Of This & That

It has been a while since I have posted anything here. It is not for lack of ideas or issues to write and comment on. That said, it must be confessed there has been a certain lack of energy or enthusiasm to rush to print my pontifications on the latest cascading waves of news that have swept through the Evangelical church as well as the world at large. In an age of 30 second sound bites, news is here today and gone tomorrow.

Part of the ennui also has to do with the deja vu nature of the news cycle. How many fallen mega-church pastors have we heard about over the last umpteen years or more? How much political BS keeps repeating and repeating and repeating? What can you say that has not been said before, or at the issue in hand, others have already written about? Lord forgive me and deliver me from cynicism. With all that said, I will attempt to set forth a few thoughts.

Being a Deacon in an Evangelical Baptist church is interesting. Oddly enough, the greatest satisfaction I have from being a Deacon is in serving the Lord's Supper to the people of God. The tradition in our church is for the Deacons to serve the bread and cup, or more accurately in our case, the gluten free wafers and the trays holding the little cups of grape juice. The Communion assignments are rotated so that over time, a Deacon will have opportunity to serve the bread and cup to just about everyone in our congregation, I really enjoy and receive much satisfaction in the performing of that service,

There are of course, other duties and responsibilities I have as a Deacon. One of the questions we as a Deacon Council ask ourselves from time to time is, "Are we what we say we are, or are we what we do?" That tension comes from those responsibilities we have and perform that might more properly fall under the office of Elder. I am not convinced there are any churches that have a perfect form and organization for church government. I know there are some who like to make that claim, but from what I have seen, they doth protest to much. Nor am I convinced that the Bible and New Testament in particular, are as clear on how church government should be organized as some would have us believe.

Our church is a relatively large church, though not what I would call a mega-church. That larger size presents challenges in terms of ministering to the whole body. None of us want anyone to fall through the cracks. That is always a challenge. There is more I could say, but will leave it for another time.

The seasons are changing; another week and Autumn will officially be upon us. The days continue to grow shorter. I have now been retired for ten months. I am still sort of working out what "retired" means. I had visions of doing more writing, but though I did finish some projects earlier in the year, not much has happened over the last three to four months. Getting our kitchen renovated was part of the reason for lack of writing output as well as the general ennui spoken of above. Writing is a discipline, and if I am to be any kind of writer at all, I will need to be disciplined in pursuing it.

The Football season is in full swing,(Go MSU Spartans!), and hockey is not far behind. In the meantime our Tigers are doing what they can to make it to the baseball post-season playoffs. Will this be the year the Tiger roars? Time will tell...

Strike Three!

He was a young Freshman pitcher from Flint. He came to Michigan State University to get an education with a major in history, and to see if he could get on the baseball team as a walk-on. If he could make the team, the prospect of an athletic scholarship could become a reality. He could very probably have gotten a scholarship at another school, but family tradition and the prospect of studying Civil War history under a noted professor among other things, brought him to Michigan State. This young hurler also happened to be by the cast of chance or design of providence, my dorm roommate.

So it was in that Spring of our Freshman year, one afternoon between classes, I went over to the ball-field where the University Freshman team was playing a game against the baseball team from a local community college. It was the bottom of the inning and the Spartan's turn at bat. It also happened Dave was coming up to bat.

It is a maxim of baseball that pitchers do not get very much batting practice. A pitcher's batting average will usually be one of the lowest on the teams. I don't remember what the exact count was; there may have been a ball or two, but Dave was quickly behind with two strikes. It also bothers me to this day that I do not remember if they were called strikes or came on a swing and a miss. But now the fun was about begin.

The pitcher wound up and threw the next pitch. Dave watched the ball go by.

"Strike three!" called the Umpire.

But as he was calling the 3rd strike, the ball hit the catcher's mitt, dropped and rolled a few feet away. Dave saw the muffed catch, dropped the bat and ran for first. The catcher was caught off guard by Dave's movement, but then recovering, grabbed the ball to throw to first to insure the out. He over threw the 1st baseman's glove, and there was Dave, safe at first!

What a whoop and holler erupted from his teammates! What would have been a strikeout, was by application of the 3rd strike rule and the catcher's error, a man on base. It was a real heads up play on Dave's part that turned a negative into a positive.

