mere christianity, grad school, & other thoughts…

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Ever since I learned to read, C.S. Lewis has been one of my favorite authors… I have read & re-read everything of his that I could get my hands on. Narnia. The Space Trilogy. The Screwtape Letters. You get the idea. There weren’t many months in the last 35 years of my life where I haven’t been in the middle of a Lewis book…

With that said, I had never read through what many consider to be Lewis’ best work: Mere Christianity – a book that was compiled from a series of lectures Lewis gave on BBC Radio between 1941-1944, during the heart of World War II, a fact that cannot and should not be forgotten as the book is read.

Since I’ve only got about 4 or 5 books on my ‘reading list,’ I decided that now would be the time that I’d finally tackle it… don’t know what kept me from it all these years unless it had to do with my love & preference for the known works, & possibly because so many had suggested that I read it. (No, I’m not passive/aggressive. i just want reading it to be my idea…)

I’m 3/4 of the way through the book, & I’m enjoying it immensely… the provocation of thought, as well as the picture that is given, albeit indirectly, of a period in in Britain’s history as it was teetering on the brink of becoming post-Christian… with one man’s ‘talking’ through belief, & his own reasons to believe. If you like to think, as well as to consider & work through your own philosophical presuppositions, I’d highly recommend it to you.

With Mere Christianity as the backdrop – I’ve been researching & looking for a grad school to ‘attend’ – whether taking classes online &/or finding a program where the amount of onsite attendance is minimal… because I would like to pursue a graduate degree in an area that would supplement & augment my day job & the life I lead now, I’ve been looking at a lot of accredited christian colleges & university programs… And I’ve found a few that have piqued my interest, most notably the program at Gonzaga, which fits the bill for what I’ve been looking for, albeit for the cost of purchasing a highly sought after free agent in one of the major sports…

Something that has been a leeettle bit of a surprise to me is that many (most?) of the institutions I’ve pulled an application for have a policy written into their application addressing ‘conduct’ – a policy that any & all students, whether taking classes in person or online, need to agree to. That policy is one of no drinking alcohol (not moderation, but None. Zero. Zip.,) no smoking of tobacco products of any kind, no drugs, & for many, no social dancing.

I’ve written blogs in the past about my thoughts on alcohol, which you can read HERE. And, like my heroes JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, Sherlock Holmes, I enjoy reading & writing while smoking my pipe… which seem to DQ me from pursuing higher education from a christian institution unless I’d be willing to falsely sign a peace of paper stating one thing, while living completely differently… which I’m not willing to do.

Nor am I willing to sign a paper agreeing not to drink any alcohol or smoke a pipe as though by doing so I’m ascribing to a standard of holiness that seems to be aimed at bolstering the smug-ness meter of a legalistic religion being passed off as christianity. Sigh.

Now, back to Mere Christianity I came across a section where Lewis addresses “Morality” & “Virtue.” One of the virtues he discusses is “Temperance” – a word whose definition had been co-opted over time to mean Teetotaling, or complete abstinence from alcohol. Lewis’ writes:

It is a mistake to think that Christians ought all to be teetotallers; Mohammedanism (Islam), not Christianity, is the teetotal religion.

Of course it may be the duty of a particular Christian, or of any Christian at a particular time to abstain from strong drink, either because he is the sort of man who cannot drink at all without drinking too much or because he is with people who are inclined to drunkenness, & must not encourage them by drinking himself.

But the whole point is that he is abstaining for a good reason, from something that he does not condemn, & which he likes to see other people enjoying. One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting everyone else to give it up. That is not the Christian way.

An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons – marriage, meat, beer, or the cinema – but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning.

One great piece of mischief has been done by the modern restriction of the word “Temperance” to the question of drink. It helps people to forget that you can be just as intemperate about lots of other things. A man who makes his golf or his motorbicycle the centre of his life, or the woman who devotes all of her thoughts to clothes or bridge or her dog is just as intemperate as someone who gets drunk every evening.

