2 Kings 2:10

Today's Old Testament was the story of Elijah's ascension. When Elijah and Elisha had crossed to the east side of the Jordan, with all those seminarians watching from the west side, Elisha said,

"Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me." So Elijah said, "You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless..."

Cathy asked during Bible class about that. Why is it a hard thing?

Pastor answered that all pastors speak God's word (which IS what the "portion of the spirit" is for in the first place!), but sometimes there are those who are especially gifted at preaching and teaching, through no strength of their own, purely as a gift of God's grace to the people to whom that pastor ministers.

There's something that he didn't say that I can say because I'm not a pastor. Some pastors have suffered greatly through circumstances with their own sinful flesh or with the world around them or with the accusations of Satan, "more than their share" it sometimes seems to the onlookers. It is these pastors who are especially broken and impotent and beggars before God. They know their own sin deeply and painfully and are dependent upon Jesus' mercy. Because they so desperately cling to God's grace alone, knowing NO merit in themselves, they are made able by the Spirit to preach Jesus, Jesus, only Jesus. Their weakness means that they have nothing to give of their own selves, and thus will never never never turn their people back to their own strength either. It's what Paul is saying in 2 Corinthians 11-12. So for the pastor to have a "double portion of the Spirit," he will most likely experience a double realization of his sin and weakness. And like Elijah said, that's hard.




Like as if the story of Elijah's ascension doesn't already bring to mind too much the events from six years ago, now I've got these thoughts rattling around in my mind too.

Clam Sauce

Gary came home one day last week to discover that we were having spaghetti for supper which made his little tastebuds water in anticipation. He offered to go get some hamburger out of the freezer, but I was planning to serve plain marinara sauce. (Cheaper without meat, y'know!) But he was wanting it a little more dressed up, so he suggested clam sauce too. Clam sauce is more trouble than opening a jar of spaghetti sauce from the store, but easier than thawing and frying up some hamburger. So clam sauce it was.

When we lived in St Louis, we liked the restaurant Spaghetti Factory. Our favorite dinner there was the plate with half red-sauce and half clam-sauce. Over the years, I tried to copy the recipe, and we figured I had come up with something passable. When we patronized the restaurant during a Higher Things conference recently, we were surprised to find that we liked my clam sauce even better than what the restaurant served. Woo hoo!



Saute:
4 Tbsp butter
1 small onion, chopped.

Whisk* into butter:
1/3 cup flour**

Then stir in till smooth:
1 cup milk
2 cans minced clams***

Cook over medium heat, stirring nearly constantly.
Add:
2 or more cloves minced garlic
(or a hefty amount of powdered garlic)
1/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp dried parsley
salt if needed

When thickened, add
1/4 cup grated Parmesan or Swiss cheese.

Serve over hot cooked spaghetti.
Makes enough sauce for about 10 ounces of dry spaghetti.






* To make a white sauce or gravy, I prefer not to whisk in the flour and then add the milk. It's easier to place both the milk and the flour into an old peanut butter jar, screw on a lid tightly, and shake it up like crazy. Then pour the liquid/flour mixture into the butter, and continue from there with the sauce or gravy over the heat.

** You gluten-intolerant people can make that 2.5 Tbsp of cornstarch.

*** I usually use the cans that are the size of tuna cans, about 6-7 ounces each. This week I used two 10-oz cans because they were actually cheaper than the smaller ones. (Not per-ounce cheaper, but just cheaper cheaper.) Also, be sure to use the clam juice in the recipe. Do not drain the clams and waste that precious liquid.

Today's Laugh

A man, his wife, and his mother-in-law went on vacation to the Holy Land. While they were there, the mother-in-law passed away.

The undertaker told them, "You can have her shipped home for $12,000, or you can bury her here in the Holy Land for $500."

The man thought about it and told him he would just have her shipped home.

The undertaker asked, "Why would you spend that much money to ship your mother-in-law home, when it would be wonderful to have her buried here and spend a small fraction of that cost?"

The man replied, "A man died here 2000 years ago, was buried here, and three days later he rose from the dead. I just can't take that chance."

Issues Etc

Just in case you haven't bumped into the information yet, the LCMS has threatened Issues Etc with a lawsuit over the use of the name and logo for the show. LCMS let lapse their/our ownership of the trademark nearly ten years ago. When Issues was originally put on the chopping block last year by synod, Jeff and Todd were allowed to use the name. The show came back. It's doing well. Now synod says that Todd and Jeff can't use the name.

If you think this is outrageous behavior on synod's part,
if you think that synod shouldn't be suing somebody they fired,
if you think that synod should put the matter to rest,
if you think that Todd and Jeff shouldn't have to worry about being sued,
if you want synod's limited dollars to go to something more edifying than legal fees for something like this,
if you think it's a wee bit hypocritical for synod to say that it's unChristian for anyone to sue them, whilst they go ahead and threaten to sue their members,

you might want to go check out the Issues Etc website for more information,

or just go directly to the petition to sign it.

Computer Working

I do believe that I've got the computer working now. (People aren't getting empty attachments from me along with emails anymore, are you?)

The computer tells me I still need to download the latest service pack for Windows. To do this, however, I have to turn OFF the spyware, the anti-virus, and the firewall. Oh, gosh, with the humongous number of messages I'm getting from the firewall saying "we blocked an attack again" I really really don't want to turn off the firewall. So the next choice would be to purchase the service pack and install it via CD. But if I'm going to spend money to do that, maybe I ought to just go ahead and buy the upgrade to Vista. And then I'd have a much safer system altogether.

For a while.
Until the bad-guys quit aiming their attacks at XP machines and take aim instead for Vista ones.

Woodmans Change

I don't know if this would apply to anybody but Rachel, but Kathy and Laura and SK and some others may want to know too. It used to be that "2 for $1" at Woodmans meant 50 cents each, whether you got one or two items. "4 for $3" meant 75 cents each, no matter whether you bought one or seven or four.

Well, except on frozen pizza. Then you actually had to buy the correct number to get the deal. I had conversations with clerks about this on several occasions.

It's changed now. At least at Oak Creek. So when you stock up on frozen veggies or smoothie fruit, count your packages to make sure you're getting the correct number.

Law and Statutes and Judgment, Oh My!

In Psalm 19 and Psalm 119, we hear lots of different words for what comes out of God's mouth. As I've said before, so often we hear people say that they "love God's law" because it shows me what I have to do to please Him, and once I know that, then I can just get to goin' on doing all those things, and then He'll just think I'm swell.

But I can't. And so I could never think of "loving God's law" since it showed me what to do and how to be. Well, actually, what I couldn't do and what I ought to have been but wasn't. Now, however, I can say that I "love God's law" in that it is what kills my enemy (my Old Adam). And I can say that I "love God's law" because it shows me who Jesus is, and that He is the perfect fulfillment of God's law.

But then we studied Leviticus and saw how MUCH of God's law is not about "rules" but about how God set up a sacrificial system to make atonement for sin. And that is another way to "love God's law."

When we read about God's judgment, it's not primarily about zotting those who don't measure up and condemning people to hell. It's mostly about the judgment upon Jesus, and how we are judged innocent because the wrath has already been propitiated.

When we read about keeping the law, it's not just rules -- but the Torah, the Pentateuch, the five books of Moses that include plenty of God's grace and promises for those who cannot obey the law as they ought.

When we read about the statutes of God, Psalm 105:7-11 can remind us that God's promise to Abraham [to bless the whole world through Abraham's seed, and to give them their eternal inheritance] is a statute, an everlasting covenant.

God gave us the ten commandments, along with all the commandments about how the sacrifices were to be performed and how the tabernacle was to be built. But we also pray in Psalm 71 about God's commandment to save us.

The testimonies are what has been "testified" or "attested to." So when Jesus says, "This is the new testament in My blood," that is certainly one testimony which the sinner's heart can cling to with joy and no fear. And Jesus says that the Holy Spirit will testify of Him and His work.

Psalm 111 tells us that the precepts of the Lord are the works of His hand, His truth, His redemption, His works, His covenant.

And of course God's word is not only an oral message (of both law and gospel) but God's Word --the eternal Son-- took on human skin and bones and came to live on earth and suffer in our place and die and rise again.

Today's Laugh

Some of my co-workers and I decided to remove the small, wooden suggestion box from our office because it had received so few entries. To get it out of the way, we stuck the box on top of a seven-foot-high metal storage cabinet and then promptly forgot about it. Months later, when the box was moved during remodeling, we found a single slip of paper inside. The suggestion read, "Lower the box!"

