The Postmodern Wave

Going to a baseball game with seminarians is an interesting experience. While they appreciate the nuances and gentle rhythms of the sport, the real fun is the discussion between pitches. Personal, cultural, and theological conversation is what seminarians live for, and watching baseball live is especially good for this kind of interaction.
Take, for instance, my [...]

Take Me Out to the Build-A-Bear

We, along with 50 other friends and acquaintances who benefitted from Megan’s Ticketmaster-like talents (minus the service charge) are due to go to our first Cards game of the year tonight. Unfortunately, I’m concerned rain may spoil our fun: there’s a 40% chance of precipitation forecasted for both today and tonight, and while that’s less [...]

Monday Musings

Just a couple quick thoughts this morning on a few news items of the day:

America’s Tallest Tower to Lift the Windy City – over 2,000-feet and 150 stories tall? Everytime I hear about something like the Chicago Spire or New York’s 1,776-foot tall Freedom Tower, my mind can’t help but think of Genesis 11.
Wipe Out [...]

The Interview

For those following along, my interview at Westminister (the high school, not the seminary) went well. The initial meeting with the headmaster and the four other administrators around the table was probably the toughest part – not because of them, it’s just awkward to walk into a room and wax eloquent about yourself with men [...]

Tragedy Capturing

My friend, Travis, has a good (but too short) post on both his disgust at the shootings at Virginia Tech and the media’s Pavlovian dog-like pantings in covering it all, live and on location. My own impression was similiar to Travis’ – when I finally got home Monday evening and turned on the news, I [...]

April Opportunity and Update

This coming Thursday, April 19th, is a big day, as I’ve been selected as one of three finalists for a Bible teaching position at Westminster Christian Academy here in St. Louis. My interview is all afternoon, during which I’ll meet for interviews with their headmaster, the Bible department chair, and the school’s education committee, before [...]

How We Know We Are Loved

My kids are always amazing me with what they understand about life. Here’s an exchange my three-year-old and I had this evening while cuddling (a favorite activity for all involved):
Daddy: Do you know I love you?
#4: (smiles and laughs, almost embarrassed) Daddy…
Daddy: No, really. How do you know I love you?
#4: Because I said ‘yes’.
The [...]

An Emphasis of Synthesis

Not sure where this week has gone, other than into the paper I had to write for my Developing Lay Leaders intensive weekend class I took two months ago. The paper was due on Monday, but I had to ask for an extension as the project demanded more attention than I probably should have given. [...]

Happy Easter

He is risen…

God’s Friday, part 3

What about the part about Jesus praying to “the one who could save him from death?” The biblical gospels and secular historians like Josephus and Tacitus all record that Jesus died on the cross, so is this a mistake? What “death” is Hebrews referring to that God saved him from? The answer, of course, is [...]

God’s Friday, part 2

But then we come to Jesus in Luke 22:39:
39 Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. 40 On reaching the place, he said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.” 41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 [...]

God’s Friday

(As mentioned a week ago, I’m giving the homily at Memorial’s Good Friday service tomorrow evening (7 p.m.; here’s a map). As I’ve been working on what I’m going to say (and as this is Maundy Thursday), I thought I’d divide my manuscript over the next three days before Easter as an opportunity for folks [...]

Irony

Driving to the seminary this morning, I saw a bumper sticker that read “Trees are the future.”
Ironically, the bumper sticker was on a wood chipper.

On Storytelling

“The greatest religions convert the world through stories.”
– Ben Okri
Dan Allender’s book, The Healing Path, is a good reminder of what we’re not called to do with our hurt and heartache – that is, to stuff, squelch, or suppress it. Avoiding the other extreme, Allender does a good job of going beyond any “express yourself” [...]

Opening Day 2007

Baseball opens today, April 1st (no foolin’). Cardinals host the Mets tonight at Busch. Glory. In honor of the occasion, here are two favorite quotes about the greatest game ever invented:
Terrence Mann (played by James Earl Jones) in Field of Dreams:
“Ray, people will come, Ray. They’ll come to Iowa for reasons they can’t even fathom. [...]