Robert's Blog

January 14, 2008

worth a shot?

a friend of mine sent me this link. it’s about a church handing out shot glasses at local bars that say “give us a shot.” i don’t know anything about the church and so what i am about to say is purely from the fox news article. i’m impressed that they are doing something different and going out into their community rather than just sitting in their church waiting for people to come to them. yet i have very mixed feelings about anything involving the possibility of hard liquor. i don’t have a problem with people drinking alcohol. it’s not my cup of team but i’m fine with it if someone else wants to. i believe the bible is very clear concerning JESUS drinking wine but also very clear about being inebriated being a sin. so i have got to be honest and say that shot glasses are probably a little far for me. i’ve known and been around the effects of enough alcoholics to be pretty uncomfortable with anything that encourages hard drinking. that’s where i have a hard time deciding how i feel about this. i just wish i knew more about this church.

have they crossed the line?

ht spencer

January 14, 2008

you've got to be kidding

i can’t believe that three of y’all have already contributed to me doing the polar plunge. i posted about it yesterday and i really figured no one would contribute. then low and below jim, jill, and eric have already thrown some money in the till. woohoo!

of course, the said news is that this means i have to go through with it now. i was hoping to talk like was going to do this and then let people forget about it. now, nobody is going to forget about it. thanks guys.

January 14, 2008

is it irony or hypocrisy?

peta has been nailed for putting to death more than 97% of the companion animals (dogs, cats, etc.) that are brought to their shelters. i was a little surprised when i read this article and was hit by the fact that in 2006 3,061 companion animals were brought to peta shelters and 2,981 of those animals were euthanized . in fact, peta was only able to find actual adoptive homes for 12 of those animals.

at first i thought this might just be the nature of an animal shelter but apparently humane society shelters only euthanize about 35% of the animals that are brought to them. that’s a big difference.

pam and i are strong believers in rescuing animals. our household has two dogs and two cats in it and 3 of these animals were rescues. i think rescuing an animal is the way to go. that’s why i’m a little confused by the actions of peta found within this report.

come on peta. your shelters should be the best instead of the worst. your shelters are a chance for you to make a real difference in an area that most of the general population can actually see. i might be more prone to agree with you on other issues if i actually saw you doing an extraordinary job with the animals i already know and love. if you can’t do it better than the humane society then do all the animals a favor and stay out of the business of running shelters.

of course, the same thing is true for the church. people will be more willing to listen to what we have to say about the “big” things if they see us doing an extraordinary job on the the “little” things. consider what the pliny the younger, the roman governor of pontus/bithynia from 111-113 ad, said concerning the early CHRISTians? in correspondence to emporer trajan he indicated that the CHRISTians not only took care of their own poor but did a better job of taking care of the roman poor than the romans did. no wonder so many started following the early fathers & mothers of the CHRISTian church.

if only, we could follow in those shoes.

if only.

January 13, 2008

freezin for a reason

february 2nd i’m going to try another winter activity that i have always wanted to do … a polar plunge. i’m going to be joining others in the stevens point polar plunge and jump into the freezing waters of the wisconsin river. oh yeah! i can’t wait. i’m honestly smiling while i am typing this post.

the event is being run by the wisconsin special olympics as a fund raiser so if you would like to shell out a little dough to sponsor me in freezing off my hind quarters you can do so by visiting my polar plunge page. just click here. the money goes to a good cause so you might want to consider it.

January 13, 2008

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.

January 12, 2008

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.

January 11, 2008

25 best sports years

i think i saw this on jordon cooper but i can’t remember for sure. so just in case “ht jordon cooper – or whoever”.

it’s an article on the top 25 individual sports years and it’s pretty interesting.

January 9, 2008

the spears are right

i would never have thought that i would find myself in agreement with a member of the spears family but i have to say that they are right in saying that dr. phil screwed up. every counselor has it pounded into his/her head that you have to err on the side of confidence. be it pastoral counseling or clinical counseling, you are taught that you go above and beyond the extra mile when it comes to protecting trust and confidentiality. there are very few reasons for breaking that confidentially and i’ve never seen “gaining a higher nielson raiting” on that list of reasons.

though i don’t watch his show i have usually been somewhat impressed when i’ve seen dr. phil show up on some other show that i was actually watching. i kind of expected more from him.

January 9, 2008

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.