Ben McCary

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Morning Encouragement from Revelation 5

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#prayerride week 22: Bad Ideas

#prayerride week 22: Bad Ideas

How to look like a creeper:

This week was actually a prayer drive, and it marks my last trip to WHS for the #prayerride journey for this year. I decided to drive because during the last time I went here, I got lost and found myself stuck on my bike on a freeway onramp. The next time I went, I got confused in traffic and ended up getting cussed out by an angry construction worker.

So I drove,…

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My (Seattle) Ferguson: Part I

My (Seattle) Ferguson: Part I

Making Sense of Ferguson

It’s hard to even make sense of the Ferguson tragedy. Even more so when you consider the geographical and cultural distance between that community and mine in Seattle’s suburbs.I live in a primarily white community with a lot of small, tight knit immigrant communities, but only 2.5% of the population identifying as “Black Alone.” With that said, I have a lot of black…

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#prayerride week 8:

Daughter in the Park

Considering the name of the blog series, it seems imperative that I actually go for a BIKE ride on these rides, but this week just didn’t work out that way. I have a daughter. A young daughter. She doesn’t always sleep. So, this week, I got up at 3am to go for a drive with her. As I was out, I did my prayer ride…drive

There were two things that gave me perspective when…

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#prayerride week 6: So...what am I doing here?

What am I doing here?

This week was another one of those “why am I doing this again?” weeks. I sat at Peter Kirk park on a beautiful mid-day praying for the city and the park specifically. But what I saw wasn’t exactly prayer-worthy.

“ God has a call for the suburban kid, just the same as he does for the urban, the rural, the poor, the American and the South American. God doesn’t stop…

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#prayerride week 5:Pray Outside!

#prayerride week 5:Pray Outside!

Pray Outside!

A very wise mentor once tried to teach me that where I sit affects how I think. He used to drive me all around Seattle as we had conversations. We would take an hour long drive so that we could have a 20 minute talk. He explained it like this: look at where we are. What do you see? The people, the buildings, the way people dress, the number of dogs, kids, busses. Those things make…

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#prayerride week 4: They Got it Hard

#prayerride week 4: They Got it Hard

I recorded the ride, check it out!

They Got It Hard

This week as I was praying and texting with my High School kids, I realized just how hard they have it. Here’s one example of a text conversation I had last Thursday:

Me: Hey guys, I’m on my way to pray at JHS. Anything I can pray for you or your school about?

JHS Sophomore: Not really, theres been some controversy about our ASB though, like…

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#prayerride Week 3: A Not-Big Thing

#prayerride Week 3: A Not-Big Thing

Not a big thing

This week I set out on my prayer ride feeling excited refreshed and ready to go pray some great stuff into exsistence! Seriously, I felt good. I hoped on the Volpe and went for it. Right after I leave the office on my JHS route, I immediately turn up to a switchback hill and I usually get a kick out of timing myself to see whether I’m improving. So I hit it pretty hard and…Bam!…

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#prayerride - week 2: Unspectacular

#prayerride – week 2: Unspectacular

(Every Day Is) A Long Day For A Ride

Not all prayers lead to inspiring thoughts. That’s not a special observation, but it’s what I realized to day as I went out to pray. This is my second week of the #prayerride journey and my second week at Juanita High.

Honestly, it couldn’t have come on a worse day, or a better one. I started the day at 6:00am, preparing to teach a seminary class at…

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#prayerride Week 1: The Change I Can't Make

#prayerride Week 1: The Change I Can’t Make

Week 1 The difference I can’t be

This was my first week of the #prayerride journey. My prayer focus for the first month is Juanita, and I have to admit, that this whole thing feels a bit silly…at least it did on the first day that I went out to pray.

Silly is a good description: a random 27 year old is planning to ride around town silently praying for high schools. What’s the end goal? What do…

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Tweets worth following

It all started when I saw my twitter feed…

I was researching ways to be optimize at social media promotions a few weeks back and I decided to leave my twitter feed running on top of my other windows for a whole day. As anyone can see from my following list, I follow two types of accounts: pastors and news outlets.

The result on that day was pretty eye opening. I saw half of my tweets…

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What I Wish I Could Tell These Children

What I Wish I Could Tell These Children

benjaminmccary:

Great post from my church

Originally posted on Washington Cathedral Blog:

What I Wish I Could Tell These Children Part three of Pastor Rey’s reflection after his trip to Kenya where he met many children, many orphaned. Even surrounded by terrible conditions he was reminded of God’s love for each of them.

There are so many. Everywhere I go. Everywhere I look there are children.…

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It's not our music, it's our music.

It’s not our music, it’s our music.

Why Son Lux Helps me Believe in Music again

I’ve been praying to find a band for years, and tonight I think I finally found it. The people who know me best have all heard me lament of “the state of Christian art”: Christian art has become a marker of identity exclusion, we make art that defines who we are in opposition to everyone else. To me, the band Son Lux’ album Lanters changes…

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3MT – 3 Minute Thoughts How does God want to help you connect with someone this Easter?

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Don’t Lose Your Spiritual Edge Here's a youtube series that I'm starting for my work at Washington Cathedral. Let me know if you have any thoughts about how I can improve it!

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Why We Love Muslims

Why We Love Muslims

I follow CAIR, a national Muslim advocacy group, and recently saw that there was a hate propoganda attack on an Islamic center near where I live. This was heartbreaking to me, and as a Christian pastor, I feel the need to speak out.

The video below describes how someone left hateful propoganda in the parking lot of the mosque. This, unsuprisingly, caused a certain amount of fear and concern…

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Hoodlem

Hoodlem http://wp.me/s3uAKJ-hoodlem

I’ve really been enjoying this band. Hopefully they come out with more soon. All I can find of them is two songs on indie shuffle.

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