Despair or Arrogance

This is going to be obvious to the people at my church because we hear it ALL the time. But at one point it was very new to me, and it took a lot of repetitions for it to get through my skull.


Despair and arrogance are the same thing.

Self-righteousness comes in two forms. One form is that God has rules, and I've done a good job of living by the rules, so God sure must like me a lot! The other form is that God has rules, and I can't keep the rules, so God cannot love me and forgive me.

Both of these attitudes essentially boil down to a belief that we earn whatever we get from God. The only difference is some think they have earned it, and others know they haven't.

Both betray a lack of faith in God's compassion and undeserved MERCY.

Childish Things

Just wondering ...

In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says, "When that which is perfect has come, that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

So was Paul saying it was good or bad to have put off the "childish things"? I always figured it was good to get all grown up and put away the childish things. But what about "no one can enter the kingdom of heaven unless he receive it like a little child"? Sometimes growing up makes us more rationalistic so that we chafe against faith.

Today's Laugh

John wants to get his beautiful wife, Emma, something nice for their wedding anniversary. So he decides to buy her a cell telephone. Emma is excited; she loves her phone. John shows her and explains to her all the different and varied features on the phone.

On Monday Emma goes shopping in the local supermarket. Her phone rings and it's her husband. "Hi ya, Emma," he says, "how do you like your new phone?"

Emma replies, "I just love it. It's so small and light and your voice is clear as a bell. But there's one feature that I really don't understand."

"What's that, Emma?" asks the husband.

"How did you know that I was at Wal-Mart?"

Morality in the 30s

During the Great Depression, people did not steal from their neighbors' gardens. If a homeless person wanted to beg food, he would ask, or offer to work for it.

If our society falls to pieces, if people are short of food, if people are short of clothing or other needs, what would become of those who had supplies? Even if most of my neighbors were honest, could I really anticipate that ALL of them would be, so that I could expect to harvest the fruit from my fruit trees, or gather the lettuces from my garden?

I suspect that the entitlement mentality of the recent decades, alongside the indoctrination that we're only just [evolved] animals after all, in conjunction with the lack of time parents spend with their kids, will result in "coping strategies" that are criminal and that would've been unthinkable to those who lived during the Great Depression.

I hated the book "The Call of the Wild."

God's Body

One of our psalms today is 115.

[Their idols] have mouths, but they do not speak;
eyes they have, but they do not see;
they have ears, but they do not hear;
noses they have, but they do not smell,
they have hands, but they do not handle;
feet they have, but they do not walk;
nor do they mutter through their throat.
Those who make them are like them;
so is everyone who trusts in them.

Our God has a mouth, and He talked to His disciples with it. (As well as talking to Moses and Abraham and a few other people.) Our God has eyes and ears and a nose like we have. He took on human flesh. His hands touched the diseased and hugged His mom. His feet walked around Judea and Galilee, and trampled Satan.

I guess I'd always thought before that these verses meant that our God is real and alive while the idols are just inanimate things made by some human. But it's more than that. Our God is not only alive and real, but is a Man who has a body and a face and all the parts we have.

Healing

We often read in the Gospels about the miracles Jesus performed, and we like those stories of how the crippled people were made to walk, or the blind were made to see, or the dead were raised back to life, or the lepers were cleansed. Pastor has pointed out, though, that these healings were not ends in themselves, but were signs to the true healing that comes when our flesh is raised from the cemetery on the Last Day. After all, Lazarus had to die again. Peter's mother-in-law, though healed by Jesus, did eventually die one day.

I think too often we look for the temporal goodies God has to offer. The healing from illness. The money to solve our poverty. Hearing given to the deaf. But in our self-centeredness and our love of comfort, we take our eyes and hearts away from the true healing and instead lust after the temporal/temporary ones.

There is one line I love in Macbeth. (Okay. There's more than one. But there's one I'm thinking of right now.) Macbeth's henchmen hit up Macduff's house while Macduff is away. They kill his wife and children. The messenger arrives to announce the news to Macduff. Macduff asks how his family is doing. And the messenger answers truly that, actually, right now, they're doing great.

Do we really believe that?

Profit in Blood?

I cried out to You, O Lord;
and to the Lord I made supplication:
"What profit is there in my blood,
when I go down to the pit?
Will the dust praise You?
Will it declare Your truth?
Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me;
Lord, be my helper!" (Psalm 30)

David wrote those words. I imagine them to be saying, "Hey, God, what good is it if I die? Y'know, I can't tell people about You if I'm dead. I can't praise you if I'm dead. Have mercy on me and help me."

And maybe that is what he's saying. I don't know.

But all the psalms belong in Jesus' mouth too.

And right now I'm thinking that Jesus knew why He went to the cross. What profit is there in His blood? Only the righting of all that is wrong. Only the redemption of sinners. Only the reversal of weeds and earthquakes and storms and violence.
The curse I choose
that thou mightst lose
sin's curse and guilt forever.
My gift of love
from heaven above
will give thee blessing ever. (TLH 150)

Will the dust praise God? Will the dust declare His truth? From the psalm, I thought the answer was supposed to be "no." But isn't the answer "yes"? Man is dust. And we do praise Him. We do declare the wondrous truth that He has saved us and joined us to Himself, that He has had mercy, that He has been our Helper.

And we do that only because there is "profit in His blood."
He is our Treasure.

Inflation

I keep bumping into people who seem
1) surprised that I think inflation is a certainty, and
2) can't really understand why I care about inflation.

As for the second one, I suddenly realized that much of the country doesn't know what it's like to live with inflation. Actually, I'm about the youngest of the folks who do. I got my first jobs during the Carter years. I took my high-school and college econ classes during the Carter years. My husband and I were engaged during the Carter years and started planning out our budget and looking for apartments. Some of the money we received as wedding gifts was invested in a CD that paid 18% ... just before a new president changed some policies and began to rein in inflation. (So we really benefited from the rates on that CD!)

People younger than I am didn't have the experience of "buy it NOW because it's going to be more expensive next month!" People younger than I am don't remember what it's like to have a passbook saving account that paid the standard 5% interest (which sounds outrageously high now, in the days of 0.4% interest) and have that money be losing losing losing value.


As for the first (that inflation is a certainty) there is a simple economic principle. If the government has to start printing money to pay out what it wishes to subsidize, then there's more money without anything of value to back it up -- no wealth created but just more paper dollars floating around. This can't do anything BUT result in inflation.* And so when I "worry" about inflation, it's not speculation or irrational fear; it's just an expectation that things will happen according to the way they must happen. If you push the car off the cliff, it will fall and crash, because gravity is an unavoidable law. If you crank up the govt printing presses, we will see inflation. Actually, right now, what I expect to happen with inflation might make the double-digit inflation of the Carter years (that is, just barely slipping past the single-digits) look like "the good old days."




*If this isn't obvious to you, there's a simple book, written for kids, that explains economics in a most understandable way. If only we could get all the Congressmen to read it! Whatever Happened to Penny Candy by Richard Maybury should be available at your library, and it can be read in a few hours or less. But you oughtn't read it that quickly, so that you have time to let it soak in, and time to figure out the ramifications of what he's explaining. Don't let it intimidate you because it's economics; it's perfect for pre-teens and even for bright 3rd-graders.

Today's Laugh

Did you ever stop to think ....

and then forget to start again?

Comfort Food

We've been listening to some Garrison Keillor tales, including ones about Lutherans and eating.

A little later I was making mashed potatoes for supper, and wondering how often a person would bother making mashed potatoes if he was cooking only for one person. But mashies are one of the easiest ways to serve potatoes to a crowd. There are certain foods that are much easier to make for 1 or 2 people, and other foods that I'd rather make for a crowd. When you're feeding a big family (or 30 or 100 people at a church dinner), it's simpler to serve spaghetti than stir-fry, easier to serve meatloaf and mashed potatoes than chicken-stuffed crepes.

Does it seem that "comfort food" is usually the kind of thing that is more likely to be served in a family-sized crowd? Mac-n-cheese. Beef-n-noodles. Chicken-noodle soup or chili.

It makes me wonder if those kinds of food remind us of days/years past when we ate with a bigger crowd of cousins, or with many siblings around the table. And maybe that's part of the reason it evokes comforting memories?

Dissection

Yuck!

In high-school biology, I didn't dissect anything. My lab partner didn't want to do the lab write-ups and reports, and I didn't want to cut or look at anything. He did the dissections and told me what to write (while I tried not to throw up), and I made it sound good for the teacher. A lovely symbiotic relationship!!

