S-A-H D Lesson #7

Stay-At-Home Dad Lesson #7: Baby Einstein is ridiculous.

We borrowed a Baby Einstein DVD from the library, popped it in, stuck Nolan in front of the TV, and watched what would happen.

We were stunned.

It was mesmerizing! It was beautiful! It was........ ridiculous.

On the DVD we watched, it was just normal everyday stuff moving around to some classical music. I listed some examples of what I saw on the screen below.

I saw...

• A toy turning around in circles.
• A flashing light glimmering off a shiny object.
• A little train going around a track.
• Liquid dripping out of a bottle.
• Hand puppets moving across the screen.
• A girl playing a toy piano.
• A girl playing a toy saxophone.
• A girl playing a toy drum.
• Balls rolling across the screen.
• An adult hand stacking blocks.
• Plastic toys spinning around.

All of these scenes were simple, basic, normal things that I could have done with everyday objects right in front of him. Baby Einstein is nothing special. It's just typical, everyday stuff.

I understand there are some situations where just putting your kid in front of the TV for a long period of time would be helpful, but I know that some people actually consistently show these DVDs to their babies because they think it will make them smarter. Ridiculous.

All you need to do is spend time with your child, play with them, and show them interesting things that they have never seen before. Develop a relationship with your child. Get to know them. Find out what they like. Take a variety of objects in your home and show it to your child so they learn about the world. Have them touch it, put it in their mouth, and discover new things around them. All these will do wonders for their future.

Both Are Winners: Steelers vs Yankees

It is an interesting experience living in Portland. Because we do not have a professional football or baseball team, we get a wide variety of sports fans of cities from all over the country.

For example, I have lived in Portland for the large majority of my life. However, I am a die-hard Cleveland Indians fan because my mom's family lives in northeastern Ohio. At the same time, I am a Seattle Seahawks fan because I began to appreciate football when my college friends introduced it to me when I lived up there.

I have recently encountered a large number of Pittsburgh Steelers fans. This has baffled me because of the size of Pittsburgh. Its population is around 313,000 people. That's it. And as for Pittsburgh's greater metropolitan area, it's roughly the same size as Portland's (about 2 million). How can it be that I look around and find so many Steelers fans when the city is relatively small.

I also see a lot of New York Yankees fans. Now this actually makes sense! New York City's metropolitan area is approximately 19 million. It is very understandable that the country's largest city would have the greatest number of fans for their team. So I would certainly expect to see a lot of Yankee fans here in Portland.

So...why do I see so many Steelers fans?

I discovered the answer when I looked at the number of championships won by each team. The Yankees have won the most number of World Series (27) and the Steelers have won the most number of Superbowls (6). It seems as though people are fans of sports teams that win often.

This makes sense to me. I can understand why people would want to be fans of a team that wins more often than it loses. Winning feels good. Losing is hard. I know that losing is hard because I am a Cleveland Indians fan. We have lost a lot more than we have won over the past few decades. Many heartwrenching losses.

Still, it makes me think about how people so desperately want to be winners. They don't want to fail. I think this is a normal, natural desire built into our design as humans. God wants us to strive for our very best and He wants us to follow a winner. It makes sense why so many of us are fair-weather fans. Why so many little boys pretend to be superheroes when they are growing up. If our desire is to follow the best, then that seems like a perfect design to follow Jesus. His perfection will always something that people will try to follow--just like a sports team that wins championships.

Money Problems

After just watching the movie Maxed Out, as well as having volunteered at low-income schools and with the local homeless population, I am realizing more and more how many people in the world are in need of help with finances. The main thing that I took away from the movie was that there are many people in this world who are suffering with finances so much that they are actually willing to commit suicide in order to deal with the pain.

The film blamed the credit card companies for family debt. It's true, they are a greedy bunch who get the majority of their profits from feeding off those who are uneducated. However, it is a two-way street. Those uneducated people are actually responsible for their actions. And that is what makes me so sad. I feel sorry for those that get suckered in, making mistakes when they really don't know any better.

God has blessed my life with financial resources. My parents have been great examples showing the importance of saving money, my father has taught me much wisdom regarding financial responsibility, and I happen to live in a country where it is relatively easy to get a well-paying job. Jen and I certainly are having our fair share of money problems recently, but we have always paid our bills on time and have great credit ratings. If we borrow money from someone, we make sure to pay them back. We have a budget and keep track of where every single dollar and penny goes. We often are living paycheck-to-paycheck, but I still believe that we are very rich indeed.

Jesus tells us that we must be good stewards (Luke 12:42-48). He says that of those who have been given much, much will be required of them. Right now, Jen and I don't have much money to give away. I certainly wish we did. That is one thing that I keep telling Jen repeatedly, "When we have more money, years from now, I want to give it away to people who really need it." Thankfully, she shares my passion for helping those who are less fortunate.

But what do we do now? All of our money is going to savings and paying back student loans. When I think of people in our neighborhood who don't know how to be financially responsible, it makes me think of something that I can give others: my time. Right now I am training to be a school teacher. What better resource can I have to share with others than by teaching them? I can teach others about how to budget money, how to save, and how to pay off debt.

This is what the church is for. The church is supposed to be a group of Christians that help out the people in the community who are in need. So many more Christians ought to be giving their time and/or money away to people in need. That is what Jesus told us to do (Mark 10:17-31). I love teaching kids and I am excited to be a school teacher soon. However, this financial crisis is a big weight on the shoulders of parents and I want to help them too.

I don't have anything else to say...I'm just going to post this and then search online for ways to help through my church and through my community. I hope that you'll find ways to help those less fortunate than yourself too. You can do it! There are so many out there who need your help!

Image from planyourspending.com

New Teacher Blog

I have decided to separate my two lives: Teacher life from Personal life. For professional reasons, I want to have my own blog as a teacher.

