Who will go for us?

2004-04-26T15:04:00.000-04:00

While in Chicago last week, I finished The Seven Storey Mountain. It's an interesting book--it is never breathtaking in its prose style, the ideas are not rigorously explored, and much of the history that is recounted is hinted at rather than explored. Nevertheless, the overall effect is strong: you see a man convinced of his call from God and acting on that call. He doesn't always move quickly, or with determination, but he ends up at a relatively young age in the place where God calls him. In itself, that is admirable.

What was interesting to me is how he presents his calling to the monastery strengthening and refining his call to authorship. God placed him in the Trappist community not to escape from the world, but to intervene as a writer. Towards the end, he presents this as the cross of his calling. In the epilogue, he writes about his "enemy, Thomas Merton, the author." He finds himself literally of two minds: Father Louis who wants to remain in his monastery as a contemplative; and Thomas Merton the author who wants to have ideas, write about them, and publish them. What struck me most about this short passage of the book is how God does not let us escape. No calling removes us from our requirement to intervene in our world--not even a calling to a cloister. Indeed, as he goes on to explain, the dichotomy between the via contempletiva and the via activa is false. Successful activity arises out of contemplation and contemplation leads to activity. It is the way of Christ, who withdrew to isolated places only to walk among the crowds and heal them.

2004-04-15T09:28:00.000-04:00

I finished my "month of Isaiah" this morning, and tomorrow I'll begin my "almost a month of Jeremiah." I reach the major prophets with some trepidation. I often find it hard to focus on these books (ditto Revelation), and apart from the more famous passages that jolt me to attention, I often find that I read without comprehension. Overall, I think I was more focussed this last month, and have a better sense of the book than I have had in the past. I hope the same will be true of Jeremiah.

As I've mentioned before, I haven't been blogging much (perhaps some of my frustration with blog-dom is reflected in my previous post), and I'm still struggling for some focus on what to post here. I don't want this to be a diary--I'm not much of a diarist, to be truthful--but I'm also not up to producing sustained works, whether of theology (like Dave Heddle produces so well) or of the personal essay genre (see RLP). Blogs I really admire--like Kurt's are inimitable.

So you may or may not see me often here. I will just keep trying to discern what I should be doing in my life--and in this blog. And I'll keep you posted.

2004-04-13T10:09:00.000-04:00

Blogging Tips

Usually, people looking for blogging tips are looking for ways to increase their readership. Hoping to become the next Glen Reynolds, they dutifully search for ways to make their blog more popular.

Well, if you are looking for those kinds of tips, you've come to the wrong place. You see, I've been blogging for nearly 2 years and almost no one knows who I am. On a good day, I might get 10 hits. So if you want to be a popular blogger, the best thing you can do is check out my site and do exactly the opposite. But since none of you honestly have that kind of patience, I offer you a few rules of things you should not do, thus ensuring that your blog will be as little like mine as possible.

Do not write about topics that interest few people. In particular, don't write about theology, Christian spirituality (other forms may be ok), poetry or literary fiction. According to my blog stats, the search engine results that get people here most often are the words "Saramago" and "Blindness." Presumably, most of these people are looking for some way to understand that book; perhaps they are students looking for paper topics. Whatever the reason, they don't become regular readers.

Don't post just occasionally. Even once a day isn't enough. If you aren't posting a dozen or more times a day, then how are people looking to kill a large part of their day going to be helped by your blog?

As a corollary, don't write long, or even medium length posts. If the post is longer than a screen, forget it. Blog readers don't want to read a lot of text. The best blog entries usually consist of a quotation from somewhere else, followed by a one or two word commentary (preferably "Indeed" if you agree or "Yeah, right" if you don't).

Your blog roll should not consist of blogs you find interesting, but popular blogs. Then you can pester those individuals to "cross list" your blog, and thus you'll get extra readers by riding on the coattails of others.

You are probably all smart enough to realize that doing the opposite of everything I've ever done would include doing the opposite of the rules I've just posted. It would not surprise me at all if my own Pierre Menard were to reproduce my blog word for word, and in the process become more popular than Eschaton. To such an author, I can only say "I couldn't have done it better myself."

2004-04-03T15:59:00.000-05:00

I haven't published here much recently; indeed I haven't felt much called to do so. But in the Bible Study class I am teaching, one of the questions guiding us this week is "Am I open to ways in which the Holy Spirit may be guiding me through individuals or groups?" In the comments to my last post, two people have asked about the reading schedule I use in my daily devotions. In the hopes that my study techniques may be of use to others in drawing closer to the Lord, I offer this reading plan:

