while pam can be a little long winded (i love you my dear but, as you know, i am a fan of short blog posts) she is also brilliant and therefore you should go read what the wonderful woman i am privileged to be wed to writes. yesterday she wrote this post concerning whether “college is killing CHRISTianity” or not. it is well worth your time.
kony 2012–meh?
by now many of you have seen the above video from invisible children. perhaps you have received facebook invites to join a group that is organizing people to be a part of the planned plastering of posters and everything else to raise awareness.
i have mixed feelings about all this. to be honest if it wasn’t for invisible children i would have most likely known absolutely nothing about the about the lord’s resistance army (lra) and the terrible things joseph kony has lead them to do to kids in uganda. i am thankful for what invisible children did initially in raising awareness and sparking some action but thanks to a friend of mine i have my questions about their latest film and campaign (kony 2012).
david is a former student from the student ministry i led at parkview baptist church in baton rouge. david’s background both culturally and educationally makes him someone i automatically respect in regards to anything african (actually i just pretty much respect david because he is an awesome person). david posted his thoughts on the kony 2012 campaign on his blog (you can find his post here). he basically says that the kony 2012 campaign is dealing with a problem that isn’t the main issue anymore in uganda. he describes it as selling 6 year old newspapers.
i’m still not sure how i feel about the kony 2012 campaign but i am sure that you should read david’s post and that his thoughts are shaping my opinion. so go read his post.
yes please
this looks like a lot of fun.
baptism & my afternoon
tonight was a tapestry baptism gathering. for us that means we baptize a thread who has become a follower of CHRIST and then we potluck together to celebrate what GOD is doing in us and through us. it is always a wonderful night. in the above photos you might notice some steam. that’s what happens when you use a hot tub on a screened in porch because the river that we usually use for our baptisms is still WAY to cold. the plan/hope is that the plover river will be suitable in april. we’ll see.
SIDE NOTE – we’ve had a VERY mild winter this year. there are advantages to that but also disadvantages. one of the disadvantages is that there hasn’t been as much snow to do some of the things that pam and i love to do during the winter. thankfully we received a few good inches this week (i think around 6”) so i was finally able to go into the forest behind our house and do this today. it was wonderful.
2012 bock run
today was the 2012 point bock run, which is one of my favorite runs. there is always a great atmosphere around it and i end up seeing lots of friends in the race. i ran the race today not really expecting much since i’ve only been running about 30-40 miles a month for the past 4 months. not enough miles to really improve from my personal best from last year of 40:36 (8:08 per mile). i was just hoping to keep a pace of 9:45 per mile (around 48:45 for the 5 mile course). i figured i couldn’t do much better than that considering how little running i have done.
i was pretty pleased when i crossed the finish line at 46:34 (9:17 per mile). my overall time and the fact that my last mile was at an 8:43 per mile pace encourages me to think that with the proper practice i might get close to my half marathon personal best (1:58:40 – 9:04 per mile) by the time of the oshkosh half marathon on april 22.
as you can see from the above time stats i am a slow runner. i realize that i am not one of the speed demons and i don’t try to pretend like i am. i try to start in a position in the pack that is appropriate for my speed level. that is why it drives me nuts how many people who walk the race decide that they should be in the front of the pack for the starting gun. i’m sure they have very valid reasons in their minds for why they should start at the front of the pack. for example, they might think…
- they are distantly related to steve prefontaine and thereby will go from a walker to an extremely fast runner at some time during the race.
- they have a really fast friend who they believe absolutely needs their encouragement for the 50 feet that this walker is able to keep up with his/her friend.
- they are convinced that if they start at the front of the pack they will end up drafting on the back of the pack and be pulled along to a faster time.
