Here and Now

 ...starting up the blog again. I began the blog in 2005 (twenty-one and a half years ago... wow...) because Bishop Bickerton challenged pastors to do so. I didn't really think much of it at the time, just a way to get thoughts "out there." Blogs are passe now, of course, with short and long form video being the much more popular way of getting thoughts into the public arena, with something like Facebook posts being the next layer. I haven't even posted anything substantial in almost a decade here... The blog evolved into a kind of diary of thoughts and ideas and then devolved into a chore toward the end, particularly once a number of people told me they were reading it and looked forward to what was coming next. I think I started to feel obligated to "perform" and that became the distraction...  I like the idea of the diary of thoughts and ideas, though. I was just reading back over posts from way back (I searched "pray" and dozens of posts came u...

My devotional reading this morning was Matthew 5:1-12 , the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes. It's certainly a strong opening for this section of the Gospel, for this series of teachings. Everything Jesus says here seems so... upside down. Dictionary.com com says beatitude is "supreme blessedness" or "exalted happiness." These pronounced blessings certainly get our attention, right? Blessed are... the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted...  I get the pure in heart and the peacemakers - maybe those who hunger and thirst for righteousness - but the rest? Not likely feeling "supreme[ly] blessed" or happy to the point of exaltation. We've mourned - it doesn't feel good, it doesn't feel blessed - meek and poor in spirit? Maybe... but it's hard to feel blessed when you are persecuted.  And, of course, Jesu...

Jon Acuff wrote a bit about bravery that I saw this morning.  I thought I'd add my thoughts... Bravery is being afraid and doing it anyway. That's my definition. Yes, we can bravely do the wrong thing. Too many qualifiers and adjectives and the point gets lost. The point is, bravery is not about not being afraid, it's about doing the right thing anyway.  And it seems like it's pretty uncommon. There's a reason that there are only about 3500 people who have ever been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, and less than twenty (okay, 19) who have received it more than once. I often think of firefighters and police officers who literally run toward the things that sane people run away from - not just because "it's their job" and not because they have no fear - but because bravery is knowing its scary, but doing it anyway... I personally knew two police officers who died in the line of duty.* I know former volunteer firefighters who fight PTSD ...

Four years ago I posted this picture: And I wrote that someday soon this would no longer be true at the Beatty household. I realize that sometime in the last four years, boxes just became boxes... I might cry a little today... Oh - the title of this post is from a Brian Regan bit - I'd link the video but Blogger changed all my settings and dumped all my video links... sigh...

One more brief Yancey quote from his book Prayer : "If prayer stands as the place where God and human beings meet, then I must learn about prayer. Most of my struggles in the Christian life circle around the same two themes: why God doesn't act the way we want God to, and why I don't act the way God wants me to. Prayer is the precise point where those themes converge." Just wanted to record this note on what prayer, fundamentally, is: the place where God and human beings meet...

Philip Yancey writes in his book Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference? "I write about prayer as a pilgrim, not an expert... I investigate the topic of prayer as a pilgrim, strolling about, staring at the monuments, asking questions, mulling things over, testing the waters..." (pages 16&17) I get it. I don't approach too many things in this faith journey as an expert - except my own story, my own failures and mis-steps, my own redemption. THAT I know well. The inner workings of God's heart, the mechanics of grace, the depth of the Holy Spirit and a million other topics, I'm no expert. I'm a pilgrim like everyone else. This life of faith is a Pilgrimage. We journey. We wander. I love the image of "strolling about, staring at the monuments." This prayer thing is no exact science - it's a travelogue of where we are, where we've been, and what God is doing, where God is leading, how God is providing.

This week we are praying another Dangerous Prayer: Break Me. Nobody likes to be broken - nobody wants to be broken. There was a movie a year or two ago called Unbroken about a guy captured during World War 2 whose faith kept him strong - unbreakable** - in the face of physical and psychological torture from his captors. But here's the thing - I think you only come to those unbreakable places if you first come to be broken - not psychologically or physically per se - but in spirit. Someone observed once that sometimes we have to come to a place where all we have is God to realize all we need is God. ** Not to be confused with M. Night Shyamalam's movie Unbreakable which, while not terrible, is kind of a hot mess of plot and characterization -- maybe trying a bit too hard...

This Sunday we are kicking off our new brief series: Dangerous Prayers. Yeah, I know it's not a particularly original series idea. In fact, one of the churches my family visited on vacation two weeks ago was just finishing their series Dangerous Prayers and Lifechurch did the series quite a while ago. But we're moving toward a sharper focus on prayer in the coming months and these three messages will help us frame our hearts and our lives around prayers that move us from where we are to being closer to the heart of God. I'm also reading Mark Batterson's The Circle Maker  and Bill Hybels' Too Busy Not to Pray  in preparation. This week: Search Me...

Shamus Young - a guy whose blog I encountered from a link from a link from a link years ago (heck, when we were living in Pittsburgh, if memory serves) has been doing a series on the " Crash of the dot.com " - from an insider's perspective. Interesting stuff. The latest posts (4&5) talk about doing a project of a virtual mall in 1999 and, in his words: We’ve combined the hassles and inconvenience of physical shopping with the uncertainty, learning curve, and security concerns of shopping online, and on top of that we’ve added the hardware requirements and navigation challenges of a first-person videogame. And it's a good read. But one of the commenters said something that caught my eye: As a junior programmer/team member, I found that I have two modes. Every time I join a company and/or project within a company, I start in mode number 1. At some point, I usually transition into mode number 2. Not consciously or intentionally; I’ll just notice one day that ...

