The Daily Show with Jon Stuart... featuring Elizabeth Anne

yay! i am posting again!

2011-04-17T23:06:00.003-04:00

april is flying by! it seems that i have been a day behind most days of this month. if it was the 12th, i was thinking/writing the 11th all day! i just cannot seem to keep up... haha!

we had a unique youth group tonight. since it is palm sunday, we set up the stations of the cross, 14 of them, with scripture passages and pictures all around the youth room. i always love quiet nights with prayer/reflection stations because it seems that time almost stands still. even though the suffering of jesus is a difficult topic to meditate on, it was peaceful and restorative as well. it was truly a sabbath day for me!

saturday was quite a busy day! the wild wall paper that was in our bathroom fell off the wall! check out the pics on facebook if you have not seen it. the wall paper must have been a quick fix-up before the previous home owners put the house up for sale. after a few months of showering, we noticed some of the corner pieces were starting to peel off the wall. slowly, the steam from our showering just melted the paper off and cut our bathroom make-over job in half. we borrowed a wall sander from a friend at church. i let jon tackle that job. i am better with a paint brush. we used the paint color from our bedroom, soft rabbit brown.

last week jon was in new orleans with our church for the yearly RHINO (restoring hope in new orleans) trip. the trip was family oriented to encourage whole families to do mission trips together. they did construction work with habitat for humanity -- exterior painting and siding, toured the city and of course ate at cafe du mon!

while jon was gone, sierra and i had some great bonding time. we had date nights -- running together and then a car ride for some errands and drive-thru dinner at chik-fil-a! i was also adopted into the dunbar family and introduced to rockaways hamburgers... thanks catherine and lisa!

hopefully i can catch up with the date for the rest of the month! maybe i'm on track now!

e l i z a b e t h :)

what are we doing????

2011-04-03T21:21:00.002-04:00

doggie obedience training

vacuuming the couch so it does not drowned under sierra's shedding hair

kayaking

yard cleaning

doggie obedience training

kayaking

doggie obedience training

more kayaking and doggie obedience training

kite flying or kite crashing is more like it... with lots of laughing

running with sierra... she did not make a appearance at the st. pat's race because we were uncertain if the race was dog friendly.

enjoying spring weather (since the beginning of february!)

rocking climbing (just inside for now, at strongholds gym)

devouring taro tart yogurt at yumilicious (serve yourself set ups are the best!)

doggie obedience training

small groups with our senior high school buddies every monday night (jon with the boys and me with the girls)

working too (preaching, teaching, evaluating, exercising)

enduring the pollen plague that covers columbia in a haze (it is quite amazing actually)

cooking (new favorite cookbook is the earthbound cook, the enchiladas are delicious!)

reading (blue like jazz - reread, crazy love and forgotten God)

a little brief... sorry... maybe i can use this as a jumping off point to blog a bit more frequently!

e l i z a b e t h

rain, rain, and more rain

2010-08-17T19:38:00.002-04:00

sierra slept in on saturday morning! we were soooo excited. we did not think we would be sleeping in until 9:00 ever again. we are hoping for the same routine next weekend! we had a big night out with sierra on friday even with all the rain. as soon as we got home from work, we began our date night with sierra... we started out for a hike at sesqui and decided to stop by pet smart, or is it pet's mart?, since it was raining. a new harness and a yard stake with a 30 foot lead later we checked out of the pet store. still raining, so we watched jon through the window of hibbett and ate a couple of dried worms on the side walk (seirra was on her own for the latter). still raining, so jon and i took turns going in lowes to pick out gardening gloves. the rain was not going away so we went home. we managed to keep sierra up until almost midnight, so she was worn out when we finally put her in the bed.

we were able to break in the new yard stake and gardening gloves for a few hours saturday morning and then the rain came again. yardwork is a pretty good workout. everyone was exhausted after a few hours of laboring in the SC heat. we still have a couple of weekends of clearing out before we will begin the landscaping. we are still excited about our yardwork days. i hope the excitement continues!

it is thundering as i type. more rain! sierra is missing a few walks. she is unsure of the rain. luckily we have a covered patio, and she will potty somewhat outside.

on a random note, i have watched some tv tonight since it is raining. i am not sure what channel i was watching, but the cosby show just came on! we do not have cable, so i was really surprised to find such a treasure! took me back to when nick at night was playing my favorites! i am expecting a lot from this station!

sierra needs a walk. she is going nuts on the couch!

