OK, Justin Taylor just caused me to covet. I think this may be the sweetest chair ever (I mean bibliochaise). This could seriously solve some space issues in the home office (which is my living room btw).
POC Blog
The random technotheolosophical blogging of Reid S. Monaghan
Jacob's Well Update...
We just posted our most recent update on our work in planting Jacob's Well. For those interested in church planting, core group stuff...the following is a short four week study our group has gone through together covering Christology, Missiology and Ecclesiology.
- Knowing the Way - Jesus
- Knowing the Way - Jesus' Mission - One
- Knowing the Way - Jesus' Mission - Deux
- Knowing the Way - Walking the Way - The Local Church
Why I come back to the blog...
Some of you may be wondering - what gives over at the POCBlog...Reid hasn't posted anything here in almost two weeks. Yeah, me too - I am wondering that as well except that I know precisely why I have not posted here. To be honest, my life is full of several things these days which I truly enjoy...though I need to make more time for doing push ups (I still think this is not a challenge though).
My wife Kasey and I have been married for over twelve years and I truly enjoy her company and making her laugh. I like throwing on an episode of our favorite SciFi show and just get lost with her in futuristic world that makes both of us go Hmm. I also have two little girls that I am seeing quite a bit more these days as my office is in my living room (seriously, my living room is an office/library). This has made interacting with the girls more readily available for us all and quite enjoyable. I spend less time in the car and for the most part I can still focus on work that needs to get done. After all, when your girls make home made T-shirts that say "We Love New Jersey...Jersey Girls...Go Rutgers" you just have to shut down the e-mail, give some high fives and hugs.
There is also this strange bouncy creature that speeds up and down the highways and byways, kitchen and hallways...having a son is more fun than I imagined and his hugs, head butts and headache inducing two year old flow add a certain zesty and testy flavor to the Monaghan home team.
Furthermore, we are just a few weeks in from gathering together as a small house church called Jacob's Well. It has been a great privilege to chart the course for our community under the good hand of God. We have been meeting new people, believers and not, and trying to make sense of new lives, new schedules, new culture and new flow in a new community. We have also been going to Athletes in Action meetings again...it is great to be back around the AIA community again. To be honest - I love what we are doing these days.
The other night I hung out with a new guy at our church watching Monday Night Football and throwing down nachos with a Yuenlings. A fun night as I enjoyed the depth of a new friend who thinks and cares deeply about life. We also watched DeSean Jackson showboat into the end zone for the Eagles dropping the ball a weeeee little early on the one yard line. Fantasy football people know this play - it determined some outcomes! Shout out from Reid and Shaun to my boys Schaeffer and Jay. Additionally, the other day I met a guy at a networking gig who had great questions about God, family etc. A guy who naturally shared with me that he doesn't believe but his interest seemed to be piqued as we talked. I like learning from people like him and helping in any way I can in someone's road towards God. Yes life can be full these days.
Yet I am back here on the POCBlog again - writing away. I have thought over the last couple of weeks about my longing to return to some blogging. I have had zero thoughts that the blog coaches give: "You better post regularly to keep readers coming back" "You better post new and original content or people get bored" - Yeah, I know. To be honest I don't write on the blog here for any sort of reason like that. Quite simply, I want and feel a need to write...I just like it, it is something I enjoy and the interactions with you guys in the comments is enjoyable as well. Plus once in a while something useful comes out (this post...not gonna be one of those).
Anyway, I am on a plane heading to Seattle for some Pastor Training meetings (the amount of reading and writing for this gig has kept the last few days a bit busy as well) and some time with some friends who are about the Kings business. I am pretty stoked as the time in planes and in airports today has afforded some thought and reading. I am pretty jazzed about a book I am racing through here on the plane...There is not (A) God by Anthony Flew and Roy Abraham Varghese. It is by and about one of the more prominent atheistic philosophers who four years came to believe in a intelligent God. Look for a review (likely to be glowing) here soon...
So I return again to these pages called Power of Change - to scribble and think, laugh and wink and enjoy the company of friends. So the technotheolosophical random blogging goes on...
Oh yeah, one last thing. You know that snotty little "I'm a Mac" guy that looks down on the whole world because of the type of computer he is? Well, he has finally been answered in a little ad by Mikeysoft. My name is Reid and "I'm a PC" so don't stereotype me. Grace and Peace to you on International Talk Like a Pirate Day.
Arrrrgh!
The Office
No this is not going to be some pithy off the wall theo-commentary about the popularly funny sitcom "The Office" - Not that I am above doing that, but this office is my new home office. Some generous servants from NC (thank you Terry, Tom and Charles) built and delivered me some incredibly sexy bookshelves which now house my small army of little friends. Kasey and I cannot thank these men enough for all they did to help our home and family.
