WHERE"S FRIAR?

My crazy schedule updated--
so if you wanna get a hold of me keep this in mind. It may mean a little less blog entries in July
July 1 Leave on Mission Trip
July 8 Return from Mission Trip
July 10 Teach Sunday School and Ice Cream Social in evening
July 11 To Highland Park for Rob Bell book signing/release
July 13 C.H.O.W. GROUP IN EVENING
July 15 Officiating Wedding rehersal
July 15 Hang out with Amy, Queen of Corn
July 16 At wedding BBQ
July 17 Officiate Wedding
July 17 See Amy and Carrie off at the Airport, and stay at hotel in Fort Collins
July 24 Teach all-church Sunday School and Preach and youth group
July 27 C.H.O.W. Group in eveing
July 30 Ehlich's
July 31 Sunday School and Church
July 31 Camp
Aug 6 Return from Camp
Aug 7 Sunday School/Worship/Communion Assistant

A Small, Small World

Square Slant, Miss Peg, and Staff Sargent's Wife all have a mutual connection.

Miss Peg's brother and sister in law are friends of mine!

Isn't that weird? Linked at the bottom of my blog is Amy, Queen of Corn. She is also a Sterling College graduate like me (class of 1995 for me, 1996 for Amy). Miss Peg is a graduate of Sterling High School (Sterling, KS--Class of 1955). So we went to school in the same town. So what? That is bound to happen through anonymous contacts on the internet you say.

Well, you have not heard the whole story.

When I was in Sterling, I did not really come in having a home church. So, I went to the closest Baptist church. Hated it. Too much focus on the end times and fiery judgement and all of that. Plus,having just recently sensed a call to ministry, I wanted to be somewhere where I could serve.

So I ended up walking to the middle of town from the college where I attended First Baptist Church. I taught Sunday School there, and did children's messages. I was surrounded with support and encouragement in this church of 40 people. The Shepherds (who have both passed away now), and the Maxwells were wonderful encouragements. But the couple that really reached out, supported me, and fanned the flames of my call to ministry were Eddie and Phyllis Fulton. And, Eddie is Ms. Peg's brother. Square Slant and Staff Sergent Wife's uncle.

It is a small, small world.

And hopefully, Miss Peg will take some pictures that she can post.

Help me...only two more days until our mission trip 

Lifeshock Moment

Strangely enough with how busy I am and all that I have on my plate, I got done with most of my church stuff on Saturday at about 7:15. This was my goal, because it allowed me to go to the BIG PARTY of the year at my apartment complex.

Now, while there I was goofin off a little bit, helping clean up, and came over to talk to some people. A woman asked me, "Do you wanna get laid?"

With a jaw dropped and no response from me she gave me her Hawaiian flower necklace. Her boyfriend asked what she was doing. I am just giving this nice OLD man my laiegh she said.

OLD!

When did I get to be an OLD man? OLD!

Well I got done trading gift certificates so that they were all at Target, and then went to the store. I came to the conclusion they were right. I am getting old. Although, that is not necessarily ALL bad. But a lot of the raunchy hip-hop stuff that they were dirty dancing to in the dance contest seems a little young for me. I kept wondering why they would not play anything dancable. And then some 4th grade girl came running past me in some racy outfit and I started asking myself, what kind of parent lets their kids out of their house dressed that way in elementary school?

MY LIFESHOCK MOMENT: I am an old duffer at 31.

Friar Tuck baptizes a young man in our church 

After he came back up out of the water 

Vanessa gets baptized this Sunday, June 26 

Vanessa got baptized as well 

Baptism number 2, just before she goes under the water 

Coming out of the water after baptism 

My apartment building 

My car at my apartment 

Me in my office 

This are the homeless men waiting for breakfast that our youth group was preparing inside. 

I never knew I was so scandalous--another singleness rant

Well, it seems that I always run into the same roadblocks in dating relationships.

I AM JUST NOT COMFORTABLE WITH THE PASTOR THING.

