God’s Amazing Orchestra March 17, 2008
Posted by Steve in : Weblog , add a commentI sat here tonight, thinking about how God works…He has given me excellent marketplace skills that have allowed me to start and grow four successful companies (as I yet embark on my fifth start-up –fanfuego.com), just as He gave Abby-Jill Brauhn a tremendous love for people and their well being and development, and a heart for the orphan children in Mexico. God has created each of us with unique skills and talents to help grow the Kingdom. Some things I can do and some things I can’t, but each of us has a role to play in God’s orchestra.
God gave a close friend, Mat Barber Kennedy, a tremendous gift of painting — I look
at some of his pieces that hang in my house, and I marvel at God’s continuing orchestration of life. I don’t have the painting skills that Mat does — yet God has given me other skills and experiences — all which He asks me to use to bring glory to Himself. While I may be frustrated that I cannot paint, God can be glorified through my marketplace efforts in other ways. By the way, Mat’s painting of the new building and its place in the skyline gets me more excited to be living in this world-class city!
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Abby-Jill’s death has been hard on me.
It has caused me to slow down and reflect on what is happening in my life and more importantly, what is important. God wants us to love him and love our neighbor — seems pretty simple.
But sometimes I find myself doing too much other stuff to slow down and enjoy the relationships that God has brought to me. I am operating in a whirlwind, a seasonoflife where everything is moving too fast. Abby was always good at making the emergency slow down to stay connected with other people and their lives. Putting her agenda and tasks on the back burner so that she could invest time into someone else’s life, like Janelle Keller or others. This is a HUGE lesson I am trying to learn each and every day now. Stop….smell the roses….enjoy each day as if it were your last, they say…I am trying….
Silver Surfer as Christ Figure June 17, 2007
Posted by Steve in : The City, Movies, The Cultural Conversation , add a comment
Just got home from seeing the latest summer blockbuster, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer that has been brought to the big screen by Stan Lee and 20th Century Fox. It was an excellent movie with incredible special effects and a strong Christ figure in the Silver Surfer. The good story line comes from the comic books (although no face for Galactus?). The cinemaphotography was superb. This blockbuster is supposed to have done nearly $60 million this opening weekend. It will be interesting to see how it does. As of Sunday night, it had more than 4, 700 ratings and an average fan rating of “B” at Yahoo Movies. What do you think?
Wikipedia tells us that “the Silver Surfer is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero created in 1966 by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby. They created a character, Norrin Radd, who was a young astronomer of the planet Zenn-La. In order to save his homeworld from destruction by a fearsome cosmic entity known as Galactus, Norrin made a bargain with the being, pledging himself to serve as its herald. Imbued in return with a small portion of Galactus’ Power Cosmic,[1] Norrin acquired great powers, a silvery appearance, and a surfboard-like vehicle — all modeled after a childhood fantasy of his. Known from then on as the Silver Surfer, Norrin began to roam the cosmos searching for new planets for Galactus to consume. When his travels finally took him to Earth, the Surfer came face to face with the Fantastic Four, a team of powerful superheroes that helped him to rediscover his nobility of spirit. Betraying Galactus, the Surfer saved Earth but was punished in return with everlasting exile there.[2]
Writer/editor Stan Lee, Kirby’s “Fantastic Four” collaborator, loved the character. “I felt that he had to represent more than the typical comic-book hero,” he wrote later. Lee gave the Surfer his own book (without Kirby) and made the character a noble philosopher and Christ figure, trapped on Earth, suffering for mankind’s sins, even doing battle with a Satan stand-in called Mephisto.
Check it out!
Merry Christmas and “Mele Kalikimaka” December 25, 2006
Posted by Steve in : Weblog , add a commentI am wishing you all a merry Christmas and Mele Kalikimaka from the warm climate of Maui, where, due the extreme generosity of my parents, we find ourselves this Christmas day (I guess someone has to be here, right?). With all of the buildup this holiday season (I noticed this year that all of the holiday decorations came into the stores on Nov 1, just after Halloween – can you believe it?), we finally reach the day — Christmas Day — that allows us to slow down, and reflect on what Christmas really is. As we saw again this year, in the debate over the propriety of Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays in the stores, the real meaning of Christmas seems to have been lost. The Christmas story is at its heart a revolutionary one for all Christians — that the God of the universe became part of human history through His Son in the person of Jesus, born to Mary and Joseph in an animal manger in Bethlehem in a world in upheaval.
The message that Jesus brought is also revolutionary at heart — a message of forgiveness, of healing and of hope. The Christmas miracle and its message is one that has unfolded for the past two millennia and will continue to unfold throughout the history of the human race. Today as we find ourselves knee-deep in torn Christmas wrappings, new toys and new gifts, the sumptuous feasts, and the warmth of the joy we share with family and friends, we should take time to reflect on the story of Jesus coming down to earth and its meaning for our world, still in upheaval. As we move towards the New Year, are you willing to invest a couple of hours to learn more about who this Jesus really is? If you do, you will receive the real gift of this season.
From all of our family, have a blessed and Merry Christmas.
