Wednesday Words - Second Guessing Ourselves

Post Hoc

It happened because he looked a gift horse in the mouth.
It happened because he couldn't get that monkey off his back.
It happened because she didn't chew 22 times before swallowing.
What was she thinking, letting him walk home alone from the bus stop?
What was he thinking, standing up in the boat like that?
Once she signed those papers the die was cast.
She should have waited an hour before going in; everyone knows
salami and seawater don't mix.
He should have checked his parachute a seventh time;
you can never be too careful.
Why didn't she declare her true feelings?
Why didn't she play hard to get? She could be out at some
nice restaurant right now instead of in church, praying
for the strength to let him go.
It all started with that tattoo.
It all started with her decision to order the chicken salad.
Why was he so picky?
Why wasn't she more discriminating?
He should have read the writing on the wall; listened
to the still small voice, had a lick of sense. But how could he when he
was blinded by passion? Deaf to warnings? Really dumb?
Why, why, in God's name, did he run with scissors?
If only they'd asked Jesus for help.
If only they'd asked their friends for help.
If only they'd ignored the advice of others and held fast
to their own convictions, they might all be here, now,
with us, instead of six feet under; instead of trying to adopt
that foreign baby, instead of warming that barstool
at the Road Not Taken Eatery and Lounge, wondering how it might all
have been different, if only they had done
the right thing.

"Post Hoc" by Jennifer Maier, from Dark Alphabet.
© Southern Illinois University Press, 2006.

The poetry of Jennifer Maier has appeared in Poetry, American Poet, New Letters, and elsewhere and has been featured a number of times on APM's The Writer's Almanac. The Academy of American Poets listed her debut collection, Dark Alphabet, one of "Ten Remarkable Books of 2006." She works as a professor of modern literature and creative writing at Seattle Pacific University and serves as poetry editor of the arts quarterly IMAGE.

Tuesday Tome - Mere Christianity / Surrender

Tonight, Tuesday, March 12 (7:00pm), I'll be leading the third and final session of the Mere Christianity Book Club at Valley Christian Church. You're invited to join us, even if you have not made it to the two previous sessions. There is really so much to discuss that we'll barely be able to justice to the section of the book we will be considering. Next week, our discussion will focus on the fourth section of the book (Book IV: Beyond Personality).

The study questions I provided at our last gathering turned out to be very helpful in our discussion. If you would like to get a copy of these questions prior to our next meeting, just CLICK HERE to go the our book club page and download the PDF file of the study guide available there (located on the bottom right side of the page).


Here is the closing passage from this special little book:

Until you have given up your self to Him you will not have a real self. Sameness is to be found most among the most ‘natural’ men, not among those who surrender to Christ. How monotonously alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have been: how gloriously different are the saints.

But there must be a real giving up of the self. You must throw it away ‘blindly’ so to speak. Christ will indeed give you a real personality: but you must not go to Him for the sake of that. As long as your own personality is what you are bothering about you are not going to Him at all. The very first step is to try to forget about the self altogether. Your real, new self (which is Christ’s and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him. Does that sound strange?

The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making. Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favourite wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fibre of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.

Lewis, C. S., Mere Christianity (pp. 226-227), Harper Collins.

Monday Music - Leagues

My oldest son, Tyler, is headed to Nashville, TN today where he will be spending the next two weeks in the studio with his new band, Leagues. Last year, they recorded an EP. Now they're recording their first full-length album.

They've been having some intensive writing sessions over recent months. The picture above was taken during a week they spent writing together at a cabin in Wisconsin back in January. Tyler is really excited to be heading into the studio to flesh out their new song ideas into fully produced arrangements and recordings.

After their time in the studio, Leagues is going on tour with Jars of Clay and Matthew Perryman Jones. You'll find find confirmed upcoming shows on their facebook page. Tour dates include The Fine Line in Minneapolis on April 12.

Check out the Leagues Website.

Sunday Supplication - Grace and Power

Almighty God, we know that without your grace we are powerless to help ourselves. We ask you to help us in heart, mind, and body as we seek to be your people. Save us from all those things threaten and tempt us in our bodies, and from all evil thoughts that hurt us in mind and spirit.

Forgive us our sins. Help us to die to ourselves and to live through you. Make us willing and able to forgive others as you have forgiven us. Help us to think, speak, and act in ways that restore lives, nurture relationships, create peace, and bring honor to you.

Thank you, O God, for salvation and life through Christ. Help us to surrender fully to you and to follow Jesus with whole hearts. Help us to know Jesus—to love him, to understand him, to honor him, and to draw near to him so that our lives are completely shaped and guided by him.

