It's a liberal myth, Mildred. You're making a fool of both of us.
(Ann Onimus)
09 April 2007
06 April 2007
Passover Experience
I have intellectually studied the Passover and the subject of Communion, . . . but that was different by far from actually experiencing Passover as a memorial and fellowship meal.
Tonight (Thursday) I participated in a Passover meal in which we remembered our misery, yet God’s saving actions. Mike White (I’m sure with the help of his wife and son) prepared the food, dinnerware, and script. Dwight, because he was the oldest male, served as “the father of the family”. There were about 30 of us there.
We listened to “the father” as he read from the script and at designated points we all read lines from the script. For example, we all blessed God together while we held up the bitter cup (actually it was sweet grape juice; we had to stretch our imagination here). One of the blessings was: “Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.” Then we all drank together.
After washing each other’s hands (it took several minutes to pass the only water bowl and towel around for that), “the father” held up a parsley sprig. Then he said, “The Passover holiday comes in the spring, when the earth turns green with new life. Only God can create life and keep it alive. This green parsley is the sign of life.”
Then he held up a small bowl of salt water and said, “But while the Israelites were still slaves in Egypt, their life was miserable. The salt water stands for their tears. We know our life can be miserable and full of tears when we live in Satan’s world. We dip our parsley in the salt water and eat it to remind us of our ancestor’s tears and of how miserable our own sin makes us. We also remember how God parted the salty [Reed] Sea to lead His people to new life.”
We ate bitter herbs and remembered captivity and slavery to sin while we tasted fresh salted parsley and took a bite of bitter/astringent fresh horseradish on a matzah cracker. We remembered how terrible it was while “the father” said, “ . . . let the bitter taste bring tears to your eyes. Remember with compassion the tears our ancestors cried in their slavery long ago, and remember the bitterness of our own slavery to sin when we do not allow Jesus to set us free.” Let me tell you, the horseradish brought tears to my eyes! . . . but Nicole had compassion on me. :-)
Then we dipped the matzah cracker with horseradish into some sweet dip that had raisins and nuts and honey and wine. That made the bitterness bearable. Right before we put it in our mouths we said, “We dip the bitter into the sweet to remember that even the most bitter things in life can be sweetened by our hope in God.” This was powerful for me. I recall when my grandmother had a massive stroke several months before she eventually died in 1996. It was kind of a terrible time for my family, a bitter time. But friends of my parents came into the hospital room with us around Zula, my grandmother, and prayed for her and for us. Their presence with us was a reminder of God’s presence and sincerely encouraged us. It is a sweet memory. This part of the meal will probably touch more things like this in my memory in the coming days.
Well, we heard and read more script and tasted other things that made us remember and bless God. Then we feasted! Mike and Dwight and a couple of others served up several other foods like matzah ball soup, lamb, chicken, asparagus with lime, carrots with raisins, this awesome fresh and dried fruit mix, and some other stuff. The food was so good! I joined in serving by passing food around and helping fill people’s glasses. Some of us moved around the table to visit with people on the far side.
Eventually, we moved back to our places, read more script, drank the fourth cup—hallel, the cup of praise, and blessed God some more. It was an unforgettable experience for me, having actually felt the tearful consequences related to bondage and sin, having actually tasted the sweetness that God provides in the midst of sorrow, and having joined in with my brothers and sisters to remember God’s actions and to bless his name.
Tonight (Thursday) I participated in a Passover meal in which we remembered our misery, yet God’s saving actions. Mike White (I’m sure with the help of his wife and son) prepared the food, dinnerware, and script. Dwight, because he was the oldest male, served as “the father of the family”. There were about 30 of us there.
We listened to “the father” as he read from the script and at designated points we all read lines from the script. For example, we all blessed God together while we held up the bitter cup (actually it was sweet grape juice; we had to stretch our imagination here). One of the blessings was: “Blessed are you, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, who creates the fruit of the vine.” Then we all drank together.
After washing each other’s hands (it took several minutes to pass the only water bowl and towel around for that), “the father” held up a parsley sprig. Then he said, “The Passover holiday comes in the spring, when the earth turns green with new life. Only God can create life and keep it alive. This green parsley is the sign of life.”
