Randy Greenwald

Our Heavenly Father

On April 23, 2010

For a meeting the other night, I was led to read for our devotional a portion of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, a portion which we all needed to hear:

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:25-34)

I’ve read the passage, of course, dozens of times. But it certainly takes on greater meaning when read during a period of uncertainty and transition.

No one, I have long held, is able to stop worrying. We cannot “turn off” the worry button. What the passage asks us to do is to look to the abiding and unfailing love of our Father. When we do that, and see that he has loved us to a degree in his Son that we cannot measure, worry of its own fades to the background.

When I read it, a memory was triggered, a memory of some lines from an old Phil Keaggy song. The lines (dredged up from some deep part in my memory and reproduced here, perhaps imperfectly) may not be original with him, and they will never be mistaken for great poetry. Nevertheless, they drive my heart to where it needs to be:

Said the robin to the sparrow,
“I would really like to know
Why these anxious human beings
Rush about and worry so.”

Said the sparrow to the robin,
“Friend, I think that it must be
That they have no heavenly Father
Such as cares for you and me.”

The End of the World As We Know It, Volume 43

By Randy

On April 21, 2010

In Technology

My wife just informed me that we have changed our cell phone plan to include unlimited texting.

I’ve resisted texting, like I resist a lot of what seems to be initially senseless technology. But then I get consumed by it.

Thus falls another wall of defense against the modern world.

Of course, with our antique ‘dumb’ phones (what else do you call phones that are not ‘smart’ phones?), we won’t text as much as some. I suggested on a trip to see our son and daughter-in-law that Barb text them to let them know we were on the road.

Eight miles later, she had completed the task.

A Little Child Shall Lead Us

By Randy

On April 21, 2010

In Church

Most of us are aware that a volcano has been spewing ash all over Europe and shutting down flights in and out of the continent.

This has happened at the tail end of the Easter holiday in England leaving numbers of British travelers stuck in Florida.

This led, for us, to finding some new and wonderful friends. A stranded family from Yorkshire (Christine, Andrew, and Alex) joined us for worship on Sunday. We invited them to have Sunday dinner with us, and we had a great time comparing cultures, churches, and stories.

It would have been better had they spoken our language, but we managed to deal with that barrier.

We sympathized for them in their dilemma, but we all agreed that there could be worse places to be stranded!

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As we spoke about their experience here, they told us that when they pulled into our church parking lot, they were greeted by a very polite young man who directed them where to go and where to find things. He was their guide from the parking lot into worship.

This is such a wonderful and welcoming ministry. This young man was demonstrating a sensitivity to newness that few of us in the church understand. Coming to a new church is daunting and confusing. To have someone naturally and casually and in an unprogrammed way take interest in our experience will leave an impression upon our guests far greater than most anything else we do as a church.

I should add: this young man is only nine years old. Pretty cool. [This detail, I should note, will identify the ‘young man’ of the story to some. But for the rest I leave him anonymous. His natural and sincere care for the stranger humbles me as it should us all!]

Change Is a, uh, Friend

By Randy

On April 20, 2010

In Life

Given the changes happening in our lives right now, a friend sent me a message in which she said, and I quote, “Change is my friend.”

People who know me know that change is not at all my friend. There are times I want to say that change is my mortal enemy.

But that, I realize, is WAY over the top. The reality is that it is through change that God brings growth into our lives. A plant that does not change is, well, dead.

So, I’ve decided that change is my friend. Like my dentist is my friend. I never want to go see him. But I’m always glad that I did.

The Good, the Bad, and the Tall and Skinny

By Randy

On April 17, 2010

In Life

Even one preoccupied has to make room for his obsessions. (Further obsessive tendencies revealed here.)

For quite a while I have been persuaded by experience that my Nigel Rudolph mug retained heat better than any other mug in our cabinet. I asked Nigel and his wife Cheyenne about that recently and they could offer no reason why that should be. These are not, you should know, ceramic hacks. Nigel and Cheyenne know much about the science of clays, and as far as they knew, there was nothing in the mug itself to bring about my perceived result.

So, making tea for a guest the other night, I decided to put my perceptions to the test.

I selected three mugs, a tall skinny Hope Presbyterian Church mug, a wide mouth Nigel Rudolph mug, and a medium girth Krispy Kreme mug. I put 7 ounces (by weight) of hot water in each, and took measurements every minute for ten minutes, then every five minutes, and then at 60 minutes.

