beyond what’s immediately available before me. It forces me to appreciate the moments I have before things change in unpleasant ways. Death makes life worth living. It inspires urgent appreciation. It teaches us to enjoy our pleasant circumstances while we have them, and to hope for rebirth in the midst of our difficult circumstances. It gives us the chance to enjoy the rewards of taking a substantial risk. It even gives us a way of measuring value too.
(I think this last paragraph could use a lot of unpacking, but I already feel like I’ve written too much for now).

Till the next time I write, I’ll be watching the leaves change, and listening to Jon Foreman.

Peace and love.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

This is my life




I get to spend time with students like these all the time...

I am too blessed.

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Hobbit time...


My acting debut is on the horizon...

Read this article HERE that basically says: Blah blah blah, Brady will be America's Next Top Hobbit.

See you in New Zealand, P.J.

The Jesus Nature

Just thinking about Jesus this afternoon.

This morning I read a bit of G.K. Chesterton's, Orthodoxy.

This quote stood out to me.
'For Orthodox theology has specially insisted that Christ was not a being apart from God and Man, like an elf, nor yet a being half human and half not, like a centaur, but both things at once and both things thoroughly, very man and very God.'
(Orthodoxy, 98).

So this is the visual lesson I thought I'd share with the blogging community.



Not Quite Jesus...



Still... Not Quite Jesus...


So my curiousity is: How do we even begin to understand the 'very God and very Man' nature of Jesus?

Friday, October 1, 2010

Imagery that Finds Me (part 1 of 3)



Sometimes I’ll see things that cause me to think about life in a different way. Occasionally I remember these inspiring images.
Here are a couple moments I had recently.

Have you ever been stuck somewhere with very little money and an insatiable zombie-like hunger that hijacks your brain so that your only intelligible thought is ‘MUST FEED Nowwwww!!!’ … Ever been there?

Whether this moment happens in a dorm room, or downtown, or (as in my recent experience) on a 12-hour ferry ride from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland, wherever you are, you will surprise yourself at your own shameless resourcefulness.

Scrounging for change in the black-hole-abyss of the nearby couch cushions, asking strangers for charity while trying to look as pitiful and infantile as possible, subjecting yourself to ridiculous humiliation because your terrible friends were clever enough to capitalize on your need for money and food by making you do embarrassing things to entertain them… We all have our favorite methods, but we all get there in the end: we are compelled by our hunger, and we desperately work towards getting what will satisfy.

How Awesome is that moment when you walk up to the Vending machine with exact change? You know that all that ‘hoop-jumping’ you’ve just endured will soon be worth it because your hunger will soon be neutralized by tasty, unhealthy treats from the magical drug dealer from CandyLand: Mr. Vending Machine. (seriously, he is like a drug dealer isn’t he? You always find him in some dimly lit back hallway, loitering near the arcade room).
But when hunger strikes, suddenly he is your favorite old friend.

This is where I get angry…
There are few things I hate more in life than the moment when I make my selection at the vending machine… and my treat…gets…stuck.




Oh, I hate, hate, Hate this! This boils my blood.
Let’s face it. The only reason any of us would even condescend to using the vending machine is because we are desperate for food. And then when our last resort option backfires on us… Gahhhhh! No amount of warning labels can prevent me from at least attempting to dislodge MY lazy Treat free from its stupid little perch.

So I went back to my seat on the ferry after this happened to me the other day… and I was grumpy. I was angry (I don’t really know who I was angry with… I suppose… the ‘Vending Machine Union’ would have to take the brunt of my wrath), but out of the depths of my misery came this startling glimpse of a divine perspective… A thought pierced my self-pity and replaced it with awestruck humility.

‘This must be what Jesus feels like when he sees people living in bondage…’

That shotty vending machine was transformed into eye-opening imagery regarding the nature of Christ’s redeeming work on the cross. I know the image is kinda bizarre, and perhaps seemingly irreverent to compare the cross to a vending machine, but in that moment… in the midst of my hunger and my disappointment, the similarities spoke to me in a big way.

Everything I experienced in my little adventure with the vending machine was merely a glimpse; a quiet remnant echo of his deafening battle cry; it was a miniscule comparison to the epic story of human history.