And yes, I speak endearingly of my books. Anyway, here is a picture of my shelves, my desktop, my office and my new printer which has brought both joys and pain.
The Shelves - this action shot features a twelve foot wall of wood with room to grow from the guys birthed out of brown Amazon.com boxes. It also features some framed Inversion gear from years past. Some would ask why I don't have more books...some would think I have bookidolatry...my secret is keeping almost a thousand volumes (mainly classic works, references, lexicons and commentaries) on my hard drive courtesy of Logos Liboronix...awwww yeah. Click images for larger views.
The Office - here I sit with my Windows Vista equipped Dell Laptop, conceled USB hub for connected devices. I have a minimal desk as most work is computerized...I have a small resource center behind me for printed materials, supplies and workspace for hole punching and paper cutting. Having your office in what is supposed to be "the living room" gives you a nice selection of windows.
The Desktop - Currently I have some printouts on my desk in preparation for our first core get together for Jacob's Well on Sunday night. Fall Schedules, Jacob's Well DNA files and some cool visual teaching thingys (can't show you pics of that - top secret) are there. Also of note is a picture of me with my smoking hot wife, some new biz cards with my NJ 411 and slightly to the left is one of my daughters panda bears from the Littlest Pet Shop...yeah, I roll that way.
The Printer - this lovely guy is the subject of my previous blog post - well, sort of. This was an unbelievable gift from a friend. Color, full duplex, wireless and cost me nothing. Did I say this was an unbelievable gift!
So I am really thankful for my office, my bookshelves and gifted gear. Yet I am not thankful for these in themselves...but rather their purpose in my life. To be used in service of the giver of all good things. St. Augustine once commented that to love a gift more than the giver of all things would be utterly absurd...I'll leave you with a classic quote from him on this.
“Suppose brethren, a man should make a ring for his betrothed, and she should love the ring more wholeheartedly than the betrothed who made it for her….Certainly, let here love his gift: but, if she should say, “The ring is enough. I do not want to see his face again” what would we say of her?...The pledge is given her by the betrothed just that, in his pledge, he himself may be loved. God, then, has given you all these things. Love him who made them.”
Selah...
Struggling with Life and Printers
This past week I have been working on setting up my home office. My undergrad degree was in Applied Computer Science and a minor in Physics so I still take to the tech world a little bit. So I was installing a wireless network, my work laptop and the family computer. As Balki Bartokomous used to say, it was easy as cake and a piece of pie. Successfully installing some technology is very rewarding and yet there is a dark side of this same force as well. Introduce the new printer...
A gracious and generous friend from Fellowship Nashville bought Jacob's Well a sweet color laser printer which also scans, faxes and gives back massages. Well, maybe I am embellishing a bit...but it is a sweet printer. I unpacked the box, installed a hardware duplexer (both sides of the paper please!) and we were off and running. I plugged in my USB cable to my laptop and viola! Printing in less than 5 minutes...pride cometh before a fall. The printer is also networkable and I wanted to be able to print from our family computer...and from my wireless network anywhere in the house. Part II of my printer installation experience took 5 hours.
So I followed instructions installing a wireless network card into the printer - pretty simple. Then ran the install stuff and unplugged...nothing. Then I spent a good few hours reading a fat manual and trying different methods of installation. Finally, I did the unthinkable - I called Dell Tech Support. For about an hour I did exactly what the guy said, which was stuff I already had tried - which did nothing but make me feel less stupid. Then we gave the printer a permanent IP address (something I think the Dell install manual should tell you to do, but I digress) and thought we had made it. Nope. Anyway, the install routine was not giving it a TCP/IP port in Windows - we went in and added a port and finally...printing again. The Dell guy was cool and very helpful - but it took time and a bit of perseverance.
In going through this joyous process I realized how my life centers around getting stuff to "work right." I want my marriage to work right, my kids to work right, my body to work right, my work to work right and of course, my newfangled techno-gadgets to work right. Yet I keep running into this problem - things can and do go "wrong." So for me, my entangled battle with a printer is an echo of the running battle that all people face living outside of Eden.
- We want the world to be rational and moral...and it is, well, sometimes
- We want things to go well...and they don't, and do...sometimes
- We want to control things...and we can...sometimes, but then realize it is an illusion...well, sometimes
- We want life to be easier, but it is hard
- We want joy to flow from all our possessions and trappings - and it doesn't
- We want life to be full and sometimes it is boring and mundane
- We think sex, food and new experiences will fix it all - and we are perplexed when they don't
So it seems to me that there are two ways you can look at this world, both based on the reality of our mingled existence...that there is a real experience of joy, goodness, truth, love and beauty and an equal amount of despondency, evil, deception, guile and ugliness. When we run into this reality all the time. It is why we get drunk.
