“For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth.”
A.W. Tozer

This quote got me to thinking about my life as a teenager, oh so many centuries ago, and they lives of my teenage sons and their friends. As kids we often don’t see the hand of God in provisions we receive. As Tribble said once in a group discussion, “we don’t see it as coming from God because it comes to us from our parents” and my thought was, we as parents don’t give the credit to God but to our paycheck or our thoughtfulness or whatever.

Therefore could this be a reason why so many kids raised in Chrisitian homes stray for awhile before returning to lean on Gods’ arms. We seem to have to experience Gods’ love and care for us on our own before we truly trust him. I was in the Navy twelve days after I graduated High School and overseas and faced with temptations, that I had never experienced before, within a year of graduation. I had never personally leaned on Gods’ arms before then and as I like to say I went beyond left field into left universe in some of the things I did. Until I realized the only place I truly found peace was in God I was miserable.

Why is it that we can’t communicate that lesson to others verbally? Why do we have to stumble and occassionally have to crash and burn before we realize that the truths that we have heard?

In the Name of Jesus, reflections on Christian Leadership by Henri J.M. Nouwen; 1989; Crossroad Publishing, New York; 107 pages; 262.1 N934i; 9/25-9/28

This is a quick easy to read book of how to be a real Christian leader. Nouwen was a priest and a professor at Harvard and then changed jobs and found what it really meant to be a leader. He went from that to being a part of a community called Daybreak, a community of mentally challenged people and their assistants. Here is where he found what it really means to be a Christian leader. This is an easy and very compelling book, not full of theories and such just his experiences. I have actually read it twice since Sunday and plan on reading it at least one a week until I have completely absorbed everything in it. If you want to what it means to be a Christian read this. RRRR

I envy Kelly she always has such great titles for post. Maybe I should ask her for a list of titles and use them as they fit.

I have come to figure out the reason for a recent malaise that I have been dealing with. The lack of solitude. We moved from a five bedroom house about a year and a half ago. There I had an office, and even though it was in the garage it was a place that I could go to be alone occassionally. We now live in a three bedroom apartment. Dan has his own room, Dave has his own room, Ruth Ann is home sometimes when no one else is. I have a desk in a corner. I don’t have anywhere where I can go to be alone, even in the bathroom. People knock and want something. I guess that is why I so enjoyed my vacation on the mountaintop back in July. I would like to go there again in the next month or so.

Today, my head was attacked from the inside. It felt like there was a army of scultpors inside my skull trying to carve the top of my brain and skull off. I could hear the dust falling through the air, Ruth Ann’s scissors were abnormally loud. Luckily David has constructed his bed into a cave. I was able to go in there and crash for a few hours.

The Lions of Lucerne by Brad Thor; 2002; Pocket Books, New York; 419 pages; Fiction Thor; 9/21-9/25

The Secret Service loses the President, 30 agents killed, only 1 survives and no one believes his suspicions. The action moves across two continents. Agent Scot Harvath follows clues to find the President, betrayed at every turn, shot at by all kind of people, with multiple clues leading him in different directions. A great mountain climbing sequence figures in the exciting climax. A throwaway paragraph about a terrorist attack on an amusement park could be expanded into another great story. RRR

On Deck; In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen and Saboteurs by Michael Dobbs

To those who commented on WW2,

Thanks for such thoughtful comments. I guess that I need to define what I mean by church. I mean members of the body of Christ getting together to worship and learn from the Word of God. It sounds like we all do this to some extent. Whether we do it in a “church” or at home or at a coffee shop or restaurant is irrelevant. It is where each of us is most taught by God and able to help others. The best church that I have had in the past year was a lunch I had with my friends Steve and Robert. We laughed and discussed much. It was the most uplifting time in a long time.

I want to stay at my institutional (for want of a better word) to help the high schoolers be able to maintain their faith. This does not mean that they have to stay with the building, but I want them to understand why they believe and be more able to resist the society that may try to convince them there is no God and that if they have a strong foundation they will be better able to withstand the forces that will whisper in their ears “Mommy and Daddy aren’t here any more, do whatever you want, there wont be any consequences or no one will ever know. ” I want them to be able to say I believe that is wrong and here is why I believe that.

When I left home from a Conservative Baptist Background, I knew what I believed but not why. It made it easy to fall into behavior that I knew, deep in my heart, was wrong. I don’t want the young people I know to have to wait til they are older to find these things all out through trial and error.

I want them to question what they are told. This is not wrong. Paul told the Bereans to check the scripture and see if what he said was correct. We should not follow any person here on earth blindly, but check the instruction manual we were given.

End of soapbox. For today anyway. Thanks for helping me think these things through.