Archive for August, 2006

“Me” and “Mine” . . . or “We” and “Ours”?

Published
by
Mike
on August 31, 2006
in General
. 39 Comments

Have you heard Bob Dylan’s “Modern Times”? Outstanding!

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I read where Tiger is making over $2500 per stroke this year. At that rate, he ought to start hitting more shots each round.

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A few days ago Larry James wrote about the fundamental problem we face in politics and community life: the tendency to think and plan in terms of ME and MINE. Here are a few of his thoughts:

Reflecting earlier this week on what it would be like to wake up as Mayor of Dallas, Texas got me to thinking about the importance of looking at life as a people through the lense of “us” or “we.”

“I” or “me” or “my” or “mine” just doesn’t get it.

Here we arrive at the fundamental problem with American politics and goverance today. It’s not hard to see every day in the city. . . .

I hope we wake up soon to the truth that when all are cared for more adequately, all of us do better. Robbing children of benefits today will come back to haunt us. The tab for neglecting children who need us to be responsible today will have to be paid at some point.

I pray that people of faith would embrace their sacred traditions and speak out for all of “us.”

I think he’s right on the mark.

Recently I’ve been listening to lots of conversations about possible boundary moves in the Abilene Independent School District.

Obviously, I’d like for Chris to go to Abilene High. He’s wanted to be an Eagle since he was very young.

But this isn’t just about him. He’ll be fine, I trust, wherever he goes to school.

What’s most important is “we” and “us” — meaning all the kids of this community. The last thing we want to do is take away all the wealthy kids and put them in their own protected school where they can flourish while the others form a left-over school.

We need whatever plan keeps the gap between the economically disadvantaged and the economically advantaged (using the criteria already in place) as small as possible at all the schools. Everyone is better off. Children from wealthier families need to be in school with children from a different background. Otherwise, the balkanization of our society continues. And children from less economically-advantaged families experience some “lift” when they are with others. (This is not, of course, to deny the strengths and gifts of their own homes.)

So, my hope is that the AISD school board will find that solution that best fits the “we” and “us” mentality — which I think is already their concern.

Rest

Published
by
Mike
on August 30, 2006
in Books and General
. 19 Comments

Now that classes have started back at ACU, these words from Mark Buchanan strike home:

“In a culture where busyness is a fetish and stillness is laziness, rest is sloth. But without rest, we miss the rest of God: the rest he invites us to enter more fully so that we might know him more deeply. ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ Some knowing is never pursued, only received. And for that, you need to be still.

“Sabbath is both a day and an attitude to nurture such stillness. It is both time on a calendar and a disposition of the heart. It is a day we enter, but just as much a way we see. Sabbath imparts the rest of God — actual physical, mental, spiritual rest, but also the rest of God — the things of God’s nature and presence we miss in our busyness.”

(Taken from The Rest of God : Restoring Your Soul by Restoring Sabbath.)

The Big Easy a Year Later

Published
by
Mike
on August 29, 2006
in Church and General
. 31 Comments

Such great devastation: the Katrina winds, the broken levee, 1600 killed, hundreds of thousands displaced, a major city nearly taken off the map.

One year later, there are places that still look like a warzone. But rebuilding is taking place. Less than half of the elementary schools are opening, but many are.

This catastrophe brought out the very best of the people of Christ. For months, things like denominational loyalties didn’t matter. Christ-followers knew that major relief was needed, and it was offered in Louisiana, in Mississippi, in Houston, and in many other places.

The Tammany Oaks Church of Christ was one of many churches that rose to the occasion, turning their building into a respite and restoration center for the many groups coming to town to help. Enough can’t be said about that good church.

Wheezing, Hacking, and Gasping

Published
by
Mike
on August 28, 2006
in memories
. 20 Comments

I was a child asthmatic. A bad one. And to go with this:

- I was constantly running and playing sports;

- We lived on several acres with every inflammatory weed;

- This was before Serevent inhalers.

There were so many nights that I would lie on the floor or on my bed gasping for breath. I remember one time in particular, at my uncle and aunt’s house, when I thought I’d die. My parents tried everything (including doctors and chiropractors) to try to bring relief. I learned to hate the word “pollen.” And we learned how to build a makeshift sauna with steam nearly anywhere.

