Friday miscellanea
Random, not necessarily connected thoughts I want to write down:
- I had a real physical challenge yesterday at a friend's house. We were out to dinner in their circa 1915 home in Minneapolis. The only restroom was upstairs. As you may know, I walk with crutches. (My wife has this little dig at me that I walk like Marty Feldman (Young Frankenstein). She does love me and we laugh about this!). I needed to use the restroom so had to make the treck up the stairs. Turns out the owners, when they renovated, decided to remove the handrails. The steps were three up to a landing, a left turn, half a flight up, another landing, a left turn and another half flight up. Additionally the tread width was narrow (typical in older homes). When I saw these stairs, I was very nervous. I made my way up one step at a time (leading my my stronger right leg and dragging my left leg up one). Oh I was scared and I was praying hard all the way up. At the top there was a loose oblong rug. Their little kitty followed my up to check up on me. Then I made my way down: bad leg first using the strong leg and crutches to stabilize myself. At 9:15 I whispered to my wife, "I've got to go to the bathroom again and I don't want to do those stairs a second time".
- My office is a complete mess. I need to pack up the remaining stuff. Kathee is coming today to pick up her Wells Fargo stagecoach (that she won as an award at work. I've had it for 2+ years ... now going back to her). Tuesday is my last day at 100 Washington. Wednesday I go to 255 2nd Avenue (everyone calls it the NOC (for the Norwest Operations Center).
- My friend Dennis Gonzcy invited me to come speak at his two churches in Boy River on October 12th. That's right, he is the Pastor of 2 churches: The Log Chapel, and Faith United Fellowship. This will be our third time up there. The first time was in bitter Winter. I opened up our sunroof one night to show Kathee the stars and the sunroof stuck open. Kathee was not pleased. The second time was last Summer. We are looking forward to a Fall trip there.
- We are connecting with some folk from Des Moines tonight for dinner. Andy works for Faith Baptist. I've talked to him on the phone before. We are taking them out to "The Big Bowl". I will be ordering Kung Pao chicken.
- Tomorrow we will be driving over to Marshfield, Wisconsin for a wedding at 6:00 p.m. We will be spending the night there at a Holiday Inn and then planning on worshiping in Neillsville, Wisconsin. The wedding is of one of the young women of our church's young adult ministry. The church (Neillsville) is pastored by Ben Fugate's (4th Baptist) Father.
- My boss was away at an offsite all week. He was in an unusually good mood today. Sounds like a re-org is coming our way.
Love the 2nd to last point; after seeing the singles meet while counting as a head usher, I've been praying for a lot of those there to find a spouse...seems that those prayers are being answered a LOT this year! What a joy!
ReplyDeleteI hope the singles at your church court and don't date!..........oops, wrong blog
ReplyDeleteRe Anonymous.
ReplyDeleteI do think that Christian young adults in fundamentalist churches struggle with the whole dating thing. They've heard so much bad advice that they almost don't know what to do.
JP, that was my feeble attempt at humor. I wasn't being serious. In my own opinion, this dating/courtship thing has become an odd diversion in Christian circles these days. I personally couldn't care less whether young people go out on a "date" on Friday night, or if they go out on a "courtship ritual" on Friday night. It's America, in the 21st century. We let people pick their own mates and don't force them into arranged marriages. If someone wants to do that, that's fine! More power to you! The thing I find odd is where this issue has somehow become the ONLY way and all of a sudden if you don't revert back to the ways of the Middle East from 10 centuries ago somehow you're a rebel. Dating is just a small, temporary part of life. You date, then get married and live your life. Marriage is wonderful. Why this strange obsession with a time period that is relatively short and why this obsession lately with calling "dating" an evil practice? I don't get it.
ReplyDeleteAnon, have you read any of the books advocating courting, like "Her Hand in Marriage" by Doug Wilson or "I kissed dating goodbye" (Joshua Harris)?
ReplyDeleteReason I ask is that your comments suggest that you haven't--and these authors demonstrate that modern dating (and now "hooking up" too often) really has a pedigree of only about 50 years, not centuries, and that a lot of the habits formed by dating (get to know a girl, one says "let's just be friends," get to know another, rinse and repeat) are not training for marriage, but rather training for divorce.
Courting isn't perfect, but it tends to reduce this chance by involving the families in the relationship. Since you've got to live with the in-laws anyways, you might as well get to know them to start, no?
A lot of it seems weird to modern ears, but then again, "till death do us part" sounds weird to too many ears, no?
Does anyone even read these old posts?..............We were having a good conversation, but it's soooo last week. In the Internet world this is ancient history...............By the way, I have not read any of those books either. My post was not a slam against any of them........It just seems like, at least from my personal experience, that there is too much rigidness on this issue. People seem to think if you "don't do it MY way then you're wrong." Again, this is just what I've seen and is in no way a reflection on any movement or person.
ReplyDeleteAnon, I'd highly encourage you to read up a little on this, then. It is an eye opener. I'm not as bothered by rigidity as by the failure to take seriously the possibility that our modern mores are killing our families.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Jim, we might do well to (if the newlyweds so desire) get an announcement of the wedding in the church bulletin so the church as a whole can rejoice.