On my teacher blog (riedlteach.blogspot.com), I will put the posts about book recommendations for kids (such as A Single Shard and The Mouse and the Motorcycle) as well as other announcements once I become a full-time teacher. On my personal blog (this site), I will continue to write about personal thoughts on life and relatively regular family updates. "Kid Quotes" and "Teaching Tips" will stay here on my personal site since that is included in my personal reflections about life.

So if you enjoy reading about specific recommendations for kids and want to keep up on my work as a teacher, check out Riedlteach.com and my accompanying teacher blog! Thanks.

Riedlblog labels: Teaching, Books, Kids

A Single Shard

A Single Shard, by Linda Sue Park, is a great book I read for class and put together a memory box for. The book is about an orphaned homeless boy in 12th century Korea who begins working for an old potter. The boy, Tree-ear, wants the old man, Min, to teach him how to make a pot, but Min explains that he only would teach his son, who happened to have already died. Eventually Tree-ear proves his worth and the old man considers him his son.

It was a great story, simple and straightforward. I loved the setting (small coastal 12th century Korean town), which is different from many books I have read. It gives an interesting perspective on what life may have been like for a homeless orphan in that time period. I especially enjoyed the relationship between Min and Tree-ear and how it developed/matured throughout the story. Great storytelling as it held my interest and made me think. However, at the same time, the story is lighthearted and fun.

Random thoughts after reading:

• Can connect the book with activities in the classroom, like pottery/clay molding art, talking about different types of family structure (orphans), discussing other cultures, etc.
• I enjoyed the relationship development the best: between Tree-ear, Min, and his wife. I love family stories.

The memory box I put together is pictured here. It is simply a collection of various items I found around my house and each item has some significance to the story. Great for easy presentations.


Riedlblog labels: Books, Teaching

The Mouse and the Motorcycle

The Mouse and the Motorcycle, by Beverly Cleary, is the first of Cleary's books that I have read. It is about Keith, a boy with a toy motorcycle, and a mouse. Keith spends the weekend in a motel room and befriends Ralph (the mouse living in the wall), who wants to ride the toy motorcycle. Ralph gets into predicaments as he ventures away from his home on the motorcycle.

The book was very well written and easy to read. It only took me two hours to read through the entire book. I absolutely love this book because of how adventurous Ralph is, as well as how creative Beverly Cleary was by inventing "mouse language" and allowing the motorcycle to be powered by Ralph making "vrroomm vrroomm" sounds with his voice. So cute.

Random thoughts after reading:

• Great life lessons in this book regarding friendship, forgiveness, responsibility, and the importance of family.
• For an art project/activity in the classroom, I would have my future students make a map of where Ralph traveled throughout the story.
• I loved how Ralph had his own family and he was the adventurous one of all of them. Made me think of it like a real human family and how there are many kids like that.

Riedlblog labels: Books, Teaching

C.S. Lewis' Letters to Children

C.S. Lewis' Letters to Children, edited by Lyle W. Dorsett and Marjorie Lamp Mead, includes a brief introduction describing Lewis' childhood history. The rest of the book is a chronological list of selected letters to children that he wrote over the years. Lewis spent time every morning writing responses to all of the letters he received. The time span of these letters to his younger readers dates from 1944 to his death in 1963.

I absolutely love this book. I had already felt a connection with C.S. Lewis after reading Mere Christianity, but after reading this and realizing his love for kids as well as his own childishness, I think he's even more awesome. His humor is subtle and easy to miss, and it is especially funny to imagine the kids reading the letters. But most of all, I enjoyed his heartfelt responses to those who loved his books. He is honest, respectful, and doesn't talk down to the kids.

Random thoughts after reading:

• I love how much he integrated his faith into his letters, like asking the kids to keep him in their prayers.
• After hearing Lewis write to the kids about the Narnia series, it has driven me to read the series on my own during my break between semesters.
• I can use this book to motivate my future students to write to their favorite authors. Could make it a class activity.
• C.S. Lewis is a great example of a man that thinks little about himself and lots about others: specifically the little kids anticipating a letter back from their favorite author.

Riedlblog labels: Books, Teaching

Dirty Microwave from The Office

In Season 5 of The Office, the episode "Frame Toby" exemplifies something God has been teaching me recently. In this episode, Pam finds the microwave ridiculously messy after the previous user didn't clean it up. She decided to write an anonymous note to express her disappointment at the lack of respect for others by leaving it dirty. The ironic thing is that the majority of the co-workers agreed that the note about the mess was actually more offensive than the original mess itself.

I totally did this once with my roommates a few years ago when I was a bachelor. I was so pissed off that they didn't clean the dishes in the kitchen up to my standards, so I left a note for them instructing them the "correct" way to clean up. Oh man. They weren't happy.

After that experience and watching the same thing backfire for Pam, I have come to realize that I cannot expect others to do things the way I want them to. I cannot control the actions of others. Now, if I want something done a certain way, I had better be willing to do it myself.

However, that isn't the end of it. So often I have ended up cleaning someone else's mess out of anger and annoyance. I just wished in that moment that whoever made the mess was right there with me so I could give them a piece of my mind. But that's okay, since I'm cleaning up after someone else, I must still be doing a good thing, right? (Wrong.)

This past Sunday, Heather Thomas discussed 1 Corinthians 13 and how actions are meaningless without love. Jesus came to be a servant to us messy rebels, but He wasn't spiteful. He was loving. Even though so many people left him a ridiculously dirty microwave, Jesus was still patient and kind. He didn't envy or brag that He was cleaner than others. Jesus wasn't ever rude to them. He didn't get angry easily, but instead looked after the needs of others before Himself by cleaning up the mess without complaining. And He didn't ever keep track of how many times someone made the mess.

Too bad I can't say those things about myself. How often I do "good" things without a loving heart. Sadly, when I do that, my actions are worthless. Thankfully, Jesus is working in my life to change my heart to be more like His.

Riedlblog label: TV

Image from wikipedia.com

Marley & Me

We finished watching Marley & Me this past weekend. I enjoyed the movie, but I didn't connect with it as much as Jen did. She had dogs growing up and I did not. However, I still realized how important Marley was to the family. He was a family member just like anyone else in the house and they didn't want to just get rid of him because he was a pain.

