Geoff and I continue to write articles for the local newspaper, articles we assume are read mostly by a church-attending population, which dictates our approach. This was my month. What I say in this article is nothing new to those of you who hang around HPC, but it is, I trust, important.
Month: March 2009 Page 2 of 3
I’ve occasionally railed against Barbie Dolls because of what they do to girls’, ordinary girls’, self acceptance.
Not it appears that it is Photoshop that is the culprit in many a false image.
Sara Zarr is an author of young adult fiction, and I appreciate her candor and courage in this post about a photo shoot for her third novel. It’s a fascinating account, to me. But more importantly I appreciate her willingness to admit the struggle involved in looking good, maintaining good health, and accepting ourselves as God made us.
She says,
I am just really tired of and sad about my friends and random women and girls being so unhappy with themselves because they don’t look like women they see in magazines, who are uber-retouched, limbs lengthened, flesh carved away, etc. And tired of men thinking that’s how women look.
There is a bit of language here. But, hey – she was a bit upset.
Time Magazine sees Calvinism as a <gasp> culture shaping movement. Wow!
This is actually quite a good summary.
The elders of Hope Church have been wrestling with some weighty issues recently, and so this last Wednesday night we discussed a new, honest, evangelistic strategy. It goes like this: “Come to Jesus, and someday, you, too, may be able to become an elder and suffer and bleed, just like us.”
We decided that was a bit too honest, and probably not very effective.
A pastor friend wrote me a great note to go along with this. I alluded to him that our elders are facing some difficult things, but I have not told him a thing about the details. Nevertheless he said, “Read Psalm 62. This is just the crap that humans do to each other without realizing feelings are at stake. They act out of fear. All of us. Hang in there.”
He can speak accurately because he has been there. He’s walked down the path that leaders in the church must walk.
I share this not to garner sympathy for me, but to encourage prayer for leaders in the church. Those who take ministry seriously bear burdens they cannot share with even their own families. Pray that God will grant them grace and perseverance.
Pray mostly for their encouragement.
And who knows. Someday maybe you, too….
One of life’s imponderables for me has been this: how can a highly trained athlete, at the elite college or professional level miss an unhindered and unobstructed shot from fifteen feet directly in front of the basket? Shouldn’t these guys make it every time?
Seems so to me. Here is though a fascinating article on the stats and history of the shot.
The article contends that a team’s free throw ability does not correlate with its win-loss record. I understand that for a team that dominates its opponents, winning by fifteen to twenty points per game. I’d like to see the stats which correlate a team’s free throw average and games won by five points or less.
I still have little respect for teams and players with a low free throw average.
March madness comes. I think I’ll fill out my bracket based on free throw percentages.
I received this e-mail message yesterday from a friend. The entire message, as follows, arrived unscathed in my inbox.
“Our email is not working.”
I confess that I’m still puzzling over this.
Sunday, I was reading about an obscure 17th Century puritan pastor and scholar Jeremiah Whitaker. He was renowned for his preaching, but it was something about his life that people remembered. Perhaps it was that his preaching, mediated as it was through the suffering of the preacher’s life, was magnified in its power.
Edmund Calamy, a colleague and friend, said this regarding Whitaker:
Such as were best acquainted with him reckoned, that it was disputable, whether he preached more by the heavenliness of his doctrine, or by the holiness of his life. But they conclude, that it is certain, he preached as effectually by his sickness and death, as by either his doctrine or his life.
I like grits, and I have actually attended a NASCAR event (the 2007 Pepsi 400 at Daytona), and so I should have a favorite NASCAR guy, right?
For me, that would be Mark Martin, a Christian guy with a lot of class, and a terrible pile of bad luck. He’s fifty, and has never won the ‘Cup’ or the Daytona 500, racing’s biggest prizes. He was coaxed into racing a full year this year, despite his age, by an offer from NASCAR’s most elite racing team, Hendrick Motorsports. Everything was going his way. In three races, his cars have suffered two blown engines and a blown tire.
“I do have a history of not being the luckiest guy out there,” he said Monday, softly chuckling a day after yet another malfunction ruined what was on pace to be a top-five run.
Jenna Fryer, AP motorsports reporter writes that “His unbridled optimism at the start of the season was so out of character for the 50-year-old pessimist.”
A 50-year-old pessimist? I’ve never known one of those….
“I’ve been so bad over the years at judging my self-worth off of the results,” he said. “I told everyone that I am mentally tougher now than I’ve ever been in my life, and I am working at living up to that. I could run off behind the house and slash my wrists, but I’ve got some good things to focus on. I am disappointed, but I am not down in the dumps and I don’t feel worthless. I feel like I have helped make a contribution to the (No.) 5 team and I will continue to work as hard.”
Judging self-worth off results? Mark, you are my hero.
Not yet able to return to writing my own entries.
However, if I may borrow that of another, this is worthy.
It’s been a busy week and so I’ve not been able to post.
I don’t have the time now, really. However, the NYT just featured this review of one of my favorite movies of all time. If you’ve seen the movie, enjoy the review. If you’ve NOT seen the movie, you must remedy that situation as soon as possible.