run with it

2012-01-07T18:21:00.001-08:00

I've neglected you all for so long, and I'm really sorry. I miss you, my friends.

dream

2011-11-21T06:11:00.000-08:00

At least my browser recognizes my URL now. Heh.

I dreamed last night that I saw a movie that impacted me deeply. The main character, played by Matt Damon, (?) had a string of traumatic experiences in his life. He later went back to the places and at the scene of each trauma, he pulled out his cell phone, snapped a picture, and then left the phone on the spot and walked away.

In my dream I was floating in a river and thinking about the deep impression the movie made on me and how it would likely change my life.

here I am

2011-11-11T05:28:00.000-08:00

It's been so long since I've been to my own blog that when I typed in the address last night, my browser didn't even pretend to recognize the URL. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but it isn't a good feeling.

The head cold that grabbed my daughter Wed. seems to have finally grabbed me. Sigh. I thought maybe I had successfully dodged this one.

It's cold now. Frost. So, if you know me, you know I'm in mourning. I think I'd be able to escape most of the winter blues each year if it weren't for Christmas. No rant this time, just an observation.

You know what I do with most of my time? I read. Not for me- for my daughter. Yes, we have school and that takes the majority of my time. I clean and cook and garden and do taxi service to soccer or basketball and violin and the grocery and whatever and manage church music, but mostly it feels like I read. There's the school reading (I read everything she reads for school), and then there's the preview reading. Our ritual goes like this: we go to the library where my 12 year old picks about a dozen books from the young adult section. I quickly scan them and usually reject at least one before we check out. After we get home I run all the titles past Common Sense Media. Sometimes there's a hit and that helps a lot. I don't always agree with their age recommendations, but their breakdown of content is useful. Next I do a Google search on parental reviews for the other titles. This usually turns up one or two helpful reviews. The reviews don't necessarily mean I won't preview the book, but I have a general idea about it. After yesterday's library stop, I'm left with just 6 books to pre-read, which is less than usual. (I vetoed two and approved several already.) It isn't just the reading. It's also the constant questioning about how much sexual, violent, dark, pessimistic content is too much for a 12 year old who reads almost as well as I do. It's exhausting, but it's worth it. I know that I won't have a kid I can nurture for long and that when we get beyond this point I can read anything I want and I'll wish more than anything that I had a few books to preview for her. So that's what I do.

I'm going through one of my phases about church again. If you've been reading here (and actually came back--thank you), you know that it's a cycle with me. Tolerate church. Don't tolerate church. I'm in the don't spectrum right now. Probably has to do with cold weather, but there are some other things too. Now Ruby is in the youth group and, while she never felt she belonged in the children's ministry, she does feel like she belongs in the youth. That's important. She has needed it. So when I think about flying the coup, I stop. I still think some other things, though, and they're unsettling. We still lead music. Seven and a half years is a long time to do any job you began thinking that it was a temporary volunteer position-- if we thought anything at all. I'm not really sure we did think anything, really. We were asked, and we knew we could, and so we said okay. That was it.

How are you?

coming soon

2011-01-05T20:54:00.000-08:00

Ummm- something! I don't know what, but it's on it's way. :-)

Seasons

2010-10-15T05:02:00.000-07:00

It was 66 degrees in the house this morning, so I guess I have to admit it's finally fall in Alabama. I don't love it, but I'm trying not to be a big baby this year. :-)

We had a much needed week away last week in honor of Ruby's 11th birthday. A kind friend let us stay in his beach condo since it's the off season, and the weather was absolutely beautiful. The water was too cool for me, but the other two spent some good time in the ocean. I spent my time on the beach where it wasn't swelteringly hot like in summer. We came home on Thursday night and Friday we turned around and went north for the Moundville Native American Festival. A good addition to our Early American studies this year. A little too much time on the road for my taste, but a good week nonetheless. We also got to have dinner with both of Keith's siblings and at least part of their families--one in Panama City and the other in Tuscaloosa near Moundville.

We've gotten off to a good, though rocky at times, school year. Parenting/teaching a pre-teen is decidedly different. Each year requires new adjustments, and this year is no different. You know how, as a parent, you must continually change approaches with your child/children? It's the same with homeschool, only a bit magnified. Plus, I'm having to re-learn trigonometry, which has been... interesting.

I've had relatively few full blown migraines for the last couple of months. A lot of "threats," so to speak, but they have been backing down without too much prodding. This morning, though, I was awakened by the migraine I thought was just a "threat" last night. It could be worse, but this is our first normal Friday in weeks, and I was really looking forward to a good day and quiet evening. It could still happen.

My mom will be having a stent in her leg re-opened next Tuesday. I'd appreciate your prayers for her. She hasn't been especially well for months, and she still has much pain from the shoulder she broke last December.

We're still adjusting to the new pastor who came to our church in June. It's been a big adjustment. I think it's fair to speak for Keith, too, in saying we are wearying of this process. Three pastors in six years.

I planted a small fall garden consisting of broccoli and turnips. I also intended cabbage and lettuce, but apparently we had too many 100 degree days after planting time for those to come through. So far so good on the broccoli and turnips. We've harvested several batches of turnip greens already.

I'll go now. Just thought it was about time for an update.

Life goes on

2010-06-30T19:30:00.000-07:00

I was just looking at my blog header. The beach where I took this photo has oil all over it now. There is nothing new I can say about this that you haven't already heard or read. It breaks my heart and makes my blood boil. My favorite place has been defiled. The beauty of creation has been smeared with the filth of our wastefulness. I take responsibility for my part, but I'm not sure what to do about it.

So much. So much! It's been constant, this life thing, for months on end. Hasn't it always been constant? Why is it that I can no longer fit my life into the space I'm given?

Many of you know that we lost Cupcake (also here) in April. We miss him so. I still cry sometimes, but not as often as at first.

We finished up a great school year in early June. Ruby is a wonderful person, and I feel so blessed- and honored- to get to teach her. Her violin (and fiddling) is improving all the time, too. I'm awestruck by the fact that my "little girl" can make her own (amazing) music. Getting ready for 6th grade in August!

We enlarged our vegetable garden from 8X10 to 10X45 this year. Would you believe it's 10 times the work when you enlarge a garden by 5 times the space? I also learned this last 2 weeks of being away from home a lot that even a day without tending can have serious consequences in the garden. The happy news is that we have a few quarts of squash in the freezer. We're regularly eating squash, green beans, and now corn from our own garden, and the tomatoes and okra are almost ready. Actually, I managed to let the first of the okra over mature. Frustrating! Know what else I've learned? Organic gardening is HARD!! It is sooo tempting to just get some common pesticide and plunk it out on the plants as I watch them being eaten away. The organic remedies are out there, but most are expensive and they require constant application. I won't give up, but I will stomp around the yard in frustration some more, to be sure. :-)

Keith and I recently celebrated our 25th anniversary. It was a bit like turning 40. I expected it to feel like something new, but it didn't. :-) Thank God for my patient and loving husband.

For the last week and a half Ruby and I have been volunteering at Maxwell Air Force Base in the International Family Orientation Program. We were in the 5th-6th grade class. What a great experience! Ruby has some new friends from all over the world and we learned a lot. I was merely helping the main teacher for our class. Monica did an amazing job with this group. I felt so inadequate next to her! But I was oh-so-thankful for her boundless energy and great ideas. You might not guess it, but 18 10 and 11 yr. olds, some of whom speak only marginal English, can be a little challenging to contain and engage! They are precious kids whom I will not forget.

Ruby leaves for camp for the first time on Sunday. This is a watershed moment, to be sure. I love that she's going. I hate that she's going. Ugh.

This Sunday a new pastor will begin serving in our church. As employees, this is a nervy time. The United Methodist itinerant system is hard on all UM church employees, I think. We will see and time will tell. Hoping and praying for the best in the meantime.

I recently read Julie Clawson's Everyday Justice. I can't recommend it highly enough. I also started Half the Sky. I so admire Nicholas Kristof and the work he does. I don't really do book reviews, but I think you and your world would be edified by both of these books.

