Who names their kid Oswald?

This is good for me. Just seems like I'm continually being stripped of what I think is important.

Salvation is not merely deliverance from sin, nor the experience of personal holiness; the salvation of God is deliverance out of self entirely into union with Himself. My experimental knowledge of salvation will be along the line of deliverance from sin and of personal holiness; but salvation means that the Spirit of God has brought me into touch with God's personality, and I am thrilled with something infinitely greater than myself, I am caught up into the abandonment of God.

To say that we are called to preach holiness or sanctification, is to get into a side eddy. We are called to proclaim Jesus Christ. The fact that He saves from sin and makes us holy is part of the effect of the wonderful abandonment of God.

Abandonment never produces the consciousness of its own effort, because the whole life is taken up with the One to Whom we abandon. Beware of talking about abandonment if you know nothing about it, and you will never know anything about it until you have realized that John 3:16 means that God gave Himself absolutely. In our abandonment we give ourselves over to God just as God gave Himself for us, without any calculation. The consequence of abandonment never enters into our outlook because our life is taken up with Him.

I'm excited about getting "caught up into the abandonment of God" and increasingly embracing Him. The pressure seems to be off me and on Him.

So bring it.

favorite word so far this year

Who keeps track of their favorite word in any given year? I do.
I don't remember them from year to year, but I have a favorite so far this year.

makesenseness

And it's been leading since January.

Why can't we say it more often?

Boop.

Yeah, that Post article again

I am still amazed by the Washington Post article. So many good and eye popping things straight from the author. As a reminder, Joshua Bell, one of the world's most famous violinists, played in a subway station in our nation's capital for 45 minutes going completely unrecognized save one person.

One biographically intriguing fact about Bell is that he got his first music lessons when he was a 4-year-old in Bloomington, Ind. His parents, both psychologists, decided formal training might be a good idea after they saw that their son had strung rubber bands across his dresser drawers and was replicating classical tunes by ear, moving drawers in and out to vary the pitch.

This I would like to have seen.

For many of us, the explosion in technology has perversely limited, not expanded, our exposure to new experiences. Increasingly, we get our news from sources that think as we already do. And with iPods, we hear what we already know; we program our own playlists.

Hmmm.

After "Chaconne," it is Franz Schubert's "Ave Maria," which surprised some music critics when it debuted in 1825: Schubert seldom showed religious feeling in his compositions, yet "Ave Maria" is a breathtaking work of adoration of the Virgin Mary. What was with the sudden piety? Schubert dryly answered: "I think this is due to the fact that I never forced devotion in myself and never compose hymns or prayers of that kind unless it overcomes me unawares; but then it is usually the right and true devotion."

What does my "devotion" look like? Crossroads every Sunday? And Wednesday when offered?

The poet Billy Collins once laughingly observed that all babies are born with a knowledge of poetry, because the lub-dub of the mother's heart is in iambic meter. Then, Collins said, life slowly starts to choke the poetry out of us. It may be true with music, too.

I've felt that choking but have recently been able to breathe more easily. It takes work though. Or maybe silence. I'm reminded of Isaiah 30:15, This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: "In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it."

"When you play for ticket-holders," Bell explains, "you are already validated. I have no sense that I need to be accepted. I'm already accepted. Here, there was this thought: What if they don't like me? What if they resent my presence . . ."

What if we substitute "ticket-holders" for "God"? But I often feel like I am in the subway station. "What if they don't like me? What if they resent my presence . . ."

I like the idea of this ticket-holder. Freeing.

I'd like to talk like this

This is from one of wife's relatives. And despite that, it's really good. He has pages of quotes and daily happenings with his 2 year old.

I'd really love my relationship with Father to sound more like this.

Later, when I was headed out the door, Carl called after me. "Thank you for giving me food, Daddy." He had already told me that he loved me, and he just wanted to say it again, differently.

More on Love

Greg Boyd's blog has gradually made its way into my regular diet of reads. I think there's some good stuff for me and it's helpful in that he questions some of the packs I carry. Especially around politics and government. I really like this particular post, "God's Motherly Affection," which is about neither politics or government.

Taken

I'm not exactly sure why I decided to start doing this, but not infrequently I take my wedding band off at night and set it on my dresser. What I've found is that when I put it back on each morning it has more significance than just a piece of jewelry I always wear. Sort of like the framed piece of art you forget about in your house until somebody visits and comments. This ritual is a great reminder that I am a husband and have a wife that I need to love.

A few days ago, as I walked into my office, I realized I had forgotten my ring. I have an ingrained habit of spinning my ring by running my left thumb over it, and as I did it felt empty. Now in the short trek left to my assigned space a smile coming from my heart covered my face. The thought was this, "It's really nice to be taken." I'm spoken for. It still makes me smile.

This marriage thing is a pretty good gig if you can get it.

Wildcatting

I think wildcatting sounds really cool.
"Yeah, that's right, I'm a wildcatter."
If I was still single this would be my answer to, "So what do YOU do?"

Honestly though, I don't think I really want to be a wildcatter. Looks dirty and hot. But I would play this game were it available to me.

I am ok being a copycatter.

This Washington Post article was blogged on by my friend AP. It is phenomenal. It's a lengthy read but I highly recommend it. There is so much good stuff in here I am begging you to read it.

What AP says lines up with where I am right now so I won't take the time to re-write all of his thoughts. Good on ya AP.