Then he held up a small bowl of salt water and said, “But while the Israelites were still slaves in Egypt, their life was miserable. The salt water stands for their tears. We know our life can be miserable and full of tears when we live in Satan’s world. We dip our parsley in the salt water and eat it to remind us of our ancestor’s tears and of how miserable our own sin makes us. We also remember how God parted the salty [Reed] Sea to lead His people to new life.”
We ate bitter herbs and remembered captivity and slavery to sin while we tasted fresh salted parsley and took a bite of bitter/astringent fresh horseradish on a matzah cracker. We remembered how terrible it was while “the father” said, “ . . . let the bitter taste bring tears to your eyes. Remember with compassion the tears our ancestors cried in their slavery long ago, and remember the bitterness of our own slavery to sin when we do not allow Jesus to set us free.” Let me tell you, the horseradish brought tears to my eyes! . . . but Nicole had compassion on me. :-)
Then we dipped the matzah cracker with horseradish into some sweet dip that had raisins and nuts and honey and wine. That made the bitterness bearable. Right before we put it in our mouths we said, “We dip the bitter into the sweet to remember that even the most bitter things in life can be sweetened by our hope in God.” This was powerful for me. I recall when my grandmother had a massive stroke several months before she eventually died in 1996. It was kind of a terrible time for my family, a bitter time. But friends of my parents came into the hospital room with us around Zula, my grandmother, and prayed for her and for us. Their presence with us was a reminder of God’s presence and sincerely encouraged us. It is a sweet memory. This part of the meal will probably touch more things like this in my memory in the coming days.
Well, we heard and read more script and tasted other things that made us remember and bless God. Then we feasted! Mike and Dwight and a couple of others served up several other foods like matzah ball soup, lamb, chicken, asparagus with lime, carrots with raisins, this awesome fresh and dried fruit mix, and some other stuff. The food was so good! I joined in serving by passing food around and helping fill people’s glasses. Some of us moved around the table to visit with people on the far side.
Eventually, we moved back to our places, read more script, drank the fourth cup—hallel, the cup of praise, and blessed God some more. It was an unforgettable experience for me, having actually felt the tearful consequences related to bondage and sin, having actually tasted the sweetness that God provides in the midst of sorrow, and having joined in with my brothers and sisters to remember God’s actions and to bless his name.
25 March 2007
Climate Porn
I'm proud to say that I'm leary of outrageous and supposedly scientific hype about global warming. Maybe I'm wrong; maybe global warming is occuring as a direct consequence of producing carbon dioxide. However, I doubt hype and shock.
Listen to this: Bjorn Lomborg via Jared's blog
I don't watch tv anymore (Heroes doesn't come back on until April 23), but I do occasionally (almost daily) read Wikipedia. Here are just a small portion of quotes from there:
Sallie Baliunas, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics: "[T]he recent warming trend in the surface temperature record cannot be caused by the increase of human-made greenhouse gases in the air." [15] In 2003 Baliunas and Soon wrote that "there is no reliable evidence for increased severity or frequency of storms, droughts, or floods that can be related to the air’s increased greenhouse gas content." [16]
Robert M. Carter, researcher at the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University in Australia: "The essence of the issue is this. Climate changes naturally all the time, partly in predictable cycles, and partly in unpredictable shorter rhythms and rapid episodic shifts, some of the causes of which remain unknown." (Telegraph, April 9, 2006 [17])
George V. Chilingar, professor of civil and petroleum engineering at the University of Southern California, and Leonid F. Khilyuk: "The authors identify and describe the following global forces of nature driving the Earth’s climate: (1) solar radiation ..., (2) outgassing as a major supplier of gases to the World Ocean and the atmosphere, and, possibly, (3) microbial activities ... . The writers provide quantitative estimates of the scope and extent of their corresponding effects on the Earth’s climate [and] show that the human-induced climatic changes are negligible." (Environmental Geology, vol. 50 no. 6, August 2006 [18])
William M. Gray, professor of atmospheric science and meteorologist, Colorado State University: "This small warming is likely a result of the natural alterations in global ocean currents which are driven by ocean salinity variations. Ocean circulation variations are as yet little understood. Human kind has little or nothing to do with the recent temperature changes. We are not that influential." (BBC News, 16 Nov 2000 [24]) "I am of the opinion that [global warming] is one of the greatest hoaxes ever perpetrated on the American people." (Washington Post, May 28, 2006 [25]) "So many people have a vested interest in this global-warming thing—all these big labs and research and stuff. The idea is to frighten the public, to get money to study it more." (Discover, vol. 26 no. 9, September 2005 [26])