So my question is this: What more defines your world? Brokenness or Beauty, Harmony or Havoc?
- You can see the world as a random place of chaos where death and survival are the only laws of the jungle. In this view love is accidental (not essential) and pain would seem essential.
- You can see this as a world of purpose and order where truth, purpose and goodness govern the universe. In this view chaos/evil are accidental (not essential, even alien) and love/goodness is essential.
It is my contention that we all long for goodness and love and think the world ought to be a more hospitable place. In other words, we think existence is a good thing but there is stuff going awfully wrong - like my printer. We hope, love, dream, desire and ache for another place. As CS Lewis once rightly wrote in his classic Mere Christianity: "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."
So my printer now prints...and is filled with awesomeness...but it doesn't yet scan on the network...and the control panel seems to have an admin password that I neither asked for or assigned. So it seems like technology bliss and banality both remain ahead. Likewise, my life will likely continue to travel roads that are mingled as well. I know I will need to choose to follow God tomorrow and love my neighbor as myself. I know that I must resist the dark paths that emerge from my own soul and choose to stay close to Jesus. I need to find his grace in my failures and new hope tomorrow. I need him to teach me that God is good and governing the chaos and some day the alien darkness will lift from his world. To think otherwise is to give way to a view of life that is less human...and certainly not from God.
The Love of a Daddy
OK, I just watched this video with my wife. She had seen it before but I had not. Lets just say somebody was all teary eyed watching this...great love, great theology, great God. I'm not saying who was the crier...I'll keep his identity under wraps.
Some of you have probably seen this already but in case you haven't click play below:
A Long Day and the Experience of Grace
This weekend was a mixture of blessing and difficulty for me. I had a wonderful Saturday morning with just my son Tommy (aka Thomas, Tom-Tom, Tommy-Reid) as my little girls went fishing with their Grandpa and Great Grandpa and Kasey spent most of the day with her Mom. That night Kasey and I had a great time getting dinner out and catching a movie together. At the end of the night we had some tension as we are working through a decision together that we are having a hard time finding common ground. Anyway, Kasey is my best friend and I just don't enjoy it when we are bit crusty with one another.
The next morning we were getting the kids ready for church and were running a bit late. To be honest, I was a bit frustrated and driving too fast. Yeah, you know what is coming. On the way into downtown Raleigh the speed limit drops to 35 pretty quickly which I did not notice. Let us just say I was going quite a bit faster than that and a kind gentlemen in blue decided I needed to pull over. Kasey looked at me and said "I think our plates expired in June" - a byproduct of our crazy summer not being able to get to New Jersey at this point. So I was waaay speeding, with expired plates, crusty with my wife and sitting in the seat just utterly discouraged as I awaited the typical "license and registration" - Oh yeah, I got a speeding ticket in Raleigh when I preached at the same church in March (In my defense, I don't get a lot of tickets and have a great driving record - that was my first ticket in almost 10 years).
So the the kind police officer asked if we were from out of town. I said yes...more than he knew. He took the address where we were living down, gathered my license and expired registration and walked slowly back to his squad car. I looked at Kasey and said "this is going to cost us, affect insurance, etc." I felt utterly deflated. Kayla Joy, my six year old, murmured a question from the very back corner of our silver mini van. "Daddy, is this going to cost us money?" she said. I replied in a soft broken voice "Yes, probably quite a bit of money..." She then got out a few words, which Kasey said was "oh no, we are not going to have enough money for Jacob's Well," and begin to sob quite heavily. I teared up myself as the cop came back towards the car. My kind wife, with whom I was having some tension, gently stroked the back of my head as to affirm me in the moment.
The policeman asked "I am guessing that the tags are expired because you are new to town and living with your in-laws? Are you guys just getting settled in to North Carolina?"
I replied "Actually, we are heading to New Jersey" He followed with a typical response we get in the south "Dear God, why are you doing that."
"To plant a church" Kasey added in "He is a pastor" and I said "I actually seem to only get speeding tickets in Raleigh as I got one while preaching at this same church in March" He chuckled. He then handed me the printed citation; I feared to even look at it as I did not know the fines and laws for being over the speed limit as much as I was. Let alone driving on expired tags.
