Category: random thoughts

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fall from grace?

fall from grace

today i heard someone use the phrase “fall from grace” in regards to all the stuff going on in the life of the tiger woods family. i don’t really care to write anything about what has happened with tiger & elin woods. i do, however, want to talk about that phrase. “fall from grace” seems to imply that we are “in grace” when everything is going great and we are doing everything right. in the case of tiger woods he was apparently living “in grace” when he was a billion dollar athlete with all those corporations wanting to use his skills as a golfer to sell their products. then he apparently “fell from grace” when he lost all that? at least that they way i understood the use of the phrase.

seems like that is the way the phrase is usually used. its said when someone’s perfect life is destroyed by their own screw ups and the public is no longer in love with them. someone has an affair, gets caught doing something crooked, or giving into what they shouldn’t and they have suddenly “fallen from grace.”

except that’s not what grace is about. grace means receiving the very thing we do not deserve. we are in grace when we have been and are being forgiven of the very things we don’t deserve to be forgiven of. we have the opportunity of “falling into grace” right at the moment that we realize that we have really screwed up. i guess the way we really “fall out of grace” is by rejecting the forgiveness that is being offered to us. grace is not something that we “fall out of” when life is falling apart. instead, it is at those very screwed up moments that we actually have the opportunity to fall into the arms of grace.

i hope tiger (and all of us) “fall into grace” because grace always seems to have a way of lifting people back up.

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i caught you a delicious bass

water bottle

i drink a fair amount of water. i prefer to do this from a waterbottle which is why i usually carry one around with me. i had a perfect steel one that i had gotten off of amazon for $6 last year. about 4 weeks ago it went missing. i’ve looked all over for it and i can’t find it. where ever it is i hope that it is as happy as a well loved bottle bottle can be.

saturday i found the above cheap, bad boy at fleet farm (we love fleet farm). it was $6.94 and has the pattern of a black bass imprinted on it. i’m not sure there has ever been a better water bottle. i am very happy.

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a few random things

*the above video is a commercial that i think is quite cool. hd cameras sent into near space via balloon. for the fun of it they videoed a vintage chair the whole time. it makes for some amazing images. wait for the end when the balloon pops.

*i love my wife, which shouldn’t be a surprise. it thrilled me to read some of pamela’s thoughts on tapestry that she posted on her blog. you can read them here. i agree with everything she said except for the part about the preacher. i’m a little sick of hearing him.

*i read a statement today saying that some central african nomads value their freedom so much that they refer to houses as the “graces of the living.” i wonder if our lifestyles don’t function much like graves, trapping us into death.

*like an idiot i decided to go to the standing rock dog park yesterday after having “jumped” my car off. i was convinced that i just needed to drive my car a little while to recharge its battery. boy was i wrong. my battery was completely dead. it was bad enough being stuck 10 miles outside of town but even worse that i forgot the jumper cables and my cell phone.  i couldn’t find anyone at the park who had jumper cables but i was eventually able to borrow a cell phone to call pam. why would i pay for a cell phone and not bring it with me? not one of my brighter moments.

*ROLL TIDE! ROLL! i’m enjoying watching bama’s season from afar.

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guns and evangelism?


as we discussed at tapestry last week there is some military terminology used within the new testament to describe the life of a follower of CHRIST(ephesians 6:11-20 for example). yet i think many CHRISTians do a really poor job of using these military descriptions in front of non-believers in such a manner that they are not perceived as threatening. i was most convinced of this when pam and i watched “JESUS camp” with some non-evangelical friends. i understood the lingo was being used in the movie so while i didn’t agree with it i wasn’t scared by it. that’s part of the problem of being in a culture, you get used to things that others might not understand. our friends were alarmed by the terminology. they were reminded of al quaeda. i didn’t really blame them.

the above video is another example of such terminology being used in a manner that could easily be perceived as scary. it’s from my alma mater, swbts. the point of the video should be a good thing … let’s share the gospel with our neighbors. instead it is a video of some students caring guns and talking about “taking the hill.” i think some of my friends would be truly scared of this video.

