There are so many things that I wish I could say today.  Cleverness is on the tip of my fingers, yet I am consigned to only quote so simply:

I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.

“For my own sake?”

“But what about me and my sake?” I argue.  So, you’re telling me this has nothing to do with me and what I deserve?  This is a preposterous and a scalding grace to be rediscovered with such frequency; to learn I play only the smallest of roles in my own redemption, like a spectator at a gallery, one who has paid a few dollars for admission.

The very nature of judgment seats the judge above the defendant.  When I become your judge, I inherently seat myself above you, demonstrating my superior stature.  I create distance between me and you.  This is, I suppose, what Jesus warned against in the Sermon on the Mount; “With the measure you use it will be measured to you.”  The rift you create, is the chasm in which you will live.

But sometimes you have to judge, you do.  Something must be said.  Isaiah discovered a cure for this, though I am unsure it made him any more approachable.  He spoke judgment to his listeners, but he had one caveat that remains unique to Isaiah.  He didn’t wear clothes.

Today when you set out to judge one of your neighbors, disrobe and see if your findings still ring true.  If they do, go ahead and say them.  If the shame of your exposure overwhelms your judgments; keep your mouth shut.  Your deliberations will be much shorter and more clear.

All right, this will be my final two-post day for quite some time, I promise.  I wanted to invite you all to visit our new family business at www.cupthreads.com.

A little over a year ago my wife Molly began making items out of felted wool from used sweaters and selling them, purses and scarves, etc.  I thought, this would be a great little upcycling business, but the income levels were such that her creations quickly became a hobby.

I began to play around with an idea for making coffee cup sleeves out of the material, just for a gas at first, as something that could be made rather quickly and generate revenue as a means of keeping my wife in the crafting business.  Over the past two months though, my playtime became a bit more focused.  I figured out a way to more than double, almost triple my previous production (and I’m not a very speedy seamster, by the way!).  Additionally, I believe that we have developed a way to grow this homespun business while keeping costs very low.  (Cue: Revolution – we all want to change the world!)

So we’re giving it a shot!

Our initial target markets are coffee and tea retailers in the Cleveland area.  We think our product is unique, and once it is held in the hand of a coffee connoisseur it will be hard to NOT buy one!  While we are waiting on packaging and other promotional materials to arrive, I’d like to invite you to be among the first to own a cupThreads – upcycled and reusable coffee sleeve.

kinder.cooler.better.

These are our driving principles behind the product (story here).  Our sleeves eliminate waste.  They are made of wool (highly renewable, just feed the sheep!), but not just any wool, already used wool, thoroughly laundered by the way – Kinder for our environment.  They look rad.  You can’t deny it! – Cooler.  They also cover your entire cup, adding an insulating value to the old standby, boring, wasteful cardboard sleeves you currently use – Better.

Please stop by cupThreads.  Then return to Ream of Paper (with or without placing an order, you’re still my friends) and let me know what you think.  You can email me your private responses at cupthreads(at)gmail(dot)com.  Or gush publicly!

Also pass the word about cupThreads.com on to your caffeine-addicted or environmentally-conscious friends.  There are only 60-or-so products listed, but we have literally hundreds more that are not on the site as of yet.

If you choose to make a pre-launch purchase, enter the coupon code: reamofpaper to receive a dollar off each sleeve.  Order three or more and I’ll ship them for free!

Let me know privately if you encounter any problems with the site or checkout process.  Thanks so much.

My friend Clint the Therapist told me that anger is a surface emotion.  He said that anger is like an iceberg; you can see 10% of it, but the real causes of what you see are below the surface.  I began my Lenten journey through the prophets yesterday.  Their God is very angry.

I’m accustomed to this kind of God.  He is drawn as a figure so holy it’s as if he has no choice but to demonstrate his wrath.  Fear is his method for inspiring worship and faithfulness, because he knows what you did, and you better make things right between you and him before the sun sets, lest you die in your sleep and receive the punishment you deserve. Jonathan Edwards still plays well.  “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” in many ways, is the sermon upon which American Christianity was founded.

God is holy.

I am not.

I get that.  It makes sense.  Perhaps he is wrathful with a purpose.  Okay, that fits into most theological frameworks.  But what if anger is a surface emotion for God too? Read the rest of this entry »

This is the first season of Lent that my family and I have been outside of a religious community of some sort.  It is weird.  I don’t like it, and we intend to rectify this situation in the next month.  So I began Lent without ashes.  Without community.  Solo Lenten practices are next to worthless, but I’ll attempt to redeem them by being extra pious and diligent.

Welcome to my Street Corner:

click picture for more spiritual cartoons/diagrams, http://pithlessthoughts.blogspot.com

My family and I are being, what I can only describe as – reconstructed or re-created, I thought I’d spend this Lenten season observing an unusual portion of the scriptures involving a similar subject: the prophets.  Technically, I am a member of a group of Christian artists, though I missed the first meeting this past week to chew on chunks of phlegm from the comforts of my own couch.  The reading for the meeting I missed was based on Israel’s exile and subsequent return.  Read the rest of this entry »

Yes, it has been awhile.  My apologies to the three of you jonesing to hear what’s on my mind.  Officially the entire Lind household is now sick.  Sickness and shoveling snow were the two things I was planning to give up for Lent.  Alas, this dream no longer seems possible.  In addition to the plague, there was also the matter of taxes, which had to be tended to.  Could there be a more creativity-stifling exercise than taxes?

In my 3 day hiatus, I managed to get the web-portion of our new small business running.  I will include a link in tomorrow’s post.  There are a few items I am going to tweak today.

I intend to go “all religious” during Lent.  First post forthcoming (this afternoon?)…

Valentine’s Day Help for Husbands

Listen, St. Valentine is not a hero.  The truth is, no one knows anything about him, except that he was martyred.  No on knows why, though there is speculation that he was put to death for marrying soldiers to their sweethearts against the will of Rome.  This story became popular in the 15th century, around 1200 years after his life, and 1000 years after his veneration for unknown deeds.

That’s right.  We don’t know what he did.  We do, however, know what he did not do.  St. Valentine did not have sex!  He was either a Catholic priest or a monk.  Think about that.  The token day for celebrating Eros is named after someone who was not even a practitioner of its chief tenant.

Fellas, society would have you believe that you are noobs, incapable of even the smallest romance.  Read the rest of this entry »