I don't remember anything else about that game, and as it was, it was the only game I saw Dave play in. He never did get that athletic scholarship and a year or so later, dropped baseball and concentrated on his studies. After those undergraduate days at Michigan State, he eventually went on to get a Masters and then a Doctorate in history with emphasis on the Civil War and Reconstruction.

If you are ever in New Haven, Connecticut, and wandering around the campus of Yale University, you might peer into a classroom and see David delivering a lecture on some aspect of the Civil War or Reconstruction. I don't know how much the Doctor remembers of his undergrad baseball days, but that one memory remains forever etched in his old roommate's memory.

On Being Sacked on 3rd and Long

It is easy to be thankful and praise God when you go into the end-zone and score a touchdown, and at those times you should be thankful and give Him praise..

But what about when you are deep in your own end of the field and it is 3rd and long, and you get sacked for a loss? Do you still give thanks and praise to God?

Is most of the reality of life's daily struggle for the masses of humanity around the world lived in the end zone, or is it in facing being sacked for a loss on 3rd and long?

This is the issue I have with the fixation some evangelicals have on the "super star Christian". Yes, the Tim Tebow mania comes to mind, but that is only one example among many over the years. The idea is that a person of pop-culture fame, be it sports, movie actor/actress, etc, who is a professing Christian somehow has a platform to "be a witness for Jesus" in a very public way. Of course when another famous pop-culture idol uses their platform of fame to expound on some latest left-wing wacko silliness, these same people find that offensive.

These thoughts have come from further reflection on issues and ideas I dealt with earlier in a post on God & The Super Bowl. The more fundamental problem behind that post and this one is the issue of how we allow pop-culture to influence what we view as important in the work of the Kingdom of God. It also assumes things about God and what the Christian life is about that do not line up with reality or the Word of God. But then a superficial "pop-evangelicalism" always has that foundational flaw; a disconnect from the reality of a fallen world and a fogginess regarding what God's Word actually does tell us about the life of the redeemed in that fallen and not fully redeemed world.

Frankly that is not really much of a "faith" to live by for the vast overwhelming mass of humanity all around the globe. Nor is it a "faith" I want to stake my hope on.

If I don't have a faith that helps me to live when I am facing being sacked on 3rd and long as well as when I am in the end zone, then frankly, I'd rather have no faith at all.

#justwondering #nittygrittyliving #yourgodistoosmall

God & the Super Bowl

Scott McKnight posted on The Jesus Creed a note titled God and Sports which reported on a new survey that "...finds more than a quarter of Americans believe that God “plays a role in determining which team wins" at sports events." The following is an expansion of some comments I left on that post.

What do you think of that statement? Does God really play a role in determining which team wins the Super Bowl? Does God favor athletes on the basis of their faith or lack of faith?

Let's say, for the sake of argument, God does determine, in the words of one catechism, “the course and outcome of all events” including sporting events. What then? That assertion says nothing about WHY He has one team win or lose a game with another team.

The Gospel tells us the rain, coming from the hand of God, falls on both the just and the unjust. We are not necessarily told why the rain falls on the just in contrast to the unjust, or why it falls on the unjust in contrast to the just. The secret things belong to God and as C. S. Lewis wisely reminded us, God is not a “tame lion” we can manipulate or in some fashion “buy off”. I believe God's determining the outcome of a sporting event falls in the same category as where the rain falls.

In my life time there have been a number of great and successful athletes in both team and individual sports. Some modeled Christian virtue. Others modeled much the opposite. The good guys won some games and lost some games. The bad guys won some games and lost some games. With our presupposition stated above, all those, both wins and losses, come from the sovereign providence of God.

Related to the issue of God's sovereignty in relation to the outcome of sporting events, is how we view Christian athletes. We really need to be wary of a pop-evangelical tendency to view the Christian sport superstar with a sub-biblical pop-theology that has little to do with the hard realities of life in a fallen and broken world. God gives the the Christian athlete the losses as well as the wins.