Of course it doesn’t show on the outside as easily; bridge-mania, golf-mania do not make you fall down in the middle of the road, but God is not deceived by externals.

Hmmm.

flesh

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This is a continuation of some thoughts I started processing through HERE.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires (cravings, lusts, & longings) of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. 1John 2:15-17 ESV

I ponder… “the cravings, lusts, & longings “of the flesh… with the word flesh meaning me, my physical body, & my human nature – my natural propensities, bents, drives, & inclinations. It’s not a call to live in denial of my humanity – can’t change that, don’t want to. It’s also not an indictment as ‘inherently unholy’ the God-instilled drives of hunger, thirst, & sexuality…

That’s important to note because there are places, pockets of belief really, where people get lost; places that equate holiness with abstaining from anything enjoyable or nice – that the more they would deny their ‘fleshly’ (see: human) desires, the more spiritual that they would be. And the converse would be true also – those that DIDN’T deny those impulses were less spiritual & holy.

Galatians 5:16,17 tells us to walk in the Spirit, & we won’t fulfill the lusts of the flesh… & that the flesh & Spirit are at odds with each other… What I see is that I will get into trouble if I put my natural drives & desires in charge of me, in the drivers seat if you will – letting them & them alone guide my thoughts, choices, decisions, & what I give myself to.

The ‘walking in the Spirit” is where self-control comes in – not me trying to keep myself in check, but living life under the direction & guidance of the Holy Spirit. Acknowledging, even declaring that there’s more to life than self-indulgence, doing what I feel, following my cravings – that even though I’m 100% human, the most important thing to me is obedience to God, & living the Christ-following life…

Here’s a thought:

To go to an extreme either way is destructive & displays the rotting fruit of a flesh-driven life….

Hmmm.

It’s easier to see the results of self-indulgent excess – wanton debauchery, the life of the Prodigal in Vegas, letting one’s proverbial ‘freak-flag-fly’… I believe that there’s just as much deadly flesh evident in the extreme ascetic lifestyle, though in christianity the latter is often held up as something desirable & to be aspired to…

I’m still pondering…

Down in a hole…

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Down in hole, feelin’ so small… was how Brother & I spent our Tuesday. Not that we’d planned it that way. Sort of fell into it when I was greeted with the sound of many waters… that sound is a really good thing if you’re reading the book of Revelation, but it is decidedly NOT a good thing when one is standing inside a church building, hearing the echoing of running water through the pipes in the walls…

A call to thePlumber brought the desired result – a visit from an expert. Turns out our expert could only confirm that:

  • We have a leak.

  • It seems to be coming from outside where the main water valve meets the building.

  • In order to be 100% sure of this, & in order to repair the leak if it’s down under the ground, is to dig.

    • Digging is something that our expert could do, but it would cost. And since I have a thing about not selling my kids off, or auctioning arms & legs, I decided that I would dig. And so would Brother. And so we did. Even though Monday would have been a better day to dig, considering it was S/O weather, instead of the driving snow, biting wind, & occasional ball of hail falling from the grey skies…

    I know the hole doesn’t look so impressive, especially with the sprinkler box strewn so haphazardly over it to cover the work that we did until our friend Jim-The-Sprinkler-Man-Taylor comes out on Friday, but I have to say that I am proud of the work Brother & I did. It was so easy to dig in the lush Nevada soil. Made me so happy that unlike many other states, Nevada soil has no rocks in it. None. Just lush, rich soil that gives in to the shovel like ice-cream does to a hot ice-cream scoop.

    Actually, I must say, we worked for most of the day, & found that even with the water mains off, we still had a hole that filled with water in approx. 10 minutes. We bailed & bailed but couldn’t keep up with the leak. I got tired after removing about 75 gallons of water (in 5 gallon increments, don’t you know?) & still making no head way.