At the end of the movie John Grogan said this:

"A dog has no use for fancy cars or big homes or designer clothes. A waterlogged stick will do just fine. A dog doesn't care if you are rich or poor, clever or dull, smart or dumb. Give him your heart and he'll give you his. How many people can you say that about? How many people can make you feel rare and pure and special? How many people can make you feel extraordinary?"

It is so true. How often I forget how God can use me to bless other people. How often I forget that God can use me to make others feel special and extraordinary. That is something I need to remember and I need to make sure my selfishness doesn't get in the way of God's desire to use me to help others who are in need.

Riedlblog label: Movies

Highlights from Week 1

Week 1 of graduate school is completed. The overwhelming feeling has passed. Many more weeks to go. I have realized that this program is certainly what it was advertised to be. It rids you of your social life. As it did me and mine.

But I'm pumped because we've been having fun doing projects, reading kids' books, and learning about many aspects of being a teacher. Lots and lots of reading. I'm glad I'm enjoying the material! Textbooks as well as kids' literature. Here are a couple highlights from my first week:

The Donut Chef is such a cute picture book that I randomly found on the shelf in the library. It was published just last year and all the illustrations were done with computer graphics. Beautifully designed images. The book is about a chef that starts a donut shop, another chef opens his donut shop next door, and they go head to head trying to out-do each other. Great book about competition and learning that sometimes quality is better than quantity. And the book rhymes too!

My Friend Rabbit is a Caldecott winner, published in 2002. It is a very simple picture book that tells of the importance of staying loyal to a good friend even though trouble follows him. There are very few words in the book--just about 11 sentences total--which allows for great storytelling through the illustrations. A quick read, fun story, and clear life lesson at the end makes this a keeper.

The Shack

The Shack by William P. Young

I thought The Shack was a great book. I don't understand why Pastor Mark thought the story was about the Trinity, because it wasn't. The story was about forgiveness after a time of tragedy. For those of you who haven't read it, a quick summary: Mack is a father of a daughter who gets kidnapped and murdered while on a camping trip. Deep down he begins to hate and blame God because of what happened. God decides to meet Mack face-to-face as the three persons of the Trinity. During the weekend while spending time together, Mack learns to forgive and get past the tragedy that happened. He learns to love again and accept what has happened.

I think the main reason that Driscoll and Challies is suggesting that Christians (especially young Christians) shouldn't read the book is because many Christians are proclaiming this to be the best thing since sliced bread. I agree that believers should not hold this up higher than Scripture and say, "We can finally understand the doctrine of the Trinity now because William P. Young described it so beautifully!" That would be a mistake. This is just one guy's interpretation of it, so we should treat it as only that.

Something great to take away from the book (in my opinion) is to see how Mack, the protagonist, develops a hatred of God because He "let" his daughter be kidnapped and murdered. It's completely understandable why someone in that situation would hate God. However, this book gives a great picture of the goodness that God pours out to us even when there is so much evil in the world. Mack wrestles with God through conversation and it is good to see God's patience and compassion for him.

To see Mack forgive his daughter's killer and come into a deeper relationship with God after his daughter's death is the reason that I love this book. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this book because of the controversy regarding its Biblical basis on specific parts of the story. But if you make sure to keep the authority of the Bible as your foundation and realize that this is just one man's understanding of God, then this book might be insightful for you as it was for me.

Mere Christianity

Whew! What a read. I am exhausted after reading this. Mere Christianity, written by C.S. Lewis, is an intense run through of the Gospel from his theological viewpoint. Adapted from a series of BBC radio talks during World War II, it is considered to be Christian apologetics classic.

I didn't have many problems with this book. A couple of his arguments I didn't believe were as strong as he thought they were. For example, on page 20, he argued that a person cannot behave decently by doing things that benefit society because, as he states, "'society' after all only means 'other people'." I believe that "myself" is included in "society," which would debunk his reasoning for why someone "ought to be unselfish" because someone who cares about society is not necessarily thinking unselfishly. But this is only a minor issue in my opinion, and I love most all of his other viewpoints on why Christianity is the right way to live life.

I love the way that C.S. Lewis started general and gradually went deeper and deeper. His intellect and ability to explain his stance with analogies is very entertaining and enlightening. It was a very tough read and I don't believe that I would have understood most of it if I read it a few years ago. This book is not for everyone. For some people it might just seem like an intellectual brick wall...which is okay. To others, it might deepen their understanding of the world around them, like it did for me.

I knew I would love this book from the first moment I read the Preface. His clarity, boldness, and orderliness is refreshing. I don't really know what to say in this post other than that. So I will finish by listing a handful of my favorite quotes from the book:

It begins to look as if we shall have to admit that there is more than one kind of reality; that, in this particular case, there is something above and beyond the ordinary facts of men's behaviour, and yet quite definitely real--a real law, which none of us made, but which we find pressing on us. (p.20)

Besides being complicated, reality, in my experience, is usually odd. ... Reality, in fact, is usually something you could not have guessed. That is one of the reasons I believe Christianity. ... It is not the sort of thing anyone would have made up. It has just that queer twist about it that real things have. (p.41-2)

Why, then, did God give [us] free will? Because free will, though it makes evil possible, is also the only thing that makes possible any love or goodness or joy worth having. (p.48)

...the really foolish thing that people often say about [Jesus]: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg--or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. (p.52)