I get this same message in lots of different ways. Sometimes it is direct. I had one conversation like this. Here is a conversation I had recently.

"I am just not sure I could ever date a pastor. I just dont think being a pastor is right. The Bible seems to say...(on and on for about five minutes)."

"It sounds like it would be easier for you if I was a male prostitute," I said laughing

"Well, in many ways it would," she returned.

Or then there is the let me summarize my beliefs about God so you know I am not compatable with you. The just so you know I am a Christian but....conversation.

When I got into ministry, I never anticipated. I thought, naively, it would be the opposite. That there would be single women I would meet in church circles that would not only be open but be excited about finding a decent Christian guy...even if I am not the prettiest guy on the block. But after 7 years in full time pastoral ministry I have to tell you, nothing could be further from the truth.

Nothing scares women inside and outside of the church more than dating or marrying a pastor.

Now, there are those women who think it a challenge to date a minister type and pull him away from the pastorate. Somehow, they think there feminine wiles are just about equal competition for the Almighty and they try to win me over to their side. Some of these comptetitions have been close, but in the end the ministry and the Lord won out.

So, if you have advice for me besides EHARMONY, I am open to listen.

Steve Sayler at Bible Study last night 

Steve Buie last night 

Jane and Dawn--another couple of young adults from our church 

Picking and choosin what to share at my computer 

My buddies Dan and Jennifer! 

Christianity Today--July 2005 quotes

There is nobody so humorless as a devout atheist.--Garisson Keilor

They are the AntiChrist of this world--Sen. Ken Salazar speaking of James Dobson and Focus on the Family

41% of Americans have a favorable impression of the conservative Christian movement
45% of Americans have a favorable impression of Muslims

57% of Americans think creation and evolution should both be taught in public schools

It is entirely easier to cultivate a congregation that will listen to the Word of God than to cultivate one that will worship God--Jack Heyford

The church must be reminded that it is not the mastor or the servant of the state, but rather the conscience of the state. It must be the guide and the critic of the state, but never its tool--
Martin Luther King Jr.

According to the quiz:

I scored as Karl Barth.

The daddy of 20th Century theology. You perceive liberal theology to be a disaster and so you insist that the revelation of Christ, not human experience, should be the starting point for all theology.

Karl Barth
87%

Anselm
80%

Friedrich Schleiermacher
60%

Jürgen Moltmann
53%

John Calvin
47%

Martin Luther
47%

Augustine
33%

Charles Finney
33%

Paul Tillich
33%

Jonathan Edwards
27%

If you want to try this test click here


 

Shawn in the Springs

My good friend Shawn Geer is in town today and until Sunday.

Shawn is a pastor in Plainfield IA, and other than that, we have little to nothing in common. Shawn, I believe, is in his late 30s. He has four children, all with his high school sweetheart Yolanda. The older ones, Jacob, Joshua, and Caleb I know better. Hannah was just a baby when I left KC.

Shawn, Yolanda, and I met when I was interviewing to be the youth pastor at Armourdale Baptist Church in KC. Yo was managing a doctor's office at KC Medical Center, and Shawn was general manager at a parts company for small planes. For two years we worked together with the youth of Armourdale. After my first year of seminary, Shawn also joined me at the seminary. And while at first he was thinking he was going to be an OT professor, he soon felt called to pastoral ministry. He took the "extended" plan at Central Baptist, and graduated in 5 or 6 years with his MDIV.

The Geers are a family that I had refrigerator rights with when I was in seminary. Which basically means that whenever I dropped by the house I could open the fridge and get whatever I wanted out of it. They were sweet that way.

I would usually drop by about one night a week, watch a movie, watch the Geers try in vain to put three toddler boys to bed at the same time, and stay up late on a Friday night chatting away. Some how we went from co-workers to good friends.

(Michele and Sean Grabbe-see a pattern in my behavior here?)