Needless to say, we don't dissect things in our homeschool. A kid can get that opportunity from some teacher at a community college if he needs to.

Sunday, at the education fair (like a science fair, but history and art and music are welcome too), one of the girls there was dissecting a cow eyeball. My kids watched. I hid in a different room and socialized there instead of being educated about eyeballs. Well, I suppose it was a good experience for my students.

Blech!

Today's Laugh

One beautiful morning, my husband and I decided to go for a drive in the country. Unfortunately, no matter which road we took, we kept seeing dead raccoons lying on the shoulder.

After several miles of this, my husband turned to me and said, "Now I think I know the answer to the age-old question 'Why did the chicken cross the road?'"

"What is it?" I asked.

"Well," he replied, "it was to prove to the raccoons that it could be done."

Dumb Cat

The cat loves fresh, running water.

The cat hears me brushing my teeth. Ah ha! That means running water.

She comes galloping into the bathroom, wheels around the corner, leaps onto the toilet as a jump-point to make it to the counter by the sink, and discovers ...

the toilet lid is up.

I never saw a cat scramble out of a toilet so quickly!!!

Highways

The interstate highway system was built not to make it easier to visit Grandma, not to make the drive to your vacation destination quicker, but for military purposes. The highways provide a way to move troops and equipment around the country in a timely way. They also can be pressed into service as landing strips for airplanes should an emergency arise.

But something else crossed my mind. What if "the walls are breached"? Then the interstate system allows for the enemy to make inroads into the country much more easily.

I remember in the Luther movie, where Cajetan was telling Luther that the Turks were at the door of Vienna and here was Luther making a silly little commotion about theology. You know, Vienna is not that far from Wittenberg! That would be (for me) like having the enemy attacking St Louis, not just New York or San Francisco. And yet, given that we are one nation and not a bunch of feudal states, and given that we do have a system whereby we can easily move around the country, there really isn't any safety in being far away from the battle-lines, is there?

So the roads that are designed to help with defense could very well make it easier for the country to be overrun too.

The Way Out of Temptation

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? (1 Cor 10:16)

This is our Bible verse for the week, and it is connected to our focus on the Lord's Supper for the next few weeks. In the context of yesterday's [three-year series] epistle which follows shortly after this passage, it has a lot to say about closed communion.

But what I'm noticing is what comes prior to the verse-of-the-week. Earlier in the chapter we hear about the Israelites' idolatry, and how their unbelief resulted in sexual immorality, sassing the prophet, complaining, and tempting Christ. And then Paul says, "Hey, there's a reason I'm telling you this, so that you can watch out for yourselves and your own sinful nature."

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

And then what does he say? He says to "flee temptation" and starts right in on talking about the Holy Communion.

Like as if it's the "way of escape." Like as if it would set our faith aright. Like as if that true faith and that connectedness to Christ's holy body and the Church would result in behavior consistent with right faith, so that we might behave rightly right alongside believing rightly.

Today's Laugh

Never play leapfrog with a unicorn.

Vows

We were reading in Bible class recently about Jonah and how he was ready, after being in the great fish, to fulfill his vows. Roger brought up the connection to Psalm 116 which we sing in the offertory: I will pay my vows to the Lord now in the presence of all His people. What are those vows anyway?

We so often think of vows as my promises of what I will do (with the Holy Spirit's help, of course).

Pastor asked us, instead, to think of vows as confessions of faith. In baptism when we renounce the devil and all his works and all his ways, when we make a vow that we will hold to the faith in the Creed, these are not ideas that I come up with about what I will do. Rather, it is the New Man of faith in me --Christ in me-- who desires these things. And since I am in Christ, and He is in me, and I trust in Him, and He has joined me to Himself, therefore I will of course confess the truth. So my vows are not made because of arm-twisting, or because I have been conquered, or because I am showing off my piety. But my vows are made because I am agreeing that what God says/wants is true and good.

Psalm 147

Our psalm-0f-the-week last week was 147. I was confused. There was all this good stuff: God sends rain for the grass to grow, He feeds the animals, He makes the stars twinkle, He forgives our sin, He protects us from harm, etc. Aren't those nice, happy things?

But then there was the part about snow and hail and frost and cold. Now, to my way of thinking, those are bad things. I like summer! I am not interested in snowmobiling and cross-country skiing. When I asked, "So are those things good too?" Pastor answered, "Of course, because they are from God."

Snow? Good. Hmmm.

But as he continued to talk, I began to realize that I'd asked the wrong question. I should've asked, "Are those happy things?" Pastor was making the point that what God ordains is always good, even if it's illness or poverty or death. Or snow and hail and cold. Or illness or poverty or death.

Genesis 2:8

The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.

God created this lovely home, full of already-grown trees and canes and shrubs and vines, and put Adam there to tend it. Adam didn't have to start from scratch.

That's what God did for Israel too. When He brought them out of Egypt, He sent them into Canaan where they would receive houses already built, vines already mature and producing, fig trees that they did not have to plant themselves, and even barns that already had critters in them.

Today's Laugh

The 8-yr-old boy had never spoken a word -- ever. One afternoon, as he sat eating his lunch he turned to his mother and said, "Soup's cold."

His astonished mother exclaimed, "Son, I've waited so long to hear you speak. But all these years you never said anything. Why haven't you spoken before?"

The boy looked at her and replied, "Up until now, everything's been okay."

Why I Blog

Someone told me once that I had no business blogging if I were going to say anything theological and then not engage in whatever debates might arise from it, and then this person told me I ought to shut down my blog. That conversation crosses my mind whenever somebody asks, "So why do you do that?" or "Don't you think you should consider using your time in a different way?"

I started blogging because Maggie's open-heart surgery was coming up. With previous surgeries, there were SO many phone calls to make, so many people waiting to hear the news from each day. Hospitals now having "caring bridge" websites which certainly help with updating the loved ones. Instead, I started a blog.

Now, I blog for a couple of reasons. One is to show pictures of my grand-daughter to my mommy. (I really ought to put up some pictures of the house too.) Similarly, it lets me keep my kids and my mommy and a few friends up-to-date on the mundane aspects of life, so that during phone calls we don't have to get up-to-speed on those things.

Another reason to blog is because sometimes there are things I've figured out that other people want to know: kombucha brewing, or my bleach-and-milk stain remover, or stove-cleaning. A blog is also a handy place to store recipes or to share them with friends who asked for a particular recipe.

And then I also blog about things that I'm pondering from church or about something Pastor said that I want to remember. I don't write those things for anybody but me; it's an entirely selfish endeavor. It helps me think through those concepts, or remember them. Or sometimes it's just that it's easier to write a paragraph on my blog than attempting to squeeze it into the margin of my Bible, and it's easier to find those notes later when I have only a vague recollection of the topic (seeing as how the blog has a "search" feature while my Bible has tissue-papery pages that have to be flipped by hand).

So now, with my computer-time being SO limited, and the computer being relatively inaccessible, my brain is filling up with stuff I want to remember, but cannot think about and ponder whilst my brain is full and whilst my body is busy/distracted by the laundry and the dishes and the onion-chopping which all need to be done. For those who know what's in Dumbledore's office, my blog is my pensieve. And I get discombobulated when my pensieve is unavailable to me.

Computer Repairs

Weeks spent hobbling through days with a computer that wasn't functioning properly. A day here, or two days there, spent researching problems and fixing and repairing. And the machine got sicker and sicker. After two full days early last week of finding bigger problems every time I "fixed" something, I gave up. I was going to wipe the hard-drive and reinstall everything and start fresh.

So, with much trepidation I did so. It took two days, and I thought I was almost done. Things were working properly. I had begun loading back into the computer WordPerfect and the driver for the printer and Adobe Reader and all those things. I hadn't yet put back the photos and the word-processing documents, but I had re-installed the old emails and the addresses.

And the garbage came back.
The spyware is nabbing the nasties again.
Hard-to-eradicate trojan horses are back on the computer.
And the system is beginning to be unstable again (that is, shutting itself down of its own accord).

So, back to the drawing board.
I get to re-wipe the hard-drive, and re-re-install all the programs.

But now I'm skeptical.
I think the personal files I backed up are done for.

A couple of people told me to try deleting all the emails that have attachments and then going through the process. Maybe I won't lose ALL the emails this way. I'm still pondering whether I want to try that, knowing that it might not work, and that I might be stuck with yet another re-install this week. Of course, if that happens, I'll be getting better and better at all this computer stuff.