    That’s when my edu-ma-cation kicked in & I realized that there HAS to be a better Way of doing this… Images of water pumps rolled through my head & after a quick visit to our friends at Ahern Rentals we came away with a 2″ water pump & 50 feet of fire hose to Clear the hole of water in No Time. Turns out the pump worked well, but only kept us at EVEN with the leak… We were stymied, cold, & wet… so we cried out to the LORD. Truly. The ladies intercessory group in the parking lot (so fortuitously meeting on Tuesdays) prayed as well. And the LORD heard our prayers & sent us exactly what we needed: a foreman.

    When I say what we needed was a foreman, that’s just what I mean. Imagine if you will Brother & I, tired & work-worn, leaning on our shovels, resting, pondering what would come next. What I didn’t realize is that we hadn’t met the appropriate “shovels/workers ratio” to finish a given job.

    The arrival of our foreman, aka real NV Energy Superman John-the-Wiser took us up & over the ratio… Plus, he seemed to know a few things about Plumb-age… spotted a few things we’d missed, like an alternate water valve that miraculously turned off the water to the leaky valve, thereby allowing the pump to catch up & even surpass the water in the hole. Brother dug with renewed vigor, & found the source of our problem, that ancient evil known as “the leaky irrigation valve…”

    With the valve now exposed, we were confronted with something that neither Brother nor I had considered… it was suggested by John-The-Wiser that since the valve that was leaking was Good For Nothing, & fed nothing but a previously Vandalized & Broken line itself, that we should cut the valve off & cap it. Ourselves.

    After a few minutes of hemming & hawing, we agreed. In fear & trembling. Brother did the cutting, under the watchful, skillful eye of John-The-Wiser… we purchased a 1 1/4″ Brass Cap & applied it, with a little smidge of plumber’s tape. Tightened it up. Tested our work by actually turning the main water valve on. It held. (It must be noted that Someone said we should probably just fill the hole up with dirt 1st, & THEN test it, but Someone was overruled.)

    Victory.

    I want to give a big shout out of thanks to:

  • Jackie for calling John-The-Wiser to come help us in our time of trouble.

  • Jacqui, Pam, Helen, & Marta – the intercessory prayer group.

  • Brother – for being a good sport & going mudding…

  • John-The-Wiser – for his foreman-ing skills.

  • The LORD – for answering prayers, & for sending all of above people my way today…

    • Friday musings…

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    Sitting at the completely clear & clean kitchen counter, coffee nearby, preparing for blog-age is one of my favorite things. Esp. on Fridays, which is my day of rest…. I love it. Along with brown paper bags, wrapped up with string of course…

    I’m really, really looking forward to my first Aces game – hopefully 4/18… Preliminary weather report: High of 68F, low of 40. No rain, light wind.

    So say we all!

    Life is simpler without having to put up a pretense to try to impress others. It’s at least less work. I want to “be comfortable in my own skin,”… I think that’s how Bono put it…

    As background, I occasionally have blood sugar issues – when I don’t eat often enough, or don’t get enough protein, my blood sugar plummets, as does my outlook, mood, demeanor… you get the picture.

    On that note, kids are funny. And pretty quick learners too… we were having an interchange with theWeez about a particular series of choices she made that resulted in us needing to have a “Talk.” Obviously, didn’t fully appreciate how the “Talk” was going, & further, had issues with the method of Presentation that I had chosen. But rather than take it up a notch & try to argue, bluster, or complain, she just said:

    “When was the last time you ate? You should eat something, & then we can talk…”

    Nice.

    Easter is this Sunday… I’m looking forward to it – the story of redemption never gets old. And I never want to just go on ‘auto-pilot’ & mail it in either, just because its Easter. May I never lose the wonder…

    NOTE: No rocks were thrown during the writing of the following paragraphs…

    Easter, along with Christmas Eve, seem to be times where churches are more prone to troll for newbies using the “Be Our Guest” scene from the Beauty & the Beast Disney film… where we put our best on, place our best foot forward, with the best music, best speech, & best egg hunt for the kiddies. All in the space of 70 minutes… & just in time for the next best service.

