Monday, July 31, 2006

... whether I should have started playing golf earlier...

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_207104427.html

Check this two year old out! He’s from Denver. I might ask for swing tips from him and then I can help with his potty training.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

... about Truth (can we handle it?)

Another good quote from Buechner today about truth.

He writes: When Jesus says that he comes to bear witness to the truth, Pilate asks, "What is truth?" (John 18:38). Contrary to the traditional view that his question is cynical, it is possible that he asks it with a lump in his throat. Instead of Truth, Pilate has only expedience. His decision to throw Jesus to the wolves is expedient. Pilate views humankind as alone in the universe with nothing but its own courage and ingenuity to see it through. That is enough to choke up anybody.

Pilate asks What is Truth? and for years there have been politicians, scientists, theologians, philosophers, poets, and so on to tell him. The sound they make is like the sound of crickets chirping.

Jesus doesn't answer Pilate's question. He just stands there. Stands, and stands there.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

... about Doubt, Belief, Trust...

Some quotes today from Wishful Thinking: A Seekers ABC by Frederick Buechner. It is on a section called "Doubt". I like this because he pulls no punches. He lets us have it, both barrels. But isn’t that what being in the throes of doubt feels like? Like you’re being beaten up, spiritually, emotionally, mentally… Sometimes in the middle of all that it is helpful to know that you're not going crazy, that it is OK. Sometimes when we are finally through all of that it is helpful to know someone else has been through it, someone else has trusted God for deliverance. Enjoy.

… if you don’t have any doubts, you are either kidding yourself or you are asleep. Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.

There are only two principal kinds of doubt, one of the head and the other of the stomach. In my head there is almost nothing I can’t doubt when the fit is upon me – the divinity of Christ, the significance of the church, the existence of God. But even when I am at my most skeptical, I go on with my life as though nothing untoward has happened.

I have never experienced stomach doubt, but I think Jesus did. When he cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me!” I don’t think he was raising a theological issue any more than he was quoting the 22nd Psalm. I think he was looking into the abyss itself and found there a darkness that spiritually, viscerally, totally engulfed him.

When our faith is strongest, we believe with our hearts as well as our heads, but only at a few rare moments, I think, do we feel in our stomachs what it must be like to be engulfed by light.

Monday, July 24, 2006

... is leaning back over a cliff dangerous?

I did this today:

I was dropping off our youth group at the trailhead for Wilderness Trek near Fairplay Colorado (They are at this moment at their "Low" camp tomorrow heading for "High" camp on their way up Mt Ptarmigan -two ten mile hikes. These kids are amazing!).

Anyway, back to rappelling. Since I was driver-guy, they asked if I was going to do it and of course I said yes. It's an amazing feeling. To just lean back over a 100 foot cliff is not natural. Your brain is saying nope, not going to do it. You basically have to do some self-talk convincing and just lean back. It really speaks volumes about trust. Trust in others (the folk setting up the lines, and the one holding your safety rope!), trust in equipment... It was just a lot of fun. Our youth group at Eastside are veterans of Trek. We only had three newbies and they did great!

I didn't count myself in the group of newbies even though the last time I rappelled it was off a dorm rooftop 22 years ago at an institution that shall remain nameless lest someone should get ideas about doing it there! Great fun! Pray for our kids on the trail! It's a great time of working together and being together for them.

Have a great day "leaning back" and serving in God's kingdom!

Friday, July 21, 2006

... and listening to good music


I am listening to a CD right now by two Christian artists. Shane Barnard & Shane Everett (Shane & Shane) are not only great vocalists but they can write incredibly powerful worship songs. You can check out some of their stuff here. I’m always looking for good uplifting music. Something that will direct my sometimes scattered thoughts back to the Creator. Here’s a sample of Shane & Shane’s lyrics from one of my faves:


be near by shane barnard
You are all
big and small
beautifuland wonderful
to trust in grace through faith
but i'm asking to taste...

for dark is light to You
depths are height to You
far is near
but Lord,
i need to hear from You

be near, oh God
be near, oh God of us
Your nearness is to us our good
be near, oh God
be near, oh God of us
Your nearness is to us our good,
our good

Your fullness is mine
revelation divine
but, o, to taste
to know much more
than a page
to feel Your embrace...

for dark is light to You
the depths are height to You
far is near,
but Lord
i need to hear from You

be near, oh God
be near, oh God of us
Your nearness is to us our good
be near, oh God
be near, oh God of us
Your nearness is to us our good,
our good

Thursday, July 20, 2006

... more about golf than war in Palestine. Is that OK?

We’re back to some golf quotes from various sources today, connecting them to spiritual truths. With all of the violence going on in Palestine these days, nuclear weapons in Iran, frustration building in other areas of the world, I thought it would be good to have a lighter post today. Also, the British Open is underway today.

"There is a force in the universe that makes things happen...and all you have to do is get in touch with it. Stop thinking...let things happen...and Be the Ball." Ty Webb (Chevy Chase), Caddyshack

  • Ty may be onto something here. He certainly was with his unorthodox style for playing golf (especially putting – nananana, vavavava). Get in touch with God and be the church.

"Papa, trust your swing." Note written by ten year old Qass Singh pinned to Vijay Singh's golf bag during the 2000 US Masters (which Singh won).

  • I don’t know about you, but one of the hardest lessons for me in my early walk with God was learning how to trust him. Trust who he said he was; what he said he would do.