Shawn Geer is the only pastor I know who put that he knows how to tow and back up a double-tongued trailer on his pastoral resume under "other skills".

Anyway...thats just so you know who he is. He is in town at the FOCUS ON THE FAMILY PASTORS WEEKEND with the family. And since Yolanda, Shawn and I only get to see one another every year or two, it will be fun to hang out this week.

Boys at the beach 

Garrett at home 

My sis and her boys 

My nephews out on the back porch 

Some Interesting Quotes from Youthworker Journal

Every boy, to become a man, has to --like the Bible says--leave childish things behind. There is a lot of heartbreak in that. Then for a man to really become a man, he has to rejoin a family--
David Duchovny

You're not an owner in this life, you are just a steward--
Steven King at a commencement address urging every graduate to give away a dime of every dollar they make

Livin la vie da loca

My life is crazy for the next two months:

June 26 Early morning youth hungry and thirsty projects
June 26 Progressive BBQ for youth group
July 1-8 Mission Trip (still feel behind on getting all this together)
July 8-16?? Amy (see link below) in town
July 10-16 Intermittent help with High School camp
July 15-17 Wedding out of town
July 24 Teaching all-Church Sunday School
July 24 Preaching
July 25-29 Church has VBS
July 31-Aug 6 Directing Camp
Aug 9-23 With Family Vacation
Aug 28 Mission Trip presentation

Also Sunday School has been crazy because we have been doing this service-driven thing on Sunday mornings where we visit seniors, feed the homeless, give drinks to the thirsty, and all that on Sunday morning.

I am a little relieved cause I thought I was preaching the 10th, but instead it is the 24th.

Phewww! **wipes forehead***

So, if you dont see me as much on here....that is why. Though I will try and be faithful to my daily blogging discipline.

Books on the back of my toilet

Well....I at least thought that would be funny!

Since everyone else is so diginfied to have them on their nightstand on the sidebar of their blogs. LOL.

Anyway...books that I am currently showing some interest in

Eugene Peterson--Christ plays in Ten thousand places

Taming a Liger:Unexpected Spiritual Lessons from Napolean Dynamite by Dunn and Palmer

Rebel Angels--Robertson Davies

Friar Tuck mounts the pulpit

Below in a manuscript of the sermon I have prepared for tomorrow morning.

The resources I used during this study were:

The Storytellers Companion to the Bible--Genesis

Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places--Eugene Peterson

Gensesis: A Living Conversation--companion to the PBS series--Bill Moyers

A conversation with Betty Fannin on the merits of postmodernism

Wrestling for a Blessing Part 1

Many of you may know that I was a football player in high school and college. As a matter of fact, in high school I participated in about every sport imaginable. I did track one year, baseball two years of high school, basketball three years of high school, and I even ran with the cross-country team half-time my senior year until school started in order to improve my condition for football. But, by far the sport I most enjoyed in high school and the sport that I was best at was wrestling.

There were a lot of things I liked about wrestling. I loved the trips. We flew to Fairbanks and to Kodiak Island my senior year. We had a lot of trips where we would leave on Thursday night and get back home on Sunday afternoon. And I have ALWAYS loved travel and getting out of school. In a lot of ways, the wrestling team was my social life for several months.

I also loved that if you used the gifts you had, you could be successful no matter what your natural ability. I have to coordination of a elephant with a broken ankle on a three-day bender, so I had to practice a lot. I remember a lot of times to execute a move my coach would often have to literally put my body where it needed to go to execute the move. But after a few times of going back to elementary school methods of learning wrestling moves, I would get pretty good at them. And being average to good at every style of collegiate wrestling, I became half way decent at reading my opponent, finding where I had the advantage, and forcing the matches to my stronger suit. So if the person had poor conditioning I would push the pace of the match, if he was weaker I would make the match into a contest of strength, if he was stupid I would bide my time and wait for him to make a mistake, and if he was cocky I would play possum and then strike with full force and surprise him. And the one time I had to wrestle a girl, I just tried to get in and out of the match as soon as possible.

