another good laugh

Good laugh

I have been in need of a good laugh and this helps everytime:

One Final Lesson

It is the end of the semester and the end of my seminary career. I figured all I had to focus on this week was finishing up papers, looking for a job, and learning to be a parent.
Then, I received a phone call on Tuesday morning..."Wesley, the doctor would like for you to come in to talk about the biopsy."
Never a good sign.

I am very grateful for this early detection. And I know that skin cancer has an extremely high success rate--the doctor-sounding term is "very positive prognosis." Anytime a doctor can speak that affirmatively, I will take it.

So people keep asking me, am I scared...and in all honesty, I am not that scared. I have seen first hand the full brunt of severe cancers such as lung cancer. So, I know that skin cancer is nothing compared to those things--it just gave me a small glimmer of what millions of people go through all the time.

For many people it changes their lives, for me it has merely changed my week. I did not expect my final week of seminary to involve sitting in doctor's offices, having blood drawn, chest x-rays and plastic surgery.

But the final lesson I have learned at seminary occurred in the chapel. I went to the seminary's daily worship service after getting that phone call.
I sat in the back row, made little contact with the people around me, read scripture and prayed--and I longed for the Word of God.
Unfortunately, the preacher that morning focused on a personal agenda. He wanted to hammer home his point and kept saying, "I know I am stretching the biblical text here to make my point, but..." And at the end of the sermon, students applauded the preacher, not out of reverent praise of God but because of the preacher's humor, sexual innuendoes or something.

I just sat there, dumbfounded in the back row.
Again, I am thankful that my situation is not dire, nor that scary; but I still left feeling empty.

Someone came looking for the Hope of Jesus Christ. Someone just found out he had cancer and was in need of God's healing Word. Someone desperately wanted to hear the good news of the Gospel, that God is sovereign and in control. And that opportunity was lost.

This was the lesson I learned--when we are preaching we need to remember that the visitor on the back row is in desperate need of hearing the Good News of Jesus Christ.

where have I been lately?

Sorry for the lack of updates--and that most of them come in the form of photos over words. But I am trying to save my typing for my final push through school. Two weeks left and I will no longer be a student...Amen to that.

Then I just have to find a job:
Prayers would be appreciated on both fronts.

See you on the otherside of finals,
WB

Panthers Schedule

Yesterday, is like Christmas morning, the NFL Schedules come out.


I like these odds, though I am not as confident in our personal. Carr was a nice pick-up, and Terrance Melton will be big fill for Morgan when his career ends this year (too many concussions). Other than that, they better fill some holes, TE and Line. loosing Al Wallace was a bad move.

The Colts at home after the bye week? Maybe, just maybe the Panthers can remain the only team that Manning has never beaten. Jacksonville, Seattle and Dallas at the end of the year are bothersome. But getting to play Arizona, San Fran, Houston and Tennessee is a huge bonus. My guess 10-6 and 4-2 in the conference.

Want to see a tough schedule, check out the Chargers first month.

Fin

how did you spend your evening?

Me...I went to Pep Boys to get a tire changed (stupid curb jumped out at me...I did change the original tire in 6 minutes flat...but that is another story):

5:45pm Drop off the car and walk home, told it would take an hour and half.

7:00pm Told tire is done (wow, I think they have never done anything ahead of schedule).

7:20pm Walk over, see my car outside, and I notice that the flat tire is in the back, and no new tire on the front right.

7:21pm "What the...?" I mumble to myself.

7:22pm Enter and tell Denise, "hey did you guys not change the tire?"

7:30pm After a few minutes, we discover that the service guy had changed the front right tire (which was a full size spare), moved the new tire to back right, tossing the perfectly good spare tire. Not realizing there was a flat tire with a huge sidewall gash in the wayback of the wagon.

7:31pm Denise says, "it should take a half hour."

8:15pm I am called back into the bays to get yelled at by Service Guy, "You should have told Denise...or at least been more clear. All this means is more work for us." I stand there dumb founded, I thought he was yelling at his coworker. Then Denise slaps me on the back saying, "oh its alright he didn't know."

8:17pm I just realized what happened...the dude thought it was my fault. I figured when I signed in and said "there is a full spare on the front right, and the flat is in the trunk" would have been enough...

8:18-8:54pm return to browsing every random car part in the world, though there were no Mighty Autoparts.

8:55pm Announcement, Pep Boys will be closing.

9:00pm Pep Boys closed

9:10pm Service guy swings my car around to the side, as I hop in I say, "Thanks for working late, I appreciate it."

9:11pm Service guy turns around and apologizes for yelling at me. Few quick "don't sweat it" guy grunts.


But the worst part of this story...they had American Idol blaring in the shop so the cashier and store manager could come watch every minute of it. I hate that stinking show.

Whose having the...

