Four Years Ago

Rynn- April 2008

Tonight I was doing a little reminiscing through old blog posts when I stumbled on this post from a day in April four years ago. We had lived in Portland less than a year when I wrote a few thoughts about church planting.  Strange to think how much our lives have changed and how much our children have grown since then.  I was thinking about HOPE and GRACE and how different the cultures are to which we have been called in these few short years. The things people worry about, think about, and dream about are so different.  Yet in many ways the things people worry about, think about, and dream about are very much the same.  Whether it be coffee brewing or college admission, the environment or the economy, hipster fashion or hedge funds, people want the same thing.  We want to know we belong.  We want to know that someone cares.  We want to know that our lives matter, that we will not be forgotten, that we are making a difference.  We want to belong, to be accepted, to know we are loved, to know we are forgiven, to have hope for change, to believe in God...

Grace's New Digs

Here is the church.

Here is the steeple.

Open the door

Chicago by L: Wilmette

Welcome to our little neighborhood of Wilmette.  Well, to be accurate, it is technically a VILLAGE, with its own schools, government, beaches, park district, and police force.  It has brick streets, sailboats,  and an eye catching Bahai temple that brings pilgrims from as far away as India.  When we first moved here people would always ask us, "Oh, did you move UP from the city?."  To which I would reply, "No, from OUT in Oregon."  But that is what this place is.  It is UP from the city.  It is where people who work in the city, train to the city, and play in the city come home.  It is technically the 'suburbs,' but not in the way that I grew up thinking of suburbs.  There are buses, trains, and people walking places.  Big box stores are miles away while city trains rattle across neighborhood streets.   Below are a few pictures from my walk around our neighborhood this afternoon.

Ain’t No Wet Nurse

Browse around on a preacher’s shelf, and you will likely find a couple of books.  They might be well worn or slightly covered with dust, and they do little to tempt your curiosity.  Calvin.  The author’s name alone conjures up exaggerated images of overly pious religious zealots.   Your eyes drift  to the title which doesn’t offer much persuasion either-  INSTITUTES.   As if Calvin doesn’t conjure up enough negative thoughts, this book is graced with an even stodgier and drier title- Institutes.  Thanks, but-uh- no thanks. If I want a nap I'll read the Encylopedia Britannica.  Surely there isn’t anything in those dusty books to breathe life and meaning into my own spiritual questions, struggles, doubts, and despair??

Well...maybe there is.  If you have the books on your shelf, pull them down.  If you don’t have them,  consider borrowing them from a library or  friend.  If you really don’t care but have still read this far, then hang with me and read a little (very loosely) translated Calvin from my perspective.  Because anyone who can say “God ain’t a wet nurse” in a few fancier French words is, well, not completely boring.

Below is my own 'Little' summary of a few of Calvin’s thoughts on Prayer from Book 3 Chapter XX. (Calvin lovers..grant me a little grace here!)

Easter Morning Fun

a Good Friday

Today is Good Friday.  It is also the first day of Passover.
  Public Schools and many businesses in these parts are closed.  

This morning Jason, the girls, and I enjoy the Art Institute of Chicago.

 Under chilly blue skies the city is sparkling with spring tulips. 

The Science of Yoga

What if someone told you they have a pill, and if you take this pill you will lose weight, change the shape of your body, improve your sex life, uplift your moods, expand your creativity,  gain more energy, relieve back pain,  and reduce stress.  Oh, but wait.  There is a catch.  If you take this pill you run the risk of developing a blood clot in a major artery to your brain which could cause a stroke and kill you.  Would you take it?

What if that pill was yoga?

When William Broad's book,  The Science of Yoga: The Risks and the Rewards, was released this year he created a stir in the popular media by raising similar questions.

On February 3rd the New York Times ran a book review (Read NYT Review) of Broad’s new book. The article was quickly followed by the LA Times on February 6, four days later by NPR, and then a week after that by the Washington Post.  The firestorm of controversy and discussion centered largely on one chapter of Broad’s book titled “Risk of Injury.”   In this chapter Broad cites several anecdotal instances where yogis actually died as a result of overly stressing major arteries to the brain during certain yoga postures.

I first heard Broad in his interview on NPR (Listen to the interview).  Only catching bits and pieces of the interview I was initially annoyed.  “Great,” I thought, “just what America needs- another book to make everyone scared.  Hey, here’s an idea.  Why don’t we all just sit on our sofas with a remote control and die of heart disease instead of assuming a small risk to actually improve our health?  What the heck??.”  I wasn’t alone.   The yoga studios were buzzing with “have you read that article?  Did you hear that guy?  Can doing a headstand really kill you?.”  I put the book on hold at our neighborhood library.  This week it finally arrived, and I had the chance to read it and make my own opinion.