	1/year	4/year	2/year	5/year
Day	Old Testament	Psalms	Epistles	Gospels
1	Gen 1-3	1,2,3	Acts 1	Matt 1:1-2:18
2	Gen 4-7	4,7	Acts 2:1-13	Matt 2:19-4:22
3	Gen 8-10	5,6	Acts 2:14-2:41	Matt 4:23-5:42
4	Gen 11-12	10	Acts 2:42-3:26	Matt 5:43-7:11
5	Gen 13-14	11,12	Acts 4:1-4:31	Matt 7:12-8:34
6	Gen 15-16	13,14	Acts 4:32-5:16	Matt 9:1-10:15
7	Gen 17:1-19:22	18	Acts 5:17-5:42	Matt 10:16-11:19
8	Gen 19:23-21:34	16,17	Acts 6:1-7:8	Matt 11:20-12:42
9	Gen 22-23	22	Acts 7:9-7:34	Matt 12:43-13:35
10	Gen 24:1-25:18	20	Acts 7:35-7:60	Matt 13:36-14:33
11	Gen 25:19-26:35	21, 110	Acts 8:1-8:25	Matt 14:34-16:12
12	Gen 27-29	116,117	Acts 8:26-9:19a	Matt 16:13-18:6
13	Gen 30	148,149,150	Acts 9:19b-9:43	Matt 18:7-19:15
14	Gen 31-32	114,115	Acts 10:1-10:33	Matt 19:16-20:17
15	Gen 33-35	25	Acts 10:34-11:18	Matt 20:18-21:46
16	Gen 36-37	9,15	Acts 11:19-12:19	Matt 22
17	Gen 38-40	119:1-24	Acts 12:20-13:12	Matt 23:1-24:14
18	Gen 41	26,28	Acts 13:13-13:43	Matt 24:15-25:30
19	Gen 42-43	36,39	Acts 13:44-14:18	Matt 25:31-26:46
20	Gen 44:1-46:27	38	Acts 14:19-15:21	Matt 26:47-27:26
21	Gen 46:28-48:22	37	Acts 15:22-16:5	Matt 27:27-28:20
22	Gen 49-50	31	Acts 16:6-16:24	Mark 1
23	Ex 1-4	35	Acts 16:25-17:15	Mark 2:1-3:21
24	Ex 5-7	30,32	Acts 17:16-17:34	Mark 3:22-4:41
25	Ex 8-9	42,43	Acts 18	Mark 5:1-6:13
26	Ex 10:1-12:28	119:25-48	Acts 19:1-19:20	Mark 6:14-6:56
27	Ex 12:29-13:22	63,138	Acts 19:21-20:6	Mark 7:1-8:13
28	Ex 14-15	98	Acts 20:7-20:38	Mark 8:14-9:29
29	Ex 16-18	103	Acts 21:1-21:26	Mark 9:30-10:34
30	Ex 19-20	41,52	Acts 21:27-22:21	Mark 10:35-11:33
31	Ex 21-22	44	Acts 22:22-23:22	Mark 12
32	Ex 23:1-25:22	45	Acts 23:23-24:21	Mark 13:1-14:11
33	Ex 25:23-27:21	47,48	Acts 24:22-25:12	Mark 14:12-14:65
34	Ex 28-29	119:49-72	Acts 25:13-26:11	Mark 14:66-15:47
35	Ex 30-31	49,53	Acts 26:12-26:32	Mark 16; Luke 1:1-1:38
36	Ex 32-33	50	Acts 27:1-27:38	Luke 1:39-2:21
37	Ex 34-35	59,60	Acts 27:39-28:16	Luke 2:22-3:22
38	Ex 36-37	40,54	Acts 28:17-28:31	Luke 3:23-4:37
39	Ex 38-39	51	Rom 1:1-1:17	Luke 4:38-5:39
40	Ex 40, Lev 1-2	55	Rom 1:18-2:11	Luke 6
41	Lev 3-5	139	Rom 2:12-3:20	Luke 7
42	Lev 6-7	24,29	Rom 3:21-4:25	Luke 8:1-8:39
43	Lev 8-9	8,84	Rom 5	Luke 8:40-9:27
44	Lev 10-11	56,57,58	Rom 6	Luke 9:28-10:16
45	Lev 12-13	64,65	Rom 7	Luke 10:17-11:23
46	Lev 14	61,62	Rom 8:1-8:17	Luke 11:24-12:21
47	Lev 15-16	68	Rom 8:18-8:39	Luke 12:22-13:9
48	Lev 17:1-19:18	72	Rom 9:1-9:29	Luke 13:10-14:24
49	Lev 19:19-21:24	119:73-96	Rom 9:30-10:21	Luke 14:25-16:13
50	Lev 22:1-23:32	70,71	Rom 11:1-11:24	Luke 16:14-17:37
51	Lev 23:33-25:34	74	Rom 11:25-12:8	Luke 18:1-19:10
52	Lev 25:35-26-46	75,76	Rom 12:9-13:14	Luke 19:11-20:18
53	Lev 27	23,27	Rom 14	Luke 20:19-21:24
54	Num 1-2	93,96	Rom 15:1-15:13	Luke 21:25-22:38
55	Num 3	34	Rom 15:14-15:33	Luke 22:39-23:25
56	Num 4-5	80	Rom 16	Luke 23:26-24:35
57	Num 6:1-7:47	77,79	1Cor 1:1-1:17	Luke 24:36-53; John 1:1-1:42
58	Num 7:48-8:26	78	1Cor 1:18-2:5	John 1:43-3:15
59	Num 9-10	119:97-120	1Cor 2:6-3:23	John 3:16-4:45
60	Num 11-13	81,82	1Cor 4	John 4:46-5:47
61	Num 14:1-15:21	83,126,127	1Cor 5:1-6:11	John 6:1-6:59
62	Num 15:22-16:50	85,86	1Cor 6:12-7:16	John 6:60-7:52
63	Num 17-19	88	1Cor 7:17-7:40	John 7:53-8:47
64	Num 20-21	91,92	1Cor 8	John 8:48-9:41
65	Num 22:1-23:12	87,90, 99	1Cor 9	John 10:1-11:27
66	Num 23:13-25:18	124,125,136	1Cor 10:1-10:22	John 11:28-12:19
67	Num 26-27	66,67	1Cor 10:23-11:16	John 12:20-13:20
68	Num 28-29	19,46	1Cor 11:17-12:11	John 13:21-14:31
69	Num 30-31	69,97	1Cor 12:12-13:13	John 15-16
70	Num 32-33	89,100	1Cor 14:1-14:25	John 17:1-18:24
71	Num 34-35	94,95	1Cor 14:26-15:11	John 18:25-19:30
72	Num 36, Deut 1	101,109	1Cor 15:12-15:49	John 19:31-20:31
73	Deut 2-3	119:121-144	1Cor 15:50-16 24	John 21
74	Deut 4	105	2Cor 1	Matt 1:1-2:18
75	Deut 5-6	102,120,121	2Cor 2	Matt 2:19-4:22
76	Deut 7:1-9:12	107,122,123	2Cor 3:1-4:6	Matt 4:23-5:42
77	Deut 9:13-11:32	108	2Cor 4:7-5:10	Matt 5:43-7:11
78	Deut 12-13	33,73	2Cor 5:11-6:13	Matt 7:12-8:34
79	Deut 14-16	118	2Cor 6:14-7:16	Matt 9:1-10:15
80	Deut 17-18	145	2Cor 8	Matt 10:16-11:19
81	Deut 19-21	106	2:Cor 9-10	Matt 11:20-12:42
82	Deut 22-23	119:145-176	2Cor 11	Matt 12:43-13:35
83	Deut 24-26	128, 129,130	2Cor 12	Matt 13:36-14:33
84	Deut 27:1-28:14	131,132,133	2Cor 13	Matt 14:34-16:12
85	Deut 28:15-28:68	134,135	Gal 1	Matt 16:13-18:6
86	Deut 29:1-31:13	140,142	Gal 2	Matt 18:7-19:15
87	Deut 31:14-32:52	141,143	Gal 3	Matt 19:16-20:17
88	Deut 33-34	137,144	Gal 4	Matt 20:18-21:46
89	Jos 1-3	104	Gal 5	Matt 22
90	Jos 4-5	146,147	Gal 6	Matt 23:1-24:14
91	Jos 6-7	111,112,113	Eph 1	Matt 24:15-25:30
92	Jos 8-9	1,2,3	Eph 2	Matt 25:31-26:46
93	Jos 10-11	4,7	Eph 3:1-4:16	Matt 26:47-27:26
94	Jos 12-14	5,6	Eph 4:17-5:21	Matt 27:27-28:20
95	Jos 15-16	10	Eph 5:22-6:24	Mark 1
96	Jos 17:1-19:9	11,12	Phil 1	Mark 2:1-3:21
97	Jos 19:10-21:45	13,14	Phil 2	Mark 3:22-4:41
98	Jos 22-23	18	Phil 3	Mark 5:1-6:13
99	Jos 24, Jud 1	16,17	Phil 4	Mark 6:14-6:56
100	Jud 2-3	22	Col 1	Mark 7:1-8:13
101	Jud 4-5	20	Col 2	Mark 8:14-9:29
102	Jud 6	21, 110	Col 3	Mark 9:30-10:34
103	Jud 7-8	116,117	Col 4	Mark 10:35-11:33
104	Jud 9	148,149,150	1Thess 1:1-2:16	Mark 12
105	Jud 10-12	114,115	1Thess 2:17-3:13	Mark 13:1-14:11
106	Jud 13-15	25	1Thess 4	Mark 14:12-14:65
107	Jud 16-17	9,15	1Thess 5	Mark 14:66-15:47
108	Jud 18-19	119:1-24	2Thess 1:1-2:12	Mark 16; Luke 1:1-1:38
109	Jud 20-21	26,28	2Thess 2:13-3:18	Luke 1:39-2:21
110	Ruth 1-2	36,39	1Tim 1	Luke 2:22-3:22
111	Ruth 3-4	38	1Tim 2:1-3:7	Luke 3:23-4:37
112	1Sam 1-3	37	1Tim 3:8-4:16	Luke 4:38-5:39
113	1Sam 4-6	31	1Tim 5	Luke 6
114	1Sam 7-9	35	1Tim 6	Luke 7
115	1Sam 10-11	30,32	2Tim 1	Luke 8:1-8:39
116	1Sam 12:1-14:23	42,43	2Tim 2	Luke 8:40-9:27
117	1Sam 14:24-15:35	119:25-48	2Tim 3	Luke 9:28-10:16
118	1Sam 16-17	63,138	2Tim 4	Luke 10:17-11:23
119	1Sam 18-19	98	Titus 1-2	Luke 11:24-12:21
120	1Sam 20-21	103	Titus 3	Luke 12:22-13:9
121	1Sam 22-23	41,52	Philemon	Luke 13:10-14:24
122	1Sam 24-25	44	Heb 1	Luke 14:25-16:13
123	1Sam 26-27	45	Heb 2	Luke 16:14-17:37
124	1Sam 28-29	47,48	Heb 3	Luke 18:1-19:10
125	1Sam 30-31	119:49-72	Heb 4	Luke 19:11-20:18
126	2Sam 1-2	49,53	Heb 5:1-6:12	Luke 20:19-21:24
127	2Sam 3-4	50	Heb 6:13-7:28	Luke 21:25-22:38
128	2Sam 5:1-7:17	59,60	Heb 8	Luke 22:39-23:25
129	2Sam 7:18-10:19	40,54	Heb 9	Luke 23:26-24:35
130	2Sam 11-12	51	Heb 10:1-10:18	Luke 24:36-53; John 1:1-1:42
131	2Sam 13-14	55	Heb 10:19-10:39	John 1:43-3:15
132	2Sam 15-16	139	Heb 11	John 3:16-4:45
133	2Sam 17:1-18:18	24,29	Heb 12	John 4:46-5:47
134	2Sam 18:19-19:43	8,84	Heb 13	John 6:1-6:59
135	2Sam 20-21	56,57,58	James 1	John 6:60-7:52
136	2Sam 22:1-23:7	64,65	James 2	John 7:53-8:47
137	2Sam 23:8-24:25	61,62	James 3:1-4:12	John 8:48-9:41
138	1Kings 1	68	James 4:13-5:20	John 10:1-11:27
139	1Kings 2	72	1Pet 1	John 11:28-12:19
140	1Kings 3-4	119:73-96	1Pet 2:1-2:12	John 12:20-13:20
141	1Kings 5-6	70,71	1Pet 2:13-3:7	John 13:21-14:31
142	1Kings 7	74	1Pet 3:8-4:11	John 15-16
143	1Kings 8	75,76	1Pet 4:12-5:14	John 17:1-18:24
144	1Kings 9-10	23,27	2Pet 1	John 18:25-19:30
145	1Kings 11-12	93,96	2Pet 2	John 19:31-20:31
146	1Kings 13-14	34	2Pet 3	John 21
147	1Kings 15-16	80	1John 1:1-2:14	Matt 1:1-2:18
148	1Kings 17-18	77,79	1John 2:15-3:10	Matt 2:19-4:22
149	1Kings 19:1-20:30	78	1John 3:11-4:21	Matt 4:23-5:42
150	1Kings 20:31-21:29	119:97-120	1John 5	Matt 5:43-7:11
151	1Kings 22	81,82	2John & 3John	Matt 7:12-8:34
152	2Kings 1-2	83,126,127	Jude	Matt 9:1-10:15
153	2Kings 3:1-4:37	85,86	Rev 1	Matt 10:16-11:19
154	2Kings 4:38-6:23	88	Rev 2:1-2:11	Matt 11:20-12:42
155	2Kings 6:24-8:29	91,92	Rev 2:12-2:29	Matt 12:43-13:35
156	2Kings 9:1-10:17	87,90, 99	Rev 3:1-3:13	Matt 13:36-14:33
157	2Kings 10:18-12:18	124,125,136	Rev 3:14-4:11	Matt 14:34-16:12
158	2Kings 12:19-14:29	66,67	Rev 5	Matt 16:13-18:6
159	2Kings 15-16	19,46	Rev 6	Matt 18:7-19:15
160	2Kings 17:1-18:12	69,97	Rev 7	Matt 19:16-20:17
161	2Kings 18:13-19:37	89,100	Rev 8	Matt 20:18-21:46
162	2Kings 20-21	94,95	Rev 9	Matt 22
163	2Kings 22:1-23:30	101,109	Rev 10	Matt 23:1-24:14
164	2Kings 23:31-25:30	119:121-144	Rev 11:1-11:14	Matt 24:15-25:30
165	1Chron 1-2	105	Rev 11:15-12:6	Matt 25:31-26:46
166	1Chron 3-5	102,120,121	Rev 12:7-12:17	Matt 26:47-27:26
167	1Chron 6:1-7:19	107,122,123	Rev 13:1-13:10	Matt 27:27-28:20
168	1Chron 7:20-9:44	108	Rev 13:11-14:5	Mark 1
169	1Chron 10-11	33,73	Rev 14:6-14:20	Mark 2:1-3:21
170	1Chron 12-14	118	Rev 15	Mark 3:22-4:41
171	1Chron 15-16	145	Rev 16:1-16:16	Mark 5:1-6:13
172	1Chron 17-19	106	Rev 16:17-17:6a	Mark 6:14-6:56
173	1Chron 20-21	119:145-176	Rev 17:6b-17:18	Mark 7:1-8:13
174	1Chron 22-23	128, 129,130	Rev 18:1-18:13	Mark 8:14-9:29
175	1Chron 24-25	131,132,133	Rev 18:14-18:24	Mark 9:30-10:34
176	1Chron 26-27	134,135	Rev:19:1-19:10	Mark 10:35-11:33
177	1Chron 28-29	140,142	Rev 19:11-19:21	Mark 12
178	2Chron 1-3	141,143	Rev 20:1-20:10	Mark 13:1-14:11
179	2Chron 4-6	137,144	Rev 20:11-21:8	Mark 14:12-14:65
180	2Chron 7:1-9:12	104	Rev 21:9-21:27	Mark 14:66-15:47
181	2Chron 9:13-11:23	146,147	Rev 22:1-5	Mark 16; Luke 1:1-1:38
182	2Chron 12-13	111,112,113	Rev 22:6-22:21	Luke 1:39-2:21
183	2Chron 14-15	1-3	Acts 1	Luke 2:22-3:22
184	2Chron 16-17	4-5	Acts 2:1-13	Luke 3:23-4:37
185	2Chron 18:1-20:23	6-7	Acts 2:14-2:41	Luke 4:38-5:39
186	2Chron 20:24-23:11	8:1-9:12	Acts 2:42-3:26	Luke 6
187	2Chron 23:12-25:13	9:13-10:18	Acts 4:1-4:31	Luke 7
188	2Chron 25:14-27:9	11-13	Acts 4:32-5:16	Luke 8:1-8:39
189	2Chron 28-29	14-16	Acts 5:17-5:42	Luke 8:40-9:27
190	2Chron 30-31	17:1-18:12	Acts 6:1-7:8	Luke 9:28-10:16
191	2Chron 32:1-33:20	18:13-18:42	Acts 7:9-7:34	Luke 10:17-11:23
192	2Chron 33:21-35:19	18:43-19:14	Acts 7:35-7:60	Luke 11:24-12:21
193	2Chron 35:20-36:23	20:1-22:5	Acts 8:1-8:25	Luke 12:22-13:9
194	Ezra 1-3	22:6-22:31	Acts 8:26-9:19a	Luke 13:10-14:24
195	Ezra 4-5	23:1-25:7	Acts 9:19b-9:43	Luke 14:25-16:13
196	Ezra 6-7	25:8-27:6	Acts 10:1-10:33	Luke 16:14-17:37
197	Ezra 8-9	27:7-28:9	Acts 10:34-11:18	Luke 18:1-19:10
198	Ezra 10, Neh 1-2	29-30	Acts 11:19-12:19	Luke 19:11-20:18
199	Neh 3-4	31	Acts 12:20-13:12	Luke 20:19-21:24
200	Neh 5:1-7:65	32-33	Acts 13:13-13:43	Luke 21:25-22:38
201	Neh 7:66-9-38	34	Acts 13:44-14:18	Luke 22:39-23:25
202	Neh 10:1-12:26	35:1-35:21	Acts 14:19-15:21	Luke 23:26-24:35
203	Neh 12:27-13:31	35:22-36:12	Acts 15:22-16:5	Luke 24:36-53; John 1:1-1:42
204	Est 1-2	37:1-37:29	Acts 16:6-16:24	John 1:43-3:15
205	Est 3-5	37:30-38:22	Acts 16:25-17:15	John 3:16-4:45
206	Est 6-8	39:1-40:5	Acts 17:16-17:34	John 4:46-5:47
207	Est 9-10	40:6-41:13	Acts 18	John 6:1-6:59
208	Job 1-2	42-43	Acts 19:1-19:20	John 6:60-7:52
209	Job 3-5	44	Acts 19:21-20:6	John 7:53-8:47
210	Job 6-8	45:1-46:7	Acts 20:7-20:38	John 8:48-9:41
211	Job 9-11	46:8-48:14	Acts 21:1-21:26	John 10:1-11:27
212	Job 12-13	49:1-50:11	Acts 21:27-22:21	John 11:28-12:19
213	Job 14-15	50:12-51:12	Acts 22:22-23:22	John 12:20-13:20
214	Job 16-17	51:13-53:6	Acts 23:23-24:21	John 13:21-14:31
215	Job 18-19	54-55	Acts 24:22-25:12	John 15-16
216	Job 20-21	56-57	Acts 25:13-26:11	John 17:1-18:24
217	Job 22-23	58-59	Acts 26:12-26:32	John 18:25-19:30
218	Job 24-25	60:1-62:7	Acts 27:1-27:38	John 19:31-20:31
219	Job 26-27	62:8-64:10	Acts 27:39-28:16	John 21
220	Job 28-30	65:1-66:12	Acts 28:17-28:31	Matt 1:1-2:18
221	Job 31-32	66:13-68:10	Rom 1:1-1:17	Matt 2:19-4:22
222	Job 33-34	68:11-68:35	Rom 1:18-2:11	Matt 4:23-5:42
223	Job 35-37	69:1-69:28	Rom 2:12-3:20	Matt 5:43-7:11
224	Job 38-39	69:29-71:11	Rom 3:21-4:25	Matt 7:12-8:34
225	Job 40-42	71:12-72:11	Rom 5:1-5:17	Matt 9:1-10:15
226	Prov 1:1-3:12	72:12-73:28	Rom 5:18-6:14	Matt 10:16-11:19
227	Prov 3:13-6:19	74	Rom 6:15-7:6	Matt 11:20-12:42
228	Prov 6:20-8:36	75-76	Rom 7:7-7:25	Matt 12:43-13:35
229	Prov 9-11	77:1-78:8	Rom 8:1-8:17	Matt 13:36-14:33
230	Prov 12-14	78:9-78:31	Rom 8:18-8:39	Matt 14:34-16:12
231	Prov 15-17	78:32-78:72	Rom 9:1-9:29	Matt 16:13-18:6
232	Prov 18-20	79:1-80:13	Rom 9:30-10:21	Matt 18:7-19:15
233	Prov 21-23	80:14-82:8	Rom 11:1-11:24	Matt 19:16-20:17
234	Prov 24-26	83-84	Rom 11:25-12:8	Matt 20:18-21:46
235	Prov 27-29	85-86	Rom 12:9-13:14	Matt 22
236	Prov 30-31	87-88	Rom 14	Matt 23:1-24:14
237	Eccl 1-2	89:1-89:29	Rom 15:1-15:13	Matt 24:15-25:30
238	Eccl 3-4	89:30-90:6	Rom 15:14-15:33	Matt 25:31-26:46
239	Eccl 5-7	90:7-91:16	Rom 16	Matt 26:47-27:26
240	Eccl 8-9	92:1-94:15	1Cor 1:1-1:17	Matt 27:27-28:20
241	Eccl 10-12	94:16-96:9	1Cor 1:18-2:5	Mark 1
242	Song 1-3	96:10-98:9	1Cor 2:6-3:23	Mark 2:1-3:21
243	Song 4-6	99-101	1Cor 4	Mark 3:22-4:41
244	Song 7-8	102:1-103:5	1Cor 5:1-6:11	Mark 5:1-6:13
245	Isa 1:1-2:5	103:6-104:13	1Cor 6:12-7:16	Mark 6:14-6:56
246	Isa 2:6-4:6	104:14-105:6	1Cor 7:17-7:40	Mark 7:1-8:13
247	Isa 5-6	105:7-105;45	1Cor 8	Mark 8:14-9:29
248	Isa 7-9	106:1-106:33	1Cor 9	Mark 9:30-10:34
249	Isa 10	106:34-107:16	1Cor 10:1-10:22	Mark 10:35-11:33
250	Isa 11-13	107:17-107:43	1Cor 10:23-11:16	Mark 12
251	Isa 14-15	108:1-109:15	1Cor 11:17-12:11	Mark 13:1-14:11
252	Isa 16-17	109:16-110:7	1Cor 12:12-13:13	Mark 14:12-14:65
253	Isa 18-19	111-113	1Cor 14:1-14:25	Mark 14:66-15:47
254	Isa 20-21	114:1-116:11	1Cor 14:26-15:11	Mark 16; Luke 1:1-1:38
255	Isa 22-23	116:12-118:29	1Cor 15:12-15:49	Luke 1:39-2:21
256	Isa 24-26	119:1-32	1Cor 15:50-16 24	Luke 2:22-3:22
257	Isa 27-28	119:33-72	2Cor 1	Luke 3:23-4:37
258	Isa 29:1-30:17	119:73-104	2Cor 2	Luke 4:38-5:39
259	Isa 30:18-32:20	119:105-136	2Cor 3:1-4:6	Luke 6
260	Isa 33-34	119:137-168	2Cor 4:7-5:10	Luke 7
261	Isa 35:1-37:20	119:169-123:4	2Cor 5:11-6:13	Luke 8:1-8:39
262	Isa 37:21-39:8	124-127	2Cor 6:14-7:16	Luke 8:40-9:27
263	Isa 40:1-41:20	128-131	2Cor 8	Luke 9:28-10:16
264	Isa 41:21-43:28	132:1-135:7	2:Cor 9-10	Luke 10:17-11:23
265	Isa 44-45	135:8-136:26	2Cor 11	Luke 11:24-12:21
266	Isa 46-48	137:1-139:12	2Cor 12	Luke 12:22-13:9
267	Isa 49-50	139:13-140:13	2Cor 13	Luke 13:10-14:24
268	Isa 51-52	141:1:143:8	Gal 1	Luke 14:25-16:13
269	Isa 53-54	143:9-144:15	Gal 2	Luke 16:14-17:37
270	Isa 55-56	145	Gal 3	Luke 18:1-19:10
271	Isa 57-58	146	Gal 4	Luke 19:11-20:18
272	Isa 59-60	147	Gal 5	Luke 20:19-21:24
273	Isa 61:1-63:6	148-150	Gal 6	Luke 21:25-22:38
274	Isa 63:7-65:16	1-3	Eph 1	Luke 22:39-23:25
275	Isa 65:17-66:24	4-5	Eph 2	Luke 23:26-24:35
276	Jer 1-2	6-7	Eph 3:1-4:16	Luke 24:36-53; John 1:1-1:42
277	Jer 3:1-4:18	8:1-9:12	Eph 4:17-5:21	John 1:43-3:15
278	Jer 4:19-5:31	9:13-10:18	Eph 5:22-6:24	John 3:16-4:45
279	Jer 6:1-7:29	11-13	Phil 1	John 4:46-5:47
280	Jer 7:30-9:11	14-16	Phil 2	John 6:1-6:59
281	Jer 9:12-11:23	17:1-18:12	Phil 3	John 6:60-7:52
282	Jer 12-13	18:13-18:42	Phil 4	John 7:53-8:47
283	Jer 14-15	18:43-19:14	Col 1	John 8:48-9:41
284	Jer 16-17	20:1-22:5	Col 2	John 10:1-11:27
285	Jer 18-20	22:6-22:31	Col 3	John 11:28-12:19
286	Jer 21-22	23:1-25:7	Col 4	John 12:20-13:20
287	Jer 23	25:8-27:6	1Thess 1:1-2:16	John 13:21-14:31
288	Jer 24:1-26:15	27:7-28:9	1Thess 2:17-3:13	John 15-16
289	Jer 26:16-28:17	29-30	1Thess 4	John 17:1-18:24
290	Jer 29-30	31	1Thess 5	John 18:25-19:30
291	Jer 31	32-33	2Thess 1:1-2:12	John 19:31-20:31
292	Jer 32:1-33:13	34	2Thess 2:13-3:18	John 21
293	Jer 33:14-35:19	35:1-35:21	1Tim 1	Matt 1:1-2:18
294	Jer 36-37	35:22-36:12	1Tim 2:1-3:7	Matt 2:19-4:22
295	Jer 38-39	37:1-37:29	1Tim 3:8-4:16	Matt 4:23-5:42
296	Jer 40-41	37:30-38:22	1Tim 5	Matt 5:43-7:11
297	Jer 42-43	39:1-40:5	1Tim 6	Matt 7:12-8:34
298	Jer 44-45	40:6-41:13	2Tim 1	Matt 9:1-10:15
299	Jer 46-47	42-43	2Tim 2	Matt 10:16-11:19
300	Jer 48	44	2Tim 3	Matt 11:20-12:42
301	Jer 49	45:1-46:7	2Tim 4	Matt 12:43-13:35
302	Jer 50	46:8-48:14	Titus 1-2	Matt 13:36-14:33
303	Jer 51:1-58	49:1-50:11	Titus 3	Matt 14:34-16:12
304	Jer 51:59-52:34	50:12-51:12	Philemon	Matt 16:13-18:6
305	Lam 1	51:13-53:6	Heb 1	Matt 18:7-19:15
306	Lam 2	54-55	Heb 2	Matt 19:16-20:17
307	Lam 3	56-57	Heb 3	Matt 20:18-21:46
308	Lam 4-5	58-59	Heb 4	Matt 22
309	Eze 1-3	60:1-62:7	Heb 5:1-6:12	Matt 23:1-24:14
310	Eze 4-5	62:8-64:10	Heb 6:13-7:28	Matt 24:15-25:30
311	Eze 6-7	65:1-66:12	Heb 8	Matt 25:31-26:46
312	Eze 8-9	66:13-68:10	Heb 9	Matt 26:47-27:26
313	Eze 10-11	68:11-68:35	Heb 10:1-10:18	Matt 27:27-28:20
314	Eze 12-13	69:1-69:28	Heb 10:19-10:39	Mark 1
315	Eze 14-15	69:29-71:11	Heb 11	Mark 2:1-3:21
316	Eze 16	71:12-72:11	Heb 12	Mark 3:22-4:41
317	Eze 17-18	72:12-73:28	Heb 13	Mark 5:1-6:13
318	Eze 19:1-20:32	74	James 1	Mark 6:14-6:56
319	Eze 20:33-22:31	75-76	James 2	Mark 7:1-8:13
320	Eze 23:1-24:14	77:1-78:8	James 3:1-4:12	Mark 8:14-9:29
321	Eze 24:15-26:21	78:9-78:31	James 4:13-5:20	Mark 9:30-10:34
322	Eze 27:1-28:19	78:32-78:72	1Pet 1	Mark 10:35-11:33
323	Eze 28:20-30:19	79:1-80:13	1Pet 2:1-2:12	Mark 12
324	Eze 30:20-32:32	80:14-82:8	1Pet 2:13-3:7	Mark 13:1-14:11
325	Eze 33-34	83-84	1Pet 3:8-4:11	Mark 14:12-14:65
326	Eze 35-36	85-86	1Pet 4:12-5:14	Mark 14:66-15:47
327	Eze 37-38	87-88	2Pet 1	Mark 16; Luke 1:1-1:38
328	Eze 39:1-40:27	89:1-89:29	2Pet 2	Luke 1:39-2:21
329	Eze 40:28-42:20	89:30-90:6	2Pet 3	Luke 2:22-3:22
330	Eze 43-44	90:7-91:16	1John 1:1-2:14	Luke 3:23-4:37
331	Eze 45-46	92:1-94:15	1John 2:15-3:10	Luke 4:38-5:39
332	Eze 47-48	94:16-96:9	1John 3:11-4:21	Luke 6
333	Dan 1:1-2:30	96:10-98:9	1John 5	Luke 7
334	Dan 2:31-3:30	99-101	2John & 3John	Luke 8:1-8:39
335	Dan 4:1-5:12	102:1-103:5	Jude	Luke 8:40-9:27
336	Dan 5:13-6:28	103:6-104:13	Rev 1	Luke 9:28-10:16
337	Dan 7-8	104:14-105:6	Rev 2:1-2:11	Luke 10:17-11:23
338	Dan 9-10	105:7-105;45	Rev 2:12-2:29	Luke 11:24-12:21
339	Dan 11-12	106:1-106:33	Rev 3:1-3:13	Luke 12:22-13:9
340	Hos 1-3	106:34-107:16	Rev 3:14-4:11	Luke 13:10-14:24
341	Hos 4-6	107:17-107:43	Rev 5	Luke 14:25-16:13
342	Hos 7-9	108:1-109:15	Rev 6	Luke 16:14-17:37
343	Hos 10-12	109:16-110:7	Rev 7	Luke 18:1-19:10
344	Hos 13-14; Joel 1	111-113	Rev 8	Luke 19:11-20:18
345	Joel 2-3	114:1-116:11	Rev 9	Luke 20:19-21:24
346	Amos 1-3	116:12-118:29	Rev 10	Luke 21:25-22:38
347	Amos 4-5	119:1-32	Rev 11:1-11:14	Luke 22:39-23:25
348	Amos 6-8	119:33-72	Rev 11:15-12:6	Luke 23:26-24:35
349	Amos 9; Obad	119:73-104	Rev 12:7-12:17	Luke 24:36-53; John 1:1-1:42
350	Jonah 1-4	119:105-136	Rev 13:1-13:10	John 1:43-3:15
351	Mic 1-3	119:137-168	Rev 13:11-14:5	John 3:16-4:45
352	Mic 4:1-6:8	119:169-123:4	Rev 14:6-14:20	John 4:46-5:47
353	Mic 6:9-7:20; Nah 1	124-127	Rev 15	John 6:1-6:59
354	Nah 2-3; Hab 1	128-131	Rev 16:1-16:16	John 6:60-7:52
355	Hab 2-3	132:1-135:7	Rev 16:17-17:6a	John 7:53-8:47
356	Zeph 1-2	135:8-136:26	Rev 17:6b-17:18	John 8:48-9:41
357	Zep 3; Hag 1	137:1-139:12	Rev 18:1-18:13	John 10:1-11:27
358	Hag 2, Zech 1	139:13-140:13	Rev 18:14-18:24	John 11:28-12:19
359	Zech2-4	141:1:143:8	Rev:19:1-19:10	John 12:20-13:20
360	Zech 5-7	143:9-144:15	Rev 19:11-19:21	John 13:21-14:31
361	Zech 8-9	145	Rev 20:1-20:10	John 15-16
362	Zech 10-11	146	Rev 20:11-21:8	John 17:1-18:24
363	Zech 12-14	147	Rev 21:9-21:27	John 18:25-19:30
364	Mal 1-2	148-150	Rev 22:1-5	John 19:31-20:31
365	Mal 3-4		Rev 22:6-22:21	John 21

