Meet Mr. Comment!

Along with re-activating this blog, I have been spending some significant commenting time over at the blog of Bill Lobdel.

I would encourage you all to visit there, and let me know what you think of both the posts, and my responses.

Bill is a former LA times writer and Christian, who has recently (the last 3 years) renounced his faith, and is now espousing atheism. He has even written a book about his journey to non-faith. For whatever reason, I have a heartfelt burden for Mr. Lobdell, and ache for the day when he turns back toward the Light. I think it will happen, but not without a monumental struggle - both here and in the heavenlies.

My prayer is that my words could be chipping at the bricks of the stronghold he is currently within.

Your prayers would be much appreciated.

Is WalMart Really Evil?

This is an interesting article (H/T Powerline).

Worth your time.

How does this fit in with Christian principles of how to treat others?

A Very Interesting Article

H/T to Instapundit.

This is an excellent article about Sarah Palin.

My wife and I were/are big fans of her - much to the chagrin of most of my College colleagues - and have joked that we should have cut the top half off of our McCain/Palin bumper sticker.

But, the visceral loathing of her by so many was disconcerting, to say the least! There is still a part of me that feels like some of you now see me as fitting the profile of a Jeff Foxworthy joke punchline.
You might be a redneck if...

This article fairly expounds on both the strengths and weaknesses of Palin, and why she provoked such strong reactions from just about everyone. A very good read.

A New Look for Defiant Lamb!

As part of my attempt to resurrect this blog, I decided to give it a new look.

What you see at the top is a photo of my boys from this past Summer. We are at Little Corona beach in So. Cal. We live about 30 minutes from here, and of course hardly ever make it to the beach. We live about 45 minutes from the mountains, and hardly ever make it to the snow.

We live within 30 to 45 minutes of just about anything you could imagine wanting to do, and hardly ever do any of them.

What do we do?

Life.

Which, it turns out, is everything in between the big stuff.

Now, which are we missing out on: all these enriching activities right out our front door, or taking the time to learn the names of every Transformer from a 4 year old while we wonder why we aren't doing all those activities.

You know what I mean?

The Best Thing That's Ever Happened On This Blog!

Go two posts down to "My Apologies to Bob Bennett" and check out the first (only?) comment.

Is that cool or what?

I feel kind of like Roy Batty meeting Eldon Tyrell.





(except for the whole squeeze your head until it cracks thing)

For the Start of a New Semester

I teach at a Community College, and today is the start of our Spring semester.

Woo Whoo!

I really like my job, and see it as one of the more undeserved gifts from God in my life.

I was sitting in my office this morning, and readying myself for the day, and decided some devotional reading and prayer might be a good way to start (what a concept!), so I turned to a book I picked up cheap that is a yearly devotional on the gospel of Matthew. Today's reading is from Joseph Parker, and the last paragraph strikes me as perfect for me, for today.

What in interesting coincidence, isn't it?
Hmmmm...

Here's the quote - I think the words could be taken to heart by us all (emphasis mine):

Have you been prepared for your work? If so, why are you not doing it? We have been trained in music, yet we do little but mumble in the vocal worship of Almighty God. We have read many books, yet are silent as the grave. We have passed through many temptations, but the word of sympathy never falls from our lips. We have proved the vanity of the world, yet we never tell the young that the world is a gigantic lie and life but an empty wind apart from God and the infinite Savior. Our Lord, having been qualified for His work went to it. Arise, let us do the same.

My Apologies to Bob Bennett

This post probably won't be read by anyone for quite some time, if at all, but I need to get back to writing here, and this seems the best way to start.

As you can see by the posts, I haven't REALLY posted in about two years. The reasons are many, and not worth going into right now.

Anyways, I decided to google "defiant lamb" and see if I could find a reference to this blog. The name of the blog is from a song by Bob Bennett, my all-time favorite singer/songwriter. Imagine my surprise when this blog came up as the TOP listing!

Not that too many people are googling for the phrase "defiant lamb", but still...TOP listing!

