i don’t really argue much but i read the following articles today and quickly recommended them to a friend. i think they are both very good and therefore i’m posting them for you.
otherwise my mom will think i'm depressed
first, i have to post something (anything) because when i don’t post something every day my mom begins to worry that i am depressed. i’m not sure why she doesn’t think that i might be busy (other than the fact that she doesn’t actually think i do anything – insert smile here because it’s an inside joke with my mom and dad). all i know for sure is that just like she worries about the weather, and calls to give us reports before a storm comes to our area, so she also worries about me falling into depression when i don’t post something on this blog. so there i’ve posted something. of course, none of this really matters since my mother is on a cruise at the moment and won’t see this for another day or two. still it’s the thought that counts.
second, snow blowers are one of the greatest inventions of mankind. 20 minutes ago i used one of my neighbor’s to do our driveway and it was amazing. once snow season is over, and used snow blowers are once again available, i am definitely going to have to get me one of those things. it easily beats using a snow shovel.
the passage for next week is the parable of the great banquet found in luke 14.
winter wonderland
my family and i live in a postcard. we’re getting another 5-6″ of snow today & tonight. it’s absolutely gorgeous. when we moved up to central wisconsin from southern louisiana we had a large number of people around here question why we would want to move from a warm area to a land that has such harsh winters. i could see where the snow might get a little old in april but right now it’s amazing. when i walk or run i find myself staring in a amazement at how pretty the area is that GOD has moved us to. a little cold is well worth putting up with in order to live in such a beautiful area.
packer depression
so the miracle season ended last night. it was a lot of fun around here while it lasted. the funny thing has been listening to the radio shows around central wisconsin as they talk about the feelings of depression that people are experiencing because of the packers’ loss last night. i heard one guy on the radio say that during his two hour drive home from the game last night he decided that it would be best to lie to his kids and talk about how great the game and season was instead of admitting his depression to his kids and pulling them down.
huh?
i watched the game last night when my kids and wife. while, i do wish the pack could have pulled it out, the evening was still great fun. we shouted at the television, we cheered when the right things happened, and jeered when the right things didn’t happen. it was a great evening.
besides that, the chicago bears sucked so it really was a pretty good football season. 🙂
dang cold
it’s dang cold here in central wisconsin. when i walked the dogs this morning the real temprature was -17º. the wind chill pushed it down to -30º. oh yes it was wonderful.
as always thanks
just wanted to say “thanks” again to the wonderful youth, youth workers, and those who loved the parkview youth ministry who gave me the jambalaya pot and supplies as a going away present. it keeps on coming in handy. yesterday i got to make some jambalaya for a ministers’ prayer meeting that was going to happen and a couple of college students. unfortunately the ministers’ prayer meeting was canceled to the worst snow storm since we moved to wisconsin. still the left overs are feeding another group of ministers tuesday.
ah, it’s good stuff.
how to win a fight
i am not recommending anyone fight but i read this article and i thought it was interesting enough for others to read.
again i do not want anyone to get into a fight.
certainty?
over the past three days i have had two similar conversations with different people concerning the progress of their faith. both of these individuals where raise in very religious households and early on they were very certain about life and everything involved within it. they both then said almost word for word that as they grew up they became a great deal more uncertain about things and started pulling out of their perspective churches because their uncertainty didn’t fit that well within the “rock solid” knowledge of their church.
this is strange for me for because my faith has gone through the opposite journey. i became serious with my faith in my senior year of high school. as a teen i was certain that all the answers were easily found if you just found someone who could lead you in the right bible study. looking back at myself and being honest i need to say that i was probably obnoxious in my certainty. the longer i have lived in faith the more i have realized how little i know. i’ve realized that i’m no longer certain of the little things. there are now just a few things that i am absolutely convinced of, though interestingly enough my certainty on those things is greater than ever. i am more convinced than ever before that GOD loves us, that the purpose of life is to live within and with HIM, and that HE was and is willing to do everything HE can do to make sure that anyone who wants to is able to live within and with HIM. i am as sure of those things as i am that the sun will rise tomorrow or that the packers are the nfl team that everyone should pull for.
BUT
i’m not as sure concerning many of the smaller things within life. things that i used to be extremely dogmatic about are just not that important to me anymore. most of that change has happened because of a growth within my faith rather than in spite of it. as i, and for that matter pam also, have grown in our love for JESUS, and been pushed to live out our faith in a world that we now believe is filled with mystery, we have recognized more things that we just don’t know the answers for. that mystery actually encourages our faith rather than discouraging it. we believe the mysteries we see and experience and the uncertainties that often come with those mysteries are from JESUS. those uncertainties require us to respond in faith and that’s what HE likes.
i am certain that i hope to be a part of birthing a church that is certain of GOD’s love & community but okay with being uncertain on other things. of course, how GOD will do that through us is still a large mystery.
just for my southern friends
i thought i would just share with my friends and loved ones in the south that pam, the boys, two of their friends, and i decided at the last minute that we wanted to go sledding. we loaded the van and in five minutes we were at a sledding park going downhill. jealous?
here are a few photos.
ice fishing
yesterday was a banner day in regards to turning this southern boy into a snow bird. i spent around 10 hours on random sheets of ice all around stevens point. bright & early tuesday morning andy lickel the intervarsity campus minister at uwsp introduced me to the wonderful world of ice fishing. it was awesome. i had been thinking that there was no way that i would ever enjoy ice fishing and i was prepared to wait until the rivers thawed to begin my wisconsin fishing experience. thankfully though andy convinced me to try it and i loved it. i ended up buying some basic equipment and going back on the ice yesterday afternoon. i’ll also probably go back out tomorrow and/or friday morning or afternoon.
the only freaky thing about the fishing was the “mud puppy” that i caught. a “mud puppy” is a large aquatic salamander. the one i caught was somewhere between 15″ and 18″ long and probably weighted around a pound to a poun and a half. it truly freaked me out when i pulled it out of the hole. i didn’t know if the thing was safe or not. thankfully i didn’t scream like a girl because i doubt that would go over very well with the kind of guys who ice fish.
you can see a photo of the “mud puppy” here.
after the two ice fishing experiences i had a curling match and once again we won. our team record now is 7 -1. not bad for a white boy from alabama. of course, i am but far the worst player on our team.
if any of you have a spare moment for prayer i could really use it for tapestry. i have begun the process of specifically asking people to be a part of a core group. both they and i could really use GOD’s direction in knowing who should be involved in this thing.