Probably my favorite thing about wrestling though is that is one on one. In football, you have teammates that you can blame or be blamed by for the loss. The same is true with basketball and baseball. But wrestling, it is just you and the other person. Face to face. Toe to toe. And you are forced to come to terms with who you are. Your strengths and your weaknesses.

Which brings me to the story of Jacob. Jacob’s name means foot-grabber. Other synonyms are supplanter, overcomer, wrestler, and grappler. And now, in a moment of crisis in Jacob’s life, he comes to a point where he is wrestling with God. Wrestling for a blessing. A blessing that he has already stolen. A blessing that he has been struggling and wrestling to understand all his life.

As some of you remember from the last time I preached, Jacob started stealing Esau’s birthright for a bowl of lentils. Later, he steals the birthright by a cunning deceit while his brother is out hunting. God has saved his life, provided wealth for him, and given him a whole brood of children. Yet as he is about to meet his brother again, fear grips his heart. So he sends his wives and concumbines, children, animals, and servants ahead in case his brother wants to kill him. Then he wrestles this mysterious being in the late night/early morning before dawn.

Wrestling for a Blessing Part 2

The truth is, we wrestle all the time with day to day life things. How do we keep from flipping the bird at someone who cut us off in traffic on the way to work? We want to be calmer, but somehow this rage boils over from deep within us. We try to live healthier. Yet the latest reality show looks infinitely more interesting than exercise, and a hamburger and French fries at McDonalds looks much better than the more wholesome meal that you know you should prepare at home. We spend our days in a wrestling match wanting to do what we want when we want to, and wanting to do the right thing too. We struggle with sexual temptation, whether it be with the internet, a romance novel, or the person we meet at work, at school or living across the street. We struggle with greed and always wanting more things than what we have. We struggle with managing our time to make time for the things that are most important to God and to us. We want the blessing, but we want things our way too. So, we struggle and we wrestle with our desire to sin, and our desire to live our day to day moments for Jesus.

We not only wrestle with the day to day stuff, we wrestle with the “big issues” in our lives. Infact, I think nearly all of us wrestle with God in one sense or another. A loved one dies, and we wonder why. And we wrestle with God. Struggling with him trying to understand. We come to church, and we have expectations about how church is supposed to be. And instead of always finding love and support we find hurt, judgment, and betrayal as well. And we find that the church is as much in need of salvation and redemption as we are. And we wonder what faith is really all about. And grab on to that hurt, and we struggle with God, and we WRESTLE. Or we go to work, and we try and do the right thing, but it seems that doing the right thing hurts us more than it helps us. Once again we wrestle. We struggle. We look for answers. We wonder where our blessing is. Just like Jacob.


Where is my blessing you may be asking? Where is my blessing? But even more than that, for those of us today maybe we need to be asking WHAT IS MY BLESSING? WHAT IS MY BLESSING?

Let me explain. Let me explain by taking a look at Biblical history.

Some of us, including some of those of the family of faith in Scripture, look at blessings as simply material blessing. Those that are blessed are those that have been able to accumulate a reputation, been able to accumulate power, and been able to accumulate resources. This view was prominent in Old Testament times. Especially with certain interpretations in the book of Dueteronomy. If you are blessed life will be easier, if you are cursed LIFE STINKS. We also see this philosophy is Christian thought from time to time, whether it is with a Calvinist Protestant Work Ethic theology, or a Wesleyan name it and claim it if you just have enough faith idea.

I think this view dominates the beginning of Jacob’s life. He things if he just gets the birthright, if he just gets the blessing, if he just marries the right woman, if he just does the right thing on the job he will be blessed. And to a certain extent God does bless him. He has lots of kids, lots of goats and sheep. Yet, strange things keep happening to him. He gets one more wife than he bargained for, he runs away from home, he is estranged from his father, his brother, his uncle, and most of his cousins. Except for the cousins he married (another Biblical example of someone who picks up chicks at a family reunion). His family wives and children are constantly bickering with one another. And he wonders, WHERE IS MY BLESSING? This doesn’t seem like much of a blessing to me!

