Category: personal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeWxaXYFn04&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1FMvZjENh4ZEHmPJQHpg1KQ5BVIhVzGgBN-UBl4-nLDeIq6Lzbp3uXlc0

This short video is pretty awesome … well unless you are the owner of the sailboat. I don’t think the sea lions care that this sailboat wasn’t really designed to function as a resting rock for them, they are going to use it for this purpose anyhow. I love the fact that a third sea lion tried to get on the boat but was denied by the other two. That would have been very interesting.

I’m sure there is an illustration in there somewhere concerning using things in our life for purposes they weren’t meant for (for good or bad) but it is December 30th and such thoughts are beyond me at the moment.

I really hoped the sailboat survived without too much damage.

ht Jami

The photo attached to this post is from my favorite chaplaining discussion from yesterday. The doodle on the right side of the image is my attempt at describing a stack pole. A “stack pole” is an ancient agricultural concept that I learned while studying theology. Within theology is was meant to convey the central idea that gives shape and structure to all of your other theology. In the image attach to this post the stack pole is the dark line that is draw in the center of what is supposed to be a haystack. (Don’t judge my haystack – this was a conversational doodle, not an attempt at art).

I am not a farmer, nor the son of a farmer (though I did have a step-grandfather that was a hobby gardener and really liked to use all his step-grandkids as free labor on his hobby garden – but we didn’t deal with hay so I didn’t learn this from him, however I have dug more potatoes and picked more green beans and tomatoes than I care to remember), but I learned about stack poles because of the theological discussion.

A stack pole is the pole in the center of a haystack that gives the stack structure for stability, shape, and aeration. The stack pole makes the haystack sound and reliable. Without a stack pole the haystack has to have some other form of structure or it will fall down on itself, become unmanageable, or even worse, combust from the heat that accompanies a lack of aeration.

So often in discussion I describe a “stack pole” to people in an attempt to help them figure out what is the person/concept/thing that lends structure to everything else in their life. What is the ultimate “yes” in my life that determines whether I say “yes” or “no” to everything else? This stack pole gives and shapes meaning to everything else. For me this stack pole is Jesus.

For far too many people I believe there is no “stack pole” in their lives, or, maybe even worse, what they have as their ultimate “yes” is nowhere near strong enough to be the center pole of their lives and thus can’t handle the weight such need for meaning brings – this can lead to chaos. In a post in September I mentioned Søren Kierkegaard’s famous quote, “purity of heart is to will one thing,” which is another way of expressing, and probably a better way because it is from Kierkegaard after all, what I mean by “stack pole”. I hope you have a stack pole that gives structure to your life. If not, or if you are realizing that what has been your “stack pole” isn’t up to snuff, then I know a great God that is the perfect “stack pole”.

Any how this post was really about two things:

• first, I love what I get to do in life
• two, I love when a conversation leads to a doodle.

Today, thanks to my wonderful wife, we are trying out what I believe will become a new Terrell Thanksgiving lunch tradition. Our friends and family who gather today will participate in a shared reading. Pam found this reading on The Rabbit Room and we both love it because of the idea of our meal as a battle against the lie of the enemy. God says you are loved and He invites you into communion. The adversary says you are alone and separate from everyone else. Thus a meal in the name of Christ becomes a battle against the power of the enemy. My wife has really cool ideas.

Here’s the reading.

CELEBRANT: To gather joyfully is indeed a serious affair, for feasting and all enjoyments gratefully taken are, at their heart, acts of war.

PEOPLE: In celebrating this feast we declare that evil and death, suffering and loss, sorrow and tears, will not have the final word.

But the joy of fellowship, and the welcome and comfort of friends new and old, and the celebration of these blessings of food and drink and conversation and laughter are the true evidences of things eternal, and are the first fruits of that great glad joy that is to come and that will be unending.

So let our feast this day be joined to those sure victories secured by Christ,

Let it be to us now a delight, and a glad foretaste of his eternal kingdom.

Bless us, O Lord, in this feast.

Bless us, O Lord, as we linger over our cups, and over this table laden with good things, as we relish the delights of varied texture and flavor, of aromas and savory spices, of dishes prepared as acts of love and blessing, of sweet delights made sweeter by the communion of saints.

