Life in General | Writing and Living

I’ve been thinking and talking about my grandma all week. Today would have been her 100th birthday, and it’s been on my mind. Then, typical to me, I hadn’t thought about it at all this morning until my sister mentioned it. But this isn’t about me, it’s about her.

I have spent a good amount of time trying to locate a picture to share. I wanted a picture that really captures who she was, but every one I found was somehow lacking.

You see, she was so much more than a photograph could ever show. A photograph can’t capture her voice and her gestures, how she could be always moving, always doing, and at the same time so gentle. How her eyes could light up when you entered the room and make you feel that seeing you was the most important thing happening to her that day. How she could smile and nod and be so polite, but not suffer fools gladly. How she was always a lady, but never, ever fawning or weak.

I am thankful for all the women God has placed in my life as an example, but today I am especially thankful for her. I am thankful she was on this earth for nearly 98 years, and that I got to have her in my life until I was almost 38. I am thankful for the promise of Heaven, and for Christ’s sacrifice that makes it possible.

Here is the picture I settled on. She’s not looking at the camera, but out of all my choices, I think she would have been most happy with this one.

Happy Birthday, Grandma.

Subscribe to Writing and Living by email or in a reader.

Together for the Gospel, Day 1

April 10, 2012 in Life in General with 6 Comments

Day 1 of Together for the Gospel has been fantastic. I wish I had the brain power to blog about it properly, but I can’t. It’s midnight here, and I’m already on information overload. If you want detailed notes, Aaron Armstrong at Blogging Theologically has posted notes on all three sermons today. So head over to Aaron’s if you’re curious about talks by C.J. Mahaney (When a Pastor Loses Heart), Al Mohler (The Power of the Articulated Gospel), and Mark Dever (False Conversions: The Suicide of the Church). It also looks like you can watch the videos here.

The highlight for me was connecting or reconnecting with people who for most of the year are just pixels on a screen. First I attended Band of Bloggers, which was fun and edifying. Here’s picture I took with my phone. Sorry the quality is so poor, but it’s the best I can do:

(That’s Owen Strachan, Justin Taylor, Collin Hansen, Tim Challies, and Tim Brister.)

I also got to say hello to Cruciform Press founders Kevin and Bob (Tim was there too, but he was busy being on the panel). I also got to spend time with my friend Kim Shay and her husband Neil. Neil blogs at the Calvinist Gadfly, and Todd and I got to meet two of his fellow gadflies, David Kjos of The Thirsty Theologian and Pyromaniac Frank Turk.

So yes, the teaching has blessed me, but having the time to sit and talk has been my favorite part. Some other quick thoughts, since this is taking longer than I thought.

Here’s a picture I took from my seat of the crowd:

Lots of people. I’ve heard that the there are 8,000 people here, about 90% male. This means two things: short lines in the women’s restrooms, and awesome singing time. When over 7,000 male voices are belting out hymns like “The Solid Rock” it’s really wonderful to hear.

All in all, a blessed day. Now to get some sleep, so I’ll be ready for tomorrow.

Subscribe to Writing and Living by email or in a reader.

Got Questions?

April 9, 2012 in Life in General with 1 Comment

Last week a friend called me with a medical question. This happens from time to time, since before I started filling my days writing and raising children, I was what people refer to as a pharmacist.

The question was simple: “Does this problem warrant a trip to the doctor?” The answer was simple, too: “Yes, it does.”

As we hung up she said, “I’m sorry to bother you with a medical question.”

I guess I’ve developed a reputation, because I often don’t like fielding medical questions. This one, however, I didn’t mind at all. What, I wondered, was the difference?   I’ll pick on myself first. I didn’t mind this question because I knew the answer. I like to know the answer, so it’s uncomfortable to have to shrug my shoulders as say, “Heck if I know.” So yeah, there’s the pride thing.

But that’s not the only reason. You see, my friend really wanted to hear my answer.

In my experience, most people with medical questions have an agenda. They either want to be told that they don’t really have a problem or that a super-secret quick fix exists (or both). They seem to think that pharmacists and nurses have a stash of little-known home remedies that will take care of any problem.