The thing is, now I feel an obligation to the name - to live up to top listing status.
I must post again.
I must!

More to come...

I might be back...

I'm just checking.

No promises.

A Dart to the Heart

One of the things I do with my boys is going on bike rides with them on the weekends. A bit more specifically, I pedal, they ride.

It started with my oldest when he was 14 months old. We got a bike seat and put him on it, and off Daddy and son went. Usually, he fell asleep within a short while, but eventually, he grew up enough to stay awake for a longer ride. This eventually morphed into weekend rides to a local restaurant for breakfast. It has been a great and precious time with each of my boys as we ride, eat, and ride back home again.

With four kiddos, they each now get a ride every other weekend (I ride Saturday and Sunday mornings - we go to church Saturday night). The older two now go on a "half-bike" that attaches to the back of mine, so they help with the pedaling. The younger two are still in the original seat behind me.

They each have certain places they want to go for breakfast, so I get a somewhat varied menu over the course of the weekend.

Son #2 and I go to a bagel shop not too far away. Cinnamon-Raisin bagels toasted, with peanut butter. Yum!

Last Friday night, I mentioned to #2 that it was his turn for a ride tomorrow. He was not enthusiastic, and asked if I would just go and bring him back a bagel. This kind of misses the whole point of the ride, so I questioned him about it. They all have always loved going on the rides.

What came to light stabbed me in the heart like only "rotten father guilt" can do.

Here's the deal: Over the course of the past few months, as we sit down to eat our bagels, I have been looking at the newspapers the bagel place sets out for customers. At first, it was just a glance, but gradually slid into full-on reading the sports and opinion pages while my son sat there eating. He no longer had Dad across the table, just the back of the paper.

What a jerk I can be.

He never said anything to me about it, but it gradually stole the fun out of the rides with Dad.

I cannot believe I did this! When you step back and look at something like this, the wrongness of it it is so obvious! But in the midst of the slow slide, it never seems that bad. I was a boiling frog at my son's expense.

Right then and there, as I heard his words, I took his hands, looked in his eyes, and promised him I would never do that again. I apologized profusely, and promised him again that I would never do that.

Being the better man than me, he forgave me immediately.

The next day, we went to the bagel store, got the bagels, but this time we were armed with paper and pens to play tick-tac-toe, and the "make boxes from a grid of dots" game (anybody know if this game has a name?).

It was great.

I hope and pray that I will never slide into something like that again.

Ever.

Ever.

I have these four incredible gifts, and I choose to see if the Dodgers won intead of talking to my kid across the table?

Oh please...

To Write Love on Her Arms

If you haven't read this story yet, follow the link and then let me know what you think.
Click Here!

This is what love is supposed to look like.

Why do I want it to be so much safer?

Nose, meet your grindstone

Yes, it's true. My summer vacation is over, and I start back teaching this next week.

The fiends! How can they expect anyone to be ready to teach with only 3 months off?!?!?

My students will just need to excuse me when my lectures are incoherent, my demonstrations are shabby, and my enthusiasm with the course material is fleeting at best.

Wait a minute...I'm tenured! That's the way we ALWAYS teach!!!


Ahhh. Ain't life grand!

The sting of death

I really did have lots of good intentions on posting stuff again right on the heels of my last post.

But then...

My friend Claude's 18 year old daughter dies at a concert.

My friend Bruce's wife dies of a heart attack (age 46).

My Colleague Rick's wife dies of cancer.

And worst of all...
Christmas day, 2005. The phone rings.
"Holly Jolly Christmas!" I blab like a fool (I'm good at the fool thing).
"Hey, this is Jay" (I was best man at his wedding). "I'm sorry to mess up Christmas, but Dee and I are at the hospital. Last night, something wasn't right with the pregnancy. Dee couldn't feel the baby move." (Dee was less than a month away from bearing their first child, a son.) "Anyway, something went wrong, and the baby died."

