The wishes always seem hokey...but I wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year.
Monday, December 31, 2007
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Monday, December 24, 2007
Is Santa Claus Real?
The true story of Santa Claus begins with Nicholas, who was born during the third century in the village of Patara. At the time the area was Greek and is now on the southern coast of Turkey. His wealthy parents, who raised him to be a devout Christian, died in an epidemic while Nicholas was still young. Obeying Jesus' words to "sell what you own and give the money to the poor," Nicholas used his whole inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering. He dedicated his life to serving God and was made Bishop of Myra while still a young man. Bishop Nicholas became known throughout the land for his generosity to the those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships.
Under the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who ruthlessly persecuted Christians, Bishop Nicholas suffered for his faith, was exiled and imprisoned. The prisons were so full of bishops, priests, and deacons, there was no room for the real criminals—murderers, thieves and robbers. After his release, Nicholas attended the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. He died December 6, AD 343 in Myra and was buried in his cathedral church, where a unique relic, called manna, formed in his grave. This liquid substance, said to have healing powers, fostered the growth of devotion to Nicholas. The anniversary of his death became a day of celebration, St. Nicholas Day.
Through the centuries many stories and legends have been told of St. Nicholas' life and deeds. These accounts help us understand his extraordinary character and why he is so beloved and revered as protector and helper of those in need.
One story tells of a poor man with three daughters. In those days a young woman's father had to offer prospective husbands something of value—a dowry. The larger the dowry, the better the chance that a young woman would find a good husband. Without a dowry, a woman was unlikely to marry. This poor man's daughters, without dowries, were therefore destined to be sold into slavery. Mysteriously, on three different occasions, a bag of gold appeared in their home-providing the needed dowries. The bags of gold, tossed through an open window, are said to have landed in stockings or shoes left before the fire to dry. This led to the custom of children hanging stockings or putting out shoes, eagerly awaiting gifts from Saint Nicholas. Sometimes the story is told with gold balls instead of bags of gold. That is why three gold balls, sometimes represented as oranges, are one of the symbols for St. Nicholas. And so St. Nicholas is a gift-giver.
One of the oldest stories showing St. Nicholas as a protector of children takes place long after his death. The townspeople of Myra were celebrating the good saint on the eve of his feast day when a band of Arab pirates from Crete came into the district. They stole treasures from the Church of Saint Nicholas to take away as booty. As they were leaving town, they snatched a young boy, Basilios, to make into a slave. The emir, or ruler, selected Basilios to be his personal cupbearer, as not knowing the language, Basilios would not understand what the king said to those around him. So, for the next year Basilios waited on the king, bringing his wine in a beautiful golden cup. For Basilios' parents, devastated at the loss of their only child, the year passed slowly, filled with grief. As the next St. Nicholas' feast day approached, Basilios' mother would not join in the festivity, as it was now a day of tragedy. However, she was persuaded to have a simple observance at home—with quiet prayers for Basilios' safekeeping. Meanwhile, as Basilios was fulfilling his tasks serving the emir, he was suddenly whisked up and away. St. Nicholas appeared to the terrified boy, blessed him, and set him down at his home back in Myra. Imagine the joy and wonderment when Basilios amazingly appeared before his parents, still holding the king's golden cup. This is the first story told of St. Nicholas protecting children—which became his primary role in the West.
Another story tells of three theological students, traveling on their way to study in Athens. A wicked innkeeper robbed and murdered them, hiding their remains in a large pickling tub. It so happened that Bishop Nicholas, traveling along the same route, stopped at this very inn. In the night he dreamed of the crime, got up, and summoned the innkeeper. As Nicholas prayed earnestly to God the three boys were restored to life and wholeness. In France the story is told of three small children, wandering in their play until lost, lured, and captured by an evil butcher. St. Nicholas appears and appeals to God to return them to life and to their families. And so St. Nicholas is the patron and protector of children.
Several stories tell of Nicholas and the sea. When he was young, Nicholas sought the holy by making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. There as he walked where Jesus walked, he sought to more deeply experience Jesus' life, passion, and resurrection. Returning by sea, a mighty storm threatened to wreck the ship. Nicholas calmly prayed. The terrified sailors were amazed when the wind and waves suddenly calmed, sparing them all. And so St. Nicholas is the patron of sailors and voyagers.
Other stories tell of Nicholas saving his people from famine, sparing the lives of those innocently accused, and much more. He did many kind and generous deeds in secret, expecting nothing in return. Within a century of his death he was celebrated as a saint. Today he is venerated in the East as wonder, or miracle worker and in the West as patron of a great variety of persons-children, mariners, bankers, pawn-brokers, scholars, orphans, laborers, travelers, merchants, judges, paupers, marriageable maidens, students, children, sailors, victims of judicial mistakes, captives, perfumers, even thieves and murderers! He is known as the friend and protector of all in trouble or need (see list).
Sailors, claiming St. Nicholas as patron, carried stories of his favor and protection far and wide. St. Nicholas chapels were built in many seaports. As his popularity spread during the Middle Ages, he became the patron saint of Apulia (Italy), Sicily, Greece, and Lorraine (France), and many cities in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Russia, Belgium, and the Netherlands (See list). Following his baptism in Constantinople, Vladimir I of Russia brought St. Nicholas' stories and devotion to St. Nicholas to his homeland where Nicholas became the most beloved saint. Nicholas was so widely revered that more than 2,000 churches were named for him, including three hundred in Belgium, thirty-four in Rome, twenty-three in the Netherlands and more than four hundred in England.
Nicholas' tomb in Myra became a popular place of pilgrimage. Because of the many wars and attacks in the region, some Christians were concerned that access to the tomb might become difficult. For both the religious and commercial advantages of a major pilgrimage site, the Italian cities of Venice and Bari vied to get the Nicholas relics. In the spring of 1087, sailors from Bari succeeded in spiriting away the bones, bringing them to Bari, a seaport on the southeast coast of Italy. An impressive church was built over St. Nicholas' crypt and many faithful journeyed to honor the saint who had rescued children, prisoners, sailors, famine victims, and many others through his compassion, generosity, and the countless miracles attributed to his intercession. The Nicholas shrine in Bari was one of medieval Europe's great pilgrimage centers and Nicholas became known as "Saint in Bari." To this day pilgrims and tourists visit Bari's great Basilica di San Nicola.
Through the centuries St. Nicholas has continued to be venerated by Catholics and Orthodox and honored by Protestants. By his example of generosity to those in need, especially children, St. Nicholas continues to be a model for the compassionate life.
Widely celebrated in Europe, St. Nicholas' feast day, December 6th, kept alive the stories of his goodness and generosity. In Germany and Poland, boys dressed as bishops begged alms for the poor—and sometimes for themselves! In the Netherlands and Belgium, St. Nicholas arrived on a steamship from Spain to ride a white horse on his gift-giving rounds. December 6th is still the main day for gift giving and merrymaking in much of Europe. For example, in the Netherlands St. Nicholas is celebrated on the 5th, the eve of the day, by sharing candies (thrown in the door), chocolate initial letters, small gifts, and riddles. Dutch children leave carrots and hay in their shoes for the saint's horse, hoping St. Nicholas will exchange them for small gifts. Simple gift-giving in early Advent helps preserve a Christmas Day focus on the Christ Child.
The Origin of the Modern Day Santa Claus
How did the kindly Christian saint, good Bishop Nicholas, become a roly-poly red-suited American symbol for merry holiday festivity and commercial activity? History tells the tale.
The first Europeans to arrive in the New World brought St. Nicholas. Vikings dedicated their cathedral to him in Greenland. On his first voyage, Columbus named a Haitian port for St. Nicholas on December 6, 1492. In Florida, Spaniards named an early settlement St. Nicholas Ferry, now known as Jacksonville. However, St. Nicholas had a difficult time during the 16th century Protestant Reformation which took a dim view of saints. Even though both reformers and counter-reformers tried to stamp out St. Nicholas-related customs, they had very little long-term success; only in England were the religious folk traditions of Christmas permanently altered. (It is ironic that fervent Puritan Christians began what turned into a trend to a more secular Christmas observance.) Because the common people so loved St. Nicholas, he survived on the European continent as people continued to place nuts, apples, and sweets in shoes left beside beds, on windowsills, or before the hearth.
The first Colonists, primarily Puritans and other Protestant reformers, did not bring Nicholas traditions to the New World. What about the Dutch? Although it is almost universally reported that the Dutch brought St. Nicholas to New Amsterdam, scholars find scant evidence of such traditions in Dutch New Netherland. Colonial Germans in Pennsylvania kept the feast of St. Nicholas, and several accounts have St. Nicholas visiting New York Dutch on New Years' Eve. In 1773 patriots formed the Sons of St. Nicholas, primarily as a non-British symbol to counter the English St. George societies, rather than to honor St. Nicholas. This society was similar to the Sons of St. Tammany in Philadelphia. Not exactly St. Nicholas, the children's gift-giver.
After the American Revolution, New Yorkers remembered with pride the colony's nearly-forgotten Dutch roots. John Pintard, influential patriot and antiquarian, who founded the New York Historical Society in 1804, promoted St. Nicholas as patron saint of both society and city. In January 1809, Washington Irving joined the society and on St. Nicholas Day that year he published the satirical fiction, Knickerbocker's History of New York, with numerous references to a jolly St. Nicholas character. This was not a saintly bishop, rather an elfin Dutch burgher with a clay pipe. These delightful flights of imagination are the origin of the New Amsterdam St. Nicholas legends: that the first Dutch emigrant ship had a figurehead of St. Nicholas; that St. Nicholas Day was observed in the colony; that the first church was dedicated to him; and that St. Nicholas comes down chimneys to bring gifts. Irving's work was regarded as the "first notable work of imagination in the New World."
The New York Historical Society held its first St. Nicholas anniversary dinner on December 6, 1810. John Pintard commissioned artist Alexander Anderson to create the first American image of Nicholas for the occasion. Nicholas was shown in a gift-giving role with children's treats in stockings hanging at a fireplace. The accompanying poem ends, "Saint Nicholas, my dear good friend! To serve you ever was my end, If you will, now, me something give, I'll serve you ever while I live."
The jolly elf image received a big boost in 1823, from a poem destined to become immensely popular, "A Visit from St. Nicholas," now better known as "The Night Before Christmas."
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf. . . .
Washington Irving's St. Nicholas strongly influenced the poem's portrayal of a round, pipe-smoking, elf-like St. Nicholas. The poem generally has been attributed to Clement Clark Moore, a professor of biblical languages at New York's Episcopal General Theological Seminary. However, a case has been made by Don Foster in Author Unknown, that Henry Livingston actually penned it in 1807 or 1808. Livingston was a farmer/patriot who wrote humorous verse for children. In any case, "A Visit from St. Nicholas" became a defining American holiday classic. No matter who wrote it, the poem has had enormous influence on the Americanization of St. Nicholas.
Other artists and writers continued the change to an elf-like St. Nicholas, "Sancte Claus," or "Santa Claus," unlike the stately European bishop. In 1863, political cartoonist Thomas Nast began a series of annual black-and-white drawings in Harper's Weekly, based on the descriptions found in the poem and Washington Irving's work. These drawings established a rotund Santa with flowing beard, fur garments, and an omnipresent clay pipe. As Nast drew Santas until 1886, his work had considerable influence in forming the American Santa Claus. Along with appearance changes, the saint's name shifted to Santa Claus—a natural phonetic alteration from the German Sankt Niklaus and Dutch Sinterklaas.
This Santa was life-sized, jolly, and wore the now familiar red suit. He appeared in magazines, on billboards, and shop counters, encouraging Americans to see Coke as the solution to "a thirst for all seasons." By the 1950s Santa was turning up everywhere as a benign source of beneficence, endorsing an amazing range of consumer products. This commercial success led to the North American Santa Claus being exported around the world where he threatens to overcome the European St. Nicholas, who has retained his identity as a Christian bishop and saint.
It's been a long journey from the Fourth Century Bishop of Myra, St. Nicholas, who showed his devotion to God in extraordinary kindness and generosity, to America's jolly Santa Claus. However, if you peel back the accretions he is still Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, whose caring surprises continue to model true giving and faithfulness.
There is growing interest in reclaiming the original saint in the United States to help restore the spiritual dimension of this festive time. For indeed, St. Nicholas, lover of the poor and patron saint of children, is a model of how Christians are meant to live. A bishop, Nicholas put Jesus Christ at the center of his life, his ministry, his entire existence. Families, churches, and schools are embracing true St Nicholas traditions as one way to claim the true center of Christmas—the birth of Jesus. Such a focus helps restore balance to increasingly materialistic and stress-filled Advent and Christmas seasons.
The true story of Santa Claus begins with Nicholas, who was born during the third century in the village of Patara. At the time the area was Greek and is now on the southern coast of Turkey. His wealthy parents, who raised him to be a devout Christian, died in an epidemic while Nicholas was still young. Obeying Jesus' words to "sell what you own and give the money to the poor," Nicholas used his whole inheritance to assist the needy, the sick, and the suffering. He dedicated his life to serving God and was made Bishop of Myra while still a young man. Bishop Nicholas became known throughout the land for his generosity to the those in need, his love for children, and his concern for sailors and ships.