- I was hungry for food.
But God was hungry for intimacy.
My hunger pains for that food doesn’t even hold a candle to the heart-wrenching Longing that God had to be reunited with his people and his creation

- I went looking for money.
But God went looking for the lost, that one sheep, the sick, the oppressed, the vulnerable, the lonely, the hurting, the weak, the marginalized, the outcasts, the despised, the unwanted, unlovable, and the untouchables… But as I became humiliated in exchange for meager earthly wealth and riches… The King of glory traded up the immeasurable riches of heaven in exchange for the humiliation and poverty of entering into our messy existence.

- But this is my main point… this was my epiphany out in the quiet nighttime reflections amidst the waves of the Atlantic Ocean.
I felt frustrated because I didn’t get the candy bar that I paid for. I could see it hanging there, belonging to me rightfully yet still it was trapped there and I didn’t get to enjoy it.

How much more frustrating must it be for Christ to watch human beings living in bondage… He went through so much to get us. He suffered and endured so so much and still… Seriously? Even after all that, we’re not coming down from our stupid little perch? We live in our bondage; refusing to submit to the one who bought us by his blood. That must boil his blood. He must hate, hate, Hate how so many of us stay behind the glass. But instead of an ambiguous undirected hatred like mine (sorry ‘bout that Vending Machine Union) I’m sure that God’s anger just burns ferociously towards Satan for his life-stealing treachery. If we’re the candy, and Jesus is the fat kid who loves candy, then Satan is the sleazy manager who closes the snack shack and replaces it with a shotty vending machine. And not that Jesus (aka. Fat boy) can’t break the glass and snatch all the candy out… but he refuses to steal because he’s good. Even when he pays for all the candy and most of it stays where it shouldn’t… he won’t push the vending machine on the ground because that would put him in the wrong. I even go so far as to suggest that the annoying little sticker that demands no one even jostle or tip the machine is probably comparable to the nuisance of ‘free will’. He could have all the candy if he was willing to disregard that little sticker… but Jesus has more self-restraint than I do, he doesn’t even punch the glass… but boy, I bet he wants to.

All this is to say that My anger over being refused my rightfully paid treat at the vending machine got me thinking about how much Jesus has to be angry about when he sees person after person living in bondage to sin separated from him when he knows full well that he paid for them and they deserve intimate communion with him.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

The man Jesus Christ laid death in His Grave…

This song has been in my head for the past week.
It brings me joy.
People need to hear this.
Check out these lyrics.

Listen.
Celebrate.
Enjoy Life.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

The Blog Revolution (or) My Friends Have Great Thoughts


Here we go...
Commencing Blog Revolution.

The Alternate title of this post is 'My Friends Have Great Thoughts'.
This is so because (a) My Friends have great thoughts, and (b) I have recently discovered that a lot of the people I love and respect have blogs.
For me, this is comparable to waking up and remembering that it is Christmas, and knowing that somewhere downstairs there are a bunch of exciting presents just waiting to be unwrapped.

So browsing my friends blogs lately has encouraged me to blog more.
Why have a blog if I’m not going to share things? … little things, even.

So here we go.

Initiating a new season of blogging in my life. I will be posting a lot more things on here. Little things: things that amuse me, inspiring quotes, ideas that crossed my mind while driving… that sort of stuff. And then once I wrap a couple presents and place them under the Christmas tree, I might even start telling my friends about this formerly-unused blog so that they too can wake up to the discovery of presents under their Christmas tree.

Oh and also, posting these little things will hopefully help me overcome my wordy tendency of writing way too much.
That’s it.
Blog Revolution commencing in 3...2...1
*SHPRAWAHONGGGG*

-Brady

Hey... Do you like Dodgeball?


I wrote this in journal a week ago while we were at IWU…
It’s been something I’ve been continuing to think about, so I decided to share it on the blog since its been awhile since I shared anything.



September 7th 2010. IWU Library.
One warm sunny Monday afternoon, Atlantic visited a backyard pool party in a Midwestern state in the United States of America. We pulled over just outside Indianapolis Indiana for a quick catch-up with some friends of the band. It was here in this setting that I met a man who understands life better than most. His example and his stories inspire me to live a life filled with playful joy, and refreshing authenticity.

I met a man named John Freed. It’s not unusual for us to meet new people. We meet lots of people (It’s kind of one of the perks of participating in a traveling ministry team: there are always plenty of interesting new people to meet). But John stood out to me because his stories fascinated me. What grabbed my attention was the unorthodox way John was going about planting a church in his local community.