One person suggested running a virus-scan on the external hard-drive where the emails were backed up. That might tell me something before I resort to deleting all those precious old files.

My thought was to go ahead and re-install all my personal files on the contaminated machine, and spend several days printing out whatever I find that I absolutely must keep (certain letters, kids' high-school transcripts, articles I've written for magazines, etc). I'm also wondering if it would be spreading the infection if I sent all our digital photos to Walgreens for regular print-copies and/or uploaded a bunch of them to blogger before I lose them. When that is done, I could just wipe everything off the computer and reload nothing personal.



Y'know, a person prays for self-discipline. So God says, "Okay, here's what we'll do. I'll take the computer away from you so that you can't keep wasting time on it."

So now four of us are sharing Gary's computer. That computer is in the cold basement, downstairs, away from the family, away from whatever is cooking on the stove (and ought not to be burning!), in the dark. I am, against my will, learning to not be quite so dependent on the computer. Even though I am spending unbelievable numbers of hours trying to make these repairs (as Lauri mentioned happens at her house too), I am learning to skip some topics on my homeschool email list, and I am learning that the world will not come to an end if I don't read all the blogs I want to read. But I betcha I haven't learned that lesson well enough yet....

Today's Laugh

A blonde woman was sick and tired of all these blonde jokes and how all blondes are perceived as stupid. She made up her mind that she would show her husband that blondes really are smart.

One day, while he was at work, she purchased a can of paint and decided to repaint the living room. Her husband arrived home at 5:30 and smelled the distinctive odor of paint. He walked into the living room and found his wife lying on the floor in a pool of sweat. He observed that she was wearing a ski jacket as well as a fur coat. He went over to her and asked if she was OK. She acknowledged that she was.

He then asked what she was doing. She replied that she had set out to prove to him that not all blondes are dumb and, to do so, she had elected to paint the living room. He then asked why she was wearing both a ski jacket and a fur coat. Her response was that she had read the directions on the paint can which said, "For best results, put on two coats."

The Screwdriver Meets the Computer ....

So the computer-duncehead has to backup her computer, wipe her hard-drive, and re-install everything from scratch.

Hoo boy.

So yesterday I slowly and painstakingly read what was written on the screens, translated it into English from computo-jargonese, and figured out which button to push. With only two or threes pleas for help from my son-in-law, I re-installed the operating system. But I couldn't continue with Spybot, Zone Alarm, and AVG (much less anything interesting) until I could access the internet. That means I needed access to the wireless monitor in the house. That means I needed a "driver" for my computer to talk to the little box that slurps the Internet off the cables, into the house, and sends it beaming out into the airwaves of my home.

That means we had to reinstall not only the software but also the hardware. Okay, that means we need to unscrew the little doober-jobbie that hooks the antenna into the hard-wiring of the computer. Okie-dokie. Grab the screwdriver from the kitchen drawer.

But, man! We were having problems. A screen would disappear. Or the machine would say, "Okay, we're halfway through the installation. Now turn off the machine. Attach the hardware piece. Turn the machine back on. And we'll pick up the software installation where we left off." And then it wouldn't! The nerve of it!

After repeated tries, and we were finally on a roll, thinking we would make it, suddenly we plopped out of Proper Installation Mode and had the screen go belly-up on us again. And it crossed Gary's mind:

We're using a magnetized screwdriver.

We were fine as long as we turned the screws by hand. But the second we touched the screwdriver to the screw, we were messing with the magnetism in the machine, and it flipped out.

Good grief.
Everybody knows to keep magnets away from the computer.

But then there are those tricksy tools, disguising themselves as helping-hands, when they're really computer-crashers.

As much as I'd rather pay somebody to do this, we just can't afford that. So I guess I keep learning lessons about the computer these days. (Boy, I'm glad Nathan is just a phone call away!)

Dressing Up for Church

This week I could finally wear a dress to church on Wednesday night. For the preceding weeks, it had been cold. Cold in the house. Wicked cold outside. And not exactly toasty warm in the church. I could not bring myself to change out of my jeans and put on a dress [read: "have naked legs"] for church.

I suppose it may be due in part to how I was raised, but I feel funny when I don't dress up for church. I don't think it's a rule, so don't think I'm condemning people who show up to church in play-clothes or sweatsuits. Sometimes that's necessary. And to some extent, it's a relief to know that you are free to go to church in not-so-nice clothes, like when the time got away from you in the garden or on errands, and it's "go a little grubby or don't go at all," or when a kid is going through a big growth spurt and you can't afford nice clothes that will last him only 4-6 wearings before he outgrows them.

But still, I feel funny when I'm at the Divine Service in pants.

Today's Laugh

A little boy comes home from first grade and tells his father that he learned about the history of Valentine's Day. "As Valentine's Day is for a Christian saint and we're Jewish," he asks, "will God get angry at me for giving someone a valentine?"

The father thinks for a moment and then says, "No, I don't think God would get mad. Who do you want to give a valentine to?"

"Osama Bin Laden," the boy says.

"Why Osama??" his father asks in disbelief.

"Well," David says, "I thought that if a little American Jewish boy could have enough love to give Osama a valentine, he might start to think that maybe we're not all bad, and maybe start loving people a little bit. And if other kids saw what I did and sent valentines to Osama, he'd jump with joy. And then he'd go all over and tell everyone how much he loved them and how he didn't hate anyone anymore."

Father's heart swells and he looks at his son with newfound pride and joy. "David, that's the most wonderful thing I've ever heard."

"I know," David says, "and once that gets him out in the open, the Marines shoot him."

Matthew 18:20

If two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in My name, there I am in the midst of them.

I have heard that verse used to assure people that it's okay if only a few show up for church services. After all, God is still there with them. And that's true.

I have heard that verse used to support social activities at church, like dartball or potlucks or an outing to the roller rink. That's just totally taking the verse out of context, where the "agreement" and the "gathered" is clearly about bestowing the absolution on the penitent.

Pastor said during prayers today that he has heard this verse used to claim that God's will was being done whenever the church voted on matters of carpeting or refinancing the mortgage or whatever.

What I'd never heard (until today) was that there are two people together in the confessional, and they agree. That is, they CONfess. The sinner agrees with God about his sin. The sinner agrees with God about His remedy for sin. The pastor obviously agrees with God because he's the one speaking God's message. And so "what they agree upon" --that is, the forgiveness applied to the sinner-- will be done for them by My Father in heaven. Jesus is surely in that place where confession is heard and the absolution is spoken.

Exercise and Depression

"They say" that exercise helps with depression. Every now and then you get a chance --against your will-- to check that out with a nice, scientific experiment. For the last week, sores on my feet prevented my 2-3 miles of brisk walking daily ... even on those absolutely gorgeous and sunny (and warm!) days. And boy, my mood sure has taken a hit. Of course, the "stimulus" package from Congress, the notice that there will be no raises at work, and the broken computer haven't exactly brought cheer -- although "no layoffs at work" IS good news.

I've learned this lesson before about the exercise. It's important for me to remember that the daily outdoor exercise is critical to health, and not just for long-term health, but even for next week's health. But there's not a lot you can do when you have to walk around the house gingerly to do simple things like set the table or throw in a load of laundry. My owies are improving, though, and I'm hoping to give it a whirl again soon for the walking.

Today's Laugh

A man walks into a post office one day and sees a middle-aged, balding man standing at the counter methodically placing "Love" stamps on bright pink envelopes with hearts all over them. He then takes out a perfume bottle and starts spraying scent all over them.

His curiosity gets the better of him; he goes up to the balding man and asks him what he is doing.

The man says, "I'm sending out 1,000 valentines signed, 'Guess who?'"

"But why?" asks the man.

"I'm a divorce lawyer," the man replies.

Jonah 3:9

Who can tell if God will turn and relent,
and turn away from His fierce anger,
so that we may not perish?

I had always thought this was a "contritionism" (i.e. a belief that God forgives me because I'm sorry) and it didn't make sense to me. The Ninevite king was brought to repentance and called upon his people to repent and turn from their evil ways. "And maybe God will decide not to zot us after all??"

But in Bible class today Pastor pointed out that this wasn't so much an attempt to manipulate God by making a nice sorry-face and sorry-words. This was more like when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego declared that their God was able to save them from the fiery furnace, but that even if He didn't, they still would worship the true God and not bow down to Nebuchnezzar's idol (Daniel 3:17). Or like when Job told his pietistic friends, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him" (3:15).

