As a pre-teen I often went with my dad to a friend’s dairy farm. I was always captivated by the milking process, being inundated by the unique sights and sounds occurring in the barn, and the fascinating smell – a mixture of manure, raw milk, cow and dirt.

I was especially fascinated watching the cows slowly and methodically chew their cud. The farmer loved to revel me with his explanation of what was happening. What made an impression on me was his explanation that when a cow is chewing it means she is comfortable, relaxed and eating a good diet with sufficient fiber. She’s not bored; in fact, without this chewing the cow’s milk production will diminish, her ability to poop out the residue is hindered, she will become sickly and, amazingly from a pre-teens perception, make her unhappy (depressed, actually). I never knew cows could be unhappy!

Now here’s the most interesting part: cows need to be comfortable and relaxed to chew their cud. They usually lie down to do it and they’ll lie around for long periods just chew their cud. Farmers pay close attention to whether or not their cows are chewing their cud, become concerned when they don’t and do things to encourage it.

Back to my ruminating on the ekklesia.

I’ve been mulling over experience, information, perceived concepts, the “bigger picture,” and, interestingly what the Word presents regarding it. I’ve realized that much of my church cud chewing over the years has been done at full gallop and not in a relaxed state. Besides giving me spiritual constipation and religious flu, it has made me unhappy.

The last four months have been among the most difficult I’ve experienced in my decades on this earth; then came COVID-19. With the confused state of affairs rooted in some truth, much fabrication and media-driven fear-mongering, my cud chewing has become more animated. I observed centuries old ways of church-acting without thinking being suddenly disrupted. Fear, anxiety and distrust have replaced declarations of love, compassion and Jesus-like behavior. The realization that while much of what is done with “church” is innocuous, it actually has little connection with the story presented in the Word.

My question is no longer why. To use an expression my dad likes to employ – I no longer want any more cheese, I just want out of the trap.

Today is Easter. It is a big deal and forms the basis of a follower’s fidelity to Yeshua Hamashiach (“Jesus-the-one-called-messiah”). It centers on resurrection, not death; the resurrection is that of the original plan that was never discarded or modified. Yes, it involves what Jesus did, but his experience wasn’t intended to be the focus, it was the vehicle to implement the process. From the genesis of Adam and Eve we have been the heirs of their original legacy – becoming the true sons and daughters of the Ancient of Days in this epoch and in the radically new one that is poised to come.

The body of people who are the “called out ones” has the privilege of reveling in each other’s company, sharing the victories, the defeats, the mundane. Jesus said only two things are to demand our complete attention: captivating loyalty to Elohim Hashamayim (“the-God-who-rides-the-clouds”) and overwhelming attention to the welfare of our neighbor. Interestingly, the Hebrew concept of “neighbor” isn’t what the popular perception is. According to Jesus, there is no authoritative prescription greater than these two items.

Change is often perceived as bad and almost always generates a new reality that is actually better than the old, though it may take some time to be able to migrate to that position. My cud-chewing suggests that it is the hour to fully relax, ruminate on our destiny and discover happiness and fulfillment in a manner we’ve never experienced.

Happy is the body of Jesus-people that chews the cud by intentionally and repeatedly reflecting on their status of becoming Easter-people.

At the turn of the century when I first started blogging (that sounds like a really long time ago, doesn’t it?), there were a plethora of platforms and I tried them all. WordPress always, for me, was the most “natural” and therefore my choice.

Now, having given the disclaimer, let me say there is one thing about WordPress that drives me bonkers – quote marks.

Something so simple but so frustrating.

Because of my early experience last century in graphic design and even earlier in typography, I developed a love of the “correct way” of working with type (letters). The quote (“”) and half quote (‘’) are to be “curly,” not straight. “Straight” hails from the days of the typewriter, not the printing press (the “true” way of setting type).

WordPress doesn’t always get it right; in fact, it acts like a typewriter most of the time. And, there isn’t an end in sight according to the talk in the support forums.

