Karen’s Blog Post

O Raphael, lead us toward those we are waiting for, those who are waiting for us: Raphael, Angel of happy meeting, lead us by the hand toward those we are looking for. May all our movements be guided by your Light and transfigured with your joy.

Angel, guide of Tobias, lay the request we now address to you at the feet of Him on whole unveiled Face you are privileged to gaze. Lonely and tired, crush by the separations and sorrows of life, we feel the need of calling you and of pleading for the protection of your wings, so that we may not be as strangers in the province of joy, all ignorant of the concerns of our country. Remember the weak, you who are strong, you whose home lies beyond the region of thunder, in a land that is always peaceful, always serene and bright with the resplendent glory of God.

Flannery O’Connor quotes this prayer, which she attributes to Ernest Hello, in a letter dated 14 July 1964, less than a month before her death.

Click here to read the rest of this post.

I was in a public place recently and heard an older gentleman tell a joke about a 30-something woman who was despairing over not being married.

Such jokes don’t amuse me — it doesn’t matter if the women are portrayed as single, pregnant, want-to-be pregnant, divorced, blonde, anorexic, fat, or grannies — especially when it’s men who are doing the telling. I’m even less amused when the men doing the telling are standing behind a pulpit, as this particular gentleman was.

If you are that single person who longs for the companionship of a soul-mate that you hope & pray God has for you, such jokes are hurtful.  I know so many people — both men and women — who have yet to experience the kind of delight and intimacy that comes with a love that lasts through the decades.

To finish reading, click here.

People all across the nation cried out after learning that Josh Powell blew himself and his two young sons to smithereens in Washington State on Sunday.  Powell has long been the primary suspect in the disappearance and suspected murder of his wife Susan.

Last week a judge denied Powell custody of his two boys, ages 5 and 7. The boys have been in the care of their maternal grandparents since last fall when Steven Powell, Josh’s father, was arrested on child porn charges. Josh and the boys had been living with the senior Powell at the time.

This case had more red flags than a NASCAR race.

To finish reading this post, click here.

In case you missed it, true crime writer Ann Rule has endorsed the upcoming book.

Here’s what she said:

“A Silence of Mockingbirds is beautifully written by a very talented investigative journalist. But, even more, this is Karen Zacharias’s own story too, one of trust betrayed. A tragic book that we should all take to heart. We cannot change the past but we can save children who are in peril now. Karen has given us Karly’s legacy, that of a small, bright spirit who loved and was loved. And yet destroyed by heedless caretakers. A must read. Compelling and heartbreaking.”

- Ann Rule, author of Don’t Look Behind You and In the Still of the Night

Here’s what I did when my publisher forwarded on her blurb to me:

To read the rest of this post click here. 

I’ve been reading Mary Karr’s memoir Lit – her struggle through alcoholism and depression and getting sober and finding something to believe in. In reading her story, I’ve been stuck by how universal the feelings of inadequacy she experiences are. I know I often feel like the bystander watching everyone else who seems to have life figured out. I feel out of place and all alone in it. Too often I compare myself to others in all sorts of ways – in the things we call success, in outward appearances, in accomplishments. I feel like the awkward 13-year-old who never grew into her gangly limbs.

But then I read passages like this:

To finish reading this blog post, click here.

I have a girlfriend who is diagnosed schizophrenic. She and I have been friends for decades. When I was working on my second book she said to me, “I wish I could be a writer so I could keep myself entertained.”

I laughed and said, “What are you talking about? You have voices talking to you all the time. That ought to keep you entertained plenty.”

A fit of giggles erupted from the both of us.

To finish reading Karen’s blog post, click here. 

Usually when we think of the poor we focus on issues related to their daily needs.

What do they need?

A warm biscuit and a cup of coffee.

A coat, a pair of boots, dry socks, wool gloves and a stocking cap.

A place to sleep, a place to bathe.

To finish reading Karen’s post on Patheos.com  click here. 