Most of the world is not living in the atmosphere of success and winning, but of loss, failure, struggle, poverty, and the brokenness of a fallen world. I need a God and theology that helps me live in that reality, not a pseudo-god and pop-theology of an American materialistic view of value and worth as sometimes exhibited in our popular view of sports and athletes.

In the words of the Apostle John, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.”

(Some further reflections on this can be found in one of my other posts Being Sacked on 3rd and Long.

Of This and That

It has been very hot and dry in our part of Michigan. We have not seen a good rain since back in June somewhere. Lawns are brown. My water bill will be going through the roof from watering all the flower gardens. We have had several stretches where temperatures have been in the 90 - 100 plus F range.

Farmers are being hit hard by the drought. Over half the country is experiencing drought, and in more then a few places there will be no crop to harvest. I know some people that farm, and my prayers go out for them. It is going to be a rough year.

Reading:

"The little town behind them had vanished as if it had never been, had fallen behind the swell of the prairie, and the stern frozen country received them into its bosom. The homesteads were few and far apart; here and there a windmill gaunt against the sky, a sod house crouching in a hollow. But the great fact was the land itself, which seemed to overwhelm the little beginnings of human society that struggled in its sombre wastes. " ~ Willa Cather "Oh Pioneers!"

I am reading "Oh Pioneers". Willa Cather was a great writer. I am in awe of how she makes the land an integral part of the story. There is a sense in which "Oh Pioneers" is as much about the land as it is about the people. A Number of years ago I read "My Antonia" and when done with "Oh Pioneers", I have "The Song of the Lark" on my "to read" list.

Note to the Detroit Tigers: With this year's All Star game in the history books, we are now in the second part of the season, and it is time for you guys to put it all together and take this division. You may also want to think about winning enough games to secure home field advantage in the playoffs. Just say'n...

Regarding the SBC and Lifeway Bookstores and the movie "Blindside": Way to much has already been said by both sides, so I choose to mind my own business and avoid adding to the pontifical pronouncements profusely proliferating pompously over cyber-space.

Of This & That.

~ "Don't grow old..." said my 97 year old mother in-law.

~ How many Christian women over the past 2,000 years have been in a position to be a "Proverbs 31" woman? The Proverbs 31 woman had servants, and her husband was on the town council. I dare say 95% of the virtuous Christian women over the past 2,000 years were not in the socio-economic class of the Proverbs 31 woman. Commentators and writers need to be VERY careful how they apply that passage to the general population of Christian women around the world.

~ At least I can have some assurance that a Mormon will have some degree of a common sense of decency. That is more then can be said for a cold blooded secular materialist.

~ Has anyone written an opera based on the story of Aeneas and Dido in book 4 of the Aeneid? Lovers torn apart by fate and the gods. The wrath of a woman scorned... Thwarted love and suicide... The answer is yes: Dido and Aeneas by Henry Purcell, Didone abbandonata by Niccolò Piccinni, Les Troyens by Hector Berlioz, among others.

~ Yes, I am becoming a soccer fan. I don't have a favorite MLS team yet, but the Seattle Sounders are in the running. Not having a personal history in the sport, I'm not tied to any of the Midwest teams.

First Post of 2012

Well you have to start off the 2012 blogging year sometime, so here we are.

We've had a relatively mild Winter here in our part of Michigan; not a lot of snow and no hard cold spells yet.


The Detroit Lions lost to New Orleans yesterday in the wild card playoff. Even with that, this Lions team has had the best season then we've seen in Detroit for a mighty long time.

My Michigan State Spartans beat Georgia in the Outback Bowl. That was pretty neat.

Someday maybe I'll tell the story about the garage door opener. (sigh...)

Work has been busy and no sign it will let up in let up with all the projects coming down the line.

I have been exploring the world of E-books, especially free E-books... The Toshiba laptop came with a Toshiba reader installed. I also see Amazon is offering a free copy of the kindle reader for PC. I am thinking about giving it a try too.

Penn State, Joe Paterno, and the Meaning of Justice

Papa Joe is gone; fired from his job as head football coach at Penn State University. Allegations abound of criminal sexual misconduct involving a minor child on the part of an assistant coach, and a cover up of those criminal actions on the part of college administrators. Did I mention the president of PSU was also fired?

