Tag Archives: United States

Weird Sunday in April

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I woke up today, looked out the window, and was astonished to see the ground covered in snow. Brrrr, it is cold! And it’s the end of April! Such is the weather in the Midwest. I recall a severe blizzard many years ago that occurred in April, but I think that happened earlier in the month.

Tristan and I went to church today. He gave me a really neat thing he had made a few Sundays before in his class: a model of the house on the rock. He was able to explain the meaning of this to me, also, from Matthew 7:24. Today we heard the pastor talk about the Pharisees and how they basically said to Jesus, after he had cleared out the temple, “How dare you? By whose authority have you done this?” (See Matthew 21:23-45.) How much like the Pharisees we are. We in this country (the U.S.) in particular are very individualistic. We tend to glorify self. I’m in charge of my life, my body, my possessions. How dare anyone tell me what to do?! That’s how we tend to think and act. Yet if you read this passage, Jesus clearly says, “No, you are not in authority. I’m in control. I am the One who made you. Listen to Me.” The Pharisees are unable to let go of their self-importance, their foolish pride, their arrogance. That is like us. Sadly, this attitude of religious self importance is particularly evident in Christendom, and clearly, God abhors it.

Fiji cyclone experience

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One of the highlights of my travel experiences was a trip to Fiji on the way back from New Zealand several years ago. My friend, Kevin, and I stayed in a small hut near the beach on the Coral Coast of Viti Levu, the largest island in the Fijian island group. The place we stayed at was Tambua Sands Resort. It was a beautiful spot. We enjoyed snorkelling in the reef, visiting with local people, and travelling around the island. Our idyllic trip was rudely interrupted, however, by the approach of a major cyclone, what we in the U.S. would call a hurricane. To make matters worse, Fiji’s only working radar system conked out and we were not really sure when the island would be hit. I was pretty scared, I can tell you! It all ended ok for us in that we got on the last flight out of Nadi before the cyclone hit. Below is an article about the devastation caused by the cyclone shortly after we left. I was recently going through some old files and ran across this clipping. Reading it reminds me of how serious our situation was. The takeoff of our flight was real interesting…we were in an Air New Zealand 747, heading out into a cyclone, with no radar telling the pilot where he should go. So he just flew around in low circles for about an hour until he could find a break in the clouds. I have seldom been so nervous.

Article on Cyclone Kina

Niece engaged

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Last week we heard the good news that my niece, Britta, got engaged. Her fiancé’s name is Roger, and he comes from England. They plan to get married next May (2005) and afterward, they will settle down here in the U.S., at least for a few years. Britta is my oldest niece and the first of my many nieces and nephews to get engaged, so this is quite exciting!

The Election

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I am generally relieved with the results of the recent U.S. election. Conservative and evangelical Christian perspectives were resoundingly heard. The results have caused a violent revulsion among liberals. That isn’t a good thing, necessarily. I don’t agree with a lot of President Bush’s agenda (especially on issues like the environment and other things) and I particularly hope that he will maneuver carefully and diplomatically in the post-election landscape. I am still of the opinion that the future of this country is very cloudy and unlike some in the evangelical Christian community, I do not view this country as Christian at all and I do not place any hope or certainty in the Bush government — or any government — for the long term.

Search for a church home

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One of the things that has been very challenging for Michele and me is finding a new church home, a place where we feel connected and part of a community. We tried a local church for much of the past two and a half years and it simply wasn’t working. Although many people there showed kindness to us, which we really appreciated, we never felt integrated or part of the place. Instead, we tended to feel like outsiders. We also did not feel “connected” during worship time, mainly because we were too distracted by the music (well, not so much the music itself, but the way in which it was played and/or sung). Instead of helping us focus attention on God, worship time tended to invoke frustration. We have tried many other churches in the area with little sense of success (if that’s the right word to use). As a result, we have not been very motivated to make the effort to go out on Sunday morning to attend church. Compounding the problem has been the natural course of events that tends to prevent us from getting out: one or more children are sick, one of us is sick, we had little sleep the night before, or we are away from home visiting one side of the family or the other. Then, too, we are not a typical family. When we look for or try to fit in with a church community, it seems that we don’t fit with the newly married set, we don’t fit with the very young children set, etc. etc. We have a 12 year old plus three children, ages three and under.

This is a serious problem and we have felt quite isolated for a long time. More recently we have been greatly encouraged by attending a church in a nearby city that’s about a half hour away. Unlike other places we’ve been, we don’t feel out of place there. The worship time is well done and truly points us Godward. The content of the sermons is thought-provoking and timely. Doctrinally, we are in agreement with the church’s positions. We have only been there about four times, but each time I go, I come away with several impressions of scripture and a sense of being spiritually refreshed. We struggle a bit with the kids in the sense of getting them used to going on their own to designated rooms. Brinley usually cries a lot and Tristan sometimes just refuses to join his class. Yesterday, though, everything worked out well. Even Cohen behaved! He slept through most of the service. Talk about an answer to many fervent prayers from Michele and me! Now we just hope (and pray) for personal connections and the ability to make friends with others there.