2004-03-17T08:35:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I began my "month of Isaiah." What is that? Well, last summer I undertook an intensive year-long Bible reading plan. Using a cycle of readings, by the end of the period I will have read the Old Testament 1 time, the Psalms 4 times, the Epistles twice and the Gospels 5 times each. I am now at Isaiah, and the schedule I'm on has 31 days for reading the book (Jeremiah, which comes next, has nearly as much time dedicated). I am excited, because previous readings of Isaiah have either been in bits and pieces, or have been rushed through. Now I can spend some time listening to the great prophet (or prophets). By mid April, I hope to have a better understanding of Isaiah and the importance of that book to our Saviour.

2004-03-13T08:43:00.000-05:00

I finished James Stephens' The Crock of Gold, and found the first half much more compelling than the second half. Once Stephens felt the plot had to take over, some of the playfulness and magic went away. It just reminds me how difficult it is to write a great fantasy, and it makes John Crowley's achievement in Little, Big that much more impressive.

2004-02-27T13:31:00.000-05:00

This weekend, I'll be going down to Blackstone, VA, to the Virginia United Methodist Assembly Center and taking the introductory course in Lay Speaking (link is to a PDF document). Lay Speaking Ministries seek to serve God through "Caring, Witnessing, Leading, Serving Others, Preaching and Interpreting our Heritage." After taking this course, I will need approval from my local lay leadership committee and Pastor, and then I will be a local church Lay Speaker. This would allow me to fill the pulpit, if necessary (highly unlikely at my church, with 3 ministers on staff!), but will also help me to lead, teach and serve in the congregation. If I choose, I can then take an advanced course and apply to the district Lay Speaking Committee. If approved, I'd become a certified Lay Speaker and would thus be able to lead worship and serve in other ways throughout the district. It's a further step I'm taking to discern my Calling and the ways I can serve the Lord. I'll report back next week on the course.

2004-02-25T09:12:00.000-05:00

The Book of Job is full of surprising, difficult and curious passages. On my latest reading, though, the one that struck me most comes almost at the end of the book. In Chapter 42, verse 15, we are told that Job gave his daughters "an inheritance among their brothers." This is obviously unusual enough an occurence to the original readers that it would bear mention. Matthew Henry speculates that perhaps his daughters had some unusual merits or holiness that deserved such treatment. Clearly, though, the text doesn't tell us that this is so; indeed, the text doesn't at all explain why Job gave them an inheritance, only that he did.

It seems to me that this is the great example of grace in the book. That God restores and increases Job's riches and blessings is certainly an act of grace; I don't believe in any sense that Job "earned" them back by learning his place in the cosmos. But Job has gone through much, and blessings on such a man would not be unexpected in Old Testament stories. All we know of the daughters, however, is that they were fortunate enough to be born after Job's trials and not before. And yet they are blessed with names--when so many daughters in the Bible are left nameless--and an inheritance--when one would not have been expected or even hoped for. How different is that than what Paul describes in Romans? We don't deserve to be heirs with Christ, but he has made us so. Grace, as always, comes to us without merit. Living after the resurrection, though, we are not--like Job's daughters--without hope for our inheritance. Instead, hope is a part of our inheritance.

2004-02-19T08:50:00.000-05:00

Everyone will tell you that you should not visit Ireland in February. Guide books, friends who have been there, the Irish themselves all say the same thing. But we were lucky. For the 4 days I was there, the temperature ranged between 45 and 55 degrees, so the jacket we wore out in the morning was perfect for the entire day. The skies were partly cloudy, imparting just enough definition to the sky to add character to photographs and give the still waters something to reflect. The only rain we saw was on the window of the airplane as we pulled away from the gate at Shannon airport upon departure. Everyone we met mentioned how astonishing the weather was.

Galway is a nice, growing city, and a weekend is the perfect amount of time to spend there. You can see everything that is of real interest in that time and still have time to sample the local music scene, browse the bookstores and sweater shops, and take a walk down to the beach at Salthill. We took a bus tour one day that went through the area to the south of Galway, through County Clare, that was worthwhile. Several people recommended the tour to the north, through Connemara, but we didn't have enough time. If my wife hadn't had to work the first day I was there, we probably could have fit that in as well. Alas, we didn't have the time...I guess that will be our excuse to go back!

2004-02-17T15:13:00.000-05:00

My entry into week 5 of Blogger Idol is my take on the Conde Naste Traveler monthly contest, "Where are you?"

You are standing approximately 200 meters above sea level. Below you, the waves crash into the rocks, but you are so high up that you cannot hear them at all. To get here, you travelled through a lunar-like landscape composed of rugged limestone. Dotting this unique landscape are dozens of burial mounds erected by prehistoric settlers who lived in this area over 5000 years ago. More recently, some of this land has been cleared for grazing cattle and sheep, but it is the dramatic coastal landscape, looking out toward some nearby islands where sweaters are now manufactured, that is the chief draw of this area.

So, where are you, anyhow? Click here for the answer.

2004-02-12T09:52:00.000-05:00

Well, almost ready to head off to Ireland, so don't expect anything in this space through the weekend. Looks like the weather will be nice in Galway, a bit warmer than home. I've got some requisite Irish literature--At Swim-Two-Birds, by Flann O'Brien--and a hankering for some fine Guinness Stout.

2004-02-10T10:00:00.000-05:00

I voted this morning in the Virginia Democratic Primary. I was the 41st voter in my precinct. I haven't lived here long enough to know how slow that is, but there was no line and only one person in the precinct when I arrived. Two more were arriving as I left. I expect turnout to be very light.

I'm not particularly interested in sharing my vote, but I will say that I found it difficult to decide. For me, it came down to 4 candidates:

John Kerry--the front-runner doesn't excite me as much as some of the others, but he has a long track record of service to the country and reflects the established Democratic party pretty well;
Howard Dean--I have two very close friends who are passionate for Dean, and that carries some weight for me. I have been put off by some of his comments (the infamous scream doesn't bother me in the least), but I also have found parts of his message compelling;
John Edwards--I like the progressive southerner image he has going, though I worry a bit about his experience. Then again, I don't see any correlation between experience and quality of ones Presidency;
Dennis Kucinich--has no chance of winning the primary, the nomination, or the election, but has some progressive views that I like very much. Like all the candidates, he has some views I don't agree with, but since I'm not going to run, I don't expect 100% correlation

Among the leading candidates, Wesley Clark is the only one who has not resonated with me at all, and I never really considered voting for him in this process.

If you are reading this and are in Virginia or Tennessee, I hope you'll consider voting today. I admit that I don't think voting in primaries is as important as voting in a general election, but I think one should try to exercise the right to democracy as often as possible.

2004-02-09T09:27:00.000-05:00

My contribution to Blogger Idol, week 4.

My oldest child had some minor complications at birth, and spent about a week in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The first few days he spent in one of those plastic bubbles that provides light to battle jaundice and heavily oxygenated air. This meant that much of our first few days as parents were spent peering through the plastic and touching him with the respirator's built-in gloves.

At one point, the nurse came by to change our son, and I offered to do it. So reaching in through the awkwardly spaced glove holes, I undid his diaper and gently lifted his rear.

OOOOOooooooopppppps. He wasn't quite done yet.

Scrambling like a waiter about to lose a tray full of glasses, I hauled his rear higher, snatched the diaper I had just removed and slid it beneath the gravity-accelerated droppings. It was a catch that any center fielder would be proud to make. As my heart beat returned to normal, I heard some gentle clapping. All the nurses in the NICU were applauding. "Nice catch, Dad," said one. Since then, I've had other near-misses, complete misses, and other diaper-related failures, but none was quite so memorable as my first diaper as a dad.

2004-02-07T10:26:00.000-05:00

I finished Rilke's Book of Hours (translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy), and I come from it with mixed feelings. Though it is impossible to be sure after a single reading of a single translation, I think that my negative feelings are almost entirely due to the translators. The poems have all of Rilke's vibrant images and startling statements. His vigorous openings are amply present, and his concerns with the natural, the poor, and people's place in the world are all in evidence. The poems are focussed on God, but it is a god that is at times clearly the Christian God, at times a god that seems influenced by Eastern religions, and most often an idiosyncratic, Rilke-imagined god.

All of these points are to the good. I have some genuine issues with the translations, though. I should say these aren't problems I have after having studied these poems long in the original--this is my first exposure to them. I also don't have much problem with the theory they used of translating with shorter lines and unusual stanzaic breaks that is more reminiscent of contemporary poetry. I was a bit taken aback that this book is not Rilke's complete Book of Hours, but a selection. I can forgive that (though I think the publishers should put such things prominently on the cover).

I do object, though, to the violence they have done to some of these poems. I don't use that term lightly. Not only do they select which poems to translate, they have chosen which parts of certain poems. It is not unusual for them to say in their notes that they omitted a few lines--or even a dozen or more lines--from a poem. I give them credit for pointing such omissions out in the notes, but often they have left a poem less than half the size of its original. In such instances, can we even say it is a "translation" as opposed to a poem "based on" the original? They also talk in their notes of "harvesting the fruit" of the poems and of "sparing the reader" images in Rilke's original. In other words, they have taken it upon themselves to edit Rilke which is not, to my mind, the job of a translator.

On the other hand, these poems are not readily available in another translation that I am aware of. There are some truly memorable passages, and I think Barrows and Macy are right that these poems can speak to a culture that is interested in an idiosyncratic God such as Rilke presents. Perhaps their work can be an impetus for someone to do a fresh, full translation of these largely unknown poems.

2004-02-03T09:38:00.000-05:00

It's funny how life presents us with unexpected activities. My wife recently took a new job so that she could have less travel. Upon leaving, she received a veritable deluge of contacts who were interested in booking some of her time (they were either unwilling or unable to afford her previous employer). So she has had the pleasure of bringing a fairly substantial amount of work to her new employer. But at least in the short term, she's still travelling a bit.

