reluctant but faithful

Dissatisfied and Fed Up

2010-07-15T11:31:00.000-07:00

...dissatisfaction with the world as it is is preparation for traveling in the way of Christian discipleship...A person has to be thoroughly disgusted with the way things are to find the motivation to set out on the Christian way. As long as we think the next election might eliminate crime and establish justice or another scientific breakthrough might save the environment or another pay raise might push us over the edge of anxiety into a life of tranquility, we are not likely to risk the arduous uncertainties of the life of faith. A person has to get fed up with the ways of the world before he, before she, acquires an appetite for the world of grace.
Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

LOST hangover

2010-05-25T09:30:00.000-07:00

The wife and I have been big fans of LOST from the beginning. I happened to read a review of the show before the pilot aired, it sounded intriguing, and so we dived in. It's been an alternatively exhilarating and frustrating six years of television--dealing with revelations about the survivors and their island existence and questions that never seem to get answered--but it's never been boring.

And so Sunday night's series finale was something we were both amped up about. We watched, she cried, I fought to stay awake (not because I was uninterested but because I was up way past my bedtime watching on DVR!), and as the credits rolled we both felt melancholic and satisfied.

It's a bit strange to say this but it feels a little like a good friend has moved away. This was something we shared for the last six years and suddenly it's gone. There is a void.

And it was a good friend. Unlike some others who have expressed everything from outrage to deep disappointment in the way LOST wrapped up, Jen and I felt it worked just fine. Better than fine.

For me, the series can be summed up in one very memorable exchange between John Locke and Dr. Jack Shepherd.

John: "Why do you find it so hard to believe?"
Jack: "Why do you find it so easy?"
John: (with deep emotion, shouting) "It's never been easy!"

In the end, this half Sci-Fi, half mystical-spiritual show fell solidly on the side of Mystery and Faith, at the expense of Reason. This is what no doubt frustrated many who were looking for answers to the myriad of unresolved questions created over the last six years.

But as one who has often not found it "easy" to believe himself, I was glad the writers chose ambiguity over answers. Increasingly, over the years, I have found that when I can be comfortable and at peace with the Unknown, it is ever so "easier" to believe in what has been revealed.

Finally, I loved the symmetry of the final scene: Jack, laying on his back, staring at the sky, bruised and bloodied; and as the series started six years ago with a close-up of his eye opening, now it ends with a close-up of that same eye closing. Very satisfying.

(One comment on the revelation that everybody seemed to have actually died in the original Oceanic crash (again, somewhat ambiguous and open to interpretation), and the last six years have been lived in a kind of purgatory existence, on the way to the afterlife.

This reminded me of C.S. Lewis' The Great Divorce, in which characters who have died don't realize they are dead and are living in a kind of Hell. In Lewis' imagination [and he is clear at the onset that it is just that--his imagination] those who are in this Hell are not confined there, that indeed they can move on to heaven if they choose. But in the whole book we see only one individual who is able to make this transition. The rest are too inward focused, too attached and consumed by their "demons."

The producers have gone on record as being men of faith (Catholic Christians, I believe), and even had one character--a woman, in a minor role--named Charlotte Staples Lewis. A clear nod, in my mind, to Clive Staples (C.S.) Lewis. So, who knows, maybe their idea of "purgatory" was not simply influenced by Roman Catholic theology, but also by the fiction of a British Anglican. It's fun to wonder.)

Book Recommendation

2010-05-10T13:36:00.000-07:00

This is a really good book. As one who trends toward the "I" on the Myers-Briggs scale, I deeply relate with its themes. It's a message that the entire Western, extroverted Church needs to hear, and one that will help introverts everywhere to feel understood. Check it out here.

the whole gospel

2010-02-01T10:47:00.000-08:00

Our elder board at church is reading The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Sterns, president of World Vision. Good book. Here's a nice reminder of what sharing the good news is about, in total.

Proclaiming the whole gospel, then, means much more than evangelism in the hopes that people will hear and respond to the good news of salvation by faith in Christ. It also encompasses tangible compassion for the sick and the poor, as well as biblical justice, efforts to right the wrongs that are so prevalent in our world. God is concerned about the spiritual, physical, and social dimensions of our being. This whole gospel is truly good news for the poor, and it is the foundation for a social revolution that has the power to change the world. And if this was Jesus' mission, it is also the mission of all who claim to follow Him. It is my mission, it is your mission, and it is the mission of the Church.

St. Teresa

2010-01-28T15:05:00.000-08:00

Christ has no body on earth but yours,

no hands but yours,

no feet but yours.

Yours are the only eyes through which

Christ's compassion for the world is to look out;

yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good;

and yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now.

Saint Teresa of Avila

Hiroshima and Haiti

2010-01-14T09:01:00.000-08:00

In the wake of Tuesday's tragic earthquake in Haiti and the ongoing reports of the devastation--I think President Obama's adjectives "cruel" and "incomprehensible" were pretty spot on--I thought about the reading below from Henri Nouwen.

These are the types of circumstances that test my faith in a loving God. Nouwen's hope of a God at work in the midst of the pain--almost unnoticeable but still there--is my hope too. Read especially the final paragraph.

Lima, Peru, December 2, 1981
"A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, and from his roots a bud shall blossom. The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him..." (Isa. 11:1-2)

These words from last night's liturgy have stayed with me during the day. Our salvation comes from something small, tender, and vulnerable, something hardly noticeable. God, who is the Creator of the Universe, comes to us in smallness, weakness, and hiddenness.

I find this a hopeful message. Somehow, I keep expecting loud and impressive events to convince me and others of God's saving power; but over and over again I am reminded that spectacles, power plays, and big events are the ways of the world. Our temptation is to be distracted by them and made blind to the "shoot that shall sprout from the stump."

When I have no eyes for the small signs of God's presence--the smile of a baby, the carefree play of children, the words of encouragement and gestures of love offered by friends--I will always remain tempted to despair.

The small child of Bethlehem, the unknown young man of Nazareth, the rejected preacher, the naked man on the cross, he asks for my full attention. The work of our salvation takes place in the midst of a world that continues to shout, scream, and overwhelm us with its claims and promises. But the promise is hidden in the shoot that sprouts from the stump, a shoot that hardly anyone notices.

I remember seeing a film on the human misery and devastation brought by the bomb on Hiroshima. Among all the scenes of terror and despair emerged one image of a man quietly writing a word in calligraphy. All his attention was directed to writing that one word. That image made this gruesome film a hopeful film. Isn't that what God is doing? Writing the divine word of hope in the midst of our dark world?

Henri Nouwen, Gracias! A Latin American Journal

Constantine the Weasel

2010-01-13T16:23:00.000-08:00

Far too long, historians have accepted the claim that the conversion of the Emperor Constantine (ca. 285-337) caused the triumph of Christianity. To the contrary, he destroyed its most attractive and dynamic aspects, turning a high-intensity, grassroots movement into an arrogant institution controlled by an elite who often managed to be both brutal and lax.

--Rodney Stark, For the Glory of God

Ambiguity

2009-12-12T08:02:00.000-08:00

If the album has an overriding theme, it is the acceptance of life's uncertainties. "I think there's a liberating nature to that concept," says Tweedy. "It allows for a playfulness and an engagement in life that is more enjoyable than the alternative. I've aspired to convey some of those things for a long time now, maybe not so clearly before because it hasn't been so clear to me. But I do believe that the greater ability you have to tolerate ambiguity, the more successfully you can steer your life. The alternative point of view – the complete dismissal of ambiguity, trying to rationalise irrationality – can be very destructive."

(From an interview with Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, in The Independent)

Conflict

2009-10-16T08:25:00.000-07:00

True confession: I'm having a really hard time rooting for the Dodgers in the playoffs. My desire for a freeway world series and my dislike of the Dodgers are going head to head. I'd still like to see the Angels square off against the Dodgers but I must admit to being secretly pleased that they lost last night.

I'm a conflicted sports fan.

Danger

2009-10-15T22:00:00.000-07:00

...centralization and codification, undertaken in the interests of religion, are a danger to the core of religion.

--Martin Buber

...there exists in every church something that sooner or later works against the very purpose for which it came into existence. So we must strive very hard, by the grace of God to keep the church focused on the mission that Christ originally gave to it.

--C.S. Lewis

Cleanse - Day 30

2009-10-14T12:20:00.000-07:00

Finito!

This is how I feel now. The bull that was my poor habits and eating issues has been stalking me for years, snorting and pawing the ground. Usually, when he has charged I have run like a scared rabbit. Not any more. I've faced the beast in the ring and stepped nimbly to the side. The bull is dead. It's good to be in control.

(Just to head off any outraged emails: I do not support violence to animals in any way. It's an analogy people!)

Cleanse - Day 29

2009-10-12T19:24:00.000-07:00

Yoda told me today that I need to start easing the forbidden foods back into my diet, to make things easier on my stomach. So at lunch today at Taco Surf with Jim I allowed myself 5 tortilla chips (regular ones!) dipped in good, wonderful, spicy salsa.

And tomorrow--my last day!--I will have a bowl of granola with fat free milk for breakfast. I can hardly wait.

I will officially break this fast tomorrow evening when I have a scheduled ministry dinner over at someone's house. I don't know what will be on the menu, but I'm hoping it will include cheese.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Ever notice how hard it is to change patterns in life? For instance, today I went to El Dorado Park as I often do and I walked around the lake, as I often do. Only this time--for the first time ever, I believe--I walked around the lake counter-clockwise. It was weird, but wonderful. It was like walking around an entirely new lake. I kept looking off to the right to see the lake, but it was on my left. Nice change...

I tried this the other day with shaving and couldn't handle it. On a whim I decided to try shaving the other side of my face first. I made a couple passes and couldn't do anymore. My brain kept saying, What are you doing? We don't like to shave that way! Stop! Stop!

Changing patterns is tough. I hope with this whole cleanse thing I've changed some eating habits and patterns in my life. I hope my experience from here forward will be more like the lake walk than the face shaving.

Wish me luck...

Cleanse - Day 28

2009-10-11T18:31:00.000-07:00

In 1986 I was a fourteen year old pulling with all my might for the Angels against the Red Sox. I remember watching with horror as Donnie Moore blew the save with the Halos only one strike away from their first World Series trip. I remember saying to myself that it was over--even though the Angels were still up in the series 3-2. A team doesn't recover from that kind of blow. Sure enough, the Red Sox went on to easy wins in games 6 & 7 and the Angels went home.

I remember the bitter rivalry of the Lakers with the Celtics, the Lakers finally breaking through against the beantowners in classic fashion in 1985, and how good it felt to watch Magic, Kareem and company beat them again in 1987.

I don't like Boston sports much.

The Angels have been particularly put upon by this east coast team, being pushed out of the playoffs in convincing fashion three times this decade. Add 2004, 2007, and 2008 to 1986 and you can understand why long-suffering Halo fans have a bit of a complex when it comes to Boston.

But all that ended today.

What an amazing, unthinkable comeback for this team. And in Boston too, in front of all those chowderhead fans. And in the most dramatic of fashions.

I will be savoring this one for a long time. I very, very seriously contemplated breaking the cleanse to enjoy a celebratory beer out on the porch but I hung tough. In all likelihood the Yankees will be next for the Angels and with any luck I'll a few opportunities to toast some more victories. I can wait.

Even if this season doesn't end up with a World Series win, it's been a great year to be an Angels fan.

I'm still pulling for a "Freeway" series against the Dodgers--man, would that energize the southland! Plus, with MLB insisting on playing baseball into November now, Southern California is the only sensible climate left among the teams remaining.

But right now I don't care about any of that. I'm just thinking of Ben Affleck crying in his green beer. I realize I should not take joy in other fans disappointment, but I'm allowing myself one day to do so.

Feels good.

Cleanse - Day 27

2009-10-10T19:42:00.000-07:00

The wife brought home those delectable chocolate peanut butter cups from Trader Joe's. You know the ones I'm talking about. So much better than Reece's--they just melt in your mouth! But a serving size is only 3 tiny cups and that will cost you 180 calories. Ha! If I can't have them right now then you have to feel guilty about polishing off 9 or 10.

So I saw those and really, really wanted something sweet. I have no good options for that. I can and have put brown sugar (cane sugar, not refined, legal for me) in my oatmeal. Other than that I'm relegated to dried fruit. Yes, dried fruit. Who, when they want something sweet, eats dried fruit?

I do. 8 dried apricots. Really hit the spot. Grrrrrrr...

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Today was Saturday which meant soccer for the kids. Jen and I are pretty ambivalent on the whole youth soccer thing. Neither one of our kids (older kids, we're holding out hope for Wes) are at all athletic to this point, and neither one of them seem to be that into sports. We're pretty confident (and hopeful!) that they won't be interested in signing up again next year and we can have nice, lazy Saturdays again.

But for now, we go. The wife was out of town with little Wes so Daddy was in charge of soccer day. Miah had the first game at 9:00 am and his team actually won a game! First one of the season, 5-0. The other team seemed to have no concept of the offside rule which helped tremendously.

Riley's game was at 11:45am and for the first time in her soccer career (2 years) her team didn't win. She has been on stacked teams in which she is a role player, supporting the go-getters. The game ended in a 3-3 tie, no sudden death or shoot-out in AYSO U-8.

I was helping to ref Riley's game. The wife--despite my objections--has gotten it in her mind that I enjoy refereeing and therefore volunteers me at the beginning of each year. The first time I sat through a day-long "ref school" to find out how to check 6 year-olds for illegal cleats and the proper way to signal a goal kick. This year I refused to go and so I'm relegated to being a "line referee" rather than a "center referee."

