New Pictures

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

The unsung hero

I don’t really know how to understand God’s providence, but sometimes I believe God sends us the right person at the right time.

Lindsay had a fairly good labor on a number of accounts. Roy was only 6 pounds 9 ounces vs. 8+. She didn’t have to have a caesarian section. Though she was in labor for a long time, we commented throughout the day about how time seemed to be flying. The epidural worked well. I would say after she got it at about 1:00 she didn’t feel much till about 6:00.

However, at about 8:00 p.m. I noticed that she was turned away from me and fairly quite. We had a room full of visitors, and so I didn’t notice at first, but eventually I got up and went around the bed to discover a few small tears running down her face. For my male readers, I’ll inform you that an epidural helps with the contractions, but doesn’t do much to ease the pain that is associated with actually delivering the baby. At this point I found myself begin to freeze.

Some say hell is burning in fire and being in darkness. Some say it is separation from God. I would like to add that it is watching someone you love suffer and not being able to do anything about it.

You know that moment in Top Gun at the end of the movie when Ice-Man is in trouble and Maverick is sent up to help him? There is a critical moment when Maverick gets up there and with shaky confidence pulls out of the fight to contemplate if he wants to be involved. He says to himself with his ex-copilot Goose’s dog tags in hand, “talk to me Goose, talk to me.” That moment snaps Maverick out of his funk. I had that moment and my sister-in-law Lisa, was my Goose.

In my own valley of the shadow, my two-time child bearing, ex-army medic sister-in-law, came to my aide and began coaching Lindsay in her breathing and offering necessary moral support. I watched, learned, and quickly joined her. I joined Ice-Man and we won the fight.

Thank you Lissa.

toys???

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

Home Sweet Home!!!

thanks to everybody for all your prayers and support. We are finally home. Mommy is sore and tired, but healthy. Roy is hungry and tired, but healthy, and I'm the guy and nobody really cares how the guy is doing:) JK

I've got a lot to say about these last couple of days and will try unpack some thoughts as well as post a few pictures, but for now I'm going to make dinner.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Introducing......

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!

Dear Roy

Dear Roy,

I write to you on eve before you are born. I suppose I should say something profound like “I am who I am,” or “I came to give my life as a ransom for many,” but I’m not God, just your dad.

I did think I would share this with you though. This has been one of the hardest things for me to learn, that is trusting God with my money. I’ve gotten pretty good about writing my monthly tithe check, and we support a compassion kid. But to tell you the truth Roy, sometimes it feels mechanical, like another bill. I can’t say it has ever been really difficult, because as long as I’ve been alive I’ve always had enough and so was never in between a rock and a hard place when it came to giving. Close, but not real close.

I don’t mind giving. I don’t think I do it grudgingly, but I don’t think I do it cheerfully either. I think I just do it, and by the grace of God I’ve always had something to give. I need to work on this Roy. So one of my prayers for you is that you will experience the joy of giving and that it will plague your life.

Let me give you an example of how God takes care of us. Tonight your mom and I went looking for a changing table for you. It is the last thing that we didn’t have for you. It’s not a necessity, but still nice to have. So we went to Toys’r’us and no luck. Then to the baby Depot and no luck. Our last stop to Big Lots to check out a discounted table that your mom found earlier today.

Before we made it there though we went to Barnes and Noble, so that I could buy you a birthday present. I didn’t think it was a good idea because I’m tight on the budget and being the guy who worries about the budget, which you will eventually come to learn, I didn’t have the money allocated for your present. But I figured you are only born once so I broke down and bought you “The Giving Tree.” The deep existential significance of which you will learn at a later date.

On to Big Lots.

In the back of the store on the bottom shelf sat your changing table. The box was opened and we had to dig to find all the pieces. Your mother told me to bargain for a deal. The box listed the table at $35. This was good because I allocated a cheap $40 in my mind for your last minute table shopping. Apprehensively I asked for the manager to bargain for a cheap price on an already discounted table. She made her way to the back of the store and much to my surprise looked at it for a minute and said…”how about $15.” Being a guy I slyly responded, “Yeah, I guess we could do fifteen.” In my head though I was immediately thinking about how I purchased your present and a changing table for under the price I had originally allocated for the table alone. This might be telling of how nerdy I am, but this is the sort of thing I get excited about…saving money.

Roy, there are several ways to understand this story. Some might call it luck. Some call it fate. We like to think of it as grace. No I don’t think that God went ahead of us and convinced the lady to mark down the price. And no I don’t think that because we give. God gives to us. That actually isn’t grace at all. I do think that God provides for us and that giving is important. I can’t draw the lines of cause and effect because they aren’t in the bible, but I do think both are important and I hope you find joy in both God’s provision and in personal giving.

see you tomorrow,
love dad

Are you ready?

There are two questions I find particularly annoying these days. One is, “how is your wife?” Don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I’m not interested in her well being or in you being concerned about her well being, but it’s just that, it is only one of two questions people ask me. And to tell you the truth, most of the time I don’t really know how she is doing. Today I can report that she is bored. She is bored because she is on Spring Break and spends all day at home watching T.V. and resting. Her ankles aren’t swollen, and she looks fantastic for a 39+ weeker. So I report that she is doing well, but she is bored.