E L I Z A B E T H :)

updates, updates, updates

2010-08-10T21:52:00.002-04:00

hello from columbia, sc!

we are settling in to our new home and jobs. the big news... we decided to add to our family. we are the proud owners of a german short-haired pointer, sierra! she is keeping us busy and is a lot of fun.

now that we have a little furry alarm clock, no more sleeping in... even on saturday! since we were up early, we ventured out to the local farmer's market on saturday morning. it was a little smaller than i expected, but it was fun with some quality vendors. for breakfast, we had piping hot apple cider donuts right off the donut conveyer belt, and we took some home for later. sierra got lots of attention and loved sniffing the fish juice trail left by one of the vendor's leaky coolers.

we've started 2-a-days... sierra loves her morning and evening walk/sprint/run/jog/sniff time. she really enjoys being outside, and we enjoy sleeping through the night!

we will be home for labor day weekend and are super excited to have so many of our dear friends planning to come to jon's ordination service. it should be an interesting trip since it will be our first car trip with sierra. at the rate she is growing, she won't fit the co-pilots lap anymore!

next on the to do list... yard work and landscaping. anyone know any good shrubs or ground cover? my expertise starts and ends with monkey grass.

E L I Z A B E T H :)

HELLOOOOOOO!!!

2010-01-19T21:11:00.003-05:00

Hello blogging world -- is anyone out there? This blog officially fell off the face of the blogoshpere!

So... to start 2010 we are job hunting. Who knows where! If your town needs a minister and a physical therapist sign us up. This will be interesting to coordinate... and fun too!

We've had tons and tons of snow, but it has all melted away in the past few days since we basically had what pittsburghers call a "heat wave" blow into town (with 30 - 40 degree temps!).

Jon is gearing up for a two week trip to Nepal at the end of February. Maybe he will do some blogging to keep us (me included!) updated. We are not certain of how primitive the communication will be while he is there... I am hoping for more than email!

I am working at the children's hospital for another 3 1/2 months, and then I graduate! There is always a good surprise coming to the hospital to cheer up the kiddies (Elmo, Sidney Crosby, puppies, the nutcracker ballet... usually something every week!) I now enjoy working with the inpatient and outpatient kids, so I am hoping to do both after I graduate.

This could be the start to a new year of blogging...

E L I Z A B E T H

questioning culture...

2009-05-08T12:12:00.003-04:00

in a recent online discussion with someone, i found myself having to fight against common cultural understandings, which are entirely non-biblical, just to get to the point that we were discussing. as i thought about this, i, myself, have bought into many of these cultural misunderstandings. unfortunately, we are shaped by the things we are exposed to the most, and i know that i spend far more time in culture (since i can't escape it) than i do in God's word. this is a shame. being christian, though, i believe that there is a far greater Truth than the "truths" that culture creates. remember, Jesus calls us to be in this world but not of it.

for this reason, i have decided to create a series of posts that will question culture. these will include subjects ranging from privacy to money to inclusivity. these are intentionally provocative. i hope they will challenge you as much as they have challenged me as i have thought about them. feel free to post comments arguing against my points. in doing this, perhaps we will come a little closer to the way things should be.

cheers,

jw <><

the flyover...

2009-04-29T18:20:00.003-04:00

i am not sure you all heard about this, but air force one did a little fly over in lower manhattan the other day to get pictures of the plane next to parts of the city, like the statue of liberty. not only did it cause panic and chaos (hum, i wonder why people were panicking about a low flying boeing 747 in nyc???), but it also cost us (the taxpayers) $328,835. it is good to know the geniuses running this country are making wise decisions and using our hard-earned money well.

apparently, the new tech-savvy white house has never heard of photoshop!?!? here is a little hint: you don't have to have two objects in the same vicinity to get a picture of them together.

speaking of good decisions, get ready to be voted out of office arlen specter.

cheers,

jw <><

raccoon creek

2009-04-27T20:30:00.008-04:00

what a great surprise! raccoon creek state park is only 35 miles from city life! is it a really pretty park with lots of hiking and biking trails, a little beach and a nice sized lake.

a great get-away for the weekend or a day trip too!

i learned how to make mountain pies thanks to carolyn! she has a mountain pie maker which perfectly holds two slices of bread with whatever you want in the middle. we used pizza sauce, pepperoni and cheese. YUM!!! then you shove it in the fire for a few minutes and out comes a delicious mountain pie!!

after dinner, we did the same thing with cherries to make a dessert mountian pie. i'm telling you, the options for these mountain pies are limitless! a mountian pie maker is a must have!

hydrobikes are one awesome invention! what a great way to explore the lake and just be out on the water. i had SO much fun. jon managed to conquer the hydrobike wheelie and got everyone wet. it did make for a thrilling adventure!

i led us on some "not so easy" trails that some of the group was a little upset about... oops! i just like to go nuts outside. i do not care where it is... haha! we never got to the end of the lake trail to find the stone mansion from 1846... maybe next time? once we actually found the lake (after traveling on forrest trail uphill for over an hour), we made our own trail back to the boat ramp where we started. leave no trace would be very upset with us. it was my favorite part of the hike though! we just blazed a path next to the lake all the way home. we had some sweet adventures along the way!

the other remarkable event from the weekend, was the fire! we are totally obsessed with fire. well, vanessa and i are totally obsessed with fire. we basically played with it all night. we were not that crazy. we kept it in the designated fire pit area. we just made everyone else nervous i guess... hey, no one got hurt, and we were no where close to it. homemade sparklers can be safe, and we proved it... haha!

so that recaps the first camping trip of the season...

here a couple pics to accent the post.

e l i z a b e t h

bye bye school days!

