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“You are going to feel like hell if you never write the stuff that is tugging on the sleeves of your heart — your stories, visions, memories, visions and songs. Your truth, your version of things, your own voice. That is really all you have to offer us. And that’s also why you were born.”
Anne Lamott

“You are going to feel like hell if you never write the stuff that is tugging on the sleeves of your heart — your stories, visions, memories, visions and songs. Your truth, your version of things, your own voice. That is really all you have to offer us. And that’s also why you were born.”
Anne Lamott

Month: January 2009

Winter Wonders

George

This has been a harsh winter. The cold has disrupted my daily rhythm. Naturally I miss the front porch and the opportunities to visit with my neighbors. The workshop is not heated so that has limited my activities there. I have found it hard to motivate myself to exercise. I’ve been outside only once it the last five or six weeks. Although, not as regular as it needs to be, I have been working out on the treadmill. The lack of activity also increases my appetite.

I am trying to decide whether I am going to participate in the Louisville Triple Crown Races when we return from Florida. I will need to do some serious training while in Florida. The races include a 5K, a 10K and a 10 miler. Since finishing is my objective rather than speed, I’m pretty confident about the first two but the 10 miler is real challenge. I ran it year before last and it was tougher for me than the half-marathon I ran the year before. I think it would be good for me. I need something to focus my efforts.

Although the pace of my reading has slowed recently, I picked up several books at the library and have a significant wish list on Amazon. I expect to get a lot of reading done in Florida. The most influential reading I have done recently is Shaped By the Word and Eat this Book. I am still reading Eat this Book but my understanding and practice of formational reading has already been positively impacted. Peterson’s Eat this Book has generated a number of topics I plan to pursue this year.

I have had a lot of thoughts that I am pondering but, for some reason, I have been unable to blog about them. Every time I start to write I just seem to lose interest. I don’t know what that is all about.

In any case, I am looking forward to the warmth of Florida and visiting with some friends and a little fishing. Spring is coming.

People of the Book

George

One of the phrases I remember growing up in church was “We are a people of the Book.” Proudly proclaimed and worn as a badge of honor, one demonstration of the truthfulness of our claim was the ability to quote passages on demand in order to prove our correctness and defeat any who thought differently. As long as they were in agreement with our interpretation, we were “united”. If there was not agreement the conclusion was that the other party just had it wrong and, of course, were not “people of the book”. Perhaps, that is not so much the case today, but Eugene Peterson in “Eat This Book” describes an equally damaging perversion of what it means to be “a people of the book”.

“Eat this book” is my metaphor of choice for focusing attention on what is involved in reading our Holy Scriptures formatively, that is, in such a way that the Holy Spirit uses them to form Christ in us. We are not interested in knowing more but in becoming more.

 The task is urgent. It is clear that we live in an age in which the authority of Scripture in our lives has been replaced by the authority of the self: we are encouraged on all sides to take charge of our lives and live our own experience as the authoritative text by which to live.

The alarming thing is how extensively this spirit has invaded the church. I more or less expect the unbaptized world to attempt to live autonomously. But not those of us who confess Jesus as Lord and Savior. I am not the only one to notice that we are in the odd and embarrassing  position of being a church in which many among us believe ardently in the authority of the Bible but, instead of submitting to it, use it, apply it, take charge of it endlessly, using our own experience as the authority for how and where and when we will use it. 

One of the most urgent tasks facing the Christian community today is to counter this self-sovereignty by reasserting what it means to live these Holy Scriptures from the inside out, instead of using them for our sincere and devout but still self-sovereign purposes.

New Year

George

We enjoyed the end of 2008 with family and friends last evening. It was a really nice occasion. We went home before midnight. Ann and I celebrated the entrance of 2009 with a Late Show with David Letterman rerun. Whoopee!

Queen Muffin
Queen Muffin

We enjoyed Clark and Vanessa’s visit. They arrived Tuesday evening and left yesterday pm. A highlight of their visit was Muffin. She is the queen and knows it.

 

 

 

 

 

I am looking forward to 2009. I have had a number of thoughts about what I need to focus on during this year. I am not putting together a “To Do List” as much as I am trying to recognize what kind of things should be being demonstrated in my life as one being formed by God. I guess you could call that a “To Be List”. I’m sorry. I just cannot not be organized. Thankfully, God is merciful.

I put together a picture album for the second half of 2008. You can see it HERE. If you missed the album from the first six months, you can see it HERE.

Happy New Year to you all.