Here are a few pictures from our Church’s annual Christmas drama & cafe (this year entitled “Country Christmas”):
Getting back to normal…whatever that means.
So, the crazy weekend is over and it went really well. It was our annual Christmas Drama and Café event (Country Christmas) and it is always great to see the community of faith pull together with something like this.
In terms of an update on my life, I though I would give you a brief outline:
- We put out Christmas tree up Monday and are decorating it tonight. It’s a real tree and my oldest son Nathanial picked it out – it looks great and it seems whenever he picks the Christmas tree, they are always the best. I told him the only person who is better at picking out Christmas trees is Santa.
- We took our kids to see Santa yesterday afternoon and they got their picture taken with the tired and warn out Santa…really the guy was one blink away from passing out from exhaustion. I don’t now if it was just this particular Santa who suffered from Narcolepsy or if this is a greater problem and the Santa’s need to go on strike for more breaks but he looked and acted very fatigued.
- I am caught up on TV just in time for all my favorite shows to go on Christmas break and so I guess it will be time to catch up on the movies I haven’t seen yet.
- I went out with a good friend of mine to see Déjà Vu. It was a mediocre movie but I find that all time travel movies in general are confusing and in the end don’t make any sense (for a time travel movie that is totally interesting and intriguing try Primer). I could begin to start to talk about the obvious holes in the plot of Déjà Vu but that would just be a waste of your time and mine.
- Laurie and I are going to see the new James Bond on Friday and we are both pretty excited – its been a while since we have been out to a movie together.
- It is a little less then three weeks until my sister arrives home for Christmas from Taiwan and we are all very excited. We miss her and are excited to hangout with her over Christmas.
- I am finally getting caught up with work and feel like my head is getting above water after a crazy few weeks.
Book #13 of 30: Intelligent Church
I read Intelligent Church: A Journey Towards Christ-Centered Community by Steve Chalke with Anthony Watkins. It is an interesting book, but for me it was a lot of similar material that I have read over the last several years, thus nothing struck me as life/ministry altering. Don’t get me wrong, it isn’t a bad book, there just wasn’t a lot of new material I haven’t read or heard before. I did however, react quite strongly to the assertion that the chapter about the church being politically active – I reacted this way until I finished reading the chapter and realized that the author was talking about being socially active (caring about the social problems in our community and world). In fact, they come out against the church being one with a political party and the important need to be independent. I agree and what I thought was going to be a HUGE difference in opinion ended up being a semantic difference with language.
Book #12 of 30: Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy & Fairy Tale
My friend James recommended Frederick Buechner’s book Telling the Truth: The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale to me and I was not disappointed. Speaking about communicating and understanding the Gospel, it is insightful on so many levels. It has helped me understand and reflect on preaching in a way that I never really thought of before. It reminded me that the gospel is tragedy that is bad news before it is good news. That the gospel is comedy: “The folly of preaching Christ crucified, preaching the king who looks like a tramp, the prince of peace who looks like the prince of fools, the lamb of God who ends like something hung up at the butcheres.” It also reminded me that the gospel is fairy tale calling people to something that seems to good to be true – otherworldly. Or as Buechner writes: “With his fabulous tale to proclaim, the preacher is called in his turn to stand up in his pulpit as fabulist extraordinary, to tell the truth of the Gospel in its highest and wildest and holiest sense. This is his job, but more often than not he shrinks from it because the truth he is called to proclaim, like the fairy tale, seems in all but some kind of wistful, faraway sense too good to be true, and so the preacher as apologist instead of fabulist tries as best he can to pare it down to a size he thinks the world will swallow.”
This book has made me realize the nature of the gospel story and that it is more than just an apologetic step-by-step process but so much more. It is Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale and I want to be one who communicate the gospel for all that it is and not one that pairs it down to some palatable size, consequently making it “simple” and in the process strip it from it’s fullness and power.
My Life in a Blog Shell
I thought since I haven’t posted for a while and since many of you are probably wondering if I am still alive, I though I would give you a quick summary of my life…
- I was sick about two weeks ago with a flu like thing that basically made me tired and weary.
- I am not more than a week Caffeine free and after going to bed at 8pm the first night and having a headache the first two days I am not symptom free, although I have a hard time staying up late (probably not a bad thing).
- I have just started the busiest week of the year…it is the week of our annual Christmas Drama (I’ll post a pic after) and I should probably just put a bed in my office for the next 5-6 days. But at least it is temporary craziness and it doesn’t last too long.
- Christmas is less than a month away and our schedule is getting full already with Christmas parties, Christmas concerts, church events, gatherings with friends, etc. It will be a great Christmas no doubt (my sister is coming home….we are all very excited) but the question remains: Why is Christmas so blasted busy!?
- I built a skating rink in our backyard. It was fun and a lot of work but it is worth it. The funniest part would have been my friend Greg and I trying to lay out the HUGE tarp while the ridiculously cold wind was tearing through our bodies. Nathanial (my son) is already improved on his skating skills and probably falls less than his dad now (that isn’t saying much by the way). It is a pretty big skating rink and Laurie and I dread the snow because it is one more thing to shovel along with our mile long sidewalk.
- I have a stack of books (more like 2 and a half but that is still technically a stack) to report on and write something about. It may have to wait until after this weekend but I will get to it.
- I have also realized that there is no way I am going to finished the 30 books and the Bible in 120 days (extended from the 30 books and the Bible in 90 days) and I may just have to give myself an F although that isn’t quite fair as I will still get through about 20 books and good chunk of the Bible in 120 days. So I think I’ll be generous and give myself a “B.”
- I am currently reading “The Myth of a Christian Nation” by Gregory A Boyd. I will add it to the stack and report on it soon.
- Our family attended a Leadership Conference for families with children with disabilities and it was eye opening and challenging on many levels. So far we are one weekend in on five (five weekends over about 7-8 months) and it has taught me a lot about myself and open my eyes to what our lives will be like and the challenges we will face as a family in the coming years/months.
- Over the last several weeks I preached at a church in Warburg and thoroughly enjoyed it. Although I am not a small town guy, it was a great experience to practice and use my gift specifically in a different context.
- I am trying to keep warm in these crazy -20 days but my office is notoriously cold. If you think I am exaggerating, I have to literally wear long-johns to work….crazy!
- Finally, I love my MacBook…the more I use it, the more I love it!
That is my world these last few weeks, sorry I haven’t posted anything lately but I will change that soon. It seems like life goes through seasons at times and I am just in one of those seasons.