Monday, December 14, 2015
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
new blog
hey everyody
i've switched to wordpress
www.adamdcroft.wordpress.com
this will still be here but i won't be posting here anymore!
link my new blog!
i've switched to wordpress
www.adamdcroft.wordpress.com
this will still be here but i won't be posting here anymore!
link my new blog!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
A Little Stress Can Be Good For You
Interesting idea....
“The idea that we could — or should — live without stress is nonsense,” says brain researcher Dr. Robert Sapolsky, the author of Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers.
Stress in brief stretches — excitement, eagerness, and thrill — can make your blood circulate better, improve your memory, heighten your senses, and release mood-enhancing brain chemicals.
Unrelieved, long-lasting stress can compromise the immune system, as well as lead to high blood pressure and heart disease. If you’re always exhausted, overwhelmed, and irritable, there’s probably too much stress in your life. Look at your responsibilities and let go of the things that aren’t necessary or important. Regular exercise, meditation, and adequate sleep also help relieve stress.
Boredom, fatigue, and ongoing unhappiness can be signs of too little stress.
To put the difference between good and bad stress in perspective: a roller coaster ride lasts three minutes, not three days.
Source: The Brain, Vol. 12, No. 12, p. 1, via InterVarsity’s HR department
“The idea that we could — or should — live without stress is nonsense,” says brain researcher Dr. Robert Sapolsky, the author of Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers.
Stress in brief stretches — excitement, eagerness, and thrill — can make your blood circulate better, improve your memory, heighten your senses, and release mood-enhancing brain chemicals.
Unrelieved, long-lasting stress can compromise the immune system, as well as lead to high blood pressure and heart disease. If you’re always exhausted, overwhelmed, and irritable, there’s probably too much stress in your life. Look at your responsibilities and let go of the things that aren’t necessary or important. Regular exercise, meditation, and adequate sleep also help relieve stress.
Boredom, fatigue, and ongoing unhappiness can be signs of too little stress.
To put the difference between good and bad stress in perspective: a roller coaster ride lasts three minutes, not three days.
Source: The Brain, Vol. 12, No. 12, p. 1, via InterVarsity’s HR department
Saturday, July 10, 2010
a new project for us all
"jesus invites all men to devote themselves to the project of getting ride of violence, a project conceived with reference to the true nature of violence, taking into account the illusions it fosters, the methods by which it gains ground...Violence is the enslavement of a pervasive lie; it imposes upon men a falsified vision not only of God but also of everything else." - Rene Girard
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
try this on for size...
in relation to the trinity:
"I remember that I possess memory and understanding and will; I understand that I understand and will and remember: I will my own willing and remembering and understanding. And I remember at the same time the whole of my memory and understanding and will." - Augustine
the unity of selfhood - three in one-ness
similarly love requires a lover, one who is loved, and the love that unites them, in a kind of three-in-oneness, for in speaking of these three, we are speaking of one thing, love. - Augustine
chew on that for a few centuries
"I remember that I possess memory and understanding and will; I understand that I understand and will and remember: I will my own willing and remembering and understanding. And I remember at the same time the whole of my memory and understanding and will." - Augustine
the unity of selfhood - three in one-ness
similarly love requires a lover, one who is loved, and the love that unites them, in a kind of three-in-oneness, for in speaking of these three, we are speaking of one thing, love. - Augustine
chew on that for a few centuries
Sunday, June 27, 2010
dare devil God
tonight, at orientation for new staff, we talked about taking risks
we heard comical stories about risk from older followers reflecting on major risks they took in the lives.
then we discussed the idea of taking risks for the gospel and the fears the come with that
then we prayed for each other and as we were praying I had this crazy thought - "take risks, because to risk is the character of God."
God risks.
Love risks.
God is love and love risks it all.
If you think about it, creation as a whole testifies to the fact that God takes risks. To whatever extent, creation had a choice to love God or not, humans had a choice to love their creator or not - we chose not to.
the entire bible is the story of God chasing after his creation who did not love him culminating in the ultimate risk, the incarnation.
God taking on flesh and blood.
So when we risk we are in line with the character of God, we are acting like the image we are made in.
risk scares us though - but i think there is something in a risk that makes us feel alive - maybe thats over romantic maybe not
think back to the first time you told a girl (or a guy) you like them, or leaned in for your first kiss, or just the fact that no matter how many relationships fail we continually go back for more. there's the risk we will be rejected in all those situations but somehow there is something in the risk that makes us feel alive - maybe we feel alive because we are closer to the one in whom we have LIFE and breath.