Center refs have all the glory. They get a whistle. They also have all the pressure. They get yelled at by parents. Seriously. Because our kids haven't really gotten that into competitive sports I thought the whole angry, out-of-control sports parent thing was a bit of a myth. Not so.

Today Riley's team (The Sunshine Girls. I've tried to tell Riley this means she has to always be pleasant and agreeable, but she isn't buying it.) was the home team which means we supply the center ref and one line ref. The away team (Blue and Black Attack--now that's a decent name!) provides the other line ref.

The poor Sunshine girls, who had never tasted defeat and, I believe, had never trailed in a game, found themselves down at the half 3-1. Tensions were high as the half-time orange slices were consumed and normally calm parents were sniffing for blood.

Referee blood.

Throughout the second half the center ref--who is a parent of one of the girls on our team, mind you--received a fair amount of disgruntled commentary from the parents on our own team! It was comical. And sad.

Do 6 and 7 year-olds really need this kind of pressure? Does a volunteer ref with minimal training who is simply helping out from the goodness of his heart need this kind of grief?

It make me wonder about some of these parents who prowl the sidelines with the intensity of a lion waiting for fresh prey. Do they really have nothing else in life other than this game played by their kid? If this is how things are in the under 8 league, how is it by the time you get to age 12?

No thanks.

By the way, my role-player daughter got hold of one just right and booted a ball from about midfield that somehow avoided all other players and rolled into the goal. First one of the season! I was very happy for her.

Of course if it had missed, I'm sure I could have blamed it on the ref.

Cleanse - Day 26

2009-10-09T21:37:00.000-07:00

Marinated that mahi-mahi in soy sauce, olive oil, onion, garlic, and pepper, and then baked it up with sliced mushrooms.

So good.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My kids have internalized this cleanse thing to the point where they are telling me what I can and cannot eat. Riley making her lunch this morning: I'm going to have cheese and crackers, Daddy. You can't have cheese, right? (Rub it in there, daughter, why don't ya?)

Jeremiah as we rolled through Wendy's tonight to get them each a cheeseburger: I'm getting a junior bacon cheeseburger. Those are off limits for you, Dad. (Yeah, thanks for the reminder, son.)

By the way, this is the first time in this 30-day cleanse that I've been to a fast food establishment. I typically would go 1-3 times a week--loves me a spicy chicken sandwich with fries. Hopefully I can keep the visits down, now.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Angels are now up 2-0 in their series with the Red Sox--I am a very happy fan. (Mighty Maicer Izturis got the big hit. Doesn't he look happy about it?)

Cleanse - Day 25

2009-10-08T21:37:00.000-07:00

Best cleanse day to date. I'll give you three reasons why and none of them have to do with food.

1. Went surfing this morning at the jetty at Bolsa Chica. I hit the tides right and the waves were breaking my way. Caught a couple of rights that were among the best rides I've had. (Disclaimer: only been surfing for 5 years so I still get excited about these things.) Water was warm enough for a spring suit, it wasn't crowded...all was right with the world.

2. Visited a beautiful old man at his house this afternoon who is dying of cancer. He may only have a few days left. I last saw him on Monday and he has clearly worsened in the last three days. But man, when he smiles... He has a grin that lights up the room and eyes that shine from deep within. I was happy to laugh with him, read to him, pray with him, and cry with him. He made me promise to come back. It was an easy promise to make.

3. Just got done watching the Angels beat the hated Red Sox 5-0! Maybe this is the year. Lackey pitched very well, there was clutch hitting... it feels like a (rally) monkey is off our backs. Let's make it 2 games to nil tomorrow night!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I'm a short-timer with this cleanse. Only 5 days to go...

Cleanse - Day 24

2009-10-07T17:07:00.000-07:00

Ben had some thoughts on eating, not very positive ones. Perhaps he speaks from experience. What do you think?

In general, mankind, since the improvement of cookery, eats twice as much as nature requires.

--Benjamin Franklin

A full belly makes a dull brain.

--Benjamin Franklin

Cleanse - Day 23

2009-10-06T20:53:00.000-07:00

One week from today I'm done. Nice.

I took a final shopping trip to Trader Joe's and picked up a final week's worth of supplies: veggies, some fruit, oatmeal, nuts and, as a special treat, some mahi-mahi (so good they had to name it twice!).

I'm already thinking about what patterns and things I'd like to carry over from the cleanse. For instance, I'm done with Diet Coke. It's been a nice run but it's time to break-up. I've kind of grown to like the green tea and if I need a soda I think I'll go with Hansen's Natural.

I really like the wheat bagels toasted up with some honey on 'em. I've been slipping a little butter on there too even though I'm not supposed to. Don't tell Yoda.

I think I'm also going to end my relationship with sugary breakfast cereals. I dig the oatmeal and I'd like to get back into granola. Fat free milk, of course.

I don't think I've ever eaten this many fruits and vegetables on a consistent basis...would like to keep that going too.

I think I can ditch red meat permanently too. The more I read about where it comes from and the entire messed up beef industry the less appealing even the juiciest steak sounds.

Of course, these opinions could all change...

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Read something good enough to share today:

Thought 72 - Reverence

A sense of reverence and awe

in the presence of God

cannot be learned,

cannot be taught.

Without awe, people turn to doctrine.

Without reverence people turn to rules.

Doctrine and rules can be taught and learned.

The pastor resists the temptation to teach.

She steps out of the way and points

to the Presence of God.

Reverence and awe are born in the people's hearts.

Cleanse - Days 21 & 22

2009-10-05T20:28:00.000-07:00

In the midst of a busy life it's hard to keep up with this daily blogging. I received an email from a friend telling me how impressed she was that I was sticking to this cleanse thing. I replied back and told that, honestly, if I didn't have the accountability of having publicly committed myself I am sure I would have been eating pizza and cookie dough around Day 6. So thanks for reading and being prepared to give me you-know-what if I don't play out the hand.

My Yoda told me she was proud of me today too. I "confessed" to her (she's kind of like my Mother Superior too!) that Sunday night while at some friends house I ate a white bread bun with the turkey burger they so graciously made me. It was soooooo good. Yoda was very kind, absolved me of my sin, and told me to eat 10 hunks of broccoli as penance. Deal.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

On another note, I'm very excited about the MLB post season and very nervous about the Angels having to face the Chowdaheads again. The wife and I have tics to game 1 and I'm not sure I can take another beat down at the hands of Boston. If the Halos get swept in this series (again) my first day off the cleanse could be down at O'Malley's drowning my sorrows in a pint or two.

(By the way, I'm tired of transplanted New Englanders and New Yorkers taking over Angel stadium. If Boston and New York are so great then move back there! I feel better.)

Cleanse - Day 20

2009-10-03T20:33:00.000-07:00

Wow, was definitely ready to quit this thing today. Maybe it would help if I didn't personally prepare a bunch of yummy food for my kids. I made them chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast (side of banana) and pepperoni and sausage pizza for dinner (side of peaches). To top it off, they got a brownie with a scoop of ice cream for dessert from their Dad. I am a silly, silly man.

Stupid cleanse...

Cleanse - Day 19: Detroit Bar

2009-10-03T00:40:00.000-07:00

I'm usually a homebody but this has been two nights out in a row for me. Went to Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa to see David Bazan and his band perform. Very, very good. Despite having to stand in one place for about 3 hours and the resulting lower back pain (I'm getting to old for these little club shows), it was well worth it to hear his new material live. The man claims to be an agnostic at best these days, but he's clearly still wrestling.

Everybody but yours truly had a drink or two.

Earlier in the day I got to spend a nice hour on the porch, sipping green tea and catching up with my Mom who was a hero to watch the kids tonight. (She took them to go see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and apparently it warranted three thumbs up.)

Off to bed. Eleven more days to go.

Cleanse - Day 18: The Prospector

2009-10-01T21:26:00.000-07:00

Once a month, on the first Thursday, my boyhood church friends get together for steaks and beer. We had been going to The El Dorado which is within walking distance of the new casa, but our organizer, the infamous John Fouts, directed us to a new destination further into the heart of Long Beach, The Prospector.

Nice place for us. The Prospector is on the corner of 7th and Junipero and according to their website is "one of the most interesting restaurants you'll ever go to." I don't disagree. Luis, the owner, started working at The Prospector back in 1978 in the kitchen and eventually climbed the ladder until he was able buy the place.

I don't think the decor has been changed since at least 1978, and I'll say that's a good thing. The place is the definition of kitschy (website says it's a "1849 Gold Rush theme"), but in a good way. If you look at the picture above you'll see three of my friends and a very nice velvet painting of an Indian in the background. That painting is about par for the course at The Prospector. We say under a giant mirror that designated our section of the establishment as "Cowboy Corner."

Not only is the decor and atmosphere delightful, but the food is tasty and the service is prompt. I had an ice tea (man, I wanted a beer or three with the boys), grilled, skinless chicken, and some mashed potatoes. The price is right too.

Not sure you want to head out there for date night, but for dinner and drinks with the fellas I give The Prospector an A.

Cleanse - Day 17

2009-09-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

I missed blogging for a day but not to fear, faithful readers, I have not fallen off the wagon. Just some busy days at work that are leaving me exhausted and without much to say at the end of the day.

Who likes pizza? Yeah, me too. A lot. We had a party tonight at church for a departing pastor and there were about 700 Costco pizzas and some salad available to eat. Guess what I had? Yep, and a wheat bagel with honey.

I miss me some cheese.

*********************************

Earlier today I had the privilege of officiating at the memorial service for a wonderful grandmother from the community. Typically I really enjoy funerals. That may sound weird, but I like hearing the stories of people's lives. For instance, today I found out that Joyce had a "psycho cat" (her son's terminology) named Bootsy, lived down the street from our old house in Lakewood (I probably ran by her house all the time and didn't realize it), loved to read popular novels, used to visit Del Mar once a year with her girlfriends to play the ponies, and favored Manhattans when ordering a drink.

When it is someone who has lived a long and full life, I love getting together with a family to remember and celebrate and honor that life. It's an honor to listen to each person's story and try to weave the larger story of God into that occasion.

On the other hand, when the service is for a child or held as the result of a tragedy...man that's tough. It's a reminder that this world we live in--though so beautiful in so many ways--is still broken. There seem to be no good words in those situations. I just try to share in the grief and hope and pray that God is able to break in.

There are stories to listen to and take part in there too, and they are beautiful in their own heart-wrenching way.

But Joyce's service today was a celebration and I'm glad I got to be a part of the party.

A Quote

2009-09-29T09:41:00.000-07:00

As nearly as I can tell, our core is what Hebrew and Christian spiritualities have called heart...
The problem is that this heart is so spacious...Since we can neither make an adequate cellular representation of it nor incorporate it into our preexisting systems, we cannot adapt to it. Like God, and perhaps in the image of God, our deepest sense of self will never be "normal." Because our brains are used to dealing with normalities that have boundaries and qualities, the spaciousness, its beckoning security and confidence notwithstanding, is terrifying.
So we are likely to pull away, perhaps even with a vengeance, and thrust our attention back into the world of form and substance where we can define ourselves. Here, though our addictions bind us and frustrate us, we at least think we know who we are. We are in the world of our normality, the conditioned world to which the cells of our brain have adapted. But we have been touched by this other, deeper sense, and it will touch us again. It has awakened and appetized our spiritual hunger, and part of us will forever want to go back for more. We can occupy ourselves with other things, but there will always be times of rest, moments of pause, and there it will be, beckoning.

--Gerald May

Cleanse - Day 15: Half Empty or Half Full?

2009-09-28T21:14:00.000-07:00

Generally speaking I am an optimist. I stay on the sunny side of life. So as I reach the midway point of this 30-day cleanse I feel very positive. The glass is half full. It may be half full of colon cleansing sludge, but it's half full.

************************************

Weariness the last couple of days was definitely protein-related. Yoda gave me a little talking to this morning when I told her I was feeling weak and lightheaded. You have to eat more, Paul. Eat some more protein. You're a man and men burn more calories. Eat!

Suitably chastened I went to the store and loaded up on a new batch of chicken breasts and felt much better after cooking a couple up for dinner.

Yoda is so wise and I am a young Jedi with much to learn.

************************************

On another note I think an old man may have flipped me off today. Yeah, I know! I was driving back to work after lunch in the park and I saw this really cool old dude wearing a lovely old man hat. If you know me a little bit you know that I am partial to old man hats. I have a few and I wear them, unapologetically.

But this guy caught me staring at him and he must not have felt my admiration because I'm pretty sure he lifted his right hand and gave me the old scratch the cheek with the middle finger trick. I can't be sure but he made this motion while looking at me with what I thought was a twinkle in his eye.

What nerve, huh? What spunk! It made me laugh out loud and smile all the way back to work. I've been thinking about him all day.

The old man hat gives one great chutzpah.

Cleanse - Day 14

2009-09-27T21:36:00.000-07:00

Man, I am weary today. Not sure if I'm not getting enough protein, if I just had too long a day at church, or if I'm tired of this cleanse. Maybe a bit of all three.

I think I'll ask Yoda for her opinion tomorrow. I'm pretty sure she'll tell me it's protein related. I'm like the cows who advertise for Chik-fil-A: "Eat mor chikin."

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We had a baptism in one of our services today and I got to officiate. Really cool. I love baptisms. There is something so innocent and dependent about an infant being baptized. Little dude has no idea what is going on but the belief is that God is active, reaching into that child's life, taking the initiative to love and claim and mark out territory.

Even as a pastor I can't say that I fully understand all that is happening during a baptism. This is treading into the territory of Mystery and I've learned to just open my eyes and take in what I can. It's always beautiful.

