I watched Limitless last night from 10:40-12:20.  It was a good story.  Their use of Deniro reminded me of how “The Town” didn’t use of Jon Hamm well; limitless didn’t use Deniro except his imposing voice and mannerisms.  And, he looks really short next to Bradley Cooper.

What would you do with Limitless-ness?  Politics?  Business?  Celebrity?  Cooper flirts with all 3.

A less Grandiose finish equals a more grandiose story in truth.  Groundhog Day is better.  I won’t spoil the movie, but the end of Limitless was remarkably scarier than any of its content up until that point.  That is cool now that I think about it.  But, Groundhog Day ended with a redemption level often missed in movies that are as enjoyable scene to scene as it is.

Both movies beg for a brilliant ending and Groundhog Day has it.  How?  Giving Phil his ordinary life back – except with a perspective that leads him to appreciate it.  When – after seemingly eternity, where he learned a lot (compare Phil at the end of GHD with Bradley Cooper in this scene – near the end of Limitless: Deniro’s viscerally brilliant speech to Cooper about what he needs to learn, and how he hasn’t earned the right to be as awesome as he is).  Cooper knew everything and had learned nothing.  That is more terrifying than a terrorist.  There is a terrorist in Limitless.  He is laughable compared with Cooper.

Maybe that is what I am searching for: the human difference and overlap between knowledge, power, learning, and wisdom.  All in one blog post 🙂  Or, I am simply putting it out there that I love how movies frame and re-frame these questions for me.

I don’t love my limits most days (hence the coffee), but they are a gift.  Wisdom is one also – learned better from the Groundhog than using 100% of my brain.

Thoughts?  Discuss…

What good is being cool if you can’t wear a sombrero?

I am also thinking about the 3 points of my “How to be human to someone in crisis” book:

1.  you’re not crazy

2.  Information is not going to help

3.  If you are not humble before Jesus, there is very little I can do.

There are flip sides.

1.  Some people are crazy…  sometimes.  thinking something is big when it is not (working definition of crazy)

2.  Sometimes there is a crucial bit of information…  sometimes.

3.  Well…  This one probably always sticks.

A friend once asked why I was boring at church.  She said something to the effect of, “You’re so fun the rest of the time, funny, witty, handsome…”  And I digress.  Because, she didn’t say handsome 🙂

It is the same reason, strangely, I cannot imagine doing anything else.  Well, I can imagine it – but I don’t want to do anything else.

Answer: Stories.  I don’t know everyone’s, and I know few really well.  But I know stories: they walk by me every Sunday.  Stories play with and teach my kids the Gospel of Jesus on Sundays.  My friends and I  sing together, sometimes we eat P Sghetti’s with spoons together, pray together, cry together, and (less often than at restaurants apparently) we laugh together.

It is a good weight, but it is a weight nevertheless.  I love you all, I would never trade my job, but I have been described as boring at church and thought that that was a worthy blog post 🙂

Because I don’t yet know what I think or feel.  I should blog next week, or maybe next year about this Sunday’s Service.

Today Riverside Church celebrated it 10th Anniversary.  Technically that anniversary is in the middle of this week; Nov. 11th, 2001.

We were planted by Greentree Community Church in Kirkwood, both part of the EPC denomination.

Larry Barker played music back then, and he was back today.  Caroline clapped – which almost undid me.  She didn’t even exist back then.

Phil led worship – he was Phil, funny, self-deprecating, me-deprecating (he jokingly described me as the “longest tenured, least respected” pastor of Riverside), gracious, and AWESOME.

Larry played the keys.  My dad plays piano.  I have a lot of friends who play.  I only know one Larry Barker – thanks for making the trip Larry, I just wish I could’ve hugged more of your family.

John and Julie Casper shared their story, and especially what Riverside has meant to them.  Beautiful and strong as always.  Church Planters indeed!

