October 4, 2005
My Name is UrL
Hit by a car after winning the lottery and dropping his winning ticket, the title character in a new sitcom decides it’s bad karma that cost him millions. So, he hears a new call to make up for his wrongs, and every episode is 27 minutes of recompense. His name is Earl.
We have a new call here at Leadership, not fueled by penance but by promise. Like Abram, we have a call from God to leave familiar land and venture to a strange place where we hope things will turn out well. Like Abram, we might wonder how we’ll know when we get there.
Abram’s Ur was familiar. Its religions and culture made sense—at least to him and to those who had lived there their whole lives. Our Ur was logical and rational. Its tenets and well-reasoned arguments made sense—at least to those whose origins are there. But we are called to a new place characterized by a brave, new worldview, one not so dependent on reason.
Why are we shocked that we must leave the place of reason? Was faith ever about reason? Was our calling ever about what we ourselves could deduce, plan, or enact? If it was, then it was never Divine.
Instead, as pilgrims in a new culture, we find we must trade linear thinking for mosaic, sight for faith, and majority status for a narrower perch in a pluralistic society, hoping all the while we don’t fall off into syncretism.
We have a new call—one that requires sacrifice (“Leave your home”) and obedience (“Go to a land I will show you”), one that holds great promise (“I will bless you”).
Our name is UrL.
And now we’re becoming blog-Urs. (Sorry, we’ve made many puns about the name. As editors, it’s what we do.)
With this blog, we hope to host a conversation with fellow servants of God who share our calling out of the familiar and into something strange and wonderful and urgent.
Posted by UrL on October 4, 2005
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Comments
Good to see you coming out of Ur. It's not so bad out here.
Posted by: Marty at October 4, 2005
Author said: "Why are we shocked that we must leave the place of reason? Was faith ever about reason?"
There is a major place for reason. Without it, it is all subjective... may as well be a Mormon and believe in the Book of Mormon, for example. Our "reasoning" helps us sort out some of the nonsense in other religions. God even says, "come, let us reason together."
Isaiah 1:18
"Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.
...Bernie
Posted by: Bernie Dehler at October 4, 2005
Well, the first post.
Interesting to see you guys going URL.
There seems to be a profound shift around the place, away from discourses and into discussions. Gee, with CT heading this way, maybe it'll be the new orthodoxy??
Posted by: mikeb at October 4, 2005
URgent? I think you've been staying up too late (or getting up too URly) working on this blog.
The way your team consistently stays on top of the game impresses and inspires me. You have consistently put out great stuff--as evidenced by the boxes of
Leadership magazines that have accompanied us on various moves.
Thanks for the URly warning about the blog (sorry, I couldn't resist, either). Keep up the good work!
Posted by: Martha Gail at October 6, 2005
Ah, so you've taken the red pill and leapt through the matrix. Welcome. ;)
AC
Posted by: Andrew Careaga at October 8, 2005
welcome to the blogosphere! glad you're becoming a more active part of the conversation and dialogue, and that you've left the comment feature open! (bold move for a publisher!) :)
Posted by: djchuang at October 31, 2005
Dear djchuang:
Thanks for the welcome. We have indeed left the comment feature open. But we also vet all the comments before they appear. We may be "bold for a publisher," but we aren't ready to abdicate our roles as publisher and host of the conversation. That's the function (or dysfunction) of an editor. We believe that well tended trees produce the most fruit.
Marshall Shelley
Leadership editor
Posted by: Marshall Shelley at October 31, 2005