Now repentance is no fun at all. ... It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for thousands of years. It means killing part of yourself, undergoing a kind of death. In fact, it needs a good man to repent. And here comes the catch. Only a bad person needs to repent: only a good person can repent perfectly. The worse you are the more you need it and the less you can do it. The only person who could do it perfectly would be a perfect person--and he would not need it. ... But the same badness which makes us need it, makes us unable to do it. Can we do it if God helps us? Yes, but what do we mean when we talk of God helping us? ... When you teach a child writing, you hold its hand while it forms the letters: that is, it forms the letters because you are forming them. We love and reason because God loves and reasons and holds our hand while we do it. Now if we had not fallen, that would be all plain sailing. But unfortunately we now need God's help in order to do something which God, in His own nature, never does at all--to surrender, to suffer, to submit, to die. Nothing in God's nature corresponds to this process at all. So that the one road for which we now need God's leadership most of all is a road God, in His own nature, has never walked. ...But supposing God became a man--suppose our human nature which can suffer and die was amalgamated with God's nature in one person--then that person could help us. He could surrender His will, and suffer and die, because He was man; and He could do it perfectly because He was God. (p.56-8)

One of the marks of a certain type of bad man is that he cannot give up a thing himself without wanting every one else to give it up. That is not the Christian way. An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons--marriage, or meat, or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning. (p.78-9)

We might think that the 'virtues' [prudence, temperance, justice, fortitude] were necessary only for this present life--that in the other world we could stop being just because there is nothing to quarrel about and stop being brave because there is no danger. Now it is quite true that there will probably be no occasion for just or courageous acts in the next world, but there will be every occasion for being the sort of people that we can become only as the result of doing such acts here. ... The point is that if people have not got at least the beginnings of those qualities inside them, then no possible external conditions could...make them happy with the deep, strong, unshakable kind of happiness God intends for us. (p.80-1)

If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. (p.86)

A Christian society is not going to arrive until most of us really want it: and we are not going to want it until we become fully Christian. I may repeat 'Do as you would be done by' till I am black in the face, but I cannot really carry it out till I love my neighbour as myself: and I cannot learn to love my neighbour as myself till I learn to love God: and I cannot learn to love God except by learning to obey Him. (p.87)

Some of us who seem quite nice people may, in fact, have made so little use of a good heredity and a good upbringing that we are really worse than those whom we regard as fiends. Can we be quite certain how we should have behaved if we had been saddled with the psychological outfit, and then with the bad upbringing, and then with the power, say, of Himmler? That is why Christians are told not to judge. We see only the results which a man's choices make out of his raw material. But God does not judge him on the raw material at all, but on what he has done with it. (p.91)

...the right direction leads not only to peace but to knowledge. When a man is getting better he understands more and more clearly the evil that is still left in him. When a man is getting worse he understands his own badness less and less. A moderately bad man knows he is not very good: a thoroughly bad man thinks he is all right. This is common sense, really. You understand sleep when you are awake, not while you are sleeping. You can see mistakes in arithmetic when your mind is working properly: while you are making them you cannot see them. You can understand the nature of drunkenness when you are sober, not when you are drunk. Good people know about both good and evil: bad people do not know about either. (p.93)

Before we can be cured we must want to be cured. Those who really wish for help will get it; but for many modern people even the wish is difficult. It is easy to think that we want something when we do not really want it. A famous Christian long ago told us that when he was a young man he prayed constantly for chastity; but years later he realised that while his lips had been saying, 'Oh Lord, make me chaste,' his heart had been secretly adding, 'But please don't do it just yet.' (p.99)

After each failure, ask forgiveness, pick yourself up, and try again. Very often what God first helps us towards is not the virtue itself but just this power of always trying again. ... This process trains us in habits of the soul which are more important still. It cures our illusions about ourselves and teaches us to depend on God. (p.101)

The monstrosity of sexual intercourse outside marriage is that those who indulge in it are trying to isolate one kind of union (the sexual) from all the other kinds of union which were intended to go along with it and make up the total union. (p.104-5)

If people do not believe in permanent marriage, it is perhaps better that they should live together unmarried than that they should make vows they do not mean to keep. (p.106)

There ought to be two distinct kinds of marriage: one governed by the State with rules enforced on all citizens, the other governed by the Church with rules enforced by her on her own members. (p.112)

Even while we kill and punish we must try to feel about the enemy as we feel about ourselves--to wish that he were not bad, to hope that he may, in this world or another, by cured: in fact, to wish his good. That is what is meant in the Bible by loving him: wishing his good, not feeling fond of him nor saying he is nice when he is not. (p.120)

Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. (p.122)

As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you. (p.124)

Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people call 'humble' nowadays: he will not be a sort of greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a little envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.
If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realise that one is proud. And a biggish step, too. At least, nothing whatever can be done before it. If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed. (p.128)

Do not waste time bothering whether you 'love' your neighbour; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. (p.131)

We have to be continually reminded of what we believe. Neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind. It must be fed. And as a matter of fact, if you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have been reasoned out of it by honest argument? Do not most people simply drift away? (p.141)

Whenever you find any statement in Christian writings which you can make nothing of, do not worry. Leave it alone. There will come a day, perhaps years later, when you suddenly see what it meant. (p.144)

Christ offers something for nothing: He even offers everything for nothing. In a sense, the whole Christian life consists in accepting that very remarkable offer. But the difficulty is to reach the point of recognising that all we have done and can do is nothing. ... Thus if you have really handed yourself over to Him, it must follow that you are trying to obey Him. But trying in a new way, a less worried way. Not doing these things in order to be saved, but because He has begun to save you already. (p.147)

Another difficulty we get if we believe God to be in time is this. Everyone who believes in God at all believes that He knows what you and I are going to do tomorrow. But if He knows I am going to do so-and-so, how can I be free to do otherwise? Well, here once again, the difficulty comes from thinking that God is progressing along the Time-line like us: the only difference being that He can see ahead and we cannot. Well, if that were true, if God foresaw our acts, it would be very hard to understand how we could be free not to do them. But suppose God is outside and above the Time-line. In that case, what we call 'tomorrow' is visible to Him in just the same way as what we call 'today'. All the days are 'Now' for Him. He does not remember you doing things yesterday; He simply sees you doing them, because, though you have lost yesterday, He has not. He does not 'forsee' you doing things tomorrow; He simply sees you doing them: because, though tomorrow is not yet there for you, it is for Him. You never supposed that your actions at this moment were any less free because God knows what you are doing. Well, He knows your tomorrow's actions in just the same way--because He is already in tomorrow and can simply watch you. In a sense, He does not know your action till you have done it: but then the moment at which you have done it is already 'Now' for Him. (p.170)

