summer fun

Summer is here. Time to bust out the water balloons.

thank you for your service

I am saying good bye to www.apple.com/trailers/ today. But hello to www.themoviebox.net.

Thank you Apple Trailers but you've been preempted.

I will say Hot Rod looks gud.

promising

I can only hope this movie fills out the trailer nicely.

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What's in a name?

Not surprisingly I have been thinking about names. I'm gonna have to name a boy here soon so it's been on my mind. Fortunately we have many friends with children. Unfortunately they have taken numerous cool names so I feel like the selection has begun to limit itself before I could even get in the game. So anytime I hear something about names my ears perk up.

When I was younger I did not like my name much but I have grown quite fond of it. Especially my middle name, my mother's maiden name. So I have been quite picky when it comes to this son of mine.

You must know that I am in love with finding shadows of Christ and the Father's nature in the everyday mundane life. I really love it. A lot. And the foreshadowing of events like exodus and passover. Well a couple weeks ago I heard somebody talking about how we take on the name of Christ as Christians. So naturally I started to mull it over and this is where I was stuck.

Is something missed when a wife decides not to take her husband's name when they marry?

I have some friends where the wife has opted for this. I know many of the reasons wives choose not to; career, hassle, independence, etc. And don't think I'm judging if your wife didn't take your name. But is there a missing piece, small though it may be, to a joining of man and woman where the husband's name is is not adopted? I won't wade into authority (which should be a big blessing to the wife if I understand it correctly) or any other stream from these waters but you can. Just a question in my brain these days.

Initially I think there may be something lost. In the same way, as a follower of Jesus, if I would not take up his name, might I be lacking some intimacy? Am I even living in the name I've been given? Am I living as a bride under a new name?

I'll talk to wife about this and see what she thinks about her own name. That isn't a question I've asked her yet but it makes sense to me. I'm sure there's something to be learned from her on this matter.

Greg Boyd's in the house

I thought I had pasted this up here earlier but I don't see it. I think it's really great.
Here are some highlights for you.

We “fall” when, instead of freely receiving LIFE from God we seek to acquire LIFE on our own. This is what the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden is all about (Gen. 3).

And yet, so long as we buy the lie that LIFE can be found outside of God, we think the problem is that we simply don’t have enough. If only we had more of our god, we think, or perhaps if only we had a different god, we’d find relief from our pain, we’d feel full, alive, meaningful and secure. But it’s all a grand illusion.

We are on the precipice of LIFE when we begin to wake up to this grand illusion. When we realize and accept the utter futility of god-chasing, we are at the door of the Kingdom.

this body of ours

Yes, again today, I am amazed at our bodies. We have been wonderfully made. The mechanism is built in such perfect ways.

Still amazed.

heart songs

A few weeks ago I took a Saturday morning and got together with a couple of friends. We covered a bunch of stuff but one of the sweetest things happened to me.

Have you ever had somebody say something to you, about you, that you couldn't put to words, but when they said it you knew it was true? Well that's what happened to me. My heart, for some time, had been trying to speak something but my mind couldn't sort it out. I couldn't wrap words around the feelings I was having. But then there it was, as if obvious. What an incredible thing to have the ache of your heart spoken over you. It's hard to describe how my heart was rejoicing, but it was. It still is. I expect this will be a cherished memory for a while.

So fast forward a few weeks to yesterday, Sunday. I am standing in our church house and singing a song that is getting repetitive. Something to the effect of "you are faithful," endlessly. Occasionally I can handle this but there are many times I'm bugged.

So it's happening again. I may even be thinking, "I don't get this." Blah, blah. Do I believe it? Yes. But it's getting tedious. This time however, my mind wanders back on that Saturday morning, how great it was. And there's a nudge in me whispering, "Yeah, I like that too."

KA-BOOM.

Oh...really?...oh...ok.

I've heard about praising God. Or blessing God. But inside of me, it has seemed as something I'm supposed to do. "Well, ok, I guess if that's what you say, I'll praise you. You are awesome. You are good and right. How's that?" Sometimes even part of a prayer formula. Yuck, run.

What if, His heart, is blessed by what I say. Truly blessed. To think that I can bless God, in any way, is amazing to consider. The creator of the universe, the judge of everything, the editor of the bestseller of all time could be blessed by little me.

It makes me think more on this Father-son relationship we have. As a son I can bless my heavenly Father. Mind boggling. More and more I'm thinking that's about all I'm good for. And what a little cuss I've been.

I was gonna say, "As a side note," but I thought better of it. How much can I bless my earthly father. Do I really do that? Ummm, I don't think so, but today I will start.

I think yesterday was another one of those moments that will change me from the guts out. I can be loose and free with my praise and it blesses Him. So great. So, so great.

Father,
You are AWESOME. You are good and right.
You paint incredible sunsets. You grow up beautiful trees.
You are deep to no end and yet make yourself known in the most simple ways.
I love you. I really do.
your boy,
Colin

I think I just figured out where the Psalms came from.

No socks with sandals

Today I was sent "15 Style Mistakes You Can Fix Now" by one of the two people that live in my current residence. How would you take this? Needless to say, I know how I took it.

I do like #14: If you have a hairy chest, you cannot wear a V-neck without an undershirt.

This applies to me. My chest is hairy. I have though, been using clippers to cut it close recently and I like it mucho. There was some initial itching, but it only lasts a day or three. I have repeated as necessary and that itching has been substantially less than the initial shearing. I am considering trying it out on my legs. But again I fear the itching as does wife who sleeps in the same bed I do with great regularity.

Warning: somewhat political commentary

I think this is the first political comment I've made in this space. Maybe. But hopefully I'll get to make more. That could be fun.

I have learned that TIME magazine just published their 100 most influential list. It's a global, ranked list (which must be hard as you decide between number 86 and 87). Not just an alphabetical list of 100 earthlings.

So who would I think should be in the top 10. George W. Bush. That's reasonable, no? Who is not in the top 10. The previously mentioned current president of the Unites States of America. Nor is he in the top 25. Ummm, ok. I'll listen to your argument. Oh wait, he's not on the list. At all. Anywhere.

I don't care if you like this man or not. I really doesn't matter to me. But it is inconceivable to me that the current president of the country the magazine is written in is left off this list. This man has led the relatively powerful and influential U.S.A. into a military conflict in a region that does not forget or forgive quickly. Thousands of sons have died. It's in the news daily. It is perhaps the single most separating issue in this country today. It was the driving force in the last national election and could very well be again in the next. I won't go on.

What makes you think he is not in the top 100 most influential?

Hello, TIME, you write about this man every week. (I'm guessing, but is there any doubt.) I gathered from a quick look at readers comments on the online article, that this is receiving some small amount of press. Maybe that was the point. If so it's working. But TIME has just knocked itself out of any small stack of news magazines that I would consider reading. Perhaps that will change, but they will have to change first.

And speaking of news magazines, with the speed of the internet, is there any reason to keep these dinosaurs around? I am updated about news every minute of the day. Anything that a magazine puts out is a week old. A week. Maybe doctor office subscribers and airport magazine racks are keeping these things alive.

So long TIME, nice knowing you.

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.