    It seems to be more designed for a christian culture than for one of pre-christians… to attract christians from other churches to come & see. I ponder consumer-church… Hmmm…

    END NOTE

    I was asked out on a date, for tonight, by theBean. Don’t know where we’re going – it’s a surprise. I’m going to do my best to make myself extra pretty… :)

    eyes…

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    For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been pondering a section of 1John that has come back to me a few times since reading it… & the next few posts are my processings through it, in no real order… First, the section:

    Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. 1John 2:15-17 ESV

    In reading that, what grabbed me 1st was the phrase, ‘all that is in the world…’ As though the following statements are revelatory about specific ways that we are seduced into sin… I looked up the word translated as “desires,” & found that it is also translated as

    ‘craving, lust, &/or longing for that which is forbidden…Strongs Concordance – G1939″

    Desires of the eyes… what I want. Need. And seeing that I want, no, need what I don’t have. I sense an erosion of contentedness, knowing that my next bout of ‘happiness’ hinges on the accumulation of some thing, some material possession that will Finally put me over the edge into bliss. Until the next craving hits. This desire is never satisfied. It has a roving eye, portraying, promising an emptiness of life unless an attempt is made at fulfilling the craving. Which always returns. With a vengeance.

    Makes me contemplate what I’m looking at. What catches my eyes? Maybe its the studies I’ve been doing on idols & Idolatry, but I think this is a fleshing out of a visible, tangible idol; an idol whose face changes, that takes on different shapes. An idol that is hinting at, & occasionally flaunting ‘completeness of me,’ as seen through the jaded, jealous, & judgmental eyes of a nameless, faceless, yet oh so important Other person that will either accept or reject me based upon what I have. Or don’t.

    I can feel it in the pit of my stomach.

    So the extremist emerges – rather than accumulate, I will divest myself of this materialism, go ‘minimalist’ & detach myself from all of my possessions, & even from the desire to possess, choosing instead to subsist on the bare minimum… & maybe just a bit less. Yep. That’ll do just fine.

    But there’s a nagging sense that all I’ve done is exchange one side of the coin for the other. And that the comparisons, the cravings, the lurking enticement remains, though with a different face.

    I come back to think on what it means to be “content.” To be able to be at peace, at rest, with a little. Or with a lot. To not need an external ‘security blanket’ that can rot, burn, be stolen, be misplaced… (no matter how nice a Goodall Walnut Standard would make me FEEEEEEL…)

    To put my eyes where they belong. On Jesus Christ, the author & finisher of my faith… who was tempted in every way that I am, but Who didn’t give in to sin. Who saw through the empty promises of the lusts & desires, & chose instead obedience…

    musings from a Monday night at Pinocchio’s…

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    Joey has practice tonight at Golden Eagle, & theBean is home painting (which, by the way, is a dangerous activity to be around, don’t you know?) So I sought out a quiet place to catch the NCAA Basketball championship & to pass the time until I can pick up Joey… ’bout a 2-hour block of time. My choice? Pinocchio’s, the restaurant where theBean works, a short .9 mile jaunt from home, & a relatively safe spot to sit, veg-out, watch the game, eat what may be the best chicken wings in the greater Reno/Sparks area, & to blog.

    I’m watching Michigan St. get worked by North Carolina… too many mistakes, & what seems to be an attempt to catch up all at once by shooting 3-pointers every time down the court. Bummer. The Spartans are moving away from the game plan that has worked throughout the tourney… & it’s not pretty.

    On one of the other TV’s, I can see CNN & the Larry King show – it catches my eye, because Larry is interviewing Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church in the SoCal, author of all things PurposeDriven… it’s significant to me for a couple of reasons: Warren has become one of the de facto spokesperson for American Christianity (along with Joel Osteen,) & addresses in ‘sound-byte perspectives’ all things ‘christian,’ most notably, politics. It’s also significant to me because the sound isn’t on, & I can only tell what the subject/topic of Larry King & Rick Warren’s discussion by the large ‘headlines’ smattered on the screen at various times, which I’m assuming must be their talking points.

