In the Long house we have a custom. Whenever we open a bottle of wine, everyone who partakes must sign the cork. We save the corks as a reminder of all the good friends and conversations that have taken place over the years in our house. To pull out the collection of corks is to remember goodness and count myself blessed.
We had an overnight guest this week who, though not related by blood, has been a family member for almost 15 years. We uncorked a 2005 Hook & Ladder Gewurstraminer. With the wine we had a small cheese flight which he, being an uncouth Carolinian mocked.
Having never heard of a cheese flight he, under the influence of only one glass of wine, made the cheese board "fly" around the room pretending once to be "Mission Control" in Houston, and another time provided "voice over" for radio conversation between the air traffic control tower and the "cheese flight." Needless to say, we laughed. Hard.
He signed the cork, put a cute phrase on it, and it now sits on the table before me, a tangible reminder that old friends are indeed like fine wine. They are both best uncorked.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Friday, October 27, 2006
Of Stardust and Hope
Not a Sermon - Just a Thought, October 27, 2006
Before the “boom box” there was the cassette recorder. I had one in the early 80’s and I spent almost every Sunday afternoon lying on the green shag carpet in front of my parent’s console stereo recording my favorite songs from Casey Kasem’s America’s Top 40 radio show. He counted down the hits, delivered the “Long Distance Dedication,” and told stories about the music stars. He was the music minister and I was a true disciple, holding out to the very end of the show to hear his famous sign off line, “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars!”
Casey taught me how to hope with that line. I didn’t know anything about Jesus at that age and my life at home wasn’t always the greatest. Yet the unbridled optimism of Casey resonated in my soul and I believed that there was always something better out there if I could just keep reaching for the stars.
So you can see why it didn’t surprise me at all to read the scientific theory that the metals in our bodies come from the stars. According to scientists any metal heavier than iron (which makes up hemoglobin) was formed in a super nova. If this theory is true then virtually every atom in our bodies is from former stars and the dust of the ground from which God formed us in Genesis 2.7 must be stardust. I like to think that hope is our elemental human existence, our star dust DNA if you will, reaching for the heights of heaven despite the gravitational pull of life on this earth.
The Apostle Paul believed that our hopeful “reach for the stars” emerged from suffering. In Romans 5 he tells us how suffering leads to perseverance, perseverance to character, and character to hope. I believe that God has hardwired us to reach for the stars by instilling us with hope to live life fully. And it is Jesus’ life and death and resurrection which have instilled within us the hope to live eternally. I say all that to say that if you are reaching for the stars, however that looks in your life, despite setbacks and disappointments, then you are living out of hope.
So, the next time a dark situation besets you, hold on to God and hold on to hope. And when someone asks you how you made it through you can tell them, “It was in my stars.”
Before the “boom box” there was the cassette recorder. I had one in the early 80’s and I spent almost every Sunday afternoon lying on the green shag carpet in front of my parent’s console stereo recording my favorite songs from Casey Kasem’s America’s Top 40 radio show. He counted down the hits, delivered the “Long Distance Dedication,” and told stories about the music stars. He was the music minister and I was a true disciple, holding out to the very end of the show to hear his famous sign off line, “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars!”
Casey taught me how to hope with that line. I didn’t know anything about Jesus at that age and my life at home wasn’t always the greatest. Yet the unbridled optimism of Casey resonated in my soul and I believed that there was always something better out there if I could just keep reaching for the stars.
So you can see why it didn’t surprise me at all to read the scientific theory that the metals in our bodies come from the stars. According to scientists any metal heavier than iron (which makes up hemoglobin) was formed in a super nova. If this theory is true then virtually every atom in our bodies is from former stars and the dust of the ground from which God formed us in Genesis 2.7 must be stardust. I like to think that hope is our elemental human existence, our star dust DNA if you will, reaching for the heights of heaven despite the gravitational pull of life on this earth.
The Apostle Paul believed that our hopeful “reach for the stars” emerged from suffering. In Romans 5 he tells us how suffering leads to perseverance, perseverance to character, and character to hope. I believe that God has hardwired us to reach for the stars by instilling us with hope to live life fully. And it is Jesus’ life and death and resurrection which have instilled within us the hope to live eternally. I say all that to say that if you are reaching for the stars, however that looks in your life, despite setbacks and disappointments, then you are living out of hope.
So, the next time a dark situation besets you, hold on to God and hold on to hope. And when someone asks you how you made it through you can tell them, “It was in my stars.”
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Stuff You Should Know About Kids
This list comes from the Youngest Sister's kindergarten teacher.
The Top 10 Worst Kid Birthday Party Games
10) Simon Cowell Says
9) Bobbing for Rocks
8) Red Poop/Green Poop
7) Dodgetraffic
6) Whack Grandma's Mole
5) Hide and No Cake
4) Pin the Tail on the Pitbull
3) Musical Potty Chairs
2) Mother, May I Puke?
...and the Number 1 Worst Kid Birthday Party Game...
