Lilypie 3rd Birthday Ticker Lilypie 1st Birthday Ticker (Mrs.) Carn-Dog's comments: January 2008

Sunday, January 20, 2008

trying to be positive

Well...
at least Eli Manning is likable.

Friday, January 11, 2008

Tagged by Emily

1. One book that changed your life. Changed my life is strong phrase…The book that most single handedly changed the way I think about theology and consequently life would have to be the Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

2. One book you have read more than once. Simply Christian by N.T. Wright

3. One book you would want on a desert island. This one's easy. LOTR series by JRR Tolkien.

4. Two books that made you laugh. A Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs and Blankets by Craig Thompson

5. One book that made you cry. I hardly ever cry maybe six times in the last ten years, but the book I was most moved by was Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry

6. One book you wish you'd written. This is the easiest question on here. I wish I would have written the Harry Potter series. I’d be driving my Subaru Forester living in Castle Heights and have the most magically thinking mind in the world.

7. One book that you wish had never been written. Left Behind…has reinforced dispensational thinking more than any other book I know.

8. Two books you are currently reading. There is No me Without You by Melissa Faye Green and Giving by Bill Clinton

9. One book you've been meaning to read. Peace Like a River by LL Enger. Never heard a bad think about it.

10. Five people that I tag. Craig, Candace, Erik, April, and Hannah

Thursday, January 10, 2008

The new hermeneutic

I write about this from time to time, but that is because I experience the point being reiterated over and over. Tonight Grey’s Anatomy aired a new episode. If you watched you know about the story of Miranda’s son Tuck.

It doesn’t take much. When he was first wheeled in on a stretcher crying, I looked over and saw Lindsay shedding a few tears. It’s hard to watch these things fictional or not. You don’t just see the show or the actor or the drama. You watch vicariously and feel something swell deep within you.

After the show was over, without coordinating it, we got up to do the same thing. We entered Roy’s room and just stared at him watching him sleep listening for the sound for which I find myself eternally grateful. Another healthy day of breathing.

If there was an instrument that could record something passionate, it would have caught my prayer of thankfulness for my son Roy. I didn’t say any words or even think any. I just stood there in the present moment thankful and amazed. These are some of the holiest moments of my life. These are the moments that shape the way I see the world.

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

music suggestion


Had every intention of watching a movie tonight, but never made the effort of picking one out. Thus I flipped through channels stopping in the MTV/VH1 section…a rarity. In fact, I told Lindsay I didn’t even know that we had those stations. Anyhow, being a sucker for lists and rankings I was quickly drawn into the greatest 100 90’s songs. Talk about a trip down nostalgia lane. It was great. U2’s “one” came in second, which surprised me. All I can think about when I think about the 90’s and music is all the flack I took for loving u2 in high school and middle school when/where it wasn’t cool to like u2 because there were way more awesome bands to like, like cypress hill and mxpx. all that to say I don’t do music much, but I checked out the Juno soundtrack on itunes and have to say that it is as fantastic as the movie is. Of course this from guy who likes four bands, but that is my plug for the evening.

if you want to check out some of the songs in full length you can hear them from the official movie website

Saturday, January 05, 2008

For Rwanda

You ever have one of those experiences where something, someone, etc seems resurface over and over until you give in to taking notice of it? This has been Rwanda for me lately. I know genocide took place there 14 years ago and that the movie came out a couple years ago now, but for whatever reason it has been on my heart lately.

The sequence of events has been this. I read some specifics of the atrocity in Bill Clinton’s book Giving. Then I read an interesting comment from a friend on facebook last night who roughly suggested that he is hoping that what is happening in Kenya won’t be a repeat of Rwanda. Then tonight, on TBN, I was watching someone recount with locals some of the specific acts of killing that took place. Most striking was that Tutsi children and infants were swung by their legs and dashed against brick walls. Strange how the history of Psalm 137 repeats itself.

Last night I saw the movie Juno. It was fantastic and some of the most gripping scenes were so for me because of my experience of Roy. Of particular note was the scene in which Jennifer Gardner’s character oohs and aahs over her soon to be child in the womb of Juno. All this to say that I thought the scene celebrated the uniqueness and beauty of this one soon to be life well.

Juxtapose this to a piece of history where people killed another group of people numbering close to a million. The majority in brutal, unspeakable ways.

It because of senseless stories like these that I still be believe in concrete, ontological, metaphysical demonic entities though our Western world would have me believe otherwise. I usually don’t take my theological cues from TBN, but I think that the show’s host correctly noted that hell had been opened up upon Rwanda in 2004. I think he is quite literally right. The acts of destruction and death seem personal and might I even say demonically inspired much like a Bach piece seems beautifully inspired.