walk in the woods
As a deer strolls out of the woods and onto the path thirty yards ahead of us, Sydney, riding on my shoulders says, “Papa, look at that moose.”
As a deer strolls out of the woods and onto the path thirty yards ahead of us, Sydney, riding on my shoulders says, “Papa, look at that moose.”
What if we were to frame this not in terms of needs but relevance? Many Christians hope to speak to generation X or Y or postmoderns, or some subgroup, like cowboys or bikers—people for whom the typical church seems irrelevant.
When you start tailoring the gospel to the culture, whether it’s a youth culture, a generation culture or any other kind of culture, you have taken the guts out of the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ is not the kingdom of this world. It’s a different kingdom.
My son Eric organized a new church six years ago. The Presbyterians have kind of a boot camp for new church pastors where you learn what you’re supposed to do. So Eric went. One of the teachers there said he shouldn’t put on a robe and a stole: “You get out there and you meet this generation where they are.”
Eric, being a good student and wanting to please his peers, didn’t wear a robe. His church started meeting in a high-school auditorium. He started out by wearing a business suit every Sunday. But when the first Sunday of Advent rolled around, and they were going to have Communion, he told me, “Dad, I just couldn’t do it. So I put my robe on.”
Their neighbors, Joel and his wife, attended his church. Joel was the stereotype of the person the new church development was designed for—suburban, middle management, never been to church, totally secular. Eric figured he was coming because they were neighbors, or because he liked him. After that Advent service, he asked Joel what he thought of his wearing a robe.
He said, “It made an impression. My wife and I talked about it. I think what we’re really looking for is sacred space. We both think we found it.”
I think relevance is a crock. I don’t think people care a whole lot about what kind of music you have or how you shape the service. They want a place where God is taken seriously, where they’re taken seriously, where there is no manipulation of their emotions or their consumer needs.
Why did we get captured by this advertising, publicity mindset? I think it’s destroying our church.
But someone else might walk into Eric’s church, see him with his robe, and walk out, thinking the whole place was too religious, too churchy.
So why are they going if it’s not going to be religious? What do they go to church for?
Of course, there’s another aspect to this. If you’re going to a church where everybody’s playing a religious role, that’s going to be off putting. But that performance mentality, role mentality can be seen in the cowboy church or whatever—everybody is performing a role there, too.
But we’re involved with something that has a huge mystery to it. Are we going to wipe out all the mystery so we can be in control of it? Isn’t reverence at the very heart of the worship of God?
And if we present a rendition of the faith in which all the mystery is removed, and there’s no reverence, how are people ever going to know there’s something more than just their own emotions, their own needs? There’s something a lot bigger than my needs that’s going on. How do I ever get to that if the church service and worship program is all centered on my needs?
Some people would argue that it’s important to have a worship service in which people feel comfortable so they can hear the gospel.
I think they’re wrong. Take the story I told you about this family in front of us on Sunday. Nobody was comfortable. The whole church was miserable.
And yet, they might have experienced more gospel in going up and putting their arms around that poor mother, who was embarrassed to death.
(For full interview, see http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/march/26.42.html)
Why do I always feel guilty when I’m asked that question? I don’t have any big plans. I’m not writing a book. I’m not teaching summer school. I’m not traveling Europe for six weeks. I’m playing softball. I workout every day. I read novels. I root, root, root for the Cubbies. Is there something else I should be doing?
Today, as I type this, Sydney eases into her morning by watching a cartoon on the Disney channel. Morgan sleeps on the floor in the living room. The birds sing joyfully outside under the bright morning sky. It’s cold out. I recline on a love seat and type words that maybe ten people will read–more than usually read the crap I write.
People who ask me this question typically think of work as something you go to 8 to 5 every day, and then you come home and forget about it. For the next three months or so, I get up, stretch, read the newspaper, shower, read the bible, play with Morgan and Sydney, eat, workout, scribble thoughts in a mead composition notebook, shoot hoops in the driveway, read 19th century European masterpieces, weed whack the lawn, check the vegetables growing in the garden, walk down the street with “mama”, Syd, and Morgan to look at frogs and turtles in the pond, clean out my closet, reorganize my office, and so on and so forth.