The sermon yesterday was on Daniel chapter 3 and the main focus was on integrity. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are some of the strongest examples of integrity in the face of great, life-threatening danger that are to be found anywhere in the Bible. Are we ready to truly stand for what we believe? It made me think. We live in a highly pluralistic society where there is very real and increasing hostility to the Christian faith, even in a supposedly “Christian” (I use the quotes on purpose) country like the USA. Those who put Christ first are viewed as intolerant, bigoted, even sometimes racist. I would like to say that I am unaffected by this climate, but I’m not. It is a source of great concern to me, particularly in my interactions professionally as a librarian. The issue of open hostility to Christianity is even more obvious in this election year. I don’t know if George Bush truly is a Christ-follower–only God knows for sure–but he professes to be one. If he is, I am very thankful for that, even if there are many elements of his administration and policies with which I am in disagreement. My point is that his openness about his faith is a huge source of suspicion, fear, and downright hatred in today’s world. I think this is a “sign of the times” and that this atmosphere will only get worse. I am not big on Biblical prophecy but it seems pretty clear to me that what I see happening around me is what is predicted in scripture. I think of part of Romans 1:21-32 that says “For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened…since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.”

The Sun Is Shining on the Other Side

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Another book I’ve been reading lately (actually, this is the second time I’ve read it) is The Sun Is Shining on the Other Side by Margaret Jensen. I think my brother gave it to me originally. It is a series of stories and memories by the author of her childhood, growing up as the eldest child of Norwegian immigrants to the United States. The faith of her parents, especially her mother, is incredible, and it shines through every page. This is one of the most encouraging and wholesome (in the best sense of the word) books I have ever read.

Gorgeous day

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Today is a gorgeous day, a little on the hot side for my liking, but still, gorgeous. I had to run down to Muncie for a doctor appointment and also was able to get a haircut, at last. I feel like a new man ;-)

Last night I had a good talk with my brother. One of the things we commiserated over was the incredibly ugly stuff that’s been happening in Iraq with regard to the abuse of prisoners by U.S. troops. So many people in evangelical Christendom have this twisted belief, and it’s especially strong in the South where my brother lives, that the U.S. is some kind of promised land, morally righteous, a Christian nation. Nothing could be further from the truth. This country is morally bankrupt and nothing could have demonstrated that more blatantly than the inexcusable actions in that prison in Baghdad. This is the direct result of the extremely self-focused, there-is-no-truth society that is our country. We as a society have decided that everything is relative, what’s right for you is fine but may not be right for me. The sick thing is, and this is not an exaggeration, the Church is no different than the world in this regard. You look at Christians today and there is hardly any perceptible difference in the way they live their lives than those who reject God. It makes me sick, especially as I see this holds true too often for myself. It’s no wonder that many adherents of Islam despise the West in general and the U.S. in particular. I am totally against their doctrine and theology but at least they have a measure of piety and faithfulness to their beliefs.

There is no hope in military might, in ANY man-made government, in “good feelings,” and especially in the greatest disease of our time, the word “tolerance,” which sounds great but really means there is no right and wrong and that we have no right to discern the difference. What we see around us in the U.S., supposedly the “light of the world,” at least in many people’s eyes, is the best that we as humankind can achieve. Obviously, it’s a failure. The answer to our failure lies only in Jesus Christ. I can’t wait for the day when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. That will happen, it’s a promise.

The Royal Mile

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Last night after we got home from a shopping trip to Kokomo, we turned on the TV and there was a program on PBS called “Great Streets.” Its focus was on The Royal Mile in Edinburgh, Scotland. Emmylou Harris took viewers on a tour of this famous area in one of the most beautiful cities in the world (my opinion). The program was very well done and I was thrilled to watch it as it brought back memories of my two visits to Edinburgh, once in 1989, and again in 2001. One of the highlights was the National Library of Scotland. Michele and Keegan were sick of hearing me exclaim “Look, I was there at that shop or such and such a place…” I’d dearly love to take them all with me on a trip back to Scotland, a place that has special meaning for me. My grandfather emigrated from Scotland to the U.S. in the ’20s after serving as a cook on fishing boats in the North Sea. I’d love to show my children the home in Macduff where my grandfather, Stanley McCallum, was born and raised. There is a wild, harsh beauty to Scotland, especially in the area called the Moray Firth, where my grandfather came from.

Tax Day in the USA

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Uh, it’s Tax Day in the USA…Good thing we got our tax return done early. Our big news is that we are expecting child number 3 later this year. We won’t know whether it’s a boy or a girl since our doctor, by policy, does not reveal the sex of the child. Michele’s had a fair amount of morning sickness, unlike previous pregnancies. Maybe it’s a girl!