Death, here's your sting. Damn you.
Sooner rather than later, please.

Elijah Jay.
2005 to 2005.
Now, waiting for us on the far side of the Jordan.

Even in this, God is working redemption. There will be a school in India bearing Elijah's name. It will be reaching and teaching the Untouchables, pounding a nail in the coffin of the caste system.

I'll be back.

How shall we respond?

This strikes me as very Christian - not in the sense of evangelism, but in the sense of stewardship.

This is our Fathers' world. We are to tend to it, and care for it.

We are all created in His image. Shouldn't we strive to "set free those who are oppresed"?

The proposal of the writer of this article seems to me to follow these directions.

What say you?

How dare you actually read what i write!

Remember that last post about walking away from blogging?

Never mind.

Here is a comment I got from Sandra on my last post, and my response:

At 8:15 PM, January 30, 2006, Sandra said...
We all struggle with the issues of time, talents, gifts...how do we use them, when, where, to the greatest good...

The men you mentioned in your next to last post...you questioned if they are now using their God given gifts & talents to their fullest advantage because they either felt lead to go in a different direction or chose to go in a different direction.

You asked, "But, I think the whole thing does raise the issue I started with: as Christians, what is our responsibility in using our gifts and talents for the world at-large?"

And you? You have a talent for writing as a Christian father. Should you narrow your world and stop writing your blog?

Your honesty will be missed as will your writing and the heart cries. God bless you, yours and the work of your hands in whatever direction you go.

May the worst of 2006 be from the best of 2005. Agape & Shalom...

Sandra @ Thistle Cove Farm

My Response:
Sandra,

Ouch. But, thanks for the painful reminder of my own words. That's the blessing/curse of the blogosphere: accountability for what we said.

You have also convinced me to write again.

It's not about me, at all. It's about a chance to touch someone else's life with a bit of truth about this God we serve. How can I walk away from that?

Thank you.

-Steve

Life is very busy, and posting may be light, but the point is what God does with this, and who He brings to these postings.

So...

Let the blogging (re)begin!!

Goodbye for now

Not many (if any) will probably read this, but it seems unfinished to just stop posting, and say nothing.

I haven't posted in ages, and will not in the near future.

A couple of reasons:
First, life with 4 boys is busy! They and my wife need me more than the blogosphere.
If/when things settle down more, we'll see about some posting. Right now, other priorities beckon.

Second, my original purpose for blogging was getting muddied. I was less and less writing about how God touches our lives, and more and more just about stuff. There are pleny of more interesting stuff writers than me. Go find them.

I guess that's all for now. I will still be a blog reader, and sometimes commenter, but not so much a writer.
Writing is hard for me. The long pauses between thoughts don't show up on the written page (screen?), but they take their toll on me.

May you all see the fingerprint of God as you walk through this life.

Back from a long break, with a question

Sorry for the long gap in posting! A spate of sick kids (having 4 young boys is like living in a giant petrie dish), and the busy wind-down at school, left me with a sense of nothing to say.

But.

My buddy Alan sent me an email that sparked a long response, and I thought it was interesting enough to post, and posited a question that I would be interested in any responses you all may have.

I all started when I sent Alan some Calvin and Hobbes comics about snowmen.

Here is Alan's response, and then mine to him:


Steve;

You made my day. Is there no way to get Watterson to draw again????????

-Alan


Alan;

Interesting question.
Let me posit this: if you are a Christian, and you have a talent, are you obligated to use it for the greatest good for the greatest number?

I don't know if Bill Watterson is a Christian, but I have read articles that indicate that he now lives in his boyhood home of Chagrin Falls, Ohio (great name!), and paints landscapes with his dad. He's rich, living an idyllic life, and has turned his back on conspicuous fame. Not a bad life. I would take it, given the chance.

But.

I am a Christian, and live not just for myself.

If it was up to me, I'd put the thumb screws to him, and get him to draw Calviin and Hobbes again, but is that what is best for him? If he was a Christian, would there be any moral weight incumbent upon him to draw it again?