    It seems that a big portion of the interview centered on: WARREN ON OBAMA (capital letters were CNN’s,) & whether he should be a part of a particular church. Other topics that appeared were:

  • Does prayer help you get a job?

  • Is Warren anti-gay?

  • Why did President Obama select Rick Warren to play the role he did in the inauguration?

    • CNN also puts a “feedback line” that runs along the bottom of the screen, where viewers can put forward their own thoughts about what they’re saying & hearing… interesting. Lots of vitriol, rhetoric, & politicizing of ‘issues’ as christian/un-christian, esp. along political party lines…

    In other news, I’m through 2 of the 3 books in the C.S. Lewis space trilogy…. Once again, I’d highly recommend all 3 books to you, but especially the 2nd one, Perelandra. Without giving away too much, I’ll say that in this book Lewis explores what the temptation of Eve in the Garden of Eden must have been like – portraying the Tempter as a cunning, relentless, manipulative, deceptive, & diabolically clever adversary bent on one purpose: perverting the words of the Creator & attempting to steal, kill, & destroy those created in the image of the Creator.

    Though I’ve read the book many times, this time esp. jumped out at me – the Genesis 3 account can almost make Eve look & sound like a naive, unsophisticated & unintelligent human being, one that was so easily duped by a few sentences spoken by her own tempter that she must have been a virtual child, a simpleton, when nothing could be further from the truth. Eve was the LORD God’s final act of creation, fashioned from Adam, made to be a ‘suitable partner’ for him… She was made & declared by God to be “very good.”

    Whether it be out of ignorance, projection of an anti-woman bias that has existed within the church (machine), or some other error, a not-so-subtle placing of blame on ‘the woman’ because of her ‘naivete’ has fed, at least in me, a wrong or distorted view of the cause & nature of sin, temptation, & our propensity to shift blame.

    Read Perelandra.

    I’ve been thinking quite a bit on 1John 2:15-17… & think that I’ll do a series of 3 blogs on it…

    It’s time to get Joey.

    Ciao!

    monday musings…

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    Home after a great weekend spent in Portland with theBean’s cousin Christy & her husband Levi. And their little dog Winston. It turns out after 3 days together, we remembered to take 2 pictures. 2. Silly us. Hopefully, we can snag some of the pics that Levi & his family took when they came over for dinner on Saturday…

    Christy is 9 years younger than theBean & was the flower girl in our wedding… it rained (not unusual for Portland :) which was beautiful. I loved the steady but tolerable showers, the cloudy-overcastness, the glimmers of sun breaking through the clouds for seconds at a time. The food they cooked for us was incredible, & we hope to get several of the recipes to make our own…

    Both Levi & Christy work at Multnomah University, which is about 5 minutes walk from their house. As I’ve stated before, I absolutely love the higher ed environment, & my recent grad school pursuits were really fired up seeing the school & talking through all the ed. options that Levi will be exploring. Lucky.

    Words can’t really describe the impact of the weekend – catching up with Levi & Christy; watching theBean with her cousin, & finding how eerily similar they are. Like the same foods. Can’t breathe too well through their noses. Both think they’re pretty funny & laugh quite a bit. Have an interesting time pronouncing certain words, esp. words with an “S”. It was priceless.

    Makes me wonder about the power & wonder of knowing & being known… & the comfort & encouragement of seeing someone that is ‘like’ you… hmmm…

    Came home to sun. I love Reno. Clear blue skies. Light wind. Still manages to be freezing cold at night. I love it!

    4+ mile run with Brother today… the good news is that I’m still feeling it… hips, knees, ankles are doing well, which makes me happy. I’m working up to a regular schedule of 5 miles (3-4x/week) & hope to do a 10K one of these days.