Under the Roman Emperor Diocletian, who ruthlessly persecuted Christians, Bishop Nicholas suffered for his faith, was exiled and imprisoned. The prisons were so full of bishops, priests, and deacons, there was no room for the real criminals—murderers, thieves and robbers. After his release, Nicholas attended the Council of Nicaea in AD 325. He died December 6, AD 343 in Myra and was buried in his cathedral church, where a unique relic, called manna, formed in his grave. This liquid substance, said to have healing powers, fostered the growth of devotion to Nicholas. The anniversary of his death became a day of celebration, St. Nicholas Day.
Through the centuries many stories and legends have been told of St. Nicholas' life and deeds. These accounts help us understand his extraordinary character and why he is so beloved and revered as protector and helper of those in need.
One story tells of a poor man with three daughters. In those days a young woman's father had to offer prospective husbands something of value—a dowry. The larger the dowry, the better the chance that a young woman would find a good husband. Without a dowry, a woman was unlikely to marry. This poor man's daughters, without dowries, were therefore destined to be sold into slavery. Mysteriously, on three different occasions, a bag of gold appeared in their home-providing the needed dowries. The bags of gold, tossed through an open window, are said to have landed in stockings or shoes left before the fire to dry. This led to the custom of children hanging stockings or putting out shoes, eagerly awaiting gifts from Saint Nicholas. Sometimes the story is told with gold balls instead of bags of gold. That is why three gold balls, sometimes represented as oranges, are one of the symbols for St. Nicholas. And so St. Nicholas is a gift-giver.
One of the oldest stories showing St. Nicholas as a protector of children takes place long after his death. The townspeople of Myra were celebrating the good saint on the eve of his feast day when a band of Arab pirates from Crete came into the district. They stole treasures from the Church of Saint Nicholas to take away as booty. As they were leaving town, they snatched a young boy, Basilios, to make into a slave. The emir, or ruler, selected Basilios to be his personal cupbearer, as not knowing the language, Basilios would not understand what the king said to those around him. So, for the next year Basilios waited on the king, bringing his wine in a beautiful golden cup. For Basilios' parents, devastated at the loss of their only child, the year passed slowly, filled with grief. As the next St. Nicholas' feast day approached, Basilios' mother would not join in the festivity, as it was now a day of tragedy. However, she was persuaded to have a simple observance at home—with quiet prayers for Basilios' safekeeping. Meanwhile, as Basilios was fulfilling his tasks serving the emir, he was suddenly whisked up and away. St. Nicholas appeared to the terrified boy, blessed him, and set him down at his home back in Myra. Imagine the joy and wonderment when Basilios amazingly appeared before his parents, still holding the king's golden cup. This is the first story told of St. Nicholas protecting children—which became his primary role in the West.
Another story tells of three theological students, traveling on their way to study in Athens. A wicked innkeeper robbed and murdered them, hiding their remains in a large pickling tub. It so happened that Bishop Nicholas, traveling along the same route, stopped at this very inn. In the night he dreamed of the crime, got up, and summoned the innkeeper. As Nicholas prayed earnestly to God the three boys were restored to life and wholeness. In France the story is told of three small children, wandering in their play until lost, lured, and captured by an evil butcher. St. Nicholas appears and appeals to God to return them to life and to their families. And so St. Nicholas is the patron and protector of children.
Several stories tell of Nicholas and the sea. When he was young, Nicholas sought the holy by making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. There as he walked where Jesus walked, he sought to more deeply experience Jesus' life, passion, and resurrection. Returning by sea, a mighty storm threatened to wreck the ship. Nicholas calmly prayed. The terrified sailors were amazed when the wind and waves suddenly calmed, sparing them all. And so St. Nicholas is the patron of sailors and voyagers.
Other stories tell of Nicholas saving his people from famine, sparing the lives of those innocently accused, and much more. He did many kind and generous deeds in secret, expecting nothing in return. Within a century of his death he was celebrated as a saint. Today he is venerated in the East as wonder, or miracle worker and in the West as patron of a great variety of persons-children, mariners, bankers, pawn-brokers, scholars, orphans, laborers, travelers, merchants, judges, paupers, marriageable maidens, students, children, sailors, victims of judicial mistakes, captives, perfumers, even thieves and murderers! He is known as the friend and protector of all in trouble or need (see list).
Sailors, claiming St. Nicholas as patron, carried stories of his favor and protection far and wide. St. Nicholas chapels were built in many seaports. As his popularity spread during the Middle Ages, he became the patron saint of Apulia (Italy), Sicily, Greece, and Lorraine (France), and many cities in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Russia, Belgium, and the Netherlands (See list). Following his baptism in Constantinople, Vladimir I of Russia brought St. Nicholas' stories and devotion to St. Nicholas to his homeland where Nicholas became the most beloved saint. Nicholas was so widely revered that more than 2,000 churches were named for him, including three hundred in Belgium, thirty-four in Rome, twenty-three in the Netherlands and more than four hundred in England.
Nicholas' tomb in Myra became a popular place of pilgrimage. Because of the many wars and attacks in the region, some Christians were concerned that access to the tomb might become difficult. For both the religious and commercial advantages of a major pilgrimage site, the Italian cities of Venice and Bari vied to get the Nicholas relics. In the spring of 1087, sailors from Bari succeeded in spiriting away the bones, bringing them to Bari, a seaport on the southeast coast of Italy. An impressive church was built over St. Nicholas' crypt and many faithful journeyed to honor the saint who had rescued children, prisoners, sailors, famine victims, and many others through his compassion, generosity, and the countless miracles attributed to his intercession. The Nicholas shrine in Bari was one of medieval Europe's great pilgrimage centers and Nicholas became known as "Saint in Bari." To this day pilgrims and tourists visit Bari's great Basilica di San Nicola.
Through the centuries St. Nicholas has continued to be venerated by Catholics and Orthodox and honored by Protestants. By his example of generosity to those in need, especially children, St. Nicholas continues to be a model for the compassionate life.
Widely celebrated in Europe, St. Nicholas' feast day, December 6th, kept alive the stories of his goodness and generosity. In Germany and Poland, boys dressed as bishops begged alms for the poor—and sometimes for themselves! In the Netherlands and Belgium, St. Nicholas arrived on a steamship from Spain to ride a white horse on his gift-giving rounds. December 6th is still the main day for gift giving and merrymaking in much of Europe. For example, in the Netherlands St. Nicholas is celebrated on the 5th, the eve of the day, by sharing candies (thrown in the door), chocolate initial letters, small gifts, and riddles. Dutch children leave carrots and hay in their shoes for the saint's horse, hoping St. Nicholas will exchange them for small gifts. Simple gift-giving in early Advent helps preserve a Christmas Day focus on the Christ Child.
The Origin of the Modern Day Santa Claus
How did the kindly Christian saint, good Bishop Nicholas, become a roly-poly red-suited American symbol for merry holiday festivity and commercial activity? History tells the tale.
The first Europeans to arrive in the New World brought St. Nicholas. Vikings dedicated their cathedral to him in Greenland. On his first voyage, Columbus named a Haitian port for St. Nicholas on December 6, 1492. In Florida, Spaniards named an early settlement St. Nicholas Ferry, now known as Jacksonville. However, St. Nicholas had a difficult time during the 16th century Protestant Reformation which took a dim view of saints. Even though both reformers and counter-reformers tried to stamp out St. Nicholas-related customs, they had very little long-term success; only in England were the religious folk traditions of Christmas permanently altered. (It is ironic that fervent Puritan Christians began what turned into a trend to a more secular Christmas observance.) Because the common people so loved St. Nicholas, he survived on the European continent as people continued to place nuts, apples, and sweets in shoes left beside beds, on windowsills, or before the hearth.
The first Colonists, primarily Puritans and other Protestant reformers, did not bring Nicholas traditions to the New World. What about the Dutch? Although it is almost universally reported that the Dutch brought St. Nicholas to New Amsterdam, scholars find scant evidence of such traditions in Dutch New Netherland. Colonial Germans in Pennsylvania kept the feast of St. Nicholas, and several accounts have St. Nicholas visiting New York Dutch on New Years' Eve. In 1773 patriots formed the Sons of St. Nicholas, primarily as a non-British symbol to counter the English St. George societies, rather than to honor St. Nicholas. This society was similar to the Sons of St. Tammany in Philadelphia. Not exactly St. Nicholas, the children's gift-giver.
After the American Revolution, New Yorkers remembered with pride the colony's nearly-forgotten Dutch roots. John Pintard, influential patriot and antiquarian, who founded the New York Historical Society in 1804, promoted St. Nicholas as patron saint of both society and city. In January 1809, Washington Irving joined the society and on St. Nicholas Day that year he published the satirical fiction, Knickerbocker's History of New York, with numerous references to a jolly St. Nicholas character. This was not a saintly bishop, rather an elfin Dutch burgher with a clay pipe. These delightful flights of imagination are the origin of the New Amsterdam St. Nicholas legends: that the first Dutch emigrant ship had a figurehead of St. Nicholas; that St. Nicholas Day was observed in the colony; that the first church was dedicated to him; and that St. Nicholas comes down chimneys to bring gifts. Irving's work was regarded as the "first notable work of imagination in the New World."
The New York Historical Society held its first St. Nicholas anniversary dinner on December 6, 1810. John Pintard commissioned artist Alexander Anderson to create the first American image of Nicholas for the occasion. Nicholas was shown in a gift-giving role with children's treats in stockings hanging at a fireplace. The accompanying poem ends, "Saint Nicholas, my dear good friend! To serve you ever was my end, If you will, now, me something give, I'll serve you ever while I live."
The jolly elf image received a big boost in 1823, from a poem destined to become immensely popular, "A Visit from St. Nicholas," now better known as "The Night Before Christmas."
He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot;
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler just opening his pack.
His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow;
The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook, when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.
He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf. . . .
Washington Irving's St. Nicholas strongly influenced the poem's portrayal of a round, pipe-smoking, elf-like St. Nicholas. The poem generally has been attributed to Clement Clark Moore, a professor of biblical languages at New York's Episcopal General Theological Seminary. However, a case has been made by Don Foster in Author Unknown, that Henry Livingston actually penned it in 1807 or 1808. Livingston was a farmer/patriot who wrote humorous verse for children. In any case, "A Visit from St. Nicholas" became a defining American holiday classic. No matter who wrote it, the poem has had enormous influence on the Americanization of St. Nicholas.
Other artists and writers continued the change to an elf-like St. Nicholas, "Sancte Claus," or "Santa Claus," unlike the stately European bishop. In 1863, political cartoonist Thomas Nast began a series of annual black-and-white drawings in Harper's Weekly, based on the descriptions found in the poem and Washington Irving's work. These drawings established a rotund Santa with flowing beard, fur garments, and an omnipresent clay pipe. As Nast drew Santas until 1886, his work had considerable influence in forming the American Santa Claus. Along with appearance changes, the saint's name shifted to Santa Claus—a natural phonetic alteration from the German Sankt Niklaus and Dutch Sinterklaas.
This Santa was life-sized, jolly, and wore the now familiar red suit. He appeared in magazines, on billboards, and shop counters, encouraging Americans to see Coke as the solution to "a thirst for all seasons." By the 1950s Santa was turning up everywhere as a benign source of beneficence, endorsing an amazing range of consumer products. This commercial success led to the North American Santa Claus being exported around the world where he threatens to overcome the European St. Nicholas, who has retained his identity as a Christian bishop and saint.
It's been a long journey from the Fourth Century Bishop of Myra, St. Nicholas, who showed his devotion to God in extraordinary kindness and generosity, to America's jolly Santa Claus. However, if you peel back the accretions he is still Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, whose caring surprises continue to model true giving and faithfulness.
There is growing interest in reclaiming the original saint in the United States to help restore the spiritual dimension of this festive time. For indeed, St. Nicholas, lover of the poor and patron saint of children, is a model of how Christians are meant to live. A bishop, Nicholas put Jesus Christ at the center of his life, his ministry, his entire existence. Families, churches, and schools are embracing true St Nicholas traditions as one way to claim the true center of Christmas—the birth of Jesus. Such a focus helps restore balance to increasingly materialistic and stress-filled Advent and Christmas seasons.
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas...especially one in the liking to Saint Nicholas!
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Friday, December 21, 2007
Thursday, December 20, 2007
La donna è mobile...indeed! If women truly understood the power they have over men, the world would be a dramatically different place.
La donna è mobile
Qual piuma al vento,
Muta d'accento — e di pensiero.
Sempre un amabile,
Leggiadro viso,
In pianto o in riso, — è menzognero.
Refrain
La donna è mobile qual piuma al vento
Muta d'accento e di pensier!
e di pensier!
e di pensier!
È sempre misero
Chi a lei s'affida,
Chi le confida — mal cauto il cuore!
Pur mai non sentesi
Felice appieno
Chi su quel seno — non liba amore!
Refrain
La donna è mobile
qual piuma al vento,
Muta d'accento e di pensier!
e di pensier!
e di pensier!
