My four year old can recite the Pledge of Allegiance. The last line always gets me. "With Liberty and Justice for All. What if we lived in a world with liberty and justice for all.
12/23/2008
7/10/2008
Cry Out to Jesus
I was driving home from work last week and instead of listening to sports talk radio I decided to listen to some music. Now I don’t listen to Christian music radio, but I like Third Day. And as I listened to Cry Out to Jesus in my car I was moved.
Here are the lyrics for those of you not familiar with the song.
There is hope for the helpless
Rest for the weary
And love for the broken heart
There is grace and forgiveness
Mercy and healing
He’ll meet you wherever you are
Cry out to Jesus, Cry out to Jesus
I started thinking about church while I was driving and how different the world would be if a church was a place where the helpless could find hope and the weary could find rest. Where the broken hearted could be loved. Where grace, forgiveness, mercy and healing where freely given and received. Where people were met wherever they were in life.
7/01/2008
Why?
Rudyard Kipling said that who, what, where, when, how and why were his "friends" who taught him everything he ever knew. Any question started with who, what, where, when, how and why cannot be answered by a simple yes or no. They require thought.
If his friends are my friends then my best friend is "why". If you ask most people why they do things a certain way you will inevitably get "I guess we've always done it that way" as an answer. I love to ask people why. Especially when it come to their beliefs and practices.
So much in churches today is tradition passed off as biblical. So much is done out of convenience, yet convenience is only wrong when others do it. Example. Why is the offering taken up as the third element of the Lord's table in some churches? Convenience. This one bothers me. It's like you're paying for your meal at a restaurant. I often wonder what people visiting a church that does that thinks when they see the offering plate come by?
I have always questioned everything. Questions are good, not bad. One of the things I love about the heroes of the New Testament is that they were not afraid of questions.
If his friends are my friends then my best friend is "why". If you ask most people why they do things a certain way you will inevitably get "I guess we've always done it that way" as an answer. I love to ask people why. Especially when it come to their beliefs and practices.
So much in churches today is tradition passed off as biblical. So much is done out of convenience, yet convenience is only wrong when others do it. Example. Why is the offering taken up as the third element of the Lord's table in some churches? Convenience. This one bothers me. It's like you're paying for your meal at a restaurant. I often wonder what people visiting a church that does that thinks when they see the offering plate come by?
I have always questioned everything. Questions are good, not bad. One of the things I love about the heroes of the New Testament is that they were not afraid of questions.
4/08/2008
We're Moving
I 've made two decisions about this blog.
- post weekly
- comment on what I know and care about
3/31/2008
Negative Attention
My wife and I are currently reading Proverbs together at night after we put the kids to bed. We read chapter 27 last night and I had to stop and re-read verse 7.
"He who is full loathes honey, but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet."
The catch 22 of parenting has never been more succinctly stated.
"He who is full loathes honey" helps me understand my daughter, "but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet" helps me with my son.
My daughter has received much love and affection from birth. As a result she is very independent and secure. As I kissed her this morning when I put her into her car seat she proclaimed that she didn't need my kisses as she wiped them from her cheek. - "He who is full loathes honey."
My son, by all accounts, was not the recipient of much love and affection for the first four years of his life. He has since been loved on constantly. He will engage in poor behavior when he is not the center of attention. Sometimes I feel like he tries to fail at certain things. I finally realized something last week. When he does something right or learns something new he is praised. When he does something wrong we work with him and try to help him get it right. The equation in his mind is success = praise BUT failure = attention + interaction. If attention is what he seeks then he knows how to get more of it - "But to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet"
My feelings are not hurt when my daughter wipes my kisses off. I rejoice that she is wildly independent. I would not want it any other way. I believe that parenting is not about me but that it is about raising the children that God has blessed us with to be the people He wants them to be.
"He who is full loathes honey, but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet."
The catch 22 of parenting has never been more succinctly stated.
"He who is full loathes honey" helps me understand my daughter, "but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet" helps me with my son.
My daughter has received much love and affection from birth. As a result she is very independent and secure. As I kissed her this morning when I put her into her car seat she proclaimed that she didn't need my kisses as she wiped them from her cheek. - "He who is full loathes honey."
My son, by all accounts, was not the recipient of much love and affection for the first four years of his life. He has since been loved on constantly. He will engage in poor behavior when he is not the center of attention. Sometimes I feel like he tries to fail at certain things. I finally realized something last week. When he does something right or learns something new he is praised. When he does something wrong we work with him and try to help him get it right. The equation in his mind is success = praise BUT failure = attention + interaction. If attention is what he seeks then he knows how to get more of it - "But to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet"
My feelings are not hurt when my daughter wipes my kisses off. I rejoice that she is wildly independent. I would not want it any other way. I believe that parenting is not about me but that it is about raising the children that God has blessed us with to be the people He wants them to be.
2/10/2008
Faith Restored
An event happened this week that restored my faith in professional sports. But first a little history.
On February 6, 1958 Manchester United's team plane crashed on take-off from Munich. Among the dead that evening were 8 of Manchester's starting 11. Four of those were English internationals. Many felt that England were the favorites for the 1958 World Cup before the crash. Instead it turned into a coming out party for a 17 year old Brazilian named Pele.
The Munich crash is an event that has touched generations of English people and United fans around the world. The 50th anniversary of the crash was commemorated today at the Manchester United game. The club could have milked a very emotional occasion for every possible dollar. But they didn't. There was a minute of silence before the game and Man U played in a 1958 throwback uniform. The cool thing is that there were only 16 uniforms made. Eleven starters and 5 subs. No commemorative ones were made for sale. How refreshing to have a tribute be about the deceased not about the money.
On February 6, 1958 Manchester United's team plane crashed on take-off from Munich. Among the dead that evening were 8 of Manchester's starting 11. Four of those were English internationals. Many felt that England were the favorites for the 1958 World Cup before the crash. Instead it turned into a coming out party for a 17 year old Brazilian named Pele.
The Munich crash is an event that has touched generations of English people and United fans around the world. The 50th anniversary of the crash was commemorated today at the Manchester United game. The club could have milked a very emotional occasion for every possible dollar. But they didn't. There was a minute of silence before the game and Man U played in a 1958 throwback uniform. The cool thing is that there were only 16 uniforms made. Eleven starters and 5 subs. No commemorative ones were made for sale. How refreshing to have a tribute be about the deceased not about the money.
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