2009-04-22T21:38:00.005-04:00

we're all dressed up! last day of PT leadership and professionalism class. we're supposedly ready to own our own business... hmmm....

this is jon's way of having fun while i am busy studying! i literally rolled out of bed and took my study spot on the couch. i think i was growing roots into the couch... good thing studying is over!

this is most of my pediatrics elective class on our last day

well... i am officially finished with class!!!

we were all going crazy today before our last test. we had the whole class doing cartwheels and various other tricks. it was amazing; i think we should take it on the road! :) we should gather more often for such events!!! the tricks, not the tests. we've had quite enough tests!

i must say when i walked out of my last test today, i was not feeling the full effects of being totally finished. i think it will take some time for it to sink in. we hung around the beloved forbes tower and raided the famous exam snack buffet. i was not exactly ready to leave, but i am SOOOO glad that i will not take tests anymore!!! (especially practicals!) they make my tumbly rumbly!

i think i love school. i guess that is ovbious since i have been going to school since i was 3! my mom only had me in pre-school 2 days a week when i was 3, and i asked to go more... haha!

before i start working, there are many fun things on the horizon...

camping this weekend with friends from school at raccoon creek state park. the weather is supposed to be wonderful! i am pumped! good chace to chill out after exams and celebrate earth day too!

next weekend, our friends katie and shea are coming to visit! we always love company. we cannot wait to enjoy the city with y'all! also, my friend karen and i are hosting a field day at the seminary on saturday. there is no telling how crazy this could be... haha!

there will be a couple days of nursery working and hopefully some down time... then i will be a working girl! children's hospital here i come! from may 4th until november i will be at the outpatient clinic. from november to the end of april 2010 i will be at the brand new hospital (or campus rather!). it is quite an establishment! i am thrilled :)

hopefully i will be back on the blogging radar now that class is OVER! there should be some great pics to come!

happy earth day! get out and play!

e l i z a b e t h

good for you, miss california!

2009-04-21T23:33:00.016-04:00

i am sure all of you have heard about this by now... the infamous question that miss california fielded and her response in last weekend's miss usa pageant.

i have a few comments about this whole situation:

1. everyone has the right to their own opinion. don't ask someone a question about what they think and get mad when they respond with their opinion. the fact is, the homosexual gossip columnist who asked the question seemed to be digging for an affirmation to back his beliefs. sorry, buddy, but you didn't get it because some people in this world find that there is a worldview that trumps the fads of culture.

plus, this is america. if you tell someone they are wrong, it is discrimination, which, ironically, is the very thing you are fighting against. it is ridiculous that we have over-defined freedom to the point that there is no freedom.

2. it is amazing to me that people who are fighting for something, which they identify as 'love', can be so hateful. the class of one individual in this situation prevailed, while others went to their blogs, called names, and threw temper-tantrum cheap shots. that is just inappropriate, tacky, and childish.

further, shame on those of you who abandoned someone you called a friend because you discovered this person didn't believe the same things that you do, especially when this person called you a friend even though she already knew you held different beliefs than her. but this is how things seem to work, isn't it? let me suggest that true love and friendship go beyond even the deepest beliefs. i think some individuals have revealed their true color in all of this and should take time to reflect on it.

3. i am just flabbergasted that people who want to argue that people are intolerant are themselves so intolerant. if you want to live in a relativist world where everyone is entitled to their belief, then you must honor everyone's belief. i have just one thing to say - welcome to your self-created catch-22. by the way, honoring someone's beliefs means that you shouldn't expect the rest of us to tell you that we agree with you. we don't.

4. by the way, just in case you were wondering (since one news report stated otherwise) - miss california does not hold views which are in the minority among her age group, nor even for her liberal state. i am pretty sure that california voted to uphold true marriage. this statement was a media-created myth to try to trick people into being like-minded by making the majority feel like outcasts. we will not be marginalized by your lies.

5. thank you, miss california, for reminding us of something. we should never read culture onto scripture. instead, scripture should inform our understandings of culture. and based on scripture's nature of Truth, it has some hard teachings. this inherently means that scripture will rub us the wrong way sometimes. if it doesn't, then we aren't reading it correctly. how many times did people walk away from Jesus because they couldn't adhere to His teachings because it challenged them to live their lives differently... it forced them out of their strongly held incorrect beliefs?

