More Dangerous Song Lyrics

Back on March 6th, I posted some song lyrics and You Tube links to songs that if you sing them like you mean it, it will change your life. Well, here's another one:

"Inside" by Jared Anderson

No eye has seen, no ear has heard

How the glory of God's gonna cover the world

What will silence the tongues of men

Give our children freedom to dance again

They will dance again

Chorus

I will be clay in the Potter's hand, I will be light in a darkened land

I will be love lit on fire, Holy Spirit burn on the inside

I will be color to the black and grey, I'll raise a banner up in Jesus' Name

And I will be love lit on fire

Holy Spirit, burn on the inside, on the inside

This old world keeps falling apart, but Jesus comes to wherever you are

Breathing life on the desert floor

And resurrection on the faces of the poor

On the faces of the poor

Chorus

I will be clay in the Potter's hand, I will be light in a darkened land

I will be love lit on fire, Holy Spirit burn on the inside

I will be color to the black and grey, I'll raise a banner up in Jesus' Name

And I will be love lit on fire

Holy Spirit, burn on the inside, on the inside

Oh, oh, oh, oh

Repeat chorus and oh's

And here's the You Tube video:

John Wesley would approve.

In Memory of Those Who Gave All

Steve Mumford is a watercolor and sketch artist who spent time in Iraq in the early 2000s. His water colors were on display in Kansas City back in 2007. In this sketch, a group of soldiers has just heard their comrade died. His work is very powerful--check him out.

I apologize for the reflections on the photo of the art work. There are some better views available on line.

Oh, Just STOP THAT!

image from KSHB

I hope everyone out there is just having a fabulouso Memorial Day holiday. You've taken time to remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice, you've had a chance to fellowship and break bread with friends and neighbors. Now, your day is winding down, and while many of you do have to go back to work tomorrow, it is the summer time and many work places have a different pace to them in the summer months.

Well, I made the mistake of looking in on the local news. I already knew from some scanner time earlier today that people were having definitely a bad driving day as there were several crashes around the metroplex. And there were a number of "disturbance" calls, but those are hard to judge, as they often come from third parties, and when cops arrive, the "disturbance" is no longer. And it seemed there were a number of people observed entering structures that did not belong to them. But what did I see when I gazed upon the home page of the KSHB news site?

Argument ends with deadly shooting

High speed chase ends with two arrests

Two people shot at KCMO gas station

Two men sought for robbery and beating

In addition, continued news of arrests on a double murder and a burglary/murder last week.

I know, I know, crime is a bad problem that will never be solved as long as there are people who want something for nothing, or enjoy hurting others, or have an addiction. However, it's just plain annoying to have such crap happening during a holiday, especially murder on a holiday that honors the loss of people who gave their lives to preserve our freedom and liberty. It's times like these that sometimes it feels like we can't handle the freedom and liberty that has been granted to us by a gracious God and preserved for us by the blood of people willing to fight for it.

Those of us willing to stand up and represent for a better way need to continue to do so. There are ways of resolving conflict that do not result in violence. There is a way to be able to earn the desires of your heart. There is hope and help for those enslaved by chemicals. We must continue to present the alternatives to everyone as options to the criminal way of life. For those unwilling/unable to make a commitment to living peaceably with others, well, they have to be caught and incarcerated by representatives of the rule of law.

It's just annoying that the creeps can't even take a holiday.

Thoughts After A Firefighter's Funeral

The fire truck bearing Mr. Glaser's coffin led a procession of over 100 emergency vehicles (Observer photo)

Rev. Adam Hamilton, Senior Pastor of the UM Church of the Resurrection, officiates at the funeral of Shawnee FF John Glaser. (Kansas City Star photo)

I was blessed to have the opportunity to attend the funeral of John Glaser today. My thoughts are all in a jumble afterwards. Funerals are funny things. Of course, they are very sad, as they are the point when it really comes home that the person is dead. In the course of remembering, though, and in the course of supporting one another, you find yourself smiling, maybe even laughing. People you don't see every day, but value come across your path, and you enjoy the interaction. Dear friends are there for you. Funny stories get told, and funny pictures come to light--they make you smile and nod in remembrance and reflection. The smile feels a little awkward though, as not everyone is smiling, and underneath, in the heart of your heart, you know that the person is gone from your life, and that dampens the smile a little.

