Sabbath-keeping is one of those things that I’ve always thought wistfully about. It sounds so good, so ideal, so beautiful, so impossible with four young boys and a young church. Here’s a couple gems from Ruth (and others that she quotes):

“If we do not allow for a rhythm of rest in our overly busy lives, illness becomes our Sabbath – our pneumonia, our cancer, our heart attack, our accidents create Sabbath for us.” – Wayne Muller

“I think Jewish folks had it right: the only way to even begin the first halting steps toward a true sabbath practice is to let yourself fall in love with this way so that you long for it as you would a lover. But to fall in love with it you have to try it.” – Ruth Haley Barton

“What is to replace all that we are excluding from our sabbath time? The simple answer is whatever delights you and replenishes you.” – Ruth Haley Barton

“The invitation of sabbath time is to replace the time you would normally spend working with activitites that you find restorative: a nap, a walk, a bike ride, a long bubble bath, eating your favorite foods (no dieting on the sabbath), sitting in the sun, lighting candles, listening to beautiful music, lovemaking. In Jewish tradition, [Lauren] Winner points out, married couples get rabbinical brownie points for having sex on the sabbath. You’ve gotta love a religion like that!” – Ruth Haley Barton

“…sabbath keeping is not primarily a private, self-indulgent discipline. It is and always has been a comunal discipline, or at least a discipline that people enter into with those closest to them.” – Ruth Haley Barton

As I was reflecting on some of this, I thought of my own Sunday practices. Generally, after pouring myself out at church on Sunday morning, I treat the rest of the day as Sabbath. I don’t work in the garden, or on whatever house project I have. I don’t blog. I don’t read blogs. I don’t look at Facebook. I read the paper, do the crossword puzzle, nap, read books (usually fiction). Sometimes I cook and play games with the kids. I try to leave my phone on my dresser, I rarely turn on the television until later in the evening, after the kids are in bed – unless I’m watching a movie with them (in which case I’m prone to falling asleep – sometimes on them). When I get to do (or not do) all that on a Sunday, I feel balanced, good, right. When I fill a Sunday with more activity, I enter the work week on Monday feeling behind the eight ball.

I’m far from the Jewish idea of Sabbath-keeping… but I’m taking baby steps.

I’m curious… does anyone in the Christian tradition even make an attempt at Sabbath anymore? Or have we written it off as too hard, too inconvenient, too out-of-step with modern life? What does it look like today, in your context?

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There was a time in my ministerial career where I was overwhelmed by books, conferences, and discussions about organization health, leadership, etc. And so, in the past 4-5 years, I’ve been in a sort of “detox” from all that stuff and haven’t read anything in the “new-business-buzzword/biography/idea” genre. But, recently one of my favorite authors in that genre – Patrick Lencioni – released a new book and, at the same time, I’ve observed a slight re-interest in myself. So, I read his newest book: The Advantage: why organization health trumps everything else in business. I’ll say two things about it. First, this felt like a “greatest hits” of all of Lencioni’s best stuff. If you’ve read his other books, you’ll recognize your favorite ideas here. Therefore, it’s more comprehensive than some of his other books – and doesn’t use the fable motif that he’s used in the past. Secondly, I’m not sure  how some of this translates to the church (particularly a smallish one like mine), which is always the challenge for a pastor reading a business book. Frankly, I think some pastors should be more discriminating, and say, “this just doesn’t fit,” and walk away. But, there are other times where we church leaders have a lot to learn from Lencioni.

My “must read” recommendation: ★ ★ ★ (out of 5)

I liked what this business consultant had to say about the book, and I thought the blog “Workplace Psychology” handled it well also.

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We were driving home from church Sunday – Jennifer was driving, I was reading a book on my iPhone and the boys were just talking. I don’t know how they got on this topic, but my oldest was explaining to the two younger boys that if you follow Jesus, you’ll be with him forever, and one of them asked, “what happens if we don’t follow Jesus?”

So the oldest says to us, “should I tell them?”

I was curious about what he would say, so I said “sure, go ahead,” thinking to myself that this might be interesting.

So he says to the younger ones…”if you don’t follow Jesus you’ll go to hell. And in hell, none of your friends are there, and you have to wait a loooong time.”

They were duly scared of that prospect.

I don’t know why, but the whole conversation a) made me laugh and b) made me love our family – specifically the dynamics of older brothers teaching their little brothers- very cool and c) I’m going to need to introduce these boys to NT Wright someday…

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I read an Amazon review of the book titled “The Elephant in the Room,” which is an apt description of this book. There are so many good things to say about evangelicalism, and yet, I told a friend recently, it feels to me sometimes there is almost a nuclear arms race of ideas sometimes, where it feels like some just keep “upping the ante” on doctrines and opinions, to the point that sometimes people seem to be promoting/defending things that they never set out to promote or defend. This book exhaustively shows how evangelicals have a glaring problem with the way they speak of Scripture. Despite the fact that they believe that Scripture is perspicuous (able to be understood plainly), they all believe different things – about even the most important things. So, there are dozens of atonement theories, positions on women in leadership, understandings of free will, etc. When I say that Christian Smith is exhaustive in his critique, I’m not kidding. In fact, I got to where I was skimming a little bit, chomping at the bit to get to a “solution.” And I wasn’t disappointed. I really liked the last couple of chapters because rather than deny the authority and central role if the Bible in Christian Spirituality (as many have done), he embraces it, albeit in a different way than most typical, American evangelicals. If you think deeply about faith, theology and particularly the Bible, you’ll really want to read this book – and better yet, discuss it with a few people.