I have a lot of things to catch you up on:

-the Paul  Young event in Seattle

-the Anne Jackson event in Portland

- the surgery

- Ashley’s car wreck

But perhaps the biggest news of all is something I haven’t yet confided to you — I am moving.

Well, not me physically. I’m staying put. I’ve got books to read and write, a dog to retrain and a husband to ignore.

But this blog site. It’s moving.

A while back the very good folks over at Patheos.com contacted me and invited me to join their staff of bloggers and experts.

I knew of Patheos only because my buddy Scot McKnight at Jesus Creed was leaving BeliefNet and moving Jesus Creed over to Patheos.

I wondered if perhaps he had suggested me. But Timothy Dalrymple claimed to have found me all on his own. He didn’t mention whether he was in the post office at the time, reading the Wanted posters or not. He just said he found me and would like for me to join their team.

They have an impressive bunch of folks there — real scholars, academics, historians and such, which begs the question of why they would want someone like me. But maybe they need friends in low places, too. Somebody who has been behind bars and inside of them.

I explained to them that I’m kind of free-wheeling and that I have never had advertising on my site because I never wanted to worry about pleasing people when it comes to speaking what I’m thinking or observing what I’m observing. They said that was fine and dandy with them. They liked what I had to say.

And they liked what you all had to say, too.

Some of you have been reading my blog since I first started it back in 2004. I appreciate that long-friendship. Of course my biggest fan, Gordon, has passed away and I hate that. I hate that he’s missing out on this. But then again I think well, maybe Gordon put somebody up to this. I imagine he’s poking God in the side all the time telling him to pay attention to me. I’m delusional that way.

I was very reluctant to change to a new site because well, I don’t want you all to throw in the towel on me and think somehow you don’t matter. I worried about whether you’d make the move with me. I worried about whether you’d feel comfortable saying what you thought on a different blog site.

I worry alot.

Too much.

The thing is while I appreciate you all, each of you, making this move will hopefully put us all in touch with a bigger audience.

You all are the faithful few.

A writer’s livelihood depends upon the faithfulness and the devotion of her audience. The bigger the audience, the more her publisher does the happy dance and everyone knows as long as the publisher is deliriously happy, I can write books about something other than vampires.

So we are moving. All of us, I hope, to a venue where the audience will get so big that the Tea Party will desert Glenn Beck and start following me instead.

Wouldn’t that be a hoot?

Just so you know, the site isn’t going to look much different than this one. There’s going to be advertising. Hopefully none of those belly fat ads. I take that personally. But the blog page will look identical. We’ll be  using the same WordPress program so you ought to be able to comment just like you always have.

You do need to add this link to your favorites:  http://www.patheos.com/community/karenspearszacharias/

And here’s the RSS feed link: http://www.patheos.com/community/karenspearszacharias/feed/

I’ll be leaving this post up so if you get lost in the transistion you can always come back here to karenzach.com and find me. But starting tomorrow — Wednesday — all the new blog posts will be at: http://www.patheos.com/community/karenspearszacharias/

That’s where we will pick up the discussion on Paul Young, surgery, the car wreck, etc.

We all get an awesome new hood to hang out in and explore, how cool is that?

Blessings, Karen

Last week Hugh Hollowell (LOVEWINS) was on stage with Shane Claiborne and Johnathan Wilson-Hartgrove at Big Tent Christianity. Hugh is The Marine in Will Jesus Buy Me a Double-Wide?

The following is the talk Hugh gave and now you know why I adore me some Hugh Hollowell:

According to Jesus, loving your neighbor is half of the greatest commandment. Pretty much everyone agrees that, if taken seriously, it’s a radical idea that could change the world. And yet it seems nearly impossible for American Christians, liberal or conservative, to agree on what it looks like.

Let me make a modest proposal.

Loving your neighbor begins by being in a relationship with your neighbor.

I love Johny Cash. I have the entire Cash Discography – all the way back to the 1950′s. Love me some Johny Cash.

Or do I?

