Yes, this is a photo of Shane Claiborne talking with a guy and it was taken tonight at the back of Englewood Christian Church in Indianapolis by me. More about this later.


First, a good old gospel hymn text:

Wonderful grace of Jesus greater than all my sin
How shall my tongue describe it, where shall its praise begin
Taking away my burden, setting my spirit free
For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me.

Wonderful the matchless the grace of Jesus
Deeper than the mighty rolling sea
Higher than the mountain, sparkling like a fountain.
All sufficient grace for me for even me
Broader than the scope of my transgressions
Greater far than all my sin and shame.
Oh magnify the precious name of Jesus, praise His name.

If this day had a name, it would have been "wonderful grace."

It began with me waking up ten minutes before my alarm went off-unfortunately I mis-set my alarm last night for an hour later than I needed to get up since I am in the Eastern time zone. Why am I in the Eastern time zone? you might ask. Because I flew to Indianapolis yesterday to be a part of the emergingumc 2 conference (if you can call 30 people a conference) held at Lockerbie Central UMC here. Since I realized that I didn't have to be there and I sort of got the gist last night when we met that some of what we were to be doing probably wasn't that big of a priority for me, I decided to play hookie. One of the things I did was pray and studi the Matthew version of the Transfiguration... Ask me if you want to know more about a new thought I had about this. I also was led during prayer to pursue an idea that would be a much needed creative outlet for me and for Grace Philip. And there may be a possibility of it working out. More later about that when know more.

Then I decided to see if there was a bookstore nearby here in the heart of Indy. There was/is. The biggest Borders I have EVER seen and I spent about three hours today. It was a beautiful day here--I ate lunch out--I shopped for sale jewelry at Carson Perry Scot (wrongly spelled I'm sure). One of the books I purchased at Borders is The Ragamuffin Gospel which some of you might have read--I think it's been out since 1990. I have read only about 30 pages but it startles me with grace. Amazing grace.

And then this evening, I went to hear Shane Claiborne, speaking (really preaching) at another event being held here in Indianapolis. Man, o man, is he ever the real deal. I have heard about him for many years, but never had really intersected totally with what he is about and who he is. We watched Ordinary Radicals last night at Lockerbie and then this evening, I was so blessed to hear this Christ-gifted young man share with us about consumerism and the idol it has become in the U.S. Many of the persons at the conference which sponsored him were Mennonites and Church of the Brethren as well as some other traditionally called Anabaptist groups. And I thought how very rich the fellowship was this evening, and for me to be beside persons who already lived much of what Shane's message was. A challenging word to the United Methodist Church.

After the service was over, I introduced myself to Shane--he told me he has a United Methodist background--he's from Eastern Tennessee. He signed the book that I purchased at the book table tonight entitled Becoming the Answer to our Prayers and this is what he wrote on my book's title page: "To Susan: May we continue to become the Church we dream of. Shane" Yes, let's.