This shot of the garden is almost a month old, but you get the idea. It seems big to us, but compared to many of our neighbors it is just a little baby garden.

dear anonymous

2010-04-29T19:45:00.001-07:00

Thank you! I'm here, and I'm honestly going to rejoin the blog world any day now. It's awfully nice to be missed!

randoms

2009-12-15T06:41:00.000-08:00

hi there :-)

We're out of school this week. Yay. I got almost nothing done yesterday and I loved every minute of it. I do have a few things to do this week, but boy did I need the free hours. I read some of your blogs this morning. Haven't done that in a while. I've been regular on Facebook because it has the appearance of taking less time that actual blog reading and posting, but that's an illusion. It could be quicker, but it's not because of all the built in distractions. The thing is, I connect with so many more people there than here, it's hard not to lean in that direction. But I feel like I'm betraying my blog buddies who held me up for so very long. :-(

I'm looking forward to crafts and gift making with my daughter this week. The only hitch will be the violin recital Thursday night. She hasn't been in one in a couple of years due to teacher changes, etc, and she's really stressing about it. If you think about it, please offer a quick prayer for Ruby's nerves. Her first-and-only-child temperament weighs heavily at these times.

My mom is having shoulder surgery this morning, possibly as I type. She fell last week and broke it and dislocated it at the same time. She's in a lot of pain and I'm worried about her. She is 80; these things take their toll. Could very much use prayers for her.

I'm not stressing over the holidays as much as I was. It always gets better once I dive in and remember it's not usually as bad as I expect.

Keith and I worked really hard on a special song to do in church last Sunday morning, and nobody but the pastor said a word to us about it. I tell myself my music is never about the thanks or the compliments, but things like this inevitably hurt my feelings; so I'm obviously not being honest about my motives.

Keith has a thing going on with his right eye. It stayed red and irritated for over a month so he finally went to the Dr. and found that he had a staph infection. He used the antibiotic drops and it improved quickly. Then it started to bother him again. He said it felt like it was scratched. He finally (read: after I nagged him yet again until he could no longer stand the sound of my voice) went back yesterday and the Dr. said the whole cornea is all scratched up from little bumps under his eyelid- which could have been there before or could have been caused by the antibiotic drops. Eye problems are scary. I hope the new treatment takes care of this.

We got a puppy on Halloween. His name is Mickey and he's adorable.
He's a poodle mix. We suspect the other half is beagle. He's smart and mischievous and funny, and has slightly webbed toes. We needed some clear cut joy around here even though we didn't need another expense. Some things are worth a thousand times what they cost in dollars. Mickey was a rescue. He was about 5 mo when the shelter got him, and not at all housebroken. Turns out 5 months of no training is hard to un-train, but we're getting there and we love him so much. I wish you could meet him. You'd like me
better if you met my dog.

If you can't tell from the photos, he's teething, but he's great about sticking to his chew toys when we remind him. My daughter wants to save his baby teeth so we have a little baggies with the bloody baby teeth we've found in it. :-/ I drew the line at putting them under his bed for the doggy tooth fairy.

And my husband just informed me that our daughter has set up a yard sale on her bed. ?! You never know what will happen on school holidays!

apology

2009-11-30T05:32:00.001-08:00

I'm sorry for being such a whiner! I'm working on that; I promise.

4 years

2009-11-13T05:36:00.000-08:00

I just noticed that Wednesday my blog turned 4. How about that.

Hasan

2009-11-12T04:50:00.000-08:00

CNN: "He was simply a lone guy who had issues, problems, psychopathic behaviors that escalated to the point where he wanted to get back at society, and he took it out on his workmates like most of them do," he said.

This is exactly what I dared to say out loud on Sunday. I was simultaneously "checked" by half a dozen people telling me how wrong I was; that he is a terrorist; and that Muslims should always be expected to do this sort of thing. What was I thinking.

noon

2009-11-10T15:10:00.001-08:00

My headache went away at noon today. It surprising how much more clearly one can think at the end of a 2 week headache.

chasm

2009-11-08T19:04:00.000-08:00

I'm not conservative enough for my church, and now even they are beginning to realize it. This feels like a gulf that can't be breached. I'm not sure how to proceed.

how exclusive is too exclusive

2009-10-25T18:59:00.000-07:00

What makes it okay for a Christian concert held in a church to charge $25 per ticket?

Isn't that just saying, yes, we're the church and we love everyone and our doors are always open- except tonight, you gotta fork over $25 to come through our open doors? If it were held somewhere else I wouldn't have such a problem with it. And maybe it's hypocritical of me, since I'm so big about "the church" being the people and not a building. But what is the image folks outside the church have? Do they see this and say, oh the church is the really the people; no problem, it's just the building I can't afford to go to today? Or do they see a structure claimed by the followers of Christ as their space for worship and gathering, and realize that because of their financial situation, that place of worship is closed to them today?

suggestions?

2009-09-22T20:18:00.001-07:00

any suggestions for a meal time prayer for a 10 year old?

one of those email things

2009-09-20T13:19:00.001-07:00

I just received one of those Christian email things designed to make us throw up our hands in fear and fall prostrate to the ground in sheer terror for our faith is great jeopardy. Some Muslim folks want to gather for a prayer rally. Oh dreaded day.

There was also a special note about an "emergent" Christian who is actually calling for a special time of prayer that we might learn tolerance of our Muslim neighbors. This is part of the warning, apparently.

oh. oh. oh. This is me jumping up and down and biting my tongue in frustration.

I don't need to say it to you. But I am going to say it, to hopefully prevent me from chewing through part of my desk.

Jesus Christ did not call us to oppose any religion but to love all mankind.

How, I wonder, do these fearful inflammatory folk think our Muslim neighbors will feel when they hear the "Christians" are rising up in prayer and panic over their own prayer meeting? As if they will suddenly realize the love and salvation of Jesus Christ because they're being looked upon like predators for having a prayer meeting? That's NOT what Jesus would do. I don't care where the meeting is. (Washington.) This is a free country. And, by the way, that freedom was a God given idea. You know, freedom to worship and all that.

The Crusades are over. It was wrong then and it is still wrong now.

Thanks I feel better.

things to say

2009-09-11T06:11:00.000-07:00

I actually do have a few things on my mind. I just don't know when I'm going to find the time and presence of mind to sit down and type them.

not so grand start

2009-08-27T05:13:00.000-07:00

Well we started school on the 17th, only to get sick by the 21st. Ruby is well; I'm still on the mend. I'm feeling overwhelmed, blue, tired, and extra curricular activities haven't even begun yet. All in all, not off to such a good start. I'm hoping for an upswing---SOON.

better

2009-08-13T06:05:00.000-07:00

I'm enjoying our surprise extra week of summer! No deadlines or scheduled activities, no rushing, no home improvement projects! It's the first full week of this I've had and it's nice. I wouldn't want it all the time, but for the last week it's a nice little gift.

:-(

2009-07-30T06:15:00.000-07:00

feeling sad that we only have a little over a week of summer break left...

the church that mirrors a failing system

2009-07-14T06:26:00.000-07:00

Grace has some insightful thoughts on the implications of a failing economy on the church system that was designed to mimic capitalism. Here are her conclusions:

I don’t know if there is hope for economic and political change or revolution in that arena. That isn’t what I want to address. These articles highlight the depth of failure by the church to model an alternative truth.
A few thoughts…
The dominant cultural model of our churches has been to copy the models of corporate business in organizational structures, leadership styles, productivity, performance, and marketing.
Perhaps those systems that mirror the corporate culture will also mirror their collapse.
Should we look to these same systems to organize the recovery of a church that could be different?
The church that exemplifies the kingdom is not conducive to the powers of an elite oligarchy.
The church that is an alternative witness to this culture will look radically different than the celebrity-led, consumer-fed, mega-campus complex.
God forgive us for the turbo-capitalism that drives us to success rather than faithfulness.
Sometimes the failure of all that previously worked is the doorway to an opportunity to be stripped of what is unnecessary and introduced to the beauty and simplicity of life in the kingdom. I have a glimmer of hope that the church is being turned in this direction.

Be sure and read her whole post.

Welcome to the Faith

2009-07-09T05:13:00.001-07:00

David Hayward(nakedpastor) hits it out of the park with this one

Finished!

