(Our little “pop princess” posing for the camera this afternoon!)

We’re really excited about tonight. In the nearly eight years we’ve lived in Ocean Springs, we haven’t lived in a neighborhood conducive to trick-or-treating, but tonight, we’re in a GREAT spot for it.

Hillary’s friend, Shae, is coming over to work the neighborhood with her, and I suspect I’ll be distributing candy for the biggest part of the night. Funny, but Halloween turns out to be the only holiday remaining that encourages neighbors to interact.

For some reason, I decided to do a little research into the origins of Halloween since so many folks attribute a satanic impetus to it. I was a bit surprised by what I read (you can read what I read here). Turns out that Halloween isn’t so different from Christmas or Easter in that what began as a pagan religious celebration was co-opted by Christianity along the way, only now to have become more of an American capitalist venture.

I hope you all enjoy your neighbors tonight and that lots of kids have lots of fun, and as the old Celtic proverb says, “May no toilet paper stream from your trees come morn…”

(from last year’s Spring Sing ad at Harding University)

I felt old today, and the words “prostate exam” never even came up. Instead, I simply checked the mail at work and noticed a postcard advertising this year’s Youth in Action lineup in Birmingham, Alabama.

In Church of Christ world, Youth in Action is a mega-youth rally between Christmas and New Year’s in which thousands of teens and youth workers converge to listen to great speakers, attend fun class sessions, listen to loud concerts, and flirt. Oh, and grow spiritually, too.

Anyway, I took a mess of teenagers to Birmingham for a couple of years until we hired a full-time youth minister to organize such fun. It really is a great time, and our kids in Ocean Springs are planning to attend once again this year.

But none of this involves my feeling old (so much). Instead, on the postcard, after noticing some Christian band named Skillet that’s scheduled to perform, I noticed that two names were listed as keynote speakers this year. The first was Buddy Bell, a legendary speaker in CofC circles. The second was Jason Ashlock (pictured above).

I taught Jason’s 7th grade geography class. Hence, feeling old.

Actually, I taught Jason’s 7th grade geography class, 8th grade American History class, and 9th grade Civics class, and he also served as my stat-guy for my basketball teams (complete with impressive, colorful stat charts that he created himself). Jason was a great student and a great person, so in spite of my feeling old, I felt very proud to see where he’s at today.

When Jason was in college at Harding University, I learned that he was a part of a drama group that called itself Theatron. I had the chance to see him perform on a few occasions, and he astounded me with his talent. I now see that college was just the beginning.

The profile at Youth in Action’s website says that Jason is now a PhD student at Fordham University along with working as a literary agent in New York City. Pretty cool from where I sit.

I don’t know that I taught Jason much of anything outside of a few basketball statistical lessons when he made his way through junior high, but it makes me feel a little bit of pride to have been a small part of his impressive life anyway.

(picture via the web)

I openly admit that I’m not very good at the formal act of prayer.

Well, I’ll admit skill in the public version, but in the day-to-day private version of prayer, I’m not so adept. I won’t bore you with a lengthy discussion on the particulars: I’ll just say it and confess that it bothers me somewhat.

Some time back, I developed the habit of praying the concepts of the Model Prayer (of Jesus) every morning as a focusing prayer. This has been helpful. I’ve developed the habit, and for that I am glad. This morning, however, my sermon text was the Model Prayer from Matthew 6, and in my preparations I discovered how much of it I had missed.

I now believe that the prayer Jesus volunteered as instruction for his followers on how to pray is a prayer for revolution. As Bible scholar, Warren Carter, said, “To pray this prayer is to seek nothing less than total transformation of life on earth.”

That’s pretty serious stuff, huh?

The Thesis Statement: “Hallowed be your name.”

I’ve been praying this by declaring that God’s name is holy and far above me, etc. Just a little lesson in humiliation. Instead, I’ve now learned that the prayer’s theme is that God’s name become glorified in all the earth. This is a prayer of vision, not of evaluation.

The companion statements that “God’s kingdom come” and that his will be done on earth as in Heaven make this thesis stronger: followers of Jesus learn to pray for the world to be transformed so that the wrongs of the world are made right, and that God’s way of peace and joy, of hope and love becomes a reality.

The prayer then turns its attention to us.
* As we envision God’s will on earth, we pray for what we need every day. May we have the resources (i.e. daily bread) we need to accomplish God’s will through our lives.
* And we pray for mercy. May our sins not stand in the way of God’s will coming true in the world around us. We, as God-followers, are already about the business of mercy by the very nature of it all. We pray that our own shortcomings don’t stand in the way.
* And we pray that God won’t “bring us to the time of trial.” Not that we won’t be tested. Instead, we pray that God won’t let us get to the point where the powers of this world can have their way with us. It is a prayer that despair won’t win.

