(Mrs.) Carn-Dog's comments

Unprecedented Bedtime

2009-04-01T22:49:00.002-05:00

So this evening a couple of friends came over to watch Twilight while Josh was at the HUB (Wednesday night service @ UBC.) We began the movie about 7:00 so both kids were awake, Lilli went down relatively easily before 8:00. Roy usually goes to bed about 8:30 but when 8:30 came and I asked him if he was ready for bed he declined so I let him stay up a bit longer. At 8:45 I told him he could play for 5 more minutes and set a timer. I explained that when it beeped it was time for bed. A couple minutes in to it I noticed him walk away from his train table and head to his bedroom. A few seconds later I heard a small frustrated voice saying "nigh-nee, paci!" so I went to check on him to see what he was up to. What I found amazed me, he was in his bed looking for his pacifier so he could go to sleep! After finding him a new pacifier he said goodnight to our friends and hopped back in bed where I tucked him in, said his prayers and kissed him goodnight. I can only pray that all parents experience a bedtime as fluid as tonight! A minute or so after I sat back down to finish the movie, the timer went off.

Wii/Wee

2009-03-22T14:53:00.003-05:00

Well although the Wii has invaded many families, the Carneys are not one of them. We have been invaded by another 'Wee'. Roy has affectionately dubbed his slide and his swing as the Wees. This behavior is perfectly acceptable within the boundaries of our own house but you take this Wee talk to the playground and we have problems. A couple of days ago Roy was playing on a slide at Chick-fil-a and told his daddy he wanted to go on the Wee another child exclaimed "That's not a Wii!" It's a good thing Roy doesn't take criticism seriously yet.

Roy's brush in with a real Wii-Roy's only personal experience with a true blue Wii was at our friend Holly and Britt's house. He's in a stage where he loves money, loves to look for it every where we go and when he finds it he saves it until he can find a bank. Well, while at Britt and Holly's he discovered a bank and Holly graciously got him out a big bucket of change to transfer into the bank. Of course Roy was in heaven and was thoroughly entertained for a good 20 min (an eternity in 2 year old time). Unfortunately the next time I checked in on him I realized that he was finding new places to slide the coins including their Wii! I stopped him before depositing a nickle but unfortunately a dime had already made the decent into the belly of the Wii. After fully disassembling it and finally digging inside with a cardboard 'hook' thankfully the dime was retrieved. Roy certainly hasn't collected enough loose change to cover the cost of replacing a real Wii.

Here's a cute video of Lilli's first experience with a 'Wee' Roy was happy to help her fully enjoy it.

2009-03-02T11:18:00.002-06:00

awesome video

2009-02-27T21:49:00.003-06:00

testing chane

The most cheating case of Nintendo computer cheatingness ever.

2007-01-31T21:36:00.000-06:00

My relief from the punishment of the world, or at least the stress of seminary, is super tecmo bowl on my original NES.

If any of you grew up in the original NES generation you know all about the computer cheating. It doesn’t happen all the time and usually you can conquer a game if you play it long enough, but every once in a while the computer cheats and the computer cheats bad.

Last Friday I came home from work and played the next game in my Atlanta Falcon regular season. This game happened to be the super bowl. For those of you who don’t know this is how tecmo bowl works. The computer usually does little to challenge your team at the beginning of the season. However, throughout the season the computer gets better until you reach the crescendo of winning the game that will clinch your division. When the playoffs role around the difficulty level usually lessens a little. So having cruised passed the 49ers and the Giants I played the 10-6 Stealers in the super bowl.

I was crippled by the fact the season MVP running back Mike Rozier was injured, but I still had back up quarterback and pro-bowler Hugh Millen and an all star cast of defensive players including Deion Sanders, Tory Epps, and Jesse Tuggle.

Things were a little sticky by half time when I found myself down 14-7, mostly on account of a few computer forced turnovers, but in my fabricated halftime interview I told Stuart Scott that when we play our best football we can’t be beaten and that was exactly what was going to happen in the second half.

