The last few months have been trying times. Reality has reared its ugly head so many times, and the distracting pleasures of things like blogging have seemed so distant and unimportant. I have come to realize that making a conscious decision to expose myself to the reality of human pain and suffering requires a heart willing to share in suffering.

Our community has experienced a great deal of joy and loss in the last few months. We are losing our building, a place that has served as a key piece of our identity and our safety net for as long as I have been there. It seems like a dream deferred, at the moment, but in the immortal words of Langston Hughes:

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
and then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over --
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load

or does it explode?

These words are often used to encapsulate the spirit of the civil rights movement. Yet I think they ring true for any dream that is deferred long enough -- if it is a righteous dream. Our dream is to provide a place where the broken can come to be healed, or even just accepted if they aren't ready for healing. Maybe we don't need a building for that. Maybe God has allowed this to happen so that we can see that our dream is not about a building.

It has been a great deal of time since I last wrote on this blog. I was actually contemplating shutting it down for a while, but I feel that there is some reason to continue it. I was frustrated at my own lack of focus, and had a great number of other projects going on that kept me very occupied for the last few months. With that in mind, I am now poised to continue, and to change the focus of the blog.

I have decided to make this blog a journal of sorts, based on the experiences that I have while engaging in my strange and wonderful ministry here in Portland, Oregon. If nothing else it will help me to look at the mileposts on this odd little journey. So if you read this blog before, gave up (don't blame you) and have now stumbled back for whatever reason, I apologize for my lack of activity.

I know that I've said this many times before, but this blog will now be updated regularly. I will commit to this because it now serves a purpose other than my own diversion. I believe that the work we do here in Portland is unique and important, and I'd like to be able to give people a window into what we do. Not because I want any type of credit, but because I'd like to open people up to the possiblities in their own ministry.

Ok now for some shameless self promotion: I had an article published on The Ooze, go check it out.
The Red Neon Cross

I wrote it over a year ago and they are just now publishing it. I don't think it's very good overall, but maybe you will.