I think we have all felt this way to a certain extent. If this happens than I will know I am doing the right thing. If that happens than I will know that God loves me or approves of me. And then we get to the point where we thought everything would be ok, and we realize that life is bigger than we thought it was, that what we thought was the blessing wasn’t really the blessing in the first place. That what we thought we were doing with God, we were not. Infact, we just left God behind and went on our merry way. In fact, we were running ahead of God and his will, ahead of God and his blessing, and we feel frustrated, incomplete, or alone. Just like Jacob.

Others of us come to the idea of a blessing as more of a feeling or a power that is upon us. This has many forms.

Wrestling for a Blessing Part 3

Let me explain. Jacob, earlier in his life, had stolen the blessing from his brother, Esau. And whereas the birthright I talked about last time gave him the family wealth, the blessing gave him the right and the power to carry on the family name. It made him the official #1 son. I suspect he thought that with this happening, that everything in his life would fall together. That this discontent that stirred in his heart would just go away. That his insecurities and hang-ups would quickly disappear. I think he thought the blessing was some super-therapy or magic pill that would bring everything together for him.

A lot of us view the blessing of God the same way. Like a magic pill of some sort, that once we do the right thing or say the right words that everything will be happier, everything will be easier, everything will be BETTER.

Some of us look at a blessing more like solving a math equasion or a chemistry problem. If we just do this much of this, and this much of that, and we throw in a little of this, than everything will be alright. All you have to do is walk through a Christian bookstore to see this idea in full form. Take these five purposes and everything will work out great. Take these four steps to peace with God. Adhere to these spiritual laws. Seven steps to your best life NOW.
Now a lot of these step by step things have helped people in their lives in powerful, well publicized ways. But having faith is not a cause and effect way to manipulate the universe.

A blessing is not about always being right. Always feeling good about everything. NOW, does God’s blessing often include material prosperity? Sometimes. Does God’s blessing include good feelings, a change of circumstances for the better, and finding ways to live a better life? Most definitely. BUT are the wealth, the health, the circumstances that fall into place, GOD’S BLESSING in and of itself. NO. ABSOLUTELY NOT. THE BLESSING IS BIGGER, IT IS SIMPLER, it is more ACCESSABLE, and it is more ordinary than that.

Gaining the blessing is not about finding the right opportunities to take from God what we need, it is not about finding the right moves in life to be successful. It is soo much more important than that.

Let us go back to the priestly blessing that Gwen read for us from the book of Numbers. The poem is chiastic in its literary form. Let me explain. In our form of communication, when we are reporting something, we put the most important things at the beginning of the communication. The theme sentence that our English teachers taught us about, or the HEADLINE in a newspaper. And in a good detective or mystery novel, or a good movie, we put the best stuff at the end.

But when a good Hebrew poet wanted to make a point, he put the point right in the middle of the whole thing. Most of the time. I could get into this a little more, but it is probably left for a conversation after church or a classroom setting. And this point, just trust me. Its structure puts its most important point in the middle.

And what is that most important point.
“May the Lord’s face shine upon you, and be gracious to you.”

Now the words before and after ask for safety, peace, material blessing, and all that stuff. But the most important part of the blessing. The defining part of the blessing was something different.

Wrestling for a Blessing Conclusion

The defining part of the blessing is not about things at all. It is about relationship. The blessing is the RELATIONSHIP. THE relationship with God is not part of the blessing. It is not a benefit of the BLESSING. It is THE BLESSING.
A relationship with a God that looks down upon you like a doting father, and whose face shines upon you. THE BLESSING is a heavenly father that looks down on you and says, that’s MY GAL. THAT’S MY BOY. That is my beloved, wonderful child. That is my friend. That is the one I adore.