Sometimes at night Sydney asks for some dancing music, and I turn it up loud and we dance.
Why should anyone feel guilty about this?
Life is the tree of art. Death is the science of trees.
Life is the death of trees. Science is the art of trees.
Tree is the death of life. Art is the tree of science.
and so on…
“Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death."
-William Blake
When Jesus made me Kosher
When I drank the sweet new wine
I felt like a new creature
Really felt like one fine swine
Stark, cold, wet reality
Came and nearly quenced my fire
`Til I heard God speak to me
I was right back in the mire
Chorus:
You´d have to see it to believe it, still God´s Word is true
Swine flew, swine flew
It gives grace a whole new meaning in a sky of blue
Swine flew, swine flew
He said “I haven´t left you,
Hang tight and hope in Me,
I´ll reinvigorate you
Give you strenght and energy”
Up on my feet and moving
Got a strange new runner´s high
See me sprouting eagle´s wings
This pig is gonna fly
You´d have to see it to believe it, still God´s Word is true
Swine flew, swine flew
It gives grace a whole new meaning in a sky of blue
Swine flew, swine flew
Slipped the surely bonds of Earth, in a way few do
Swine flew, swine flew
You can join me in the air, or just sit and stew
Swine flew, swine flew
Swine flew, swine flew, swine flewswine flewswineflewswineflew…
(Look, up in the sky!!! It´s a bird?! It´s a plane?! It´s Superman!
No man, it´s not Superman. It´s ONE BAD PIG!)
Swine flew
Music from the bathtub…
“yes, Jesus loves me… the Bible tells me so”
and…
“Jesus loves the little children…"
“Jingle bells, jingle bells, …” (my favorite part of this is the “HEY”)
And the angels must be singing along.
“After all manner of professors have done their best for us, the place we are to get knowledge is in books. The true university of these days is a collection of books."
-Albert Camus
This is a good week. A slim chance of snow this week, certainly the last of the season. Good chance of the first 80 degree temp of the year. Gotta love April in Northern Indiana.
A New Narrator in Town
I was certain of one thing, and this one thing gave life its meaning. I was no character in someone else's story. I was free.
The giant eraser appeared, hovering over my backyard, and I began to lose faith. When a massive thumb and index finger blocked the sun, I …
He changed his mind.
… the Cubs win 2/3 of their games all year long, they should be ok. In fact–while I’m no mathematical wizard–I think it would be all but impossible for them not to win the world series if they did this.
Then again, they are the Cubs, and if the season ended today, they wouldn’t even be in the playoffs.
p.s. If Soriano continues this pace, he will hit 108 homers this year.
A more prolific blogger would have far more than a mere 95 blog posts by now. What seems to be my trouble?
Not much to say.
Here’s everything that comes to mind in the next five minutes. Buckle your safety belts, kids…
1. The Master’s golf tournament is a little bit full of itself.
2. As much as I love watching major league baseball on tv, sometimes, I must confess, I watch women’s college softball instead simply because I enjoy seeing slap-hitting by lightning fast left handed batters, and because I want to keep learning how to do that better than I have.
3. I rolled my lawn the other day, but I’m not sure if that really does anything of any great value.
4. We went to an easter egg hunt, puppet show, and mini-petting zoo today at church. Sydney said she liked petting the bunnies, goats, and ducks best of all.
5. Four weeks until my first fastpitch softball tournament.
6. We bought a new washer and dryer. Yikes.
7. A whole bunch of people from my mom’s church came to her house yesterday and did a ton of work in the yard. They got more done in half a day than we could have in a summer worth of weekends.
