We arrived at Lagniappe Pres safe and sound today. Praise the Lord for blessing us with safe and quick travels. If it wouldn’t have been for a bad storm, which we nicknamed Hurricane Carlos, we would have made the world record. But you can’t win them all. Anyhow, thanks for praying for our safety.

We are situated in bunk houses with lots and lots of bunk beds, which is well air conditioned. I’m wishing I brought a comforter. There will be close to 220 people here by tomorrow night-maybe that will warm things up.

Most of us were surprised at the ‘look of the place.’ At first glance you would never think this was a church. The main church building is a warehouse, and everything from eating, to registering, to playing, to worshiping goes on here. Its really quite neat (sorry for that word, but its the best I could come up with after driving 650 miles today and operating on little sleep).

The team ate dinner tonight, got situated, and had a good bonding time over Scattergories.
Everyone is getting along very well, and enjoying each other’s company. Lights out are at 10 pm each night, so I have to go now to get ready for worship tomorrow.

I’ll post tomorrow to let you know about our Sunday activities. Thanks for your prayers.

The other day Penn State had several football players arrested. Not really that big news I know, football players getting arrested. But what was big news was the punishment for the crime. Instead of releasing these players from scholarships, or individually punishing the the players involved, Old Paterno had something else up his coaching sleeve.

On Sundays after home games, the football team has to clean up the entire stadium this fall season. That includes the coaching staff as well. Apparently they will get paid, but then put the money back into the the club athletics programs.

Paterno has been criticized for the move, but I think there is some method in his madness. These several football players haven’t just made a bad name for themselves, but for the program (I can’t remember the names of any of the players-even if they were released, you wouldn’ remember them by name). The good name of Penn State footbal, if it ever had a good name, was slandered by the offense of a few. And so to redeem or atone for that crime, the whole team is going to prove itself to the outside world that Penn State is in fact a respectable program.

What I admire about this incident is not necessarily the punishment, but the fact that Paterno recognized that the actions of the members of a team bring either glory or shame to that team. Individuals themselves may be forgotten, but the team is remembered-for better or for worse.

The same is true for the church today. The church of Jesus is slandered for the actions of its members. I don’t propose that we clean seats, and there is no way to atone for any of our sins except by the blood of Christ. But I do believe we ought to understand that what we do brings either glory or shame upon Christ. And those who hate the church (and I’m not exonerating them) often have been given reasons to do so by those claiming the name of Christ. So we may have to spend some time apologizing for the sins of others. Of course this is in addition to apologizing for our own sins. But this bit of good news: going to church on Sunday is better than cleaning seats-for ours have been made clean by one who came before us.

I saw this rather disgusting, picture of a catfish trying to eat a bastketball. Yes, a basketball. Apparently this catfish saw a delicious looking basketball floating on the surface (where most things float, I guess) and went in for a bite, or rather a gulp. The ball got lodged in the catfish’s mouth, and it was bobbing on the surface for a long time before rescue.

A compassionate husband and wife team drove their boat to the hapless fish, and eventually had to flatten the ball with a knife in order to remove it. This proves once and for all that catfish will eat anything-which is one reason why I don’t eat catfish (I know I’m being hypocritical because I like bacon-but at least I beat you to it).

I got to thinking after looking at the picture. I noticed an uncanny resemblance between people and catfish. Hear me out (or rather read me out) on this one. As needy and hungry people-and we all are-we have a tendency to fill our faces and hearts with anything that looks good. I’m assuming that basketball looked ‘good’ at the time, but in the end had the capability of destroying this ‘beautiful(I’m sure to some folks)’ creature. Likewise we often chase after things which look good, but are really quite harmful.

And sometimes its not until we really get stuck that we realize just how bad and destructive some things can be. So when someone else finds you ‘bobbing’ after you’ve filled your heart with something harmful, let them help you remove it. So when they break out the knife to help YOU break free, let them help you. And it never hurts to listen to others BEFORE we swallow basketballs as well. Just some words best spoken from one catfish to another.

I just had the ‘joy’ of mowing my yard yesterday. I can’t say ‘grass’ because my yard really consists of clumps of bahia grass here and there, along with weeds, clovers, leaves, and some fallen tree branches. I compare my yard to the face of a young high schooler.

