Running on Empty

I’d like to invite my reader[s] here to check out a new blog I have created, here. It’s basically a training log for a half-marathon I am planning to run this fall.

If you’re interested. As Linda Richmond would say, “No big whoop.”

Holy Week(s)

Well, its Super Bowl week, and it took all of 30 seconds for the pastor-class to rekindle their collective rail against the “American Sports Culture(TM)”. See here and here. Let’s see, the Super Bowl, Daytona Speed Weeks, MLB Spring Training, the Winter Olympics, and those on top of the the continuing NBA and NHL seasons. PGA Golf has begun. Can March Madness be far behind? There is a lot there to worry the pastor-class. Apparently, these big events, especially the Super Bowl, divert way too many eyes away from pastors and their programs, and onto something less discipleship-ish. [sigh] The moralizing is just not going to end, is it?

Haiku

Snow like a blanket
Warms a breaking heart; dare I
Hope for Dear Child’s calm?

Another question…

I wonder where the NRA stands on the defense of Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton against gun charges?

Oh, never mind… I already have a good idea of the answer.

There, I said it

In describing the earthquake damage in Haiti, Brian Williams, on NBC Wednesday evening, I think said it best… “The fact that this disaster has been put upon one of the poorest nations in the world is almost perverse.”

I will go further to say it is perverse.

Even further, I will agree with the Obama Administration in its statement regarding Pat Robertson’s comments. “Utterly stupid” does not even scratch the surface.

It is things like this that go the furthest in solidifying the universalism in my heart.

Thoughts on Winter Solstice

(Today’s post applies only to my readers in the Northern Hemisphere. I mean no disrespect to my Aussie friends, but the technicalities of this post will apply to you in six months. I’ll do another Solstice post then, I’m sure.)

Tonight is the Solstice, the longest night of the year. Tonight is the time when the earth’s revolution around the sun is coordinated with its tilt on axis, with the north pole tilted its maximum away from the sun, leaving us generally in the dark for the most of the day… 14-1/2 hours, or so. It’s one tick in the great clockwork that is the solar system, a step in the great cosmic dance.

“Do this, don’t do that… can’t you read the sign?”

I’m done. I can’t do it. I have never been able to do it.

All I hear is …you need to do more… do better… don’t do that… do this… change… pull your weight… contribute… make a difference… obey…

For 37 years, what is what I have heard. Sure, God loves me and sent Jesus to save me, but… BUT… if I don’t ________, then [insert any one of the typical religious threats here].

For 30 of those years, I have tried to ________. It has gotten me nowhere. I’m still the same person, with the same personality issues, the same social ills, the same faults, and the same sins.

I CAN’T DO IT. Sorry, I just can’t. I’m not sure I even want to, anymore. I can’t keep the inevitable at bay… I’m toast.

So, I’m not going to try, anymore.

Preachers and theologians and church members can bray on all they want about sanctification, faithful witness, and discipleship. From now on,

COUNT ME OUT.

See you around. I hope to enjoy whatever time I have left with my family and anyone else who cares to stick around me.

Just a Suggestion

Considering recent events, it seems to me that Brian France & Co. had better wake up before their smug satisfaction with the current product gets someone else killed.

I’m just saying…

20 Questions

Okay, maybe not 20, but a few I have yet to find a good answer to. Feel free to add to the list or attempt an answer. The purpose is mostly to just provoke thought, not hash out the correct answers.

- If we call on God as Our Father, why do act as though he is Our Executioner?

- Why did God create the Universe only to destroy it later?

- What did Jesus actually accomplish on the Cross if the vast majority of humanity will end up in Hell?

- What good is a creed it it’s revised every couple of generations or by the church down the street?

- Does the world know the disciples of Jesus by their love for one another, or by their doctrine and denominational distinctives?

- Is it a sin to doubt God?

That’s a good start.

Samoas, Tonga, and Sumatra

Well, here we are again. As I sit here tucked away in the relative safety of the inland highlands, word trickles in from the Eastern Pacific about the tsunami and earthquake(s). I’ve read stories of entire villiages being wiped off the face of the earth, entire hospitals collapsing, parents and children drowning, and survivors.