2009-07-06T19:30:00.000-07:00

The School Room:

The Art of the Archive

2009-06-25T05:24:00.000-07:00

Elesha Coffman at The Christian History Blog has a great article on archive research. Not for everybody, but there are a few of you out there who, like me, will want to tuck this information away for future reference. Here's is just the beginning:

1. Contact the archivist before you arrive. Archivists are an underappreciated lot. Most of those I’ve worked with are based in university libraries, tucked away somewhere far from any windows that might permit deadly sun rays to strike fragile manuscripts. They know their collections, they know their policies, and they’re generally eager to help any researcher who actually manages to find them, but they need more lead time than your basic librarian

that time again

2009-06-17T19:34:00.000-07:00

it's that time again. summer project update.

i've cleaned out the school room (and cleaned and cleaned), patched the holes in the walls, and started masking. i'll start with painting the ceiling and then move on from there. want to guess the wall color the wee one chose? here's a hint: it's the color of a fruit.

here are a couple of photos. I'll have more on my facebook page for anyone who wants to go there to see them.

almost empty

where it all went

summer

2009-06-06T05:58:00.000-07:00

Summer is in full swing here now. I'm preparing for my annual summer paint project- this year it's the school room/study, and will be augmented by the wee one's tastes and choices. (read- it's going to be a bit wild.) But that's okay- it's her room too. It will be fun, once I get all the books and projects and shelves and computers and junk out.

This coming week I have jury duty for the first time. My daughter has violin camp, which Keith will take her to since he'll be working from home due to my aforementioned civic duty, and we will have a house guest. If you see me, don't be surprised to see my head spinning around. It isn't demonism--just confusion.

Here is a photo of our vegetable garden this year. It's doing well. The squash are again affected by mildew/mold but I've learned that spraying with a milk and water mixture is better than fungicide for treating plants with that problem. I haven't yet worked out how often and what concentration of milk is optimal in our garden, but i'm optimistic (er- overuse of "opti" words). We've had a few good squash grow to maturity and that encourages me.

The Great Emergence, Continued

2009-05-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

from The Great Emergence by Phyllis Tickle:

"...when pinned down and forced to answer the question, 'What is Emergent or Emerging Church?' most who are will answer, 'A conversation,' which is not only true but which will always be true. The Great Emergence can not 'be,' and be otherwise..."

Tickle quotes Donald Miller:

"I believe that we are witnessing a new reformation that is transforming the way Christianity will be experienced in the new millennium. This reformation, unlike the one led by Martin Luther, is challenging not only doctrine, but the medium through which the message of Christianity is articulated... these 'new paradigm' churches have discarded many of the attributes of established religion. Appropriating contemporary cultural forms, these churches are creating a new genre of worship music, restructuring the organizational character of institutional religion, and democratizing access to the sacred by radicalizing the Protestant principal of the priesthood of all believers."

Tickle goes on, later:
"The actual nature of the Atonement, for example, or the tenet of an angry God who must be appeased or the question of evil's origins are suddenly all up for reconsideration. If in pursuing this line of exegesis, the Great Emergence really does what most of its observers think it will, it will rewrite Christian theology--and thereby North American culture--into something far more Jewish, more paradoxical, more narrative, and more mystical than anything the Church has had for the last seventeen or eighteen hundred years...Regardless of what its theology eventually matures into, however, there is no question that the Great Emergence is the configuration of Christianity which is in ascendency.

"What is not nearly so easy to discern just yet is how the Great Emergence will interface with the results and consequences of such realignments; and more than any other of North America's Christians, it is emergents themselves who are going to have to reconsider Emergence Christianity. They must begin now to think with intention about what this new form of the faith is and is to become; because what once was an engaging but innocuous phenomenon no longer is. The cub has brown into the young lion; and now is the hour of his roaring."

I don't know whether or not to agree with this last statement of Tickle's, but I seem, nonetheless, to be experiencing it. I no longer find that I can easily push aside my disparate thoughts about church, God, and our relationship with Him. These thoughts (or the children of them) keep coming out- not oozing quietly- but plopping out at inopportune moments. Usually when surrounded by people who can't fathom what is going on in my mind, nor do they seem to want to. I regret this on several levels, yet I'm still a bit confounded about how to manage it.

The Great Emergence

2009-05-10T16:31:00.000-07:00

As I've been given time off from cooking and other chores today (yea!) I thought I'd tell you about The Great Emergence by Phyllis Tickle.

She begins with the supposition that, according to Rev. Mark Dyer, "about every five hundred years the Church feels compelled to hold a giant rummage sale. And, he goes on to say, we are living in and through one of those five-hundred-year sales."

The five hundred year points are typically referred to in terms that begin with, or are associate with the word "great," hence, "The Great Emergence."

There was the beginning of the church in the 1st century.
Then around 500 years later there came Gregory the Great and the beginning of the monastic movement following the fall of the Roman Empire.
Next, around the 11th century came the Great Schism, the divide between the Eastern Orthodox Christianity (Constantinople) and the Western Church (Rome.)
The most easily recognized "great" is the 16th century Great Reformation with Martin Luther and his 95 theses nailed to the door at Wittenberg church-- thus laying the foundations for Protestantism.
That bring us to the 21st century and what Tickle is calling the Great Emergence.

I'm with her on this. The majority of the book is a well researched explanation of these events in the life of the Church, bringing us to many observations about the changes in Protestantism in the 20th century which got us to the state of flux we are in today. I think she does a good and thorough job of this, without crossing over into tedium.

The point being made that the Church was ripe for a rebirth, the author goes on to explain the emerging church as she sees it. I'll write a little about that explanation in a follow up post.

10 survival tips

2009-05-06T16:50:00.000-07:00

David at nakedpastor has some in depth food for thought:

"I think all religious communities, like our earth, are on a collision course with their demise. And it’s our own fault, not the “world’s”. I’ve been mulling some thoughts around. If we are going to survive into the future, our communities need to:

get and stay small (like the best farms);
be autonomous but accountable to other communities (like tribes);
be indigenous in expression (local creativity and freedom of expression);
see love as the new hermeneutic of our books (instead of obedience, justification, salvation, etc.);
reject even the subtlest forms of coercion (no imposed agendas);
abandon visionary thinking (love without the oppression of expectations);
cultivate thinkers who explore the reconciliation of all things (global intelligence);
commit to long-term or even life-long oversight (relationship);
build an attitude of resistance to success-story thinking (anti-pop);
engage all sciences, religions and philosophies with an open, compassionate and humble mind (dialogue)."

counting heads

2009-04-28T08:23:00.001-07:00

Dan has stopped counting heads at church. More power to him! I wish all our denominational pastors would be so courageous.

scot on church plants

2009-04-19T14:26:00.000-07:00

Why Me?, Scot Williams

"i have been asked to give my reasons why i no longer go to real church anymore, why i handed in my ordination and though repeatedly asked, why i refuse to take it back, and why i no longer advocate planting churches for the vast majority of evangelicals. how could i, a career planter, bite the hand that has almost fed me for so long? i hope that it is because of this longevity in a field with few lifers that i have at least a smattering of some credibility. here's an excerpt...

"I was getting my passport this week. You know how it is… you sit and wait and then someone calls you up and asks you a bunch of questions. So she asked me, 'why are you going to Orlando?' I wanted to say something like, 'I’m starring in a Body Building Movie', but instead I confessed, 'I’m going to a conference about starting new churches'. Then she asked me a question, and it’s the only question I’m going to address. She said this, "well then maybe you could answer this for me… 'why would anyone want to go to church?'"

It's worth reading scot's entire post. I'm anxious to hear how this speaking engagement goes for him.

paradox

2009-04-12T18:21:00.000-07:00

Jamie at Our Missional Pilgrimage writes on The Community Longing to be the Church, out of his church planting experiences of late. He also beautifully summarizes the truth of the life of the believer as part of the body of Christ.

Here is just the last paragraph. I want you to go to his site to get the rest.

"We are The Community Longing To Be The Church. We live in the paradox of longing to become while already being. We are the Church. We are the Body. And yet we are so far from it. In this tension- in our sin and selfishness- we discover our desperate need for God and even, often grudgingly, for each other. We love God with all our hearts, but those hearts are divided. So we come together, through His Spirit to seek the love of the Father as we seek to become more like the Son. And we see that this is achieved in the chaos and brokenness of the Cross. Our hope is that, as we are poured out by and for Him, we can become the community He has created us to be. It is here that we discover the deeper truth:
"We are The Community Longing To Become Christ."

twit

2009-04-08T06:12:00.000-07:00

Why I won't be twittering.

thanks to Glenn.

what's right

2009-04-06T19:07:00.001-07:00

For all my whining, complaining, and pointing out what I see that's wrong, I do see some things in the institutional church (local and otherwise) that I think are good and right. I will hereafter be more intentional about highlighting those things.