In Matthew 6, Jesus had to confront the contemporary views of God that stood in the way of kingdom life. The Jewish leaders had become so familiar with God that their synagogue prayers had become pure production. The Greco-Roman view of an aloof God had led them to jabber heavenward in hopes that he might look their way every once in a while. Jesus, on the other hand, taught that God was a father with a world revolution on his mind, and that those interested in God’s Empire would pray with that focusing thought in mind.

Today, I believe our world is more familiar with a tame grandfatherly-type God, a God who smiles and gives us a quarter when we come over to visit.

What I proposed this morning is that God wears a beret with subversive revolution on his mind. Not with guns and grenades, mind you, but with the subversive, transforming weapon of enduring love.

And I have a new thought to pray now.

My wife and I had a wedding to attend today, so we dressed up in our very best…

No, seriously, and in case you can’t tell, we were supposed to be a dead bride and groom as we dressed up for our young adult costume party. We had a really great time at the Chevalier’s house tonight. Leah and Skeeter put on a wonderful party, and we had a good group show up to just laugh and have fun together. Great food, great games, great costumes, and great fun…

This, by the way, is my very most favorite day of the year. 25 hours instead of 24!!!

#5 in the picture, D’Andre Brown, has the talent to be playing on Sundays in the future. He has the Terrell Owens / Randy Moss type of body, and I’m sure lots of college recruiters are taking notice of the talented high school junior. He didn’t do much in the game tonight, however, but the Ocean Springs Greyhounds took down the Gulfport Admirals 7-0 anyway. An interception returned to the Gulfport ten-yard-line then punched in by the offense was the only score in the game, but it turned out to be enough.

It wasn’t an easy choice to go the Ocean Springs Homecoming game with Game 5 of the World Series on tonight. It’s been 24 years since my favorite baseball team has won the World Series, so the cliché that things like this don’t happen every day is apt, but I made the choice to go anyway. This is the only regular season Greyhound game I will make this year, and my little girl wanted to go, too. So we went and had a great time together.

XM Radio allowed me to listen to the bottom of the 7th on the way home, and I made it home to see the end of that inning and watch Rolen knock in Eckstein to put the Cards up 4-2. As I type, we’re headed to the ninth inning with a chance to win it all. Unbelievable.

Well, gotta go. Wainwright is on the mound…

One thing I can say about folks down here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast: we sure know how to throw a good parade.

I picked up my normal carload of kids for Kids Club this afternoon, and on the way to the church building they mentioned that there was a homecoming parade downtown this afternoon. Well, I’m always on the lookout for unique picture-taking opportunities, and a homecoming parade sounded like a winner to me.

I parked by the Ocean Springs Community Center and found myself a convenient spot close to the beginning of the parade route, expecting a tiny high school parade. I leaned against the fence in front of the Walter Anderson Museum and waited for the show to begin.

I’m telling you, it was really, really good. There were police cars and fire trucks, marching bands and motorcycles, decorated floats and convertibles with pretty girls, and even the unique idea of using big boats as floats themselves. And of course, there could not be a parade in Mardi Gras country without lots and lots of candy and beads.

It was an impressive parade for a homecoming game, and tomorrow night the 7-2 Ocean Springs Greyhounds will take on the Gulfport Admirals in the reason for all the hubbub.

I just might have to go and watch…

My status as one who is “getting older” became official with this solitary statement: I went to the doctor today.

Nothing wrong with going to the doctor. I’ve been to the doctor at certain times in my life, mostly from breaking some part of my body playing basketball. I even went to the doctor ten years ago for something or another. There’s nothing wrong with that at all.

But today, I went to the doctor just to go, and in my feeble little mind, I felt as if this was my crossing over into the land of the aged. The very fact that the words “prostate exam” came up without a joke attached got my attention. And to double the fun, my new doctor followed up by using the phrase “when you turn fifty.”

Sigh…

For all the readers well past fifty, I mean no disrespect. It’s just that I thought I was eternally twelve years old until today. Alas, I am not. I am (here’s the phrase) “getting older.”

The doctor’s visit came as a result of a couple of important developments in my life: (1) we are now of the six or seven people in this country with affordable health insurance, and (2) my wife has decided that there should be no more chance of any little Al’s and Jody’s running around in this world, and since she remembers my promising to be the one to do the little procedure when she was in labor nine years ago (she never forgets a thing!)…well, let’s just say the “we don’t have health insurance” card was good while it lasted.

But in my mind, it was more than those two important pieces of information. I knew it would be good for me to go visit a doctor. Since I am, you know, getting older.

So I did, and overall it was good. The doctor was professional, thorough, and actually listened to me. I know his nurse, as well as a nurse practitioner in the clinic (they’re sisters), and it was good to see and get hugs from them. I now have a prescription for something to try for my occasional (and now I’m told, probably migraine) headaches. And I even have a nice little note that can get me in to see a surgeon who will do that little procedure I truly dread!

