I Don't Know the Answer, but I Am Willing to Guess...

I read several blogs...mostly those of folks I know, friends. Mike Mather is someone I know, a friend, and in his blog recently he posed this question: What Get's God Pissed Off? (To see how Mike answered that question you can go to his blog, "bibfeldt's inquiry.")

I wonder if God is distressed when I give up the quest to become the best "me" I can become. If so, I have honked God off many, many times!
Quitting is easier than continuing on.
Giving up is easier than giving my all.
Going back is easier than moving ahead.
The good old days are safer than the unknown future.
Doing the same-old same-old is easier than seeking a whole new future.
As a recent best-selling book pointed out "Good is the enemy of Best." And so, I settle...I settle for less than I could become. I settle for what is instead of striving for what could be.

I don't know the answer to Mike's really good question...but I am willing to guess that I have disappointed family, friends, colleagues, and maybe even God when I sell out to what is instead of continuing the search for what could be.

Sweet - Tart

When was the last time you ate/enjoyed a cinnamon coated apple? Maybe at the County or State Fair? Maybe on vacation at a seashore boardwalk? Whevever it was, can you recall the taste right now?

The sweet and the tart together...or, more in line with the order in which the taste expereince goes: first the tart and then the sweet.

Its like that with so many things, isn't it? First the tart, then the sweet. I wonder how that plays out in our thinking about the Holy Week/Easter experience: The evil that displays itself as Jesus is tracked down and murdered because he is causing way too much consternation for the political and religious establishments...the slaughter of the innocent...and then, when its all over, upon reflection (and through the eyes of hope and faith), the sweet belief that evil has not overcome good, wrong has not prevailed against right, even death has no victory over life...what a powerful jolt to the senses!

Happy Easter! Enjoy one of life's real sensual treats...just remember to be ready to taste the tart before the sweet!

Movie Music...

I visited my mom, and my sister and her family in Huntsville, Alabama over the New Year's holiday. One evening we went to see the movie "True Grit." The original movie won John Wayne an Acadmey Award...which many folks thought was awarded not so much for his work in that particular movie but for his life-long work in films. It was, to my thinking, an OK movie, but nothing to write home about. The new re-make of the movie was, to my thinking, much better than the first. It was more pithy, more tense, more true to what I suppose life would have been like in the time in which the movie was set. And it most certainly was more true to the human nature I have any speaking acquaintance with, than was the original.

The background music, woven throughout the movie, was the old gospel song, "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms." I didn't expect that...in fact it took me some time to recognize the song as it played...sort of sparse-like, and in a country-music bluegrass style. A lady named Iris DeMent sings the song...what a wonderful voice she has.
I remember singing that song (and others like it...gospel songs) in the little-town church I grew up in. I was informed in seminary that my appreciation for these kinds of songs showed my low-brow taste in church music. Hymns are about "we" while gospel songs are about "me," I was told, and that would be a problem for someone going into church ministry.
That may be. But I took a very pleasant trip back in time during my watching of "True Grit." I watched the movie but let my memory travel back to small-town norhtern Indiana in the 1950s and early 60s.
I don't want to actually go back to "the good old days" (if they really ever were that), but I do admit that hearing "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" while watching a good movie was a most pleasant surprise. Like good comfort food, I think.
Come to find out, the song was used in another movie, a 1943 film titled "The Human Comedy", starring Mickey Rooney. Like the new "True Grit," it was nominated for several Academy Awards.

What a fellowship, what a joy divine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.

Refrain

Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.

You know you started humming or singing that song when you saw those lyrics!

Embrace Your Imperfections

So, I read this on-line article that offered 7 ways to become more approachable. I don't think of myself as being unapproachable, but I figured a quick read couldn't hurt...and maybe I could apply the time spent reading the article toward my required annual continuing-education requirement.

One of the ways the article suggested as a path to becoming more approachable is to "embrace your imperfections."

Well, I don't know if that is an area of my life I really want to open up and deal with. Imperfections. Seems to me I am about as perfect as I'm gonna get...at least any time soon.
Honestly, of course, I am not perfect in so many ways: not a perfect dad, haven't been a perfect husband, not close to being a perfect pastor/preacher, never gonna be perfect at golf! Haven't bowled a 300 game! Haven't pitched a perfect game! Haven't written the great novel!

There's so much imperfection to embrace, in my case. And even if I do embrace it, how is that going to make me more approachable? Do I want to be more approachable? Maybe I could be perfect in my unapproachableness!

Good thing that God and the occasional human being say they love us and really mean it...even if we aren't perfect!

A little love every now and then makes it all better...

Moving On...

I cannot right now number all the places I have lived in my lifetime. I know the names of the cities and towns involved. Places like Lydick, Los Angeles, Greencastle, Vincennes, Avon...and more. Most of my years have been spent in locations in or around Indianapolis. In some of the towns I have lived in more than one place.

This is a picture of my current home in Bloomington. Nice home. Nice town.
Living in many places is now the norm for most Americans. It wasn't always so. Some of us old-timers can remember hearing stories from our parents and grandparents about how they lived their entire life in the house where they had been born.
But life changes...and lifestyles change...and nowadays most of us move on from one home to another quite often. I wonder what we have lost (if anything) with the advent of this new way of living (from place to place)?
I suspect we have less attachment to a "place" as "home" than did the generations that came before us. And so, it becomes necessary for us to work hard at making "where we are" a wonderful and memorable "home" while we are there.
Moving on is not always easy...not always fun...not always what we would choose if the choice were only up to us. Maybe moreso than ever, "Home is Where the Heart Is."

Madness in March (April, too)

College basketball at NCAA tournament time...so good and so much fun to watch. If you fill out a brackets chart and play against yourself or others there is even more reason to enjoy the March Madness (although the Final Four play on the first weekend in April).
Its been a very good year for Notre Dame, so I will be hoping they make it to the final four...they have a decent shot, I think.
If you are old enough to remember, then this time of year takes you back to 1979...back to "The Game." Magic Johnson vs. Larry Bird! Sure, it was Indiana State vs. Michigan State...but not really. What it was was Bird against Johnson. What it was was a college basketball fan's dream-come-true.

And there is always a chance that another dramatic match-up will take place in the tournament. Always a chance that a tremendous individual effort will carry a team to the final weekend. Always a chance that your team will be crowned the champion.
Last year, as an Indiana resident, it was great to see the Bulldogs of little Butler University of the Horizon League come to within one point of winning it all against the mighty Duke Blue Devils.
At this time of year...there is always a chance. Bring it on!

Enough, Already...Seriously!

Here in the midwest...central southern Indiana, to be exact, we have had enough, already...seriously! Enough snow. Enough ice. Enough school "snow days." Enough!
Now, I spent the first 18 years of my life in South Bend, Indiana, where we got much more snow and much more winter weather than we do here in Bloomington. And I am aware that even Indiana does not suffer extreme winter weather like some other parts of the country. But its all relative, and we have had enough, already...seriously!
I've gotten to that "enough, already" point at other times in my life. You have, too, I would guess. Enough, already of people being unkind. Enough, already, of leaders taking us for a ride. Enough, already of institutions rigging the game in their favor. Enough, already of the fates dealing me a losing hand.
And, enough, already of me not living up to my better self.

Enough, already of my being unkind. Enough, already of my taking people for a ride. Enough, already of my rigging the game so that it favors me. Enough, already of my dealing other folks a losing hand.
Enough, already...seriously!

Enough snow and ice and winter weather...there is golf to be played soon!