Just saw this year’s People are Awesome video thanks to kottke.org. Wow. People are awesome.
A Day of Freezing
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.
I Bring My Own Music
As a part of my Clinical Pastoral Education I am in the process of being a chaplain intern at St. Michael’s hospital. This has meant going up to St. Mike’s for various “employee” setup activities over the past two days. Today’s was visit one of three for my employee health screening.
While in the nurse’s office I started to notice the Muzak that was playing through the PA system. It was Rich Mullins. I thought to myself, “I love Rich Mullins” and then moved on with the rest of the visit. Leaving the Employee Health office I started walking to the Spiritual Services office and noticed that they were playing Derek Webb and once again I thought to myself “I love Derek Webb.” After that song the next song was a rather obscure song from Waterdeep and I thought to myself “this is the best Muzak station ever. I am going to love interning here.
When I got to my supervisor’s office and sat down he immediately asked “do you hear that?” I didn’t hear anything. So he asked “is your phone ringing.” I took it out and looked. Nope, nothing there. He then asked “do you hear that music?” I told him that all I heard was the PA Muzak. That’s when he told me there was no Muzak in the hospital.
Turn’s out my mp3 player had been playing my music the whole time. At least I know I really like my music. 🙂
Leadership, Intern, & Nook Color
Been a fun day of ministry and geekiness.
Ministry – Spent the day dealing with the team that interviews the prospective new members of the Tapestry Leadership Team. Lots of fun going through the biblical qualifications of an overseer and dealing with important questions concerning who Tapestry is and how to stay properly focused on who we are. I love meetings like that. Then I got to start the process of being a chaplain intern at St. Michael’s hospital as a part of the Clinical Pastoral Education that I am doing this semester. I’ll talk more about this sometime later. I am pretty excited about the whole process. Anyhow the whole thing took a little longer than I expected but it was really cool. Tomorrow I go back for the health screening. Yea! TB test.
Geekiness – I just finished rooting my Nook Color into a full scale Android Tablet. Fun! Turns out the Nook Color has bluetooth built into its hardware even though bluetooth isn’t used in the Barnes & Noble software. So I hooked the now rooted Nook Color to a bluetooth keyboard to type this little post.
Not a bad day. Yea I live a fun life.
Idealism and Practice
I have smart friends. It is a nice thing every now and then but often it is a pain. The reason it is a pain is because they get me to read things that I wouldn’t read on my own. One of those friends who is a pain is my friend Clint. Presently I am reading "A Distant Mirror" by Barbara Tuchman because of Clint suggesting it. The problem with the book is two fold. 1) It is a long book that covers a lot of detailed events and people, and 2) it is really good and therefore I can’t just dismiss it as boring and stop reading it.
Darn you Clint.
Any how "A Distant Mirror" is basically about 14th century France in the midst of the Black Plague. It is fascinating. I have studied more about ancient societies than I have medieval Europe so this is a relatively new subject for me. One of the things that is intriguing me the most the author’s description of how idealism and practice pertained to the three estates of medieval European society. Apparently European society of the middle ages was amazingly idealistic. It makes sense considering the fact that we still understand the concept of chivalry (a distinct form of medieval thought). Society was separated into three estates that were supposed to b mutually supportive.
- The Clergy
- The Nobility
- The Commoners
Each estate had a roll. The clergy and nobility were supposedly focsed on the potection of society. The nobility protected society through the use of arms while the clergy potected society through a focus on faith, thought, and government. The commoners focused on the production of society. In theory each estate supported each other and helped society through that support.
Of course, the theory wasn’t usually lived out. Each estate often, at best, forgot to support one another. Instead of protecting the commoners the nobility, the estate that was supposed to be the millitary protection of society, actually became the biggest threat that the commoners faced during their daily lives. Interesting side note – Tuchman discussed that since the destruction of the means of production has been a pretty common form of warfare throughout history it was often common for knights to fight against unarmed commoners. Thus hurting their enemy’s economy by hurting the society’s ability to produce. Armored knights fighting unarmed civilians, not really what you think of when you think of chivalry is it?
Anyhow the idealism of the time was talked and written about a lot. It was common knowledge in European society. It was the source of souch of their literature and entertainment. I mean their idealism has surived 600 years which is why you and I still know what it means to b chivalrous. Yet their ideals often didn’t translate into their actions. The potectors became the persecutors. Of course, it wasn’t just the nobility who did this. The clergy and the commoners did it too. The nobility are just the easiest to point out. Instead of functioning according to their ideals they did the exact opposite.
Sound familair? Yeah they are so different from us.
Now I have to go back to reading this long book. Thanks Clint.
Image Bearer
I have many smart and talented friends. Josh C is one of these. While watching responses (tweets and Facebook statuses) from last night’s Golden Globes ceremony he tweeted the following:
awards shows often reveal how easily Christians forget that celebrities are people, made in the image of God, worthy of dignity & respect
— Josh Causey (@joshcausey) January 14, 2013
He is, of course, right. Personally I needed the reminder to see the image of God in all around me and to respond appropriately to that image.