Next week, her travels are taking her to Galway, Ireland. Since this puts her in Ireland the week before Valentine's Day, I am going to fly over a couple days before, and we are going to spend the holiday weekend in Ireland! I am very excited--though recent terrorist concerns also have me a bit worried--and in the midst of trying to figure out what we should do and see. I know we will spend some time at Kenny's Bookshop, but I'm not sure what else we'll do. If you have been to western Ireland, I have a few questions for you:

What are some sites we should be sure to see or places we should be sure to go?
Should we rent a car? How dangerous is it to drive there for Americans?
Is Galway a good place to base ourselves, or should we choose another town? Our only requirement is staying relatively near Shannon airport (we don't have enough time to tour elsewhere)

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

2004-02-02T13:59:00.000-05:00

I finished Hedda Gabler over the weekend. I don't know that I found it quite as subtle as A Doll's House (the only other Ibsen I've read), but I imagine it is more dramatic on stage. This comes from the fact, I think, that there aren't many likeable characters. A couple characters are pitiable, and Hedda and Brack are certainly interesting, but no one is a "protagonist" in the normal sense of the word.

The most interesting thought that occured to me while reading this is how interesting it would be to stage the play in the antebellum south. The names would appear out of place, but I don't know that most of the issues the play deals with would seem all that foreign in such a context.

2004-01-27T10:06:00.000-05:00

The 2nd in a series of posts from the Blogger Idol meme...to see other week 2 entries, click the icon-->

"Freedom" and its root, "free," are old words. They come into English through the Germanic and Scandinavian linguistic influences. In its original sense, "free" meant "dear" and it was applied to members of a household who were related by blood to the head, as opposed to servants and slaves who were not. The idea of freedom, then, has had from its inception the idea of love, of worthiness, and of relationships. We often think of the concept of self-determination and "freedom" in an individual sense as a modern concept. Burkhardt traced this kind of individualism to the Italian Renaissance; in a political sense it has often been traced to the U.S. war for independence. Yet the earliest recorded use of "freedom" as a distinct word in English--dating from the late 9th century--employs this meaning. Individual freedom, then, is also at the very root of the word.

The political freedom that we so value today, particularly in the West, predates not only the American Revolution, but also the enlightenment thought which informed the founding fathers. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the first such usage in the 14th century, though not surprisingly the word becomes much more popular in the 18th century, with Swift being the first citation. Shakespeare was not the first to combine the political and individual notions of freedom, but his is among the most memorable (you'll find it in the opening scene of Titus Andronicus). But it was left to Franklin D. Roosevelt to spell out this connection in its most fully realized form:

In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.

The first is freedom of speech and expression --everywhere in the world.

The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way-- everywhere in the world.

The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants
--everywhere in the world.

The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation
will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor --anywhere in the world.

That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of
the so-called "new order" of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.

Roosevelt's speech on "The Four Freedoms" is worth reading not only as a reminders for the dangers the world faced in January of 1941, but also to remind us how far we have to go to achieve the kind of world that Roosevelt thought attainable in his generation. When Roosevelt defines freedom ultimately as "the supremacy of human rights everywhere," I shudder at how far we have yet to go. With all the human rights abuses we witness--from the extremes of the Congo, Uzbeckistan, and yes, Saddam's Iraq to our own willingness in the U.S. to suspend rights to look the other way when abuses occur, and to refuse to look honestly at potentially unjust structures (like the Patriot Act and the death penalty)--I don't know that I have much hope for the freedoms that FDR describes.

And yet freedom is much older than I am. Freedom has a long and illustrious history, and through countless setbacks, freedom has seemed to spread; when freedom has seemed buried, it has always sprouted anew; when tyrants believed they had finally killed freedom, it was gloriously resurrected. As a Christian, I believe that ultimately this movement of freedom is the movement of the Holy Spirit bringing to fruition God's plan for the World. As Paul puts it in Romans 8:18-23: "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. " God has made us to be free, and despite indications to the contrary, freedom ultimately will win.

2004-01-24T09:31:00.000-05:00

Finished Karl Barth's Dogmatics in Outline last night. As a brief introduction to Barth's work, it is invaluable. Working through the Nicene Creed, Barth explains what the creed means, and more importantly, why it must mean what is says. Barth takes faith more seriously than anyone else I've read, and though the work is difficult in places, I highly recommend it.

2004-01-21T09:29:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm a little late on this:

But I'm not in it for the judging so much as I thought it might be an interesting idea and a good way to see some other bloggers out there. I spent most of the 1980s thinking I'd be a poet, as in thinking that would be my profession (as opposed to thinking I'd be...well...a poet in the truer sense). So herewith are a handful of poems I wrote in the 80s, arranged in the order of composition. I'm not revising or otherwise commenting.

8508 Mark Lawn Drive

I remember sitting at home
waiting for dinner, after
Mom's friend had let me steer her car
to the end of the street
(where the silent people lived in the haunted house).
I walked into the kitchen
and saw the pot burning:
"Mom," I said,
"I think dinner's ready."

We spent that night next door
at Edna's. She kept me
and my brother
while Mom and Dad worked.
She also kept Preston,
my friend.

We spent our days under the weeping
willow in my backyard, forming
secret clubs and playing with Snoopy
and her puppies.
Later, we went to kindergarten together.
Some days,
I'd walk from Edna's, across my yard,
to Sandra and Robin's house.
I liked Robin 'cause he was a
fireman and I liked Sandra 'cause
she gave me yogurt on
hot days. After yogurt,
I'd always go across the street;
That's where Melanie lived.

She was my first girlfriend--
she had straight brown
hiar and soft skin, like the grass
under the weeping willow.
I used to kiss her on the cheek
a hundred times a day.
When I was six and
could ride a bike,
I would ride in her backyard.

One day, I crushed
my foot between a tree root
and my bike pedal. That day
is the last day I remember seeing her.
She moved away that summer,
and that fall,
I, too, had to learn a new address.

Flight 106

They had become conditioned to the hum,
the common jolts and bumps, the cramped seating,
the age truck had begun its first
circuit, but it must have come as quite a
shock to feelhearsee the explosion rip
their reality into a zealous vendetta.
They must have been saddened for an instant
by their inability to say goodbye. And how
disappointed they must have felt to spend
Christmas at the bottom of a scottish bog.

Understanding

Her voice always sounds as if it's coming
from across a telephone line, he thinks.
Even when sitting across the table from her,
her face as clear as a photograph, even in a whisper

there is a persistent static intent
on obscuring what she has recorded in
her mind to say. He does not think
this bothers him, but sometimes he finds

himself listening for the crackle and hum
rather than the words, and this is
embarrassing to him, though he doesn't show it:
his face is as unexpressive as a microwave

oven. Still, in the morning, next to her, he
cannot help but think her breathing like the respirator
he has seen on daytime T.V. He would like
to wake her but is somehow afraid that

he will damage some process of which he is
unaware, impede some vital function to which
he is blind, prevent her from being fully recharged.
He resigns her inner workings to obscurity and sleeps.

--published in the Summer, 1990 edition of Whiskey Island Magazine.

2004-01-15T09:57:00.000-05:00

At my prompting, Doug, of Mute Troubadour, has written a very interesting post on imitating Christ in our lives. I'm glad I asked, because Doug's writing evinces such a Christ-filled and Christ-focussed life, that I knew his words on the subject would be wise and the result of much prayer and study. The discussion on his tag board is also interesting.

In Hebrews 13, Paul tells the Hebrews to remember the elders who brought them the Word of Christ and "imitate their faith." The greek word used here is often translated "follow." To follow or to imitate faith is an internal action. We cannot do it by assuming a certain pose, or repeating a certain phrase, or even striving to make the same choices that our elders in faith--and ultimately Jesus--made. To imitate the faith of Jesus is to offer ourselves completely to the Father: Not my will, but Thy will be done. As Doug points out, if we create an image of Jesus and try to live like it, we will always fail. Only by realizing that we are the clay and allowing God to mould us can we begin to live lives that imitate/follow the example of our Lord.

2004-01-14T12:45:00.000-05:00

I wonder why we don't hear more from the pulpit about Asa. His story begins in 2 Chronicles 14, and he is described as a righteous man who strives to root out idolatry from worship in Judah. On 2 occasions (both recounted in Chapter 16), he is described as not showing complete faith in the Lord--once in battle and once for a medical condition. Perhaps it is because of these failings that I somehow feel closer to figures like Asa than to some of the towering heroes of the faith. How likely I am to put my trust in myself and modern conveniences when life turns difficult! How often I fail to pray over the subjects that truly concern me! Though I try to be righteous, I often fall short--like Asa. And so as I read through his story, I pray to the Lord that I may learn from Asa's mistakes and benefit from his example. Asa's struggles are my struggles: let his successes be my successes, but let me learn from his failings.

2004-01-12T10:04:00.000-05:00

Psalm 137 has always been difficult for me: the last verse, with it's image of violent infanticide sends shivers down my spine. I can appreciate the anger that might inspire such lines, but I have never experienced it. And I hope I never do.

The other day, though, my daily reading schedule paired up this psalm with Solomon's prayer dedicating the temple in 2nd Chronicles. The closing verses (linked above) particularly struck me as a parallel. Solomon prays prophetically that if the people are ever--through their sin--banished from the promised land, that the lord will hear them in their repentance. The psalmist in 137 is trying to keep the people from forgetting their true home, just as Solomon is urging God to keep his ears open for such pleading. The ending of 137 is still difficult for me, but for now I can appreciate the struggles and pain represented in the opening verses through Solomon's deeply rooted love for his homeland.

2004-01-08T15:57:00.000-05:00

Like most Christians, I occasionally get questions from people that start, "Why did God..." or "Why do you think God..." I've always found my answers a bit unsatisfactory, and I imagine my interlocutors did as well. I've been thinking about it for awhile, and I've come to the conclusion that asking why God did something a certain way is ultimately a meaningless question.

To put it briefly, I believe that God does what God wills. To ask why God wills one thing instead of another is to presuppose that God questions, contemplates alternatives and then selects a path of action. In other words, to create God in our image. I don't think the Bible teaches us about a God who says "well, if I do plan A, then this will occur; plan B will cause this other outcome. Therefore, I'll go with A." That isn't the God I read about in scripture.

I'm not sure people who ask me such questions in the future will be much satisfied with this answer, but I think it is more biblically sound then trying to fathom God's unstated intentions. After all, if God had willed to reveal his intentions to us, he would have done so.

2004-01-05T09:45:00.000-05:00

Just a few housecleaning changes today...I've deleted my 2003 booklist and am ready to start growing my 2004 list. I've changed archiving from weekly to monthly. Perhaps later I'll add some actual content!

2004-01-02T10:48:00.000-05:00

You are now entering the "galactic habitable zone" (GHZ)...fascinating stuff!

2003-12-31T09:35:00.000-05:00

Approximately half of the books I read last year were prose fiction, and I would think that's about average for me. Of those, about a quarter were sci-fi/speculative fiction; about a third might be termed "classics" or at least "canonical" works; the remainder are either contemporary fiction (roughly speaking) or are hard to categorize. I also read more works of short fiction (three) than I have in recent memory.

It's probably no surprise that as a group, the "classics" were the most enjoyable. I cannot say enough good things about The Sin of Father Amaro. de Queiroz story is a magnificient example of naturalism with a more fully-realized psychology for its characters than I find typically in that school. The clerical class does not come off too well in this work, which is a complete contrast with Trollope's The Warden. The Warden is a sweet novel, full of humor and sentimentalism. It may not tower with the "great novels," but it's a quick read and a sure pick-me-up. Ellison's Invisible Man was by far the most difficult reading I did; a stylistically beautiful book, it is often brutal (though not so much as Native Son) and unrelenting in its social commentary. I'm glad to have read it, though I don't know I'll rush to read it again. Evelyn Waugh's Decline and Fall is social commentary of a much different sort: satire. The novel is funny, often bordering on farce, and not nearly as biting as some other Waugh I've read--Scoop in particular.

David Lodge is clearly a student of Waugh, and his Small World is in a similar mode as Decline and Fall. It too is very funny, and it seems to find charm in the characters' foibles. It is also much less satirical--and much nicer, I think--than Lodge's other academic satire, Nice Work. Lodge and Waugh are the most traditional novelists I read whose work appeared in the 20th century. At the other end of the spectrum, I'd list Leonid Tsypkin, Marguerite Duras and John Barth. Tsypkin, in Summer in Baden Baden, and Duras, in The War: A Memoir both use non-fictional stories as the engines for their fictional presentations. Tsypkin is mainly concerned with Dostoevsky and his trip (with his new bride) to Baden Baden. Amid the troubles and turmoils of their trip, Tsypkin tracks his own journey to a relative's house. Duras, on the other hand, fictionalizes her own experiences in World War II. Her character is thinly disguised, and the third person presentations often have the feeling of someone writing about something from which they need to distance themselves. Barth's Lost in the Funhouse is experimental in a different sense. Barth is identifiably "postmodern" in his concerns with the status of the text, with writing, with playfulness concerning character, theme and style. These early stories show Barth's interest in mythology as a source for his fictions. Several of the stories are very entertaining, and though they don't quite measure up to Chimera, these are clearly preparatory for that great work.

Along with Duras and Barth, the third work of short fiction I read was Joanna Russ' Zanzibar Cat. The stories in that anthology range from typical genre pieces to stories that have the biting feminism that she perfected in The Female Man. Christine Brook-Rose's Amalgamemnon combines Russ' interest in sci-fi feminism with Barth's interest in language and mythology (I don't know whether I think Brook-Rose is a feminist Barth or Barth a borderline misogynist Brook-Rose!). Sturgeon's More than Human is sci-fi from the Golden Age, and it still has an underlying hopefulness about humanity that seems largely gone from Russ and Brook-Rose. There are Golden Age science fiction books I enjoyed more (particluarly A Canticle for Liebowitz), but Sturgeon's is a fun read if such works interest you.

And that's it...one readers' year in review. Before my next post, I'll wipe the slate to the right clean and start counting again. Will I find more enjoyable poetry than last year? Will I discover another hidden gem like The Sin of Father Amaro? It's questions like those that keep me reading. Happy New Year to you, and Happy Reading!

2003-12-30T10:06:00.000-05:00

Since this year is the first time I've kept a reading list, I cannot be certain; however, I believe I read more non-fiction this year than I have since leaving academia nearly 8 years ago. All of the non-fiction books I completed were Christian (arguably excluding Pilgrim at Tinker Creek), which is not surprising to me. It was, truth be told, not by plan either.

My major accomplishment this year was finishing volume 2 of Kenneth Latourette's History of Christianity. I cannot say enough good about this book: it is extremely well-researched and covers not only the 2 millenia of Christian history but covers the entire globe as well. Clearly nothing can be covered thoroughly, but for a broad overview, I highly recommend it. I read a couple other works that would generally be classified as "textbooks:" Christian Theology: An Introduction by Alister McGrath and Faith has its Reasons by Kenneth Boa. The former takes a broad look at theology in a topical manner; the latter is focussed on methods of Christian apologetics. Both are worthwhile for people interested in the subject, but neither is without weakness.

The remaining non-fiction books I read could roughly be labeled "spiritual reading." The Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius are a classic, but I didn't realize how much of a handbook for a spiritual guide they were. The focus is more on the guide than the student. Richard Foster's Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home is just the opposite: a guide written for a student of prayer. I'd call this a "modern classic" and wouldn't be surprised if people were still reading it decades from now. Foster is so in-tune with the Spirit and prayerful responses that he is the perfect guide for deepening our prayer life. It is that ability to be in-tune with the spirit that makes Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (by Annie Dillard) such a wonderful book. Dillard has an amazing eye for nature and a deep knowledge of its processes. Her connection with nature, and through nature with the Creator, is wondrous; the fact that she can convey it to readers in such living language is a sort of miracle.

