Marc’s Musings

…like you’ve never seen it before.

Check out this GoogleVideo.

Thanks to Todd Bolen for the heads up!

I’ve done it. I’ve had the first big sex talk with my son.

We’ve always been big on calling body parts by their anatomical names and answering our kids’ questions about how babies get out. But last night, with the help of the book above, we discussed what the parts are used for and how the baby gets in.

Thank God Cale’s hearing this from us first. And thank God for a book like the one above. (It’s part of a great series.)

Next time will be easier. I probably won’t even giggle nervously.

I really like the brothers at SSJE.

I’ve been a member of the Fellowship of SSJE for years. Their Rule has long had a strong influence in my life for over a decade.

Here’s a portion of a devotional thought I just received in my inbox:

…Advent is quite countercultural to the maelstrom of activity, shopping, and festivity that so easily consumes the month of December.

Make some space to watch and wait for Christ’s coming.  You might find it a helpful practice to take some time each day to sit with a newspaper or news magazine in your lap and to pray over the scenes you witness  – praying for the light and life and love of Christ to come to these places of need, and to pray for yourself, that you, too, be a Christbearer.

Curtis Almquist, SSJE

 

Emily and I just made a significant cut in home’s contribution to pollution. We signed up for our electricity to come by renewable energy: hydro and wind.

Looking to do that for the church, I found Maine Interfaith Power & Light. For $50, our church would be emission neutral. This is more commonly known as carbon-dioxide offsets Cool. But is it real? NPR recently did a report on these offsets. (Thanks to Ruth Maston for this heads up!)

One critic likens the purchase of carbon-dioxide offsets to the medieval practice of selling indulgences! According to the NPR report, you can drive your SUV guilt free with participation in Ford’s Greener Miles program.

I’m not sure about Greener Miles. But if you know anyone selling a quality diesel, I’m interested in buying one to create a Grease Car.

And next spring, we’re looking at purchasing bio-heat instead of petroleum based oil. Maine-based Frontier Energy is able to fill our oil tank without any conversion. And since a recent furnace tech suggested our furnace was so old it was most likely on the ark with Noah, we don’t have anything to lose!

Can you imagine being free of OPEC? How cool!

Another great post from Mark Batterson.

Here he tells the story of a guy that gave up a six-figure salary at Microsoft and 16,000 stock options worth millions of dollars, all because God was calling him to plant a church.

Wonderfully crazy, isn’t it?

Mark goes on to think about the generational and eternal value of each person impacted by Lee’s decision and how that far outweighs the value of stock options.

Very cool. And helpful as we celebrate our 2nd birthday at VCW. Each person we invite to the party this Sunday will be being invited to The Party forever.

If you’re in the neighborhood, come and join us for cake and PuraVida after our 10 a.m. service.

Ok, Thursday, I asked my church planting coach Phil Strout about maintaining a personal devotional life while pastoring and working another job fulltime too. I figured it was a good time to ask since there’s no current crisis. Sort of what Covey would consider a Q2 question.

Then yesterday, I heard an archived podcast by Nelson Searcy in which he said, “If you’re not taking a Sabbath, you’re living in sin and God can’t bless your calendar.” So I emailed him to see if he has tips for bi-vocational types. (His assistant immediately emailed back saying he was on vacation and she’d be sure he got the email when he’s back. Uber-cool!)

And today, I read Mark Batterson’s blog where he quotes Eugene Peterson as saying “a day off is a bastard sabbath.” (To figure out what that means, read the entire post.)

Think God’s trying to tell me something?

If any of you are praying for me as the pastor of VCW, please read Mark Batterson’s post. Great stuff.

Still don’t feel like I’m in crisis but I certainly don’t want to get there!

[PS Another good blog is Steve Sjogren's Growing Edge Blog.]

Just sternly told Caleb to stop something-or-other that he was doing at the table. He cracked up irreverantly so I said, “I’m not being funny.” Serious face. Firm tone of voice.

Caleb tried pulling it together. Then I hear my wife’s voice:

This is your ‘not funny’ Daddy. Sometimes your daddy is not funny but thinks he’s funny. And sometimes he’s funny but thinks he’s not funny. I understand your confusion. But this is your “not funny” daddy.

Somewhat harsh. But too true.

We all totally cracked up.

Here’s a fun quote from my wife’s blog:

One glitch in our Christmas preparation… Baby Jesus has gone missing. That’s right. Missing.

A couple years ago, some good friends gave us the Playmobil Nativity Playset. It was something I had been wanting to buy for years, and never got around to it at the same time that I had money for it. So it is a very treasured and dear part of our Christmas tradition.

This year, Anna got to set the pieces in the cardboard stable on the end table at a convenient height for little fingers to play with.

“Mommy” I heard. “Baby Jesus isn’t here.”

Hmmm. Okay. I remember a few pieces didn’t make it into the box last year and I put them safely somewhere.

I look in our storage room. Found a sheep. No baby Jesus. Thinking quickly about how to ease Anna’s mind.

“Anna, I found a sheep. And while I was looking for the sheep I realized why we can’t find Jesus.”

“Why Mommy?”

“He’s not born yet. He’ll be here in time for his birthday. We just have to get everything ready for him.” (BTW, I’m sure this is bad theology, but she can sort it out when she goes to seminary.)

She didn’t really buy my explanation, but she’s okay with playing my game. And we are enjoying all sorts of cool questions coming from our 4 yo’s mouth. “Daddy, when is Jesus coming back?” “Mommy, when is Jesus going to show up?” If you didn’t have the context, you would think either ‘how cute’ or ‘what kind of end-times freaks are her parents?’

And in the meantime, I think I’m going to have to do all out cleaning of our storage space looking for the missing Baby Jesus.