I remember I went to a funeral for a friend named Ron. It was held in a small church in Johnson, VT. Looking out the windows, you could see the mountains all around. The service was filled with music and testimony. Most funerals run around one hour long. This one was at least an hour and a half, and nobody minded. We knew we'd miss Ron, but we knew that his life was full of the joy of the Lord, and he was with God. There was a huge potluck afterwards. My dad's funeral was very simple, and that was the right tone. My mother was uncomfortable in the small Roman Catholic Church, and it was just she and me--no other family could come. The after party was right too. My dad would have enjoyed every bit of it. When my dad's mom died, we had the full Roman Catholic funeral mass, complete with Communion and incense. I read Scripture in that service--me! the evangelical Protestant standing in an RC chancel. I read Revelation 21:3-4. The after get together was good after that service too.

I suspect that this may be true of the after events for the Glaser family, and for the Shawnee Fire Department. The big public service has limitations--length and the inclusion of much personality among them. Also, I would say the faith situation was complicated in the Glaser family. Mr. Glaser was raised Roman Catholic. Mrs. Glaser was raised in the very church where the funeral occurred--UM Church of the Resurrection. It sound like at this point in their lives church was not as important as it was. Mrs. Glaser reached back to her childhood church for comfort. A Catholic priest was part of the service though, but without the Roman Catholic bells and whistles. Anyway, it's now, after all the visitors and VIPs are gone, and it's just family and friends, and Mr. Glaser's crew, now both the true grieving, visiting, remembering, laughing, crying, and laughingandcrying (yes, both at the same time--I've done it) will happen. There will be good food and drink. The foundation will be laid for the support that the family family and the work family will need over the coming days, weeks, months and even years in the future, the days when you wake up and the person is still gone.

So in the end, what is a funeral for? I think it's a marker--a flag planted in a place and time--that highlights what has happened. A person has died. A particular person, with certain quirks, traits, interests, loves, friends, family and work. A funeral helps to clarify who that person was--not a complete picture for sure but a picture--and what they did in their lives. We come together and celebrate together in community those things. At the same time, we remember that they are gone, and we grieve that gone-ness. A funeral in a way is not just an end, but a beginning in that respect. We will go on the rest of our lives without that person. That hurts, but the best way to honor the one who is gone, is to embrace the pain of missing them, and then live life at the top of our lungs, in dedication to them.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. he will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." Revelation 21:3-4 NIV

Click "Read More" for more photos by The Observer...also more will be on the photo blog later.

Some Cuteness For You, Dear Readers

Awwww!

from the Daily Squee site.

Blowing Up the Virtuous Poor Myth

Often when the life of poor people is considered, a life of scrimping and saving for the essentials is a picture that likely pops into our head. However, compare that to real life and you find that it frequently is not so. New York Times op-ed columnist Nicholas Kristof looked at the situation of the poor as he found it during his visit to the Congo Republic and wrote a very thought provoking column, "Moonshine or the kids?" Here's a quote:

It’s that if the poorest families spent as much money educating their children as they do on wine, cigarettes and prostitutes, their children’s prospects would be transformed. Much suffering is caused not only by low incomes, but also by shortsighted private spending decisions by heads of households.

He goes on to give a few examples of people who are spending money on liquor and other non-essentials, and not having enough to send their children to school. (Despite supposedly being "free", almost all schools in African nations require a fee of some type), discusses a few ideas to improve things, among which is removing the money from the charge of the husband and letting the wife make spending decisions and concludes with:

Well meaning humanitarians sometimes burnish suffering to make it seem more virtuous and noble than it often is. If we're going to make more progress,...,we need to look unflinchingly at uncomfortable truths--and then try to redirect the family money now spent on wine and prostitution.

It wasn't the most commented upon op-ed I'd seen but it was right up there. 200+ responses came from Times readers. The comments also were interesting, giving examples of similar behavior by poor people in urban and rural America, talking about how it was hard for the poor to see beyond today, seeing such spending as a way to temporarily escape the poor's difficult life, and reflections on consumption and status. Very interesting stuff, very thought provoking, although none of the readers took on the notion of virtue itself. I do think the essay puts the final nails in the coffin of the idea that living in circumstances such as poverty creates more virtue. More about virtue in a minute.

The solutions posited by Kristof and by some of the commenters (click here for comment link) put the family budget in the hands of women struck me as ironic, since one of the mistakes made in the War on Poverty in this nation was to weaken the position of men as heads of household. We see the wreckage of that mistake in much of the Black community, where Black men are replaced as the strong provider by the government subsidy. So, while this idea may have merit, especially when used with cultural sensitivity, it could backfire, and demands caution. We must also look at our societies and see to it that they do contain "a way out" of poverty, that it is worth deferring pleasure for a future benefit.

Coming from a Christian viewpoint though I keep thinking about this inescapable fact: None of us are virtuous. None of us are made virtuous by suffering or poverty or wealth or education or any of that. We are all imperfect, missing the mark, making mistakes, committing sins. Frequently, our priorities are wrong. Our societies and cultures do rob us of hope systemically. This is a big problem that human effort will not solve.