What matters is that we do not perish eternally. God may choose to spare us on earth from cancer or war or poverty. But whether or not He spares us temporally, He will without doubt not permit us to perish forever.

Three Days

In Bible class today, Pastor mentioned how Jonah was a picture of Christ in his own self, in that he was "dead" and then came alive again when the fish vomited him out onto dry land. Saul/Paul was the same: Saul "died" on the road to Damascus and then was made alive again.

Interestingly enough, Jonah was in the belly of the fish for three days, and Paul sat waiting for Ananias to arrive for, also, three days.

Today's Laugh

The drunk was driving home after an evening at his favorite bar. A policeman pulled him over. The policemen asked the driver if he had been drinking. The driver admitted he'd "had a few."

The policeman then asked the driver, "Did you know your wife fell out of your vehicle about two intersections back down the street?"

The drunk threw his hands in the air and shouted, "Thank heavens! Thank God! I thought I suddenly went deaf!!"

Computer Frustrations

For the last six weeks my computer problems have been growing. I have spent two full days now with a computer full of messes -- days when it was beautifully sunny and there was something better to do than pull my hair out over computer repairs at which I am quite inept. The computer shuts itself down repeatedly. I have to keep running the programs that find and remove spyware and viruses. It refuses to open new windows until rebooted twice or more. I may be a computer addict, but this is bad enough that even I don't want to have anything more to do with the machine. I can borrow Gary's or the library's, but my computer is worse than useless at this point.

Now we have to figure out whether to risk the bill to repair it, not knowing how big the bill will be. Or whether to buy a new one. Or whether to learn to live without it. None of those are good choices.

Today's Laugh

A lawyer was driving much too fast down a country road. He ran a stop sign and broadsided another car. The lawyer jumped out of his car, ran to the other driver, and pulled him out of the wreck. The other driver said, "I'm fine. I'm just a bit shaken up."

The lawyer then reached into his jacket and gave the driver a flask and said, "Here's some brandy that I keep handy for medicinal purposes." The driver took several large swigs of the brandy and handed the flask back to the attorney, who promptly put the cap back on and returned it to his jacket.

"Aren't you going to have some?" the driver inquired.

"Sure," said the attorney, "right after the cops leave."

Pollyanna

Maggie and I recently read Pollyanna. I'd never read it before; I only knew that calling somebody "Pollyanna" was usually used as an insult which meant the person lived in Lala-land and couldn't see the reality of suffering and distress around them, somebody who always put on a fakey cheerful exterior for the rest of the world to see.

But that's not what I got from the book. Now, granted, we read an abridged version because I am a bear of very little brain. (My pride really took a hit when I was visiting at our church-school's open house, and the girls were reading Sense and Sensibility and I was pretty well clueless. Good thing my daughters taught Jane Austen to themselves!) The story of Pollyanna was fun to read. There was a bit of romance. A bit of childhood fun and wonder. A bit of adult drama. And the story of how love changes people. And it's about mercy and forgiveness. And for those who love to talk about "vocation," the story handles that well too. But honestly, some of what I'm writing makes it sound stuffy. It's really a fun book to read. Well, at least, our dumbed-down, abridged version was fun to read!

One of the things Pollyanna did was play the "glad game" her father taught her. They would try to find something to be glad about, no matter how terrible a situation might arise. Every cloud has a silver lining. God works in all things for the good of those who love Him, the ones called according to His purposes.

Since we finished Pollyanna, I've been noticing the word "glad" as I pray my psalms each day. Wow! "Glad" is in there a lot! But it's not "glad" that the sun is shining (even though I am very happy about that!), or "glad" that my old car hasn't bit the dust, or "glad" that my grown-up kids attend church. The "gladness" in the psalter is almost always the joy of sins forgiven, the comfort that we are IN Christ, the blessing that we have eternal life with the Lord. As Moses wrote, God makes us glad according to the days He has afflicted us. That's just weird -- the gladness in the midst of affliction.

And yet, there is no true joy, even in the happy things of life, unless we have forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. And even when the happy things of life are missing, even when our minds play tricks on us and make us miserable, even when the world and the demons attack, they cannot take away what God has done for us. When we believe that, when we really really believe that, against all evidence to the contrary, there is no way that we can be robbed of gladness of heart. [God have mercy on me for all the unbelief and idolatry which makes me focus on my circumstances instead of trusting in what His Word gives.]

I'm getting far afield. I just wanted to say that Pollyanna is a good book. But now my brain is full of Gerhardt hymns:
If God Himself be for me, I may a host defy....
Rejoice my heart, be glad and sing....
O Love, how cheering is Thy ray! All pain before Thy presence flies...

Today's Laugh

What do fishermen and hypochondriacs have in common?

They don't have to catch anything to be happy.


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What do Attila the Hun and Kermit the Frog have in common?

The same middle name.




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How can you tell if a blonde is making chocolate chip cookies?

There are M&M shells on the kitchen counter.

What the Rates Indicate

We're refinancing the house. Interest rates dropped low enough that it was clearly advantageous to us to pay the costs of refinancing so that we could lower the monthly mortgage payments. (Quick, quick, before the rates go up. Because they're gonna go up.) Our mistake last year was that we didn't know something that "everybody" knows -- that you can lock-in the rates when they get to a number you like.

What's weird this year is that the rates for shorter-term mortgages are higher than for the 30-yr mortgages. That's not the way it was last year. And it's not even reasonable. The banks like to give better rates to the people who will have the money for a shorter time. But we keep finding the 15-yr rates to be the same as the 30-yr rates, or even slightly higher. The 20-yr rates are higher yet.

Seems to me that there is trepidation out there about what interest rates and inflation are going to be doing in the next years, but that the banks expect (or hope?) things will even out in the long term.

And still, Congress is promising us a "bail out package" that will "bail out" the representatives from those who accuse them of not bringing home enough pork, while leaving the taxpayers holding the bag full of IOUs. I'm wondering if maybe it's a good sign that the banks are at least expecting that the economic times will actually begin recovering in 20 years. I guess I'm not even that optimistic.

Cutting Costs

Our local newspaper is running some stories on how people in the area are coping with the recession and what effects the national economic conditions are having on local businesses.

Most interesting to me was the interview with the manager of the grocery store. The grocery store has seen its business improve. This I expected.

But here's what got me. The manager said the MEAT DEPT is leading in sales now. His reason was that people aren't eating out. So they're buying their steaks and roasts from Piggly Wiggly instead of from Outback.

And I'm thinking....
WHAT??? The MEAT DEPT is leading sales? So my version of cutting costs is less meat and more legumes, more potatoes and cabbage and less of apples or berries. And other people's version of cutting costs is buying meat to cook at home instead of eating at restaurants. Oy.

Today's Laugh

Julie, the blonde, was getting pretty desperate for money. She decided to go to the nicer, more affluent neighborhoods to look for odd jobs, as a handy-woman.

At the very first house she came to, a man answered the door and told Julie, "Yeah, I have a job for you. How would you like to paint the porch?"

"Sure, that sounds great!" said Julie.

"Well, how much do you want me to pay you?" asked the man.

"Is fifty bucks all right?" Julie asked.

"Yeah, great," said the man. "You'll find paint and brushes and all you'll need in the garage."

The man went back inside his house where his wife had been listening. "Fifty bucks! Does she know the porch goes all the way around the house?" asked the wife.

"Well, she must know, she was standing right on the porch when we made the deal!" her husband replied.

About 45 minutes later, Julie knocked on the door and the man let her in the house. "I'm all finished," she told the surprised homeowner.

The man was amazed. "You already painted the entire porch?" he asked.

"Yeah," Julie replied, "I even had some paint left so I put on two coats!"

The man reached for his wallet to pay Julie. "Oh, and by the way," said Julie, "that's not a Porch. It's a Ferrari."

Singing

I love to sing. I don't have a very pretty voice, though. Just kinda "adequate," good enough to teach my kids to sing the liturgy and hymns, good enough croon to babies while rocking them or nursing them, good enough that I haven't been kicked out of choir yet.

When we had our high-school church-choir reunion a few years back, somebody had put on an audio-tape of one of our musicals. The girl with the prettiest voice in choir heard the part of the tape where I had my tiny little solo one year and said, "Oh, that's bad enough to hurt your ears. WHO was that???" I didn't volunteer the answer, I was so embarrassed. But it didn't surprise me; I actually kinda agreed with her.

