2 out of 3 of my kids, & 1 out of 1 of my wife enjoy coffee. As much as me? Nope. But they start the day with the Casi Cielo… It brings me joy. And it means that we’re starting the day with a couple of pots. And that I get to work through learning to share, all over again.

Seeing the sun emerging with no clouds looming over the mountains… now THAT is beautiful, even if its just the brown Nevada mountains. Makes one want to go for a run…

Baseball can’t come to Reno soon enough – I’ve been watching the construction of the Ace’s new stadium down on Lake & 2nd. When I take a lunch, I like to drive down & watch the workers going in & out of the ever-developing construction site/turned real-life baseball stadium… & think what it will be like to be going down there this spring & summer… with family & friends. It’s not that theBean is the world’s biggest baseball fan, but our trip to Virginia last August sparked an interest, as we got to check out the Salem Avalanche turned Salem Red Sox… being at the event, surrounded by people & interesting food really made for some fun.

I know Reno has had semi-pro baseball for the last few years, but trust me. This is different.

Perhaps I need to get my eyes checked – yesterday, after my meeting with Brintus Maximus, I was experiencing some, shall I say, distress of the lower tract. So, upon getting home, I went to the medicine cabinet & pulled out the generic Imodium – we don’t usually keep our meds in their original boxes because it takes too much room, so imagine if you will a stack of blister paks of meds.

About 60 minutes later, I was sitting at the office & couldn’t keep my eyes open… this was beyond fatigue. Beyond the morning blahs. This was passing out on my desk. I couldn’t understand why I was feeling this way… so I reached into my pocket to check & double-check the blister pak that the anti-diarrheal meds had been in. The generic drug name was all that was on the pack, so I had to do a GOOGLE search on it. Turns out Loperamide & Zolpidem look very, very similar while in the pak. And Zolpidem is a sleeping pill, which you’re supposed to take 1/4 of. And I took a whole one, which meant that about 8 hours of sleep was ‘encouraged,’ (mandated?) after taking it.

I napped for about 45 minutes, & tried to ‘white-knuckle’ it through the day. Called theBean. Separated, even banished, the sleeping pills to the nether regions of the meds cabinet. I’m fortunate, I know, to not have had more negative consequences & side-effects.

I’m wrestling through what ‘healing & restoration’ look like, worked through & lived out in the context of relationship. There seems to be some real issues with this within theChurch at large. For example, I listen to a podcast from a guy who leads a church (when I say big, I mean Texas Big, which is about 40-50% bigger than Nevada big. If you have questions on what Texas Big means, I would encourage you to talk to a Texan, or former Texan, for some clarification. :)

Anyway, in his podcast, this guy, pastor, christian leader, recommends that when people leave the church, (esp. when its been in conflict or difficulty, esp. when they’ve been in leadership,) that they not be re-integrated into the church &/or leadership when they come back – because they’ve ‘proven’ themselves to be untrustworthy already… And this isn’t an isolated incident, value or practice. And it leaves me asking…What?

How’s about Luke 15 & the return of the lost son? How about Peter being restored by Jesus a few short weeks after denying Him 3 separate times? It seems that theChurch may be at odds with the Head of the Church. And it seems that Jesus doesn’t seem to have a problem with seeing people repent, be forgiven, healed, & restored.

I know that it may not be instant, & that there’s process involved. And mercy. And good boundaries, with a willingness to work through issues that led to the break in relationship. But man. As I see it, writing people off permanently isn’t something that a Christ-follower has the ‘luxury’ of doing. And to do so, to be okay with it, seems to be adopting the ways of Egypt instead of living as people of promise (NOTE: I’m using EGYPT as a metaphor for Israel’s adopting the customs & culture of the land where they’d been enslaved for 430 years, not to speak negatively about the current country…)

So that’s what’s running through my head.

Julia & I have a bet – before she leaves, she drinks coffee & I eat some fish. I think that she is getting off easy in this one, as coffee is imminently better than fish, any fish. But I know that I won’t die, as I’ve taken the poison before, & survived.

Pretty stoked. For my personal Bible study/reading, I like to vary the translation that I read. Over time, I’ve gone through the KJV, NKJV, NIV, NRSV, NLT, The Message, & the CEV to name a few (all of which you can check out at: HERE… my friend Tim sent out a note asking a question about the ESV the other day, which prompted me, unrelatedly, to pick up a ‘Gift & Award Edition” of the ESV for my next go-round. Yesterday, it arrived in the mail. I’m as giddy as a school girl.

Time to go “Forrest Gump.”

Ciao!