Mostly I’ve grown out of asthma, but some allergies have hung on. Spring is still hard here with cedar and weed in the air. But now there are such wonderful things as Claritin-D, Singulair, and Advair inhalers.

Every time I see a child wheezing or an older person struggling with a cannula to get enough air, I sympathize.

What a wonderful thing a full breath of air is. It’s a gift not to be overlooked.

Stop and enjoy. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.

Tom Formby

Published
by
Mike
on August 27, 2006
in General and friends
. 6 Comments

This afternoon there is a memorial service for my shepherd and friend Dr. Tom Formby.

While I was blessed with so many close friends on the College Church eldership, the two I was closest to, Ray Muncy and Tom Formby, have now both passed on.

When Diane and I first returned to Searcy in 1984, Tom was still a family physician at the Searcy Medical Center, which he helped form. When he retired as a doctor, he and Mary poured themselves into the tape ministry — among many other things! — at the College Church. Messages preached at the church went all around the world because of their tireless work.

He was a man of compassion, wisdom, wit, and joy. Whenever I’ve returned to Searcy over the past fifteen years, no matter how short the trip I’ve run by to say hello to “T. A.”

We’ll miss being at the service today, and we’ll certainly miss this great man who shepherded our lives.

Megan

Published
by
Mike
on August 25, 2006
in Megan and family
. 29 Comments

Tomorrow, Megan would have been 22.

Here is my post from last year, changed only to account for the extra year.

My Dear Megan,

Tomorrow you would have been 22. Every year since your death we’ve continued to have a birthday cake on August 26 and to tell “Megan stories.”

Last week when I was looking for your old percussor, Mom said, “It may be in Megan’s toy box.” Without thinking, I began digging through the box, and then it overwhelmed me. I was immersed in you: your shoes, a couple of your favorite blouses, the stuffed cat you loved, etc. I could smell you, hear you, even feel you there.

All that to say that I’ve never stopped missing you. It’s been eleven years and nine months; but in grief-years it’s been so much less in some ways and so much more in other ways.

You rocked my world, my precious daughter. You didn’t enter this world with a bright intellect like your brothers did. You were, we eventually learned, “mentally handicapped.”

Big deal. There were so many other ways in which you were so precocious: in love, in forgiveness, and in joy. The only full sentence I ever heard you say in ten years was “I’m Megan”–and yet you became my minister who led me further along the way of Christ. Without even intending to, you exposed the shallowness of this world–a world obsessed with externals.

You were a jar of clay.

It’s hard to picture you at age 22. You have remained ten in our minds.

Since you died, life has in some ways been easier. You never wasted much of your short time sleeping! Easier . . . yet sadder. We would gladly go without sleep to be able to hold you and sing with you. (”I may never march in the infantry . . .”; “This is a song that doesn’t end . . . .”; “Jesus loves me . . . .”)

We would have loved seeing your joy at Matt and Jenna’s wedding. (You never got to meet her, but I think she would be your best friend.) And I imagined you there in ICU patting Christopher’s broken and bruised body after the wreck.

Your simple faith still guides us. Your love overwhelms and empowers us.

Soon and very soon, my dear . . . .

Love, Dad

I Was Thirsty

Published
by
Mike
on August 25, 2006
in General
. 29 Comments

Tuesday night before speaking at the Candlelight Devotional, I went up to the undergrad Bible department to stay cool (it was still 95 degrees at 8:30 p.m.) and to pray. I realized I would need a cold bottle of water while I was speaking at the amphitheater, so I went to the fridge in the break room, hoping there might be some bottles for sale.

I found LOTS of bottles, but there was a big note saying not to take them because they were for one professor’s U-100 group during Welcome Week. To protect this professor’s identity, I’ll just call her “Jeanene.”

I wrote a message on her note that said:

“‘Behold, I was thirsty but you gave me nothing to drink.’ Jesus.” Then I signed it with the reference from Matthew 25.

Today I had this note waiting for me signed by “Jeanene”:

Dear Mike:

Although I have not yet been privileged to read the cryptic note you, in the name of Jesus, left me in the fridge at ACU, I have heard about it from several people. Admittedly I was surprised to discover your level of thirst since I had assumed that as a well-known preacher, good friend, and Christian minister that you would have the ‘living water’ of Jesus promised to the woman at the well in John 4.

