ENOUGH!!!

I am saddened to report that at the beginning of what should be the most joyous time of the year, the time when we celebrate the birth of our God and King, Jesus, that holiday shoppers have let their personal greed far outstrip the true reason for the season. The New York Times reports in an article today that in a Nassau county Wal*Mart, an employee was trampled to death by "Black Friday" shoppers so intent on their need to buy that new gizmo to put under the Christmas tree, that they apparently didn't even realize that they had killed a man.

Also in Southern California, two men in a Toys "R" Us store shot and killed each other. As per the time I write this I'm unsure if this was a dispute over some toy, or gang related violence in the middle of a very busy and crowded store. (Police had yet to comment, pending notification of the families)

In any event, working in retail myself, sadly these stories do not surprise me. They do however sadden me deeply. If I owned a store of any size and had a thought that this sort of thing could happen, I wouldn't care if it meant the end of my business, I would sooner stay closed than allow the possibility of something like this happening.

With so much of society seeming to focus on NOT mentioning Christmas during the holidays (many stores forbid their employees to say "Merry Christmas", instead having them wish shoppers "Happy Holidays") maybe we need to put the focus back on Christ in Christmas.

I don't mean for this to sound heartless, but can you imagine the scene?
Mommy says "Look Johnny! Daddy got you a Nintendo Wii for Christmas!"
Johnny says "Wonderful Mommy! Umm, Mommy, where IS Daddy?"
Mommy says "I'm sorry Johnny, but when Daddy went to buy you your Wii, he killed a man and is now facing a trial for Manslaughter. But he wanted me to tell you that no one kept him from getting you your Wii!"

Where do we draw the line? When does it end? Do people honestly believe that someone will love them more just because they buy them expensive gifts?

Jesus showed his love for his disciples, and he never so much as bought them a tunic. Yes, he showed his love ultimately by dying on the Cross for us, but he also showed his love daily. Caring for his friends, teaching them, being there for them in times of trouble and just simply listening to them.

My friends, I beseech you; before you go charging into the retail fray this year and trample anyone or anything in your path on your way to get that ... whatever your after, take a breath. If you don't get that prized item, try to remember, it is not the presents that you give at Christmas that matters. It is your presence in the lives of your family and friends that matters.

And remember, the retail employee who's life you save, could be ME.

A man who lives for his music

During my senior year in high school, and my freshman year in college, I had the pleasure of spending my summers in the mountains of western North Carolina, at an Episcopal summer camp called Kanuga.

Kanuga is run jointly by the five diocese of North and South Carolina, and to call its location gorgeous simply wouldn't do it justice by any standard. Though on staff, I had the pleasure of participating in many of the camp's programs intended for the campers and conference attendees (they ran other summer programs at the same time as their summer camp), one of which was an evening of entertainment with a local artists. I am happy to say that more than one of these artists did not remain only a local talent for long and one in particular, David Holt, has had his work showcased on the Nashville Network and on public television. David has been recognized for his work, winning four Grammy awards.

David I feel typifies the sort of drive that we should all hope to have for in our lives, but only a very few achieve. His life has been devoted to the rich culture of the music of the Blue Ridge Mountains. He has had the opportunity to perform with and learn from many of the greats of country and bluegrass music, including Roy Acuff, Chet Adkins, and others, but most especially his mentor, Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson. (and if you don't know any of these names ... head for Google or Wikipedia!)

Recently, I had emailed David's website just to drop a note and let him know how happy I was that he was doing so well. I didn't think with his busy schedule he'd have time to write back but he did! I was happy to hear from him. His son Zeb, who is now 32 and working for the National Broadcasting Company in New York City was still in diapers when I met David at Kanuga.

I feel as a Christian, we should all try to live our lives much as David has. Putting everything we have into pursuing what is important (and hopefully) what we enjoy. I also feel that if we put this sort of drive into pursuing our relationship with Jesus, the rest of our lives will be equally as enriched.