And for the other question…”are you ready?” Am I ready? Is Josh Carney ready to be a dad? Well, the best answer I have for people is that I’m as ready as I was when I got married. What would constitute being ready?

In sports if a team loses a game, the coach will say something like, “we just weren’t mentally prepared, we weren’t ready for our game tonight.” Apparently the team made too many mistakes or didn’t do enough right consistently to win the game. We would say that they weren’t prepared.

How do you get ready to be a dad? It strikes me that a lot of the same will be true. I will make mistakes, I will often feel that I did not do enough right consistently. I envision in about two weeks, feeling deprived of sleep and telling myself I’m not ready. I see down the road when Roy is 12 and starts asking questions about sex…I won’t be ready for that either. And someday he will leave for college or maybe just leave…and I won’t be ready. But I will do all those things. And I will do them as best as I can. I’m not going to worry about those moments, just do my best to be Josh Carney when they happen.

So yes I’m ready. To get ready, I decided with my wife nine months ago that we wanted to try and have a child and to get ready I’ve committed loving Roy as best as I know how. That is how I’ve gotten ready. So, yes I’m ready.

citizen of heaven

I don't know how you grew up, but inadvertently I grew up with the Tim LaHaye eschatology. it is the sort of eschatology that pays no attention to the corruptible now, but rather chops history up into dispensations so that we can disregard ethics for today. Of particular interest to me lately is how this ties to our care for creation. This is just some of the thoughts that will probably end up in my paper.

Philippians 3:20-4:1

20But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21He will transform the body of our humiliation so that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself. 1Therefore, my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

For N.T. Wright the most important issue to clarify is the nature of citizenship in this text. Typically this text has been read with the hermeneutic that envisions a time in the future when Christians will return and live there (heaven) forever. Against Philo and the popular notion of Hellenistic Christianity, Paul has is mind a Hebrew meaning. Wright makes a pair of points, the first of which is of great interest here. He suggests that the model Paul is operating on here has two levels and the first is anthropological. We are not souls trapped in bodies that existed prior to being born and that are longing to be released so that we may go home. Wright argues that Paul is suggesting that our bodies will be transformed, not abandoned. This point is made more explicitly in I Corinthians 15, and the language here of “humiliation” to “glory” is akin to “corruptible” “incorruptible”. Wright asks, “What lies beneath this? A theology of creation very different from that of Philo. The final phrase of phrase 21 echoes Psalm 8:6, just as in I Corinthians 15:27-8” . Wright continues by fleshing out the pragmatic ramifications for this understanding of the text. Note his explicit allusion of its application to created order itself.

"the Messiah here is the truly human being, the fulfillment of God’s purpose in creation, now set in authority over the rest of the created order. There is no need to escape from the created order; the Messiah is its lord. Nor is there any need to escape from earth to heaven; instead, the Messiah will come from heaven to earth, to rescue his people not by snatching them away from earthy but by transforming their bodies. Paul does not here develop the wider context for this, that of transforming renewal of creation itself; but when he does just that in Romans 8 he merely fills in the details of the present lightning sketch rather than adding anything that alters its shape and content. It is because of this continuity between the present and of the future that the practical conclusion of Paul’s argument here, exactly as in 1 Corinthians 15:58, is focused not on waiting for a different life altogether but on “standing firm in the lord.” (4:1)."

Resurrection of the Son of God, (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2003), 231.

Wright makes several pertinent points. Here I’ll just consider two. First, his comment that Paul does not develop the wider context for this, that of transforming renewal of creation itself, implies that this is same narrative substructure under girding the Romans 8 eschatology and thus the ecological implications are found here as well. Secondly, Wright speaks of continuity between the present and future. This is a critical point to be noted and one that when overlooked produces the sort of faulty eschatology that understands “citizens of heaven” to mean something like “ignore the present order because we will end up in a future heaven anyhow”. This sort of think has disastrous pragmatic implications for care of God’s creation.

Dear new daylight savings time,

I got up about ten minutes ago to get ready for work. It is dark out. I find the new you depressing. You are like December without the anticipation of the 25th.

Carney

why do you think global warming is a hoax?

These are the notes I took from the film “Jesus Camp” that I intend to use for my ecology/reconciliation paper. My question comes at the end of the dialogue.

Levi 12 years old. Home schooled. Parents interested in teaching him things like creation over evolution. A.G. background. Preaches. Evangelical dream boy. Shows cover of science book “exploring creation: with physical science”

Levi’s Mom: one popular thing to do in American politics is to note that the summers in the United States over the past few years have been very warm. As a result global warming must be real. What’s wrong with this reasoning? (A curious and sarcastic) “hmm…”

Levi: It’s only gone up 0.6 degrees. (Mother shaking her head in approval)

Levi’s Mom: yeah it’s not really a big problem is it?

Levi: Nope…I don’t think that it’s going to hurt us.

Levi’s Mom: It’s…It’s a huge political issue—global warming is and that’s why it is important for you to understand…(Levi interrupts)

Levi interrupts: is evolution too?

