17 years and going strong

Deb and I recently celebrated our 17th anniversary and we were marvelling at 1) how fast the time has flown and 2) how much stronger our relationship is than it was when we first started out. I surprised her by scheduling a getaway night at The Mill House Bed and Breakfast in Grand Rapids, Ohio. Deb is not one for surprises, and the fact that the kids and I kept it from her for a week drove her crazy. That, combined with not knowing where we were going until we arrived chafed at her natural tendencies. But she loved it. And I loved keeping the secret with the girls.

I'm not going to get all schmaltzy here, but over 17 years we have had our ups and downs, and we both realize that the Lord has blessed us with each other and our love has grown significantly in the past few years. And for that we are grateful.

The Mill House is a fabulous little B&B in a quaint little town of 900 along the Maumee River. The owners, Ron and Kathy Munk, are wonderful hosts and had a variety of treats, coffee, cookies and other goodies available, as well as some good conversation and a lovely view along the old canal that was built through the area in the 1840's. And the breakfast they served left us not needing lunch. You won't go away hungry. Trust me.

If you are looking for a getaway for your sweetie, or just a quiet place to go and do some contemplation or a spiritual retreat, I recommend The Mill House. That is the Garden Room pictured above, which is where we stayed. And Pastors, check out the special they offer to you.
My bride and I had a wonderful time, and I 'm sure you will too.

May God continue to bless us with each other for many many years to come.

Managing the sin in our midst

My friend Kurt had a good post on avoiding sin, which is always good advice. Trying to stay just far enough away from sin, but still be close enough to enjoy it's presence is a recipe for spiritual disaster. I've been reading Judges lately, and this was a trap that Israel fell into. When they did not drive the inhabitants of the promised land out, as the Lord instructed, they set themselves up for failure. Now they had the gods of the Ammonites, Hittites and all of the other pagan tribes next to them. And these people had attractive sons and daughters, and SURPRISE, intermarriage occurred. Then the gods came over, Israel lost God's favor, and cycle of bad things began.

Look at our lives today. How much of the pain that we suffer is caused by self-inflicted wounds? If we constantly struggle with things, maybe our friends, family and acquaintances are part of the problem. Maybe it is our job that leads us into temptation, or the neighborhood we live in. This is where we need to prayerfully seek deliverance, guidance and empowerment of the Holy Spirit. God will show us the changes that we need to make, and if allow him, the changes that only He can make in us.

So if you are struggling with sin(s), take some prayer time to ask God if there are environmental causes that can be remedied. Maybe a vocational change is in order. I don't know, but our surroundings can be a snare for us. My prayers are with you as you seek God's instruction.

Wait! Then what are the Lions?

This headline confuses me. I thought that is what we have been watching for the past several years at Ford Field.

Detroit to get minor league football team

To all the parents out there

Turn your volume up and smile as you listen to this. It is such an awkward age, but I know I will miss it when it is over.

Pure light-hearted levity...

I tip my hat to JD Walt, dean of the chapel at Asbury Theological Seminary for this one. I'm struggling with some cursed virus and this made me laugh. It also reminded me that I cannot dance.

A culture that glorifies death and violence.

No, this isn't about Iraq. It is about dog fighting and cock fighting, which are two extremely inhumane methods of entertainment that seem to have a following in this country. Michael Vick, one of the most talented players in the NFL has been indicted by a Federal Grand Jury for running a dogfighting ring and the associated gambling that goes with that. This is just sickening. It is callous cruelty done for entertainment and gambling purposes. Allegedly by a man paid millions of dollars by the NFL and the endorsement deals he once held.

I don't want to condemn a man who has not been convicted, but let me say that the video below will show you what he and his friends do for amusement. Think about that if you own one of his jerseys. This is a practice (I can't call it a sport) that trains captive animals to kill and maim each other for amusement. Nothing else. And we cheer for this man on Sundays.

I can't even begin to express the level of disgust that this dog owner has over the situation. I pray that justice will be done in this case.

