Nonsensical Ramblings of Mark

I have blogged about this before , but was thinking anew (thanks to C.S. Lewis) about my role in completing the joy that other people have. I have always understood that there was a role I was to have to help bear the burdens of others and that really listening to their issues and entering into their suffering was key to that process. When someone is happy or joyful there is a role that I need to play as well. Rather than bearing their happiness, which seems kind of nonsensical, I am to complete it. As soon as my youngest son is done with a Lego creation or the oldest reads something funny in his Calvin and Hobbes book they immediately want to share it with their mother or me. Now I could be cynical and say that their motive for sharing was born out of the desire to be seen as clever or to, albeit briefly, have our undivided attention, but I think that it is so much more than that. Firstly I am thankful that I have the time that I do to devote to examining the creation or hearing the f...

This morning on my way into work I heard a great story on NPR about an Indian dancer/actress that taught some Indian prisoners how to perform folk dances so that they could begin to have a life outside of the prison environment. She was absolutely spot on with reminding the audiences that they performed for that this was not the end of the their transformation but the very tip of the beginning of it. Many of the prisoners still had a hard time finding jobs and struggled to find trust from the people on the outside of the correctional system. This woman also was consistently asked by various audience members if the men that performed were truly reformed. It was her simple response to that question that shook me: "Are we?". It was also interesting how she delivered the answer. When recalling the incident to the reporter that was interviewing her she laughed uncomfortably. I don't think the laugh was one where she felt badly about taking the one who asked the question off gu...

I was listening to a lecture on the Gospel of Thomas (GOT) last night and I got to thinking about something that professor said. There are 114 "sayings", or logia, in the writing and some of them are rather goofy and extremely uncharacteristic of Christ...although given the Apostles penchant for confusion I could see some of the dialogue coming from their mouths. Other sayings are given serious weight as being from the mouth of Christ and more historically accurate than the ones presented in the orthodox gospels. Here is one of them that the professor brought to my attention: (Logia 9) Jesus said, "Now the sower went out, took a handful (of seeds), and scattered them. Some fell on the road; the birds came and gathered them up. Others fell on the rock, did not take root in the soil, and did not produce ears. And others fell on thorns; they choked the seed(s) and worms ate them. And others fell on the good soil and it produced good fruit: it bore sixty per measure and a hu...

Last night I was impersonating William Shatner (as James T. Kirk confronting a Romulan Warbird commander) reciting "It's a Small World" and hilarity ensued: Nan: [at computer] "I can't believe she knows her. It is a small world!" Mark: "It's a world of laughter...a world of tears...it's a world of hope...and a world of fears..." Drew: [triumphantly] "Shakespeare!" Nan: [facepalm] Mark: "There's so much that...we...share...that's it's time we're...aware...it's a small world...after all." Drew:  "OH!" Yeah - it's never dull.

It should not come as a shock to anyone that our children sin. They do. And they do regularly. One of the delicate balancing acts that we have to achieve as parents is making sure that we hold out the entire Gospel to them when we confront them concerning it. It would be easy for us to focus on the "bad news" that they sinned or the "good news" that they have been forgiven. It's tough for me especially because I always want to run to the forgiveness part right away. But this cheapens the forgiveness as the weight of the infraction is not recognized. Of course focusing on the sin itself without forgiveness in sight has its own issues as it doesn't hold out God's mercy and grace to the fullest extent possible and could easily sap their hope. When I think about it the bad news and the good news need to be held in such perfect tension that they are both diminished without the other. All that to say that I am sure we mess this up. A lot. I am sure that even ...

I struggle with the fact that 12.3 Americans are still looking for work too. I think I struggle a bit more with the job that the 0.3 of an American is going to fill.

Two things happened to me recently that made me realize that my childhood was not that of the typical red-blooded American boy: Thing #1: I was making some costumes for the boys (pictured here) so that they could be Lego minifigures for the Halloween festivities. I had to put a couple of coats of primer on the tubes for the heads to mask some of the writing on them and to allow the paint to adhere more evenly. As I put the third coat of primer on I thought, "Man...these would make great heads for couple of Cybermen costumes." Perhaps someone will agree with me on this. Or maybe not. Thing #2:  I was looking up the definition of the word "adamant" just to make sure I was spelling it correctly. It turns out that I was but I ran across this definition in Google: As I read the noun definition of the word I instinctively stuck the word "musician" at the end of "A legendary rock" because, well, I listened to way too much Adam Ant in the 80's....