The other day, an employee at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois, ran across a note that supposedly threatened violence on the campus that very day. Buildings were placed in lockdown, and lots of security precautions were obviously taken. However, it was the next day's news report on the event that struck me. THe morning drive time reporter said:
"Classes were indeed still held on campus yesterday in light of the threats. However, university officials reported that attendance was voluntary."
Uhm...I went to college not that long ago...when has it NOT been voluntary? I mean, wearing clothes to the store and actually showing up to work are voluntary; yes, there are consequences that you face if you don't (like me scarring most of the local population for life if I were to take the former suggestion above), but lots of things are optional.
Sort of reminded me of the old ESPN SportsCenter line about a player being injured and his status being listed as "day to day". Uhm...again...aren't we all? Aren't we all just day to day?
I am one deep philosopher tonight, eh?
Monday, March 31, 2008
A rite of spring
Bart Giamatti, former ivy league president & Commissioner of Major League Baseball, wrote so eloquently about baseball in his poem, "The Green Fields of the Mind." As this is the REAL first day of baseball (those games in Japan just don't count), please let me share a couple of lines...
"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone."
This is the time of year when hope springs eternal, when men become boys, and when everyone becomes an all star, if but only in their minds.
Ladies and gentlemen, play ball, and GO CARDS!
"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone."
This is the time of year when hope springs eternal, when men become boys, and when everyone becomes an all star, if but only in their minds.
Ladies and gentlemen, play ball, and GO CARDS!
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Now is the time to worship
Tammy was gone this weekened to a Hearts at Home or We Women Love Ourselves or whatever in the world it was called. Seriously, it was a Hearts at Home conference, and it was very good, from what I heard. However, this left the boys & me to fend for ourselves this weekend. We had a great time Saturday...Buffalo Wild Wings was excellent on Saturday (you had to know we'd go there sometime while Tammy was gone), and a friend of ours did a fantastic job in a play she was in Saturday night at the college; she stole the show.
But, the highlight - for me, at least - ended up being today. For those who may not know, we recently joined Calvary Baptist Church in Hannibal. And, well, wow. Tammy wrote some time back about her worship experience that left her in tears right after we left our previous church. Today was my turn.
Just as we started singing How Great Thou Art, I just felt - and that's a dangerous term...felt...but it was truly accurate - with a spirit of worship I haven't had in a long, long time. By the time we got to the last verse, I was squeezing Jonathan's shoulders so hard he turned around and told me I was hurting him. Then as we transitioned into How Great is Our God, I just started to cry...amazed at His love for me, amazed at how even now, as we don't know where we'll be or what we're doing next year, He still provides for us a home for worship, a home for fellowship, and a home for a new church family, even with many members of our former church part of our extended families forever. He is our great provider, providing even a bridge to Him through His Son.
I really can't explain it other than to say - and I'm really not trying to be mean or cruel here, seriously - this was the most moving time I've had in worship in a long, long time. Bro. Jeff has said time & again we should be just as spent as he is after a worship service; it's (supposed to be) a shared time of worship to our Father. Today, it truly, truly was, though in addition to being spent, I was rejuvenated for the future. I feel Him drawing me closer to Him than I've been in a long time, and I'm truly joyous and thrilled. We've each had those times when we feel distanced from God, as though our prayers aren't even escaping our room. Yet today, I felt His presence with more clarity, more density, than I've felt in some time. I told Tammy - while not meaning to be blasphemous - that His presence has always felt "thick" at Calvary, other churches we've visited, and many times in the past at our previous church as well. Yet today it literally overwhelmed me...and yes, that's a valid use of the term - His spirit swept over me.
How Great is our God!
But, the highlight - for me, at least - ended up being today. For those who may not know, we recently joined Calvary Baptist Church in Hannibal. And, well, wow. Tammy wrote some time back about her worship experience that left her in tears right after we left our previous church. Today was my turn.
Just as we started singing How Great Thou Art, I just felt - and that's a dangerous term...felt...but it was truly accurate - with a spirit of worship I haven't had in a long, long time. By the time we got to the last verse, I was squeezing Jonathan's shoulders so hard he turned around and told me I was hurting him. Then as we transitioned into How Great is Our God, I just started to cry...amazed at His love for me, amazed at how even now, as we don't know where we'll be or what we're doing next year, He still provides for us a home for worship, a home for fellowship, and a home for a new church family, even with many members of our former church part of our extended families forever. He is our great provider, providing even a bridge to Him through His Son.