Zbigniew Jaworowski, chair of the Scientific Council at the Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection in Warsaw: "The atmospheric temperature variations do not follow the changes in the concentrations of CO2 ... climate change fluctuations comes ... from cosmic radiation." (21st Century Science & Technology, Winter 2003-2004, p. 52-65 [27])
Listen to this: Bjorn Lomborg via Jared's blog
I don't watch tv anymore (Heroes doesn't come back on until April 23), but I do occasionally (almost daily) read Wikipedia. Here are just a small portion of quotes from there:
Sallie Baliunas, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics: "[T]he recent warming trend in the surface temperature record cannot be caused by the increase of human-made greenhouse gases in the air." [15] In 2003 Baliunas and Soon wrote that "there is no reliable evidence for increased severity or frequency of storms, droughts, or floods that can be related to the air’s increased greenhouse gas content." [16]
Robert M. Carter, researcher at the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University in Australia: "The essence of the issue is this. Climate changes naturally all the time, partly in predictable cycles, and partly in unpredictable shorter rhythms and rapid episodic shifts, some of the causes of which remain unknown." (Telegraph, April 9, 2006 [17])
George V. Chilingar, professor of civil and petroleum engineering at the University of Southern California, and Leonid F. Khilyuk: "The authors identify and describe the following global forces of nature driving the Earth’s climate: (1) solar radiation ..., (2) outgassing as a major supplier of gases to the World Ocean and the atmosphere, and, possibly, (3) microbial activities ... . The writers provide quantitative estimates of the scope and extent of their corresponding effects on the Earth’s climate [and] show that the human-induced climatic changes are negligible." (Environmental Geology, vol. 50 no. 6, August 2006 [18])
William M. Gray, professor of atmospheric science and meteorologist, Colorado State University: "This small warming is likely a result of the natural alterations in global ocean currents which are driven by ocean salinity variations. Ocean circulation variations are as yet little understood. Human kind has little or nothing to do with the recent temperature changes. We are not that influential." (BBC News, 16 Nov 2000 [24]) "I am of the opinion that [global warming] is one of the greatest hoaxes ever perpetrated on the American people." (Washington Post, May 28, 2006 [25]) "So many people have a vested interest in this global-warming thing—all these big labs and research and stuff. The idea is to frighten the public, to get money to study it more." (Discover, vol. 26 no. 9, September 2005 [26])
Zbigniew Jaworowski, chair of the Scientific Council at the Central Laboratory for Radiological Protection in Warsaw: "The atmospheric temperature variations do not follow the changes in the concentrations of CO2 ... climate change fluctuations comes ... from cosmic radiation." (21st Century Science & Technology, Winter 2003-2004, p. 52-65 [27])
21 March 2007
Mystery and Wonder
I started adding this tagline to my emails: " . . . they cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end." Ecclesiastes 3:11
Click on the title to read an interesting blog post the inscrutability of God and the inadequacy of science (and religion) to explain everything.
Fred Craddock once said something along these lines: I try not to preach with a tone the sounds like I've gone into heaven and taken polaroids of God.
I'm interested in how my family and friends approach God with his inscrutability in mind. Specifically, how do you consider scientific theories of both evolution and creation as explanations for how the cosmos exists?
Click on the title to read an interesting blog post the inscrutability of God and the inadequacy of science (and religion) to explain everything.
Fred Craddock once said something along these lines: I try not to preach with a tone the sounds like I've gone into heaven and taken polaroids of God.
I'm interested in how my family and friends approach God with his inscrutability in mind. Specifically, how do you consider scientific theories of both evolution and creation as explanations for how the cosmos exists?
19 March 2007
Guests
We've been hosting wonderful family and friends lately. Unfortunately, we only took a few pictures. However, someday (soon we hope) Hayli will email us photos she took w/ her camera while she and Kim were here.
My family drove up from Abilene, TX, weekend before last. They joined our team meeting and shared some good insights with us which reminded me that we need to be accountable to God and to one another. My brother and Nicole and I practiced running for the race coming up next month (not pictured).