"The fundamental problem with golf is that every so often, no matter how lacking you may be in the essential virtues required of a steady player, the odds are that one day you will hit the ball straight, hard, and out of sight. This is the essential frustration of this excruciating sport. For when you've done it once, you make the fundamental error of asking yourself why you can't do this all the time. The answer to this question is simple: the first time was a fluke." -Colin Bowles

  • Nothing big and significant here, I just like the quote because that’s golf. The good shots bring you back.

Have a great day!

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

... How I'm doing in the following Jesus category...

I have been attracted to readings about following Christ lately. About discipleship. What that means. If I truly follow Jesus how do I live differently? What kinds of things did Jesus do that he calls us to do? In reading about this I have found out amazing things and simple things. Amazing things like the quotes below from Bonhoeffer. Simple things like the fact that for hundreds of years Christ-followers did their following without having scripture as their guide. Oh yes they may have heard it read or, if they were privileged enough would have some sort of access to a copy of the Bible. But for the most part they followed him without having to read HOW to follow him. How did they do that? How did they act as disciples without everyone having a copy (or 18 like I have)? Enjoy the readings on discipleship:

The call goes forth, and is at once followed by the response of obedience. …. It displays not the slightest interest in the psychological reason for a man’s religious decisions. And why? For the simple reason that the cause behind the immediate following of call by response is Jesus Christ Himself.

Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ. It remains an abstract idea, a myth which has a place for the Fatherhood of God, but omits Christ as the living Son. … There is trust in God, but no following of Christ.

He wants to follow, but feels obliged to insist on his own terms to the level of human understanding. The disciple places himself at the Master’s disposal, but at the same time retains the right to dictate his own terms. But then discipleship is no longer discipleship, but a program of our own to be arranged to suit ourselves, and to be judged in accordance with the standards of rational ethic.

If we would follow Jesus we must take certain definite steps. The first step, which follows the call, cuts the disciple off from his previous existence. … The first step places the disciple in the situation where faith is possible. If he refuses to follow and stays behind, he does not learn how to believe.

Monday, July 17, 2006

... and thinking about Discipleship thanks to Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I am currently reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's, The Cost of Discipleship. I am reading it again after about 20 years when I had to read it for college. It’s different this time. It’s amazing how time, maturity, and circumstances can lead one to reading a book differently. I think scripture can be like that. Maybe that’s why the Hebrew writer said it was living and active. I thought I would post some Bonhoeffer quotes this week to spur a discussion. He's worth quoting when you read about his life. These quotes, especially this first one, are not for the faint-hearted Christian. They grab you, shake you, and disturb you! Here’s my favorite one for starters:

“The cross is laid on every Christian. It begins with the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with His death -- we give over our lives to death. Since this happens at the beginning of the Christian life, the cross can never be merely a tragic ending to an otherwise happy religious life. When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow Him, or it may be a death like Luther's, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time -- death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at His call. That is why the rich young man was so loath to follow Jesus, for the cost of his following was the death of his will. In fact, every command of Jesus is a call to die, with all our affections and lusts. But we do not want to die, and therefore Jesus Christ and His call are necessarily our death and our life.”

I wonder what our lives would be like if we lived every day to die. If every decision was made like a disciple that realized he was dead to Christ and alive at the same time. Hmmm…

Thursday, July 13, 2006

... about life and golf.

(Back into the daily blog habit. Trying to be anyway. Sorry for the absences. I'm just not that disciplined to blog on my vacation. Oh well.)

Wisdom comes from all sorts of places. I like to learn things as I go. Sometimes learning and wisdom comes from the golf course. Now, before you scoff and say something under your breath about how I am just looking for any opportunity to play, hear me out. Consider these gems from one of the games teaching gurus, Harvey Penick. These are excerpts taken from one of his books, The Little Red Book. After each one I will attempt to make a point about life; about our lives lived for God.

“The golf swing is one swing but is made up of little things all working together.”


  • This sounds an awful lot like Ephesians 4:16 or 1 Cor. 12; one thing – church - made up of a lot of parts, as Paul says, “… as each part does its work.”


“The important question is not how good your good shots are – it’s how bad your bad ones are?

  • Sometimes our bad mistakes can cost us far more than good things done can help us. We cannot just balance them item for item, the good and the bad. Sometime the bad are really bad. A one step forward and two steps back sort of idea.

“Be honest with yourself. What you find out in six months of practice, your pro can tell you in five minutes.”
  • It’s always a good thing to humble ourselves and admit we need help. That can involve anything from asking for directions to needing help with a golf swing to owning up to a depression problem. “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Proverbs 3:34

Any more golf/life wisdom out there?

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

... What is the Kingdom of God?


(Sorry for the absence in blogging (my longest since starting this thing). Many things happening, long weekend, we’re going on vacation in a few days, so maybe a few posts this week.)

In part of N.T. Wright’s new book, Simply Christian, he challenges his readers to more fully explore what the church is here for. He goes on to explain:

“The point of following Jesus isn’t simply so that we can be sure of going to a better place than this after we die. Our future beyond death is enormously important, but the nature of the Christian hope is such that it plays back into the present life. We’re called, here and now, to be instruments of God’s new creation, the world-put-to-rights which has already been launched in Jesus and of which Jesus’ followers are supposed to be not simply beneficiaries but also agents. This provides a new way of coming at various topics, not least prayer and Christian behavior.”

What do you think? Some of this is relatively new to me, especially the part where we have an obligation to affect the world around us here; now. We’re not in this to save ourselves but to change the world for Christ, because of Christ. The kingdom is a whole lot more than the place we reside after we die. I believe Jesus said to everyone around him, answering the Pharisees question about when the kingdom would come, that the kingdom of God was “within them” or “among them”. It is here; it is now. What do you think?