Tuesday Tomes - Mindfulness and Self-Forgetfulness

Here are two little books that were easy and helpful reads. Both were suggested to me by friends. The first is about becoming more mindful when it comes to eating habits, and the second (really more of a booklet than a book) suggests being less absorbed with thoughts about yourself.

Mindless Eating
by Brian Wansink

Publisher's Description:
This book will literally change the way you think about your next meal. Food psychologist Brian Wansink revolutionizes our awareness of how much, what, and why we’re eating—often without realizing it. His findings will astound you.

• Can the size of your plate really influence your appetite?
• Why do you eat more when you dine with friends?
• What “hidden persuaders” are used by restaurants and supermarkets to get us to overeat?
• How does music or the color of the room influence how much—and how fast—we eat?
• How can we “mindlessly” lose—instead of gain—up to twenty pounds in the coming year?

Starting today, you can make more mindful, enjoyable, and healthy choices at the dinner table, in the supermarket, at the office—wherever you satisfy your appetite.

The Freedom of Self-Forgetfulness
by Tim Keller

Publishers Description:
What are the marks of a supernaturally changed heart? This is one of the questions the Apostle Paul addresses as he writes to the church in Corinth. He s not after some superficial outward tinkering, but instead a deep rooted, life altering change that takes place on the inside.

In an age where pleasing people, puffing up your ego and building your résumé are seen as the methods to make it , the Apostle Paul calls us to find true rest in blessed self forgetfulness. In this short and punchy book, best selling author Timothy Keller, shows that gospel humility means we can stop connecting every experience, every conversation with ourselves and can thus be free from self condemnation. A truly gospel humble person is not a self hating person or a self loving person, but a self forgetful person. This freedom can be yours...

Monday Music - From a Window Seat

I'm loving the new Stories Don't End CD from Dawes. This song seems especially appropriate for today since I'm flying to Nashville, maybe I'll even have a window seat.

Sunday Supplication - Pentecost Sunday

O God, on this Pentecost Sunday, we thank you for the light and presence of your Holy Spirit. We ask that by the power and grace of your Holy Spirit you would lead us, teach us, and transform us so that we might delight in your Word, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your name.

We confess our sin and ask you to forgive us.  And beyond forgiveness, we ask that you would change us and strengthen us that we might overcome temptation and escape the sins that entangle and diminish us. We also ask for the grace and generosity to forgive others, even as you have forgiven us.

Help us to love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. And help us to love our neighbors  as ourselves. Help us to follow Christ's selfless example, watching for the needs of others, and doing what we can to meet those needs. Help us to use every good gift you have given us to bless and encourage others.

Through Christ, we pray. Amen.

Saturday Smile - Ground Control to Major Tom

This came out a few days ago, so you may have already seen it. Couldn't resist using it for this week's smile. Chris Hadfield has really made the grade.

Friday Family - Travel Buddy

I'm flying to Nashville with this guy on Monday. My grandson, Soren, and I will be helping his dad load up a moving truck and make the big trip back to New Brighton, Minnesota. I think this will be the third or fourth time Soren and I have made the trip together in a moving truck. I like the direction we're driving this time. Your prayers for us are appreciated.

Thursday Thinking - Renewal and Redemption

This 7th and final week of Easter, we close our series of resurrection posts with some thoughts from Dr. Ben Witherington. He talks about the Christian hope of bodily resurrection described by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15. The resurrection of Jesus was just the beginning.



Dr. Witherington is an American New Testament scholar. He is Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky, and an ordained pastor in the United Methodist Church. He has written over thirty books and blogs on Patheos.

Wednesday Words - Reach Out with Sure Hands

For Love in a Time of Conflict

When the gentleness between you hardens
And you fall out of your belonging with each other,
May the depths you have reached hold you still.

When no true word can be said, or heard,
And you mirror each other in the script of hurt,
When even the silence has become raw and torn,
May you hear again an echo of your first music.

When the weave of affection starts to unravel
And anger begins to sear the ground between you,
Before this weather of grief invites
The black seed of bitterness to find root,
May you souls come to kiss.

Now is the time for one of you to be gracious,
To allow a kindness beyond thought and hurt,
Reach out with sure hands
To take the chalice of your love,
And carry it carefully through this echoless waste
Until this winter pilgrimage leads you
Toward the gateway to spring.

From To Bless the Space Between Us by John O’Donohue.

Tuesday Tomes - Valley Book Clubs

Tonight is session two for two Valley Book Clubs.  I'm looking forward to some good discussion.

The Rise of Christianity
by Rodney Stark

Writing from the perspective of social science while drawing upon historical evidence and his insight into contemporary religion's appeal, Stark looks for possible explanations for how the marginal Jesus Movement of the first century became the dominant religious force in the western world within a few centuries.