What followed was a flood of sheer grace. The officer said "I sensed you needed a warning ticket this morning" - Kasey and I sat in silence as he drove away, our kids as well. I just thought - God, I needed that this morning. I did not need a warning ticket, I did not need to save my driving record, I didn't even need to save my bank account which I thought was going to take a dent. I needed grace - kindness extended to the guilty freely by one who had the power and authority to do so.
We wept and thanked God for the reality of grace - for us, to us, through Jesus. We then drove slowly on to Vintage 21 to worship the God of grace. Providentially enough, the pastor preached from John 8 where Jesus deals with a woman caught (framed) in the act of adultery. His voice was clear - "Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more." I was guilty, dead on guilty but received mercy instead - the gospel. Simple - unbelievable truth.
I thanked God for a kind policeman who reminded me of the grace of God which is infinite in Christ. A small gift to our family echoed of the great gift God has given the human family in Jesus. Indeed, as I looked at my wonderful wife and friend Kasey I thought to myself what is proclaimed in the beginning of John's gospel:
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Grace indeed...
Perspective
More photos here...
POC Bundle 6.16.2008
General News
- Gregg Easterbrook says "Life is Good" even when everyone is saying how terrible things are today
- S. T. Karnick thinks the media is interested in making all of us Girly Men with an attack on masculinity.
Technology
- Too much e-mail - I think I feel what this New York Times piece is getting at...between blogs, e-mail, Facebook...it gets difficult to focus. Lost in E-mail, Tech Firms Face Self-Made Beast.
- Nicolas Carr in the Atlantic Monthly asks a poignant question - Is Google Making Us Stupid? - Personally, we were probably stupid before Google...but maybe we are getting stupider. I just finished a book about Google so this quote was not surprising...it may surprise you though - Perhaps Google will BE Skynet some day...we'll see. I'll give you some context:
The company has declared that its mission is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” It seeks to develop “the perfect search engine,” which it defines as something that “understands exactly what you mean and gives you back exactly what you want.” In Google’s view, information is a kind of commodity, a utilitarian resource that can be mined and processed with industrial efficiency. The more pieces of information we can “access” and the faster we can extract their gist, the more productive we become as thinkers.
Where does it end? Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the gifted young men who founded Google while pursuing doctoral degrees in computer science at Stanford, speak frequently of their desire to turn their search engine into an artificial intelligence, a HAL-like machine that might be connected directly to our brains. “The ultimate search engine is something as smart as people—or smarter,” Page said in a speech a few years back. “For us, working on search is a way to work on artificial intelligence.” In a 2004 interview with Newsweek, Brin said, “Certainly if you had all the world’s information directly attached to your brain, or an artificial brain that was smarter than your brain, you’d be better off.” Last year, Page told a convention of scientists that Google is “really trying to build artificial intelligence and to do it on a large scale.”
Such an ambition is a natural one, even an admirable one, for a pair of math whizzes with vast quantities of cash at their disposal and a small army of computer scientists in their employ. A fundamentally scientific enterprise, Google is motivated by a desire to use technology, in Eric Schmidt’s words, “to solve problems that have never been solved before,” and artificial intelligence is the hardest problem out there. Why wouldn’t Brin and Page want to be the ones to crack it?
Still, their easy assumption that we’d all “be better off” if our brains were supplemented, or even replaced, by an artificial intelligence is unsettling. It suggests a belief that intelligence is the output of a mechanical process, a series of discrete steps that can be isolated, measured, and optimized. In Google’s world, the world we enter when we go online, there’s little place for the fuzziness of contemplation. Ambiguity is not an opening for insight but a bug to be fixed. The human brain is just an outdated computer that needs a faster processor and a bigger hard drive.
Nicholas Carr, Is Google Making us Stupid? The Atlantic Monthly July/August 2008, http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google - accessed June 16, 2008.
Peripateo - My Walk
- The Boston Globe teaches us about napping - now we are talking. Power Naps actually boost productivity...How to instructions here.
Memories, Nostalgia and Contemplating the Horizon
I am sitting in a restaurant in the place of my birth...or, uh, rather the place of my new birth. Today I was completing a drive from my former home in Franklin, TN to our temporary home this summer with Kasey's parents in Raleigh NC. We have detoured for a few weeks as we finalize housing for our actual move to New Jersey. As I neared Raleigh I felt drawn, somewhat magnetically, to exit and take a drive through Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I have since called my wife and told her I would get to Raleigh later this afternoon and needed some time to think.
For some reason, the whole process of raising funds, finishing ministry, selling a house, finding a new one and preparing to move has swamped my soul a bit. I have struggled in the last few weeks to find my passion as a myriad of details has swirled about me. I have also been a bit distracted reading two technology books - one on the history of the iPod, the other on Google. I guess I was interested in tech history as I once studied to work in the technology field and have kept an interest. Anyway, it has been a bit tough of late to see the forest from the trees so I am thankful for today's detour.