For a real life example, take Tim Downs. In the 80's, he had a comic strip called Downstown. It was GREAT! Smart, funny, a Christian worldview without being preachy, and sydicated all over the nation. He quit, and now goes around to Christian groups and speaks about stuff (I think relationship stuff - what a shocker in the Christian community), and has written some books. He surely thinks that this is what God has called him to do, but as an outsider to that, I keep on wondering if he's wasting a gift that was infusing the general culture with salt and light.

Now, my view on Tim Downs or Bill Watterson is definately colored with selfishness. But, I think the whole thing does raise the issue I started with: as Christians, what is our responsibility in using our gifts and talents for the world at-large?

Talk to you soon,
Steve

Reason # 4,386 why 3 year olds are great

The other day my 3 year old son and I were wishing mom a fond farewell as she headed off to do some errands.
He was doing a typical kid thing: he didn't want to go back inside the house, so he was stalling with all his waskally ways.
In this case, he wanted me to sit down on the sidewalk, so he could sit on my lap and wave goodbye to mommy.

Fine.
Car pulls away, time to get up and go inside.

But wait, dad! Let's look at the clouds! (stalling technique #43 in the Kids Book of Parent Manipulation, 1,256th edition)

Now, here's what got me laughing.

He said - as he was looking up, doing the I-see-the-clouds-looking-like-something thing - "Look daddy! Mashed potatoes!"



PostScript: Every kid has something about them that makes you stop, and wonder what really IS going on inside that head. For Mr. 3 year old, it's the fact that I still don't know if he was innocently making the comment, and it turned out to be so lacking in guile that it was funny, or that he knew exactly what he was doing, and the joke was intentional. If it's the latter option, Yipes!

I am not worthy

As I've mentioned lots of times, I have four young sons. My love for them is an ache, not a warm, fuzzy thing. It is a fierce love. I have had the "Mr. T" attitude of protecting them: "I pity the fool who would try to mess with them".

So now, I am left standing here, realizing just how far my puny love falls short.

I read this, and realize, I am not worthy.

My puny love falls short when confronted with the mighty love of God - the depth and strength of that love, as it reaches out from a greiving mother to the man who killed her children, leaves me with no words worthy of that devine moment.

At times like this, when I see just how shallow I am, how far short I fall, I think of a phrase from a Bruce Cockburn song which sums things up in a visually rich metaphor: shipwrecked at the stable door.

Fascinating...

I stumbled across this, and I can't help thinking that a great novel or movie could be made from some of this.

Check this out.

The resting place of Noah's Ark...

A monestary struck by lightning...

In a nearby city, the tomb of Noah...

Jews, Christians, Muslems all with an interest...

There's a story here. Who will tell it?

Abraham's Test

OK, so here's my take on (one possible reason) why God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, and what we can take from it.

God didn't need the test. He is omniscient, he knows everything. He knew Abraham would do it. He wasn't testing Abraham to see if he would.

Abraham needed the test.

Specifically, he needed to know that he was willing to follow God anywhere, and do anything God requested.

Remember, Abraham had a habit of lying to save his skin, trying to short-cut around God to get a child, and generally taking the easy way out of most jams. By this time, he had probably changed, but how did he know he wouldn't bail again when things got tough? God gave Abraham a chance to prove it - to himself.

Abraham walked away from the mountain with a certitude set in stone that he would never run ashamed from God again. He would never lie to anyone to try and save his skin. He had really changed. This was the final proof.

Sometimes I wonder if God doesn't do this to us all - force us to face up to an issue, not because He needs us to, but because we need us to - to show us what we're made of, and what we're capable of. To show us that the change we think we see within us is, in fact, also manifest on the outside.

What do I need to know about myself? At this point, that's between me and God. I know that I am very good at running from conflict, and avoiding issues. I also know that when I do confront things I have been avoiding, things in my life open up.

I need to know what I'm made of.
I don't want to hurt enough to find out.