I'll start with yesterday in our own church. We had a (limited) Seder meal during worship. It isn't the first time we've done it, but it was again meaningful to a lot of people, myself included. The occasional hacks and gags from children tasting horseradish for the first time, to the "what's that again?" queries from adults only added to the beauty of it. When we do the Seder, it feels like we're participating in communion the way it was intended and taught at that last Passover meal with the Christ.

It definitely was right.

one of those things

2009-03-25T18:27:00.001-07:00

Did you ever have to do something that you knew would make a bunch of people mad while the rest of the people would be indifferent (at best) about it? But you didn't have a choice about the matter and still had to it no matter what your reservations? And even at the last minute you couldn't decide exactly how to go about it because no matter what you know you'll feel like you failed?

I've got one of those things.

BTW, I'm sorry I've been so AWOL. I guess I don't feel that I've had much to say lately. The tide will surely turn, eventually.

small town hero

2009-03-14T08:50:00.000-07:00

Samson town comedian may have prevented more deaths

"In life, he never really got the spotlight he was seeking. But in the days
following the massacre that shattered their small Alabama community, some have
dropped the comedian label and replaced it with another: Hero."

"On Friday, witnesses and authorities said Maloy, the 10th and final
victim of Tuesday's shooting rampage by Michael McLendon, single-handedly tried
to end the violence with his beat-up old pickup."

weekend

2009-03-09T05:39:00.001-07:00

I spent my weekend with a 48 hour migraine. That's 24 hours more than usual. I think it's the first time.

I probably don't have to tell you how I feel about that, now that Monday morning has arrived.

a new look at sustainable agriculture

2009-03-03T08:42:00.000-08:00

Spoiled: Organic and Local Is So 2008

"Food is not simple. To make it, you have to balance myriad variables—soil, water, and nutrients, of course, but also various social, political, and economic realities. But because our consumer culture favors fixes that are fast and easy, our approaches toward food advocacy have been built around one or two dimensions of production, such as reducing energy use or eliminating pesticides, while overlooking factors that are harder to define (and ditto to market), such as worker safety.'
"Consider our love affair with food miles. In theory, locally grown foods have traveled shorter distances and thus represent less fuel use and lower carbon emissions—their resource footprint is smaller. And yet, for all the benefits of a local diet, eating locally doesn't always translate into more sustainability. Because the typical farmers market is supplied by dozens of different farms, each transporting its crops in a separate van or truck, a 20-pound shopping basket of locally grown produce might actually represent a larger carbon footprint than the same volume of produce purchased at a chain retailer, which gets its produce en masse, via large trucks."

"And for all our focus on the cost of moving food, transportation accounts for barely one-tenth of a food product's greenhouse gas emissions. Far more significant is how the food was produced—its so-called resource intensity. Certain foods, like meat and cheese, suck up so many resources regardless of where they're produced (a pound of conventional grain-fed beef requires nearly a gallon of fuel and 5,169 gallons of water) that you can shrink your footprint far more by changing what you eat, rather than where the food came from. According to a 2008 report from Carnegie Mellon University, going meat- and dairyless one day a week is more environmentally beneficial than eating locally every single day."

There's much more worth reading.

speaking of profiteering...

2009-02-26T07:59:00.000-08:00

I receive weekly emails from WorshipTogether.com. They offer free lead sheets weekly, and I'm more than happy to use what I can that's free because leading worship music these days means learning new music constantly. I appreciate the service and have even recently subscribed, through the church, to their monthly new song resource.

That said-- I received an email yesterday announcing a seminar coming to the area next month. It seemed standard fair for this sort of thing, until I read the bottom of the page. If you can't/don't need to attend the afternoon seminar for $55, you may still attend the evening worship service. For only $10.

Yes. These folks who are leading a seminar for worship leaders are bringing the day's teaching to a grand finale with a great big dose of table turning heresy. You must pay for worship. (Their words.) They didn't call it a concert; they called it worship. And it costs $10 to worship with these fine worship leaders. They must be a lot better at it than Jesus, since he never charged for worshiping with him.

holy courage

2009-02-26T05:55:00.001-08:00

Andy had the courage to admit that he and his family went to the Holy Land Theme Park. With photos. Interesting...?

High Hoops

2009-02-26T05:37:00.000-08:00

By David Hayward.

I just love this one.

representing Jesus

2009-02-24T05:31:00.000-08:00

From Kingdom Grace:

"If we represent Jesus, it isn’t okay if people think we’re an ass."

Enough said.

more than what I do

2009-02-20T18:51:00.000-08:00

From Drifting Free, by Erin Word:

"However, that place deep within our spirit where we hide away our freedom can be integrated into our various responsibilities with an honest admission that there is more to us than the things we do, the roles we play, and the needs we fill. We can allow those “other” aspects of self to surface and shine. If we chose not to fear the unknowns of the ocean, setting ourselves adrift into ourselves, we just may find that those around us will find healing - healing through the touch of a free woman."

Now, if only my dear friend Erin can teach me to do this. If I were to be honest, I'd ask what if there is no room for the rest of me in my life? The things I do, the roles I play, and the needs I fill seem to take up 110% as it is.

community and belief

2009-02-18T05:32:00.001-08:00

Pete Rollins, The Fidelity of Betrayal:

First- let me apologize for the length of this passage. I couldn't find a suitable way to break it into 2 posts. Second, I would much appreciate your comments on these thoughts of Rollins'.

"...if a Christian is sharing his or her faith, the discussion will likely concern a set of beliefs that one is asked to accept--beliefs that will often include the existence of God, the deity of Christ, the existence of sin, and the atoning sacrifice of Jesus. If these are accepted then the individual will be asked to engage in certain behavior, that is, to pray, repent, and join the local church. Then, once this has taken place, that individual will be welcomed into the Christian community, being invited to get involved in the life of the church."

"This approach works with the underlying idea that belief is of prime importance in Christianity, followed by behavior, followed by belonging. In contrast to this let us briefly consider the birth of an infant. When a child enters the world she does not begin with a system of beliefs that must be accepted before she belongs to the family. The infant, in a healthy environment, begins her life with absolute unconditional acceptance. The infant belongs to the family as the family now belongs to the infant. As the child grows she gradually learn to engage in the various rituals in which the family engages. These will include times when the family members eat together, play together, relax together, and so on. Then the child will begin to form a set of beliefs about the world into which she is already embedded. these will generally begin by mimicking the beliefs of the parents. Then these beliefs will likely come into conflict with hose of the parents, as she attempt to wrestle with the world for herself and test limits. And finally she will often come into some equitable relationship with the parents' beliefs, agreeing with some and disagreeing with others. Within a healthy, loving family each of these stages will be welcomed and allowed room to breathe."

"This approach thus places belonging first, followed by behavior, followed last and least, by belief. This model is what we find in operation within a broadly Hebraic approach to faith, and approach that emphasizes belonging to the community and engaging in the shared rituals of the community... What is important is that, regardless of the doubts and beliefs we have, we know that we have a vital place in the community and are encouraged to remain involved in the traditions--traditions that, at their best, provide ample space for doubt, ambiguity, and uncertainty."

For an interesting parallel observation, see Tony Jones' post Is Virtual Community True Community?.

the call of faith

2009-02-16T18:32:00.000-08:00

Pete Rollins, The Fidelity of Betrayal:

"If the truth affirmed by Christianity lay in something that people could intellectually grasp, then the truth of faith would be something that one could hold without ever hearing or following its demand. But Christianity, as a religion without religion, is too elusive to be held in this way. It does not allow for such a divorce between the hearing and the happening, for its saying does not occur in that which is said, but rather in the undergoing of an event. The divine Word, like that spoken of in Genesis, results in life being birthed in the depths of our being... However, the call of faith is one that is heard only in its transformative effect. It is a still, small voice that is heard only in being heeded."

my valentines

2009-02-15T13:46:00.000-08:00

look at what the creative loves of my life made for me this valentine's day!

Pete Rollins videos

2009-02-10T05:10:00.000-08:00

The Singular Answer
Refusing to Lead

If you're in my area, Pete will be in Birmingham Alabama Wed and Thurs. next week. I won't be able to go, but I'm sure he will be interesting to hear in person.

