The curve of the earth and the moon.

This evening I flew to Chicago for a workshop at Willow Creek. As the sun started going down I looked out of the airplane window from 41000 feet at the horizon and could see the curve of the earth. It was an impressive sight. It reminded me of how incredible creation is and how we can see the hand of God all around us if we would just stop long enough to look.

As we flew north I looked at the horizon to the northeast and saw a brilliantly bright light below us. Not the kind of light that comes from cities below an airplane but a light that made the surface of the earth appear to be on fire. I watched and even weirded out for a second or two. Then I realized what I was looking at was the full moon rising over the northeastern horizon. The angle at which I saw it made it look like if we were flying towards it we would be able to fly over it in the airplane.

As we continued to fly the moon matched our height and eventually rose "over" us. It was a beautiful full moon and once again made me realize I was seeing the fingerprints of God.

Baptism

Baptisms, communion, funerals and weddings always cause emotion to stir in me. The symbols and pictures played out by the participants are incredible. In baptism the picture of new life, in communion the weight of what Jesus accomplished for others and me and what he will one day do as he returns, for weddings and the picture of love of Jesus has for his church, and funerals for the hope … hope that the life we live today will one day stretch into eternity.

Today at Brazos Pointe we had a baptism. Four people were baptized and I got to help Greg as we baptized a husband and wife together. I never get tired of baptisms. The idea of people dying to themselves and raising from the water to live a new life in Jesus touches me every time. Especially when I get to watch it so close … even be involved.

Orderliness

"Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind. The true scientists were rated as heretics by the church, but they were truly religious men because of their faith in the orderliness of the universe." - Albert Einstein

I've been reading a lot lately, but nothing I thought worth blogging about because I was sure no one would not want to hear it. But I ran across this quote today and it made me think. Like Phillip Hintze said in an earlier comment, Einstein is a quote machine. I think I've heard or read somewhere that Einstein was a pretty smart guy.

I have read quite a bit about science and how it relates to our faith and for the most part I have a hard time seeing what the big deal is. I think the two fit well together. There are so many issues people want to debate about the balance between faith and reason or science but I believe when they do they miss the bigger issue. The fact that the universe is just too stinking orderly to be one big accident.

Share The Well

Caedmon's Call writes, records and performs music that really speaks to me. They have a new CD that will be released in October. You can hear some clips here ---> Link

Clarity ... or not?

In the introduction of Brian McLaren's new book A Generous Orthodoxy he writes the following:

“…as in most of my other books, there are places here where I have gone out of my way to be provocative, mischievous, and unclear, reflecting my belief that clarity is sometimes overrated, and that shock, obscurity, playfulness, and intrigue (carefully articulated) often stimulate more thought than clarity.”

After having thought about this for a while I am curious to hear what the readers in blog land think. As a teacher I wrestle with how much to lay out there for my listeners. Should a teacher or preacher or writer "bottom line" everything so that there is no possible question to his hearer what he/she thinks the material he/she is teaching, preaching, or writing about means? I've heard some call this placing the cookies on the bottom shelf so that everyone can reach them.

Or would you rather have "provocative, mischievous, and unclear" or "shock, obscurity, playfulness, and intrigue" or even just narrative to help generate thought while in most cases leading you to some good conclusions.

Jesus, when he taught, didn't always lay out explicit details. He didn't say "the Kingdon of Heaven is..." He said "the Kingdom of Heaven is like ..." and then would give examples that sometimes his hearers had a hard time interpreting.

What do you think?

Another blogger

There is another blogger added to the blogosphere. Check out the personal musings of my good friend Dan Deans. ---> Link

Running the NYC Marathon ... not me, Edwin.

I am happy with my own company and I enjoy things that require solitude and disciple. I think that’s why I like to read so much; it’s just a book and me. I also like to run. I know that not every person who runs does so in solitude, but I do. I like getting out before the sun comes up and running a couple of miles or so. It is a perfect start to the day.

Although I am not the ultimate human specimen, running allows me to eat the brownie sitting in front of me as I type and stay reasonably close to my weight limits.

When someone finds out that I run occasionally they will ask if I’ve ever run a marathon. Although I haven’t run one, I have trained for two. A marathon is 26.2 miles. Training for a marathon is a tremendous amount of work. It consumes your life – from the way you eat, drink, sleep and live. A person can train for weeks and injure himself or herself and end their quest for a marathon.

That’s what happened to me the first time. I trained for months and ran the 20k warm-up race. I ran in a new pair of shoes on overpasses in Houston and I ran too fast. I injured my illiotibial band and I couldn’t run for a couple of months.