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Katie's Wish
The Make-A-Wish Foundation of Mississippi received a very generous donation today. A Nationwide insurance office here in Mississippi, Michael Daly Insurance Agency, donated $6,500 and adopted Katie's wish. A member of WJTV’s own family is getting the special wish. 13-year-old Katie wanted to go to Disney World and now her and her parents along with 3 siblings are going. Her father, Jimmy Smith, is a production control operator at News Channel 12. The Make-A-Wish Foundation of America is an organization that grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength, and joy. Last year, the Make-A-Wish Foundation granted a child's wish in the U.S. every 41 minutes.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Monday, December 17, 2007
Transition to Windows Live Writer
I am going to try to use Windows Live Writer for my future posts. Like anything else Microsoft produces, it will probably use twice the memory and provide half the functionality...but we are all slaves, whether consciously or unconsciously!?!
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Friday, December 14, 2007
We just watched the latest installation of the Fantastic Four movies...The Rise of the Silver Surfer. I remember reading Silver Surfer comic books as a kid. I think the movie took some license with the original provenance of the Silver Surfer, but it was still a really good movie. Besides, it has Jessica Alba playing the role of Sue Storm...whew!
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Well, it is official now. Along with diet and exercise, sex is a must for a health nut!
Six Reasons to Have Sex Every Week: Studies show that regular sex (with all due precautions taken) provides a host of surprising health benefits.
By Temma Ehrenfeld
Newsweek Web Exclusive
Dec 10, 2007
Sex is good for adults. Indulging on a regular basis—at least once a week—is even better. Research links sex (with all safer-sex precautions taken) to an astonishing array of physiological benefits, from longevity to pain relief. Many studies don't address whether the health bonus comes from the act itself or from the corresponding emotional intimacy, but the bottom line is that getting physical has some great side effects—especially for women. Here are six ways that sex boosts your health:
1. It Fights Colds and Flu. Sexual intercourse once or twice a week raises the body's level of the immune-boosting antibody immunoglobin A by a third, according to research at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania.
2. It's a Beauty Treatment. In a study at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital in Scotland, a panel of judges viewed participants through a one-way mirror and guessed their ages. Those who looked seven to 12 years younger than their age (labeled "superyoung") were also enjoying lots of sex—four times a week, on average. OK, maybe they were having so much fun because they looked young. But it's likely the sex was helping, researchers say. One reason is that it raises a woman's estrogen level, which helps make hair shiny and skin supple.
3. It Burns Calories. A little over four calories a minute, or the equivalent of four Hershey's kisses in a half hour of love. Think of it as part of your weekly exercise regime, and burn, baby, burn.
4. Yes, Honey, I Have a Headache. For a woman a migraine might actually be a reason for making love rather than avoiding intercourse: the increase in endorphins and corticosteroids during arousal and orgasm is analgesic.
5. It Promotes Regular Menstrual Cycles. A series of studies by behavioral endocrinologist Winnifred Cutler and colleagues at Columbia and Stanford universities found that women who have intercourse at least weekly (except during their period) cycle more regularly than abstainers or the sporadically active. (Related research found that lesbian lovemaking also smoothes out menstrual cycles.) Cutler argues that intimacy is essential, not orgasms: "Regular exposure to a loving partner has extraordinary effects on health and well-being."
6. It Can Prevent Accidents. Women use the muscles of the pelvic floor to stem the flow of urine. As they age, they need to keep these strong to avoid peeing accidentally. The same muscles are exercised during intercourse, and as with all muscle-building programs, the benefits require consistency.
Six Reasons to Have Sex Every Week: Studies show that regular sex (with all due precautions taken) provides a host of surprising health benefits.
By Temma Ehrenfeld
Newsweek Web Exclusive
Dec 10, 2007
Sex is good for adults. Indulging on a regular basis—at least once a week—is even better. Research links sex (with all safer-sex precautions taken) to an astonishing array of physiological benefits, from longevity to pain relief. Many studies don't address whether the health bonus comes from the act itself or from the corresponding emotional intimacy, but the bottom line is that getting physical has some great side effects—especially for women. Here are six ways that sex boosts your health:
1. It Fights Colds and Flu. Sexual intercourse once or twice a week raises the body's level of the immune-boosting antibody immunoglobin A by a third, according to research at Wilkes University in Pennsylvania.
2. It's a Beauty Treatment. In a study at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital in Scotland, a panel of judges viewed participants through a one-way mirror and guessed their ages. Those who looked seven to 12 years younger than their age (labeled "superyoung") were also enjoying lots of sex—four times a week, on average. OK, maybe they were having so much fun because they looked young. But it's likely the sex was helping, researchers say. One reason is that it raises a woman's estrogen level, which helps make hair shiny and skin supple.
3. It Burns Calories. A little over four calories a minute, or the equivalent of four Hershey's kisses in a half hour of love. Think of it as part of your weekly exercise regime, and burn, baby, burn.
4. Yes, Honey, I Have a Headache. For a woman a migraine might actually be a reason for making love rather than avoiding intercourse: the increase in endorphins and corticosteroids during arousal and orgasm is analgesic.
5. It Promotes Regular Menstrual Cycles. A series of studies by behavioral endocrinologist Winnifred Cutler and colleagues at Columbia and Stanford universities found that women who have intercourse at least weekly (except during their period) cycle more regularly than abstainers or the sporadically active. (Related research found that lesbian lovemaking also smoothes out menstrual cycles.) Cutler argues that intimacy is essential, not orgasms: "Regular exposure to a loving partner has extraordinary effects on health and well-being."
6. It Can Prevent Accidents. Women use the muscles of the pelvic floor to stem the flow of urine. As they age, they need to keep these strong to avoid peeing accidentally. The same muscles are exercised during intercourse, and as with all muscle-building programs, the benefits require consistency.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
I could not be more proud to know Wiley and his family. He is one of our Wish Kids at the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Mississippi. Way to go Wiley!!!
Tuesday, December 04, 2007
Some interesting health news that I read on CNN:
Study: Most sinus infections not helped by antibiotics
Story Highlights
Study: Most sinus infections not helped by antibiotics
Story Highlights
- Most sinus infections not helped by antibiotics other prescribed meds
- Most in study improved in about two weeks -- with real or fake meds
- Yellowish or greenish mucous doesn't always indicate a bacterial infection
- American College of Physicians in 2001 urged no antibiotic use for sinusitis
I highly recommend using a sinus rinse when you start feeling congested or during allergy season. It takes about a week to get used to squirting water up your nose without choking, but after a short time it starts to feel pretty good.
Monday, December 03, 2007
Sunday, December 02, 2007
"Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you...'Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.'"
Deuteronomy 15:11
"The earth was created for rich and poor in common. Nature knows no rich. She creates us all alike and alike she encloses in the sepulcher. What more resembles one dead man than another dead man?"
St. Ambrose
Deuteronomy 15:11
"The earth was created for rich and poor in common. Nature knows no rich. She creates us all alike and alike she encloses in the sepulcher. What more resembles one dead man than another dead man?"
St. Ambrose
Saturday, December 01, 2007
I am not sure if I would call it skepticism...I would classify it as is using common sense and a small portion of the reasoning skills provided by our Creator!
A Big Dose of Skepticism: Those 'amazing new treatments' usually aren't so amazing.
By Jerry Adler
Newsweek
Dec 10, 2007 Issue
It's not too soon to start thinking about New Year's resolutions, and here's mine, as a medical writer: I will not report on any amazing new treatments for anything, unless they were tested in large, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind clinical trials published in high-quality peer-reviewed medical journals. If that means not telling NEWSWEEK's readers about, say, a new magnetized-water cure for osteoporosis, cancer and autism—well, there are infomercials to fill that gap. The risk that I might overlook the next Lipitor is outweighed by the danger of hyping the next laetrile, the discredited 1970s-era miracle cancer drug made from apricot pits that failed to cure Steve McQueen.
Since there are more than 4,000 medical journals in the world, being able to ignore the great majority of them will save me a lot of work. But that's not why I'm doing it. I was shamed into it by a new book from R. Barker Bausell, a biostatistician at the University of Maryland. When a researcher tests a new drug or treatment, Bausell supplies the statistical analysis that journalists demand to see in a serious scientific study, even if they don't understand a word of it. From about 1999 to 2004, he was director of research for UM's center to study complementary and alternative medicine. This is a scientific term for "something you heard about from your hairdresser, who thinks she saw it on 'Oprah' "—a category that by Bausell's reckoning includes acupuncture, homeopathy, healing magnets and assorted herbs and supplements. Most of the treatments he encountered were for subjective conditions such as pain or depression. These are especially sensitive to the placebo effect, the tendency of some patients in clinical trials—typically about a third—to get better with fake magnets, inert pills or needles stuck in random places. Bausell thought the least you could ask of an actual treatment was that it work better than a fake one, but when he examined the studies critically, hardly any did. So he wrote "Snake Oil Science" to educate journalists and the public that "just because someone with a Ph.D. or M.D. performs a clinical trial doesn't mean that [it] possesses any credibility whatsoever … The vast majority are worse than worthless."
In fact, Bausell's book could give one the idea that the two most dangerous words in medicine are "studies show." Researchers, even those without a direct financial stake in the outcome of a trial, often have a psychological investment in what they're testing. Their papers get published because the editors of journals in fields like homeopathy start from the premise that the whole thing isn't a preposterous hoax, as Bausell and most mainstream doctors believe. If someone really does cure cancer—whether a drug company researcher or a Tibetan herbalist—The New England Journal of Medicine or The Journal of the American Medical Association will be happy to publish the news.
Even those who should know better can be fooled by personal experience. Joint pain typically waxes and wanes in cycles. People are most inclined to try a new remedy when the pain is worst, which is also just when it is about to start getting better on its own—but the magnet or the bracelet gets the credit. You should file such accounts under "anecdotal evidence," and then throw away the file. But journalists needing to liven up those dull statistics are notorious suckers for anecdotes—even a respected New York Times writer Bausell mentions who wrote, apropos of a large study that cast doubt on using glucosamine for arthritis, that she was sure it worked anyway, because it helped her dog. Also, her doctor told her "at least a third of his patients have benefited" from it. Does that figure sound familiar?
Well, you won't be hearing anything like that from me in 2008. Not that it will keep people from trying new amazing miracle oxygenated water. Studies show it treats depression, diabetes and impotence at least a third of the time. If you doubt it, just see how many ads pop up when you Google "laetrile."
© Newsweek, Inc.
A Big Dose of Skepticism: Those 'amazing new treatments' usually aren't so amazing.
By Jerry Adler
Newsweek
Dec 10, 2007 Issue
It's not too soon to start thinking about New Year's resolutions, and here's mine, as a medical writer: I will not report on any amazing new treatments for anything, unless they were tested in large, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind clinical trials published in high-quality peer-reviewed medical journals. If that means not telling NEWSWEEK's readers about, say, a new magnetized-water cure for osteoporosis, cancer and autism—well, there are infomercials to fill that gap. The risk that I might overlook the next Lipitor is outweighed by the danger of hyping the next laetrile, the discredited 1970s-era miracle cancer drug made from apricot pits that failed to cure Steve McQueen.
Since there are more than 4,000 medical journals in the world, being able to ignore the great majority of them will save me a lot of work. But that's not why I'm doing it. I was shamed into it by a new book from R. Barker Bausell, a biostatistician at the University of Maryland. When a researcher tests a new drug or treatment, Bausell supplies the statistical analysis that journalists demand to see in a serious scientific study, even if they don't understand a word of it. From about 1999 to 2004, he was director of research for UM's center to study complementary and alternative medicine. This is a scientific term for "something you heard about from your hairdresser, who thinks she saw it on 'Oprah' "—a category that by Bausell's reckoning includes acupuncture, homeopathy, healing magnets and assorted herbs and supplements. Most of the treatments he encountered were for subjective conditions such as pain or depression. These are especially sensitive to the placebo effect, the tendency of some patients in clinical trials—typically about a third—to get better with fake magnets, inert pills or needles stuck in random places. Bausell thought the least you could ask of an actual treatment was that it work better than a fake one, but when he examined the studies critically, hardly any did. So he wrote "Snake Oil Science" to educate journalists and the public that "just because someone with a Ph.D. or M.D. performs a clinical trial doesn't mean that [it] possesses any credibility whatsoever … The vast majority are worse than worthless."
In fact, Bausell's book could give one the idea that the two most dangerous words in medicine are "studies show." Researchers, even those without a direct financial stake in the outcome of a trial, often have a psychological investment in what they're testing. Their papers get published because the editors of journals in fields like homeopathy start from the premise that the whole thing isn't a preposterous hoax, as Bausell and most mainstream doctors believe. If someone really does cure cancer—whether a drug company researcher or a Tibetan herbalist—The New England Journal of Medicine or The Journal of the American Medical Association will be happy to publish the news.