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Really wanted to finish off the leftover Hawaiian communion bread today. Passed it around to the kids instead and watched them rip hunks off the loaf, devouring it like baby birds in a nest.

Cleanse - Day 13

2009-09-26T22:32:00.000-07:00

I really, really, really wanted a donut today. The kids had a sleep over last night and so I headed out early to get the 5 carpet weasels some donuts at the local shop. They were very appreciative--2 each along with some OJ.

There were a couple left and the chocolate pastry goodness was calling out for me to take a bite--or several. I didn't.

This may be a moral victory but I need to be careful. I don't want to deny myself so much that I end up going Homer Simpson one day and the wife come home to find me passed out on the floor, covered in cookie crumbs. When this cleanse is done I've got to find a way to moderate the re-entry process.

I miss chocolate.

Cleanse - Day 12

2009-09-25T22:54:00.000-07:00

Day 12 found me in downtown Long Beach at Covenant Presbyterian Church for their 2nd annual Scrabble Scramble fundraiser. My Dad, my brother, and my sister-in-law entered as a team (Don't Get Stuck with the "Q"--hey, it's a team name and it's advice) and we ended up winning the thing.

Yeah, I know, congrats to us.

There was a nice cash prize but Ted and I were most excited that we would have our names engraved on the trophy. Money goes away, but a trophy? With your name on it? Just look at the picture to see how we feel about that.

And, yes, we will be back next year to defend our title.

Cleanse - Elevensies

2009-09-24T20:33:00.000-07:00

Below follows one of my favorite exchanges from the first Lord of the Rings movie:

Aragorn: Gentlemen! We do not stop 'til nightfall.

Pippin: But what about breakfast?

Aragorn: You've already had it.

Pippin: We've had one, yes. But what about second breakfast?

[Aragorn stares at him, then walks off.]

Merry: Don't think he knows about second breakfast, Pip.

Pippin: What about elevensies? Luncheon? Afternoon tea? Dinner? Supper? He knows about them, doesn't he?

Merry: I wouldn't count on it.

"Elevensies" for me means two things today. 1) It is the eleventh day of this cleanse and 2) Since starting the cleanse, on a daily basis I probably consume every meal Pippin references. Second breakfast is an apple at 10:00am. Elevensies today was a celery stick. Lunch was a whole wheat bagel with some honey. Afternoon tea was green and included unsalted almonds. Dinner was chicken sausage stir-fried up with onions, peppers, broccoli, and cauliflower. Supper was some flax seed chips.

I would have made an excellent hobbit.

Cleanse - Day 10

2009-09-23T20:31:00.000-07:00

Today I went to Spaghettini for lunch with a guy in our church and our Student Ministries director. The guy from church was buying which was a good thing because Spagh is an expensive place--even for lunch.

I got the Mango Seafood Salad and an ice tea and I'm pretty sure the total would have equalled a good date night for me and the wife. The food was delicious and company was great. This man from our church is one of my favorites. Are pastors allowed to have favorites? He's an older gentleman but with more life in his eyes and spirit than most 30-year olds I know. I like hanging out with him because he actually takes an interest in me. He asks good questions.

But I digress...

The mango seafood salad was unbelievably good. There was some kind of mystery dressing on it that I'm 99% sure contained sugar, but I wisely invoked the don't ask don't tell cleanse diet policy.

It's a great policy for the cleanse...not so sure for the military.

Cleanse - Day 9

2009-09-22T22:51:00.000-07:00

I got home from work at 10:30pm tonight. Semi-stressful elder meeting to cap off a long day. My normal pattern for decompression is to come home, turn on the TV, get some ice cream or chips and veg out until I get tired enough for bed. It's mindless eating that I'm sure hundreds of thousands of working people do as a means of coping.

I'm trying to re-wire my brain to establish different patterns. It's very difficult. So tonight I'm going to read a back issue of The Sun and tell my brain the pantry's closed.

It's weird how stress and eating seem to be such happy bedfellows.

Cleanse - The Ocho

2009-09-21T20:47:00.000-07:00

Ever since seeing the movie Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, I never miss an opportunity to refer to the number eight as "the ocho." In the movie, the network that is covering the dodgeball tournament is ESPN 8, referred to by its commentators as "the ocho." I'm not sure why this strikes me as funny but it does.

So day eight of the cleanse was a pretty tame one. Eggs for breakfast, chicken stir fry for lunch, and then a new contestant, wheat pasta with grilled veggies for dinner. All good, but I would have rather had a bowl of cereal, a sandwich, and the spaghetti and meatballs the family had.

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The wife claims that I am passing gas less often since starting the cleanse. This pleases her. I'm sure she's right because beer alone always makes me rather potent. A quieter, safer Paul has arrived.

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There was a neighborhood dinner party last night and when it was learned I was doing this cleanse thing, the wife came home with a huge bowl of leftover salad that I am supposed to enjoy. This is very kind. But it's also a giant bowl of salad. If I ate the entire thing I'm not so sure I'd have a colon left, nor would I any longer pass the wife's emissions test.

But maybe they could cover it on The Ocho.

Cleanse - Week 1

2009-09-20T20:52:00.000-07:00

For those just tuning in I am attempting a 30-day cleanse of my body by eating, as my Yoda Michelle calls it, "clean", and taking some supplements and drinking some muddy, sawdust water.

Eating clean means no processed foods, no canned foods, no refined sugars, no alcohol, blah, blah, blah. Basically most things that taste good I cannot have. It's been a major adjustment but here I am at the end of week one.

Some things I've learned:

1. Ice is overrated. Yoda told me early on that drinking really cold beverages is actually considered bad for the body. Apparently it shocks the system or something. I thought I would miss this but lukewarm water turns out to be okay.

2. I was (am?) totally addicted to snack foods. I am still jonesing for chips and cookies and the like, some days and times worse than others.

3. My hair is less oily.

4. I'm stubborn. I think it's stubbornness rather than willpower that has kept me on track. I started this thing and I'm going to see it through. This is probably the personality trait that allowed me to complete a marathon. Pride?

5. Losing 8 lbs in one week does not make much of an impact on one's flabby belly.

6. Nuts are no substitute for chips but cashews and almonds are still plenty good to munch on--in moderation.

7. I really love onions and garlic and bell peppers stir fried up with some chicken and seasonings. I could eat this almost every day, cleanse or not. And I have.

8. I can chug a glass of colon-cleanse sludge in roughly 10 seconds. This entertains/horrifies my kids to no end.

9. Going to parties or out to eat with other people is self-torture. It's like a dog purposely sitting in a room of cats when the dog knows he cannot chase any of them. There's a lot of whining.

10. Honey is to the cleanse what a 7-iron is to golf. It can be used in most any situation and you don't want to take you bag anywhere without it.

Finally, I faced a little bit of a dilemma with communion this morning at church. We had Hawaiian sweet bread and grape juice, both of which I'm sure are not "clean." But I'm not saying no to God's extended grace, symbolic or not.

It was the best-tasting sacrament ever.

Cleanse - Day 6

2009-09-19T19:14:00.000-07:00

I'm getting much better at being with people who are eating things that normally I would scoop up two or three at a time. You know, eat first and ask questions later. Now I simply feel a self-righteous pity for them. Poor souls.

Today the wife was eating Cinnabon and the wife's friend was eating Twinkies and Cinnabon. I'm not making that up. (In Wall-E, weren't Twinkies the only food that survived on earth for the cockroach to eat?) I calculated in my head and the wife's calorie count was roughly 874 and the wife's friend's count was 1621. I semi-smugly ate my grilled veggies and chicken and felt sorry for these unenlightened women and their abusive colon ways.

I can see I'm going to have to be careful that I don't cleanse out my eating issues only to replace them with food snobiness issues.

Cleanse - Day 5

2009-09-18T20:50:00.000-07:00

The wife hooked me up today. I was getting a bit tired of chicken stir fried up with various veggies--there just wasn't much taste. Normally I'd throw some teriyaki sauce or something in there, but it's off limits. Jen could tell I was not too inspired and broke out some soy sauce, garlic, paprika, and suggested I add some pepper. Delicious! Nice work, wife.

I think I'm starting to get into a rhythm with this now. I can chug the sludge morning and night with hardly a grimace and I'm making food choices almost unconsciously based on what I know I can and can't have. Still, it's difficult to think that I still need to go 25 more days without tacos or chocolate chip cookies or a tall cold one.

I have to say that honey helps. I had some with oatmeal this morning, on my wheat bagel this evening, and stirred some into my tea. It's amazing what a little bit of sweetness will do for one's morale. Mary Poppins was right.

Cleanse - Day 4

2009-09-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

Day 4 was kind of a fog. Little man Wesley had a very rough night that included me driving him on the freeway at 2:00 am to try to get him to fall asleep. We never had to try something like that with the other two. And he stayed awake the whole time! Maybe in addition to his mother's eyes he's got a bit of his grandma's insomnia.

So I wasn't functioning too well. Made it to work and got a few hours in before attending a presbytery meeting up in Fullerton. I forgot to bring my supplement pills with me so when I got home at 6:00 pm I had to take them and then wait the prescribed hour to eat dinner. Rules, man.

The silver lining in this day was my trip to Trader Joe's. I picked up the flax seed chips, the oatmeal, and the honey, and then splurged on some unsalted cashews and wheat bagels. The veggie flax seed chips are really good, but they have a ton of calories. A serving size is "about 7 chips" and that will add up to 130 calories. I think I cut myself off at 14 chips. It was good to munch on something snacky.

I'm fired up for oatmeal (never thought that sentence would come out of me). I really miss my bowl of cereal in the morning. In fact, I was looking in the pantry and we have a serious backlog of breakfast cereal. Two boxes of Raisin Bran Crunch, two boxes of Frosted Mini Wheats, and some Rice Krispies the wife used to make RK treats.

Being off milk now for a few days I think I could quit permanently. We drink 1% at the White House and if I'm to go back at all, I'll definitely switch to fat free. But maybe I'll try soy. Anyone have any experience with soy milk? How does it taste? I thought I read once that drinking soy milk presented its own issues. Anyone know?

I'll ask Yoda next time I see her.

Cleanse - Day 3

2009-09-17T12:23:00.000-07:00

Day three found me at a pre-cleanse arranged lunch at Taco Surf. Man, whenever I go to Taco Surf I get the same thing: the Baja Fish burrito. It is huge and it is delicious. Not this time. Instead, I ordered the Brandy salad which, unfortunately, is named after the owner's daughter and not the beverage.

I never order salads. Men under the age of 50 should not order salads, I feel strongly about this. Not only did I order it but then I had to remove some of the extras. "No cheese for me, please." "Hold that ranch dressing." I might as well have checked my penis at the door.

The complimentary chips and salsa mocked me.

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Later that night at our small group meeting the wife brought in chocolate cake for the group. Chocolate cake! My own spouse! Unbelievable. This would be like Popeye bringing a plate of hamburgers to Wimpy after Wimpy has made it clear that he is abstaining. Just cruel.

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I told my Yoda that I was blogging about her and I don't think she was terribly pleased. Apparently the ways of the Mexican Hippie Jedis are meant to be kept on the down low. Oh well.

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I really need to make a Trader Joe's run...

Cleanse - Day 2

2009-09-16T13:51:00.000-07:00

I'm eating way too many eggs. I've had two eggs scrambled up with assorted vegetables for breakfast each day. They're yummy but I'm guessing my arteries are not going to be pleased.

Mentioned this to Yoda and she said whole oatmeal is my answer. I can get the kind that takes 30 minutes to cook or the kind that takes 5. Not a tough decision there.

I've got a trip to Trader Joe's I've got to make: whole oatmeal, those crazy good flax seed tortilla chips, and honey. Yoda says that honey is money. I've been handling my green tea without sweetener, but I think stirring in a little bee juice will please me.

Feeling good overall. I've gotten a bit lightheaded at times (maybe I'm in a cantaloupe coma--I ate like a whole cantaloupe, it was delicious!) but nothing serious. More energy.

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Staff lunch was tough as Curtis and Werner brought in Subway sandwiches. I loves me a foot-long sweet onion teriyaki. I pretended to really like my chicken and veggies.

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I have never gotten so much enjoyment out of eating a plain piece of bread. I took a single piece of wheat and ate it slowly and savored it's carb goodness. I didn't even miss the cheese, meat, or condiments. Not much anyway.

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Tomatoes are no good. Acidic. The wife bought a crate-full and now we have lots of tomatoes that I can't eat. If you like tomatoes you should stop by our house and grab a few.

I'll let you try the sludge if you ask nicely.

Cleanse - Day 1

2009-09-16T04:27:00.000-07:00

Day 1 (Monday) was pretty good. I nibbled on chicken breasts, ate carrot sticks and snap peas, and munched on unsalted almonds. Not bad really. Only moments of temptation came during our small groups thank you dinner for small group leaders.

Lasagna was on the menu. According to the Mexican hippies that my Yoda runs with--the ones who came up with this healthy eating guide in the 70's--lasagna is bad on a couple of levels. First, that's a lot of cheese and cheese is no bueno during a cleanse. Second, it combines carbs and protein in every mouthful (it was meat lasagna) and for optimal digestion one is supposed to separate carb and protein intake.

I had salad and garlic bread and avoided the ice cream dessert.

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By the way, I go into this cleanse at a robust 228 lbs. and while the goal it not really to lose weight I won't mind if that's a side benefit. For years now I've hovered between 220--230 but I'd be happy to get back to my college basketball playing weight of 210-215. This may happen--I lost 4 lbs in the first day.

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More good news: Yoda thinks it's okay for me to eat canned tuna!

