Moved

I don’t know if you know, but if you don’t, I’m no longer blogging here at WordPress. Check out (and re-bookmark) me at http://dunhams.typepad.com/seconddrafts.

In Case You’re Wondering…

…why I’ve not written much here of late, here’s the deal: as of 2009, I’m blogging at the new and improved Second Drafts. So, in case you didn’t get the memo, please redo your bookmarks or subscriptions accordingly and consider yourself informed.

I’ve Moved

As of 2009, Second Drafts has a new home, so come over and play (just be sure to wear clothes you can get a little messy). See you in the new neighborhood.

Ten-Year-Old in the House

I don’t feel nearly old enough to have a ten-year-old in the house, but since I’ve got one as of today, I’m very grateful she’s this one.

Happy birthday, Sweet Pea. I love you more than I sometimes show and you know.

Live from the Interim

The time between Christmas and New Year’s has always been a favorite of mine, as there’s usually less reason to leave the house than normal days. I’m a homebody by nature; my problem is I’m just not left home alone that much (psychiatrist’s orders).

The past couple days have been a hodgepodge of doing stuff I’ve either had to or have been meaning to do for some time. Here are the contents of each category:

Had to

• Reload/update software on a new hard drive for my four-year-old iBook G4 after the old hard drive crashed (thankfully, I had everything backed up, which wasn’t the case when Megan‘s crashed a couple of months ago)
• Replace iGTD with the soon-to-be-released Things (I like it a lot better)
• Renew $60 worth of URL domains for sites I hold for various and sundry purposes (not all of which are particularly clear at this moment in time)
• Finish assembling my study from our move six months ago (it’s about time)
• Get used to being the owner of three cats (my gift to my four very happy girls; meet Ricky, Lucy, and Ethel)
• Work the bookstore (2009 marks John Calvin‘s 500th birthday, so we’re gearing up; inventory this week)
• Restore our family filing system to some semblance of order (I hate the pressure of keeping track  - physically or digitally – of legally binding documents for at least seven years)

Been meaning to

• Redesign our blogs (look for the re-launch around New Year’s; big improvements)
• Finish Confessions by Augustine (I like the book a lot, but I’d rather read it when it’s quiet, which isn’t often around here)
• Read The Shack by William Young (yes, I gave in because so many people asked me what I thought; film at eleven)
• Catch up on Lost (season four is so much better than season three); also enjoying the second season of Dexter
• Write some thank you notes (much to be thankful for; it’s also good for my attitude/heart)

More as I have it. I’m too busy enjoying the time off right now.

All I Want for Christmas…

…is nothing I really need.

May Jesus be your reason for the season.

Booklist 2008

After hitting 60 books last year, my goal this year was 6 per month, for a total of 72. Unfortunately, unless I develop speed-reading capabilities between now and 2009, I’m going to finish at half that with a disappointing 36 for 2008. Nuts.

The year for me has seemed an “off” one in terms of reading. Granted, a lot of the books listed were thicker theologically than the average couple-hundred-page novel that makes for a quick read, but I definitely read less (and less broadly) this year than in previous years and I’m mad about it.

Nevetheless, as we’re out of town the next several days, here’s my annual list in all its weeniness for you to mock (you know who you are). As usual, I’ve ranked each of the books on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best) and added a comment of explanation.

Feel free to leave book recommendations or links to your own list in the comments – I always appreciate them. Enjoy.

January (3)

• Leaving Church by Barbara Brown Taylor – Episcopal priest(ess) walks away from the church in search of a more spiritual life; bleh (2)
• The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal – story of a Jewish concentration camp survivor who struggles to forgive his tormentor; heart-wrenching (8)
• The Chosen by Chaim Potok – another beautiful story of redemption from the man who wrote the Asher Lev stories (some of my favorites) (9)

February (3)

• The Price of Privilege by Madeline Levine – well-written study of the world of wealth, suburban bliss, and teenage boredom; welcome to my classroom (9)
• Pet Sematary by Stephen King – I read this when I was a kid, but you’re never too old (or weird) for the master of throwaway horror novels (5)
• The Case for Covenantal Infant Baptism edited by Gregg Strawbridge – helped push us over the edge (after three years) in embracing the covenantal doctrine of child baptism (8)

March (2)

• Children Matter by Scottie May, et. al. – helpful book on a variety of philosophies with regard to children’s ministry; academic but readable (7)
• The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls – I remember liking this novel well enough, but I can’t for the life of me remember what it was about (7)

April (1)

• The Reason for God by Timothy Keller – Keller channels C.S. Lewis in writing a most important apologetic for our times; read this (10)