See John wasn’t running around gathering graduates from Christian colleges… he wasn’t waiting passively for the clouds to rip open and a beam of light to shine upon a plot of land that had a for sale sign posted into the earth…and he wasn’t isolating himself in his office designing and refining a polished ministry program that would appeal to the masses of people who didn’t know Jesus… John was out playing Dodge ball.

Yah. You read that right. John was out and about in his community just living life. He started up an adult drop-in dodge ball program and felt compelled to invite random strangers that crossed his path to join him and his buddies out for a nostalgic game of dodgeball. He told us a bunch of hilarious stories of times where he invited a bunch of complete strangers out to play dodge ball. (The whole thing has a mysterious and ominous ‘Fight Club’ vibe to it all, which is a ridiculous parallel that only adds to this hilarious situation). John wanders up to complete strangers and asks them if they like dodge ball. The whole conversation is just so absurd that it frequently shatters the tension that usually keeps strangers separated from one another.

Just picture this.
Imagine a young man just walking up to you and interrupting your mundane routine to ask you a simple question. “Hey…” he says as the early stages of a smile start to form on his face. “Do you like playing Dodge Ball?”

What a wild and ridiculous offer of friendship! There’s something tantalizingly mysterious and horribly intriguing about this rare behavior. I love that John shared this with me. I think this is what we need. I want to live in such a distinctly different way that boggles peoples’ minds. And this longing for holy distinction needs to not look like some cold and callous way of distinguishing ourselves from those around us, RATHER, being the holy people of God should mean that we are marked by a distinct warmth that welcomes others into the joy that we’ve found.

Can we PLEASE live like this!?!?! Can I just offer people this ridiculous love that I’ve been given? What if we offered friendship to people who hadn’t earned it… what if we were so generous with our smiles and laughter that we made people curious about the reason for our heartwarming attitude? What if we gave unsuspecting strangers more of these mysterious invitations to share life with us so that we could spend time caring for them and just being their friend?
We could change the world one person at a time if all of God’s people adopted this hope for blessing their neighbours in response to the extravagant blessings our God has poured upon us.

Just think about it.
Go grab some friends. Pick a time and a place. Go shop for some matching 70’s shorts at a used clothing store… and then get out into this lonely world and invite unsuspecting people into friendship, invite stressed out business-people to come out and join you for a play-date… Let’s all just go out there and play some Dodge Ball.

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Lessons from Gulliver



I recently read a book called Gulliver’s Travels.
I’ve been trying to get into Classic Literature lately, and I thought it would be good to read about a traveling adventurer given that my own journey with Atlantic this summer would have me traveling across an unfamiliar country to be caught up in all sorts of unforeseen adventures…

Bad idea.

I immediately began to regret this decision.
I was so bored with this book. All I could do was force myself to finish reading it. I mean it IS a cool concept for a story. This guy goes off traveling and finds these different islands filled with strange types of people. In some places he’s a giant, other places he’s relative to a field mouse, and still other places he’s an inferior to the flawlessness of his surroundings.
It’s this last one that makes the book worth reading I think…

The whole book is written from the perspective of the traveler, and (especially towards the end) he shows disapproval and increasing amounts of contempt for the corrupt nature of the world he once was so happily apart of.
See I’d rather just hate the book and be done with it, but I keep having this nagging thought in my mind that there’s something really profound about what the author was doing. In no way did I love reading this book, and I think it takes a fair bit of patience and maybe even a bit of discipline to get through it,…BUT… I do think there is something extremely relatable about this story.

Every one of us is on a journey. (We can all relate to the traveling soul).

We all go through phases of exaggerated self-importance.
We all feel insecure and miniscule at other times too.
And no one who tastes of the divine and perfect Kingdom can return to the broken and fallible World without an awareness of the tragic difference between the two.

The reality of this last point is what strikes me most to be the Story of every Christian.
Once we taste and see, there’s no going back. The selfish misconceptions about what was ‘good’ and ‘true’ are changed forever. We can’t return to worldly living without being aware that this is not what we were meant for. Taking hold of the eternal life to which we’ve been called, means that we really notice the empty handedness that’s apart of worldly living.