8. I gotta get me one them tomato trees.
9. The Cubs are 2-2, but could just as easily be 4-0.
10. Tonight we’re going to cook hot dogs and marshmallows over a bonfire at my mom’s house.
11. I like “Forensic Files” on TruTV.
12. I plugged in the sprinkler system the other day. Apparantly it remembered the program I had set up last year, because when I woke up this morning, my lawn was being watered. It was cold enough that some of the water froze on the blades of grass. I didn’t really mean to start watering the lawn yet, but I just left it go.
13. I’m glad Bishop D’Arcy told people not to demonstrate.
14. Randall Terry strikes me as a complete lunatic. So do the following: Rush Limbaugh, Keith Olbermann, most university professors, Bill Maher, Laura Schessinger, Sean Hannity, and that dude from Roseland.
15. We got bomb pops from the ice cream man the other day. Summer’s coming.
16. I can’t see a single cloud today.
17. I take glucosomine. Apparantly this stuff is good for your joints. My joints hurt less since I’ve been taking it.
18. The barber uses a #4 and a #2 clipper guide when he cuts my hair.
19. Sydney is talking about the ice cream man and elephants. In fact, she just said that he’s a dinasaur elephant. I don’t know why.
20. Maybe post #96 will be more interesting than this one.
21. Maybe not.
Possible readings:
1. A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest Gaines
2. Where I’m Calling From: Selected Stories by Raymond Carver
3. Home by Marilynne Robinson
4. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
5. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
Anyone interested?
“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt."
Today is a day of hope for Cub fans everywhere—thinking this, at last, is the year.
Of course it may not be, but you can't tell us that today. All we cling to this day is the dream that what lies ahead are the one hundred sixty-two opportunities, one hundred sixty-two days of hope—of hope that one hundred years of failure can be redeemed, day by day, inning by inning.
Best of all, for me, it starts six (and I hope seven) months of singing these words--"so it's root, root, root for the CUBBIES. If they don't win it's a shame"—every day, with the sweetest little blond Cub fan that ever graced the earth.
One day last fall, after the season had ended, as we lay in bed flipping channels, she said, "Papa, I wanna watch baseball." I almost cried, and thought to myself, "next year, baby; next year."
I went to Bethel’s track meet at Goshen today. These have nothing to do with the individual people who compete in these events; these are just the events I like watching the most.
5. Hammer (weight, for girls) throw
4. Pole Vault
3. 400 hurdles
2. Any relay event
1. 800 meter run
By the way, we have an unbelievably great men and women’s track program.
5. Jose Arcadio
4. Aureliano
3. Colonel Aureliano Buendia
2. Jose Arcadio
1. Jose Arcadio Buendia
LeBron’s extra edge: Cavaliers star’s devotion to yoga training helps keep James healthy
CLEVELAND -- Over the last year, hotel guests in various NBA cities have likely been a little jolted to see the Cavaliers' LeBron James out by the pool in the mornings. Not so much because he's a celebrity, but because he just might be standing on his head.
When James first came into the NBA at the age of 18 he didn't even tape his ankles, sometimes ate McDonald's an hour before tipoff and his main use for ice was cooling beverages.
As he's matured, part out of necessity and part out of pride, he's serious about preparing and maintaining his body for the rigors of an NBA season. That includes a wide range of measures from diet and recovery techniques to the Vajrasana, Virasana and the particularly stunning Salamba Sarvangasana.
They are yoga poses and they are also an essential part of James' routine every week.
"Yoga isn't just about the body, it's also about the mind and it's a technique that has really helped me," James said. "You do have to focus because there's some positions that can really hurt you at times if you aren't focused and breathing right."
James got serious last summer when Mancias was with him for much of the Team USA events in Las Vegas and China. During the season, they carve out time at least once a week and sometimes more for the practice. Often it happens at team hotels on the road and the two prefer to do it outside if possible. The two also do some pilates exercises.
"He tries to focus on things that will help him and that the body needs, especially for balance and to strengthen his core," said Mancias, who is in his fifth year with the Cavs.
It can be a topsy-turvy world in the NBA, but James has plenty of practice at keeping his balance, regardless of where he finds himself.