MAY THE LORD’s FACE SHINE UPON YOU.

The blessing is the blessing that overwhelms John in his epistle.
See what great LOVE the father has lavished on us! (EXCLAMATION POINT—(make gesture and emphasize)) That we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

CHILDREN OF GOD!!! That is what we are when we receive the BLESSING. The blessing of a relationship with Almighty God.

Maybe you don’t believe me. Maybe you think I am reading things into the story. OK. Lets return to the story of Jacob.

He wrestles with God. Until it is almost daybreak. He says he will not let the being he is wrestling go until he has a blessing.

And what is the last thing that Jacob says after the blessing is pronounced upon him? What gave Jacob assurance of the blessing. Was it that the circumstances of his life would suddenly be better. NO.

Was it that he would suddenly have more money that he knew what to do with?
OF COURSE NOT.

What was the blessing from Jacob’s perspective. I SAW GOD FACE TO FACE. I SAW GOD AND LIVED. That was the blessing. And that was enough.

Now there is a type of wrestling that I described at the beginning of this story that I loved. It was about success and accomplishment and all that. I have to share with you. There is a kind of wrestling that I liked even better than that. That is the kind of wrestling I did at home, and occasionally when I could get away with it with the youth I work with and my friends.

I think about the most fun I have had with my uncles and my cousins. A lot of them have been either dancing, or wrestling. I remember my little cousins at five years old all coming at me at the same time to wrestle, trying to tackle me while I stood at my knees. And I would pick them up sometimes two at a time and place them on the ground.

When my uncle, who is almost like a second father to me, wanted to show physical affection, he often hugs. But even more than that, he starts roughhousing with us. As does my aunt sometimes by the way.

And sometimes before youth group, when we are kicking the soccer ball around and someone like James Dockum or Brian Gale or Ben Beasley throws a tennis ball at me and look at me and grin, they know whats coming. I chase them around the room, pick them up, throw them on my shoulder, spin them around a little bit and set them down on the couch. And we laugh and we smile.

Why? Because just like Jacob with God, when we are wrestling with God we are being in a relationship. We are not wrestling like enemies. We are wrestling like brothers.

It is interesting that in Hebrew the root word is the same for the words wrestle and hug or embrace. With Jacob, he came into the wrestling match thinking he was in the battle for his life. When in fact, he was in the loving arms of the heavenly father whose face glowed or shone upon him. AND THAT WAS THE BLESSING. AND THAT WAS ENOUGH. THAT WAS MORE THAN ENOUGH.

Now the choice is yours. RECEIVE the BLESSING. God is ready to grab on to you, love ya, and never let ya go. Don’t run away from that BLESSING, even if you feel that you are going to have to wrestle to get it.

Batman Begins Better

I walked up to the movie theater more excited to spend time with my friend than to watch the movie Batman Begins. I went anyway. A little more exciting was that it was playing on IMAX, and we got to see the movie on a screen six stories tall by eight stories wide.

As we watched the movie, it was easily the best movie in the Batman series so far, and easily was better than the whole Spiderman series to date. As I said to my friend as we left, "All the other superhero movies seem cartoonish compared to this one."

Here is what was right about the movie:

Complexity: The characters were complex, especially as the movie begins. Even more the ideas were complex that the movie spoke about.

Ideas: There were a few good ideas and hooks that the movie hung on. First the quote, "Its not inside that counts, its what you do that matters". A countercultural idea to be sure, and a thought that deserves more thought in our therapuetic age. Also, the discussion of the difference between mercy and justice.
And, how Batman takes many of the strengths of his instructors, while denying their overall ideals.

Storyline: excellent.

This is easily the best movie that has come out this year, and for me the biggest surprise.

Steve Jobs' commencement address at Stanford

This is one of the coolest commencement addresses ever. RIGHT HERE

CD I am listening to 

Doodling from Dan Kimball's blog 

A funny about my life! 

You Don't See me the Way I see me.

