Nonviolence Does Not Engage in Violence Even in Response

This is an excerpt from an essay by Chris Hedges:  

"If nonviolent protest is met with violence, we must never respond with violence. The use of violence, including property destruction, and taunting the police are gifts to the security and surveillance state. It allows the state to demonize and isolate a mass movement. It drives away the bulk of the population. Violence against the state is used by the authorities to justify greater forms of control and repression. The corporate state understands and welcomes the language of force. This is a game the government will always win and we will always lose. If we are perceived as a flag-burning, rock-throwing, angry mob that embraces violence, we will be easily crushed.

We can succeed only if we win the hearts and minds of the wider public and ultimately many of those within the structures of power, including the police. When violence is used against nonviolent protesters demanding basic forms of justice it exposes the weakness of the state. It delegitimizes those in power. It prompts a passive population to respond with active support for the protesters. It creates internal divisions within the structures of power that, as I witnessed during the revolutions in Eastern Europe, paralyze and defeat those in authority. Martin Luther King Jr. held marches in Birmingham, Ala., rather than Albany, Ga., because he knew Birmingham Public Safety Commissioner “Bull” Connor would overreact and discredit the city’s racist structures."

Chris Hedges

http://m.truthdig.com/report/page2/make_america_ungovernable_20170205

The Prime Gardener

"Although we have done everything we can to separate ourselves from other people, from creatures large and small, from the land and its waters and from God, God has never left us. God the Gardener comes every day, bucket and hoe in hand, to water and weed the soil of our lives. Through God's care, people, pastures, hills, meadows and valleys can sing together for joy (see Ps 65). God has sought always to feed us and gladden our hearts and to make the created world shine (see Ps 104)."

Quote is from Making Peace with the Land: God's Call to Reconcile with Creation (Resources for Reconciliation)" by Fred Bahnson, Norman Wirzba, Bill McKibben 

  http://a.co/9oY27r0

Photo is of a gardener at Orchid garden and butterfly museum in Maymyo Botanical Garden 

On Being Missional?

"Strategic planning, never taught as a principle in the Bible, is at the very center of much of the work of today’s churches. Goals, missions, plans, and budgets are set, and all contingencies are avoided. Essentially, there’s nothing wrong with this, but what did we learn from that parable? The Samaritan was not obliged to do good. He permitted himself to be touched by the suffering of a fellow human and responded using what he had at hand. He didn’t ask questions – he loved and acted.
For more from this intriguing article, see:
 "The Unplanned Church: How a Brazilian congregation finds renewal by interruption"

 link: HERE


Juan de Flandes, Christ and the Caananite Woman, c. 1496

Earthbound

"To understand Jesus properly, we have to appreciate how his living makes possible the transformation of our own. God became incarnate in Jesus Christ to show us and welcome us into what creaturely life is ultimately about and for. This means that salvation is not about 

The Good Soil

Rootbound!

Gardening gives time for quiet contemplation as one engages with the Earth and God's creation.

The other day, as I was transplanting seedlings from peat pots into the ground, I noticed that even though (in theory) the roots of the seedlings were supposed to be able to push through the peat pots, in most cases they had not.  Instead, as the tiny roots reached the wall of the pot, they turned and went a different direction, back inside the pot.
A healthy plant with room to grow will stretch its roots downwards and outwards into the rich soil, supporting the leaves and growth above. When a plant repeatedly encounters the wall of a pot as its roots try to grow, the normal course of growth is interrupted. Its roots turn inward, doubling back upon themselves.  When the roots of the plant are tangled and curled back upon themselves inside a pot, eventually there it's not enough soil to nourish the plant. Eventually, the crowded roots become a tangled mass that is so dense it can't even absorb water. Because the plant is limited by the confines of the pot, it will have to be watered constantly. Due to lack of nourishment, the plant will always be stressed, and its growth will be stunted. In short, the plant will never reach its full potential.


When the gardener moves a seedling from a small pot to a bigger one or from a seed tray into the garden, the gardener will gently spread the roots so that the young transplant can grow in a healthy way.

In my own life, I find this to be true, as well. When I've been sitting in a comfortable spot in life, I don't always enjoy being pushed out of my comfortable space. Sometimes, however, being pushed out of my comfortable space is what's needed for growth. Sometimes, it may even be necessary for the gardener in my life to untangle my roots in order to allow them to spread out. I'll try to remember this next time I'm uncomfortable with disruption in my life.

The Hard Work Remains

Our American Martyr, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote: 

“The black revolution 

is forcing America to face 

all its interrelated flaws       – 

racism, poverty, militarism, and materialism.

 It is exposing evils that 

are rooted deeply 

in the 

whole structure of our society.  

It reveals 

systemic 

rather than superficial 

flaws and 

suggests 

that 

radical reconstruction of society itself 

is the real issue to be faced. ... 

[O]nly by structural change 

can current evils be eliminated, 

because the roots are in the system 

rather than in men 

or faulty operations.”  

~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in a posthumously published essay titled “A Testament of Hope.”