kar0ling

A reflection on the Canadian Conference's Celebration 2010 gathering. Reposted from MyCelebration2010.ca. The air conditioning in the room was blasting, but it wasn’t the cold that raised goosebumps on my arms and neck. I’ve long considered Jesus’ declaration from Isaiah 61 beautiful, inspiring, and daunting. But I’d never really claimed it for myself before, as Louise Sinclair-Peters invited us to do tonight. “The Spirit of the Lord is on me ... me ; not some character or hypothetical abstraction, but me... because he has anointed me ...there it is again, me... to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” Of course, the original words come from the mouth of the prophet Isaiah, but Jesus’ appropriation of those words turns it into a model for us as we attempt to follow in Christ’s footsteps. He expects this behaviour fr...

In northern Manitoba this weekend, I was struck by the ubiquity of water in this province compared to the paucity in Israel. As we drove from our campsite to Thompson to get a backcountry camping permit for our planned two-day hike, my friend, looking at a GPS, nonchalantly noted that a lake lay concealed by trees on either side of the highway as we drove. It brought to mind Israelis' and Palestinians' pride at their small but woefully over-fished Sea of Galilee and unique but rapidly disappearing Dead Sea. We take our water for granted in Manitoba. In our province with an area of 649,950 km, 101,593 km is water surface, according to Travel Manitoba. That means (if my math is right) about 17% of the surface is covered by water. Whereas according to Wikipedia, the area of Israel (not including the Occupied Territories) is 20,770 square kilometres, with 445 square kilometers of water surface -- about 2%. And since the Sea of Galilee is a mere 166 square kilometres, a good portio...