Kiva.org

A friend at work sent me a link to one of the best sites I've seen in ages - http://www.kiva.org/

It's a way of investing money in entrepreneurs who are working in their own developing countries in places such as Africa, Central and South America. You can invest as little as $25, and choose which project you wish to invest it. Once enough money has been raised, a loan is given to the individual, who then repays it over a 6-18 month period. At the end of the loan repayment, you get your money back, which you can take out, or re-invest in another project.

What a fantastic way to invest in the lives of other people and make a real difference!

I'm sure if Jesus was alive today, you'd find his profile on kiva.org - I wonder what his user name would be...?

We were meant to live for so much more

I was in the gym last week and this song by Switchfoot came on in the spin-class and I got hooked on the tag line in the chorus:

"We were meant to live for so much more - have we lost ourselves?"

And that line kept churning over in my mind - we were meant to live for so much more...we were meant to live for so much more...I was meant to live for so much more...

Last week I heard that a friend of ours in the UK had lost her mum to cancer after she had been ill for a number of months, and the week before my parents lost a close friend of theirs, and the dad of my first girlfriend, to cancer too.

Sometimes in the past I've felt like I've lost myself - but with so much pain and heartache around, it makes me more determined to ensure that I don't end my life wondering if I was meant to live for so much more...

A Short History of Time...

In McLaren's book, Neo introduces Dan to his view of history, and its progression from Prehistory to Postmodernity.

This goes from Prehistory, through the Ancient World (2500 B.C.), to the Medieval World (A.D. 500) to the Modern World (A.D. 1500) and finally to the Postmodern World (A.D. 2000).

Although this is probably an over-simplification I found it helpful in understanding that each period in history is an evolution from the previous - it's not that one is better than another, it's just different. The Modern World grew out of the Medieval World, the Postmodern out of the Modern.

I was thinking about this as it relates to my understanding of the bible - and my interpretation of it.

Having attended mainly evangelical/fundamentalist churches, I have grown up accepting the Bible as the infallible word of God. I still believe it is the word of God - inspired by the Holy Spirit, but I am growing in my understanding that it was written by people in the Ancient World, who had an Ancient World view. I think that I have interpreted the Bible, and read it, from a Modern/PostModern World view - with my whole frame of reference being different to those who wrote it. This probably then applies to how we have used the bible to base much of what we do as Christians, especially in relation to church (both its structure and content).

This doesn't invalidate the Bible at all - rather it opens up a richer way of interpreting what was written.

This may seem very straight forward to you - depending on your view of the Bible, but this is actually a pretty radical shift for me, so bear with me...this means I have to reassess a lot of areas that I probably accepted without really questioning them before.

I can feel the battle inside because I do believe that the bible is inspired by God, and I don't believe in complete relativism - if there is no absolute truth we are completely adrift, and that is a hopelessness that doesn't feel like Good News.

I need to think this through more - I feel like I'm looking through a glass, dimly, so if you have any thoughts on this area that you feel may be helpful, I would love to hear them.

More later...