Pfft. Your doctor’s a quack. It’s all a conspiracy hatched up by the pharmaceutical companies! You don’t really need to take that blood pressure/diabetes/cholesterol medicine!

Or…

Oh, that? Just rub some witch hazel on it and tie a packet of oak leaves around your neck. You’ll be cured in less than 24 hours.

So when the person looking for that answer instead hears either, “Your doctor’s right,” or, “I don’t know of any other solution than the one you’ve already been given,” they usually aren’t happy with the answers.

I’m not saying everyone has to agree with me and take my advice. I’m also not saying people shouldn’t ask for clarification if the answer doesn’t make sense. But there’s a point at which “asking questions” turns into “spoiling for a fight” and that just wastes everyone’s time.

I’m sure you’ve figured out that I have an application here. Because this mindset carries over into every aspect of our lives, whether it be religion or politics or where to go for lunch.

Sometimes it’s legitimate. I may not realize how badly I want to paint the living room red until Todd argues for blue. But I need to own that. Rather than pretending I want his advice, I need to switch to “I have my heart set on red, how do you feel about that?” Then we can go from there.

The most hurtful things I’ve encountered in the church were not when someone had an issue that they felt was a deal breaker and decided to go a different way, but when someone already had their mind made up and refused to admit it.

Disagreements are inevitable, and some things are worth fighting for. We just need to be honest about where we stand, instead of pretending to be seeking answers when we’re really just getting set to argue.

Subscribe to Writing and Living by email or in a reader.

Lord Willing

February 29, 2012 in Life in General with 3 Comments

When I went to bed last night, I thought I knew exactly how this morning would go. I was going to get up early, finish editing a short story I plan on submitting somewhere, and take my son to school. He had plans as well: up early to finish homework, then on to school.

Then tornado sirens jarred us awake at four o’clock in the morning, so we both slept later than we planned. I didn’t lay today’s clothes out last night, so in the rush I threw on a stained shirt and bleach-spotted yoga pants with frayed hems. Then he realized that something he needed for school was not where he thought it was and apparently not in the house. (In his defense, he had checked and been mistaken, so I couldn’t even lecture him–it’s the kind of mistake his mother makes all the time.) (Okay, I might have still lectured a little bit.)

I took my sloppily-dressed self and we made a quick trip to Walmart, getting him to school just after the bell. (The threat of his first tardy was less worrisome than the potential wrath of the later teacher.)

In other words, today has been a living object lesson for James 4:13-15:

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.”

In hindsight, we could have done better this morning. We could have gotten up as planned. We could have done a better job last night getting ready for the day. I would not have hit the snooze button if I had known a trip to Walmart was in the works. I would have gone to bed earlier had I known tornado sirens would wake me up at four.

Each decision we made seemed sensible in light of the information we had. I thought I was dressing for a morning of housework. My son thought sleeping later would only cost him a bit of free time. It’s tempting in hindsight to say “shoulda, coulda, woulda,” but in this case, it wouldn’t have changed much. It was just a series of honest mistakes stacked on top of things we couldn’t predict.

And all of these things, so, so minor in light of the devastation just east of us. (Ten deaths. So tragic.)

And another reminder that we aren’t the ones calling the shots.

Update: A peek through my blog history tells me on March 1, 2011, I spent the wee hours of the morning under a tornado warning as well. I might want to write that on next year’s calendar.

Subscribe to Writing and Living by email or in a reader.

The Christian Athlete

October 28, 2011 in Life in General with 0 Comments

I believe that God made me for a purpose. But He also made me fast, and when I run, I feel His pleasure. – Eric Liddell

For those of you who don’t follow baseball, the St. Louis Cardinals won Game 6 of the World Series last night. This is a big deal. It was the most exciting game of baseball I’ve ever seen in my life.

But I’m not going to talk about that now (even though I could go on and on (and on) about it).

I want to talk about the Christian athlete.

After the game, as I was basking in the glow of victory. Or, more accurately, trying to absorb what I had just witnessed and hoping my blood pressure would soon return to normal, I left the TV on for post-game interviews. During the interview, Lance Berkman shared that he’s a Christian and he always prays for peace and focus before a game. That’s not an exact quote because I was distracted by something else at the time, but I think that’s reasonably close to what he said.

