mad love

I've been at Summer Madness the past 5 days with Fitzroy young people...here's some glimpses of grace from there and afterwards.

-Really enjoying being around the young people and getting to see their creativity, humor, deep faith and joy. We had such a great time.

-Irish dancing at the talent night.

-Followed by a harpist playing one of my favorite songs from Braveheart. From the first couple plucks of the strings, I recognized it and was transfixed the rest of the time.

-Hearing Foy Vance, one of Belfast's greatest local musicians play in his quirky way (that's a violin bow he's using on his guitar). One of his songs "Homebird" was my soundtrack when we were negotiating a call back to Belfast, and when he played it with me in this place, I got a little teary and felt so grateful to be here.

-Listening to prominent evangelical pastor and writer Bryan McLaren and hearing him speak prophetically about how we read the Bible. He said that "authority isn't about knowledge, it's about love" and went on to describe the different ways that slaves and slaveholders read the Bible. He said (with great courage, I think) that we have continued to read the Bible like slaveholders and asked why wouldn't we instead read the Bible like the slaves did? He then (much to my amazement) recommended that everyone there read liberation, African American and feminist theology to get a better insight into how to read the Bible this way. I talked to him afterwards and said he was welcome to come to the PCUSA dark side, where he would be very welcome, but that I appreciated his prophetic voice within his own tradition.

-The first whiff of fresh coffee when I opened a new bag.

-Getting a very thoughtful card from Lynn and Lori in which they had both said "wish you were here" and sent their love when they met up in Decatur. What a wonderful thing--to write me a note together and send it all the way here. I was very touched, and of course loved the gnome!