I drove around the campus and looked at dorms I once called home, places I used to party, athletic facilities where I sweat and bleed and paths I walked daily to classes. I saw Phillips Hall where I studied Physics and Sitterson Hall where my love for computer science blossomed so many years ago. Yet the most profound thing I remembered here was meeting Jesus in some quiet places around this campus and having the direction of my life profoundly changed. I ate lunch at a place called Armadillo Grill, a place I visited often during my time here - at least when wrestling was not in season and I could actually eat a little. Smile. I even talked to a homeless guy about Jesus and probably gave him beer money for the day. We used to hang with the Chapel Hill street guys back in the day as well. Sitting there in the tex-mex grill, the classic rock, the smells and the scenery brought me to a place of nostalgia. So many things happened in this town for me. I became a Christian, I met Kasey Monroe (now my wife of 12 years), I grew in my love for truth and intellect ual life and received a calling upon my life that, to my knowledge, God has not in any way revoked.
I am 35 years old and in transition - this can be a tough time for people. I sense this in my soul. At my age you now have a bit of a past, a few memories, and if motivated, you still feel like you have so much left to do. I'm really not sure why I pulled off here in Chapel Hill today, nor why God detoured us to NC for a short season. My conclusion is that I needed to remember, to reflect and contemplate the horizon before us. So I am wandering Chapel Hill today by foot and in my black Mazda 3 hatchback.
For some strange reason I live with a constant concern of my life not counting for much. The reality is this world and our lives within it are so brief in their passing. What else can we do but try? To be honest I wonder where this present age is heading long term with so many competing views of reality, people with agendas and clashing ideologies clamoring for supremacy. I also find the level of understanding and intellect in the church to be troubling. Yet I am convinced of a few things in this life:
But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. 2 Timothy 1:12
After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, "Do you want to go away as well?" Simon Peter answered him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God." John 6:66-69
Why am I in Chapel Hill today? Perhaps to remember Jesus and him crucified and his work to save people far from him...Perhaps to remember Jesus, his wisdom and the truth he revealed to the world. For if I have hope it is in him, not in Steve Jobs or the Google Guys as cool as their products may be. For that matter, our hope is not in any others who desire to proclaim themselves saviors of the world...for that title is reserved for the one who created to world, then lived, died and was raised...For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever.
Good Quotes
Met a new friend today through Facebook...I really enjoyed his quotes so I thought I would share them here on the POCBlog...
I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess. - Martin Luther
Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God. - Martin Luther
When you see a man with a great deal of religion displayed in his shop window, you may depend upon it, he keeps a very small stock of it within - C.H. Spurgeon
By perseverance the snail reached the ark.
- C.H. Spurgeon
Jesus is mighty to save, the best proof of which lies in the fact that He has saved you.
- C.H. Spurgeon
Good meeting you Beau
Moving soon...matured a bit
Kasey and I are moving again next week. Not to where we were hoping but to an interim stop on our journey towards New Jersey. We have a slight game delay so we have to pull the tarp over the field and sit in the dugout for a short season. As I think about moving I can testify that I have grown and matured a little in the last four years...want proof? I promise I will NEVER do this again.
Figure 1 - Reid's moving schematic (yes schematic) from May 2004...man, did I have issues. Now I will only do this in my head and not do it on the computer. For those who are wondering...yes, it was all "to scale." For larger version - click here.
Finishing a race...
Last night was my final night teaching at the Inversion Fellowship. This has been my post the last 3.5 years and most every Thursday night from Fall 2005 until last night have been spent with my friends there. We are finishing a series entitled Walk On - A Call to Endurance in 2 Timothy and last night I preached from chapter 2 Timothy 4:1-8.
My message was entitled Endurance has an Ending (Don't Punk Out) and treated the beginning of Paul's last words to his padawan learner Timothy. It was a fun night, an emotional night and a night in which I pray Christ was honored. Throughout the evening my inverted friends brought some special blessings to my soul.
First, some fun knuckleheads wore some Jesus Junk t-shirts in solidarity with me. I have been wearing this sort of shirt and mocking them this semester to have a little fun. Well, three Inversion folks showed up last night wearing their own. You know the shirts - the ones who take the John Deer logo and make it say "John Three" or take a Starbucks logo, change it around a little and the quote a verse from the book of He-Brews. Well intentioned gear that I find profoundly stupid. Well meaning Bible belt youth groups tend to dig this stuff as creative outreach. As you know Jesus died for "MySpace" in heaven - good grief. But I felt the love to have some peeps join in the fun.