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fall back

oh how i love you my yearly extra hour. falling back is a wonderful thing. why do we ever have to spring forward? springing forward sucks.

of course, it also means that it will be dark at 5 p.m. tomorrow and soon 3:45 (yes it gets darks in wisconsin that early when the depths of winter hits us). i’m not a huge fan of the early darkness. it makes it difficult to find the time to run and pam swears that she suffers from seasonal affective disorder due to the lack of sunlight.

to recap – extra hour = good, lack of sunlight = bad.

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consumer culture and faith

i’ve started reading “consuming religion” by vincent miller and it is very interesting. miller basically says that modern theology is completely silent on the most important cultural issue of our day – consumerism. this is not a simple “don’t spend money” book but an analysis of a set of values that are competing with CHRISTian faith. it is very interesting thus far though at this point i don’t completely know how to respond to it. miller points out that consumerism doesn’t really debate with ideologies . instead it merely tries to place its practices upon the ideology and thereby wins the battle. for example, all the che’ shirts or pushing advent conspiracy and deciding it is such a good idea that we should start selling advent conspiracy t-shirts, bracelets, etc. or consider the example of kurt cobain, a signer/song writer who sang about the shallowness of pop culture and the system loved him and sold tons of albums for nivarna. consumerism says there’s no need to battle over ideas when it can agree with your ideas and sell more crap. how do you battle something that will simply agree with your ideas and place its practices on your ideas.

like i said, thus far it is very interesting. right now i’m just glad that i got the book from the library rather than having bought it. 🙂

after i finish this im looking forward to starting “consumed” by benjamin barber and “lead us into temptation” by james twitchwell.

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can’t sleep when i need to

in an hour i leave for my latest d.min seminar at nobts (i have a very early flight) and i can’t sleep. therefore i’m sitting at my computer, watching the sportscenter replay, and thinking how much i love tapestry. it’s always cool to have a guest from another local church visit and say “this was a very enjoyable evening because it is really obvious that you guys love each other.” that happened, again, tonight. i love hearing things like that about tapestry. as always i am just honored that i get to be a part of you guys.

as for the d. min seminar i’m looking forward to the course because the reading has been quite good, i’m looking forward to the food because i’ll be eating in new orleans (which is always a good thing) and i’m looking forward to hanging out with josh causey & a few others (josh has been nice enough to give me a place to stay for a few days). i would love to hang out with all the people i love in baton rouge but the seminar doesn’t finish each day till around 9 pm so i don’t really have a lot of time.

on the other hand i am not looking forward to the humidity or heat. it’s sweater weather here in wisconsin and that is the way it should be.

SIDE NOTE – my bag is loaded with cheese!

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an odd place to have pride

i haven’t given blood in eight years. i used to do so regularly but going to nicaragua changed all that. according to the red cross going to nicaragua excludes you from giving blood for a period of one year after your visit. since i’ve been going to nicaragua for eight straight years i haven’t been able to give blood during that time period.

before going to nicaragua i gave blood a couple of time a year. every time i gave i would here the same thing … “your blood pumps out fast. you are an excellent donor.” i always finished before anyone else because my veins did such a great job of filling the pint donation bag. i know it is a rather odd thing to feel proud about but i was proud of it. in essence i felt good about the fact that if i was ever cut in a major vein i would bleed out quickly.

that all changed thursday when i found out that i could give plasma even though i have been to nicaragua in the past calendar year.

i know many people around here who give plasma at biolife. college students, neighbors, campus ministers, etc. i really know a great number of people who do this. in fact, the manager of the stevens point biolife branch was my curling skipper two years ago. i figured after two years i would give this thing a try to see what the whole experience is like. i think that is something pastors should do – learn what everyone is going through.

so i went there, filled out the paper work, went through a brief physical, and then was plug into a machine. suddenly my veins became shy. i was convinced that i would be in and out of biolife rather quickly. after all, i am the guy with great veins. instead i went almost double the average time. instead of beating the 45 minutes to an hour that biolife says it should take to complete the donation, i went 1 1/2 hours. in fact, after 45 minutes in my left arm i had only filled 1/3 of a donation bag. so they swapped me to my right arm. that’s right, i was stabbed in both arms. little 110 lbs girls were flying through their donation while my great veins held in every drop of blood they could.

i don’t know why this bothered me but it really did. i think i am going to try it again just to prove that i could do better. really i have great veins. please believe me. their great.