Because I also love my wife, and I am here to tell you that while I feel consistently good toward Johny Cash, how I feel toward my wife depends on what day it is, how our finances are doing, if I have indigestion, whether I had a good day at work… But I always feel ecstatic toward Johny Cash.

Because I don’t really know Johny Cash. I love my impression of Johny Cash. It is fair to say I am a fan, or that I very much like his music, or that I love the idea of Johny Cash. I submit there can be no love outside of relationship.

By that standard, most Christians don’t really love their neighbor. They love the idea of their neighbor. We vote for this candidate or that candidate, whoever promises to provide the sort of help we think people need. We outsource our compassion to the soup kitchens, to the clothing closets, to the homeless shelters. On Thanksgiving day, we load the youth group up in the van, to go feed the “less fortunate”, so the kids can be “exposed” to poverty, while never giving thought to wonder what they do for food the other 364 days of the year. And if that thought come up, we quickly suppress that thought and write a check. We outsource it.

Loving your neighbor presupposes a relationship. It means knowing your neighbor is going through a divorce, that the lady who cleans your office has a mother that is dying, that the man at the end of the street holding a cardboard sign has been outside for three years now, and his name is Brian. In the story we call the Good Samaritan, it meant getting in the ditch to bind the man’s wounds yourself.

When the average person in the pews can tell you the names of all the Judges on American Idol, or can name all the Glee cast members, but does not know a soul that makes 1/4th their income, I think it is fair to say we have lost our sense of mission as co-creators of the Kingdom of God.

Jesus told us the poor would always be with us – but we don’t really want the poor among us – we want someone else to handle that.

Last year in the US, some 17 million kids went to bed hungry. 17 million. In a nation where we throw away 40% of all the food we buy, where 1 in three of us is obese, and yet children are laying in bed, hungry. How can this happen?

Because none of those kids know you.

Because if you knew a kid who was hungry, you would move heaven and hell to get that kid some food. But because those 17 million kids don’t know you, they laid in bed last night, hungry.

Here in Wake County, the official statistics say there are approximately 1200 homeless people. And many hundreds of Christian congregations. You cannot tell me that out of the many thousands of Christian homes represented by those churches, there are not 1200 empty beds somewhere. Of course there are. But we save those beds for people we actually know.

The justice of Jesus is brought about by sacrifice, love and suffering. And to the extent that we do not exercise sacrificial love, suffering and proclaim the Reign of God, we are far from the way of Jesus.

Jesus calls us to serve, not lead. The way is not about political solutions – in fact, Jesus said political power would be used against us as we sought to bring about God’s justice. The way does not involve courting those in power – the Apostle Paul told us Jesus made a spectacle of the powers of this world.

There are any number of passages in both the Hebrew scriptures as well as the New Testament that speak of God’s love for the victims of injustice and our responsibility to work to bring that justice into fruition. The one I am thinking about right now, however, is Matthew 16:18, where Jesus tells Peter that …”I will build my church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it”.

I am not the first person to note that Jesus refers to the gates as a defense measure. Those gates are there to keep us out. Just what does Jesus expect of us?

Jesus expects us to storm down those gates and invade Hell itself. Jesus is telling us to go to Hell to be with the drug addict and the alcoholic. Go to Hell to be with the victims of abuse, and with the abusers. Go to hell and liberate the adulterer, the homeless man, the pornographer. In hell is where we will find the single mother and the embezzler, the pimps and the pimped, the hungry, the broken, the forgotten. We, you and I together, should be wading into hell itself and proclaiming that there is a new way to live and a new way to love, and that new way is bringing about the justice of God.

The justice of Jesus is a personal justice. It involves sacrificial, relational love. It involves dying to ourselves, our ambitions, our preconceived notions of how things work. The way of Jesus invites us to be the means by which God’s justice comes into being. It invites us to go to Hell, for the sake of those imprisoned there.

Today, in this Big Tent, my most fervent prayer for the church is simply this: I pray I will see you in hell. They need us there.