May this shared meal, and our pleasure in it, bear witness against the artifice and deceptions of the prince of the darkness that would blind this world to hope.

May it strike at the root of the lie that would drain life of meaning, and the world of joy, and suffering of redemption.

May this our feast fall like a great hammer blow against that brittle night, shattering the gloom, reawakening our hearts, stirring our imaginations, focusing our vision

on the kingdom of heaven that is to come,

on the kingdom that is promised,

on the kingdom that is already, indeed, among us,

For the resurrection of all good things has already joyfully begun.

All participants now lift their glasses or cups.

May this feast be an echo of that great Supper of the Lamb,

a foreshadowing of the great celebration that awaits the children of God.

Where two or more of us are gathered, O Lord, there you have promised to be.

And here we are.

And so, here are you. Take joy, O King, in this our feast.

Take joy, O King!

Glasses are clinked with celebratory chime, and participants in the feast savor a drink, admonishing one another heartily with these sincere words:

Take joy!

All will be well!

Participants take up the cry:

All will be well!

Nothing good and right and true will be lost forever. All good things will be restored. Feast and be reminded! Take joy, little flock. Take joy! Let battle be joined!

Let battle be joined!

Now you who are loved by the Father, prepare your hearts and give yourself wholly to this celebration of joy, to the glad company of saints, to the comforting fellowship of the Spirit, and to the abiding presence of Christ who is seated among us both as our host and as our honored guest, and still yet as our conquering king.

Amen.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, take seat, take feast, take delight!

I think I referenced Augustine of Hippo‘s famous quote “Love and do what you will” during our small group Tuesday night (BTW if you are not in a small group of people who are trying to do faith together, 1) I think you should be, and 2) you are more than welcome to join us – we meet on Tuesday nights at the Terrell abode and we bring things to share a common meal as we read and talk about faith), but if it wasn’t there then I referenced it in another conversation recently. Therefore, I thought I would post the context from which it comes. Here’s its context:

What I have said so far applies to actions that are similar. When they are different, we find people made fierce by love; and by wickedness made seductively gentle. A father beats a boy, while a kidnapper caresses him. Offered a choice between blows and caresses, who would not choose the caresses and avoid the blows? But when you consider the people who give them you realize that it is love that beats, wickedness that caresses. This is what I insist upon: human actions can only be understood by their root in love. All kinds of actions might appear good without proceeding from the root of love. Remember, thorns also have flowers: some actions seem truly savage, but are done for the sake of discipline motivated by love. Once and for all, I give you this one short command: love, and do what you will. If you hold your peace, hold your peace out of love. If you cry out, cry out in love. If you correct someone, correct them out of love. If you spare them, spare them out of love. Let the root of love be in you: nothing can spring from it but good.

You can find the entire sermon here. I’ve got nothing to add to that. Love and do what you will.

Bragging on my awesome wife because a while back she said “you need to be free on this Friday afternoon because we are going to go to Chicago for a surprise for you.” That’s all the info I got. I only discovered when we walked up to the Broadway Theater that Pam had bought two tickets to An Evening with C.S. Lewis. It was wonderful. As usual I am very grateful for Pam.

The “Go to Church or the Devil will Get You” sign doesn’t necessarily state what I believe about faith. The devil isn’t going to “get you” if you aren’t in church and going to church, while amazingly important for faith (solitary Christianity doesn’t really fit with the faith that Jesus expressed), isn’t the same as faith. Still I have loved this sign for years for one simple reason. Driving past this sign was an essential part of our family road trips to Mobile, AL (the sign is close to Prattville, AL which is about two and a half hours North of Mobile). Thus I always looked forward to seeing it, and usually tried to grab a picture of it when I drove past it.

Thus last week I was thrilled to accidentally run across a sticker of this sign on redbubble – I have a thing for stickers, I like to put interesting ones on my church stool, which is why people randomly give me cool stickers, I look for free ones, and every now and then I buy some. When I saw the sticker on redbubble I figured I needed to buy one as a reminder of those trips. Pam thought she needed one too. They came in the mail today. I am excited to place this new sticker on my church stool. It will go on there this week.

Of course, in order to see this sticker you will need to be at one of Tapestry‘s worship gatherings and therefore, based on the sign’s logic, you will be safe from the devil getting you since you are at Tapestry seeing this sticker in the first place. 🙂