The Cleanse

2009-09-15T15:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I started a 30-day cleanse. What is a cleanse? Glad you asked. It basically means I'm eating and drinking and consuming differently for the next month in an effort to undo years and years of Doritos and Ben & Jerry's and Diet Coke's and Newcastle beer.

I'm trying to reset my body onto a healthier frequency.

Because I'm haven't blogged consistently in an eon, I thought this would be a good opportunity to share the experience. I'm also hoping it will help keep me accountable to see this thing through, because I'm not at all sure that I can.

When it comes to food--especially foods that are pleasing to the taste buds--I usually have the willpower of a cat in a box of yarn. It's not pretty. I can--and have--mowed through most of a whole pizza by myself and have come really close to finishing off a half-gallon of ice cream in one sitting. It just tastes so good! I'm pretty sure I have a problem.

But it's weird for a (relatively) skinny guy like me to be talking about going on a diet, right? It's not a diet, per se, it's more of a physical roto-rooter and an attempt to start from scratch with some healthier habits.

I'm also hopeful that there will be some spiritual purging too; that the desire to overindulge will flush right out of my colon along with everything else.

That's right, I said colon. Better get used to it because for the next 30 days the "c" word might be popping up a lot.

My Yoda for this experience is my friend at church Michelle. Michelle is very modest and doesn't necessarily think of herself as a "super healthy eater", but she knows things. When I sat her down to tell her I wanted to do a cleanse (I had heard her mention doing this in the past) she was a fountain of information.

Michelle knows things and she knows people. It's like the mafia or something. She has a source, a "guy" out in Santa Ana who she gets her stuff from. I wrote her a check for my "stuff" and a couple of days later she passed a heavy, wadded up, unmarked paper bag to me, along with some instructions. I caught myself looking around for narcs.

It's a strange collection of materials--at least to me. There is Colon Detox (there's that word again, and who knew a colon could be addicted?) and Linopal (which is flax seed). I get to mix these two items into a glass of water to drink twice a day. It has the consistency of road sludge and tastes about the same. Yummy!

There are also tablets of L & G which I take 4 of a day. Michelle explained to me what each of these items does but it's as if she's speaking Spanish because I don't understand. Perhaps it is Spanish because all of the materials have vaguely Hispanic names and packaging. Maybe our neighbors to the south know something about healthy eating that we don't. Probably not, since I am definitely not allowed to eat flour tortillas--or cheese.

Here is a list of things I am not allowed to have and how I feel about that:

1. Cheese (milk products in general). I am very displeased about this. Cheese is it's own food group in my book. Just about every food I enjoy has cheese. And I am also saying goodbye to my daily bowl of cereal and milk.

2. Chemicals. This sounds alright at first, after all, who wants to eat chemicals? Turns out we all do. Chemicals are in a whole mess of packaged foods and drinks we consume on a regular basis, like Diet Coke and Ding Dongs (or is that just me?).

3. Processed foods. Basically no more packaged snack foods. Cheese-it's, Pringles, etc. And pretty much anything else that comes in a can, box, or has a label on it. Pretty much. (I did find an out with this and Michelle confirmed that the flax seed tortilla chips from Trader Joe's are clear! It's the small victories...)

4. Red meat. I'm really not that much of a red meat eater anyway. Jen and I were slowly making the permanent transition to turkey meat anyway. I think I'll cool with this until the next time I drive by an In-n-Out.

5. Acidic foods like lemons, oranges, pineapples and tomatoes. And apparently strawberries are acidic too. This messes with your digestion and makes the stomach work harder. Not good during a cleanse, apparently. There are plenty of other fruit options so this is okay.

6. Refined sugar. I have a serious sweet tooth. Especially for all things chocolate-y. I could be in trouble here.

7. Alcohol. I am a social drinker who likes to have a few beers with guys when watching sporting events or playing cards, etc. I will miss the beer, the occassional glass of wine, and the finger or two of scotch that goes along with good conversation. Water, anyone?

The wife thinks I'm a nut (Hey! There's something I can eat all day--nuts!) but she's being supportive. I think she's semi-worried I'll actually pull this off, turn into a full granola man and she'll feel compelled to follow me. Unlikely.

So yesterday was the first day. I'll blog about that later and try to update this each day. If you ask me questions about the process, what I can eat, etc., I'll do my best to answer but I'll probably refer you to my Yoda.

Have a cookie for me.

Light

2009-09-10T09:11:00.000-07:00

What we know of the world comes to us primarily through vision. Our eyes, however, are sensitive only to that segment of the spectrum located between red and violet; the remaining 95 percent of all existing light (cosmic, infrared, ultraviolet, gammas, and x-rays) we cannot see. This means that we only perceive 5 percent of the "real" world.

--Amos Vogel

Jimmy

2009-07-20T15:06:00.001-07:00

I've always liked that peanut farmer...

6/24/09

2009-06-24T09:11:00.000-07:00

This morning I thank you for the canal
and the freedom to paddle;
I thank you for my failing-seat bicycle,
for legs weary from the road;
I thank you for a quiet office
and a chair that fits me;
I thank you for books and conversations
that direct my gaze to you;
I thank you for breathing that is peace-full,
for a spirit that is at rest,
for this mindful moment when
all things are well.

Podcasts

2009-06-05T11:07:00.000-07:00

The iphone can be a distracting device and a frivolous waste of time, but it can also bring much light into one's life. One of the ways it shines light into my heart and mind is through the wonder of podcasts.

One of the podcasts I listen to religiously (pun intended) is Speaking of Faith. This morning I listened to an inspiring and very thought-provoking first person narrative--and follow-up interview--with professor Marc Mullinax. You can read it or listen to it here. Every American Christian should listen to this.

Other podcasts I enjoy and encourage you to check out are:

I'm open to signing up for others, so what do you listen to that you think would be worth my time?

Domino

2009-06-03T13:07:00.000-07:00

And Then You

2009-05-28T14:57:00.000-07:00

And Then You

We arrange our lives as best we can,
to keep your holiness at bay,
with our pieties,
our doctrines,
our liturgies,
our moralities,
our secret ideologies
Safe, virtuous, settled.
And then you --
you and your dreams,
you and your visions,
you and your purposes,
you and your commands,
you and your neighbors.
We find your holiness not at bay,
but probing, pervading,
insisting, demanding.
And we yield, sometimes gladly,
sometimes resentfully,
sometimes late... or soon.
We yield because you, beyond us, are our God.
We are your creatures met by your holiness,
by your holiness made our true selves.
And we yield. Amen.

--Walter Bruggemann, Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth: Prayers of Walter Bruggemann

Call 2 Fall

2009-05-27T05:22:00.000-07:00

The above declaration is from a movement Call 2 Fall which desires to get 40,000 American churches to literally get on their knees on Sunday, July 5--repenting of sin and asking for God to "heal our land."

Call 2 Fall utilizes a very popular scripture from the Old Testament book of Chronicles to support this request:

...if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (II Chronicles 7:14)

Let me begin with the positives.

1. Repentance is never a bad idea.

As the people of God--individually and collectively--we are always well served to get on our knees, allow God's Spirit to move and convict us where necessary, seek forgiveness, and then allow ourselves to be embraced by God's transforming love.

2. Ditto humility.

Christians (myself included) can often be an arrogant lot, blind to our own sins and failures and eager to highlight those of others--especially non-Christians but, also, perfectly willing to judge our brothers and sisters in Christ. Humility is an underused virtue.

Now the negatives:

1. Scriptural context.

The cited passage of Scripture from II Chronicles 7 does not exist in a void. As you can see from the ellipse (...if my people) that begins verse 14, there is more to it. This verse is part of a larger sentence, paragraph, and section of Scripture. It is taken from King Solomon's dedication of the temple to God and it is a part of God's response to Solomon.

The first part of the sentence that God utters--the part on the other side of the ellipse, goes like this: "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people and THEN the section continues with verse 14, quoted above.

After verse 14 God goes on to tell Solomon that as long he (and his descendants after him) keeps the commands and decrees of God, as long as he stays true to God, God will inhabit the temple and keep the family on the throne.

We Christians are fond of lifting portions of Scripture--even partial sentences!--to suit our means, to make God's Word say what we want it to say. This is a dangerous thing to do that leads to a narrow view of Scripture and contributes to errors in interpretation.

2. Scriptural Interpretation.

If we (the Church) want to bring this particular verse (14) forward into the 21st century, how do we properly do that? The key are the words "my people" and "land."

When God refers to "my people" God is referring to the Israelites, those with whom God made a covenant--the men, women, and children who belong to God. When we (Christians) read the words "my people" today, we should read that as the Church. All people throughout the world, in every nation, who confess Christ are God's "people."

Unfortunately, the error that is often made by the churches in the United States is to read "my people" as, at best, "American Christians" and, at worst, "all people of America whether they live as Christ's disciples or not." The worldwide, cross-cultural nature of God's Church is abandoned in favor of an American only Church.

Obviously this is wrong, but it's a very common misinterpretation.

This misinterpretation is helped along by incorrectly understanding the word "land," as well. Read in an American-centric manner, with "my people" only applying to American Christians, the word "land" becomes synonymous with "the United States." The people of God in the time of Solomon had a "land" given them by God. The Church today does not have a designated "land," but rather exists all throughout the world, in every country, linked together not by soil but by common profession of Christ as Lord.

The verse is then commonly read and misunderstood this way by a lot of Christians:

If America, who is called by my name, will humble itself and pray and seek my face and turn from its wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal the United States of America.

The better way for Christians to read this verse--again, assuming we want to bring it into the 21st century and seek to apply it today--would be like this:

...if my people (the Church), who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal the Church.

You see the difference?

3. Confusion of Church and Nation and myopic American focus.

With this understanding of interpretation, here again is the original declaration from the folks at Call 2 Fall, based on II Chronicles 7:14:

I will answer God's call to fall on my knees in humility and seek his face in repentance so that He might forgive my sins and heal our land.

If it ended with a period after the word "sins" I would have no problem with it. Or, if it said "heal the Church" instead of "heal our land" I would be good to go.

But this declaration, as well-meaning as its intentions are, is ultimately a misinterpretation of Scripture and actually, I believe, serves to harm the Church. Let me explain.

The interpretation of II Chronicles 7:14 by Call 2 Fall reinforces the bad theology that America is in some way the "new Israel," a nation with whom God has made a special covenant. This view holds that it is the nation of America that is the "city on a hill" that shines brightly for God, drawing people to Christ.

This is very bad theology. The special relationship that God has established, through Jesus, is with the Church. And again, the Church is anybody and everybody that confesses Christ, regardless of nation. It is the Church that is to be that beacon of God's love, shining in such a way that people are drawn to and embraced by God's love.

When Christians repent and humble themselves, therefore, it should not be with the expectation that God is going to magically restore the United States to a status of "Christian" nation that somehow has a special "in" with God. This status never existed and was never meant to exist. That "status" and that "in" are for the Church.

Rather, when Christians repent and humble themselves and want to pray in the manner of II Chronicles 7:14, they are repenting on behalf of the Church. We would be asking God to examine us; to forgive us for the sins that cause us to be broken and that mute the light of Christ to a world that needs God's love. We would praying so that we might be healed and whole so that we could truly be the Church.

This is how I would encourage Christians to pray on July 5th (and every day) and the call to fall that makes Scriptural and theological sense.

Thoughts?

Why I don't like the Dodgers

2009-05-21T12:36:00.000-07:00

Growing up I quickly became enamored with sports and, as a southern Californian, began to become aware of the local teams. By the time I was in late elementary school I was waking up each morning, reading the L.A. Times sports section from front to back, and memorizing statistics for favorite teams and players.

Most boys (and girls) get their team affiliations spoon-fed to them from their parents, particularly their fathers. For some reason, my Dad never operated this way. I can't remember him ever sitting down when we were little to watch a game or ever hearing him express a rooting interest. (This is in stark contrast to myself--my kids know without a doubt who their Dad roots for and who he roots against!) It wasn't until we three boys were in high school, I believe, playing sports ourselves and ingrained in our rooting interests that my Dad began to watch with us, and express his own long-dormant preferences.

So as a sports-obsessed kid I had a rare opportunity to pick my own teams and develop my own loyalties. As a child of the 80's who was immersed in basketball, it's no surprise that I attached myself to the Lakers. Looking back I can't believe how fortunate I was to grow up in the Showtime era with Chick Hearn. I can remember watching games with a pad of paper and a pencil, carefully keeping track on Magic's points, assists, and rebounds, hoping for a triple double.

My other passion growing up was reading. I loved our local library--and realize looking back that the main Whittier library is an impressive facility. (I worked there for two summers in college as a page--still probably my favorite job ever.) We would go to the library weekly, as I remember it, and I would spend a long time perusing the juvenile sports and biography sections. It was here that I first read about Roger Staubach and the Dallas Cowboys. I can remember seeing them on TV, over at a friends house (remember, my Dad didn't watch sports) against the Rams for a playoff game in the early 80's. It was probably the first NFL game I ever saw. I was captivated by the star on the helmet, by quarterback Danny White, tailback Tony Dorsett, and of course, Ed "Too Tall" Jones. I was hooked. The library became a place to read about this proud franchise and its legendary characters such as Staubach.

College football and basketball preferences developed a bit later. Again, with no direction at home I was free to attach myself however I pleased. Most of my friends and friends families seemed to have a love for UCLA and a strong dislike for USC. This was all it took for me to pick the Trojans. I have a strong contrary streak and a desire to be different and, again, in the early 80's (and throughout much of the 80's, really), the Bruins were on the upswing and the men from Troy were trending down. I chose the cardinal and gold and have never looked back. Only after this loyalty had become an irreversible part of me did I find out that my Dad graduated from UCLA! And later, not even my younger brother becoming a Bruin could shift my loyalties.

