Ojowee

I have been working on my Master's Thesis lately and I am quite motivated and excited about my topic. My degree is in contemporary theology and philosophy and I am writing about open theism and its relationship to the Stone-Campbell movement (Church of Christ Churches and Christian Churches). Open theism could be summarized in several statements.

1. God loves the world and desires real reciprocal relationships between himself and his creatures.

2. God sovereignly chose to create a world in which humans experience significant freedom. Since God's goal is real reciprocal relationships with mankind, he grants humans with signficant freedom, and that freedom is a means to an end, namely reciprocal relationships.

3. Exhaustive, divine foreknowledge of the future is inconsistent with significant creaturely freedom. (How can God know what you or I will do tomorrow if we are significantly free?).

4. God faces a future that is partly open (because he cannot know the future free acts of humans) and partly closed (because God knows what he wants to accomplish and can bring it about according to his wisdom and almightyness).

5. God does not tightly control or micro-manage the world but exercises a general sovereignty of the world.

6. Mankind is a significant partner in the realization of God's purpose and dream for the world.

If you ask Xander what Daddy's thesis is about, he will tell you it is about Ojowee which is of course toddler speak for theology.

Exhale

Wow, that game last night wore me out, probably for the rest of the week. I watched the game at the house of one of the elders of our church, and I'm not sure if he was more entertained by the game or by me when I was jumping up and down and running around the room after that punt return. What a horrible game by the Bears, but we still managed the win with defense and special teams. Kinda reminds us of the 2005 Bears.

After watching the game and reflecting on the team, I am reminded of a line spoken about the bears, "If you are gonna beat the Bears, you gotta play a perfect game." That was true last night, let's see if it proves true for the rest of the season.

Hippo Monster

I watched the Ewok Adventure: Caravan of Courage about 50 times when I was a kid, so recently when I saw the double movie DVD of COC with the Battle of Endor I purchased it without even thinking. I loved this move and still do in spite of its lackluster production; it brings back many memories that I still laugh about with my brothers.

This movie has had quite a viewing here at our house lately. Now, of course the moment I arrived home with the DVD I forced Lyndsay to watch both of the movies, and she claims that they changed her life. That's probably an understatement. But here lately the Caravan of Courage has been viewed at least two time a week, by none other than Xander. He loves this show, and loves the ewoks. So far I've taught him to say wicket's name and the dad's name, Deej. We'll be working on the other names later.

The part that is so funny to me however, is that I think Xander's favorite part is when the Hippo Monster chases the children and then fights the ewoks in the morning. In case you are wondering, there is a very evil monster called the Gorax, who has captured the parents of the human children in the story. This evil Gorax has a nasty dog like pet that the Ewoks have to fight, and for whatever reason, each time the beast is shown Xander yells, "Hippo Monster." I don't know why he calls it that, but it cracks me up every time, even while I sit here typing, I am laughing.

So when we are driving in the car, or sitting around home talking, Xander starts to talk about the Hippo monster. And we talk about how Wicket "got" him with the poison dart, and we all get a chuckle. I can't believe that we are talking and laughing about a movie that I watched when I was a kid.

George Lucas uniting families for three generations.

Recent Photos

Healing Hands

Lyndsay has this amazing ability to fix the oddest items around the house, with absolutely no training in say, the field of electronics, yet can make electronic items function when they wouldn't otherwise. This ability seems to work on just about any item, electronic or otherwise.

Back when we were dating, we were at my parents house and the faucet in the kitchen wasn't' working right. I believe several attempts were made by my folks to resolve the situation, but they had been unsuccessful. Enter the future daughter-in-law. She walks up to the faucet, fidgets with it for a few minutes, and what do you know, its fixed. We all got a good laugh about it, for we all knew that she had no prior knowledge of fixing faucets. Then a few weeks later, she fixes my dad's watch, once again without having much knowledge of watch-fixing.

Since we've been married she has continued her string of genius. Our bedroom TV/VCR combo has had a little trouble powering up since Xander destroyed it by hitting the power button repeatedly and in rapid succession. Yet Lyndsay somehow figured out that if you hit the power button and the eject button with a combination of Hail Maries and Our Father's the television will come on.

Just last night her attribute kicked in once again. Two night ago, I was laboring in vain to get Xander's CD working right. It seemed that no matter what disc I placed in the player, it kept giving an error message followed by a no CD signal. I tried different discs, powering it down, a combination of opening the lid...Etc. Last night we are getting the little man ready for bed, when all of a sudden his CD player starts playing his night time music and Lyndsay says, "I fixed the CD player." I said, "How?!" She says, "I'm not telling." Dang Nabit.

I'm so jealous. I should be able to fix the faucet, watch, TV and CD player. But for some strange reason she is able to fix them and in the case of the CD player, she is not even sure what she did. We agree, that she must exude some kind of magnetic field that fixes all things electronic, which would explain the aforementioned fixes as well as the items in our house that have magically fixed themselves (which is a another story for another time story). I just wish she would lay her hands on my DVD player.

I guess instead of being jealous, I should be happy and be proud of my own heroic tales, like rescuing the tooth paste cap out of the sink drain with my needle nose pliers (flex). But for now I still have to ask my wife if she'll turn on the TV for me.

A Milestone Moment

Before

After

Mountain Top Experience

This is "Red Nose." I saw it everyday for about a week while I stayed in Colorado at the Blessings Ranch for a Ministry Excellence Week with 7 other pastors. This trip truly was a great trip that will help to sustain me over the long haul in ministry.

I've stated this a few times, but I really believe that in 10-20 years when I look back on the week I spent at the BR, I will still be able to say that the week I spent there was one of the best things I ever did. I feel as though I had been lagging behind in my walk with God and that my passion for ministry had tapered off. But this week renewed communion with God, energized me with passion for ministry, and has given me great hope for future ministry.

Of course it was very difficult to be gone from Lyndsay and the kids, but it was well worth it. It was great however, when I finally saw Xander again. I had met TWH and MKH at a halfway point between our homes (he had been staying at their home that week) and we made the exchange. He is always a little unsure of what is happening in those moments. He may not be sure that I've really come to get him, or if he's coming home with me. But when mema and papa drove away and we got in our car and started down the road, he began to cheer, saying, "Yeah Daddy!!" Of course I cheered back saying, "Yeah Xander!!" We cheered like this as we pulled out of Culver's, as we drove down the street, as we drove down Prospect all the way to the on ramp, and several miles down the interstate.

This was about 5 minutes of cheering for one another; it was hilarious and wonderful. It was like he really realized that his dad had really come for him, and was taking him home. And in the midst of that moment I realized that my interchange with my son mirrored the experience that I had all week long as a son with his Heavenly Father at the ranch, where I feel that God was cheering and smiling at me and I was cheering and smiling back.

Well things are getting back to normal around here. Lyndsay and I have managed to watch 3 whole discs of Lost Season 2 in an attempt to begin watching the third season in "real time." Xander has gone number 1 and 2 in the potty chair and Avery is starting to take cereal.

We were sitting around the table last night talking with Xander about Halloween, trying to get him to say "trick or treat," which he can say almost flawlessly. So Lyndsay decides to get him to say, "smell my feet," to which he would respond by dipping his head down towards his feet and taking a whiff in an attempt to smell his feet every time she said that. We finally got him to say, "smell my feet," but not without the dipping and whiffing. ROFL

Life is good, God is faithful, and children are such a joy. May God bless you this day.