Levi’s mom: um…not really

Levi again interrupts: creationism?

Levi’s mom: um…it’s becoming one now…what if you had to go to a school where the teacher said, ‘creationism is stupid, and you are stupid if you believe in it.’

Levi: I think they should…wait a minute

Levi’s mother: or what if you had to go to a school where your teacher said evolution is stupid and you are stupid if you believe in it

Levi: I wouldn’t mind that.

Levi’s Mother: you wouldn’t mind it…if you look at creationism you realize it’s the only answer to all the question

Levi: that’s exactly what dad said

Levi’s mom: um hum…it’s the only possible answer to all the questions (eyebrows now raised in a matter of fact expression)

(Later with a smile on the face)
Levi’s mother: Did you get to the part that says science doesn’t really prove anything. It’s really interesting when you look at it like that…(a devious smile that almost looks like she has just uncovered some monumental truth.)

Later again Levi: I think Galileo made the right choice by giving up science for Christ.

75% of home schooled kids are evangelical Christians

For those of you who may have political convictions that lean right, I was wondering if you could tell me why by and large the person typified by Levi and his mother has it out for the environmental campaign. It has become more difficult to stereotype the person who is against environment. In an interview on 60 minutes about a year ago, Ted Haggard, who all of you should know now, was interviewed as the president of the National Associations of Evangelicals. In the interview when questioned about how Evangelicals may have had it wrong, Haggard replied that more attention needed to be given to environmental affairs. All of that to acknowledge that there has been a swing in Evangelicals concerning the environment.

Still my friend Morrow included a quote from James Dobson, which I don’t know how recent it was but it reads,

“"More importantly, we have observed that Cizik and others are using the global warming controversy to shift the emphasis away from the great moral issues of our time, notably the sanctity of human life, the integrity of marriage and the teaching of sexual abstinence and morality to our children."

So to those of you who would consider yourselves this type of conservative, my question is why. Why take this stance? My research for my paper has shown me that this is a Christian issue. So maybe my question is this. Political rhetoric aside, is there not Biblical warrant for us to be ecologically concerned? If so why not take these issues of global warming more serious? Is it money? God knows we’ve blown money on worse fake problems!

Who's in and Who's out?

I have a certain propensity to want to know who is in the kingdom of God and who is not. I don’t know where this comes from. Well…maybe I do. You see in the type of Christianity I was raised with, there were good deeds, which didn’t get you into heaven, and then there were good deeds that were a consequence of your faith in Jesus. The former was meaningless and the latter was meaningful. I like to think about this in terms of epistemology and ontology. You can do ontology, but if it doesn’t have the right epistemology associated with it, it was deemed worthless.

Consequently a critical tenet to the Christianity I grew up with, was that you didn’t get to heaven by being a good person. This was important because it gave us something to start our proselytizing with. The problem with me these day is that though we have our John 14:6’s the verse that my growing up brand of Christianity puts on banners and never lets you forget about, we also have and I think a substantial amount more of the gospel given to verses like Matthew 7:21. Here the issues seems to be that those who think they have correct epistemic notions about Christ, haven’t done will of the Father, what we might take to be correct ontology.

So who is in and who is out?

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

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.

reasons I don't follow Christ

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

the political landscape of spiritual institutions

Dear people who think Truett is liberal,

Truett is part of the south and when your neighbors are Southwestern and DTS the proverbial Jerry Fallwell and Pat Buchanan, then yes we are liberal.

But in the larger scope of things, namely the more realistic and national scope of things we are far from liberal. In fact we are probably more like John McCain, with a propensity to draw a few socially liberal, yet conservative Rudy Giulianis.

We find ourselves strange bedfellows with certain folk and even work on stuff with the Joe Lieberman’s (the Fuller, Duke, Denver types if you will) every once in a while bringing people like E.P. Sanders to lecture because we think we can learn from people who don’t believe exactly like us, but we are still moderate to conservative.

Liberal I’ll have you know is out east. And if you’ve ever realized that there is more to the United States then the south, you’ll see schools like Vanderabilt the proverbial Hillary Clintons, and Harvard divinity school your proverbial Noam Chomsky. These institutions consider us grossly dogmatic and fundamental. And you well they don’t consider you legit educational institutions.

For a helpful discussion on the relative nature of a fundamentalist see Alvin Plantinga’s Warranted Christian Belief. Just look up “Son of a Bitch” in the index and you’ll find the page.

Your moderately conservative future mega church pastor

Carney

Embrace that I really rather exclude

“God does not abandon the godless to their evil but gives the divine self for them in order to receive them into divine communion through atonement, so also should we—whoever our enemies and whoever we may be.” Miroslav Volf--Exclusion and Embrace p. 23

Can I be honest? I’ve been reading a good deal about a brand of Christianity that I did not necessarily grow up with. It is the brand found in Jurgen Moltmann, Walter Wink, John Howard Yoder, Volf and even Brian McLaren. This is a difficult brand that I don’t want to wear. It is too hard.