Zack preached on the Church at Philippi (Acts 16).  I will be honest, I didn’t delegate the food pick up, so I am listening to the sermon tomorrow 🙂  I got this from my wife: that church didn’t always look the coolest, and it might not have been the easiest to begin – but it was a church loved by Paul and they did the work of the Gospel of Jesus.

Here is what I know: I was on the verge of tears the whole beginning of the service simply because I love Riverside.  Maybe I will tell the story of my family and Riverside tomorrow.  Today I simply know I love it – full of strength, wisdom, grace, and men and women who exhibit those things well.  I love it.  I should have just posted a status update to FB or something.

I am still humbled by two things about Scott Sauls (Mentor #8) – the first teacher I ever really sat under; regularly and happily.

1.  He let me preach in 2004 – when I was a 27 year old youth pastor who had a passion for the darkest chapter (humanly speaking) in the Bible. Thanks Scott.

2.  He had an illustration that unnerves me: Scott could sit on the couch and eat an entire box of cheez-its and it was because he wanted the feeling of being full.  He did it because there are places in him that do not believe that he is a mess, but so loved…  He eats boxes of cheez its because he doesn’t believe the Gospel in a deep fashion.  Me Too.  Me Neither.

My dad once sent a piece of wood to a guy in the mail with the note, “I took this off of my shoulder years ago.  Your turn.”

I thought that that was money.  Wow.  Awesome.  Funny and incisive…  or something.  As I get older, less cynical, and have more time with people under my belt I have no idea what I think of this interaction!  No idea.  What do you think of it?

But, it reminds me that I am often told I pursue people well.  If that is true, a big part of the reason is that my dad instinctively pursues.  He doesn’t wait (sometimes not awesome), he doesn’t ask others for help in it (potentially imperfect), but he does pursue.  I am (mostly) thankful for this instinct in me 🙂

What did your dad teach you?  Or mentor you into?

As I revisit my mentoring blog series, I am on to my second Grandpa: Geeps.  My Dad’s dad.  James Norwood Blazer, Senior.  I wrote a lot, I could revise it; I could easily write more.

My regret is not learning his hobby from him: refinishing furniture.  I learned a lot about being a good man from him; I still long for more of his heart and story.  I look forward to seeing him in the New Heavens and New Earth (where I assume he will have hair).

It should be said: I don’t have a lot of regrets.  I have made a lot of mistakes, but most of them were not based on bad motives – they were just me not being mature and I grew from them.  I regret not learning about planes, wood, leather, sanding from Geeps.  It would have been good for my young male heart.

Have any similar regrets?

Year 3 of ordained whatever ness.

Here’s what I’ve got:

1.  You don’t need more information.

2.  You’re not crazy.

3.  If the story of Jesus’ pursuit and love for you and the world humbles you then we have somewhere to go…

Slightly Longer:

1.  We rarely need more information to cope/grow/forgive/conflict well, etc.  At least, in regards to the situation we are discussing.  Rarely, if ever..  I forget this, but when I remember it I am a better listener, a better friend, a better pastor. Even when we do need more info, it is just supplemental.

2.  We need to hear we are not crazy when we are in crisis.  Oftentimes when I am fully present I notice that that is all someone needs me to say (especially at the outset).  Oftentimes I notice that that is the entire reason I am calling someone – to hear that I am not crazy.  Sometimes we can commiserate too much, sometimes too little – but the point is the same.  Oftentimes humans simply need to hear that they are not crazy.

3.  If Jesus is who He says He is than my bottom line is humility before Him.  When I am there – the rest isn’t nearly as complicated and often takes on a beauty I would never have imagined.  When others are there and come to me for counseling it is beautiful and easy.  When I am not there the best a friend can do is listen, or if they are a good friend or blessed with good words in the moment – they can talk me down off a ledge called: not humble in light of Jesus and His Narrative.

1.  I don’t need more information to be okay.

2.  I’m not crazy.

3.  If I am humbled by the love and relentless pursuit of Jesus…  well, then the rest is gravy.  Theologically speaking of course.

