Timothy wrote some thoughts about his reading of Augustine’s opus on hermeneutics, and I thought I would mention one passage he pulled out of the reading. I would recommend reading Timothy’s thoughts on his page. Although this passage may outwardly focus on love, it seems to me to continually affirm what is being revealed to me about grace, and its real-life, everyday manifestations in my life (toward others).

“For in the theatres, dens of iniquity though they be, if a man is fond of a particular actor, and enjoys his art as a great or even as the very greatest good, he is fond of all who join with him in admiration of his favorite, not for their own sakes, but for the sake of him whom they admire in common; and the more fervent he is in his admiration, the more he works in every way he can to secure new admirers for him, and the more anxious he becomes to show him to others; and if he find any one comparatively indifferent, he does all he can to excite his interest by urging his favorite’s merits: if, however, he meet with any one who opposes him, he is exceedingly displeased by such a man’s contempt of his favorite, and strives in every way he can to remove it. Now, if this be so, what does it become us to do who live in the fellowship of the love of God, the enjoyment of whom is true happiness of life, to whom all who love Him owe both their own existence and the love they bear Him, concerning whom we have no fear that any one who comes to know Him will be disappointed in Him, and who desires our love, not for any gain to Himself, but that those who love Him may obtain an eternal reward, even Himself whom they love? And hence it is that we love even our enemies. For we do not fear them, seeing they cannot take away from us what we love; but we pity them rather, because the more they hate us the more are they separated from Him whom we love. For if they would turn to Him, they must of necessity love Him as the supreme good, and love us too as partakers with them in so great a blessing.” (I, 29, 30)

Moby makes some good points on some issues. His wording might irritate some people, but I think his mentality is definitely something worth taking note of; he is speaking the minds of a lot of younger Americans (and I would dare to say Europeans from my personal experience), and his points are something “religious” people should take note of, regardless of your opinion. I agree with a person’s right to say the words, “Merry Christmas,” of course, but his broader point is well taken. Philip Yancey’s book “What’s So Amazing About Grace?” also speaks on this train of thought. We, as Christians, need to recapture the truths of the Gospel through love, and not wimpy love, but real, fighting love. I think we’re on our way.

This is what happens when you hang around Kate Crumb for more than 10 minutes. You start doing crazy things. These are from about 6 or 7 months ago.

(But, we’re much more under control than when our moms get together, just to get that straight…)

 If I get enough complaints from members in the pictures I will delete them, but until then, oh well. By the way, in case you’re wondering what we’re doing….basically…um….well….whoever is holding the camera says something really bizarre and then takes a picture instantly after that, and you have to try to portray that bizarre thing with your facial expressions as fast as humanly possible. So, I don’t know what we were doing, but you can imagine. Or try to guess if you feel creative. It could be like one of those cheesy newspaper games.

Anyway, this is Kate Crumb….coming at you people in Dortmund….get ready….

By the way, I like the last one the most. My face doesn’t look at all like Anthony’s or Jenny’s…I have no idea…

YES! YES IT IS!

This is the post we have been waiting for…or I have at least. For 24 years.

TWENTY. FOUR. YEARS.

(I’m 24 if you didn’t pick up on that)

It’s too elaborate for me to get into, but if you know me at all, you know. You know what I’m saying. You know that for my entire life I’ve been struggling and struggling to figure out what in the heck kind of job I’m supposed to do. I’ve got a lot of things I love and things I want to do, but I could never figure out how those things manifest themselves in a job, because, they’re a little…undefined. I could write a book (I say that too much) about the journey God has taken me on to develop my life’s passions and pursuits, and yes, it finally happened.

I GOT A JOB.

YES! I know! It’s so absurdly non-jodi!

And here’s the best part: I can’t really explain exactly what I’ll be doing! YES! That is very jodi-ish! I’ll be working at Mosaic Community Development in downtown Omaha starting in February.

YES. ME. Me working there. There. Me. Jodi Collicott. I know what I’m doing. Do you understand the drastic miracle that is taking place? I don’t know if you do! I don’t think you grasp the magnitude! God has developed passions and dreams in me that have taken me all over the world, and most of all lately, He has put desires in my heart to work in an area of social justice, living out and advocating for God’s grace and love for victims and for those on the margins, and serving as a voice to the world for social justice.

This is what I’ll be doing!

So, it seems there is this sort of….reformation…going on in some ways. I don’t know if we’re going to see a German monk posting papers on any doors, but nonetheless, it seems that “something is happening,” as I’ve said and heard others saying the last year. In the last months I’ve talked with people from different parts of the country (and world) who all feel the same way. God seems to be connecting his children in pretty fascinating and beautiful ways. There is an undercurrent, a buzzing, and we all seem to have come to the same conclusion separately. And then we found that somehow other people had the exact same feelings and thoughts and questions and ponderings. (What I mean by this is that we didn’t all pick up the same book one day and then start thinking, but something is leading people toward the same thoughts, questions, struggles…God is teaching us, we’re not teaching ourselves)

Right now I’m working so I won’t go into detail at this moment, but I can see exactly how God reached into my brain, heart, soul, fears, dreams, insecurities…to wrestle with me in order to teach me. I can look at my journal and read my thoughts as I sat in a cemetary in Germany watching the s-bahn go by…I was scared and confused…I can read and see God breaking me down, humbling me, smashing my walls, and teaching me to walk in freedom. Freedom to wrestle with him, freedom to trust Him, freedom to not know any answers except Him. To stumble and hit the ground hard, to openly shout out, “I have no clue what’s going on or what I’m doing! My life doesn’t make sense!”…And then watch God work amazing things in our brokenness. 

My point is that I keep meeting more and more people that have had this encounter with God. God has smacked us around and scared us and seared us, and made us question Him, and now He seems to be connecting people into community. Real, authentic, messy community. Community with everyone. With other communities, with ourselves, our families, our workplaces, the world. Culture. So, on that note, before I start writing another book, I wanted to link this article that Brian Smith brought to my attention about what it seems that God is birthing (amongst other things) from these encounters with Him: a missional church.

What does a missional church even begin to look like? What does that mean? This begins to articulate what people have been feeling, the rumblings that have been invading hearts for awhile now, it’s an interesting time to follow Jesus. I believe He’s chasing after us with vehemence, stripping us down, stealing us back, aching for transformation and a new life of wonder, surrender, and grace.

There is a fundamental schism in American cultural, political, and economic life. There’s the quicker-growing, economically vibrant…morally relativist, urban-oriented, culturally adventuresome, sexually polymorphous, and ethnically diverse nation…and there’s the small town, nuclear-family, religiously-oriented, white-centric other America, [with]…its diminishing cultural and economic force…[T]wo nations…”

From “The Missional Church”.