My God is bigger than my God

2009-02-09T05:20:00.000-08:00

Pete Rollins, The Fidelity of Betrayal:

"The attempt to render God present as an idea is reflected in so much of what passes as theology in the Western tradition. The result is a depiction of the theologian as type of alchemist or wizard. For instead of being evoked by the mystery of faith, the theological alchemist seems to expose it, while the theological wizard endeavors to evoke it. In this way so much theology is a means of attempting to render the ineffable as a legitimate object of inquiry rather than a circumspect discourse that limits itself to the effect of the ineffable upon the individual and community. In contrast to this the Christian must understand that the scriptural narrative includes a proclamation that we cannot grasp God within any narrative."

"... we must learn that in order to approach the God of faith and the truth affirmed by Christianity, we must betray the God we grasp--for the God who brings us into a new life is never the God we grasp but always in excess of that God. The God we affirm is then, at its best, inspired by the incoming of God and born there, but it is never to be confused with God."

Rollins on new birth

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

Pete Rollins, The Fidelity of Betrayal:

"This new life that is testified to constantly in the Bible, as our reflections show, cannot be thought of as something that one sees, touches, or ever experiences. It cannot be a mere object in the world. Rather, it can be thought of only as the incoming of that which transforms all our relationships with objects in the world. In short, it is that which fundamentally changes how we interact with the things we see, touch, and experience."

"Religious experience, in it's fundamental form, is not then an experience at all but rather a counter-experience, one that transforms our mode of being in the world rather than being reduced to some strange feeling. With the incoming of this truth nothing necessarily changes in the physical world, no new object enters our horizon. But in its aftermath the person is never the same again, for everything has changed."

"This means that the truth spoken of within the Judeo-Christian tradition transcends the mundane level of debates concerning the accuracy of certain historical claims, interesting as such debates may be. This does not in any way mean that parts of the Bible do not make historical, geographical, and archeological assertions, but rather that the real kernel of Christianity is referring to something infintely deeper, richer, and more esoteric than some factual claim that can be accepted or rejected without any significant change in the individual."

"Because of the utterly immanent nature of this transcendental birth, all reflection fails to grasp it."

common ground

2009-02-05T06:08:00.000-08:00

We were sick last week. As soon as we got well, we got sick again this week. So- just ugh.

That said, I want to direct you to Grace's post called Finding Common Ground. She addresses the issue of homosexuality in the absolutely best way I've seen yet. Please read it if you haven't. I firmly believe that the church must collectively take the approach Grace has taken. We must. If love isn't first, then we aren't the church. Here's a little of what she wrote:

"As believers, both male and female, we are all on the journey to knowing God. Part of that journey is the transformation of our hearts and lives to the wholeness that He intends for us. Whatever a person’s struggle with sin or sexuality, we are to be a source of love and encouragement to one another, not judgment."

guilty as charged

2009-02-02T05:15:00.000-08:00

David Hayward at nakedpastor writes:

"But isn’t it biblical, at times, to take upon ourselves the responsibility of the whole church and even the whole human race? Isn’t is right to occasionally fall on our knees just because we are a part of the human race prone to harming others and a part of an organization prone to abuse, and say, “Guilty as accused!“?"

And Pete Rollins writes this:

"Without equivocation or hesitation I fully and completely admit that I deny the resurrection of Christ. This is something that anyone who knows me could tell you, and I am not afraid to say it publicly, no matter what some people may think…"
"I deny the resurrection of Christ every time I do not serve at the feet of the oppressed, each day that I turn my back on the poor; I deny the resurrection of Christ when I close my ears to the cries of the downtrodden and lend my support to an unjust and corrupt system."
"However there are moments when I affirm that resurrection, few and far between as they are. I affirm it when I stand up for those who are forced to live on their knees, when I speak for those who have had their tongues torn out, when I cry for those who have no more tears left to shed."

Doubt is not the enemy- cont.

2009-01-30T05:30:00.000-08:00

continued from yesterday, Pete Rollins, The Fidelity of Betrayal:

"In addition to these problems, such an approach creates a wedge between possessing 'truth' and engaging in a life of devotion and service."

"Following on from this, when the truth of faith is reduced to the idea of a theoretical system divorced from one's practice, then faith becomes associated with an affirmation of certain beliefs that seem to do little more than offer the believer a matrix of meaning with which to understand life. This effectively reduces Christianity to a set of claims concerning ideas such as the world's being created for a purpose, God's loving us, and the existence of heaven. The problem arises not when one accepts these beliefs but rather when one thinks that they are what constitutes the truth of faith."

"Indeed, if one does believe in a literal heaven, it may even be important to suspend this belief in order to approach the truly good news of Christianity. For the original disciples the introduction of an afterlife arose only after they had already given up everything and followed Jesus--in short, after the good news had already been received."

I had to skip a bit of text to get to that last paragraph, but felt that it needed to be included to draw the subject towards Rollins' full meaning.

Doubt is not the enemy

2009-01-29T05:07:00.000-08:00

Pete Rollins, The Fidelity of Betrayal:

"Apologetics, in its attempt to defend the factual claims of the Bible through the use of reason, thus implicitly affirms the very philosophical outlook that undermines its own project, placing the truth of Christianity in the realm of rational reflection and thus in to the realm of reasonable doubt and provisionality."

"This has the effect of placing the Christian idea of truth upon a very tentative and fragile foundation, one that could not possibly justify an individual's unconditional commitment--one that would not be able to embrace Jesus' statement that one ought to lay one's life down for one's faith. Such an approach to the truth affirmed by Christianity would effectively mean that the believer would have to bow down before the academic researchers who are able to discuss which biblical texts are authentic, when they were written, by whom, and for what purpose. The believer would need to study all the available evidence and ascertain facts such as whether or not the Gospels record the writing of people who were eyewitnesses to the events they mention, and if not, whether they knew the eyewitnesses."

"To be a believer would thus require some hefty subscriptions to the latest academic journals in order to see if the truth claims of Christianity could still be regarded as plausible, or even possible. Philosophy journals would become a stable diet for the preacher who would, in fear and trembling, be working out whether believe in Christianity is still rational."

I'll continue on this section next time.

the reduction of God

2009-01-28T05:18:00.001-08:00

Pete Rollins, The Fidelity of Betrayal:

"The idea of the "word of God" becomes pale and anemic when reduced to the idea of a factual description of historical events... the Word of God can be described as that dark core around which the words of the text find their orbit, the unspeakable Source within the text that cannot be reduced to the words themselves but that breathes life into them."

So then, if we were to imagine someone rewriting the text in such a way that all the tensions and conflicts were exiled, if we were to do the impossible and render the text into the ultimate fantasy of the fundamentalist (a text at one with itself), then the Word of God would not be clearer; rather the Word of God would have been systematically eradicated. This attempt to systematize the text would be nothing less than a form of exorcism in which the Word of God is cast out--removing the spirit until we are left with nothing but the letter of the law."

navbar trouble

2009-01-27T05:37:00.000-08:00

Problem resolved. thanks!

is anyone else seeing something strange at the top of my blog in the navbar space? I'm having trouble loading it.

The Fidelity of Betrayal on the Word of God

2009-01-27T05:31:00.000-08:00

Pete Rollins, The Fidelity of Betrayal:

"Part of the reason we find it so hard to let (the) Word reveal itself as it is rather than as we imagine it to be relates to the intellectual presuppositions that we have unwittingly inherited from our Western philosophical tradition, particularly in relation to our idea of truth."

"Within the church as much as within the academy, we have been deeply influenced by the idea that for something to be true, it must show itself in the world, opening itself up to contemplation in some way. Truth, including religious truth, is thus related to the world of objects, to the world of facts. The result is a belief that we can distill the truth of faith into various sacraments, creeds, doctrines, historical interpretations, and even scientific theories, all of which are able to do justice to the claims of these ancient writings. The Word is taken to be something (the words of scripture) that we can assess and interpret (stretching and distorting it until it becomes intelligible to us)."

"The net result is that we approach the Bible as something that can be analyzed and assessed..."

"If the claims of Christianity are not open to being assessed in this way, the only alternative would seem to involve rejecting them as meaningless, a view that was developed by the philosophical tradition called Logical Positivism... Logical Positivists would say that if someone claims that God exists but cannot be seen, heard, or experienced, then this is much like saying that pixies exist but cannot be seen, heard, or experienced, as statement that is not even worthy of being considered as true or false (for how would one go about proving or disproving it). While Logical Positivism as a philosophical system was short-lived, its influence continues to be felt everywhere we turn... It is precisely this approach to faith that postmodern religious thinkers question and critique as philosophically untenable, religiously problematic, and biblically unjustified."

