Re-boot, re-launch, and re-move

After a hiatus of nearly five years, only rarely interrupted, I'm starting to blog again.  However, I'm not doing it here.  I'll be leaving this blog up, but I will be posting at my new site, Wholly Living.  I hope to see you there.

Impertinent question of the month

When people find out my wife and I have just had a son after three daughters, most of the time we get some form of the same basic reaction: "Oh, so you kept trying until you had a boy, huh?" In a lot of cases, I suspect it's people trying to make sense on their own terms of the fact that yes, we just intentionally had a fourth child—they can't imagine themselves doing such a thing, except perhaps with some particular and significant provocation. In a sense, it's not completely false; as it happens, we picked out a boy's name years and years ago, and we rather felt that it would be sad if we never met the person to whom the name belonged. Aside from that, though, we would have been just as happy with a fourth girl. The gender isn't the point.

I don't want this to come across wrong, because I believe male/female differences are real and important and valuable; I believe the reality of our two sexes, and the deeper and more profound reality of gender of which our biological sexes are a concrete instantiation, matters more than we know. But my children are not abstractions, they are not generalities, they are not case studies—they are themselves. They are particular specific people, and the fact that three of them are girls and one is a boy is very much part of that, but it's only part of who they are as whole people, and I wanted them for themselves.

Yes, they are created in the image of God, male and female, as are their mother and I; but that's not all that defines them. They are creators and destroyers; they are accomplished sinners and saints in training; they are capable of genius and prone to folly; and so am I all of those things as well, and heaven help all of us as I try my best to do my part to raise them to be better and more faithful and more loving disciples and friends of Jesus than I am. Trying for a boy? No, as well say we were trying for a pianist (though judging by his infant fingers, we might have managed that); we were trying to welcome the child God intended to give us in trust, as his stewards, to raise in his name and for his glory, to join the others whom he had already given us in the same way. It's not about us or what we want at all, it's about him.

Though I will say, it's nice to have a baby sleeping on my shoulder again.

Getting back on the horse

A couple days into October, I started having significant computer problems; I wound up having to get a new laptop, and what with one thing and another, it took a while—it was over a month before I had my new computer all set up and working the way I wanted. I did have computer access during that time, but it was somewhat limited, and so some things fell by the wayside. Including, obviously, this blog. Once I had the computer up and running, I should have gotten back to it, but I was completely out of the habit, and you know how busy November and December are for pastors . . . I do need to resume the discipline, however, and I'm finally stirring myself to do so. Keep at me. :)

An Observation on the Importance of Humility in Planning: With Special Direction to the Inadvisability of Premature Declarations of Victory

Yeah, the title's very 17th-century, but I’m in a weird mood.

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

—James 4:13-17 (ESV)

Oh, well . . . I’m starting to feel better, and I think I’m actually rolling on writing again, so . . . praise God.

Up periscope

I thought I got a version of this posted a couple weeks ago . . . oh, well. For those who've wondered, no, nothing's wrong; I just had a very busy July, then crashed the last week leading into vacation. I didn't really have the energy to write over my week off, so I didn't—actually, I didn't do much on the computer at all last week. (That might be one of the reasons it was a restful week.) I'd intended to get back to writing earlier this week, but circumstances have not permitted; still, I have some things I'm working on. (That's actually been part of the reason for my silence as well—I've been working on some longer pieces, and gotten rather bogged down.) The future is always contingent from our point of view, but it's certainly my intent to get rolling again this week.

Planting trees in the blight

Over a decade ago now, as a seminary student, I made a foray into inner-city ministry at a street mission in Vancouver, BC's Downtown Eastside. At that time, that neighborhood had the highest rates of drug addiction, HIV infection, and deaths from both of any neighborhood in the developed world. It was a grim place to be. My time there didn't end all that well, for a variety of reasons—one of them being that I discovered I'm not well gifted for that area of ministry—but when I left, I left carrying many people in my heart. I still think about them, and pray for them, and wonder how many of them are still alive. (Given the odds, I doubt even half of them are, but I really don't know.)

Now, apparently, there's a massive development project going on right within the Downtown Eastside, putting in both high-end condos and good-quality affordable housing, combined with other efforts to turn the area around (such as cleaning up Oppenheimer Park, which boggles my mind); the National Post has one of its reporters living in one of the condos for a month, writing about the development and its effects on the neighborhood. It's a fascinating series; I've linked to the oldest page of posts, and if you have a little time, I really encourage you to check it out and follow it up to his most recent pieces. It will be interesting to see how this story plays out over time; if this sort of project can bring meaningful renewal to a neighborhood like that—well, I wouldn't have believed it possible.

Hmmm . . .

What was that again about "the best-laid plans of mice and men"? I was going to get last Sunday's sermon posted on the sermon blog, and I had a couple posts I wanted to put up here—and instead, I discovered that Google has created some new and interesting template options for Blogger, and I wound up spending all my time playing with them. Well, tomorrow . . . Lord willing.

Programming note

I haven't gone anywhere, I'm not dead, and I'm not feeling overwhelmed by life; but I think my wireless card is going, as my connection has been sketchy, and I have been ill (though doing better today, it seems). We'll see how the day goes, but I have at least a couple things I'd like to finish up.

On a different note

For those who might be interested, I just finished a sermon series working along the lines of the Nicene Creed (though I didn't hit everything the creed affirms) and ending up today with a sermon on the Trinity. I think that's the first time I've ever preached a full sermon on the subject. The texts are all up on the sermon blog; the audio of the sermons can be found on the church website, though at the moment only the first six are up—this morning's message will be posted tomorrow (Lord willing).