I really can't explain it other than to say - and I'm really not trying to be mean or cruel here, seriously - this was the most moving time I've had in worship in a long, long time. Bro. Jeff has said time & again we should be just as spent as he is after a worship service; it's (supposed to be) a shared time of worship to our Father. Today, it truly, truly was, though in addition to being spent, I was rejuvenated for the future. I feel Him drawing me closer to Him than I've been in a long time, and I'm truly joyous and thrilled. We've each had those times when we feel distanced from God, as though our prayers aren't even escaping our room. Yet today, I felt His presence with more clarity, more density, than I've felt in some time. I told Tammy - while not meaning to be blasphemous - that His presence has always felt "thick" at Calvary, other churches we've visited, and many times in the past at our previous church as well. Yet today it literally overwhelmed me...and yes, that's a valid use of the term - His spirit swept over me.
How Great is our God!
Monday, March 03, 2008
Bittersweet
Memories are beautiful, but in truth, that's what they are...memories of the past. And no matter how hard we may try, we will never perfectly & successfully recreate a moment or a series of moments in time. We may come really close, but a complete and perfect recreation just isn't possible.
When David Letterman was on the verge of leaving NBC for his show now on CBS, reports at the time said that NBC - on the hopes of staving off a costly competition and negative PR defection - swept in and offered Dave the Tonight Show, saying they'd find a way to kick Jay Leno to the curb in a year or so, and then the show would be his.
Wisely, Peter Lassally, who formerly was Tonight's producer and then a Letterman consultant, advised Dave that were he to take this route, not only would be be looked at as the neighborhood bully, but it wouldn't be the same as getting the show directly from his mentor, Carson. "You're not getting Johnny's 'Tonight Show', but a ruined Tonight Show that Jay ran into the ground," he said. "You wouldn't be getting Johnny's show, but Jay's show."
Knowing Peter was right, Dave declined the last-minute offer. He knew that no matter how hard he might have tried, memories just can't be recreated and time can't be changed.
Long-time readers of this blog remember last fall and the differences that eventually boiled over to the surface at the church we were attending at the time. We've been members there for over 13 years. I remember some of the great fun Tammy and I have had there through the years.
I remember - most of all - when we were having so much trouble getting pregnant. The ladies' Sunday School class members took it upon themselves to pray for us, and on February 14, 1999, Tammy and I found out Jonathan was on the way. I remember us pulling Jo Ann Raney into Don Amelung's old office and Tammy telling her we were pregnant. Jo Ann grabbed Tammy so hard Tammy's soda got knocked off onto the floor; there's still a spot on the rug to this day if you look hard enough. Jo Ann then literally flung herself onto the floor in front of the pulpit at that Sunday night's service. Just three years later, Tammy and I would give birth to our second son, again brought to this world safely because of the many prayers of our friends and fellow church members.
I remember the Sunday School fellowships we had through the years. "Who Wants to Win Some Free Stuff" (the takeoff of Regis' "Millionaire" show), "Family Feud", and the last game show fellowship, "Match Game". The watermelon and chili (at separate times, you understand!) fellowships were great, too.
I remember the Passion Plays we were able to be a part of each Easter - from our first in 1995 when Tammy and I filled in as narrators for an ailing Bernard Williams to the last a few years later when I played Satan (typecasting in the minds of many, I'm sure) on Friday night and then punching out "Arise My Love" and "Take Up Your Cross" on Sunday morning. In the same respect, I remember singing in the 1998 Christmas cantata and not realizing until the next day I'd done some (temporary) damage to my throat because I'd been singing with a pretty good case of strep. Who knew?
I remember the full-service dramas we wrote and put together there...the first one in 1996, "It's Jesus", taking off on the James Carville line, "It's the economy, stupid," urging Christians to get involved in the process and vote. The second, in 1998, urging Christians to get involved in encouraging others.
I remember the Sunday School's Parenting Conference, put together in 2003, to help minister to hurting parents throughout the entire region. We had people from Shelby County and West Central Illinois who came to our event that spring weekend.
I remember teaching the College Sunday School class with Tammy for all those years, getting 30-40 students to come be a part of our ministry. We were so successful the last year we actually were able to open a Tuesday night Bible study to supplement the Sunday morning class.