6. i have realized two things from all of this...

a. this is all a power struggle. a minority wants to do something that a majority thinks is wrong, so the minority does anything possible to flip the situation on its head. as much as our post-modern world hates power (which is interesting because this is exactly what the minority wants), power properly used is not necessarily a bad thing. power is not meant to dominant and oppress, but it creates boundaries that protect (which in this case are called oppressive in order to look like it is awful... pretty soon inmates will be suing the government for imprisoning them).

at some point we must all face it, we were created finite beings, which necessarily means we are limited. why? because God loves limits. He loves limits because He loves us, and He uses limits to keep us safe. this is the same way a parent places limits on children to protect them from a world that they do not fully understand. in doing this, they are not being oppressive but loving. there were limits from the beginning in the garden (think the tree of good and evil). God created things good, but anything good used improperly can be dangerous (just look at electricity!). He knows our tendency to pervert His good creation for evil. thus the reason God ushered adam and eve out of the garden after the fall - because otherwise they would have been able to eat from the tree of life, allowing them to live indefinitely and keeping them in their sin. once again, God created limits (death in this case by cutting them off from the fountain of youth... which provided God a way to ultimately redeem them from sin).

sexual matters definitely fall into this category. i watched as a young couple, both of whom were fourteen-years-old, sit on the oprah show last week and announce to the world that they were ready to have sex with each other. it is interesting that we don't think these children are mature enough to operate a motor vehicle, but we do think that they are old enough to have sex, which always comes with the potential to create life (when asked, the girl admitted that she didn't want to think about this consequence because it "scared her to death"). wrong! sex is something God placed boundaries on, not because it is sinful or evil (although, as all else, it is when used wrongly), but because it is so wonderful that when improperly used it can be extremely destructive. it is not meant to be an outlet for lust but an opportunity for a special intimacy reserved for married couples to bring them together as one flesh. used otherwise, it becomes people using other people as objects to fulfill their desire. it is literally dehumanizing! this is the antithesis of love.

i enjoy candy. it brings joy to my life, but there has to be limits. otherwise, i end up with diabetes or overweight. something that could have been enjoyable ends up destroying me. you see, this is what sin is. it is the crossing of boundaries created for our good. it is using things that God created good in capacities that they were not created for. the problem is, secular culture, which worships a god it created, thinks it can now define how creation should be used, which obviously suits its own sinful desires. we are just not having any of it.

b. from this, i have concluded...

one side has dominated this whole argument for a long time. it has been controlled with language about rights and love. this is not an issue of rights and love, though - mainly because this has nothing to do with rights or love. marriage is a privilege and an institution that was created by God, which is defined in Genesis 3. culture, you have no right to define this because God has taken that liberty, as it is His creation. while i am not ignorant and recognize that marriage is also a social institution, it is a social institution explicitly for purposes of procreation. as homosexual relationships are incapable of this, marriage is an absurd demand (other than trying to claim something that is not your own for "romantic" reasons). further, since God is love and has created marriage (the place for eros, intimate, love) solely between a man and a woman, i think it is a safe bet that eros love has been perverted in any other capacity.

so i would like to suggest this: people who oppose homosexual relationships have been said to be unloving, uncompassionate, out of touch, biased, and a list of other things. these are incorrect assessments, though. i admit that some people are homophobic and hateful, but the rest of us recognize that we love people too much to give in to someone's beliefs (and thus falsely confirm them) when we know these beliefs to be destructive. we struggle against culture... not to maintain or get power, but to uphold the divinely created boundaries... not out of hate, but out of love.

cheers,

jw <><

hey! jon's on the news!

2009-04-19T21:39:00.005-04:00

jon and the pts praise band led music for a healing service for the stanton heights community, where the three pittsburgh police officers were killed on April 4th. any way, all the news crews were at the service.

here are the links for the 3 news channels that covered the service...

http://www.wpxi.com/video/19224655/index.html

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/video/19224353/index.html

there is no audio for this shot...

http://kdka.com/local/fallenheroes/Stanton.Heights.service.2.988811.html

how cool is that!

please continue to keep the community and the families affected by this senseless violence in your prayers. also, tell the police officers in your community how much you appreciate what they do each day, putting their lives at risk to keep our communities safe.

e l i z a b e t h

HAPPY EASTER!!!

2009-04-12T13:09:00.002-04:00

this was part of our maunday thursday service at glenshaw.....

Quiet Meditation

How shallow former shadows seem beside this great reverse, as darkness swallows up the light of all the universe. Creation shivers at the shock, the temple rends its veil. A pallid stillness stifles time and nature's motions fail. This is no fantasy, no flight of fervered brain. With vengence grim, and real, chaos is come again. The hands that formed us from the soil are nailed upon the cross. The word that gave us life and breath expires in utter loss. Yet deep within this darkness lives a LOVE so fierce and free, that arcs all voids and risk supreme! embraces agony. Its perfect testament is etched in iron, blood and wood. With awe we glimpse its true import and dare to call it good.

- arranged by Lee Dengler

Christ has died,

Christ is risen,

Christ will come again!

e l i z a b e t h

booze with a smile???