But Rachel and Katie have beautiful voices. They sound especially awesome together -- there is, after all, something about genetically similar voices that amplify the beauty of the other. Even when the voices are merely average, they sound more lovely in combo.

Today I heard the same thing from two different people at church: not only does Rachel look like me, but they said that our singing voices are just alike. When Rachel sat behind somebody at church, they were sure it was me behind them. I'm stunned. If I sound like Rachel....
wow....


(I'm sorry if this sounds braggy. But I've been wondering recently if choir would be better off without me, and this makes me think that I can't be dragging them down too terribly. And that is a happy relief because I really really like being in choir.)

For the Sake of the Other

Sometimes we make jokes when someone's patience is tried: "Well, you prayed for patience, didn't you? What did you expect?" Or maybe we pray for humility, and then God sends situations that take away everything we're proud of, and we end up embarrassed. Or maybe we pray for contentment, and God sends poverty, and we end up learning that it's not possessions which instill contentment.

I have had Protestant friends tell me, "If you could just learn the lesson that God wants to teach you, then you could be done with this struggle." They essentially are saying that it works like this: a woman prays for patience, becomes the mother of an especially exuberant and strong-willed child, and begins to learn patience. But if she could just get patient faster, then God would be free to resolve the issue with her strong-willed kid. Somehow, it seems to me that this paints a false picture of a God. Somehow, it seems to me that this viewpoint is more consistent with the theology of glory than with the theology of the cross.

But even more than that, this kind of theology smacks of an American brand of individuality. I have a lesson to learn. God is teaching me this lesson. Once I learn my lesson, I can go on to a new lesson.

But we are one body of Christ. Sometimes things happen to us for the sake of someone else.

Pastors see these kinds of situations. Why does Grandpa Schmidt linger so long in the nursing home? Maybe there's something he needs to learn about dependence upon God alone. But maybe not. Maybe there's something his children and grandchildren need to do in caring for him. Why did Gary have his non-heart-attack? Because there was something for him to learn? Maybe, but I don't think so. It was because of that man who was his roommate in the hospital, the one who needed to be returned to the fold so that he might have a pastor in the last year of his life.

Sometimes our suffering is because of a work God is doing in someone else's life. It may not make sense to us; we probably cannot see what God is accomplishing. Whether or not we can discern God's reasons, no amount of "learning my lesson" is going to bring an end to my suffering in that case. We just have to be content that God knows what He's doing, even if I can't make sense of it.

Obama's Nominees

Another tidbit that I came across while reading my tax instruction booklet. Check out the inside cover for a message from the tax commissioner:

We should be proud that the vast majority of American citizens pay their taxes honestly and of their own free will. In an ever more complex and global world, we cannot take for granted this cornerstone principle of our democracy.


and later in the message:
Unfortunately, there will always be some that cheat their fellow citizens by avoiding the payment of their fair share of taxes. The IRS owes it to the millions of you who promptly pay your taxes in full to pursue these people through strong enforcement programs.

Petitions

We pray in ["forgive us our trespasses"] that God would not look at our sins, nor deny our prayer because of them. We are neither worthy of the things for which we pray, nor have we deserved them, but we ask that He would give them all to us by grace ....

I don't know about you, but I usually think about "prayer" as "asking God for things." I am not worthy of such a great husband, nor a pantry full of flour and peaches and peanut butter, nor a house with a furnace. I have not deserved my Camry, nor my rabbit-killing huntress, nor a neighborhood free of crime. But God gives me all these things by grace.

At least, that's how I normally think of this petition.

But this week the light-bulb finally clicked for me about something that Pastor has been saying for years. "Our prayer" and "the things for which we pray" are particularly the things we just said. In other words, the other petitions of the Lord's Prayer.

We are not worthy for there to be true doctrine anywhere on earth.

We are not worthy that God would send prophets and preachers out into the world.

We are not worthy that God would give His Holy Spirit into our hearts.

We are not worthy that the devil's will be thwarted.

Somehow it's easy to see how I do not deserve to have my sins forgiven, that I do not deserve for God to guard me from temptation, that I do not deserve the material "stuff" that sustains my physical life, etc. But it seems so much bigger to realize that we --the whole human race-- we do not even deserve for any true doctrine to exist anywhere on the face of the whole earth. Even before I can be saved, even before the Holy Spirit can work faith in my heart, there is the wonder that God in His grace ensures that His word is taught in its truth and purity at all.

Our unworthiness doesn't stop God. His loving nature gives and gives and gives, even though we most surely do not deserve it.

Today's Laugh

A baby seal walks into a bar, and the bartender says, "What'll you have?"

The seal replies, "Anything but a Canadian Club!!"

APT Fans

For those of you who have wished to see what's backstage at APT, you may be interested to know that Facebook folks can become fans of American Players Theatre and have fun checking out their picture albums!

Rich versus Poor

Working on the taxes, I'm reading through the 1040 Instruction Book.

For 2009, a family (two parents, and one or more children) is poor enough to claim the Earned Income Credit if their income is $43,415 or less.

For 2009, a family is rich enough to fill out forms to determine their Alternative Minimum Tax (aka, extra tax on the rich folks because they're rich enough to pay it) if their adjusted gross income is $45,000 or more.

Do these numbers look funny to anybody besides me???

Federal Deficit

Some of you were lucky enough to hear one of my favorite talk-show hosts when he substituted for Rush this week. Mark has the solution to the huge federal tax deficit.

Obama keeps nominating Democrats for positions in the cabinet and judicial offices, etc. They are vetted and their tax evasion is uncovered so that they must pay their back taxes. Hey, there are so many of them, and what they owe the IRS is so large, the deficit should be solved in a hurry!

Meal Prayers

The fourth petition:
Give us this day our daily bread.
God certainly gives daily bread to everyone without our prayer, even to all evil people, but we pray in this petition that God would lead us to realize this and to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.

God would lead us to realize this.
and
Receive our daily bread with thanksgiving.

Turn a few pages further back in the catechism, to the section on daily prayers. What is the prayer before meals? Both the psalm verse (and You give them their food at the proper time) and the little prayer (which we receive from Your bountiful goodness) are words which lead us to "realize this."

And the prayer after the meal? Give thanks to the Lord for He is good.

We pray that "God would lead us to realize this" and "God would lead us to receive our daily bread with thanksgiving" and so it is HIS words we use in our meal-time prayers.



I was so tickled and so surprised when I noticed that Luther's words under the Fourth Petition were in sync with the meal prayers. I don't know why I was surprised. Now it seems so obvious. (But I still think it's really cool!)


This discovery is kinda sorta like my shock (and delight) to discover once-upon-a-time that the Close of the Commandments has "fear, love, and trust" in it just like the meaning of the First Commandment does. Maybe I'm just really weird that these things interest me so much.

Today's Laugh

The pope dies and goes to heaven. St Peter welcomes him. "Everything heaven has is yours," he tells the pope.

The pope asks, "Do you happen to have transcripts of the conversations Jesus had with His followers?"

"Yes, we do," says St Peter, and shows him to an enormous library. He pulls an enormous book off the shelf, hands it to the pope, and leaves him alone.

Hours later, he returns to find the pope pounding his fists on the table and sobbing. "I don't believe it!" cries the pope, "There's an r! There's an r!"

"Are you all right?" St. Peter asks with alarm.

"There's an r!" yells the pope again. "It says celebrate!"

Split Pea Soup

When I married my husband, I knew he did not eat soup, he did not eat vegetables, and he would never never never eat peas.

Well, over the years he learned to eat and enjoy vegetables. Out of love for me, he learned to tolerate soup-in-general and even like some soups. And he even began to eat peas. After about twenty years of feeding him, one day I about fell off my chair when he said the peas were so good that he wanted a second helping. (Hey, I gotta admit, that was one good sauce I put on the peas that day!)

But never had I made split pea soup. I don't recall my mother ever making it for us. I figured combining soup and peas into one dish would be pushing Gary beyond his limits. No matter how hard he tried to be pleased with my cooking, I was afraid split pea soup would be hopeless to attempt.

And then Erin had us over one night for a soup party. Everything she made was totally awesomely delicious! And one of the soups was split pea. The people in my family, in an effort to be polite, tasted it. And they liked it!!!!! So now I've made split pea soup twice. Yummy!

The only problem slowing us down is that I never seem to have enough ham bones to flavor all the legume dishes I desire to cook. Maybe next time we take a piggy to the butcher, I should ask him to give me no hams, but just ham-steaks, so that I can have small chunks of bone to put in beans and lentils and soups.

