Monthly Archive

John Howard Yoder: "To be human is to be in conflict, to offend and to be offended. To be human in light of the gospel is to face conflict in redemptive dialogue"   Taken from his "Body Politics: Five Practices of the Christian Community Before the Watching World" pgs 61-71.

Parker Palmer in his book, The Promise of Paradox writes in response to a Marxist perspective on life that says that a suffering society calls for violent revolution followed by dictatorship of the working class.

On reflection, nothing has been more influential in the past decade in shaping who I am, what I do and what I say than my journey with pain. This journey has taken various twists, turns and surprises--often those surprises of the negative variety. There is an exhaustion emotionally and spiritually of dealing with pain day in and day out. Although naturally a risk taker and willing to take on big challenges, I have found that my lengthy recovery from my most recent setback debilitating in more than just physical ways.

They love crickett here . . . some twisted version of baseball that takes three days to play and results in hundreds of runs which they don't call runs. I am looking forward to a Saturday morning here to watch a Friday afternoon baseball game in Los Angeles with the Phillies leading the series one game to none.

I have a season membership to listen to baseball online. Most days, work and other schedules prevent me from listening although Sky TV here sometimes plays the games on delay. The most played teams on Sky: the Phillies, the Yankees and the Red Sox.

I have just finished reading Marva Dawn's new book Being Well When We're Ill: Wholeness and Hope in Spite of Infirmity. Marva Dawn is one of my favorite authors. She is a person who has suffered much physically, lives with multiple disabilities and offers deep reflections on different dimensions of ministry. She is an articulate theologian and a critic of western culture. In this latest of her writings, she reflects on diverse topics that impact those of us who suffer with infirmity.

I continue to work at my rehabilitation and healing. I am definitely ahead of where I was 4 weeks ago but still a long ways from being my more normal self. My pain levels are higher than normal. I am blessed with a really exceptional physical therapist and anticipate some months yet of therapy.

One of the most horrific injuries in the NFL was the shattering of Joe Theisman's leg in a Monday night football game 20 years ago. It is one of the most shocking videos of all time. He is now a spokesman for triple A, abdoniminal aortic disorder a deadly and silent killer. One million people in the U.S. have this and most don't know about it.

J. K. Rowling is one of the most successful authors of recent memory, known for her Harry Potter series. Some in the Christian community have blacklisted her because of her exploration of the magical and dark side. She is a brilliant thinker and writer.

In June, 2008, she gave an address to Harvard graduates. The following is an excerpt, focusing on failure:

"What I feared most for myself at your age was not poverty, but failure.

Affliction is the best book in my library.  Martin Luther 1483-1546

All hell has broken loose in the Pacific Rim it seems. Earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons. Thousands are missing in Indonesia due to massive earthquakes. The death count is still going up in Samoa which was the first point of contact for the Tsunami. Southeast Asia has been battered by typhoons, massive flooding. New Zealand is particularly impacted by the suffering and loss in Samoa. Many Samoans live in New Zealand and have immediate family back in Samoa. One of our students loss 8 family members.