Waving or Drowning?

Facebook & Efficiency

The good folks over at Lifehacker are teaching us how to get efficient with the best Facebook apps.

The Imprint of God's Fingers

It is not you who shapes God, it is God who shapes you.
If then you are the work of God, await the hand of the artist
Who does all things in due season.
Offer God your heart, soft and tractable,
And keep the form in which the artist has fashioned you.
Let your clay be moist,
Lest you grow hard and lose the imprint of God’s fingers.
Irenaeus (via Inward/Outward)

With Friends Like These

A short note to my American friends:

From the New York Times:

The Bush administration is preparing to ask Congress to approve an arms sale package for Saudi Arabia and its neighbors that is expected to eventually total $20 billion at a time when some United States officials contend that the Saudis are playing a counterproductive role in Iraq.

Can we talk? I mean, is it just me, or is anyone else a little perplexed? First Musharraf, now this. I think someone down there is holding the playbook upside down. Yes, we Canadians are just as politically apathetic as you, but seriously, where is the outrage?

Go Visit Larry

I don't often point you to blogs and just say "read it", but I will in this case.
(h/t to the holy heteroclite)

Tainted Tour

The greatest sport in the world, reduced to this by cheaters.

Tour in Tatters: Team Ousts the Race Leader
By EDWARD WYATT
Published: July 26, 2007
New York Times

Somebody's at The Door (Again)

Seems to be the day for it. Will points us to a Publishers Weekly interview with... you guessed it, Brian McLaren. Thanks Will.

How the Olympics Destroy Cities

Here's a link to a story I just posted over on our Streams of Justice blog.

Read How the Olympics Destroy Cities

McLaren at The Door

Over at The Wittenburg Door Becky Garrison has a great interview with Brian McLaren.

DOOR: How come so many liberal clergy never talk about Jesus? It's like they're afraid to say His name.

MCLAREN: I think a lot of them are reacting to fundamentalism and the Religious Right. Enough angry folks have hurled the word "Jesus" around like an insult that other folks don't want to say His name at all. It almost feels to them like a racist or a hate crime statement sometimes because "Jesus" is used to legitimize all kinds of fear and intimidation. Another reason goes back farther in history of liberalism where I think people were seeking to speak in more theistic, deistic, universal, non-particular, nonspecific ways. They had reasons for this in the 17th and 18th centuries, with all the religious wars in Europe, but I think that tide is going to change because of the work of people like N. T. Wright and Steve Chalke, who are helping us get a new vision of what the message of Jesus is. I think if we could get that back, people are going to be very excited to talk about Jesus again.

Read the rest here.

Emergent-See

I'm not as appreciative of these as Andrew, but I love this one:

The Elders II (UPDATED)

From the Better-Late-Than-Never department...

I just tracked down a wonderful piece on The Elders from one of my favorite journalists. Read Current of joy powers The Elders peace gathering, from Stephanie Nolen at the Globe & Mail.

UPDATE: web site here.