This was a very efficient use of time, as our guest, Barb, and I sipped our tea and talked while the measurements were being recorded.

Our guest, though, laughed at me. We love her anyway. I have been accused by friends in Los Alamos, NM (having, in my estimations, more PhDs per square inch than anywhere else on the planet) of suffering from LAPD, (Los Alamos Personality Disorder). Diagnosis is, no doubt, hereby confirmed.

What we discovered was that my perceptions were wrong. The wide-mouthed, Nigel Rudolph mug lost heat at a greater rate than the tall and skinny-mouthed Hope mug. Our conclusion was that the surface area of liquid exposed to the air is the variable which determines rate of cooling.

I also concluded that I simply need to drink my coffee faster. All science aside, I’m not giving up the aesthetic and personal pleasure of using Nigel’s mug!

Pastors Are People, Too

By Randy

On April 12, 2010

In Church

As I’ve pointed out before, I write a monthly “church related” column for the local newspaper. I write the column; they write the headline. This time, the headline works.

You can read the column here. However, knowing these things do not stay live for very long, I’ve reproduced it below.

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I know quite a few pastors, being one myself.

Spoiling popular stereotypes, the pastors I know are not money or power hungry. They are not child molesters, sex fiends, or hate mongers.

The pastors I know are just ordinary people who love God and care about others. They are not superheroes or supervillains. Just ordinary.

We laugh and play and we struggle and worry. We wrestle with doubt and we question our calling. We own houses and we wonder how to pay the bills.

We tell jokes and play games. And we make mistakes. Many of them.

We have our favorite sports teams, and we often get our priorities confused. And when we do, we are filled with sorrow.

We don’t know it all. We agonize over how to handle the Bible and how to handle people who are making terrible mistakes. We try to manage prosperity with humility, but more often we wrestle with the self-doubt of failure.

We have families whom we love, but we get angry. We sin against them and have to ask their forgiveness. We are ordinary people.

Most of us pastor small congregations. Our hearts are easily broken. We are hurt when people leave, we laugh and rejoice when people come.

We work six days a week, sometimes more. Some of us work multiple jobs. We make house calls. We will be with you at 3 a.m. if the need calls for it. We will stand with you when some great pain has entered your life. We’ll hold your hand.

And we will fail you. We will forget to call you. We will forget to pay a visit to you in the hospital. We will make decisions that you think are wrong. We will get angry when we shouldn’t. We will be passive when we should make a stand. You will wonder what is wrong with us.

What is wrong with us is that we are ordinary people. We do not breathe purified air. We do not claim a greater measure of God’s favor. In fact, we carry a greater burden of responsibility before him and that weighs heavily on us.

The pastors I know don’t want either pity or special recognition. They will take, however, with great joy, the news that you pray for God’s blessing upon them as they are: mere people with extraordinary responsibility. They will thank you.

Adventure Is Out There!

By Randy

On April 10, 2010

In Life

To any who have been wondering what happened to my posting frequency, whether I’d fallen into a hole, been swept away by a rogue wave, or gotten myself stuck on the MTA (“…and his fate is still unlearned…”), none of those theories is true.

I’ve simply been preoccupied. Really preoccupied. Getting-a-house-ready-to-sell-and-possessions-ready-to-move preoccupied.

The best way to explain is to post here the announcement that was read/sent to the members and friends of Hope Presbyterian Church a few days before Easter. This should explain our preoccupation. (Comments afterward.)

To the congregation and friends of Hope Presbyterian Church:

Change is in store for me as a pastor and consequently for you as the congregation of Hope Presbyterian Church. While sometimes exciting, often scary, and never comfortable, change should never surprise us when we serve a God who is laboring for our growth in his grace.

Recently another PCA church, Covenant Presbyterian Church in Oviedo, Florida (near Orlando), voted to issue a call to me to be their pastor. Barb and I for years have wrestled with whether and when we should move on from our ministry here at Hope. We have decided that the time has come, that God is showing us his will, and that we should therefore accept this new call.

I don’t know how to soften such an announcement as this, nor do I have the insight to know what this change will mean for me or for you. I find comfort, and I hope you do as well, in the fact that God’s leading is wise and that his heart always inclines to bless us. He is writing a new and good chapter in our lives, and he can be trusted to do that well.

