The above photo is why the correct answer almost always is “YES” when someone asks if you would like them to bring their decoys for duck hunting. If you bring your decoys then you are typically the one carrying them. Walking in decoys can be a bit of a pain on a normal outing, but add fog and up to 20″ of muck and it becomes a royal pain in the butt.
Still fun hunting with Marc (If not seeing any ducks to even consider shooting at still counts as hunting). You are welcome to bring your decoys anytime we go hunting. 🙂
There is a kind of listening with half an ear that presumes already to know what the other person has to say. It is an impatient, inattentive listening, that despises the brother and is only waiting for a chance to speak and thus get rid of the other person. This is no fulfillment of our obligation, and it is certain that here too our attitude toward our brother only reflects our relationship to God. It is little wonder that we are no longer capable of the greatest service of listening that God has committed to us, that of hearing our brother’s confession, if we refuse to give ear to our brother on lesser subjects. Secular education today is aware that often a person can be helped merely by having someone who will listen to him seriously, and upon this insight it has constructed its own soul therapy, which has attracted great numbers of people, including Christians. But Christians have forgotten that the ministry of listening has been committed to them by Him who is Himself the great listener and whose work they should share. We should listen with the ears of God that we may speak the Word of God.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community, p. 98-99
I love media about zombies. I feel like the zombie craze is getting close to its last legs and I am ok with that because I don’t like zombie media because of it having been hot for the past few years. I like media about zombies because it is almost always not about the zombies. Good zombie literature and film is actually about what it means to be human. It looks at how the humans respond to the overwhelming, tide of (usually) thoughtless destruction that the zombies represent. Do our heroes maintain their humanity in the face of such fear or do they sink to subhuman. There are a few books and films that explore the possible humanity of the zombies (the movie “Fido” and the book I finished last night, “The Girl with All the Gifts“, for example), but these are still generally about the humans because the media is exploring how the humans react to the possible humanity of the zombies.
Such deep stuff for supposed horror. Some of the best theological thought comes out of fiction. To quote Alan Moore from his work V for Vendetta “Artists use lies to tell the truth.” Zombie literature is fiction but it address what is really important to us when our existence is on the line. Are we just concerned about existing , or are we concerned about things that are more important than just existing.
I believe that the Christian scripture teaches that to be human is to bear, however poorly, some semblance of the image of God (Imago Dei). I mention the Imago Dei pretty often on my blog and in the messages I deliver during Tapestry gatherings. I also preached about the Imago Dei this past week at the UWSP InterVarsity Large Group Meeting – you can listen to it here if you desire. It is kind of a big deal and I believe that we humans do the worst things when we forget to live out that image and even worse when we forget that others bear that image.. When, I read zombie literature I see discussions of the Imago Dei all over it. Christ has a great deal to offer discussions of what it means to be human. Jesus’s ideas work in the marketplace of ideas and those of us who are Christians should enter into debates concerning those ideas. Of course, we need to be focused first on living out the image and seeing the image in others.
This is why I recommend that everyone go out and read some zombie literature. Enter the discussion of what it means to be human and then consider what the old & New Testaments have to say about the subject that relates to the discussion that is going on all around us. So go out and read some now. May I suggest Robert Matheson’s “I Am Legend” as a starting point? It is a great work on thinking you are the hero only to find out that you are actually the boogeyman.
Presently I am sitting at Emy J’s trying to work on this Sunday’s message for Tapestry, Monday’s message for InterVarsity’s first Large Group meeting (possibly my favorite name for a meeting ever – just descriptive only way I might like it even more if it was “Monday Meeting at 7 p.m.”), reading the 1st three chapters of the letter of James for the group that Pam and I are a part of that read and discuss each week, and also reading a little of “The Girl With All The Gifts” that Adam recommended I read.1. In between all the people I have seen and had conversations with (and the one person I saw but I was talking with someone else and I have now lost – that’s right I’m talking to you Tegan) I have been thinking about two things I want to blog about but just can’t bring myself to extended time upon right now. They are:
Thing #1 Celebrity – I become a little more convinced every year or so that celebrity may be the most dangerous thing to Western Evangelical church and her leaders. I can’t put it all together but a lot of it for me comes from the belief I have that the bride of Christ is at her best when she is weak2 The desire for power and influence is great and it influences the church way too much. First you have a small stage (a church or a blog) and then someone comes and says you should write a book and reach more people. Then you start talking to wider audiences and the possibility for influence seems to be so much greater. I don’t exactly know what it is I want to write but I am pretty sure that when we are face to face with Christ we will learn that the people who brought the most glory to Christ are going to be people who we never would have wanted autographs from. Maybe that’s what I want to say – if someone ever wants my autograph then I have probably done something wrong. I don’t know. I’m just working on this.
