Monday, April 30, 2007
The fam
Monday, April 23, 2007
Stripping...get your mind out of the gutter
I'm going to try to pull together a couple ideas here. First, it would likely be helpful if you read John 6. This chapter shows how Jesus broke up a large portion of his following by saying things that he knew would be offensive to them (I wish I could say I thought of this on my own, but I didn't. Check out the messages Deconstruction and Reconstruction from Mars Hill Bible Church about 2 years ago). It is reminiscent of the story of Gideon and his men taking on the Midianites(Judges 6 and 7).
Another story of note comes from the Chronicles of Narnia, Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis. One of the characters is turned into a dragon, and in order to return to his human state, a lion must shred all of the skin, scales and natural dragon protection off of him. He must then bathe in a nearby water source.
There is one common theme among these three stories: after the stripping, something emerges. And what emerges is a core, a nucleus, a true locus.
I realize I have in no way expounded on this in any kind of exhaustive sense, but there's some research and thought that can go into this. What needs to be stripped away? What is essential? How do we protect ourselves from true abandon and thus push away a God in whom we say we believe?
Also relevant to this discussion is the need to be a force for good when people are going through things like this. May we not try to fit people into our understanding of God, but instead lift up and rely on Him to supply for their needs, not ourselves. In other words, speak words of life, not those of death and condemnation.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
This week's sign the apocalypse is nigh...
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Cornhole for Life
Today is the annual ACS Relay for Life Cornhole tournament fundraiser, and I for one am excited. Not solely because it's actually warm here again. No, no, but because I'm paired with our 70+ year old golf-addicted (but a really nice guy) Janitor. "Why", you may ask "are you excited, Sam?" Because this guy is one of the few who feel compelled to mess with his bosses, especially on things like this. Probably also because this man has made phrases such as "That's what she said" things of lore, but I digress. First round matchup, we've got one co-worker, and one of the family owners of the company. Needless to say, my partner will be down on the end of this guy givin' him he (+) *2 hockey sticks all day. Life is good.