2003-12-29T09:54:00.000-05:00

One of the changes I made in my blog this year was to use it to keep track of my reading list. I've never tracked what I've read over a year before, and I find it's been interesting. I completed 21 books this year, and over the next few days, I'm going to do a "reader's year in review" covering the poetry, fiction and non-fiction I read in 2003. I'll start with poetry.

Overall, I have to say that I am a bit disappointed in the poetry books I read this year. Of the four books I read--Complete Writings by Phillis Wheatley, Jackstraws, by Charles Simic, Poems and Ballads and Atalanta in Calydon, by A.C. Swinburne and Duino Elegies and The Sonnets to Orpheus, Rainer Maria Rilke--only the last is a work to which I will return to read parts of it periodically.

Wheatley is a significant writer for the role she plays in American letters, but overall her poems are fairly derivative of other writers at the time, particularly continental writers. Still, she did introduce new subjects and a new type of subjectivity into wester letters: before Wheatley, readers had very little exposure to the voice of a female African slave. That she impressed such historically significant people as George Washington makes reading her even more interesting. But for the sheer love of poetry, I doubt I'd pick up that volume again. I was disappointed in Simic for different reasons. I found the book dry and almost completely unmemorable. I'd be willing to try something else by him, but I'm in no hurry to snap up his volumes.

I count my lack of enthusiasm for Swinburne to be one of the biggest surprises of my reading year. If you imagine a scale of writers that range from those who write very well but have little to say and going to those who have much to say but don't write very well, I tend to like the former more than the latter. Swinburne is definitely in the camp of writers who can put language together wonderfully but seem to have very little to say. But with only a few exceptions (like the poem that helped inspire "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock") Swinburne's poetry just never grabbed me. I yearned to be swept up by his language, but it never happened.

Only Rilke managed to gather me up and take me to those heights that remind me why I read poetry. Even in translation, Rilke's bold imagery and forceful language are readily apparent. This is the first time I've read more than a couple poems in anthologies by Rilke. Reading the cycles together allow you to feel the intensity of his poetic vision. The "Sonnets of Orpheus" are justifiably considered among the highlights of 20th century poetry. I've already purchased another volume to consider my engagement with this amazing poet.

2003-12-22T10:02:00.000-05:00

I got an email over the weekend from someone working as a "Secret Santa." The correspondent asked if I would consider linking up to an article over at Radical Congruency. The article, entitled "Moving Beyond the Worship Service" is well worth the read. Justin Baedar argues that we need to look more deeply into scripture and early church practice to revise our understanding of worship. Rather than focussing on the pastor-centered worship service as the only method of worship, Justin encourages us to look at other spiritual disciplines for ways to broaden and deepen our worship experience.

So go read Justin's article, and wish him a merry Christmas from his "secret Santa."

2003-12-19T10:54:00.000-05:00

After all the votes were counted and re-counted, my uncle lost in his School Board election race. Still just 2 votes separated the candidates.

2003-12-16T11:22:00.000-05:00

I've been reading 2 Kings recently, and thinking about the ways that Elisha is a "type" of Christ--that is, a pre-figuration of the Messiah. For example, Elisha heals Naaman's leprosy, raises a dead boy, and he feeds a multitude from a few loaves of bread, with some left over. But as with all "types" of Christ, he is different in significant ways. His miracles are smaller versions of Jesus's: he feeds fewer people, he must lay on the child to raise him, etc. What I noted this time though, is how Jesus never seems judgmental in his miracles or on calling on his immense powers. For example, after healing Naaman of leprosy, Elisha gives it to his greedy servant as punishment for his actions. Jesus never works this way. Though he talks about the judgment to come, during his time on earth he works only to improve the plight of people. He seems to be saying that judgement comes, and it comes for all, but not in this world. In this world, we are called to aid and not to punish.

2003-12-14T11:59:00.000-05:00

I would think that the capture of Sadaam Hussein is good news, whether liberal or conservative, pacifist or hawk. He was, by all accounts, one of the worst tyrants and human rights abusers in the world. The guarantee that he will no longer be able to perpetrate his crimes against humanity should be a relief to all who love freedom and human rights. It is my prayer that his capture will lead to a decrease of violence in Iraq. I am not naive enough to believe that all violence will cease, but with a leading symbol gone, perhaps peace in Iraq is something that can be realized in the near future.

2003-12-13T12:12:00.000-05:00

There is news in the continuing saga of my Uncle's 3 vote loss in the Loudon County School board election. A 3-judge panel has ordered a recount. He should know before Christmas whether the recount will change the election in his favor or not.

As if it needed to be said again: every vote counts.

2003-12-12T10:32:00.000-05:00

There's always good reading over at Gutless Pacifist, but this post is particularly worth a visit. Be sure also to read the first comment for a very good insight into non-violence.

2003-12-12T09:46:00.000-05:00

I've been toying with the idea of starting a new blog. I don't plan to shut this one down, as I enjoy the intimate nature of this space. What I'm thinking of is a blog that has news and commentary on human rights issues. It's an area I feel strongly about and one that doesn't get much emphasis here. My main concern is time: my blogging here is sporadic at best, so I don't know that I could do a good job covering the topic. That's where you, my handful of readers, come in. If you know of a blog that covers (either exclusively or just fairly copiously) human rights news and issues, I'd appreciate hearing about it. If it looks like the space is already well-covered, then I'd be less inclined to start one myself. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

2003-12-10T10:05:00.000-05:00

I can now make an unexpected addition to my list of things I've experienced: an earthquake. Yesterday, at around 4:00 p.m., the first earthquake in Virginia in 30 years shook the area and measured a surprisingly strong 4.5 on the richter scale. My wife and I were working in our office. We felt two tremmors about 20 seconds apart. The first one caused us to look at each other and say "what was that? A big truck?" Then the second one hit and I said, "could it be our furnace?" We went downstairs and saw nothing amiss. My wife speculated that it could be an eathquake, but I doubted it. About 15 minutes later, my brother called to confirm that indeed it was an earthquake and asked if we felt it. Quite an experience, I must say, and I'm just thankful there was no damage or injuries.

2003-12-09T10:21:00.000-05:00

Today is the birthdate of John Milton. Milton was a brilliant poet, a thorough and innovative thinker and, by all accounts, an unpleasant person. Nevertheless, Milton was a master of almost every form he touched; whether it was epic, song or sonnet, Milton left his mark indelibly on the form (despite Johnson's comment that Milton was "a genius that could cut a colossus from rock, but could not carve heads upon cherry-stones"). Milton was, of course, deeply religious, and his faith often dictated the topics of his poetry--certainly of all his greatest poetry. To recognize his birth, then, it's worth recalling the poem he wrote on the savior's birth, "On the Morning of Christ's Nativity", which opens:

This is the Month, and this the happy morn
Wherin the Son of Heav'ns eternal King,
Of wedded Maid, and Virgin Mother born,
Our great redemption from above did bring;
For so the holy sages once did sing,
That he our deadly forfeit should release,
And with his Father work us a perpetual peace.

2003-12-08T10:43:00.000-05:00

I've written before about how often my four-year-old teaches me and leads me spiritually. One of the ways he has developed over the last few months is in prayer. He has moved from simple, memorized prayers to spontaneously offering thanksgiving for whatever is on his mind--he'll be thankful for the food, or for his toys, or for his mommy and daddy...whatever comes to mind. In my own prayer life, I've been trying to mimic this spontaneity.

But my mimicry is but a pale shadow of what my two-year-old is capable of. He mimics just about everything, particularly things his big brother says. Recently, he's been stamping his personality on what he repeats, so he's copying, but with a difference that makes the copy uniquely his.

The other night, as we sat down to dinner, I asked if anyone wanted to say a prayer. My oldest wanted to start, and he thanked God for the food, and for friends. Typically, my youngest then says "God is great, amen. Daddy's turn!" This night, though, he surprised us by saying "God is great. Thank you tree. Thank you lights. Amen. Daddy's turn." By that time, though, my wife and I could barely speak. It was our turn to murmur nothing more than "God is great."

2003-12-03T09:40:00.000-05:00

In my slow reading of the Durants' History of Civilization, I am moving from the section on pre-history to the earliest historical civilizations. I am happy to be moving on. The first section, it seems to me, is (perhaps necessarily) filled with far too much speculation and imaginative reconstruction of what "might" have happened in the development of our species from just another animal in the ecosystem to an animal capable of civilization. Their constant theme--that there is little difference between modern humans in our wants, needs and actions and those actions of prehistoric humans--is often strained, and often that argument proceeds more by metaphor than actual parallel. I'm also no expert on the dating of pre-historic remains, but it seems that dating of certain cultures and archaeological remains may have changed remarkably over the last few decades.

None of this is to say that I'm not finding the reading interesting, but I think I'll be far more interested as they survey the historic cultures that have left cultural and historical remains. At least then they will be interpreting facts and artifacts that exist, as opposed to the philosophical games they must play to answer questions like "where and when did language first arise?"

2003-12-01T12:24:00.000-05:00

Over the holidays, I began reading John Barth's Lost in the Funhouse. I am a fan of Barth--I think he can write like nobody's business--but his work is admittedly of uneven quality. I think Chimera is a masterpiece; Giles Goat-Boy I found less successful. Like Chimera, Funhouse is a collection of inter-related stories. Shorter than the novellas in Chimera, the short stories that I have read so far have tended to blend the fantastic nature that is common in Barth with the local-color of coastal Maryland that is also a regular feature of his work. Interestingly, in a preface to this edition, Barth notes that many critics complained that the unnamed narrator of the Frame Tale was a fish that ruminated on rather trite philosophy. He said that since the narrator wasn't a fish, the philosophy wasn't trite. It seems rather transparent to me that the narrator is, in fact, a sperm, though I don't know that such knowledge redeems the philosophy much.

2003-11-21T09:25:00.000-05:00

Off to grandma's house for the Thanksgiving week, so don't expect much (if any) activity here. Blessings to all!

2003-11-20T13:38:00.000-05:00

My four year old is really starting to have fun with words. He's always liked to talk, rhyme, and make silly sounding words. The other day, though, he was playing with a little figure he refers to as a knight (it's actually a motorcycle rider). He was soaring it around the room, chanting "the knight flies at night. The knight flies at night." You can imagine how my heart was bursting as I said to my wife, "his first pun!" Shortly thereafter he wrote his first word, other than his name. He drew a circle, then a stick (sort of like a lollipop) and then wrote inside the circle S T O P. It's a word that gets a lot of work in his vocabulary (usually directed at his younger brother), but spelling it is on a whole different level.

Can the pulitzer be far behind?

2003-11-19T09:40:00.000-05:00

The other day, I was reading yet another predictable fisking of prayer in particular and Christians in general. I won't link to it...if you are reading this, you've read it all before: how laughable it is that people credit God for good luck; how blind they must be not also to blame God for misfortune; and how much more enlightened anyone who thinks that way then those poor "souls" stuck in the dark ages.

I sometimes wonder if these people have ever bothered to read the Bible. I'd give even odds that selecting a psalm at random would yield at least one verse--if not a multitude--of complaints to God. The main point of the Book of Jonah is a complaint that God didn't act the way Jonah thought he should. And let's not even mention Job.

The fact is, Christians routinely ask God "why did this happen to me?" We question God all the time. Indeed, that is what a prayer of supplication is: it is a call to God to change the apparent outcome of an event. If, when faced with misfortune despite prayer, we answer "not my will but thy will be done," that is also not a silly naive response to misfortune. Rather, it is a mature response to the difficulties of life. The main difference between such skeptics and Christians comes in our response to deliverance. For if you believe that you only survive an ordeal by luck, what kind of celebration can you have? On the other hand, if you believe you were delivered by a loving God, how can you fail to respond with love and joy?

2003-11-15T08:16:00.000-05:00

The sail of my daughter,
Never broken by the force of foreign clans;
The sail of my daughter,
Unbroken by the conspiracy of Honiti!
Ever victorious in all her fights,
She could not be enticed to drink poisoned waters
In the obsidian glass.
Can my sorrow ever be appeased
While we are divided by the mighty seas?
O my daughter, O my daughter!
It is a vast and watery road
Over which I look toward the horizon,
My daughter, O my daughter!
--poem from Easter Island tablets,
as quoted in The Story of Civilization, Will & Ariel Durant

2003-11-13T10:23:00.000-05:00

Earlier this year, I developed a Bible-reading plan for my morning devotions. During a 12-month period, I will read the OT once through, the psalms and epistles 4 times through, and the gospels 5 times through. My goal in doing this was to emphasize those parts of scripture that seem to be of greatest influence in the Christian tradition and to allow me to better hear the echoes, elaborations, and conversations that occur within the Bible.

This morning, the reason for that plan was re-emphasized, as I read the story of Doeg the Edomite betraying Abimelech to Saul for aiding David. Coincidentally (?), one of the psalms I read was number 52 which recalls that event. What is interesting to me in these passages is how the Psalm expands on the story recounted in 1 Samuel. In Samuel, we hear David take responsibility for the deaths of Ahimelech and his family as he offers to protect Ahimelech's sole remaining son, Abiathar. In the psalm, on the other hand, we hear how David felt about Doeg's betrayal. The psalm thus rounds out the emotions that are recounted in the history. I marvel at the way the Spirit moves to teach us an ever deeper love and appreciation of the Word.

2003-11-07T09:53:00.000-05:00

Each morning I read a bit from the OT (I'm in 1 Samuel now), a psalm or two, a bit from the epistles (currently 2 Timothy) and a section of the Gospels (Luke, right now). In between each reading, I go to the Lord in prayer, spending time in confession, thanksgiving and supplication.

Recently, I've been trying to do a bit more "affective" style of prayer by opening my heart to God's presence rather than simply dictating thoughts. This morning, rather than trying to anatomize my various sins, I emptied my mind and envisioned myself being thoroughly cleansed. I began to feel happy, almost giddy as I came out of prayer. I then read Psalm 30--which tells us that "joy comes with the morning"--and psalm 32 which opens "Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven." As I moved into my prayers of thanksgiving, I was positively laughing at God's incredible Grace. I poured out my appreciation not for my earthly blessings--of which there are many--but for this assurance of forgivenness. As I read in Luke the parable of the sower, I felt my roots delving deep into the rich soil of Christ's love.

2003-11-05T10:20:00.000-05:00

My uncle ran for the Loudon County Schoolboard for the Leesburg district. Unless absentee ballots change the final totals, he lost by 15 votes.

Another lesson in Democracy: every vote counts (as if we didn't learn that in 2000).

UPDATE: The absentee ballots have been counted. Now he has lost by only 3 votes...

2003-11-04T14:06:00.000-05:00

I rarely post twice in one day. Three times is probably a record.

But I couldn't resist passing on this story about plans to exhume Petrarch. There are no real mysteries about his death, no alleged conspiracies that revolve around his name. Apparently, they are just curious what he looked like.

2003-11-04T11:08:00.000-05:00

Just finished exercising my democratic responsibility--voting. Virginia votes in off years, and so we had a State Senator (uncontested), a House of Delegate and school board up for election, as well as a few other local, uncontested options. It's the first time I have voted since moving back to this area, and they use the infamous voting machines that can result in "hanging chads." If someone loses by only a few votes...

2003-11-04T09:34:00.000-05:00

Is there a better definition of prayer than Herbert's "the soul in paraphrase"? What is prayer but to heave up our innermost thoughts and feelings and offer them to God to sort out, respond too, cleanse, and order? What is prayer but an offering, pleasing to the Lord? Indeed, what else but a meal, a time to be nourished by the Word?

I can ask these questions and yet fall short of conveying what Herbert says in his wonderful poem, so here it is:

Prayer 1

Prayer, the Church's banquet, Angel's age,
God's breath in man returning to his birth,
The soul in paraphrase, heart in pilgrimage,
The Christian plummet sounding heav'n and earth;
Engine against th' Almightie, sinner's towre,
Reversed thunder, Christ-side-piercing spear,
The six-daies world transposing in an houre,
A kinde of tune, which all things heare and fear;
Softnesse, and peace, and joy, and love, and blisse,
Exalted Manna, gladnesse of the best,
Heaven in ordinarie, man well drest,
The milkie way, the bird of Paradise,
Church-bels beyond the starres heard, the soul's blood,
The land of spices; something understood.