Even those who should know better can be fooled by personal experience. Joint pain typically waxes and wanes in cycles. People are most inclined to try a new remedy when the pain is worst, which is also just when it is about to start getting better on its own—but the magnet or the bracelet gets the credit. You should file such accounts under "anecdotal evidence," and then throw away the file. But journalists needing to liven up those dull statistics are notorious suckers for anecdotes—even a respected New York Times writer Bausell mentions who wrote, apropos of a large study that cast doubt on using glucosamine for arthritis, that she was sure it worked anyway, because it helped her dog. Also, her doctor told her "at least a third of his patients have benefited" from it. Does that figure sound familiar?
Well, you won't be hearing anything like that from me in 2008. Not that it will keep people from trying new amazing miracle oxygenated water. Studies show it treats depression, diabetes and impotence at least a third of the time. If you doubt it, just see how many ads pop up when you Google "laetrile."
© Newsweek, Inc.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
The Benediction of Stan Wilson, Pastor of Northside Baptist Church in Clinton, Mississippi
Practice the presence of Christ,
ponder the scriptures,
pray daily in private,
serve others in Jesus' name withholding no good deed,
spiritual or financial,
from widows and orphans, the poor and oppressed.
As you live this way you will find those
most needy of God,
you will find yourself,
and you will be found.
-- Author Unknown
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Missy introduced me to Sarah McLachlan many years ago, but I have only now begun to realize how ethereal and angelic is her voice. Here she sings an old Gordon Lightfoot ballad, "Song for a Winter's Night."
Monday, November 26, 2007
There is a neat little puzzle game on the internet called Grow Cube by Eyezmaze. It is free to play, but it will cost you your sanity until you unlock the solution. So, as a gift to you, I offer the solution via a YouTube user. The text solution is below.
people
water
trees
bucket
tube
fire
dish
bone
spring
ball
people
water
trees
bucket
tube
fire
dish
bone
spring
ball
Monday, November 19, 2007
Saturday, November 17, 2007
Thursday, November 15, 2007
"Joy may be a greater scandal than evil, suffering, or death. Some people have a realism that can come to terms with the darker side but cannot cope with something that seems too good to be true. Crucifixion was a fairly routine matter in the Roman Empire at the time of Jesus, but resurrection was not."
David F. Ford, "The Shape of Living"
David F. Ford, "The Shape of Living"
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Two years ago, a beautiful young lady took her own life...for reasons we are still not sure. I call her name today on her birthday to remind me how much I still miss her precious face and want to share in the pain that her parents and sister still feel. I offer up as both prayer and offering the words of grief and hope that Rev. Susan Meadors spoke at her funeral.
REMEMBERING
Elisabeth Marie Mosley
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
"See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away."
And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." (Rev. 21:1-5a)
We are gathered together in this place because grief has called us here and we need to be together. We need to wrap our arms around this dear, good family and love them today and in the days ahead. We need to be together and remember Elisabeth, to mark the gift of her life and her living, and her loving. We need to honor her, and cherish her memory and in the comfort of God through Jesus Christ and with the power of the Holy Spirit offer our memories to the healing and redeeming that only Christ can do. We are walking through the deep dark shadow of death and in our fear and the trembling and troubling of our hearts, we need to worship God, God who loves us, God who loves Elisabeth still; God who created us all and will sustain us always. We are here to worship God who raised Jesus from the dead, God who makes all things new among us and within us and beyond us.
Let us pray: Lift us up, strong Son of God, that we may see further; cleanse our eyes that we may see more clearly; draw us closer to yourself that we may ourselves be nearer to the one who is now with you. Amen.
We haven’t been able to breathe well since Wednesday morning’s news. We are looking for answers, some sense of what happened and why. The sad mystery of Elisabeth’s death and the dull aching emptiness just hurts. Each of us thinks of the last time we saw Elisabeth and what we said and did. We struggle with guilt over what we said or didn’t say, what we did or didn’t do recently or long ago. We would have wished to say goodbye and to say thank you to her for the gift her life was to us. The world is all askew. This should not have happened in a world in which we trust that a loving God is present. Our grief is bound up in all these feelings and questions, the answers to which we will not find today. There is no one to blame, none to fault. No matter what is said or done today, we cannot bring her back, but we can celebrate her presence among us, that God in his mercy and goodness gave her to us. We can comfort one another with our own stories of Elisabeth. And, we can look to God who alone can make of this unbearable sorrow something new, even hope.
To begin, the words of Psalm 23 speak to the reality that in the midst of all of this, God cares with a love that never ends, no matter where we go or what we do. This is the love that surrounded Elisabeth in life, a love that surrounds her in death and in the new life to which she has been raised and it is that love that surrounds us and carries us all in our grief. The good shepherd leads her now and cares for her gently. She is safe in the arms of God who knows her so well, who knows even the number of hairs on her head. God, who has long been acquainted with all her ways, who loves the unique person that she was, and delighted in her. Her life mattered to God and her death has grieved the heart of God, but God himself has welcomed her home. You will meet her again, but I do not think it will be to get the answers to questions, for at that meeting all questions will fall away, and there will only be love, a joyous reunion in love.
In the book of common prayer, there is a prayer to be prayed at funerals that asks this of God: that He redeem our memories. In the remembering of Elisabeth, in the telling of all those good stories you have of her, God in God’s mercy makes those stories powerful and healing. Remember is love’s healing work. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians says that the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort comforts us in all our afflictions, so that we may comfort one another and that means we remember.
The first time I met Elisabeth, she and her sister Emily enthusiastically told me about their pet corn snake, Colonel Corn. I immediately knew that these were some girls who would be interesting to know. I soon witnessed the fact that Elisabeth liked bugs and snakes and frogs and dogs and all living creatures, many of who she would bring home, especially if they were wounded or needed tender care. She loved nature, and being outdoors, playing with the neighborhood children, skateboarding, and running. She ran track and cross country and loved the friends she made while doing it best of all. She was funny, too, with a hilarious sense of humor, the kind that would tease you but always in a sweet kind way, with a twinkle in her eye, or a slow smile checking to see if you got it. And she could talk, like her momma, sometimes more than her momma, a fact of which she was proud. She loved her family, was loved dearly by them and was loving toward them, affectionate and sweet. Her grandparents enjoyed her visits, for she would always give them frequent hugs and kisses. She loved her friends, too and was a dedicated and loyal friend, cheering and celebrating their accomplishments. Two years ago Elisabeth was one of the youth counselors for the 1st and 2nd graders at our Vacation Bible School. She was a favorite of the girls and the boys because she was athletic and playful and kind to them. She was also just so much fun. I can see her so clearly playing with them a game of keep-away on the playground, continuing the play inside the room and sheepishly grinning and laughing at us teachers as we tried to bring order to happy childish chaos. She was the instigator of their fun and she seemed to be having as much fun as anyone. Small wonder that so many of you expressed last night that Elisabeth was the best kind of babysitter, the first choice of your children. Just last week I saw that she was again a youth counselor, helping this time at Camp Invention at Eastside Elementary School, having fun with the children there, being playful and yet being kind and loving Elisabeth. I wonder if she knew how much she meant to those children, to all of us. In all of her kind and loving ways she bore the marks of the good Shepherd; she was a good and caring shepherd in her love of children and in her love of her friends, in all her loving.
Ken and Teresa, you taught her well. And if she could speak today, she would tell you she loves you, she would say thank you, and I think she would say, "I am so sorry Momma and Daddy, for putting you through all of this pain" And Emily, she would tell you she loves you and she would tell you to keep on being Emily, just exactly who you are. And to her friends I think she would say thank you, she loved you, and she would say, "Please don’t do this."
I remember July 1, 2001 as a good day. It was the fourth Sunday after Pentecost, the season of life, of hope where the church celebrates its birth and growth. Our church marked that particular Sunday by witnessing the baptism of Elisabeth Marie Mosley. She stepped into the baptismal waters with her pastor Big John Hendrix as we sang these words: Baptized in water, sealed by the Spirit, cleansed by the blood of Christ our King. Heirs of salvation, trusting the promise, faithfully now God’s praises we sing. Elisabeth went under the water and then John, wiping the water off her head or rubbing it in, said these words of blessing to her for all of us: Elisabeth, you are a child of this church and we are well pleased with you. Elisabeth smiled a shy sweet smile. I hold that image in blessed memory.
Finally, the pain of these days is a reminder that we live in a broken world. The world is God’s good creation and nobody loved its goodness or its beauty more than Elisabeth, but it is a broken world. Terrible things happen, and as followers of Christ’s way we affirm even with tears in our eyes that we will cling to hope, to the promise that someday, someday God will make of all of this something new. We will cling to hope, unimaginable today, that God will make of even this something new and whole and good. All things, things broken and lost to our touch, will one day be made new and fully present in their perfection. No power on earth can knit together the pieces of our hearts undone as they have been by the hard broken edges of life and by death, but the God who created heaven and earth can make those hearts altogether new. And when God makes all things new, then the earth and everything in it, even we ourselves, will be just as God has intended. That is our hope.
Elisabeth’s life and now her death have changed us, and we will never be the same again, but God will help us find a way to breathe again, to take another step, to carry on, to remember the good. God will help us remember the living, to care for one another for we are walking through a terrible tragedy and we need each other. And God will help us to remember Elisabeth, to find the way to where we can hold her in our hearts restored, beautifully whole, and at peace. "For the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd her and lead her to springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from her eyes." In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Prayer
LORD our God,
the death of our dear one Elisabeth
reminds us we are human
and our lives on earth are brief.
But for those who believe in your love
death is not the end,
Nor does it destroy the bonds
that you forge in our lives.
We share the faith of your Son’s disciples
and the hope of the children of God.
Bring the light of Christ’s resurrection
to this time of testing and pain and heartache
as we offer thanks for Elisabeth
and pray for those who love her,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
REMEMBERING
Elisabeth Marie Mosley
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
"See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away."
And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." (Rev. 21:1-5a)
We are gathered together in this place because grief has called us here and we need to be together. We need to wrap our arms around this dear, good family and love them today and in the days ahead. We need to be together and remember Elisabeth, to mark the gift of her life and her living, and her loving. We need to honor her, and cherish her memory and in the comfort of God through Jesus Christ and with the power of the Holy Spirit offer our memories to the healing and redeeming that only Christ can do. We are walking through the deep dark shadow of death and in our fear and the trembling and troubling of our hearts, we need to worship God, God who loves us, God who loves Elisabeth still; God who created us all and will sustain us always. We are here to worship God who raised Jesus from the dead, God who makes all things new among us and within us and beyond us.
Let us pray: Lift us up, strong Son of God, that we may see further; cleanse our eyes that we may see more clearly; draw us closer to yourself that we may ourselves be nearer to the one who is now with you. Amen.
We haven’t been able to breathe well since Wednesday morning’s news. We are looking for answers, some sense of what happened and why. The sad mystery of Elisabeth’s death and the dull aching emptiness just hurts. Each of us thinks of the last time we saw Elisabeth and what we said and did. We struggle with guilt over what we said or didn’t say, what we did or didn’t do recently or long ago. We would have wished to say goodbye and to say thank you to her for the gift her life was to us. The world is all askew. This should not have happened in a world in which we trust that a loving God is present. Our grief is bound up in all these feelings and questions, the answers to which we will not find today. There is no one to blame, none to fault. No matter what is said or done today, we cannot bring her back, but we can celebrate her presence among us, that God in his mercy and goodness gave her to us. We can comfort one another with our own stories of Elisabeth. And, we can look to God who alone can make of this unbearable sorrow something new, even hope.
To begin, the words of Psalm 23 speak to the reality that in the midst of all of this, God cares with a love that never ends, no matter where we go or what we do. This is the love that surrounded Elisabeth in life, a love that surrounds her in death and in the new life to which she has been raised and it is that love that surrounds us and carries us all in our grief. The good shepherd leads her now and cares for her gently. She is safe in the arms of God who knows her so well, who knows even the number of hairs on her head. God, who has long been acquainted with all her ways, who loves the unique person that she was, and delighted in her. Her life mattered to God and her death has grieved the heart of God, but God himself has welcomed her home. You will meet her again, but I do not think it will be to get the answers to questions, for at that meeting all questions will fall away, and there will only be love, a joyous reunion in love.
In the book of common prayer, there is a prayer to be prayed at funerals that asks this of God: that He redeem our memories. In the remembering of Elisabeth, in the telling of all those good stories you have of her, God in God’s mercy makes those stories powerful and healing. Remember is love’s healing work. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians says that the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort comforts us in all our afflictions, so that we may comfort one another and that means we remember.