I have been inspired by a fellow blogger... (so if you don't like this, blame Deb)

I have recently read the blog of a friend in Boston. Deb and her husband are both disabled and in wheelchairs, but they don't let any of that slow them down (much). With her lemons-to-lemonade outlook, it isn't any wonder that Deb and John are more well traveled in their community than I am in mine.

I have learned a few things from them however. I learned that if you are disabled, you can contact the National Park Service and receive a free pass to ANY national park!

For the longest time, I thought I'd not really "done" anything in my life. Looking at my life through the eyes of others, I see that I have been blessed ... with a Mom who has a "wander lust". Each summer, from the time I was about 12 or 13, near the end of our summer vacation, Mom would pack my sister and I into our car (a 1979 Datsun 210 sedan) and we'd head off on an adventure.

First it was the Grand Canyon. Our family grew up in a church in Indianapolis Indiana, along with several other families. One of the families had three strapping young men who spent the summer as river guides on the Colorado River. OARS: Outdoor Adventure with River Specialists runs guided rafting trips down and through the Grand Canyon. And, because we knew two of the boatmen, they gave us a discount! If you've never been down IN the canyon, all I can say is, GO! Images like this are hard to describe:

More later. Be well and be blessed.

On the passing of a dear friend

Growing up I went to a summer camp in southern Indiana called Waycross. (www.waycrosscenter.org)

While I am confident that everyone thinks that the summer camp that they went to was the greatest, for me, Waycross was it. From the time I was four years old when we'd all come down for family camp, to coming as a camper for the week long sessions (or the coveted TWO week sessions!), to being on staff, and full circle returning for family camp -- only now as the head of the family rather than as the child. This place will always hold a dear spot in my heart.

Through it all, one of the people who was always there was Lennis 'Lenny' Baughman. Lenny was the camp's resident manager from 1963 to 1989. With the help of his wife Judy, Lenny kept Waycross in ship-shape but still always had time for a game of horse shoes (he was the camp's horse shoe champion 12 year running).

Lenny was one of those types that even in the hottest days of summer, he always wore denims and a long sleeve work shirt. He was a country boy at heart, and felt out of place in a suit.

I received an email from my sister Melissa, informing me that on September 9th, Lenny went home to the Lord. His family - Judy, their son Jim and daughter-in-law Jennifer - were at his side.

Rest well Lenny, goodness knows you've earned it.

-Ron

My views on the coming Presidential Election

It is my hope in writing this not to say which candidate is better suitable to the office of the President of the United States, but it IS my hope that I will help you, my dear reader, to find out whom YOUthink is best suited to serve.

The hardest part to me, comes with having to know who you are. Not just what your name is, or where you live, or who your parents are, but what values are most important in your life. This is a value judgment that you will find will change as you grow, not only physically (for those of you who might still be shorter than your potential size) but emotionally as well.

I for one, feel that I have done much more emotional maturing in my life than I have done physical growing, and at 5'11", I'm fairly close to the average size of anyone in my family. But for the longest time, emotionally, I think I could say that I was pretty much an infant. Even now, I know there are things I can be very immature about. Paying bills, doing chores, but I digress. My faith, which while I've had it in some degree for the majority of my life, I feel I have gained more spiritual maturity in the past 20 years than I have in the whole 45+ years of my life.

In my youth, I would have been willing to vote for whoever seemed the most popular. Not because I thought they would best serve in the office, but it seemed more important to me to vote for the person who would eventually win the election, as if my personal vote was the deciding factor.

These days, what is important isn't necessarily whom I think will win the office, but instead, whom I think is best suited to run the office with the values that I feel are most important for leading our nation. I feel it is of highest importance that as a Christian, that we vote into office those who most fully support our views and beliefs. Many who would run for office will try to make you THINK that they feel as you do, but if you look at their past actions, how they have lived their life and run their business in whatever office they are holding before this, you will see where their heart really is.