Here is his quick description of the article:

There was a fantastic article in the Washington Post last Sunday about a brilliant experiment in which "one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made" stood performing in the metro station in Washington during the morning commute. The question that was asked was "In a banal setting at an inconvenient time, would beauty transcend?" Of course it wouldn't!!!!! Unbelievable beauty against the crushing deadline of that 7:45 water cooler gossip session?

the two sides

This is not from me. But I will pass it along to you because it's good. Essentially, the whole idea is in quotes.

In a religious context we're always trying to earn our place. The more righteous I can be, the more relationship with God I can have. Or, in the new covenant, the more relationship with God you have, the more righteous He'll make you to be.

If you love me you'll keep my commandments. - John 14
Religious: Do you prove the loving by the keeping?
Jesus: Or [and this sounds better], if you get the loving right, the keeping takes care of itself.

Replace the shame, sin, performance, guilt, need, approval in our lives with "He loves me at my most broken." Everything else related to performance/religion pushes us away.

I think Jesus is trying to say to me, "If you love me, yeah, the commandments will take care of themselves." Will I receive that? I'd like to say yes more confidently. I will say, the Lord is working that into me. And it reminds me again that the day of salvation is today.

It boils down to this.
"If you get the loving right, the keeping takes care of itself."

Here's the warning, don't get caught in the commandment (Matthew 22:36-38), but rather in His love (1 John 4:19).

I need to know, really deep down know, that He loves me. I need that today a hundred times.

pick-up ball

The. Monk

Not your normal Simpson

This is the kind of stuff I like these days. Not stuff that challenges (or even supports) the existence of God, or whether Jesus was who he said he was, or did he rise from the dead, but rather thoughts that challenge my paradigm of this Jesus Christ.

Today I read this.
And here is a bit more that is good for me to mull over and share.

Coming to the Bible with an a priori understanding of who God is and how God works that is the product of my cultural and personal influences, my spiritual and moral intuitions, my experiences and observations of the world around me, my deepest emotional and psychological needs, my religious community, and, hopefully, divine inspiration, I then underline, interpret, and even overlook various passages in accordance with that understanding, believing that God is pleased to guide me in that process as a form of divine communication.

We Christians have always done that, of course, whether or not we admit it. Those of us who once owned slaves confidently underlined one set of Bible passages, while those who worked to abolish slavery just as eagerly underlined another, very different, and each side interpreted away or ignored every Bible passage which contradicted their paradigm of God. For better and worse these divine paradigms, whether consciously or unconsciously adopted, have always determined the way we read the Bible on issues like capital punishment, war, the role of women, economic justice, divorce, and gay marriage, not to mention the essential character of Jesus.

Boy, sure would be great to read the whole of God's words and press into Him for what He would like me to hear. This is a very, very exciting thought for me. Have I heard the Father's voice on gay marriage, war, or the minor issue of who He is? Jesus' voice. Not the local Sunday morning speaker guy, not a book on the subject, not a friend, not the tv - so that I can make an informed, logical conclusion. And not that God doesn't speak in these places because He does. But, with these issues...

have I...heard Jesus...speak to me?

I have an easy answer (for me) on this one and it is certainly NO. For the most part I haven't even really asked the questions. Again, not that the Lord even needs me to ask to provide an answer, but I haven't sought Him on many issues. Strange for one who would call himself a Christ follower, but true.

If I felt inclined to strive, yesterday I was given a picture of what would be good to strive for. And the picture is in this question. What would it look like if someone in Africa found a Bible and had no preconceived notions of the Christianity we see on a daily basis? Then read the book and said, "This I believe." "I'd like to know this fella Jesus and I can because I believe he is alive." What would that look like? That sounds like a pretty great way to know Jesus.

I feel like I am being stripped of these add-ons that insulate me from the foundational relationship I desire with God. It's fantastic. Hopefully I'll find myself in Africa soon picking up the Bible for the first time. Wouldn't that be incredible.

high hopes

I have really high hopes. Especially around being a Dad.
Today, this trailer put some of my hopes on film.
This may be the first movie in quite a while to which I'll go to the theater.
I have really high hopes for this film.
I have really high hopes for being a Dad.

bits and pieces

I am not from Texas. Nor do I expect I ever will be. But I really really like this song by Mr. Lovett. "That's Right (You're Not From Texas)" (Or 저것은 너가 택사스에서 이지 않는 권리 이다 as they like to say in Korea.) He is from Texas. And an Aggie as I hear. Sure do wish I could post it here so you could enjoy it as I do.

A River Runs Through It. What a fantastic bunch of words and sentences this turned out to be.

I learned something about me this week. I am an experimentalist. But I compare myself to conceptualists. That has not worked out well for me.

People that talk in 3rd person produce two distinct results in me. They either crack me up or annoy endlessly. I am especially humored when they are not famous. For instance, an aunt. Wife and I have at least one such person.

I would like to have a secretary. Or business manager. Or lackey. And a new pair of running shoes.

We're a hotbed.

If you didn't know, Ohio, specifically southwest Ohio is a hotbed of high school athletics and according to some, in the top 5 nationally for its high school hoops. For those of you that care about left coast athletics, our formerly local O.J. Mayo is heading out to Southern Cal to play a year of ball before jumping to the first pick in the NBA draft ('08 version). Many are saying he's the best to come out since LeBron.

Well, a buddy forwarded this article on to me. I love the ridiculousness of it all. It's fantastic. And look for USC to make a run at the national title next year.