Lately, I have come across several news stories regarding evolution and the fossil record (IO9, Yahoo News, Life Science). Normally, this is not a subject that I spend a lot of time on unless I happen to be teaching a class on Genesis, but between the news articles and a fantastic piece from Rachel Held Evans’ summer “Ask a . . .” series (check the whole series out, they are great!) entitled Ask an Evolutionary Creationist, the topic has been on my mind.
Picard and Q on primordial earth from the ST:TNG episode “All Goog Things.” Q’s line as they look into the ooze where life is to begin is classic. “Aw, nothing happened.”
My cat coughed up a massive nasty hairball the other night.He was not trying to gross me out; he was just being a cat. In fact, he would have probably gotten sick if he had not been able to expel that hairball, so he got it out, and I cleaned it up. I did not scold him for not going outside to get sick. Afterwards, he felt a lot better, and fell asleep on my lap. The next day, he was out again keeping our neighborhood free of mice.
I use this blog as part of my journaling. Last year my goal was to make 24 posts (averaging two per month). This year my goal was 36 posts, and next year, my final goal is to write 48 posts in a year. I have achieved my goal for the year, and I still have four months remaining! I hope these have been edifying and enjoyable for those few of you that read my notes. Continue reading Goal Achievement→
The first few verses of Galatians chapter six are interesting. With the span of a few verses we have admonitions to both “carry each other’s burdens” (Gal. 6:2) and for “each one [to] carry his own load” (Gal. 6:5). In the church, being responsible for one’s own walk and being responsible for others is not an either or scenario.
Last Saturday I was planning on attending a wedding, as a guest, but less than two hours before the ceremony was to begin I received a phone call from the maid of honor, informing me that the person who was supposed to officiate the ceremony was in the emergency room, and requesting if I would conduct the ceremony. I chose to fill in, but now that I have more than one minute to reflect, I can ask myself if I ethically made the correct decision. Continue reading Messy Pastoring: To Perform or Not Perform a Wedding→
Usually I am several months ahead in coming up with potential research paper topics, but for the final two Wesley Seminary praxis courses (Congregational Spiritual Formation and Congregational Relationships) I have not come up with anything solid. This is especially frustrating because spiritual formation is supposed to be one of my strengths. Here are the two ideas I have been tossing around for spiritual formation.
Al Gore recently went into a rant over climate change. Someone’s use of profanity in their argument has never been particularly persuasive for me, but, in my opinion, it does not matter so much if one believes if climate change is human caused, naturally cyclical, or occurring at all, we still have a responsibility for creation care. Even if one believes that the world will go from bad to worse in every way until Christ returns, since we do not know when Christ will return, why not strive to live in a world that is moral, pleasant, and healthy?
A tragedy struck a man. An explosion had left him without hands or sight. Fortunately, he recovered from the accident, but one thing he regretted was that he could no longer read. Specifically, he wanted to be able to read the Bible. Hope came when he heard of a person who had learned to read Braille using her lips. He thought he could also learn to read Braille in that way, but he was disappointed. The burns on his face had so damaged the nerves in his lips that he could not feel the raised dots of Braille. However, as he experimented, he accidental stuck out his tongue and found that he could feel the Braille with his tongue. Thus he was able to eventually read the Bible again using his tongue.
