In the week or weeks ahead I will be posting the following (so I hope you will stay tuned):

Book reviews of a couple of fairly recent reads: The Great Giveaway by Fitch, The Search for God and Guinness by Mansfield and finally Book, Bath, Table and Time by Edie.

I also will be doing a post on Youth Ministry and the place of baptism in our theological and practical approach.

Finally I will be doing a post in the near future on A Prepositional Gospel 2.0.

Here in the east many are bracing for some serious weather - if it is affecting you - be safe and enjoy the “break” as the weather limits your activities. If your team is in the Super Bowl - well enjoy. I am anticipating a great super bowl menu, a shoot out of a game, and a few choice adult beverages.

“Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.” -John Ruskin

Peace!

Thanks to those who were praying for me. The retreat was a great experience - both to lead and join in and participate with everyone. A mix of stillness, laughter, eating, singing, praying, learning, and just being together. In the midst of it I was taken by the slowness. It took much longer than I anticipated to work through some of the issues and passages that I had planned. It really drove home for me - that being with others and genuinely being present with others and THE OTHER - takes time. To love another, takes time. Love often equals time spent with. It reminded me and challenged me - that frankly, I don’t allow enough time to enter into the love of God and others.

It was a good weekend and one that I believe is still “working its way in me.”

That is a good thing.

Two folks from the weekend have posted there thoughts and in one case, summary, as well.

From Ben

From Aaron

Enjoy!

Peace.

This weekend I have the pleasure of leading a group of youth workers from across the Mid-Atlantic on a spiritual retreat. Each time I have approached these times I have moments of great panic followed by deep breathing and a sense of calm - reminding myself - “this isn’t about me.” I don’t know if that makes sense - but it is clear as day for me.

I am leading the weekend focused on developing our attentiveness to the present moment and to becoming more aware of God’s activity around us. In leading this time we will spend considerable time focusing on the “Bethany Trio” found in the Gospel Narratives (Mary, Martha and Lazarus). I have spent the past two months or so living with these passages and have found them to be deep wells of fresh, clean and cool water to quench our soul thirst. Hopefully others will find them helpful, satisfying and, at the least, tangentially connected to the topic of developing our awareness/attentiveness.

So if my name, ugly mug or blog crosses your mind over the next few days - a prayer would be greatly appreciated!

I often beat myself up in approaching these times - but have enough history in leading retreats to recognize this for what it is (pre-retreat jitters). All in all (with the exception of time away from my family) I cherish these opportunities and experiences - and as many of you are aware, walk away gaining far more than I sense I gave.

Peace!

I have probably bored my readers to death with tales and mentions of cutting down trees and stacking firewood - so either ignore the following or endure my foolishness.

The following are lessons I have learned as I have stacked firewood; and when I say stacking firewood - I mean from dropping the tree to covering the finished product (this past weekend included two “marathon” sessions after a week of two or three half-marathon sessions of cleaning up a 120 or so year old white oak that I downed early this year). By the way the lessons are not going to be explicitly applied - glean whatever you glean - this is all about “reader response.”

1. a splitter will reveal any weak points in a log… pressure has a way of pointing out flaws

2. when falling a tree foresight and forward thinking are not optional

3. stacking firewood is not a solo sport

4. good firewood that makes for efficient fuel is often not easy to split

5. if at all possible… read the grain and go with it

6. every piece of wood has a story to tell… a tale of age and location; a tale of hardship and visitors - it is worth taking the time every once in a while to stop and listen

7. from tree standing to firewood stacked - it takes a lot of individual handling!! (more than I care to actually count - sometimes mystery or ignorance really is best)

8. from my wife - don’t short circuit all the handling by carrying multiple pieces - the carrying of each individual log multiple times from place to place helps remove the foreign matter

9. finding a logs niche in the pile is both serendipity and art

any other wood stackers out there? any other lessons learned?

Long ago and far away I had a pc - and I used Logos (which btw I liked), but that was as I said, “long ago….” For at least the last seven years I have been a “mac only” kinda guy. In that time I have grown to miss a program that features biblical study tools, multiple translations, and a powerful search engine.

So I know about Accordance - although have not checked any reviews (any users out there willing to give me their thoughts)…

Any recommendations of other Bible Programs for Mac out there?

Give me some feedback.

Peace.

In early december my site here was hacked up a bit. I have slowly restored some of the underbelly.

I hope to get things back up and running “fairly normally” here in the next couple of days to a week. Well I hope anyway.

Hope some have bore with me… (pun intended).

Peace.