In Exodus chapter 4 , God has called Moses to lead His people out of Egypt, and Moses is giving excuses. Here, Moses says, "What if they don't believe me?" God asks, "What is in your hand?" Now, I get the whole answering a question with a question technique. It can be pretty powerful, often allowing the original questioner to gain insight that he or she did not have before. But this is one obtuse question. Moses wants proof. Moses wants the secret handshake, the secret code, something to show to people, "God is real. God exists. God told me this." "What is in your hand?" Sigh... A staff. It's a piece of wood. It helps me when I walk. I use it to herd these pesky sheep. It's... just a staff. "Throw it on the ground." Wait, what? Why? You can imagine all the questions in Moses' mind right now. None of them are voiced, however. He throws it down, and it turns into a snake! Wait! How is that better? Well re...

...to revive the old blog... Maybe... I read a brief commentary today: Batman Dies in a Car Accident . Denison raises a couple good questions in this commentary - one he answers, one goes unanswered, both are valid. The answered question is: Do we believe God's character varies because of our circumstances? And he answers with a resounding "no." Even when prayers seem unanswered*, even when it seems like things are going badly, life is falling apart, God is still God: still holy, still loving**, still grace-giving, still righteous, still inscrutable, still intimate, still present. Yeah. Not at all like us. I get it. That's why the other question goes unanswered. Because we are so not like God. We allow circumstances to sometimes dictate not only our responses, but our very character - who acts differently in church than they do at the gym, at a football game, at their best friend's house, at a stranger's house? And it's not even just about "ac...

Looking back... From deviantart Two posts in August Three posts in July I think a single (substantive, sort of) post in June Silence... I would blame it on the move - but I've been at my new church for eleven weeks now. I'm sort of settled in. I could say that I don't have anything to say... but those who know me know better... There's the issue of time. But that's a copout. I make time for what matters (and I'm a season and a half into Fringe  on Netflix to prove it). I won't promise any posts that matter. Or any posts at all. I have actually enjoyed this past couple months of not posting. I've had them before - I go through them. I know it's no way to keep readers (sorry) but it's who I am... and will continue to be...

From Wikipedia Okay - it's a math term, and art and science, and... everywhere. But I won't try to explain it... It turns out that there's a "golden ratio" for relationships too. I read this snippet of an article that talked about research done finding a ratio of about 5 good to 1 negative interactions is the recipe for successful relationships... of all kinds. Explains why I avoid some people - those Eeyores who are always complaining - and why I gravitate toward some people - those who are always positive...

From Morguefile Practice Makes Perfect. We've heard it a million times. And my daughter's violin teacher likes to say, "That's not true. Perfect  practice makes perfect." Except, it turns out, THAT'S not necessarily true. Turns out, it doesn't have to be perfect. The act of doing in sheer volume will perfect the doer... with a single caveat. Feedback. Read THIS ARTICLE . Did you read it? I'll trust you. So, the sheer volume of churning out...anything... the act of doing... makes one better. Provided that the doer analyzes the flaws, the errors, and the poor techniques. Some kind of feedback system has to be in place - internal or external - for this to succeed. So I taught myself to play guitar 20 years ago. I learned to fret a D chord "wrong." Every time I fret it and someone who plays guitar looks at my hand they ask, "What are you playing?" I had no external feedback system to tell me "no, this way" an...

found online We finally made it - Lori's favorite restaurant. We had made plans to go a dozen times over the past four years - each time the plans fell through... It's too far, it's too expensive, we don't have time... I had elaborate plans on our anniversary this past year that at the eleventh hour got sunk... and we didn't go... But we finally made it on the way home from Lori's grandmother's funeral. Not the most auspicious of occasions, I'll admit, and it was a detour from going to Farmer's Inn with the girls (we didn't go there because of the rain...) and several literal detours later...we finally sat down. It was just how I remembered it. Small town Italian restaurant, friendly enough staff, not-quite-ready-for-the-magazines decor... The physical menu had changed, but the contents didn't seem to have. Didn't matter, we'd order the same thing. Could be gone twenty years and I'd order the same thing: spaghetti and me...

Morgufile I read this quote from St. Augustine: "Hope has two beautiful daughters.  Their names are Anger and Courage.  Anger that things are the way they are.  Courage to make them the way they ought to be." Jim Denison of  the Denison Forum  quoted it in an enewsletter I get. It struck a chord with me, though. How often do I hear people who are mad about the way things are...but that's it. We are a nation that is, generally, all talk. We spout opinions like they matter somehow. Like our angry words are somehow going to reshape the world... Now don't get me wrong - words are powerful... I'm in the wrong business - heck, I'm in the wrong FAITH if I didn't believe that. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word with God, and the Word was God." I don't take that lightly... Nor the fact that God SPOKE and everything came into being. Or that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17) Are we ready, though, t...

Found Online So I'm in a new place - physically. It it a strange thing to deal with moving as a pastor - you celebrate your ministry, you are mourning leaving where you have been, yet you are excited about moving to new opportunities and challenges that God has for you. It's not like any other job move that I've made. When I left teaching, it was for a calling into the ministry - it was definitive, it was a clear ending of one path of my life and a new journey was beginning. When I left some of the "lesser" jobs, it was even easier - I worked in the restaurant industry for six or seven years when I was young - started as a dish washer, ended up what amounted to the night manager* at this family owned restaurant - but as much as I love restaurant work, that wasn't the life for me and I knew it and when I quit, as hard as it was to say good bye to Bernie and the others, I knew I was moving forward. Working construction, working as a baker and at the deli, my...

I saw these and, well, resistance was futile :)

I know I'm months too late on this but it still made me smile...