I’ll take you straight to the drama. With about two minutes left I’m down 21-14, yet putting together a promising drive. I called a pass play and ran with my pro-bowl quarterback who gets the first down and is subsequently injured on the same play. Now I’m without both my all star running back and quarter back with about 2 minutes to go and 30 yards to drive. Bring in former starter Chris Miller and on the first hand off to Steve Broussard I fumble. Amazingly Michael Haynes comes flying through a pack of about 6 Stealers recovers the fumble and gets another first down. One play later Miller finds Andre Rison in the end zone to tie things up. I kick off and they return it to about the 40 yard line. They make a couple of key plays and get inside their 30-yard line, well inside of field goal range. With about 15 seconds left they kick the field goal. Amazingly I block it. Merrill Hodge who normally runs about 10 second 40 somehow gained superman speed and ran for about 200 yards, recovered the fumble and ran all the way till he was two yards shy of the first down. Great turn over right? Nope, clock ran out.

To over time I go. I win the coin toss and elect to receive. The Stealers decide to kick an onside kick and get it. At about the fifty, furious, my defense drives them back 3 straight plays to about the 42-yard line. Anticipating a punt, I get mentally prepared. Nope they decide to kick a field goal again. What is ridiculous for those of you who don’t know football is that this would be about a 75-yard field goal. The record in the NFL is about 63 yards. I’m thinking even if Gary Anderson, by the way who has and atrocious post season track record, kicks it perfect, it will certainly fall short.

The impossible.

Distraught, I headed to the elite bar and grill to share my woes to my Friday afternoon friends.

Central Texas's most ravishing

2007-02-12T08:09:00.000-06:00

In case there are any of you who read my blog and not my good friend Craig Nash’s, please check out his blog www.clocktower74.blogspot.com and consider casting your vote for Central Texas’s finest.

Looking for a fight???

2007-02-15T18:59:00.000-06:00

I shouldn’t even post this, but it will probably help my ratings. I’m by no means a politician and don’t know much about the political frontier and consequently should not comment. I consider myself moderate, but I’m sure both sides could question me, determine my political platform and find much to critique. Anyhow…

It’s recently come to my attention that the Baptists have spoken out against the coal plants coming to the area and elsewhere around the state. First let me say, “wow, didn’t know you had it in you Baptists.” Secondly, let me say I agree. I’d love the money and all the other benefits, but I just don’t think we can afford it ecologically.

Here’s my problem. From my culturally cool progressive democratic rebel friends in my Baptist undergraduate experience I learned that it is/was wrong to legislate morality and that there should be separation of church and state. That is how they eluded the abortion/homosexual problem leveled against them by the college republicans. I began to believe. Though I had convictions about both of those issues I thought and still do that as an American citizen (mind you not as a participant in the Kingdom of God), they have those rights, be they the wrong or right decisions. As time went on and the ethical dilemmas of life did not cease I started to realize that almost no issue is devoid of some kind of moral conviction. Thus I don’t really think we can ever separate religion and state no matter how hard we try.

Here’s what kills me. I’m listening and it’s silent. I do not hear the cry from the left. I’ve yet to hear the screaming from the left about conflating our church and our politics. And let’s not pretend that the good leftist Biblicists haven’t used religion, even concerning their environmental convictions, to back what they believe. And now when there is apparently another marriage in our church/state relationship the left is silent. This leads me to believe that the original argument shouldn’t have been, “separation of church and state,” but rather the more honest, “were pissed because the Evangelicals don’t champion our banner issues.”

As one who considers himself fairly close to middle, I have to award the right a point. At least their honest about their motives.

Waiting for criticism
Carney

Grrr....

2007-02-22T21:34:00.000-06:00

The only way the whole thing could have been any cheesier is if Meredith would have been awoken from her deep slumber by a kiss from Prince Derrick, and the camera would have ended with the seven dwarfs (led by Doc of course) rejoicing.

If I had a million dollars

2007-02-23T22:04:00.000-06:00

I don’t know if everyone dreams about winning the lottery from time to time, but I do. I occasionally buy a ticket and I don’t win. I believe that I don’t win for two reasons. I believe that I don’t win because of the incredibly poor odds that everyone has when they buy a ticket. More importantly I think God keeps the money out of my hands because I couldn’t handle it.

In reading McLaren’s book the Secret Message of Jesus, it strikes me that there is at least two (probably more that I can’t see) reasons why Jesus tells us to do things. I should give to the poor. That verse is that straightforward. 1. I should give to the poor because giving to the poor is a good kingdom thing. We can see the kingdom beauty when worried parents are able to feed their children and pay the monthly mortgage because they were given money. That is the literal and obvious beauty. 2. I should give to the poor because it heals me. McLaren writes, “Money, it turns out, is a cruel taskmaster; when you serve money, soon you will resent God for interfering with your humming, expanding economic kingdom.” We (I) need to be delivered from love of money.

