friday afternoon time wasters...

after unbearably long delay, from pla ya 2 pra ya finally arrived at lifeway's distribution center!

however, in their haste to ship this fine product the publisher failed to provide a full and adequate description. if you are a former pla ya who by god's grace has been turned in2 a pra ya, please hook up your favorite christian store with a fine lookin' description. come on, y'all, use those mad keyboard skillz in the service of our lord jesus christ!

et tu? brute?

so there i am, enjoying a relaxing evening with the pixie. run completed, a soft rain falling outside, relatively subdued bitch at my feet and academy award winner in the dvd player. then, right in the midst of my middle class bliss, my ass explodes.

she food poisoned me. photographic evidence to follow...

musing...

"our world has more and more need of 'intermediate communities -- places where young people can stay and find certain inner freedom before they make their (vocational) decision" (vanier, community and growth, pg. 61-62).

"it is in these intermediate communities where they find also meaningful work, that they will be able to shed some of the fears that weigh them down and prevent them from discovering their deep selves. it is only when they discover that they are loved by God and by others, and that they can do beautiful things for others, that they begin to get in touch with what is deepest in them" (ibid, 62).

"for a community to play this 'intermediate' role, it must have a core of people who are really rooted there" (ibid).

while talking with jon wise yesterday i made a comment about our community's upcoming conversion to sinners and saints 3.0. although our church is only two and a half years old, we have already had two distinct groups of people who have journeyed with us, moved on to other locales (where a number of them have done spectacular Kingdom work) and have been quickly replaced. with the kuzmic's dispersion on the immediate horizon and the blessed introduction of the townsends and leanne to our community, we find ourselves in the midst of transition yet again.

however, this time i do not feel the need to brace for the change nor am i dreading this upcoming conversion. although i am not looking forward to sending the kuzmic's (and with them our entire "children's ministry") out to southern california, i am beginning to realize that this is the nature of our community. at this point in our development sinners and saints attracts primarily young adults who are in the process of discovering who they are, being equipped for the work they are being called to do and orienting themselves to God's vocational call upon their lives. as a community we can either bemoan the loss and regular transition that characterizes our ministry or we can welcome the wayfarers that the Spirit leads to our door; provide a warm, yet challenging environment in which they can continue to become the people God has called them to be; and, eventually, send them out to be incarnations of the gospel and Christ's compassion to the ends of the earth.

sinners and saints is undoubtedly one of the intermediate communities that vanier is talking about. i pray that we will effectively discern the nature of our community, continue to develop and deepen our core of people who are committed to this work and effectively fulfill our little role in God's gracious and ever expanding Kingdom.

brushback pitches

last night, while watching the cardinals pick apart the red sox one single at a time, a few semi-coherent baseball thoughts flitted through my mind. since such thoughts issued forth from a quarter of a bottle of wine fog i planned to keep them to myself, but, since michael of tennessee asked for it, here they are.

• after the cardinals game i flipped over to the dodgers/tigers game and was caught off guard by the quality of vin scully's commentary. vin has been with the dodgers since brooklyn, understands the visible nuances of the game like few others and, since he calls the game by himself, avoids the mind numbing banter that characterizes most broadcasting pairs. is there any reason, other than possible age discrimination, that fox chose mccarver/buck to anchor their national broadcasts? is there a more competent broadcaster in the game than scully? can we convince congress to provide an exception to the cloning legislation so that we can produce about 29 replicas of scully? i need answers...


• to those few thousand, probably imported, idiots who booed renteria at the start of the cardinals game last night: piss off. if we had overpaid renteria we would likely be without the mulder/grudzilanek/eckstein trifecta that has paid such great dividends. show the man some frickin' respect.


• to pastor rick: they are still not as good as they seem, but they are getting stronger. if hampton's injury persists and the marlins continue to struggle we may be able to hoist another banner at busch.


• i'm not the prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but i will make this prediction. suppan will get shellacked tonight and carpenter will win the rubber game on wednesday.


• that last part reminds me of my favorite topps trivia question ever: "How long is the pitcher's rubber? 24 inches." from what i heard, the writer of that question was immediately fired by topps. however, he eventually righted himself by penning a certain, highly acclaimed screen play for paul thomas anderson.


• although i hate to admit it, derek lee deserves to start the all-star game at 1st base. pujols will get the votes, but lee deserves the start. how's that for (painful) objectivity?


• did the last minute, pre-draft signings of weaver and drew signal the beginning of the end for boras? i sure hope so.


• looks like i was wrong about the As and the White Sox. sue me.


• concerning the DL....so sorry to hear about b. roberts and c. barmes and still savoring the announcements about prior and j. gonzalez.


• last night the red sox announcers were whining about the unfair advantage national league teams have when playing interleague games in their own park. save it. the american league and players association can celebrate the lady's aide all they want, but the senior league will continue to eschew it.


• does anyone care that a-rod is utilizing psychotherapy to help him come to grips with his latent homosexuality? i didn't think so.


• funniest announcer bio i've heard thus far: last night scully mentioned that j. bonderman was a member of 4-H during childhood. i wonder if bonderman's widely reported illiteracy reflects poorly on the organization.

okay, i feel kind of bad about the last comment, but probably not bad enough to delete it. perhaps pangs of conscience will strike later. it's not as heartless as my plans for u.s. population reduction or anything...

as always, i welcome your thoughts and opinions. mike of tennessee, i hope this makes you happy.

overheard: excerpts from jean vanier's community and growth

• "envy is one of the plagues that destroys community. it comes from people’s ignorance of, or lack of belief in, their own gifts. if we were confident in our own gift, we would not envy that of others."


• "a community is only truly a body when the majority of its members is making the transition from 'the community for myself' to 'myself for the community,' when each person's heart is opening to all the others, without any exception. this is the movement from egotism to love, from death to resurrection; it is the Easter, a passage, a passover of the Lord. it is also the passing from a land of slavery to a promised land, the land of inner freedom."


• "to love, we must die continually to our own ideas, our own susceptibilities and our own comfort. the path of love is woven of sacrifice."


• a community is not simply a group of people who live together and love each other. it is a place of resurrection, a current of life: one heart, one soul, one spirit."