1.  You probably don’t need it that much either.

2.  You’re not crazy – that was a lot, that was hard, wow…  I’m sorry about that.  You’re not crazy.

3.  You are a Son of the King if you are humble before Him.  You are a daughter of the King.  If you’re not there I’m not your guy.  Maybe a life coach (I know a great one.  Seriously).

I have been chewing a lot on the Sabbath for years – how to do it, when is it, how to not do it.  There are a few certainties, and one of them is that we should be with our family.  Maybe not all of them (or even most of them…  or even many of them), but if and when we can this is a commandment towards families.

My wife has been out of town since Wednesday as far as the girls are concerned, and so far we are doing great.  No real progress on Potty Training, but as my wise mother said – Julia might not be ready yet.  Which would really be fine.

We are about to head out to Powder Valley and see if the girls like it.  But, we will likely end up at the Bird Sanctuary after that – both of them have asked to go again (3 times, I think it is partially a strange hooting coping mechanism for while Mom is gone).  I love my girls – they are loving, beautiful, different, hilarious, and they love me. Off to see owls…  By the way, every picture (except the first) was taken by Caroline 🙂

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The last time I wrote about mentors #5 was devoted to the Marvel Universe – a companion of mine from 1987-1989 in the form of 9 titles.

This time around I am skipping straight to my mom’s dad – Grandpa Toomey.

Dr. Donald Toomey is my mom’s dad. He is not her biological father, and I don’t know when I learned that, but it never made any difference – he was always Grandpa, her dad, etc.

Grandpa enlisted early and was a photographer at Nuremberg.  I recently copied and re-printed one of his photo albums of this time.  It was a very good way to spend some time with Grandpa.

I got to go to their 50th Wedding Anniversary in 2001, where my Grandma could not stop talking about the kiss “he planted on me” on Friday night.

He did not attend my high school graduation because this did not impress him, and he told me he would attend my college one (which he did). I thought it was funny then, and I think it is funny now.

Grandpa had a PHD in Geology (Grandma drew the pictures – meticulously for his thesis). He was a learned man, and spent his retirement making young artists famous in New Mexico with his journal articles. He wrote a book about 19th Century California Missions and especially the influence of Father Junipero Serra I remember him showing me the system in his library – all the books standing up were the ones he had read, and the ones laying down were on his “to-read” shelf.

This is a picture of the periodical he wrote for until his death.

In 1999 I discussed a book on Revelation that attempted to read it as 3 scrolls; letters, worship, and war. 9 years later he and I began writing letters to one another and he asked me to send him the book. That is how thoughtful and intelligent he was.  He read the book and sent it back to me.

My grandpa has weaknesses. I think he would have wished for a degree in psychology to heal all of the wounds in his own family.

I received my Masters of Divinity in 2009.  Of all of my grandparents, he would have been the most proud.  My brother has a PHD in Philosophy – and that is in no small part related to our grandfather.

He is famous for his retorts following someone sneezing. The first sneeze would generally go unrecognized, but the second received one of 2 responses, “Oh, wipe it off the walls!” or, “Once more and we’ll vote on it!” And if you sneezed a third time, you might hear, “Oh shut up!” Said in fun.

Grandpa died in 2009 in his office. He was in the house with the only woman he ever loved, he went peacefully. I think my remembrance/mentoring is this: Grandpa loved well. He loved his wife, his daughters, learning. If he was my only mentor I think I would be okay.

Shortly after he died, Grandma sent me one of his sculptures – of St. Francis. St. Francis means a lot to me, but he means more because I believe this sculpture was on Grandpa’s desk. Thanks Grandma.

As a grandson it is especially wonderful to think about how well he loved his wife and how well he loved my mom. It still makes me happy, even as I wish I could have more time with him. Thankfully, I’m confident I will get that time eventually.

This is a picture he took of the gas station where Mussolini was hanged (not to execution, but following his execution).  What must it have been like to take this picture?