Let me brag though. I’ve gotten better. I used to dream about buying lake houses and owning a Jaguar. I’ve heard enough Gideon Tsang to let some of those things go. If I won the lottery…at least I think I would give most of it away. I’d be like Jesus, and invest my money in all kinds of good kingdom things…as my friend Lanny says, “do some Bono shit.” I’d only keep $1,000,000. Who could blame me? After all there are plenty of passages that talk about being a good steward. I could put the last $1,000,000 in a high return account and always have money so that I could use my time for good kingdom activities.

And yet there are those passages that are altogether too costly. At the end of Mark 12, Jesus is observing people throwing their money into the money jar. This type of jar was extra loud when the rich people dropped their large sums of money. Everyone could hear the clanking. Then the poor widow comes up to the jar to drop her money. Her coins are so few and so light that they are barely noticeable. And yet Jesus sums his disciples and tells us, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”(43-44)

Dr. Gloer tells me that this is one case where the English doesn’t do the text justice. It should read something like, “has put in her whole life.” Which is interesting because in one of Jesus’ last comments in the public setting we see the metaphor…the coming sacrifice that will require his whole life.

What this text tells me is that the last $1,000,000 I’d keep to be a good steward is precisely the million that would destroy me. It would teach me never to trust, and it would render me like the ones dropping in the large sums of money to hear it clank. Giving her two small coins the lady probably helped someone in some small way, but what she really did was demonstrate that she pledged her entire existence to the kingdom and that money had no power over her.

This is a hard word.

change can do you good

2007-02-26T22:44:00.000-06:00

I come to you tonight from our newly acquired rocker. It is the rocker that Lindsay and I will spend countless hours rocking our baby boy on. I look up and I see Roy’s new shelves, his bouncer, bassinet, almost finished crib, and toys that he won’t be able to play with for at least six months. I am thankful. I’m thankful for all the people that gave selflessly to help us get to this point in so many ways.

Lindsay and I first encountered the thought that follows on the eve of Valentines Day. At some point in the evening it came to our attention that this might be our last date ever as Josh and Lindsay. Soon it will be Josh, Lindsay and Roy. It’s weird for me to not put the “and” between our names and instead a comma followed by Lindsay’s name and then the “and.” And who? And a third person. And our baby boy.

The two of us will become the three of us. Lindsay and I are spending the last moments of what has been an eight almost nine year run of just the two of us. We started dating between our sophomore and junior years of high school. We went to different schools and broke up for a little over a year. We stayed friends during that year and so I think that math goes something like this. Three and a half years of dating, one and a half years of being broken up, one year of being engaged and two almost three years of being married. We’ve made all kinds of wonderful memories. Some of them hard, some of them easy, but all of them good.

And now we are enjoying these last moments of just the two of us. And can I confess that I’m sad. Now here I must be clear. I couldn’t be more excited about baby Roy coming in a few days. He was planned and we are blessed and already cherishing and thankful for him. But this…this is a good sad. It’s like the sad I felt when I said goodbye to my house, land, and lake the week after we got married and ready to move down here. It was a crescendo moment for me. I didn’t cry saying goodbye to any of my family. I didn’t cry saying goodbye to my friends, but I did cry in the foyer of my house as I knew I was leaving for the last time. O sure I’ve been back, but it was a moment that solidified a change. A change that I had chosen and was ready to celebrate, but a change still and change is always hard. I said goodbye to more than just my house in that moment. I said goodbye to my specific orientation towards a million memories. No longer would I reach back to those moments as feeling like that was just yesterday, just a couple of years ago…no I knew that, that chapter had to be ended. That feeling hurts a little and that is how I feel tonight. I’m getting ready to say goodbye to Lindsay and me. Just Lindsay and me.

It is sometimes difficult for me to know what to do with these feelings. One of the most healing things for me at Kyle’s funeral was when Burt led us in the responsive prayer. In an incredible way, in the midst of sorrow, the prayer cultivated a deep sense of gratitude in all of us towards God for all the things that collectively beamed the brilliance of the person Kyle Lake.