The reactions to this whole sordid affair have been pretty intense as one would expect given the emotional punch that sexual abuse of children rightly generates in our culture. As usually happens in these and similar cases, the popular sentiment is the alleged perpetrator is obviously guilty, the school also obviously guilty, and burning at the stake is to lenient a sentence for perpetrators of such atrocities. It is very easy to let the heat of emotion have rule and sway over our comments on this disgusting sordid affair, and for that heat and emotion to color our sense of what justice in this case should look like.

What I want to do in this post is step back from the emotion and heat of the Penn State scandal, and take a look at some of aspects of what justice is that should temper our heat and emotion as we view this affair.

Foremost and fundamentally justice is about truth. Justice is not about what allegedly happened, or about what you and I think happened, but about what actually empirically did happen. Justice is not based on what is reported in the news media, or on what you or I choose to believe happened. That is why in our court system we have rules about what evidence and testimony can be given in any specific judicial court case.

Justice is about culpability and having the consequence of criminal actions involve an accountability for those actions that is in measure with the nature of the criminal activity. The determining of culpability defines guilt or degree of guilt. We are answering the question of who is to be held accountable for what happened, and taking measure of what the appropriate consequence should be. A side caution to the question of culpability is that of guilt by association. We don't hold the bank robber's children accountable for the father's crime, even though there are secondary consequences the children will suffer as a result.

Justice is also about protecting the innocent; the innocent victims, and the innocent accused. The victim requires justice for the loss suffered. Justice says the innocent are to be acquitted when falsely accused. We also need to again look at the issue of guilt by association. In the above example, the bank robber's children are innocent and not considered as being guilty of the crime of the father.

It gets a little complicated doesn't it?

There is a lot more that could be said for these three aspects of justice and there may be other aspects that could be mentioned.

So what are some conclusions we can draw from this discussion?

A lot of innocent people; students, PSU athletes, faculty, alumni, staff, parents, taxpayers, PSU sports fans, and etc. are and will be to one degree or another impacted by this scandal. Justice would say we need to cut them a break, and avoid guilt by association. It also means we need to give the PSU community room and time to heal and move on, while at the same time giving the victims due and full justice. That will take some real wisdom.

Our statements of opinion on the affair need to be tempered by the fact that all we are hearing about this is from secondary and tertiary sources, and as such is hearsay. It may prove to be true hearsay, but it is still hearsay.

If in the course of investigation the allegations are proven true, all those guilty and culpable need to be made to answer in proportion to the degree of their specific guilt and culpability.

All involved; victims, innocent PSU community members, and the guilty need our prayers. With a understanding of all that justice means, we can't go wrong in praying that justice will be done in the Penn State scandal.

"But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream."

~ Amos 5:24

[Side Note: The context of my interest in the Penn State scandal is through my alma mater Michigan State University's association with Penn State in the Big Ten conference. The ripples of the scandal reach to all Big Ten schools; just ask Nebraska who played a conference football game with Penn State at Penn State just a few days after Paterno's firing. ]

Of This And That

• It has been a slow summer for blogging. I get home from work and crash, and there isn't a lot of energy left for much else. Work is getting hectic. I did set a personal deadline for retirement. All I'll say at this point is it is less then two years, ready or not. I found I needed to set that deadline to give myself some focus. Otherwise I was just kind of drifting along waiting for something to happen instead of focusing on making it happen.
  
• Our Detroit Tigers are tearing up the central division. They have a pretty good lead heading into the end of the regular season. It has been fun to be able to turn on the TV and watch some or parts of the games. It will be interesting to see what the playoffs bring. Also Detroit Lion fans are looking forward to what the regular season will bring. Will this be the year the Lions roar is heard throughout the NFL?
  
• New Toy Department: I have a new Toshiba Satellite L755 Laptop. The laptop I was using was a work issued HP, and I was restricted as to how I could use it and what software I could add on. I really like the Toshiba. I don't do gaming so didn't need a lot of bells and whistles. The price for the total package was good and in budget.
  