Additionally, this crazy bunch of folks have been training to run in the Music City 1/2 or full marathon coming up this weekend here in Nashvegas. These guys have made "Team Inversion" shirts with the cause they are running for being "Jacob's Well" - the shirst are killer and I was super humbled by their raising funds as a team for our little church plant heading to New Jersey. Team Inversion - I've got big love for you. Here's a picture - that sweet baby blue has both Jacob's Well and Carolina on my mind.
They also made us a nice collage with the graphics of each teaching series we have led here over the past few years. Can't wait to hang that on a wall in my dark basement office somewhere in Jersey! Finally, to all of you Inversion people - thank you for you love, your spontaneous words of encouragement, your notes and your care for our family. Most importantly, we thanked Jesus last night. The crucified and risen one who calls us to live revolutionary, upside down lives as we struggle forward in his mission for his glory in the world. I will close with a few challenging words from the greatest person who ever lived.
Matthew 10:38, 39 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
Matthew 23:11, 12 The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Mark 9:33-35 And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”
Mark 1:14,15 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Blogging, Schlogging...
A friend just asked why I wasn't blogging so much these days...I sent him this reply that I thought I would share. Unless I decide to Liveblog the DWELL Conference (not going to happen) the POCBlog may be a little slower than usual.
I had a friend in Fri/Sat, preached twice at a church in Louisville Sunday, had seminary Monday, preach my last message at Inversion this Thursday (you should come), have the Jacob's Well send off gathering Sunday, final exam Monday, fly to NYC Monday night, at a conference for a couple of days, then house hunting through the weekend and back on May 4 with my tongue hanging out...and I have a wife and three kids who I want to know me. So blogging, Schlogging...the POC Blog may be a bit fallow for a bit
So that is how life is rolling right now - please pray for us if you think about it...we still need a place to live in NJ.
Renewal as a way of Life
On Wednesdays in this interim season between Inversion and moving to New Jersey I am trying to slow down the soul a bit on Wednesdays for some time dedicated to my growth and development as a man. One of things I am doing is reading slowly through the book Renewal as a Way of Life by Richard Lovelace (I forgot to put this one on the "books I am currently reading" below). I am about 1/3 of the way through the book and it has been very good, humbling and quotable. So, I thought I would share some quotes today which encouraged me...and by typing them out hear perhaps provide some light for others.
Here is one on the relation to using God to get stuff...a mixture of Lovelace/Augustine:
On the other hand, evangelical religion as an aid to self-assurance, health or wealth really short-circuits the soul's path toward contact with God, which is the heart's deepest desire. As Augustine observes, "Many cry to the Lord to avoid losses or to acquire riches, for the safety of their friends or the security of their homes, for temporal felicity or worldly distinction, yes, even for mere physical health which is the sole inheritance of the poor man...Alas, it is easy to want things from God and not to want God himself; as though the gift could ever be preferable to the giver." Or as he says elsewhere, "The soul cannot rest save in that which it loves. But eternal rest is given only in the love of God, who alone is eternal." Lovelace, 31
The next one was his commentary on the soul's search for a sense of value and identity apart from God - I think many of us, Christian and not, live here often.
They must get a black market substitute for God's love from psychiatrists or other human beings. But this need for love and dignity is so great that self-admiration and the love of others cannot begin to satisfy it. We can cheer ourselves up only so long by repeating the pitiful fiction "I'm OK - You're OK." Then we begin to check our own credentials, and our therapist's, for making such judgments. Lovelace, 36.
In reflecting on the outflow of the love of God through his people he makes a rather dogmatic claim which I found very true.
Spirituality which neglects the love of neighbor, and which fails to seek justice for the neighbor, is simply not biblical. Lovelace, 37.
He has an interesting metaphor for the reality of human enterprise on the earth. We can be about building the Kingdom or simply go on building Babel.
In the Old Testament, God warns Israel that most human kings will not hallow life, but will turn it into building materials for the Tower of Babel (he includes here the text of 1 Samuel 8:11-18)...Things have not changed since biblical times. Building Babel is still an expensive business. Lovelace, 43.
Indeed, it costs us our very selves as we become cogs in the machine rather than sons and daughters with a purpose in the universe. Finally, in a bit of meddling he comments on the focus of upwardly mobile Protestants in New England after the influence of dying religious formalism (in our day we might as well apply it to upwardly mobile atheological evangelicals).
The real goals of upwardly mobile Protestantism can be seen in Lisa Birnbach's humorous volume entitled The Official Preppy Handbook, which idealizes the semi-apostate New England family, still glumly going through the motions of "the Puritan ethic" in a sort of twilight zone between Christianity and secularism in order to facilitate its summers on Martha's Vineyard. Lovelace 52-53.