My “must read” recommendation: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ (out of 5)

What others have said: Rachel Held Evans did a whole series of posts on this book, and there are, of course, hundreds of comments to her posts that you can interact with.  It seems like the rest of the “reviews” out there are hundreds of words.. that I just don’t have the time to read through…  And, from the sampling I read, it seems that those in the cross hairs are crying “straw man.”

But, I know some of you have read it. I’m interested in what you think.

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Jeff – Abraham didn’t use utensils so I’m eating my croissant with my hands.
John – “Umm… I disagree. Abraham clearly used utensils.”

At this point Charlie tried unsuccessfully to articulate a nuanced position to accommodate both viewpoints. He was rejected by both sides for being “wishy washy.”

(group disbanded over this issue, currently considering separate church plants)

(yes, this is satire. and while I find it funny & poignant, I realize than many of you are just scratching your heads!)

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We got home from church yesterday around 4:00 after being guests for a delicious lunch (we usually eat leftovers and popcorn on Sundays). I picked up two movies on the way home, one for me (In Time) and one to watch with my two oldest boys – Real Steal. Here’s the quick summary from IMDb:

Set in the near future, where robot boxing is a top sport, a struggling promoter feels he’s found a champion in a discarded robot. During his hopeful rise to the top, he discovers he has an 11-year-old son who wants to know his father.

So, in one of the final scenes, the discarded robot – Atom – is fighting the reigning champion robot Zeus. Atom is so beat up that his voice recognition software gets damaged, and he can’t be controlled. The only way that he can be directed in the final round is by his shadow function, where he simply imitates the movements of a human.

So, the father Charlie (Hugh Jackman), begins to shadowbox outside the ring, thereby directing the robot Atom…and I got all teary-eyed. (yes, this is slightly embarrassing…)

Here’s the pertinent backstory: once, when he was young and full of idealism & optimism, Charlie had been a boxer, and had almost won a major fight against an opponent who went on to become famous. And now, after getting beat up by life, failing as a boxer, father, human being, etc. – here he was outside the ring shadowboxing for all the world to see – and there was such joy on his face as he did the thing that he truly loves.

I think it choked me up because first, I’m pretty spent on Sundays, and my emotions are pretty raw.

But, here’s the more specific thing: I get excited when I see someone doing the thing that they were created to do. And I know that it was just a movie – and a ridiculous one at that – but there’s this moment where Charlie is doing the things that he was made to do – box – and they cut to his son and his eyes are watering, and the love interest (Evangeline Lilly) and she’s crying, and I’m laying on the couch tearing up – because it’s really beautiful to me when you find yourself doing the exact thing that your were created to do…

• …when a gifted writer writes something so beautiful, and true…
• …when a musician somehow transcends the technicality of the music and lives in the moment…
• …when a mother loses herself in reading bedtime stories to her child…
• …when an engineer finds the perfect solution to that problem that has stumped him for weeks…
• …when a chef get it’s just right…

alright… I need to go do something manly…  haha!

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Jesus, please start over with us again.

Again I’ve screwed up.

Again, I’ve managed to fill my “deadly sin” punch card – this time, sequentially…before lunch.

Again, I’ve been a less than stellar husband, father & friend.

Again, I’ve chosen to worship at the altar of me.

Again, I’ve managed to hurt the people that I love the most with my words.

Again, I’ve wasted precious time on stupid, temporary things.

Again, I’ve eaten more than I should, while at the same time I’ve ignored those who don’t have enough.

Again, I’ve gotten drunk on my own self righteousness and silently judged others.

Sigh.

Jesus, thank you for starting over with me again.

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Here’s the embarrassing truth: except for some brief periods of intense fad dieting, I’ve pretty much continued eating over the course of my adult life the same way I ate in college. I never thought about looking at calories or fat, rarely paid attention to serving sizes, and dramatically underestimated my volume of between meal snacking.

So, in October, when I decided to stop messing around with temporary fad dieting, and get serious, I made some significant changes. I read somewhere that behind all the gimmicky diets there are two rock-solid principles:

1. exercise - but you don’t have to start a crazy 4-hour routine. Even just to walk 1-hour a day is good. Something is always better than nothing!
2. people who lose weight pay attention to what they’re putting in their mouth. hmmmm. I’ve never really done that.