Money for Nothing

I apologize for the frequent use of comics lately, but some of the best commentary on our social situations comes from the humor writers. Take the strip at the right for example. The story is the croc is suing the zebra for not becoming a food source for him. But the "lotto" mentality of the legal system is one of the more sickening aspects of our society.

There are a significant number of people who seem to believe that they are entitled to large cash awards every time something doesn't go their way. To wit:

The Imus mess

The $54 Million pants

Top 10 Frivolous Lawsuits

There is a well-documented phenomenon in America of attorneys shopping for juries in certain states because they will award ridiculous amounts of money in questionable cases. Some of those states have enacted lawsuit reforms, but, as the croc says, the odds are still better than the lotto and there are no ping pong balls.

I'm not sure what to do about it, other than try to teach conflict resolution at the lowest possible level. Many of these suits are issues that got out of hand (a pair of pants for $54 million?) and should have been handled at a much lower level than the courts.

Sometimes your only recourse is to sue, when a party refuses to talk or try to work something out. But even then, suing for the actual damages, and not some lotto-type number, is a better way to handle things.

No wonder the rest of the world shakes their head at us.

The Anti-Bottled Water bandwagon grows

Here are a few articles on the subject that have appeared as of late. It seems that I am not alone in my thoughts on this. I must confess that I am getting tired of seeing the bottles lying all over the place in parks and along roadsides, which is part of what is driving this.

And here is something to chew on, courtesy of the Christian Science Monitor: "Surely bottled water is purer and safer? Actually, no. The regulations governing the quality of public water supplies are far stricter than those governing bottled-water plants. True, there are sometimes contamination problems with tap water, but the same is true of bottled water."

This I was aware of from my days of assisting the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department with public relations activities. Mull that one over in your head for a while.

Los Angeles Times article

Christian Science Monitor article

Aspen Times News article


Or just go here.

Another way to save the planet

Stop buying bottled water. Follow the advice of New York's mayor and drink tap water, which is just as safe and much less expensive. If you pay $1 per 1/2 liter of water (which is less than most convenience stores and vending machines), you are paying north of $7.50 per gallon of bottled water. You are also using up a great deal of energy in the bottling, transportation and disposal of the containers when you are finished with them. If you paid $7.50 for gas, I can only imagine the screams of protest about 'Big Oil." But I hear very little about "Big Water" from my conspiracy-theorist friends.

Buy a Brita pitcher and keep it in the fridge. You won't taste difference, you will save some cash, and you will be doing a little bit to help out planet Earth.

Just some friendly advice.

Always look on the bright side of life

That inane Monty Python tune is stuck in my head as I read the morning paper and stumble across this beauty. I think I may have figured out what our feckless friends in Lansing are doing. This is not an economic depression. No. It is a well-designed plan to alleviate traffic congestion on our state's highways. The $1.8 billion state budget deficit is just a by-product of their masterful social engineering designed to avoid the need for new highway construction. The exodus of people leaving Michigan are just mere pawns in the chess game.

I have to give it up to Jenny and the gang in Lansing. They almost had me fooled with this one. I should be more trusting of the fine elected leadership we send to our state capital each year.

I'm so tired of saying goodbye

Greetings from Michigan, the state that sends people to other states. Given the pitiful state of our economy here, there is a slow-motion exodus out of this once-proud economic giant. Now we are just a shell of what we once were and will lose another congressional seat or two in the next census.

Our little church in Dundee will say goodbye to three families in a six-week period because of the economy. One family went to Texas, another is going to Colorado and a third is going to the Cleveland, OH area. I'm tired of packing my friends up and moving them out. I don't mind the work, but this business of being a "sending church" is wearing a bit thin.

My apologies for whining. Please pass the cheese.

I praise God for His provision for each of them. The Rister's and Stevens' are going to Colorado Springs to study for the ministry. The Doktor's and Henry's are taking jobs to do what they think is best for their families, and the Lord has provided for all of them. And I do look forward to what God will do next in our little congregation. But God, you can feel free to stop the exodus any time now. As if you needed my permission.