Yeah, I know, very sacrilegious, but I've been thinking (groan...here we go):

It is amazing how much media play Jesus has been getting over the past couple of weeks. Is it because I am about to become a professional religious guy, or does Jesus seem to be superseding Brittany Spears in television appearances?

You had the highest rated Discovery Channel Show with the Tomb of Jesus, CNN has just spent a full week tracing the steps of Jesus during the Passion Week, and even 920AM, the local sportsradio, was making comments about Holy Week

In so doing have we domesticated Jesus into our Buddy (thanks Dogma for the image)? Worship this morning the sermon focused around the Tomb of Jesus claim and sought to prove why Jesus' bones were not really found. Isn't this process merely allowing the media and cultural perspectives to drive the church instead of vice-versa?

Neurotheology

Ah...good ol' science trying to infringe on our territory. Actually this article, "Are Humans Hard-Wired For Faith" is short interesting read. Minus the basic claim that Religion is a by-product of the evolutionary process, I do not see it making much a religious difference.

Anthropologists like Atran say, "Religion is a byproduct of many different evolutionary functions that organized our brains for day-to-day activity."
To be sure, religion has the unparalleled power to bring people into groups. Religion has helped humans survive, adapt and evolve in groups over the ages. It's also helped us learn to cope with death, identify danger and finding mating partners.
Today, scientific images can track our thoughts on God, but it would take a long leap of faith to identify why we think of God in the first place.

A few problems and questions I would have for Neurotheologians:
1) If religion is a heightened evolutionary function that helps the strongest survive, are a-religious people then malformed humans that do not have the full evolutionary function like us "more evolved" religious-humans? (sarcasm intended).
1b) Doesn't it basically reinforce the claim that all people, whether self-acknowlding or not, have a god/meta-narrative which they have been hard-wired for? Even those postmoderns?
1ba) Could this not retreat back into a modernist approach that seeks to prove religion as valid based upon human theory?

2) If "bringing people into groups" is an evolutionary advancement, is our Western individualism, pluralism and privatization of religion the next evolutionary step or a mere blip in the evolutionary process that will not have longterm effect?

Gearing up...

it is interesting as school draws to a close (and not quick enough), how I have had to make a dramatic shift. It has been fun and games to put on a few theological hats, argue until my face turned blue, and tried to sound all theomological. Now, however, I am realizing the weight and freedom of doing full time ministry.

I realize the weight, because I see the difficulty of helping form and send people. It is so counter to our me-centered culture where Sunday services are about "me experiencing God." I truly believe that people are hardwired to be in community (to God, each other and the world), but I believe that the wiring has gotten rusty and loose, and at times it has caused an electrical fire that has scarred many people--further isolating them. It is hard to help equip people to be vulnerable and authentic when they have been unable to first experience true community and fellowship to know its restorative power.

At the same time, this is freeing because the ownness is not upon me and my performance but upon God's relation to us. And since we have seen God has chosen to work on our behalf...all the way to the cross...then we are really able to live in that freedom.

As I gear up, I am amazed at the ways God has brought me through a variety of different ministries and experiences (FCA, Young Life, Warehouse242, Providence) to better prepare me for ministry than seminary ever has. I am being drawn back to the same ideas and books of providing "real relationships to God, each other and the world" (W242's motto) through Incarnational/Relational ministry (YL) in order to produce disciples (FCA) while honoring our particular tradition's heritage (Providence).

Now I believe that I have been given the tools not to just regurgitate these ideas, but rather extrapolate and translate for others. The other day I was walking back from class with my Bible, a journal, Barth's 4.3.2 and Newbigin's "Gospel in the Pluralist Society" and I realized I would be happy just reading these things over and over again.

My favorite Holiday

Thanks for the emails and concerns by the way.

Excited!

I know I have not had the opportunity to speak with many of you about this, so I apologize that this is the forum to share it.

But this weekend, Lindsay and I were discussing my frustrations with the ordination process, the rarity of exciting positions in our denomination, and the fact that now as parents we need to be providing a more stable environment to raise Ellie.

Therefore, we have invested in the Moe's Southwest Grill franchise and are planning to open one along Davidson's Mainstreet.

Many of you have heard me share this idea in the past, and I am finally really excited about life after seminary and look forward to returning to "God's Country."

For those familiar with mainstreet, we will be taking over the short lived Sushi resturant by the Davidson Inn.

Article: Artmaking

As a Reformed theologian, I agree that all art is frivolous; however, as an 

artist, I believe that the process of artmaking is never frivolous. Whether or not 

the artist intentionally creates a religious piece, by creating, the artist is invited to 

imitate the God of all creation: 

In the beginning was creativity, 

and the creativity was with God, 

and the creativity was God. 

All things came into being through the mystery of creativity; 

apart from creativity nothing would have come into being.1 

read the full article here (page 95)