Monthly Archives: November 2011

I am reminded as I engage in a few conversations, that God gives each one a different cup. The other day, sitting in a wonderful, smoke filled Croatian cafe drinking coffee, I read Keller’s thoughts on this in King’s Cross where he noted that Jesus, when he faced THE cup, responded in this way “I (Jesus) trust you (the Father) no matter what I’m feeling right now. I know that your desires are ultimately my desires. Do what we both know must be done.”
What is your cup like right now?  consider Chamber’s words carefully HERE…

I am making a list of questions that I am thinking about… I’m putting it in a Google Doc, you should be able to CLICK HERE and see the list.

Lot’s of people ask about the will of God. Others do this and do that… what is the real deal? That is what I’m always after, His real deal… not what this teacher or leader or movement pushes or points to… Chambers nailed it this morning (so what’s new about that? NOTHING, he often nails it) READ ON

Arriving at Zagreb by train, as did Kaplan, one finds the way through the train station…

Zagreb Railway Station

…I’ve just returned from a very fast visit to Zagreb. Afterward, I told Joanna: “Zagreb was, without a doubt the cleanest, most orderly, prettiest city I have seen outside of Budapest. I would like to go spend more time there. Budapest is to New York what Zagreb is to Washington.”

In preparation for this whole 6 week trip, I have been re-reading Balkan Ghosts by Robert Kaplan and the first chapter of thus excellent book is about Zagreb, so Jeremy and I went on the Balkan Ghosts hunt… This post can be the illustrations for chapter one of the book.

Tomislav the traveler in front of the train station

Directly across from the railway station is King Tomislav (10th c.) who was Croatia’s first free king.

King Tomislav

Next, we sought the Esplanade Hotel, now The Regency, which Kaplan described as next to the station… well, not really, it’s about a block up to the left… they were kind enough to turn the fountain on for this shot… I returned the next morning, while Jeremy was dutifully writing, for a coffee…

Esplanade Hotel, had coffee there on Tuesday

Our next find was Bishop Josip Strossmayer who is looked up to by many who seek the reconciliation between peoples of all backgrounds…

Bishop Josip Strossmayer, seeker of unity

Then up the hill to the cathedral…

Zagreb Cathedral

To the scene of Calvary that Kaplan mentioned… I couldn’t help but notice the thief on your left (Jesus’ right) who is staring with intensity at Jesus… we surmised that, in the artistic rendition of the scene, this is the unbelieving thief… I think that perhaps, once Jesus told the one who believed “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” the believing thief died soon thereafter… the unbeliever was left to stare and wonder what had just occurred…

Calvary - life size

…and then Kaplan found and noted the relief of Cardinal Stepinac who was (and seems to remain) as divisive as Strossmayer was a seeker of unity.

the blessing of the cardinal

Then we found the cardinal’s tomb…

the cardinal's tomb

On our way our I was informed that above Jesus was an example of “Old Slavonic”

Old Slavonic

All in all it was a fast and great visit… I will return.

I saw this on Michelle’s blog and HAD to steal it, I laughed so hard, that as I type this, I laugh again…

Yes, this is it. In a very few minutes, I’m calling it a night for my train in the morning. I will essentially be off line until Saturday late. Thus, during the last day of voting, I will be out of action.

Thanks much to old and new friends who have voted and voted in every IP address they could find. Thanks to our team of friends and partners who, with me tracked our progress. We got as high as  #14 once and then were back to #23 just last week and then through the efforts of a bunch of friends, made it back to #16 on Sunday. I am so grateful for the energy you all poured into this endeavor. It was a lot of fun at times to talk about where we are and how to get more people to vote.

Tomorrow is the last day to vote. If you have not yet voted, CLICK HERE PLEASE

I will be off line just about the whole day. So, I guess tomorrow morning before I go to the train station to begin my Balkan adventure, I will take a look at where we are. Right now, we are 21st among 230+ organizations. I think its safe that we’ll be in the top 50 and therefore will be considered for a grant. As I said earlier today in a tweet, Mueller said “work like its all up to you, pray like its all up to God” So, we’ve sought the votes, and now we leave the rest to God, that means we are in good hands.

AMEN.