The first time I met Elisabeth, she and her sister Emily enthusiastically told me about their pet corn snake, Colonel Corn. I immediately knew that these were some girls who would be interesting to know. I soon witnessed the fact that Elisabeth liked bugs and snakes and frogs and dogs and all living creatures, many of who she would bring home, especially if they were wounded or needed tender care. She loved nature, and being outdoors, playing with the neighborhood children, skateboarding, and running. She ran track and cross country and loved the friends she made while doing it best of all. She was funny, too, with a hilarious sense of humor, the kind that would tease you but always in a sweet kind way, with a twinkle in her eye, or a slow smile checking to see if you got it. And she could talk, like her momma, sometimes more than her momma, a fact of which she was proud. She loved her family, was loved dearly by them and was loving toward them, affectionate and sweet. Her grandparents enjoyed her visits, for she would always give them frequent hugs and kisses. She loved her friends, too and was a dedicated and loyal friend, cheering and celebrating their accomplishments. Two years ago Elisabeth was one of the youth counselors for the 1st and 2nd graders at our Vacation Bible School. She was a favorite of the girls and the boys because she was athletic and playful and kind to them. She was also just so much fun. I can see her so clearly playing with them a game of keep-away on the playground, continuing the play inside the room and sheepishly grinning and laughing at us teachers as we tried to bring order to happy childish chaos. She was the instigator of their fun and she seemed to be having as much fun as anyone. Small wonder that so many of you expressed last night that Elisabeth was the best kind of babysitter, the first choice of your children. Just last week I saw that she was again a youth counselor, helping this time at Camp Invention at Eastside Elementary School, having fun with the children there, being playful and yet being kind and loving Elisabeth. I wonder if she knew how much she meant to those children, to all of us. In all of her kind and loving ways she bore the marks of the good Shepherd; she was a good and caring shepherd in her love of children and in her love of her friends, in all her loving.
Ken and Teresa, you taught her well. And if she could speak today, she would tell you she loves you, she would say thank you, and I think she would say, "I am so sorry Momma and Daddy, for putting you through all of this pain" And Emily, she would tell you she loves you and she would tell you to keep on being Emily, just exactly who you are. And to her friends I think she would say thank you, she loved you, and she would say, "Please don’t do this."
I remember July 1, 2001 as a good day. It was the fourth Sunday after Pentecost, the season of life, of hope where the church celebrates its birth and growth. Our church marked that particular Sunday by witnessing the baptism of Elisabeth Marie Mosley. She stepped into the baptismal waters with her pastor Big John Hendrix as we sang these words: Baptized in water, sealed by the Spirit, cleansed by the blood of Christ our King. Heirs of salvation, trusting the promise, faithfully now God’s praises we sing. Elisabeth went under the water and then John, wiping the water off her head or rubbing it in, said these words of blessing to her for all of us: Elisabeth, you are a child of this church and we are well pleased with you. Elisabeth smiled a shy sweet smile. I hold that image in blessed memory.
Finally, the pain of these days is a reminder that we live in a broken world. The world is God’s good creation and nobody loved its goodness or its beauty more than Elisabeth, but it is a broken world. Terrible things happen, and as followers of Christ’s way we affirm even with tears in our eyes that we will cling to hope, to the promise that someday, someday God will make of all of this something new. We will cling to hope, unimaginable today, that God will make of even this something new and whole and good. All things, things broken and lost to our touch, will one day be made new and fully present in their perfection. No power on earth can knit together the pieces of our hearts undone as they have been by the hard broken edges of life and by death, but the God who created heaven and earth can make those hearts altogether new. And when God makes all things new, then the earth and everything in it, even we ourselves, will be just as God has intended. That is our hope.
Elisabeth’s life and now her death have changed us, and we will never be the same again, but God will help us find a way to breathe again, to take another step, to carry on, to remember the good. God will help us remember the living, to care for one another for we are walking through a terrible tragedy and we need each other. And God will help us to remember Elisabeth, to find the way to where we can hold her in our hearts restored, beautifully whole, and at peace. "For the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd her and lead her to springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from her eyes." In the name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.
Prayer
LORD our God,
the death of our dear one Elisabeth
reminds us we are human
and our lives on earth are brief.
But for those who believe in your love
death is not the end,
Nor does it destroy the bonds
that you forge in our lives.
We share the faith of your Son’s disciples
and the hope of the children of God.
Bring the light of Christ’s resurrection
to this time of testing and pain and heartache
as we offer thanks for Elisabeth
and pray for those who love her,
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Monday, November 12, 2007
"We live in a time of transition, an uneasy era which is likely to endure for the rest of this century. During the period we may be tempted to abandon some of the time-honored principles and commitments which have been proven during the difficult times of past generations. We must never yield to this temptation."
Farewell Address of President Jimmy Carter
Farewell Address of President Jimmy Carter
Sunday, November 11, 2007
"Ubuntu is a concept that we have in our Bantu languages at home. Ubuntu is the essence of being a person. It means that we are people through other people. We cannot be fully human alone. We are made for interdependence, we are made for family. When you have ubuntu, you embrace others. You are generous, compassionate. If the world had more ubuntu, we would not have war. We would not have this huge gap between the rich and the poor. You are rich so that you can make up what is lacking for others. You are powerful so that you can help the weak, just as a mother or father helps their children. This is God's dream."
Desmond Tutu, Beliefnet interview April 2004
Desmond Tutu, Beliefnet interview April 2004
Friday, November 09, 2007
"Grace is something you can never get but only be given. There is no way to earn it or deserve it or bring it about any more than you can bring about your own birth. Somebody loving you is grace. Loving somebody is grace. There is only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you reach out and take it. Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too."
Fredrick Buechner
Fredrick Buechner
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Minstrel Boy
An emotionally stirring and inspirational song, The Minstrel Boy was written by Thomas Moore (1779-1852) who set it to the melody of The Moreen, and old Irish aire. It is believed by many that Moore composed the song as a memorial to several of his friends he had met while a student at Trinity College and who had participated in the 1798 rebellion of the United Irishmen. One died in prison, another was wounded, and a third captured and hung. The song originally consisted of two verses. Due to its popularity, the song was a favorite of the many Irishmen who fought during the U.S. Civil War, primarily on the Union side. It was at this time that a third verse was added by unknown authors.
The Minstrel Boy to the war has gone
In the ranks of death you will find him
His father's sword he hath girded on
And his wild harp slung behind him
"Land of Song!" said the warrior bard
"Though all the world betrays thee
One sword, at least, thy rights shall guard
One faithful harp shall praise thee!"
The Minstrel fell, but the foeman's chains
Could not bring this proud soul under
The harp he loved never spoke again
For he tore its chords asunder
And said, "No chains shall sully thee
Thou soul of love and bravery!
Thy songs were made for the pure and free
And shall never sound in slavery!"
The Minstrel Boy will return we pray
When we hear the news we all will cheer it,
The minstrel boy will return one day,
Torn perhaps in body, not in spirit.
Then may he play on his harp in peace,
In a world such as Heaven intended,
For all the bitterness of man must cease,
And ev'ry battle must be ended.
"We too often forget that faith is a matter of questioning and struggle before it becomes one of certitude and peace. You have to doubt and reject everything else in order to believe firmly in Christ, and after you have begun to believe, your faith itself must be tested and purified. Christianity is not merely a set of forgone conclusions. Faith tends to be defeated by the burning presence of God in mystery, and seeks refuge from him, flying to comfortable social forms and safe convictions in which purification is no longer an inner battle but a matter of outward gesture."
Thomas Merton
Thomas Merton
"Busyness convinces us that there is always something else we need to be doing. Busyness exhausts, embitters, divides, and demoralizes the people of God. If we have not exposed this imposter virtue for what it is, then the reason is because so many of our congregational practices depend upon it."
Barbara Brown Taylor in Christian Century, July 26, 2005
Barbara Brown Taylor in Christian Century, July 26, 2005
“Be very careful if you make a woman cry, because God counts her tears. The woman came out of a man’s rib: Not from his feet to be walked on. Not from his head to be superior, but from the side to be equal. Under the arm to be protected, and next to the heart to be loved.”
From the Talmud, as quoted by Rabbi Marc Gellman
From the Talmud, as quoted by Rabbi Marc Gellman
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
Special Comment: On waterboarding and torture
SPECIAL COMMENT
The Presidency Is Now a Criminal Conspiracy
By Keith Olbermann
Anchor, 'Countdown'
updated 8:42 p.m. CT, Mon., Nov. 5, 2007
It is a fact startling in its cynical simplicity and it requires cynical and simple words to be properly expressed: The presidency of George W. Bush has now devolved into a criminal conspiracy to cover the ass of George W. Bush.
All the petulancy, all the childish threats, all the blank-stare stupidity; all the invocations of World War III, all the sophistic questions about which terrorist attacks we wanted him not to stop, all the phony secrets; all the claims of executive privilege, all the stumbling tap-dancing of his nominees, all the verbal flatulence of his apologists...
All of it is now, after one revelation last week, transparently clear for what it is: the pathetic and desperate manipulation of the government, the refocusing of our entire nation, toward keeping this mock president and this unstable vice president and this departed wildly self-overrating attorney general, and the others, from potential prosecution for having approved or ordered the illegal torture of prisoners being held in the name of this country.
"Waterboarding is torture," Daniel Levin was to write. Daniel Levin was no theorist and no protester. He was no troublemaking politician. He was no table-pounding commentator. Daniel Levin was an astonishingly patriotic American and a brave man.
Brave not just with words or with stances, even in a dark time when that kind of bravery can usually be scared or bought off.
Charged, as you heard in the story from ABC News last Friday, with assessing the relative legality of the various nightmares in the Pandora's box that is the Orwell-worthy euphemism "Enhanced Interrogation," Mr. Levin decided that the simplest, and the most honest, way to evaluate them ... was to have them enacted upon himself.
Daniel Levin took himself to a military base and let himself be waterboarded.
Mr. Bush, ever done anything that personally courageous?
Perhaps when you've gone to Walter Reed and teared up over the maimed servicemen? And then gone back to the White House and determined that there would be more maimed servicemen?
Has it been that kind of personal courage, Mr. Bush, when you've spoken of American victims and the triumph of freedom and the sacrifice of your own popularity for the sake of our safety? And then permitted others to fire or discredit or destroy anybody who disagreed with you, whether they were your own generals, or Max Cleland, or Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame, or Daniel Levin?
Daniel Levin should have a statue in his honor in Washington right now.
Instead, he was forced out as acting assistant attorney general nearly three years ago because he had the guts to do what George Bush couldn't do in a million years: actually put himself at risk for the sake of his country, for the sake of what is right.
And they waterboarded him. And he wrote that even though he knew those doing it meant him no harm, and he knew they would rescue him at the instant of the slightest distress, and he knew he would not die — still, with all that reassurance, he could not stop the terror screaming from inside of him, could not quell the horror, could not convince that which is at the core of each of us, the entity who exists behind all the embellishments we strap to ourselves, like purpose and name and family and love, he could not convince his being that he wasn't drowning.
Waterboarding, he said, is torture. Legally, it is torture! Practically, it is torture! Ethically, it is torture! And he wrote it down.
Wrote it down somewhere, where it could be contrasted with the words of this country's 43rd president: "The United States of America ... does not torture."
Made you into a liar, Mr. Bush.
Made you into, if anybody had the guts to pursue it, a criminal, Mr. Bush.
Waterboarding had already been used on Khalid Sheik Mohammed and a couple of other men none of us really care about except for the one detail you'd forgotten — that there are rules. And even if we just make up these rules, this country observes them anyway, because we're Americans and we're better than that.
We're better than you.
And the man your Justice Department selected to decide whether or not waterboarding was torture had decided, and not in some phony academic fashion, nor while wearing the Walter Mitty poseur attire of flight suit and helmet.
He had put his money, Mr. Bush, where your mouth was.
So, your sleazy sycophantic henchman Mr. Gonzales had him append an asterisk suggesting his black-and-white answer wasn't black-and-white, that there might have been a quasi-legal way of torturing people, maybe with an absolute time limit and a physician entitled to stop it, maybe, if your administration had ever bothered to set any rules or any guidelines.
And then when your people realized that even that was too dangerous, Daniel Levin was branded "too independent" and "someone who could (not) be counted on."
In other words, Mr. Bush, somebody you couldn't count on to lie for you.
So, Levin was fired.
Because if it ever got out what he'd concluded, and the lengths to which he went to validate that conclusion, anybody who had sanctioned waterboarding and who-knows-what-else on anybody, you yourself, you would have been screwed.
And screwed you are.
It can't be coincidence that the story of Daniel Levin should emerge from the black hole of this secret society of a presidency just at the conclusion of the unhappy saga of the newest attorney general nominee.
Another patriot somewhere listened as Judge Mukasey mumbled like he'd never heard of waterboarding and refused to answer in words … that which Daniel Levin answered on a waterboard somewhere in Maryland or Virginia three years ago.
And this someone also heard George Bush say, "The United States of America does not torture," and realized either he was lying or this wasn't the United States of America anymore, and either way, he needed to do something about it.
Not in the way Levin needed to do something about it, but in a brave way nonetheless.
We have U.S. senators who need to do something about it, too.
Chairman Leahy of the Judiciary Committee has seen this for what it is and said "enough."
Sen. Schumer has seen it, reportedly, as some kind of puzzle piece in the New York political patronage system, and he has failed.
What Sen. Feinstein has seen, to justify joining Schumer in rubber-stamping Mukasey, I cannot guess.
It is obvious that both those senators should look to the meaning of the story of Daniel Levin and recant their support for Mukasey's confirmation.
And they should look into their own committee's history and recall that in 1973, their predecessors were able to wring even from Richard Nixon a guarantee of a special prosecutor (ultimately a special prosecutor of Richard Nixon!), in exchange for their approval of his new attorney general, Elliott Richardson.
