Things I’m Looking Forward to in the Next Week

(Photo taken by Megan at The Butterfly House; thanks to our landlord for the free tix)
Here are some coming highlights for the next seven days:

Playing with my kids and mowing the yard on Saturday (with the rain we just had, we’re going to lose our three-year-old if I don’t)
Watching the first day of baseball season [...]

Learning from My Methodist Roots

My Reformation and Modern Church History class readings took a somewhat familiar turn today, focusing on the person and teaching of John Wesley, founder of Methodism.
I grew up Methodist, but experienced few intentional and traditional characteristics of Methodism to really know what it was. The small town church of my youth was not (nor is) [...]

Lawnmower Shuffle (classic mix)

Part of our “deal” in living in our house is the privilege of mowing the yard, which I did Sunday afternoon. I have many fond memories of lawnmowing from my youth, when mowing the yard on the farm was the equivalent of four solid hours of riding my Dad’s John Deere riding mower, never without [...]

Spring Break Broke

Spring Break is over (thank the Maker), so as promised, I’m back. For those of you who enjoy true stories of life going very, very wrong, here’s a summary of the past week.
The break started off well enough: things getting done, papers getting written (and a few graded), pages getting read. This went on through [...]

Breaking for Spring

Covenant’s Spring Break officially starts today, amounting to a ten-day break (if you include weekends) that comes at a very good time to catch up on some reading, start three papers, and grade the tower-like stack of Apologetics and Pastoral Theology papers sitting on my desk (shown above). Toward the end of the ten days, [...]

Therapy, Counseling, and Drugs (Oh, My!)

“Personality disorders are among the most problematic and vexing disorders
the pastor is likely to face in his or her day-to-day life in the church.”
The Pastor’s Guide to Psychological Disorders and Treatments, pg. 74
“I’m schizophrenic, but we’re better now.”
T-Shirt for sale at Union Station
Reading The Pastor’s Guide for my Intro to Counseling class, I began [...]

Bracketology: A Study in Postmodernism?

Like many this time of year, I just filled out my NCAA brackets with completely uneducated guesses as to who will make the Final Four. When I say “uneducated,” I’m not kidding: though well-versed in the fundamentals of basketball, I haven’t watched a game all season.
I do this every March – make decisions based on [...]

Saving Daylight

I’ll come right out and say it: I’m a fan of Daylight Saving Time. Part of my affinity is simply change (which I usually like); part is that it just makes sense for a lot of reasons, not the least of which that it buys me a little extra time in the morning as my [...]

Jerry Maguire Moment on Education

One of my favorite scenes in the movie Jerry Maguire is at the very beginning of the film when, on a drunken binge, Jerry (played by Tom Cruise) writes and publishes his thoughts for all to read in an essay titled “The Things We Think and Do Not Say” concerning his profession as a sports [...]

The Immigration Issue

My friend, Ronnie, asked me to sign the following with regard to immigration reform. I did so wholeheartedly, as this approach seems the best middle-of-the-road option in a land of dehumanizing extremes. (For more from one of the shapers of this initiative, click here.)
Dear President George W. Bush and Member of Congress,
Christians for Comprehensive Immigration [...]

The Jesus Diet

Alastair Roberts at Adversaria has given up blogging for Lent. However, instead of going Garver for 40 days, he’s offering folks the opportunity to guest blog on his behalf. He writes:
“One of the principal purposes of this Lenten project is to be a means of sharing some of our perspectives on the public ministry of [...]

Brain Holiday: Postponed

After a semi-tough academic week (midterms) and coming into our first totally clear (no immediate deadlines) weekend in a month, I was looking forward to today being a bit of a “brain holiday”. After Friday’s chapel at Covenant, however, it is not to be.
Dan Zink, my Marriage and Family professor from last semester, interviewed visiting [...]

Wildwood Wisdom (part 4)

Okay, last day of high schoolers being wise (thanks for enjoying/enduring):
“The wise man lets his hard work speak,
but the fool attempts to heighten his position in the eyes of others.
For the wise man knows that his actions will display his intelligence,
while the fool does not trust his own ability.
He who keeps his success to himself [...]