1) Solve for X
The Top 10 Worst Kid Birthday Party Games
10) Simon Cowell Says
9) Bobbing for Rocks
8) Red Poop/Green Poop
7) Dodgetraffic
6) Whack Grandma's Mole
5) Hide and No Cake
4) Pin the Tail on the Pitbull
3) Musical Potty Chairs
2) Mother, May I Puke?
...and the Number 1 Worst Kid Birthday Party Game...
1) Solve for X
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Same Wind, Different Effect
My friend Doug Jackson (The Old Man from Scene 24), linked on the right, offered a nice post about a storm in Corpus Christi last weekend. It inspired me to write this.
The affect of wind upon humans is, of course, dependent upon which direction we are moving, not which direction the wind is blowing. A few Mondays ago I rode a strong southerly from Key West to Boca Grande Key on the bow of a 68 foot sail boat. It was smooth and exhilirating.
The same southerly blew in hard rain and nasty swells sometimes reaching 8-10 ft the as we sailed back the next day. It made me a lurching belly of sea sickness like I’ve never known.
Same wind, blowing the same direction. Different effect based upon my heading.
The affect of wind upon humans is, of course, dependent upon which direction we are moving, not which direction the wind is blowing. A few Mondays ago I rode a strong southerly from Key West to Boca Grande Key on the bow of a 68 foot sail boat. It was smooth and exhilirating.
The same southerly blew in hard rain and nasty swells sometimes reaching 8-10 ft the as we sailed back the next day. It made me a lurching belly of sea sickness like I’ve never known.
Same wind, blowing the same direction. Different effect based upon my heading.
Christmas in October
I sighted the first Christmas decorations of the 2006 shopping season today. Cabella was the first business to send their Christmas catolog this year, beating the rest of the pack on October 20. Right on their heels came L.L. Bean on the 23rd. You can bet more are on the way, already stacked up in some bulk mail distribution center in North Dakota.
I'd like to do something useful with these catalogs rather than start fires and cause many a postal worker's back ache. Something like what I came up with last year to deal with all those credit card offers that jam up my mail box. It makes me giddy to think about the havoc I am wreaking single handedly upon those multinational banking corporations that jack up the consumer debt by making credit cards too readily available.
I save the credit applications until I get about ten, then write "NO THANKS" with a big Sharpie across the applications. I send the application, along with the original mailing envelope, a few Val-Pack coupons, and a folded up grocery store sale paper, all in the postage paid envelope so conveniently provided by the credit card company.
Sometimes when I'm feeling really "mailicious" I'll write little notes like, "Would you mind recycling this for me?" on the application. Or, "Let's keep working together to keep the USPS in business." Or my favorite, "Hey, look at this credit card offer from Bank XYZ, it's much better than yours."
I realized after a few months there would be no backlash, so I got a little too mean and started to include things like the tops to milk jugs, wet paper towels, and small scraps of food from the dinner table. I thought the ketchup leaking through the envelope would stop the companies from sending the offers, but I was wrong. So I soldier on, quietly fighting the good fight against the man.
This year I'm thinking I'll include a few pages from the Christmas catalogs in my returned credit card offers. At least the poor guy removing the shreds of my over-stuffed envelope from the processing machinery at Citibank or Discover can enjoy the Victoria's Secret models.
'tis the season to spread Christmas cheer.
I'd like to do something useful with these catalogs rather than start fires and cause many a postal worker's back ache. Something like what I came up with last year to deal with all those credit card offers that jam up my mail box. It makes me giddy to think about the havoc I am wreaking single handedly upon those multinational banking corporations that jack up the consumer debt by making credit cards too readily available.
I save the credit applications until I get about ten, then write "NO THANKS" with a big Sharpie across the applications. I send the application, along with the original mailing envelope, a few Val-Pack coupons, and a folded up grocery store sale paper, all in the postage paid envelope so conveniently provided by the credit card company.
Sometimes when I'm feeling really "mailicious" I'll write little notes like, "Would you mind recycling this for me?" on the application. Or, "Let's keep working together to keep the USPS in business." Or my favorite, "Hey, look at this credit card offer from Bank XYZ, it's much better than yours."
I realized after a few months there would be no backlash, so I got a little too mean and started to include things like the tops to milk jugs, wet paper towels, and small scraps of food from the dinner table. I thought the ketchup leaking through the envelope would stop the companies from sending the offers, but I was wrong. So I soldier on, quietly fighting the good fight against the man.
This year I'm thinking I'll include a few pages from the Christmas catalogs in my returned credit card offers. At least the poor guy removing the shreds of my over-stuffed envelope from the processing machinery at Citibank or Discover can enjoy the Victoria's Secret models.
'tis the season to spread Christmas cheer.
Friday, October 20, 2006
Not a Sermon - Just a Thought, October 20, 2006
Baptists Get a Bad Rap
A recent poll conducted to find out if Southern Baptists were viewed favorably by the general public yielded mixed results. Generally speaking, they are more popular than the Mormons, but less popular than Catholics. What should be most alarming to the folk in the home office of the Southern Baptist Convention is that people under the age of 29 had a highly unfavorable view and were not likely to visit a church with “Baptist” in the name.