• The days are getting shorter. The trees, flowers, and other fauna are getting that late summer tired, washed out look. Here in our part of Michigan we've even seen a tree here and there that has turned color. A few more weeks and we will put the AC window unit away. Our AC got a real workout during the extended hot weather we had in July and August. I am looking forward to the Fall season.
  
• Reading: How Long O Lord?: Reflections on Suffering and Evil (2nd Edition); D. A. Carson; (Baker,2006)
  
• I have friends and family living in Texas. Things in Texas are really bad; no rain since last fall, and a number of destructive wild fires. Here are some pictures of the devastation caused by the record setting extensive drought. We can expect the economic impact to extend far beyond the Texas borders. The cotton crop has been wiped out. The impact on the livestock industry is simply devastating. We need to pray for our friends in Texas.

Billy Goat Log: June 18, 2011

• We upgraded our cable subscription back in early April, just in time to catch some of the NHL Stanley Cup playoff games.  The Red Wings were taken out by the Sharks who were taken out by the Cannuks who were taken out by the Bruins, and then Vancouver burned down which was really kind of silly.
• We made it through the high school graduation open house season.   Look out world!  Here they come!  We blink our eyes and that "little kid" running around the church foyer is now driving a car, and then graduating from high school.  Then at some point they get married  and maybe further down the road start having kids of their own.  
• I've been reading some Vince Flynn spy thrillers.  Also I've picked up a Tony Hillerman book I don't remember reading before.
• Will I ever be able to retire? I'm at that age, but financial prospects are still tenuous at this point. Back in March a good friend passed away very suddenly. He was about 3 months from retirement. He had talked about his plans for this summer of which at the top of the list was spending time with his one and only grandchild. It is things like that which cause you to stop and think.
• We had a wet spring, and so far it has been relatively cool. We've ran the AC a few times, but have been able to go days at a time without it. Back in the fall of 2009 I split some peony bushes. This is the first year we've had blooms from the transplanted portions.
• I'm convinced more then ever that Biblical perseverance is perseverance in faith believing. The context of the persevering passages in the book of Hebrews sets perseverance in contrast to apostasy.
• On one of my other blogs I did a story on a Great-Uncle Pvt. George Britton who was killed in World War I. I was able to find some information on the regiment he was in, including some combat history. That story is found here.

Of This and That

• The Michigan State Spartans make it to the NCAA dance once again. Life is good.
  
  
• Winter keeps dragging on here in our part of Michigan. We are really ready to be done with it all.
  
  
• Civil War redux: The picture of the Civil War in popular culture is one of a southern slave state unity in a "Confederate Solidarity". The truth is that image of Confederate solidarity is a myth. Here are some blogs I follow that expose that myth for what it is: Renegade South, Southern Unionist Chronicles, and Cenantua's Blog.
  
  
• To The Post-Modernity Child: Even as the gods of your fathers betrayed your fathers and you, so shall the new gods you have replaced them with end up betraying you, and your children, and your children's children. You sow to the wind. You will reap the whirlwind. Sadly, you are becoming the same thing you were trying to avoid.
  
  

• Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart, "Be strong: fear not! Behold your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God He will come and save you." (Isaiah 35:3-4)
  

  
  There are a lot of precious nuggets in Isaiah...
  
  
• Here is a link to Tim Challies's review of Rob Bell's "Love Wins".
  
  
• Internet Wonders: A young friend of ours is on the swim team at a nearby NCAA Division II school. This past week she and some of her teammates were at the National NCAA Div. II Swim & Dive Championships in San Antonio, TX. Through the wonder of a NCAA WWW live stream, we were able to watch some of the events she was in. That was pretty neat... Our young friend is a solid commited Christian, and it was a joy to see her swim her heart out; leaving it all in the pool; swimming to the glory of her Lord and God.

Billy Goat Log: January 9, 2011

• The church we attend is inter-generational. We have a pretty good balance from youngsters on up through the grey haired seniors. So it is we see the normal ebb and flow of life in the life of the congregation; births, weddings, funerals, and etc. This past week was the occasion of several deaths in the Church family.
  
  We knew Sue was not long for this world. Cancer had taken its toll on her body, and chemo was no longer effective. My wife and I went to see her this past Monday. She knew we were there, but it was hard for her to talk, and the morphine to control pain made her drowsy. Friday we got word she was now with Jesus.
  