Unintentionally blessing someone

When we moved to Monroe, we had our first experience with garbage- picking. We inherited a bunch of unusable stuff from the previous occupants that we put out each week at the curb. Some nights we would watch out the windows with the lights off as the crews swept the neighborhood looking for salvageable items. We had never seen anything like it.

Yesterday was garbage day and I unintentionally blessed someone with a wheelbarrow. My yard waste bags were rained on and were near collapse so I loaded them into the wheelbarrow as a courtesy to the yard waste collection guys. Someone took the wheelbarrow, and carefully placed the bags on the grass. It had not occurred to me that someone would even comprehend doing that, but so be it. I'm still shaking my head.

To whomever has my wheelbarrow, enjoy it. It served me well.

Our Long National Nightmare is Over

Barry Bonds' death march to the home run record is officially over, and now we can all go back to ignoring the woeful San Francisco Giants team. Congratulations to Barry, who evidently took the "better living through chemistry" credo to new heights (and widths of his head) as he pursued Hank Aaron's record.

This record will forever be tainted because it happened in the Steroid Era of baseball, when the owners, media, commissioner and fans ignored the obvious use of performance enhancing drugs. Baseball needed excitement following the 1994 strike and World Series cancellation, and juiced-up players provided that spark. Suddenly, the league seems to have gotten religion about this and is trying to crack down on steroid use, long after the horse has left the barn.

Give Barry his props. He is the greatest of the steroid era.

More on the cosmos

I may have been a bit trite yesterday in my treatment of the Opus comic. In an email conversation, someone told me that the way we get off of it being about ME is this: "The only real way to stop believing that I am the center of the universe is to recognize that Someone Else is the center of the universe. Acknowledging that Someone else is the center of the universe occurs most easily when I realize that the Center of the universe wants a personal relationship with me."

Read this article, which reflects many of my thoughts on how creation calls us to God. My apologies for giving God short-shrift yesterday.

Isn't this the truth?

Sadly, for so many people, that is true. We can stare at the vastness of creation and it is all about us. Not about God, the infinitely creative one who made all of this, but just about me.

Things haven't changed much since Adam and Eve. It's still all about them. And us.

Longing. Hungering and Thirsting. Wanting more.

In the post-vacation avalanche of mail that awaited us was a Christianity Today magazine with an intriguing article on "hungering and thirsting" that caught my eye. Matthew 5:6 teaches "blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." It seems that hunger and thirst are strong metaphors in the Christian walk, which goes will with the emphasis on fasting throughout the Bible. Anyone who has seen me knows that I am not a natural faster. I have to work at it, and don't always see the joy in it. But I do it as the Lord instructs, and it has benefited me.

There is a world around us hungering and thirsting for many things, including righteousness. The world attempts to slake this thirst in many ways. Alcohol, sex, drugs, money, power, busyness, work, other people, etc. There are countless ways to fill Decartes' "God-shaped hole" in us, and we are all trying. Some are trying to fill that hole with God. Others are trying to do it with a form of religion, such as works, trying harder, or other ways that do not rely on the grace and power of God.

The U2 song "Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" expresses that thought well. They are striving for God, but it seems like they are doing it in their own strength, which will end in disappointment. It's so easy to say that Jesus is what we are looking for, and that is true. I believe we need to condition our hearts to properly search. We don't need to do more, but rely more. And that is tough, especially in the United States with the "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" mentality. Our spiritual formation emphasis should be on growing closer to the Lord, which takes time. Many of us (hear me speaking of myself here) try to rush the process and devote X chapters of reading and X minutes of prayer as if it were formulaic. It isn't. Take it from a pilgrim who has slammed into that wall many times. Take time to practice solitude and rest in the Lord. Listen more and talk less in prayer time. I wish I had done that many years ago.

Here are the lyrics and a YouTube link to the video, which appears to have been shot in Las Vegas. A place where so many try vainly to satisfy their longings. Sorry I can't embed the video for you.