Among my non-churchgoing friends of many ages there exists a similar - if unscientifically derived - opinion that Baptists in general and Southern Baptists in particular are narrow minded, morally uptight, and exclusively Republican. Sadly, my friends have only the last two or three decades upon which to base their opinion. If they knew the principles upon which Baptists were founded they would know that Baptists historically have been open minded, tolerant of others’ beliefs, and politically aligned across the spectrum. In reality, Baptists have been great proponents of freedom for nearly 400 years.
- Freedom for an individual to stand before God with no creed as a measuring stick of orthodoxy.
- Freedom for an individual to read the Bible and interpret it on his or her own.
- Freedom for the church to be separate from the state – and from other churches.
- Freedom for all people to practice their religion no matter what faith basis they claim.
The conservative takeover in Baptist life over the last 30 years, replete with all the in-fighting and the bad sound-byte theology from the likes of Jerry Falwell, has done damage to the credibility and positive witness that Baptists had established in 400 years of existence. Follow these links and you’ll see what I mean:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Williams_(theologian)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Helwys
There have been more than a few occasions when I considered making the jump out of the Baptist frying pan into some other expression of Christianity, but I remain a Baptist because I understand from whence we came and where I hope we may one day return. I recognize that not all of you readers are Baptist, so I hope that my appreciation of my roots will prompt you to explore the meaning and mystery of your stream in the large and beautiful river of faith in Jesus.
If you’re interested in learning more about who Baptists are, then the sermon It’s Time to Rediscover our Baptist Heritage this Sunday at Willow Meadows Baptist Church might be for you. We’ll talk about the freedoms we need to reclaim as Baptists in order to live fully in the freedom of Christ described in Galatians 5.1. Worship gatherings are at 9:15 and 11:45 and Bible Study, covering this topic more deeply, begins at 10:30.
Freely,
Pastor Gary
Galatians 5.1-6, New International Version
Freedom in Christ
1It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
2Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. 6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Not a Sermon – Just a Thought is a weekly column written by me, Gary Long. You can subscribe or unsubscribe to this email list by contacting me at glong@wmbc.org. You can find this and recent issues of Not a Sermon – Just a Thought at www.thefellowship.info. That’s the site for the good folk over at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, so take a few minutes to peruse their stuff when you can.
A recent poll conducted to find out if Southern Baptists were viewed favorably by the general public yielded mixed results. Generally speaking, they are more popular than the Mormons, but less popular than Catholics. What should be most alarming to the folk in the home office of the Southern Baptist Convention is that people under the age of 29 had a highly unfavorable view and were not likely to visit a church with “Baptist” in the name.
Among my non-churchgoing friends of many ages there exists a similar - if unscientifically derived - opinion that Baptists in general and Southern Baptists in particular are narrow minded, morally uptight, and exclusively Republican. Sadly, my friends have only the last two or three decades upon which to base their opinion. If they knew the principles upon which Baptists were founded they would know that Baptists historically have been open minded, tolerant of others’ beliefs, and politically aligned across the spectrum. In reality, Baptists have been great proponents of freedom for nearly 400 years.
- Freedom for an individual to stand before God with no creed as a measuring stick of orthodoxy.
- Freedom for an individual to read the Bible and interpret it on his or her own.
- Freedom for the church to be separate from the state – and from other churches.
- Freedom for all people to practice their religion no matter what faith basis they claim.
The conservative takeover in Baptist life over the last 30 years, replete with all the in-fighting and the bad sound-byte theology from the likes of Jerry Falwell, has done damage to the credibility and positive witness that Baptists had established in 400 years of existence. Follow these links and you’ll see what I mean:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Williams_(theologian)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Helwys
There have been more than a few occasions when I considered making the jump out of the Baptist frying pan into some other expression of Christianity, but I remain a Baptist because I understand from whence we came and where I hope we may one day return. I recognize that not all of you readers are Baptist, so I hope that my appreciation of my roots will prompt you to explore the meaning and mystery of your stream in the large and beautiful river of faith in Jesus.
If you’re interested in learning more about who Baptists are, then the sermon It’s Time to Rediscover our Baptist Heritage this Sunday at Willow Meadows Baptist Church might be for you. We’ll talk about the freedoms we need to reclaim as Baptists in order to live fully in the freedom of Christ described in Galatians 5.1. Worship gatherings are at 9:15 and 11:45 and Bible Study, covering this topic more deeply, begins at 10:30.
Freely,
Pastor Gary
Galatians 5.1-6, New International Version
Freedom in Christ
1It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
2Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. 3Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. 4You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. 5But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. 6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Not a Sermon – Just a Thought is a weekly column written by me, Gary Long. You can subscribe or unsubscribe to this email list by contacting me at glong@wmbc.org. You can find this and recent issues of Not a Sermon – Just a Thought at www.thefellowship.info. That’s the site for the good folk over at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, so take a few minutes to peruse their stuff when you can.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)