I am an introvert. A chatty, social introvert, but an introvert none-the-less. One of the things about being an introvert is that what you see on first impression is not necessarily what you get to know when you get to know me better.

Some examples:

When you meet me you might think I am LAID BACK
But when you really get to know me you might be suprised that I AM A FAIRLY GOAL-ORIENTED AND DRIVEN

When you meet me you might think I am A GOODY-GOODY TYPE
But when you really get to know me you might be suprised that I AM A LOT MORE ORNERY THAN YOU EXPECT

When you meet me you might think I am PASSIVE
But when you really get to know me you might be suprised that ANALYZING EVERYTHING YOU SAY AND EVERYONE AROUND ME

When you meet me you might think I am FAIRLY EVEN EMOTIONALLY
But when you really get to know me you might be suprised that I AM A DRAMA KING

When you meet me you might think I am JUST A LITTLE OUT OF IT
But when you really get to know me you might be suprised that SEETHING WITH ANGER

When you meet me you might think I am A DUMB JOCK
But when you really get to know me you might be suprised that INTENSELY INTELLECTUAL

When you meet me you might think I am MACHO MAN
But when you really get to know me you might be suprised that ROMANTIC SAP

Do those of you that know me agree? Anything to add?

Those of you who know me only through my blog--which side do you see more?

Decision Making

In my study on my vacation, I had two sources that gave two questions about figuring out the direction of your life. Thought they might be helpful.

1--What makes you pound the table? (when you are talking and you get so excited you pound the table while you are talking)

2--What do you want to be remembered for?

Book Lust 3.2

More books that I want

Speaking my Mind--Tony Campolo
The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana--Umberto Eco
Quotable Einstein
Margeret Wheatley leadership books
How to Work for an Idiot
Never Eat Alone
The Naked Christian--Borlaise
Understanding God's Will--Kyle Lake
Cofeehouse Gospel
Perspectives (Relevant)
Crying for a Vision--Wangerin
Women in Ministry--Four Views
Name of the Rose--Umberto Eco
Praise Habit--David Crowder

Friar Tuck goes Dumpster Diving

It is 10am. I am at the bottom of a nearly empty dumpster. How did I get there? Well, that is an interesting story.

I was heading out to work about an hour before, and suddenly started to panic, because I had no idea where my wallet was. Normally this is a crisis. But, with my vehicle registration overdue, and my check coming to me today, I went into full scale panic mode.

At first, I started stumbling around cussing like a sailor. Then I started taking deep breathes and giving myself affirmation statements like, "Just settle down, Clint, you will find it....now take another deep breathe...where haven't you looked you big stud you..." Then I got into panic prayer mode. "Dear God....PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE"..which worked into resume prayers...you know where you try and tell God why you deserve to find the wallet. Finally I came to the conclusion that I must have thrown away the wallet. Which meant........DUMPSTER DIVING.

At first I thought I could reach the bags I had thrown in last night without diving into the dumpster. So I teetered on the edge of the dumpster, hands reaching down on one side, and legs kicking around on the other. Unfortuneately, my body style and center of gravity in not compatable with this, so I rocked back and forth on my belly like a teeter-totter and got nowhere.

So I decided to jump in, using the handles for the trash truck to pull myself up so I could jump in. Now I was stuck five feet below in the dumpster. After a little while I figured a way out. Went into the house. Threw the cushions on my couch everywhere. Then took one last look and there was my wallet. In the pouch to my backpack sitting in the car.

Merton quote

Does all our talk and discussion about God bring us closer to him?

TALK AMONGST YOURSELVES

Prison Writings: My Life is My Sun Dance by Leonard Peltier

Peltier's story is known better overseas as an example of American injustice than it is known here, as emphasized by pleas from leaders such as Desmond Tutu for his release.

Here are a couple of quotes from the book:

"You dont have to know the meaning of life to know that life has a meaning."

"Imperfection is the source of every action. This is both our curse and our blessing as human beings."