Totally unrelated things from the web…
+ Steve Martin has been on a long, strange trip from the “arrow-through the head” stand up comedian to “wild and crazy guy” on Saturday Night Live to genuine movie star to successful novelist and screenwriter. The older he has gotten, the more reflective and thoughtful he has become. In a recent edition of Smithsonian Magazine, Martin ruminated on Being Funny, tracking how he discovered and developed his unique style of being funny by not being funny.
+ Starbucks closed all 7,100 of its stores for 3 hours last Tuesday night. The reason? To retrain all 135,000 in-store employees in “The Starbucks Experience”, because CEO Howard Schultz felt they were losing their focus on what had made them an iconic company. (And they have been losing some market share to Dunkin’ Donuts). Schultz distributed a memo that said, “We are passionate about our coffee. And we will revisit our standards of quality that are the foundation for the trust that our customers have in our coffee and in all of us.” Every organization-from families to schools to Life Groups and churches-can profit from taking time every so often to evaluate where they are in light of their stated objectives.
+ In light of our current election year political posturing ( ongoing charge /counter-charge, exaggerate/ distort your opponent if it helps your position, etc.) I was fascinated by this interview with Os Guiness on the need for civility in our public discourse. Guiness notes, “I am arguing for a civility that is far more than nice manners. I am talking of re-forging a ‘civil public square’ as opposed to the present extremes of a ‘naked public square’ on one side and a ‘sacred public square’ on the other. I am not saying that the issues at stake in the culture wars are unimportant - they are very important - but that the way we are fighting them is wrong and also destructive to freedom in the long run….Jesus is famous for his harsh denunciations of the legalism and hypocrisy of the Pharisees and others. Here he is in the tradition of the prophets, such as Amos, Hosea, and Jeremiah, and there are times when we must be outspoken too - above all on behalf of the oppressed and in opposition to evil. But as his followers, we are also called to love our enemies, to forgive without limit, to speak the truth with love, and to be always ready to give an answer for the hope that is within us ‘with gentleness and respect.’ Put differently, we have deep Christian reasons for a different style of public speech that are different from mere civility. And we always need to remember that civility is not a matter of being nice or squeamish about differences. It is a republican virtue and a democratic necessity that is a habit of the heart that knows how to deal with real differences with robust civility.”
+ You just need to stop and listen to this hymn from the Welsh Revival of 1904. It was called the love song of the revival. It is here as a haunting instrumental from a Korean ensemble, here in the original Welsh and English, and here as performed by Matt Redman (ignore the cheesy slides). The text alone is worth meditating on…
Here is Love
Here is love vast as the ocean
Loving kindness as the flood
When the Prince of life, our ransom
Shed for us His precious blood
Who His love will not remember?
Who can cease to sing His praise?
He can never be forgotten
Throughout Heaven’s eternal daysOn the Mount of Crucifixion
Fountains opened deep and wide
Through the floodgates of God’s mercy
Flowed a vast and gracious tide
Grace and love, like mighty rivers
Poured incessant from above
And Heaven’s peace and perfect justice
Kissed a guilty world in love
Posted in Monday Meanderings
