Matthew Clanahan; 24-year-old graduate student; Learning Support Specialist and adjunct English instructor at Three Rivers College; Bachelor's of Science in Mass Media/Radio with a minor in math from Southeast Missouri State University; Apple enthusiast; total geek; coffee connoisseur; multiple-instrument musician; drummer for Berlin Airlift; caffeine addict; grammar Nazi; Christ follower; ordinary radical
Interests: peace, love, equality, people, social justice, human rights, music, vinyl records, lyrics, quotes, art, poetry, films, books, technology, coffee, tea, demilitarization, sustainability, community, community development, community gardening, historic preservation, Jesus, theology
This Tumblelog will be the primary place [in addition to Facebook and Twitter] where I share media and web content that I find interesting. I will also share my thoughts on faith, hope, peace and love.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
God may indeed be evident in a priest, but God is just as likely to be at work through a Samaritan or a prostitute. In fact the Scripture is brimful of God using folks like a lying prostitute named Rahab, an adulterous king named David… at one point God even speaks to a guy named Balaam through his donkey. Some say God spoke to Balaam through his ass and has been speaking through asses ever since. So if God should choose to use us, then we should be grateful but not think too highly of ourselves. And if upon meeting someone we think God could never use, we should think again.
Shane Claiborne (via asfierceaslions)
There is no room in the cross for redemptive violence. We cannot fight fire with fire or violence with violence. The Jesus revolution is different. When the soldiers came to take Jesus, Peter picked up his sword and cut off the ear of one of the servants. If ever there was a case for justified violence or just war, Peter had it. But Jesus’s response is fascinating. He picks up the ear of the wounded persecutor and heals him. Then he scolds Peter, saying ‘If you pick up the sword, then you will die by the sword.’ The early Christians said that at that moment when Jesus disarmed Peter, he disarmed every Christian. Our arms are not big enough to hold a cross and a sword.
Shane Claiborne (via strengthlikelions)
One of the constant threads of Scripture is “Give us this day our daily bread.” Nothing more, nothing less. Underneath this admonition is the assumption that the more we store up for tomorrow the less people will have for today. And in a world where 1% of the world owns half the world’s stuff, we are beginning to realize that there is enough for everyone’s need, but there is not enough for everyone’s greed. Lots of folks are beginning to say, “Maybe God has a different dream for the world than the Wall Street dream.
Shane Claiborne
Its the beautiful things that get us. Perhaps the greatest seduction is not the Anti-God but the Almost-God. Poisonous fruit can look pretty tasty. That’s what is so dangerous about ideas like Freedom, Peace and Justice. They are seductive qualities, close to the heart of God. After all its the beautiful things we kill and die for.
Most of the ugliness in the human narrative comes from a distorted quest to possess beauty. Coveting begins with appreciating blessings. Murder begins with a quest for justice. Lust begins with a recognition of beauty. Gluttony begins when our enjoyment of the delectable gifts of God start to consume us. Idolatry begins when our seeing a reflection of God in something beautiful leads to our thinking that beautiful image bearer is worthy of worship
Shane Claiborne-Jesus for President (via herefordianyouth)
Compassion does not mean only ‘to care about.’ It means ‘to ache from the bowels’—to literally become nauseated with injustice and to get sick to our stomachs with suffering.
Shane Claiborne (via thesunisfalling)
(Source: papanelly)
What if a fragile world is more attracted to God’s vision of interdependence and sacrificial sharing than to the mirage of independence and materialism?
Shane Claiborne (via desertsong)
Many spiritual seekers have not been able to hear the words of Christians because the lives of Christians have been making so much horrible noise. It can be hard to hear the gentle whisper of the Spirit amid the noise of Christendom.
Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution (via desertsong)
Once we are actually friends with the folks in struggle, we start to ask why people are poor, which is never as popular as giving to charity. One of my friends has a shirt marked with the words of late Catholic bishop Dom Helder Camara: ‘When I fed the hungry, they called me a saint. When I asked why people are hungry, they called me a communist.’ Charity wins awards and applause but joining the poor gets you killed. People do not get crucified for living out of love that disrupts the social order that calls forth a new world. People are not crucified for helping poor people. People are crucified for joining them.
Shane Claiborne (via irresistiblerevolution)
I know plenty of people, both rich and poor, who are suffocating from the weight of the American dream, who find themselves heavily burdened by the lifeless toil and consumption we put upon ourselves. This is the yoke we are being set free from. The new yoke is still not easy (it’s a cross, for heaven’s sake), but we carry it together, and it is good and leads us to rest, especially for the weariest traveler.
Shane Claiborne [the irresistible revolution] [in reference to Mathew 11:28-30] (via thenewbreed)
We try and make the world safe, knowing that the world will never be safe as long as millions live in poverty so a few can live as they wish.
Shane Claiborne (via changingperspective)
Enough to the myth that happiness must be purchased. Enough to an economy that is awarding CEOs salaries 500 times that of their workers and still manages to seduce people in poverty and wealth alike to give more money to these predatorial corporations. Enough to the American dream that now consumes over 40 percent of the world’s stuff with less than 6 percent of the world’s resources. Enough to a dream that would need four more planets if the world pursued it … a dream the world cannot afford. Enough to the advice of government leaders who fearfully order us to “just keep shopping” after tragedies like September 11 and November 28. ENOUGH. Maybe God has another dream.
Shane Claiborne, December 2, 2008 (via graceisred)
So there I was in my senior year in college, still feeling like I had no idea what I’d be doing after I graduated… the more I read the Scriptures, the more uncertain I became about my plans for the future, or even of the wisdom of making plans in the first place, since God seems to be in the business of messing them up… And folks kept asking me what I was going to do when I graduated from college. People always want to define you by what you do. I started saying, “I’m not too concerned with what I am going to do. I am more concerned in who I am becoming. I want to be a lover of God and people.” I was convinced that what we do is not nearly as important as who we are. The question is not whether you will be a doctor or a lawyer but what kind of doctor or lawyer you will be.
Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution (page 107-108)
How ironic is it to see a bumper sticker that says ‘Jesus is the answer’ next to a bumper sticker supporting the war in Iraq, as if to say: Jesus is the answer - but not in the real world.
Shane Claiborne (via changingperspective)