"this could go horribly wrong...but it's worth it, hands down"
so, don't live your life afraid to fall on your face - take risks, because you're made in the image of a dare-devil God
we heard comical stories about risk from older followers reflecting on major risks they took in the lives.
then we discussed the idea of taking risks for the gospel and the fears the come with that
then we prayed for each other and as we were praying I had this crazy thought - "take risks, because to risk is the character of God."
God risks.
Love risks.
God is love and love risks it all.
If you think about it, creation as a whole testifies to the fact that God takes risks. To whatever extent, creation had a choice to love God or not, humans had a choice to love their creator or not - we chose not to.
the entire bible is the story of God chasing after his creation who did not love him culminating in the ultimate risk, the incarnation.
God taking on flesh and blood.
So when we risk we are in line with the character of God, we are acting like the image we are made in.
risk scares us though - but i think there is something in a risk that makes us feel alive - maybe thats over romantic maybe not
think back to the first time you told a girl (or a guy) you like them, or leaned in for your first kiss, or just the fact that no matter how many relationships fail we continually go back for more. there's the risk we will be rejected in all those situations but somehow there is something in the risk that makes us feel alive - maybe we feel alive because we are closer to the one in whom we have LIFE and breath.
"this could go horribly wrong...but it's worth it, hands down"
so, don't live your life afraid to fall on your face - take risks, because you're made in the image of a dare-devil God
Friday, June 25, 2010
Thursday, June 3, 2010
situationists and kingdom people
I read this quote in the recent Adbusters.
(the situationists were a restricted group of international revolutionaries according to wikipedia, that had their routes in marxism. - FYI)
"the situationists believed that ordinary people have all the tools they need for revolution...the only thing missing is a perceptual shift - a tantalizing glimpse of a new way of being - that suddenly brings everything into focus."
(the situationists were a restricted group of international revolutionaries according to wikipedia, that had their routes in marxism. - FYI)
"the situationists believed that ordinary people have all the tools they need for revolution...the only thing missing is a perceptual shift - a tantalizing glimpse of a new way of being - that suddenly brings everything into focus."
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
make me prove it / hosea
I was just challenge by a friends blog post - which inspired this blog post.
she said: “I don’t want following you to be easy, challenge me. I want to prove that my love for you is real, deep, enduring and unshakable.
i echo that.
see, the paradox is that we try our very best in life to avoid challenging things and are constantly looking for an easy road. but on the other hand, it is through the challenges and the hardships that we feel the most alive. it's also in the challenges and hardships that you find out whether or not you actually have the faith you claim to posses. not some pre-trial, naive, idealistic, emotional high feeling about God, but an honest wrestling, questioning, doubting, conquering and enduring faith that is not shaken. if you've ever had a situation that you thought was absolute hell and then later when it was all said and done looked back and had nothing but gratitude for the whole wretched thing - you know what i mean. we want to be saved from the storms, but sometimes the storms save us.
jesus never promises it will be easy. as a matter of fact he says the exact opposite.
the other part that hit me was Hosea 2:14- “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her…” - Just think about God enticing and coaxing a prostitute whom he is madly in love with into the desert to whisper sweet nothings in her ear. It doesn't matter that she has had so many other lovers - God is sold on her.
it's kind of scandalous.
she said: “I don’t want following you to be easy, challenge me. I want to prove that my love for you is real, deep, enduring and unshakable.
i echo that.
see, the paradox is that we try our very best in life to avoid challenging things and are constantly looking for an easy road. but on the other hand, it is through the challenges and the hardships that we feel the most alive. it's also in the challenges and hardships that you find out whether or not you actually have the faith you claim to posses. not some pre-trial, naive, idealistic, emotional high feeling about God, but an honest wrestling, questioning, doubting, conquering and enduring faith that is not shaken. if you've ever had a situation that you thought was absolute hell and then later when it was all said and done looked back and had nothing but gratitude for the whole wretched thing - you know what i mean. we want to be saved from the storms, but sometimes the storms save us.
jesus never promises it will be easy. as a matter of fact he says the exact opposite.
the other part that hit me was Hosea 2:14- “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her…” - Just think about God enticing and coaxing a prostitute whom he is madly in love with into the desert to whisper sweet nothings in her ear. It doesn't matter that she has had so many other lovers - God is sold on her.