Session 2: May 14, 8:00pm - -      
Chapters 4 through 6  (pp. 73-146)

CLICK HERE for Complete Valley Book Club Info

Becoming a True Spiritual Community
by Larry Crabb

In today's frenetic society, people spend their lives essentially disconnected from others, rushing through life content with brief visits and casual conversations. But what if one had a spiritual community of people who walked with and supported each other through life's journey? Larry Crabb explores how God can heal disconnected people and allow them to reconnect with each other and, ultimately, with Him.

Session 2: May 14, 6:30pm - -         
Chapters 4 through 6  (pp. 73-146)

CLICK HERE for Complete Valley Book Club Info

Monday Music - The Wheel

Here is a track from my Breath a Little Deeper CD.



THE WHEEL

Spinning in circles under your fingers.
Working my way through your fist and palm.
Whirling away all the formless chaos,
I ride the eye of this holy storm.

Change me, please change me.
Mold me, make me real.
Throw me and turn me
As I ride this wheel.

Buried and black where my heart laid fallow
You pushed your spade into my dark clay.
Stubborn and slow to take on your image;
Still you keep working me everyday.

Change me, please change me.
Mold me, make me real.
Throw me and turn me
As I ride this wheel.

Round and round I go
And where I land nobody knows;
It's in the potter's hands,
I'm just the clay,
I'm learning slowly how to say...

Change me, please change me.
Mold me, make me real.
Throw me and turn me
As I ride this wheel.

It's a wheel in wheel,
Wheel in a wheel,
Wheel in a wheel,
Way up up in the middle of the air.


Words and Music by Dave Burkum.   
© Copyright 1996 by Dave & Tyler Burkum (www.burkum.com).

Sunday Supplication - Walking in Your Ways

O God, we give you thanks for our Lord and Savior Jesus, your only Son, who you have have exalted and given a name above all names.

Help us to follow where he leads, to honor him as Lord, and to live in the grace and purpose of his Kingdom. Strengthen and comfort us by your Holy Spirit, and teach us to walk in your ways to the glory of your name.

We confess our sins and we thank you for your faithfulness to forgive us and purify us. And as your grateful children, teach us and help us to be faithful to forgive others. May the resurrection power and grace of Jesus help us restore relationships, heal wounds, calm fears, forgive offenses, and resolve strife.

O God, show us your ways. Teach us your paths. Guide us in your truth. Give us the humility and wisdom to live for you and to follow you. Help us to love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Through Christ, we pray. Amen.

Saturday Smile - Dangerous Theology

This was hilarious! Thanks to ReKnew for posting this.

Friday Friends - Dallas Willard

I'm stretching a bit this week in calling Dallas Willard a friend. I met him a few times, but I'm sure he wouldn't know me from the tens of thousands of others who attended his workshops and seminars over the years. But in a very real way, through his writing and teaching, he has been one of the significant "friends" in my life. It's safe to say that he is one of the most influential Christians in my faith journey. When he died, I truly felt like I had lost a friend.

Dallas made Christianity both plausible and attractive to me. Somehow, he connected with me in a deeper and more meaningful way than most. I remember when I first read The Divine Conspiracy, I felt like I was breathing the oxygen of the Kingdom in a way I never had before.

Since his death on Wednesday, many have had much to say about him, and I've enjoyed most of what I've read. I especially appreciated John Ortberg's comments because John knew Dallas so well. Like others, I knew I needed to post something about Dallas, and my first thought was to post some favorite quotations from his books, but plenty of others are doing that. Instead, I'm opting to share two personal remembrances that have been on my mind the last couple of days.

The first was at a teaching session at Bethel Seminary. There I was, sitting in the second row, directly in front of Dallas as he addressed a group of about a hundred seminarians and pastors. He began the session by asking, "If you could describe Jesus in one word, what would it be? I want you all to think of a word you might choose." Then he just smiled and left a long pause for everyone in the room to actually land upon a word in their mind.

Then he said, "If I were to choose a word," then pausing to heighten our anticipation, "I think 'relaxed' would be the one I would choose."

A murmuring sort of laughter filled the room as if everyone one in the audience were acknowledging that 'relaxed' was not remotely the word on their mind. He then went on to explain how the Christ-life was one so dependent, so assured, and so surrendered that most of the things that make us anything-but-relaxed would fade away under the overriding sense of wellness and hope we had in God. To live as Christ would live, he said, would result in us being anxious for nothing.

Years later, I had the opportunity to see Dallas demonstrate this kind of Christ-life in a very practical way. Dallas was scheduled to speak for a number of events in Minneapolis, and I had been given the job (privilege) of picking him up at the Twin Cities International airport. I was told to look for him outside the baggage claim at Door #1. I was careful to check his flight schedule and made sure to begin making my laps by the arrival doors at least fifteen minutes before his plane was scheduled to land. I didn't want him to have to wait for even a minute.

