Supposedly it is Spring somewhere in the World. đ This is what my drive to Ashland today looked like. Real pretty but it’s May so it really shouldn’t look like this.
Springtime for Wisconsin?
Interviewing
I interviewed for a part-time chaplain position today in Central Wisconsin and, at the very least, I know I made it through their first “weed out” round because they have already emailed me saying they want to go to the next step out of a total of three interviews and two personality/spiritual inventories. I know a lot of people don’t feel this way but I love job interviews. I find the whole process enjoyable. I think part of it is because during an interview people seem to care about why you do something rather than just caring that what you do works. What I do should work and be effective but I think the why do something is very important also.
Anyhow, it was fun. We’ll see where it goes from here.
Jurgen Moltmann, Experiences of God, p. 21.
On the contrary, what we really feel is anxiety: that vague, oppressive feeling about what is going to happen which always expects the worst, and the gloom which does not believe oneself or other people capable of anything positive. Anxiety is the reason why so many people only see the future as a threat to the present; they no longer view it as a chance for something new. Anxiety is the reason why many young people are not just afraid of death, but are already afraid of life. Anxiety is the reason why many people no longer understand what is going on in the world and look round for scapegoats among its leaders. … The most that many people hope for from the future is that they will go on possessing what they have at present, and that the annual rate of growth will be secured. And it is just this, moreover, that they were promised in New Years speeches and addresses Let us not complain about that here. But we have to ask, quite specifically: when did we destroy our future? Where did we bury our hopes?
Jurgen Moltmann, Experiences of God, p. 21.
Threads are the Best
In this case the “threads” in question are the “threads” who regularly setup for our Sunday night worship gathering. I try to be the first person at setup each week and to start working before anyone else gets there. When I can’t be there early I make sure the setup team knows it and I try to make sure there is extra help there. This weekend I was (and I still am at this point) on call for my Clinical Pastoral Education time at St. Michael’s Hospital. I have been called in to the hospital several times today. I was just returning from one call at St. Mike’s and pulling into Washington Elementary school at 4 p.m. (my normal time to get there) when I received another call to get back to the hospital for an emergency. Crud. I was a little freaked out and worried about the setup but there was no need for me to be because the “threads” jumped up and took care of it all. I rushed back to Washington a little after 5 p.m. to find everything had already been taken care of. You guys are the best.
The De-Snowing of Frank
I’m a big fan of Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, a.k.a. Francis of Assisi and so Pam and the boys gave me a Frank statuary a good while back. Besides being a good reminder to try and live a no holds bars faith in Christ, he also serves as a snow depth measure. đ
Here’s the melt from this year. April 6th through 26th.
You Are More Beautiful Than You Think You Are
Tapestry & Team World Vision
I just finished talking with a guy I met at the Whistlestop Marathon back in October of last year who coordinates Team World Vision groups. We talked about starting a group at Tapestry and getting people to run a race together, he suggested the Twin Cities Marathon in October, for the purpose of helping people have access to clean water. You see every $50 you raise in a Team World Vision group secures a person a LIFETIME of clean water in an area where it is desperately needs. That’s right I said a LIFETIME. I think that is very cool.
Anyhow he talked about this being something for non-runners more than runners which I thought was interesting. He had a good point and that is that it is more of a sacrifice for non-runners. I’ve run with Team World Vision before and I loved it. Jim, my brother-in-law, and I ran the Chicago Marathon as a part of Team World Vision and it was really cool but all we were doing was adding a good thing to an event we were already going to do. That’s a great and all but it isn’t really a sacrifice. A sacrifice is for a person to commit to doing something that scares him/her not because they want to love running or desire to check off a bucket list item but instead because they want to raise money for people to have clean water. That type of sacrifice can be transformational not just for the people being helped but also for the person helping and the community he/she belongs to. That’s pretty cool.
Now to find out what the Leadership Team thinks and then work through details such as:
- Local event or premiere event – a premiere event means running with hundreds of other World Vision runners.Â
- Marathon or half marathon – the easier choice might not be best.
- Starting training groups for all sorts of level.
- Fund raising to provide as many people as possible with clean water.
- Bringing others in to the group.
- Pressing on toward the goal.
I also kind of like the thought of not allowing ourselves to quake in fear because of the horror that happened in Boston. Instead of just doing a symbolic thumbing of the nose to terrorists I believe running with Team World Vision turns our run it into an act of reducing the terror in the world by helping others to have clean water. God defeats evil with sacrificial love and I believe His people should too.
There is a really good chance you will hear more about this.
The 2013 Oshkosh Half Marathon Experience
So yesterday was a fun day. I was scheduled to run the Oshkosh half marathon for the fourth time. The half marathon is my favorite race distance, long enough to be a decent challenge but short enough that I can still function the next day. The same is not true of the marathon distance. The Oshkosh Half Marathon is one of my favorite races because it is large enough (1,200ish for the half alone) that you are always running with people around you and has been consistently well organized. Just for the fun of it here are the races that I have enjoyed running in the most:
- Chicago Marathon – Absolutely amazing. The only other races I can imagine being as good would be Boston and New York.
- Point Bock Run 5 mile (Stevens Point) – It is local, 2500ish runners, and a huge party after the run that people have to be chased away from.