Psalm 78:60

In this psalm, Asaph is working his way through Israel's history, showing God's faithfulness and Israel's rejection of His goodness, over and over. They sin. God gets angry. But He remains faithful and rescues them because they belong to Him, and it is for the honor of His name [His Jesus] that He continues to love and save and give of Himself.

So getting toward the end of the psalm, we find another one of those summaries of how the children of Israel disbelieved, and Asaph says,
They provoked Him to anger with their high places,
and moved Him to jealousy with their carved images.
When God heard this, He was furious,
and greatly abhorred Israel,

Ack! Scary!
God's mad!
What's He gonna do?

so that He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh,
the tent He had placed among men.
And delivered His strength into captivity,
and His glory into the enemy's hand.

Wait a minute? God gets ticked at Israel for their willful disobedience and their selfishness and their unbelief, and so He does what?

He forsakes His Son????

Okay, in history, when Asaph was praying this psalm, Jesus wasn't born yet. And it is true about the ark: 1 Samuel 4 tells the story of how God forsook the tabernalce in Shiloh, how He let the ark of the covenant be captured by the Philistines. The glory of Yahweh was delivered into captivity, into the temple of Dagon.

But we know Who is the real tabernacle (John 1), the tent that was placed among men. We know Who is "His strength". We know Who is "His glory."

Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani!
My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
Why are You so far from helping Me,
and from the words of My groaning?



Like in the psalm, we provoke God to anger with our unbelief and our idolatry. We make Him furious. And in His hatred of this sin, He resolves it by delivering His Son into the hand of those who would kill Him. God's anger is vented on us by letting His glory [Jesus] be delivered over to the enemy.

That is SO not fair.

Thanks be to God!

Today's Laugh

Stolen from a Garrison Keillor tale:


He was so ugly that the banks turned off the cameras when he came in the door.

He was so ugly that, when he tried to enter an "Ugly Contest," they refused his application with the notation, "Sorry, no professionals allowed."

Let the Little Children Come to Me

Lauri writes about her 3-yr-old's desire to commune. Joy too writes of her toddler's distress over not being communed. All my children have been communing now for four years. I am stubbornly sticking my head in the sand and refusing to acknowledge the fact that my grand-daughter is not communing; I'm trying desperately to convince myself that I don't know she's excluded from the altar. [Fingers in my ears. La lala la lala lala la. Not gonna open my eyes to the fact. Blindfold on! La lala la la la la....]

What is a parent to DO when they have no answer for a child as to why he cannot eat Jesus' body and blood??? And my gut-level reaction is to say, "Don't let him know about it in the first place." If we do not teach them the sixth chief part of the catechism, they won't learn it, and thus won't know what they're missing. If we don't talk about the Lord's Supper at home, and how we long for it, and what a treasure it is, the kids won't learn. Oh sure, they'll still know that this is something we do every Sunday and they will deduce that it's important. But the less we talk about it, the less we teach them of their sin and their need for forgiveness, the less we let them know about our own deep desire for Sunday to come so that we may be joined yet again with Jesus' body, the less the children will be taunted by their exclusion.

And then I thought,
WHAT AM I THINKING?
The solution is to hide God's word and His blessing from them? The solution is to avoid parts of the catechism? The solution is to refrain from teaching certain hymns?





I'm not going to discuss infant communion or age of first communion right now. But here's the question: Why has this become such a huge issue for parents in recent years?

We didn't used to have toddlers holding out their hands, begging the pastor. We didn't used to ache over this denial of Jesus to our little ones. We didn't used to care. Why do we care now?

And I think....
the answer has to do with ...

what we're teaching now,
what we believe about the Supper now.




We used to commune once a month. Now it's every Sunday (or hopefully more frequently). The children see that this is something we do every week. It must be important.

We used to have children begin learning the catechism in 7th grade. They didn't start learning when they were only 1 or 2 that "it is the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, under the bread and wine, instituted by Christ Himself, for us Christians to eat and to drink" and that "in the Sacrament, forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation are given us."

Sunday School used to be about Bible history and learning to be nice to our friends and telling other people about Jesus. Now our children are learning that the Bible is not just history stories, but also stories about how we have failed and how our God rescued us and continues to give of Himself to us who are not worthy. We are teaching our children about their baptism and about the Lord's Supper in a way that we didn't several decades ago.

The pastors are preaching more now than in years past about the Sacraments, connecting the Gospel reading to what Christ gives at the Table. The pastors wish to incite in their parishioners a yearning for the Supper.

And you know? Those little urchins LISTEN. They hear what we're teaching them. They hear the hymns and liturgy. They hear the catechism. And they believe it. And they long for that Supper which Jesus has provided for His lambs.

What else would be expect the children to do?

So we have only three choices. We can put off teaching them. Or we can take Jesus' words to heart: "feed My lambs." Or we can continue to weep over the fact that we are tongue-tied when our wee ones ask why they cannot commune.

Psalm 73:22

In Psalm 73, Asaph is talking about how things seem to go just swimmingly for the unbelievers. How come life is swell for those who sass God? Asaph is getting perturbed about this. He says it's just not right!
Thus my heart was grieved,
and I was vexed in my mind.
I was so foolish and ignorant;
I was like a beast before You.
Nevertheless I am continually with You;
You hold me by my right hand.
You will guide me with Your counsel,
and afterward receive me to glory.

Nevertheless.

NEVERTHELESS.

So the unbelievers sass God and oppress His saints. And what do the saints do? Sass God by saying, "What's up with THAT? This ain't right!! What's the matter with You? Don't You know how to work this world?"

Nevertheless, He doesn't leave us nor forsake us.
Nevertheless, He hangs onto us.
Nevertheless, He guides us by the Holy Spirit, the Counselor, who lays Jesus onto our hearts, forgiving our grief and vexation and foolishness and ignorance. We may be like a beast before God, but He will still receive us into His glory.

Whom have I in heaven but You?
And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.
My flesh and my heart fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.

Today's Laugh

A Lutheran joke I heard last weekend.
But I'm not sure it works when written:

Did you hear about the new WELS church in the next village over?
They're naming it St Mark-and-Avoid.

Cotton Kills

While growing up, I hated wool. It itched.

Most colleges have PE requirements. One of the classes Philip considered taking was Winter Camping. Friends told him that the class requirements were one weekend away with the whole class, camping, and to know that COTTON KILLS.

Yeah, right. Those little balls of fluff grab the daggers from the Killer [Dust-]Bunnies and plunge then into people who are using the cotton-balls for first-aid purposes??

Okay, here's the scoop from the kids who took the class. When cotton gets wet, it cannot hold warmth. Wool is different. If your wool socks or your wool sweater is damp, the clothing can still keep you warm. But not cotton clothing. On my paper route once, I bumbled into discovering the truth of this. It was below freezing, but I managed to step into a puddle of slushy water that had melted partially because of the salt on the roads. Wet socks. Wet cotton socks. After a few minutes of really really cold feet, I peeled off the socks and went bare-footed in my sandals for the rest of the paper route. It was warmer to have naked skin than to be clothed in wet cotton. But when I've shoveled the driveway in wool socks and gotten wet feet, I'm okay.

That warmth thing kinda makes up for the itchiness, eh?
Makes me covet more wool.

Psalm 71:15

My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness
and Your salvation all the day,
for I do not know their limits.
I will go in the strength of the Lord Yahweh;
I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only.

Well, I guess there's one thing good about the intense struggle with sin and doubt and fear and unbelief. A person discovers that he can never find the limit to God's salvation and righteousness.

I have heard stories about Pr Korby. His beloved students say that he made mention of the phenomenon of how a person would "get more sinful" as he continued to avail himself of the blessings of private confession. Hey, shouldn't it be making me more holy? But it doesn't seem to work that way. My sinful flesh seems to get stronger, I seem to be attacked more by situations in the world, and the devil just gets more persistent. Once upon a time when I asked my father-confessor about that, I wanted to know whether I really am getting more sinful, or whether it just appears that way to me. He said he thinks Dr Korby meant that, through private confession, we come to know our sin in a way which we didn't before, ... and that makes it seem to us that we are therefore becoming more sinful. It's not an actual increase in sinfulness, but an increased awareness of the depth of the corruption. Furthermore, in private confession, the word of forgiveness is preached into the sinner's ear ... and that isn't something about which the devil is going to say, "Okie-dokie, good plan."