I liked Lance Berkman before that, and hearing him say that made me like him more.

We love our Christian athletes, don’t we? We (as Christians) are excited when we hear a great athlete is a Christian, and adopt him as our hero. He’s one of us, after all.

Of course, there are always the people who point out that there are preachers and missionaries faithfully laboring for Christ in difficult circumstances. They aren’t getting glory and ridiculously high pay. Those are the ones who deserve our honor. That’s valid. We are a society who prioritizes the wrong things. All humans tend to do this, as James warned us about in James 2:1-4.

I don’t think, though, that it’s wrong to wish Christian athletes well. If these men are our brothers in Christ, we need to encourage them (1 Thessalonians 5:11) and rejoice with them (Romans 12:15), not begrudge their success.

But we need to be careful. The Bible specifically lists what qualifies a man to be a leader in the church. I have no idea if Albert Pujols, Lance Berkman, or Adam Wainwright meet these requirements because I don’t know them. I know how they play baseball, but being able to hit home runs or throw strikes is not listed in the requirements for elders found in Titus 1:5-9. We should not assume that because they are Christians who are gifted in baseball that they should then anointed special Christian spokesmen.

Like it or not, though, they have been given a public stage. We should pray for them and encourage them, and not be shocked when they stumble. I have seen Pujols get snippy with reporters when he’s being pressed hard to answer for something he did on the field. He does have a temper.

But so do I. My failures are just more private. If reporters started shoving microphones in my face every time I snapped at my kids or burned supper, I would probably be snippy, too.

I took the following quote from the Pujols Family Foundation website:

People have said to me, “Albert, I would give anything to be able to play baseball like you.” They may look at my abilities and think that being a great baseball player is the goal of my life. Believe it or not, baseball is not the chief ambition of my life. Becoming a great baseball player is important to me, but it is not my primary focus. Because I know the Hall of Fame is not my ultimate final destination.

My life’s goal is to bring glory to Jesus. My life is not mostly dedicated to the Lord, it is 100% committed to Jesus Christ and His will. God has given me the ability to succeed in the game of baseball. But baseball is not the end; baseball is the means by which my wife, Dee Dee, and I glorify God. Baseball is simply my platform to elevate Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. I would also rather be known as a great husband and father than an All-Star baseball player. Perhaps one day I could be honored with an invitation into Baseball’s Hall of Fame. That would certainly be a boyhood dream of mine come true, but it is a far greater honor that one day I will be in heaven with God to enjoy Him forever.

A great testimony from an imperfect man and astounding athlete. I wish him well.

Subscribe to Writing and Living by email or in a reader.

In Which I Am Flagged as a Baseball Expert

October 25, 2011 in Life in General, Writing with 2 Comments

A week or so ago I received an invitation to submit posts to a group blog. A sports blog. Seeing as how I’m a sports blogger and all.

Yes, you read that right. Some sort of internet trolling mechanism and its Google mojo flagged me as a sports blogger. This triggered a generic email inviting me to contribute to a sports site. This was not The Sporting News casting a wide net in search of the next great sportswriter; this was a glorified internet forum drumming up more traffic. I can see how it would happen. I mention baseball from time to time. I have apparently mentioned it enough times to “trip the sensors” so to speak.

I do love the St. Louis Cardinals. One can hardly grow up 100 miles outside of St. Louis and not love them. Two of my brothers-in-law love them, too. Since the weird overlapping of generations in my family brought both of these brothers-in-law into the family before I turned eight, they influenced me in this the way brothers would.

So I root for the Cardinals. I understand the rules of the game, and I have a decent understanding of elementary baseball strategy, but I can’t imagine a life as a sports blogger. Beyond sharing my opinion that the Cardinals never drop the “birds on the bat” uniform, I can’t imagine having enough to say.

And yet a few random keywords were enough for a web crawler to flag me as a potential expert. Isn’t it funny, this internet.

Subscribe to Writing and Living by email or in a reader.