There's a phenomenon called "salvation and uplift"--that is when a person, family or community makes a commitment to God. Confession of sin, opening up to Christ and salvation through the Cross, and the subsequent indwelling of God's Spirit in their lives creates a change in values. Money is spent more wisely. Work is regarded differently. Integrity and honesty become priorities. All this often results in improvement in a person's living situation and in the larger community. (This prosperity can often present a different set of spiritual and life problems, but that's for a different post.)

We can try to help people in many ways: through education, example, opportunity. And that should be done with vigor. However, In the end, it is the God solution is the one that works the best and most consistently. Sharing that solution, with and without words, is the job of the Christian and the Church. Let he who has ears to hear, let him hear.

More Thoughts on Firefighter's Line of Duty Death

I wanted to write more on the death of firefighter John Glaser of the Shawnee, KS fire department. I wanted to do it last night, but I ran out of WiFi. I was thinking about his death and the events that led to it, and also, about how one writes about police and fire personnel who make the ultimate sacrifice while doing their duty.

You can get all mushy and misty thinking about LEOs and FFs losing their lives in the course of their duties--about the sacrifice yada yada. You can also get a bit mushy about how they were in their lives--yada yada--and as I wrote not too long ago in a comment on this post from Ann T, you

could make them out to be saints, great family, yada yada. Such talk would cause eyes to roll in the fire house or police station, you just know that. They know that they put their pants on one leg at a time, just like the rest of us. However, the work they've chosen to do, it does separate them from the rest of us. They go towards infernos like the one pictured with this post, while the rest of us move away. Man with a gun reported? We are ducking and covering. The police officer is looking for the man with the gun. So police officers and firefighters are not saints, or perfect. However, they have an integrity about them that cannot be denied. There is an honesty and bravery to their work that most jobs lack. This is why I think the loss of a firefighter or police officer hurts as much as it does. They reflect the best of us, the most altruistic of us, the most courageous of us, us on our very best day. All loss hurts, but the loss of us at our best hurts just a little more.

To the incident at hand: No doubt there will be a lot of analysis. It will be hard work, while mourning the death of one of one's own. The fire service does not like to lose anyone; just this morning, a child was killed in an apartment fire in Kansas City, MO. That fire will be looked at too. For the fire in Shawnee, every FF there will be interviewed. Every command decision looked at. Tapes of radio transmissions will be listened too, transcribed and analyzed. Protective equipment will be looked at and checked. Questions will be raised. Are our procedures best practice? Did we follow our operational plan? Was there a radio glitch? Did something break? Did communications break down? And so on.

What FF Glaser was attempting to do is much harder then it looks on TV. When newbie FFs are learning how to do search and rescue in a building on fire, often the masks on their SCBA will be opaque, so they can experience safely the blindness of being in a smoke filled building. During the press conference yesterday Shawnee FD Chief Jeff Hudson said in describing the conditions in the fire: "You can't see past your face mask. To try and see anyone trapped inside is nearly impossible." Do this, either as a thought experiment, or for real. Go to the front door of your home. Put a good blindfold on. Now, try to go through every room in the dwelling. For increased realism, put on a 20 pound pack and crawl instead of walk. Did that pretty well? Now, go to a friend's home--not someone who lives in the same building or development--no cheating by finding a familiar floor plan. Do the same thing. This is something firefighters do every day when they search a building on fire. It is probably one of the most dangerous parts of their job.

John Glaser's funeral will be Thursday at United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, KS. A fund is being established to help out his family. There is a Facebook page also. You can look at it without being a Facebook participant.

Illustrations, from the top: 1. Screen shot of Google street view of homes near the fire scene. The house on the left may be the home involved, but Google addresses are not always 100% accurate. 2. Screen shot of KMBC fire footage. 3. photo Kansas City Star. 4. Screen shot of Shawnee FD Chief Hudson at the Sunday presser. Click on illustration to enlarge, back button to return.

Kansas City Area Loses Firefighter in Shawnee Fire

Shawnee, Kansas Firefighter John Glaser was killed in the line of duty while doing a house search during a house fire in Shawnee yesterday evening. The six year veteran became separated from his search team as they were doing primary and secondary search of a large two story wood frame house. He sent out a "Mayday" but by the time he was located, he was unconscious. He was pronounced dead at a near by hospital. A second firefighter received minor injuries. The large home was well involved with flames showing when firefighters arrived. Neighbors informed the fire department that the house was occupied by an older man and a dog. Initial search was done, and the dog was found. A second search started and this was when FF Glaser became separated from his team.

Mr. Glaser was 33 years old. He was married and the father of two children.