I have climbed highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you
I have run
I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I have kissed hardened lips
Felt the healing fingertips
It burned like a fire
This burning desire

I have spoken with eternal angels
I have held the hands of a devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I believe in the Kingdom Come
When all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
Well, yes I'm still running

You broke the bonds
And you loosened the chains
Carried the cross
Of all my shame
all my shame
You know I believe it

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

This is definitely worth listening to

If you have time, I encourage you to listen to this chapel service at Asbury Seminary. Dr. Steve Stratton, a professor of counseling offers a thoughtful and thought-provoking message on the difference between repentance and shame. While much of it I knew at some level, he does a wonderful job of stitching together several thoughts that do help explain how our attempts at change and the change wrought by the Holy Spirit are very different. If you want to receive the chapel services via Itunes, go here and follow the link.

My presuppositions are showing

And I think it is a good thing.

I read this article in Christianity Today and was simultaneously saddened, sickened, and surprised. I have long cast a wary eye toward any religion or teaching that claims 'God wants you to be rich" because I just don't see evidence of that in scripture. I know that the proponents of this movement have constructed a series of "Proof Texts" to support their position, but I just can't bring myself to believe that all of the suffering references in scripture are overridden by a prosperity gospel. Not everyone is going to be healthy and wealthy, and this movement leaves those people spiritually devastated because the implied assumption is that there is something spiritually wrong with them. Otherwise, God would show them favor. And I imagine deathbed counseling for someone in this situation is extremely difficult.

I'm still early in my theological education, but I have been around the block a couple of times. I cast a wary eye at any theology that uses a couple verses of scripture to make a far-reaching claim. It was for that reason that the Jabez Prayer movement made me a little nervous. It seems to take an isolated prayer and make it universal in its application, which is very dangerous.

I post this merely to make you aware of some trends in the rapidly-growing Christian church. Pray hard for sound biblical teaching, or we will devastate Africa again, as we did during the colonial era.

One of the more fun days in Colorado

Just a quick note to show one of the more fun things we did during our trip. This was one of the "necessary" items on the trip, since the kids had never been rafting with their friends. We went in 2004, but with the Duce's, not the Risters. It was a blast on a day when there was a great deal of water on the Arkansas River near Buena Vista. If you make it out here, you need to do this. It's a lot of fun.

Looking for places to bury me

On Wednesday we hiked the Crags, a spectacularly beautiful section of Colorado near Pikes Peak. The hike should have only been 3.5-4 miles, but was nearly doubled because the road to the trailhead was only open intermittently due to road construction. The additional 2 miles each way strained this flatlander to the point of fearing he would meet Jesus on the trail. I even went far enough to point out to Dr. Alan Duce and my wife Deb places that would be appropriate, in my opinion, to bury me if I succumbed to the combination of thin air and poor physical conditioning.

Deb took a great number of flower photos on this trip, which you can enjoy here. There are some birds, a few bugs and a wonderful spot that reminds me of the verse from the hymn "he hideth my soul, in the cleft of the rock, and covers me there with his hand." Alan told us that he and his wife had taken refuge in that cleft during a storm. I'm glad we didn't face that. There are also some great photos from the top of the Crags, which is at approximately 10,700 ft in elevation.

We head home on Friday afternoon, so this may be the last post for a few days. God has used this trip to bring us closer together, and inspire my soul. I find that the scenery reminds me of the power, creativity, and absolute majesty of God. And I take great comfort in that. I also had some time to spend with Alan, who is my ministry mentor, and a trusted confidante to talk about how my ministry preparation is going and some of the associated issues that go along with that. I truly value his counsel. And we all were able to spend time with the Rister's, who were our closest friends in Monroe until they moved last year. My daughters have been anxiously waiting for this trip so they could spend time with their friends. You never have enough time for something like that, but we have greatly enjoyed our time together out here. Leaving will be a sad moment for all of us.