A post or two back, I mentioned that Karen and I had a belated anniversary celebration at the Mission Oak Inn. It's probably the loveliest B&B, with the best food and most beautiful setting, that we have ever stayed in. Plus, Denny and Jan, the proprietors, are some truly delightful Christian people. We are already making plans to go back there every year as a way to celebrate our marriage together. If you live in the area, it's well worth the money.Wednesday, June 27, 2012
The Mission Oak Inn
A post or two back, I mentioned that Karen and I had a belated anniversary celebration at the Mission Oak Inn. It's probably the loveliest B&B, with the best food and most beautiful setting, that we have ever stayed in. Plus, Denny and Jan, the proprietors, are some truly delightful Christian people. We are already making plans to go back there every year as a way to celebrate our marriage together. If you live in the area, it's well worth the money.
My Extreme Run
- a 100' slip and slide
- a 14' ladder wall
- a 20' military crawl through sand under ropes
- an 8' wall climbed using a rope.
- crawl through two 3' diameter culvert pipes, half submerged in a muddy pit
- run though 50' of muddy field
- run 4 up/down sand hills
- go over, under, through, and over 4' walls
- race through a maze of 55 gallon drums
- walk a 100' balance beam, consisting of 2"x8"s balanced on edge in a zig-zag pattern
- military crawl through 100' of mud pit under ropes (glad it wasn't barbed wire!)
- swim 20' under ropes through a muddy water pit
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Cub Scout Day Camp
As I mentioned in my last post, the boys and I have spent the last three days at Cub Scout Day Camp, which means we have had three full days of all the BB guns, archery, leather work, knots, human foosball, crafts, drag racecars, DNR visits, flag ceremonies, Scout skills, and Slip and Slides that we can handle. Nathan and I got to be together all day every day, while we only saw John at lunch and the beginning and end of the day. It was a total blast, but they were some long, very hot, days. Below are some pictures:
Nathan with Animal Jim's Mammoth Mercury: 2000 horses under that hood...
We missed the balloon, but we hit the target, Dad. That's good isn't it?
TWO Bullseyes, Dad! Woot! Woot!
John with the Mammoth Merc. He is probably more interested in how to make the car that fast in the quarter mile, whereas Nate would be the one who would want to actually drive it...
John got to lead the flag ceremony one evening, giving the commands to the color guard in front of him.
Nate and human foosball.
Nate and BB guns. He has already put in his request for a Red Ryder to come his way this next birthday. I think he's pretty sure he could resolve Mom's rabbit problem.
Nate got to be part of the color guard raising the flag one morning.
TWO Bullseyes, Dad! Woot! Woot!
Where you been?
Contrary to what may have been the impression that I have left of late, I have not traveled to the edge of the earth and fallen off. Here's what I have been up to:
Immediately after the kids' school year ended, Karen and I cut out with them for parts South, specifically 7 days at Walt Disney World and two days at New Smyrna Beach. We were one exhausted, tanned, happy, sandy bunch on our return, which was good because...
Our church's associate pastor had resigned his position to become a senior pastor at a church in Washington state and his last Sunday was just four days after Karen and I returned, sans kids from Indiana, where we had left them for the next week-and-a-half to party while we got caught up with life, laundry, and each other. I had just enough time to wade through approximately 250 emails, send some belated birthday and anniversary cards out to parishioners, open the mail, and write a sermon before Sunday came and we said tearful goodbyes to Jim, Darci, and Lucy.
That Sunday night, Karen and I checked into the Mission Oak Inn, finally making use of a gift certificate for that place which we had been given for Pastor Appreciation back in '09 (I think! It's been a while in any case). It was also something of a belated anniversary celebration for us since we were enjoying the actual day with our kids rather than alone. We ate field green salad with garden tomatoes and peach balsamic vinaigrette, linguini with alfredo, garden peas, giant scallops, and shrimp followed by chocolate cheesecake. The next morning was cool and beautiful, with a mist rising over the lake and fields, and a breakfast of good strong coffee accompanied by southwestern eggs and stuffed French toast. We spent the day up in Bolingbrook shopping and hanging out together, ate lunch at Ikea and shared crackers and cheese with something bubbly that night. The next morning was another elegant breakfast then back to work and home, hitting the ground running, especially since we started leading youth group until we find a new associate for our church.