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a few random thoughts

RANDOM THOUGHT #1 – in doing some of the required reading for my next d.min seminar, “doctrinal foundstions,” it was cool to run across jurgen moltmann as one of the most significant theologians of the 20th century and then to realize that i’ll be listening to him and stand a good chance of meeting him in three weeks.

RANDOM THOUGHT #2 – tapestry was amazing tonight. it started off with mike describing how the community of tapestry had acted like the church to them this past week and then got better after that. when everyone started talking about mercy and dealing with specific situations i found myself once again loving the community of faith that i get to be a part of.

RANDOM THOUGHT #3 – tapestry poker is at my house monday at 6:30 p.m. it’s a $3 buy in and all the proceeds go to support a kid through world vision.

RANDOM THOUGHT #4 – i start painting the house this week. i almost believe that pam’s whole back injury was just a ruse to get her out of painting.

RANDOM THOUGHT #5 – this blog seems to be a merely feeder for facebook content now. all the comments i receive come from facebook and not the blog. i wish i could get my stupid wordpress/facebook comment pulgin working so it would join the blog & facebook comments.

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what’s behind the glitz

the boys and i recently watched two cgi animated movies. since their animation method was the same i thought i would use the differences between the two to discuss a belief i see in american evangelicalism’s that our methods will make us meaningful to the culture around us. you see i believe that way too often in modern evangelical churches we think that when we are not reaching our culture all we need to do is change our methods. we often think that the answer is to simply change our music style from traditional to contemporary (which isn’t contemporary because it sounds like bad late 70s or early 80s music) and then to modern. or maybe the answer is to change our worship gatherings from preaching only to preaching & skits and then to preaching with custom made videos. we rarely consider whether we are actually doing a good job of communicating our message and living out our faith. we just believe that changing the method will take care of any problems we have.

now let’s consider the two movies.

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first the boys and i saw “up.” it is absolutely amazing. it is a great movie. not merely a great animated movie but A GREAT MOVIE! yes, the animation is terrific but the most impressive thing is how incredible the story of the movie is. the plot takes on adult themes and does an amazing job of dealing with them. i would recommend that anyone goes and sees “up.” if you don’t have a kid and feel like you have to have one with you to watch an animated movie then borrow a neighbor’s child and go watch it. i will be dumbfounded if it is not at least nominated for the best picture oscar.

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next we saw “monsters vs aliens.” it was okay … not terrible but not good. the only redeeming part of the movie was that it cost a mere $9 for all three of us to go (including popcorn). the animation was basically as good as pixar’s “up” but the story and the way it dealt with the story was no where as good as what “up” did. the best part of the story was reese witherspoon’s character. her character was at least a good example of a feminine hero. i would imagine that if i had a daughter i would like this movie a little more because of this fact.

so here’s my point. both movies used the same medium. they had glitzy animation and it is cool to see really good animation … once. however it is the story that determines whether most people really want to re-watch the movie again and again. “up” obviously concentrated on what was behind its animation more than “monsters vs aliens” did. i think the reason “up” did this is because the producers, actors, animators, and others realized that what is behind the animation is actually what is most important.

so my point is simply this. we don’t have to neglect our methods and mediums. in fact, we should make them the best we can. our churches should have good methods for conveying the message and life of CHRIST. YET OUR METHODS AREN’T NEAR AS IMPORTANT AS WHAT/WHO IS BEHIND OUR METHODS AND MEDIUMS. we need to focus more on making sure that we are focused on the extremely quality story and actions of CHRIST than we do on simply making sure that our methods are glitzy. when we stay centered on the amazing story of the gospel we will deal with the real issues of life and people will be more interested in hearing it again and again. that’s the stuff that matters. our fancy methods will draw people once or twice but truly effective communication of WHO is behind those methods will connect with people again and again.