Lovelace's book so far has been a great refresher - a call to God-centeredness and then to living under the rule and reign of Jesus - working, laboring, fighting for...a Kingdom of peace, justice, truth and beauty in this present age as we await the renewal of all things.
Reading Meme...
Some seminary blog friends tagged me with a reading Meme. So here goes.
What are you reading on Spring reading days?
Spring reading days...hmm...don't have that as an external but here is what I am currently picking through. I am about six chapters into Keller's book The Reason for God. I am also reading a book from the UK entitled Total Church by Chester and Timis. Not sure if this counts but I am also listening to The Mystery of the Middle Ages by Thomas Cahill - a strangely ecclectic volume.
What do you wish you had time to read?
Gospel in Pluralistic Culture by Leslie Newbegin, Fear and Trembling by Kierkegaard, One Body, One Spirit: Principles of Successful Multiracial Churches by George A. Yancey
What have you decided NOT to read that you were assigned to read.
I'm only in one class so I am gutting it out and reading it all :)
What is one great quote from your reading?
This is odd - I heard a great quote from Francis of Assisi from Cahill's book. It is on the third audio MP3, thirty minutes in...I do mean to go back and transcribe it. I think it is this one though:
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;where there is hatred, let me sow love;where there is injury, pardon;where there is doubt, faith;where there is despair, hope;where there is darkness, light;and where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master,grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;to be understood, as to understand;to be loved, as to love;for it is in giving that we receive,it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.Why are you blogging? (You’re supposed to be reading!)
As anything we do, I think I am blogging because I want to...and I think God wants me to as well. I blog primarily to think and write about things that interest me - mainly the gospel, theology, technology, philosophy, culture and stuff that makes me laugh out loud (stuff like this). As such my blog is a work of eclecticism - shallow enough in many spheres as to perplex those who read the site. Is this a tech blog? Is this a theology blog? Is this a Christ and Culture Blog? Apologetics? No - well, maybe a little.
I want to tag Owen Strachan with this (even though he is now at Trinity)
New Jersey House Hunting
Kasey and I have been up here in NJ since Thursday looking for a new home for our family. The house hunt has been discouraging as things are either really expensive or really shack-like. We found a nice ranch and made an offer which was countered. We have another offer in and awaiting a reply. Please pray as there simply isn’t much here in our price range even though we did pretty well on our house in Tennessee. Pray for Kasey and me as this has been a strong dose of reality for us this weekend. Thank you so much.
Irishmen rejoice...
Today I am wearing a green shirt which says Irish Dad, with a little Gaelic Daidi underneath. Yes, we are Irish people who hail from Monaghan county in Ireland. I guess our family has a little of the hot temper, booze loving, very Catholic and folk song singing Irishmen in our story as well...
There are many who do not know who St. Patrick is or what he accomplished in the 5th century. In fact, my daughter's public school is doing rainbows, leprechauns and pots of gold...but without a clue about St. Patrick - whose day we celebrate. In order to introduce the patron saint of Ireland to you I would highly suggest the critically acclaimed work of Thomas Cahill. Cahill has written several works about the various streams of historical influence on western culture. His work How the Irish Saved Civilization tells Patrick's story as well as the converted Celts who carried on western literary learning while the continent went through a tumultous time after the sacking of the Roman Empire. Great book - if you are Irish and don't know your history...get this book. Cahill's works are all available in audio book format through iTunes and audible.com. I am going to grab his Mysteries of the Middle Ages here today.
Finally, Mark Driscoll's short essay on St. Patrick is a quick and introductory read with some sources linked at the bottom. Of course there is our beloved, though sometimes erroneous friend, wikipedia as well - enjoy the St. Patrick wiki.
Lots of fun at Vintage21
This weekend I was back in North Carolina to spend some times with my friends at Vintage21. Vintage is a church in downtown Raleigh which is a church of seekers, followers and doubters who are learning to follow and worship Christ. You can read more about their vision here. Two of their pastors did my assessment interview with the Acts 29 network - they looked me over and examined my life and doctrine pretty thoroughly. The good thing was that they still liked me after that.
Anyway, I jumped in from the bull pen to preach for them this weekend while their lead pastor Tyler Jones was on vacation. I preached from 1 Corinthians 11, stopping right before the passage about head coverings. Actually, I just had 1 Corinthians 11:1 - you can listen to that here if you like and also read some questions for reflection.
