I'm Waiting For My Real Life to Begin

The Station

It's the end of "Sanctity of Human Life Week" - this essay has been burned into my mind since I read it thirty plus years ago.

The Station

What life are you waiting for?

Sanctity of Life Week - What life am I waiting for?

Awesome sound! Signature Sound!

Oh What a Savior

Kung Fu Panda

From the movie "Kung Fu Panda"

Shifu: Master! I have... it's very bad news! 
Oogway: Ah, Shifu. There is just news. There is no good or bad. 
Shifu: Master, your vision. Your vision was right! Tai-Lung has broken out of prison! He's on his way! 
[pause] 
Oogway: That *is* bad news. 

A good teachable moment for Sam (and for me).   We humans want to live as if there is no "good" or "bad" ... but we can't.  We inherently know the difference.

However, I doubt that "Kung Fu Panda" is a reliable source to quote when defending the faith :)

Making Time?

Making time,

Saving time,

Killing time,

Wasting time,

Doing time,

Marking time.

I wonder if "eternal life" is one way of expressing my existence in a way that transcends time? ... where I escape the clock?  ... when my life makes a difference far in excess of the seconds invested?

"With the Lord a day is like a thousand years..." 2 Peter 3:8

My Mom! Newspaper Story Yesterday

72-year-old woman succeeds at holding crippling disease at bay

BLOOMINGTON -- Dee Werry walked from the leg extension machine to the leg curl machine. She was stooped forward and to the left side and took small steps. But that didn’t slow her down. As she walked determinedly from machine to machine — while chatting with her attentive personal trainer, Chris Hallam, who walked beside her — fellow exercisers less than half her age spotted her, smiled and stepped out of her way.

It’s Dee-Time at Gold’s Gym in Bloomington. Dee-Time is 1:30 to about 5 p.m. almost every Monday, Wednesday and Friday when the 72-year-old Bloomington woman is at the fitness center to lift weights, walk up stairs, stretch and do water exercises.

“People look forward to seeing Dee walk through those doors,” said Shannon Wahls, 37, of Bloomington, who befriended Werry about a year ago after they began working out at about the same time. “If it’s 1:40 and she’s not here, we start to wonder ‘Where’s Dee?’”

But Werry is more than a nice older woman who weight lifts. The retired businesswoman exercises to battle a rare disease. And she’s succeeding.

Read the rest of the story here:

Wow!

About Face Regarding the Israel Conflict

As I first heard about the Israeli's response to continued rocket launches into Israel, I thought, "Sure!  I can't blame them for wanting to see the rockets stopped.  We would not tolerate even one rocket being launched into America."

But the more I see the callous disregard for the innocent, my opinion has turned 180 degrees:

At the moment my contempt for the enemy exceeds my concern for innocent children, my actions then reveal that I have really begun to worship a foreign god and certainly not the God made known by Jesus Christ.

Am I really sure what spirit I am representing when I support what is going on in Gaza right now?

Luke 9:51-56

I'm beginning to learn that one's true god (or value system) is revealed in the furnace.

Matthew 6:25-34

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or What shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. 

English Standard Version

John Piper Reciting Romans 8

Eyes to See?

Sensitive to the eternal – “… with the Lord, every day is packed with eternity and eternity is impacted every day.” II Pet. 3:8 (dgw)

In the biblical account of Jacob’s ladder, Jacob exclaims, “Surely the Lord is present in this place and I did not know it!” or perhaps, and at least, “There is much more going on here than I supposed!” Gen. 28:16 (dgw)

Here is an example from my experience:

The American Indian would express a fear of photographs that we often casually dismiss: “The camera will steal my soul,” he said. I would very insensitively imagine that he could think that the camera actually captured something of his and transferred it to a piece of paper. “How silly,” I would think. 

God forgive me.

Consider that what he meant is that the camera will somehow rob him of the mystery that is every individual – that he will somehow be diminished after having been photographed. Prior to being photographed, he can be unique, feared and respected, perhaps even legendary; a photograph, however, would emphasize his similarities to everyone else and he could then lose (at least some of) the distinction (the mystery) that was previously his.

A photograph would presuppose that he always is as he appeared at that moment – and he knows that his complex dimensions can never be captured in one or even one million photographs. He knows that to be human means to change. He knows that tomorrow, he will not be the same – but the photograph will be the same; and others’ image of him will be locked in that photograph, i.e. who he was, and not in the dynamic of who he is.

Indeed, is that not “stealing his soul?”

Have we not also stolen his (our) soul by reducing such a rich, thoughtful, and complex concept to a mere caricature?

The above illustration is representative of the way I feel that I respond to all of life and faith: superficially accepting or dismissing items that have far more meaning than easily or commonly understood.

Terms like eternal life, kingdom of heaven, salvation, judgment, and repentance have far more (and sometimes less) meaning than commonly understood. These terms have obtained a super-definition that we all assume is universally understood. We then use these terms as if we all understand them and then shallow, lifeless communication is all that follows.

Father, forgive me for so carelessly and callously handling your words (and Word.) Teach me to carefully and tenderly regard other’s ideas and opinions and to be open to the Holy Spirit’s prompting and teaching. I pray that I never assume that I know the meaning of a term and then dismiss what I can learn from careful scrutiny. In the Spirit of your Word: Jesus, amen.

 

Everybody's Doing It!

Everyone else seems to have a blog these days.   So I guess I'll try to see what all the hubbub is about.