Here and Now

It's just sad that I forgot that yesterday was the 32nd anniversary of the release of Star Wars... Yeah, that's the sad part of this post...

Monday update the weekend that was: Yeah, Yeah, it's Tuesday. Yesterday was Memorial Day when we remember people who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country with...um...Barbeque. Okay, really there were some GREAT remembrances yesterday, I think - parades, of course, but NASCAR paused at 3:00 - seriously, they all stopped their cars and shut off their engines...in the middle of the race, for a moment of silence, a silent opening pitch at a baseball game. Lots of great remembrances. I spent too much of it on the road...but I digress (or, actually, I got ahead of myself, so I guess I, um, PROgress...er?) So - Friday Rachel's school had a "family picnic" for her grade level - so we ate hamburgers and hotdogs outside her school at lunch time then we drove to Kane and stayed with my grandmother. Lori and I went to my dad's grave and my grandfather's grave after dropping Rachel and Elie's at my mom's for the night. Saturday was a trip to Pittsfiel...

I had a whole thing on here about false prophets...but it was the same old stuff again. So I erased it. Somebody asked me yesterday if it's hard to get motivated because I'm a short timer now. Well, I guess in some ways it is. I think I'm a little in denial about moving - I haven't packed very many boxes and the trucks are going to be here in four weeks and counting. How do you keep going when you just don't feel like it? Oh, not that this is a big obstacle or anything. I mean, me being in a funk isn't anything like, oh, Mother Teresa having days of doubt or whatever. But I think there comes a point in our faith lives where, well, the fire is just a burning ember, the passion is a bit cooled. So what do you do? I mean, it's not like you can ask What Would Jesus Do? His passion never cooled... And I've been reading Acts and it's not like the Apostles flagged... Well, Paul had his thorn in the flesh... And in Philippians he kind of wanted to di...

Monday update Yes, I know I missed Thursday Theology last week... the weekend that was: Another crazy weekend - if only for all the driving. Friday was Elie's class picnic. Lori had to work so I got to take her to this little park a couple miles away. It was a good couple hours with my youngest (though I got exhausted bouncing Elie and Rodrick on the teeter-totter thing). Afternoon was cleaning/packing...bleah. Saturday I had a graveside service in the morning on the North side - Lori and the girls came with and we went from there up to the new house with a couple boxes of breakable stuff (pictures, mostly). We had a nice dinner with a few folks from the area - Lori and I toured The Crossing to see the progress made so far. Home really late...ugh... Sunday was youth Sunday in our 11:01 service - the kids did a great job, band was really on. Sunday night I preached about failing and failure - the evening band was really on, too. Caught up on The Office before bed last night (I...

...but there is one - one stinking Robin that loves to look at himself in our side view mirrors. I don't advocate killing birds usually ... but this one... Yeah - Lori's car looks even worse... Stinkin' bird...

Monday update the weekend that was: And what a weekend it was... Lori's mom came over on Thursday, brought a boatload of empty totes we had been storing at the farm. She stayed over and Friday morning we drove over and reserved the U-Haul trucks for the move. Lori's mom left Friday morning, and my mom came down again and we loaded a few more totes full of winter clothes into her car to take them up north. Friday night I had a wedding rehearsal, which went pretty well. Then Saturday was wedding and I preached at 6:00 service - then we watched the Penguin game (and they won!!). Sunday was crazy - Confirmation Sunday, Mother's day brunch, I led all three services on Sunday, plus Lori and I were in the band Sunday night... And...I asked Lori to run over to Giant Eagle to get the flowers and some gift cards for Sunday night giveaway - but I failed to tell her that it was NOT the Giant Eagle right by the church (why not? you ask - 'cause I messed up when I ordered it...of c...

My good friend Jim sent me a link this morning to this article at Pyromaniacs... http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2009/05/faith-grace-and-works-in-james-and-john.html It's a discussion of faith and works and grace. It's a pretty good illustration, actually. My problem with it (and you just knew I'd have a problem with it, didn't you?) is in the author's application... I'm going to quote a fair amout of it here (emphasis his): Illustration. Let us say that a sovereign cure for cancer has finally been found. You take it in pill-form, a little capsule to be precise. They color the capsule green , because of that color's association with life . They call it " Chlorozoetin " (green life). Take one Chlorozoetin, and two things invariably begin to happen, with no exceptions: 1. The cancer starts shrinking 2. Your skin begins to turn green In the case of some people, cancer shrinkage is immediate and dramatic. In others, it is more gradual, and marked ...

So I'm poking around on the internet today, between meetings, and I catch this link: The Hunt for Gollum And I watch the opening couple minutes of it and...it's really pretty good. I mean, it's no Peter Jackson epic, but it's really well done for a fan film...in fact, it's better than most fan films I've seen (and I've seen just about all these fan films...). So, a part of me is jealous. Yeah, I'd still like to do something like that. Okay, I'm not normally the kind of guy who dresses up in costume and runs around the neighborhood waving a sword (or a lightsaber, or...well, you know what I mean). I mean, I was a Jawa when I was 11 for Halloween and a sandperson when I was twelve. But, that was it (I *sob* don't even OWN a lightsaber...). Anyway, I do think things like this are really cool. If you like The Lord of the Rings movies, then check out The Hunt for Gollum . If you like Star Wars check out the second link. And if you don't thin...

Rainy Days and Mondays …and Rainy Mondays … the weekend that was: Friday my back was killing me so I took some medicine and slept away half the day. Saturday we drove up to Pittsfield to see the new house – which is bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside. We picked out some paint colors and a couple area rugs for the living room and dining room. Had some great chicken barbeque from the Boy Scouts. It was a good day, but a long day – ended up getting home around 11:00… We had come computer issues at 11:01 worship yesterday (used a different laptop to run powerpoint and something happened…). Lori and Rachel and I watched Field of Dreams yesterday afternoon… where i am at the moment: sitting at my desk in my office (I should probably delete this entry – it’s probably always going to be the same unless I’m on vacation or something…). on my to-do list this week: If it ever stops raining, I HAVE to mow my grass…ugh… At work it’s business as usual: sermon prep, Bible study, I ha...

There's an old saying, "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree." It's usually used dergotorily (man, is that right?). I thought of that because I just washed off the top of a can of Diet Pepsi and as I was drying it I remembered my mom saying that she couldn't figure out what all the black stripes were toward the bottom of my dad's shirts years ago.. (and she sometimes couldn't get them out in the wash). Dad used to wipe off the top of his cans of pop (yeah, it's not soda where I come from) on the tails of his shirts. And, yes, they were always filthy coming out of a pop machine. There are a bunch of ways I'm like my dad (I could, for example, eat spaghetti just about every night of the week...mmmm) and not all of them are good. But most are. So, I'm Roger's child. Just like him in so many ways. And I'm God's child. Am I just like God in so many ways too? Hmmmm, pondering...