Another Christmas has come and gone, my 33rd here on this mortal coil. Like most people, this holiday season always brings about memories of when I was a child. Certain things stick out in my mind, things like…
… being at what was then Grandma and Grandpa Ginn’s house (now where my parents live), opening up the first Star Wars toy I can remember. It was an X-Wing, complete with stickers to simulate the moss of Dagobah. Regretted putting those stupid stickers on from the very beginning.
… what was probably my first Christmas at that house after we moved in, and we put the Christmas tree in the basement. Christmas morning I came downstairs to a Knight Rider big wheel that I rode all over the place. Something gnaws at the back of my head saying that I rode it down the stairs once, but surely I wouldn’t have been that stupid, would I?
… always having Christmas dinner (in Kansas, that means at noon) with my Dad’s family. As the years went on that family got progressively bigger and bigger, to the point where we had about 60 in one house one year.
… always having Christmas with Mom’s family the weekend before or after Christmas. This was fun because you were either getting presents early, or you had more presents to look forward to. Yes, I was a greedy little kid. Sue me.
… the clothes that I would often get from grandparents. They were very well meaning, but quite often they would pick out some phenomenally ugly stuff. Remember, this was the 80s and early 90s, so ugly takes on a whole new meaning. Occasionally they would hit a home run with one, but more often than not they would strike out and break the bat over your head.
… candlelight services at our church. It always seems like on of the most peaceful, serene times of year when the lights are out and the church is lit up only by candlelight. The most memorable was when I was 18 and Dad had some, er, difficulty blowing out the candle. I love my father, and I know he probably hates that story, but we laughed so hard that night. I’ll never forget that.
… the year we had pizza for Christmas dinner because I had sold everyone these stupid cards from Pizza Hut for a school fundraising thing. I think they were some kind of buy one, get one free thing that was unlimited. I don’t even remember what it was for, but my family dutifully ponied up for them, then proceeded to run Pizza Hut into the ground getting their free pizza. Never had that fundraiser again.
… playing pitch (a card game) or Trivial Pursuit with my mom’s family. The card games often involved accusations of cheating, mainly against my father and myself. There was also name calling, under-the-breath swearing, and out in the open swearing when someone lost. Oh, and laughter to the point of tears.
As I’ve gotten older, my memories shift from those of my extended family to those of my wife and our family. Memories like…
… our wedding. Our anniversary is December 14, and our wedding had some Christmas-ness to it, so that is always on my mind each year. And, weddings lead to honeymoons, which for us meant…
… Walt Disney World. You really can’t beat WDW at Christmastime. Collette’s dad spoiled us (ruined us, really) and paid for us to go to WDW for our honeymoon as a wedding gift. That turned into us wanting to go back constantly, and always at Christmas. The lights, the weather, and the magic were wonderful. Unfortunately, other people have discovered that as well and it’s a lot more crowded than it used to be. Still, a great place to celebrate the holidays.
… my own children. Ashlee’s first Christmas while we were living in Oklahoma. Alex’s first Christmas at the house we were renting in Kansas. Katie’s first Christmas last year, and David’s first Christmas just last week. Such great memories.
All in all, Christmas is probably the best time of year. I’m looking forward to next year already, but I’m also happy to be past the holiday season this year. I’m ready for the rest of winter, semester two of seminary, Easter, spring, storms, and summer to come back around.
I just got done taking the final for my Introduction to Apologetics class and I wanted to share some of the questions. Actually, I wanted to share the possible answers to the questions. This isn’t posting until Saturday so I can’t be accused of giving out the test to anyone.
According to Muhammad’s account, on his 40th birthday he had a vision on which he was given a message by the angel…
I don’t think this was one of Luther’s song lyrics.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses predicted the final judgment of the world to happen in 1975 which was said to be the…
100 year anniversary of the birth of the founder
2000 year anniversary of the birth of Christ
6,000 year anniversary of Eve’s first sin
beginning of disco
I think disco was a punishment on humans. I don’t think it’s the final judgment though. That’s country music.
The main message of the Baha’i is…
Islam is the only truth
All religious leaders were actually proclaiming the same God
Life is suffering
Big hair and jewelry is the key to spirituality
Obviously the Baha’i don’t believe the big hair and jewelry thing. That’s reserved for the people on TBN, right?
Daodejing is…
The Sacred Text of Morality
The Sacred Text of Harmony
The Sacred Text of Light
The Sacred Text of Wisdom
The Sacred Starbucks Drink Menu
It’s like they aren’t even trying anymore. I remember on the test prep stuff for the ACT they told you that there is always one ridiculous answer that you can remove right away. I don’t think they intended it to be that ridiculous.
John Hick, a Christian Theologian, has tried to merge the idea of reincarnation with Christianity by saying that reincarnated souls…
inhabit other planets
are born into a Christian family
return as amphibians
go into politics
No, I’m not going to show you the wrong one here. Take your pick, because the actual answer is actually just as crazy as the other options.
With his uncle, Muhammad worked alongside other members of his tribe in protecting [blank], a large black stone alleged to contain pagan idols.
the Ka’aba
the Khadijah
the Kabbalah
the Kasbah
the Kryptonite
No wonder Superman never messed with the Middle East. They were guarding the kryptonite! It all makes sense now!
I don’t highlight these to poke fun at my school at all. I think they were just having a good time with the test, which I see no problem in that. Honestly, of the four answers that were left it didn’t really make it any easier. Just good fun.
This is part of a larger article at Dr. Voddie Baucham’s blog. You should really read the whole thing, but this video is pretty funny. It seems the British understand how the system works better than we do.