May (5)

• The Story of Christianity (vol. 1) by Justo L. Gonzalez – I love church history, and no one writes it more succinctly than Justo Gonzalez (8)
• Buffalo for the Broken Heart by Dan O’Brien – set in South Dakota, one man’s memoir of restoring the Great Plains with buffalo; almost as good as being there (which I was this past June) (7)
• Survey of the New Testament by Paul Benware – basic survey with a hint of dispensationalism; not my favorite by a long stretch (5)
• The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman – the second in Pullman’s series (I read the first last December); the writing is good but the story spirals (6)
• The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins – apologetic for evolution by what seems a very angry (and hurt) man; good to know the arguments, but still not convinced by them (7)

June (2)

• Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown – incredibly sad history of the injustices done to the Indians at the hands of the U.S. government; painful to think about (8)
• Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer by C.S. Lewis – short book of letters on the topic of prayer; the only thing better than reading Lewis’ books is reading his letters (7)

July (4)

• The Holy Spirit by Sinclair B. Ferguson – one of the better treatises I’ve read on the person and work of the Holy Spirit; solid (8)
• The Man Called Cash by Steve Turner – enjoyed this “official” bio more than other Cash bios; such an interesting and conflicted man (7)
• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien – read this out loud to the girls; even to the 10-and-under female mind, Tolkien is the daddy (as am I for reading him) (9)
• The Church by Edmund P. Clowney – a good treatment of the church in the same series as the aforementioned Holy Spirit book; a reminder of how much we’ve lost since Acts 2 (7)

August (5)

• The Lord’s Supper by Robert Letham – basic little book on the sacrament of Communion (7)
• City of Glass by Douglas Coupland – Coupland’s take on his hometown of Vancouver (one of my favorites); all travel books should be written like this (9)
• The Bible and the Future by Anthony Hoekema – St. Anthony does it again with his very solid Reformed writing on the end times (8)
• Hell on Trial by Robert Peterson – in case you were wondering, Hell is a real place; Peterson demonstrates what, why, and how (7)
• Two Views of Hell by Edward William Fudge and Robert Peterson – not sure how many books we  need on the topic, but if you weren’t convinced the first time, this might help (7)

September (3)

• One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn – coincidentally, I was reading this when Solzhenitsyn passed; One Day is one day from the pen of a master (10)
• Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris – unlike millions of others who apparently do, I don’t think Sedaris is all that funny; seems too contrived (5)
• A History of the Bible Lands in the Interbiblical Period by Robert L. Cate – a primer on the intertestamental period; good for what it is, but that’s about it (6)

October (1)

• Come Back, Barbara by C. John Miller and Barbara Miller Juliani – one of the worst-written books I’ve read in a long time; sympathetic to the story, but that’s about it (4)

November (4)

• The Prodigal God by Timothy Keller – Keller’s study on Luke 15 in non-fiction format; a good book for believer and non-believer alike (8)
• A Biblical History of Israel by Iain Provan, V. Philips Long, and Tremper Longman III – an academic look at the Old Testament and its authorial controversies; dense but helpful (7)
• God’s Design: A Focus on Old Testament Theology by Elmer A. Martens – Martens puts forth a helpful and Reformed paradigm for systematizing the OT; accessible (9)
• Grace Based Parenting by Tim Kimmel – I’m usually not much for parenting books, but this one worked okay for me (7)

December (3)

• Inspiration and Incarnation by Peter Enns – an intriguing book on inerrancy for which Enns was fired from Westminster Theological; his intentions were good, but his methodology got him in trouble (7)
• The Memory of Old Jack by Wendell Berry – another beautifully-written story from Berry’s fictional Port William township; hardship, heartache, and yes, another tearful ending (mine) (10)
• Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff – social technologies and their effects on business and consumers; if you’re online at all, this book documents much of what you already know (6)

Death by Crustifiction

Grading New Testament exams tonight, I came to the page where I ask students to outline the gospel of Matthew. I had no idea that, in chapter 28, Jesus was “crustified.”

(My nine-year-old’s words: “Sounds like something they do at Subway.”)

Every Party Needs a Pooper (and I’m Volunteering)

The western half of the 64/40 reconstruction opens this morning (work on the eastern half begins today). Maybe I’m just bitter all the forecasted ice and snow is nowhere to be found and I have to go to school for “review day,” but yesterday’s closed-highway party easily makes the “things I’ll never understand” list in 2008. And I quote:

“The novelty of walking, riding or say getting one’s picture taken on an empty interstate seemed to be the most common reason to attend Sunday’s shindig. Sharon Brahan of Rock Hill took a stroll from McKnight Road down to Brentwood for breakfast this morning because, ‘How often do you get to do something like this?’”

