Further down the road

The journey has continued... I know it has been a while since my last post.  I have not only accepted a new job, but I am in the process of transitioning my life down to Virginia.

For my first post back, I thought the best way to break myself back into the swing of things would be with a book.  The World That Was, is a small book about a boy.  It doesn't explain how he grew up or who he became, it only gives us a few snapshots of his early life.  It helps us see some of the things he cared about and how much his father cared for him.  The family and ultimately, the culture valued industry and ingenuity.  Idleness was looked down upon and this small boy did not want to be thought of as idle.  He was in reality a very thoughtful boy.  He said he could type trees by the taste of the end of the leaf.  He would spend hours observing, reading and pursuing the life he thought he was made for.  One of the passages that stuck out to me was, "There was so much to think about that it was hard to get started".  In a time when driving still meant using a horse, I was struck by this sentence.  The thinking he was talking about was meaningful contemplation.  He wasn't filling his life with fiction or waste.  I wonder what keeps us from getting started today.  I find it difficult to imagine we are held back because of the worth wild opportunity we have been filling our life with.

It is good to be back... until next time.  Perhaps I will have to read another book and find something else to talk about.  Or perhaps I will share something about Virginia.  It is hot.

Wow!

One of the great things about being a parent is when your children do something you didn't know they could and it makes you think or say, wow!! Sometimes these are very positive or at least non-life threatening moments. First words, folding themselves like they are folded in half twice, when they actually say please and thank you, or even when they jump off of the couch head first and some how don't kill themselves. Today was a good day for a wow moment. Michelle was taking Hannah and Nathaniel to the doctor so I had Emma and Samuel. Two kids, no problem, easy after having four for over a year. I put Samuel down for a nap and come back up the hallway and turn the corner past the living room and into the kitchen, then I see Emma standing in the middle of the kitchen with an empty egg carton. This isn't entirely odd. We compost egg cartons and occasionally have one sitting on the counter waiting to be taken out. There weren't any eggs on the kitchen floor and the refrigerator was closed, however, there was also an egg carton on the counter waiting to be taken out. It is very unusual for us to have more than one egg carton waiting to the thrown on the compost at a time. This made me wonder were it came from and more importantly, where were the eggs? Fortunately, Emma didn't think see had done anything wrong so she was more than happy to show me were they were. In fact, I had walked right past them on my way into the kitchen. They were each individually cracked open on to the living room carpet. What was once a nice throw rug now looked like a large griddle. She looked up at me with a big smile and I just had to say, wow. Followed by, I wonder how I am going to clean that up.

Daniel: kingdom to kingdom, meeting God in exile

It has been my practice to post a summary or short thought about my current Sunday school lesson. We are currently going through the book of Daniel and I have decided this would be worth the time to write some thoughts.

Daniel is one of those books I usually neglect because of familiarity and difficulty. I decided to go through it at church because of class interest and because of its practical nature. There are some aspects of this book that can be difficult and I will address some of those sections. Some I will deal with on Sunday morning and not here. Others I may mention and then sidestep because I am not sure how to deal with them.

This is a place I want to welcome questions and discussion about all sections. I have often found we get to a much fuller understanding of the scripture when it is studied in community. Even if there is something I have skipped over here, you are more than welcome to present it and we can discuss.

I will sight the chapter and verse of the section in question. I will also use the page and line number for those of you who are using a manuscript. If you are not using a manuscript and would like to just let me know. I now invite you to look with me at the first section we studied in Daniel.

Section 1: Page 1.1-1.10 or Chapter 1:1-1:4 Introduction

One of the dominant themes in the first half of the book of Daniel has to do with the arrogance of Nebuchadnezzar (Neb.). Neb. had some reason to be so arrogant and this first passage lets us know why.