2003-11-03T10:51:00.000-05:00

Not to toot my own horn...

At the YMCA where I belong, new members get a "fast 5" fitness check to give a health baseline that I can use to compare my progress. I just had a follow-up "fast 5" check up, and in the 5 months that I've been working out:

I've lost 15 lbs.
My blood pressure went from 120/83 to 120/70
My % of body fat fell from 20.1% to 12.8%
My flexibility improved from 12.5 to 16
My right-hand strength test improved by 33% and my left-hand improved almost 20%.

Nothing like a little success to help me keep motivated!

2003-10-31T09:52:00.000-05:00

I never do this, but I figured today was as good a day as any: A Friday Five.

1. What was your first Halloween costume?
I have no idea. Knowing my parents, probably some sort of goofy, Howdy Doody style cowboy.

2. What was your best costume and why?
I once went to a Halloween party as a spoon (my wife was a fork). The last few years I've dressed up as Winnie the Pooh, which gets no points for creativity, but scores very high on the "I'm a parent who is willing to humiliate myself for my children's benefit" scale.

3. Did you ever play a trick on someone who didn't give you a treat?
No. Tricks were reserved for friends :-)

4. Do you have any Halloween traditions? (ie: Family pumpkin carving, special dinner before trick or treating, etc.)
Not really (unless gaining weight qualifies as a tradition). Certainly carving the pumpkin together. But my kids are young, so we haven't solidified our family traditions yet.

5. Share your favorite scary story...real or legend!
For me, I think it's Poe's "Pit and the Pendulum."

2003-10-28T10:07:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday, Erasmus!

People who use their erudition to write for a learned minority ... don’t seem to me favored by fortune but rather to be pitied for their continuous self-torture. They add, change, remove, lay aside, take up, rephrase, show to their friends, keep for nine years and are never satisfied. And their futile reward, a word of praise from a handful of people, they win at such a cost—so many late nights, such loss of sleep, sweetest of all things, and so much sweat and anguish ... their health deteriorates, their looks are destroyed, they suffer partial or total blindness, poverty, ill-will, denial of pleasure, premature old age and early death.
Praise of Folly, Desiderius Erasmus

2003-10-27T12:07:00.000-05:00

Shall we reject our oldest friendship,
the great undemanding gods, because
the tough steel we trained so hard does
not know them; or suddenly seek them on a map?

Although they take the dead from us,
these powerful friends never brush against
our wheels. We've moved our baths and banquets
far away, and, for years too slow for us,

we always outrun their messengers. More lonely
now, wholly dependent on each other, not knowing
each other, no longer do we build those lovely

paths rambling, but straight. Now only in boilers
do former fires burn, heaving hammers always growing
bigger. But we, we grow weaker, like swimmers.

--Rainer Maria Rilke (trans. A. Poulin, Jr.)

2003-10-23T10:16:00.000-04:00

We are told in Exodus 33 that no one can see God's face and live. Yet the same chapter tells us "The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend." How can we reconcile these verses?

I wrote in my last post about dualism, and there doesn't seem to be any dualistic pair more clearly opposed than life and death. Yet Christianity teaches that they are not so distinct as we are tempted to believe. Jesus himself is resurrected, as is Lazarus, Tabitha, and Jairus' daughter. More imporantly, all of us die to sin when we are baptized into Jesus' death. So death is not this final consummation of existence we take it to be; rather it is a process through which we go to be reborn into something greater.

But what does this have to do with seeing the face of God? I think the story of Jacob's return to his homeland gives us a clue. On the night before he must face his wronged brother, Esau, Jacob spends all night wrestling with God. Jacob (now Israel) names the place Peniel because, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared." The next day, Esau approaches Jacob but does not attack; instead he embraces him and weeps for his return. Jacob's response is to compare his brother to the Lord: "For to see your face is like seeing the face of God, now that you have received me favorably." Jacob knows what it is to see the face of God, and he sees it in Esau.

Later, Jesus himself gives us the final key to this exegetical puzzle. In describing the separation of the sheep from the goats, Jesus proclaims that anyone who denies mercy to those in need has in fact denied mercy to God himself. We are called to be Esaus to those, like Jacob, in need of grace, and we are called like Jacob to accept that grace from those who offer it to us. In both cases, we see the face of God in our brother or sister, and we die to selfishness and isolation. In merciful acts, whether receiving or dispensing, we look as into a mirror and see the body of Christ.

2003-10-21T15:26:00.000-04:00

Perhaps it's just the political season descending upon us, but I am seeing more and more of a type of thought I find very troubling: dualism. Dualism is a mode of thinking that most of us--at least in the West--take for granted, but we get it from Hellenic philosopy. It is the tendency--enumerated most clearly by the ancient Greeks--to see the world as composed of opposites. As the Greeks and later philosophers conceived of it, the method is dialectical: a thesis and antithesis are overcome by a synthesis, which in turn becomes a new thesis with an antithesis that will be overcome...

In daily life, though, we don't see things dialectically, though we often see them dualistically. So many if not most of us will see the world as consisting of unbridgeable opposites: good and evil or love and hate, for example. But we do this with more than abstractions; we see it particularly in politics: Democrat/Republican; Liberal/Conservative; Pro-Choice/Pro-Life. The problem here is when we look at these things dualistically, we tend to pair them. Most people probably choose all of the left or all of the right options from above and would group them under "good." We then isolate ourselves from those who would associate themselves with the other choice: "how can we talk to those people," we ask ourselves, "whose ideas are so...well...evil?" Under such circumstances, political reconciliation--and even, I would argue, growth--seems almost impossible

This is a particular problem in Christianity. Christianity is not a Hellenic or a dualistic religion, though Hellenic thought has been heavily influential in theological thinking for the majority of Christianity's existence. The day-to-day form I described above, though, which makes political reconciliation so difficult is just as daunting in Christianity. Read the Christian press or go through various Christian blogs and see how often dualism appears: Catholic/Protestant; Reformed/Arminian; Sprinkle/Immersion and many others.

But the Christianity of the New Testament doesn't work this way. One of the most basic forms of "dualism" you could find in Ancient Israel was the Gentile/Jew division. It was foundational to the Jewish identity. But how did Jesus treat it? How often did he offer grace and assistance to non-Jews? What was his final commission to his apostles and to us? And how completely does Paul shatter the distinction? Think how much better off Christianity (or our politics) would be if we looked for ways to transcend these distinctions rather than becoming more entrenched and embittered against those who see things differently than we do.

2003-10-20T09:27:00.000-04:00

The Book of Joshua is a difficult one for the Christian to read, particularly a Christian pacifist. The book is full of violence and bloodshed, and countless people are "devoted to destruction." The people who had found a way to live peacefully in the promised lands from Abraham to Jacob now complete the return to the land amid much bloodshed. It is thus refreshing to read the last few verses of Joshua 21:

Thus the LORD gave to Israel all the land that he swore to give to their fathers. And they took possession of it, and they settled there. And the LORD gave them rest on every side just as he had sworn to their fathers. Not one of all their enemies had withstood them, for the LORD had given all their enemies into their hands. Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.

God is faithful to his promises and his covenant, and after a period of much violence, there is rest. It is worth noting too that where every enemy has been given into the hands of the Israelites, this does not mean that they were all massacred; Joshua also recounts the peoples who continued to live among the chosen people in the chosen land.

In any case, Joshua 21 marks an important point in Biblical history. In a sense, the first "chapter" is over: The sweep of stories from creation to covenant to exile and exodus is now complete. The impetus that will lead to the later chapters--including the Golden Age of David, the Babylonian Exile--are already in place, all culminating, of course, in that 3-year chapter that marks Jesus' ministry, death and resurrection. Just as Joshua 21 punctuates the first series of stories with a proclamation of God's faithfulness, the rest of the Bible will continue in various ways to witness to the same truth.

2003-10-09T12:00:00.000-04:00

It's funny, but I don't feel that old...

My inner child is ten years old!

The adult world is pretty irrelevant to me. Whether
I'm off on my bicycle (or pony) exploring, lost
in a good book, or giggling with my best
friend, I live in a world apart, one full of
adventure and wonder and other stuff adults
don't understand.

How Old is Your Inner Child?
brought to you by Quizilla

2003-10-08T10:31:00.000-04:00

Among readers, Joanna Russ is a name that is not well-known enough. She is an extremely good writer who combines stylistic virtuosity with spinning a good yarn. She has numerous publications and has won awards. In her circle, she is highly influential, yet she is virtually unknown to most readers. Why?

She writes sci-fi/fantasy.

The genres (mistakenly lumped together) of science-fiction and fantasy rarely get the attention they deserve. Part of this is due to the fact that an enormous amount of what is published is garbage, but that's as true of popular fiction as it is of "genre fiction." The great writers of the last 30 years of so--people like Borges, Marquez, Saramago, Calvino--have been influenced by these genres (particularly fantasy). And yet writers like Russ--or like John Crowley, whose Little, Big is better than most fiction winning major prizes--go relatively unnoticed and unknown.

The Zanzibar Cat is a collection of stories by Russ, and like most collections, the quality is not uniform. The first story, "When it Changed" is an excellent example of feminist science-fiction (which Russ was to raise to an apex in The Female Man). The next story, "The Extraordinary Voyages of Amelie Bertrand" is a clever example of the time/parallel worlds travel story. "Useful Phrases for the Tourist" is a hilarious compendium of travel-book style phrases to be used with aliens.

Sadly, Amazon lists only 3 of Russ' books still in print, and only one fiction work (the aforementioned Female Man). But if you find yourself in a used bookstore, it will be worth the few seconds it takes to scan their sci-fi shelves for her work. I doubt you'll regret the 25 cents you'll pay.

2003-10-03T09:01:00.000-04:00

I spent the first few days of this week in Chicago. I like Chicago; I think it's an attractive city with interesting architecture, and this time of year the weather is pleasantly brisk without the bitter winds of January. On this trip, all the buzz was about how ugly the new Soldier field is, and how likely (or unlikely) it is that the Cubs will actually get to the World Series.

On the way back, I connected through St. Louis. The weather was good and things were going so well that I heard the guy across the aisle say "you almost never see a plane push back from the gate right on time." He cursed us. As we taxied out to the runway, the pilots noticed that the aileron was squeaking. So back to the gate we went. Sure enough the cable was broken, and we were grounded. Luckily, they had another plane that could take us. So they boarded us on plane number 2, and the battery was dead and the charger wasn't working (the latter probably explaining the former). So once more, we off-load and head to yet a third plane. This one starts, taxis, gets to the runway and takes off. No issues at all in flight, and we landed safely--about two hours late, but safely--and so here I am.

The trip gave me the opportunity to finish Decline and Fall and read most of a collection of sci-fi stories called The Zanzibar Cat. Decline and Fall is billed as a satire, and it certainly has satirical elements, but I think it more accurate to describe it as a comic novel. Not only does it have humor, but it has the strange secondary characters that keep intersecting the plot in unlikely ways and a protagonist swept up by an almost absurd set of events that mark the comic novel genre. It's probably the kindest of Waugh's satires I've read.

2003-09-25T10:07:00.000-04:00

I bet if you asked most people to tell you the story of the Tower of Babel, their version would be quite a bit longer than the original, and it would probably include many details that aren't part of the Biblical story. In particular, we always talk about this story in terms of pride--and I think that is an accurate reading of the story--but the story does not mention pride explicitly, nor (I think it's fair to say) is that the main focus of the story on a literal level.

Literally, the story is a myth of how languages became varied. It is also a story of how a group of people were scattered across the earth. It is significant in this context that this story precedes the geneology of Abram. As Babel scattered people across the earth, Abram's story is the beginning of salvation history: the beginning of the re-gathering of people into the "City of God." This motif of scattering and gathering is a structure throughout the Bible: think of the many instances in which scattering and gathering occurs, culminating in the scattering that results from the great commission and will only be fulfilled at the conclusion of salvation history.

2003-09-23T09:57:00.000-04:00

Lucky. Fortunate. Blessed. Whichever word you choose, we qualify. Isabel came tearing through Richmond, VA, but we were barely scathed. Something like 95% of Dominion Power's customers in the area were without power on Friday; we never lost power for more than 30 seconds. Water was turned off in some areas of our county; we never lost water. We lost water pressure, and until today we needed to boil it in order to drink it, but we never lost it completely. Trees were downed across the area, often damaging homes and cars; we had a couple limbs down and that is all. If Grace is undeserved and based on nothing you did, then it is something like what happened to us this week.

Most of our friends (outside our neighborhood) were not so lucky. My parents have been without power since Thursday night. They had several trees down (though none did damage), and I spent a few hours Friday chopping them up with my chainsaw (my wife thinks the biggest miracle of this weekend is I didn't injure myself with it...).

On a completely different subject, I completed a long-term reading goal by finishing Latourette's 2 volume History of Christianity. Like any survey of so broad a subject, it is necessarily superficial, but I highly recommend it for a broad overview of a world-wide phenomena that is over 2 millenia old. Latourette is particularly good at giving information on areas of the world that often are overlooked in the west--he gives regular updates on the various Orthodox churches as well as Christianity in Asia and Africa. And though it takes awhile, it is easy to read 2 or 3 pages at a sitting. I've just started another long-term goal: reading The Story of Civilization. I don't know that I'll stick with it through the whole thing (it could take me a decade at a few pages a day!), but I've already finished chapter 1 of volume 1! So, let the reading continue...

2003-09-18T13:41:00.000-04:00

Hurricane Isabel is forecasted to head right through our area. By the time it gets here, it should be a tropical depression (maybe a tropical storm). But it's pretty windy and rainy out there already. My parents have at least 1 tree down in their heavily wooded back yard. But so far the power is still on and connectivity is still available!

Keep those who may face the brunt of this storm in your prayers. I will be. And I'm praising God for the extent to which the storm has already weakened.

2003-09-15T09:34:00.000-04:00

We survived...

Fifteen children, aged 4 and under, at our house for a Rescue Heroes birthday party;

Indoors, because it had rained enough to leave our yard like a wet sponge;

With lots of leftover pizza, cake and candy because (as always) we bought too much food;

But we survived. It was fun; the kids were well-behaved; many of the parents really chipped in and helped.

But now we're tired.

2003-09-12T09:29:00.000-04:00

I finished reading Marguerite Duras' The War: A Memoir the other day. It is an interesting book that is a bit hard to classify. The first half is a memoir of a fairly identifiable type. The writing is a bit unusual, but that's to be expected from Duras. The first section covers the period after the liberation of Paris as Marguerite waits for--and hopes for--the return of her husband who had been deported by the Nazis. The second section covers an earlier period where she has a surreal relationship with a Gestapo police officer who claims to have information about her husband. In both sections, she talks about her work with the resistance, and you can often feel the tension of the times.

The second half of the book consists of a couple of "narrativized" memoirs--that is, stories in the 3rd person that are clearly autobiographical in nature. The most difficult reading in the book comes in this section, as she describes the interrogation and torture of a Nazi sympathizer in the post-occupation period. The book ends with a couple of traditional fictional stories set in the period.

Duras claims to have discovered the memoirs (and perhaps the other sections?) in an old house where she used to live. She recalls the incidents, but does not recall writing the material. It makes for a good story, even if that part isn't true. I haven't read many other memoirs of the period, so I don't know how much it would appeal to readers who know a lot about WWII France. For general readers like myself, it's a very interesting book.

