I have so much to say, but I don't know where to start. I’ve written down so many verses and quotes and thoughts over the past few days. and I wanted to sit down and make them into some organized idea that I could present to you, hoping to pull off for another week the illusion that the things in this world of Africa don't eat away at my brain and my heart. here I am, exposing the growing reality that I don't know what to do with Africa.

I just finished a book called "Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa." Keith B. Richburg was the US Bureau Chief for the Washington Post during some of Africa’s most recently formative years: during the Rwandan genocide, various ongoing conflicts in Somalia, the Congo, Uganda, Liberia, and Zaire. This man, a African American from Detroit, came to Africa expecting to connect to some ancestral bond awaiting him on this soil, only to find that Africa alluded him, rejected him, devalued his work and sacrifice, and left him feeling thankful for the results of slavery which landed him In America, rather than at the base of a waterfall with many other African bodies who had been thrown into the river. He continually says, "In Africa, you don't count the bodies."

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Editor's Note:

So sorry this one was delayed. We had some server problems not to long ago and this one got lost in the malay. It is still worthy of reflection on King Jesus though.

An Ode to Joy in Anticipation of Easter

When I survey the cross upon which you bled and died, I cannot but fall to my face in shame. For a god to tabernacle in flesh amidst his wayward creation is a marvelous mystery; for that same god to embrace death to save his creation is an unsearchable antimony. Yet you have done it; you have walked in our midst and loved us with your tears, with the dolorous supremacy of your suffering. You have cast your eyes (were they blue, green, brown, or somewhere in between?) upon our ignominy; you have seen the pain of our despair; you have touched the effluence of our diseases; you have known the depth of our wounds. You have felt the sting of our reflexive hate, our small-minded arrogance, our rancid indifference, our propensity for doubt, our pathetic simplicity, our voluble hypocrisy, our self-deception and foolishness. You have experienced the pompous and self-serving justice meted out by those we honor as wise. You have seen the destiny we design for the meek, the poor, the peacemakers, for those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. You have seen how stained are our hands with the blood of innocents, how soiled are our faces with soot from the fires of our idolatry, how cluttered are our hearts with cherished artifacts of greed, pride and lust. We do not deserve you. We are darkness; you are light. We are unsightly; you are majestic.

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As a Covenant College student in the 1980s, we were all required to read H. Richard Niebuhr's Christ and Culture (1951). It was (and perhaps still is) the standard textbook to read when studying culture.

It was my first exposure to the issue of thinking Christianly about culture. I wrestled with the question, how exactly are we supposed to engage culture?

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A title like this might raise expectations about receiving advice on preparing a gourmet meal. Sorry, but you have the wrong author and this is the wrong venue for that.

Actually, we are addressing the value of the simple, but long forgotten, ritual of family dinners. Do you remember how it was with “Father Knows Best” and “Leave it to Beaver”? I personally have fond memories of family meals as one of five siblings on our small family farm. The main obstacle to the family meal was when Daylight Savings Time rolled around and we could spend another hour of daylight in the field. What has happened to the idyllic family gathered around the evening meal in the twenty first century? In a word- busyness! Most of you reading this have mixed feelings about this daily discipline. Many of you relish memories of your childhood where Mom, Dad, and the kids gathered around the table at the end of the day and everyone had their opportunity to talk about their particular stories. On the other hand, as overwhelmingly busy parents now, you are balancing after-school activities, work, church meetings, and a myriad of other commitments that make it so difficult to pull off this important family meeting time consistently. The tyranny of the urgent rules and these “life molding” important events suffer at the hands of the urgent events which cry out louder, but offer much less in the way of growing godly, communicative kids and reinforcing the family unit.

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Ah, glorious April! Is there a touch of the Transcendent in the carpets of daffodils and singing of the birds? Do we have glimpses of God’s glory as the mountains produce hundreds of shades of green and the trees awaken to their new season of growth?

Yes, and yet… how the Transcendent gets trashed by the mundane in April! Is there ever a month so packed with activities that there isn’t time to breathe? I remember when I was a college student I bemoaned the presence of final exams and other closing of the year madness in a month when I just wanted to smell the roses. Someday, I reasoned, after those degrees were completed, I could enjoy the month for what it should be- an exercise in worship.

Not so. It just gets worse. Every good cause has a banquet, a retreat, a “walk”, or a picnic in April. Sunday- that wonderful Sabbath of rest and delight in the Lord- becomes clogged with extra luncheons, closing productions, and omnipresent meetings. Somehow worship becomes squeezed into a plethora of other activities. We get too busy to meditate, pray, or study God’s Word. People begin dropping out of their Bible studies and prayer groups in order to meet the demands of their garden, their lawn, and their tax forms.
Wise people say that in times like this we are too busy not to pray. How do we say ‘no’ to good things? How do we order our days that the priority of ‘God first’ is maintained?

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Happy April Fools Day from Every Square Inch!

Every year I attempt to think of a funny April Fool's joke to play on someone. Some years I am successful at thinking of something to do and other times I just let the day slide by without pulling any pranks or jokes on anyone. Even when I do think of a prank to pull it is seen at best as not very funny and at worst a cruel and inhumane thing to do.

My two most famous April Fool's jokes were played on my mother. My mother is a very excitable individual so it is often times very easy to obtain a reaction to unexpected news. So it was on both of these occasions.

The first of the occasions occurred in 2001. I had been dating a girl since high school and when April Fool's day came around, my father and I plotted to play a joke on my mother. We began by getting our story straight and then making the telephone call. I called home from college mid-day on April Fool's day. My mother answered.

Mom: Hello

Brian: Hey, Mom! I got some big news for you.

Mom: What is it? Did you do well on a test?

Brian: No, that isn't the news. I am engaged!

Mom: Really? When did this happen?

Brian: This morning.

Mom: Umm. Did you think about this? When is the wedding date?

Brian: Well, we haven't set a date yet. I had given it a lot of thought.

Mom: Ok. Have you told your father?

Brian: No. You are the first one I have told.

Mom: Well... That's great news. I gotta go. I will talk to you soon.

As my mother hangs up, my dad e-mails me. I send him an e-mail back telling him that I have sold it. She is believing it. Just as I e-mail he e-mails back saying she called him. He acts surprised but acts serious and she is convinced that it is the real deal. Just as my mom is about to hang up she tells my dad that she will have to call everyone and tell them the good news.

This is when my dad and I agree that it has gone far enough. He e-mails and tells me to call her immediately and announce the April Fool's joke. It was a big surprise to her and she was amazed that we pulled it off.

What is the point of this story about April Fool's? Often we take things lightly and fool or joke with one another. This is fine when it comes some things but I know of one thing that is definitely not an April Fool's joke: Christ's Kingdom! Jesus, through his death and resurrection, has entered triumphally as King. He reigns, sovereign, over all the earth and we hail him as King.

When it comes to hailing Jesus as King, there is no fooling around. I may act like the Court Jester in other matters but when I am in the true King's court I am the humble servant. As we think about or maybe partake in April Fool's day, may we remember who the true King is and our role not as fools but rather worshippers and servants of the King.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Brian
Founder, Every Square Inch