  I'm glad we got to know Sue and her husband over the past eight years we've been at our church. I'm glad she got to hold her grandchildren in her arms before leaving this world. I'm glad my last spoken words to her were, "Jesus still loves you..."
  
  RIP
  
  
• I had to get a new mobile phone. The old one totally died. It was about three years old so it didn't have many bells and whistles. The new one has the camera and some text and e-mail capabilities the old did not. Of course I had to check out all those fancy new features. It's like having a new toy.
  
  
• The Detroit Lions finished the regular NFL season with a string of wins. The roar is starting to come back... I remember the last time the Lions were in a playoff game many, many years ago. Maybe next year...
  
  
• Back in September I posted a study on The Lord's Table. I recently had opportunity to present a more developed and expanded version of that material in an adult Sunday school class. I want to do some further work on that and sometime in the future publish that revision here. It has been of particular interest to me to read John Calvin's Commentary on the 1 Corinthians 10 & 11 passages that deal with the Lord's Table.
  
  
• Over the Christmas break we took the oldest grandson to see The Voyage of the Dawntreader in 3D. If you are a stickler about a movie following closely to the book, you will find this version of the Dawntreader a disappointment. That said, I thought the movie did retain the basic essence of Lewis' original story, and the technical things such as graphics and etc, were well done. Somethings were left out that I would have like to have seen included. Some things were included that I thought could have been left out. Overall it was passasble though not outstanding; three stars out of five.
  
  

• "With nearly 230 million total speakers, Bangla (Bengali) is one of the most spoken languages, ranking sixth in the world. The predominent religion among the Bangla people is Islam 89.5%, followed by Hindu 9.6%, and "other" 0.9% (2004, CIA Factbook). That less then 1% "other" includes Christianity."
  
  Bangla Ministries Worldwide (Facebook)
  Bangla Ministries Worldwide
  

  
  
  

A Few Odds & Ends

• My sister Joy passed away in early June. This is the first holiday season when she will not be with us. There is, as it were, "an empty chair at the table". I know other families are also experiencing the "empty chair" at this time of the year. Death is a part of life in a fallen and not yet fully redeemed world. Past generations lived much closer to death then the current secular Western generation I am a part of. Unless the Lord comes first, we will all eventually come face to face with death. That is where the Advent time of year is an encouragement. It not just the babe in the manger, but the whole life He lived, as well as His death, and the overcoming of death through His resurrection that gives us hope beyond death; the hope of eternal life. That is what makes Christmas special.
  
  
• I am compiling on this blog a list of books I have read. The results can be seen at "The Billy Goat Reader" link on the left side of this page.
  
  
• My alma mater, Michigan State University ended up with a share of the Big 10 title in football. Michigan State is in the top ten in the BCS rankings. It's been a good year to be a Spartan fan. In the meantime the Detroit Lions... Well, what can you say...
  
  

• "If evangelical Christianity is about anything, it ought to be about the gospel—that’s the meaning of the term evangelical itself. If so, we must recognize that our mission is to be found in what makes the good news good. We don’t have to be left to our own striving and clawing. And we don’t have to try to be emperor of our own lives, or of those around us. We point instead to a kingdom that overshadows—and knocks down—every rival rule, including our own." ~ Russell Moore as quoted by Kevin DeYoung.

  
  
• On December 1, we got snow and enough that it accumulated on the ground, but not enough that made it hard to clear the roads.
  
  
• Here is one of my all time favorite Christmas songs.
  

Peace,

~ The Billy Goat ~

Billy Goat Log: 09/21/2010, 11:05 PM EDST

• That Sunday, Pam sang in the choir. She chatted with her friends, and cuddled her grandchild in her arms. I remember saying hi to her in the church lobby. Tuesday morning was her surgery. It was a serious surgery, but all went well. The Doc was ready to close things up. A blood vessel burst. Only 50 years old and she was gone just like that.
  