SIDE NOTE – Why yes I did specifically pick the above image because of the line that looks like Jesus has some type of laser bad breath weapon. Thanks for noticing. 🙂
Stupid Saturn
Just finished changing the oil in the Saturn that my mom and dad gave to the boys and it only cost me $2 more to change the oil myself than it would have if I had taken it to an oil change business. Yeah.
This is no something that would usually happen to me. I’ve been changing the oil in most of my cars since I was 16. I say most because I have NEVER changed the oil in the minivan. Everything in the minivan’s engine compartment is too tight so I usually pay some company to change the oil in it. I guess that spoiled me because I have been taking the Saturn to the same place for its oil changes. Unfortunately that oil change place just went out of business and therefore I thought I would change the oil in the Saturn.
Turns out the Saturn has a cartridge filter rather than the canister filter that ever other car I have ever owned has had. I’ve never changed a canister filter before. This means that after I finally found the stupid thing I still didn’t know that it is important to use a socket rather than a wrench to unscrew the filter cap (pictured above). So I used a wrench and cracked the cap. Cha ching. $10. Then I needed to buy the correct size socket. Cha ching again. $6. So instead of the $16 I thought it would cost me to change the oil, it cost $32.
Stupid Saturn.
Actually I should probably blame myself. If I hadn’t just assumed that I knew what I was doing because I had changed the oil in many other cars before this one then it wouldn’t have happened. If I had stopped and read how to do this before I started instead of just assuming I knew exactly what to do then I would have changed the oil for only $22 ($16 for oil and filter plus $6 for the socket). I should probably remember this for other things in life. Of course, it is just so much easier for me to blame the folks that designed the Saturn.
Stupid Saturn.
Lambeau On A Cold Day
In 1980 I became convinced that James Lofton was the greatest receiver in the NFL and since he played for the Green Bay Packers they had to be the best team in the NFL. Lofton later left the Pack and turned out to probably not be the nicest guy but I never stopped loving the Packers. After all Bart Starr played for them so there was plenty of reason for this Alabama boy to pull for the Pack. I pulled for them when we were in Cowboy-country. I pulled for them when we were in Chiefs/Rams country and even decorated a section for the Packers during the First Baptist Church of 
Carthage’s Super Bowl party because they should have beat the Cowboys and gone to Super Bowl XXX. Finally I pulled for the Pack when we were in Saints territory.
I never thought I would be able to go to Lambeau field. That happened when I ran the Green Bay marathon and then I thought I would never be able to go to a game. That changed last year when I got to go to a pre-season game at Lambueau. Today I got to do one better by going to a VERY COLD regular season game in Lambeau. A cold game at Lambeau is about as quintessential an NFL experience as you can get. It was AWESOME! Not only did the Pack win, they dominated. 55 to 7. The Pack would have even had a shutout if it weren’t for one play.
I guess the next step is a Packers/Bears game at Lambeau. That would have to be good. Almost Iron Bowl like
I even kind of enjoyed the two drunk guys behind us who claimed to be the biggest sports fans around and then kept asking “how did we get the ball?” They paid a lot of money to have the privilege of paying really high prices for beer and ignore the game.
Thanks Kayleigh and Joe for inviting us. It was great. Go Pack! Go!
Lonely
And how I woke up one day and realized that I’d traveled across the world expecting people to meet me, instead of trying to meet them. How can you be lonely, Mom said, when there are always people who want to share their stories with you, to tell you about their lives and families and dreams and plans?
Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club
Without Sacrifice
The pagan Sallustius wrote
Prayers without sacrifices are only words, with sacrifices they are live words; the word gives meaning to the life, while the life animates the word. “On the Gods and the World”
I don’t usually turn to 4th century pagan authors for instruction concerning my faith but I think Sallustius’ point is very much in line with one of the major teachings of scripture and that is that our words are powerful only when matched with action. For example James says
What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. James 2:14-17
Those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ need to remember that are words are only powerful when they are a part of action and faith. Anyone can say something when it costs them nothing. There is no bravery or admirable quality in making a fine speech about trusting in Christ. The brave and admirable quality is found when someone’s words are backed up by action and sacrifice. Such words are costly and through their costly nature God makes them powerful.
Now Sallustius was talking about literal animal sacrifices which were a part of his religion. Our sacrifices are different. Our sacrifices are personal. They involve our time, our money, our attitudes, our energy, and more. This past Sunday night at Tapestry I talked about some of the Christmas cliché’s like “Jesus is the reason for the season” or “keep Christ in Christmas” (this last one drives me nuts – if your god can be chased out of something then he isn’t God.). I think those statements are weak and pathetic usually because there are no actions or sacrifice behind them. You say “Jesus is the reason for the season” and then celebrate the Incarnation the same way as those who don’t believe anything about Jesus. You say “keep Christ in Christmas” and then remember His birth in manners that ignore people in need who bear His image. Weak. Pathetic. Powerless.
Come on people! May we live in such a way that our Christmas words and prayers have sacrifice behind them and they are thereby powerful. May we celebrate the birth of Christ in a manner that pleases Him.
SIDE NOTE – While searching for a link for this post I found this icon of Christ and it maybe my favorite image of Jesus for the next month or so (I have a odd fascination with weird images of Christ). It looks to me like Jesus as a grumpy, Jewish, middle aged man whereas Jesus was only the latter two of those three descriptors.