It is the brand that notes the miracles and sayings of Jesus, but always keeps them at bay and subservient to the more urgent theme of his faithfulness unto death. This is hard, and in my heart of hearts, I read about Volf’s system and I just want to be one of the godless. They are given grace and that would just be easier. But, by the grace of God, the self in me has not successfully extinguished the voice of the Spirit, even with all the wiles of my white Western life begging to do so, I experience God’s voice calling me to conform to the cruciform character of Christ… and I want so badly to ignore it. But this, the life that ignores the voice, as it turns out is not a life that is worth living.

learning

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.

change can do you good

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.”

If I had a million dollars

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.

Grrr....

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.

a new problem

Some of you may have remembered my post some time ago about evolution and God’s breathing of his spirit on humans at an opportune time. You might have also remembered my good friend Tom called me on my understanding of microevolution and what turns out to be adaptation.

I had a question I meant to ask him and never did, but did get a chance to run by the good people at upsilon beta chi today. I was wondering how this complex part of microevolution or any evolution worked. Let’s say that some people move north and consequently need to develop the characteristic of hairiness in order to be warm and survive. My question was, “how is that the human body can figure out something like I’m going to need to be hairy to survive here and consequently communicate that to it’s DNA in order to change that feature in the offspring and over time change the feature of non-hairiness to hairiness?”

As the good people of from the world of biology patiently explained to me…that is not how it works. Survival of the fittest. It turns out I should have paid more attention in 7th grade biology. For the minority of you who don’t know, it works more like this. Say 100 people move north. What happens is that the 13 hairiest people survive as a consequence of already possessing the necessary feature. When the other 87 die, they must get married by default and have offspring that posses the combined trait of hairiness and hairiness to become a little more hairiness.

For those of you really educated in this stuff, I apologize for my gross oversimplification, but I need to put it a way I can understand it.

I was okay with the formula…God creates through evolution. If God created in a more “poof” and it appears fashion we tend to be o.k. with that because I think we think it matches the form of sovereignty and power we preconceive God to posses. But to say that God creates over time, through evolution seems a little more counterintuitive. Funny question arise like, “Well did God need a trial and error period to figure stuff out?” Enter my good friend Singleton who is sure to remind me about God’s relationship to time. And in the least, I must concede that the Bible communicates that 1000 years is a day to God. So maybe to God the evolution thing seems more like our preferred “poof” thing.

So here is the problem. If the new version of evolution is true, I think God seems a bit more crass. What I mean is this. The whole of the revealed salvation history throughout the Biblical narrative seems to be about grace and often about God’s identifying with the lowly, weak and poor. Take care of the Widow. Leave the extra wheat in the field. The year of Jubilee. Be like a child. The woman at the well. Blessed are the poor. Even if some of it seems impossibly idealistic to us it remains prescriptive from the almighty. So why the exception with evolution? Why if this the best way to do things, does the process champion the supreme? Those who are genetically predisposed to do well?

My wife who is always thinking in a more creative fashion suggested that it might be the mercy of God to design the process precisely the way God did. Perhaps it is mercy to the would be offspring who would be born without the necessary features for survival. I thought that was interesting.

What do you all think?

McLaren anyone?

“This is the scandal of the message of Jesus. The kingdom of God does fail. It is weak. It is crushed. When its message of love, peace, justice, and truth meets the principalities and powers of government and religion armed with spears and swords and crosses, they unleash their hate, force manipulations and propaganda.”

And a few paragraphs later

“what if the only way for the kingdom of God to come in its true form—as a kingdom ‘not of this world’—is through weakness and vulnerability, sacrifice and love? What if it can conquer only by first being conquered? What if being conquered is absolutely necessary to expose the brutal violence and dark oppression of these principalities and powers, these human ideologies and counter kingdoms—so they, having been exposed, can be seen for what they are and freely rejected, making room for the new and better kingdom?”

Brian McLaren, The Secret Message of Jesus, 69-70.

This was a hard teaching for me the first time I heard it. I heard that Jesus was crucified for my sins all my life. But what really shocked me, was when I discovered MLK’s death and passive resistance resulted in following Jesus. I can almost get it though. Christianity has room for something called eschatology. Eschatology is the answer to a lot of theology’s questions these days.

Let’s be honest. If MLK was killed and there was no future hope of his vindication, some might recalculate the worth-whileness of his efforts. Yet we know that we can rest in the comfort of God’s saving grace. How do we stand in front of tanks in Tiananmen Square? By resting in the grace of God. How do we struggle through apartheid in
South Africa? By resting in the grace of God. How do we understand Jim Elliot’s being murdered as a missionary? By resting in the grace of God and knowing that in the end it will all be worth it.

Here is what strikes me though. This will be telling of my eschatology and subsequent belief in the metaphysical—especially of my deep convictions that the cosmic conflict is indeed real—but at some point does the Kingdom of God not have to get violent? After all Satan is going to flare his tail between our metaphorical D-Day and V-Day (resurrection and the second coming) and I don’t suspect he’ll stop until forced to and violently so at that. So what happened? Do the metaphysical principles of the cosmos change at this point? Seems like the Kingdom has to get violent?