2009-03-08T22:19:00.004-04:00

check out this article -

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,506837,00.html

apparently the geniuses in our pa. state government are spending almost $200,000 of taxpayer money (translation: my money) to make the people working at the state run liquor stores (you can't get liquor anywhere else) more friendly.

are you kidding me? it isn't like they are going to get more business by being friendly. we don't have any other options! i really doubt people are leaving the stores saying, "those people are not friendly. i am going to quit drinking." perhaps that might actually be good.

if they are going to spend our money trying to make government employees more friendly, then they should work on the people at the dmv. or maybe they should pay someone to help arlen specter make better decisions.

cheers,

jw <><

this kid is ridiculous!!!

2009-03-03T21:22:00.002-05:00

i was amazed by this and thought that i would share it. plus, this is one of my favorite songs...

enjoy!

cheers,

jw <><

i'm done!!!!

2009-03-02T17:42:00.002-05:00

i just finished a long week of late nights, lots of reading, and 21 pages of papers! no more finals!!!! well... for a few weeks at least. i now have a few days of rest and relaxation.

i have made a long list of things to get done during the next week (my spring break) but have a few fun things, beginning with reading the three magazines (backpacker, adventure, and relevant) that have been teasing me the past week. why is it that they come at the worst time? i mean, come on, exam week!?!

also, i discovered that netflix put up some new online movies and tv shows. season one of survivorman, here i come! plus, jimmy fallon takes over late night tonight...

finally, i will start blogging again.

i hope your week has started as great as mine!

cheers,

jw <><

pictures

2009-02-27T15:58:00.004-05:00

february was a great month, but not very much of it was caught on camera. so this blog has no theme really... just some fun snap shots.

nannerpuss let me hold his peel. we're friends... haha! my friend carolyn brought him to our last dinner party. it got a little crazy as you can see!

phipp's conservatory is a must see in pittsburgh. the flowers are gorgeous!

so... ummm.... this is in a blue hut in a building on pitt's campus. we meet in it for lunch. no one else is using it, so we adopted it as our lunch time club house! this was costume party day! lunch is so fun!

valentine's day stroll.... so nice! see the pretty flakes falling? :)

hope you enjoy our little happenings!

e l i z a b e t h

cooking and a quote

2009-02-22T23:00:00.002-05:00

i must share the recipe that has gotten us through the bone chilling weather this winter... it also happens to be delicious and easy to make!!! we have this... probably every other week and never get sick of it!

it is.....

TACO SOUP (yummmmmmm!)

brown 1 pound of ground meat (trader joe's leanest of the lean)

add onions if you like (flakes or the real deal)

pepper to taste

1 package of taco seasoning mix (we totally prefer cheesy taco)

now for the cans... just add them to the meat:

1 can mexican corn

1 can diced tomatoes (or rotel if you like it spicy! ...not for me)

1 can pinto beans

1 can diced green chiles

22 ounces of V8 (for a thinner soup add more. the canned 6 pack works well)

bring to a boil and stir. let simmer on low 30 minutes. TIME TO EAT!

fritos under (for me) if you like them a little soggy or on top (for jon) if you like them crunchy. top with a little cheddar cheese and sour cream.

the most comforting of all comfort foods, my friends! it is so simple because we always have the ingredients in stock, and we can usually get 6 hearty meals out of it.

try it tonight!

as for the quote portion... jon and i had a saturday study date at the border's down the street, and i was sipping my new favorite tea -- good earth -- best ever... i think it will be my favorite forever! so good earth puts cute little quotes on the tea bag's little folded paper piece at the end of the stringy thing... wow! did you get that? i wonder what the formal name for that could be??? i am not savvy with tea bag anatomy! so... i am not sure how i feel about the quote... but it was interesting for sure. jon and i exchanged a "hmmm" and went about our studying. i am still thinking...

"the world is a tragedy for those who feel, but a comedy for those who think." --horace walpole

now, make some taco soup and then curl up on the couch with some good earth tea and pretend your are living in a snow globe. that is how i do it! by the way... we got another couple inches today! i still love snow!

e l i z a b e t h

bow ties...

2009-02-21T12:33:00.002-05:00

so, i spend way too much time on the internet. occasionally, though, i do run across helpful and interesting things. below is one of those! enjoy!

cheers,

jw <><

HILARIOUS!!!

2009-02-18T20:04:00.002-05:00

i literally fall out of my chair whenever i see this!!! i hope this commercial comes on everywhere. the whole world should know about nannerpuss. i have only seen it once on tv, but i've watched it a lot on you tube... haha!

i hope nannerpuss made your day!

e l i z a b e t h

Happy, Happy, Happy Valentine's!