And that brings us to the Dodgers. Here is the one instance that doesn't hold true to form, for I once loved the Dodgers. In the days of Cey, Garvey, Lopes, Yeager, and Baker, I had all of their cards and bled Dodger blue. (Though, true to my desire to be different, I declared that Darrell Thomas was my favorite.) So what happened?

The Dodgers weren't loyal to me--or at least that's how I perceived it. Beginning in the 80's these baseball heroes of mine slowly disappeared from Chavez ravine, the victims of trades, free agency, injuries, or simply retirement. I was too young at that point to realize that this was a normal occurrence and that other favorites would emerge, that it was the team that was important. So I looked elsewhere...

...and I found the Angels. The Angels were fresh and new to me. They were very good in 1982 and again in 1985. They had Don Baylor, Reggie Jackson, Bobby Grich (and his mustache), Doug Decinces, and my favorite, the smooth, smooth Rod Carew. I switched. And I've never looked back.

It certainly didn't hurt that as I got older I realized that living in L.A. County being an Angel fan was a bit of a rarity (again, that desire to be different). We Angel fans may not have had very good teams but we were loyal--if few.

But why do I dislike the Dodgers so much? Why do I actively root against them? Believe it or not, the seeds of this resentment were planted by the Los Angeles Times. About the time I embraced the Angels was about the time I began my ritual of reading the Sports section with my bowl of cereal (a ritual that I still keep, by the way). The sports editors of the L.A. Times have long favored the Dodgers over the Angels when it comes to coverage. The Dodgers routinely got the front page while the Angels were relegated to the page 3--or worse. This wasn't the Dodgers fault, of course, but as a youngster I took it personally and, in truth, I've never been able to fully let it go.

It has given me a great deal of empathy over the years for Clipper fans, however. For they have been given the same treatment by the Times and their fans are equally as bitter against the Lakers--the supposed source of their second-class status--as Angel fans often are at the Dodgers.

So it is not surprising that the new century has brought me--and many long-suffering Halo fans--a certain measure of satisfaction. When the Angels won the title in 2002 I don't what made me more happy: that they were the champs or that the Dodgers had finally been relegated to the sidelines.

I realize this is irrational and somewhat mean-spirited, but I can't seem to help it. The Dodgers are like an older brother that has gotten all the accolades and attention--even long after they have deserved it.

Which makes the fact that the Dodgers are in first place and own the leagues best record right now like fingernails on a chalkboard to me! Sigh.

This is why I don't like the Dodgers.

(By the way, my Dad did have one very important sports influence in my life. When I was in the 8th grade he gave me a paperback copy of John Feinstein's A Season on the Brink which chronicled the 1986 basketball season for the Indiana Hoosiers and gave a very insider look at volatile coach Bobby Knight. I loved it. I found Knight intense, larger-than-life, and utterly compelling. I became a Hoosiers fan overnight and still root for them. When I drove around the country after college I took a pilgrimage of sorts to the campus and snuck into a closed practice at Assembly Hall. When Knight spotted me he kicked me out. I was elated.)

Discernment

2009-05-19T16:08:00.000-07:00

Your vocation is to continually discern from within your "being" what God is calling you to be "doing" in each new circumstance and chapter of your life. "Discernment" implies a continuing process, illustrated by one of its Greek roots. Diakrisis literally means "through crisis," and diakrino means "to judge or decide through." Most major turning points in life come to us via crisis. "Through" implies a process where the Spirit has been at work in us over time, whereas "decision" reflects an act of will at a point in time. Good decisions are the "ripened fruit" of a process of discernment.

--Kent Ira Groff, Active Spirituality: A Guide for Seekers and Ministers

Blaise

2009-05-18T15:40:00.000-07:00

The Way of God, who disposes all things with gentleness, is to instil religion into our minds with reasoned arguments and into our hearts with grace, but attempting to instil it into hearts and minds with force and threats is to instil not religion but terror.

--Blaise Pascal

Affirmation of Faith

2009-05-18T09:24:00.001-07:00

This is from the Iona Community. We used it last week at our presbytery worship service. I like it.

We believe in God above us,
maker and sustainer of all life,
of sun and moon,
of water and earth,
of male and female.

We believe in God beside us,
Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh,
born of a woman, servant of the poor,
tortured and nailed to a tree.
A man of sorrows, he died forsaken.
He descended into the earth
to the place of death.
On the third day he rose from the tomb.
He ascended into heaven
to be everywhere present,
and his kingdom will come on earth.

We believe in God within us,
the Holy Spirit of Pentecostal fire,
life-giving breath of the church,
Spirit of healing and forgiveness,
source of resurrection and eternal life. Amen.

Jesus and Torture

2009-05-14T09:17:00.000-07:00

Great "letter to Jesus" forwarded to me from a friend. This was written for the Associated Baptist Press by David Gushee:

-- Dear Jesus,

Everyone seems to be talking about the poll put out last week by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. They found that 62 percent of white evangelical Protestants believe “the use of torture against suspected terrorists to gain important information” to be often or sometimes justified. Only 16 percent of this group -- a community that by self-definition is very, very serious about following you -- believes torture is never justified. That number was lower than any other group polled.

I think that what really got people’s attention with this poll, Lord, is that both evangelical identity and church attendance were positively correlated with support for torture. Thirteen percent more evangelicals said torture was often or sometimes justified than in the general population. In other words: The more often people go to church, the more they support torture. So those of your followers who go to church every week support torture at 54 percent, while those who seldom or never go support it at 42 percent.

These results have bounced around the country all week, reinforcing the opinion here that Christianity -- the faith that purports to be related to loyalty to you, Jesus -- leads people to support torture. It would be easy for casual news-watchers to conclude that if you want to end torture in this country, the best thing to do would be to empty out the churches. What a negation of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:16-20)! We could call it the Great De-Commissioning!

But, Jesus, can it be that the problem is that the churches are already empty? Can it be that the institution that you founded to advance your mission in the world is already empty of any understanding of what it might really mean to follow you? Is it already empty of people who take your teachings and example so seriously that they might have the capacity to resist seductive and dangerous ideas floating around our culture -- like the idea that if torture “works” to “protect national security,” and thus is something that followers of Jesus Christ ought to support as good loyal Americans?

Is your church already empty of courageous leaders who are willing to lose their jobs in order to say a resounding NO to a heretical idea like that? Is it already empty of people who understand that if you are a Christian, you cannot serve two masters, like, for example, Jesus and National Security? Is it already empty of people who understand that because all human beings are made in your image, there are some things that we just can’t do to anyone, no matter who they are?

What is this thing called “Christianity” in this country, Lord Jesus? Does it have anything to do with you? It seems a strangely Americanized thing, a disastrously domesticated faith toward which people can nod their heads in loyalty as long as it doesn’t conflict with their full participation in whatever this country feels like it wants to do.

You founded an international, countercultural movement filled with followers who did everything you taught them to do to advance the peaceable and just reign of your Father in this rebellious world. We American Christians have turned it into a culture-religion that has nothing to say even about, say, waterboarding, slamming people repeatedly into walls, forced nudity, prolonged shackling, 11 days of sleep deprivation, psychological terror, sexual humiliation, religious desecration, and so much more! Or that even supports all of this to protect ... America!

O Jesus, what have you to do with a religion like this? “I spit you out of my mouth” -- these words of yours somehow come to mind (Rev. 3:16)!

Lord, you taught us much about resisting temptation. You talked about not giving the Devil a space in which to operate, and about cutting off the sources of temptation at the root (Mark 10:43-48). It seems like on this torture issue, Jesus, our nation got tempted by its fear and anger and grief to go down a road we had repudiated since our founding! When what we were doing first surfaced (Abu Ghraib, 2004), we all purported to be shocked, shocked. Now at least half of your people say it’s fine to do worse than what we did there! Where’s your Holy Spirit, leading us into righteousness and convicting us of our sins? Or, better, where is the responsiveness of your people to your Holy Spirit, the One who speaks truth to your people if we will but listen?

O Lord, you know that some of us have been fighting this torture thing for several years. We thought that America would come to its senses eventually. We thought that a transition to an anti-torture president would make a difference. Well, the policies may be changing right now, but support for torture among even your own self-identified followers remains sufficiently strong that it looks like, under a different president, we would go right back to doing it, and Christians would go right back to supporting it or just remaining acquiescent! The more torture memos that get released, the more we argue about whether torture is okay! Can nothing end this cancerous debate?

Jesus, this doesn’t look like a problem that can be solved through garden-variety activism. Another press conference, another media alert, another academic meeting, another document or article -- none of this seems to make any difference.

Lord, it seems that the problem runs deeper than what such activism can solve. Clearly, your church in this land has been deeply corrupted. I’m still trying to figure out all the sources of that corruption, but it looks like some combination of an inadequate understanding of what the Bible really teaches, an inadequate grasp of who you really are, an inadequate commitment to your Lordship over all of life and thus our obligation to follow your teachings in all things, inadequate disciple-formation processes in our churches, inadequate leadership from the pulpit, inadequate social ethics (especially the lack of any firm commitment to human dignity and human rights), and inadequate understanding of the distinction between the church and the nation. I’m sure there’s more.

There are times when a church so badly misunderstands what it means to be church that it must be repudiated as fundamentally ungodly, fundamentally a negation of true Christianity. This has sometimes been called a status confessionis moment -- a situation where the basic integrity of the gospel and the core witness of the church are at stake. Jesus, I believe this is one such moment.

Any church -- congregation, parachurch organization, denomination, or group of individual Christians -- that supports torture has violated its confessed allegiance to you and can no longer be considered part of your true church. Let them be anathema.

Jesus, I pray with all my heart for the survival of a remnant of faithful Christianity in this country. It goes far beyond torture. It has to do with whether we are really your people or are liars and hypocrites, just deluding ourselves on the way to Judgment Day.

Push

2009-05-07T12:34:00.001-07:00

Two Roads

2009-04-28T16:30:00.000-07:00

...Jesus would not entrust himself to them [the clamoring crowds], for he knew all people. He did not need human testimony about them, for he knew what was in them. (John 2:24-25)

I would think it must have been incredibly tempting for Jesus to be a Rock Star. At this early point in his ministry when he is beginning to perform miraculous signs, everybody wants a piece of him, every agent wants to sign him to a deal.

He must have been tempted, human as he was. Yet in his divinity he could see into the hearts of the sycophants and see just how conditional their adoration was. He knew as soon as his true mission was made known that the throngs would turn on him and eventually abandon him. And so he did not give in to that temptation and allow himself to be carried off in their grasping arms, away from his path.

The way of God is not a ticker-tape parade where one is congratulated and adored. It is a narrow, often lonely road that one is mocked for taking.

Lighter

2009-04-27T16:29:00.000-07:00

Daddy/Mommy God

2009-04-16T14:33:00.000-07:00

Occasionally I've gotten into some pointed "discussions" (read: arguments) with church folks about the gender (or lack there of) of God.

I'm currently reading through a very good little book on The Lord's Prayer with our deacons: Praying Like Jesus by James Mulholland. Rev. Mulholland (even though he's a baptist!) articulates my thoughts on the subject much better than I. Enjoy...

You can imagine the tongue-lashing I received a few months later when I suggested it was also appropriate to call God "Our Mother." I suspect this is precisely the language Jesus would choose today. He used father imagery to counteract those titles that kept God distant and impersonal. In our society, where nearly 50 percent of all children grow up without a father active in their lives, Jesus would probably call God "Our Mother."

Those who vehemently argue for the title "God the Father" miss the point. Jesus was not interested in replacing one rigid title with another. He was defining our relationship to God in a new way. Claiming God as a parent was far more than sentimental fantasy. In so doing, Jesus was challenging how we perceive God. For Jesus, God was the father we cry out for when we awake in the darkness, in the grip of a nightmare. God was the mother who dries our tears and kisses away our pain when we fall and skin our knee. God was a parent--intimate, loving, and committed.

...What concerned Jesus was not God's gender, but any image that denied God's intimate knowledge and concern for his children...

...Whenever the church emphasizes any image that contradicts the parental affection and commitment of God, it slanders God's character. When we portray God as an angry judge, we make God an abusive parent. When we suggest God is distant and demanding, we divorce God from his children. When we reinforce people's fears about God, we deny our Father's unlimited patience and grace...

...Remembering that God is a parent changes the way I pray.

All Wet at Boomers

2009-04-15T12:42:00.001-07:00

Jeremiah turned eight this past Saturday. To celebrate he invited four classmates to join him, and yours truly had the honor of taking them all to Boomers in Fountain Valley on Good Friday afternoon.

What a great time. Go carts, mini golf, pizza, video games and--as you can see by the picture above--bumper boats. It was a cool, overcast day and threatening rain, but 2nd graders have don't give a hoot about the cold and getting wet.

They were the only ones interested in going on the boats and they proceeded to soak themselves thoroughly. Each climbed out, dripping, like a sponge from a bucket.

From left to right are: Nicholas, the birthday boy, Sean, Evan, and Matthew.

Post-Christian?

2009-04-13T15:21:00.000-07:00

This article by Newsweek columnist Jon Meacham is really, really good and worth your time. It shares the results of a new survey reporting the percentage of Americans claiming no religious affiliation has risen from 8% to 15% since 1990, and talks about the implications of that change.

It's funny, though, because the person who emailed it to me (and others) did so because they were alarmed and troubled by this indication that America is becoming (or is) "post-Christian."

"Post-Christian" by the way apparently means that the Christian worldview (and who exactly decides what that is?) is no longer the foundation for our country, politics, and culture.