And so that is how I end tonight. With a prayer in my heart that celebrates all the things that have been so perfect about these last 8-9 years and in response the chorus of a thousand memories respond to each one of these things with, “we give thanks.”

learning

2007-03-01T21:53:00.000-06:00

Today I had the privilege of attending a lecture given by one E.P. Sanders. Sanders is a Methodist who is probably closer to being an agnostic. He has a Ph.D. in New Testament studies with specific interest in Christian history. Sanders is undoubtedly one of the more renown scholars alive today, made all the more poignant by his Professor Emeritus status at the prestigious Duke University.

Sanders lectured on Christianity, Judaism, and Humanism. The lecture was pretty good. I made several mental notes and walked away with a few things to chew on. In short he suggested that the top down system of government (Judaism’s contribution) and the bottom up system of government (Hellenism’s contribution) shared humanistic ethics in common. Yet these two systems promoted competing ideological governmental systems that produced wars throughout the centuries. His example: note the middle ages. The solution to all this, Sander’s says, is that Locke and others mined these two systems for the humanistic ethics and saved us from the religious wars that peaked right before the enlightenment. Hence we got the beautiful world of democracy, and the privatization of religion. A place where competing ideals could co-exist. Bono would have loved it. (at this point if you disagree or are angry, please save your comments…this is not the point of the post)

What struck me about the lecture was this. There are many ways to learn, but the way I learn best is not an environment like this one. Maybe more notable though is who I learn from. With all due respect, Sanders is fairly solidified in what he believes, as I would guess most of us are by his age. He has systematic ways of understanding the world and where he sees a problem he applies what he knows as best he can to filter and understand the problem. Though his answer may not be perfect, it is coherent given the data he has. And yet I find that I learn more through the honest questions that come up in my community groups from believers at all different phases of their God journey. I hear the sincerity in their voices and all the sudden I find myself wondering some of the same questions, be they elementary. They share their stories and their context gives the questions all the more meaning. As the semester continues the pieces of their individual narratives come together and by the end of the semester we find that our community is in the midst of it’s own story of mutual learning. It is here that I find some of my most precious theological gems from the most unlikely of characters.

This is a strange juxtaposition, and yet a powerful one that testifies to the creative activity of the Spirit in the life of the church today.

**this is not to take away from E.P. Sanders. Perhaps he could write the same thing about his own community. He just happens to be the guinea pig that helps this post makes its point.

reasons I don't follow Christ

2007-03-05T20:11:00.001-06:00

Dear Jesus,

I’ve been thinking about why it is hard for me to follow you. Why I am reluctant to join in Molmann’s solidarity, Brueggemann’s prophetic imagination or Volf’s self-donation. I know these are excuses, but at least I’m being honest.

1. You didn’t need health insurance. Either one of two things seems to be true about your life. You could just heal yourself not with a couple of vitamin C’s, but rather with a quick “be healed.” Or you had some good reason for enduring the pain and knew it wasn’t time to call down the help of 1,000 angels. You didn’t have to allocate 300 Caesar coins a month for health insurance. That’s more money for the poor.

2. You didn’t need groceries. If you got hungry, you could just steel a sucker from a baby and make 5,000 suckers out of that one sucker. Or you could just throw a net into the Brazos and pull in 1,000 fish. You never worried about making it down to H.E.B. that’s another way to save money and give to the poor.

3. People just gave you donkeys to ride and the state of Jerusalem didn’t require insurance on donkeys. That’s more money to give to the poor.

4. Though Dan Brown was riveting in his writing, I have a felling you didn’t marry Mary Magdalene. If someone broke into my house, I’d love to turn the other cheek if I had the guts, but I’m afraid I’d fear for the life of my child and wife. I’d probably try and hit them in the legs with a baseball bat.

These are just some of my thoughts. Help my lack of faithfulness unto obedience.

Carney

$1,000,000 night for a mere 13 bucks

2007-03-06T21:54:00.000-06:00

This morning I woke up and made my way to the kitchen to pour myself a bowl of cereal. When I got there I discovered that my wife and set out two steaks to defrost…tonight’s dinner. I got an idea. I asked here if she wanted to go out to eat and enjoy a dollar theatre movie. She enthusiastically responded yes and I put the steaks away. I thought this might be a good idea for a pair of reasons. 1. Frequent readers will note that we are celebrating a lot of lasts, so I thought this cold be our last non-Roy date. 2. I took my 3rd of three midterms today and needed an academic break. A night free form school if you will.