  I was shocked when I opened the e-mail from church and read the terse one line statement. Sunday she was living.... How could she be dead? We were casual acquaintances, and Pam and her family were involved members of our church. She sang in the choir and sang in the ladies' trio with her good friends Wendy and Brinda. From the very first time we started attending our church, Pam and her family had always been part of it.
  
  The next day the news came with details about the visitation and the funeral. One son was in boot camp for the National Guard. He would be coming home to say goodbye to his mom...
  
  We were not able to make the visitation, but did get to the funeral on Saturday. I went into the church, and the casket was in the foyer, still open. I saw Pam laying there; that dear, dear Christan sister we all loved so well. Seeing her there, I came close to losing it. Then the casket was closed. She was so very much alive when I saw her Sunday. The next time I see her, she is in that casket. She was there, but she was not there. The body was there. The spirit was in the arms of Jesus.
  
  The service glorified the Lord and Saviour Pam loved and served. On her chair in the choir loft was a choir stole and one rose. Afterwards at the luncheon that was served, we offered our condolences to her husband and children.
  
  Pam is gone. When we go to church, she will not be there... Someday we will see her again. That body laid in the casket to be put in the grave will be resurrected and reunited with the spirit that had been torn from it in death. Our mourning will finally once and for all be turned to joy.
  
  In the meantime, we who knew and loved her will miss her. RIP dear sister in Christ...
  
  
• The days are shorter. The leaves are starting to turn. In two days Autumn will officially be here.
  
  
• It took me some time to do the last post on the Lord's table. Things kept coming up, and it was hard to find the concentration of time needed to work on it. At one point I thought it was ready to post, but didn't have time to finish it up. When I got back to it, I found myself rewriting some things because as I had reflected further, I found I was not in full agreement with how I had stated some things. There are some things about the Lord's table I'm still pondering on. There are times when the answers are not as clear cut, or as black and white as we want to think they are.
  
  
• Recent reading: I revisited I Sing the Body Electric! by Ray Bradbury. There is a lengthy poem at the end of the book called "Christus Apollo" which has a distinct Christan motif. That poem may be worth doing a review on sometime in the future. Bradbury has a way of writing sci-fi that makes the humanity of the characters more the story then the sci-fi setting of the story. Human needs don't change that much no matter what the technology.
  
  
• And my alma mater, Michigan State University, beat Notre Dame by using a fake field goal in overtime this past Saturday night. And it was good... :)
  
  Detroit Lions lose again... (Sigh...)

~ The Billy Goat ~

Billy Goat Log: 08/21/2010, 9:33 PM EDST

• So I have not posted in a while. The last few weeks have been somewhat hectic and in some ways emotionally draining.
  
  
• There is a church in our metropolitan area that does a "home make-over" once a year. This year my married daughter and family were nominated for the home make-over, and the church picked their house to work on. The work was done last weekend. A whole bunch of volunteers from the church, a number of businesses providing materials and etc, and Sunday afternoon my daughter, son-in law, and grandchildren returned to a refurbished and redecorated house. I was personally overwhelmed by all the work this group had done. My daughter's family is on the upper edge of the "working poor" blue collar class. It has been a real struggle for them, and what the church did in fixing up the house will be a real help. We are humbled and thankful for this kind providence. God was very gracious and kind to us as a family.
  
  
• While their house was being worked on, they put the family up in a local motel, and had a number of special things planned for them. One of the events was to go to watch our local minor league baseball team play a home game. My wife and I got to go along also. It was really nice.
  
  I don't get out to watch our local team play that often, but every time I've gone to the local baseball park to watch them, I've really enjoyed it. I realized how much I enjoy watching a live baseball game. One of the things on my retirement "to do" list will be to get to more baseball games. and yes, our local team won the game, and we enjoyed the fireworks afterwards.
  
  Did I mention my oldest grandson got to throw out one of the "first pitches"? That was pretty neat!
  
  
• I recently opened a page at Scribd. I published some previous material there, and have been encouraged by the response. I realize I need to come up with some new, never before published material.
  
  
• Summer is winding down. The days are shorter and the nights cooler. This fall I plan on doing some more splitting/transplanting in the flower gardens. There is something about getting out of the house and putzing around in the yard, looking after the perennial flowers we have there. I get some sense of what it may have been like for Adam to tend the garden of Eden; as though in that yard and garden work I touch root with Eden itself...
  
