Friday, February 15, 2008

For The Huskies

Back in our Chicago days, we lived about a half-hour west of DeKalb, just off the same highway that forms their main street and on which sits the campus of Northern Illinois University. Many Sunday afternoons were spent on country drives to get away from suburbia. I can remember driving to DeKalb one summer day and thinking, "What a quiet, wonderful little town this is." The backdrop of memory makes yesterday's tragedy at NIU all the more shocking and saddening.

Our prayers and hearts go out to all the victims and their families and loved ones, the students at NIU and the town of DeKalb.

Friday, February 01, 2008

Confession of a Disorganized Reactionary

Time management has never been my forte. In fact, my all-around organizational abilities stink on ice, to say the least. I'm always in a hurry, always late, always losing stuff. I have tried for years to get my act together when it comes to being organized, and... well, I've come to the conclusion that it just ain't in me to have "my act together"!

My problem is this: I am a task-oriented person. Couple that with a propensity for disorganization and you come up with a very frustrated individual. A very harried and hurried person.

A grump.

Being a grump causes me a theological problem because, according to Paul, I should "do everything without complaining or arguing" (Phil. 2:14, NIV).

Uh-oh. Do I have an out here? I decided to check the ESV, the latest favorite Bible translation to see if I could find a loophole. What I found was this: "Do all things without grumbling or questioning."

Bummer.

OK, how about that old standby, the King James Version: "Do all things without murmurings and disputings."

Sighhhh....

Maybe Eugene Peterson can help me out: "Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed!" (The Message).

OK. I'm beginning to see I need to make a fundamental change. I recently heard for the umpteenth time an old adage that says life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to life. I thought about how true that is, then I turned my eyes upward a bit in my Bible and found this: "...it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Phil. 2:13, NIV). In other words, God is in control. There is no sense beating my head against the wall, because God can handle what I cannot.

That certainly helps me relax a bit. But now I have to run off to the next stop on my schedule.

More soon.