Author: Robert

As many of you know Tapestry participates with several other churches in feeding around 300 kids a day in Diriamba, Nicaragua through our friends the Baltodanos. I just received word from Jim Wallace (a great guy who I am glad to call my friend even if his jokes aren’t as funny as he seems to think they are – you should hear him laugh at his own jokes), who is the lead of the meal program and much more, that the daily meal program is running low on funds and we may have to cut some of the meal locations if other funds don’t come through by March. Jim has asked the members of the church he leads to give $1 a month. You would be amazed how far that goes in Diriamba. They are a large church but I think the threads are better than them. 🙂

So how about it? What about $2 a month per person? $3? $5 sounds like a pretty good number to me. I am asking you to consider giving $1 – $5 a month in addition to what you normally give to what God is doing in and through Tapestry. This money will be specifically used for providing meals to kids in Diriamaba and nothing else. Jesus has a pretty warm spot in His heart for feeding the hungry so we should have a warm spot too.

If you are interested please write on your giving envelope, check, or electronic gift that this money is for Diriamba. As a matter of fact, if you want to give something at the Super Bowl Gathering this Sunday I’ll have something set up.

Just read this quote from Stanley Grenz (a theologian I respect greatly, wish was still alive, and who serves as one of the two major theological underpinnings of my dissertation).

Folk theology is inadequate as a resting place for most Christians. It encourages gullibility, vicarious spirituality and simplistic answers to difficult dilemmas that arise from being followers of Jesus Christ in a largely secular and pagan world. It stunts growth and blunts the influence of Christianity in the world. Further, it is often difficult to distinguish Christian folk theology from the canned answers and pasted smiles that cultists display on the doorstep as they peddle their “new revelations” from door to door. — in Who Needs Theology?: An Invitation to the Study of God

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Folks you don’t have to read hard theology but please read, listen to, and discuss good theology. Pop/folk theology is the bane of existence. It serves no useful purpose and deceives and hurts a large number of people. The true God is involved in the nutty gritty of life with us and His answers and hope in that nutty gritty are almost always NOT platitudes.

Want some good books / discussions of it? I’ll throw some out in the next day or two. I can say now that Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Cost of Discipleship is a great work to read. Heck his work Life Together is a great one too.

Just sharing a few things from tonight. For those who want it here is the salsa recipe with double the Serrano peppers for a little more kick.

• 5 Roma tomatoes
• 1/4 onion
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 Serrano chili peppers
• Cilantro (1/4 of bunch or to taste)
• Juice of one small lime
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Secondly, for those who wanted to see them again below you will find the two videos I showed tonight during my message.

First, here’s the Kid President Pep Talk

And here is the video from Mrioslav Volf.

SIDE NOTE – if you are involved in UWSP’s InterVarsity chapter I hope to see you tomorrow. I’ll be speaking at the large group meeting tomorrow night.

It is going to be bad out there tonight folks. Therefore I share with you this infographic.

I love Winter in Central Wisconsin. The cold seems to make the Spring and Summer feel all the better. The snow is a ton of fun. Cross-country skiing and sledding = awesome. To be honest running when it is snowing make me feel like a beast. With all that said I could really do without the ice. The ice is the only part of Winter that I don’t so much like. Except when it forms all over trees. Ice covered (not broken) trees are gorgeous. Winter Mix is the worst weather ever. It is an accident waiting to happen. ARGH!

Anyhow, I’m not sure if it is true or not but it makes sense and I think it would be fun to watch every one walk like a penguin.

ht lifehacker

I think Pam and the boys would agree that I usually talk the least of any member of our family BUT I make up for it by having my rants. There are a few subjects that I just go ballistic over and kick into rant mode concerning. Free will and determinism for example. If you want to see me go off into a rant just bring up the song “Born This Way” by Lady Gaga and I will go into a rant of epic proportions on determinism and free will. Anyhow I am not sure if this is a regular one of my rants or not (Pam and the boys can surely tell you if it is) but it drives me crazy when people say “I have no regrets.” So let the rant begin.

<rant>

The phrase drives me nuts because it sounds noble but the reality is that if a person has no regrets they are either a sociopath or have an incredibly short memory. It is the type of phrase that actors in movies shout when they are falling off a cliff but any idiot knows they should regret not standing further away from the cliff in the first place.

Here’s what I mean. There are things in my life that I have done or not done that I SHOULD regret. In fact, I would go so far as to say that to not regret them would be an evil act in and of itself. I know some will say “but those actions for good or for bad made you who you are and you don’t regret that do you?” No I don’t. I realize that the good and the bad that I have done are a part of what has shaped me. I learned from those mistakes but I could have just as easily have learned those lessons without the mistakes. I regret that I didn’t learn the lesson through a better means and I regret the act itself. The only way I could not regret those acts is if I am so self-centered that I am basically a sociopath and therefore have no feelings for what I have done to others OR I have such an incredibly short memory that I forget the evil I have done pretty quickly after doing it.

Here’s an example. I remember being in Chris Moore’s backyard when I was a teen and having one of his little brothers run by us. I had an impulse to trip this little 6 year old kid just for my own amusement and I did. I did it just because I was bigger than him and I could. The poor kid fell down, skinned his knee, became embarrassed, and started to cry. It was brutish and cruel of me. I doubt Chris remembers the act but I still do to this day and all these years later I still regret it. I learned from it that I need to protect those weaker than me rather than taking advantage of my power of them for my own entertainment. I still think to myself every now and then “am I tripping this person or helping them?” That lesson has severed me well and I am thankful for it but to not regret the act itself would be wrong. I wish I had learned that lesson without tripping Chris’s brother. I know I could have learned that lesson without tripping him.

In my life I have hurt people that I love and to not regret that, no matter how wonderful the lesson was, would be wrong. I have sometimes ignored opportunities to do good and to not regret that would callous. My regrets don’t hold me back and keep me mired in despair. Instead the lessons I have learned from my regrets help me to be a better follower of Christ, husband, father, son, brother, friend, and person but I usually could have and should have learned those lessons without hurting others or myself.

There is nothing noble about saying you have no regrets. In fact that phrase is ignoble. So go be noble.

</rant>

Just saw this year’s People are Awesome video thanks to kottke.org. Wow. People are awesome.

It has been a little cold here in Central Wisconsin. The cold temps are typically no big deal and in fact usually kind of enjoyable. On the other hand, the extreme cold and the wind chill can require doing things a little differently. Take today for example.

I went out to start Fred the Sentra and after a quick burst of electrical everything in the car stopped. I changed the alternator a few weeks ago and thought that I had probably just not put the positive battery cable on very well and the cold had loosened it. I pulled the latch for the hood to look at it and nothing happened. I pulled the handle again and made sure it was all the way out and then went to the front of the car to try and lift the hood. The latch had frozen shut. I didn’t feel like pulling a hair dryer out to the car to warm the latch so I sat on the hood area where the latch was hoping that my body heat would be enough. After a few minutes of a very cold butt the hood popped open. I reattached the positive cable and the car started fine. So I drove to my lunch meeting.

When I made it to the restaurant where my meeting was. I was a little early but saw the open sign and decided to just go in and get some chips and salsa and read. When I tried to open the door it was apparently locked. This was an early lunch so I figured that they had just turned the sign on a little early and hadn’t actually opened up yet. So I turned to go back to my car. That’s when the hostess knocked on the door and shouted that it was frozen shut. 🙂 With the hostess pushing on the inside and me pulling on the outside we are able to open the door. Hopefully nothing else freezes today.

As I said it just takes doing things a little different. It’s still fun though. Now it is time for a run before writing some.