How often indeed? But regardless of the answer, who cares?

“‘I wanted to be able to show a picture to my grandchildren of us,’ said Debbie Bunten, who came out with a friend from her house in Chesterfield. ‘I don’t have them (grandchildren) yet, but years from now when they’re on the highway and it’s packed with cars, they’ll think it’s crazy.’”

No, actually, ma’am, they’ll think you’re crazy for making a big deal of it.

“Crazy is what Joe Wiss’ kids called him for wanting to walk the interstate. The 73-year-old retired trucker enthusiastically hauled his wife and friends from the Dogtown neighborhood to join him for a constitutional. ‘This is the first and the only time we’ll get to do this,’ Wiss said.”

Let’s hope so. Odds are if you tried it now that it’s a functioning highway again, you would likely be killed.

“‘It seems weird just standing here in the middle of the highway talking,’ said Wiss’ buddy Rick Brine, a retired construction worker.”

Sir, that’s because it is.

Forgive my party-pooper attitude, St. Louis, but it’s been a long year of alternate routes. If you’re out and about on 64/40 this morning, I hope you’re in an automobile. If not, I’ll be the one thinking sarcastic thoughts in your general direction as I drive by.

Man, I needed a snow day today.

We Were So Young

Other than the lenses of my glasses being roughly the size of grapefruit, Megan and I took a decent engagement picture back in the day (pardon the ugly streaks – I was still trying to figure out the scanner technology that had just come out).

This pic is from October of 1996 (I had popped the question at the end of March), and two months later we were married on this very date, December 14th. Twelve years since, I’m glad I switched out the glasses, but not the bride.

Love and issues, Crazy. Happy anniversary.

Chicago Politics

Pot, meet Kettle. Let’s talk about your blackness.

Breather for Now

I pulled the first all-nighter of my seminary career last night, writing 20 one-page reflections and cramming for the final exam for my Old Testament History class. I went to bed from 8:30 to 11 p.m. last night, got up and worked until 5:30 this morning, dozed for half an hour before getting up and teaching the day at school. I then came home and slept for an hour before dinner, studied, took the exam online, and am just now feeling as if I’m on the final approach toward finishing the semester. All that remains is reading two books for my Ancient Near East class and writing two ten-page papers by Tuesday, and I’m done. Piece of (a semi-large) cake.

Believe it or not, I felt pretty good today despite my sleep deprivation, but I was a little sheepish confessing to my students that Mr. Dunham did the very thing he encourages them not to do (procrastinate) and is paying the price. Somehow, with finals week next week, they were less than sympathetic, but thankfully Megan was, keeping a steady flow of coffee going last night and covering my bookstore shifts yesterday and today so I could knock everything out (thanks, Sweetie).

As of tomorrow I’ll have both my final exams written for my students and will then need to dive headfirst into a pool of project papers and original parables before next week or I’ll be up a creek trying to grade 103 exams on top of all that. At least the papers will all be different, so that will make them more interesting than usual.

In other news, I got official word today that all I need to graduate in May is Christian Ethics, a three-hour course taught by Anthony Bradley. Unfortunately, the course is not offered next semester, so I’ve already talked with Anthony about doing an independent study with him to meet the requirement. While I really would like to take the class normally, I’m excited by the idea of wrapping up my seminary career (or at least the theological studies part of it) with this kind of learning experience (I’ll also be taking a three-hour course called Teaching and Learning, which counts toward the educational ministries degree I’ll continue working on past May).

So, there’s your educational update for the end of the semester. For any of you of the praying persuasion, pray I can finish well both with my studies and my students, and that I’d actually learn something in the process as well. Oh, and feel free to share any finals week horror stories from this or yesteryear if it will help your therapeutic process. The doctor is in (and it won’t even cost you a nickel to comment).

Words to Live/Write By

“If you would not be forgotten
As soon as you are dead and rotten
Either write things worth reading
Or do things worth the writing”
- Benjamin Franklin

The Color of Heaven

We had quite an international experience Friday night. Our friends, the Venkatesans, are from India and invited a few families over for dinner to celebrate Arun’s birthday (he’s a doctor here in St. Louis). In addition to the Venkatesans and us, there was another American family, another family from India, and a family from Pakistan who joined us for the festivities.

I was asked to pray for the meal, which I did, and then we ate. Despite my having the world’s blandest taste buds, the authentic Indian cuisine was amazing as Reena toned down the spices a bit in honor of her American guests. The kids (15 in all) were all over the place playing together, and we adults laughed and laughed at the stories Arun (pronounced “ah-roon”) and Reena told us about their families, their childhoods, and their time in America.