So, what‘s a curly quote guy supposed to do?

The workaround (if it bothers you as much as me) is to enter the “text mode” in the text editor. When editing your post, click the “Text” tab on the upper-right above where your post content is. Then, replace the mis-transformed quote with the one of your choice by ending this code (below) in its place. When adding it, do not include the space between the & and the #. I’m doing so here so it won’t convert it into a quote instead:
& #8217; for a closing curly single-quote ( ’ )
& #8216; for an opening curly single-quote ( ‘ )
& #8220; for an opening curly double quote ( “ )
& #8221; for a closing curly double-quote ( ” )

This magically generates the correct quotes.

Hopefully, someone will find this satisfying; but even it not, I sure feel better.

Eventually, the dad was worn down and took the boy to the toy store. As they walked the aisles, the boy looked up into his dad’s eyes and said, “Thank you, dad. Maybe next time you will enjoy it.”

I’ve been thinking about being engulfed with the Spirit and walking with Jesus as two distinct qualities of my life. In trying to figure this out, I’ve discovered that many times in my life I have done things seemingly for Jesus out of obligation to others. I think many times I have been the dad taking my son to the toy store. I did it out of obligation.

I am discovering that Jesus isn’t what I’d always assumed (been told/taught). A simple “throwing everything away I believe in” and starting all over again with fresh eyes is allowing me to see what was always there but that I’d been unable to see. I keep coming back to the old adage that when the blind lead the blind they both fall in the ditch but in the land of the blind, he with one eye is king.

“Jesus” isn’t obligation; Jesus is awakening. It isn’t about service, obedience or being a good Christian. He’s about genuine transformation, a coming home to who you really are and have always been. I’d just forgotten. So, I suppose you could say Jesus is about remembering: I am he in this world.

I may still find myself in the toy store on occasion, but now I want to enjoy it.

I could easily say that I’ve been in this state of mind for at least two decades. I can even remember almost three decades ago having the sensation show up at my doorstep, inviting me to come out and play. While intriguing, I suppose I was still too prim and proper to take it up on its offer. Intriguing it was, irresistible it wasn’t yet. That didn’t come along for another decade.

I remember as a young lad being told by my mom that we were going to go on “vacation.” The way she said it, I knew it was something that would be exquisitely good; however, I had no paradigm upon which to hang the hat. That created an interesting quandary. I was excited and longing for something that I didn’t even know what it was. I became increasingly excited in the days counting down to THE day and it affected my sleep and appetite, which for a 7-8 year old was rather remarkable in and of itself. By the time the anticipated day arrived, I was a wreck because I was so excited!

And it was good.

Now, I find myself in a similar state, though perhaps not quite as intense as it was for the 7-8 year old me.

It’s here, close; it’s available for me, now. I have reams of material on it, but nothing tells me what can only be experienced.

Beginning my blogging experience back in the ol’ days, it was all new and exciting. Then it got tiresome.

I suppose most of life is something like that. The proverbial waxing and waning that accompanies us is inescapable; however, both from my experience and what I’ve read about the experience of others, how we appropriate the ever-turning cycles of life will determine the level of satisfaction and sense of accomplishment we derive from our story.

So, I’m back once more, grabbing the brass ring as the merry-go-round of my life brings me back to where I started. Stay tuned!

As of December 6, 2009, I’m now frolicking at my new location: www.joecarr.us.

Come join me in the present!

Doesn’t the Bride of Christ deserve the attention that Whoppers’ generates? So, what are we waiting for?

Since I last saw and heard him he has met with multiple calamities. Among the more significant, his wife of 30+ years died a horrible death due to cancer and he is now fighting cancer himself. He has lost weight, seemed frail and was much grayer. As he came up on the podium, he was actually assisted so he wouldn’t stumble.

The moment he opened his mouth I realized that appearances can be deceiving.

He opened up a portal to heaven.