It’s in his saving name that we pray these things. Amen.

Saturday Smile - Coffee with Jesus

Coffee with Jesus is a quirky four panel cartoon strip that uses simple clip art images to illustrate Jesus talking about modern day issues and current events with everyday people. Each strip shows one of a small cast of characters having a casual conversation with Jesus over coffee.

It's amazing how much the folks at Radio Free Babylon (whoever they are) are able to accomplish with such a limited palette. The simple repetition of images pushes all the attention to the dialog which is consistently clever and sardonic. Like most humor, it's not for everyone. But as far as I'm concerned, it's simply brilliant.

Click on the images below to enlarge them.

Friday Family - Taylor Burkum (Bark'm)

My oldest nephew, Taylor Burkum, has started a really creative and fun new business. If you know someone who would love to have an amazing water color or pencil portrait of a special dog, get in touch with Taylor.

Visit his website to see the beautful work he does.

Thursday Thinking - Word-Woven Prayers

I recently came across an excellent article about prayer by Joni Eareckson Tada posted on the Redeemer Presbyterian Church website. It's called Speaking God's Language: How Scripture Can Add Power to Your Prayers.

Here is a section of that article I especially appreciated:

Word-Woven Prayers
Often I attend prayer meetings where various requests for healing, finances, safety in travel, or job promotions are divvied out. Naturally, we desire prayer for such things. But a closer look at God's Word would reveal deeper and more divinely inspired ways to pray for friends and family.

Is there a cancer? Yes, prayer for healing is in order, but so is prayer for the robust blessings of Ps. 119:140: "Your promises have been thoroughly tested, and your servant loves them." How rich to pray, "Lord, this cancer is testing Your promises in the life of my friend who is ill, but You are faithful to every promise You've made to her. May Your servant love Your promises through this time of testing."

Is there a need for finances? Yes, prayer for needed money is in order, but so is prayer for the rewards of Prov. 15:17: "Better a meal of vegetables where there is love than a fattened calf with hatred." How invigorating to pray, "Lord, financial blessing isn't the focus; Your Word says that love should be. May we learn to live on little if it means leaning harder on You, as well as each other."

When I pray for disabled children I know, I intercede with Mt. 19:14 in mind: "Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.' " In verse 15 we're given a picture of Jesus tenderly placing His hand on each child. "Lord Jesus," I'll say, "Your heart went out to children when You walked on earth. I can picture You tousling their hair, bouncing them on Your knee, and laying Your hands on their heads to bestow a blessing. If Your heart went out this way to the boys and girls who could walk up to You, how much more must Your heart overflow toward little Jeanette with spina bifida or Benjamin who has cerebral palsy? Today, may they feel Your hand of blessing on their heads."

Often it's good to quote an entire passage, substituting a person's name for the pronoun in the passage. Colossians 1:9-12 is a good example of scripture to pray this way: "I ask God to fill Susan with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And I pray this in order that Susan may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work she does, being strengthened with all power, so that she may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully give thanks to the Father."

Remember, God's Word is alive, active, and powerful. Prayers laced with the Word of God not only bring about fundamental changes in people and situations, but such prayers keep us in touch with God's priorities. Weaving God's Word into our prayers brings His purposes to the forefront of every request.

Read the Entire Article

Joni Eareckson Tada is president of JAF Ministries, an organization that accelerates Christian ministry into the disabled community around the world. She is also author of several books, including When God Weeps (Zondervan) and More Precious Than Silver (Zondervan).

Wednesday Words - Revival

Luci Shaw was the first serious poet I ever connected with. I don't remember where or how, but during my college years I came across a book of her poems, The Secret Trees. I loved it.

As a young singer-songwriter in those days, I had focused most of my literary attention to the lyrics of songs. Luci Shaw was the first poet to make me love poetry--to hear music in the words themselves.

I guess it's not surprising that I would turn some of her poems into lyrics, and so I did. During my graduate school years, as a musical composition student, I used several of her short Christmas poems as the text for choral pieces. And as recently as I few years ago, I put one of her poems about the aurora borealis to music. I hope to record that song sometime soon, provided I'm able to get permission.

Today, some thirty-five years after discovering Luci Shaw's poetry, I notice that the poets I have subsequently come to love usually have something in common with her spirit and style. As I write this post, I realize just how much of a gentle yet important influence she has had on me, and I consider that to be a very good thing. Thank you, Luci.

