Winn Collier's Blog, page 59

Turks of Finance

This past weekend, we had a yard sale, clearing out a few closets and trying to unload a mish-mash of, uhm treasures, on unsuspecting neighbors. It took a bit of coaxing to convince Wyatt and Seth to relinquish a small collection of busted cars and forgotten stuffed animals. These toys were all buried in the dark recesses of their room, places where even an OCD-for-clean mother dares not roam (I'm not saying we have one of those in our house - just a literary image, work with me); but as soon...

Goodbye

I can't say it surprised me when she left. I would have thought we'd have a final conversation, an argument at least. Maybe sit on the floor of the living room and drain a last bottle of wine while she would cry and tell me again how much I've changed, how she doesn't know me anymore. We'd let loose with all the regret and sadness and rage and then send it all up in flames with the sex we hadn't had since God knows when. At the least, she'd leave a letter, the tired words of a woman lamenting...

I'm a Consumer Christian

The danger is not lest the soul should doubt whether there is bread, but lest, by a lie, it should persuade itself it is not hungry. {Simone Weil}



Give us this day our daily bread. {Jesus}





Much ink has been spilt (with good cause) resisting the soul-numbing prevalence of hyper-individualism, where we view God - and then in turn people and neighborhoods and natural resources - merely as raw material for the pursuit of our isolated whims. The gospel tells me that my comfort and the satisfact...

Words I've Heard

A few things I've read or heard this week that made me sad, made me laugh, made me want to be a better man:



//sad//



"This is it. This is when it all went away. The Anglican Communion is not going to make it."

Diana Butler Bass on Episcopal Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori's "fighting words" tossed toward the Archbishop of Canterbury and the wider Anglican world.





//laugh//





"Wow!! This is AWESOME!! You are the high king of the church and you get to run the slides!?"

Wyatt, trying to...

Things Far and Near

A litany from the gospel reading, Luke 10.25-37



The lawyer raises the question for us:

What must we do to truly live with God?

The Scriptures tell us to love God with all our heart

But my heart loves so many other things

Love God with all our soul

But I have so many competing desires

Love God with all our strength

But my energy and my passion is divided

Love God with all our mind

But my mind feels too powerful or too broken

to be a place of love

Love, not only God - but also our neighbor, ev...

ViralHope

A bit ago, I mentioned ViralHope which I contributed a chapter to. Here is a video short created by Aaron Nee (of the Brothers Nee, writers/directors/producers of The Last Romantic). The words come from one of the chapters. If you haven't snagged a copy, consider it.

Drowning

Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God who came to save us from our sins?

I believe



Do you believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead to bring you life and to bring you home into his kingdom?

I believe



Do you renounce Satan and his kingdom and all his evil works?

I do



And will you turn from your sins and obey Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit?

I will



Will you now lay your life down and be buried in God's love?

I will



Last Sunday, Wyatt received baptism. One of t...

Firefly

My earliest years were spent in Middle Tennessee. Murfreesboro, to be exact. We lived a few miles out Franklin Road, with vast stretches of farmland between us and town. Our small community centered around a youth camp and working ranch. It was a magical place for a young boy to actually be a young boy. Horses in our backyard. Six thousand acres to roam. A mountain to climb and camp. Rodeos every Friday afternoon during the summer. But the fireflies - those haunting, hovering flashes of g...

To Live {why the church.5}

He felt...another kind of awake.

{Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin}



Jesus is our shalom...creating within his body a new humanity, a new way of being human. {St. Paul}



In these bodies, we will love / In these bodies, we will die / And where you invest your love, you invest your life.

{Mumford and Sons}





Perhaps the plainest way to say it is this: the church exists because Jesus rose from the dead.



Easter happened, and Easter is the prototype for all God's intentions for the world. G...

Writing Notes

The past couple weeks, I've had a fresh burst of writing energy toward a new book project (coy look interjected here). I haven't felt this writing vigor for a while, and I receive the gift with open arms.



But today, once again, I've come up blank. Zilch. Nada.



Amid the vast blankness, I've been handed time to think again about this maddening art I love. My cursor over on my other page sits there, blinking at me, taunting me - so I defiantly move over here to write down what I want to rememb...