While you’re at Dr. Baucham’s site, read some of his other stuff. He’s really good. His writing is excellent, but his live teaching goes way beyond that. He’s a wonderful speaker and a really genuinely nice man.
Reading the Wichita Eagle today, this story popped up at me. It was probably the big picture of all the computer monitors that made look at it first, but there was a sentence in the article that caught my eye.
This spring’s stormy weather has ignited a debate among the five Sedgwick County commissioners over whether the system should be upgraded sooner.
“This weather is becoming increasingly violent,” said Commissioner Gwen Welshimer. “It used to be we’d have small areas taken out. But, my gosh, the whole city of Greensburg, Chapman, Kansas State…”
“I think we’re fooling here with something we don’t understand, but let’s prepare for that. We’ve got to get on that now.”
The best statement she made was at the end. We don’t understand what is going on with the weather, but this is a knee-jerk reaction to a perceived threat. For many years, the possibility existed that a city would be hit by a tornado, and most of the time it didn’t happen. The odds were simply not in favor of it. Strong, large, long-track tornadoes typically occur in the Plains states, where there is a lot of land between cities. Just because they have hit more cities recently doesn’t mean anything has changed, it means that those cities are simply increasingly unlucky. We don’t know that large tornadoes have never hit those areas before because there weren’t many people living there 100, 200 years ago.
This is simply a politician trying to score easy points so that when she is up for reelection she can say “You like those storm sirens? I helped get those installed two years earlier.” The county would be better served by telling people to get weather radios and spending the money helping them to purchase and program them.
This statement in the comments perturbed me a bit as well.
Upgrading the sirens is nice, yes. But if you live in Kansas you live with the Tornado Warnings and the Siren. What really bothers me is how authorities are now using the cop out that the siren is ONLY for people who are outdoors. Thats (sic) crazy talk, when Tornado Warnings come at 3am the Sirens need to be loud enough to wake people so they take heed of the warning.
If the sirens were loud enough to wake everyone in the city at 3AM, the people living near the sirens would be deaf after they went off. How about accepting some personal responsibility and keeping an eye on the weather yourself.
I read two stories today that, as a parent, really made me crazy.
First, from Ottawa, Canada. A judge overturned the grounding (yes, read the article) of a 12-year-old girl. The girl was grounded by her father because she was told to stay off the Internet and she refused. Therefore, she was not allowed to go on a school trip and was grounded as punishment. Now, I’m no expert on Canadian law, but this seems to be a gross imposition on the rights of the parent. If I choose to not allow my child to play video games (and it’s happened), they don’t get to play video games. When they are on their own they can make up their own rules, but until then, I’ll do it for them. If I were a parent in Canada, I’d be concerned that this might become a ruling that other courts may use against them.
Secondly, we have this story from Gloucester, Massachusetts. The high school in Gloucester has experienced a baby boom, having 17 girls become pregnant. Out of a 1,200 student population, they typically average four. While there are larger issues with the pregnancies that I’ll let you get from the article, I wanted to focus on one particular aspect of it.
But by May, after nurse practitioner Kim Daly had administered some 150 pregnancy tests at Gloucester High’s student clinic, she and the clinic’s medical director, Dr. Brian Orr, a local pediatrician, began to advocate prescribing contraceptives regardless of parental consent, a practice at about 15 public high schools in Massachusetts.
…
The pair resigned in protest on May 30.
I’m sure that the district has some type of privacy policy for the children, so that they can expect to come in and take a pregnancy test without their parents finding out about it. However, if you start noticing some frequent fliers in there, don’t you think it’s time to let the parents know that their children are obviously engaging in some risky behavior? It’s not time to start handing out the pill to them without parental consent, it’s time to bring them in, tell their parents, and let the parents decide what they want the child to do. My children will have a reasonable expectation of privacy when they are older, but they will know that whatever they do is subject to my supervision at any time.
I’m sure that the underlying reason for most of these girls to become pregnant is because they don’t get enough love at home. That falls directly on the parents, and they will have to one day answer for that. The girls need to know that there are consequences to getting pregnant. As the older girl in the article says, “…it’s hard to feel loved when an infant is screaming to be fed at 3 a.m.” Believe me, we know around here.
I’ve been tagged to produce this as part of a 123 meme. Here are the rules for this fun little bit of Internet foolishness:
Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more (no cheating!)
Find page 123
Find the first five sentences
Post the next three sentences
Tag five people
So, the book that is nearest to me is “Christ and Culture” by H. Richard Neibuhr. It’s really a great book, and it’s taking me forever to get through it, mainly because it’s written by a former Yale theology professor. Big words, long sentences, great thoughts. Here’s the quote from the book, which is actually taken from Matthew 22:21 and Romans 13:1.
“Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. … The authorities are ministers of God.”
Yes, it’s four sentences. Call the Meme Police on me if you want.
This is part of Niebuhr’s larger thought of Christ being above culture, of people trying to create a synthetic view between Christ and the culture around them. This synthetic view tries to take into account that while we are under Christ, we are part of our culture, and we must have complete “awareness of the dual nature of our law, our end, and our situation.”
Actually, this page contains my favorite sentence in the book so far.
The New Testament contains no document that clearly express the synthetic view; but there are many statements in gospels and epistles which sound the motif or which can be interpreted, without violence to the text, as containing this solution of the Christ-and-culture problem. (emphasis mine)
That’s great stuff. “Without violence to the text”. How many authors do commit violence against the text of Scripture in order to make a point?
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