But what happens then? We discover [even experientially] that there are no limits to God's salvation and righteousness. We learn more and more how corrupt we are; we see ourselves more and more as God would see our sin. And yet, His love never quits. It never fails. It is always bigger than our sin. Always. We can't find the end of it. I do not know their limits. We go in the strength of the Lord, because we sure ain't goin' in our own strength. We make mention of His righteousness, His only, because we learn more and more that we have no righteousness of our own, no, not even as Christians.

I do not know the limits of His salvation and righteousness.

Today's Laugh

The square root of -1 asked pi, "Why can't you be more rational?"

Pi retorted, "Oh, get real!"



(Stolen from a t-shirt slogan that I saw on a banner-ad on the Drudge Report recently.)

Primary

Wisconsin people need to mark their calendars for February 17 and April 7 to go vote.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson is up for re-election. She is rather activist. Her opponent is Randy Koschnick who has a constructionist perspective on judging the law. One Journal-Sentinel article is here, but there's plenty of info out there on the differences in the candidates.


The position of DPI superintendent is up for grabs. The current superintendent is not seeking re-election. Candidates are:

Tony Evers -- the current deputy superintendent. He has the backing of a variety of organizations in the educational establishment. He is in favor of repealing the QEO (which limits the annual raise teachers may receive in salary/benefits).

Rose Fernandez -- no previous political experience (both a plus and a minus). She recently ran the organization which fought for public e-schools (aka virtual schooling). She has ideas for large changes in how the schools are funded and how the Mwkee schools are run.

Van Mobley -- tv-preacher hair and ambitious (which makes me nervous). But strongly in favor of reducing the mandates on the schools, wants smaller school districts, and thinks that we should hold the line on property taxes so that the schools spend only as much as the public can afford. Also says he's in favor of teaching the basics, character education, and wants to maintain the QEO.

Lowell Holtz -- superintendent and principal, primarily in smaller school districts. Wants the QEO to be eliminated.

Todd Price -- tv-preacher hair. Supported by the Green Party and by Educators Roundtable. In favor of scrapping "No Child Left Behind." Wants to rework funding for schools so that they aren't stuck with such limited funds like they are now.

WisPolitics has a brief run-down on the candidates.

Ten-minute interviews with each candidate can be found at "Here and Now" which is a PBS show aired on Friday evenings. (I assume Holtz is scheduled for this coming Friday since his interview isn't listed yet.)

As noted in an AP story, the position of DPI superintendent is largely an administrative post with little authority to set policy. Honestly, I think I'd be more comfortable with a liberal who "just does the job" than with a conservative who has an agenda to use the position for advocating. All of the candidates have good points and bad points -- although some have significantly more good points and some have significantly more bad points. More information can be found on each candidate by googling his name and "dpi superintendent."

Clean Headlights

I had just washed the van the previous week. But boy, with the thaw over the weekend, we were picking up some heavy-duty grime on the windows of the van. I had to wash them over and over at the gas station, and the muddy water just rolled off the windshield onto the hood.

We hopped into the van Saturday evening to go from our hotel room to the college to enjoy the musical there. Something was wrong with the headlights. Never before had both headlights gone out at the same time; that seemed a very odd coincidence. But we could detect a change from the running lights to the headlights to the brights. So it didn't seem the lights had burned out. And yet, we could hardly see. We wondered how well the other drivers could see us.

Turned out that the dirt on the lights was SO HEAVY that they were severely dimmed.

I was aware of wiping snow from the headlights when I scrape the car windows. But washing the headlights when I wash the windows was something that had never occurred to me before this weekend!

Today's Laugh

From Polly,


New Drugs for Women

BUYAGRA: Stimulant to be taken prior to shopping. Increases potency and duration of spending spree.

MENICILLIN: Potent anti-boy-otic for older women. Increases resistance to Latin heartthrobs.

ST. MOM'S WORT: Plant extract that treats mom's depression by rendering pre-schoolers unconscious for up to six hours.

EMPTY NESTROGEN: Highly effective supplement that eliminates melancholy by enhancing the memory of how awful they were as teenagers and how you couldn't wait till they moved out.

PEPTO-BIMBO: Liquid silicone for single women. Two full cups swallowed before an evening out increases breast size, decreases intelligence, and improves flirting.

DUMMEROL: When taken with Pepto-bimbo, can cause lowering of IQ, causing enjoyment of loud country music and cheap beer.

FLIPITOR: Increases life expectancy of commuters by controlling road rage and the urge to flip off other drivers.

ANTI-TALKSIDENT: A spray carried in a purse or wallet to be used on anyone too eager to share their life stories with total strangers.

RAGAMET: When administered to a husband, provides the same irritation as nagging on him all weekend, saving the wife the time and trouble of doing it herself.

DAMMITOL: Take two and the rest of the world can go to heck for 8 hours!

Christmas Pictures

Not many of my pictures turned out. This is about the extent of what isn't too fuzzy or too dark. Katie's turned out much better.

Uncle Paul


Grandma enjoying the most comfy way to nap


Aunt Maggie


Uncle Matt


Grandpa deep in conversation with his sweetie


Mommy, Daddy, and baby

Mankato

A rather sizable snowman. Or snow tower. Or snow slug. Or something.


Paul in his costume for the play.

You put some eye-liner and lipstick on Paul, and put a goatee on Rachel, and the similarity gets frighteningly amazing. But, hey, when Rachel and Philip were little enough to be in their pre-hair days, they looked nearly identical. And we know that Philip and Paul look nearly identical. And our mathematical axioms teach us that if a=b and b=c, then a=c. So you get Paul's hair out of the way under a bald-cap, and put make-up on him....

Transfigurations

I seem to be developing a knack for this.

Yesterday we were visiting Paul and celebrated Transfiguration (1-yr series) and will be celebrating it again here at home in three weeks (3-yr series).

Last year we celebrated Transfiguration in January at Triune, and then in February at Peace.

The previous year we celebrated Transfiguration at Triune and Peace (1-yr series), and then happened to be visiting in South Bend the Sunday before Lent which there (3-yr series) was Transfiguration.

That's SIX Transfiguration Sundays in 25 months. This is somewhat unsettling for someone so settled into the rhythms of the church year. Next year I think I need to pay attention to this and stay put.

Today's Laughs

Not to be outdone by the Americans, UN officials held their own Groundhog Day.

In their own Groundhog Day ceremony, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), tying in reports on global warming, announced that there would be six more weeks of winter

... followed by 1000 years of summer.


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Over breakfast one morning, a woman said to her husband, "I'll bet you don't know what day this is."

"Of course I do," he answered as if he were offended, and left for the office.

At 10:00 a.m., the doorbell rang and when the woman opened the door, she was handed a box of a dozen long-stemmed red roses. At 1:00 p.m., a foil-wrapped, two-pound box of her favorite chocolates was delivered. Later, a boutique delivered a designer dress.

The woman couldn't wait for her husband to come home.

"First the flowers, then the chocolates and then the dress!" she exclaimed. "I've never had a more wonderful Groundhog Day in my life!

Away

It's funny when you're missing home and yet glad to be where you are.

The kitties must be suffering terribly with our being out of town. You know Rosie ate up all Athena's food right away.

I hate missing church at home on Sunday, even when we're at a good place.

Gus's baptism is today. We're missing the party -- boo hoo! We'll have to figure out another time to go meet him.

Aaron posted the same quote on his blog that Gary and I absolutely loved.

We came to Mankato to see Paul and friends in the school musical. (With it being a very quick trip and with wanting to go to church with Paul, we missed out on the opportunity to see nearby friends.) The weather is warm, the day was sunny, the snowman-building was fun to watch, and the play was quite funny.

Going to have to go on a detox diet tomorrow and Tuesday. Fast food for breakfast and supper yesterday. Hotel continental breakfast today. Fast food later today for lunch. I do love those Junior Whoppers! But too many of those meals in a row will get to me. I did bring an iron skillet and picnic supplies so that we could eat oranges, fry eggs and real ham, and toast homemade bread for a big dinner in the dorm lounge on Saturday afternoon. Sure smelled good in there!

For Paul's first time on the stage, I was impressed. He was part of the chorus and had no lines of his own. But you could see that he was comfortable there, and he had a really good stage presence.

Time to go pack up the hotel room and get to church....

Today's Laugh

What do you call a black man who flies an airplane?
I dunno. What?
Duh -- a pilot, you racist!



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One penguin said to the other penguin, "It almost looks like you're wearing a tuxedo."
The second penguin responded, "How do you know I'm not?"



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If at first you don't succeed,
look in the trash for the instructions.