Damien and Miranda drove from Abilene, TX, via the Gatewoods in Tulsa, OK. Nicole and Miranda cooked ANZACs. The ANZAC (Australia-New Zealand Army Corps.) biscuits, or "cookies" in Americanese, were delicious. As I type this I'm reminded that I spilled some of my ginger beer on my keyboard while the Damien and Miranda were with us.
Thursday night, before Damien and Miranda spent their last night with us, Josh came down so we could share our friends, Miranda and Damien, with him, too. (Kendra came down, too, as well as Emily and Corey.) Damien was my roomate for 9 months back in 1999 while I lived in Australia. Now he and Miranda are "older" students at ACU. We really enjoyed spending time talking with this young, vibrant couple.
After Hayli whipped all of us at her favorite card game--Nerts--we played a few hands of Texas Hold 'Em. Kim won. Just for the record, though, I beat Nicole in both games, albeit by one point. This was Kim's first time away from Australia. Hayli grew up there but lives in Oklahoma now. Hayli has been to inner city Memphis a few times before and loves to return, so she joined Nicole and I in sharing this blessed city's people and stories with Kim. Kim and Hayli began driving back to Oklahoma this morning.
My family drove up from Abilene, TX, weekend before last. They joined our team meeting and shared some good insights with us which reminded me that we need to be accountable to God and to one another. My brother and Nicole and I practiced running for the race coming up next month (not pictured).
Damien and Miranda drove from Abilene, TX, via the Gatewoods in Tulsa, OK. Nicole and Miranda cooked ANZACs. The ANZAC (Australia-New Zealand Army Corps.) biscuits, or "cookies" in Americanese, were delicious. As I type this I'm reminded that I spilled some of my ginger beer on my keyboard while the Damien and Miranda were with us.
Thursday night, before Damien and Miranda spent their last night with us, Josh came down so we could share our friends, Miranda and Damien, with him, too. (Kendra came down, too, as well as Emily and Corey.) Damien was my roomate for 9 months back in 1999 while I lived in Australia. Now he and Miranda are "older" students at ACU. We really enjoyed spending time talking with this young, vibrant couple.
After Hayli whipped all of us at her favorite card game--Nerts--we played a few hands of Texas Hold 'Em. Kim won. Just for the record, though, I beat Nicole in both games, albeit by one point. This was Kim's first time away from Australia. Hayli grew up there but lives in Oklahoma now. Hayli has been to inner city Memphis a few times before and loves to return, so she joined Nicole and I in sharing this blessed city's people and stories with Kim. Kim and Hayli began driving back to Oklahoma this morning.
08 March 2007
Not Insulin, but Exercise
If you or someone you love has Type 2 Diabetes, do not expect insulin to help them. In fact, expect it to ruin them. Song kept telling me that insulin was making things worse. I realize he was right. Yet his doctor(s) kept adjusting his insulin dosage even though he was Type 2. I wish things could have been different for him. I believe that they could've. Click on the title and watch the video.
On the other hand, if you have Type 1 Diabetes, realize that it is a completely different "animal". Don't stop taking insulin. Make sure to be monitored by a trustworthy endocrinologist.
God has the power to heal us, yet we often have the custom of blocking God's healing power.
On the other hand, if you have Type 1 Diabetes, realize that it is a completely different "animal". Don't stop taking insulin. Make sure to be monitored by a trustworthy endocrinologist.
God has the power to heal us, yet we often have the custom of blocking God's healing power.
04 March 2007
25 February 2007
Ecclesiastes observations
We read most of chapter seven today at the Curtis' house. Probably the most impacting to me came when I realized that our congregation is mostly full of people who are "too righteous" (7:16). We are missing the folks who are "too wicked" (7:17) although some of us certainly are. Basically, the main perception change for me was that "It's okay to make mistakes because #1. if we fear God we'll have success whether we're too righteous or too wicked (7:18) and, #2. no one is righteous anyway (7:20). I also thought of 9:7, that God has already approved of what we do. If he were already going to strike me down for not being rigteous enough, he would have done so a long time ago.
Others in our group said this:
Humility now or later.
There's really only one way: God's way.
Even though I/we make a mess of most everything, God can make something good out of it.
Moderation is important.
No matter how hard we try, we're still going to sin.
We're influenced by the company we keep.
Realigning with God should be the goal instead of just trying to be "righteous" or "wicked". If we're trying to be "conservative" or "liberal" we'll just end up going in circles, but if we realign with God he will make our paths straight.