He was always a powerful speaker previously. Now, though frail in appearance, I knew he’d been in the presence of the God-of-the-Angel-Armies. As he stated, “I understand now that the thin veil which separates us from the heavenly realms is indeed thin. I am ready to part it but He wants me to stay a while longer.”

He became a giant-killer, transformed into a man thirty years younger, and spoke with such power and angelic presence that I was transfixed to my little screen. He wove a tapestry of a Being so immense that we can’t even fathom, who is desperately in love with us and pines like a lover awaiting his love to come to him. That love is surrounded and interwoven with imagery of peace, war, desire, accomplishment and fulfillment. He aches to transport us to His lap.

Oh, that I might experience His presence in that manner…

I know he uses people to do amazing things. I have a list of “heroes” who are doing the almost impossible and the impossible; I get a vicarious thrill from watching their successes, and failures. On many occasions I’ve found myself wishing that my life could be as significant as theirs.

I find it very easy to think that God will use someone else to accomplish his purpose. I have great difficulty thinking that the “someone” he has in mind is me. I’m not as qualified, as visionary, as courageous, as smart, as well-backed financially, as [you fill in the blank] as so-and-so is. It’s obvious, and makes good sense, why God would use that someone to do great things; it isn’t obvious, nor makes good sense, why he would even consider using me.

Then I make the mistake of reading something like this:

It was the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king. At the hour for serving wine I brought it in and gave it to the king. I had never been hangdog in his presence before, so he asked me, “Why the long face? You’re not sick are you? Or are you depressed?” That made me all the more agitated. I said, “Long live the king! And why shouldn’t I be depressed when the city, the city where all my family is buried, is in ruins and the city gates have been reduced to cinders?”

The king then asked me, “So what do you want?” Praying under my breath to the God-of-Heaven, I said, “If it please the king, and if the king thinks well of me, send me to Judah, to the city where my family is buried, so that I can rebuild it.”

The king, with the queen sitting alongside him, said, “How long will your work take and when would you expect to return?”

I gave him a time, and the king gave his approval to send me.

This fellow was a waiter. In a very nice establishment, granted, but still a waiter. He became the individual God would use in an incredible manner. He would experience terrific risk and danger; he would see the impossible unfold before his eyes and under his hands; he would become bold, courageous and powerful… but he didn’t know that on that particular day. He was merely a waiter serving the President and given an opportunity to become who he had always dreamt he might be.

The God I’ve met likes to do that. He enjoys putting you at the threshold of the incredible and giving you a shove. He thrills at placing the impossible in your hands and telling you to make it a reality.

He knows you are the hero and wants to make it a reality.

Yeah, you…

Actually, it isn’t.

This is the scene of an event that will begin a process of bringing a new church to Leland, NC. River of Leland will officially make it’s public debut on December 6 at 6:00 p.m. at the Comfort Inn in Leland.

Birthed from a desire to see people fully living the life of a Jesus follower, River of Leland hasn’t been the result of a moment of fancy; rather, it is the result of years of experience with what church wasn’t. We all have our stories of the failure of the churches we’ve been a part of, visited and associated with. Many of us were harmed by the experience; many of us left it behind — left church, Christianity and Jesus. The bitter taste that remained in our mouth inoculated us against ever making that mistake again. Even if we weren’t radically turned off by the experience, we accepted that church could never live up to its purported fame.

That is the negative side of our vision. The positive—and driving—force is our understanding of the biblical presentation of the church.

River of Leland is born out of a desire to know her and a confidence that the church is indeed the Bride of Jesus, a supernaturally powerful entity that is able to move both heaven and earth. She is the reason that Jesus came to this earth, the power that will destroy hell, the vehicle by which Satan will see his destruction and the relationship that prepares us for our heavenly reality right now. She is our inheritance that is to be spent here, on this earth, not later, one day, in heaven.

The church of Acts is the church we desire to see in Leland. A church embodied with and walking in the full power of the supernatural being who planned her and brought her into existence. Anything less is an insult to Jesus.