I’m sorry to respond to you in this way, but I simply must. As the 5 wise virgins, who had made adequate preparations for their needs in waiting for the bridegroom, said to the 5 foolish virgins . . . “No . . . there may not be enough for us [our U-100 students] and you. Instead go to those who sell [water] and buy some for yourself.” (Matthew 25:9)

Your Loving Sister,

“Jeanene”

I hear what she’s saying, and yet I can’t help but hear the words of Jesus: “If a man is thirsty, let him come and drink.” (John 7:37).

Then, finally, this (which I offer in the spirit of Christian love): “The fool . . . withholds water from the thirsty.” (Isaiah 32:6)

(Note to self: never pick a Bible verse contest with someone who knows the Bible better than you do! I believe that would be the case here.)

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So Pluto got fired as a planet. Did anyone else learn the planets with the tune of “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”? Big problem without Pluto at the end.

What will they do next? Fire XYZ from the alphabet song? Remove Revelation from the NT? (Sorry, but Jude doesn’t give quite the finale that the Apocalypse does.)

Ready for August to End

Published
by
Mike
on August 24, 2006
in General
. 43 Comments

I am fall, not summer.
Cool, not hot.
Mountains, not beach.

Sunrise, not sunset.
Morning, not night.
Fall back, not spring forward.

Favorite Bible Character

Published
by
Mike
on August 23, 2006
in scripture
. 82 Comments

Those old stories of scripture — of Abraham, of Sarah, of Isaac, of Rebekah, of Joseph, of Moses, of Joshua, of Deborah, of David, of Daniel, of Esther, of Mary, of Paul, of Peter . . . — have shaped our lives. They’ve given us wisdom, perspective, and courage. They’ve guided us by times of failure and times of great trust.

So who — besides Jesus — has most captured your imagination through the years? In other words, who’s your favorite Bible character? And (if you have time) why?

Newborns, Breastfeeding, and Intimacy

Published
by
Mike
on August 22, 2006
in family and marriage
. 45 Comments

Rabbi Schmuley Boteach, host of the TLC show “Shalom in the Home” has created quite a stir by talking about the way breastfeeding can interfere with a husband’s sexual pleasure and about the dangers of a husband being too present for childbirth.

“I told the mother that in being so devoted to her son, she had committed the cardinal sin of marriage, which is to put someone else before her spouse, even if that someone is your child. Furthermore, I said, her obsession had turned one of her most attractive body parts into a feeding station, an attractive cafeteria rather than a scintillating piece of flesh. In my book “Kosher Adultery,” I make the point that infidelity is primarily a sin of omission rather than commission. It is not the bad thing you do that destroys a marriage, but all the good that you fail to do, preoccupied as you are with a sinful relationship that diverts your attention away from your spouse.” (Be sure to follow the link to page 2, where it gets more bizarre.)

I like this response from Armin Brott, who suggests that marriages can be nourished by more than sex (as important as that is) — by the joining together of husband and wife to nurture a child. Plus, he’s willing to use the s-word: sacrifice.

“In choosing to become parents—which most of us do—we tacitly agree to take on certain obligations, to make sacrifices for our children, to do what we can to make their lives better than ours. Going a step further, if there’s something we can do to protect our children, to keep them from harm, we must do it.”

New parents have to work hard to maintain intimacy when they enter what Brott calls the “24-hour baby channel” — all baby, all the time. And when the husband can be helpful and supportive of the exhausting job — well, everyone comes out ahead.

“The bottom line to both moms and dads feeling comfortable with their roles in the physical process of parenting, including breast-feeding? Well, to be perfectly blunt, the more men participate, the more sex those men will get. As psychologist Aaron Hass puts it, ‘There is no more powerful aphrodisiac to a mother than to see her husband lovingly engaged with their children.’ So it goes like this: When dads support breast-feeding and are actively involved with their children, moms are happier. Happier moms have more energy and are more interested in satisfying their husband’s—and their own—sexual needs.”

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Anyone else been watching any of the Little League World Series? Our trip to the state tournament made Chris and me more interested than usual. What a sight whenever Aaron Durley walks onto the field. He’s 6′ 8″ and weighs 256 pounds. He’s 2″ taller than Shaq was at that age, and his shoes are three sizes larger.

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Check out Larry’s blog today where he writes about what he’d do if he were mayor of Dallas.

Here’s my one question: Where do I send a campaign contribution?