Here is a perfect Luci Shaw poem for today:

Revival

March. I am beginning
to anticipate a thaw. Early mornings
the earth, old unbeliever, is still crusted with frost
where the moles have nosed up their
cold castings, and the ground cover
in shadow under the cedars hasn't softened
for months, fogs layering their slow, complicated ice
around foliage and stem
night by night,

but as the light lengthens, preacher
of good news, evangelizing leaves and branches,
his large gestures beckon green
out of gray. Pinpricks of coral bursting
from the cotoneasters. A single bee
finding the white heather. Eager lemon-yellow
aconites glowing, low to the ground like
little uplifted faces. A crocus shooting up
a purple hand here, there, as I stand
on my doorstep, my own face drinking in heat
and light like a bud welcoming resurrection,
and my hand up, too, ready to sign on
for conversion.

"Revival" by Luci Shaw, from What the Light Was Like.
© Word Farm, 2010.

Tuesday Tome - Mere Christianity / Christ-Life

Next Tuesday, March 12 (7:00pm), I'll be leading the third and final session of the Mere Christianity Book Club at Valley Christian Church. You're invited to join us, even if you have not made it to the two previous sessions. There is really so much to discuss that we'll barely be able to justice to the section of the book we will be considering. Next week, our discussion will focus on the fourth section of the book (Book IV: Beyond Personality).

The study questions I provided at our last gathering turned out to be very helpful in our discussion. If you would like to get a copy of these questions prior to our next meeting, just CLICK HERE to go the our book club page and download the PDF file of the study guide available there (located on the bottom right side of the page).

Here is an interesting passage from the section of the book we will be discussing next week:

If you think of the Father as something ‘out there’, in front of you, and of the Son as someone standing at your side, helping you to pray, trying to turn you into another son, then you have to think of the third Person as something inside you, or behind you. Perhaps some people might find it easier to begin with the third Person and work backwards. God is love, and that love works through men—especially through the whole community of Christians. But this spirit of love is, from all eternity, a love going on between the Father and the Son.

And now, what does it all matter? It matters more than anything else in the world. The whole dance, or drama, or pattern of this three-Personal life is to be played out in each one of us: or (putting it the other way round) each one of us has got to enter that pattern, take his place in that dance. There is no other way to the happiness for which we were made. Good things as well as bad, you know, are caught by a kind of infection. If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very centre of reality. If you are close to it, the spray will wet you: if you are not, you will remain dry. Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever? Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?

But how is he to be united to God? How is it possible for us to be taken into the three-Personal life?...

...We are not begotten by God, we are only made by Him: in our natural state we are not sons of God, only (so to speak) statues. We have not got Zoe or spiritual life: only Bios or biological life which is presently going to run down and die. Now the whole offer which Christianity makes is this: that we can, if we let God have His way, come to share in the life of Christ. If we do, we shall then be sharing a life which was begotten, not made, which always has existed and always will exist. Christ is the Son of God. If we share in this kind of life we also shall be sons of God. We shall love the Father as He does and the Holy Ghost will arise in us.

Lewis, C. S. (2009-05-28). Mere Christianity (p. 177). Harper Collins, Inc.

Monday Music - Cactus Blossoms at the Dakota

This ought to be a fun night of music downtown at the Dakota.
With only an $8 cover to boot!

March 8, 2012 7:00 pm
Cactus Blossoms with
Foghorn Stringband

7:00pm $8 Cover
Classic Country & Old-Time Music
Call 612.332.1010 for Reservations
DAKOTA • 1010 Nicollet Avenue • Minneapolis

“It’s easy enough to phone in a cornball imitation of old country … It’s another thing entirely to live and breathe the craft of writing and singing a good country and western song as The Cactus Blossoms have done” -City Pages, Best Minnesota Albums of 2011

Brothers Jack Torrey and Page Burkum write songs like Hank Williams, weave sweet harmonies like the Everly Brothers, and their earnest performances revive the sound of country and western’s early days.

In the summer of 2010 Jack and Page won first place in a duet contest at the MN State Fair, which led to a guest performance on A Prairie Home Companion. In the boys’ introduction, Garrison Keillor proclaimed “This is just the beginning of big things for you.” Just a month later they found themselves opening a sold out show for Marty Stuart. Maybe Keillor was right!

The Blossoms’ debut record came out in October 2011, and features fiddler Mike “Razz” Russell (Mark Olson, Creekdippers, Joe Henry), steel guitarist Randy Broughten (Gear Daddies, Trailer Trash) and bassist Liz Draper (formerly of DitchLilies).