it's kind of scandalous.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
here be dragons / the god who wastes nothing
at the edges of many medieval maps was penciled in the phrase "here be dragons." this was unexplored territory and no one knew what was there so they wrote in that warning. basically the message was "stay away - we don't know what is here, it's not safe here." it may even hurt. one author i'm reading says that we need to go to the edges of our medieval maps and confront our dragons more often. if you think about - some one at some point decided to go deal with those dragons on the edge of the known map and found out that it wasn't so bad after all - maybe they learned something about themselves on the journey to dragon land and maybe they learned something about the un-explored world when they got to dragon land and found there were no dragons - (or defeated them) we need to go to the places in our lives that are marked "here be dragons." the idea is that when we sit in our darkness and brokenness - sort of like the concept of the lenten season - that is when we experience God, and when we grow the most. when we face the fringes of our metaphorical maps we are pushed out of our comfort zones into what some have called liminal space. this is the space of God. this space is where God meets us where we are and moves us along. liminal space is that place where everything you know has been turned upside down and you have no frame of reference for anything. some have compared it to the birth of a child or the death of a loved one.
so my first year of "official" ministry has been a crazy one. (I used quotes around official because everybody is in ministry whether you get paid or not) if you don't know what I am talking about - I work for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in Rhode Island. It is a campus ministry organization. my supervisor and many others have said that your first year of ministry is more for you and your own development than it is for anyone else...I affirm that now. this year has stretched me in ways that I did not know were possible, and looking back i would say the defining word for the year is "growth."
visiting the fringes of ourselves often seems scary and lonely. when we confront our own unknown it is frightening. we often find things there (situations, people, places, memories, events etc) that we don't want to deal with - and they often seem like a waste. there is a phrase in hebrew that translates to "the God who wastes nothing." Nothing in our lives is wasted by God, He is not afraid of our dragons and if we just need to be still and let God take care of the dragons for us. There is a verse in Exodus (14:14) that says "The Lord will fight for you, you only need to be still." The Israelites had just gotten out of Egypt and already they are complaining and being fearful of the desert. (maybe they are afraid there are dragons there) Moses says to them essentially "God will fight for you, just shut up."
this is the summation of the lessons i learned this year:
it's not up to me,
God will use me in my junk regardless and i just need to be still and let God fight the dragons.
God uses my brokenness and fear of dragons in His reconciliation of all things.
I am not God.
the answer is often "yes." (to many different questions.)
so my first year of "official" ministry has been a crazy one. (I used quotes around official because everybody is in ministry whether you get paid or not) if you don't know what I am talking about - I work for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship in Rhode Island. It is a campus ministry organization. my supervisor and many others have said that your first year of ministry is more for you and your own development than it is for anyone else...I affirm that now. this year has stretched me in ways that I did not know were possible, and looking back i would say the defining word for the year is "growth."
visiting the fringes of ourselves often seems scary and lonely. when we confront our own unknown it is frightening. we often find things there (situations, people, places, memories, events etc) that we don't want to deal with - and they often seem like a waste. there is a phrase in hebrew that translates to "the God who wastes nothing." Nothing in our lives is wasted by God, He is not afraid of our dragons and if we just need to be still and let God take care of the dragons for us. There is a verse in Exodus (14:14) that says "The Lord will fight for you, you only need to be still." The Israelites had just gotten out of Egypt and already they are complaining and being fearful of the desert. (maybe they are afraid there are dragons there) Moses says to them essentially "God will fight for you, just shut up."
this is the summation of the lessons i learned this year:
it's not up to me,
God will use me in my junk regardless and i just need to be still and let God fight the dragons.
God uses my brokenness and fear of dragons in His reconciliation of all things.
I am not God.
the answer is often "yes." (to many different questions.)
Monday, April 12, 2010
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Friday, April 2, 2010
Thursday, March 25, 2010
the victim's faint pulse picks up
Psalm 10:17-18 - The Message
"The victim's faint pulse picks up,
the hearts of the hopeless pump red blood
as you put your ear to their lips.
Orphans get parents, the homeless get homes.
The reign of terror is over,
the rule of the gang lords is ended."
...the victim's faint pulse picks up...
down in New Orleans I stumbled across this verse. It really struck me as a great way to articulate the message of Jesus in very bare bones, raw, gut feeling emotional type of way.
Jesus's message asserts that there is more. The old way is out and there is something new happening - the Kingdom of God.