Let me be minimalist for a moment. Let’s suppose that God comes before the world burns up and at this point in history there are still people inhabiting the earth. Let’s also suppose that God still operates in this subversive politeness, whereby God overcomes by being passive and all that other good stuff. It seems to me that at the very least he has to tell the remaining people who choose a “soteriological no,” …”o.k. that’s fine, but I’m going to have to force you into your ontological hell (be it a friendly self-chosen isolation type hell), because I need to get one with the Eschaton.” This is still somewhat of a violent action. Is it not? It is at least a forceful action. And it seems to me that it is the type of action that McLaren and others often tend to ignore.

O.K. I’ve said enough, now for your always thoughtful responses.

the secret

Last week Oprah had on a panel of people who participated in the making of the D.V.D. the secret based on the book, “The Secret.” (http://thesecret.tv/) Today she had a follow up show. I have not had a chance to read the book, but think if I get the time towards the end of the semester I may bite the bullet and read it to see what all the fuss is about.

What I’m doing here is inviting you post any thoughts you might have about the book. Is it another folk religion? Is there some truth in it that just uses different language than the major world religions?

One caveat. If by some small chance you are a reader that I do not know and happen to stumble onto my blog and feel compelled to post a comment, please specify your worldview, by that I mean a religion or life philosophy that you practice.

a good fix

For those of you who don't know, my good buddy Shea Butta is in Scottland for a semester to teach em' scotties a thing or two. Consequently he has taken up blogging to communicate with us all back state-side, so check em' out. Link "livin the dream again"

the plight of meredith grey

It was some time ago last year. The only sound for five minutes was the annoying guy who couldn't sit still and was subsequently clicking his pen. Then a bold soul sighs, leans forward and says, “well, if we kill her the show will be immortalized forever, but if we bring her back you will be able to purchase season 3 on D.V.D. at a discount price in five years.”

It was true in Stranger than Fiction and it’s true now.

Looking for a fight???

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

A Theology of Celebration on my Birthday

February 13th 2006 was the day I began blogging. It has been one year and a good deal has changed. Last year I started my blog as an attempt to take one step closer to being both emergent and post-modern. I sat in Uncommon Grounds with Shea sipping on mug full of Kyle’s Cowboy Coffee (the only thing my uncoffee appreciating taste palate could handle) trying to find music to become literate so that I could fit in by dropping names like Damien Rice and Sufjan Stevens.

Now on February 13th 2007, I live in a house, am a month from having my first child, and am in my last in class semester at Seminary. I have been a park ranger for 7 months and have even more great friends.

Listening to Gideon’s sermon on Sunday, one thing that caught my ear was his comment about a theology of celebration. I’m going to try and fight the system. So for my blogs first birthday I’m going to offer a personal prayer that embraces a theology of celebration--for this past year.

Oh divine mind (I actually like that opening of that prayer)
I celebrate the blessing of “fun” I find everyday in my marriage
I celebrate that baby Roy is healthy
I celebrate that you provided with me with a job that I love to go to everyday
I celebrate that I am able to go to a school I love and engage you in a meaningful way
I celebrate that my family has their health and that my dad got one positive post cancer report after another
I celebrate the community of believers that Lindsay and I get to participate in You with.
I celebrate my healthy fingers and toes that allow me to do things I love like mountain bike and play ultimate Frisbee
I celebrate that we are able to purchase our house
I celebrate that you’ve opened my eyes to all the ways I’ve been wrong this year
I celebrate the grace that you’ve given that enables me to admit that I am wrong
I celebrate the fact that we haven’t had to pour tons of money into car maintenance thus far
I celebrate your faithfulness
I celebrate that you let me be creative in the way I live
I celebrate that I can live in the comfort of knowing that my narrative is always rooted in the transfinite narrative of your story
I celebrate the joy I have in knowing you
And I celebrate the peace that underscores our life because of the cross

Amen

Central Texas's most ravishing

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.

Lindsay funny story two

Roy Clemens Carney has been in, what the medical field calls, a breech position for the last couple of weeks. This is not real call for alarm because Dr. Sawyer reports many babies are in a breech position at this point in the pregnancy and as long as he flips by week 36 we are o.k.

Last night we were in bed and Lindsay who has an uncanny sense of motherly things and is usually correct, pointed out to me that she thought that Roy’s head had moved down indicating that he flipped. I responded in my Southern Baptist voice, “that’s because I prayed.” This is in part to express two things. 1. my own arrogance in belief that God is my cosmic vending machine and is just waiting to answer my prayers and 2. The sarcasm of the first motif was cover up the truth of the second--namely the fact that be I a good post modern progressive emergent—indeed believe God is really in the business of answering heartfelt prayers and that prayer makes a genuine difference.

Anyhow, so the whole of my response was, “that’s because I prayed, and when I pray God moves,” to which my wife wittingly responded, “apparently Roy does too.”

She kills me.

The most cheating case of Nintendo computer cheatingness ever.

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.

family pics

mission accomplished

It is strange how some things can make us feel. Let me share. For about two years now I’ve need two new windshield wipers for my Toyota. They simply don’t get the water of the windshield when it rains.