I watched Door #1 like a hawk, but he never arrived. Five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes after he should have been there, he was no where to be seen. It was a busy time at the airport and the traffic was about as bad as it gets. Hundreds of people and cars, but no Dallas Willard! I was starting to panic, wondering what could be going wrong. It was now thirty minutes past the time he should have been out by the drive, but he wasn't there!

I had been trying to watch all the other doors as I made my laps, but the airport police don't let you sit any one place for long. Dallas was definitely not at Door #1, and I couldn't see him anywhere else. So, I decided to stick by the curb starting at Door #1 and slowly work my way down the entire walkway. And sure enough, I eventually found him at Door #6.

Door #6! 

I felt so bad. Would he be concerned or stressed out or irritated? None of the above. There he sat, calm as could be, watching the cars and people pass by, not a visible care in the world. I think he even had a slight smile on his face. I'm telling you the truth, he could not have looked more calm if he had been sitting on a quiet park bench enjoying a beautiful summer's day off.

If there was one word I could use to describe him, I'd say it would be relaxed.

"I'm so sorry for the mix-up," I said. "I feel so bad that you've had to wait for so long. I was told you'd be at a different door."

He just smiled and said, "There's no problem. I knew someone would find me eventually."

I put his luggage in the trunk and we got into the car to head to his hotel. Once we were out on the freeway and headed toward downtown, he asked me about my work.

"Do you sense God's presence and goodwill as you do your work?" he asked.

"Yes, I think I do," I said.

And what I didn't say is that I sensed it in a special way that very moment.

Thursday Thinking - Life after Life after Death

Here are some thoughts about resurrection for this 6th week of Easter. As a Christian, what does the resurrection of Jesus mean for the possibility of resurrection for me? N. T. Wright suggests that, more than life after death, Christians have hope for life after life after death.

The physical resurrection of Jesus is an eternal bodily resurrection, and eternal bodily resurrection is the promise for all those who are in Christ. To be absent from the body, when we die, is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8), but the ultimate Christian hope is to be bodily resurrected and eternal life in the presence of the Lord (Rev. 21:1-3)--heaven and earth joined together.

This video is a wonderful primer for N. T. Wright's book, Surprised by Hope. I highly recommend this book and believe you will find Wright's teaching to be extremely helpful and hopeful.

Wednesday Words - From Where You Stand

Foreseeing

Middle age refers more
to landscape than to time:
it's as if you'd reached

the top of a hill
and could see all the way
to the end of your life,

so you know without a doubt
that it has an end—
not that it will have,

but that it does have,
if only in outline—
so for the first time

you can see your life whole,
beginning and end not far
from where you stand,

the horizon in the distance—
the view makes you weep,
but it also has the beauty

of symmetry, like the earth
seen from space: you can't help
but admire it from afar,

especially now, while it's simple
to re-enter whenever you choose,
lying down in your life,

waking up to it
just as you always have—
except that the details resonate

by virtue of being contained,
as your own words
coming back to you

define the landscape,
remind you that it won't go on
like this forever.

"Foreseeing" by Sharon Bryan, from Flying Blind. 
© Sarabande Books, 1996.

Tuesday Tome - The Myth of Certainty

I recently finished reading The Myth of Certainty by Daniel Taylor. This is a wonderful book for those of us whose personal stories are deeply bound up in the greater Christian story, and yet our personal predisposition (our wiring?) toward reflection and critical thinking keeps us asking ourselves (and others) uncomfortable questions that poke and dig around the very roots of our faith.

I will be buying several copies of this book to share with reflective Christian friends who are kindred spirits--walking by faith and yet constantly questioning assertions and assumptions (both internal and external). The Myth of Certainty will also be the selection for a book club at my church later this year. Daniel Taylor lives in my neighborhood, so I'm hoping that he might even be willing to join us for one of the book club sessions and entertain a little Q&A.

Let me close this post by passing along the closing paragraphs from the "Afterward" section Taylor added to the most recent publication of his book:

"...I believe the reflective Christian I have described in this book can be one who is totally committed to being an instrument of God's grace to a wounded world. If he or she can at the same time also confess to questions, doubts, and struggles, that seems to me to make faith all the more believable to others who know enough about themselves and life to be suspicious of easy answers. The show of unquestioning certainty, while attractive to some believers, will be an obstacle to them.

"Put another way, while the life of faith will never be safe, it can be secure. Faith may lead us into all kinds of dangers--physical, intellectual, and spiritual--but it simultaneously gives that sense of meaning and purpose to life that is the groundwork of security. I do not expect to leave this life with all my doubts resolved; I do hope to leave it in good standing with Him from whom all meaning flows."

FYI - I've just started reading and enjoying Dr. Taylor's newest book: The Skeptical Believer.