he regresado

The big news is that I'm back from Florida and I'm hairless. On a whim I decided to shave my head (in part because I know other things may prevent me from doing this in the future, like having a job or a wife, for example). Perhaps my favorite part of this has been watching people's responses. It usually starts with their eyes getting very big, then their mouth opens for a few seconds as they try to figure out what to say, and then they always ask why. The fact that it's always the first question makes me think this may not have been the best move, but I'm not too worried. The truth is that I don't have a good reason, so I've been making them up. I've tried, "I wanted to loose weight," or "I wanted to be more aerodynamic to increase lift." I like the classic, "I lost a fight with a lawnmower," but the most laughs come when I say "I just wanted to look tougher." I don't know why.

On a serious note, I was deeply shocked and saddened to hear news of the untimely passing of Stan Grenz last week. I was blessed by the one short opportunity I had to meet Stan and his wife Edna in January. He was generous and open with us, a group of college students trying to figure out our calling. I particularly appreciated how willing he was to share his personal struggles and fears about ministry. His love and affection for his wife was obvious. His combination of wisdom and compassion was an example of truly living a theology.

As we enter Holy Week we are reminded of the now-but-not-yet-ness of the kingdom. As Ann Weems says, we only understand the alleluias of Easter because of the darkness of Good Friday. The forgotten definition of the word passion is "the state of being acted upon." It comes fromt he same root as passive. Perhaps as we approach Easter we should let go of constantly wanting to do, to go, to act in the name of Christ. The Reformed tradition is all about doing - but maybe we should focus on being this passion-tide. Dean has written about letting go of our kingdom-building aspirations, and it's easy to get pulled in the direction of "making a difference" and "changing the world." As I think about Christ letting go of "equality with God" this Holy Week, maybe I could let go of my pride and remember passion is about being acted upon and not acting.