All was well until I passed by a fellow student at Truett who asked me if I would be there tonight. “Tonight, I thought to myself…what is tonight,” and then the light bulb went on. I had my Generous Orthodoxy group at Church tonight. I debated for a while. On the one hand I really love our community groups, but on the other I really thought it was important that my wife and I enjoyed our date. So at about 4:30 I called Jon Mark and asked if it would be okay if I ducked out for the evening to which he graciously responded with a supportive yes. Thanks Holly and Jon Mark.

As it turns out Tuesday is a great night for a cheap date. We began our night by intending to enjoy the Pei Wei restaurant. We got there only to take note of the long line standing outside the door. Consequently we opted for Rosa’s where we each got a soft drink and a plate of three tacos, rice, and beans for roughly $5 a piece. We ran into Janine Jackson’s sister Lindsey and her boyfriend Ben and they joined us treated us with some fine company.

Next we made our way to the dollar theatre which only charges a mere fifty cents on Tuesdays for all shows all times brining out date night total to $11. After our movie, “Night at the Museum,” we drove over to Wooded Acres to enjoy $1 scoop ice-cream night at Baskin and Robins. I got a turtle cheesecake scoop on a cake cone and Lindsay got Everybody’s Favorite Candy Bar in a cup. This brought our total to $13.

It was a perfect evening. Now it is 9:48 and I will retire to my bed and enjoy a great nights sleep. And I think to myself, I’m like Tom Scavo, for you Desperate Housewife fans, I’m the guy who has it all.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Introducing......

2007-03-20T23:44:00.000-05:00

The fabulous, Roy Clemensssssss CARNEY!!!!!!!!!!
Born: March 20, 2007
TOB: 8:40pm, Hillcrest Hospital
Waco, Texas
Weight: 6lbs. 9oz. Length: 19.5in

Roy has entered the building...

"Hey World! Take this!"

Mom's doing great for those of you wondering.....

It's O-F-F-I-C-I-A-L

"Dig my lid, dawg! Keeps my skull warm, dawg."

"He looks just like me...I think...right?"

SO Handsome!

toys???

2007-03-22T19:37:00.000-05:00

Dear Fisher Price,

Making some of our purchases this last year I though you were overpriced on a lot of things. However, tonight when a very tired us put Roy in his swing and it took…well, I began to rethink my accusation.

Roy the burrito

6 pound 5 ounce Roy drowning a new born outfit

New Pictures

2007-03-27T11:22:00.000-05:00

Mom and Dad,

here are some new pictures from 3-26.

P.S. if you are looking for a gift idea, he still does not have an Albert Pujols onesie

Dear Roy

2007-03-28T21:07:00.000-05:00

This is why we love the sports teams we do.

We really only care about three teams. And to tell you the truth I’m kind of shaky on one of them lately.

First and most important we are St. Louis Cardinals fans. We love the fact that they just won a world series and are Pujols, Eckstein, Edmunds, and Rolen fans, but they are all on trial. If they spend the majority of their careers in St. Louis then they official make it into the Carn-Dog sports hall of fame. The real Cardinal we love is Ozzie Smith. 13 gold gloves later, you got to love any guy who can do back flips out onto the field. I’m not real sure why being a Cardinal fan took, but Grandma and Grandpa were born there and my Grandpa was real into them. I remember when I was little and we used to go and visit them, my Grandpa would take us to the local sports shops and buy us grandkids Cardinal sports gear. I can’t remember not loving them.

Second we are Packer fans. Wisconsin can be a bit fanatic. In fact last time I checked the official state religion is Favre-inism. Lambeau Field is a sacred place, and Green Bay fans are like none other. Hopefully we will get there some day. I probably owe a bit of my love for the Packers to my best friend Tom who you will probably learn to effectually call Uncle Tom. I wasn’t real into football growing up, but Tom kept me in front of the T.V. on Sunday afternoons when I was little and eventually I learned to love them.

Lastly, we are Duke Blue Devil basketball fans. As of late I have wavered a little. I love Coach K., but don’t care for the players of the recent Blue Devils like I did when they had the Bob Hurleys and the Christian Laettners. I gained my love for the Blue Devils back in 1991-2 and when they won back to back national championships. To be honest, it was probably more with wanting to be like my big brother than my own personal love for the team, that initially drew me to them. Now he doesn’t really care for them and I still do. I didn’t pick them to do well this year, probably because I find myself gravitating towards Wisconsin sports lately.