2009-02-16T22:22:00.002-05:00

well, well, well! we had a really great valentine's day and weekend!!

our valentine's celebration started friday morning. jon does not have class on fridays and my class was cancelled because all my teachers went out of town for a conference... whoo-hoo!! so we decided to go out for breakfast. deluca's in the strip district has been voted pittsburgh's best breakfast place... i believe since the beginning of time! since we did not want to wait in a line around the corner, we have never been on a weekend. jon enjoyed the steel city breakfast which was the biggest meal on the menu... haha! it was all VERY good. they have anything and everything you could ever want for breakfast! we strolled around the outdoor markets and specialty shops afterwards. if you ever come to pittsburgh, a trip to the strip district is a MUST!

friday night the seminary spouses club had a very cute valentine party! we decorated "the shak" (pts student union-ish place) with red and pink balloons and candles... it was really pretty! we had yummy appetizers and of course chocolate (for those who like it!) my favorite part was game time... the best part of any party if you ask me! we played cute newly wed type games even though we had couples of all ages. it was fun to hear everyone answer the questions. you learn a lot about people, too... haha!

saturday we went to an afternoon movie at a really fancy theater! i have been wanting to go to this place since we moved here, but we never had a good excuse to go... til now! we were planning on cooking together that night, but after the movie got out, we changed our minds. the theater is right next to a very nice outdoor mall (imagine the summit in birmingham, al) and one of our favorite restaurants, bravo. it was only mid-afternoon, so we figured we could get our name on the list to eat sometime that evening! luckily the wait was only an hour and a half, so we were set. the temp wasn't too bad if you were bundled, and the snow was REALLY pretty, so we shopped around until time to eat.

then sunday night we finally got around to cooking our valentine's dinner... thanks to brad's fabulous recipe!

this was the perfect weekend after midterms! i was past due for some chill time!

hope everyone had a wonderful valentine's, too!

e l i z a b e t h

love...

2009-02-14T22:51:00.002-05:00

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8, NIV

This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.... God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him... We love because he first loved us.

1 John 4:9-12, 16b, 19

discovering our identity...

2009-02-10T20:00:00.005-05:00

He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him... "And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church..."

Matthew 15:15-18

last thursday i wrote on peter's confession at caesarea philippi, as it was the lectionary for the day (if you all haven't noticed, that is where i get the scripture i comment on). any way, today in class one of my classmates offered a pretty insightful thought into Jesus' comment back to peter in this parallel passage in matthew.

my classmate stated that it was only after peter recognized who Jesus was that Jesus was able to tell peter who he was, giving peter his identity in light of who he had discovered Jesus to be. you see, it is only when we have a clear understanding of Jesus that we are able to discover who we are and what we are here for.

so often in life we are so confused about who we are and our purpose here on earth. we look for our identity in all sorts of things... our profession, our possessions, our family, our friends, etc. nothing seems to satisfy though. and we come to wrong conclusions about the negative aspects of ourselves. we convince ourselves that we are just inherently pessimistic, or fearful, or impatient, or untrusting, or easily frustrated, or whatever. we say things like, "that is just who i am." but is that really who God created us to be? i have a feeling that God didn't create us to be things that are unbecoming of His own character. remember, we were created in His image. instead, we have allowed circumstances to place on us these identities.

peter's identity must have been challenging for him to accept, for Jesus gave him a pretty big task. his task was to love and feed the flock of God. peter could have said, "Jesus, i don't think that is such a good idea. You know - i mess up a lot. i am hard-headed. i have problems trusting. i messed up walking on water. i ask stupid questions. i am a little slow. in just a second, you are going to call me satan. in a few days, you are going to get mad at me for wanting to stay up on the mountain to build huts for You, elijah, and moses. in Your time of greatest need, i am going to deny You three times. really, i am just a screw up." instead, in understanding who Jesus was, peter knew that this task could be accomplished. this is because it was God, Lord of all creation, who had spoken this to him. if anyone knows who you are, it is the One who created you.

in fact, God is the only One who knows who you are. so may we stop listening to the world, which tells us we have to prove ourselves and earn our way, and start listening to the One who whispers words of love and affirmation because these things have already been earned on our behalf.

friends, if you want to know who you are and what you purpose is, then figure out who Jesus is. you will discover your identity in Him.

cheers,

jw <><

by the way, thanks james!

the news...

2009-02-09T13:10:00.004-05:00

the great theologian karl barth once said that we should read the news with the newspaper in one hand and the bible in the other. it is an interesting idea - that we should be trying to interpret what is going on in the world through the lens of our faith, constantly looking for what God is up to in the world.

today, while reading the news, i was very disturbed (not that i am not always disturbed). the headline story this morning on cnn.com was that there are families in alaska that are starving, as they are having to choose between heating their homes and feeding their families. right next to this headline were the smaller stories for the day. one of these stories was that a some kid scored 890,971 points playing a video game, which was the highest score ever recorded for this game.

it is just very sad to me that this was even a story that would make the national headlines. as i thought about how much time this kid put into this achievement (if i can call it that), it saddened me even more to think that this time could have been spent on something far more productive. now, i will admit that i play video games every once and a while to relax and do something brainless. i do this, maybe, once every three or four months for an hour or two. it seems that people are spending more and more of their time doing activities like this, though. and for what?

there are families struggling to survive here in america, and we are playing video games. it has convicted me to pay close attention to how i am spending my time. has my life been dedicated to something that is completely pointless - like playing video games? in such an individualistic society, which encourages us to think only about ourselves, it seems that we must be very careful to make sure we are serving one another. our time and energy could definitely be spent making a difference in this world, participating in what God is doing to redeem all of creation.

perhaps the movie wall-e is prophetic in regard to where we are headed if we do not be more careful.

just something to think about...

jw <><

the one and only...