Doug

This week I head, along with a good friend, to the Great White North. I had no idea how much colder it was up there than here in Western PA; man I got to pack the long johns!! I am heading up to host a Spiritual Retreat as a pre-conference option for the Canadian Youth Worker’s Conference. I will also be one of the “Spiritual Directors” during the conference.

I am looking forward to the time. It will be wonderful to get reacquainted with some friends from long ago (my schooling days) and also seeing some of my colleagues and friends that I have the pleasure of serving with through Sonlife/Youthfront.

Well this is sorta a public service announcement letting you know that I don’t know how much I will be posting over the next week - but I will return if it is quiet (kinda depends on the access to wifi in Toronto).

A prayer I have been lifting up in preparation of my time in Canada… (From the late Brother Roger of Taize)

Dear Father,
Like your disciples on the road to Emmaus,

we are so often incapable of seeing
that you,
O Christ, you are our companion on the way.

But, when our eyes are opened,

we realise that you were speaking to us,

even though perhaps we had forgotten you.

Then the sign of our trust in you is that,

in our turn, we try to love,
to forgive with you.

Independent of our doubts or even our faith,
O Christ,
you are always there:
your love burns in our heart of hearts.
Amen.

Have you ever been asked, “What time is it?” Stupid question or maybe I meant it as a rhetorical question. Of course, we have all have been asked, “What time is it?” Lately I have been tempted to respond, “The time is now.” Not to be a “smart-alec” or a “wise guy” but to make a person pause and think.

Round my parts we have traded in the rakes of fall for the shovels of snow fall; and last night as I walked up from the barn crunching the new fallen snow and watching a light flurry in the moon light - well time didn’t matter. It was one of those “time standing still” moments; when the past is forgotten and the future stays distant and now absorbs the whole person (mind, will, emotions and spirit). Unfortunately this is an all to rare experience. We are often so absorbed with “time” (in a chronological sense) that we never enter the now (When is “now,” if we are always responding to the past or preparing for the future?).

During one of my earliest New Testament Greek lessons I discovered the two primary Greek words that convey the idea for time: Chronos and Kairos. The former conveys as you can probably tell the idea of chronological time (which we desire to measure with preciseness with watches and clocks that can click off hours, minutes, seconds and nano seconds); the latter conveys another type of time - time as opportunity.

Kairos, is the “fullness of time,” time beyond deadlines and “time is money” embracing instead each moment as an opportunity to enter into NOW. Now is where we can be. Now is where we are present to God’s activity; the words of another; the beauty or tragedy of the created order and where we live “to the full” (in our senses, our divinely created purpose and to our potential as human). It has been observed that Heaven will be an “eternal now.”

My desire is to be able to enter more fully in to the time that is now. For it is only in the present that one can be (in the past I was and in the future I may be…).

I am sure this is making the rounds out there - but honestly haven’t seen it except here. I imagine this prayer penned by Shane Claiborne is one he imagined President-elect Obama reciting. It is a prayer I resonate with - and maybe you will too.

I will join in praying:

God of Abraham, Miriam, Hannah, Rizpah, and David…
God of Elijah, Amos, Ruth, Isaiah, Deborah…
God of Mary, John the Baptizer, Peter, Paul, Philemon and Onesimus…
God of Anthony, Ambrose, Dirk Willems, Teresa of Avila, and Francis of
Assisi,
God of Dorothy Day, Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, William
Wilberforce, and Oscar Romero
and God of love, grace, and hope…

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

It is that time of year, Fall. Yeah, lots of stuff falling. Which means someone better pick it up, eh? Yesterday my bride and I spent a good while raking and hauling leaves. It provided a bit of time to think about the process and some of my past failures in the maintaining of my yard. In early October I am often heard saying, “Man, I love this time of year! The colors are so vibrant and beautiful. It is a great time to be alive.”

In early November, “Man, these leaves are such a drag.”

I have learned a lesson though - if you fail to rake the leaves you are going to hate your yard come Spring and if you continue to neglect it - you are going to have no grass and be knee deep in mud when the rain comes! My first home we rented had a beautiful back yard - but I failed to clean up the needles and leafs and just a year later that “beautiful yard” was a patch of old leaves, thatch and dirt. The command to “have dominion on the Earth” is an invitation to join with the Creator in nurturing and maintaining the wonder and beauty of our world.

Raking leaves and picking up the stuff that falls is hard work that we feel the next day; but being able to continue to enjoy beauty and order comes at a cost (month by month and year by year consistent maintenance). Make it fun though - you got to jump in at least one of those piles of leaves!!

I often say my “leaf-raking” prayer at this time of year as I clear my yard of leaves inviting God to do the same in me. I pray, “More of You, less of me.”