The thought that kept running through my mind during the evening was just how wonderful living in a culturally diverse eternity is going to be. No language barriers, no racial profiling/stereotyping, no bad blood between nations – just people of all colors whose defining commonality and sole identity is that they love and are loved by God:

“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.” Galatians 3:28-29

Of course, we are to work toward this kind of manifold eternal existence in our temporal one, but it can be difficult because of the challenges mentioned above. Still, what can help in the pursuit of what seems impossible here and now is the vision of what one day will surely come to pass:

“A great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” Revelation 7:9-10

In case you’ve never thought about it, Heaven is going to be a very non-white place with lots of Indian (among other) food. How do I know? I tasted it last night.

The Holidays

Seeing as how we’re now officially into the season known “the holidays,” I thought I’d put up a couple of polls inquiring as to my readership’s Christmas tendencies. The first two are below (with comments available to elaborate on your responses).
 

 

On Raising Kids Gracefully, part 2

As I have four young daughters – each of whom I dread possibly dealing with the rebellion struggles Jack Miller did with his – I chose to read his book, Come Back, Barbara. The book is not particularly well-written, but in terms of new insight, Miller’s reflection on his relationship in Barbara’s youth sums it up for me:

“There was a particular serious flaw that I now see, though I did not see it when she was an adolescent. It was a sin of omission more than of commission. In brief, my friendship with Barbara was inadequately cultivated when she entered the junior-high years. I did not work to touch her inner life…and I was blind to my failure.” (14)

I don’t feel blind to my failure; I feel blinded by it. My focus with my girls too often revolves around training them by way of the negative than the positive, by making sure they know what’s wrong and what’s right rather than what’s good, beautiful, and true. Granted, there’s a place for such instruction, but it too often serves as my default mode, perhaps “having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5).

The question, then, becomes how to infuse power into my parenting pedagogy? Miller’s mental struggles with the matter mirror my own, especially in the area of prayer:

“What goes on in the minds of battered parents when it comes time to pray? Often a sense of defeat takes over the spirit, a cloud that can descend even when the parents have forgiven the young person and have real love in their hearts. The problem is that parents often have a fixed negative image of the child. He or she is seen as unchangeable, an image that may be powerfully reinforced by the recollection of the adolescent’s many failings: repeated acts of rebellion, words of rebellion, and looks of rebellion.” (96)

How do I keep from locking in a negative perspective of my girls that, between the accumulation of their sin along with mine in response to it, may possibly stand in the way of being able to pray so as to, by God’s grace, somehow change both of us and maintain hope? Miller’s answer to this question (and the application I take from his book) is this:

“Christ wants to reach the young person, to find that lost child, for he loves that wandering spirit. But the Spirit’s convicting work will be severely hindered by a parent’s unconscious rejection. The parent can have all sorts of bad memories festering in the mind and, as a result, close the eyes to the rebel’s need for love no matter what he or she is doing. Parents, therefore, must cultivate their relationships with their own heavenly Father, because only from him can parents learn to forgive, bless, and love.” (119)

The key to helping my daughters is to focus on my own life with God at least as much as on my girls’. It sounds both selfish and too simple to be right, but Jesus’ words in Matthew 7 (with one little adaptation) convince me otherwise: “You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother child’s eye.”

On Raising Kids Gracefully

Though I’m not one for parenting books in general, Tim Kimmel’s Grace Based Parenting is a helpful take on what parenting by principle looks like. I liked his approach, perspective, and evaluation of what’s behind so much bad parenting advice today, namely fear. He writes:

“Parents armed with little more than a vibrant relationship with God consistently served as the ideal springboard for great people. So something changed. We got scared. And I think that fear is what motivates so much of the Christian parenting advice we get.” (12)

In our effort to avoid riskless parenting, I personally swing toward a conservative version of parental recklessness, at least philosophically speaking. Kimmel’s counsel is wise – neither extreme is the right one – but I struggle with landing biblically between the extremes of the riskless, safety-preoccupied church culture and the reckless American culture’s claim (as verbalized by former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt) that “there is nothing to fear but fear itself.”