    Reading through CS Lewis’ sci-fi trilogy... just finished the 1st one, & started Perelandra last night… Thursday, I start the finale……

    I enjoy the trilogy because the main character, E. Ransom, is based on JRR Tolkien… & at the same time is a completely unexceptional individual… whom nonetheless is chosen for an extraordinary series of missions, to battle evil incarnate with seemingly nothing but his wits & a growing spiritual sensitivity… good times.

    Finally caught the BSG finale. Meh.

    there & back again… Friday musings…

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    I spent the 1st part of this week in Los Angeles… San Dimas, if you want to get specific… It’s the home of Bill & Ted, as well as Life Pacific College. I had the good fortune to be able to travel with Brother, & to hang out with some dear friends, both of whom there is years of history. Had gut level talks… listened… laughed a lot. Discovered a great pub, on St. Patrick’s Day to boot, one that specialized in Belgians… the set up of the pub reminded me a lot of the ‘traditional’ Frankfurt/Sachsenhausen restaurant, albeit with a long, tall table instead of a standard one. Great times.

    On that note, Brother & I stayed in the dorms – Floor 3 of Bldg D, #315. Through a series of negotiations that I shall not get into here I ended up with the top bunk, which was a great gig once I found a way to actually GET to the top bunk. Ended up having to climb up the desk/bookshelf & then launch myself up & over the rail. It was quite the experience. Not as comfy as sleeping in my very own bed with my very own theBean, but it was cool – esp. with the novelty of sharing a room with buddies.

    One of the highlights for me was sitting in on classes – Pentateuch/Torah, where the class was in the beginnings of working through Leviticus – talked about the theme being “Becoming who we are” – never heard it described that way. In light of that, the rituals (ceremonies, practices, daily reminders) lose their strange-ness, & take on a special quality… seeing a people be-becoming… learning to step into their calling & identity. Nice job David.

    The other classes we went to were Biblical Preaching & a Youth Ministry seminar class, with 7 students who are already out & about involved in youth stuff. The professor had to go to a “meet & greet” for about 40 minutes, leaving Brother & I to talk to & with the students. It was a highlight, & really sparked me to remember how much I enjoy ‘school with a purpose’; learning, growing, being challenged in my thought processes, having to formulate new ideas & new conclusions. Good stuff.

    One of the other reasons Brother & I were there was to explore some distance learning ops – not a whole lot has surfaced, but in some way we’ll be back at school, if only from afar.

    It also spurred on & reignited some old ideas for a local institute within our church family – we’ll see.

    At youth group right now we’re talking about “Image & Identity” – reflecting on the fact that we’ve been made in God’s image. We aren’t mistakes. Individually, we’ve been marked as God’s masterpieces, unique, special, & well-made, really coming to life in all of its fullness as we embrace who God made us to be.

    And the enemy of that are the forces that exist to conform – reshape us, using a ‘1 size fits all’ approach. Its easy to look outward, to the country & culture that we’re living within… with its ideas about beauty, acceptable body shape, what to eat/drink, how to live… with the pressure to conform & take on behaviors & an ‘acceptable’ outward appearance to really fit in with those around us, even though it means living inauthentically based on someone else’s version of what I’m supposed to be & do.

    I was talking to a friend yesterday about this, & what came up was the sneaky & insidious way this same type of thing exists within the Church… where the pressure to become a ‘good christian’ with approved & authorized ‘good christian behaviors, thoughts, characteristics, & preferences’ can seemingly force us into a mold where we’re just as focused on the outward appearance, going through the motions of living this ‘good christian life’ in order to gain the approval of others within the Machine. All in the name of becoming a disciple. But WHOSE disciple? Faking the funk, putting on a show that we’re outwardly ok, while dying on the inside – living in a virtual prison of not wanting to do the WRONG thing, leaves us undeveloped, immature, & fearful. Is this the ‘life in all of its fullness’ Jesus came to bring? Don’t think so.

    Worse, the longer we go, the more difficult it can be to break out – because the longer we live the lie, the more fear & shame piles up, trapping us in a cycle of inaction.