- perhaps they had beans for supper the night before and want to share the beans’ effect with all the other runners as a practical joke and therefore need to start in the front of the pack.
or perhaps they have less noble reasons like not caring. i really don’t begrudge them being slow. after all i am slow. and i’m definitely not talking about people who are doing the galloway run/walk system. i completely understand the run/walk system and i don’t blame them at all when i see them walking (mainly because they will probably pass me later). i’m talking about the people who walk the entire race. why would any such walker start the race in the 6:00 per mile pace group? i can’t imagine a good reason (though there may be one and if so please forgive me and explain it to me). all i know is that they clogged up the beginning of the bock run and slowed down my first 2 miles.
here are my mile breaks:
- mile 1 – 9:42
- mile 2 – 9:29
- mile 3 – 9:20
- mile 4 – 9:07
- mile 5 – 8:43
notice how every mile was faster? i tend to think this is because of all the time i ended up being stuck behind walkers in the first two miles. this happened more times than i care to remember.
please don’t think that i am down on people walking races. i am not. i think it is great for people to walk races. just start at a reasonable part of the pack. i figured i would run around 9:45 per mile so i started at the 10:00 per mile pace group. when i went faster it didn’t cause anyone any trouble. people, just pick an appropriate spot in the pack people. come on!
SIDE NOTE – i think my tv is going to begin thinking that we are british because of all the bbc tv series pam has been watching recently. eat least it is fun to watch the guys fight in these british dramas. every argument seems to end with someone saying sternly “i say good day to you sir.” if it continues that say even louder “i said good day sir!” i think i will start doing this.
belt’s opened today
i love goofy traditions. therefore i love that each year people (primarily high school and college students) camp out be the first in line when belt’s soft serve ice cream opens. they do it to get the ice cream first and a free t-shirt or glass depending upon where they are in line. when we moved to point i started bringing coffee, on behalf of tapestry, to those who camped out. like i said pam and i love goofy traditions and therefore we want to support those who are a part of them.
since this year is adam’s senior year of high school we let him skip school to sleep at belt’s and be one of the first in line. so he and some friends slept out in the parking lot last night with a low of 14º to be ready for the opening. he was the third one in line. he says it was a fun night. i tend to believe him and i’m glad he did it. noah is already planning for 2015 and his senior year. adam shows up at around the 1:30 mark in the above video.
yeah for random traditions!
SIDE NOTE – we really haven’t had much snow this winter which is not really a good thing. i haven’t been cross country skiing once this winter because there hasn’t been a good base. anyhow this past week has been fun with the snow we have been receiving. this is what it was like this afternoon.
eric’s craigslist discussion
a friend of mine, eric g, is presently in discussions with a guy in wausau who wants to sell/trade his air guitar on craigslist. the whole thing has made me laugh so i thought i would, with his permission, share it here.
the original craigslist add reads:
selling a vintage, mint condition air guitar. has served faithfully as the backup to several world famous touring rigs. sweet low action, and really screams on the higher frets and insane sustain, as demonstrated recently on a journey tribute concert. don’t settle for less, get the best, and impress your girl.
make an offer, will also consider trade for barefoot water skis.
eric’s initial response was:
i saw your posting on craigslist for the air guitar. i will trade you three baby unicorns. trust me, it’s a good deal. their mother was a champion snipe chaser and their father could jump a dozen rainbows without breaking a sweat. let me know if this deal works for you and we can meet up. if you want to check out the unicorns, my address is 1234 yellowbrick rd.. they can usually be found frolicking with the gnomes in the pasture.
sincerely,
eric
the person behind the listing responded with:
eric, thanks for your interesting offer. i will google this ‘yellow road’ you speak of and see what type of neighborhood it is you have raised these unicorns in before deciding, however i have had poor experiences in the past with gnomes, so the fact they have frolicked concerns me. will be in touch yesterday. thx again.
(personal note here – who can blame this guy for worrying about the bad influence of gnomes. they are notorious for leading unicorns down the wrong path.)
and eric responded back with:
i could also offer a guided hodag hunt instead of the unicorn colts if that would be more desirable.
(personal note here – for those of you who aren’t familiar with hodags … well you obviously haven’t lived in wisconsin)
though i would never tell this to the guy trying to sell/trade the air guitar i really hope eric gets this air guitar and gets rid of his juvenile unicorns. i’m a little tired of the damage his unicorns are doing around town. the gnomes have really messed the unicorns up.
dreadful to be alone with the new testament
here’s the full quote from søren kierkegaard from which the partial quote on tonight’s tapestry bulletin came from.