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I will give you an example from my own family. I have two sisters, both of whom I love dearly. My eldest sister I am very proud to say has done exceedingly well for herself. She and her husband own an advertising agency in Indianapolis, and they are in the process of moving into a fairly affluent neighborhood on the north side. I hold nothing against her, indeed she is a really HUGE example of how someone with drive and ambition can take a dream for themselves and see it not only fulfilled, but exceeded! My only problem with my sister seems to be the fact that while we both grew up in the same "blue collar" middle class neighborhood, my sister seems clueless to remember what it was really like not having any money.

My brother, my other sister and I all know fully well what its like to deal with tough financial times. This is very much the situation with one of the presidential candidates. For all his efforts to make himself seem like the 'everyman', he's not. And I bet you, some reading this think I'm talking about the conservative. I'm speaking of the liberal! Yes, he may have grown up poor -- goodness knows he mentions it in about all his political advertising -- but it doesn't show in his life NOW. True, in some regards the conservative seems clueless of what its like to not have money, but at least he's honest about himself. He speaks honestly from his view and is willing to listen to others. The liberal seems to be saying, "I know what your life is like, and I know what is best for us to do to fix it!" There are some of us out here who don't WANT your help to fix it. There are some of us who want JOBS where we can afford to take care of our own families. There are some of us out here who want the government to keep our employers from (pardon my language here a moment) screwing us over and expecting us to smile while they're doing it!

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So I would hope that you spend time in prayer, asking God to help you see the truth about the candidates. About whom you should vote for and whom you feel would best be able to run the country as you feel it needs to be run. Here's a hint though: You don't even have to agree with me! I won't be hurt if you don't! But no matter what, rain, snow, wind or massive swarms of duckbill platypuses ...GET OUT THERE AND VOTE! If you don't, you have no right to complain about who gets into office.

*sings* So high, you can't get over it ...

Ok I admit, I'm borrowing very heavily from my Pastor's message this past Sunday, as my niece used to say, "Get over it!"

I'm reminded recently of the children's church song, I admit I don't remember all the words, but it speaks of how HUGE sin can be, So high you can't get over it/so low you can't get under it/so wide you can't go around it..." The only way past the sin in your life is through the door, which is Jesus. Jesus taught Matthew this. In the hierarchy of their time, Matthew was the lowest of the low. He was a tax collector. In their day, working as a tax collector wasn't the same as working for the "Internal Revenue Service". The Roman government imposed taxes, and hired tax collectors to gather them. Part of the idea was that they would hire local individuals, so that "Good Roman Citizens" wouldn't have to travel from their homes. These local collectors, since they pretty much didn't have any other means of income would charge fees over and above the taxes they were supposed to collect. Some did it because they needed money for their own needs, others, well, others just did it because they were greedy and didn't care who they hurt.

I'm not sure which of these schools Matthew fell into, but in Matthew's Gospel we read: As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector's booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. Matthew 9:9 (NIV)

Jesus didn't tell Matthew that he needed to clense himself. He didn't tell him that he needed to give all he had to the poor, He simply said, "Follow me." Here was a man that other people would avoid for any number of reasons, but Jesus showed that it wasn't important for your life to be perfect, or anywhere close to it. Jesus even went and ate with them! Sinners, adulterers, tax collectors, and you and me!

There are times in our lives we seem to think, "Well, I'm not perfect, but I'm doing better than THAT GUY." The problem with this sort of thinking is, God does not grade us "On the Curve" as our teachers did in school. You cannot make your grade any better by finding someone who is doing worse than you are, it just doesn't work that way.

Our sin in our lives is like a wall between us and God. Whether it is as thin as rice paper or as thick as a brick wall, there is only one way through that wall, and it is the door. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.Revelation 3:20 (NIV)

We try and try to work out our salvation for ourselves. We think to ourselves, "If only I could do enough, I know I'd make God happy!" The problem is, there is no amount of works we can do for God to love us. There are no number of prayers, no number of "Hail Marys" or "Our Fathers" that will bring us into heaven. We are called to do one thing; follow Jesus. But in following Jesus, we need to remember to help bring others in through that door as well.

