Protected: To Everything a Season

This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

Mars, Venus and an Iranian Marriage

Last week, two pals joined me for the Encore of this American Life’s broadcast via a network of theaters across the country.  It was aptly titled, “Return to the Scene of the Crime,” which we did apparently.  Ira Glass was enormously entertaining, as were each of the off-beat acts.  It’s theater of the mind; familiar territory for Lake Wobegonians.

Return to the Scene of the Crime

This week’s installment is equally funky – but exceptionally touching.  The theme is “Reunited (and it feels so good).”  Fire up your iPod or PC or MAC and tune in… An Iranian couple, after twenty-five years call it quits.  Their remarkable story is told by their daughter, Nazanin Rafsanjani, and well, trust me, you’ll be glad you listened to the whole thing.  Here’s a link.

Jack Kemp 1936-2009

News of the untimely death of the well-known and well-respected American got me, mainly because all my life, I’ve been asked if we are related.  Back when I was College Pastor at Ev. Free Fullerton, his son Jeff, who played backup quarterback for the Rams back then, would show up on Sunday mornings.  We talked enough for me to learn that while we both have roots in Canada, if we are related, it would take a talented genealogist to fins the connection.

Jack Kemp

Matt Lauer revisits mistaken identity

Our daughter, Candy and her husband Jamie are Taylor University alums.  When the tragic story of a crash on Interstate 69 resulted in the deaths of several TU students hit, I wrote a LeaderFOCUS essay and posted videos of the incredibly moving story of mistaken identity.  This morning, Matt L interviewed Whitney, her father and Laura’s surviving sister.

I’ve posted that video… it’s worth the time to reflect; to witness the warm testimony of living faith and watch especiually, Matt’s response to the family.

Enjoy.  MSNBC VIDEO

Seven minutes of pure inspiration

When Susan Boyle performed “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables before Simon Cowell on the UK version of American Idol – Brittain’s Got Talent, she brought down the house.  Take a break… watch it.

More on Susan Boyle

The Neo-Reformed Theologians

What a surprise to open up this week’s Time Magazine only to find the top ten mega-trends listed for consideration in this brave new post-collapse-of-the-global-economic-system world.  And what made it to #3?  Right behind “job as your best asset” and “recycling the suburbs”?  Check it out - 

The New Calvinism.

For some time now (actually for the last eighteen months) I’ve been trying to sort out the meaning of the revival of reformed theology in the evangelical movement across America popularized by the likes of John Piper and friends.  Turns out my alma-mater (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, IL) has been dominated by these reformed thinkers for a quarter century.   Along with the Southern Baptist Convention.  Christianity Today has noted this development within the movement.  Former TEDS theology professor and now at North Park College, Dr. Scot McKnight, calls this phenomena the emergence of Neo-Fundamentalists.  Predestination has made a big come-back: filling a void left wide open with the mass marketing of seeker-friendly Christianity.  While many but not all of these invaders smoke pipes and cigars and drink beer as a sign of their liberation from dispensationalism, they are hardly progressives.  Some of them are the new heresy hunters – the self-appointed guardians of orthodoxy.  And you’d better not cross them.

TIME’s David Van Biema considers their return to a Puritan-like version of Calvinism; calling up a vision of God rooted as much in Jonathan Edwards as biblical theology, to be a major force in this Brave New World following the onset of our current economic crisis.

A curious development.  Curious indeed.

For a balanced conversation on the subject, see Eugene Cho’s blog for a good discussion.

Barbara and Jenna Bush to Sasha and Melia Obama

The TODAY SHOW caught wind that the Bush daughters, Barbara and Jenna wrote an open letter to the Obama girls, Sasha and Melia, offering them some advice on their move into the White House.  The Bush twins were about the same age when their White House life began.  Today convinced the girls to read the letter – then they added a slide show.  It’s a powerful piece.  Every Dad needs to see this.  Enjoy!

WATCH VIDEO

Thanks for the birthday greetings!

It’s been a remarkable serendipity to have received so many kind words and best wishes on this yet another birthday.  (FACEBOOK got the word out!)  I must say that among my favorites was to hear three of our seven grandchildren (two more coming) sing their own rendition, one at a time, of the traditional “Happy Birthday” song.

The years pass more quickly now.  Each year brings its own surprise.  Twists and turns continue.  But our faithful God continues to lavish his grace and loving-kindess… with purpose, direction and friends.

Gran Torino

I was thinking about the movie during my workout this morning. I identified five discussion points in the story…. Around the themes of family, work, friendship, love, home.

1. Walt Kowalski’s family models the splintered American family: a veneer of cordiality, but contentious, distant, disconnected, annoyed. The Hmong family next door is a cultural contrast where children are welcomed and the elderly respected.
2. Walt’s work ethic is reflected in his collection of well organized tools, the condition of his Gran Torino and the essence of the message he passes down to his adopted son, Thao.
3. Walt’s two friends are his barber and a local building contractor; and then Sue Lor, the Hmong girl from next door who reaches out to him.
4. Walt’s loss (the death of his wife) is something he bears alone. He sees the gang-bangers as an affront to everything he cares about, but he passes along the high value of a love between a man and a woman to Thao.
5. He keeps his home and garden in good repair – and teaches Thao to do the same. It catches on in the neighborhood.

Religion is another element – both the traditions of Catholicism (sermonizing, memorial service, confession, etc) and the religion of the Hmong people play a role (baby dedication, “reading” by an elderly holy man).

But perhaps the most compelling element is the sacrificial death… More meaning to explore.

Letter Reading on M.L.K. Day

Thanks to a friend who forwarded me a link, I’ve just completed what I expect will become my way of remembering Martin Luther King on this annual national holiday established in his honor.

I read his “Letter from a Birminham Jail.”  (from April 1963)

It’s been a long time (sometime in the 1970s) since I explored the ten-page letter.  I think it impacted me then, but how much more so now.   From a prison cell in Alabama, King responded to a group of “moderate” clergy who released a letter of their own (A Call for Unity).

King’s command of language; his reference to biblical passages and characters, as well as theologians and philosophers, both contemporary and from the pages of history is compelling.  His passion for justice, his clarion vision of freedom and the cost of it and his determination to follow the dictates of his conscience engage the reader powerfully.  It is no wonder that King’s Southern Leadership Christian Conference sparked a movement that would bring segregation to the forefront of American life back in the sixties.  Civil Rights legislation was inevitable.

I’ll look on this document as evidence that the written word has enormous power to affect change.  His discussion of civil disobedience, his critique of a “disappointing” church, his challenge to clergy and his defense of an oppressed people stirs the heart, informs the mind and challenges the reader toward the courage of his/her convictions.

It’s inspirational reading.  Click on the link.  Find a quiet spot for a half hour or so.  See if you feel the same.

And now, on these eve of Inauguration Day, Dr. King must know.  The dream certainly is not fully realized, but my my my, what a step, a giant step, in that direction.