Sniffing out the work of God in the world…
It must have taken a LONG time to get back to Abilene from Waco tonight. I was in my forties when I left Waco; now I’m in my fifties.
A few of our favorite scenes from the July 16 reception at Highland to mark the completion of our 15 years.
Lots of love from Wanda . . .
And from precious Hope:
It must have taken a LONG time to get back to Abilene from Waco tonight. I was in my forties when I left Waco; now I’m in my fifties.
A few of our favorite scenes from the July 16 reception at Highland to mark the completion of our 15 years. (Thanks to Debbie Riggs for the wonderful photos!)
Lots of love from Wanda . . .
And from precious Hope:
I remember my 30th so well — friends in Searcy gathered at our house in Searcy. And I have great memories of my 40th — family and friends who snuck into Abilene for a special evening at Highland.
So today is my last day of my forties.
Will I be wiser tomorrow? I always figured that I’d be a wiser person by now than I am.
Here are some things that I look for in my fifties:
I want to be a person who learns more the meaning of resting in God’s presence — especially in prayer.
I want to continue exploring scripture’s witness to the gospel — and the gospel’s claims on the people of God and on our world.
I want to keep loving one woman really well.
I want to nurture my children (two sons and a daughter-in-law).
I want to write.
I want to keep my body in shape, even as gravity and time battle against me.
I want to remain connected with friends.
I want to enjoy something in almost every day so that when my fifties end I won’t wonder where they went.
Those are lofty goals, I realize. Mostly today I just want to beat the junior league all-star team from Eagle Pass, TX!
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All right, so the trip to Waco hasn’t been perfect. The first game didn’t exactly go as we’d planned, losing 15-1. (There, I’ve said it.)
But there have been some great moments.
This tournament is run first-class. People who like kids and baseball running everything — from the tournament director to the people selling water. And the umps? They’re volunteer. Yes, v-o-l-u-n-t-e-e-r. I just talked to one of them at the hotel breakfast nook and he said it costs him about $350 to come call these games.
Also, this morning my bike and I went on the Tour de Waco. This is a city with lots of beauty! The tour included a roll through Baylor, which I’d never really seen before. What an incredible campus. I was inspired by riding around the George Truett Theological Seminary and reading about his life. And I loved that the most amazing building was the science building. There’s some kind of statement there, isn’t there? We aren’t afraid of the sciences. We aren’t afraid, because God is the creator of all that is — even if we don’t comprehend all his ways.
The best part was that yesterday we passed by Church Under the Bridge. (See www.churchunderthebridge.org.) I’d read about this church that was started by some Baylor students, but it was so inspiring to go by and see all the people meeting there under I-35.
If you measure a game by W-L, then game one of the state tournament didn’t go so well today. We got killed by Lubbock Eastern.
If, however, you measure a game by the excitement of actually even BEING at the state tournament, then it was a good day.
Game two is tomorrow in this double elimination. We play Eagle Pass, and one team will then be through.
Because of the state tournament — my parenting and coaching responsibilities — I won’t arrive in North Carolina today for the celebration of the life of Landon Saunders.
The people who organized it told me that Landon only had one request when they told him they were doing it: he wanted his preacher to speak on Sunday morning. (I’m sure that story is hyperbolic, but it still means a lot to me.)
When I was a college student at Harding University from ‘74 to ‘78, Landon came through several times. His clarity, his passion, his faith, and his voice captivated me. Later I got ahold of the lectures on preaching that he gave at ACU in the ’70s. They altered my life. I nearly memorized the message called “The Marketplace.” (Anyone else out there remember being impacted by those messages? “The Wilderness.” “The Wolf.” “The Marketplace.” One or two others whose titles I can’t remember.)
During the seven years I preached at the College Church in Searcy, he often came through and we became friends. He was such a great encourager and clarifier.
But it’s in the past dozen years that he’s become one of the most significant men in my life. About the age of my father. The vigor of a 40 year old. And the joy of a kid. That’s Landon.
Our dear friends James and Marla Walters moved from AR to NH to work with Heartbeat, and it was through them that we became so close to Landon.
I’d give up almost anything to be there this weekend for the celebration.
Anything except this trip to the state tournament with my son!
For much of my adult life, “Beirut” has been a synonym for “war zone.” It’s hard for me to imagine the grief there since 1975. Constant war between factious parties. Constant fear.
