Creative juices

Not blogging at all of late, because my creative juices are more oriented towards art these days:

It's very much an experimental medium, and my art critic doesn't usually let them last for more than five seconds, but he does seem to enjoy them.

Ordinarily executing mundane tasks

Photo by: Matej Lancic 

Another day of faithfully and ordinarily executing mundane tasks! Who knows how decisive they might be?

"I once heard interviews with survivors from World War II. The soldiers recalled how they spent a particular day. One sat in a foxhole; once or twice, a German tank drove by and he shot at it. Others played cards and frittered away the time. A few got involved in furious firefights. Mostly, they day passed like any other. Later, they learned they had just participated in one of the largest, most decisive engagements of the war, the Battle of the Bulge. It didn’t feel decisive at the time because none had the big picture. Great victories are won when ordinary people execute their assigned tasks." - Philip Yancey

(Sparked by Darrow Miller's LifeWork)

Books read so far this year

The Myth of Certainty: The Reflective Christian & the Risk of Commitment by Daniel Taylor

Homage to a Broken Man: The Life of J. Heinrich Arnold by Peter Mommsen

Las preguntas de Dios: la predicación evangélica en América Latina by Emilio Castro

Liberación, Éxodo y Biblia (J. Mervin Breneman O., editor)

Against the Wind: Eberhard Arnold and the Bruderhof by Markus Baum            

North! Or Be Eaten by Andrew Peterson

Palabra viva: entorno histórico, literario y teológico del Antiguo Testamento by Samuel Pagan

The Monster in the Hollows by Andrew Peterson

Vida y trabajo: un desafío espiritual by Anselm Grün

El movimiento apostólico contemporáneo by Emilio Antonio Núñez C.

Rostros del protestantismo latinoamericano by Jose Miguez Bonino

Ineffective argumentative strategies to stop a teething nine-month-old, classified by their ethical motivations

(Some of these things I actually find myself saying)

Role Modeling
“Look, T. and Daddy both have shoes. But Daddy doesn’t eat his shoes.”

Etiquette
“T., don’t bite the window. It’s a nice window.”

Purpose
“Books aren’t for eating. Books are for reading.”

Pleasure
“Sweetheart, your stroller can’t possibly taste good.”

Stoic Philsophy
“Precious, you’d have greater peace of mind if you didn’t give way to your lust for devouring Daddy’s shoe.”

Utilitarianism
“You know, you’re not helping anyone by biting the shelf.”

Fundamentalist Biblicism
“Son, the Bible says not to bite Mommy (Galatians 5:15).”

Kant’s categorical imperative
“Biting’s not right. Period. Do the right thing, because that’s your duty.”

Briefs (and links a-plenty)

Music

• I bought the pre-release of Andy Osenga's Leonard the Lonely Astronaut, and I love it. One of my favorite albums is the Normal's A place where you belong (largely written by Andy), and after reading Jason Gray's review of the new album, I realized that I was likely to love Leonard. I have not been disappointed.
• One of the best parts of parenting is listening to children's music! This new release from Sandra McCracken and company is sure to be great, and the sampler available on Noisetrade makes that more than obvious.
• I randomly remembered this song, and am once again smitten by it (despite the fact that, as one commenter on YouTube noted, Ben Folds has been married four times)

Reading and writing

• I was up past midnight on several nights last week speeding through Andrew Peterson's North! Or be Eaten. I love the Wingfeather Saga books, and what I said about the first one pretty much holds true for the first one. On Thursday I was up 'til one o'clock because I didn't dare stop until Janner was out of the Fork! Factory!
• TGC has an interview with Eugene Peterson, an author/theologian/pastor whose work (though I'm only partly familiar with it) I greatly respect.
• I kinda wanna be a writer, but unlike Eugene Peterson (cf. previous bullet), I do not write a lot. My senior paper relied heavily on the research of Mark Yarhouse, and in an Edification dedicated to him, Gary Strauss says Yarhouse was challenged to "commit himself to writing at least one page a day intended for publication" (p. 25).  I, however, am like Kierkegaard who says (cf. next bullet), "I've walked myself into some of my best [blog posts]." Sometimes I imagine myself as a writer with great ideas, but mostly only when I'm walking to and from work, and out running.

Various

• This piece on walking at NPR is good. One thing I really like about living in Paraguay is that it's easy to walk a lot.
• The debate on Christian economics always intrigues me, although I have a hard time coming down on either side.
• I was impressed by this post from Craig Goodwin about how the Orthodox Lenten fast gives preeminence to grace as the worshippers come to the Paschal table. 

A parenting day

I am the only male over 3 years of age in the nursery during our church's worship services on Sundays. This is sort of awkward--I'm pretty sure I'm cultural crossing a line--but I'm okay with that. My wife is with the kiddo all week, and (usually) gets more out of sermons more than I do.

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My little almost-7-month-old has his army crawl down pat, and moves with remarkable speed. My sister-in-law (in jest) suggests we enter him in one of those baby races; he would probably have a good chance of winning, if there was a cell phone or camera just beyond the finish line. Today in the nursery he weaseled his way around the whole room, his beautiful eyes wide looking up and down, carefully inspecting the place. He is becoming a little adventurer.

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He and I were hanging out on a blanket on the porch this afternoon, while Mommy was still napping. He was sucking on his thumb*, and then started sucking on my knee, so we went inside and I dug out his pacifier. He has heretofore shown disdain for the pacifier, but now that he's learned to suck on a bottle, he found it rather interesting. He sucked and played with it for about fifteen minutes. I was amused by the way the pacifier absorbed all his attention, as he proved unable to suck on it and handle other toys at the same time.

*He doesn't habitually suck his thumb, but was rather sucking on it just then.

Bread and wine

This is my favorite song from my favorite CD from last year, appropriate for a Maundy Thursday

This post was going to be longer, but instead I'm going to watch a movie with my wife.