Last week I swore to myself I would write following a good day off.  Now, I cannot remember what was good about it.  A good friend journals to his two girls – I wish for something similar. I probably wanted to blog (and later did) because the giraffe kicked the ostrich, man that was awesome!

Our plan was to drop Caroline off at school, run an errand for Mommy, and go to the Science Center.  Me and Tinkerball.  No school today though!

Caroline accepted these plans with a generous amount of discussion.  I love discussion.  I do not love yelling, whining, and an unwillingness to try things.  She was awesome. This kind of awesomeness is new.

It took us a bit to figure out the free way to park at the Science Center (we are old pros regarding the zoo, Grant’s Farm and the B. Gardens – we used to live close enough to GF to go for free), but we got it.  We got there early (it opens at 9:30), and the girls were content to run in circles around the planetarium for the 7 minutes before opening.

Over the highway was a hit, some of the model airplanes were.  I will post a picture of Julia (when I can find my cord)  in the lobby: she just sat down and watched the ball-apparatus thing for 10-15 minutes.  I paid for the Discovery Room because they were excited and I thought it was free (even though I knew you had to get tickets)…  oh well.  The girls played in the water area for 30 minutes and did exactly nothing else in the room designed to introduce them to science.

Then we broke down.  Caroline stared (in retrospect like a poor New Mexican at Area 51 or something) at the T Rex in the Lobby for about 2 minutes (Julia loving it).  Screaming.  It apparently terrified her.  She started crying and screaming and telling me about how much better the real rhinos were.  Eventually I decided that this was either not – a – fight – worth – winning, or at least an un-winnable one.  Suddenly I was on an elevator with Caroline and not Julia.  Tink has learned that her opinion matters. We eventually succeeded in leaving.  There was a new park (Berra) on the way home.

Caroline and I talked more today.  Not more words – one would be hard pressed to get more words out/hour than with Caroline.  But, we talked more.  She made up new names for her and Julia (Planet and Mars) and alternated them with her old made up, sort-of-like My Little Pony Names: Waterfall River (Caroline), Fish Plant (me), Sunshine (mommy), and Daisy (Julia)…  That isn’t right for Julia.  What is it? I will come back to that.

What was new was that she quizzed me.  I don’t know if that was the game, if she was wondering whether or not I was paying attention, or if she needed help remembering.  I doubt it was #3.  At any rate it was a good morning off.  Meeting a friend for a cigar and beer, and then hopefully heading to the pool.

I want to believe the Sabbath is about me, but it is not.  It is about my family and about staying away from my 6-day-job.  Which may very well be a better me than the one I was referring to before.

So far I have not checked my email,  I did exercise, played with my girls, and am planning to do almost everything else I like to do (with the possible exception of seeing a movie) today.  And, most of it includes these two beautiful short people Rachel made for us.

This is the screen shot of what I got from Google Images when I typed in ‘boast’.

I’m preaching this Sunday on Love does not Boast and I wonder why you think Paul said that.

His story certainly informs the Gospel as not ‘just Heaven’, but also the Gospel that changes a man from a violent, up and comer who was prone to celebrity and certainly boasting – into a man who says to a church – love does not boast.  And, in other places – I will only boast in Christ, and Him crucified.

But, I digress…  why do you think people boast?

I think: 1.  Fear (so, boasting doesn’t deliver there) and 2.  Desire for Applause (So, it does deliver here, but not with the depth of ‘delivery’ our hearts need).

What do you think?

Last Fall I got to preach on Jonah.  I don’t think it was a bad sermon, but I would do a lot differently.  If it is not my series, I need 2 extra hours to prepare – good lesson.

If I could re-do it…

1.  Relentlessly Pursuing God (Jonah, the Ninevites, the Sailors)

2.  If we read the Bible the way we watched sit-coms we would get more out of it.  We actually turn some part of our brain off when we read the stories – expecting them to state, in propositional form, some truth.  Key Example Here: If we were watching a well done movie or TV version we would slap our forehead over and over as Jonah did dumb things.  We would yell, “Why are they throwing him over the boat!?  Jonah, just repent, take the sailors with you!”

