Friday is for a new way to be human: the invention that unlocked a locked-in artist

Two weeks ago I shared some favorite excerpts from my Lenten reading, a book by N.T. Wright, The Challenge of Easter. In the book, the author concludes that if we are not thinking in whole terms about the meaning of Resurrection, we water it down to only have significance for eternal life, as in later life. While that is still good news, what does Resurrection mean for the here and now life? Thinking only in half terms about the magnificent gesture of our God in raising Jesus as the first-born of Creation has ill-forming consequences on us. The finished work of Christ -- birth, life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension -- and the gift of His Spirit in us gives us a new way to be human in the here and now life.

"If you are to shape your world in following Christ, you are called, prayerfully, to discern where in your discipline the human project is showing signs of exile and humbly and boldly to act symbolically in ways that declare that the powers have been defeated, that the kingdom has come in Jesus the Jewish Messiah, that the new way of being human has been unveiled, and to be prepared to tell the story that explains what these symbols are all about."

That phrase new way to be human has perched itself in a high branch of my imagination and will not shake loose. One way I'd like to wrestle more with what the phrase means is to transform my Friday regular posts of new finds into sharing stories of new ways to be human.

Watch this. I promise you'll be glad you did.

Mick Ebeling: The invention that unlocked a locked-in artist

[from the TED website] The nerve disease ALS left graffiti artist TEMPT paralyzed from head to toe, forced to communicate blink by blink. In a remarkable talk at TEDActive, entrepreneur Mick Ebeling shares how he and a team of collaborators built an open-source invention that gave the artist -- and gives others in his circumstance -- the means to make art again.