The question for me, then, is how do I train my children to recognize the difference and dangers of these two extremes without giving into either of them myself in doing so? Kimmel would suggest that parents replace their preoccupation with where not to go with more of a focus on where to go (and, as importantly, how). He writes:

“One of the great general purposes you can transfer to your children is the goal of being a wisdom hunter. Wisdom is seldom available to the young, but it’s made available sooner rather than later when we see that part of our role as parents it to teach our children how to turn knowledge into practical truth and insight.” (76-77)

With regard to our parenting, I think I can thankfully recognize Kimmel’s description of grace-based families/homes being where children are given: 1) the freedom to be different; 2) the freedom to be vulnerable; 3) the freedom to be candid; 4) the freedom to make mistakes (134). Though we’ve not always been perfect in reaching them, our goals for raising our kids line up well with Kimmel’s counsel, and have for the most part from the beginning.

The key for us – somewhat in the past, but especially in the days to come – is checking our vision with regard to Whom we’re looking for affirmation regarding our kids. As Kimmel writes, “Where too many parents are concerned with how others view their children, grace-based parents are more excited with how God views their children.” (212) In general, I think we are excited about how God views our kids, but we need to be more conscientious of how closely our view of them – past, present, and future – lines up with His.

Black Friday on the Farm

I’m doubtful many folks are checking blogs today, but if you are:

• We had a great Thanksgiving here on the farm – fun with family, amazing food, some basketball, a star-filled evening hayride, a couple of naps
• No one has so much as even mentioned doing a little Black Friday shopping
• Megan and the girls are going to see Bolt with my sisters and their kids today
• I’m trying to resist the temptation of my parents’ Dish Network and Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch marathon
• Instead, I’m hoping to write some Old Testament reflections (as they’re to be more devotional, I’m going to pull a Wendell Berry and write them longhand)
• Speaking of Wendell, I’m also attempting to resist the temptation of finishing his book, The Memory of Old Jack, which I made the mistake of packing
• We’re heading back to St. Louis early tomorrow morning for what will surely be a very sad memorial service and funeral, but look forward to finishing out the Thanksgiving break at home

Thanksgiving is easily my favorite holiday, but the break always feels so short. The good news is, because Thanksgiving was so late this year, I only have two weeks of teaching and a week of finals before two weeks of Christmas break.

Enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend, everyone.

Writer’s Life

I rarely think of or introduce myself as a writer (that is, a Writer), but these are familiar nonetheless (#2 is my favorite, but watch them all to experience the process).

Not Even Jack Bauer Can Get Us Out of This One

Powerful episode of 24 Sunday night. “Redemption” caught us up with illegal expatriate Jack Bauer (played by Keifer Sutherland) coming to the aid of African children kidnapped to be made into child soldiers under a would-be dictator.

As always, the show’s story was straight out of news headlines, even including a presidential transfer of power in Washington, with the only major detail missed being the casting of the new President as a woman instead of a black man (apologies to both Senators Clinton and Obama). In a word, the episode was heartbreaking, as the use of thousands of child soldiers is going on in at least 17 different countries today.

For the past two years, Westminster has been involved with an organization called Invisible Children, whose Schools for Schools initiative exists “to creatively raise money for the schools of northern Uganda, improving the quality of education for war-affected students.” So far this fall, the WCA student body has raised over $15,000 (mostly in spare change) to help the same secondary school in Gulu that we helped last year, ranking us first in the country of all participating U.S. schools with less than a month to go of the 100-day window.

While I’m not a big fan of the competitive giving strategy utilized by the organization (and enabled by Westminster), I was glad that one WCA student, as well as my friend and teaching colleague, Ann Heyse, “won” the opportunity to represent our school in Gulu this past summer. Ann spent six weeks with Invisible Children, training teachers and teaching students with her expertise in English, and based on both her personal testimony and her excellently-written blog documenting her experience, it seems the organization does good work in a place that needs much good work done.

Last night, as I watched the two-hour teaser that creatively gets Jack Bauer back to the United States for the show’s seventh full season beginning in January, I found myself overwhelmed by the realism of it all…that is until one particular commercial break when there was a quick screen shot for the Human Rights Watch website, followed immediately by a national Pizza Hut commercial, and then a local ad for St. Louis’ very own Casino Queen (“home of the loosest slots”). Whew. Assuagement by advertising.

What an incredibly confusing postmodern culture we have created, one in which almost every aspect of life is separated from any true and meaningful meta-narrative. How strange to go from African children dying to ordering two-for-one pizzas to having a great time gambling, all in the course of 60 seconds. And yet for those of us who have been breathing this postmodern air our entire lives, the progression doesn’t seem strange at all; it is exactly what we have come to expect (at least, that is, before God’s revelatory red pill of the gospel allows us to see power, gluttony, and greed for what they really are).

We live in a broken world, friends. Whether in Africa or America, ours is both a needy place and time to be alive, and not even Jack Bauer can get us out of this one.