When we had this ice storm last week, I daily practiced my duty of warming up the cars and getting them ready for use. In the process of cleaning of my windshield I ruined the driver’s side wiper. The jaggedness of the ice pulled the rubber off of the blade. So after about two days of having no use out of the driver side wiper, I purchased a new one at Wal-Mart finding it in one of the those, “let’s make money of some recent phenomenological happenings” type endcap.

Purchasing the right wiper blade is only half the battle. After all you have page through one of the oil filter type books to find the right make and model. I’ve always found these books a bit intimidating. Not because they are actually complex, but more because anything mechanical seems way too technical and overwhelming to me.

The second half of the battle is to actually install the wiper. Naturally after purchasing the wiper I threw it on the floor of my car, having no idea of when I’d actually get around to trying to figure out how to install. Well, in the chaos of my daily schedule, I found myself about 15 minutes early to class one day, so I decided to give it a whirl. After three rounds of not looking and the direction and trying to jam the new wiper on to the old fixture I fell pray to reading the directions. Realizing that I wasn’t even close I implanted the one easy step that was instructed of me by the directions and had a new working wiper in no time.

I guess it’s probably because I haven’t had a wiper that has worked correctly for some time now, but let me tell you how much I love my new wiper. Rain or shine, I always start my drives by giving my windshield a squirt simply to watch my wiper do an impeccable job of cleaning my already clean windshield. And when I do I swell with pride. I have such a sense of accomplishment. In fact I think I would go as far as to say I enjoy this routine moment more than I did watching the Bears/Saints game today. More than I enjoy my mediocre turkey sandwich for lunch. More than enjoy the current Clark Pinnock book I’m reading on Biblical Revelation.

I think we often complain about life’s small hurdles, but I think God throws them in there for a reason. Good Lord, I almost sound like John Piper. I’m bad!:)

who's the funny guy?

Most of you who know Lindsay and me well probably think of me as the funny guy. And for the most part that is true, especially in our more public settings. However, once in a while Lindsay drops one-liners that kill me. Here is an example of the most recent. I was sharing with Lindsay one of my findings from seminary that went something like this.

J: “Want to hear something interesting?”

L: “Sure”

J: “I found out today that the noun used to describe Eve in Genesis chapter two (helper) is the same noun used to describe God’s relationship to Israel. So if someone wanted to use Genesis two to demonstrate man’s authority over woman, they’d have to essentially say that God was Israel’s B****.”

Perfect amount of pause…

L: “or that woman is more like God than man.”

I thought that was funny.

For my more conservative readers, both theologically and politically, namely my family, please excuse the explicit language. Here I think it help drives home a pertinent exegetical point.

2007

I’ve never been one for New Years resolutions, but I have made two. The first is to wear my seatbelt every time I get into my car. For some of you this is like “yeah, well duh,” and I wish it was for me too, that is why it is a resolution. I remember our high school band teacher (pertinent side note: I was not in band, I was too cool for that sort of thing) mentioning that if you do something 30 times it becomes a habit. I hope so.

Secondly, and very un-uniquely I’m going to try and eat healthier in hopes of loosing a few pounds. Because I’m a park ranger most of you know that I have the luxury of exercising substantially 4 times a week on my mountain bike. Turns out that depleted metabolism levels renders that not enough. I’ve half-heartedly tried this in the past, without much success, but I need to change my eating habits. My method is baby steps since I love most of the food I eat and am fairly routine at it.

So far…

Step one- one bowl cereal in the morning instead of two. Success

Step two- switch to skim milk…I can’t really tell the difference anyway. Success

Step three- this is tricky--Blair Browning tells me that by merely switching from a regular to diet soda he was able to drop a good amount of weight. Conversely, my co-worker/ranger Lanny tells me his health experts he reads say they would rather have him drinking regular soda because of its comparative lack of chemicals. My compromise has been to stick with regular Coke, but shoot for only one a day. Kind of success

Step four- Alcoholic beverages on the weekends only or on special occasions. Success for both my health and checking account☺. Success

Step five- fruit and vegetable—mostly carrots and bananas—for lunch every day to fill up on instead of other sides like cookies and chips. Success

Step six- this is going to be my next step. I’m going to try and switch from my usual sugar cereals Cpt. Crunch and Coco Pebbles, to a healthier brand/fiber based crappy tasting cereal. I’m also going to buy some raspberries to put on the top. I’ve seen that in the commercials.

Do you have any suggestions that could be small steps for me, while not entirely turning me into someone who can only eat crappy food?

Life...yesterday

My Christmas reading was almost entirely given to Voltaire’s Candide. At the books end, after enduring many of life’s evils, Candide and the book’s supporting cast of characters end up working on a small farm that Candide was able to purchase. The story is saturated with philosophical concepts, and in one of the last scenes one of the characters asks which fate is worse, the one they have all previously experienced, including rape, being brutally beat, enduring execution attempts, etc. or being board by the mundane activities of their new found life.

I find this question strange when juxtaposed to the attitude that often characterizes the attitude of us (the human race) as we near the end of a vacation, much like the Christmas one a good deal of us just came off of. Most of us can’t wait to get back to the routine of life. We want to get back to our homes, and into the routine of work, supper and our evening ritual.