2009-02-05T19:59:00.003-05:00

Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" And they answered him, "John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." He asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Messiah."

Mark 8:27-29

caesarea philippi was an interesting place. in its time, it was a center of worship... pagan worship. at one time there were temples there for baal. before becoming caesarea philippi, its name was panias, after the greek god pan, who was thought to have been born there. so, there were temples for pan there, as well. then when the area came under the control of philip, herod the not-so-great's son, he renamed it caesarea philippi, after himself and to honor caesar. so there was a roman temple for caesar.

needless to say, this place was loaded with pagan temples for syrian, greek, and roman gods. interestingly, it is here that peter makes his confession. peter's statement should shock us. he is saying, "we believe that You, the One standing before us in the flesh, are the One Whose name we can't even speak. You are the One Who spoke creation into being, Who spoke through a burning bush to moses, Who delivered our people from egypt, Who has been promised through the prophets." this is astonishing!

what can we take from this? well, to begin with, to confess that Jesus is Lord in the midst of all these pagan temples is at the same time making a negative statement. it is not only saying that Jesus is Lord, but it is saying that this means that no one or nothing else can be.

i am not sure that i often think about what confessing Jesus as Lord in my life means on the negative side. if we are to say that Jesus is Lord of our lives, then we, inherently, have to say that He alone is in control. we have to say that nothing else can be treated as Lord... nothing else can be exalted, worshipped, glorified. this might cause the need for some serious rearranging in our lives to truly be honest with this confession. peter figures this out very quickly... just read the next few verses.

i think that it is also significant that Jesus first asks what others think about Him before asking who they think He is. there seems to be an implication here that the confession that Jesus is Lord has to be ours alone. when we stand before God, i have a feeling that He isn't going to care so much what our friends, family, or pastors thought about Jesus. instead, the question will be, "who do you say I am?"

in reply to peter's confession in matthew's gospel, Jesus states, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven." i will let you all chew on this statement.

cheers,

jw <><

how well do you know scripture?

2009-02-05T19:43:00.002-05:00

so... i take my first ordination exam tomorrow - the bible content exam (or as i like to call it - the bible trivia exam). it is, arguably, the easiest of the lot, as the rest aren't multiple choice or so straight forward.

i am telling you this not only to ask for prayers but also to inform you of a great resource on the web for studying for this thing. now, you might be wondering why i would tell all of you about this resource because, probably, none of you will ever have to take this exam. well, i thought that i would pass it along and challenge all of you to take a few to see how you do. it is 100 questions through all areas of the bible (pentateuch, historical books, prophets, psalms and wisdom literature, gospels, acts and pauline letters, and the "rest of the nt"). all of it is multiple choice, and you can even take the different areas separately. at the end, it will show you what you missed (and got right if you want!). plus, it has the bible references to each question that you can click on to read.

the website is: http://www.whitneyhq.com/biblecontent/

who knows, you might find out that you knew more than you thought... or less than you thought. if you are feeling generous, give a donation while you are there. it will keep the site working for those of us who rely on it!

cheers (and happy testing),

jw <><

tradition...

2009-02-03T22:47:00.004-05:00

He answered them, "And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?" ... "So, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the word of God."

Matthew 15:3, 6

i have found great comfort and meaning in the traditions of the church. i have been able to dance with my full attention on the Lord who is leading me in worship because the steps are familiar after years of attending sunday services. they are steps that the saints before me have learned to be effective in giving glory to God. this worship that i share with the generations before me serves as a reminder of my part in this story that God is writing with His people throughout history. what's more, in times of trouble, i have had the apostles' creed and the Lord's prayer close by to remind me of God's presence and who He is for us. i have found instruction in the teachings of the church fathers. tradition is indeed a wonderful thing.

there is great danger to tradition, though. there is a danger to become too comfortable and forget to tremble before God Almighty. there is a danger to worship tradition instead of what the tradition points to. there is a danger that tradition (the living faith of those who have come before) will be come traditionalism (the dead faith of those still living), allowing us to go through the motions while forgetting what we are doing.

for these reasons, tradition, which is a time-tested gift handed down to each generation, requires that each receiving generation must reaffirm it and claim it as their own. each generation must work hard to come to an understanding of the tradition, holding up the tradition to allow God to re-affirm it... or perhaps correct or reject it. in doing so, each generation must accept, change, or reject it themselves. this scrutiny by each generation is extremely important, for what is not understood and not tested should not be accepted. then again, it should not simply be thrown out because it isn't understood. instead, attempts should be made to come to an understanding. without these efforts, it quickly becomes traditionalism.