Thankful Thursday

October 13, 2011 in Life in General, Mercy of God, Thankful Thursday with 1 Comment

It’s been quite a week. If I had to name it, I would call it “The Week of the Plumber.”

Since you probably didn’t click on here to read the ends and outs of our home repair woes, I’ll try to explain this quickly.

We had repairmen here to repair drywall, who found a bigger problem in the crawl space (which we would have otherwise been oblivious to for quite some time). Between the two problems I have had repairmen here for the past five weekdays, with about 40 hours without water thrown in just for fun.

Today I am thankful for RUNNING WATER.

It’s amazing how many things we take for granted. Things that are actually luxuries feel like entitlements when we don’t have them. I was working on a Sunday School lesson on trusting God (Ezra 8:21-36) when Todd announced that he was going to have to turn the water off. Such a minor thing compared to traveling from Babylon to Jerusalem, but suddenly so much more real.

Anyway, everything is fixed. And today, as far as I know, anyway, no repairmen will be coming. I may celebrate by staying in my pajamas.

Today I’m joining my friend Kim and some other bloggers in listing something I’m thankful for.

Subscribe to Writing and Living by email or in a reader.

Status Update

October 5, 2011 in books, Life in General, Status Report with 2 Comments

Sitting… on the couch.

Listening… to my youngest son fidget in his seat. It’s hard to sit still and do subtraction at the same time.

Waiting… on the handyman who was supposed to be here an hour ago. We had a pipe burst in the wall a ways back, and while the pipe was repaired right away, we still need to have the drywall replaced.

Wondering… why we have so much trouble getting people to do work for us. I know everyone deals with late repairmen, but we have had some doozies. I had one man promise me he would come and do some work “by the end of the week” for six weeks straight. Finally I called his wife and started to cry (didn’t intend to talk to his wife — she just answered the phone. And I didn’t mean to cry, either; it just happened.) He came the next day. He wasn’t happy with me and still looks the other way when I run into him around town.

Anticipating… tonight’s baseball game. Will this be the end of the Cardinals’ season, or will they continue to the NLCS…and then on to the World Series?

Deciding… which project to tackle on Saturday. The garage or the office? Both are in a sorry state. The weather will probably decide for me.

Reading…Lit! by Tony Reinke. I just got started, but I think I’m going to like it.

Also reading…Hannah Coulter: A Novel (Port William) by Wendell Berry. This is the first Wendell Berry book I’ve ever read, and I’m thinking I should have started reading his books years ago.

Hoping… that the dogs don’t get too restless. We put them in their kennel because we thought the drywall guy was coming. I can tell they’re getting restless. This may be a long day.

Realizing… that the fidgeting at the kitchen table has now become rolling the pencil back and forth. Guess I better get up and help somebody refocus.

Subscribe to Writing and Living by email or in a reader.

Weekend Recap

September 19, 2011 in Life in General with 4 Comments

Whew!

I had a great weekend speaking at our church’s women’s retreat. The last few weeks have been crazy busy around here. Then I came down with a cold. And though I had been thinking about this conference since spring, I couldn’t seem to find the time to go from “rough outline in my head” to “final outline down on paper.” But on Friday morning the clouds parted, and I somehow found time to finish up my notes and make a handout and a slide slow (and pack and finish the laundry and get the family settled so I could leave). I don’t know how I managed all that in one morning, but I’m grateful.

My theme was “Viewing Our Struggles Through the Lens of the Gospel.” Matthew 6:22-23 was my anchor verse of sorts, but I mostly taught from the book of Habakkuk. Have you read Habakkuk lately? You should.

It was around 30 ladies and our very brave Worship and Media Arts Coordinator, Ryan Corn. Being the only male in that group is not for the faint of heart. He handled it well, but he cut out pretty quickly once he finished the music.

Talking about the Bible and worshipping through music is good, but just being together is good, too. We still found time to laugh a lot. It was nice to have time to just be together. To the left is a picture of the championship team of our own version of “Minute to Win It.” Oh, look, I was one the winning team!

A great weekend. Thanks, friends.

Subscribe to Writing and Living by email or in a reader.