There are some wonderful videos on evangelism by Brian McLaren (author of More Ready Than You Realize, A New Kind of Christian, and The Story We Find Ourselves In) at off-the-map. You’ll need broadband to view.
Archive for October, 2003
Tough decision at our house. Since Chris is in the 5th grade, this is our last “official” year to trick-or-treat. (I guess. But are there any rules here?) But it’s also the night of the Abilene High - Cooper football game. We left it up to him.
He opted for the game. But don’t be surprised if you see a fan with an AHS shirt and Legolas’s bow-and-arrow holding an orange bucket. “Go Eagles! Trick-or-treat!”
The Rick Reilly link is a bit behind, as you’ve noticed if you’ve gone there from my blog. I hope they get up his newist SI editorial soon. It’s about a coach worth paying attention to!
Roll around these nuggets from Barbara Brown Taylor. What do you think?
“Our chronic guilt is the price we are willing to pay in order to avoid change.”
“I do not believe that sin is the enemy we often make it out to be, at least not when we recognize it and name it as such. When we see how we have turned away from God, then and only then do we have what we need to begin turning back. Sin is our only hope, the fire alarm that wakes us up to the possibility of true repentance.”
We went to see “Guys and Dolls” yesterday. Great production. We’re excited about “Godspell” coming to campus. Can’t wait to hear (again) John the Baptist singing, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.”
(Note to my ACU Bible freshmen: don’t forget that class will begin at 3:30 today to allow you to register for next semester.)
For those of you at Highland yesterday, what a powerful video Matt Maxwell produced to go with the song “Come to the Table.” This young man is so incredibly gifted!
It’s a day of homecoming around here, with people our age pouring into Abilene for the 25th reunion. But for us . . . it’s a day of soccer. It’s a great sport which has the power to own a family’s schedule!
Another quote from Albom’s THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN:
“All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped. Youth, like pristine glass, absorbs the prints of its handlers. Some parents smudge, others crack, a few shatter childhoods completely into jagged little pieces, beyond repair.”
In the book you’ll find that isn’t the final word, though. There is a word more powerful than “damage.” Here’s a hint: It begins with F-O-R-G-I . . . .
From CNN’s interview with Barbara Bush, when she was asked about her husband: “I sure love him. I think he’s the greatest man I ever knew. I wake up every single morning and look over at that funny old face and say, I’m the luckiest woman in the world.”
Is it any wonder we love this woman? In AOL’s poll, she is neck-and-neck with Hillary Clinton as America’s favorite first lady in the last two decades. But in addition to being a great first lady — wouldn’t EVERYONE want her for their grandma?
If you read Mitch Albom’s TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE, then I’m sure you’ve wanted more from him. Well, I just finished reading his next book, THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN, and it’s wonderful. It’s imaginative, it’s full of wisdom, and it’s cleverly written.
Eddie, an 83-year-old war veteran who works as a maintanance man at a seaside amusement park, is killed trying to save a little girl when her ride malfunctions. He awakens to find that in heaven your earthly life is explained to you by five people.
Here are a couple nuggets:
“Ruby [one of the five he meets — I won’t tell you more] stepped toward him. ‘Edward,’ she said softly. It was the first time she had called him by name. ‘Learn this from me. Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves. Forgive, Edward. Forgive.’”
“Parents rarely let go of their children, so children let go of them. They move on. They move away. The moments that used to define them–a mother’s approval, a father’s nod–are covered by moments of their own accomplishments. It is not until much later, as the skin sags and the heart weakens, that children understand; their stories, and all their accomplishments, sit atop the stories of their mothers and fathers, stones upon stones, beneath the waters of their lives.”
My insular world of Neosho, Missouri protected me from much of what was happening in 1968. That fall, I entered 7th grade at Neosho Junior High School and started my downtown paper route after school.
So much was happening in the world that year. The Tet offensive was launched in January. Martin Luther King was assassinated in April, and Robert Kennedy in June. Only later did the impact of the My Lai Massacre begin to sink in as we heard news reports about Charlie Company and Lt. William Calley.
Occasionally I’d get to watch “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In.” Goldie Hawn and Lilly Tomlin made quite an impression — in their own ways. Tiny Tim was singing, “Tip Toe Through the Tulips,” Mike Wallace was launching “60 Minutes” (Don’t you know some exec said, “It’ll never last”?), Peggy Fleming was skating, and Joe Namath was wearing a mink coat!
But in my world, it was Bob Gibson. My beloved Cardinals were headed back to the World Series (after their wins in 1964 and 1967), led by the greatest pitcher of his era. You may disagree — but, hey, start your own blog!
In 1968 Gibby won the National League MVP and the Cy Young. His ERA for the year was 1.12, with 268 strikeouts and 13 shutouts. Maybe most remarkable is that he completed 28 of his 34 starts. Can you imagine a pitcher today having half that many completed games? I still remember having my little transistor radio nearby on any day Gibson was pitching.
That summer my maternal grandmother and my cool, young aunt (who was probably 20ish at the time) took me to Chicago. We were visiting lots of relatives along the way, but I think my Grandma wanted to be there for the start of the Democratic Convention when her candidate, Robert Kennedy, would be nominated. After his assassination, she changed allegiance to Eugene McCarthy, and in August we headed for the Windy City, with Grandma preaching Democratic politics to anyone who would listen.
I’m sure what my aunt remembers most about the trip is the beginning of that stormy convention. (Will there ever be another quite like the 1968 Democratic Convention? And yes — I was there!) But what I remember is that these two women I loved took me to Wrigley Field. And of all luck, they were playing the Cardinals! I had so much fun, they took me back the next day.
In October, we (yes WE — I considered myself part of the team) were facing the Detroit Tigers. With the newspaper connection, we again scored tickets, this time to game 6.
I was in a bit of a predicament as a Cardinal supporter. Because the Cards went into game 5 with a 3-1 lead. If we won that game, we’d repeat as WS champs. But I wouldn’t get to see them in game 6. So I rooted for St. Louis, but didn’t mind much when they lost.
The rest is sad history for a Cardinal fan. We lost both the sixth and seventh games. But that’s not the really sad part. The saddest was that we wouldn’t be returning to a World Series until the 1980s.
In October the Cards lost the World Series and in November Richard Nixon was elected president. My grandma and I were both sad.
Thinking about having one more child?
I just read that the average cost for raising a child from birth through 18 is . . . get ready for this . . . $165,630. It breaks down like this:
Housing … $54,658 (33%)
Food … $29,813 (18%)
Transportation … $24,845 (15%)
Childcare & Education … $16,563 (10%)
Clothing … $9,938 (6%)
Healthcare … $11,594 (7%)
Miscellaneous … $18,219 (11%)
Let’s see . . . We’ve had three children . . . times $165K . . . Best investment we’ve ever made!
It’s time for my 25th year graduation reunion . . . FROM COLLEGE. How can that be? Have they moved the year up? I guess not. 1978 plus 25. I took my last Greek final on Thursday morning, got married that evening, and returned from the first part of our honeymoon (to Hot Springs — yes, yes, we heard all the jokes) on Sunday for graduation. Must have been May 14, 1978. I don’t exactly remember that. But it was three days after my wedding. That date I remember!
It was nice to hear from my alma mater. I can’t speak there, of course. But I do hear from them during reunions and pledge drives.