Update: OK, the audio of yesterday's message is up.

Back in the saddle (I think)

Life has been pretty crazy of late—we've had several folks from the church hospitalized of late, and a number of equally serious non-medical issues pop up as well—and in the middle of it, my laptop wound up in the shop, leaving me cadging computer time where I could get it. Needless to say, I haven't had a lot of time to write, and the blog shows it. Whether the crisis situations will ebb or not, I don't know, but at least I have my laptop back; I hope to take advantage of that to get back to blogging again.

In the meantime, Clover has the new iteration of their website engine up and running, and I've been making some upgrades to the church's website; check it out. (No, I don't have audio up for the new sermon series yet—that was one of the things I haven't been able to do without my laptop. That should be up shortly.)

Shameless plug o’ the week

I haven't disappeared, I've just had several things conspiring to keep me from posting, including a lack of good Internet connection; I will be back to writing more soon. I did want to note, though, that the sermon audio on our church website is current through Easter, and I think I've finally made a breakthrough on some of the audio-quality issues—it's still not as good as I'd like it to be, but it's a long way better. I'm going to go back and clean up some of the stuff I've already posted, then set to work posting older series.

Not dead yet

Sorry I’ve been AWOL—it’s been a combination of being very busy, my computer acting up, and focusing my attention on a couple longer pieces which still aren’t finished. More will be coming shortly, I promise.

For the blessings of the evening

Every once in a while, I hear a sermon that really shifts me, one through which God speaks to me and works in me in such a way that I know I have been changed. I had that privilege this morning at the Worship Symposium as Laura Truax brought us the word of God; I'm going to listen to this one again once the audio is up, and take some time to reflect on it. For now, I'm just thanking him for a truly blessed day.

Dr. Jeremy Begbie's plenary address was also exceptional (as I expected); he's also giving the plenary address tomorrow, so I'll probably wait to write about that until I've heard both of them and had the chance to consider them together. I think what he had to say may well produce significant change in my sermon this Sunday, though. The three workshops I attended were also all excellent (I probably won't write about all of them, but all three were very helpful); and then I get to spend the evening with my brother-in-law and his family. God has definitely poured out riches on me this day, and for that, I am humbly grateful.

Memo: to you in the Jeep

When the road is blowing snow over snow frozen to slick pavement—don't tailgate.

Thank you.

Happy New Year!

Here’s hoping that 2010 is for you a time of great growth and blessing, when all the seeds of good things in your life begin to bear fruit, while the weeds in your life wither.

That was the year that was

Well, with all due apologies to T. S. Eliot, this is the way the whirl ends—not with a bang but a whimper. It's been two years since I posted that little in a month, and while I don't apologize for that, I don't want to make a habit of it, either. The discipline of writing has been good for me, and the discipline of thinking probably even more so; I know it's helped my sermon preparation, among other things.

I suppose the question is, has the blog been worth anything for its own sake? I think it has, though I might be biased on the subject. Obviously there were a lot of posts that simply took note of something or posted a video or were just for fun, but even those have their value; and I think that occasionally, at least, I managed to contribute something to the larger conversation. It may well be that the ultimate validation of this blog will come (or not) in whether I'm able to take any of the ideas that have sparked along the way for me and develop them further; but even if not, they're out there, and maybe they'll do some good.

Merry Christmas!

May your celebration of the Incarnation be filled with the joy and power of the Resurrection and the love and grace of the living Jesus.

Reflecting

As I noted last week, I've been sick, tired, and busy, which is a bad combination; at this point, there's nothing for it but to punch through Christmas, and then I can take some time to rest and recharge. Thinking about it, though, I realized that that's not the only issue: this interruption has knocked me off the discipline of writing. When I took up the thought of blogging as a spiritual discipline, that made a major difference in the frequency of my writing (as a look at the blog archive clearly shows), and I think it's done me some good; and part of that has been the most basic part of the discipline, that of just sitting down and posting something, even if I don't have anything particularly profound or significant to say. I've lost that in the last several weeks, and unfortunately, the last seven days of Advent aren't a great time to recover it, especially with a wedding to do right after Christmas. That, I think, will need to be part of my more general recovery time through the Christmas season proper. That discipline has been too valuable for me—I don't intend to let it go; and if it's occasionally been valuable to others as well, then so much the more reason.

So, yes, I'm still around, still breathing, and still experiencing an occasional flash when one neuron is willing to talk to another; and while I can't claim I'll be back to normal posting frequency tomorrow, I fully intend to be soon. In the meantime, God's richest blessings be upon you this Advent.

Note

Obviously, I haven’t been around much the last few weeks; between being busy, being short on sleep, and being sick, I’ve had little time or energy to be. I hope to have more time to write in the next couple weeks; we’ll see how that plays out. I certainly have things I want to write about, if I can get the brain space and schedule space to focus on them. In the meantime, at least I finally have audio for the whole James series posted over on the church website, so that’s something.

Further programming note

The last sermon in the series on James is now up over on my sermon blog (as can be seen as well from the post below this one, which was adapted from that sermon); I'm not as far along in getting sermon audio up over on the church website, but that should all be done within the next few days. As well, this morning's message, the first in this year's Advent series, is also up; I won't be excerpting these sermons on this blog, because their narrative structure doesn't really suit that sort of excerpting, but I'm quite fond of this series. Titled "The Women in His Life," it's a look at the women named in Matthew's genealogy of Jesus in the first chapter of his gospel—women whose inclusion in that genealogy was out of the ordinary, in more ways than one. Check out this morning's sermon, on Tamar, and you'll see what I mean.