Maybe it's just me but I don't have a problem with this. Evangelicals often bemoan this and regard it as a loss, believing the U.S. is headed (the horror!) for a head-on collision with secularism, like much of Europe.

But here's a news flash: there are still Christians in Europe. I know, I've been there. And with the backdrop of a secular state, one can actually tell who the Christians are! They stand out, like Clifford the big red dog in a heard of zebras.

It would be nice if evangelicals saw this as an opportunity. Not an opportunity necessarily to "convert" people, but an opportunity to simply focus on being the Church; living as that alternate society that stands in stark contrast to the culture around it. Perhaps as our country becomes more secular and divorced from the quasi-pseudo-cultural American Christianity that has defined it for decades, people might actually be attracted to its radical, countercultural message of God's love once again.

But wanting to hang on to a dying dream of some country and culture that is (or ever was) supposedly "Christian" makes no sense to me.

Let it die.

Grapefruit is for subversives

2009-04-10T11:59:00.000-07:00

Today I ate a grapefruit for the first time in years. It was delicious. But I fear the grapefruit is up against it. I think it has fallen on hard times in the fruit world. I imagine sales of grapefruits--in their natural, rotund existence--lag far, far behind the more popular apples, bananas, and oranges.

Why is this so? Because the grapefruit makes you work to enjoy its goodness. And in a world of I-don't-want-to-do-anything-more-than-pop-the-lid-off-a-ready-made-fruit-cup-at-Starbucks, the overwhelming majority of folks just don't want to have to actually slice something open, work each section delicately with a spoon, and risk getting squirted.

Another, related point: the grapefruit rewards patience but punishes those in a hurry. If one approaches the grapefruit with the respect and gentleness it deserves, one can expect to leisurely enjoy a citrus treat. However, if one rushes the process, digging in haphazardly like a pig in a trough, one can expect to make a mess and be frustrated at the same time.

Do yourself a favor and eat a grapefruit soon. But don't do it while reading the paper or surfing the net or any other task you may be trying to multi. Just sit there quietly and eat the thing. Take your time. Enjoy the process. And may your subversive fruit eating be the start of something bigger.

Maundy Thursday

2009-04-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

On the night before his death, Jesus takes a piece of bread, breaks it and says, 'This is my body given for you. Do this in my memory.' To do this in his memory is not primarily about repeating a ritual memorial service, but is about allowing his Spirit so to possess us that we see our lives as bread to be broken that others may live. This is to share in God's own life, expressed uniquely in Jesus.

-Gerard Hughes

Palm Sunday

2009-04-06T14:14:00.000-07:00

No donkey this time

but a borrowed Honda 550.

Jesus riding into town

with a black leather jacket,

jeans frayed at the knees,

and L-O-V-E tattooed

on the knuckles of his right hand.

Those who saw him

said his smile was like the sun,

warming shadowed corners

and causing the way to blossom

unexpectedly.

Those who saw him told

of all the light left over

to be taken home and set

in eyes, in hearts

and at windows for strangers.

It was like a miracle,

they said.

The rest of us missed it.

We were in another part of the city,

waiting for the Messiah.

--Joy Cowley

Losing My Religion

2009-03-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

Many posts ago I think I included a link to an article written by the religion writer for the L.A. Times, William Lobdell. It was a farewell piece in which he spoke eloquently about how he lost his faith while covering religion for the paper.

He's expanded his story and put it into book form. A friend from church passed the book on to me and I read it in a day and a half.

I'm not sure it was the best thing for me to be reading right now, as it feeds into some doubts and fears of my own, but his story is very compelling, very difficult to put down, especially for fellow southern Californians.

He speaks of Mariner's Church in Irvine, Rev. John Huffman (a fellow pastor in my presbytery), and Dr. Bill Creasy (a former UCLA professor who teaches a bible class at our church every Tuesday).

I appreciate Lobdell's story, especially the honest and fair way in which he tells it. Read about the book here and if you'd like to borrow it and have a conversation about it let me know.

Computing the Cost

2009-03-27T10:46:00.000-07:00

The Sun had a fascinating interview in their recent issue with Nicholas Carr (I didn't know who he was either), who recently wrote a cover story for Atlantic entitled, "Is Google Making us Stupid." That article and a book he's working on talk about the potential problems from too much time spent surfing and clicking on our computers.

I highly recommend reading the entire piece, but here are some excerpts:

"I've had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory...I'm not thinking the way I used to think.

"I was having trouble sitting down and immersing myself in a book, something that used to be totally natural to me. When I read, my mind wanted to behave the way it behaves when I'm online: jumping from one piece of information to another, clicking on links, checking e-mail, and generally being distracted. I had a growing feeling that the Internet was programming me to do these things and pushing on me a certain mode of thinking...

"I'm trying to put some limits on my Internet and e-mail use, but that's not always possible. There are broad social and economic changes underway that reward Internet use. If you cherish the ability to concentrate deeply and be reflective, you need to set aside time to read and think every day, so that those circuits in your brain don't get erased.

"As we increasingly connect with the world through computer screens, we're removing ourselves from direct sensory contact with nature. In other words, we're learning to substitute symbols of reality for reality itself.

"The danger with interactive media is that they draw us away from quieter and lonelier pursuits. Interactivity is compelling because its rewards are so easy and immediate, but they're often also superficial.

Cooper: So what are you going to do when Google-chip implants become as necessary as credit cards?

Carr: Probably get one. [Laughter.] My guess is I won't be around by the time that happens, but I think it's probably what people will end up doing, if it becomes possible, because we will likely be rewarded handsomely for it. Having the chip will become necessary for success in your professional and social life, and hence hard to resist. If you'll walk around with a Bluetooth headset hanging from your ear, you'll probably walk around with a Google chip in your brain."

Thoughts? By the way, The Sun is a fantastic publication that features essays, interviews, and original poetry and short stories--not to mention very good photography.

Good News for Guys

2009-03-25T21:34:00.000-07:00

I don't know any guy that doesn't love watching The Three Stooges. Larry, Moe, and Curley (and even Shemp) are universal in their guy appeal.

CEO's and construction workers, teens and octogenarians, Ivy league and bush league---we all can't get enough of Moe pulling out tufts of Larry's hair or breaking a shovel over Curley's head.

It's just funny. Every time.

So it was with great excitement that I learned MGM is planning a Three Stooges Movie for a fall release. You can read more about it here. Other than Jim Carrey, I like the choices.

Brackets

2009-03-19T13:48:00.000-07:00

The college basketball tournament affectionately known as March Madness is a big deal in my house.

I mean a big deal.

Each year I get out a giant white board when Selection Sunday rolls around. As the teams who made the field are announced, I fill them in and the board sits up prominently in the living room. As each game is completed, I write the winner into the next line. (The lines are made up of black electrical tape.)

Jen and I have filled out a bracket and had a private contest in picking winners every year that we've been married. I haven't kept score but she has definitely beat me a few times--though I think I'm still ahead overall.

This year for the first time we had Jeremiah and Riley fill out brackets and they have been told a special prize awaits the winner. For fun, here are Miah's final four pics:

And here are Riley's:

A couple of comments are necessary. You can tell that Miah likes to pick upsets. Only one #1 seed has made it into his Final Four. Purdue is an especially ambitious pick. Riley is playing it more safely with her picks, though if you look closely you will see that she has USC in the Elite Eight. (sports brainwashing of daughter successful!)

For the record, I've got Pittsburgh winning it all, Jen and Riley both picked Louisville, and Jeremiah has Syracuse. Apparently this Pac-10 family has an affinity for the Big East this year.

Enjoy the madness...

Sylvester

2009-03-17T10:24:00.001-07:00

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

2009-03-16T13:08:00.000-07:00

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,

vacation with pay. Want more

of everything ready-made. Be afraid

to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.

Not even your future will be a mystery

any more. Your mind will be punched in a card

and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something

they will call you. When they want you

to die for profit they will let you know.

So, friends, every day do something

that won't compute. Love the Lord.

Love the world. Work for nothing.

Take all that you have and be poor.

Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace

the flag. Hope to live in that free

republic for which it stands.

Give your approval to all you cannot

understand. Praise ignorance, for what man

has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.

Invest in the millennium. Plant sequoias.

Say that your main crop is the forest

that you did not plant,

that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested

when they have rotted into the mold.

Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.

Put your faith in the two inches of humus

that will build under the trees

every thousand years.

Listen to carrion--put your ear

close, and hear the faint chattering

of the songs that are to come.

Expect the end of the world. Laugh.

Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful

though you have considered all the facts.

So long as women do not go cheap

for power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy

a woman satisfied to bear a child?

Will this disturb the sleep

of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.

Lie easy in the shade. Rest your head

in her lap. Swear allegiance

to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos

can predict the motions of your mind,

lose it. Leave it as a sign

to mark a false trail, the way

you didn't go. Be like the fox

who makes more tracks than necessary,

some in the wrong direction.

Practice resurrection.

--Wendell Berry

A Different List

2009-03-14T08:14:00.000-07:00

While reading the sports page this morning, reveling in USC's Pac-10 tournament victory over ucla, I zeroed in on something that has long fascinated me: the "interesting" names of players these days.

For fun, I've decided to list some of the names I see and give them my own ranking--all completely arbitrary. A "1" means you shouldn't even consider naming your dog this, and a "10" means put this on your list if you're pregnant. (Keep in mind these names are all drawn solely from pages C4-5 of today's LA Times.)

1. Jrue Holiday (ucla guard) = 8

Obviously Jrue's parents were going for some sort of "Drew" takeoff. I think they pulled it off. Extra points for a last name that points one to the movie Tombstone. Jrue, you're my huckleberry.

2. Taj Gibson (USC forward) = 5

A name as regal as his game. But your Taj might end up filling Slurpee's at the Gas 'n Sip. Steer clear.

3. Darxia Morris (ucla women's guard) = 7/3

I can't decide if this is a "7" or a "3". Sometimes an "x" seems to be thrown into a name simply to make it appear more exotic. I'd like to see this become normalized. Names like "Joxhn" (silent "x") and "Brixxney" would be certain to turn heads.

4. Dymond Simon (Arizona St. women's point guard) = 9

Not only is she named after a precious jewel, but the first and last names rhyme! Substituting the "y" for the "ia" in her first name was a nice touch by her parents.

5. LaceDarius Dunn (Baylor) = 2

I pretty sure adding a feminine sounding item such as "Lace" to the front of your name is a bad idea if you're a guy. Every time. He could also have been "DolieDarius" or "BetteMidlerDarius Dunn". On second thought, maybe LaceDarius got off easy.

6. Briann January (USC women's guard) = 8

Anytime your last name is a day of the week or a month of the year, you're golden--even if your first name is absolutely atrocious. For instance, Cletus Klan doesn't sound very good. But Cletus Saturday sounds like a star! (Note: the only time this doesn't work is if your first name is LaceDarius.

7. Derwin Kitchen (Florida State) = 10

My favorite name on pages C4-5 of the sports section today. I like this name so much it may replace my usual alias of Pancakes Hernandez.

As you watch March Madness this year, keep your eyes and ears open for names to add to this list.

A Strange Parental Pride

2009-03-09T21:16:00.000-07:00

Today is the 50th birthday for Barbie, that voluptuous doll that never seems to sag or wrinkle; the blond who starts the brainwashing of our daughters at an early age, communicating a feminine ideal that the vast majority of them will never achieve this side of cosmetic surgery.

According to Mattel spokeswoman Lauren Dougherty, 90% of girls between the ages of 3-10 own a Barbie. Today I am proud that my almost 6-year old does not have one. Hold strong, Riley, hold strong.

Happy birthday Babs...

The Story

2009-03-09T20:42:00.000-07:00

One of the programs I like to catch on NPR is called The Story. Host Dick Gordon talks with various individuals from all walks and goes in-depth on some "story" from their life.

On the way home from running errands tonight I heard a story from the life of Ruben Appelman and was completely engrossed--so much so that I sat in my car for a good 10 minutes when I got home just so I could hear the ending.

Stories are so powerful and we all have them. I think we learn a lot about ourselves and gain in empathy from listening to others' stories. You can listen to Ruben's here and you can also podcast The Story.

I wish I was better at both listening to the stories of others and also telling my own.

The Heart of the Matter

2009-03-08T20:25:00.000-07:00

I finally finished this book about a week ago. For whatever reason it was a bit harder to get into this one--perhaps a newborn and packing up for a move are not conducive to concentrating on plot.

This is the third of Greene's four "Catholic" novels that I have read. (Just Brighton Rock remains.) I liked The End of the Affair and The Power and the Glory more, but there is no shame in coming in third to those excellent books.

James Wood gives a wonderful introduction to the edition I have--worth reading--and I was also able to track down the NY Times original review of the book from 1948.

Read the review and then read the book if you're interested. You can borrow my copy.

Squares Study II

2009-03-07T08:32:00.000-08:00

Another Case of Heightism

2009-03-06T22:46:00.000-08:00

I have yet to encounter a stroller that was made with a tall man in mind. Every stroller I pushed with Jeremiah and Riley was one that forced me to stretch out my arms as far as possible, walk slightly hunched over, and inevitably kick my feet repeatedly against the rear wheels.

What a joy it is to revisit this with Wesley. We've been having some quality Dad/son time on jaunts around the neighborhood, but I usually end up walking alongside the stroller, pushing it with one hand like I'm playing shuffleboard. I'm sure I look ridiculous.

Add strollers to the list of things the (short) Man is trying to bring me down with. Other items include low kitchen counters, suspended lighting fixtures, and roller coasters seats.

When I one day make my millions as a slimy televangelist the first thing I will do is build a custom, tall man's home like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did.

And the handle on the family stroller will come up to my chin.