So, I signed up for WeightWatchers for men (I did it before Charles Barkley!)- and I fell in love with the iPhone app. In one place – on my phone – I recorded my exercise and it forced me to pay attention to food. And – here’s what’s important – I got crazy about it. I bought a kitchen scale – weighed everything I ate, recorded every morsel of food that went into my mouth for about 4 months. But, I was learning about portions, and learning to spot colories. And, in the process, I learned that most of the time when I was eating before, I wasn’t really hungry! There were only a few times on WeighWatchers that I ever really even felt hungry. Also, Jennifer tells me that she thinks it worked for me because it became a game. But, for the first time in my life, I learned to pay attention to what I’m eating.

I’m not using WeightWatchers anymore – but only because I didn’t want to spend the money. These days I’m using MyFitnessPal. It took some time to figure out, but it’s free – and I’ve actually come to like it better – if you’re interested ask me about it and I’ll tell you my thoughts.

So here it is – I’m learning to eat like a 38-year should. Of course, I blow it somedays. But mostly, I’m growing up. Smaller portions, better choices. It’s kind of embarrassing that it took me so long to figure it out, but better late than never.

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I’ll start by saying I like Brian McLaren. I don’t always agree with everything he says, but I appreciate his humility, his insight, the questions he raises, and even his orneriness! Having said that, this short work of theological fiction just didn’t connect for me. First, I’m not sure that fiction is Brian’s forte. Maybe there are different standards for “theological fiction,” but as a fan of good fiction – I just couldn’t get past the weak narrative, shallow characters, etc. especially when some characters were thinly veiled caricatures of actual people (a la Rush Limbaugh. I know that this is only one in a series of books (The Word of the Lord to Republicans and The Word of the Lord to Evangelicals are also available on the Kindle platform), and Brian in the post-narrative interview says that he wants to insert some levity into the political conversation – but I’m not sure humor works here. All-in-all, this short book was very “meh,” to me. Although, there’s probably an important conversation to be had somewhere about the intersection of faith, life & politics.

My “must read” recommendation: ★ ★ (out of 5)

What others have said: Fuller Seminary’s Burner Blog liked it more than I did, and you can read their review here.

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I did it! I had an arbitrary goal to do a 10 mile run, and this morning I did it. I told myself that when I reached my goal, I’d talk about health, fitness, “dieting,” running, & cycling here on my blog. Those of you that see me on a regular basis know that I’ve lost quite a bit of weight over the last 7 months. So, I’m going to do a four part series. Today, I talk about running, part two will be about food, part three will be about weight and part four will be a potpourri of stuff I’m learning.

So, in October, Jennifer and I hard a hard conversation and she said hard, but true, things to me about my weight, and my attitude towards food, body, etc. She told me the truth about how it impacted her and how she thought it impacted our boys. So, more than any other time in my life, I was highly motivated.

The first thing I did was quit my gym membership. It was costing me a lot of money, and frankly getting to the gym (packing a bag, driving there, etc.) seemed to be too much of a hurdle. But I weighed too much to run (it hurt my knees and I’ve just heard it’s not good on your body above a certain weight), and once October hits, cycling gets “iffy” in central IL. So, I started walking with Jennifer early in the morning, before the boys got up. We walked 5-6 times a week in October-December. This year was a mild winter, so it was rare that the weather stopped us. We did find our limit though, when we walked on a 9 degree morning in January!

Once I dropped to a certain weight, I started to run. But first, I talked to my brother, who’s the real runner in the family, and he told me I really needed to get a real pair of running shoes. So I dropped a little money and got a good pair. (worth every penny!)

I first I would just run a mile. And on my brother’s advice, I’d just try to stretch it a little each time – try to get to the next driveway. By the end of January, I did my first 4-miler. I hadn’t run 4 miles in more than 10 years! By the end of February, I stretched it out, and in addition to several 4′s, I did my first 5-miler. In March, it got serious and on the last day of March, on vacation in Florida, I did 9 miles. I couldn’t believe it.

I wanted to do my 10 miler on Good Friday, but a cold & lots of hours at work set me back a little. Plus my brother told me that I need to give myself a break once in awhile. So… drumroll… this morning I finally broke the 10-mile threshold. Here are the stats:

Here are the three things I’ll say about running:

1. I mostly do it because it’s the most efficient way to burn calories. Even if I don’t have a lot of time, it’s easy to throw on my shoes and head out the door. In the time it would take to get in the car, drive to the gym, lock up my clothes in a locker, I can run out the front door and knock of 2-3 miles.
2. Baby steps. I’ve added mileage rather slowly, which is fine. I felt a little silly in the beginning, running only a mile, but now, I still feel really good into mile 7. Today I only really hurt in the last mile or two.
3. I’ve started to really enjoy my shorter runs. 3-5 miles has become a great way to relax and unwind. I prefer to run in the afternoon because it’s a chance to pound out the stress of the day.

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