Well, I’d better get some sleep. I have a big day tomorrow with a little bingo, a few crossword puzzles, and an AARP mixer.

(A plane flies over the Texas and DFW flags at Founders Plaza this morning a few hours before my plane departed for home.)

I had an absolute great time yesterday and today, and I have my wife to thank for the trip. I flew out of Gulfport yesterday morning, landing in Dallas around 12:30pm. My friend, David (the best man at my wedding!), picked me up at the airport without any problems. We went to eat at Chipotle’s, where I enjoyed an awesome burrito and lemonade lunch. Afterwards, we went to see my sister, Jacki, and had a delightful time visiting with her. Jacki is one of my life heroes, a neat thing to be able to say about your sister. From there, we fought the Dallas traffic to attend last night’s Monday Night Football game at Texas Stadium. And, as I said late last night (actually, early this morning), in spite of the horrible performance by the Dallas Cowboys, I had an unforgettable experience.

(Check out my Webshots page link for a bunch of pictures from last night.)

David and I stayed up until 3am talking and looking at our pictures (I enjoy taking pictures: David, in addition to being a dentist, is a photographer.) Staying up until 3am wasn’t so bad considering we slept in until about 10am.

After checking out of the hotel late this morning, we made a stop at Founder’s Plaza at DFW to watch some planes take off and try our hand at a few more pictures. David likes planes in particular, so he especially enjoyed the opportunity afforded by this unique tourist spot.

When I made it to the airport, I had to go through the specially tight security system in this post-911 world. You will all sleep better tonight: the security folks impounded my toothpaste.

I’m being serious.

Now most folks would say that the world is a safer place when I “have” toothpaste, but for whatever reasons, my Aquafresh was “too big” (I was told), so they threw it away for me.

I got to thinking later: you could actually lob hand grenades at planes from Founder’s Plaza. But I can’t take toothpaste on a plane in a carry-on bag.

I’ll sleep well tonight, knowing how safe we all are…

(My picture tonight of the spotlight on T.O. in pregame warmups.)

Well, the Cowboys were whipped tonight, but I was there, so I don’t care. I had a great time watching Monday Night Football in person with my great friend, David Watson. I have my wife to thank for the tickets (my Father’s Day present and others wrapped into one!). It has been a great day.

But it’s really late now. So I’ve got to get some sleep!

I preached on giving this morning, which is generally a foolproof way to make sure our church’s contribution is significantly lower than normal. I don’t know the tally from today, and to tell you the truth, I’d rather not!

Even though my text today was from Matthew 6, I brought up the story of the Rich Young Ruler from Matthew 19 as a case study in answering the question, “How do rich Christians learn mercy?” In Jesus’ little one-on-one class with the impressive young man, he seemed to have given him a three-step project:
#1: Free up your money (sell your possessions)
#2: Transfer the money to someone who needs it (give to the poor)
#3: Then become a student of Jesus (come follow me)

The man, of course, chose to be known as a “rich man” instead of exchanging his identity for that of being “a follower of Jesus.” This didn’t please him (i.e. he went away sad), but money had too great a hold on his heart. He remained a “rich man,” and Jesus went on to say it was hard for a “rich man” to become a citizen of God’s Empire.

That story has always haunted me, and it doesn’t seem to be going away.

It haunted me as a teenager because quite honestly I had a rather simplistic, naive approach to Scripture. It wasn’t because my family was rich (compared to our environment); instead, I came from a group of people who said things like, “The Bible says it – let’s do it!” and I could not for the life of me understand why Jesus’ instruction to the rich young man did not apply to us. I mean, people tried to explain it to me, plus I was positive the religious world didn’t believe in doing what Jesus told the man (a simple look around made that obvious), but it still didn’t make sense to me. Here’s a man wanting to be complete (i.e. perfect), and Jesus told him how to pull it off. Why would this not apply to us? In fact, it applied perfectly to Jesus himself and his followers, but I was supposed to believe that it somehow didn’t apply to us? I thought we were interested in taking Jesus seriously!?!

It still bothers me, but for different reasons.

First of all, I don’t see the Bible in such terms anymore. That collection of writings is WAY more complicated than I ever imagined it to be. Simply saying “The Bible says it – let’s do it!” – though admirable on many fronts – sounds good, but is just too simplistic. It isn’t that easy.

But second, though I no longer believe that the Bible is simply a black/white list of do’s & don’ts (and examples) for us today, the more I read this particular story the more I’m convinced that it has a hard message for our religious world.

And that message is this: If our stuff matters more to us than hurting people, we can’t be considered on the same side of God, no matter how much we seem to have it all together.

I find that more haunting than any Halloween movie.