Perhaps the most important difference between Christianity and all other religions: that in Christianity God is not a static thing--not even a person--but a dynamic, pulsating activity, a life, almost a kind of drama. Almost, if you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance. (p.175)

The whole dance, or drama, or pattern of this three-Personal life is to be played out in each one of us: or (putting it the other way round) each one of us has got to enter that pattern, take his place in that dance. (p.176)

Christianity thinks of human individuals not as mere members of a group or items in a list, but as organs in a body--different from one another and each contributing what no other could. When you find yourself wanting to turn your children, or pupils, or even your neighbours, into people exactly like yourself, remember that God probably never meant them to be that. You and they are different organs, intended to do different things. On the other hand, when you are tempted not to bother about someone else's troubles because they are 'no business of yours', remember that though he is different from you he is part of the same organism as you. If you forget that he belongs to the same organism as yourself you will become an Individualist. If you forget that he is a different organ from you, if you want to suppress differences and make people all alike, you will become a Totalitarian. But a Christian must not be either a Totalitarian or and Individualist. (p.185-6)

Very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to start behaving as if you had it already. (p.188)

The Three-Personal God, so to speak, sees before Him in fact a self-centred, greedy, grumbling, rebellious human animal. But He says 'Let us pretend that this is not a mere creature, but our Son. It is like Christ in so far as it is a Man, for He became Man. Let us pretend that it is also like Him in Spirit. Let us treat it as if it were what in fact it is not. Let us pretend in order to make the pretence into a reality.' God looks at you as if you were a little Christ: Christ stands beside you to turn you into one. I daresay this idea of a divine make-believe sounds rather strange at first. But, is it so strange really? Is not that how the higher thing always raises the lower? A mother teaches her baby to talk by talking to it as if it understood long before it really does. (p.193-4)

...we must not be surprised if we are in for a rough time. When a man turns to Christ and seems to be getting on pretty well (in the sense that some of his bad habits are now corrected) he often feels that it would now be natural if things went fairly smoothly. When troubles come along--illnesses, money troubles, new kinds of temptation--he is disappointed. These things, he feels, might have been necessary to rouse him and make him repent in his bad old days; but why now? Because God is forcing him on, or up, to a higher level: putting him into situations where he will have to be very much braver, or more patient, or more loving, than he ever dreamed of being before. It seems to us all unnecessary: but that is because we have not yet had the slightest notion of the tremendous thing He means to make of us. (p.204-5)

Christian Miss Bates may have an unkinder tongue than unbelieving Dick Firkin. That, by itself, does not tell us whether Christianity works. The question is what Miss Bates's tongue would be like if she were not a Christian and what Dick's would be like if he became one. Miss Bates and Dick, as a result of natural causes and early upbringing, have certain temperaments: Christianity professes to put both temperaments under new management if they will allow it to do so. What you have a right to ask is whether that management, if allowed to take over, improves the concern. Everyone knows that what is being managed in Dick Firkin's case is much 'nicer' than what is being managed in Miss Bates's. That is not the point. To judge the management of a factory, you must consider not only the output but the plant. Considering the plant at Factory A it may be a wonder that it turns out anything at all; considering the first-class outfit at Factory B its output, though high, may be a great deal lower than it ought to be. No doubt the good manager at Factory A is going to put in new machinery as soon as he can, but that takes time. In the meantime low output does not prove that he is a failure. (p.210-1)

There is either a warning or an encouragement here for every one of us. If you are a nice person--if virtue comes easily to you--beware! Much is expected from those to whom much is given. ... But if you are a poor creature...do not despair. He knows all about it. ... He knows what a wretched machine you are trying to drive. Keep on. Do what you can. (p.215)

God became a man to turn creatures into sons: not simply to produce better men of the old kind but to produce a new kind of man. It is not like teaching a horse to jump better and better but like turning a horse into a winged creature. Of course, once it has got its wings, it will soar over fences which could never have been jumped and thus beat the natural horse at its own game. But there may be a period, while the wings are just beginning to grow, when it cannot do so: and at that stage the lumps on the shoulders--no one could tell by looking at them that they are going to be wings--may even give it an awkward appearance. ... It is not mere improvement but Transformation. (p.216, 8)

Already the new men are dotted here and there all over the earth. Some, as I have admitted, are still hardly recognisable: but others can be recognised. Every now and then one meets them. Their very voices and faces are different from ours: stronger, quieter, happier, more radiant. They begin where most of us leave off. They are, I say, recognisable; but you must know what to look for. They will not be very like the idea of 'religious people' which you have formed from your general reading. They do not draw attention to themselves. You tend to think that you are being kind to them when they are really being kind to you. They love you more than other men do, but they need you less. ... They will usually seem to have a lot of time: you will wonder where it comes from. When you have recognised one of them, you will recognise the next one much more easily. And I strongly suspect (but how should I know?) that they recognise one another immediately and infallibly, across every barrier of colour, sex, class, age, and even of creeds. In that way, to become holy is rather like joining a secret society. To put it at the very lowest, it must be great fun. (p.223)

The more we get what we now call 'ourselves' out of the way and let Him take us over, the more truly ourselves we become. (p.225)

Propaganda will be the real origin of what I regard as my own personal political ideas. I am not, in my natural state, nearly so much of a person as I like to believe: most of what I call 'me' can be very easily explained. It is when I turn to Christ, when I give myself up to His Personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own. (p.225-6)

Your real, new self (which is Christ's and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him. Does that sound strange? The same principle holds, you know, for more everyday matters. Even in social life, you will never make a good impression on other people until you stop thinking about what sort of impression you are making. Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it. The principle runs through all life from top to bottom. Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. (p.226)

Image from Google Book Search

The Jesus Storybook Bible

Ever wonder how to teach the Bible to young kids? Think they will just get bored with Jesus and rather watch something like Spongebob? Well, look no further! The Jesus Storybook Bible is just the book for you!

