Thursday, March 28, 2013

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Zoe's First Year

Thanks to a free coupon from Shutterfly, Mandy just created a photo book of Zoe's first 10 months of life. I thought I'd share it with you here. Hope you enjoy!

Monday, March 25, 2013

Some Quick Thoughts on a Few Sports Stories

Not that I'm normally a consistent blogger, but for the past couple months, most of my blogging has taken place on the Lenten Blog I'm keeping up with my boss. But in addition to a time of spiritual discipline and formation, this season of the year is also a really fun time in the world of sports. I'm a huge sports fan and have noticed lately that there are a lot of fun things happening in sports that are worthy of a few of my thoughts. So here goes...

____________

March Madness
As a college basketball fan in general, and a Duke fan in particular, this is a really fun time of the year for me. March Madness is always exciting to watch and this year is not proving any different. Duke has looked pretty good in the tournament so far, but there are plenty of great teams still alive, so who knows what will happen. At least they have made it to the Sweet 16 and didn't get beat in the first round by a much lesser opponent like last year.

Miami Heat
I'm not much of an NBA basketball fan, but how can you not be intrigued by what Lebron James and the Miami Heat are doing right now? Lebron is playing as well as he ever has and his team, as of the writing of this post, have now won 27 straight games. The NBA record is 33 straight, so it is beginning to look like this record could fall (which no one ever thought would). Crazy!

Seattle Mariners
Those of you who know me personally know that I am a HUGE Seattle Mariners fan. I love baseball in general, so I'm really excited for Spring Training to end and the regular season to begin. But the Mariners really have my hopes up for this season. They have been much-improved throughout Spring Training and seem poised for a great year. Of course, Spring Training doesn't really mean a whole lot, so they could totally suck and break my heart. But I'm optomistic!

Denver Broncos
My NFL team has made headlines this offseason for both good reasons and bad. They started the offseason on a tear, having made some pick free-agent signings in Wes Welker and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie (among others), but the recent news has been strange and disappointing as they were forced to cut Elvis Dumervil due to a mistake by his agent. He has now signed with the Baltimore Ravens, so the Broncos will need to find a replacement for their Pro-Bowl defensive end. So frustrating!

____________

I know you probably don't care about any of this, but thanks for humoring me. This is a really fun time of the sports year and I wanted to share my enthusiasm.

Monday, March 4, 2013

The Kingdom of God is Like...

In Mark 4, Jesus tells parable after parable about the nature of the Kingdom of God. Most of his parables in this section are about agriculture and seeds, which is not an area in which I have much experience or expertise. To some degree I can relate to and understand each parable, but there is also a cultural barrier that is difficult to move beyond. As I read, I found myself wondering what kind of parable Jesus might have told for our contemporary generation. Here is a crack at a modern parable about the Kingdom of God:

This is what the Kingdom of God is like. A woman created a personal video that spoke from her passion, interests, and context and uploaded it to YouTube. She had no visions of grandeur about the video's popularity or reach, but simply desired to share her thoughts and dreams with her family and friends. But as the video was increasingly viewed and its network was rapidly enlarged, the video had suddenly gone viral and her thoughts were recognized, honored, and appreciated by millions.

____________________


The following was my first draft of this parable. It did not end up as a parable, but more of a metaphor. I thought about just deleting it and never showing anyone, but maybe someone might be interested. It at least serves as a rather obvious and overt explanation of the parable.
The Kingdom of God is like a YouTube video. It starts small - as a personal video that is only viewed by family and friends. Some end their life at this stage, while others enjoy a moderate existence, bearing an average amount of entertainment or illustrative value. But from time to time, as a video is gradually viewed by an increasing amount of people and its network reach is exponentially enlarged, it slowly but surely spirals out of control. The video has gone viral.