My Big Brown Coat

I have a brown tweed coat.   It's falling apart at the sleeves and it's too big for me.  It stays in the closet all year until the weather turns.  Usually sometime in October.

My office is 100 yards from my house.  Every morning I make my trek to work.  Barefoot in the summer.  But the rest of the year I wear moccasins... and my big brown coat.

It's September.  It started raining yesterday.  So I opened the closet and there it was.  Like an old friend.

I remember 1987.  We were broke and we had a new baby girl.  I was able to book a one week tour up in Seattle so we packed our bags and my guitar.  Before we left, my friend Roby loaned me his guitar case because he traveled with that a lot.  He also loaned me something else.  His big brown tweed coat.  "You need to wear this when you're in Seattle because it's colder there and... you look good in it".

So we boarded the plane. My wife, my baby girl, my guitar, and me wearing Roby's big brown coat.

It was just one week in the Pacific Northwest but it felt like home.  There was something familiar about the place even though we had never been there.  We loved the rain, the water, the mountains, the trees, and the city.  And wearing that coat in some unusual way made me feel like I was part of it all.

That was 28 years ago.

I never gave him his coat back.  And Roby never asked for it.  It just became mine somehow.

We both eventually moved from Southern California up to the Pacific Northwest.  We shared a lot of dreams about life and music. Over the years we would hang out in his recording studio, play guitar, philosophize,  and smoke cigarettes.  We both got older.  Roby got more tattoos and I got more gray hair.

Then at Christmas time in 2007 I got a phone call. We lost Roby.

Just like that.  He was gone.

Today the weather changed and now something familiar begins.  I put my arms into the sleeves of this ragged brown coat that's too big for me.  But it keeps me warm.  It makes me think of 1987.  It makes me think of the rain.  It makes me think of why we love this place and moved here.  It makes me feel like I'm a part of it.  It makes me think about growing up.

And now It makes me think about somebody I miss.

Goodbye Roby.  What a ride.

Thanks for the coat.

Correct belief or a plum

I'm reading through the book of Matthew.

There appears to be a theme in Jesus's teachings and his parables that I have noticed regarding life and fruitfulness. 

When he discusses the kingdom he uses metaphors about things growing like seeds and fruit.  There's weeds and wheat, mustard seeds and fig trees. There are vineyards to work in and to harvest.  And then of course we ourselves are branches.  

It seems the kingdom of God is like growing fruit; a way of living rather than thinking. Less about a correct belief system and more about who we are.

We have a plum tree on our property.  Two years ago we had a heavy snow.  The snow fall was so great the tree could not hold it and it bent over under its weight.  And there it sits out our kitchen window today; a leaning crooked tree... but still alive.

In the spring it still flowers.  And it grows as many plums as it always has.  Maybe more.

Today I stood there looking at that leaning tree beat up by the winter.  I could smell the fruit.  So I picked one and took a bite.  It was perfect.

So maybe as Jesus taught, living out the kingdom is something like that.

Plum fruit.

If somebody asks me what it is to be a Christian, maybe I'll be less likely to pull out some correct system of belief or doctrine or creed.  

Maybe I just won't speak.

I'll just hand them a plum.

Music web page is back up

Just a quick blog post to say that my music webpage is back online.

www.billynorth.com

Going off the grid... Well sort of

I decided to go off the grid.  

I've heard of people taking a break from Facebook, or the Internet.  But I don't belong to any of those social media sites, so I just decided to turn off my phone.  

For 48 hours.

I didn't do anything dangerous; no cliff diving, bungee jumping, or jumping out of an airplane.  The most dangerous thing that happened was I got stung by a bee. But that's because I like to walk around my 5 acres barefoot.  You see there are some risks I'm willing to take. 

So what did I discover? That I still love the same things I always have.  Waking up to a good cup of coffee, reading my Bible, praying, kayaking, bike riding, playing my guitar, good red wine (no surprises there), even mowing the lawn.

While I was out running I came across a baby colt.  It came up and looked as if it wanted to talk to me.  I stuck my hand through the fence and it let me rub its head and touch it's face for five minutes.  It was a simple sweet profound moment.

I went to the local hardware store to pick something up.  And there up on the wall was an archery set.  I used to love archery when I was a kid at YMCA camp. So I bought it.  I picked up three bales of straw and built myself a target.  After a few rounds I got the hang of it again.  And what do you know; I'm actually pretty damn good.

So I think I'm probably going to go off the grid every now and then.  I would recommend it.

It's really quite simple actually.

You just push a button on your phone.

Who's In Charge?

God created humans in his image and invited them to participate in creation and gave them authority over that creation.

It was good.

But then something went wrong.

Humans decided to seize that authority for themselves rather than share in it.  What we might term "the Fall" begins with a corruption of that authority.

When that authority organizes into social political structures and institutions it becomes what Paul says in Ephesians are rulers, powers, and authorities that we wrestle with.  Walter Wink terms this "the domination system". These political systems from Babel to Egypt to Babylon to Rome bring with them horrible injustice and slavery.

So authority that was good becomes a horror.

Jesus claimed that all authority has been given to him.

What does true divine granted human authority and power look like?

It looks like becoming a slave on behalf of another.  It looks like giving yourself over completely even to the point of death for another.  It looks like becoming last rather than first.  It looks like self giving sacrificial love.

So authority isn't the problem; it's actually the solution.  It just looks completely different than we think.

Redemption stretches further then our internal human hearts.  It goes all the way to the top... to who's in charge.

Evil will self destruct

I'm finishing up my commentary series by NT Wright on the New Testament.  It's been a wonderful journey and I will post about that in further detail when I am finished.

Currently I'm in the last commentary series on Revelation.  It has always been a very controversial book and I am not too fond of it.  As always with NT Wright he has some very interesting things to say and helpful perspectives.

Reading through all the seals and then trumpets and all of the plagues is a bit overwhelming.  There are so many interpretations of these symbols.  Wright in particular recognizes that.

His interpretation and viewpoint is that God must allow evil out in the open to do it's worst to finally deal with it. That's what the symbols represent. 

"This is Gods way of letting evil do it's worst, so that it may eventually fall under its own weight"

So I think that NT Wright's premise is that God in destroying evil allows evil to destroy itself.  Evils self-destructive nature turns on itself.  This seems consistent with other passages about God in his wrath "giving us over" to our own self-destruction.

This is an interesting way of looking at these difficult passages in Revelation.  

I like it.

I'm going to think about it.

I love NT Wright!

More later...