I think this is right. I think God designed the unfolding of earth and our participation in it exactly like it should be. Work is a good thing. The routine of life is a good thing. Let me give you an example of an extraordinary day in the midst of ordinary life.

Yesterday Lindsay and I went to a church we love, and saw the people we love. Afterwards, we went to Rosa’s with Craig and Jen and the twins. Then home to finish painting Roy’s room. At four Potter picked me up to go to church football only to find out that no one else came. This happened to be ok though because I was pretty sore and Potter and I were able to have the kind of conversation that I tend to treasure. At about 5:00 Lindsay and I left to go to Wal-Mart to pick up some gifts that people had sent to the store from our shower in Tomahawk. Afterwards we went to the Outback Steakhouse and were able to buy two nice dinners for about $20, which was paid for by a gift card that the Seelig’s gave us a while back. And to cap off the evening, we went to the Dugan’s to eat our luscious meal and watch Desperate Housewives, an all-new episode, with our friends the Dugan’s.

I don’t know how a day could get much better than that. It was the type of day that Disney Land couldn’t compete with. And that’s our life.

some pics for my family

Dearest family,
here are some pictures. One of my foxy wife and I at Christmas. You can put this one in your pregnant scrapbook. The second is from our game night last night. Third, our newly painted room, or should I say Roy's painted room. Notice the colors of the quilt. They are supposed to match the wall. Hopefully we got close. Also in the picture are a few items from our T-hawk shower. Notice the “under the water theme.”

love us

Christmas part 2

Part of the Christmas fun for a young adult is to make a trip home over Christmas break and check in with the few friends from either high school or youth group, that you have left in your small hometown of 3,500. Yesterday I made a trip to church (twice) and ran into my good friend Emily and her husband. In our conversation I learned that her husband Josh is now working in California as a director/producer. Natrually I asked him how things were going, to which he replied that he had produced some music videos for MTV. When I asked him who for he hesitatingly answered, “probably a band that you have never heard of…Arcade Fire.” I must confess that if I didn’t attend UBC, I probably wouldn’t have known who Arcade Fire was, but I do and I did. I responded with a good deal of enthusiasm and even hummed the chorus to my favorite and really only song I know.


Come to find out he was an original member of the band, and got out before they were got big. What’s funny though is this. Emily and Josh were married by my dad in our church. Several members of the band were not only in the wedding, but also played a few tunes for it, in our church. My dad a small town pastor in Northern Wisconsin had non idea and could care less.

home

After a grueling 14 hours of travel, I’m home! I find myself in rather enchanting circumstances. I have access to good Wisconsin beer. There is a light dusting of white snow covering most of the ground. The temperature actually requires something other than summer attire, and Christmas music tickles my ears all day long. All the local lakes and rivers are either frozen or near frozen and so picturesque that anyone with a camera could put Thomas Kinkade to shame.

I picked up the local newspaper last night and took in all the insignificant news that would only make the paper in a town of 3,500. This morning I listened to the local radio station, which includes an hour for local residents to bargain their goods, which is brought to you by our local grocery store Nelson’s. I find comfort in the local accent of our states fine residents.

I think I’ll head to town today. I’ll probably run into 15 people I know at the grocery store alone, all wanting to know how
Lindsay and I are doing wishing us a happy holiday. Then I’ll make my way to my house, greet my parents and the neighbors and make a cup of hot coco as I sit on the mantel of the fire place while it warms my back. I look at things around my house from where I sit and they will invoke childhood memory after childhood memory. It will be glorious!

This is the Holy of Holies!
This is Tomahawk, WI!

UnBiblical thoughts that answer theological questions

I remember the first time I heard that Genesis 1-11 might not be trying to explicitly communicate the details of early geological history. Commitment to this tenet soon led me down a road of other theological/geologica/biological/chemicaliological (I can use that word because I almost have a masters degree) conundrums. For example, some sort of Bill Craig’s version of the cosmological argument…God must have been the first cause of something…namely matter. Here is my favorite though. At some point I decided some version of evolution would be all right. After all, my smarter science friends report that microevolution is empirically observable. So the predicament becomes what to do with creation, or at least the Genesis account of the same. My park ranger friend Lanny tells me he believes God created evolution. My recent conversation with my friend Singleton, has shed some light on God and time--though I still won’t commit to timelessness, I think there is something to…for God a thousand years is like a day. Given these I’ve become comfortable (especially with my commitment to O.T.) with a belief that humans have evolved. So in what sense did God create? I like that answer that in the process of evolvement God picked a critical moment in man’s development and breathed His Spirit and consequently the image of Himself on us, which I believed is expressed chiefly through relationality Call me dualistic…call me Platonic…call me NorthEastern…I don’t care. If you want to know where I get this one from--Carney 1:1. Fry that on your Southern Baptist toes—I’m demergent!!!

Chirstmas part 1

Tivo it turns out is a great tool for maximizing your holiday experience. The older I get the more important it is to me to slow life down to a pace that is able to recognize the intoxicating experience of Christmas. Part of this experience requires that I see the right season specials on T.V. This line up includes must sees such as Rudolph, Frosty, Mickey’s Christmas Carol and Charlie Brown’s Christmas. If I’m honest about this, what really matters is not so much these shows in and of themselves, but the connotations that are created when I view them. They take me back to a time that is retrospectively seen as perfect. A time when Christmas was more magical than David Copperfield and David Blaine.

