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Glad surrender: Loaning your child to the Lord

May 2, 2013
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Scream and Shout

“After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the Lord, and he will live there always.”
1 Samuel 1:22

To whom can we entrust our children and their future, but to God alone? If we are then to lend them to God daily, should we not dress them appropriately? Can we put “priestly garments” on our children understanding that as they are growing in faith they too can be agents of God?

Listen to the mp3 download:
Glad Surrender:
Loaning your child to the Lord

Mennonite Church of Normal
Sermon: Sunday, December 30, 2012
1 Samuel 2:18-20 and Luke 2:41-52.

 

Life of a Pastor: My virtual omnipresence is greatly exaggerated

March 1, 2013
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Virtually me“I have never known a pastor to be on Facebook so much,” she said, more inquiring than describing.

It was like that moment in the Wizard of Oz where the wizard says, “Don’t look at the man behind the purple curtain…oh, hey there.” I’m not sure that she believed my answer at first when I told her that I am on Facebook surprisingly little each day.

In the virtual world it is more possible now than in the past to have a nearly constant social media presence without actually being viscerally present at the computer or on a mobile device thanks to apps that allow for the scheduling of posts.

My current set-up is a bit convoluted, but it works for me… Read more »

Review: The Sacred Meal by Nora Gallagher

January 15, 2013
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Sacred MealThe Sacred Meal by Nora Gallagher, part of The Ancient Practices Series (Thomas Nelson, 2009) edited by Phyllis Tickle, is a memoir about the author’s experiences of communion. The Sacred Meal is an invitation to join the author in breaking bread and has a surprising Anabaptist ring to it.

When asked by series editor Phyllis Tickle to write this volume on communion, Nora Gallagher did not know that communion was considered a “practice,” but not having been successful at other religious practices, the idea intrigued her. “A practice,” she comes to say, “is not about finding exactly the right set of rules that will make you “good,” but is instead meant to establish a habit of connection to a world that is both tenuous and surprising, outside of time and in it.”

Sacred Meal set me to studying the theological differences between Episcopalian (the tradition from within which Gallagher writes) and Catholic understandings of the Eucharist, something which I had not engaged in prior.  What piqued my curiosity was that some of the ideas expressed by Gallagher seemed to resonate with Anabaptist understandings of the Lord’s Supper. Read more »

Understanding How Children Develop Empathy – NYTimes.com

December 20, 2012
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One of my daughters is exceptionally empathic–to the point of severe personal distress–toward people and animals alike. Little brother’s skinned-knee, even a dead bird, can evoke such pathos as to bring a halt to family life. While it may inconvenience Mom and Dad at times, her empathy could empower a life of helping others. How might we nurture this gift and teach her the trait of self-differentiation? This article offers some insights…

“The capacity to notice the distress of others, and to be moved by it, can be a critical component of what is called prosocial behavior, actions that benefit others: individuals, groups or society as a whole. Psychologists, neurobiologists and even economists are increasingly interested in the overarching question of how and why we become our better selves.

How do children develop prosocial behavior, and is there in fact any way to encourage it? If you do, will you eventually get altruistic adults, the sort who buy shoes for a homeless man on a freezing night, or rush to lift a commuter pushed onto the subway tracks as the train nears?”

[full article at NYTimes.com: Understanding How Children Develop Empathy]

Follow pediatrician and writer Perri Klass on Twitter and read more of her posts on NYTimes.com.

Awesome Animals: Crossing-Guard Cat

December 19, 2012
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Sable, a fifteen year-old black house cat, shows up at the crosswalk every morning and every afternoon to see “its” kids arrive and depart.