She Wants a Moustache

The girl crawled into bed with us last night. She laid down between the Queen Mother and I.

Teasing her, I tossed a blanket over her head.

And from underneath the cover, I heard her tiny, muffled voice say, "Smells like chicken."

She Cracks Herself Up

The girl is five, and last night she followed the Queen Mother into the kitchen. She asked, sweet voiced, "Can I have a snack?"

"Sure. A healthy one."

The little girl opened the pantry and stared into the stacked shelves. "Can I have some cereal?"

"All we have is granola."

"What's that?"

"Here, try a little."

The Queen Mother poured a few chunks into a bowl. The girl picked one up and popped it in her mouth, chomped it and said, "hm, tastes like chicken."

And she poured herself a bowl and cackled and crowed all the way to the table.

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Being a poet is not writing a poem, but finding a new way to live.

I'm still working through 1 Peter on Sundays. Yesterday we looked at something Peter encouraged his friends to do. It was important enough to him that he brought it up three different times. His friends were dying. They had sworn allegiance to a Jewish carpenter turned Rabbi and chosen him as their king (claiming "Jesus as Lord" was a highly charged political statement in those days), and they were just beginning feel the sting of the Roman response to nonconformity.

And three times Peter tells them to be sober. He's not referring to them being raging booze hounds (though some believe that the Galatians were of Celtic heritage, so you never know). He is stressing that they need to stay awake, alert. Wake up to what is real about life around them.

This reminded me of A Beautiful Mind where John asks one of his students if she can see the man he's talking to. John, a schizophrenic, is trying to stay alert to what's real and not be distracted by what's not. It's about living in the light of ultimate reality.

There's more to life than just what we can see and especially more to it than what our individualist, consumerist, nationalist culture says there is.

If we are indeed living in a God bathed world, then our lives right now are saturated in the sacredness of ultimate reality. Question is: are we aware?

It's so easy for me to only see what readily apparent. I miss the sacredness of making a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for my daughter. I keep my shoes on when I'm standing on the holy ground of folding laundry. And I wonder if I how much more full life could be if only I were awake.

Come mystics. Come poets. Come wonderers all.
I want your words to shock me. Upset me. Spin me.
Until I am awake to the Reality that I've always breathed.
But seldom known.

"Hi, I'm Russ and I'm in Deity/Human Resources"

I hate it when people find out that I am a minister before they get to know me.

"Hi, I am Russ."

"Hi, I am Phil. What do you do?"

"I'm a minister."

"I'm sorry."

What is Phil apologizing for? Probably some recent indiscretion that I may of overheard. Or is he really sorry that I am a minister? Mike, a new neighbor of mine, told me to respond by saying...

"You should be! WHEW!"

The response I get from the overly churched crowd is worse. They jump in to crazy, indecipherable, hyper-Christian cliche speak.

"I'm a minister."

"Well, praise God! Blessed be the man of the Word. God has raised you up in the anointing of his shekina glory. Come let us join together in the fellowship of the brotherhood of Christ. Amen, brother."

I'm more confused by that than I am by the apology.

One Easter Saturday, I was leaving a friends house after celebrating his daughter's first birthday. As the family and I were walking toward home, a lady I had just met called out to me, waved, and said, "He is Risen." What was that all about? If she had just said" goodbye", wouldn't that have been appropriate enough?

I think I dislike the title mostly because of the junk that gets stuck to it. Most un-churched people hear the word pastor or minister and they think narrow-minded, bigoted, picket sign, boycott, talk radio, bash, judge, condemn.

And it is completely unacceptable that the message of Jesus gets labeled like that. What if all those who call themselves Christian actually started to follow Jesus? Wouldn't it be so very different.

A.K.A. Paul Hewson

Bono speaks at the National Day of Prayer Breakfast. A rock star like no other. Check out the transcript or download the mp3 here.

What Could Have Been Their Final Moments

DORIS
We first met at school. Some of the older boys came to help tutor us. Lloyd helped me with my German.

STRANGER
Really.

LLOYD
Didn't even know anything about it.

DORIS
Not a lick.

STRANGER
Ha.

LLOYD
The next time I saw her was at the county fair.

DORIS
He walked right up to me and asked me out. Right in front of my date.

STRANGER
No!

LLOYD
Sure did. She said "yes" too. Lloyd pauses for a long moment. Got married in D.C.

DORIS
My family and I drove up to his base. The service was performed by his chaplain, and then we drove back home.

LLOYD
I was shipped out the next day. Been married 61 years.

DORIS
He always tells people that we didn't live together for two of them.

LLOYD
I was over seas.

DORIS
We wrote each other every day.

A young man in white enters the room.

YOUNG MAN
Okay Mrs. Haynes. I've got my driver's liscence. It's time to roll.

He unhooks the I.V. bag and lays it on the bed. Lays Doris' head back. Begins to push the bed out of the room.

LLOYD
Lloyd steps up to her bedside, takes her hand, and kisses it.
I'll be here when you come out.

DORIS
I love you.

LLOYD
I love you.

The young man drives her out of the room. Lloyd stares after her still holding her purse. The stranger stands apart, in awe.

I'm It

Seven Things You May Not Know About Me

1. I was Wabash High School's Business Student of the Year in 1984
2. I once co-wrote a heavy metal song titled, "Puke, Blah, Puke, Blah, Vomit, Spit Up"
3. I once yelled, "Hey everybody, let's have an orgy", while on a church hayride
4. 1991 was an angry year for me
5. I don't like to eat in the dark
6. Frogs freak me out
7. I lied to my coach when I quit the wrestling team

The First Seven Albums I Ever Owned

1. Dumb Ditties
2. Blinded By the Light by Manfred Mann (on 45)
3. John Denver's Greatest Hits
4. Kenny Roger's The Gambler
5. Queen's The Game
6. Styx masterpiece Paradise Hotel
7. ACDC's Back In Black

Seven Addictions Past and Present

1. Tombstone Frozen Pizzas
2. Dr. Pepper
3. Books
4. Peach Snapple
5. Jones Soda
6. Spree
7. CD's

There Mike, I played your game. Now, go harass someone else.