That Thursday we picked up my truck, which finally had its bumper repaired (don't ask), and we packed for Indiana again to get the kids. We left on Friday, returned with them Saturday, at which point detox from their long vacation began. Sunday was ministry and worship, and Monday started a new whirlwind week. Monday-Wednesday was Cub Scout Day Camp for the boys and me, with stops by me along the way to do Skype interviews with the Elders and a couple of our leading candidates for our new associate pastor, and lead the morning men's Bible study and youth group. Meanwhile, Karen has run Sara to summer sectional flute lessons, and Ashley to World of Wonder classes down at Bradley, where she is learning all about drama and acting (skills I hope she keeps confined to the stage and doesn't bring into the house!). All of which brings me up to today and this humble blog, which if you are still reading, ought to give you a reward of some kind, because I am freshly tired again from thinking about the whirlwind of life we have been living. But all of that to say, here's where we've been, I'm hopeful life will settle a bit in weeks to come, and there's a lot of things I've meant to write about that I haven't yet, so stay tuned...
Immediately after the kids' school year ended, Karen and I cut out with them for parts South, specifically 7 days at Walt Disney World and two days at New Smyrna Beach. We were one exhausted, tanned, happy, sandy bunch on our return, which was good because...
Our church's associate pastor had resigned his position to become a senior pastor at a church in Washington state and his last Sunday was just four days after Karen and I returned, sans kids from Indiana, where we had left them for the next week-and-a-half to party while we got caught up with life, laundry, and each other. I had just enough time to wade through approximately 250 emails, send some belated birthday and anniversary cards out to parishioners, open the mail, and write a sermon before Sunday came and we said tearful goodbyes to Jim, Darci, and Lucy.
That Sunday night, Karen and I checked into the Mission Oak Inn, finally making use of a gift certificate for that place which we had been given for Pastor Appreciation back in '09 (I think! It's been a while in any case). It was also something of a belated anniversary celebration for us since we were enjoying the actual day with our kids rather than alone. We ate field green salad with garden tomatoes and peach balsamic vinaigrette, linguini with alfredo, garden peas, giant scallops, and shrimp followed by chocolate cheesecake. The next morning was cool and beautiful, with a mist rising over the lake and fields, and a breakfast of good strong coffee accompanied by southwestern eggs and stuffed French toast. We spent the day up in Bolingbrook shopping and hanging out together, ate lunch at Ikea and shared crackers and cheese with something bubbly that night. The next morning was another elegant breakfast then back to work and home, hitting the ground running, especially since we started leading youth group until we find a new associate for our church.
That Thursday we picked up my truck, which finally had its bumper repaired (don't ask), and we packed for Indiana again to get the kids. We left on Friday, returned with them Saturday, at which point detox from their long vacation began. Sunday was ministry and worship, and Monday started a new whirlwind week. Monday-Wednesday was Cub Scout Day Camp for the boys and me, with stops by me along the way to do Skype interviews with the Elders and a couple of our leading candidates for our new associate pastor, and lead the morning men's Bible study and youth group. Meanwhile, Karen has run Sara to summer sectional flute lessons, and Ashley to World of Wonder classes down at Bradley, where she is learning all about drama and acting (skills I hope she keeps confined to the stage and doesn't bring into the house!). All of which brings me up to today and this humble blog, which if you are still reading, ought to give you a reward of some kind, because I am freshly tired again from thinking about the whirlwind of life we have been living. But all of that to say, here's where we've been, I'm hopeful life will settle a bit in weeks to come, and there's a lot of things I've meant to write about that I haven't yet, so stay tuned...
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?
It's time to take over the world!
I've been pondering Pinky and the Brain lately for a couple reasons. One, we bought the complete 3rd season for our family entertainment on our way to Florida. And two, I have lately been seeing a lot of the Brain in my children. Two of them in particular have developed the attitude of "Let justice be done, though the heavens fall!" And in their minds, justice always involves their vindication as being right and life, from the distribution of Power-Ade to the age at which a person can be compensated for mowing the grass must come out perfectly fair, lest the parental unit be accused of injustice. Moreover, since life is inherently unequal, the cry "It's not fair!" has become a relative constant at our house. Thus the similarity to the Brain, who thinks that all would be right with the world, if only he were King over it. My kids really do think that and long for the day "When I am grown up..." so that life will always bend their direction.
On further reflection though, I find the same dynamic at work in most of us. It's an election year, which means we are in the process of choosing which particular megalomaniac we like best, and which world altering vision we find most compatible with our own. Closer to home, we think that if only our vision for our homes, or our churches could be fully enacted, then all would be right and good. The problem is that all of us are like Kramer and George playing Risk in the classic Seinfeld episode: "Two people playing a game of world domination who can't even run their own lives." None of us is really capable of being fair or has any real sense of justice. Instead, what we are really after is a way of regularly tilting life our direction, of taking the world over and remaking it so that it pleases us.
But what's funny in a cartoon or a sitcom is frustrating and sad when I see it in my children and terrifying when given free reign in a government. Indeed, the desire for that kind of power goes back to the Garden and the Serpent's original lie: "You will be like the Most High." For that reason we must put to death the pride within us that drives us to make life bend our way and instead bend the knee to the only One who is truly just, and who set each person in the place He designed, according to his gracious and loving, but not fully "fair," plan and purpose.