As I see it, the insistence on turning the Bible into a book of facts that must be proved or disproved effectively kills our ability to have meaningful faith. The evidence of this is in dogma and absolutism that refuses to consider the possibility that another reading of the Word could have merit. It is a refusal to wrestle with, but rather an insistence on containing God.

I understand the appeal of containing God in words. I used to do it. But my heart and my faith tell me now that He cannot be contained and would much prefer that I wrestle with him over the truths I don't understand.

Why has the church so espoused a fear of wrestling with God while this concept is so deeply ingrained in the very Word we claim to have contained? And what can be done about it?

The Fidelity of Betrayal

2009-01-25T19:34:00.000-08:00

Pete Rollins does it again for me with The Fidelity of Betrayal.
I'll begin with a series of quotes from the story of Jacob (Gen. 32) in Chapter 2.

"Jacob does not seem in any way repentant when he discovers who this stranger really is, and God, far from seeming to have a problem with such and unrepentant follower, bestows the victor with the blessing of a new name that would come to represent, not only Jacob, but all of his descendants."

"It is here, in this encounter between Jacob and God, that we discover why the Jewish community is marked out by the name 'Israel.' This title represents the spirit of a people who have 'wrestled with God and with men and have overcome.'"

"The name Israel is not some kind of curse, or dispassionate description, it is a blessing. Here God does not merely describe something that the Israelites do; the name describes what they ought to be... Thus, if relationship with God within this tradition is to be understood as promising peace and harmony, it cannot be understood as a peace and harmony that stand in contrast to a kinetic life of tension, striving, and conflict. For the blessing that God bestowed upon Jacob brings us face to face with the fact that God wants a fight."

Rollins' book comes to me at precisely the point in my life when I'm realizing that God does, in fact, want some kind of a fight with me. For my own good, of course, but that good isn't going to come without the struggle before me. I think I may have been in this conflict with him for a while without recognizing it. Now, I welcome it.

fond farewell

2009-01-25T17:32:00.000-08:00

It seems that the wee one accidentally left our garden gate open, so the wild things munched the tops off our unique crop. Since they were starting to rot, we harvested what was left. Oddly enough, not even the wildlife seemed interested in the roots.

So here, submitted for your final approval, are the last of our curious carrots.

Previous carrots:
Jan. 09
Nov. '08
Sept. '08
July '08

church is not a competition

2009-01-22T19:59:00.000-08:00

church is not a competition

church is not a competition

church is not a competition

church is not a competition

church is not a competition

CHURCH IS NOT A COMPETITION

I know you knew that already. I just needed to get it off my chest. You can probably guess why, at least in general terms.

Blue Parakeet

2009-01-22T05:26:00.000-08:00

If you've read The Blue Parakeet by Scot McKnight, please take a minute to tell me your thoughts. Thanks!

new ground on common values

2009-01-17T05:21:00.000-08:00

Evangelical and Progressive Leaders Release “Common Values” Agenda Covering Gay Rights, Abortion, Immigration Reform, and Torture

"Washington, DC – For decades, many Evangelical and progressive leaders have been stuck in a divisive and corrosive war over cultural issues. But today, seizing on a new political moment, emissaries of these historic adversaries have come together to send a letter to the President-elect and congressional leaders offering “a shared vision and a plan for ending the culture wars.”
"The Come Let Us Reason Together Governing Agenda breaks new ground by uniting key Evangelical and progressive leaders behind specific policy recommendations on abortion, gay rights, torture, and immigration reform – ground zero in the nation’s culture wars. Specifically, the agenda calls for:

"Reducing abortions by preventing unintended pregnancies, supporting pregnant women and new families, and increasing support for adoption.

"Protecting the rights of gay and lesbian people to earn a living by making it illegal to fire, refuse to hire, or refuse to promote employees based on sexual orientation so long as there is an exemption for faith-based employers.

"Renouncing torture through an unequivocal statement that calls on government to forbid cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment against prisoners.

"Supporting immigration reform that paves the way to an earned path to citizenship for most undocumented residents."

thanks to Tony

so much

2009-01-12T14:11:00.001-08:00

sometimes there is so much to say, it isn't possible to say anything.

Happy New...

2009-01-03T05:47:00.000-08:00

CARROT! (Fooled ya didn't I?)

I didn't try to clean this one up too much for fear that I'd break off all those weird little knobby things.

For more information see here.

bragging on my kid

2009-01-03T05:25:00.000-08:00

So yesterday we cleaned the carpet. It's been... let's just say too long and leave it at that.

While Keith and I moved and stacked furniture etc., I told Ruby to get everything off the floor of her room-which is what I say each time I vacuum. It's a routine thing and she does it well and quickly. Baskets, rug, bean bag chair and what ever junk she hadn't been able to previously see gets put on the bed or away somewhere. She gets the clothes or whatever off the closet floor. It's no big deal.

Well, yesterday, she apparently decided to do it properly for the formal carpet cleaning, though I only intended for her to do the usual pick up. When I walked into her room I saw this:

Not only did she get EVERYTHING off of her floor, she also took every last thing off of the floor of her closet: large (heavy!) storage drawers, laundry hamper, toys, shoe bag, a small tent, I don't know what else. Everything in the child's room was on her bed. It isn't what I meant, exactly, but I was so impressed at what our 9 yr. old did entirely on her own. For the sake of cleaning! (She can move worlds for the sake of fun, but never for this kind of thing.) Today there will be a great deal of sorting out before we haul it all back in the closet, but that was on my radar anyway.

Thanks for letting me indulge.

header

2008-12-31T05:53:00.000-08:00

i need to see the beach again!

it felt like early spring here yesterday. in fact we have new green grass coming up and may need to mow soon. i had a great afternoon pulling weeds and doing post travel clean up on my car. it won't be so warm today, but i sure did appreciate the brief reprieve.

you might live in the country if...

2008-12-30T19:37:00.000-08:00

you pass this on the side of the road every day

when the toilet initially appeared here it was only broken into a couple of pieces. how much would you give to see the insurance adjuster's face when he hears, "Well, I ran over a toilet..."?

Christmas thoughts?

2008-12-26T19:34:00.000-08:00

It's been a good Christmas for us, as far as Christmases go, but I don't have anything particularly special to say. I keep thinking how I used to always have some heart-warming thoughts in my head at Christmas and where did they go.

A Jewish friend recently commented about being sucked into a holiday that isn't even hers. I identified so much with that, as I feel that Christmas is no longer my holiday either. I don't know if I lost Christmas or if it lost me. Somewhere along the way my faith and my holiday parted ways. I have both, but they're not interconnected as I suppose they should be. Maybe that's heresy, but so be it. I love God. I love Jesus. It's just easier for me to worship when there isn't all this holiday mess going on.

I think the Church is as much at fault as the retail industry. We put on program after special program that stress families out because you have to go to/be in the Christmas program or what does that say about you? The children have a program. The choir has a program. We have church parties that come with special guilt tie-ins due to the Christmas connection. We even have a special service for putting up the decorations for goodness' sake!

So. I said all that to say, Merry Christmas. I hope you're having a nice break from work or school and have been able to visit with family and friends. And I pray that the pace of it all doesn't leave any of us the worse, because that would be a great insult to the one we claim to be celebrating, the one who came to save us--wouldn't it?

home-made gifts

2008-12-25T15:39:00.000-08:00

I was asked on my facebook page for recipe/directions for our home-made gifts. Here they are:

Home-Made Marshmallows

I can't find the url for this recipe, but there's a link to the original source. I've copied it in it's entirety here. The only thing I changed is that we didn't have the vanilla bean seeds so we added a cocoa/confectioners sugar mixture / crushed peppermint after folding the mixture into the cooling pans.

Home-Made Marshmallows-

Ingredients
adapted from Alton Brown

3 packages unflavored gelatin
1 cups cold water, divided
12 ounces granulated sugar, approximately 1 1/2 cups
1 cup light corn syrup (or glucose)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 vanilla bean, seeds removed
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
Nonstick spray

Method
Place the gelatin into the bowl of a stand mixer along with 1/2 cup of the water. Have the whisk attachment standing by. In a small saucepan combine the remaining 1/2 cup water, granulated sugar, corn syrup and salt. Place over medium high heat, cover and allow to cook for 3 to 4 minutes. Uncover, clip a candy thermometer onto the side of the pan and continue to cook until the mixture reaches 240 degrees F, approximately 7 to 8 minutes. Once the mixture reaches this temperature, immediately remove from the heat.