It’s kind of cool when you first start to shave, much like it is cool when you first buy and use a mower in your very own yard (as much as paying a mortgage is ‘owning’ of course). But then after a while it starts to get old, much like mowing the grass.

And what makes it harder is that when you’re a young lad, facial hair doesn’t grow evenly. Often it comes in very patchy, much like grass on my yard. Some yards can grow for a while, just like some faces; in the end, you get a beard-and it makes you look older, suave, genteel, perhaps even sophisticated. My yard will never get a ‘beard,’ or look genteel. In fact, the best I hope for is some sort of pubescent, early teen, fuzzy mustache.

Because tall patchy grass looks a lot worse than evenly distributed tall grass, sometimes I wish it would never grow. But then would it cease to be a yard? Just some random, although cohesive I believe, thoughts on mowing the grass and shaving.

Last night for youth group (since only 3 youth actually came!), we decided to take a little ‘field trip’ to play disc golf. If you’ve never played this sport (I guess if golf is a sport, then this is as well), it inolves throwing discs which are similar to frisbee’s-0nly smaller and heavier-into a chained bucket on top of a small pole.

I resisted the trend for a while, but it really is a good time. Anyhow, the course where we play is often littered with big trees and branches that regularly knock down any disc which tries to pass through. Someone may throw a really good hard straight throw, and it might just barely nick a branch, and totally have its course redirected for the worse. Other times someone may throw the disc, which barely misses hitting 5-6 branches, and lands exactly where the thrower desired. Or it might hit a branch and actually have its course positively redirected.

No one is good enough to actually intend for the disc to do such things. And so when it does, we always say, “Its better to be lucky, than good.” Of course, by luck, we mean that God has providentially blessed the flight of the disc so that it lands in a commendable spot near the basket.

It’s hard to argue that it’s not better to be ‘lucky’ than good. Outside the disc golf course, we are so dependent upon God’s providential (that He powerfully preserves and governs all that comes to pass) involvement. Sometimes that can be comforting, and sometimes it can be humbling. We who are Christians are ‘lucky’ people because God promises to work all things for our good, which ultimately means making us more like Christ-which is a really good thing.

And when we succeed, we have to recognize that while God used our planning, gifts, skills, efforts, we are in the end ‘lucky,’ not ‘good.’ There are always many scenarios, often unseen or unrealized, that we end up passing through.

We are like the disc that just barely makes it through the branches. We don’t operate or depend upon our skill, but on ‘luck.”Good’ gives praise to the thrower; ‘lucky’ gives praise to the one who directs both the thrower and the disc. So in the end, “it is better to be lucky than good.”

On my last day in Richmond, my wife and I, and in-laws visited the Pamunkey Indian reservation. My wife Amy is 1/4 Pamunkey Indian, and her mom is 1/2, but they hadn’t been out to the reservation in some time. When we arrived at the Pamunkey museum, my mother-in-law began chatting with the ladies running it. They both knew of her mother and aunt, who at one time lived on the reservation. As we began to talk to these ladies, I was saddened over a number of actions taken against the native Americans.

My mother-in-law’s mother went to a public school, and was repeatedly sent home (in first grade!) because the teacher wouldn’t teach Indians. Another woman had to go to an Indian boarding school in another state to receive education.

Another of the women currently living on the reservation had to get married in North Carolina, because Virginia had a law against Indians intermarrying (she married a white boy). I also found out that my in-laws marriage wasn’t really legal either because that law wasn’t changed until 1968! Fortunately for them there was no documentation! Unfortunately for our kids (who would be 1/8 Indian), we can’t prove Indian blood for college scholarships!

All in all, it was a fascinating journey into the history of a forgotten people. But it was also a journey into some of the history white people like me would like to forget. Perhaps some repentance from the Christian community may put a few more Pamunkeys back in the pews (there was a small fairly unattended Baptist church on site). I’m sure much of the prejudice came from people claiming they knew a thing or two about Jesus. But I wonder if they really did.

