Update on good lookin'

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Goodbye Johnny Potter part 2

They had just dimmed the lights. I think this officially marked that it was the moment in the evening separating those who come to eat a dinner meal and those who were there to stay for one or two or several after dinner drinks.

The waitress approaches the crowded table only to find one occupant left and she asks the lone soul if he’d like one more drink.

He politely turns her down acknowledging that he’s only there at this point to enjoy the jazz music. Jazz music as it turn out, is strangely appropriate for this moment.

The slow beat of the drum serves as sort of metaphorical life metronome for him. With each beat and the help of four or was it five beers, a new memory pops into his head helping him recount all the reasons why Waco has been so great these last couple of years.

He can feel the emotion begin to well up. His initial response is to fight it, but then he decides, “no, this is the place for this to happen.” He decides that this is the goodbye. Sure he’ll be in church on Sunday and see the few people he really cares to say goodbye here and there, but this is goodbye to this place.

The Elite Grill is awarded being the crescendo of so many great happenings over the past several years. For him, it is the icon for all that he appreciates about Waco. And so he thinks…

He thinks about all things sad, all things happy, and yet somehow all things good. He thinks about all the people that for the first time in his life have actually been a community that is worthy of the title “community.” He thinks about Baylor. He thinks about his soon to be lonely home (the first he ever bought). He thinks about losing a friend and gaining so many more. He thinks about his first job and the radical decision to walk away from America’s dream to pursue his own and he thinks about this night and how it seems to be a perfect ending to a great chapter.

Feeling a little more like driving, he stands up soaks up the end of this last song…offers applause. But the applause seems to be more than just thank you to the jazz band. It is thank you to all of you and all of this. He turns towards the exit and proceeds.

As he steps outside there is a crisp breeze that reminds him there is more. There is a reason to move on and he is reminded why, though all this is so good he is leaving. The slowly closing door finally closes and the last period of the chapter is finally punctuated.

Jonathon Potter is moving on.

Good-bye Johnny Potter part 1

I wish I was better at writing these things because the people I write them about really do elicit more emotion from me than my writing communicates. Frequent readers will notice that I use Tolkien to try and express this hard thing we call good bye. In Tolkien’s Novel, which is so large and so superb, we meet many memorable characters that grab our hearts and eventually in scenes like when Frodo goes to the Grey Haven’s, have to do this difficult but appropriate thing we call saying goodbye.

I remember saying goodbye to Harris and struggling to really communicate the significance of his impact on my life, be my knowing him a small amount of time. And yet I say goodbye again. This time to a friend whom I have developed what has become an almost sacred tradition with. Some of you who are local will know about the four of us who faithfully meet for this great American invention known as “Happy Hour.”

I don’t really know what it is about happy hour. Maybe it’s the honesty that comes out after a few beers or commitment to meet on a regular basis, but over the last few months I’ve come to know these three people in a way that is unique. We share the common bond of community that you can only find in shows…well like Cheers. Can I be bold enough to suggest that I have found a church within the church? A proverbial life group if you will. A group to hear my struggles, questions, and share my joys with.

And now, now one of us leaves. This is one of the hard but sad truths about life. We learn to say good-bye to some of our own narratives main characters. So to Jonathan Potter I say thank you. Thank you for taking a chance on a bunch of punks from the North and trying to make your way through the book of Job for a semester and thank you for all the great friendship that followed after that.

And cheers…Cheers to the most creative artist I know on this side of the Mississippi.

Here I should put some fancy thing like Craig, but for now that’s all.

For those of you who wonder why I love WI so much

State Senate OKs free beer samples at the store

The Associated Press

MADISON — Beer lovers of Wisconsin, rejoice! Thanks to the state Senate, you’re a step closer to getting a free (yes, free!) half-can of beer.

The Senate today approved a bill on an unanimous voice vote that allows grocery and liquor stores to hand out samples of up to 6 ounces of free beer per day to people of legal drinking age. The Assembly was expected to take up the measure later today.

Current state law allows wineries, but not grocery and liquor stores, to offer up to 6 ounces of free samples.

Sen. Pat Kreitlow, D-Chippewa Falls, home of the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co., is the bill’s main sponsor. He said the measure is designed to help beer manufacturers compete with wine makers.


p.s. thanks Kenny

belated easter

I didn’t write or say much anything about Easter and I feel bad. In college I used to casually suggest that all the churches in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area should rent out the Metrodome and celebrate Easter all week long because it is that big of a holiday.

Irenaeus has me thinking otherwise. The West’s version of atonement has a lot more to do with death and resurrection than say the entire resume of Jesus’ life. Not so in the theology of the East. For Athanasius and Irenaeus, Jesus entire life was critical for the participation of the community of God. Yes the person and work of Christ culminate in his faithfulness to and on the cross, but his redemptive work is substantiated by a life of righteous faithfulness to the will of God.

What does this mean for us Easter celebrators, only that Easter is all year long everyday. This Easter I didn’t reflect like I would have liked to, but there is much in my life that indicates newness and life among the craziness. For this I’m grateful to God.

whispering the truth

Last night I attended our small group, “Generous Orthodoxy.” At some point in the discussion one of our bright thinkers commented that he would like it if we stopped deconstructing because after so much deconstruction there is little left to actually call “the faith” when you/we get done.

At this point I checked out and began thinking about deconstruction. I began to ask myself where all this deconstruction happens. Ironically I think the primary area that deconstruction happens is in our collective slighting sarcastic comments. We see or hear a phrase from our pasts and we snicker and make a joke of it. Let me stop here. I’m chief among these people and I don’t think this humor is all together out of line. Humor has a unique ability to expose what is wrong with systems from time to time.

In case you are not following let me give you a quick example. When Donald Miller came and spoke to Baylor over a year ago now he talked about how we have a Christian subculture for everything. His example was a Christian office supplies store. His punch line came when he asked us if when we purchased hole punchers that had been “bathed in the blood of the lamb.”

This is a good example of what I’m talking about. So many things have been handed down to us that haven’t been given apt explanation. Thus, when the experience doesn’t substantiate the language we grew weary and became cynical. In this sense I think the sarcasm and deconstruction have a place.

On the other hand I think we secretly believe that for some, perhaps our parents, phrases like “bathed in the blood of the lamb,” had/have significant meaning. These types of phrases evoke a bit of nostalgia in us and we secretly appreciate this type of language and practice in someone when we sense they are genuine.

This is why I believe that Ben told me that in a way he really enjoyed when Louis Giglio came and spoke to UBC. This is why Craig reported to me that when he dined with the Brownings several months ago he was a bit touched by their before meal prayer. And this is why I believe there has been an overwhelming positive response to this past Sundays service.

We sat there and began to notice the familiar. Church picnics, baptisms and communion all remind of our past that we so often ridicule….but…but are still secretly appreciative of.

date night

My girlfriend Macy came over last night. It was our fist play date. I think I made a really good impression. Hopefully my daddy-like charm wooed her.