Our church's kids ministry recommended this book to us for use in the Sunday School classrooms. The main idea is this: A picture book that summarizes the main stories in the Bible while highlighting the importance of Jesus woven into each and every page. I couldn't wait to get my hands on one.

Jen bought one with a gift card we were saving for something special, and this sure was worth it! For the past month and a half, I read through the whole book with my wife right before we went to bed: One short story each night (of the 44 total stories). I guess you could say that I am excited to read this to my own kids some day, and I decided to practice on my wife. The pictures are so funny and the reading is perfect for kids. I use it at church with teaching my kids on Sunday too.

Come to think of it, it would actually be a great read for adults as well. Many adults haven't read through the entire Bible and often lose sight of the thread of Jesus throughout the entire Word. This is a great summarized look at how God purposefully made history to align with His Son humbly sacrificing Himself for us. Many adults miss the simplicity of the Gospel that this book displays.

I love this book. Avoid teaching the massive amounts of text, theology, and tedium to your kids. Instead, fill their story time with wonderful pictures, God-breathed stories, and Jesus-centered fun!

Image from Google Book Search

Consuming Jesus by Paul Louis Metzger

Consuming Jesus: Beyond Race and Class Divisions in a Consumer Church
by Paul Louis Metzger

I enjoyed this book. It stretched me to think about things I didn't really want to think about. Namely, thinking about serving the needy by working together with other churches.

The only problem I had with the book is that the first half of it was very theological. While not a problem if I was better trained in that area of study, it seemed difficult for me (and I think also difficult for the average person) to grasp some of the advanced terminology and ideas. As a result, I felt somewhat confused in the first chapters. For example, he uses terms like "fundamentalist-evangelical heritage," "modernist theology," "denominational seminaries," and "intensifying antagonism" all in the same sentence (p.18). While those terms may be relatively easy to understand by themselves, it slows me down significantly when jumbled together. It seems to me a bit difficult for a casual reader.

That being my only criticism, I thought there were many positives. Since there are so many topics in this book that I resonated with, I will simply list them by bolding the main points and provide an excerpt.

What struck me when reading this book was his huge desire to join the fragmented Church that exists in the world today. Churches need to unify, cooperate, and fulfill God's purpose in a wicked world.

Instead of pointing the finger at the secularists and materialists, we evangelicals need to point it more at ourselves. Jesus did not die to save us from liberals. He died to save us from ourselves. The prophets and the saints of old--I'm not speaking here of America's founding fathers--identified themselves with their sinful nation and asked God's forgiveness for their own wrongdoing as well as for that of the masses (see Ezra 9, Neh. 9; Dan. 9; see also 1 Pet. 4:17). Not only do we need to give ourselves on behalf of the poor, but we also need to be poor in spirit and seek God's forgiveness. Such humility will go a long way as we seek to address the race and class problems plaguing America.

As an evangelical, I struggle with materialism: I am too often fixated on wanting my kids to be well trained, my wife to love life, and my own finances to be in order. I am not often fixated on seeing the church family reordered in view of a nobler vision of being consumed by Jesus and consuming race and class divisions. The evangelical church, including me, must awaken to a missional existence and see itself as a peculiar people with a particular politics, an institution and a people whose mission includes shaping one another's lives through conversion and participation in the crucified body of the risen Jesus, being consumed by him, and consuming race and class divisions. (p.34)

The church should be the setting where Jesus' Good News can work in our lives.

Preachers must deal with problems and bad news from their pulpits--and in their ministries to their communities from the get-go. The Good News does not hide from our brokenness of hide our brokenness from us: the gospel deals with broken people and fallen conditions, and it addresses those human conditions by proclaiming Christ's transforming power. That is what makes it the Good News. Perhaps Baby Boomers do not wish to hear more bad news; but those reaching out to Generation X find that the young want to deal with their pain and brokenness--even on Sunday morning! The preaching and practice of a Martin Luther King, Jr., and a John Perkins do not skirt brokenness (nor do they revel in it, for that matter). Rather, their preaching and practice address our brokenness and pain in order to shape the beloved community in view of our everlasting hope: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream!" (p.52)

It is important for the church to be diverse and unified.

While we evangelicals should guard our strengths, we should critically engage our weaknesses. We should address structural evil as we recognize that individualism structures us negatively and often fosters the negative outcomes of homogeneous small groups. While I see the need for some homogeneous groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous, given the shared need for confidentiality and sensitivity to members' individual addictions, we need to be intentional about creating diversity groups that include members from different ethnic and economic subcultures in order to nurture sensitivity and build understanding and reconciliation among these groups. Lastly, we should address our own consumerist impulses. Rather than quickly leaving our consumer-oriented, homogeneous churches--thus becoming connoisseur Christians ourselves--we should do everything we can, working patiently and lovingly to become transforming agents, helping our own churches transform themselves from the inside out.

One last reason evangelicals have a hard time seeing these things and taking them to heart is the long-standing suspicion in many evangelical quarters of social involvement (as I have noted in the last chapter). But the gospel is social, and we must exhort the church to live out now what will one day be true in all creation, which is how Paul exhorted the Corinthians: he told them to restructure their socioeconomic arrangements in view of God's restructuring of human society through Christ's reconciling work, to which the Lord's Supper bears witness. The gospel promise offers energizing hope that mobilizes the church to participate in God's eschatological future, which has already dawned in Christ's mighty acts on our behalf in history. We need to open our eyes to the triune God's multifaceted kingdom work in our midst, which will expand the homogeneous small group's vision so that it becomes the fellowship of the King. (p.66)

Stereotypical materialistic churches are what we will resort to if we aren't gospel-focused.