Will talk more about this when you get older.

Love dad

date night

2007-04-01T17:28:00.000-05:00

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.

belated easter

2007-04-11T20:25:00.000-05:00

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.

Goodbye Johnny Potter part 2

2007-04-24T22:16:00.000-05:00

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.

Update on good lookin'

2007-04-30T09:49:00.000-05:00

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pirates 3

2007-05-28T21:28:00.000-05:00

This is not a movie review, because I’m a horrible critic. There isn’t much I see that I don’t enjoy. Especially films like Pirates 3. It would have taken an awful movie to get me to say I didn’t like it.

Call me overly evangelical, but I have this belief that as far as our culture tries to run from religion, the impact of the Bible and it’s themes on our culture are inescapable. Sometimes this seems a bit more intentional in movies like the Matrix which sought to simply communicate world thought.

Other times movies accidentally stumble onto theological themes. If you haven’t seen the movie and care about everything being a surprise then stop reading.

Here are two quick ones I noticed.

When Will’s dad “Bootstrap Bill” is freed by Will from his debt, he replies that he will stay with Will to endure his newly acquired task. (Rom 6:18)

Here another one. When they are returning from initially saving Jack from the world end, they pass from death to life through water.

But far and away the most interesting one to me was the scene where Jack is stranded at the worlds end with all the other Jack Sparrow’s. I suppose I have a special interests in doctrines about heaven, hell, soteriology, and post-mortem existence, hence my interest in this scene.

As many of you know one of my favorite books is C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce. I think Lewis gets a lot right including the way he presents salvation having to do with nature of one’s character’s initial encounter with the presence of God.

As good as C.S. Lewis is, his book is fiction as his introduction emphatically suggests not be systematized into our theologies. Someone who puts theological language to the direction Lewis is going is Greg Boyd in his chapter on Karl Barth’s das Nichtege and his subsequent understanding of hell. Boyd, who wants to avoid annihilationism proposes that we understand damned beings as eternally existing ontologically only unto themselves. Thus they have a place in eternity, but not a place in heaven.

I felt like that’s what this scene in the movie communicated. Sparrow, got his final wish at the world end. Himself as the only reality (Lewis’s neighborhoods moving further and further apart from one another). Here’s something else I thought was interesting. The real genius in the depiction of Sparrow was the actual Sparrow was the one who was barking orders out to all the other Sparrows and selfishly eating the last peanut. Thus, not the one who suffers the loss of something, but the loss of giving to someone and overcoming the problem of self.

Caught

2007-05-29T09:35:00.001-05:00

So this morning I was in my bedroom making the bed and I kept hearing this racket coming from the living room. I made my way out there and Roy tried to put his bottle on the table and with the other hand he quickly tried to put a Phillips screwdriver behind his back to hide it.

I asked him what he was doing with a screwdriver and he responded gleefully, "I'm going to shotgun this one dad!"

Kids these days.

Survey Says

2007-05-30T11:55:00.000-05:00

Inspired by our friends the Shelton's, I decided to post this question. Who do you think Roy looks more like? won't be offended by the results.

Reflections on Fathers Day

2007-06-18T19:54:00.001-05:00

The Bible carefully offers us metaphors from time to time. Two of them are relational. They are Christ’s relationship to the church described in terms of Bride/Bridegroom and God’s relationship to Jesus as Father/Son.

I really hated Song of Solomon when I was growing up. Especially when girls in our youth group talked about being enamored by belonging to the groom. “Gag me” I thought to myself. Not only do I hate romance, but now the Bible is asking me to participate in this metaphorical relationship from the sappy/estrogen side.

Eventually I got married and this metaphor came alive for me. I was able to move beyond the literal level of the metaphor and move into an understanding of a wee bit deeper existential profoundness.

As for the other metaphor, well I guess I’m qualified to throw my noetic lot in the realm of comprehension on the Father/Son metaphor. As I was trying to fall asleep last night I was pondering this one. As my first fathers day came to a close I realized just how different God and I are. He sent His son to bear the sins of the world. I silently confessed to myself that I'd send the whole world to hell before I’d let my son be crucified unjustly.

Grace for now

Roy's present for me.

Roy and I in matching C.S. Lewis outfits. Nerdy professor cardigan, khakis, and a t-shirt. Notice our favorite Lewis works.