Nostalgia is a powerful thing. I have to tell you about this last Monday though. Part of the Carney holiday experience includes a 1,000 piece Charles Wysocki jigsaw puzzle. So this last Monday, I made my way to Wal-mart, purchased the most comparable puzzle I could find and made myself a fine meal (Lindsay was away for the evening). I put on my Frank Sinatra Christmas album, plugged in the Christmas tree and worked on my puzzle for the next couple of hours. It was heaven interrupted only by the occasional trip to the kitchen to warm my mug of hot coco. This was not a nostalgic night, but rather a connotation creating night. Those don’t happen all the time. Some day I will look back with fond memory on the night where I sat in the cozy first home Lindsay and I purchased with great Christmas music playing, hot coco in hand and more holiday cheer than the laundry soap and I will long for those simple days in Waco.

welcome new comers

have added a few new links. Let me introduced them

AMLBD is an intelligent 6 year old, who has undertaken the impossible task of writing to the world. Some of you might know her father “for the poor” who made a triumphant trip to UBC today. AMLBD brings lots of cheer into our lives. As of this morning AMLBD and I were accused possessing the same level of maturity by “you make it is single-town.” I don’t know if that is a compliment for her or a rip on me…perhaps both.

Roll em’ and I struggled through two classes together this semester. Roll em’ is happily married and lives in ??? Burnett ??? …I’ve never been good with Texas geography. For all of you SBC readers, of which I know I have a lot, she is a remarkable preacher.

Hannah-gun also brings the wisdom of youth to the table. A seventh grader here in Robison, she is a proud Rocket. She owes me at least a story a week and if I don’t get it on Sunday or Wednesday, perhaps I will get it via the internet. Watch out though, she’s got more punch than a 1991 Mike Tyson.

Last and certainly not least is “the best man” who consequently was my best man at my wedding. We’ve been best friends since we were 4 and 6 and lived next door to each other in the Holy of Holies…Tomahawk, WI. “the best man” is currently working his MTS and a sound third voice in my discussions with him and “Princeton-smart” who by the way will most likely be doing a Ph.D. in practical theo. at Princeton starting next. He’s not even emergent…move over Tony Jones.

family pics

Here are some shots from K.J.'s play last week and thanksgiving.

thanksgiving day thoughts

I have two thoughts this evening.

I just looked at a friend’s facebook profile. I noticed that their religious views read: “bible.” I can’t tell you how much that personifies who she is. She is a dispensationalist who believes things, that for some reason, when I read them I get me very angry. I think if I’m honest I could care less what she really believes only the dogmatic attitudes that surround her belief.

On the Bible thing though. This is exactly why I find Karl Barth’s three-fold revelation so helpful. Jesus Christ, Bible, and the proclamation of the Gospel. Sometimes, especially in the western garbage of Scofield’s trash, we elevate the Bible above Jesus Christ himself. We would do well to remember that as sacred as the Bible is it is merely testimony to the true word of God, Jesus Christ.

The second thing. I watched the Family Stone last night, for I think the 3rd time. Each time I watch that movie I’m reminded of why it is one of my favorites. Last night among the many moments I made mental notes of, was the scene when the oldest sister is watching “Meet me in St. Louis.” I think the thematic move here is to symbolize that it is the last Stone family Christmas all together, much like it is the St. Louis’s family last Christmas. What really gets me is that amidst all the chaos, someone is noting that this may be the last Christmas they all have together. I feel like those are the moments in life that deserve a infinite pause. I feel like that same person in my own life. I note the moments over the holidays when I think to myself, “this could be the last when this reality is still present among us.” And then however awkwardly, I try to cherish the moment.

Happy Turkey Day!

God in the..babies!!!

I’ve never been a big fan of any of the arguments for the existence for God, but this is at least noteworthy.

Yesterday on Oprah, which I don’t watch, but which my wife informs me of, they had on a lady who has a photographic memory for sound. I guess this means that she can recite whatever she hears. Anyhow, the story that was shared to substantiate her claim, was that when she was 2 years old, her mother played Beethoven’s 5th symphony on the piano and when her mother had finished, she hopped up on the piano bench and played it back perfectly.

Anyhow, here was what was impressive. This lady did research all over the world and found that there are five fundamental sounds that all babies make to indicate five different needs. Regardless of race, ethnicity, or origin all the babies made the same five noises to indicate the same five needs without any kind of training.

I find this interesting.

The already not yet

we say that the kingdom of God is already and not yet.

Among the many moments, I would like to point out a few of those already moments I've witnessed in my lifetime

1997 SuperBowl
Green Bay Packers 35, New England Patriots 21

1991 Final Four
Duke 72 Kansas 65
1992 Final Four
Duke 71 Michigan 51
2001 Final Four
Duke 82 Arizona 72

And tonight

Cardinals 4 Tigers 2

I think 2006 is candidate for the year of the Carn-Dog.

First I find out I'm having a Roy and then the Cardinals win the world series.