In other news

My eldest continues to fascinate me. Two days ago she edited a note for spelling errors that her own teacher sent home. Her report card says she is reading at a PM Benchmark 30, which, according to what I found on the internet, is a grade 5 level. She's in grade 1. Well, grade 2, soon.

On the not-so-great side, she also has a bladder infection, causing us to spend a fair amount of time in a walk-in clinic yesterday.

Yesterday she heard me talking about baptism and asked me about it. After my simple explanation she told me she wanted to be baptised. At age 6. I was 17 when I got baptized. I know lots of churches are willing to baptize kids, at WCV I've seen kids even younger than her in the tank. But I've always wondered - do they get it? Will they regret taking that step when the meaning was not as full as it might have been? But yet - who does the kingdom belong to?

Appreciate your thoughts on this. Darn anabaptists - things were so much clearer when we all just splashed 'em in the 1st year.

New book

I just got a book today written by 2 people who have both been accused of heresy: McLaren and Campolo. Its' called "Adventures in Missing the Point".

I'm so excited I'm going to start reading it BEFORE I finish my latest Plass book. Because that's just the kind of wild and crazy woman I am.

Partnering

I've been thinking a bit about partnerships lately. I've seen a lot of partnerships in connection with my work. The project I finished evaluating in April saw a partnership between a social service organization doing outreach, 6 schools to do education with parents and students, and other agencies to help with PR, providing resources, etc, all part of the same project to improve children's safety. Government is partnering more and more with outside organizations. Healthy Baby programs, for example, were devised and are funded by government, but government partners with RHAs and community organizations to deliver the program.

The advantages to partnering is that sometimes you just can't do it all yourself, but if several organizations each take a small piece, big projects and programs can happen that otherwise would not.

Then I turn my mind towards the church and parachurch organizations. I don't see much partnering. I'm not saying it doesn't happen, I just haven't seen or heard of many examples. Rather, I've seen things like parachurch organizations saying that really, they are "the church" and local churches saying they're not, local churches insisting that tithe has to go to the local church and only offerings can go to parachurch orgs, a person who said if churches were doing their job there wouldn't need to be any parachurch organizations, etc. I don't think the boundary lines extend just between church and parachurch. I'd be hard pressed to think of 2 parachurch organizations that have worked together on a project (actually, I thought of one just as I started writing that sentence) or 2 or more churches that have partnered (other than March for Jesus).

I wonder if the church universal can get past some of those boundary lines to work more effectively with other parts of the church universal or even - dare I say it - secular organizations? I think there is tremendous benefit for everyone involved.

proclamation

I just heard Ashlin announce to Taryn, after I "fixed" a piece of paper, that "She is the best mommy I ever had!"

Does the heart good.

Sharing resources

Someone I was talking to a while back mentioned the idea of sharing resources. Winnipeg does a darn good job of it's library system IMHO, but in any specific area, such as literature that would be of particular interest to Christians, it will fall short. There are only so many books and DVDs I can afford to buy in a year - others might have resources I'd like that they'd be willing to lend, and vice versa. But how do we find out about each others resources?

I think that we have the technology to make what I've heard Cindy call "The Underground Library" quite usable and accessible. People could submit the names of books and DVDs they'd be willing to lend out to others they know within the community (people a part of or connected to WCV perhaps) and it could be compiled and available on the web (An Excel file that's periodically updated?).

However, I'm technologically inept at thinking how to set up a web page that would make this a reality. I'm also curious about how many others would like to see something like this happen.

Any thoughts?

Trying again

I find myself ready to try harder to lose weight. I have walked for at least a half hour for the last 3 days and plan to keep that up for 5 days a week through summer. I'm also trying to ditch habitual 2nd helpings. My hope is to lose 10 pounds by the end of August. There - I've blogged it. Now I'm committed.

same-sex marriage

I found this article interesting simply because the author disagrees with same-sex marriage without mentioning God or the Bible.

My own thoughts on the subject have likewise revolved not around couples, but around children. Is it ultimately better for children to be raised by a mother and a father? I think so. Will the legalization of same-sex marriage result in more children being brought up in same-sex households, without a mom or dad? Probably. Legal changes tend to spur on societal changes making things that were rare more common.

Are some children in same-sex couple households better off than others in opposite-sex households? Undoubtably. But I think there are still ideals to be strived for, rather than tossing the ideals because they are not consistently met.

The skinny on fat

The book on nutrition I've been reading (Eat, Drink and Be Healthy byWalter Willett) is very informative. The chapter on fats was very enlightening.

He goes into the history of the messages we've received about fat. He said that researchers have found evidence for many years that saturated fat is bad for you. However, at some point, those who advise on eating just felt the decrease saturated fat message was too confusing and decided to advise people to just decrease all fat.

The result. We have, but we're no better off. We just keep getting fatter.

