Fine Young Man

The Road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet
And whither then? I cannot say. – J.R.R. Tolkien

I’m in a love/hate relationship with options. I love to have options. When I do, I don’t feel stuck. I feel like if it gets too bad, I can just walk away. Options, like this, bring some measure of peace.

But, options also distract and often to the point that they paralyze. You dream about them, you play with them, you court them, and if you aren’t careful, they prove to be your undoing.

If I had to choose, I think I’d choose no options. I’d rather have a single path to walk, so that I could just get along with walking it. Deep inside I crave focus and purpose.

If I may paraphrase Jesus: “Father, if there are options, I want to know about them. But, if there aren’t, I walk the road before me.” There were no options. He walked the road.

Where does this road lead? I cannot say, but I must follow it.

Here’s Dad with some big catfish he caught.

I have witnessed a couple of heated Facebook discussions lately that made me proud. They were about politics of course. I’m no good at discussions like this because I become too emotionally involved. If you reject my views I feel that you have rejected me. I’m also so set on winning so I won’t float my opinion unless I’m confident enough to flaunt it. So you might imagine the angst I felt as I read through comments weighing in on the issues. As I read I felt that some were becoming extremely angry. That’s not what made me proud. What made me proud was at the end of the spirited discussion, those who I thought were the angriest became friendly and thankful – apologizing if offense was taken and grateful for good discussion. Frankness, good dialogue and civility are still alive and that is good news for us all.

I don’t want to be a marketing rep.

Whatever you thought of MJ, this is what I remember about when I first learned about him and his music.

A Tweet from Paul Young, the guy who wrote The Shack:

Barth wrote: ‘God will not be God apart from us.’ Participation is essential to relationship as is communication. Prayer is both.

One thing I’ve been concerned with my whole vacation week is the amount of anger I have. It took me literally 2 days at the beach to basically calm down. I don’t know where it’s coming from, bit I now know what to do. I didn’t have to teach class this last sunday morning even though I was preaching the meeting. The man teaching spoke on how God’s grace helps us deal with anger. He used the parable of the man who had been forgiven an impossible debt who then went out and put another in jail for an insignificant debt. I need to start there with my anger.

Tied to my anger is my gut. I’m very intuitive which can be good but is mostly bad especially with Kristy. She does somethingand I assess her motives in a flash. Ha! I’ve got her! Then she tells me her reasoning which makes perfect sense and which I had not thought of. Next comes my apology. Like I said, my gut is good at helping me sense a person’s hurt, but I haven’t learned to control it yet.

Some suspect that wrist watches are on the way out because of cell phones. So, the 1000 watch project has been born to commemorate this time in history.

Regarding swine flu, one news correspondent commented that the media had helped people because more information leads to less fear. Not sure I’m buying that.

Yesterday, I listened as Neil MacFarquhar was interviewed about fatwas in the Muslim faith. Fatwas are clerical interpretations of the Koran for everyday living. As you might expect, there are as many interpretations and applications as there are clerics. Some find a cleric who will give them the answers they want. One key question that was asked: How do you determine the best or right answers out of the myriads of voices? 

A listener wrote in this morning that it is no different than Christianity or any other religion. I would agree.

This question is also relevant for my class this Sunday on 1 Corinthians 14.