I'm wrestling...

**update**

I've got a little window of time for a short update!

I'm now in Montgomery at Common Ground.

It's really good here, but leaving New Orleans was a little dramatic - staying w/ a family with small children = dramatic exit, evidently. I found out kind of at the last minute exactly when I would be packing my bags & heading to Montgomery, so when I got the word and had to load up and head out, the tears flowed.

This is not a hyperbole. Once Biggie, the four year old, started crying and asking me not to leave, I lost it. Then Tyler, nine, started crying but trying not to show her tears, which made everything worse. Basically Biggie clung to me and collapsed in my lap in a heap of sobs begging me not to leave. Look at him - would YOU have been able to leave this face with dry eyes?Impossible.

I almost called Mo and said forget it, I'm staying here.

Here are all three of them - Biggie's four, Tyler's nine, and Hakeem (Keemie) is about 14 months. They are in the process of adopting him - his mother left him at a corner store and they found him there. It's heart-wrenching, but beautiful how this family didn't even consider handing him over to the state - they immediately brought him home and pursued custody.

Me and Keemie (above) and Tyler and me below at Sampson Park in the Ninth Ward right before her championship softball game.Keemie in front of their apartmentTyler and me making cupcakes at an obscene hour of the night to sell in front of Winn Dixie to raise money for her track meet (she's going to the junior olympics - this girl is ranked tenth in the nation right now!!)Some of the kids at Dwana's new ministry, Desire for ChangeSome of Tyler's teammates at Sampson Park before the gameThere's been entirely too much going on this month for me to really be able to blog about it like I'd hoped, but I did want to stop in today and post something that many of you may have read if you read RZIM's Slice of Infinity. I wanted to post it because it hints at a chunk of what I've been wrestling with via scripture and this book which is a favorite among those I'm reading.

In this context it is at once blowing my mind AND making so much sense.

Cultivators of Culture
Margaret Manning

I am a gardener. When I say that I am a gardener, I mean that I love working with soil, pruning, weeding, planting, and tending to whatever plot of earth I've been afforded in the hopes of nurturing growth. I do not always produce a bountiful harvest, but I love the sense of craft, care, and cultivation that goes into making a beautiful garden.

In my current locale, I have been made the steward of gardens that were planted long before I ever arrived on the scene. My landlords have left me in charge of caring for the well-designed garden beds of various flowers, trees, and now a small vegetable garden. I have been entrusted to sustain, nourish, and cultivate the yard that has been placed in my care.

On a recent trip, I was quite dismayed by the amount of litter that lined the streets and sidewalks. Once or twice, I would see city workers sweeping and cleaning up the debris, but I was struck by the fact that as they cleaned many others were cavalier about continuing to toss garbage right in the path where others were picking it up. I was incensed at this disregard for the public spaces and for those who were tasked with cleaning them.

My own neighborhood often suffers from the same disregard. Often, litter is scattered across the sidewalks and streets. Yet, despite my anger and frustration over this problem, most of the time, I do not stop to exercise the same care and stewardship as I do over my own yard. Rarely do I take the time to pick up the trash that mars the landscape. Indeed, I often fail to make the connection between my own lack of care and attention and the anger or frustration I feel over its prevalence and the cavalier attitude of those who litter in the first place.

Perhaps this serves as an analogy for the stewardship of culture itself. Unfortunately, as writer Gregory Wolfe suggests, "Many Christians have allowed themselves to become so estranged from contemporary culture that they have essentially given up any hope of influencing the artists who will create the visual images, stories, and music that shape our time."(1) Indeed, Wolfe goes on to wonder if Christians have ever applied the concept of stewardship to the wider culture. He argues that the Christian often fails to realize the connection between his own despair and anger over the "demise" of culture, and his own unwillingness to exercise stewardship, care, and responsibility for that culture.

Regardless of one's religion worldview, a lack of involvement in the culture often contrasts sharply with the stewardship we assume over the resources we've been given in our families, our gifts, and our talents. We tend to our "own yards" as it were, yet ignore the larger landscape. Yet, for the Christian, an added dimension of responsibility is inherent in our entrustment as caretakers for God's creation. A vital part of this mission involves tending to culture, just as we would cultivate the land or soil in preparation for growing crops or plants. So what might this cultural cultivation entail?

First, we exercise cultural stewardship by becoming familiar with our culture through art, music, literature and film. How does one speak into a culture without the knowledge of its language? One need not see, read, or listen to every movie, art exhibit, book, or piece of music in order to learn how to speak into culture. Rather, what are the cultural works that stir discussion in our churches, at our workplaces, or in our social settings? These might be voices to whom we listen as we engage with the language of the gospel.

Second, we exercise cultural stewardship by recovering the doctrine of the Incarnation. The Incarnation of Jesus suggests the total union of the human and divine. Wolfe notes that we apply this Incarnational balance to many of our theological concepts, holding together in union God's justice and God's mercy, God's sovereignty, and human responsibility.(2) In a similar manner, the Incarnation serves as a plumb line for our engagement with the various voices of our culture. If we simply enter into cultural engagement without spiritual discernment, we are driven here and there by every trend and twist in our culture. However, if we remove ourselves from all cultural engagement, we lose our ability to communicate and speak to the culture lacking the vocabulary of faith.

Finally, the Christian exercises cultural stewardship by remembering that she is made in the image of the God who creates. All that God created, God declared "good." Human sin "pollutes" God's good creation. But as God's image-bearers, doing nothing about this pollution is not an option. As image-bearers, the call is to seek out ways in which we can create meaning and beauty, justice and righteousness in our world. We bear witness to the good God and God's good creation by being cultural creators and not simply cultural despisers.

In other words, we ought not simply see the trash of culture and do nothing about it. Instead, as image-bearers, God calls us to pick it up along the way as a part of tending and cultivating a culture that values beauty, goodness, and truth.