Thoughts on New Media

2009-03-05T10:52:00.000-08:00

A friend recently updated his facebook status with words similar to these:

"(Name) is wondering how new media impacts prayer."

I quickly shot back this reply: "Off the top of my head I'm going to say negatively."

Since then I've had some more time to think about this. First, I'm not even certain what new media means, but I'll assume it has to do with iphones and the like--gadgets that are amazingly helpful in many ways but that perhaps have a dark side to them as well.

Let's consider the iphone. I have one. I love it. With a few finger touches I can take a picture of one of my kids, email it to Grammy, post it on facebook, and write a quick blog about it. With some other swipes of the fingers I can text a friend to confirm a lunch date, check the weather to see if we want to eat inside or outside, and quickly see what the score of the Angels spring training game is.

They are incredibly useful. They are also incredibly distracting and, I would say, addicting. And the last thing an iphone is set up to do is help to point a person toward God. (Although I'm sure there are applications out there that attempt to do this.)

The iphone itself is just plastic and electronics, neither good nor evil. It is raw material. (C.S. Lewis speaks of this in The Screwtape Letters.) How it is utilized makes the difference. Do I control the iphone or does the iphone control me?

I've actually thought about this in terms of The One Ring of Power from The Lord of the Rings. Early on in The Fellowship of the Ring, the wizard Gandalf is offered the ring of power by a distraught Frodo. "You take it," Frodo says. Gandalf responds by telling Frodo not to tempt him, that he would wish to use the ring for good but that ultimately he fears it would corrupt him.

I wonder if new media, and the proliferation of the internet, cable and satellite TV and, yes, the iphone aren't analogous. They are all bright and shiny and mesmerizing in their way--like that ring--and we all long to have them on our fingers. But I imagine that not many of us are strong enough to bear them and still maintain a good focus on God.

Or maybe that's just me. Maybe I'm just weak like Gandalf and the rest of you are capable like Frodo.

But even he, ultimately, kept it only long enough to throw it into the fires of Mount Doom.

I may be projecting too much of myself here, but I think we'd all be a lot better off without new media--or any media.

So go ahead and use your media and technology to respond to this call for its demise and I will do the same to answer/dialogue--perhaps even via my iphone.

Two Weeks Old

2009-03-04T19:17:00.000-08:00

I like this picture. With all of the hair Wes has, whenever I get the chance, I style it into a mini mohawk. I think it's very becoming.

I am afraid of Geese

2009-03-03T21:11:00.000-08:00

Geese are the bullies of the bird world.

I love El Dorado Park, the local slab of green amidst the sprawl of my little corner of SoCal. As parks go it's pretty outstanding: a nature center, lakes, archery, and so many trees.

I visit EDP at least a couple times a week, often more. Because you have to pay to get in (I pony up for an annual pass) it's usually not very busy. I have a nice place tucked away back by one of the lakes that I love to go to read, pray, walk, doodle, smoke an occasional pipe, and just be. Most of the time it's just me, a few fishermen, and some stray walkers.

And the geese.

El Dorado has an amazing collection of birds that call it home. When I first started making it my sanctuary I knew nothing about varieties of birds, other than ducks and gulls. But hanging out at the park for awhile prompted me to visit The Nature Center and purchase a copy of Birds of the Los Angeles region. (I keep it in the glove compartment of my car; the wife calls me a nerd.)

I now recognize and appreciate not just the ducks and the gulls, but also coots, great blue herons, snowy egrets, redtail hawks, and pelicans. (The smaller birds are too hard to see--I need a good pair of binoculars to differentiate them.)

But I'm afraid of the geese.

One of the things I like to do is read a passage out of a book, or a poem. and then take a slow, meditative walk around the lake to let whatever I've read sink in a bit.

The geese have their own little 'hood over on the lawn by one of the bridges and they're very territorial. I mean very territorial. Or maybe they are like dogs and horses and can sense fear? Whatever, whenever I come by things get a little hairy (or is that feathery?)

One of them sees me coming and the neck straightens up and I get a warning honk. This alerts the others and soon all the necks are up, the wings are beginning to flap and--I swear--they look at me like Boy, you'd better not come any closer because we can unleash a world of hurt on you.

I just try not to make eye contact and give them as wide a berth as I can, hoping my deferential manner is enough to keep them from charging.

It's ridiculous, right? I'm 6'8" and weigh 225. I'm pretty sure I could take one of the birds out and have goose for supper if I wanted to. But that's the thing, they've got me outnumbered! I have this terrible image of being pecked (goosed?) to death and my body left by the bridge, a few feathers nearby, as a warning to other walkers.

I am afraid of the geese.

A Different Take on Being Blessed, Part II

2009-03-03T20:57:00.000-08:00

A rabbi was once asked, "What is a blessing?" He prefaced his answer with a riddle involving the creation account in chapter one of Genesis. The riddle went this way: After finishing his work on each of the first five days, the Bible states, "God saw that it was good." But, God is not reported to have commented on the goodness of what was created on the sixth day when the human person was fashioned.

"What conclusion can you draw from that?" asked the rabbi. Someone volunteered, "We can conclude that the human person is not good." "Possibly," the rabbi nodded, "but that's not a likely explanation."

He then went on to explain that the Hebrew word translated as "good" in Genesis is the word tov, which is better translated as "complete." That is why, the rabbi contended, God did not declare the human person to be tov. Human beings are created incomplete. It is our life's vocation to collaborate with our creator in fulfilling the Christ-potential in each of us...

...A blessing is anything that enters into the center of our lives and expands our capacity to be filled with Christ's love. Therefore, a blessing may not always be painless, but it will always bring spiritual growth...To be blessed is not to get out of life what we think we want. Rather, it is the assurance that God's purifying grace is active in us...

Wilkie Au, S.J., By Way of the Heart: Toward a Holistic Christian Spirituality

Broken Bones

2009-03-02T12:50:00.001-08:00

Bodies

2009-03-02T05:19:00.000-08:00

I saw this blurb (below) by Jesse Ellison in a recent edition of Newsweek and it struck a chord.

There was a time, believe it or not, when our bodies worked for us, instead of the other way around. In her new book, "Bodies," British author and psychologist Susie Orbach examines how science, culture and globalization have upended our relationships to our corporeal selves, turning us from master into slave. Good looks and peak fitness are no longer a happy biological gift, she argues, but a ceaseless pursuit.

The idea: People around the world—men included—now treat their bodies as vanity projects: every pore, curve and feature is an opportunity for self-improvement. Instead of a tool for production, the body is a production in itself. In our culture, beauty is an ambition like any other metric of success, and body hatred is the West's silent export.

The evidence: How much do you need? When Orbach penned her first book 31 years ago, the bestseller "Fat Is a Feminist Issue," bulimia and anorexia were barely on the radar. Now parents digitally enhance their kids' baby pictures, the cosmetic-surgery industry is growing by $1 billion a year, we can genetically screen our embryos, and scientists grow bioengineered organs in labs.

The conclusion: As nips and tucks and tweaks become more acceptable, we may no longer treat the human body as a God-given accident of biology, but Orbach implores us to take some pleasure in our bodies as they are—to take them, she writes repeatedly, "for granted."

The writings that Christians hold sacred tell us that our bodies are "a temple of the Holy Spirit" (I Cor. 6)--a place where the very presence of God is pleased to dwell. In other words, our bodies are holy, sacred, set apart.

Practically I take this to mean that I should be a good steward of that temple: monitor what I consume mentally as well as physically, and make sure I'm getting spiritual exercise as well as physical and mental.

But I agree completely with this author that we have had our view of the body terribly warped. The body is not a temple for God but often an idol for ourselves--something that we are more likely to worship than to steward and reverence.

Some questions to ask ourselves in relation to all of this:

- Why am I working out. physically? Is it to be a good steward of the body God has given me or so that I can "look good" in a swimsuit this summer?

- Where does our sense of worth and identity come from? Is it from being a child of God, knowing we're loved like a used car, "as is" by our Creator? Or is it based on whether or not we can fit into a certain size of jeans?

- Is anyone concerned with being spiritually flabby? We worry a lot about the fat that collects on our guts and our butts, but what about the cellulite on our souls?

This book sounds like a fascinating read to discover how we got to this point. Maybe I'll take a run to my local library to pick it up--you know, so I can stay in shape and look good when I'm reading it.

Natural History Museum

2009-03-01T21:20:00.000-08:00

It is weird not being at church on a Sunday morning, but I must admit it is kind of nice too. I can completely understand how easy it would be to get in the habit of sleeping in, reading the paper, watching cartoons and doing some chores around the house.

(By the way, this is one of the reasons that I think Saturday night services are a great idea for churches to consider. Both Jen and I have said that if I wasn't a pastor we would try to find a church with a Sat night service so that we could have Sunday free. I don't think we're alone in this.)

Once the semi-lazy morning was mostly complete (hey, we still have a newborn), I thought it would be a great idea to get the older kids out of the house for a few hours to give Mommy and Wes a little extra sleep time.

So we went to the Natural History Museum.

I haven't been to this place in years--it's fantastic! Miah and Riley seem to be about the perfect ages for it right now, too. Young enough that they are still excited to see displays of animals that have been stuffed, but old enough to be interested in spending more than just a few seconds at each display.

We had a really great time. I'd say this is one of the better deals around too. $9 for an adult and $2 each for kids. (Though it is $8 for parking. Still...) We got there about 10:00am, saw most of the museum in 2.5 hours, without hurrying, and were home by 1:00pm for a late lunch. And the wife and Triple Dub were happy as clams.

So if you're looking for a good excursion with or without kids you could do a lot worse than the Natural History Museum. Tell your pastor you want a Saturday night service so you can go on a Sunday morning without the crowds--and the guilt!

(The pic above features Jeremiah and Riley with a Spanish cannon. Riley has one arm in the cannon [perhaps she will in fact be a veterinarian some day] and Miah said he was trying to give a look of fear, anticipating the cannon blast. I think it's more of an expression that says the cannon has just rolled onto my foot and, yes indeed, it is as heavy as it looks.)

A Cure for Road Rage

2009-02-28T20:48:00.000-08:00

For the past week-plus I have been driving short little errands around town in the family mini van. Since this isn't my normal ride I was not prepared music-wise, and I like to have some tunes going when I'm driving.

I looked through the wife's visor of cd's and put in Jack Johnson's Sleep Through the Static. Wow. I've been listening to this album non-stop every minute I've been in the family truckster and I'm pretty well convinced that if everyone had this mellow vibe going we would see a lot less angry, impatient, "you're #1" waving drivers.

The wife made the claim that Mr. Johnson is our generation's James Taylor and I'm ready to agree with her. Except--sacrilege!--I think he's even better. Buy this album and put it in during rush-hour traffic and see if it doesn't help.

From track #14, "Losing Keys":

The world has its ways

to quiet us down...

Yes it does Mr. Johnson and you're one of them. I thank you.

A Different Take on Being Blessed

2009-02-27T10:28:00.000-08:00

It is interesting to note how many artists have had physical problems to overcome, deformities, lameness, terrible loneliness. Could Beethoven have written the glorious paean of praise in the Ninth Symphony if he had not had to endure the dark closing in of deafness? As I look through his work chronologically, there's no denying that it deepens and strengthens along with the deafness. Could Milton have seen all that he sees in Paradise Lost if he had not been blind? It is chastening to realize that those who have no physical flaw, who move through life in step with their peers, who are bright and beautiful, seldom become artists. The unending paradox is that we learn through pain.

My mother's long life had more than its fair share of pain and tragedy. One time, after something difficult had happened, one of her childhood friends came to give comfort and help. Instead of which, she burst into tears and sobbed out, "I envy you! I envy you! You've had a terrible life but you've lived!"

I look back at my mother's life and I see suffering deepening and strengthening it. In some people I have also seen it destroy. Pain is not always creative; received wrongly, it can lead to alcoholism and madness and suicide. Nevertheless, without it we do not grow.

Madeleine L'Engle, Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith & Art

Wesley, Lent, and Spring Training

2009-02-26T09:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the first day of Lent and also the first spring training game for most major league baseball teams. (Including the Angels who won 12-3 thank you very much.) To celebrate the latter event we dressed Wesley in the Angels outfit he inherited from his buddy Elias.
We didn't celebrate the former this year (we typically attend the Ash Wednesday service at church) as we are still taking the doctor's advice and hunkering down, away from as many germs
as possible.

But it struck me that the two events falling on the same day was fitting. Lent is a season of personal, spiritual reflection, a time of re-commitment to a way of Living, a period that looks forward in hope to the celebration of Easter.

Similarly, spring training, I'm sure, is a season of reflection for many ball players--both the inexperienced wondering if they have what it takes to make the team, and the veterans wondering if they have what it takes to get through another grueling schedule.

It's also a time of re-commitment to their particular way of living: husbands leave their spouses and families, do the tedious, day-after-day work of preparing their bodies, and mentally (and spiritually?) get themselves ready to live baseball for 7-8 months.

And, of course, as in all sports, pre-season is a time when Hope springs eternal; every club has a clean slate; every team and player looks forward to opening day when all the win/loss records and personal stats start over again. In spring training, looking forward, anyone can dream about being MVP, any team can believe they can make the playoffs.

So baseball fans enjoy spring training and enjoy Lent. I know I for one will be finding deeper meaning in each this year.

My love/hate relationship with Costco

2009-02-25T16:26:00.000-08:00

I am currently serving as the house-husband for the next couple weeks, easing the transition for the wife from 2-child Mom to 3-child Mom. (By the way, Wesley Wendell White was born on Feb 19th, and is a perfect little peanut of a person. More about him at a later date.) One of my duties as house-husband is to run errands, including shopping.