Some homogeneous units that are meeting behind closed doors in suburban or exurban megachurches act out the concept of Sartre's play No Exit, which depicts hell as three self-consumed individuals who are locked up in a room with no escape and whose eyelids cannot close. These Christians gather there, with eyes wide open, some of them hanging out around the coffee bar to check out the possibilities for future dates, perhaps in hopes of building cozy Christian homes. Some others plan evangelistic ski trips to Vail, with the only aim of showing their non-Christian homogeneous friends that Christians can have fun, too. The predominance of this mindset in many evangelical circles today makes it very difficult to see how diabolical this orientation is, and it blinds us to the fact that by turning inward we close ourselves off to making an exit and entering into true freedom.

Those who look inward today are also often looking upward. While books that warn people not to get left behind when Christ returns may prompt some to put their homes in order and to give to the Master's cause, they may also be used by some as a stimulus to escape this world, to leave everything behind in order to build bigger homes and churches in the suburbs (or now, in the gentrified inner cities), to await that day when they are raptured to that great country club/ski resort/bistro in the sky. Can we even talk about personal holiness without also talking about holistic lifestyles? (p.98)

There is a big problem with outsiders not feeling welcome.

This missional orientation will include greater attention to what we wear and how we relate to the community around our church if we wish to have a sacramental and salt-and-light presence in the community. While it is certainly true of many "white" churches, I know of an African-American church in the inner city that is made up of middle-class commuter members who have virtually no connection with the community around their church. Members moved their families out of the community some time before for greener pastures as they became more affluent; now they come back only for Sunday morning worship services, and they are always very well dressed. The inner-city blacks and whites who have remained in the neighborhood cannot relate to them. An Anglo friend of mine who moved into that neighborhood and attended the church for some time told me that he had invited a black woman from the neighborhood several times to visit the church. Finally, she agreed to go to his church with him. But when he went to pick her up that Sunday morning, he had to wait for some time as she tried to make herself presentable. She finally appeared in a dress, but it didn't fit her. He could tell that she felt very awkward and uncomfortable, apprehensive that she would not fit in with their "dress code" and could not meet their social expectations. She never attended the church again. The problems we face are not simply white and black, but green as well (the separations of cash and class). (p.126)

Metzger explains ways that the church community can reconcile itself in a broken world:

Relocation:
"Individual church ministries need to get beyond their church walls." "Each assembly should be concerned for the total church in a given region, not just for those physically present."
Redistribution of Need:
"A humble spirit of giving and receiving will replace the haughty spirit of charity and snobbery toward the poor," which is something God is teaching me right now.
Redistribution of Responsibility and Blame:
"The church must re-envision its understanding of communal identity in view of its communal and co-missional God as involving solidarity with society at large." "Christians must take responsibility ... we are responsible."
Redistribution of Resources, Talents, and Goods:
"Churches in affluent communities must work together with churches in downtrodden communities to foster and maintain an 'incarnate' presence of healing and hope." "We all say that we hate poverty, and many of us try to relieve the suffering of the poor. But do we hate the conditions that make people poor?"
Redistribution of Ownership:
"Churches can work together in particular areas of need; that is, affluent and poor churches can together take ownership of depressed communities." "The key to explosive and long-term community-development vitality is to ensure that the people in a depressed community fully believe that they are responsible for repairing the foundations and walls of their community."
Redistribution of Glory:
"[1 Corinthians 3:5-7] must come to dominate the church's imagination and its discussions of church growth. It is not about you or me; nor is it about this or that church. In fact, it is not even, in the end, about the church of the city. It is about the Lord. Christ's all-consuming glory captured Paul's imagination, and it led Paul to seek cooperation between Christians in a given church and among churches. We can share with one another because God shares his glory with Christ, and Christ, as the incarnate agent of the communal and co-missional God in the world, shares it with us. As John 17:22 makes clear, 'I have given them the glory you gave me, that they may be one as we are one." (p.139-161).

Thankfully, he consistently states that the real solution for this issue is found in the Holy Spirit. Inward change in the hearts of Christians in the church is how a true community can thrive and mature.

It is God alone who can sustain us, coming to us through the indwelling and empowering Word and the Holy Spirit, the God who enlivens our practices, inspires our imaginations, and gives us hope to pursue beloved community in our own day. This community sees no divisions between race and class, between black and white and Asian-American and Native American, between rich and poor, between healthy and diseased, between young and old. Meeting us in our time of need as we stand firm in the struggle against the fallen powers of base consumerism in the church and beyond, this God will be with us always, even to the end of the age, and beyond it to the eternal dawning of the new age. (p.172)

I am very encouraged by Paul Louis Metzger's passion for seeing God's power in our hearts change things in the church. He is right on when he tells us that the best, most diverse community stems from Christ's redeeming change in our lives. There is a long journey ahead of us that we need to become more aware of in our pursuit toward unity in the church.

Baseball's Steroid Issue with Christians

For those of you fascinated with high-profile Christian baseball players (like Andy Pettitte) and the Major League Baseball steroid controversy, read this article by C.J. Mahaney. Good stuff to think about.

Photo from mlb.com

Creator of LOST: What is a Mystery?

You have to check out this video (see below or click here). It is so funny and so true. One of the co-creators of LOST, J.J. Abrams, gives a little talk at TED about mystery. What he talks about is so integral to good storytelling, and that is exactly what solidifies LOST as one of the best tv shows ever. Good character development and mystery is what this show is all about.



If you haven't gotten into LOST, I highly recommend it. As would my wife. I got her into it and now she is obsessed too. We appreciate it because we can identify with it by connecting with the characters, as well as staying hooked because of the mystery.

Watch LOST on Thursdays @ 9pm (on the west coast) on ABC!

Image from abc.com

300 Sexy Abdominals

Last night we watched 300. So many sexy pectorals and abdominals. Pretty sure they didn't look like that way back in the day, but hey, I appreciate a fine specimen of the human body. And there were certainly plenty of them in this movie.