If they could get that out of Nixon, before you confirm the president's latest human echo on Tuesday, you had better be able to get a "yes" or a "no" out of Michael Mukasey.
Ideally you should lock this government down financially until a special prosecutor is appointed, or 50 of them, but I'm not holding my breath. The "yes" or the "no" on waterboarding will have to suffice.
Because, remember, if you can't get it, or you won't with the time between tonight and the next presidential election likely to be the longest year of our lives, you are leaving this country, and all of us, to the waterboards, symbolic and otherwise, of George W. Bush.
Ultimately, Mr. Bush, the real question isn't who approved the waterboarding of this fiend Khalid Sheik Mohammed and two others.
It is: Why were they waterboarded?
Study after study for generation after generation has confirmed that torture gets people to talk, torture gets people to plead, torture gets people to break, but torture does not get them to tell the truth.
Of course, Mr. Bush, this isn't a problem if you don't care if the terrorist plots they tell you about are the truth or just something to stop the tormentors from drowning them.
If, say, a president simply needed a constant supply of terrorist threats to keep a country scared.
If, say, he needed phony plots to play hero during, and to boast about interrupting, and to use to distract people from the threat he didn't interrupt.
If, say, he realized that even terrorized people still need good ghost stories before they will let a president pillage the Constitution,
Well, Mr. Bush, who better to dream them up for you than an actual terrorist?
He'll tell you everything he ever fantasized doing in his most horrific of daydreams, his equivalent of the day you "flew" onto the deck of the Lincoln to explain you'd won in Iraq.
Now if that's what this is all about, you tortured not because you're so stupid you think torture produces confession but you tortured because you're smart enough to know it produces really authentic-sounding fiction — well, then, you're going to need all the lawyers you can find … because that crime wouldn't just mean impeachment, would it?
That crime would mean George W. Bush is going to prison.
Thus the master tumblers turn, and the lock yields, and the hidden explanations can all be perceived, in their exact proportions, in their exact progressions.
Daniel Levin's eminently practical, eminently logical, eminently patriotic way of testing the legality of waterboarding has to vanish, and him with it.
Thus Alberto Gonzales has to use that brain that sounds like an old car trying to start on a freezing morning to undo eight centuries of the forward march of law and government.
Thus Dick Cheney has to ridiculously assert that confirming we do or do not use any particular interrogation technique would somehow help the terrorists.
Thus Michael Mukasey, on the eve of the vote that will make him the high priest of the law of this land, cannot and must not answer a question, nor even hint that he has thought about a question, which merely concerns the theoretical definition of waterboarding as torture.
Because, Mr. Bush, in the seven years of your nightmare presidency, this whole string of events has been transformed.
From its beginning as the most neglectful protection ever of the lives and safety of the American people ... into the most efficient and cynical exploitation of tragedy for political gain in this country's history ... and, then, to the giddying prospect that you could do what the military fanatics did in Japan in the 1930s and remake a nation into a fascist state so efficient and so self-sustaining that the fascism would be nearly invisible.
But at last this frightful plan is ending with an unexpected crash, the shocking reality that no matter how thoroughly you might try to extinguish them, Mr. Bush, how thoroughly you tried to brand disagreement as disloyalty, Mr. Bush, there are still people like Daniel Levin who believe in the United States of America as true freedom, where we are better, not because of schemes and wars, but because of dreams and morals.
And ultimately these men, these patriots, will defeat you and they will return this country to its righteous standards, and to its rightful owners, the people.
© 2007 MSNBC Interactive
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
This is so sweet…I wish I would have done something similar when I was young and crazy…as opposed to older and insane. When I was in college a group of guys made the freshmen play human space invaders by hurling water balloons and shaving cream bombs from the second and third floors of the dorm while the plebs slowly moved back and forth below, grunting a steady cadence.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Thursday, October 25, 2007
I guess I am just a nerd, but I find these warning labels totally hilarious...
Important Notice to Purchasers:
The Entire Physical Universe, Including This Product, May One Day Collapse Back into an Infinitesimally Small Space. Should Another Universe Subsequently Re-emerge, the Existence of This Product in That Universe Cannot be Guaranteed.
Caution:
The Mass of This Product Contains the Energy Equivalent of 85 Million Tons of TNT per Net Ounce of Weight.
Advisory:
There is an Extremely Small but Nonzero Chance That, Through a Process Known as 'Tunneling,' This Product May Spontaneously Disappear from Its Present Location and Reappear at Any Random Place in the Universe, Including Your Neighbor's Domicile. The Manufacturer Will Not Be Responsible for Any Damages or Inconvenience That May Result.
Public Notice as Required by Law:
Any Use of This Product, in Any Manner Whatsoever, Will Increase the Amount of Disorder in the Universe. Although No Liability Is Implied Herein, the Consumer Is Warned That This Process Will Ultimately Lead to the Heat Death of the Universe.
New Grand Unified Theory Disclaimer:
The Manufacturer May Technically Be Entitled to Claim That This Product Is Ten-Dimensional. However, the Consumer Is Reminded That This Confers No Legal Rights Above and Beyond Those Applicable to Three-Dimensional Objects, Since the Seven New Dimensions Are 'Rolled Up' into Such a Small 'Area' That They Cannot Be Detected.
Health Warning:
Care Should Be Taken When Lifting This Product, Since Its Mass, and Thus Its Weight, Is Dependent on Its Velocity Relative to the User.
Warning:
This Product Warps Space and Time in Its Vicinity.
Handle with Extreme Care:
This Product Contains Minute Electrically Charged Particles Moving at Velocities in Excess of Five Hundred Million Miles per Hour.
Read This Before Opening Package:
According to Certain Suggested Versions of a Grand Unified Theory, the Primary Particles Constituting This Product May Decay to Nothingness Within the Next Four Hundred Million Years.
Note:
Important Notice to Purchasers:
The Entire Physical Universe, Including This Product, May One Day Collapse Back into an Infinitesimally Small Space. Should Another Universe Subsequently Re-emerge, the Existence of This Product in That Universe Cannot be Guaranteed.
Caution:
The Mass of This Product Contains the Energy Equivalent of 85 Million Tons of TNT per Net Ounce of Weight.
Advisory:
There is an Extremely Small but Nonzero Chance That, Through a Process Known as 'Tunneling,' This Product May Spontaneously Disappear from Its Present Location and Reappear at Any Random Place in the Universe, Including Your Neighbor's Domicile. The Manufacturer Will Not Be Responsible for Any Damages or Inconvenience That May Result.
Public Notice as Required by Law:
Any Use of This Product, in Any Manner Whatsoever, Will Increase the Amount of Disorder in the Universe. Although No Liability Is Implied Herein, the Consumer Is Warned That This Process Will Ultimately Lead to the Heat Death of the Universe.
New Grand Unified Theory Disclaimer:
The Manufacturer May Technically Be Entitled to Claim That This Product Is Ten-Dimensional. However, the Consumer Is Reminded That This Confers No Legal Rights Above and Beyond Those Applicable to Three-Dimensional Objects, Since the Seven New Dimensions Are 'Rolled Up' into Such a Small 'Area' That They Cannot Be Detected.
Health Warning:
Care Should Be Taken When Lifting This Product, Since Its Mass, and Thus Its Weight, Is Dependent on Its Velocity Relative to the User.
Warning:
This Product Warps Space and Time in Its Vicinity.
Handle with Extreme Care:
This Product Contains Minute Electrically Charged Particles Moving at Velocities in Excess of Five Hundred Million Miles per Hour.
Read This Before Opening Package:
According to Certain Suggested Versions of a Grand Unified Theory, the Primary Particles Constituting This Product May Decay to Nothingness Within the Next Four Hundred Million Years.
Note:
The Most Fundamental Particles in This Product Are Held Together by a 'Gluing' Force About Which Little Is Currently Known and Whose Adhesive Power Can Therefore Not Be Permanently Guaranteed.
Please Note:
Some Quantum Physics Theories Suggest That When the Consumer Is Not Directly Observing This Product, It May Cease to Exist or Will Exist Only in a Vague and Undetermined State.
Please Note:
Some Quantum Physics Theories Suggest That When the Consumer Is Not Directly Observing This Product, It May Cease to Exist or Will Exist Only in a Vague and Undetermined State.
Warning:
This Product Attracts Every Other Piece of Matter in the Universe, Including the Products of Other Manufacturers, with a Force Proportional to the Product of the Masses and Inversely Proportional to the Distance Between Them.
Consumer Notice:
Because of the 'Uncertainty Principle,' It Is Impossible for the Consumer to Find Out at the Same Time Both Precisely Where This Product Is and How Fast It Is Moving.
This is a 100% Matter product:
In the Unlikely Event That This Merchandise Should Contact Antimatter in Any Form, a Catastrophic Explosion Will Result.
Attention:
Despite Any Other Listing of Product Contents Found Hereon, the Consumer Is Advised That, in Actuality, This Product Consists Of 99.9999999999% Empty Space.
Component Equivalency Notice:
The Subatomic Particles (Electrons, Protons, etc.) Comprising This Product Are Exactly the Same in Every Measurable Respect as Those Used in the Products of Other Manufacturers, and No Claim to the Contrary May Legitimately Be Expressed or Implied.
This Product Attracts Every Other Piece of Matter in the Universe, Including the Products of Other Manufacturers, with a Force Proportional to the Product of the Masses and Inversely Proportional to the Distance Between Them.
Consumer Notice:
Because of the 'Uncertainty Principle,' It Is Impossible for the Consumer to Find Out at the Same Time Both Precisely Where This Product Is and How Fast It Is Moving.
This is a 100% Matter product:
In the Unlikely Event That This Merchandise Should Contact Antimatter in Any Form, a Catastrophic Explosion Will Result.
Attention:
Despite Any Other Listing of Product Contents Found Hereon, the Consumer Is Advised That, in Actuality, This Product Consists Of 99.9999999999% Empty Space.
Component Equivalency Notice:
The Subatomic Particles (Electrons, Protons, etc.) Comprising This Product Are Exactly the Same in Every Measurable Respect as Those Used in the Products of Other Manufacturers, and No Claim to the Contrary May Legitimately Be Expressed or Implied.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Bible Stories by Kids
We all need a good laugh and these are enjoyable. A book titled Little Wonders by Mary Hollingsworth has stories concerning children. At the end of each year, we give the children pencils and paper and ask them to chronicle what they have learned in Bible study. This assignment never fails to elicit some intriguing responses. In case you're a little foggy on your biblical history, let our junior church students help you with this complete overview of the Bible, compiled from their essays:
In the beginning, which occurred near the start, there was nothing but God, darkness, and some gas. The Bible says, "The Lord thy God is one," but I think He must be a lot older than that. Anyway, God said, "Give me a light!" and someone did. Then God made the world. He split the Adam and made Eve. Adam and Eve were naked, but they weren't embarrassed because mirrors hadn't been invented yet.
Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating one bad apple, so they were driven from the Garden of Eden. Not sure what they were driven in though, because they didn't have cars. Adam and Eve had a son, Cain, who hated his brother as long as he was Abel. Pretty soon all of the early people died off, except for Methuselah, who lived to be like a million or something.
One of the next important people was Noah, who was a good guy, but one of his kids was kind of a ham. Noah built a large boat and put his family and some animals on it. He asked some other people to join him, but they said they would have to take a rain check.
After Noah came Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob was more famous than his brother, Esau, because Esau sold Jacob his birthmark in exchange for some pot roast. Jacob had a son named Joseph who wore a really loud sports coat.
Another important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name was Charlton Heston. Moses led the Israel Lights out of Egypt and away from the evil Pharaoh after God sent ten plagues on Pharaoh's people. These plagues included frogs, mice, lice, bowels, and no cable.
God fed the Israel Lights every day with manicotti. Then He gave them His top ten Commandments. These include don't lie, cheat, smoke, dance, or covet your neighbor's bottom (the Bible uses a bad word for bottom that I'm not supposed to say. But my Dad uses it sometimes when he talks about the President). Oh, yeah, I just thought of one more: Humor they father and they mother.
One of Moses' best helpers was Joshua who was the first Bible guy to use spies. Joshua fought the battle of Geritol and the fence fell over on the town. After Joshua came David. He got to be king by killing a giant with a slingshot.
He had a son named Solomon who had about 300 wives and 500 porcupines. My teacher says he was wise, but that doesn't sound very wise to me. After Solomon there were a bunch of major league prophets. One of these was Jonah, who was swallowed by a big whale and then barfed up on the shore. There were also some minor league prophets, but I guess we don't have to worry about them.
After the Old Testament came the New Testament. Jesus is the star of the New Testament. He was born in Bethlehem in a barn. (I wish I had been born in a barn, too, because my mom is always saying to me, "Close the door! Were you born in a barn" It would be nice to say, "As a matter of fact, I was.").
During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like the Pharisees and the Republicans. Jesus also had twelve opossums. The worst one was Judas Asparagus. Judas was so evil that they named a terrible vegetable after him. Jesus was a great man. He healed many leopards and even preached to some Germans on the Mount. But the Republicans and all those guys put Jesus on trial before Pontius the Pilot. Pilot didn't stick up for Jesus. He just washed his hands instead.