3.  Jonah’s big problem (and he knows it – after all, he wrote the book) is that he wants to own his own sin.  This is the Good News – that we don’t have to.  This gets at the hardest religious part of the Gospel – that we can’t.  I can’t control.  When I ask someone for forgiveness it is a strange, deep, relational, intimate move that implies a lack of power and control.  Have you ever asked someone who doesn’t know about forgiveness (Either from the irreligious ‘its not a big deal’ to the religious ‘just say you won’t ever do it again’)?  It is pretty awkward to repent to them.  I tried with a referee once after a particularly bitchy basketball game…  This particular Ref was also in Guiding Light in the 90’s.

I wish I could own my own sin.  I am so thankful I do not have to.  I wish I could save other people.  I don’t have 1% of the strength necessary to save even one…

I struggle to blog. My wife will tell you I am good at talking myself out of things.

I could write about these movies that I have seen lately: Another Year, HP8 (Because no one has blogged about that yet), Captain America (I see a lot of movies).

Played the Board Game Battlestar Galactica (Frakin’ toasters), and now Rachel and I are just into Season 2. I was hoping for Firefly Story with Mad Men Dialogue. We are getting good plotlines and shallow writing.

Some friends who I haven’t seen in awhile mentioned the blog and enjoying it. I could write about the books I’m working through. Negativity – especially Christian to Christian – seems unnecessary from this assistant pastor, but I don’t know that I have negative thoughts anyway. My boss blogs.

I appreciate NT Wright’s book on Hope.  Andrew Murray’s book on prayer is the closest thing to a devotional I have.  Dr. Collins’ book on Adam and Eve is good, but I struggle to remember the importance because most of the people at my church are not passionate about this nuanced difference amongst Creation Theology.  I love Coffee.  I also love beer.  And fountain pens.

The Mystery of Marriage is blowing me away.  Can one make marriage idolatrous?  I am in danger of it I think.  Can one expect too much?  Can the beauty of language, sacrament, mystery, and theology lead me to a mountain that I simply fall off of when I walk in the door at home?

My Wife’s blog is worth following.

Thoughts?  Discuss…

I want simplicity, but I will have to work for it.

4 years ago my mom bought me way too much computer for me. The only time I ever over-did it was when I was ripping movies and MAD MEN HD episodes and throwing them on there like they were word docs.

That computer is now my wife’s because my other old computer stopped opening excel, has never let her watch a video, is very very very persnickkety in regards to power, battery, etc. I think she is excited about her new computer (little does she know it has super powers).

Now I have ‘what I want’. And, I am forced to deal with hilarious things like the amount of music I have in my ITUNES library. I mean, aren’t we supposed to have several thousand songs at our disposal? And I could. But, then I would not have much else.

I can run this computer like a desktop or through its ‘Apps’. So, I could download thousands of those. Although, with my phone I don’t (ever) pay for apps. Hear, “Joey doesn’t share food”. I have a lot of files. I read a lot of articles online, listen to podcasts (not really… I just download them). The Air forces me to think about what the computer is for – and then use it for that purpose.

So, I am excited. It is nice to have birthday money for this kind of thing (at 34 years old! And my birthday was awhile ago…). I think I will like this computer more than my old one, and really more than any I have had before (I have been going through laptops at about one/3.6 years since 1998). But, part of the reason is that I will have to stop just consuming with this one and use it.

I want less than I used to, but I still have those nagging “If I would buy something, play something, eat something, drink something… then I would be happier!!!” I believe it remarkably less than I used to, but it is still there. I am glad then that I have a computer I cannot hide behind quite as easily as I used to be able to.

Man, is it a cool computer though!

Movies I Have seen that are worth blogging about: Transformers, XMen, Another Year, Midnight in Paris.

Book I am reading that might be the best book ever to model illustrations for preaching the Gospel: the Big Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons. The man has a superlative explanation for around 100 players. Sadly, with mild irony, I am not exaggerating.