    Makes me think… The enemy isn’t always out THERE.

    I’m stoked. Tonight, we get to go to Carson to hang with the Locke clan: brothers & fams. My dad’s birthday is tomorrow, & to celebrate, we’re gathering tonight for a Giant Apple Pancake (GAP.) Let me ‘splain.

    Back in the day, momentous occasions in our household meant going to Johnny Ascuaga’s for a GAP – its a monstrous, dense, battered concoction, smothered with apples, cinnamon, butter, & powduhed sug-ah, then topped with syrup. The batter itself has to sit out for a day, & it takes at least 20 minutes to cook, & involves a ‘flipping of the Pancake” that can (& sometimes did) result in disaster. Going to Johnny A’s meant an adventure, not knowing if our delicacy would actually make it to the table intact, but that if it did, we were going to eat & eat well, at least until the sugar coma came on.

    At some point, Johnny A realized that the GAP was more trouble than it was worth – to him at least – & stopped serving it. He did, however, put the recipe out for the adventurous soul that would try to recreate the greatness of the GAP.

    My dad, being the brave soul that he is, took up that challenge, & over the years has become quite the GAP maker. Chef-like even, producing GAPs that rival the best I ever had at Johnny A’s, marking great days, holidays, & just becauses with sweetness.

    But up until now, he’s the only one that knows what it takes to pull this off… I say until now, because we (me, brother Ben, & brother Moe & fams) have been invited to not only partake in the eating tonight, but also in the making, so that we too can carry on this great tradition of decadence. Ahh.

    Should be fun.

    Spring sports season is upon us. Pasty is in track. I-Doey is in baseball. TheWeez is a proper footballer (soccer to us ‘mericans) & I’m in softball. TheBean is breaking out her cheerleading outfit as I type… :)

    Life is beautiful. Tim & David, thanks for a great week.

    Sunday afternoon…

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    Illy in the afternoon, a freshly pulled shot, accompanied by a teaspoon of Skippy Extra Crunchy Peanut Butter. Looking at the beautiful (yes I said beautiful) brown Nevada hills… & in the distance the snow-tipped Sierras. I feel the favor of the LORD God on my life this afternoon.

    Reviewing my studies for our small group study on Enoch – I really love Brown’s compilation, complete with annotations & Bible cross-references. Even more than the study I love the fact that I get to interact with the people that come to my house. I’m stuck on the ‘reflecting part’ of that right now… on the richness of life that is revealed only in the context of relationships…

    Looks like 2 May, 2009, we’re going to be putting on an Art Show/Exhibition/Display/Gala… celebrating the arts, artists, & creativity within our church family & community. More on that later…

    The Chronicles of Narnia – 2009… I’m through the whole series again, save for “The Last Battle.” I’ve always had a hard time reading that one because its the LAST one in the series. And when I read it, I go as slow as possible to make it last as long as I can. Don’t know why.

    Brother & I are off to the LPC tomorrow for a couple of days – to check out some online schooling possibilities for the both of us, to sit in on a couple of classes, & of course to raise a pint or two while pontificating, plotting, & musing with friends. Can’t wait.

    Had a couple of moments today during the speech where I felt overwhelmed… not the bad kind either. Hard to put words to it. For those of you who were there, it was during the quiet time where I didn’t say anything, & again at the end.

    If I had to describe it, I’d say it was like the feeling you get when you step into water (ocean? pool?) & find out too late that its over your head. Surprising. But refreshing. Interesting. Can’t put my finger on it. Don’t know if I need to.

    How early is too early to brew a pot of java?

    Looks like the trip to Portland is on, in spite of the fact that the IR-S still seems to be unable to locate our tax-refund, which is bouncing somewhere near Sock Heaven (the place where renegade socks go after getting lost on their way through the washing/drying cycle.) Bummer. I could use that money at some point.

    (BTW: we’re on week 6 of waiting for resolution. But I’m hopeful. But not holding my breath.)

    Tonight feels like a soup night. So say we all.