holiday road

Tomorrow morning we load up the family truckster and head west for Colorado. Should be an entertaining 12 hours in the car. Just a few things I can promise youwon't hear me say. . .

"Eat road grit liver lips"

"Hey, hey, easy kids. Everybody in the car. Boat leaves in two minutes... or perhaps you don't want to see the second largest ball of twine on the face of the earth, which is only four short hours away? "

"This is no longer a vacation. It's a quest. It's a quest for fun."

My dad was Clark Griswald before there was a Clark Griswald. My deepest fear for this trip is that the mantle will be passed.

At least the car's not metallic pea.

Have a good week.
j

should christians celebrate death?

I tried to post this last night, but blogger was busy sucking so....

Unless you have been in a cave the last couple of days, you know that the US dropped two 500lb bombs on a house where Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and several aides and other people were having a meeting. al-Zarqawi was killed along with everyone else present. al-Zarqawi was an evil man. He was responsible for untold deaths of civilians both Iraqi and American (and others). Next to Bin Laden (anyone remember him?) he was probably the most sought-after target in the "war on terror".
So why mention all of this? I am bothered by the celebratory attitude of "christians" who are cheering the death of another human. The President and the media have worked hard to dehumanize men like al-Zarqawi to make the public view them as something other than human. Something that is to be cheered when it is eliminated. We've turned war into a sporting event (or at least a card game) where we get to say "gotcha" to fellow humans by blowing them up and then showing off their bodies.
Was he evil? Yes. Is the world better because he is dead? Probably. Should he have been captured and "brought to justice"? Not if it meant putting soldiers (Iraqi or American or anyone else) in harm's way.
But, all this being said, should a person who claims to follow Christ celebrate the violent death of another human being? Perhaps we should instead mourn. Not necessarily the passing of al-Zarqawi but rather the world in which we live that made it necessary for him to die. I guess my fear is that in all of the flag-waving and America=Jesusland that has gone on over the past few years, we have forgotten that we are strangers and aliens here. We have forgotten that Jesus doesn't hate Iraqis, even the terrorists.
I don't know exactly how we should feel, but I'm pretty sure "happy" isn't it.
j

video goodness

As a fan of both U2 and Samuel L. Jackson, I had to post this. It's a pretty decent impression of Bono singing "Someone Tell Sam Jackson He's My Bro". Great stuff.
btw - if you don't care for profanity, you might be warned - Sam Jackson's kind of famous for it.


Enjoy.
j

14

Fourteen years ago K and I said "I do" and started this wild ride of marriage. Since this date last year we have been around the world and back, we've become parents (again), my life has changed directions (again), and we continue to learn and grow and change and become.
We laugh more now than we did 14 years ago. I like to think it is because we are finding life to be more and more of a joy as the years roll. K says it's because we provide each other with more material now than we did then.
Fourteen years ago, the day was all about the wedding. Every move, decision, conversation, thought, and action centered around that event. Today we dealt with getting carpet replaced from our flood, reconstructing rooms, back and forth to the hospital, 9 yo baseball, and on and on. Conversations about bathmats and grout ruled the day. It is so different now than it was then. It is so much better.
I couldn't ask for a better partner, friend, accomplice and straight "man".
I love you, K. Happy anniversary.
j

other randomness

article from new york magazine about the "killing off" of the generation gap or how 30/40-somethings are living and acting like 20-somethings.
then of course al mohler weighs in and calls us all immature because we don't wear suits like good grown up republicans, errmm I mean "christians" should.
ht to ysmarko

interesting article on creating intentional community by Dave Pollard
ht to Jordon Cooper

left behind the video game - screw the peacemakers, blessed are the battle tanks
ht to Jesus Politics

global warming may worsen poison ivy - great, now we're going to drown all red and itchy
ht to willzhead

and the funniest news item of the day (at least to a Cubs fan)
Royals Hire Tom Emanski to teach them the Fundamentals of Baseball
from the Onion
Happy Clicking
j

an ode to 24 - season 5

While stolling through the blogiverse this morning I came across this epic poem written by the actor who plays President Logan on 24. It is season 5 in iambic pentameter.
Spoilers galore - so if you don't want to know, don't click.
But if you are the kind of soul that slows down for car accidents - click here and enjoy.
j

suffering in the burbs?

In reading through Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship, I encountered a passage that deals with the necessity of suffering for the disciple who wants to identify with Jesus. Bonhoeffer says

Just as Christ is Christ only in virtue of his suffering and rejection, so the disciple is a disciple only in so far as he shares his Lord's sufering and rejection and crucifixion. (p. 87)

There is no need in my life or that of my family that goes unmet. In fact, it is possible for us to live in such a way where only the most extravagant wants remain out of our reach. I don't face persecution for my faith (in spite of what some would want us to believe), I lack for nothing, I am healthy and happy and more or less whole. So what does suffering look like in the 'burbs? After thinking about it for a couple of days, at least one answer punched me in the head today.
In talking with the parent of a child under the age of ten today I found out that the child had been placed on anti-depressants because they "tried to kill" one of their parents. Not lashed out or yelled at or beat on - tried to kill. This parent pushed the child to the point of rage where the only possibility in the mind of an elementary age child was to try and remove the parent from the planet. How do you respond to that?
Maybe part of suffering for those of us who stumble after Jesus is having our eyes opened to the world the way Jesus sees it - broken and bleeding, harrassed and helpless, deperately in need - and feeling the compulsion to carry the love and life of Jesus into that world. Maybe part of our suffering is to experience the suffering of others. To carry their burdens. To mourn with those who mourn. I know I am suffering right now as I think about this child and so many others of all ages that I know who are hurting and in need of the Kingdom to sweep into their lives.
There are a lot of places in my reality where I find it very hard to identify with Jesus, but tonight I "get" this one.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. (Matthew 9:36)

Suffering a little.
j