Κάθαρσις

With a fierceness that rivals the titan grasp
Of the Ocean upon the Tide,
Who knows naught but his home in the chill embrace
Where this current must sole reside,

With a fear that has kept such a Tide as this
Bound to darkness of depths unknown,
“For where else” pleads the Sea, “could you ebb and flow
If not staying where you’ve been shown?”

So have we held our hearts in familiar ways
To the pattern of things less divine
Than the breadth and the height that are manifest
In our Maker’s unchanged design.

What would Tide come to be if he broke away
From the waxing and waning that give
The appearance of movement while moving not?
He remembers not how else to live.

If he lift from the sea, would he come undone?
No more Tide would he be, but now Wind:
Very image of Spirit that moves unafraid,
Unbeholden, unbound and unpinned.

So do we, half inspired, half doubting the call,
Take on life unfamiliar and bold,
Free as truly to be as we have been made,
And unmaking our graven mold.

Now take heart, for your heart is the host within
Of a Kingdom, a Love and a Fire
That consumes what is false, ’til we find ourselves faced
With the face of our heart’s true desire.

a few of the things that "THEY TRIED"

Love you robby. (-;

The Madness that is this lovely neighborhood

Over the past week we have watched as an oak tree systematically fell apart into ours and our neighbors yard, ending last night with an injury free fall into our neighbors porch. Always eventful and always somewhere to help.
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/jun/16/tree-falls-tampa-house/c_3/#comments

The Divine Artist

Over the past few months we at the Lake House have grown as a community and I myself have developed a deeper understanding of what a relationship with God looks like. Throughout my life I have prayed for my life to BE worship to God. Worship is too often used as a verb, that one may "worship God" but to be a life of worship, to live life in the noun sense is dramatically harder. It requires more of us. We must give our lives over to God that he may develop us into worship beings. We have to let Him hold the paintbrush of our lives, because God is the artist!

I have heard that God is the Divine Architect, the Divine Engineer of creation that set the rules in place, and developed the physics of the universe. I hate that metaphor! It is too cold and inaccurate. I have met many engineers and architects throughout my profession, and they are too often cold and calculating. They are ALWAYS law enforcing....you must stick to the rules or try again. This is not the God I see. I see an artist that paints creation with brush strokes, and sculptures the Earth with His mind (Adam was molded out of clay, Eve chiseled out of bone). His mind is not bound with limits of physics, physics is merely the canvas He chose to paint upon. Our lives are within that canvas, our heart a a piece of the fabric that God paints upon. We always want to control the sculpture, and choose where the chisel is hammered. He will allow us, we have the right to choose our path and say no to the divine artist, just as an man can choose a toddler to paint his portrait over Rembrandt.

It is difficult to choose God to paint our lives. He will point out our imperfections, show us where we stumble. But as any great sculpture, He will smooth out the edges of our lives at the appropriate time. I pray that He may paint the masterpiece of our lives, that He may give us the strength to let go and allow the master to work. It gives me peace to know He holds the colors and we are the canvas of His work.

At a Sacrifice

In the first centuries
of Christianity
the hungry were fed
at a personal sacrifice,
the naked were clothed
at a personal sacrifice,
the homeless were sheltered
at personal sacrifice.
And because the poor
were fed, clothed and sheltered
at a personal sacrifice,
the pagans used to say
about the Christians
"See how they love each other."
In our own day
the poor are no longer
fed, clothed, sheltered
at a personal sacrifice,
but at the expense
of the taxpayers.
And because the poor
are no longer
fed, clothed and sheltered
the pagans say about the Christians
"See how they pass the buck."

-Peter Maurin

Only Here

This morning I was riding to work with Will. He was telling me this story of the day he met one of the homeless guys that come around the lounge here a lot. Will said he was behind the HUB cleaning a screen from his screen printing with the timothy initiative. He said 'The guy walked up and I would have sworn he was going to ask me for something but he just starting chit chatin' with me.' Will told me that he just kept waiting for it and then instead of asking for anything the guy turns slightly and starts pissing on the building! The dude is standing right next to will, looking back over his solder still talking to him. Classic. He asked me, 'seriously, what other church could I spend my time at were that could possibly happen.' Its true. I really love the absurd things that happen around us on a day to day basis. Some are humorous, some are extremely sad, but life is so eventful. Last week my friends saved a mans life by just being available to help drag his beaten body out of the woods and get him to a hospital (he had been beaten up and basically left to die and had laid there for two days before they found out and got him to the hospital for surgery). This week I sat with a friend over dinner at the good sam and he told me that he woke up the night before having nasty dreams about mrs. obama! He was cracking himself up with embarrassment as he confessed his dreams.
Only here.
This month we have had vomit on the sidewalk out front and poop in the alley out back.
I asked a mentally ill man about the hundred keys he weares around his neck. 'What can you get into with these?' I asked. 'I can get into your heart. I can also get into your head.' He replied as he smiled with delight.
A few weeks ago a neighbor broke into my car and stole some cds. One of my housemates caught him red handed so he said. 'I just want the cd's, can I still have them?'
There are a million stories like this that we never tell because it is the air we breathe. This is our daily life. Its our daily bread. I so love the life we live. It is a fun adventure.
Only here......