Turn the mixer on low speed and, while running, slowly pour the sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into the gelatin mixture. Once you have added all of the syrup, increase the speed to high. Add the vanilla seeds. Continue to whip until the mixture becomes very thick and is lukewarm, approximately 12 to 15 minutes. While the mixture is whipping prepare the pans as follows.

Combine the confectioners’ sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl. Line a 13 by 9-inch metal baking pan with aluminum then spray with pan spray. Add the sugar and cornstarch mixture and move around to completely coat the bottom and sides of the pan. Return the remaining mixture to the bowl for later use. When ready, pour the mixture into the prepared pan, using a lightly oiled spatula for spreading evenly into the pan. Dust the top with enough of the remaining sugar and cornstarch mixture to lightly cover. Reserve the rest for later. Allow the marshmallows to sit uncovered for at least 4 hours and up to overnight.

Turn the marshmallows out onto a cutting board and cut into 1-inch squares using a pizza wheel or sharp knife dusted with the confectioners’ sugar mixture. Once cut, lightly dust all sides of each marshmallow with the remaining mixture, using additional if necessary. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 weeks

Snow globes

Snow Globes- Martha Stewart

The shimmering magic of snowfall is always transfixing, whether it's outside your window or inside this classic toy. Homemade globes let you create a wintry scene straight out of your own imagination. Almost any jar works for this project: Baby-food, pimiento, and olive jars are good choices. Look for plastic or ceramic figurines (metal ones are prone to rust) at flea markets and hobby or model-railroad shops. Synthetic evergreen tips are available at many floral-supply stores. If the jar lids are not in seasonal colors already, paint them with oil-based enamel paint. Sand the inside of the lid until the surface is rough. With clear-drying epoxy, adhere the figurine to the inside of the lid, and let the epoxy dry. Fill the jar almost to the top with distilled water; add a pinch of glitter and a dash of glycerin (available at drugstores) to keep the glitter from falling too quickly. Don't add too much, or the glitter will stick to the bottom of the jar when it's flipped. Screw on the lid tightly, being careful not to dislodge the figurine. Turn the jar over and back again -- and let it snow.

Comment: 8/04/08 at 3:18 p.m. ET
I made a couple of these to give as gifts, but ended up keeping them because they leaked!! I suggest sticking a slim "ribbon" of plumbing tape on the jar threads before filling the jar with water. This way there is a sealant layer between the glass and the metal lid. By the way, I found great bottles at Container Store...

Cindy’s Notes:
*The Teflon plumbers’ tape was imperative. Even though we chose not to invert our jars, they still leaked when being turned up and down repeatedly.

*We used plastic mini-tree ornaments for our decorations-- just took off the eye hooks, etc.

*After testing several types of glues, I ended up going with All Purpose Goop. It is the thickest and has a slower bonding time which allowed for repositioning.

*We used more than a pinch of glitter! We used some colored glitter and some tiny iridescent glitter. The smaller glitter is most effective because it floats longer.

*It took about ½ to 1 tsp of glycerin for each of our small jars (I didn’t measure). The key, which I didn’t read about in any of my research, is to put a drop of dish detergent in the jar. The detergent keeps the glitter from clumping together and sticking to the figurines. We had to figure this out through trial and error. You should have seen our furry snowmen at first!

technology

2008-12-22T22:11:00.000-08:00

I thought I'd share with you my latest exchange with the company who provides our telephone and DSL service. Tell me if the conversation strikes you as a little odd, too.

ME:
I'm trying to change my bank routing number for online billing, but the
system doesn't seem to be accepting my edited information. I can't pay
with my old account as we have changed banks. Please assist.

THEM:
Dear Bryan,

It will be my pleasure to assist.

Sometimes this occurs and the only way to resolve it is to re register 
as if you had never done it before instead of attempting to edit the 
current registration.

Should you need further assistance or have other questions, please reply
back to this e-mail and the AT&T Online Customer Care team will be happy
to help you.

Thank you for doing business with AT&T online. 
The irony of it.
Ha.

gratitude

2008-12-19T05:55:00.000-08:00

From Why We Are Waiting:

"While you are waiting today - review your day-to-day life and work out what makes you feel alive and what drains you; make a note of them.

"In an experimental comparison, those who kept gratitude journals on a weekly basis exercised more regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, felt better about their lives as a whole, and were more optimistic about the upcoming week compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life events (Emmons & McCullough, 2003).

"Spirituality: Those who regularly attend religious services and engage in religious activities such as prayer and reading religious material score are more likely to be grateful. Grateful people are more likely to acknowledge a belief in the interconnectedness of all life and a commitment to and responsibility to others (McCullough et al., 2002). Gratitude does not require religious faith, but faith enhances the ability to be grateful.

"Materialism: Grateful individuals place less importance on material goods; they are less likely to judge their own and others success in terms of possessions accumulated; they are less envious of others; and are more likely to share their possessions with others relative to less grateful persons."

Source Robert Emmons, Professor of Psychology, University of California, Davis, USA, author of Thanks! How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier (Houghton-Mifflin)

truth

2008-12-18T05:20:00.000-08:00

From The New Christians, Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier by Tony Jones:

"Most persons who follow God would without reluctance affirm the assertion that 'all truth is God's truth.'

"...Few human beings would be so arrogant as to presume to have the ability to definitively sum up God.

"...And yet, surprisingly, many people claim an ability to fully articulate truth, and when someone questions their ability to do so, they get rather feisty. But there's a disconnect here. The same one who claims that God is truth and that God cannot be fully described cannot go on to claim that truth can be fully described. What emergents claim is that talk of truth demand the same humility as talk of God."

banking

2008-12-16T04:10:00.000-08:00

We hate our bank, so, though it's a huge inconvenience, we're looking for a new bank.

Does anybody out there LOVE their bank and highly recommend it? We're hoping to find a smaller more local bank, but that has its difficulties too, so we might consider another national or regional bank.

i'm sorry

2008-12-14T15:19:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry to those of you... well- you know who you are.

Feel free to take pot shots.

late for church

2008-12-12T07:32:00.000-08:00

Late for "church"

This entire post is from Danno's Dangerous Mind, via Jim's google reader :

Philip Yancey shared this story he heard from a friend in his 'What's So Amazing About Grace' video series:
When I'm late to church, people turn around and stare at me with frowns of disapproval. I get the clear message that I'm not as responsible as they are. When I'm late to Alcoholics Anonymous, the meeting comes to a halt, and everyone jumps up to hug and welcome me. They realize that my lateness may be a sign that I almost didn't make it. When I show up, it proves that my desperate need for them won out over my desperate need for alcohol.

I have to admit, I sometimes get irritated when people are late for our Sunday worship gatherings (or Small Groups, dinners or whatever). For some it seems like a lack of discipline or concern for others. But Yancey makes a good point.

I often fail to recognize just how much of a struggle it is for some people to overcome their brokenness and seek out help through the church. And if anyone ought to be welcoming, it should be the followers of Jesus.

This reminds me of the parable in Luke 18: 9-14 where two men prayed very different prayers. One was confident of his righteousness and looked down on everyone else. He prayed that he not become "like them." The other could not even raise his eyes for shame. He simply asked for mercy. Jesus said it was this second man who went home justified.

Sunday worship gatherings (or "services") are odd things. On the one hand, they are meant to be FOR God. It is a time for people of faith to come together to worship and praise Him. Yet, could it be that the greatest form of praise we can give is to bow before him in our awkward brokenness and ask for mercy? Is God impressed by our 'dressing up and doing something for him'; or is it our humble confession that we desperately need him and his church, and that sometimes we don't even know how to go about proper worship, that is more pleasing in His eyes?

I think we have a fairly welcoming church, but I pray that we might become even moreso. May we celebrate the late-arrivals, and most of all, the One who welcomes all of us as we ask, "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner."

a simple prayer

2008-12-12T04:44:00.000-08:00

From Why We Are Waiting:

12th December
While you are waiting today thank God for five people who mean a lot to you.

