An Advent Reaction

So we got to visit a different church for worship on Sunday. At one point the pastor made a comment in passing that could've came across differently than I think she intended. And, it caused this Advent reaction in my mind:

Jesus didn't come to make a difference;
Jesus comes to make us different.

Make sure you're not just getting ready for Christmas Day--we have to also make sure we're getting ready for The Day Christ returns.

"Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way,
and may your whole spirit and soul and body
be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again."
(1 Thessalonians 5:23, NLT)

My [overdue] Shabbat Seven v2009.11.28

These are some of the more 'peculiar' (i.o.w. not the obvious) things for which I've been thankful this past week...

• Potluck dessert tables. / No explanation needed.

• That I actually went running over the weekend. / Twice. Outside. Proving once again that I'm in a different shape than I'm trying to be in.

• Fluxx game. / For a guy who likes knowing/playing/living the rules and games that depend on strategy & skill instead of randomness, this low-strategy-required game of ever-changing rules is a blast. (Props to Steve & Nicole for getting us in on this game.)

• Holidays. / Our Thanksgiving (& Christmas even more so) may be hectic, but I like the change of focus to family, relaxation, and giving thanks to Our Heavenly Father.

• JT in his tux AND that he walked all the way down the aisle AND that he stood up on the stage for at least half of the wedding. / He was way cute, but I wasn't too sure he would pull off those last two parts.

• Catching up with an old friend. / Last Tuesday was definitely the longest I've ever sat in a Qdoba for lunch. God be with you till we meet again, Sprock.

• Watching JT play with his cousin-to-be. / We're excited about T & C officially joining the family this spring.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

My Shabbat Seven v2009.NOV.21

These are some of the more peculiar (in other words, not the obvious ones) things I've been thankful for this past week...

• "Elmo's Cow". / This is what JT calls a Mexican Resturant in town officially called El Mezcal. I'm actually not the biggest fan of the resturant, per se. I am, however, amused by my son's rendering of the name.
• The writings of Eugene Peterson. / Some will recognize his name as being the translator of The Message version of the Christian Bible. If I were an author, I'd be Peterson-like. He's a thorough scholar, a careful pastor, a incurable nature-lover, and a true words-smith. In addition to reading Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, I currently use his little Praying with Jesus book to help keep my focused in the middle of my workdays.
• Wi-Fi. / I've realized today how many of my days (100%) are made more convient by this human invention.
• The Saint Louis Zoo. / After JT's followup checkup for his October surgery, we did a quick stop (he got to pick 3 animals to see) at the zoo. We're close. It's free. He loves animals. Gotta love it.
• InterACT, our small group. / All we did was rake somebody else's yard and have lunch together today, but I really like having these friends of ours.
• Making Chili. / Although Alison isn't as much of a fan of it as I think she was in our earlier years, it's still a favorite seasonal activity of mine. I do, however, have to be in the right mood. And ya know, it's really hard to actually mess it up.
• Facebook Thankfulness. / Yes, I normally don't like the chain-letter-like fads that get passed around through email and Facebook. And no, I'm not a participant in the daily posting of thankfulness. And no, I don't even read all of the gratitudinal content. Still, I commend all those who have taken up this November discipline. Good stuff.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

My Shabbat Seven v2009:NOV:14

These are seven of the more "peculiar" (in other words, not the obvious ones) things, I've been thankful for this past week...

• French silk pie. / Thanks to the venerable Karen Wilson, some us had a helping of this heavenly deliciousness last Sunday for A Night of Vision at church. Oo-la-la-love-it!
• Wikipedia. / So my 15 minutes of preparation for the Alton Band & Orchestra Builders Trivia Night included reading through Wikipedia's entry on the number "5." (The Marching 100's show was "5" after Beethoven's symphony, and their trivia night's always have a round that's a spin-off of their show's theme.) I read a few things. Alison said, "You know none of those things will be questions tonight?" I agreed. There were two. "Maroon 5" and how do you notate the number 5 in binary code--"101". I felted smartish.
• Illini basketball has begun. / Sure, they're playing schools whose basketball programs are not an even match right now. But it doesn't matter when it's my favorite sporting venue. Moreover, have heard how the Illinois football team is doing? Exactly.
• Homemade donuts. / Technically, this first try wasn't "from scratch". Still, I made them at home and they were yummy. I have a new culinary muse to experiment on every other weekend or so.
• My big rake. / It's not glamorous. It's not tasty. It's not even fun. Yet, this one single investment has exponentially simplified the autumn ritual of transporting the carpet of chlorophyl-deficient foliage from our yard to the wooded hillside behind our house. As I told a youth while raking leaves for an older member of our congregation, "Big Bertha is not just for raking leaves, it's for throwing leaves."
• Pere Marquette Park. / Getting out into the rawer corners of the American Midwest creation is very much a recentering activity for me...even if I'm towing my 3 1/2 year old most of the way up and down.
• Our Toyota Sienna minivan. / As I was vacuuming it out this past weekend, it was apparant that we really use (abuse?) our van a lot.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

My Shabbat Seven v11.06.2009

These are some of the more "peculiar" (not the obvious ones) things I'm thankful for this past week...

• Family raking day / Not only does this make my job easier this fall, but it was a couple hours of playful fun with my wife and son in the November, 70-degree sunshine.
• Unprompted & random "I-love-you-Daddy's" / Add to the half-pint words of affection the side of a half-pint head pressed up to the side of mine and a slight grin full of half-pint joy...it makes my heart smile. Nearly as enjoyable are the similar "I-love-you-Mommy's".
• Yahoo internet radio / Usually I can deal with the commercial interruptions that I can't skip because I used all my "skips" on the previous 2 or 3 commerical interruptions. And, I can listen to a variety of musical pleasures, like "Best of the 80's"; "Class Reunion 1997"; "Praise & Worship"; "Blues"; "Classical Standards"; "Jungle-Drum & Bass"; or "Oldies"...
• Making Christmas wish lists / It's the feeling of shopping without spending $1. (Yes, there occassionally is an exception to the "without spending" clause.) And, it's just another way that Christmas infects the pre-Christmas (even pre-Advent) season with hope...albeit a hollow, consumeristic version of hope.
• Jumper cables / You know what they're for. Yes, we had to use them this week. Enough said.

• "I don't wanna go home. I want to visit someone else." / This statement of JT's occurred after he helped me do a pastoral visit with an elderly woman who was in the hospital. I was proud that, though he was shy, he wasn't intimidated by her bruises and general hospital-stay disshoveledness. I was proud when it was apparent that his presence and interactions brought an extra amount of joy to her day. But then when I was at the end of my day & ready to do something "for me", I was blessed when this 3-year-old soul said he could do more of it. (BTW, this episode occurred minutes before the previous "jumper cable" episode.)
• Chili's "2 for $20" / We get an appetizer (for us it's always eat chips & dip), 2 entrees, and a dessert to share. Alison always gets two meals out of her entree. Thus, for this Donoho duo, it is actually "3 for $20"!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!