Any Questions?

Proverbs... Lady Wisdom & the Fool

I am starting a new series with my Middle School students on the book of Proverbs. We are doing it in march because there are the same number of days as their are chapters in the book. Maybe you should check it out as well. My friend Kelly drew a bunch of pictures for me to use with the series. They are artistic renditions of good or bad attributes found in Proverbs. Proverbs portrays Wisdom as a woman who is of the highest nobility and honor. In her dignified regality she calls out to all who would listen and embrace her. Their are of course mockers who will not follow her ways. The "leader" of these mockers is pictured as a suductress. She seeks to lead the "fools" away from the path of wisdom and into the path of folly. It is a real interesting read, full of age old wisdom which has servived thousands of years and still reads like it was written for today.

iTie... Formal attire

My friend Mathias sends me the coolest links. This one is worthy of passing on. Enjoy!


http://www.techdigest.tv/2006/02/the_ipod_tie.html

The Fish...?

Weird coincidences today.
I finally broke down and bought another Peco fish to eat the algae in my fish tank... my other one had died a while ago...

and then....

then I got a strange email....

Someone emailed a friend of mine and wrote this,

"I heard Margo on the Fish this morning talking about their new youth pastor, with the shaved head look goin' on, and how he did a back flip off the platform or something?"

The whole universe is trying to tell me something about fish...


Pic from: http://www.absolutelyfish.com/PicturesFresh/RedFinTigerPeco.jpg

Things we cannot see

How do you view the world? Seems like a simple question, but so much of how we think of things happens subconsciously. We just react to the world, without thinking. For the Christian this is even more important. The core ideas of our faith are all invisible. We cannot see Jesus or God. We cannot see a hypostatic union, the joining perfectly of a man and God without loss of either. We cannot even see love, and yet it, and all of these others are necessary aspects of our faith. If we are going to live for Jesus in this all too visible and tangible world, with physical opportunities to doubt and sin surrounding us every day, we will have to learn a new way to see. We have to learn to close out eyes to ourselves and to our surroundings and open the eyes of faith to the glimpses of glory hidden in between the seconds of our life.

60 years

My good freinds Kel(log)ly and Lu(cille) just celebrated their 60th anniversary. They are a really neat couple who are living testaments to a life of faith. It is awesome that they have maintained their marriage through wars, and depressions, and having kids, and health issues, and much more. They are a model of Christian marriage that needs to be lifted high for lots of us young-un's to see!

Photo by my friend JIM G.

the ACM, dancing baptists, & personal redemption

Wed was Elmbrook's Annual Church Meeting. It is sorta like a business meeting and part of the meeting is voting on the budget for 2006. This year Elmbrook really went all out and turned it into a celebration event with a Bistro, a special dessert, & Choreographed pastoral dance team. Anyone who knows me, knows the dancing thing is a stretch. At one point the person teaching us the dance told us that we should do the electric slide. When I told her I didnt know what she was talking about, she asked me, "What... did you grow up Baptist?" "Actually I did" was my response which sent the entire staff, many who also grew up Baptist, into hysterical laughing. I laughed to. I laughed because for the first time in so long I feel free to be myself. Elmbrook loves me for exactly who I am. I do not have to put on a mask, or try to fit in. It is enough that I am trying to love God and serve him. That feels really good. I love being a part of this church!
The meeting was also awesome & positive. It excited me that there are so many things that Elmbrook is trying to accomplish all over the world that are great. It is a big church, but still remembers that it exists to love God & to love our neighbors whether they live in Brookfield, or in Beijing.

Pictures from John Suder: http://sudar.smugmug.com/gallery/1213291/1/56753593

Pearls & Blogging

Blah, Blah, Blah, Whatever!

I love Pearls Before Swine & I love Blogs... so when Pearls actually deals with Blogs, it is a must have!

http://www.comics.com/comics/pearls/index.html

Who are you looking at...

ok so I know that dogs are not people...

that said, my dog sure seems like a people...
she has so much expression and personality... she has habits. she has preferences and is really stubborn.

She even seems to really feel affection toward us...

of course that could be because we feed her...

The faces we ignore

We were all made to shine, made in His image... but our sins stain our lives. Our thoughts and actions are so short of the Glory of God. How awesome is it then to hear that all is not lost. Even though our lives are stained with sin, that we can be shiny and new again. When God’s Glory shines on our soul through His Grace, we are made to shine again. We are again under the canopy of God’s acceptance. Strange how we are slow to apply the same grace and acceptance to others that we receive for ourselves. Even though we know how imperfect that we are and how much we need the grace and acceptance of God, we forget that others need it too. We are ALL created in his image, so when we live life judging others, we set ourselves up against God. God wants everyone to know his love and acceptance and in living a judgemental life we fight against his work in the lives of people who we will do not consider worthy of love and respect.

"He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live to please themselves. Instead, they will live to please Christ, who died and was raised for them. So we have stopped evaluating others by what the world thinks about them. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, as though he were merely a human being. How differently I think about him now!"
~Paul of Tarsus (2nd Corinthains 5:15-16)

Confessions of a Pot Dealer...