“the matter is quite simple. the bible is very easy to understand. but we CHRISTians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. we pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. take any words in the new testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. my GOD, you will say, if i do that my whole life will be ruined. how would i ever get on in the world? herein lies the real place of CHRISTian scholarship. CHRISTian scholarship is the church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good CHRISTians without the bible coming too close. oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living GOD. yes it is even dreadful to be alone with the new testament.”
― søren kierkegaard, provocations: spiritual writings of kierkegaard
obviously as a philsopher and theologian kierkegaard didn’t completely dismiss scholarship and the pursuit of knowledge. still he recognized how it could be used, and often is used, to avoid the claims of CHRIST. i think we often do the same thing with our bible studies in the modern, wstern CHRISTian world. we says to ourselves “surely CHRIST couldn’t mean that … it would ruin me” and then we spiritualize, intellectualize, and generally bounce around the statements of JESUS till we can figure out a way to look like we are following HIS word while not really doing anything other than what we want to do.
“surely when JESUS said for me to love my enemy HE didn’t mean them. if i treat them with love they will merely hurt others.”
“surely JESUS never said that i should give that much”
“JESUS never meant for CHRISTians to help the poor that much. that would keep them from helping themselves”
etc., etc. etc.
it should be “dreadful … to fall into the hands of the living GOD. yes it is even dreadful to be alone with the new testament.” it is scary to me when i find that it isn’t difficult to me, because i usually find that at those times i am no longer really listening to the words of JESUS.
3 & 30
THREE
i posted a while back about the increasing wedding officiating i’ve been doing each year of tapestry and my thoughts concerning weddings possibly being a sign of health or not in a church. as of today, if all goes as planned, i will be officiating at least three weddings in 2012 (the schobert wedding has already been done and two more are scheduled). today jessiah and amanda asked me to officiate their wedding and, of course, i was honored to say yes to doing it. they might have to talk with pam concerning the date of their ceremony since they picked our wedding anniversary to get married on.
THIRTY
as a youth minister i regularly led students through world vision’s 30 hour famine. today, due to a couple of the ways i have been prepping for easter through lent, i have been constantly thinking about “the famines” i used to be a part and how i always thought they were something that everyone in the churches i was a part of would have benefited from rather than just something for students. of course, you would have to do it different if “the famine” involved all the members of a church rather than only youth. in youth ministry you treat “the famine” as a lock-in (here’s a great youth lock in video) where all the students are gathered together and stay up way later than normal people should. couldn’t do that with the whole church, especially when tapestry would have to rent a building to do it. instead i think as a church we could achieve the goals and focus of “the famine” without going down the road of it being merely a youth event with adults.
here’s what i’m thinking of doing.
- still do the 30 hours without eating as a reminder of JESUS’s command that we feed the hungry.
- instead of doing a lock-in we spend a great deal of time together throughout friday evening and saturday by having lots of planned opportunities to …
- worship together (a worship time friday night, saturday morning, and saturday afternoon)
- serve together (planned service opportunities friday and saturday)
- goof off together (planned opportunities friday and saturday)
the national dates for the 30 hour famine are february 24-25 and april 27-28. GOD speed and bless all the students and chaperones who are doing “the famine” tonight all around the world. i really think the threads would get into this so after i bounce it around some more you might be hearing more about this. it might be fun to still set up a lock-in for the teens that fit in with the whole church doing the famine.
2012 lent emails
for lent and advent each year tapestry does daily/weekly emails to help us all prep for CHRISTmas and easter. lent begins today with ash wednesday and thus the first email went out today (you can view it here if you would like to). this year’s email with be a reading plan through the gospel according to matthew and the illustrations of “40”, si smith’s interpretation of JESUS’s 40 days in the wilderness. every now and then there will be a few other things additionally thrown in. if you want to receive these emails each day of lent please use the following form to sign up for the emails.