“Are you ever really on vacation?
I mean you wouldn’t take a vacation
from reading the bible and sharing
the gospel would you?”– A para-church ministry leader

Someone shared these words with me after I gave a brief lecture on rest. Of course my thoughts, at least coherent thoughts, came together only after (isn’t this always the case!) our lovely conversation had ended.

Why not? Why can’t I go on vacation and not read my bible? Why can’t I go on vacation and not share my faith? What would happen? Would I come back from vacation, having to ‘make up for lost time,’ the way one would return to his/her work after a week away from it? Would God’s Kingdom ‘be put on hold?’ Absolutely not.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t bring my bible on vacation, nor do close myself off from non-believers and sharing opportunities.

I must confess that I’ve never had a vacation where my personal bible study has been more frequent than my normal attempted daily routine. I’m off my schedule. And that’s fine. I can still return refreshed, and God loves me just the same.

On the contrary, I have shared the gospel with folks several times because opportunities presented themselves while on vacation. But I didn’t do it because I ‘had’ to do it; I did it because God had arranged such an opportunity, and I felt led to do so. But I still ‘felt’ like I was on vacation.

So there comes a time when we can take a vacation, and it can be a real vacation. It may be a vacation where you don’t read the bible (although I would encourage you do so because it points us toward God’s grace and His goodness-I just read and prayed before writing this, but not for a long time!) or engage yourself in personal evangelism. If you do neither, God will still love you just as much, even on your vacation.

“Vacation…All I ever wanted
Vacation…Had to get away”- The Go Go’s

About a year ago my wife asked a church visitor, “Are you on vacation?” Her response was a little ditty that went something like this: “Heaven will be my vacation.”

I’m sure heaven will be quite the vacation, but that does not eliminate the need for vacations of some sort now. Even in the OT, Israel was supposed to give the land a break (literally a Sabbath-Lev 26:34). Jeremiah prophesied that the people wouldn’t return to the land after exile in 586 BC until the land had enjoyed its Sabbaths (II Chronicles 36:21). If the land itself needs a break, then I could argue that people ‘working the land’ (and that involves our vocations) would need it even more. Vacations, provided we have the time and money to take them, are wise investments.

I was visiting my father-in-law’s church this Memorial Day weekend, and was blessed by the sacrament of baptism (although it looked a little different than presented in this picture! ). If you happen to be presbyterian, then you embrace the covenantal nature of baptism. The child is entering into a covenant with God, and is now a member of His covenantal community: the church (of course he/she needs to express faith to enjoy all the rights of membership). But one thing often overlooked in baptism is the community’s responsibility to that child. We actually VOW (I know vows don’t mean much to most folks-but they should) to assist the parents in raising the child (that’s why we don’t have god-parents in Presbyterian circles). But how often do most of us abdicate any responsibility in nurturing that child? Volunteering for nursery, teaching Sunday School, assisting in youth ministry, mentoring, developing relationships with child and family, are all part of our covenantal responsibility. The question is how are we actually participating in, and living out what we say we believe, and have vowed to do?

I just witnessed an interesting interview on one of the morning shows. There was a 60 year old mother of twins, ecstatic about this time in her life. But the conversation didn’t really center around the newborns as it did around her (I know infants are notoriously bad interviews-that’s not what I was expecting).

The question asked by Meredith Vierra was something to the effect of “Why did you decide to do this?” Her response primarily dealt with one motivation: empowerment for women. She already has a 29 year old daughter, who has publicly voiced her disapproval of her mother’s actions. But this was an action to empower women all over, and we should get used to seeing more things like this. She was sending this ‘positive’ message to her daughter, even though it had presently fallen on deaf or perhaps ear wax filled ears.

Empowerment to do whatever you want despite the consequences or counsel to the contrary. This is the idol Covenant Seminary professor Jerram Barrs believes is most present in our society. I would have to agree.

I find it interesting that two different women can find the same motivation (empowerment despite counsel or consequence) and do two incredibly opposite actions: abortion or giving birth. By the way, I’m not a mysoginist; I struggle with this myself-of course it looks a bit different for me since I’m a dude.

By the way, that man in the picture isn’t the father, but the doctor. The husband was cropped out. Interesting, eh?