Today I was sent to Target, Trader Joe's, and Costco for everything from newborn diapers to apples. Since watching Super Size Me and Walmart: The High Cost of Low Prices a few years ago, I have really tried to be a more discerning consumer. Recently re-reading Wendell Berry's Sex, Economy, Freedom, and Community only solidifies my desire to buy local and avoid big-box stores and all that comes with them.

But man, it's not easy.

A friend who moved to Alabama a few years ago recently expressed a great deal of excitement about the opening of a Super Walmart in her community. I made a throw-away comment that she should stay far, far away. In reply she said that it's a lot easier to hold onto convictions in a place with so many options for shopping than it is in a place like, well, Alabama.

She's right. But it's not that easy here either--especially when one factors in trying to adhere to a tighter budget. Big-box stores can save a family a lot of money.

But they still creep me out a bit. As I was wandering around Costco with that gigantic cart they give you, with no idea where anything was, I was alternately mesmerized and repulsed. This place is a consumer's paradise: big-screen TV's, palm trees, furniture, clothing, books, movies, and beef jerky--and I wanted to buy it all!

It also occurred to me that if I were homeless Costco would be at the top of my list of places to try to "stow-away" in. (I'm surprised there hasn't been a movie made about this already. Perhaps it's in the works at a studio: An executive is laid off, loses his house, and is too embarrassed to seek help. One night he accidentally gets locked in overnight at his local Costco... I would cast Tom Hanks in the lead.)

As I looked around at all the people filling up their giant carts, everything they seemingly need contained in this structure, I thought of Wall-E and the fictitious conglomerate Buy N Large that essentially wrecked planet earth in that film. Costco is sort of like that massive Buy N Large spaceship that the human race was confined to. You can exist there but your Life will probably start to ebb away, down a drain lined with affordable notebook computers and 20-packs of Crest toothpaste.

I suppose the Costco's of the world are always going to exist and I imagine I will from time to time still frequent them, but I won't ever feel comfortable with it. Exiting its doors with my purchases into the Pacific-ocean sized parking lot felt a little bit like escaping from something.

But, wow, what a deal I got on diapers.

Random thoughts with two days to go...

2009-02-17T20:26:00.000-08:00

I've woken up the past couple of nights thinking about things I haven't thought about in over seven years. Like: when little baby boys get circumcised, Vaseline has to be regularly applied for a couple of weeks to their you-know-what. I'll be doing this. Again.
I have calculated that I will be 55 when this child leaves home--assuming he is reasonably competent either as a student, extremely competent as an athlete, or has some mad plumbing skills. I have done the math several times. It doesn't change.
I am clearly still somewhat in denial about this whole thing. How else to explain the mundane manner in which I've spent my remaining days as a two-kid Dad? If I had really internalized what is coming in less than 48 hours I am convinced I would have taken a surf trip. Or tried to finish a painting. Or started harmonica lessons. Something.
I am at least very excited for my wife to stop snoring. Ever since month nine arrived she has been like a chainsaw attacking fresh timber--every night. I'm sure she's looking forward to my not-so-subtle "love kicks" that temporarily wake her up enough to stop. Our couch is comfortable but I miss our bed.
This little dude is very active in the womb. Watching Jen's tummy is like watching a hopped-up squirrel in a balloon. I told her to lay off the Dr. Pepper's.
Related to the above item... The little man's hyper "activity" has renewed my previous pregnancy paranoia that I will be the father of a child who is the human equivalent of the voice of Alvin the chipmunk. After two relatively calm children I fear I am due.
I've forgotten what poopy diapers smell like.
It would be a nice change of pace to have a baby with dark hair, like Jen. So far my hair genes are kicking Jen's hair genes butt. There is a part of me that is proud of this.
The wife is a serious trooper. She does more around the house and with the kids in one day, all while carrying the equivalent of a bowling ball around her middle, than I do in most weeks. We husbands are pathetic.
I am an excellent burper. And I can usually get the baby to belch too.

Rodney

2009-02-14T09:58:00.001-08:00

That ringing sensation

2009-02-09T08:42:00.000-08:00

Prayer and Sports

2009-02-06T05:24:00.000-08:00

I wanted to post a link to this article when it was first published (the day of the Super Bowl), but life got in the way. But even if it's not quite as timely it's still a good read. Streeter makes some good points; I especially this one:

I'm not a big fan of the kind of grandstanding shout-outs to Jesus we'll almost certainly see today from members of the Super Bowl's winning team. Just once I'd like to see a player step to the microphone after a big game and say: "We lost! Hallelujah, God is good!"

Cats

2009-01-29T13:19:00.001-08:00

Prayer and War

2009-01-29T09:22:00.000-08:00

In times of war, our leaders always speak of their prayers. They wish us to know that they say prayers because they wish us to believe that they are deeply worried and that they take their responsibilities seriously. Perhaps they believe or hope that prayer will help. But within the circumstances of war, prayer becomes a word as befuddled in meaning as liberate or order or victory or peace. These prayers are usually understood to be Christian prayers. But Christian prayers are made to or in the name of Jesus, who loved, prayed for, and forgave his enemies and who instructed his followers to do likewise. A Christian supplicant, therefore, who has resolved to kill those whom he is enjoined to love, to bless, to do good for, and to forgive as he hopes to be forgiven is not conceivably in a situation in which he can be at peace with himself. Anyone who has tried to apply this doctrine to a merely personal enmity will be aware of the enormous anguish that it could cause a national leader in wartime. No wonder that national leaders have ignored it for nearly two thousand years.

--Wendell Berry, Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community

The 3 Bearded Brothers of Downtown Biscayne

2009-01-21T16:58:00.000-08:00

The three bearded brothers of downtown Biscayne

look a bit morose and have cause to complain.

You see the girl that they love is one and the same,

and she rules the three hearts of the brothers of Biscayne.

The object of their affection is a thin lass named Jane

who--truth be told--looks rather plain.

But when she opens her mouth to sing a refrain,

her voice puts a spell on the three brothers of Biscayne.

And so they bicker and they fight and they fume and they blame

as they seek the affection of the thin lass named Jane.

Where once there was grace there is now just disdain

amongst the three bearded brothers of downtown Biscayne.

Finally they determine they can no longer feign,

the situation is impossible--there is just too much pain!

So the three bearded brothers climb aboard a plane

and fly far, far away from downtown Biscayne.

And watching from the shore in the soft, falling rain,

is the ordinary, the unspectacular, thin lass named Jane.

Yet the song that she sings is anything but mundane

as she serenades the memory of the brothers of Biscayne.

Kill Your Phone Book

2009-01-21T09:54:00.000-08:00

We keep getting new phone books and we keep throwing them out.

The good folks at Green Dimes alerted me to a way to eliminate that.

Click on this link and select "Opt Out" and hopefully you won't receive anymore unwanted phone books. It's free.

We are a grassroots organization that is asking all people interested in opting out to please tell family, friends, and co-workers about our program. We have thousands of people like you signing up every month and trying to help stop the nonsense of delivering an unsolicited telephone book to people that do not want one. Thank you for your support. (Yellowpagesgoesgreen.org)

A Present for You

2009-01-16T07:49:00.000-08:00

Just like last year, my present to you on my birthday is today's Ballard Street.

Cool People

2009-01-14T15:46:00.000-08:00

What Kind of Beer?

2009-01-14T08:53:00.000-08:00

From today's L.A. Times California section...

Man allegedly tried to trade child for beer

A man has been arrested for allegedly arranging for his 14-year old daughter to marry a neighbor in exchange for $16,000, 100 cases of beer and several cases of meat, police said.

Authorities in Greenfield, a farming community on California's Central Coast, said they learned of the deal after Marcelino de Jesus Martinez, 36. asked them for help getting his daughter back after payment wasn't made.

Questions & Thoughts:

1. We are outraged by this because of the culture we live in. None of us can imagine doing something so seemingly callous. But in other parts of the world and in other eras (think Biblical), trading daughters in marriage for goods was the norm and considered smart business. Remember Jacob and Laban?

2. What kind of beer? Without knowing the brand of beer it is impossible to know if this guy was getting a fair trade. Are we talking Pabst Blue Ribbon or Guinness?

3. Who thinks of "several cases of meat" when considering what they will offer in a deal? (Yes, I'm interested in trading in my old car for that new one over there and, to sweeten the deal, how about I throw in several dozen cans of vienna sausages?)

4. In all seriousness, the saddest part of this sad story is that Marcelino only wanted his daughter back (to try to broker a better deal?) after it became clear the other guy wasn't going to pay up. Sex trafficking (and I'm not sure that's what this is exactly, but it's in the same neighborhood) is a huge problem of which we are largely unaware. To read more about the scope of the problem check out International Justice Mission, a group doing something about it. And pray for the 14-year old mentioned in this story. And for Marcelino.

Dogs

2009-01-13T11:07:00.000-08:00

No Claim

2009-01-12T14:05:00.000-08:00

Bono, Frank, & the New Year

2009-01-12T10:18:00.000-08:00

The wife found this article from the NY Times and forwarded it to me. It's good. You should read it.

To Give My Daughter's Future Husband a Chance...

2009-01-06T14:56:00.000-08:00

The beard has a way of
making everything look better

--it's a great use of negative space.

And it feels better too

--at least to the one who owns

the stroking hand.

Beard, beard, how I love thee;

wonderful, wisening, whiskery accessory.

Here's hoping you get to stay awhile.

My wife is not very pleased with me right now. She never is when I make my once or twice yearly foray into bearded territory. I wrote the above lines of verse a couple of years ago when I managed to survive in "Beardland" for a few months. Ah, such a beautiful time, I recall it fondly.

A lot people--all of them women, by the way--give me grief whenever I grow a beard. Much of that grief relates to them knowing my wife's opinion of the facial hair. They think I am just being selfish to do something my wife isn't a big fan of. And they are right--to a point. But I have an ulterior motive too.

Someday, God-willing, my precious 5-year old Riley is going to meet a fine young man and want to get hitched. I have no idea who this whippersnapper is going to be but I'm already looking out for him. You see it's my theory that all of the women who do not like beards on their significant others, harbor their hirsute hatred because they either

1) had a clean-shaven Dad, or

2) did not have a Dad at all, or
3) were forced to listen to Kenny Rogers LP's as a child.

So, young man who probably doesn't even know my daughter exists yet, know that I am working for you! I am laying the groundwork for you to marry a woman who will accept the goatee, embrace the mutton chops, smile at the fu manchu, and lovingly nuzzle your beautiful beard.

I will accept your thanks in 20-30 years time, even if I continue to get none from my lovely, patient, long-suffering bride.

Obama, Rick Warren, Gays, & Bible Thumpers

2009-01-05T16:32:00.000-08:00

When Obama asked Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inaugural later this month he apparently managed to do a pretty difficult thing: he made almost everybody mad.

The Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender community is mad because they view Rick Warren as too conservative and right wing to satisfy their biblical interpretations and worldview.

The Bible Thumper community is mad because they view Rick Warren as too liberal and left wing to satisfy their biblical interpretations and worldview.

But apparently Barack Obama isn't mad. He still seems pleased with his choice. I am too. I guess that makes me a moderate and that's right where I want to be.

I've never been a fan of Saddleback, Warren's shopping mall, small-country-sized church in Orange County. Too big for me and not a good match theologically for me either. But in recent years--despite some of my theological differences--I've been very impressed with the direction he has led Saddleback. He has seemingly gone from being a one or two issue Christian leader (meaning homosexuality and gay marriage) to being a Christian leader with a much broader agenda, championing social justice issues such as AIDS and poverty. I've also admired what Saddleback has done in implementing small groups, really being a model in many ways for others churches to follow. And the few anecdotal stories I've heard of Rick have given me the impression he is a good man, seeking to humbly serve God.

I don't agree with his position on every issue, but I very much respect Warren. I'm pretty sure this is where Obama is coming from too.

I also, as a Christian who does not believe abortion is right, don't see completely eye-to-eye with Obama. And yet I still voted for him. Why? In my mind, a theology of Life is one that must extend beyond the womb and be embraced by a society as long as a person lives. This means a concern for quality of Life once the child is born, including issues and policies that relate to poverty, welfare, war, veterans, and the aging. Obama, in my mind, though it could be argued he is lacking in the value of Life in the womb (but I am still hopeful that his campaign promises to work to reduce the number of abortions will be lived into), better fits my idea of what it means to care for and nurture Life in all of its stages.

I'm certain that Warren does not agree with all of Obama's positions, either, yet he clearly respected him enough to agree to give the invocation and has, in fact, called Barack his "friend" in the past.

I don't think I'm alone in my moderate views, but I must admit I am getting tired of listening to the shouting on both sides with those angry at either Obama or Warren--or both.

And as a pastor at a church that probably leans conservative, I've heard a few of those "shouts" and even been encouraged to join in. I've refused and my refusal has, I'm sure, caused some to question my leadership and
my spine.

What really saddens me is the many, many individuals on both sides who are absolutely sure they know the motivations and mind of the person they are vilifying. The arrogance of such a view astounds me!

The right wingers claim that Warren has sold out simply because he wants the glamour and prestige of the moment.

The left wingers claim that Obama has sold out, catering to social conservatives and evangelicals.

How can they possibly know? Couldn't it be possible that Obama extended the invitation to his friend Warren after careful (and even prayerful) thought and reflection? Couldn't it be possible that Warren accepted the invitation from his friend Obama from a position of humility and service?

Why must we believe the worst? And why can't we be friends with people we disagree with?

I guess it's easier to call names than it is to work together. But it makes this moderate, middle-of-the-roader sad.