a blessed new year to all!

I wish and pray a blessed new year to all, and to anyone who reads these words. It is a day at least in our nation that is a holiday, probably many getting over their hangovers. And a day to watch parades, like the Rose Bowl Parade and to catch a football game or two. Deb and I ushered in the new year playing Scrabble and listening to Bach and Handel on the piano (nice to have them here through the wonderful playing of Murray Perahia, on CD). We look forward to getting the Super Scrabble Deluxe Edition (with "Christmas money" largely). Probably the game Deb and I like to play together the most.

We had a wonderful visit to my folks in Ohio. And they loved our granddaughter Morgan. Yet no matter how well things go, I'm reminded again and again how in this fallen world we must proceed on in Jesus, seeking to follow our Lord daily in the resurrection life which is both our call and reality in Jesus. But it's nice to be able to kick back and relax some. I hope to be reading while I root for Michigan State and Penn State (my Buckeyes play on Monday, I think). And hopefully during that time Deb and I will get in another game or two of Scrabble.

I continue to enjoy The Bible Experience. It really is growing on me, and I'm going through the Bible again now, working through it daily, through that recording. We need to be in the word and let God in Jesus impact us in our lives, with each other and for the world.

Again, to all, a most blessed and joyous new year! May the Lord more and more have his rightful place in our lives as we then find our place and role to play in the ongoing Story.

interesting fun

Deb and I at Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, yesterday. Much to write on it, and not enough time to do so. It was interesting fun and quite a walk/work out.

friends and fun

Life has plenty of troubles and struggles. But it's always good to find true friends and along with that some fun in the mix.

We really need friendship with others, and we need a bit of fun, as well. Life can get really heavy at times for all of us. In Jesus everything created can be enjoyed. We need to be serious, but we need also to have some fun. We shoot a few rubber bands here and there at work. Can break the monotony. And always good to interact with true friends- people who accept and love us, warts and all- and we them.

I have found that both friends and fun need a bigger place in my life. Both gave me a needed boost yesterday. My true friends helped me smile, right from the heart.

How about you? What place do friends and fun have in your life? I know friends are on a different level than fun, yet the two can mix of course.

meeting L.L. Barkat

It was so much fun for Deb and I to get to meet L.L. Barkat, in town for the festival of faith and writing at Calvin College. She graciously took the end of a busy day, and really, busy two days, to meet with us. The hour went fast as we sipped on some tea, and shared from our lives.

L.L., like on her blog, is warm and engaging, and creative in her thinking. And real. I realized that while meeting someone like this is good, and you get a better sense of who they are, it is still limited. This reminds me of first impressions and the like. But I think our visit with her reflected pretty well, even in that limited time, who we each are. None of us are people who want to put on airs.

We had a good laugh as I remembered how at first, for a time, I thought L.L. was a man, and she reminded me that I had commented how I had thought L.L. was letting his wife do some postings or be involved in the postings. Funny, and I was a little chagrined when I found out the truth!

L.L. shared with us what she is going through with the success she is now experiencing in writing, and how this in some ways is more challenging to her. She has some important decisions to make in the coming days, and would appreciate our prayers.

This makes me want to read her book (which I find quite good as I'm reading it now) and books to come, as well as her blog, all the more. And to remember that we're all in this in Jesus for each other, to the end of helping others in mission in Jesus to the world.

I will be blogging on L.L.'s book, Stone Crossings, very soon. I think it's a great book for all of us, for who doesn't need to find God's grace in the hard places of life?

hilarity

Yesterday at a table in the breakroom a number of us guys had some good laughs. It was a good release for me, the hilarity, as life and the stress that comes with it, has been a little heavier lately.

I'm a believer in good humor and some downright good laughter, and it's especially nice when something seems genuinely hilarious, as was the case especially for me, today. Some were laughing in part, surely, from the genuine release of hilarity that was pouring out of me.

If we believe God is sovereign over all, then we can afford some laughter. Life doesn't depend on us, and we don't have to carry the world, not even our own world on our shoulders.

Ecclesiastes telling us that sorrow is better than laughter is in its context making the point that we need to empathize with others. Proverbs tells us a merry heart does good to us, like medicine. I know for myself today, it was a good release of pent up inward pressure, and the heaviness left me.