When looking at nations, the people with the highest fat intakes are not the people who tend towards obesity. Fat intake in and of itself has little connection with weight.

Decreasing fat intake also has some consequences for our health because some fats are good for us and are heart healthy. When we decrease all fat, we lose out on the benefits of the good fats.

Willett's advise is not to focus on decreasing fat intake but to focus on replacing saturated fat with mono- and polyunsaturated fats.

Further indicators we made the right decision to throw out all non-stick cookware.

Me and Jesus

I'm reading the newest offering of Adrian Plass. That man never fails to speak to me. Here's some of what touched me.

John Ortberg, in the forward, writes of a George MacDonald book Thomas Wingfold, Curate, where the main character comes to a crisis of doubt in his faith: "He is not yet convinced that Christianity is true in the way he wants to be convinced; but he is sure that Jesus is the only game in town."

On testimony books: "They have their place, but they do not meet the need of ordinary struggling Christians to understand that they can be part of the glory of God's work in this world despite the fac t that their faith and their feelings are untidy and inconsistent and will probably remain like that until the grave."

On people's stories: "My exprience has been that people learn more about this strange thing called 'following Jesus' from stories about what actually happens than they ever will from theory."

On his faith as a child and child-like faith: "Do I still have that implicit trust in the same innocently optimistic way? No. Yes. Sometimes. Absolutely without question. Not in the slightest. Only on Thursdays.
"I am working toward being the child Jesus wants me to be, and he is helping. I lift my arms towards my Father in heaven and ask him to put his arms round what I am, not what I ought to be. What else can I do?"

This is essentially why I can never fit into the victory to victory type churches. They strike me as profoundly dishonest. Truth is defined as something that you believe despite evidence to the contrary. Reality cannot be embraced because Truth is seen as something different than reality.

Tried it. Integrity wouldn't let me stay.

Psalm 139

7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, ^[a] you are there.

9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,

10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"

12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

Apparently I don't have to pretend to be somewhere that I'm not for God to be there with me.

Coming to a year later

I've often heard people talk about the "anniversary date" of a loss that happened in their lives. I never fathomed how a simple date could take on such meaning as to affect emotion. I understand it now. Father's Day: the last time I talked to my Dad. The first day of summer: the day Dad died. I find myself on edge and teary a lot more these days.

Grieving is such an invisible process in our culture. We 're past such things as wearing particular clothing during a period of mourning. I think that is one thing we could stand to gain back - an outward expression of inward grief, for a couple of reasons. First, it carries with it an expectation of appropriate response and of understanding. Second, I think that symbolism can carry with it powerful healing - that of allowing oneself to grieve instead of ignoring it, and when the symbol is put aside, a real resolve to move on.

I know it's necessary to keep grieving, but I don't want to wallow. I want to mark that day in a way that is life-giving.

Guilt

I was talking and thinking about guilt today. The talk was with a fellow contract worker, and we both had to admit that we really don't work our butts off for fairly good wages - I've certainly worked harder for less money. Should I charge less because I'm good at what I do and it doesn't take me as long as it might take someone else?

We talked to a real estate agent today to get an idea of what we might want to do to sell this house. The whole bigger house thing brings guilt because I can look at pictures of how people live elsewhere and realize that I'm already way ahead of much of the world's population.

Somehow those guilt thoughts led to the general sense of you should feel guilty that I think came to me through the religio-cultural (I just made up that term, kind of goes with the flow of terms like socio-economic) way I was raised. You're a sinner. Feel guilty.

In the midst of that one more thought managed to creep in. It was this:

Maybe God wants you to feel thankful, not guilty.

I started reading a book on nutrition originating from Harvard. In the first part it talks about the US healthy eating pyramid, which is very similar to the Canada Food Guide, and points out that while there was some science behind it, ultimately corporate interests played a big role in its final form, making it inaccurate for those who seriously want to know how to eat for maximum health benefits.

The author proposes a new food pyramid. A few things I found interesting:

• Proteins are split up. Rather than all staying in one interchangable group, he puts nuts and legumes as a protein to have daily, fish and poultry as a protein to have 0-2 times a day, and red meat is put in the use sparingly category (wonder how soon the Texas cattle producers will be pursuing litigation?)
• Potatoes are also put in the use sparingly category, unless you're an extremely physically active person.
• Refined carbs, such as white flour, are also in the use sparingly category.
  
• He advises 1 alcoholic drink a day from women and 1-2 for men, as it is consistently shown that moderate alcohol is very heart-healthy (he goes into this more in a later chapter, where I certainly hopes he lists exceptions for pregnant/breastfeeding women).

uncomfortable subjects

I was in a discussion today where I observed a few things:
1. Someone referred to pro-life pregnancy support services as "anti-choice"
2. The idea of not having mandatory sex-ed for high school teens was considered backwards.
3. "Morality and hang-ups" were described as reasons that sexual and reproductive health does not get programming.

