Nonsensical Ramblings of Mark

I heard a report on WXXI this morning that there is a piano competition that is attached to the Eastman School that begins today at 1:30 p.m. The gentleman that is in charge of the event recalls a conversation that he had with a student that was not happy with the position that he had received in a previous competition because he had missed a couple of notes in the piece that he had performed. The student mentioned that even the great pianists miss notes here and there when they perform to which the instructor, rightfully, replied "Yes...but that is not what we should seek to emulate about them." That response was brilliant and has implications about my walk with God. I know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that God works in spite of me. I don't hold my marshmallows close enough to the fire for them to toast properly but God, because of his great love for me, makes sure that they are toasted just right for the s'mores that he knows I will enjoy. He is a great God and I ne...

There is no question, in my mind anyway, that my youngest son is way too much like me. When he is interested in doing something he goes full tilt, puts the pedal to the metal, and worries about careening off the edge of the cliff at just about the time that he is careening off of the edge of the cliff. Last night was a perfect illustration of all of that for the both of us. I saw a video on Youtube where this person pranked another with a toilet paper gun made out of a leaf blower, some electrical tape, and a paint roller. It looked to be super simple to make so when I got home I said (in true Phineas and Ferb fashion), "Drew, I know what we are going to do today." Well, dinner was on the table but my wife was outside talking to some neighbors. That gave me the window of opportunity I needed to construct the gun and test it out. My son held the roller and I taped it down well enough. I then sent him upstairs to get some toilet paper. He came down with five rolls. That did not...

A little less than a week ago I received a postcard from death and I did not like it one bit. We have almost finished painting the basement in our house (it looks good thanks to my wife) and I was in the process on re-installing the handrail for the stairs leading down to the cellar. Well, it was all looking pretty good until I drilled a hole to help ease one of the screws into place and I used a drill bit that was much too big. Try as I might I was not able to get that one screw to grab and hold and I then took out my frustrations on the handrail, tools, and eventually my wife. Thankfully she was gracious enough to accept my apology. You may be wondering why I see this as a foretaste (postcard) of (from) death. Simply put it was a situation that I found myself in where my want for progress was being frustrated. There will come a day when I will be in a situation where all of my desires, and the desires of those around me, for me to recover from illness or injury will be frustrated. De...

I wonder...have I fallen into this trap? I am so connected now with family, friends, and "friends" I believe I have a wider number of people that pay attention to me than I should have. I can share a link or a thought at the flick of a finger and have influence over people that may regret it later. My commitment to blogging may be seen by some (erroneously or not) as a sign that I have opinions and ramblings that are well thought out and that have been vetted, even somewhat, through a Biblical worldview and some sort of sound reasoning. And then there are the people that read and even like what I write. Does a post that gets 100 or even 1,000 views mean that it is worth one whit in His eyes? Does the fact that 100 or even 1,000 people agree with me mean that something I wrote is a worthwhile, kingdom-building initiative? I can always find people that agree with me...always. It is simple arrogance to think that nodding heads and handshakes (even virtual ones) lend any real val...

Naked I came from my mother’s womb,  and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;  may the name of the Lord be praised.  - Job 1:21 I love this verse in the Bible, but for a long time now I wondered if Job's attitude was more of a believer's fatalism than anything. I mean it seems to me like he is throwing up his hands here and saying, "Oh well...who can resist Him? Who can stand against His will?" And that is partly the point of the verse I am sure. This is a high picture of God and one that I am not altogether comfortable with. But God couldn't care less about a comfort sourced in anything but Him and He is not interested in presenting a picture of Himself that is the least bit not true. And I am thankful that He isn't interested in either thing, but I am digressing a bit here. So what of Job's attitude? This morning as I was rummaging around for some bread in the lazy Susan I was struck by the last bit of the verse, namely, ...

My oldest son, Will, has determined that he is going to read one chapter in the book of Proverbs a day in July so that he can get through the whole book this month. I need to ask him how he is doing on that. Anyway, my youngest son, Drew, checked The Action Bible  out of the church library yesterday and hilarity ensued: Me:  "What is this? Wow it is thick." Nan:  "Drew convinced Allison to put The Action Bible in the church library so he could check it out and read it." Me: "Oh...that's interesting." Drew:  "Yeah - and Will! You can get through Proverbs a lot quicker if you just read this instead of the other Bible." Nan: [facepalm] Me: [to Drew] "There are no Proverbs in The Action Bible." [to Will] "And even if they are, don't even think about it." Knowing Will that would be the furthest thing from his mind, but knowing the influence I had from time to time over my brothers I wanted to make sure that was stopped befo...