We do not have to live this old way of the world anymore - there is a faint glimmer of hope on the horizon.
Imagine a person who has been physically beaten and left for dead. Their attacker has done their worst. Right as the victim is about to fade out of consciousness he or she hears the voice of a loved one coming screaming their name. Against all medical odds that victim holds on - their pulse starts to pick up again. They have seen that there is hope.
I think of the end scene of any action movie where it looks like the victim has met their end. Then at the last second the hero bursts in and saves the day. We always get excited about the hero but never really think about the victim's thoughts as the hero bursts through the door.
Followers of Jesus are people who are often beaten and left for dead. The world and this life have done their worst, and just when it seems like all hope is lost - enter Jesus. Our pulse starts to pick up...because it's not over.
I think we all identify with this emotion. That's why so many movies end this way - the hero is just about done and at the last second something sparks a second wind, a hope in them. Sometimes its a memory, other times its just the face of a loved one, or the remembrance of a promise - but something always causes them to have more hope, more drive and ultimately to make it out alive, or win the fight or whatever. Something causes their faint pulse to pick up.
The message of Jesus should cause our broken, tired world's faint pulse to jump start.
Almost like in the same way your pulse picks up at the site of your loved one, or at your first kiss, or the first time you asked someone out on a date. I think that quickening pulse is what Jesus' main message is when we boil it down - there is more, there is hope and it better cause your pulse to pump faster...you should be excited - because there is more. Good things happen here - orphans get parents, the homeless get homes, the reign of terror is over. Turn around, the Kingdom of God is here.
In Jesus' death and resurrection we have new life, we have hope, we have cause to press on with confidence that there is more, with the confidence that the Kingdom of God is here...right now...among us. There is a new world bursting forth right in the midst of the old one a world where there is hope for the helpless, rest for the weary and love for the broken heart, there is grace and forgiveness. Resurrection Sunday ushers in the new humanity - new life.
this easter - I pray your pulse picks up a beat
"The victim's faint pulse picks up,
the hearts of the hopeless pump red blood
as you put your ear to their lips.
Orphans get parents, the homeless get homes.
The reign of terror is over,
the rule of the gang lords is ended."
...the victim's faint pulse picks up...
down in New Orleans I stumbled across this verse. It really struck me as a great way to articulate the message of Jesus in very bare bones, raw, gut feeling emotional type of way.
Jesus's message asserts that there is more. The old way is out and there is something new happening - the Kingdom of God.
We do not have to live this old way of the world anymore - there is a faint glimmer of hope on the horizon.
Imagine a person who has been physically beaten and left for dead. Their attacker has done their worst. Right as the victim is about to fade out of consciousness he or she hears the voice of a loved one coming screaming their name. Against all medical odds that victim holds on - their pulse starts to pick up again. They have seen that there is hope.
I think of the end scene of any action movie where it looks like the victim has met their end. Then at the last second the hero bursts in and saves the day. We always get excited about the hero but never really think about the victim's thoughts as the hero bursts through the door.
Followers of Jesus are people who are often beaten and left for dead. The world and this life have done their worst, and just when it seems like all hope is lost - enter Jesus. Our pulse starts to pick up...because it's not over.
I think we all identify with this emotion. That's why so many movies end this way - the hero is just about done and at the last second something sparks a second wind, a hope in them. Sometimes its a memory, other times its just the face of a loved one, or the remembrance of a promise - but something always causes them to have more hope, more drive and ultimately to make it out alive, or win the fight or whatever. Something causes their faint pulse to pick up.
The message of Jesus should cause our broken, tired world's faint pulse to jump start.
Almost like in the same way your pulse picks up at the site of your loved one, or at your first kiss, or the first time you asked someone out on a date. I think that quickening pulse is what Jesus' main message is when we boil it down - there is more, there is hope and it better cause your pulse to pump faster...you should be excited - because there is more. Good things happen here - orphans get parents, the homeless get homes, the reign of terror is over. Turn around, the Kingdom of God is here.
In Jesus' death and resurrection we have new life, we have hope, we have cause to press on with confidence that there is more, with the confidence that the Kingdom of God is here...right now...among us. There is a new world bursting forth right in the midst of the old one a world where there is hope for the helpless, rest for the weary and love for the broken heart, there is grace and forgiveness. Resurrection Sunday ushers in the new humanity - new life.
this easter - I pray your pulse picks up a beat
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