“Portland’s Foghorn String Band stands at the top of today’s vibrant old-time music revival and a fine example of what an unending revival it is. Each album finds them deeper into the tradition, more familiar with the rich resources of roots music, and more focused, but still propelled by that undercurrent of punk energy.” —Art Menius, WMMT

Wowing audiences across the country and across the pond playing over 200 days a year, Foghorn String Band is one of the most sought after acts for festival stages and music camps, and are band mates for world renowned master old-time musician Dirk Powell and Cajun legends Joel Savoy and Jesse Lege.

Their material is drawn from the tunes and songs of the American South, from the hollers of Appalachia to the early days of country music. Together, they blend voices, repertoire and instruments to create a diverse performance true to the roots of American music, throwing some Cajun songs and Caleb Klauder’s vintage sounding originals in the mix. Performing live, these multi-instrumentalists gather around a single microphone in the middle of the stage.

Sunday Supplication - Steadfast Faith

O God, we are so thankful for your mercy.

Please be gracious to us when we go astray from your ways. Bring us back to you. Give us humble hearts and steadfast faith. Teach us to hold fast to the unchangeable truth of your Word. Help us to follow Jesus Christ your Son.

Forgive us our sins. Renew us by your Spirit. Show us how to act, think, and live as Christ.
And as you have forgiven us, make us merciful and ready to forgive those who have sinned against us.

O Lord, renew us and save us from the things that afflict us. Give us the strength to persevere, and give us hope as we cling to your promises. Forgive us our sins and deliver us from evil. Make us vessels of your grace in a weary world. And as we are surrounded by so much suffering and hate, we ask you to make us a testimony of your saving and transforming love.

Through Christ, we pray. Amen.

Saturday Smile - Demetri Martin

Comedian, Demetri Martin, makes me smile with his nerdy humor, cartoons, and graphs. It also makes me smile to know his father was a Greek Orthodox Priest. Yep. That's not something too many people in his line of "work" can say.

Friday Friends - Muffaletta

Tonight, Cheri and I will be going out for dinner with friends. We're going to Muffaletta on Como Avenue in the St. Anthony Park neighborhood near Luther Seminary and just across the street from a beautiful old library. My old CSF office was also close by over on the UMN St. Paul Campus.

We first discovered this wonderful little place back in the mid-90s a few years after we moved to the Twin Cities. We loved the neighborhood, the quaint old buildings of Milton Square, and the wood-paneled dining rooms of the restaurant. It has a warm and inviting atmosphere perfect for good conversation and fine dining.

We've had a lot of sweet times at Muffaletta that include Valentines Days, anniversaries, wedding dinners, Sunday brunches, and special meals with visiting out-of-town friends and family. We even met our daugher-in-law, Sara, there for the first time. She was our server there on one or two occasions. Little did we know that several years later, she would meet our son, Page, and eventually marry him. Kinda crazy!

It's been a little too long since we've been to Muffaletta, so we're excited about going there tonight. From what we've heard and read, it's better now than ever before. We're looking forward to finding out for ourselves.

Here are a few paragraphs from a 2005 review in the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

The relaxing and unpretentious neighborhood restaurant, named after a sandwich invented in New Orleans, has been one of St. Paul's favorite dining spots for 27 years. Sure, it has gone through an ugly-duckling phase, but now it's better than I remember and shows no signs of slowing down.

The longevity can be attributed to the owners, the same group of guys responsible for longtimers Manny's Steakhouse, Figlio and the Good Earth. They have the uncanny ability to stay one step ahead of their customers. In Muffuletta's case, earlier this year, they spiffed up the room with a coat of paint and some new art and moved a chef over from one of their other restaurants to tweak the menu.

JD Fratzke, former sous chef at the mega-popular Asian-influenced Chino Latino in Minneapolis, added such dishes as Moroccan tagine and mahi mahi with curry sauce to the roster of American-bistro favorites.

Kathie Jenkins, St. Paul Pioneer Press
January 13, 2005

Thursday Thinking - Future Housing?

IKEA, known for their ready-to-use home design solutions and functional furniture for urban living space, is now going further and is introducing AKTIV, the first project in a new line of dwellings. To do this, they have teamed up with the Oregon-based company, IdeaBox. Read more about it.

I've checked out Ideabox and also a number of other micro-prefab house builders. I love the idea of building something small and beautiful in a quiet spot somewhere for my retirement years. I've even been considering the possibility of building a house out of old shipping containers (check these out). I don't know if I'll ever do it, but the idea is very very appealing to me.

Check out these wonderful IDEABOX designs.