I really enjoyed being with the Vintage community - their vision is to proclaim and live vintage Christian faith - the teaching of Scripture, the gospel of Jesus. loving God and our neighbors...into our 21st century context. Some of you may have heard of Vintage because of their Jesus videos. If you have not seen those they are some pretty good comedy poking a little fun at religion. The Jesus videos live here and even have their own MySpace page.
Many thanks to Nate, Matt and Tyler for their invitation and hospitality. Godspeed to your work in the triangle - for the glory of God and the good of your city...
Sweet Echoes in Life
Every so often life has a rhythm which brings a sweetness to the soul. Not every day is like this, in fact the good days can be followed by some that remind you that the foul stench of the fall still dominates our reality. Yet this weekend was filled with sweet echoes of a golden goodness which exists far beyond the shores of the earth. My weekend was simple yet full of simple graces which make me smile even in writing.
I enjoyed seeing my kids on Saturday morning and then packing up my bags for a two day visit to the state of North Carolina. Carolina is a special place for me. Though it is not my home, in many ways it has a homelike ring to it for me. I grew up in Virginia Beach; a great military and tourist town where I have many treasured youthful memories. Yet it was in North Carolina that many signposts guiding me to the life I pursue today. It was at UNC Chapel Hill that I met Jesus while studying Applied Science and Physics and competing for the tarheel wrestling team. It was at UNC where I met a captivating young woman named Kasey Monroe; smart as a whip, gorgeous, fiercely interesting and tough as nails as an athlete. Man, I am still so whipped in love with that girl. She is sleeping now and I just thank God for her. It was also in North Carolina that we connected with a new church in the mid nineties. This weekend I spent time with this family of faith once again.
Grace Community Church was started in 1994 by a group of families that consisted of professors from Campbell University, Moms, business men and a cool group of their high school kids. Kasey had transferred to Campell and connected with some of these folks as she was renting an apartment from one of the members of the new church. During our last few years of college we were asked to do several events with their youth group; one of which was a weekend beach retreat where we encouraged the crew towards a radical commitment to Jesus. The year we graduated and went on staff with Athletes in Action we had a six month season where we were raising money and actually being youth pastors with the high school kids. One thing the youth group produced was Rhett and Link - we claim them on Tuesdays and Saturdays...and their new song on the Oscars is funny. We'll never forget Eric Woodruff, Rhett McClaughlin, Link Neal, Rebecca McKinney, Maria Mathews, Heather Wilson, The Enzor brothers, Chris Lanier and many others. Grace was one of the churches that launched our family into ministry in 1997 so we are grateful for their friendship over the years. So it was a sweet time to visit them this weekend.
I stayed in the home of Jim and Joy Aycock - Jim is a retired preacher who is gracious and spirited. Joy is a wonderful host who showed so much southern hospitality that I rethought our call to Jersey for a couple moments. It was sweet to be among people who still value spending time together, taking time to talk and bringing a word of friendship to others. I met a new friend in pastor KJ Hill - who is actually FROM New Jersey but made it south to coach soccer...then became a pastor. I love KJ and his family though my time with them was brief. His wife Liz has a great mind and we had some great theological banter around the dinner table. I caught up with Rhett and his wife Jesse - he is a young man I am really quite proud of. Rhett spun a little comedy in introducing me on Sunday morning as a guy who could kill them with my bare hands as well as beat them in Jeopardy...funny - you can hear it in the sermon audio here. I preached twice on Sunday morning and then spent time at a pot luck dinner and shared the ministry of Jacob's Well with my old friends. It could not have been more encouraging. Having such a good time made getting up at 3:45am CST to drive to the airport, fly home, drive to class and immediately take an exam feel all the more worth it. I think I did OK on the test too - smile.
Finally, I was able to spend just a few moments with their pastor Brad Talley. Brad is watching his beloved wife Linda struggle for life in the midst of aggressive brain cancer. Oh, how it aches to see life ebb away. I love pastors and hanging with them. Brad has many challenges in these days but I was so encouraged by the way he talked about his Lord, his wife and marriage. Pray for the Talleys as they walk so close the valley of the shadow of death. Linda could very much be in her last few days of life. Our hope is with them and with them it is in Jesus.
Grace Community has grown beyond meeting in a living room, small buildings, the ruritan club, a school auditorium and cafeteria to having their own facility and a small staff. Yet they face some challenges and are moving forward in the gospel. I kept thinking to myself "he who began a good work in them will be faithful to complete it..." I pray to stay in partnership with our friends at Grace for as long as God permits. I love the people there, and they continue to love our family so well. I would do anything for the people at Grace and thankful for this sweet echo over the weekend...which brought past, present and future together for me in the work of Christ.