I wish you all a blessed day!
-Hat

Is it live, or is it kugel?

There's another blogger who posts here on blogger.com that I've been reading some interesting things from. If you get a chance, check out Stuff Christians Like. I admit that a few of his posts kind of border on disrespectful, but there are several that really make me think. And that is after all what blogs are for (impo) to get you using your noodle for something other than kugel.

As Christians, one of the things I feel we most need to realize is that there will come times when people are going to look at us and say "Why?" Why do we believe as we do? Why do we believe that Jesus is the one and only way to find Heaven, and why is Heaven such a thing worth seeking? I admit it. I'm not the world's foremost apologist. But I try! There is something about telling people about the Love of my Lord Jesus that defies explaining.

From my observation, I have a few things I have trouble understanding. I grew up in the Episcopal church (Britain's Anglican Church in the United States) and for the most part, I had assumed that I would grow old and die an Episcopalian. There is nothing wrong with that for those that accept the tenets of that faith, but I feel that I have come to understand some different things that either the church didn't teach, or that taught a different view than I now have. For example:
The need for a personal relationship with Jesus The Episcopal church puts less emphasis on the personal, and more on the communal. As I understood it, it was more important that you believed that Jesus died for humanity as a whole, and not quite so much that He died for YOU individually. I recall as a kid when someone would ask if I'd been 'saved' I would give a flippant response of, "Yes, but Jesus did that 2000 years ago. I don't have to do that NOW..." I have come to understand that my Salvation is not just about what Jesus did then, it is about MY accepting that He did it, and about living my life so that others will see Him in my life. Many in my family are still in the Episcopal church. They don't understand me in the least. I wish they did.

You see, one of the things I don't think my family really gets is what we're all talking about when we speak of our faith. When I tell you about my faith, I am not just telling you about what I believe, I am telling you about who I am. I can tell you about my faith. It is sort of like I am giving you a present wrapped up in a box with a frilly bow on top. I can tell you all about what is inside of it, what it means to me. But until you open the present and see it for yourself and accept it as your own, you cannot understand it.

Yes, I am still here. ;)

For those that know me from AotC, it is not news for me to tell you that this has been an eventful year for my wife and I. So much so that I've set aside the projects previously discussed in this blog in order to focus my attentions elsewhere.

Some life lessons have been impacting me, much as a meteor might leave craters on the moon. Beautiful in the end, but sometimes very violent in how they are achieved. While I do still struggle with life as a whole (not emotionally, just getting through day-to-day drek rather than doing something I'd much rather do ... like sleeping! ) I've come to the conclusion that there are much worse things to have happening in your life.

For example, my wife and I live in northern Indiana. These last two weeks, Southern Indiana has been dealing with some of the worst flooding in the state in just shy of 100 years. I guess that just comes to be expected when during these past couple of weeks, that area has been pounded by roughly 4-8 major thunderstorms dumping anywhere from a total of 10-14 inches of rain. (Very tiny upside, had this been mid winder rather than early summer, 1" of rain equals something like 10-12" of snow. Or, they would have been buried under 8-14 feet of snow)

So, all in all, I'd say I'm surviving quite nicely. If you happen to be anywhere in the state, have a heart and find a way to help out those in need down there right now. I'd consider donating to the relief efforts of the local station of the Moody Broadcasting Network, WGNR Radio, 97.9 FM.

On the issues of what my "Fellowship Hall" will be about, while MUDDING (see almost every post before this) will still be a very strong presence, I will start looking into the sorts of issues that make me "tick". Issues of my faith, issues of living a Christian life in a clearly non-Christian world and ... whateverelse I think to speak about.