What makes that strip of land from Lebanon down to Israel so problematic? There are many answers, of course, but much of it has to do with sacred space. It continues to bother me that the history of war is to a large extent the history of people willing to kill because of the way they read their holy books. Christians have killed Christians, Muslims have killed Muslims, and Christians and Muslims have killed each other (to say nothing of all the bloodshed involving other religions).
The vision of Shalom seems faint at times, doesn’t it? Some of the popular versions of Christianity today almost relish the thought of war. Quite different from the biblical vision of new creation, actually.
In the meantime, we continue to pray for the children of southern Lebanon and the children of northern Israel.
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When I think of Waco, I think of these three things: David Koresh, Baylor, and little league baseball. (We’ve always dreamed of “going to Waco” — meaning going to the state tournament.) I’m sure the Waco Chamber of Commerce will be glad when the first one doesn’t come to mind.
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Highland Members - Today Dickie Porche is 50. You know what to do. 
I’d like to wish my good friend “happy birthday” — especially from all of us who are in our forties.
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For those who like golf (not me) or who like clever, humorous sports essays (me), don’t miss Grant Boone’s essays today through Sunday on PGA.com as he covers the British Open. Here’s today’s piece.
It happened. We beat the Dallas district champions twice last night, and we’re going to the state tournament in Waco as the champions of Section 2.
Congrats to Josh Brooks, Grayson Bunnell, Chris Cope, Dalton Douglas, Parker Gragg, Ryan Heslep, Austin MacGruder, Jacob Martinez, Joey Mendl, Colten Sanders, Hunter Self, Gilbert Torres, Reese Williams, and Kolby Yanez — as well as to the other coaches, Glenn Gazaille and Bobby Woodward.
On to Waco! I’m having to cancel a speaking gig for this Sunday (Sorry to those organizing Landon’s Heartbeat retreat!) and a vacation on Monday (to celebrate my 50th on Tuesday), but you don’t get to do this many times!
If you had to pick which you think has had more of an impact on the world, would you choose the printing press or the personal computer? Perhaps it’s too early to tell.
But this much we know: Johannes Gutenberg (1400-1468) changed the world dramatically.
We’re used to books being cranked out that are exactly alike. If one page of a book has no errors, then that’ll be true of the next 100,000 copies. If there is an error, then you’ll find the same error on the other copies.
As you likely know, the first major work (1455) of his press was the Gutenberg Bibles, copies of the Latin Vulgate translation of scripture. The first priting of the Greek text of the New Testament came almost six decades later (1514).
But before the invention of moveable type, the copying of scripture was done by Christ-followers very slowly: line by line, word by word, letter by letter. For the first three centuries, most copying was done by “nonprofessionals” — i.e., by those who were just literate Christians (which was likely less than 10% of the population) rather than by professional scribes.
Probably around the fourth century, this job was passed on to professional Christian scribes, many of whom worked in a scriptoria — places for the copying of manuscripts.
We don’t have any of the original copies of the New Testament gospels and letters. We don’t even have copies of the copies. Our major manuscripts come from the fourth century and later (though there are a few pieces of papyri that date back into the second century).
It makes me thankful for brothers and sisters in Christ who took on the serious task of preserving scripture — both the early nonprofessionals and the later professional scribes. I rarely have the patience to sit and copy a whole page of notes. They went meticulously through page after page after page.
And it makes me thankful for the work of Gutenberg and others who made the process a bit easier.
Now — printing press or personal computer?
Just a quick note as I head out the door.
Thanks so much to the Highland Church. That was wonderful yesterday. The elders gathered around Diane, Chris, and me and talked about our 15 years at Highland.
It’s been a privilege to Diane and me to be here, to build friendships here, to raise our children here, and to grow in faith here. Thanks especially for remembering Megan. The additional gift to the Megan Cope Scholarship at ACU (building on the gift you began at our 10-year anniversary) goes right to our hearts.
Thanks!
Our all-star team played the first game of Sectionals last night. Chris pitched 6 innings, the whole team played solid defense, and we won, 9-4, against the winner of the Waco district. Tonight we play the winner of the Ft. Worth district. All our pitchers except Chris are available. (You’re required to have a game and a day rest if you pitched over 1 inning in junior league.) Our southpaw ace is ready to go. We’ll see . . . .
I wouldn’t trade this for anything. We could do without the 102 degree heat at gametime, but then it IS July baseball.
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Last night, former Highland member John Lackey pitched his second straight complete shut-out, lowering his ERA to 2.69.
Almost a complete alignment of the stars last night as the Abilene South All-Stars, the Cards, the Angels, and the Rangers all won. If the Astros had won and the Yankees had lost, it would have been a perfect night.