Lord God,
thank you for the gift of Advent,
the gift of time and of waiting,
thank you for the gift of other people,
and especially those who have shared my life
and mean so much to me:
for …..[name]*
for …..[name]
for …..[name]
for …..[name]
and for …..[name].
And as you have blessed me through them,
so, I pray, bless them today,
through Jesus Christ, our friend and brother. Amen.

school work

2008-12-10T05:37:00.000-08:00

My daughter hates to write or type (although she will happily tell an elaborate story that lasts half an hour.) Hence, she has become quite succinct in her written answers.

Here's an example from yesterday's school work:

Question: Tell a little about the place of women in ancient Israelite culture:
Answer: they were as good as men but they still had to mind the kids

what else is there to say?

favorite Christmas music

2008-12-08T15:32:00.000-08:00

What's your favorite Christmas music (right now)?

I'll start- Trans-Siberian Orchestra: The Lost Christmas Eve

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year 2008

2008-12-08T04:39:00.000-08:00

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year 2008

1. bailout (noun) :a rescue from financial distress

my idea

2008-12-04T20:25:00.000-08:00

I've decided to do away with everything about Christmas except the music.
Who's with me?

new churches

2008-12-02T05:36:00.000-08:00

From The New Christians, Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier by Tony Jones:

As you know, I rarely comment on quotes. I figure that quoting somebody is a pretty good indicator to you that I either agree with the author or am at least intrigued by what he or she is saying. I will comment on this one, however, after you read it.

"Emergents start new churches to save their own faith, not necessarily as an outreach strategy."

Although I have never been involved in starting a new church (nor do I have plans to do so), if I were to do such a thing, this would be at least 90% of my reasoning. Probably more.

just friday

2008-11-29T18:56:00.000-08:00

Black Friday

just.

don't.

go.

there's no place

2008-11-29T18:10:00.000-08:00

like home.

insurance

2008-11-24T05:26:00.000-08:00

Saturday we received a polite little letter from the insurance company telling us our health insurance premium will be going up over $100 per month. Anybody else get any similar communiques lately?

hilarious

2008-11-23T18:05:00.000-08:00

farts are hilarious.
just ask my 9 year old daughter.
or my husband.

nailing the foundation into oblivion

2008-11-21T05:25:00.000-08:00

"As Brian McLaren has said, 'The moment that we have all the bolts screwed in tight and all the nails hammered in, it's at precisely that moment that we cease being faithful.'

"While some look for a firm foundation in a world of change, emergents grab on to a God who is the change. Prayer is a conversation with the Lord, not a quest for answers or a therapeutic practice. The Bible is a companion on the faith journey, not a textbook of proofs or a compendium of inspirational saying."

From The New Christians, Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier by Tony Jones.

google

2008-11-21T05:23:00.001-08:00

does anybody know what the Google image today is about? Am I just being dense?

the sky is falling

2008-11-20T18:00:00.000-08:00

...so we received a letter today from Fidelity. They politely asked if we wouldn't like to move our funds out of our 401K and into an IRA. I'm terribly lacking in financial savvy, but it occurs to me that perhaps they've had to lay off a few fund managers and they're hoping we'll switch to an account that requires less of their time and, more importantly, reflects less on their "success" rate every time the bottom falls out. Any thoughts from those of you who know about these things?

Africa's Witch Children

2008-11-20T05:03:00.000-08:00

This will break your heart. Read it anyway.

Same Sex Marriage Blogalogue

2008-11-20T04:58:00.000-08:00

I'm following Tony Jones' Same Sex Marriage Blogalogue with conservative writer Rod Dreher.

more on humility

2008-11-19T05:06:00.000-08:00

"Humility about what human beings can know, about the limits of human knowledge and our ability to accurately articulate that knowledge--what philosophers call epistemic humility--is a common trait among emergents.

"This stems, in part, from the acute awareness among emergents that our ancestors were dead wrong about some things in the past. Ask an emergent, 'Why so humble about making strong truth claims?' and you're likely to hear a response like this: 'One hundred years ago, my great-grandfather thought that women shouldn't vote. He was absolutely certain about that, and I'm absolutely certain that he was wrong. Two hundred years ago, my great-great-great-grandfather believed that white men should own black men. He was absolutely certain about that, and I am quite certain that he was wrong.

"I'm humble," and emergent might tell you, "because I don't know what I'm wrong about today. I'll speak with confidence, and I'll speak with passion, but I won't speak with certainty."

From The New Christians, Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier by Tony Jones.

I think- sometimes

2008-11-16T16:13:00.000-08:00

If "I think therefore I am" is true, then on those days when I'm on intellectual auto-pilot, am I in grave existential danger?

more addictive than facebook

2008-11-15T15:46:00.001-08:00

Puppy cam

all theology is tainted

2008-11-15T05:35:00.000-08:00

"... theology is not universal, nor is it transcendent. The God about whom we theologize is transcendent, but our human musings about God are not. To think that our theology is not local and specific is a falsity that has been foisted on the church. Professional theologians, those men and women who sit on seminary faculties, are sometimes tempted to write and speak with the confidence that their theology is somehow clean or sterile or untainted--that they come to their task without any presuppositions, prejudices, or context. But of course, they're just a local as the rest of us. They live in a certain place, speak a certain language, talk with certain, people, read a certain newspaper, and are held accountable for what they write and say by other theologians in their guild."

"To assume that our convictions about God are somehow timeless is the deepest arrogance, and it establishes an imperialistic attitude that has a chilling effect on the honest conversation that's needed for theology to progress."

From Tony Jones' The New Christians, Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier

I was just wondering

2008-11-14T15:57:00.000-08:00

... if you've been watching your retirement account ride the roller coaster, selling stocks, or if you've chosen to cover your eyes and wait it out like we have.

Feel free to answer anonymously if you'd like.

humility and hope

2008-11-13T19:02:00.000-08:00

From, The New Christians, Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier:

"When we look back on the successes and foibles of the Christians who have gone before us, one thing is demanded: humility."

"The hope of emergents, their ministry, their message is, more than anything, a call for a reinvigoration of Christian theology--not in the ivy towers, not even in pulpits and pews, but on the street."

toys

2008-11-12T04:33:00.000-08:00

Now these are my kind of action figures!

a great big God mess

2008-11-11T18:58:00.000-08:00

Another quote from Tony Jones', The New Christians, Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier:

"Regardless of the City of God versus City of Man of Augustine (354-430) or the "two kingdoms" of Luther (1483-1546) or the myriad other articulations of a Platonic divide between the things of God and the things of world, emergents see the whole of culture and creation as one big mess in which God is moving."

christmas cookies

2008-11-11T05:09:00.000-08:00

I'm offering to personalize the gift cookies in place of "merry christmas. "Hopefully these will sell better than the Halloween pumpkins!

face(book)ing the past

2008-11-09T19:15:00.000-08:00

When I started a facebook account, it was mostly to see what the fuss was all about. I doubted it would be anything of significance in my life. I did a little piddling, but all in all it turned out to be exactly what I expected. Then something happened. I guess i have to give credit (or blame) to my old friend Ben. When he finally got on facebook, as he was and is ridiculously popular (sorry Ben), i began to see lots of high school friends and acquaintances there.

I've done the voyeuristic facebook thing (didn't voyeurism used to be considered bad form?), watching as many of them connected, sharing happy memories, etc. I've joined in some, too, but cautiously and uncomfortably. Unlike many of my classmates, high school wasn't a happy time for me and my memories are generally not good ones. I'm thrilled to re-connect with folks I haven't seen in many years, but it's also brought back a lot of not so pleasant sensations.

I'm still sorting it all out. I wonder if anyone else wants to wave their arms in the air saying, "Hey-- the person you knew 26 years ago wasn't me, but this is the real me!" I wonder if anybody else thought no one would remember them. I wonder if anybody else is feeling this undefinable thing that I'm feeling. I wonder how long until this feeling goes away.

what is an emergent Christian?

2008-11-09T18:43:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to get around to making a few short posts on Tony Jones', The New Christians, Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier. You know I don't like to soliloquize, so I'll probably just post a few of my favorite quotes. Here's the first:

"In the end, what makes the emergents difficult to define is the relational nature of the movement. Whereas traditional groupings of Christians are either bounded sets (for example, Roman Catholicism or Presbyterianism--you know whether you're in or out based on membership) or centered sets (for example, evangelicalism, which centers on certain core beliefs), emergent Christians do not have membership or doctrine to hold them together. The glue is relationship. That makes it difficult to put one's finger on just what emergent is; to the question, 'What do you all hold in common?' the answer is most likely, 'We're friends.'"