Life is a serious matter. Levity and constant lightheartedness can be the symptom of an inward emptiness or frustration towards life. It can be symptomatic of throwing in the towel as in, "What's the use?"

But at the same time having some consistent laughter and even some occasions of hilarity can indicate a faith and trust in a sovereign God, who himself made laughter. In Jesus we can know that while we live in difficult times, there is a good ending. And that God can take the burden we cannot carry- that in faith we can laugh, knowing he is God.

What would you like to add to this?

politics and sports

In my last post I hammered a little on politics and sports. Actually I think both are quite alright in their good and proper place. And politics is important in that governing authorities are accountable to God to serve in a certain sphere.

Of course Jesus is political in that everything God does in bringing in the kingdom in Jesus touches all of life, including the political realm. There was not the separation we make between the religious and "secular" sphere back at that time, as we have now. And I believe politics, though never to be seen as "the second coming", is important. We need good policies and I am grateful for the religious freedom we have here, as well as for the strengths of our government, while at the same time acknowledging that it's not the kingdom of God, and that any utoia is out of reach in this present time and sphere.

Now to sports: My Ohio State Buckeyes- I'm from Ohio- get to play again on Monday night for the national championship. I like them in this game, though they may not win as LSU is a very formidable foe. But it should be fun. Maybe I'll even get a six pack and enjoy a couple through the game. Sports is good, especially to participate in, but it's fun to see a good game. It so easily gets too big for people like me, so I purposefully hold it at arms length, and rather out of sight, so as not to get too caught up in it. But it's fun, and we need some of that in life, to be sure.

In all things I want to be a true follower of Jesus. How would Jesus do it, and what is God doing in Jesus are two questions we need to ask, though I think the latter question is more the one we need to be asking so as to know how to live in Jesus now. Get into it; yes, I was even pulling hard for Michigan in their win against Florida! May God help us in this, and in all else to be growing in ways that please him and are a blessing to others.

Oh by the way, part of that is to be able to discuss both politics and sports with congeniality- a bigger word than I like, but meaning agreeably even when disagreeing. Either one can become a source of contention and can trip us up. We need to listen well, and learn. And see everything in its proper place. These things either have their limitations, or in the case of my Buckeyes, really don't matter at all. But having said that: Go Bucks! And maybe you can get a glimpse of the political debates on ABC this evening; I plan to, along with catching how big Ben -his father Ken was a high school classmate of mine, and a good quarterback himself- and the Steelers are doing in their game.

What about you?

Advent and shopping

By nature my wife, Deb is not a big shopper, really not a shopper at all- except for necessities- nor I, unless you would turn me loose in a book store. Same there to some extent for my wife, and there is a great cowboy store around here (horse saddles, etc.) that is fascinating to her. If we had the money- we've almost never had "much" extra- I think we would shop or buy more than we do now.

Christmas and shopping are intertwined in the culture we live in in our affluent society. For stores this is a big and critical time of the year in which they make a majority of their money, so that it's a make or break time for them. And the malls are especially packed now.

We know that the greatest gift of all came in a baby born in a manger or cattle trough. Yet Christmas has become all about buying gifts with little or no mention given to the Christ after which it is named.

I am not opposed to the traditions here in America, if held in their right place. We enjoyed, for example, the movie Polar Express, and we have a Christmas tree by our front living room window. Though I have to admit, because of the way this season is played out here, I'm mostly uneasy with it all.

Not just by necessity but from the heart we want to be into other things. More than ever we in Jesus need to light the candle in the darkness all around us, and be taken up with the true reason for the season- Jesus and his truly great and wondrous coming! Let's bless God, ourselves and others by pondering in wonder and awe this most wonderful gift of all.

What does this season and its traditions mean to you? Or what would you like to say here?

from Nancy, "Sublime Transition": more

rivalry week

This week in college football my Ohio State Buckeyes travel to Ann Arbor to take on the University of Michigan in perhaps the biggest rivalry in all college football. Today I'll wear a sweat shirt (since I no longer have a t-shirt) with a Buckeye face. On Saturday I'll tape the game, but probably won't watch it live. It should be a good game.

