translations

the food at tuggy’s: delicious

the atmosphere at tuggy’s: warm and joyful

the people at tuggy’s: creative, loving, interesting and nuts

we had venezuelan food and spent the evening with a bunch of friends, some of whom we hadn’t met before tonight. it’s always great to be with people who know how to play games and be creative like children. we played a bunch of group games and sang hymns to finish the night the right way. what a blessing!

i think that if i needed to describe my calling in life in specific, confined terms, i would say that i am called to worship God as a friend. i don’t really know how to make it any clearer than that.  i have found the pleasure of God most beautifully exemplified in the fellowship of His people as we enjoy life together.

now i will join my loving and generous wife for a good night’s sleep.

rambling, to a point

it’s been a long, long time since i’ve even felt like posting. it’s almost like i became allergic to blogging as soon as i lost my job. i must have been sick of telling people about my life every time someone asked about my job situation, and so i avoided using this even more impersonal medium to say trite things.

i don’t even know why i’m saying anything now, except that i was reminded today of how i started out blogging with the grand, noble thought that i’d be able to get people to think somehow, that i’d make a difference. and this is my only shot at that today. does this make a difference?

i filled out an application today for a news announcer position with wmbw, moody’s radio affiliate here in chattanooga. i talked with the station manager yesterday and he said to go ahead and apply, but that they’re interviewing an experienced candidate. i just wonder . . . without sounding cynical or disillusioned . . . what is God doing here? it’s not a question of if, but what.

since we have built up some good friendships in the area, and have a great church, we’re loath to leave for another city.  oh, and there’s the house that we’ve bought (that we were convinced the Lord had put everything in place for us to buy, timing and all).  surely He’d not have us buy it just to take it away?  but then i look at people who have a child and the Lord takes that child.  the house is infinitely less dear to us than adia is.

so if i can’t find work enough to support our mortgage and living needs, then what?

i was talking to God this afternoon and it struck me that the most important things that i wanted to ask Him about weren’t things that i could touch.  things like salvation and maturity and peace.  patience and trust make no difference to history, but all the difference to those to whom they are taught within history’s context.

and now, for my next trick

i will find a job.

last time most of you heard (unless amy or i spoke with you recently), i was grateful to my employer for having fired me, and had a job lined up to begin on the 13th. well, when i got there on the 13th, that “promised land” job was questionable and the department head (a friend of mine and fellow believer; i trust his assessment) told me he’d get back to me by the end of the week.

yesterday was the end of the week and i found out for sure that i wasn’t the right man for the job, and that they would have to create a position for me if they were to hire me anyways.

here we go off into the great unknown, and i’m sure that God will strengthen our faith as a result of this uncertainty. we have a new child, new house (mortgage), and we would much prefer to stay here in chattanooga. pray that the Giver will show us what good things He has in store for us soon.

peace.

this week…

we’re in chicago right now, visiting my family.

i think things here have gotten a bit out of hand.

plastic surgery might help.

we’ll be back in chatt on saturday.

little drummer boy

click here.

déjà view

so we were driving home from the midwife’s house tonight, and i saw a white bmw z4 pass us on the left. at that point i recognized the situation, and knew that the car would continue on past us as we went around a curve. i would change lanes (which i did), and follow it.

the part of the episode that got me thinking was the part where i saw in my head, before it happened, what the car would do next. it moved to the left side of the lane, touching the yellow, and i fought the impulse to follow the same track, as often happens when the car in front of me takes a certain track. then the bmw moved to the right side of the lane and touched the white line there.

here’s what gets me: i predicted exactly the way it would happen and saw in my head what it would look like full seconds before it happened. it wasn’t like i was remembering the experience as it happened. seems to me that there’s something more going on than just neurons firing wrong, events bypassing short-term memory, or one optical nerve taking longer than the other to report to the brain (all theories that have been postulated, according to wikipedia).

tell me what you think of my theory, which is completely unsubstantiated and sounds so far-fetched that c.s. lewis might even have had trouble using it in a book:

déjà vu is what happens when a person “falls out of time” for a split second. by “falls out of time,” i mean to say that for a short moment, the person sees current happenings as if they had already happened, and that it is no illusion. i was able to know what the bmw was going to do from the perspective of God, in a sense; it was certainly going to happen, and just needed to play out in time.

i actually feel a bit sheepish to say this, but until i’m in His presence and He explains it to me, i’m probably going to have a hard time convincing myself that this isn’t the case. i really do believe that déjà vu is one of God’s ways of showing us His character. we have a form of justice, a form of love, a form of holiness, etc., and all of those give us glimpses of the real thing. it could be that we have a form of timelessness . . .

now you can tell me i’m nuts, if you want.

no soup for you!!!

msnbc reports that las vegas has made a law against feeding homeless people in parks.

Residents complained that the large numbers of homeless gathering in the parks make it impossible for others to use them, said city spokesman David Riggleman.

“We’re trying to empathize with both camps,” he said. “We’re hoping we can improve their lives and improve the lives of people living around the park, some of whom have people urinating and defecating in front of their door.”

it would seem that charity isn’t welcome in public any more.

read the full story here.

thing

i have returned from my self-imposed exile! and the people all rejoice. d.

friday night was the opening of AVA's juried photo exhibit, and getting to see my entry on the wall with the rest of the excellent pieces was actually less thrilling than i thought it would be, maybe because so much time passed between when i was accepted and the actual exhibit. but in any case, i had a great time talking with the juror, some of the other artists, and some of you folks who stopped by before i ditched the party.

so the real reason i'm posting: john piper has responded to steve chalke's "the cross is cosmic child abuse" atonement rhetoric. please read his article. 

again!

well, perhaps another bloghost . . . 

for the first time ever . . .

i’ve decided that action is better than good intentions and it seems that i’ll actually be able to pay attention to this blog enough so that it’s updated a few times a day! there’s a big difference between having a blog and blogging, as i’ve learned in the past couple of months, with my three failed attempts coming to mind as i type. at least this one has a point to it – i’m not just typing random thoughts down, but i’m going to try to use it to exercise my brain. we’ll see!