- - -
I have to admit, Ecclesiastes is one of my favorite books of all time.
21 February 2007
Shark! Danger
One of the main reasons I don't want to move to Australia. I got this picture from the Skyline Church of Christ's website. The congregation has begun to form friendly relationships with Christians in the Gosford and Sydney area.
Jaznic Pics
Which one do you like best? It's for our Aussie Mission packet. Thanks in advance for friendly input. :-)
16 February 2007
Blue-Collar Christianity
Dissatisfied with white-collar Churchianity? Try the blue-collar Christ: "Blue Collar Christianity", a recent article written by a University student.
14 February 2007
Aussie Church
"European expressions of worship have dictated the structure of the Australian church service throughout its history. Much like the European landscape, these forms have a sense of composed restraint and elegance, an ordered formality through practice and experience, as well as a balanced beauty in architecture--forms that are completely alien to the Australian bush."
I thought this was an interesting quote from Robert L. Gallagher. I'm not completely sure what "forms" this implies, but I do think it's going to be a relational and somewhat informal structure with the flexibility to adjust rather than a static and impersonal one. What do you think?
I thought this was an interesting quote from Robert L. Gallagher. I'm not completely sure what "forms" this implies, but I do think it's going to be a relational and somewhat informal structure with the flexibility to adjust rather than a static and impersonal one. What do you think?
13 February 2007
05 February 2007
Two True Coaches
Click on the title link to read an article about these two coaches, Dungy and Smith. It makes me want to play football . . . but only for them! :-)
01 February 2007
15
Below are fifteen favourite quotes from books I've been reading this month. I plan on leaving this post here for a while so please post your own comments. Thanks.
"Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers . . . Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come." Hebrews 13:1-14
"Post-Christendom churches, freed from pretensions to kingship, recognize that the kingdom of God is an "upside-down kingdom," . . . They choose to be identified with the poor, the weak, the marginalized, those without voices or status. They adopt as their agenda for mission the Nazareth Manifesto: . . . to bring good news to the poor . . . [the rest of Luke 4:18-19]." Stuart Murray
"A paradigm shift will have taken place in our understanding and practice of evangelism . . . it is relational, contextual, humble, patient, and wholistic." Stuart Murray
"[it] goes where people are and listens, binds together prayer and truth, celebrates the goodness and complexity of life as well as judging the sinfulness of evil, and sees truth as something to be done and experienced as well as to be intellectually believed. It walks in humility." John Finney
"The baptized are those who willingly enter the suffering of all creation with the redemptive love of God." Mark Love
"In the New Testament, we encounter the church as the people on whom the end of the ages has come." Mark Love
"The thorniest issue for the church that resists the spirit of the age is wealth." Randall Harris
"As word spread about the dramatic changes that were taking place in people's lives, apartment managers began requesting that churches be started in their complexes as well." Randall Harris
"Luke stresses that the resurrected Jesus was no mere spirit but was tangible and could eat and drink with the disciples (cf. Luke 24:30, 37-39, 41-43)." Ben Witherington III
"The more I worried through this set of issues, the more I felt that any constructive Christian social ethic would have to find a way to recover a church with an integrity of its own rather than simply an institution designed to make "democracies" work better." Stanley Hauerwas
"For what we are, our sense of ourselves, rests as much on what we have suffered as what we have done." Stanley Hauerwas
"To learn to be God's creatures means we must learn to recognize that our existence and the existence of the universe itself is a gift." Stanley Hauerwas
"In New York freedom looks like too many choices . . ." U2
"Would you deny for others what you demand for yourself?" U2
"The more you know the less you feel . . ." U2
"Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers . . . Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come." Hebrews 13:1-14
"Post-Christendom churches, freed from pretensions to kingship, recognize that the kingdom of God is an "upside-down kingdom," . . . They choose to be identified with the poor, the weak, the marginalized, those without voices or status. They adopt as their agenda for mission the Nazareth Manifesto: . . . to bring good news to the poor . . . [the rest of Luke 4:18-19]." Stuart Murray
"A paradigm shift will have taken place in our understanding and practice of evangelism . . . it is relational, contextual, humble, patient, and wholistic." Stuart Murray
"[it] goes where people are and listens, binds together prayer and truth, celebrates the goodness and complexity of life as well as judging the sinfulness of evil, and sees truth as something to be done and experienced as well as to be intellectually believed. It walks in humility." John Finney
"The baptized are those who willingly enter the suffering of all creation with the redemptive love of God." Mark Love