Ok, its a little silly, but when you drink as much coffee as I do, it is a big deal when you get a new coffee pot. I liked this one so much, I just had one shipped to my parents. My Dad is a little maniacal about his coffee... he doesnt think his coffee maker makes it hot enough, so he pours a cup of coffee... then microwaves it... then when he takes the first sip... he swears because he just burned his tongue... He actually has a similar ritual regarding soda.... he takes it out the the fridge and puts it in the freezer for 20 minutes before he drinks it... then he takes it out, (when he remembers.... my freezer still had frozen remnants of his last visit!!!) and swears because its frozen... OK... all that to say, I just made his life a litte easier... He now has a coffee pot that makes the coffee hot enough to burn him without the extra step. Isn't it great to live in America!

Biscuits & Blessings... thoughts on playdough

Growing up I learned all about God. I learned how he could give me what I wanted.... I learned how he could make me feel better when I was sick... I learned how he give me blessings if I made him happy... I learned that he loved me and wanted to be my friend... I learned how he would always forgive me because of his grace, even if I was not really sorry... I learned all of this and more, and I learned it well. I knew that anytime I needed God, I could rub the lamp and he would show up and make me feel better and fix the mess I had created...
.... But I don’t think that is really God. It resembles him in some ways... but not really... if he really is the creator... if he really holds all power... if the Bible has any truth at all ... then he must be an awesome and terrible and dangerous and scary and good, yes good too, GOD. All of those lesser god’s are nothing but sophisticated stuffed animals which we create because they are cute and make us feel safe and in control... they are no more God, than I am... and we are not in control...

We all want to shine...

I think that we all want to shine... only maybe we do not know it. I think we were created in the image of God... to reflect his glory. Like the moon shining brightly in the dark of night, we too reflect the blinding Glory of our God. The moon does not own any of the light, which it reflects, yet when it is full, its dark and dirty surface is concealed in the pure white reflection of the sun’s light. Even the darkest canyons cast the faintest shadow across the moons face.
We too shine. We shine when our face is turned full into that of our creator. We shine when we let his light shine in our hearts. When we face him, even the deepest scars, and darkest stain are mere shadows... our features are transfigured... Joy and Glory in Christ have replaced the dull complexion of normalcy. Our souls were made to shine!

Half...

"We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." ~Anais Nin

With the Middle school ministry that I work with, I am doing a series on Lenses. It is on how we view the world... So often I find that how I interpret the world has more to do with me, than it does with what is really there. I am so tempted to read my own ideas and preferences into the created order of things. I see life through a very particular series of lenses that I have been developing subconsciously my whole life. It is really hard to get a perspective bigger than myself...

*Picture by tory...

Seeking the invisible world...

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
2 Corinthians 4:18

Leaping...

In december I accepted a call from Elmbrook Church to be their Middle School Pastor. I am so excited to join such an awesome team of people. The ministry is full of awesome volunteers, and I am working with several other incredible staff members... it is really unbelievable how much of a blessing this job is. So the plan is for me to continue with school full time for another year, until jan 07, and then to continue part time after that. Elmbrook has treated Emily and I so well, and has really provided a place for our souls to soak and heal in community. Last tuesday we were offically installed during the Middle school weekly gathering. It was awesome to stand in the middle of a ring of several hundred students who totally love you... I felt unworthy, and it my heart I felt really resolved. I want to be a good shepherd for each of these students. I am amazed at how our lives are so clearly directed from a source much higher than ourselves

Double AA

Congrats to Cory & Vicky on the birth of Ainzley, the newest in the Brown clan.
Ainzley is a very beautiful, healthy little girl! Emily and I got to be with them around the time they were bringing her home from the hospital. She is very little.

Where I've been

The last month has been crazy!. I was at three winter retreats, started my new position as the Middle School Pastor of Elmbrook, and started my second semester of Grad school. I am taking both greek and hebrew... they are awesome crazy, with an extra helping of crazy... I am alive... well even... just busy. SO I have like 50 posts in my head, but not the time to type them down...

Scars

Wounds heal in time. They fade from pain to memory and though the scars and the memories remain, the hurt fades to shadow, and the journey continues. Most people know that I have lots of physical scars from growing up on the wreckless side... Some know that I also have many scars from a difficult season recently experienced in the trenches of ministry. For the last few years, I feel like my wounds and scars have been the overwhelming and defining aspect of my life. I would often try to describe my life without mention of what I was feeling.

(People don't want to hear about hard things that last more than a few hours. Most people are initially empathetic, but quickly become tired of the struggles of another. I understand their tired response as I would have fled myself if a road had emerged.)

I would try to think of something positive to say about my experience so they would not have to think of an excuse to not listen to my sad story again. Try as I did, I usually either said very little, or eventually would begin to talk about my struggles. (Thanks for those who truly listened!) Finally there came a critical point where I just decided that I had had enough, and so I walked away from the largest source of pain in my life. This alone was like and incredible revelation... I had felt stuck, but I realized that I wasn't. Remaining in the trap was my own choosing, and I didnt have to stay and keep hurting, I could choose to surround myself with different circumstances.

So I did.

The Best just got Better... DESPAIR.COM!!!

I love despair.com. It is one of the most hilarious websites around. It makes me laugh every time that I check it out. They just improved their site with some new content and a refreshed look. It now features demotivational videos that train executives in how to practice the Art of Demotivation. They are so funny. IF you are into podcasts, you can sign up for them there, otherwise, you can download them off of the website. I bought the book, and it is hilarious too.

Another thing great product that is featured on Despair is the short film called MORE. This one is for real though. I actually got teary eyed the first time that I say it. I am not sure why, the hopelessness of the little clay guy just connected with me on some emotional level. It is really amazing... and you can watch the whole thing online, if you do not believe me. Check it out!