2003-09-10T09:08:00.000-04:00

I'm re-reading the creation stories in Genesis for my first "real" Disciple II class this Sunday. It's difficult to really focus on stories that are so familiar, so often read. I made an effort to read the first story (the 7 days) slowly, and I was struck anew by something I've always known. In beginning with creating light and separating it from darkness, God creates the "day" by which this story measures creation. But I don't think the actual six days of creation is what is important here: it's the seventh day. After all, the rest of the Bible speaks only rarely of those first six days, but the Sabbath is of continuing interest and discussion. Thus by starting with the creation of the days, God is preparing from the very beginning the possibility of Sabbath. Sabbath is thus not something that comes after work, as an afterthought, but is something that is in the creation plan from the beginning. Throughout these days, God is constantly separating--separating light from darkness, pooling the waters to reveal the earth--and for us no separation is more important than setting aside a day for Sabbath rest. As Jesus said, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. We need it, as God knew from the beginning.

2003-09-08T08:55:00.000-04:00

Back from vacation feeling refreshed and energized. We had beautiful weather that allowed us to spend ample time in the pool (much to my children's delight) and have returned to the brisker feel that is a harbinger of Autumn. I met last night with my Disciple class for the first time. There are 6 people enrolled (plus me), but only 3 could make it last night. I think a small group like this will be quite enlightening. From the first session, we already have a broad range of people, from a relatively newly wed young woman with no kids, to a mother with a step-daughter and a son of her own, to a father with two daughters in college. I don't know much about the other 3 members of the class, other than 2 of them are married to each other. We start with Genesis this week.

In my personal Bible devotions, I'm currently reading Numbers. Leviticus and Numbers can be tough reading because they have lots of rules (from which Christ freed us) and (in Numbers) census data that seems of little more than historical interest. John Wesley said of these books that though most of them no longer apply to Christians, they are still studded with moments of great wisdom and advice. I would add beauty to that list, as this blessing from the end of Numbers 6 shows:

The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,
The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
"So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them." (Num 6:22-27)

2003-08-28T13:39:00.000-04:00

I met with the new associate pastor at our new church today. I've been recruited (OK, I volunteered) to teach a 32 week Bible study: it is part 2 of the Disciple Series of Bible studies. I took Disciple I last year. It's a 34-week program that provides a broad overview of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. It's focus was on becoming a disciple of Jesus; on taking seriously the teaching of the Bible; on living a life (both inwardly and outwardly) as a disciple would.

Part 2 is called "Making Connections" and for 32 weeks it focuses on just 4 books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Luke and Acts. I've only glanced at the materials, but from my discussions with the Pastor, it appears that this will focus on using the disciplines (inwardly) to go out into the world in action, service and evangelism. The materials include some heavy-duty resources that the participants will use to do research during the week between classes. I'm really looking forward to it!

I'll have a chance to look into the materials next week as my family and I take a vacation. It will be the first vacation we've had without extended family since my youngest was born. I'll also be taking along The War: A Memoir by Marguerite Duras which I've just added to my reading list. I finished Pilgrim at Tinker Creek last night, and really enjoyed it. I hope to write some reflections on it later.

2003-08-26T10:21:00.000-04:00

A little over a week ago, this blog quietly passed its first anniversary; so quietly, in fact, that even I missed it. I've tried to clean up a bit--moving old archives just to the archive page, for example, and removing dead links from my blog list. But I also thought it would be worthwhile to look at why I started this blog in the first place. Here is part of what I wrote in my first entry:

Have you ever tried to listen for that still, small voice in the wilderness?
Have you ever awakened in the middle of the night and wonder if someone just called your name?
Do you sometimes think you see, out of the corner of your eye, a bush engulfed in a non-consuming flame?

If so, then we have something in common. We are trying to hear God's call to us amid the tumult of everyday life. The process is called "discernment," and it is the attempt to ascertain God's will as it pertains directly to us...and then to respond and obey. It's a process that I have been struggling with since I became a Christian...

I think much of this still applies to what I'd like to do here, though of course I'm not always successful. I hope in the next year of blogging I may make more headway in this discernment process.

And speaking of the next year...I've been toying with the idea of moving off blogger. Anyone who has done this have any words of wisdom for me? Things I should do or not do? How long it will take me? What platform I should use? Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

2003-08-25T09:55:00.000-04:00

It's amazing to me how early in one season we can see the signs of the next. When the crocus begin to push up through the frozen ground, we know spring is coming; a hard October frost can wake us to the advent of winter. But I am most surprised by the early signs of fall that we see in summer.

It's hot now; as hot as it gets all year. Yet the birds are already flocking, nervously, as if doing a head-count to make sure no one is left behind. The geese honk as they fly around and prepare to migrate, and hundreds of other birds will take flight spontaneously from a stand of trees that had looked deserted; the cacophany of their chirping splits the silent of a breezeless August day. The dogwood trees in my backyard already are showing a tinge of red in some of their leaves, and one tree I cannot identify is over half-way through it's color change. Meanwhile, the crepe myrtle are just peaking and the marigolds are glorifying the apex of summer.

This morning was even--dare I say it--cool, though this afternoon looks to be hot and humid. I admit to a shudder when I see the early Halloween advertisements in stores, but I've come to realize that such commercialism of an old pagan celebration is really just a parody of a lost culture that lived by the seasons. One day soon, I'll walk out and feel gooshbumps on my skin; I'll go back inside for my logo-embossed sweatshirt and start watching for signs of winter.

2003-08-18T10:22:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, my wife and I went to Staunton, VA to see the Shenandoah Shakespeare Company perform King Lear. To understand the production, you have to understand a bit about the venue. Their theater is the only reproduction of the Blackfriars--a theater Shakespeare's troop used to perform inside--and they have thus limited themselves in certain ways. For example, the stage doesn't move and change like a modern stage. They have a balcony, 2 doors, a large central opening and a trap door. Everything they do on-stage is limited by this. They also do not dim the lights, so the actors can see the audience (and interact with them), and scene changes are done as part of the action. It's not unusual for an actor to be delivering lines while moving a stool or while the other members of the cast (not involved in the scene) roll the couch out of the way. They have a small troop, so actors play multiple rolls. And finally, they have seats on stage, so some people get very close to the action.

They don't try to do everything with complete "authenticity." Recognizing that we don't know much about Shakespeare's productions, they give themselves freedom within these restrictions. This production they did in modern business dress, thus emphasizing the play's focus on greed and power. The actor playing Lear (Craig Wallace) was younger than most, and he played him as more of an invalid. His anger was often choked off by fits of coughing and chest pains, as he sank exhausted into his wheel chair. His fool--played wonderfully by Kate Eastwood Norris--offered him pills and medicine along with the witty tonic that Shakespeare wrote into the play. Other roles were well played, including particularly James Konicek's Kent, and I was only disappointed in Edgar who often rushed through his lines.

Staunton is a nice little city with lots of history. We stayed in a small hotel called Frederick House which was nice, though I think I'd rather stay in one of the cottages. Next time, I think we'll try to stay at the Belle Grae Inn.

2003-08-13T09:41:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, my wife and I celebrate 8 glorious years of marriage. Happy Anniversary, honey! I love you.

2003-08-08T09:49:00.000-04:00

Have you ever wanted just to get away from it all? Take a few days--or even a few minutes--just for yourself or for you and a few close friends? Now, have you ever felt that way and had the needs of others intrude? Of course you have, or why else would you need some time for just yourself?

Jesus faced similar feelings in his ministry. According to Mark's Gospel of the events, Jesus tries to go off to a secluded place with his disciples. A large group of people watch him go off in a boat and rush off to meet him where he lands. Far from town, Jesus didn't get the R&R he was looking for; instead he faced a mob of people who were starved for teaching, healing, and before long, food. It is in this context that Jesus performs one of his most famous miracles: feeding the 5,000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish.

Another famous miracle comes immediately on the heels of this one: Jesus walks on water. In Mark's version, Jesus sends his disciples ahead of him to Bethsaida so he can dismiss the crowd. After doing so, he takes a few minutes to himself to pray on the mountain. Then in the evening he decided to walk to Bethsaida, taking the most direct route across the water. As Mark says, "he meant to pass them by." In other words, Jesus still wanted some time alone; still craved that little escape. But just as the 5000 needed him desperately, so did his disciples. They saw him and were frightened. They thought he was a ghost. So he changed his plans, stepped into the boat and said (as he so often does), "Be not afraid."

I don't think these stories just tell us that we often--perhaps even usually--need to set aside our own wants and needs to minister to others. No. I think a key moment occurs in verse 46: Jesus takes what time he has for personal prayer and reflection. He doesn't give up all claims to "Me Time" (as our culture would have it); instead, he makes time for it. Yes, he perhaps would have liked more, but he makes do with what he has and responds where he is needed.

2003-08-04T08:03:00.000-04:00

I think it's instructive that the description of Jesus' temptation falls right on the heels of his baptism and the descent of the Spirit upon him. No sooner has God proclaimed "this is my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased" than this son is forced to undergo challenges the likes of which he won't see again until Gethsemane. That sign of peace, the Dove, that comes down to him quickly turns to a scourge that sends him out to desolate places to face the Tempter.

There are some clear parallels with our own lives: how out of seeming triumph can come difficulty (and vice versa, as the resurrection makes clear); how those things that are blessings to us are also often the crosses we have to bear; how we cannot afford to bask in God's apparent pleasure in us and be left unprepared for the next stumbling block on our path. But I think moments such as these--what I might call the interaction of the Trinity--help us discover something of the nature of God. For here we have all the Trinity in a brief tableau: Father commanding and affirming; Spirit blessing and provoking; Son standing in for us and teaching. If we mean to know God, then of course the Gospels are vital. Within the Gospels these scenes of the interaction of the Trinity deserve focussed attention.

2003-07-30T09:42:00.000-04:00

This morning part of my reading was Matthew 23, that provocative chapter where Jesus reveals the hypocrisy of the scribes and Pharisees 7 times. The spirit led me to dwell on an earlier passage which, though perhaps less famous, is equally provocative:

But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Jesus here is teaching us that all of us--disciples and doubters--are members of a universal family. We have but one Father--the one to whom we address the Lord's Prayer--and the love, obedience and deference owed to a father is owed to Him.

Further, we only have one teacher, only one who brings us new and true knowledge, and that is the Son of God, our savior, the Christ. Anything that we discover, anything that we come to know, is through Him only. The corollary is also true--anything that anyone seems to learn from us is actually from Christ. We cannot claim to teach anymore than the blackboard in a school-room can claim to teach. It is an implement, as are we, through which teaching may occur.

It is in this context that the final sentence I quoted needs to be read. If we try to claim the authority and stature that is owed to a father; if we try to claim the authority and knowledge that is owed to a teacher; we will find ourselves without any of those traits. If we recognize that we are under the authority of the one Father and under the tutelage of the Christ, then we will find ourselves true heirs of the universal family.

2003-07-26T15:18:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago we took a family drive through the nearby farmlands. We are very close to farm country--not surprising considering we back up to a horse farm--but it is easy to forget when the nearest McDonald's is only a short walk away. As we were driving, we decided to stop by one of the many little creeks that run through the area and feed the South Anna and Chickihominy rivers. At the spot we chose, there was an old ruined mill with a damn that cascaded water about 12 feet from top to bottom. The boys were thrilled with the rushing water and the dilapidated stonework. They were appropriately cautious around the still sturdy but weathered timber that held up the old mill. I know if a few years we'll have to restrain them from climbing all over such places. For now, though, we enjoy innocence among the ruins of the past.

2003-07-22T08:42:00.000-04:00

A persistent night-time cough has kept me up to all hours recently. On top of that, I've been quite busy at work with a large project. As a result, I haven't had much time or energy to blog. I did decide on Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, and the little bit I've read has been quite enjoyable. At some point, I'd like to write some about Stephen Ministries, as I am about to embark down this path at our new church, but today is not the day. Blessings to you all...

2003-07-17T14:05:00.000-04:00

Last night I finished Alister McGrath's Christian Theology: An Introduction. McGrath is clearly well read in the history of theology, and he does an admirable job covering such an immense subject. The book suffers from the typical weaknesses of textbooks--it is often repetitive and often oversimplifies. I think he made the repetition worse by beginning the book with a very brief history of theology before discussing theology in a topical organization. As a result, he had to cover certain figures (like Augustine and Aquinas) and certain movements (like the Donatists, for example) multiple times, and the information contained in the historical section was invariably repeated at other points in the work. That said, I'm glad I read it and would recommend it to anyone looking for a broad survey of Christian Theology.

Now I have one of those problems every reader loves: choosing what to read next. I haven't unpacked all my books from my move, but sitting nearby I have Evelyn Underhill's Mysticism, Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain. An embarrassment of riches! Anyone want to offer some guidance on what I should take up next?

2003-07-14T09:05:00.000-04:00

Every now and then, I think it is a worthwhile exercise to examine the disciplines that are part of our Christian life to see if they are still moving us down the path of Christ-like living. As with any habits, what was once fresh can become rote; what was once invigorating can become drudgery; what once felt like the pinnacle of our spiritual life can seem cast in shadows of mundanity. In that spirit, I have been looking at my disciplines and have decided to make a few changes. I may change back, and I may make some other changes too, but these are my initial thoughts.

Morning Devotional and Prayers--for a couple years now I have been using the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer for my daily devotions (in particular, I've been following the Daily Office). I have a deep love for the language and prayers of the BCP, and it's been a difficult decision, but I've chosen to put it aside for awhile. In it's place, I've decided to take an approach that is sort of a combination of prayer, meditation, and Lectio Divina. For the reading, I've come up with a sort of variation on the "read the Bible in a year" methods. I've come up with a schedule that will have me reading the Old Testament in a year, the psalms 4 times a year, the epistles of the New Testament twice a year, and the Gospels 5 times a year. Between each reading, I take time to pray and listen to God's responses to my prayers and reading. It sounds complicated, but it isn't. I'm using a variation of the order in the BCP for the Psalter, and the other sections I just divided in a fairly even manner. Today's reading, for example, was Gen. 1-3, Psalms 1-3, Acts 1 and Matthew 1:1-2:18. My goal is to hear the Scriptures speaking to each other as I repeat through the various books. I don't know that I'll make it through the entire year, but that's the goal.

Other Devotions--I'm spending some more time in prayer here, but I'd like to reincorpate some fasting into my life, and I'd like to see how I can incorporate simplicity more into my (very) material existence. I'll try to update these as I come to some clarification through the Spirit.

2003-07-11T08:56:00.000-04:00

Today is the birthday of the Reverend Thomas Bowdler. You may not recognize his name, but you probably recognize the verb associated with it: "bowdlerize." Bowdler was easily embarrassed, and found he could not read through much of Shakespeare without a blush coming to his cheek regularly. So he produced a work where any word he deemed objectionable was replaced with another. So, for example, Lady MacBeth's "Out damn'd spot" became "Out crimson spot" (scanning of verse be crimsoned!).

Whenever I think of Bowdler, I think of the misprinting of Cymbeline that once occurred. At one point in the play, there is a line that reads, "Thy mistress, Pisanio, hath played the strumpet in my bed." In this edition, however, the 's' in the objectionable word was omitted, thus rendering the line, "Thy mistress, Pisanio, hath played the trumpet in my bed."

I wonder what Pisanio would have thought of that!

2003-07-06T14:33:00.000-04:00

Can I blow my nose on your butt?

Philosophers of language have long noted that in every language there are an infinite number of sentences which are grammatically correct, but which have no value as a speech-act. Put another way, a string of words may be put together completely in accords with grammatical rules, and yet there is no chance that such a sentence would ever be spoken in conversation.

Yesterday, my son diminished the number of grammatically correct but never-spoken sentences when he asked to discharge his nostrils on my posterior.

2003-07-02T10:17:00.000-04:00

Food for thought...