All this is just to say: I read a book. I didn’t like it at first. Then I thought about it a bit, and found myself thankful that the book was written because it caused me to recognize this: Just as Gulliver’s happy little world was ruined for him by coming into contact with a virtuous glimpse of a life-worth-living, so are we daily urged to pray ‘may your Kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven’ by coming into contact with the living God as he meets us and gives us a taste of His eternal life.

The 24 Resolutions



I had my 24th birthday this summer.
So when I turned 24, I came up with 24 resolutions for me to do before I turn 25 next year.
Here they are, for your viewing pleasure.

(in no significant order, but as they came to mind)

1. Watch all Seasons of 24
(sub-point resolution: Be more like Jack Bauer. Example: Stop using handles, From now on, all doors must be kicked down)
2. Learn to play the song ‘24’ by Switchfoot on Guitar.
3. Step foot in a country I’ve never been in before.
4. Be nicer to insects.
5. Come up with a final answer to the Question: If you could have any super power in the world what would it be? (I’m tired of flip-flopping)
6. Start writing a children’s story.
7. Become friends with some Homeless guys.
8. Stop biting fingernails.
9. Do something with the near empty Blog I created a while ago.
10. Finally learn how to use my Digital SLR.
11. Develop an arbitrary yet charming skill
12. Master some drum rudiments.
13. Memorize a whole book of the Bible (like 1 Timothy probably… maybe Ephesians)
14. Enjoy Stars and Clouds more often.
15. Learn CPR/First aid/some kind of helpful skills so that I have something to do besides running around screaming when someone gets hurt.
16. Quote the Dhali Lama, Ghandi, Mother Teresa, and other impressive figures in everyday conversations.
17. Learn to make sushi.
18. Beat Drew hardcore at Chess
19. Participate in creating beautiful things.
20. Thank God regularly for giving us beautiful things.
21. Go on some Crazy Awesome Roller Coasters (besides the ones at Vancouver Playland)
22. See Coldplay, U2, and Sigur Ros Live in concert.
23. Be less awkward around pretty girls.
24. Get on Television for something Legal.

All the love in the world,
-Brady

Monday, May 24, 2010

My First Words...

In September of 2008, I bought my first Journal.
Three weeks later I finally wrote my first entry:
My journal's first words.
It took me three weeks... Those three weeks were full of numerous attempts and intentions to start mixing my thoughts with ink and paper, but every attempt was defeated by the intimidating and overwhelming emptiness of the Journal's blank first page.

One day in late September I had enough of procrastination, so I took a deep breath, popped on my reading glasses, and penned my first Journal entry ever.
"I am quite certain that the first pages of a Journal are always the hardest to write..."

And with that, I was off...
For good or bad, the journey of journalling had begun and I had nothing to do but press on for the next couple years till the pages were filled with monumental thoughts and prayers that would reveal the nature of my journey for later retrospection.

Almost two years later... I find myself in a similar space: I'm creating my first blog.
With refreshed lungs and freshly cleaned lenses, I proceed much the same.

For some time I've had this blog in my possession, not telling anyone about it, not daring enough or bold enough to make that initial post; that ominous sacrifice into the mysterious availability of cyberspace.
I'm still not sure how to feel about it... posting thoughts and ideas into a place where absolutely anybody could access them? Seems unnatural.

I don't know who I write this to or for... I don't like that. I like to know my audience.
I guess these first words are meant to be a welcome; an invitation to share this space with me. I welcome any readers to help me as I seek to grow and transform in the processes of maturation and sanctification. These thoughts are in motion... expanding, developing, growing, refining... nothing here is being posted as law: these are thoughts.

I intend to use this place as a kind of storage space for ideas and observations... It's always fun to reflect on the things I've been noticing on any given day: that's what this will be (hopefully): Brady's own little corner of the Interweb to remember what God had been teaching him, what God had him doing, who God brought across his path, etc.

This introduction will serve as the very first post.
My first words.
It is my first babystep into the world of blogging.
And like a hesitant whisper that grows in confidence and volume till it is a full-fledged battle-cry, I hope these simple words break the silence so that this blog can grow into something I frequently enjoy writing. May this be a place I eagerly share thoughts and updates for the enjoyment and encouragement of others and a place for better personal appreciation of the growth that I trust God is causing in me even now.