I trained for my second marathon the next year. I got up to a 17-mile long run and ran the 25k warm-up race. Then I got a job in Houston and started driving two-hours a day to work and back and had no time to train, which ended my marathon bid.

I’ve always said that I will run a marathon some day. Maybe …

I’d admire a person who takes the time and effort to train for and finish a marathon. Edwin Quarles is training for the New York City marathon and is blogging about the journey here ---> Link Check it out.

My Daughter is a Survivor

On April 21st Tori, our 13 year old daughter, had surgery to have a stainless steel rod attached to her spine to correct her scoliosis. She had worn a hard plastic brace that wrapped around her body and extended from her waist to just under her arms for a year and a half. One day she went in for a check-up and her doctor told her and Andrea “The brace is not working we will have to do surgery.” The doctor’s news hit us hard because the brace had held her spine relatively straight since she had worn it.

On the morning of Tori’s surgery Andrea and I kissed her and told her we were praying for her as she lay down in a rolling bed that was wheeled away down a long hall towards surgery. It was one of the hardest moments of my life - to trust our daughter into the hands of doctors, anesthesiologists and nurses. I get emotional just thinking about it.

As I think about it though, that’s what we have to do with God. Let Him have control of everything (the things which we can and cannot control).

After about four hours of surgery, Andrea and I went to see Tori in the recovery room. She was tired, sore and thirsty but in good shape for having her back cut open and rods installed into her spine. Andrea looked at me when we were finally able to touch our daughter again and help her as she recovered and she said “I can do this.” Being away from Tori during surgery was hard but being in her presence again made it better.

She got out of the hospital and as she recovered the incision on her hip where they took bone for a graft around her spine started hurting. At a check-up with her doctor we found out that she had an infection and would have to go back to Texas Children’s for surgery to clean that spot. After another week long stay and multiple surgeries, Tori was released from the hospital a second time. She had intravenous antibiotics for a while and then had to take antibiotics by mouth to kill the infection. Last night at nine o’clock she took her last antibiotic. And tonight we plan to surprise her (shhhh) with a Survivor Party.

We asked a bunch of close friends and family who went through all of this stuff to come over and watch the first Survivor of the new season (which Tori loves) and celebrate our daughter’s survival.

I am amazed at how well Tori has handled these last five months (and more). She has grown so much and I for one am impressed. Tori is our Survivor!

I know that so many families go through so much worse. I am grateful that it was not harder. God has been very good to us.

I love you Tori!

To blog or not to blog, that is the question.

My good friend Danny is starting a church in Northwest Houston called "The Way" and he asks the following question about blogging:

I have heard that this is an innovative way to understand and interact with "real" people. Is this true?

Go on over to his blog and tell him what you think here ---> THEWAY

...that I may know Him

“There have been men before now who got so interested in proving the existence of God that they came to care nothing for God himself … as if the good Lord had nothing to do but exist! There have been some who were so occupied in spreading Christianity that they never gave a thought to Christ. Man! Ye see it in smaller matters. Did ye never know a lover of books that with all his first editions and signed copies had lost the power to read them? Or an organizer of charities that had lost all love for the poor? It is the subtlest of all the snares.”

Having just returned from a staff retreat, this section of The Great Divorce from C.S. Lewis hit me hard. I came back from the retreat thinking about church environments, church systems, church processes, and church organizations which are all good. But Jesus said to me through C.S. Lewis, “Tommy, in all of the talk of process, which is necessary, don’t forget Me!”

Sometimes in the logic and analysis, I miss the forest for the trees.

[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope] Link

By the way - the staff retreat was good for us (the staff of BPF) and for our church. We accomplished some good stuff, and had fun playing together. To read more about it ... see what Ronnie has to say here --->Link

My new bike ...

Trek 7200FX

I really like it! It's good to be riding again.

Staff Retreat

BPF's staff is going on a three day retreat. We will be back Wednesday afternoon.

I won't blog again until I get back unless I can find a computer somewhere. Pray for us and we'll talk again later this week.

Later ...

Stuff Mart

Today we’re having a garage sale; trying to get rid of some of our stuff. As I look around at our stuff I see a few things that are mine that are for sale and think “we can’t sale that … It’s mine!” The problem though is that I haven’t worn it or used it in a year … why would I possibly still need to keep it?

Sometimes I am so tied to my stuff.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Contrarians

I just finished Steven Sample’s book, The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership. I am not a leadership book reader normally. I find that leadership books can get bogged down in corporate speak that becomes cumbersome to read.