We have the Gospels to bear witness to solidarity with the poor, with the oppressed, with the unfortunate, and with the defenseless--we do not have a Gospel to announce the promise of an earth without evil, without suffering, and without conflicts. We have Gospels to damn those who, in their comfort and their glory, remain deaf to the suffering and the hunger of the disinherited--we have no Gospel to preach social equality or inequality, or to prescribe a recipe for a complete social system through which all human drives and desires are fulfilled and all frustrations are set aside. We have Gospels to denounce tyrants and persecutors--we have no Gospel with which to make a pact with one form of tyranny against another in the name of chiliastic dreams. A Christianity in which it is quietly accepted that God stands ready to serve us, to protect any kind of cause, doctrine, ideology, or political party, is disguised godlessness.
--Leszek Kolakowski
"God in a Godless Time"
First Things, June/July 2003

2003-06-26T09:53:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I was browsing a few sites put together by the United Methodist Church and featured on their website. I thought one was done pretty well--far above the average from what I have seen of the church--and I wanted to call it to your attention. It' is called The Bible: The Book that Bridges the Millenia. It's an attempt to present some basic bible learning in a way that is contemporary and that helps people see both the historicity and the contemporary nature of the Bible. They do a pretty good job of having a straightforward narrative (which they call "The Highway") while still allowing you to jump around within the site or to sites outside of the narrative (which they call "Byways"). They keep the text brief, but have links to more extensive articles. Similarly, images are kept small and fast-loading, but all that I have encountered can be loaded in a separate window for more detailed viewing. They also incorporate sound (when desired, not obtrusively whether you want it or not) in appropriate contexts. All in all, I think it's pretty well done (kudos to the United Methodist Women), and I encourage you to take a look.

2003-06-24T16:49:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow, a friend of mine begins her first pastoral assignment at Sleepy Hollow United Methodist Church in Falls Church, Virginia. Would you join me in praying for Pam?

Lord, bless Pam as she begins to shepherd a part of your flock. Prompt her in the preaching of your Word; guide her in the pastoral care and counseling she provides; strengthen her in her sense of calling to be Your servant; encourage her to spread the Gospel to others in the area; feed her spiritually for the work that you will send her way; and teach her to love those around her as you love each of us. Amen.

2003-06-22T20:29:00.000-04:00

Could Summer in Baden Baden be the best 20th-century novel you've never heard of? It's quite possible. A "fictional" retelling of parts of Dostoeyevsky's life ("fictional" because virtually all the details are accurate) is paralleled by the journey of an unnamed narrator to visit the Dostoeyevsky museum which is in the home where the great writer died. Within these parallel stories, Leonid Tsypkin ruminates on literature, compulsion (especially gambling and sexual attraction), the meaning of being Russian and--significantly for the author--Dostoyevsky's anti-semitism. Tsypkin's prose is hypnotic; consisting of paragraph-long sentences that are packed with images, ideas and startling insights. His description of Dostoeyevsky's death is a wonderful example:

A thin, scarcely perceptible thread still connected him with this world, but it, too, was growing weaker with every minute--the dying man was sinking inexorably into a deep, bottomless abyss resembling the hollow cone of a volcano, although it seemed to him that he was actually clambering up the highest mountain in the world, much higher than any other he had climbed or attempted to climb, and it seemed that he walked up a straight, light, crystal path, moving so easily that he did not appear to be going up at all, but descending, and at times he even thought that he was floating on invisible wings, and at the end of this path, on the very peak of the mountain, a bright sun shone, reflected in the crystal over which he was gliding and, when he reached the summit and the sun momentarily blinded him, he saw how low and insignificant those mountains were, where he had struggled upward before--nothing but tiny, wretched hills, and from the summit of this gigantic mountain was unveiled before him not only the earth with the vanity of its inhabitants, but the whole of the universe with its huge bright stars, and for a moment there were revealed to him all the terrible secrets of those distant planets, but at that moment the sun was extinguished and he sank down into terrible, fathomless darkness.

The entire scene of Dostoyevsky's death is beautifully rendered--as memorable in its own was as Prince Andrei's death in War and Peace--and it's worth the time and effort it takes to read this short book.

Tsypkin only published this one work, and yet based on it I think he has to be considered one of the great masters of the last century.

2003-06-20T09:48:00.000-04:00

Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
--John 15:2

This verse came to mind this morning as I walked by the hanging baskets of flowers on my front porch. It has been raining almost daily for nearly a month now, and that means that the plants and flowers don't get the attention they need. My baskets were in woeful shape, so I took a few minutes to pinch back the dead flowers, prune the withering leaves and encourage the thriving parts of the plant to produce more flowers and add more beauty to the house and the neighborhood.

Can you imagine, though, if God were as negligent a gardener as I am? When rain came to our lives, what if He tended to ignore us until things were better? How sad that would be. When the weather gets worse, that is when my plants need the most care...Just as when life's challenges hit, that is when we need the most tending. So Lord, I pray that you prune me as your vine: tend me in good weather and in bad so that I may bear abundant fruit in your Kingdom. Amen.

2003-06-18T16:57:00.000-04:00

I don't know if these are some kind of chain letters, but I've received a couple emails recently about praying Psalm 91. The emails make extravagant claims about the efficacy of this prayer, and in my attempt to be less skeptical about such claims, I read the emails and looked into the prayer method. I'm glad I did, because regardless of how well the prayer works, I am glad to have it as another way to pray for someone who needs prayers.

The "method" is essentially this: revise the Psalm so that the pronouns are replaced by the name (or a pronoun) of the person for whom you are praying. For example, if I were praying for someone named "Mary," I'd put her name in appropriate spots. So instead of the standard opening lines:

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say to the LORD, "My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust."

For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence.

I would instead pray:

Mary dwells in the shelter of the Most High
and she abides in the shadow of the Almighty.

She will say to the LORD, "My refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust."

For he will deliver her from the snare of the fowler
and from the deadly pestilence.

So instead of the psalm referring to "you" (the reader), you refocus it on the person for whom you are praying. What results is a prayer that is confident in its supplication and beautiful in its phrasing. If there is someone on your prayer list, give it a try. Maybe those extravagant claims will turn out to be true.

2003-06-16T15:23:00.000-04:00

I spent yesterday with my kids, my wife and my parents.

That's what I call a real Fathers' Day.

2003-06-12T09:12:00.000-04:00

Since our move, mornings have really changed for me. They used to be a period of heavy activity, followed by a long commute. At first, I just took the opportunity to sleep a bit more. Now, though, I'm getting up about when I used to, but since I have no commute, I take a more leisurely approach to mornings. I spend more time talking with the Lord in prayer, and I've recently started taking about 20 minutes for "pleasure" reading (so that list at the lower right might finally start changing again...). We let the boys sleep longer, and yet still (usually) let them have more time to ease into their day. I often get some house-stuff done--this morning, for example, I unloaded the dishwasher, started cooking beans for a lunch soup, and pinched back some flowers--and generally just feel more refreshed going into the work day. I just offer these comments here as a public praise to God for the way he has helped us through and into this new life.

2003-06-08T08:22:00.000-04:00

I don't do this often, but...

You are Proverbs.

Which book of the Bible are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Thanks to Irene for the link.

2003-06-08T08:11:00.000-04:00

Come, Holy Spirit, come.

2003-06-06T07:39:00.000-04:00

The reading is always thought-provoking and inspiring over at Mute Troubadour. The recent post on "emergent pastors" really caught my attention. Now I'm not exactly sure what the term "emergent" means in this context, but you can get a pretty good idea by reading the traits and scripture passages listed. In thinking about it, I wondered if there weren't any Old Testament passages that might tell us something about "emergent pastors." The one that immediately came to mind is the one from which this blog takes its title, Isaiah 6:8. Perhaps as motivation we could also look to Ezekiel 34: 20-24. Beyond that, though, I haven't come up with much. So, if you have ideas, post them here (if my comments miraculously seem to be working), or better yet, head over to Mute Troubadour and post there.

2003-06-04T13:07:00.000-04:00

Since moving to Richmond, I've lost 10 pounds. People are beginning to notice, and the inevitable questions come: "Which diet are you on? Atkins? Zone? WeightWatchers? Jenny Craig? California-Watermelon-and-peach-ice cream?" They always look disappointed when I tell them the truth. I'm not on a diet. I did, though, start monitoring what I ate. Yes, I got a program where I enter what I eat, and it tracks calories (and lots of other things too). The program is called DietPower and it is the easiest to use, most fully-featured program I found. It's shareware, and it's cost is in line with commercial products, but I think it's worth it. I highly recommend it to anyone who thinks they are the type of person who would monitor what they eat, because it helps me make choices.

Sometimes, I'm just hungry, and I'd be as satisfied with an orange as a candy bar. Of course, that isn't a fair comparison, so let's say an orange or a banana. If I want to lose weight, I should choose the orange most of the time, since it has about 1/2 the calories. Both are healthy, but if I'm just staving off some hunger, then the program helps me choose the right food. On the other hand, if I determine I need more folate in my diet, I can easily search and discover that the asparagus sitting in my refrigerator is loaded with folate. That kind of information makes this product less of a "diet" program and more of a lifestyle change program. And after all, that was one of the main reasons we moved.

In that same vein, yesterday my family joined the neighborhood YMCA. I went this morning for an orientation on the fitness equipment, and I'll start the workout plan they gave me soon. My wife is attending her orientation as I write this. We'll also be getting our kids involved--they are on a waiting list for swimming lessons, and we've signed up my oldest for soccer in the fall. I think it will be a wonderful place for our family to focus some of our time in a way that is fun, supportive of Christian mission, and healthy.

2003-06-02T14:39:00.000-04:00

I think we are pretty close to selecting a new church. Shady Grove United Methodist Church (Short Pump) is located very near our home. Oddly, there is another Shady Grove UMC in the Richmond area, so it took me awhile to find their website. It's an old church--founded before the Civil War--but it's among the fastest growing Methodist churches in Virginia. This is in part due to the amazing growth that this area has seen, but they also seem to be an active church that is reaching out to the community in powerful ways. I hope to explore more and get to know them better, but it may not be long before I'm changing the link beneath "my church" in the right column of my blog.

2003-06-01T08:13:00.000-04:00

In Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home, Richard Foster talks about the power of healing prayer. He claims that it is not uncommon for beginners in the ministry of healing prayer to have dramatic success, but then to notice an levelling off of the effectiveness of their prayers. It's as if God encourages the beginner, but then does not allow us to set our expectations too high.

I have to admit when I first read this chapter, my cynicism and doubt levels increased noticeably. It's not that I don't believe in miracles--even contemporary miracles--because I do. But I am very cautious about believing such claims, because I know how easily they can be abused. Even more, though, I doubted whether I could ever have such a ministry; whether my prayers could ever really call the Holy Spirit into action. As I've said before, my faith is often smaller than a mustard seed...

But I've been praying for more faith and for a willingness to open my heart to the possibilities of prayer. The night before last, I had a small witness to the power of prayer. My oldest so began screaming in the middle of the night. He was having one of those half-wakened nightmares from which he couldn't escape. We couldn't wake him up or sooth him with words, rubbing his back, or trying to hold him. We were desperate. Finally, I put my hand on his forehead and began praying that the Holy Spirit would come and sooth him. In a matter of seconds, he had quieted down, and after less than 5 minutes of praying, he was asleep. We heard him yell out a couple more times that night, but they were isolated incidences. I'm sure it wasn't his most restful sleep, but he was not thrashing around in fear.

I won't so easily doubt such claims as Foster's in the future. There really does not seem to be a limit to what prayer can do and how we can affect our lives and the lives of others by calling on our Savior.

2003-05-30T07:43:00.000-04:00

Sabbath. What a wonderful concept. Next to Grace, it is perhaps my favorite biblical concept. It is, of course, a type of grace: a gift offered freely to us; one which we can ignore, but we do so at our own peril.

It has always interested me how sins tend to be things we should avoid not only because they displease God, but because they are good for us. Sabbath rest is the flip side of that coin. A sabbath rest was good for God after creation and Jesus took frequent sabbaticals during his ministry. If we truly think of our lives as ruled by the Lord, we cannot ignore the sabbath. And lest anyone misunderstand, I'm not talking about attending church. I believe that's important, but for those who are most involved in the church, Sunday is anything but a sabbath.

No, I'm talking about rest. True, cleansing rest. A good sleep falls under this category, but so does sitting on the beach and staring at the ocean. I've just returned from a wonderful, refreshing vacation on Hilton Head Island, SC. We luckily escaped most of the rain that has soaked the east coast and had glorious weather. I spent much of my time with immediate and extended family, and we had active as well as tranquil moments. But overall, it was a time of rejuvenation for me, where I found myself pulled back into a deeper prayer life (that had been interrupted in the uproar of moving) and contemplating again how I can best serve the Lord in my life.

It's good to be back in this place of conversation with God. It's good to feel refreshed after the efforts and adjustments of moving. And it's good to be back here writing about it.

2003-05-12T14:37:00.000-04:00

If you check here at all regularly, you know that my writing has been erratic at best. Moving has scrambled my schedule almost completely. I have new job responsibilities, a new home and neighborhood, I'm searching for a new church, and all these things have led to an upheaval in my life. I do find regular time for Bible reading, but I do little other reading (a shocking statement for me). I'm eating better and taking walks in the beautiful spring weather, which are things I wanted to make a part of my "new life" here. But I want to recover some of my other habits...the ones I enjoyed and that benefited me. Blogging is one of those. However, I don't see it happening over the next few weeks. For one reason, I'll be on vacation next week and I doubt I'll blog from there. But I hope one day I'll be more regular here. It helps me to get my thoughts down in writing, and I've enjoyed the relationships I've made in this medium. So if you are checking in, please be patient, and please keep coming back. Blessings!

2003-05-08T14:50:00.000-04:00

We jokingly refer to our younger son as "our frat boy." He was an easy baby, but ever since he learned to walk he's shown an alarming lack of fear and an incredible propensity to find trouble. Not only could he find the proverbial needle in a haystack, but he'd stick it in his mouth faster than you can say "No!" So it wasn't much of a surprise the other day when his day care called. He had fallen backwards off a small toy and had the bad luck to hit his head on the corner of a toy wooden cradle. He bled quite a bit, and we took him to his new doctor (his first visit!) and discovered he needed two staples to put the skin back where it belonged. So now he probably wouldn't make it through airport security, but the staples come out Monday and he'll be fine.

I just wonder how long it will be before our first emergency room visit...

2003-05-05T09:39:00.000-04:00

Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions;
according to your steadfast love remember me,
for the sake of your goodness, O LORD.
--Psalm 25:7

Spending a weekend with old friends is comfortable and invigorating. I enjoyed myself thoroughly and it felt like we hadn't been separated by time and distance at all. And yet such time is at least tinged with regret for me, because it reminds me of many years of sinfulness. Perhaps more importantly, it reminds me of many years without Christ in my life. So in these times I try to spend less effort in reminiscing and more in building new memories that will propel our friendships into the future.

Even so, though, I know that I do not work hard enough at showing how Christ has changed my life around old friends. I'm not talking about taking them aside and giving the the "hard sell" (though that could be the appropriate thing to do). I'm just thinking about how easy it is to avoid the topic of religion and Jesus; how simple it is to display a life that is not largely different from non-Christians around me. If they were particularly observant, they would notice devotionals and books of theology around the house, but that is hardly an example of "spreading the Word." I prayed this morning for future guidance in this area for the future: how do I show my love for Jesus in everyday life, particularly around people who know me as a non-religious person?

2003-05-02T10:21:00.000-04:00

Last night began what promises to be a weekend of renewing friendships. By chance, on of the people who now live just a few minutes from us is a close friend from graduage school. He left school before finishing the Ph.D. and has since earned a law degree and gotten married. He decided, though, that law wasn't what he wanted to do with his life, so he is back in the graduate program and trying to write his dissertation. He and his wife came over last night for dinner, and it was great to get back together with them.

This weekend, other grad school friends are coming into town. One family--who used to live near us in northern VA--will stay with us. Another (the family we recently visited in Chicago) will be staying at the above-mentioned couple's home. Why the mini-reunion? We are all heading to Charlottesville on Saturday for a surprise birthday party for another friend from grad school. So while we have all gone down different career paths in different parts of the country, we will be enjoying a mini-reunion of sorts this weekend. I know we'll enjoy seeing old friends who are so comfortable while we are meeting and making new friends in the new neighborhood.