A TYPICAL LEBRON GAMEDAY
Morning
Stretching
Strategy sessions, drills and shooting with teammates and coaches
Film work
Afternoon
Lunch and hydration
Nap
Pregame
Small meal
A mixture of weight training, massage therapy, stretching, ankle taping and shooting
Postgame
Ice bath for feet, lower back and sometimes shoulders
Small meal, often chicken, sushi and/or fruit with recovery drinks
"Yoga is an activity that encompasses all that. It's total body and it helps him mentally, too. Flexibility is important to him and we've tried to incorporate all of that into a routine."
Basketball players have been experimenting with yoga for decades. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was perhaps the first high-profile player to embrace it. In recent years, Shaquille O'Neal has used it at times to increase flexibility in his legs. Phil Jackson, who is famous for his alternative techniques, used it as a player to help with back problems and had the Bulls go through a series of yoga classes throughout the 1997-98 championship season.
The theory is that basketball players tend to be strong in certain areas, such as the legs and arms, due to the nature of the game. But all the repetitive motion can build up tension and limit flexibility in some joints and large muscles.
James started getting into the importance of stretching during his third season. Partially inspired by then-teammate Alan Henderson -- who extended his 12-year career by using elastic bands and a large inflatable ball in a stretching routine -- James began to devote himself to making sure he was limber.
At the time he was also bothered by some lower back spasms, which nearly forced him out of a playoff game against the Wizards in 2006. That and a couple of nasty ankle sprains got James focused on doing things to maximize his physical tools. Stretching with bands after practices and games slowly developed into using yoga.
The positions increase flexibility in areas athletes don't always pay attention to but basketball players need. Such as ankles, shoulders and hips. Fans can surely remember times when James appeared to have suffered serious ankle injuries only to shake them off. Some of that may be due to the freakish size of James' joints, but some of it may be from those targeted workouts.
Two weeks ago, for example, he flipped backwards over his neck chasing a loose ball in Phoenix. It looked like he may have hurt himself doing it, but in reality it was sort of like the Salamba Sarvangasana, or shoulder stand, he'd worked on a day before.
"It is something that really can help your balance," James said. "I had some lower back problems a few years ago and once I started to do the yoga, it has helped them go away for now. Of course we can stretch but stretching only goes so far."
It's part of a package James now employs. He gets massages on most game days, gets his ankles heavily taped and wears a padded vest under his jersey to protect his ribs, and ices his feet and lower back after every game and contact workout. It includes an overall better series of eating habits and weight training, which James is now more devoted to than ever.
"People don't see everything that he does, he's focused on doing everything for his body that will help him succeed," Mancias said. "The proof is what he's been showing on the court."
Recently James held a special event for some students from Holy Cross Elementary in Euclid at the Cleveland Clinic Courts to promote yoga and its benefits. At first he seemed a little shy in talking about yoga; brute athletes in the past have not always been lauded for work with such finesse arts.
But as James has experienced the benefits, he's become an advocate of yoga, pilates and massage therapy that he does with the Cavs and their support staff.
"I've been blessed with a lot of physical talent and a strong body," James said. "I have focused on working hard to maximize those gifts."
“In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.” (Leo Tolstoy)
‘‘What obsessed Tolstoy, what obscured his genius, what now distresses the good reader, was that, somehow, the process of seeking the Truth seemed more important to him than the easy, vivid, brilliant discovery of the illusion of truth through the medium of his artistic genius. Old Russian Truth was never a comfortable companion; it had a violent temper and a heavy tread. It was not simply truth, not merely everyday pravda but immortal istina - not truth but the inner light of truth. When Tolstoy did happen to find it in himself, in the splendor of his creative imagination, then, almost unconsciously, he was on the right path. What does his tussle with the ruling Greek-Catholic Church matter, what importance do his ethical opinions have, in the light of this or that imaginative passage in any of his novels?''
–Vladimir Nabokov
Top five characters in American literature:
5. The Grandmother (“A Good Man is Hard to Find”)
4. Huck Finn
3. Willy Loman
2. Humbert Humbert
1. Scout