But The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership was as much about how to live the contrarian’s life as it was about how to be a good leader. Thinking gray, thinking free, artful listening, decision making, reading, and knowing which hill you are willing to die on are all aspects of most people’s lives; not just leaders.

For those of you who are into reading that kind of thing I highly recommend it.

Financial Peace - Better Together

Last night we (Andrea and I) finished a thirteen week course called Financial Peace University. The information was good, Dave Ramsey is an entertaining guy, and it has caused Andrea and me to rethink the way we manage, or in some cases mismanage, the financial resources God has given us.

That’s not the best part though. I have grown quite a bit in the last 13 weeks. Not because I got good information (although I did), not because the class caused me to reflect on how I live (it did); but I have grown because of the interaction I have had for the last thirteen weeks with real people. People who were willing to get real about where they struggled and cheer the rest of us on when we had victories and encourage us to keep going in defeat.

That’s why at BPF we are sold on small groups (home teams). Ideally, in home teams people get real with one another about where they struggle and where they are strong. They talk about what it means to live life as a follower of Jesus and encourage one another to keep going when things get rough and cheer with each other in the victories.

I’m going to miss Financial Peace not because I like learning how to do financial stuff, or enjoy Dave Ramsey’s wit. I’m going to miss Financial Peace because of the bond I formed with some fellow strugglers as we met together on Thursday night.

Email

Email is such an incredible form of communication. I can sit in my office and communicate with anyone who happens to have an email address about anything I feel like typing.

Email is such a horrible form of communication. Sometimes I try to write something funny in an email and it's seen as sarcastic and/or arrogant. There is no non-verbal communication happening in email like body language or tone of voice. Any of those things can be read into email and completely change the intended meaning.

I love/hate email ... I can't decide.

Counting

All of my life I have work in jobs where the result of my labor was easy to quantify. I was the son of a mechanic and working for dad, if you fixed a car in a reasonable amount of time and it didn't return as a result of your repair you were doing a good job. In the maintenence discipline of the petro chemical world, if you could keep it from breaking and fix it if it did break you were doing a good job. In the engineering world if a project finished on time, under budget, actually worked as designed and the client was happy you were doing a good job.

This Discipleship Pastor stuff is a whole different world. Spiritual formation, spiritual growth, and spiritual health are not about what we are, but who we are. It is not about knowing or doing, it is about becoming. And how do you measure what those you pastor are becoming? It is way more abstract than anything I have ever done in a job before.

The results mean way more than whether Tommy is doing a good job or not. The results have consequences way beyond me. It's about the potential of real people becoming who God designed them to be. (BTW - I am not looking for the sympathy comment - "Tommy you are doing a good job". So don't even go there in the comment section...)

" A lot of what can be counted doesn't count, and a lot of what counts can't be counted."
- Albert Einstein

Brains and dinnertime conversations

Today at school Jakeb fell and hit his head. He hit it hard enough to knock him out for a second or two, so Andrea picked him up at school and took him to the emergency room to make sure he was okay. They did a “CAT” scan and found out that he has a concussion and will be okay. We get to wake him up every two hours through the night. It’s sure to be fun for both him and us. Andrea said that one of us should get a good night’s sleep so I assume she’s taking one for the team.

The CAT scan was beneficial because we found out that our son does in fact have a brain. Something that everyone in our family has questioned at times – Jakeb included.

The emergency room folks told him it would be a good idea to consume only liquids tonight in case he got nauseated. But Andrea made a good chef salad and Jakeb likes salad so he decided to forgo the liquid diet. “I’d rather throw up than be hungry” is the phrase he used. His head hurts but it didn’t seem to affect his stomach.

I tried to be the “spiritual dad” and ask “what made you feel closest to God today” (an idea from the book Sleeping with Bread). But Jakeb ended the spiritual direction of the conversation when he said, “this salad tastes pretty good. But I bet it will taste nasty as puke.” And so goes the dinnertime conversation at the Stunz house.

BTW - Jakeb approved this post before it was published ...

Credit and Blame

When I do well at anything, my nature is to take credit for it. When I fail my nature is to blame it on something on someone else.

On occasion of "doing well" Brother Lawerence says:

Lord I can not do this unles you enable me, and then I receive strength that is more than sufficent.

And then when he failed Brother Lawrence says:

I will never do otherwise if you leave me to myself, it is You who must hinder my failing and mend what is amiss.

I pray that I will give the credit to God for when I do well and know when I fail it is because I would never do otherwise were it not for Him.