Thing #2 Signalling – I have written about this before here but I am still fascinated with signalling theory. Talk to Pam or the boys and they will say that I talk about this all the time. Why? Well because it is all around us. What we wear, drive, eat. Where we live, visit, avoid. So much of this is about signalling. We are signalling that we are part of or not part of groups. Pam and I just had an interesting conversation concerning some of the health food/supplement thingies and also the minimalist movements probably coming out of an unexpressed desire to signal that you are a part of one group and not another. Face it, some of the minimalist and supplement crap I see can only be done but someone who is pretty well off. Maybe it is just another way of saying “I’m not poor” without thinking you sound like a jerk. Signalling is really all around us and I am convinced that many things that we think are important have more to do with signalling than they do our actual values.
What’s with all the recent book titles that have the word “girl”? [↩]
2 Corinthians 12:9 … for my power is made perfect in weakness. [↩]
I don’t speak German, though I do like some German food and theologians. I do however love the word Schadenfreude, which basically means “pleasure derived from the misfortune of others”1. I like this word so much because it conveys a very real feeling every now and then.
I don’t usually get pleasure out of other people having misfortune but every now and then it happens. Such as with this video that I saw thanks to Kirby. Two people on high on trucks crash their Geo Tracker into a fence, only to discover there was a bee hive located in the spot they crashed. Just watch the video.
I believe Gary Lee could be a hero of mine now. Maybe this is a case of instant justice but I’m going with the German word. Anyhow, I hope you have enjoyed this brief moment of Schadenfreude. I know I have.
How I dream the conversation went at Ford concerning the rear speakers in a 1989 Mustang Convertible.
This is where the rear speakers are in my 1989 LX Convertible
Car Designer (CD): You know what would be great? If we had premium sound in our Mustang convertibles.
Audio Engineer (AE): That sounds good … what does that involve?
CD: Well instead of four speakers we will put 6 speakers in them.
AE: I like that. Of course, we have to make a few design changes to make room for the additional speakers.
CD: Oh no we can’t do that. I like the design a lot. Let’s just put the speakers under the side panels.
AE: That could work if we put a grill in the carpet of the side panels.
CD: No that would mess up the aesthetic of the interior.
AE: But if we keep the carpet there it will muffle the sound and thus it won’t be premium sound.
CD: Yes it will premium sound because they will still have 6 speakers.
AE: Yes, but if we put the rear speakers under the carpet you basically won’t hear anything out of them. They’ll be muffled by the carpet that covers them.
Once the carpet and side panel was removed I drilled out the rivets that were holding the speakers. RIVETS!!!! Who would use rivets!
CD: But they will have 6 speakers and that equals premium sound.
AE: I guess if the owner ever decided they wanted better sound quality they could always change those rear speakers out for better speakers.
CD: No, we don’t want that to happen. They could mess up the premium sound. We should make the speakers very difficult to get to and then make sure that the speakers are even more difficult to remove by attaching them with rivets rather than screws.
AE: Seems like we aren’t making the car sound very good for the owners.
CD: What do you mean? They’ll have premium sound with 6 speakers. What more could they want?
Anyhow, after a good bit of work over the past week (when not roofing a friend’s house) I have been able to remove the rear speakers and will replace them with Kicker DS 6.5 speakers once they arrive. Then the sound in Buddy will be closer to actual premium sound … and still have 6 speakers.
But, in general, take my advice, when you meet anything that’s going to be human and isn’t yet, or used to be human once and isn’t now, or ought to be human and isn’t, you keep your eyes on it and feel for your hatchet.
Mr. Beaver, Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, p. 147
I’m sitting here beside Pam as she watches the Academy Awards (I can’t really say that I am watching it because I am really just here because I like her and she likes the Oscars) and I am wondering if New-Calvinism and megachurch mindsets are killing pastoral ministry. Both seem to put all the focus of importance on a pastor’s preaching to the exclusion of pastors actually being involved in the lives and needs of their parishioners. I am wonder if Neo-Calvinism does this because of a mindset that right belief is all that matters (possibly a little Gnosticism here) and therefore preaching becomes the best thing a minister can do for his/her people, and in the megachurch because there isn’t enough time for the preacher to be involved in people’s lives. I believe this is why I run into pastors who brag about spending 30 hours a week in sermon preparation and not having any time to really spend with the people of the church. I’m not sure if this is really true or not, it is just something I am considering while I also wonder how many awards Mad Max: Fury Road is going to win.
Today I discovered that I was within 30 feet of an acquaintance that I haven’t seen in several years, and it was all because of WiFi. I needed to check my email while I was out today and saw that my phone was telling me that there was an open (i.e. unsecured) WiFi hotspot around me. I don’t use a lot of mobile data but instead use free WiFi the vast majority of time. So I pulled up the WiFi connections list on my phone to look for the open connection. When I was looking at the list I saw the name “Caleb Azure’s iPhone”. I knew a guy named Caleb Azure who was an associate pastor in Green Bay years ago. He moved out to California a few years ago and I haven’t seen him since then. So I was a little surprised when I saw his name associated with a iPhone signal that was around me.
So I looked around and saw a guy sitting in a car across from me that looked pretty much like Caleb. Of course, it isn’t really very cool to knock on a stranger’s car window so I thought I would reach out to Caleb via the only contact I have with him anymore … Twitter.
@CalebAzure hey Caleb not sure if you remember me or not but I think you are sitting in a Ford Taurus across from me in my van. Is that you?