The number of commentaries and resources that have informed my current series on the Psalms. I say this not out of pride, but because it is an incredibly fun to have these resources on my mind – I simply feel equipped. Brueggemann, Longman, Piper, Keller, Kidner, Bergant, Goldingay, Calvin, and Deliztch. Ones I would use if I had unlimited time: Carson, Lewis, Goldingay ;), Chris Wright, George Robertson, Ocha, Luther, and Aquinas.

Thoughts? Discuss…

I get to preach a series for the next 3 weeks at Riverside.  I am excited.  But, preaching a series holds different challenges.  Tell me to preach on a chapter of the Bible and I think I’m around 12 hours of prep.  Preaching under Zack requires a little more because his style is different, therefore fitting into one of his series’ requires maybe 2 more hours for me.

I am so excited.  But putting my finger on the most exciting part is difficult.  The word preached is the goal, but the series informs the word preached and gives continuity to the series.

if I had to preach this sermon in an hour this is what my outline would look like.

I.  Intro: My Calling to Ministry after facing the reality of Psalm 137

II.  Deconstruct: I don’t think you relate to god the way Psalmists do.  I think you would sense the presence of Jesus easier/quicker if you did.  The reason I don’t think you do is because I do not.

III.  Reconstruct: Rather than 8-15 categories of context, we can have seasonal categories for the Psalms and they will inform our worship, prayer, community, singing, and muttering to our souls.  These match every mood humans are capable of – many of them in darker scenarios (like Psalm 137) than we will ever experience.  Scheme for reading the Psalms (and for this series): Orientation, Disorientation, Re-Orientation.

IV.  Psalm 1: This is where I will need to work.  The Sermon is on Psalm 1, but I want to orientation scheme to free people to pray, read, discuss the Psalms.  So, to do that I need to spend some time…  But, the purpose of the sermon is the exposition of Psalm 1.

V.  So What?  This is often how I think of a conclusion.  So?  So, pray, mutter to your soul (this is a longer translation of the word in Psalm 1 “meditate”), sing, talk in community of the Gospel, of the Gospel in the world, of the Gospel as it relates to your heart and story.

VI.  Jesus: Verse 6.  In all seasons – he is our righteousness.  He hears, we don’t have to move too fast to a New Testament ethic (love thy neighbor, love your enemies) – we can first be honest with God about our orientation, disorientation, and re-orientation.

Thoughts?  Discuss…

If you have met my kids you know they are different.  Caroline has my coloring: dark skin, dark thick-textured hair, and hazel eyes.  Julia has blond hair – thick, but lighter in texture, deep blue eyes.  I could go on and on.  But, at Kirkwood Park this struck me as hilarious.  If the situation was dirt instead of water the roles would have been reversed.  As it was, Caroline ran right in and Julia got one hand in…  just barely.

I love them.  They are hilarious and a pain, and randomly violent and beautiful.  And different.

Grandpa died almost 3 years ago.  At his funeral my generous grandmother was giving stuff away, and I somehow left with an enormous and beautiful hardback copy of Don Quixote.  I also saw, I think for the first time, a photo album from his time serving as a photographer in WW2.

My computer cycles through all of my pictures for backgrounds and this is the image that just came up.

He was at Nuremberg.  He traveled to Dachau.  The most graphic images (for me at least) are of the gas station where Mussolini was hanged (literally hanged – after he was killed).  I just googled that, and you can find more graphic images of it online than from my photo album.

Anyway, I scanned all of the pics (247) and put them into Mac-Made-Books for myself and many of my cousins, siblings, aunts, and my grandma.  It took me a lot longer than it should have.  I learned a lot about doing a project like this well.  And as my computer continues to remind me of my Grandpa’s trips around Europe, I am just as moved (in a different part of me) by the beauty he found as I am by the affliction. Hence – this picture.  If I can find some real motivation I will write an entry about the process.

Cool Side Note: Many of his aesthetic and country-side pictures were taken by his darkroom assistant.  His darkroom assistant was formerly General Rommel’s Personal Photographer.