A few years back I was walking through Opry Mills with Jennifer and the kids. It was early December, so the mall was decked out in all the trim and finish one would expect a palace to consumerism to have. As a Millennial, I’m three generations in to the sights and sounds of post WWII secular Christmas. It is the air I breath. It is the default. It comes and goes in my life expected, but also unnoticed, like July 4th and Halloween. The day after Thanksgiving it springs up as if out of nowhere and no one misses a beat when Kroger starts playing songs about magical snowmen instead of pop hits from the early aughts. That particular day, however, something did stand out to me. As I stood outside a store keeping Oliver moving in the stroller, I noticed a large display. Taking up the entire middle space where a pop-up store could go, were giant red sparkly letters all decorated for Christmas. They spelt out the word “believe.”
Read more...I don’t know what it’s like in other professions, but in software development there is some expectation of a meritocracy; those with the most ability should be in charge. The good programmers who develop stable, well-designed systems should be promoted and the less skilled developers should listen, follow, and learn. For me, at least, in university and my early career, this is exactly how things worked. The skilled programmers got the good projects, got opportunities to design new systems, and got to set the standards for others to follow.
Read more...One of the many luxuries of being able to do a large portion of my jobs from home, is that I get to be an active participant in the daily lives of my family. Recently my wife has started the practice of reading real chapter books aloud to the kids at lunch and before bed. Over the course of the last several months, I’ve had the opportunity of listening to “The Lion Witch and the Wardrobe”, “Because of Winn-Dixie”, and “The Wizard of Oz” read aloud by my wife and experienced for the first time by my children. — Please don’t spoil the end of Winn-Dixie for me. I missed the ending because I had to work and I don’t know if everyone at the party finds him or not. — The current book we’re reading is Oz. There’s no telling how many times I’ve watched that movie. It was in constant rotation in my house growing up. I’d conservatively guess I’ve watched the movie 25 times. But, despite having seen the movie many times, I’ve never once read the book. To be honest, until I married my elementary school librarian wife, I didn’t even know Oz was a book. So, this read-aloud experience has been really cool for me. I’m getting to experience the book of The Wizard of Oz for the first time.
Read more...So, show of hands, how many of y’all took on random hobbies in the last two years or so? Same, same. It all started with Jennifer getting a little pathos plant and two succulents. I took it upon myself to help those plants avoid the normal fate of plants in our house. I researched, I set a calendar reminder for watering, I even got a little grow light. (My neighbors are no doubt incredibly confused by the purple glow that comes from my office all winter long.) To my surprise, my little plants started growing, maybe a little too much. I had to learn to prune, how to propagate new plants from the cuttings. Then a friend offered us free plants from their yard, I just couldn’t resist. My plant-minding grew to the outside with my precious hostas and cannas. I watered and tended all spring and summer to my outside garden. But, then winter came and I learned I was to cut them back to the ground. It seemed awful!
Read more...Figuring out how to live out God’s call to make disciples and love our neighbors is something I think about often. In my little neighborhood I daily see the extremes of deep poverty and homelessness and the excesses of wealth and secular individualism. I know all of these people — the rich and the poor — are loved by God. All of these people need Christ’s church. It is for this reason that today’s Gospel reading makes me uncomfortable. Jesus called these people into the harvest in a world much more dangerous than ours. If he called them to that, then, what is he calling us into today? Can we really say people have changed so much in the last 2000 years that Jesus’ instructions to his followers are no longer contextually relevant?
Read more...“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
Who could truly understand what was happening? He wasn’t the savior they were expecting. He wasn’t saving them in the way they wanted. And, yet, even at that depth of evil, Jesus is eager to forgive, eager for us to return to his Father’s presence. He says, “Father, forgive” that we might boldly pray “Our Father who art in Heaven…”
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