Daniel opens with a brief description of the victory Babylon had over the king of Judah, the God of the Hebrews and the people of the land. When we talk here about Judah we are speaking about the southern kingdom and really the only kingdom left at this point in history. The northern kingdom, Israel, whose capital was Samaria, fell to the Assyrians earlier in history. Now, Judah, whose capital is Jerusalem, is being conquered by the the next great empire, the Babylonians. These first 10 lines or 4 verses talk about the king, the vessels and those carried away. I would summarize this section by saying the king was rendered impotent, God was seemingly shown to be powerless, the people were left at the mercy of a pagan king and Neb. was the conquering king. This is why the arrogance may have been warranted. He was well on his way to ruling one of the most powerful empires of the day. What he didn't plan and what would later cause him great headaches, fear and frustration was that the God of the Hebrews had planned this time to make his people a blessing to the nations. The vessels may have been taken and God may have looked powerless but, in fact, his purposes and care for all nations was about to be lived out in the lives of four companions, who feared God more than the powerful king Neb.

Hair Cut

I know there are only a few people who actually follow this blog and I am not very good about keeping it up to date, but I was wondering if I should get my hair cut. Michelle seems to think it would be helpful if I want people to take me seriously as I get older. I have had long hair since I was about 12 and have grown quite attached to it. I am not sure how thick it is anymore or what types of styles are current. I am not even sure were I would go to get my hair cut. I haven't had someone else cut in about 20 years ago. At the time my hair was quite short. I nearly could have used a bar of soap to wash it. Well, if there are any thought out there let me know.

Basements

When Michelle and I moved up here, we had an apartment with a wet dungeon for a basement. There was no reason to ever go down there, there was no reason you would want to go down there. If it wasn't for a washer and dryer at the bottom of the steps we never would have. It would snow in the winter and we would get water down there. It would rain in the spring and we would get water down there. It could be a hot summer day and there would still be water pooling in the basement. We didn't mind, we didn't care, after all it was down there were we hardly ever went. The only creature who cared even a little were the spiders I think. There were plenty of those. They stayed down there for the most part and caught what ever came in through the cracks and openings in the mortar.

It has been several years since we left that old apartment for our house. The basement of which could not be more different. Mostly finished, with wood paneling and rainbow shag carpeting. I get the feeling I am in "that 70s show". It is also a place we put a fair amount of our stuff. Most of which either has to do with my office or is neatly boxed up children's clothing. The one constant is water. I was so happy to see it raining this morning and the snow melting that I almost forgot the basement leaks. Nothing a good old wet dry vac can't handle, but not what I had planned for the day.

As I told my mother about my wet basement she remembered how her mothers house would get so much water pooling in the back yard that the ducks from the nearby lakes got confused and would hang out in the backyard until the water all filtered into the ground or evaporated back into the air. I am quite glad I do not have ducks and especially geese congregating in my basement enjoying the cool water. Hannah, on the other hand, would love to pet a duck or two.

The pool is my friend

Yesterday, I got back into the pool. It has been years since I have tried to swim 500 yards and I felt it. It took me almost 20 minutes to accomplish, what used to serve as an eight minute or less, warm up. I used to think the pool was my friend, but yesterday it felt like my enemy. I felt good the first few laps, but that feeling quickly fell away and I felt very tight and sore. What is it about taking 10 or so years off of exercise that destroys you muscles so thoroughly? Perhaps it is the taking off part. I think it will be a miracle if I can get back into shape, but I am going to give it a shot. Today should feel just as bad if not worse than yesterday and I am ready for it. After all, the pool is my friend.

When Life Gives You Pumpkins...make pie!!

I am not sure how long I have seen pumpkins go to waste. They seem to be good for one night and then simply discarded. One of the joys of having little children is they are more than happy with a little pumpkin. The kind you don't actually carve. We used markers and created faces on our little pumpkins and then all of a sudden they disappeared from the front porch and we were making pumpkin pie. No one ever suspected a thing. And we had what felt like hours of fun making crust and pumpkin goo. It was a night to remember and probably will as we find pumpkin around the kitchen for the next few weeks.