Snow Play

At work today a co-worker asked if it snows tonight was I going to take Son out to play and make snow angels (his is an angel you know). My immediate response was "Yea, Sure can't wait" but at the same time inside I was thinking "This is a great idea and a very wet and cold one."

****

Because I am an older parent I am afraid that I will not give my Son all those energetic father/son activities. I have never been a person who could not wait to be cold and wet, as a child or a young adult. I have enjoyed sledding even as a child and skiing as an adult. The problem is that my "Been there - Done that" threshold is quit low. Two hours of skiing a day is about the right amount of time and I am worried 10 minutes in the snow with Son will be plenty.

******

I want Son to be active and enjoy all that the outdoors has to offer. He thrown his biggest fits when we try to bring him inside after he has been playing in the yard. It does not matter if it has been 10 minutes or 10 hours. This is a very, very good thing.

********

The problem is my selfish human core wants to be inside.

**********

Well it's starting to snow. I need to go and get a snow saucer and snow pants for Son. Once I get out there with Son and see the joy on his face I will enjoy myself --I really will.

************

No, I really will.

**************

I promise!

The Dreaded Season of Yart

I have been called a curmudgeon, and a cynic but as a pastor it is hard not to be this time a year. Last night as Wife and I were on the way to weight watcher to begin (again) the program, we drove past the epitome of Xmas "yart," that is my term for yard art. I have to call it Xmas "yart" because I can not attach Christ's name to it.

It was a house that had a flock of different and distinct lighted blow up decorations. There was a NOEL, a Santa, what looked to be a penguin, a couple of snow globes, the rest was a blur. On our way home, we were one hour late for the last meeting, we drove by to count. There were 9 of them! Wife made the comment that if you put them together they would be bigger than the house they were stationed around.

In general I have no problem with decorations for the Christmas holiday. It is important to express the joy of the season and share that joy with friends and strangers. I do not mind purely secular or purely religious themes.

What does bother me is mixing the two. The best example of this phenomenon I can think of is one house that has the "Statue of Liberty" filling the roll of the angel watching over the manger. This presentation also has Hughie Louie and Dewy as the three kings. I have been afraid to look to see who or what is filling in for Jesus. The other mixed message I have observed in a number of places is of a Santa and sleight with a lighted sign proclaiming "Jesus is the Reason for the Season." Which infers that God is the chubby guy in the red suit.

We do decorate for the holidays. We have wreath on the door, lights on the bushes, a Christmas tree and maybe this year we will put the icicle lights left by the previous owner. I have found more Christmas spirit since Son has been with us but I want to focus on Christmas, the anticipation of Christ and the gift of life.

Happy Hallothanksmas.

Saturday Afternoon Semi-Sunshine

While visiting Laughing Pastor family for the holidays I got to experience a quintessential Texas event. I went to a high school football playoff game. Laughing Son was on the JV team this year and was elevated to the varsity team after the JV season ended. He has gotten to suit up for games before but had only a very slight chance to play. But since his team was playing one of the traditional power teams of Texas in this game there was a chance they would get blown out and he might get to play as the other team mopped up.

Not only was this playoff game being played in Texas but is was to be played in a professional football stadium. There was good crowd for his game but nothing like the 50,000 fans that came the day before, but still there had to be at least 10,000 present.

When we got there the game before ours (yes I was an obsessive fan I claimed ownership as if I was going to run onto the field) was a scoring match between two passing teams. It was still the third quarter when we got there. As we sat in the end zone, not knowing which side "Our" team was going to be on, I got a chance to observe this phenomenon with a little distance. The first thing I saw was the Worst team mascot I had ever witnessed and that is saying a lot, In high school we played a team that had a giant size Cuppie Doll as a mascot.

This thing was supposed to be an Bird but it look like Barny Rubble! It did not walk or run it kind of weebled. This running Bird Rubble had to run the length of the field every time it's team scored, and they scored a number of times, the team had 8 touchdowns in the game. That had to be one tired mascot by the end. I watched transfixed each time they scored as it run down the field making mental calculation determining how far it was going roll if it fell over. Would it roll the rest of the way down the field? If it falls over will it take out the flag bearer? Where are it's arms?

This was my first high school football game since my senior year in high school when my trumpet got bent while I was taken out by receiver trying to catch a pass at the end of the first half of the final game (No playoffs for my alma mater.) I enjoyed this one a whole lot more and I did not look a fool laying on the ground with my three foot high royal blue hat flying to the fifth or sixth rank of the band.

It was a good game. They did not get blown out. In fact they won on a field goal with no time left on the clock, by a freshman kicker. Who ran to the center of the professional football field to celebrate. I could tell even from fifteen rows back that he was living the dream of most young men who play sports. He made the wining play as time ran out, he was a football hero.

Needless to say Laughing Son did not get to play but he reassured me that next year he would be starting. Maybe next year he can make the sack that stops the other team from scoring on the final play.

Flying with the Family

This holiday I have had a first time experience. We traveled by air for the first as a family. Son had flown before but it was with Grandma to visit Wife when she was in the hospital on the coast. As most of you know, one of the benefits of traveling for work, I would say one of the very few, is collecting frequent flier miles and car rental days. We were able to plan this trip far enough ahead of time to take advantage of the miles and days on the same trip (some would say this is evidence that there are still miracles in our time.)

The night before we traveled we spent our time packing, that is after I had to go to a church meeting which was a 90 mile round trip. Since this is the first time flying with a two year old the amount of needed support equipment is incredible. I have seen rock bands with less road equipment.