The movie had a good, simple plot...fighting for freedom and not kneeling down to false gods. It had simply amazing fight scenes...bloody, intense, and drenched in testosterone. Even the sex scene was relatively decent...and by decent, I mean that it was passionate lovemaking between a married man and woman (as opposed to adulterous sin).

While I was watching this movie, I found myself wanting to pick up a sword and a shield myself and start killing me some bad guys. After the movie, Jen and I were discussing the fact that this is the kind of movie that guys love. Why do most men love movies with fighting, violence, and war?

I believe that it's because men were created that way. Most people that know me see me as a relatively gentle, peaceful, non-physical type of guy. I have never been in a fist fight in my life. Well deep down I like to believe that I would beat down anybody who was hurting the ones that I loved. I have a real fighting side to me. It comes out when I watch movies like this. But is it really that wrong? Is it wrong to fight the bad guys? To stand up for justice and freedom? To protect my wife, and one day, my kids?

Too many men now-a-days have become lazy and sissy. Movies like this get me excited to fight for those that need to be protected, to fight against evil, and to fight for Jesus' name. I have this desire to fight deep inside of me, as a man. I don't want to ignore it. I want to use it for good, fighting against evil.


Images from rottentomatoes.com

Friends: All 10 Seasons

Last month we finally finished watching the entire collection of Friends. Quality show. I was originally skeptical, but that feeling quickly disappeared. Thinking that it was just another chick flick tv show that I wouldn't be interested in, I eventually remembered that I actually do enjoy chick flicks! I fell in love with these characters. Such a quality show.

What is great about this tv show is that all of these friends accepted each other. Let's look at the main characters:

• Ross got 3 divorces
• Chandler never fails at slipping in a bad-timed joke
  
• Monica is super anal about cleanliness
• Phoebe had her brother's triplets
• Rachel was a spoiled brat
• Joey was so dumb that he bent over and practically asked a guy to steal everything Chandler's and his apartment
  

Many people would get frustrated, weirded out, or overwhelmed with friends like these. Many would give up on them. Many would treat them poorly. But this group of friends loved each other better than most groups of friends I have ever known.

Jesus was a friend to screwed up people. He saw them in a different light than we often see our friends. He views them so much better. How can we be more accepting of our friends? How can we be more comforting in the times when we really don't want to be involved in their lives?

Images found here and here.

I Finished Reading My Dad's Book and...

Social pressures can really affect a person's attitude, behavior, or belief of a certain something. This often happens with opinions on works of art or literature that a family member shows another. I know many parents get crappy drawings or finger paintings from their kids and because they love their kid they think they'll be the next Picasso.

Well I'm sure it's likely that the reviews of my dad's books are not completely well-balanced and probably somewhat biased. I like to recognize the fact that I am aware of this bias because hopefully you'll understand that I try to look at this objectively and attempt to look past my awkward position of social confinement.

That being said, I think that The Sanctuary, recently written by my dad (Gary Riedl), was wonderful. It was creative, well researched, and most importantly it kept my attention. Fiction books, in my mind, are categorized within two groups: 1) They hold my attention, or 2) They are boring and worth throwing across the room. The Sanctuary held my attention as good as any Michael Crichton or Robin Cook novel.

The Sanctuary is the second book of his Tuball series, following Tuball The Lost City. I read the first book years ago and I helped him with the first few drafts, so I never actually read the final product. I should sit down and do that one of these days. However, the great thing about these books is that you don't necessarily need to read them in order. He designed it so that you could just pick up the sequel and start reading without feeling lost.

The series is focused on a teenager named Shem, the son of Noah. It's historical fiction about Shem's youthful adventures with his uncle to and from the city of Tuball. The books feature dual story lines, one in the past and one in present day. As we read through the story of Shem and his travels to unknown cities, we also make discoveries in the present day on archaeological pursuits with Dr. Witherspoon and his graduate student, Jamal.

There is so much that I appreciate about this book. It's got it all... adventure, action, romance, inner character struggle, realistic conflict, conversation, and even some theological debate. It's a book that you don't just read and enjoy, but it additionally makes you think and ponder life once you put it down.

Now, to be fair, my dad still is a new writer. He does make mistakes. I found some errors here and there and notified him of them, but he is very appreciative of the feedback. He has such a great passion and vision for where he wants to go with his writing that he would love to be able to do it full time for the rest of his life. And I think that he could do it, too. He has great writing skills and ideas that will only propel him further into the depth of writing. I'm serious when I say that after reading certain chapters, I closed the book and thought to myself, Wow, my dad is a really great writer! I am so excited to keep reading!

So, there you go. Take what you want from my little overview. Highly recommended. I can get you a signed copy, too. ;-)

Wii Are Distracted

We were very surprised to open up a Wii on Christmas Day a few weeks ago. My generous new in-laws shocked us with this amazing new video game system that both of us were excited to play with (although I was a bit more giddy than she was). Jen and I are both very thankful for this wonderful gift, especially because it's a fun thing to do when we have people over to our home to visit.

However, I must admit that video games are very distracting.

There are two reasons that I haven't bought a video game system since my Nintendo 64 in high school:

1. It's expensive.
   
2. It's time-consuming.

Reason 1 is out the window thanks to my new family, but I'm definitely going to have to work on Reason 2 by learning how to use my time wisely. How do I do that? How can I be more organized about the priorities in my life?

Answer: A Priority List.

It's important to keep track of your priority list (you have one even if you don't know it). Whatever it is that you do with yourself is a priority. It could be playing video games, spending quality time with your spouse, reading a book, watching tv, blogging, taking out the trash, knitting, cooking, eating ... these are all priorities. What we do with our day determines our priority list.

The good news is that we get to choose what we do with our day. I choose to love my wife. I choose to play video games. I choose to read. How I live my life is up to me.

So even though the Wii is fun, there are many other priorities I must invest time into. I don't want to become an old man wishing that I spent more time loving my wife or learning and growing instead of playing too much Wii.

Image from cnet.com