On the first: I don't think people who consider themselves "pro-choice" appreciate being called pro-death, anti-life or even pro-abortion. I'd like to see consideration extended to those of us who are pro-life by using the name we choose for ourselves. I wonder if she has any idea that not everyone in the room shares her perspecitve on the issue. Pro-choice people seem to think that everyone they know has to be pro-choice. I wonder if it's because of a very narrow stereotype that people hold of what a pro-life person looks like (old, crotchety and almost rabid).

On the second and third: Advocates of sexual education always see to see objections as people's being "right-wing" or having "hang-ups". They seem to miss that there is a question of values here, of parents not wanting their values undermined to their children. I don't know of any parent, of any particular value base, who would want any system to tell kids things that run counter to what parents are teaching their children at home. But there is an underlying judgement here - and I suppose that should not surprise me. But the hypocrisy of it bothers me - people who advocate being non-judgmental being obviously judgmental of a particular group.

What kind of coffee am I?

You Are a Soy Latte

At your best, you are: free spirited, down to earth, and relaxed At your worst, you are: dogmatic and picky You drink coffee when: you need a pick me up, and green tea isn't cutting it Your caffeine addiction level: medium

What Kind of Coffee Are You?

New Look

Didn't Yvonne do a great job on the blog?
Woman, you rock.
I was SO impressed with your website, too, and all the book designs. And that you did it without formal training (that I know of) is all the more impressive.

McLaren on the Bible

One of the courses I took waaaay back in Bible college was Apologetics, which bored me to tears and I really hated it but I think it was required. Apologetics is about forming a reasoned, rationale for one's Christian beliefs. I don't remember much about the course. I do remember that it was really, really important that we all believe that the Bible is inerrant.

McLaren in A Generous Orthodoxy points out that the very language of words like authority, inerrancy, infallibility, revelation, literal, etc. are not words that Scripture uses to describe itself. They are words coming from a modernist mindset that we have shoved onto scripture.

He suggests that we should consider what Scripture has said about itself - that it is God-breathed and useful in equipping people to do good works - and then go about using it to do good works. He suggests we see it for what it is - largely narrative - and read it as narrative.

I liked that chapter because in the past I have been only presented with 2 options - either the Bible is inerrant or we may as well just throw out all of Christianity. Neither options has sat well with me as I've sat in this world of I think I really like Jesus but sometimes I'm not sure about all the other stuff. A new way of seeing Scripture really appeals to me.

So have I crossed the line? Am I a heretic yet? Guess I'll know when the cross is burning on my lawn.

Flu stats

I just found this article on US flu death statistics. While it was posted on an anti-vac site, it is from the British Medical Journal. It shows that stats on flu deaths are inflated by lumping them with deaths from pnemonia where people may have developed pnemonia as a complication of the flu.

I wonder if Canada's stats are any better?

Vaccinations

I've never vaccinated my kids - I've never found any information I felt like I could trust. There' the typical medical information, which glosses over concerns, basically patting the parent on the head saying, "There, there, dear, just trust your doctor, he knows best." Then there's anti-vaccination information, that either doesn't back up it's claims, uses old research or engages in conjecture - but still brings up some really good questions. I don't consider myself anti-vaccination, I've just said that I can always change my mind and decide to vaccinate, but I can't undo a vaccination once it happens.

I'm reading a book by Aviva Jill Romm on the subject. The author does a fairly good job of being objective, although I still find that references are often old - and vaccines change over time.

One thing I was reminded of that gives those of us that are pro-life pause is that in making the chicken pox vaccine, manufactureres use tissue generated from aborted fetuses. Not exactly something I want to be associated with.

It's a risk/risk proposition. Do I vaccinate to help my children avoid a disease that they may or may not get naturally, and if they got they may or may not have serious complications or die from? Or do I not vaccinate and definitely expose them to the risks of the vaccine, which they may or may not have serious complications or die from?

Like working with web sites?

The Family Support Centre/Crisis Pregnancy Centre - the best non-profit organization in the world (not that I'm biased) is looking for help to update it's website which is sorely needed (look here and weep.

It's a neat opportunity for someone who enjoys doing web-based stuff. It's also a feel-good volunteer opportunity that doesn't require an onoing commitment.

Let me know if you're interested. I'll connect you with the right people.

Getting there slowly

I broke the barrier - I wasn't losing weight for quite some time, but I'm finally down another pound. 3 pounds since February. Not spectacular, but whatever changes I've made in the past 3 years I can keep up for the rest of my life. How many Atkins/Zone/South Beach people can say that? One thing that helped was that Rob and I made an agreement not to tempt each other with evening eating. The other thing is just that I'm getting out to walk more. I just altered my bike to make it more upright - hopefully that will help solve the problem of migraines I was having when I tried riding it previously.