In the morning, before we left for the airport, I walked into the kitchen and found Wife safety pinning a baggy with contact information to Son's back. If he had been wearing a blue hat and carrying a musket it would appear that he was heading into the civil war battle of the "Wilderness." When I saw this I blurted out something like you have got to be kidding. My thoughts were with that on his back we looked like amateur travelers and that would draw the attention to every pickpocket and thief. I did not want to find myself chasing a thief down the terminal because we look like an easy target. Wife gave me this hurt look and said to the effect her mother had put this information in their pockets as children and that she did not want to lose Son.

After we had gotten the bags checked and were heading to security I discovered a baggage tag taped to Son's back. I decided to not make an issue of the little soldier.

By the time we got to our destination airport after a 3 hour layover at a hub including a maintenance issue with the plane, I had one tired child and frustrated spouse. I just want to get in the rental van and to friends home.

Right know we are getting ready to be comatized by turkey and pumpkin pie. In three days we get to play this trip in reverse. I wonder if for this trip Son will have his name tag on the front of his shirt or in his pocket.

No Just With Jesus

While en route from city A to city B during last week's travel experience. I came across a group of folk praying. They were a group of twenty or so travelers. I often feel a little uncomfortable when I come across groups such as this one because I feel like I am intruding.

You see, my understanding of pray (this not my exhaustive understanding but I would need a lifetime to communicate a full understanding of prayer) to put it too simply is that prayer is how a person or a community attempts to become consciously oriented to God's will.

What prayer is not, is humanity trying to convince God that they have been faithful enough for God to do what they want. It also is not minimizing God's works by minimizing our gratitude to God's mighty acts. For example "Jesus I just want to ..." being self-deprecating in public pray minimizes God creation (the prayer.) Remember God does not make junk. From my point of view it should be "Jesus I want to..." There is no Just with Jesus! Our response to God in our life should be as complete as God gift to us.

All that said. As I paused at the edge of this group in the space between the gate I arrived at and the gate I need to get to, and need I say, without any other route to get there. I was not alone in my blockage I could feel the mixture of frustration, anger and awkwardness (mixed with a little bit of GUILT) in the non-praying travelers surrounding me.

I could tell this group had just gotten off a plane. I could not tell if they were thankful for safe arrival or worried about the next leg of their trip. You see I was trying not to listen, not to intrude in their prayer. While at the same time trying to figure out how to get past them as to not miss my plane.

Here are my tips when praying in airports:

1. Do not block passage ways, your prayer might be interrupted by angry agnostics.
2. Do not remind the bystanders in your pray of a recent plane accidents at the airport and that the if it was God's will the next plane taking off will have the results.
3. Amens do not need to be shouted as to echo in vaulted terminal.

Adjective Free News

As I was watching the morning news today while Son was eating his breakfast the BREAKING News thrust onto the screen. It was so breaking that it was only from two days old (there should be only breaking new if it involves window or bones.) I renewed my pledge that if I ever win a big Lottery I am going to buy a TV station and only allow the news readers (what we call anchor or reporters) one adjective per sentence and require that breaking news has to be real news that is so important that they have not had time to write copy or send a reporter to the scene. Something like the return of Jesus.

This is not a new topic for me just ask Wife. When I travel out of the U.S. I actually enjoy the news and feel I am being informed about what is going on in society that has some real impact on the world. Here at home it often feels like being an unwanted intruder into some poor families tragedy.

I get so angry hearing about the latest murder or fire or car wreck that only keeps our attention until the new one comes along. That is unless it is young and attractive white woman and then we will hear about it over earthquakes and plagues. If this woman is pregnant we might forget that thousands of people are dying in far away places or push corporate corruption to the back pagers of the paper or to a five second blurb just before the teaser to keep us watching the ads.

For the Roman leaders all they needed to do was give their people bread and circuses to keep them distracted and docile. For our society am afraid it is Fast Food and other peoples tragedies (and of course NFL football of which I am a fan.)

My central question for the last few years has been "How do we get individuals to see there is something of greater importance than their own belly buttons?"

O well where is the nearest McDonald's?

The Rest of the Story

Thank goodness there is a spell checker on this here thang.

I want to begin by getting one thing out of my craw before I move on to other topics. I would like to take credit for the phrase "famine resistant"I can produce an 1995 church newsletter to column to prove it. That is all I have to say about that.

I have hesitated to have a blog because of my poor writing skill and because paradoxically I spend most of my days at the computer writing reports, revising manuals and emailing more people in to many different countries. But, last night as WIFE looked across the room and asked in a hurt, pout infused voice with a twinkly in her eye, why I would not let her set up a blog for me, she had done for all her friends. So, I gave in.

Part of me has wanted to do this for a while because, as anyone who knows me can tell you, that for an introvert I like to pontificate on just about any topic. Recent topics of my ire has be the unreality of "reality TV," the idolatry of the self in the U.S. (can blogging be adding to this?) and trying to comprehending the purpose of ear hair.

Finally, I would would like to thank all of you who have supported WIFE through her health issues this pass year and to ask you to remind her to check her blood pressure, on a regular basis, to reinforce my request.

Guten Tag, Bonjour

I travel the world.

I preach on Sundays.

I've been thinking of doing this for awhile, but I didn't want to copy Wife, who takes Blogger way, way, way too seriously (even though she's very, very, very popular).

This may well become a political blog.

Greetings.