I've been pondering Pinky and the Brain lately for a couple reasons. One, we bought the complete 3rd season for our family entertainment on our way to Florida. And two, I have lately been seeing a lot of the Brain in my children. Two of them in particular have developed the attitude of "Let justice be done, though the heavens fall!" And in their minds, justice always involves their vindication as being right and life, from the distribution of Power-Ade to the age at which a person can be compensated for mowing the grass must come out perfectly fair, lest the parental unit be accused of injustice. Moreover, since life is inherently unequal, the cry "It's not fair!" has become a relative constant at our house. Thus the similarity to the Brain, who thinks that all would be right with the world, if only he were King over it. My kids really do think that and long for the day "When I am grown up..." so that life will always bend their direction.
On further reflection though, I find the same dynamic at work in most of us. It's an election year, which means we are in the process of choosing which particular megalomaniac we like best, and which world altering vision we find most compatible with our own. Closer to home, we think that if only our vision for our homes, or our churches could be fully enacted, then all would be right and good. The problem is that all of us are like Kramer and George playing Risk in the classic Seinfeld episode: "Two people playing a game of world domination who can't even run their own lives." None of us is really capable of being fair or has any real sense of justice. Instead, what we are really after is a way of regularly tilting life our direction, of taking the world over and remaking it so that it pleases us.
But what's funny in a cartoon or a sitcom is frustrating and sad when I see it in my children and terrifying when given free reign in a government. Indeed, the desire for that kind of power goes back to the Garden and the Serpent's original lie: "You will be like the Most High." For that reason we must put to death the pride within us that drives us to make life bend our way and instead bend the knee to the only One who is truly just, and who set each person in the place He designed, according to his gracious and loving, but not fully "fair," plan and purpose.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
A Warning for my Reformed Brethren
I'm a reformed pastor. I use the small "r" because I do not find myself fitting comfortably in the capital "R" reformed tradition, since I believe in believer's baptism, pre-tribulational, pre-millennial eschatology, and a future for ethnic Israel as the restored "natural branches" who will return to God after the times of the Gentiles are completed (Rom. 11).
That said, I find a lot to enjoy among my "big R" brethren. I find their commitments to the inerrant Scriptures, the doctrines of grace, and the revelation of Christ in all the Scriptures refreshing in our mushy evangelical world. I love their appreciation for church history and the consequent realization that the Christian life did not begin and will not end with them. I love the emphasis on expository preaching as the way which brings the Scripture to life such that God is allowed to speak old words to new days. I have attended and deeply benefited from their conferences (Together for the Gospel and the Gospel Coalition) and look forward to going again the future for soul refreshment and the encouragement that only comes from the Word of God faithfully preached and the fellowship of the saints.
That said, I am deeply concerned about some of the things I see in the broader Cool Calvinists movement:
That said, I find a lot to enjoy among my "big R" brethren. I find their commitments to the inerrant Scriptures, the doctrines of grace, and the revelation of Christ in all the Scriptures refreshing in our mushy evangelical world. I love their appreciation for church history and the consequent realization that the Christian life did not begin and will not end with them. I love the emphasis on expository preaching as the way which brings the Scripture to life such that God is allowed to speak old words to new days. I have attended and deeply benefited from their conferences (Together for the Gospel and the Gospel Coalition) and look forward to going again the future for soul refreshment and the encouragement that only comes from the Word of God faithfully preached and the fellowship of the saints.
That said, I am deeply concerned about some of the things I see in the broader Cool Calvinists movement:
- The inability to disagree in an irenic way. I see this in everything from John MacArthur's well-publicized theological shiv for those who disagree with him on alcohol use to the commenters on the average theology blog, most of which comments I can no longer read for this very reason. There simply has to be some setting between "not a big deal" and "bury the needle." The sky is not falling nor is someone a hypocrite, a false teacher, or a heretic simply because he or she disagrees with you. This is closely related to #2, which is...
- Pride. We who hold to the doctrines of grace are right about many important things, but it is simply arrogance to assume we are personally correct about them all. We do well to remember that we are not the definition of theologically orthodoxy, nor does disagreement with me (whoever "me" is) equal departure from "the faith once for all delivered to all the saints."
- Exclusion. I never cease to find it odd that while Reformed Charismatics like C.J. Mahaney and Mark Driscoll are welcomed, Reformed Dispensationalists are the treated like the proverbial red-headed stepchild. Chuck Swindoll, Chip Ingram, Tommy Nelson, and others of like mind do not appear anywhere, but James McDonald was a headliner prior to that unfortunate Elephant Room business. Which is weird, to say the least. We shun those who could be reliable friends when we need them and we are limiting the potential unifying effect of what could be a much broader and deeper movement to renew evangelicalism.
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