I remember the fantastic - absolutely fantastic - job Tammy did last year in her first (and subsequently only) year as VBS Director. She had a ball, and it was one of the few things she was looking forward to taking up again this year.
Memories are wonderful, but they're somewhat bittersweet at times. Over the last few days, I've come to realize through my prayer time that those memories, as much as I'd like to rewind the tape and do them all over again, are probably gone forever. That is - the memories are forever, but the opportunity to recreate them in that same setting has probably passed me by. And while I'm thrilled our family has recaptured the joy of worshipping Him each Sunday - this Sunday was a phenomenal day in the Lord - I truly weep at the road we've been forced to take. Bittersweet is the word of the day.
When David Letterman was on the verge of leaving NBC for his show now on CBS, reports at the time said that NBC - on the hopes of staving off a costly competition and negative PR defection - swept in and offered Dave the Tonight Show, saying they'd find a way to kick Jay Leno to the curb in a year or so, and then the show would be his.
Wisely, Peter Lassally, who formerly was Tonight's producer and then a Letterman consultant, advised Dave that were he to take this route, not only would be be looked at as the neighborhood bully, but it wouldn't be the same as getting the show directly from his mentor, Carson. "You're not getting Johnny's 'Tonight Show', but a ruined Tonight Show that Jay ran into the ground," he said. "You wouldn't be getting Johnny's show, but Jay's show."
Knowing Peter was right, Dave declined the last-minute offer. He knew that no matter how hard he might have tried, memories just can't be recreated and time can't be changed.
Long-time readers of this blog remember last fall and the differences that eventually boiled over to the surface at the church we were attending at the time. We've been members there for over 13 years. I remember some of the great fun Tammy and I have had there through the years.
I remember - most of all - when we were having so much trouble getting pregnant. The ladies' Sunday School class members took it upon themselves to pray for us, and on February 14, 1999, Tammy and I found out Jonathan was on the way. I remember us pulling Jo Ann Raney into Don Amelung's old office and Tammy telling her we were pregnant. Jo Ann grabbed Tammy so hard Tammy's soda got knocked off onto the floor; there's still a spot on the rug to this day if you look hard enough. Jo Ann then literally flung herself onto the floor in front of the pulpit at that Sunday night's service. Just three years later, Tammy and I would give birth to our second son, again brought to this world safely because of the many prayers of our friends and fellow church members.
I remember the Sunday School fellowships we had through the years. "Who Wants to Win Some Free Stuff" (the takeoff of Regis' "Millionaire" show), "Family Feud", and the last game show fellowship, "Match Game". The watermelon and chili (at separate times, you understand!) fellowships were great, too.
I remember the Passion Plays we were able to be a part of each Easter - from our first in 1995 when Tammy and I filled in as narrators for an ailing Bernard Williams to the last a few years later when I played Satan (typecasting in the minds of many, I'm sure) on Friday night and then punching out "Arise My Love" and "Take Up Your Cross" on Sunday morning. In the same respect, I remember singing in the 1998 Christmas cantata and not realizing until the next day I'd done some (temporary) damage to my throat because I'd been singing with a pretty good case of strep. Who knew?
I remember the full-service dramas we wrote and put together there...the first one in 1996, "It's Jesus", taking off on the James Carville line, "It's the economy, stupid," urging Christians to get involved in the process and vote. The second, in 1998, urging Christians to get involved in encouraging others.
I remember the Sunday School's Parenting Conference, put together in 2003, to help minister to hurting parents throughout the entire region. We had people from Shelby County and West Central Illinois who came to our event that spring weekend.
I remember teaching the College Sunday School class with Tammy for all those years, getting 30-40 students to come be a part of our ministry. We were so successful the last year we actually were able to open a Tuesday night Bible study to supplement the Sunday morning class.
I remember the fantastic - absolutely fantastic - job Tammy did last year in her first (and subsequently only) year as VBS Director. She had a ball, and it was one of the few things she was looking forward to taking up again this year.
Memories are wonderful, but they're somewhat bittersweet at times. Over the last few days, I've come to realize through my prayer time that those memories, as much as I'd like to rewind the tape and do them all over again, are probably gone forever. That is - the memories are forever, but the opportunity to recreate them in that same setting has probably passed me by. And while I'm thrilled our family has recaptured the joy of worshipping Him each Sunday - this Sunday was a phenomenal day in the Lord - I truly weep at the road we've been forced to take. Bittersweet is the word of the day.
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