I know firsthand all the sin that can go into watching this game. Fans hate the rival team. One of the sayings here in Michigan: "Oh how I hate, Ohio State!" And we had our special sayings in Ohio about Michigan. Even one of the traditional songs: "We don't give a ____ for the whole state of Michigan...'cause we're from O-hi-o."

I wonder how we in Jesus should look at all of this. Any readers may not really be into this. But you may be into something that has synonymous or related meaning, in which, like this, one can spend hours thinking about, and getting worked up over it.

I think it's great to have fun and enjoy a good game, and be happy if your team wins, and disappointed if they lose. But we in Jesus need to be careful not to imbibe the spirit of the world in all of this.

And at the same time, let's be involved wholeheartedly in those things that do matter. Not letting these lesser matters be blown up to be greater than the games or fun they're supposed to be. Or participating in something which undermines who we are in Jesus. This won't be easy for many, as many especially of us older Wolverine and Buckeye fans will admit (remember Bo and Woody?) and it involves taking a different direction in how we're involved.

Anyone with a prediction? Or better yet, some thoughts to help us on this?

humor

I wonder why the Bible doesn't have more to say on humor than it does. Most of us love some kind of humor. Of course humor reflects the heart, so that can be a little scary at times, yes with myself in my craziness, and particularly so in the world when we run into the off-color stuff. Oh, by the way, two of my links are largely on the humor side: Martin Stickland and Lorenzo the Llama. For some good laughs, check them out.

I've heard that Jesus employed humor; it must be a sophisticated kind that's beyond me, though I can see some smiles in my mind's eye over at least one story he told, about removing the plank in one's own eye, and then being able to remove the speck of sawdust from another's eye. I remember one time laughing with side-splitting laughter for the first ten minutes of a movie, then afterwards, scratching my head and finding the rest of it largely unfunny. I did read a review that indicated that its humor was more of the sophisticated type.

We get it on at work in various ways. It's especially good to laugh alot among true friends. We end up laughing at each other and at ourselves, and sometimes get a little carried away in that, but in the context of mutual respect and friendship. I've had good times in such settings. I still enjoy laughing daily, and we have our share of it at my work.

Humor is God-given and can be an indicator of our faith. We can take everything serious in a wrong way, in the sense that we seem to think that life depends all on us. But when we know that we have a sovereign Triune God who loves us, then we can rest assured in that, and we can enjoy some humor, knowing that God is at work in our world, and so all will be well in the end, even when all is not well now.

I look forward to the humor we'll experience someday together in the new heaven and new earth, in God's immediate presence. What a time that will be, and surely humor, especially among certain ones with a special gift of it, will be there and will fit in well with the rest of the wonder of that place and time.

Are there any musings out there on this subject?

humans and games

I enjoyed this program on Krista Tippett's Speaking of Faith, in which she interviewed a doctor, Stuart Brown, now in the "work" of understanding the importance of playing and games, in what it means to be human. It turns out that play is engrained in us as humans; it's a part of our humanity and when we refuse to play something vital for us is lost or lacking. And lack of play means lacking in nearly everything else as a result.

The good news is that like Stuart Brown, a confessed life-long workaholic, play can easily be picked up, something he did around the age of 60, since it's actually a part of who we are.

The kind of play advocated generally involves the entire body in movement. It can be nearly any activity which brings enjoyment, from dancing to some rough and tumble play of boys to nearly anything which involves the imagination. Parents within parameters should let their children be involved in activities which may involve some risk. The danger of anything serious in such activities is minimal while the benefits can impact for good the whole of one's life.

I was glad to see that even reading can be included in such activities, though I realize that for myself there is a need here to be open to doing some other things, such as perhaps trying out some outdoor games such as golf or more of bicycling, maybe even a motorcycle. Something that can be fun. I was raised to believe that life is work, and though there was good in that, this program helped awaken me to the fact that the saying: "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," probably has alot of truth to it.

If you can podcast or listen to this on computer do so; it's worth the listen, say while you're doing household chores, etc. And listen to other programs of Speaking of Faith; I think you'll be surprised at just how much you can learn from other's perspectives.

Saturday in the park

Though some were not able to make it, one is with the Lord, our homegroup had a fun time today, cool as it was with some rain drops falling on our head- but it was a fun and good time of being together and just enjoying some good brats and burgers.