Since no one is forcing this decision or asking for it, this has been one of the most difficult decisions we have ever made. We will be leaving people whom we love, and by whom we have been loved far beyond what we deserve. Leaving will separate us from dear friends and precious memories and we will always be grateful to God for each one of you.

We are not certain how quickly this transition will come about, though it looks as if it will be complete by summer.

There are, as you can imagine, a lot of details yet to be worked out. We wish we could have communicated this to each of you individually, but obviously that is not possible.

This weekend we celebrate the greatest act of God’s love, the death of his Son on the cross, and the greatest act of his will and power, the resurrection of Jesus from the grave. These are realities which should strip away any fear and uncertainty any of us might have regarding the future. Though we cannot see the future, the future in the hands of such a God is good.

That which remains unchanged, whether we are together or apart, is the hope that God would continue to use each of us individually and his church corporately to the end that “the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.”

May it always be so.

With deepest affection,

Randy

This is an exciting, and bittersweet, piece of news. In equal measure we look forward to the new ministry and new relationships awaiting us in Oviedo, and we sorrow and grieve for the separations that must take place in Bradenton.

God has opened up this opportunity and we are looking forward with great anticipation to the wonderful things He plans to do.

What this means for Somber and Dull is that posting will be erratic and unpredictable for the foreseeable future. Be patient, and join us in this new adventure.

To God be all the glory.

Coming Clean

By Randy

On April 2, 2010

In Uncategorized

Most everything, as most of you already know, posted on this site yesterday was a ruse. I say most of you, because some took me seriously. But you’ll learn.

Today, then, we return to the original design, title, and such, with the reminder that the title is intended to be ironic. For the record, again, I will paste at the end here, my reasons for calling this blog by the name I’ve given it.

Interestingly, though, every ‘suggestion’ I alluded to in my justification for the ‘redesign’ was a real suggestion given to me by real people with all seriousness.

I must give credit where credit is due. Creative help for a couple of the posts came from my son Seth. Blame him for ‘Mere Crustianity’ and ‘The Abolition of Manna’, among other things.

Finally, I’m keeping my profile picture up for another day. That is the smile of a famous person. Can anyone tell me whose smile that is?

A free C. S. Lewis baker’s library to all correct guesses.

UPDATE: Two votes for Tom Cruise; two for Joel Osteen. An interesting contrast. But I confess, it is Joel Osteen’s happy face. Now what did I do with those baker’s librarys….

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It’s Ironic

The title of this blog is intended to be ironic. but not everyone understands that. I may really be somber and dull, but I’m really not trying to be!

A couple years ago I decided one day to see what was involved in creating a blog. When it comes to things like this, I don’t read up on things. I just jump in and fiddle. At that time, I was only aware of Blogger, so I went to that site and began to create.

I quickly was faced with the fact that I had to give the blog a name.

At the time, I had been reading – re-reading, actually – Alan Paton’s marvelous novel Cry, the Beloved Country. (Take this as an advertisement. If you are looking for a good book to read, pick this one up.)

The main character in the novel is a poor, black Anglican pastor named Stephen Kumalo. Paton introduces Kumalo as “a parson, somber and rather dull, no doubt, and his hair was turning white.”

Well, I’m a parson, and my hair is turning white. I’m not black, but the sobriquet ’somber and dull’ was kind of appealing to me.

So, that was on my mind, and when Blogger asked for a name, in went Somber and Dull.

It has grown on me. I like the ironic tone. Either way it fits. If the blog is indeed somber and dull, the title fits. If the blog is bright and interesting, then it suits the ironic intent. I can’t lose.

Enough of that. Now go get the book and read it.

Nearly Complete Lewis Library for Sale

By Randy

On April 1, 2010

In Books

Few know that C. S. Lewis was an accomplished baker who wrote a number of books probing the remote corners of the baker’s art. These books are rare, and treasured in the Christian baking community.

I have been privileged to come in contact with a man who has a nearly complete collection of Lewis’ baking works which I have been authorized to offer for sale. Before posting this to Craig’s List, I thought I’d give readers of Happy and Bright the first crack.

All works in this set are in good condition, with some underlining in pencil. All are paperbacks, but the glue is tight and the spines uncracked.

This set includes:

The Four Loaves

Surprised by Soy

A Yeast Observed

The Problem of Grain

Till We Have Biscuits

The Sourdough Letters

Sourdough Proposes Toast

The Abolition of Manna