by tashmcgill | May 30, 2006 | Uncategorized

I’m So Freaking Tired

I’m tired ..

of being the flexible one because I’m single and without children
of women’s events that introduce everyone by Name, Marital Status and Children
of being on the receiving end of Assumption – assuming my issues, assuming my attitude
of being less-than because I’m single and without children

We have a training weekend this weekend. All Christian grace aside – I’m so tired of being shoved out of the room I booked for the family with 9 & 11 year olds who only just organised themselves. I’m tired of the assumption that I don’t mind being flexible because they are from my church. I’m tired of the fact that because I don’t have children, I’m not allowed to comment on what’s feasible or reasonable.

I’m tired of single parents who complain about needing a break from their children, because no married parent I know gets one. I’m tired of parents who have no concept that their children are ill-mannered, spoilt, self-centred ‘christian’ children who are highly unpleasant to be around. I’m tired of parents who take advantage of the facilities of our office space and that I have to accommodate children coming in and out of the office all the time.

I’m tired of youth group programming that only raises young adults that want church to be like youth group, and a church that is unwilling to accept responsibility for a generation of ‘young’ adults who haven’t grown up because all they wanted was a babysitting service for teenagers. I’m tired of youthworkers who don’t look beyond the borders of teenagehood to see that longterm some of the effects of our programming are disastrous. I’m tired of people that see success as being what’s right in front of them, and not what happens as a result of our present day action in twenty years.

I’m tired of being gracious about things that ought not to matter.

I may be slightly grumpy today.

by tashmcgill | May 30, 2006 | Uncategorized

Getting Ready For A Young Adult Gathering

Why I Hate Cynicism
March 3rd, 2006
Cyn.ic: n. (sinic) a cynic as a person “disposed to rail or find fault” and as one who “shows a disposition to disbelieve in the sincerity or goodness of human motives and actions, and is wont to express this by sneers and sarcasm.” (The Oxford English Dictionary) See also.

Cynicism allows…
the incompetent to seem competent
the shallow to seem deep
the uncaring to seem compassionate
the listless to seem engaged
the ignorant to seem smart
the fool to seem wise
the unforgiving to seem compassionate
and the coward to seem brave

It is an intellectual lie, a fraud perpetrated on the good. The cynic suffocates all that its calloused presumptions touch. What’s worse, through its mockery, good is inhibited before it begins.

the seeds of righteousness are trampled under foot
the pure at heart are falsely accused in the genesis of their good deeds
the spark of creativity is snuffed out before it can flame
the song is silenced before the notes on the page are sung

“Cynicism is a buffer against commitment…and leads to despair” (JIm Wallis)

As people of faith, we must hold out hope. In order to hold it out to others we must possess it as our own. We must own it. Cynicism is an easy sell-out to the obvious difficulties that hope sees through. Cynicism is easy and sure. But faith, trust, forgiveness and hope can be hard and unpredictable. Cynicism offers to “guard” and “protect” us from the potential harm that might befall us, but what it really does is suck out hope from our souls. The very hope we need to be humane… the hope we need to live in community with one another…the hope we need to follow God… and the hope we need to become like Jesus. God calls us to be wise, but not with the wisdom that the “world” offers. The wisdom of the world, you can be sure, is fueled by cynicism.

“A cynic is not merely one who reads bitter lessons from the past, he is one who is prematurely disappointed in the future.” (Sidney J. Harris)

Cynicism is a child of unforgiveness. Certainly there are many things to be cynical toward: politics, medicine, religion, business, humanity, etc. However cynicism forbids the “new beginning” that faith in God gives to all of us. It traps us in our cycle of failure, keeping a record of wrongs, snuffing out the spark that we are called to fan into flame.

“What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.” (Oscar Wilde)

by tashmcgill | May 28, 2006 | Uncategorized

Business As Usual
Business plans are storming ahead – a number of exciting jobs on the horizon and a number of other projects that I’m looking forward to pitching for. The balance in writing proposals is establishing how much information to give the client to begin with. And how much to reserve in the tank. We move into our office on the 11 June.

Apart from that .. how cute is the boy? Managed to take some photos of Jes and Liam this weekend.. too cool for school!

by tashmcgill | May 27, 2006 | Uncategorized

For God’s sake and our own .. Abandon ‘normal’ .. Normal is a poison, a lie you could spend a lifetime pursuing and never find. Common sense is the path well trodden. It’s the path of duty and obligation. It’s the manner by which our dreams die, cast to the side of the path well-known. Common sense finds grown men caged by should and would have been, hoping for another chance when the first was squandered. It binds women into lives lived selflessly but also hopelessly.

What happens when a woman’s beauty becomes only that which is reflected in the achievements of her children, her ability to concieve, the fidelity of her husband, the envy of her friends, the power of her position, the economy of her words? A woman’s beauty should be in her strengths, in her grace and in her desire, as well as her desirability. Desire leads you to the life uncommon.

Wanting something outside of what is known, the divine knowledge of something skirting around the edges of our present realities – desire will drive us to pursue that which is out of the ordinary. It binds us up with courage when facing the uncertain. And it is Wisdom that more often that not, harkens “trust and leap, for the known is just as frightening as the Unknown”, when common sense says “stay.”

An Uncommon life begins in the same breath that the expected answer hesitates on the lips. We are an uncommon people, born to an Uncommon heritage of risk-takers, flirting with possible disaster at every turn – we have lived, and we will live again. Throw common sense on the way beside you. March on to that uncertain future. “Trust and leap..”

by tashmcgill | May 23, 2006 | Uncategorized

Illuminate Me…On Divinity And Humanity In Christ

Further to some discussions today .. can someone explain to me exactly why (in a Strictly Hypothetical Discussion)the possibility of Christ fathering a child has to affect his Divinity. I’m just saying .. as a possibility – when we talk about Jesus being both fully Human and fully Divine, why is it not possible that the full exception of the ‘imago dei’ couldn’t have been exercised without somehow having to remove the possibility of a “divine God with human skin”? In some respects, I think in the initial overview, that a ‘more’ human Christ almost becomes more tangible. Disregarding the possibilities of a child etc; or even putting them into the mix – we ourselves have only come up with a doctrine and understanding of Christ’s divine/human paradox by wrestling it to a point of submission. I remain willing to accept that there are some things I do not need to know or fully understand in order to have faith, and for faith to be a relevant practice. After all, shouldn’t we expect that there are still greater mysteries to do with our ‘Surrogate Sacrifice’ that what we have so far accepted? Maybe it just doesn’t matter, as Paul says, it is what we know that we should stand in – and what we know is that Jesus, was the Son of God. Surely sex as a possibility, doesn’t change that? Even Fatherhood brings him closer to ‘imago dei’ Maybe?

I probably haven’t thought it through enough yet, but I’m struggling to understand the argument. Feel free to comment.

Song Of The Moment : Keep Me In Your Heart For A While
Warren Zevon

Shadows are falling
and I’m runnin’ out of breath
keep me in your heart for awhile

Keep me in your heart for awhile…