  
• We were at a Christian bookstore today. I didn't buy anything. As I wandered through the aisles, I really wondered if there was much there that really met people where they really needed to be met, and how much of it was just so much fluff and vapor. I tend to be cynical, but it would not be at all fair for me to pass wholesale judgement on books I have not read. But then I don't feel compelled to have to read whatever "latest and greatest" just came out either. The only "must read" for the Christian is the Bible itself. Other books can be helpful, and I myself have been helped along the way by other books, but when you get down to the very root of the matter, there is only one book absolutely needful.
  
  
• The relationship of Isreal and the church, the degree of continuity and discontinuity between the Old and New Testaments, suprasessionism or "replacement theology" vs. dispinsationalism: I'm not convinced anyone has really come up with a Biblicaly satisfactory answer. The answers I've seen from all camps are at some point or another less then so.
  
  
• Jesus Christ is LORD...

Remembering Mickey Mantle's Big Hit

Early September 1960, it was the summer between 5th and 6th grade. That day all us Little League ball players from our small rural Southern Michigan town packed into the school bus and were off to Tiger Stadium in Detroit to watch our favorite Detroit Tigers take on those NY Yankees.

That small rural town was several hours from Detroit, and as such, it was a rare treat for any of us to see a Major league baseball game first hand. We listened to the Tiger games over the radio with George Kell and Ernie Harwell calling the games. Those were the years when Al Kaline, Rocky Colavito, Norm Cash, Jake Wood, and Jim Bunning, among others were our heros.

When we got to the stadium we were seated out in the center field section of the stands. The Yankees were out warming up, and there he was right in front of us; Mickey Mantle! And over in right field was Roger Maris!

We started yelling "Hey Mickey!"... He turned and waved. He caught a ball, (it must have come from Yogi Berra in left?). We called out to him to throw the ball up to us. He made a motion like he was going to do just that but that ball returned to his glove and Mickey returned to his warmup. We were in awe. What a guy!

The game started. In the course of the game both Mantle and Maris hit home runs. I don't rememeber what inning it was when Mickey was at bat and hit that 2nd (as I rememeber) home run. I can still hear in my mind the crack of his bat hitting that pitch. We heard that crack all the way out in the center field stands. We watched the ball rise as it headed out towards right field. It keep going up and up and up. It was over the outfield fence and still going up. It cleared the stands and even then was still going up.

Was it going to hit the wall? No!!!

It cleared the wall and was out of the stadium! Mickey Mantle had just hit a home run out of Tiger Stadium, and from our center field seats we had the perfect view of it all the way up and out!

As I recall, the Yankees won the game and afterwards we climbed into the school bus and headed back to our small rural Michigan community. The memory of Mickey interacting with us during the warmups; the memory of that "out of the stadium" home run remain in my memory to this day. We had seen someone who was to us, one of baseball's larger then life heros. And even though most of us remained loyal Tiger fans, Mickey Mantle had a special place in our hearts and memories.

I am well aware that in latter years, after his retirement from baseball, Mantle had some struggles and failures in his personal life. For myself, those things do not take away from who he was as a major league baseball player, nor from what his presence met for the game. For us who as youngsters saw him play the game, Mickey Mantle was and remains a great baseball player and hero.

RIP

Official Mickey Mantle Website

(Up to 1961, the Detroit stadium had been known as Brigg's Stadium. 1961 was the first year it went by the new name of Tiger Stadium.)

It's Just a Game The Steelers beat the Colts! That's pretty neat in my mind. But even as I say it I am aware of how transitory such glory is. It's a game... We enjoy it... We're glad "our" team won.... But a few months from now, or a year from now, or 10 years from now the memory will have faded...

John Grisham's story Bleachers deals with that very fact of the transitory nature of glory as found in the sports world. If you ever played a high school sport, you may want to read that book. Such glory is momentary, but living takes a lifetime.

As Christians, we recognize there is more to life then the transitory glory of this world, and there is a glory to be sought that goes beyond this life...

Sola Deo Gloria!

~ The Billy Goat ~