Anyways, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again. He went up to Heaven but will be back at the end of the Aluminum. His return is foretold in the book of Revolution.
We all need a good laugh and these are enjoyable. A book titled Little Wonders by Mary Hollingsworth has stories concerning children. At the end of each year, we give the children pencils and paper and ask them to chronicle what they have learned in Bible study. This assignment never fails to elicit some intriguing responses. In case you're a little foggy on your biblical history, let our junior church students help you with this complete overview of the Bible, compiled from their essays:
In the beginning, which occurred near the start, there was nothing but God, darkness, and some gas. The Bible says, "The Lord thy God is one," but I think He must be a lot older than that. Anyway, God said, "Give me a light!" and someone did. Then God made the world. He split the Adam and made Eve. Adam and Eve were naked, but they weren't embarrassed because mirrors hadn't been invented yet.
Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating one bad apple, so they were driven from the Garden of Eden. Not sure what they were driven in though, because they didn't have cars. Adam and Eve had a son, Cain, who hated his brother as long as he was Abel. Pretty soon all of the early people died off, except for Methuselah, who lived to be like a million or something.
One of the next important people was Noah, who was a good guy, but one of his kids was kind of a ham. Noah built a large boat and put his family and some animals on it. He asked some other people to join him, but they said they would have to take a rain check.
After Noah came Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob was more famous than his brother, Esau, because Esau sold Jacob his birthmark in exchange for some pot roast. Jacob had a son named Joseph who wore a really loud sports coat.
Another important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name was Charlton Heston. Moses led the Israel Lights out of Egypt and away from the evil Pharaoh after God sent ten plagues on Pharaoh's people. These plagues included frogs, mice, lice, bowels, and no cable.
God fed the Israel Lights every day with manicotti. Then He gave them His top ten Commandments. These include don't lie, cheat, smoke, dance, or covet your neighbor's bottom (the Bible uses a bad word for bottom that I'm not supposed to say. But my Dad uses it sometimes when he talks about the President). Oh, yeah, I just thought of one more: Humor they father and they mother.
One of Moses' best helpers was Joshua who was the first Bible guy to use spies. Joshua fought the battle of Geritol and the fence fell over on the town. After Joshua came David. He got to be king by killing a giant with a slingshot.
He had a son named Solomon who had about 300 wives and 500 porcupines. My teacher says he was wise, but that doesn't sound very wise to me. After Solomon there were a bunch of major league prophets. One of these was Jonah, who was swallowed by a big whale and then barfed up on the shore. There were also some minor league prophets, but I guess we don't have to worry about them.
After the Old Testament came the New Testament. Jesus is the star of the New Testament. He was born in Bethlehem in a barn. (I wish I had been born in a barn, too, because my mom is always saying to me, "Close the door! Were you born in a barn" It would be nice to say, "As a matter of fact, I was.").
During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like the Pharisees and the Republicans. Jesus also had twelve opossums. The worst one was Judas Asparagus. Judas was so evil that they named a terrible vegetable after him. Jesus was a great man. He healed many leopards and even preached to some Germans on the Mount. But the Republicans and all those guys put Jesus on trial before Pontius the Pilot. Pilot didn't stick up for Jesus. He just washed his hands instead.
Anyways, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again. He went up to Heaven but will be back at the end of the Aluminum. His return is foretold in the book of Revolution.
Monday, October 22, 2007
A question to myself...How has Katrina affected your life personally and professionally?
Hurricane Katrina profoundly affected my understanding of community. We are deeply interconnected to each other and to our environment. We need each other and rely on each other whether we want to admit it or not. During the storm and in its aftermath, neighbors took care of each other and complete strangers became good Samaritans. But I fear that we are drifting apart once again, fatigued by the need and frustrated by different visions of justice.
Our world, and especially our culture, does not seem to comprehend and appreciate community. While I cannot offer a concrete definition, I am referring to community that is defined by shared goals, shared hopes, shared needs, and shared resources. I am not talking about vapid utopianism or the nightmare of socialism; however, I am suggesting a deliberate effort to open ourselves to each other and recognition that the accomplishments of one are built upon the efforts of us all. We stand in such profound need of each other; yet continue to live as if everything we have and need can be provided by our hands alone?!
Katrina helped me realize that real community is rough around the edges, often difficult, and usually quite messy…but it is the only way for us to survive or, more importantly, for us to truly thrive. I pray a time will come when complete devastation of the Gulf Coast will not be what is required for us to be a community united.
Hurricane Katrina profoundly affected my understanding of community. We are deeply interconnected to each other and to our environment. We need each other and rely on each other whether we want to admit it or not. During the storm and in its aftermath, neighbors took care of each other and complete strangers became good Samaritans. But I fear that we are drifting apart once again, fatigued by the need and frustrated by different visions of justice.
Our world, and especially our culture, does not seem to comprehend and appreciate community. While I cannot offer a concrete definition, I am referring to community that is defined by shared goals, shared hopes, shared needs, and shared resources. I am not talking about vapid utopianism or the nightmare of socialism; however, I am suggesting a deliberate effort to open ourselves to each other and recognition that the accomplishments of one are built upon the efforts of us all. We stand in such profound need of each other; yet continue to live as if everything we have and need can be provided by our hands alone?!
Katrina helped me realize that real community is rough around the edges, often difficult, and usually quite messy…but it is the only way for us to survive or, more importantly, for us to truly thrive. I pray a time will come when complete devastation of the Gulf Coast will not be what is required for us to be a community united.
Saturday, October 20, 2007
A friend of mine, Lisa O'Sullivan -- CEO of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Wyoming, sent this to me. I usually do not respond to overly sweet and sappy stories, but this one really got to me for some reason:
This is one of the kindest things I've ever experienced. I have no way to know who sent it, but there is a kind soul working in the dead letter office of the US postal service.
Our 14 year old dog, Abbey, died last month. The day after she died, my 4 year old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could so she dictated these words:
Dear God,
Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick. I hope you will play with her. She likes to play with balls and to swim. I am sending a picture of her so when you see her You will know that she is my dog. I really miss her.
Love, Meredith.
We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven. We put our return address on it. Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven. That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at the post office.
A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter Yet. I told her that I thought He had. Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, 'To Meredith' in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, 'When a Pet Dies.' Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note:
Dear Meredith,
Abbey arrived safely in heaven. Having the picture was a big help. I recognized Abbey right away. Abbey isn't sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me just like it stays In your heart. Abbey loved being your dog. Since we don't need our bodies in heaven, I don't have any pockets to keep your picture in, so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to rmember Abbey by. Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you write it and sending it to me. What a wonderful mother you have. I picked her especially for you. I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much. By the way, I am wherever there is love.
Love, God
Thursday, October 18, 2007
A question to myself...What would people be surprised to learn about you?
I enjoy 70’s music…especially Funk. Something wants to move down deep inside of me when The Gap Band, Rose Royce, Kool and the Gang, The Dazz Band, and The Ohio Players start to “put the freak on!” The rest, I would rather keep between me and God!
I enjoy 70’s music…especially Funk. Something wants to move down deep inside of me when The Gap Band, Rose Royce, Kool and the Gang, The Dazz Band, and The Ohio Players start to “put the freak on!” The rest, I would rather keep between me and God!
A question to myself...What do you do for fun and why?
I enjoy tooling around in the garden. Building a raised bed, hoeing a row, and watching seed turn into fruit (only to have the bugs, birds, and raccoons eat everything) teaches me to be patient but always watching for first fruits. I enjoy playing PS2 with my son and playing house with my daughter. The life lessons my kids teach me are powerful and profound. Finally, I am on a quest to find the best chicken fried steak. So far in all of my journeys, the best is currently found in Quanah, Texas at the Medicine Mound Depot Restaurant on US 287.
Oh yeah...I also like to blog!
I enjoy tooling around in the garden. Building a raised bed, hoeing a row, and watching seed turn into fruit (only to have the bugs, birds, and raccoons eat everything) teaches me to be patient but always watching for first fruits. I enjoy playing PS2 with my son and playing house with my daughter. The life lessons my kids teach me are powerful and profound. Finally, I am on a quest to find the best chicken fried steak. So far in all of my journeys, the best is currently found in Quanah, Texas at the Medicine Mound Depot Restaurant on US 287.
Oh yeah...I also like to blog!
A question to myself... If you could be someone/something else for a day, who/what would it be and why?
I would want to be Robin Williams and Wayne Brady! Robin Williams astounds me with his wit, intelligence, and limitless humor. Wayne Brady is remarkable in his ability to turn random bits of information into intelligent song, dance, and improvisation. Both men use their intelligence and abilities in service of the human soul by creating laughter. I love to laugh and have been best restored through humor. If I could be like Robin and Wayne for a day, then perhaps I could lead others to life-restoring springs of laughter and drink deeply with them…until the water squirts out of our noses!
I would want to be Robin Williams and Wayne Brady! Robin Williams astounds me with his wit, intelligence, and limitless humor. Wayne Brady is remarkable in his ability to turn random bits of information into intelligent song, dance, and improvisation. Both men use their intelligence and abilities in service of the human soul by creating laughter. I love to laugh and have been best restored through humor. If I could be like Robin and Wayne for a day, then perhaps I could lead others to life-restoring springs of laughter and drink deeply with them…until the water squirts out of our noses!
A question to myself...If you had chosen a different career path, what would it have been and why?
At many different times, I have wondered if I should have been a physician. Science and mathematics were my forte in high school. I deeply enjoy learning about how the body works and the interconnected nature of our body, spirit, and mind. Perhaps medicine (science) and ministry (faith) are two sides of the same coin, rather than mutually exclusive interpretations of the human condition.
At many different times, I have wondered if I should have been a physician. Science and mathematics were my forte in high school. I deeply enjoy learning about how the body works and the interconnected nature of our body, spirit, and mind. Perhaps medicine (science) and ministry (faith) are two sides of the same coin, rather than mutually exclusive interpretations of the human condition.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
A question to myself...Describe your best/worst character traits and how you have adapted them to your career/personal life.
I have very high expectations for myself and others. I believe that each of us is endowed with great potential and must prove ourselves to be faithful stewards of our gifts and abilities. I believe that we owe everyone the best that we can offer at any particular time, especially our employer. I believe that we should provoke one another to be the best and expect the best from everyone with whom we come into contact. That particular trait, when applied correctly, produces high quality and abundant fruit; however, when applied unrealistically, it produces frustration, lays the groundwork for burnout, and treats people as a means to an end.
I also believe in second chances. I believe that I must be gracious and forgiving to others since I have been treated graciously and have been forgiven. Being gracious and forgiving does not make excuses for poor performance; rather, it forces us alongside each other into a role of mutual support rather than adversarial criticism. That particular trait, when applied correctly, produces a strong team and redeems what is best; however, when applied incorrectly, it enables excuses, degrades performance, and tickles my need to be a people pleaser.
I have very high expectations for myself and others. I believe that each of us is endowed with great potential and must prove ourselves to be faithful stewards of our gifts and abilities. I believe that we owe everyone the best that we can offer at any particular time, especially our employer. I believe that we should provoke one another to be the best and expect the best from everyone with whom we come into contact. That particular trait, when applied correctly, produces high quality and abundant fruit; however, when applied unrealistically, it produces frustration, lays the groundwork for burnout, and treats people as a means to an end.
I also believe in second chances. I believe that I must be gracious and forgiving to others since I have been treated graciously and have been forgiven. Being gracious and forgiving does not make excuses for poor performance; rather, it forces us alongside each other into a role of mutual support rather than adversarial criticism. That particular trait, when applied correctly, produces a strong team and redeems what is best; however, when applied incorrectly, it enables excuses, degrades performance, and tickles my need to be a people pleaser.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
A question for myself...What is one change you would like to see made in your profession?
The nonprofit sector is a wonderful field for vocational service. The good that we do truly sets our society apart from all others. Voluntary and legislative philanthropy, rather than large scale socialistic government services, enables people to do greater good. However, in as much as we serve those in need, there are those among us who prey on others under the guise of ministry and charity. I would like to see a strengthening of the integrity and character necessary to work within the nonprofit sector, but without overly burdensome government intervention. The nonprofit sector must adopt a higher standard and more stringent ethos that would cause any charlatan to run from the light. At least in the State of Mississippi, we have a Secretary of State who champions the role of nonprofits and holds them strictly accountable at the same time.
I have been honored to be a board member of the Mississippi Center for Nonprofits for the past several years. Our organization exists to strengthen the capacity of nonprofits to serve the people and communities of Mississippi. Several years ago, we embarked on a plan to establish principles and practices of nonprofit management for charities in Mississippi, and I was asked to help lead the process. Through a collaborative effort expertly facilitated by Mark McCrary, the MCNP Executive Director, we have listened to professionals in the nonprofit and for-profit business communities and formulated recommended practices in the areas of Planning and Purpose, Governance, Human Resources, Financial Management, Transparency and Accountability, Fundraising, Public Policy and Advocacy Communications, Information and Technology, Strategic Alliances, and Evaluation. Our goal was met to have the Principles and Practices of Nonprofit Management Excellence distributed at our annual conference on April 17, 2007.