"In the New Testament, we encounter the church as the people on whom the end of the ages has come." Mark Love
"The thorniest issue for the church that resists the spirit of the age is wealth." Randall Harris
"As word spread about the dramatic changes that were taking place in people's lives, apartment managers began requesting that churches be started in their complexes as well." Randall Harris
"Luke stresses that the resurrected Jesus was no mere spirit but was tangible and could eat and drink with the disciples (cf. Luke 24:30, 37-39, 41-43)." Ben Witherington III
"The more I worried through this set of issues, the more I felt that any constructive Christian social ethic would have to find a way to recover a church with an integrity of its own rather than simply an institution designed to make "democracies" work better." Stanley Hauerwas
"For what we are, our sense of ourselves, rests as much on what we have suffered as what we have done." Stanley Hauerwas
"To learn to be God's creatures means we must learn to recognize that our existence and the existence of the universe itself is a gift." Stanley Hauerwas
"In New York freedom looks like too many choices . . ." U2
"Would you deny for others what you demand for yourself?" U2
"The more you know the less you feel . . ." U2
23 January 2007
Citizen-Slaves
In ancient Greece (Sparta to be exact), what class of people were neither citizens nor slaves?
Give up? The answer is below.
Anyway, I came across this word while reading Niebuhr, _Moral Man and Immoral Society_. (Why anyone would want to read this is almost beyond me.) Of course, I had to look up this word (among many others) using Google, and as soon as I saw the definition, I immediately thought back to a discussion at our poor friends' dinner table.
The husband, Jon, has been working three jobs lately. Two of them are blue collar jobs. One of them is a job as tutor. His wife, Sara, also works as a tutor, mostly in Spanish. Most of the kids are home schooled and many of them are incredibly wealthy. It struck me while we were eating together that they were essentially like slaves. They are barely able to keep making their humble house payment and keep diapers on their two little ones. Their struggles, for the most part, are unrelated to irresponsibility on their part. Tutors, like teachers, just don't get paid much. They're almost like slaves (although apparently it's not so tough that it drives them to write wonderful spirituals). And yet, who contributes more to the good of our communities than teachers and tudors? We entrust our children to them whether our children have an allowance of $3,000 per week or $1.00 per month, yet their pay is closer to the latter.
Well, here is the answer . . . the class in ancient Sparta that were neither citizens nor slaves were/are called *helots*. Certainly not an exact correlate to "tutor", but the definition of helots reminded me of teachers just the same. By the way, Jon and Sara laughed when I said they were almost like slaves!
Give up? The answer is below.
Anyway, I came across this word while reading Niebuhr, _Moral Man and Immoral Society_. (Why anyone would want to read this is almost beyond me.) Of course, I had to look up this word (among many others) using Google, and as soon as I saw the definition, I immediately thought back to a discussion at our poor friends' dinner table.
The husband, Jon, has been working three jobs lately. Two of them are blue collar jobs. One of them is a job as tutor. His wife, Sara, also works as a tutor, mostly in Spanish. Most of the kids are home schooled and many of them are incredibly wealthy. It struck me while we were eating together that they were essentially like slaves. They are barely able to keep making their humble house payment and keep diapers on their two little ones. Their struggles, for the most part, are unrelated to irresponsibility on their part. Tutors, like teachers, just don't get paid much. They're almost like slaves (although apparently it's not so tough that it drives them to write wonderful spirituals). And yet, who contributes more to the good of our communities than teachers and tudors? We entrust our children to them whether our children have an allowance of $3,000 per week or $1.00 per month, yet their pay is closer to the latter.
Well, here is the answer . . . the class in ancient Sparta that were neither citizens nor slaves were/are called *helots*. Certainly not an exact correlate to "tutor", but the definition of helots reminded me of teachers just the same. By the way, Jon and Sara laughed when I said they were almost like slaves!
17 January 2007
Adventures in Babysitting
Well, I fell off the folate wagon today (still having spinach and kale in the fridge--thanks, Noel) . . . but I did perform an amazing feat (for me). I was changing Joshua's diaper this morning and (no offense, Joshua, but it was pretty nasty) I touched some poop with my right hand by accident while trying to keep his left sock and hand out of it. Joshua was squirming and I had to get the sixteen buttons of his overalls buttoned back together while he was trying to crawl all over the place. I eventually laid on my back with the one-year-old on his stomach on my chest and proceeded to button while he kept trying to crawl over my face. I said, "It's like I'm on Fear Factor," and Joshua laughed. It was pretty funny . . . and dirty.