- Oshkosh Half Marathon – Reasons stated before.
- Frostbite 10 mile run (Stevens Point) – It is local and you never know what’s going to happen weather-wise – really I’ve run it in everything from mid-50s weather and 4″ of snow coming down.
Anyhow here’s how my day went yesterday. I left home at 4:30 am to make it to Oshkosh in time for the 7 am race start. At 5 am I clipped my very first deer. I don’t mean my first deer in Wisconsin. I mean my first deer ever. Stupid thing ran out in front of me on a two-lane highway when I was going 55 mph. I literally screamed. I’ve heard stories of deer totaling vehicles and hurting drivers. I was sure it was going to be bad. Turns out it wasn’t that bad at all. Scratched some paint off the bumper of Fred the Sentra but that is no big deal because I hope to paint her this Summer. I think the deer probably made it away from our encounter with nothing more than a slight bruise on its hind quarter. I make it to Oshkosh with adrenaline in my system but really none the worse otherwise.
So then I ran the race. I haven’t run much since doing the Whistlestop Marathon in October. In fact, I haven’t run a distance longer than 7 miles since then and with all the snow and cold temps we’ve had this Winter I’ve only been running around 10-15 miles per week. So my plan for the Oshkosh Half Marathon was for it to be part of my prep for running as things warm up. My goal is to set a new personal best (PB) for the half marathon this year. Right now my PB is 1:58:40 and I am convince I can get it down to at least 1:57 perhaps sub-1:55. The Oshkosh Half was just going to be a training run. I started running with the 2:20 pace group hoping to finish at around 2:17ish. I figured at that pace I could run the half and still felt good enough to still set up for Tapestry that evening. I started off and felt great so I pushed it a little bit. The weather was supposed to be horrible. It wasn’t and that helped. Instead of being cold, overcast, and windy, with rain, sleet, and snow it was just cold, overcast, and windy with just a few spittings of snow. Not bad. Ended up finishing in 2:09:47. I’m pretty pleased with that. I was also a little confused when I crossed the finish line because I saw the person 10 spots in front of me get a medal and then everyone suddenly looked confused. There were no more medals. That’s right they ran out of medals. Marathon and half marathon medals are part of the fun and you only get to wear them without looking like an idiot immediately after the race. They said they would send me a medal through the mail but I can’t really wear it anywhere when I get it.  Oh well. So I found my car and started to head back to Plover.
Everything was going swimmingly. I was driving through a snow storm but it wasn’t accumulating and I was thankful for that. I also felt good after the race. I was almost home, about 18 miles out, when my driver’s side front tire blew out on Highway 10. The good news? The Sentra handles great with a front tire blow out. The bad news? Well I found that out when I tried to change my tire. The spare was great, which I had check when I bought Fred from Eric. What I didn’t check was if Fred had a jack. She didn’t. I pulled out the spare and waited for AAA to bring me a jack. That took about 45 minutes to complete something I could have finished in 5 minutes by myself. Anyhow that was the end of my journey. I still think the Oshkosh Half Marathon is a great race. Now I need to register for another race.
Cool
It is a very cool feeling seeing people tweet things about Pamela’s session at a conference where she is presenting. I am married to one dang impressive woman.
http://twitter.com/dharmagirl1974/status/325254357740306432
The Church & Aspergers
Because of being married to one of the most impressive human beings in all of creation I have recently become very interested in how people with Aspergers relate to the church. Pam does some fascinating things with people who have Aspergers as a part of her work. Since the Trinity is the central theology for all of my thought and faith I find the reality of people who long for social interaction but have to deal with various amounts of inability of dealing with social interaction compelling. There are tons of resources and people on the web who can give great definitions of Aspergers Syndrome. I am not one of those people. What I know I have learned from Pam and from limited engagement with a few people who have told me they have Aspergers. What I understand from my limited experience is that people with Aspergers usually struggle with social engagement because of an inability to get many of the rules of social engagement that the rest of us naturally pick up on. This is a very limited definition that I know some of you could expand on better than I can. Anyhow, this inability doesn’t mean that people with Aspergers do not want social interaction, in fact Pam has told me that they often long for it. Something can be fearful and longed for at the same time. Since I believe that we were created in the image of a God who is social in His very nature I find this whole situation compelling. How does the church help someone who fears and has trouble with social situations and yet desires and needs social interaction?
I don’t have the answer. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t think through possible options. The one I want to try right now comes from a podcast I was listening to. In it the speaker talked about giving a lecture at Microsoft and he was upset by the fact that all the software engineers who were supposed to be listening to his lecture had their heads down in their laptops instead. He mentioned this to someone and was told they were watching a webcast of his lecture. Turns out it was more comfortable for these engineers to watch a webcast of him than to look him in the eyes all the time. A couple of “thread” programmers and I are thinking about the possibility of an app that would display a webcast of our Sunday night gatherings along with the scripture, lyrics, and PowerPoint slides. Would this make the social aspect of church easier for someone with social anxiety issues. Not sure but I am intrigued by it.
I believe the God who is community in and of Himself wants us to do whatever we can to help others connect to His community. Even if this means participating with the community through a screen instead of eye contact.