The nonprofit sector is a wonderful field for vocational service. The good that we do truly sets our society apart from all others. Voluntary and legislative philanthropy, rather than large scale socialistic government services, enables people to do greater good. However, in as much as we serve those in need, there are those among us who prey on others under the guise of ministry and charity. I would like to see a strengthening of the integrity and character necessary to work within the nonprofit sector, but without overly burdensome government intervention. The nonprofit sector must adopt a higher standard and more stringent ethos that would cause any charlatan to run from the light. At least in the State of Mississippi, we have a Secretary of State who champions the role of nonprofits and holds them strictly accountable at the same time.
I have been honored to be a board member of the Mississippi Center for Nonprofits for the past several years. Our organization exists to strengthen the capacity of nonprofits to serve the people and communities of Mississippi. Several years ago, we embarked on a plan to establish principles and practices of nonprofit management for charities in Mississippi, and I was asked to help lead the process. Through a collaborative effort expertly facilitated by Mark McCrary, the MCNP Executive Director, we have listened to professionals in the nonprofit and for-profit business communities and formulated recommended practices in the areas of Planning and Purpose, Governance, Human Resources, Financial Management, Transparency and Accountability, Fundraising, Public Policy and Advocacy Communications, Information and Technology, Strategic Alliances, and Evaluation. Our goal was met to have the Principles and Practices of Nonprofit Management Excellence distributed at our annual conference on April 17, 2007.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
A question to myself...Why did you choose your career path?
I was raised in a family dedicated to service and ministry: My mother is a nurse and my father is a minister and ethicist. As a teenager I was called into ministry by my church and licensed to preach soon after. I entered college and seminary seeking clarification in my calling; but, the only clear calling I have ever received in my life was to get equipped for service and follow the teachings of Jesus as I serve. I am not sure if I ever chose my career path; but, I continue to grow into an understanding of service as a career. I am starting to think that service is a calling into limitless careers. Paralegal, accountant, nurse, teacher, salesman, politician, administrator, programmer, receptionist, et cetera can all be careers of service and ministry if understood correctly.
I was raised in a family dedicated to service and ministry: My mother is a nurse and my father is a minister and ethicist. As a teenager I was called into ministry by my church and licensed to preach soon after. I entered college and seminary seeking clarification in my calling; but, the only clear calling I have ever received in my life was to get equipped for service and follow the teachings of Jesus as I serve. I am not sure if I ever chose my career path; but, I continue to grow into an understanding of service as a career. I am starting to think that service is a calling into limitless careers. Paralegal, accountant, nurse, teacher, salesman, politician, administrator, programmer, receptionist, et cetera can all be careers of service and ministry if understood correctly.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
A question to myself...Who/what has been the driving force/motivation in your life?
Without hesitation the most significant driving force in my life has been the life and teachings of Jesus. However, I will not breakout into singing and testimony because following in the way of Christ has created more questions than answers. Like the bumper stickers purport, I suppose that Jesus is the answer; but, more realistically I believe that he is the problem. His gospel has created a huge tension in my life. Jesus taught that our God is a Father who loves us passionately and forgives us freely, but God also demands justice and seems inclined towards the poor, the sick, the hungry, the dying, the homeless, the depressed, and everyone or everything else that makes me uncomfortable when they or it will not easily go away.
The scandal of the cross makes my life uncomfortable. My chosen model in faith and practice is of a man who emptied himself of all power and authority and became a servant of all humanity. Every decision I have to make in my professional life is burdened by the belief that I should follow his example and his teachings. I do not have it all figured out…and I really doubt I ever will. In the mean time, I will try to be the best CEO of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Mississippi that I can be by granting wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy…that is enough to keep me motivated for now!
Without hesitation the most significant driving force in my life has been the life and teachings of Jesus. However, I will not breakout into singing and testimony because following in the way of Christ has created more questions than answers. Like the bumper stickers purport, I suppose that Jesus is the answer; but, more realistically I believe that he is the problem. His gospel has created a huge tension in my life. Jesus taught that our God is a Father who loves us passionately and forgives us freely, but God also demands justice and seems inclined towards the poor, the sick, the hungry, the dying, the homeless, the depressed, and everyone or everything else that makes me uncomfortable when they or it will not easily go away.
The scandal of the cross makes my life uncomfortable. My chosen model in faith and practice is of a man who emptied himself of all power and authority and became a servant of all humanity. Every decision I have to make in my professional life is burdened by the belief that I should follow his example and his teachings. I do not have it all figured out…and I really doubt I ever will. In the mean time, I will try to be the best CEO of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Mississippi that I can be by granting wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy…that is enough to keep me motivated for now!
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
A question to myself...What is the greatest challenge you’ve faced in your career/personal life and how did you overcome it?
When I began serving at Mustard Seed 5 ½ years ago, I inherited an organization with a great mission and a real reason to exist…to create a uniquely Christian community for mentally challenged adults. However, I quickly began to realize that there was a significant lack of cohesiveness among the families, board, staff, volunteers, and even donors. Trust was at an all-time low and communication among the different groups was poor. On several occasions the lack of common trust and healthy communication skills resulted in some very harsh personal criticisms leveled at me that created a significant amount of self-doubt and only reinforced my unrealistic desire to have everyone like me. The mission and my leadership were at risk because the people of Mustard Seed shared no common vision for the future.
In the midst of all that mess, I kept being called back to remember why I came in the first place. The Seedsters offered me a glimpse of Christian community that was not present in the “real world.” I deeply needed the level of grace and forgiveness practiced among them and wanted more people to share it too. I began to reach out and surround myself with those who where willing to practice and celebrate the community life present among the Seedsters. I submitted myself to the expertise of others and in return they allowed me to lead. Together we created an expectation that transparency, accountability, and stewardship would be practiced with love, grace, and forgiveness…at all levels. Slowly, and I must emphasize SLOWLY, trust was forged through hard work, we learned how to listen to each other, an expectation of fairness and love was enforced, and a vision for our quirky community began to form.
I am still learning lessons from the Mustard Seed, even as I have experienced a new call to serve the mission of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Mississippi. I think I was able to overcome most of the challenges by focusing on the following: Keep the mission first. Be willing to listen and remain open to change. Reach out for help if in need. Believe in yourself, but do not believe your own press. Do the right thing, even if few are. Practice hospitality. Treat others the way that you expect to be treated. Forgive. Love God with all that you are and love your neighbor as proof.
When I began serving at Mustard Seed 5 ½ years ago, I inherited an organization with a great mission and a real reason to exist…to create a uniquely Christian community for mentally challenged adults. However, I quickly began to realize that there was a significant lack of cohesiveness among the families, board, staff, volunteers, and even donors. Trust was at an all-time low and communication among the different groups was poor. On several occasions the lack of common trust and healthy communication skills resulted in some very harsh personal criticisms leveled at me that created a significant amount of self-doubt and only reinforced my unrealistic desire to have everyone like me. The mission and my leadership were at risk because the people of Mustard Seed shared no common vision for the future.
In the midst of all that mess, I kept being called back to remember why I came in the first place. The Seedsters offered me a glimpse of Christian community that was not present in the “real world.” I deeply needed the level of grace and forgiveness practiced among them and wanted more people to share it too. I began to reach out and surround myself with those who where willing to practice and celebrate the community life present among the Seedsters. I submitted myself to the expertise of others and in return they allowed me to lead. Together we created an expectation that transparency, accountability, and stewardship would be practiced with love, grace, and forgiveness…at all levels. Slowly, and I must emphasize SLOWLY, trust was forged through hard work, we learned how to listen to each other, an expectation of fairness and love was enforced, and a vision for our quirky community began to form.
I am still learning lessons from the Mustard Seed, even as I have experienced a new call to serve the mission of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Mississippi. I think I was able to overcome most of the challenges by focusing on the following: Keep the mission first. Be willing to listen and remain open to change. Reach out for help if in need. Believe in yourself, but do not believe your own press. Do the right thing, even if few are. Practice hospitality. Treat others the way that you expect to be treated. Forgive. Love God with all that you are and love your neighbor as proof.
Monday, October 08, 2007
Bill of Non-Rights
"We the sensible people of the United States, in an attempt to help everyone get along, restore some semblance of justice, avoid more riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior, and secure the blessings of debt free liberty to ourselves and our great-great-great-grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines for the terminally whiny, guilt ridden, delusional, and other cry-babies. We hold these truths to be self evident: that a whole lot of people are confused by the Bill of Rights and are so dim they require a Bill of NON-Rights."
ARTICLE I: You do not have the right to a new car, big screen TV, or any other form of wealth. More power to you if you can legally acquire them, but no one is guaranteeing anything.
ARTICLE II: You do not have the right to never be offended. This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone -- not just you! You may leave the room, turn the channel, express a different opinion, etc.; but the world is full of idiots, and probably always will be.
ARTICLE III: You do not have the right to be free from harm. If you stick a screwdriver in your eye, learn to be more careful; do not expect the tool manufacturer to make you and all your relatives independently wealthy.
ARTICLE IV: You do not have the right to free food and housing. Americans are the most charitable people to be found and will gladly help anyone in need, but we are quickly growing weary of subsidizing generation after generation of professional couch potatoes who achieve nothing more than the creation of another generation of professional couch potatoes.
ARTICLE V: You do not have the right to free health care. That would be nice, but from the looks of public housing, we're just not interested in public health care.
ARTICLE VI: You do not have the right to physically harm other people. If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim, or kill someone, don't be surprised if the rest of us want to see you fry in the electric chair.
ARTICLE VII: You do not have the right to the possessions of others. If you rob, cheat, or coerce away the goods or services of other citizens, don't be surprised if the rest of us get together and lock you away in a place where you still won't have the right to a big screen color TV or a life of leisure.
ARTICLE VIII: You do not have the right to a job. All of us sure want you to have a job, and will gladly help you along in hard times, but we expect you to take advantage of the opportunities of education and vocational training laid before you to make yourself useful.
ARTICLE IX: You do not have the right to happiness. Being an American means that you have the right to PURSUE happiness which, by the way, is a lot easier if you are unencumbered by an over abundance of idiotic laws created by those of you who were confused by the Bill of Rights.
ARTICLE X: This is an English speaking country. We don't care where you are from, English is our language. Learn it or go back to wherever you came from!
ARTICLE XI: You do not have the right to change our country's history or heritage. This country was founded on the belief in one true God. And yet, you are given the freedom to believe in any religion, any faith, or no faith at all; with no fear of persecution. The phrase IN GOD WE TRUST is part of our heritage and history and if you are uncomfortable with it, TOUGH!
"We the sensible people of the United States, in an attempt to help everyone get along, restore some semblance of justice, avoid more riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior, and secure the blessings of debt free liberty to ourselves and our great-great-great-grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines for the terminally whiny, guilt ridden, delusional, and other cry-babies. We hold these truths to be self evident: that a whole lot of people are confused by the Bill of Rights and are so dim they require a Bill of NON-Rights."
ARTICLE I: You do not have the right to a new car, big screen TV, or any other form of wealth. More power to you if you can legally acquire them, but no one is guaranteeing anything.
ARTICLE II: You do not have the right to never be offended. This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone -- not just you! You may leave the room, turn the channel, express a different opinion, etc.; but the world is full of idiots, and probably always will be.
ARTICLE III: You do not have the right to be free from harm. If you stick a screwdriver in your eye, learn to be more careful; do not expect the tool manufacturer to make you and all your relatives independently wealthy.
ARTICLE IV: You do not have the right to free food and housing. Americans are the most charitable people to be found and will gladly help anyone in need, but we are quickly growing weary of subsidizing generation after generation of professional couch potatoes who achieve nothing more than the creation of another generation of professional couch potatoes.
ARTICLE V: You do not have the right to free health care. That would be nice, but from the looks of public housing, we're just not interested in public health care.
ARTICLE VI: You do not have the right to physically harm other people. If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim, or kill someone, don't be surprised if the rest of us want to see you fry in the electric chair.
ARTICLE VII: You do not have the right to the possessions of others. If you rob, cheat, or coerce away the goods or services of other citizens, don't be surprised if the rest of us get together and lock you away in a place where you still won't have the right to a big screen color TV or a life of leisure.
ARTICLE VIII: You do not have the right to a job. All of us sure want you to have a job, and will gladly help you along in hard times, but we expect you to take advantage of the opportunities of education and vocational training laid before you to make yourself useful.
ARTICLE IX: You do not have the right to happiness. Being an American means that you have the right to PURSUE happiness which, by the way, is a lot easier if you are unencumbered by an over abundance of idiotic laws created by those of you who were confused by the Bill of Rights.
ARTICLE X: This is an English speaking country. We don't care where you are from, English is our language. Learn it or go back to wherever you came from!
ARTICLE XI: You do not have the right to change our country's history or heritage. This country was founded on the belief in one true God. And yet, you are given the freedom to believe in any religion, any faith, or no faith at all; with no fear of persecution. The phrase IN GOD WE TRUST is part of our heritage and history and if you are uncomfortable with it, TOUGH!
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