Sandy G

Yesterday the world lost an amazing woman. My 11th grade English teacher, Sandy Gifford, died very unexpectedly. Her sense of humor, her integrity, her instruction, her wisdom, her smile, her laughter, her confidence in her former students, her friendship, her love for life - will all be missed.

Pray for her daughter Amy and the rest of her family. And, pray for her friends who are all grieving the loss of a good friend.

Books in 2012

The Bible
Anna Karenina - Tolstoy
The Lincoln Lawyer - Michael Connelly
Christianity for the Rest of Us - Diana Butler Bass
A Long Obedience in the Same Direction - Eugene Peterson
Faithful Citizenship - Greg Garrett
Death in Holy Orders - PD James
The Furious Longing of God - Brennan Manning
Ethan Frome - Edith Wharton
Mystery at the Haunted Caves - Penny Warner
Renew -
If the Church Were Christian - Phillip Gulley
The Church Tower Mystery - Michael Zimmerle
All Creation Sings - J. Ellsworth Kalas
Conspiracy in Kiev - Noel Hynd
O Little Town - Don Reid
Reflections on the Game - Thomas Hauser and Arnold Palmer

Hello again.

Wow. It's been almost six months since I wrote anything.

Normally I would do a check in of my 2012 goals and resolutions. But, I can tell you plainly that I fell way short. I read some, opened a savings account and started a second job. However, I wasn't very intentional about things this year.

So, that's the big thing for next year: BE INTENTIONAL.

1) Intentional about self-care. (Days off, vacation time away from home, diet, exercise, etc.)

2) Intentional about relationships. (Forming new relationships and repairing some that need work.)

3) Intentional about ministry. (Both hands-on ministry and training others to fulfill their potential in ministry.)

That's it. BE INTENTIONAL.

Hiatus

It's been a long time since I've written. I've been struggling with lots of health things and finally have some answers and an action plan. I've just finished my third book of the year (Anna Karenina). I'm way behind my reading schedule. But, I've started a new interim ministry position at another local church. Busy. Too busy. And, it's caught up with me. More later when life slows down a little.

Rain

rain pours down
covering everything in sight
nothing is exempt or safe
from its pounding

thunder rumbles shaking
everything to the core
lightening flashes in all
the hidden corners

deafening blows that leave
no room for clear thoughts
flashes so bright that
nothing comes into focus

boom, boom, boom
quickly shattering all that is
drip, drip, drip
slowly chipping away

The first week of Barth

One week into the year and I'm already behind. However, I take great comfort in the fact that I am doing this for fun and for personal enrichment and therefore and not bound by course restrictions or time tables for this reading.

I am not used to Barth's writing style yet. That may take a while. And, I often have to go back and reread sections or reread definitions to keep everything straight. I'm quite sure it doesn't really hurt me.

So here are some thoughts from the first week.

1) For Barth, dogmatics is a part of theology, a subset (or specific part) if you will. It focuses on the content of what the Church says about God. So, it would seem that his entire work is a study of what the church says (or how it talks) about God in respect to various aspects such as the Word of God, God, Creation, etc.

2) Barth is obviously engaged in a conversation (whether real or in his own thinking) between the Modern Liberalists and the Roman Catholic Church. This helps put his ideas into historical context, especially when we remember he was writing in the early 20th century. He bounces back and forth between the two groups as he makes his case for his understanding of dogmatics.

3) It was interesting to reflect on the section about the Church and Proclamation the day before preaching a sermon that came quite by the Spirit. I had written an entire sermon and woke up at 4am to wrestle with Spirit, ending in the rewriting of much of it.

I'm still working through exactly what Barth is saying about the above. It's taking some time to get used to his way of thinking and writing after a couple of years away from theological academia.

More to come...

Books Read in 2011

Every year I try to read widely. This year has been no different. But, I didn't make my goal of reading 75 books. I did read some rather lengthy works, however. Below is the list of books I've completed in the past 12 months in alpha order.

I have a long list for next year as well, including some daily reading items. Maybe I'll blog about some of them as I go along.

1) 13 Little Blue Envelopes

2) 55 Ways to Meditate

3) A Century Turns

4) A Dog Named Slugger

5) A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

6) AIDS2031

7) Back on Murder

8) Bullying

9) Cannery Row

10) Change the World

11) Change Your Church for Good

12) Civil Disobedience

13) Common Sense

14) Confronting the Challenges of Participatory…Media

15) Dancing in the Lowcountry

16) East of Eden

17) Fireflies in December

18) Five Fruitful Practices

19) Hostile Witness

20) In the Name of Jesus

21) Invisible

22) Les Miserables

23) Life is so Good

24) Love Me If You Must

25) Love Wins

26) On the Run

27) Pure Pleasure

28) Reaching People under 40 While Keeping People over 60

29) Recreating the Church

30) The Bible

31) The Equipping Church

32) The Handbag’s Tale

33) The Pursuit of God

34) The Wounded Healer

35) Up From Slavery

36) Number the Stars