Invisible

Homeless. nameless. faceless. invisible.
God break our hearts!

just taking Jesus seriously

Breaking Through to Community

In confession the break-through to community takes place. Sin demands to have a man by himself. It withdraws him from the community. The more isolated a person is, the more destructive will be the power of sin over him, and the more deeply he becomes involved in it, the more disastrous is his isolation. Sin wants to remain unknown. It shuns the light. In the darkness of the unexpressed it poisons the whole being of a person. This can happen even in the midst of a pious community. In confession the light of the Gospel breaks into the darkness and seclusion of the heart. The sin must be brought into the light. The unexpressed must be spoken openly and acknowledged. All that is secret and hidden is made manifest. It is a hard struggle until the sin is openly admitted. But God breaks gates of brass and bars of iron (Ps. 107:16).

Since the confession of sin is made in the presence of a Christian brother, the last stronghold of self-justification is abandoned. The sinner surrenders; he gives up his evil. He gives his heart to God, and he finds the forgiveness of all his sin in the fellowship of Jesus Christ and his brother. The expressed, acknowledged sin has lost all its power. It has been revealed and judged as sin. It can no longer tear the fellowship asunder. He is no longer alone with his evil for he has cast off his sin in confession and handed it over to God. It has been taken away from him. Now he stands in the fellowship of sinners who live by the grace of God in the Cross of Jesus Christ. Now he can be a sinner and still enjoy the grace of God. He can confess his sins and in this very act find fellowship for the first time. The sin concealed separated him from the fellowship, made all his apparent fellowship a sham, the sin confessed has helped him to find true fellowship with the brethren in Jesus Christ.

Moreover, what we have said applies solely to confession between two Christians. A confession of sin in the presence of all the members of the community is not required to restore one to fellowship with the whole community. I meet the whole community in the one brother to whom I confess my sins and who forgives my sins. In the fellowship I find with this one brother I have already found fellowship with the whole congregation. In this manner no one acts in his own name nor by his own authority, but by the commission of Jesus Christ. The commission is given to the whole and the individual is called merely to exercise it for the community. If a Christian is in the fellowship of confession with another brother he will never be alone again, anywhere.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Life Together

How I found the Lake House

I came to Tampa a short while ago. I felt I was called here, but when when I got here I wasn't sure why I was here or what I was doing here. I ran into someone on the streets who like me was homeless. We were walking by hyde park and ran into some ladies handing out some flyers for this place called the underground. I didn't think much of it at the time so I folded up the paper and put it in my pocket. We went to find something to eat and a place to lay our heads for the night. The next day we decided to walk to ybor. Don't know why, I guess we didn't have anything better to do being homeless and all. It was about 1pm and we where tired of walking so we sat in front of this building. This guy came out and said you can come in and watch tv or use the computers, his name was jon. Though at the time we forgot about the piece of paper in our pocket. Jon told us about where we were, told us about the well and the underground and we remembered the lady handing us a flyer about the conference they just had there. He sat with us for a while talking and getting to know each other a little bit. He invited us over to his house for dinner. He called his house the Lake House. At the time I didn't know about micro churches and what they did. I just knew that I needed to go trying to make new friends in Tampa area. I was also trying to find some peace of mind by finding out why I felt called to Tampa. Well we went to dinner at the Lake House and found much more than just dinner. I found friendships and fellowship I've never encountered throughout my travels across the USA. Though I already had the Lord in my life it came even stronger. Jon told me what his community was about, how he had 10 people living together in community and how they try to help the homeless community. I stayed for their time of worship that night and felt a peace that I have never felt. Then and there I wanted to be a part of what they do to help their community in tampa. Even though I am homeless I felt called to stay around and help in any way I could. So jon showed me how I could help and I started to volunteer for with the banquet and again I felt that sense of peace. I still go go over to the Lake House and am friends with everybody there. They are all good and kind people and I've learned a lot from all of them. So thank you lake house, you've changed my life

-Tomas