Here are some "older" pictures of Joshua when I was feeding him an Iguana we caught out back.
16 January 2007
I'm Popeye
Need more folate? It is amazing how much better I feel whenever I eat folate-rich foods on a regular basis, especially daily. Thankfully, organic spinach was on sale the other day so I bought three big bunches of it. It's great! I've had it in enchiladas. I've steamed it with carrots. There are other great sources for folate, though. I read here that liver, asparagus, spinach, okra, and beans are also high in folate. Does anyone know if kale is high in folate? It's good steamed with carrots, too, but it smells like a fart while cooking.
15 January 2007
MLK Jr Day
I'm posting an excerpt from a speech by MLK Jr and hoping you folks will comment on it knowing that I value hearing dissenting voices from my own . . . and even my heroes'. In the sermon up to this point, King has given strong reasons for protesting violence. Then he points beyond the Vietnam more and even beyond "the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism" to what he hopes has the last word: God's love. I, too, hope that God's character rules in the End.
Now there is something seductively tempting about stopping there and sending us all off on what in some circles has become a popular crusade against the war in Vietnam. I say we must enter that struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing.
The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality...and if we ignore this sobering reality, we will find ourselves organizing "clergy and laymen concerned" committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end, unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy.
And so, such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God.
In 1957, a sensitive American official overseas said that it seemed to him that our nation was on the wrong side of a world revolution. During the past ten years, we have seen emerge a pattern of suppression which has now justified the presence of U.S. military advisors in Venezuela. This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counterrevolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. It tells why American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Cambodia and why American napalm and Green Beret forces have already been active against rebels in Peru.
It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin...we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.
A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.
A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
-----
To read more or listen to King's sermon, "click here".
Now there is something seductively tempting about stopping there and sending us all off on what in some circles has become a popular crusade against the war in Vietnam. I say we must enter that struggle, but I wish to go on now to say something even more disturbing.
The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality...and if we ignore this sobering reality, we will find ourselves organizing "clergy and laymen concerned" committees for the next generation. They will be concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa. We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies without end, unless there is a significant and profound change in American life and policy.
And so, such thoughts take us beyond Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God.
In 1957, a sensitive American official overseas said that it seemed to him that our nation was on the wrong side of a world revolution. During the past ten years, we have seen emerge a pattern of suppression which has now justified the presence of U.S. military advisors in Venezuela. This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the counterrevolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. It tells why American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Cambodia and why American napalm and Green Beret forces have already been active against rebels in Peru.
It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin...we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.
A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just.
A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.
-----
To read more or listen to King's sermon, "click here".
13 January 2007
A Brother and a Sister from the Caribbean
Okay, this is a picture from during finals week last semester that I only just now got around to posting. Alson (the tall guy) asked us several months ago if his friend, Jehann (also pictured), could stay with us for several days. We said, "Sure." It turned out to be a wonderful blessing. Alson's story is pretty amazing. Everyone should hear it, but I'll make it brief here. He is from St. Vincent in the Caribbean. Before he became a Christ-follower, he worked in the drug market (St. Vincent has better quality ganga than Jamaica even . . . just in case you were wondering). He used to be afraid of being caught by the authorities, but now he only has a healthy fear for the Lord. Alson's convictions about following Christ are clear to the people around him. His attitude and his presence here at Harding Graduate School of Religion (HUGSR) are testimonies to God's providence. God is certainly active in Alson through trials. He is getting a degree in counseling and interning/apprenticing for the Norris Road Church of Christ. One more note . . . he's very good at soccer and has a Christ-like attitude when he plays it. We had a great time, too, while his friend, Jehann, was in town. She is also from St. Vincent, but she lives and works out of St. Kitts, another Caribbean island. She's hoping to get into a PhD program (in the U.S.) related to human community economic development or something like that. She's wicked smart dude! And fun to be around. Woman barely sleeps! She works hard and is so kind! My sister loves her, too! Thanks for coming, Jehann! Man, we really had some sweet fellowship even in such a short time of being together.
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