And then I waited. I checked my email, looked around, twiddled my thumbs, and waited for him to look up or respond. He didn’t. I decided to just get out and knock on his car window. So I got out of my van, started to walk towards his car, and then stopped and turned around when I saw him start talking on his phone. After all it isn’t nice to interrupt someone’s phone call. I tweeted him again.
@CalebAzure I got out of my van to say hey but then you/not you started talking on your phone and I thought it would be rude to interrupt.
So I got back into my minivan and waited. I checked Twitter, looked at the steps I had walked during the day, and listened to a podcast about the history of Christianity. I waited till it became awkward. I kept looking to see if he looked up. He didn’t. I finally decided that I should go. So I tweeted that if it were him that I just barely missed him.
@ratterrell@CalebAzure Hi Robert. Yup, that was me. Thought I saw you walk by. Thanks for the note. Sorry I didn't catch you.
And as you can see from his tweet above he responded back 12 minutes later that it had actually been him. Small world and a weird way to discover that an acquaintance has moved back to Wisconsin.
In January I wrote about my possible and included in that post that the Leatherman that resides in my possible is thanks to my brother. Today I have a different Leatherman in my possible and it is thanks to my brother again. Here’s the story.
YEARS ago I bought my first Leatherman multitool and loved it. It was wonderful. I also bought a cheapo multitool which was okay but not great. Everything was usable on the cheapo multitool but it didn’t fit and feel near as good as the Leatherman. Of course, that didn’t matter much because I carried my Leatherman with me and just left the cheapo one in my vehicle’s glovebox.
Then one day I was at my parent’s house and pulled out my Leatherman to work on something with my dad. He immediately loved it and said he had been wondering how good they were. I told him no problem I have a cheapo one that I don’t use very much at all and he was welcome to it. Yeah if I were a good son I would have just handed him my Leatherman but I am my father’s son and therefore I have a strong cheap gene in my DNA. I reached into my glovebox, pulled out the cheapo multitool, and gave it to my dad. Dad was thrilled.
Well at least I thought I gave it to my dad. What I actually did was give him the Leatherman by mistake. Dad was happy and I drove the hours back home (I can’t remember if we were in Missouri or had just moved to Louisiana at the time). When I got home dad called up and asked if I had really meant to give him that multitool. When I said yep he responded with “I thought you were going to give me your cheap one, not the Leatherman. Thanks!”
I wish I could say that I purposefully gave him the Leatherman, but I can’t. I was really planning on giving him the cheap one. Yet my pride was such that I wasn’t going to tell my dad that I had meant to give him the cheap one. Nope as far as he was concerned I was going to make sure that he thought I gave him the Leatherman. And that is what he thought. So I stayed quite for years. At least a decade, possibly two.
When dad died back in October mom asked if there were any specific things that Ken and I wanted to take with us and that we would figure out everything else later. I told her I wanted one of dad’s knives for Adam, Noah, and me and that I wanted my Leatherman back. I told mom the story of how dad ended up with it originally. I don’t believe she had ever heard that story, not unless dad had figured out that I hadn’t actually meant to give him the Leatherman. So My mom, brother, and I looked everywhere we could for that stupid multitool. Every time we straighten something out or looked for something else we had the Leatherman in the back of our minds. None of us found it and our speculation was that he had possibly given it to someone else (not out of character for him) or dropped it in a river while fishing (not out of character either). I figured it was gone.
So my brother decided to surprise me for Christmas with a new Leatherman and a note. Christmas morning I opened up my present form my brother and read the note which said, “Merry Christmas. I probably stole the other one, so here is a new one.” It was a wonderful Christmas present and that Leatherman has been with me in my possible since Christmas morning. It has been used quite regularly.
You can see the Leatherman in the lower left corner
Then Ken had to go and top his Christmas present to me by actually finding the lost Leatherman that I had accidentally given to my dad. Pam, the boys, and I sent mom flowers for her and dad’s anniversary. By way of letting us know that she liked them the devious woman (that’s right mom, I said you are devious) decided to post a photo on Facebook with a hidden surprise. The Leatherman is on the table beside the flowers. Mom didn’t say a word about it. She just posited the photo and hope I would see the Leatherman. Ken had been cleaning out mom & dad’s Airstream and had accidentally found the Leatherman behind a coffee can of tools. I know I had looked there. I am positive of it.
Anyhow I now have two Leatherman’s in my possible bag that I am emotionally attached too because of my dad … and my brother.
Today I discovered that I was within 30 feet of an acquaintance that I haven’t seen in several years, and it was all because of WiFi. I needed to check my email while I was out today and saw that my phone was telling me that there was an open (i.e. unsecured) WiFi hotspot around me. I don’t use a lot of mobile data but instead use free WiFi the vast majority of time. So I pulled up the WiFi connections list on my phone to look for the open connection. When I was looking at the list I saw the name “Caleb Azure’s iPhone”. I knew a guy named Caleb Azure who was an associate pastor in Green Bay years ago. He moved out to California a few years ago and I haven’t seen him since then. So I was a little surprised when I saw his name associated with a iPhone signal that was around me.