when left unchecked, tradition has a tendency to be elevated above God. perhaps we should consider what traditions we cling to that have been left unchecked and are, perhaps, making void the word of God. what about our traditions concerning worship? what about our traditions surrounding christmas and easter? there are many, many more that i could question but to name them would be superfluous.

the point is - how have we done at receiving, understanding, and testing traditions in light of who God is for us? how have we done at making sure our traditions are used as a tool to lead us to God instead of becoming a god? do we know why we say and do the things we do? are they meaningful to us and glorying to God? just something to think about...

cheers,

jw <><

just part of the journey...

2009-02-02T23:12:00.007-05:00

Fear and trembling come upon me,

and horror overwhelms me.

And I say, "O that I had wings like a dove!

I would fly away and be at rest;

truly, I would flee far away;

I would lodge in the wilderness;

I would hurry to find a shelter for myself

from the raging wind and tempest."

Psalm 55:5-8

i must admit... there have been times when i have wished like jenny from forrest gump that i had wings that i could fly far, far away. life certainly deals us some hard times, and the natural tendency is to try to find a way to escape. this is what walter cannon in 1915 dubbed the fight or flight response. i think there are very few times that we actually want to stay and fight. i think we usually fight only because we have been cornered and have no other options.

so i think i have done a pretty good job at "flying," figuring out how to circumvent hardship. i have simply avoided things that i knew would later put me in an uncomfortable situation. but i have done this at the expense of experiencing great things and being put in situations where i am forced to grow.

i have since learned that the key to life isn't trying to avoid hardships or figuring out how to fix them when they come. the key is to live in them. that's right, folks! live in them. this seems pretty non-sensical, but it is how God, in His perfect wisdom, intends for things to be.

in one of my classes with dr. barnes last year, he pointed out something very interesting to us about God's chosen peoples' journey from egypt to the promised land. have you ever looked at this on a map? the israelites could have gotten to the promised land in no time. a straight journey from egypt to israel really isn't that far... even on foot. apparently, there was even a highway connecting the two places! but instead, God had them take the long route, wandering through the desert for decades. why? because it is only in the desert that they couldn't have done things on their own... it is only there that they had to rely on God. it is there that they figure out what it means to be the people of God. it is there that they have time to realize that God alone sustains them. this, of course, comes with a lot of difficulty and mess ups. even when the promised land is in sight, they aren't ready for it, so they end up wandering for another 40 years.

our problem is that we want to skip the desert. we want to avoid it. and when we find ourselves in the desert, we are looking for the shortest way out. in doing this, we are missing the point. the objective is not to find your way out. the objective is to live in it, discovering God where He has placed you and allowing Him to use your experiences to move you closer towards Himself. the psalmist knows this. he prays, "But I call upon God, and the Lord will save me... Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved."

i am learning to stop looking for a way out. i am learning to stop looking at the map to find short-cuts and have begun paying attention to the One leading me, trusting that He will lead me out when He is ready... when i am ready. i am learning to look for God in the desert. interestingly, manna and streams abound, proof that God is sustaining me. i have witnessed water flowing from rocks - amazing. God is good and worthy to be praised - even in hard times!

the journey will be long... but the promised land will come. there will be peace because i am learning in this desert to rest in God.

cheers,

jw <><

SIXBURGH

2009-02-02T22:17:00.003-05:00

what a time to be in the burgh!!! the past few weeks have been very exciting. just as you would imagine people to decorate their homes for christmas or halloween, pittsburghers have decorated in the same fashion for the super bowl... haha! it is quite a sight to see! there has also been extravagant pep rallies, parades and trimming a steelers tree downtown!

the town closed over 100 roads yesterday -- some in oakland, downtown and the southside. i am guessing to reserve places for people to congregate and go NUTS basically... haha! well everyone definitely went nuts. there were people going crazy filling the designated "crazy space", as well as every other street in the WHOLE town! to counter act this craziness, pittsburgh supposedly had over 500 cops on crowd duty.

we almost could not drive home last night. we went to a rockin party at my friend darcy's apartment! she let me borrow her towel throughout the whole game, so i could do the most appropriate steelers cheer there is! i must say... i did a pretty awesome job even though i was a first time twirler!

there were parades of people on every street twirling terrible towels and screaming and waving. if you honked at them to move out of the street, they just got more excited because they thought you were pumped the steelers won... haha! (which is true, but we also wanted to park our car safely in the seminary lot before it got burned or flipped over!) this may seem a little extreme, but the steelers winning puts the fans way over the top with celebrating. for some reason it makes everyone very destructive... which scares me a little! we also saw and heard lots of fireworks during our short drive (but long time getting there) home.

in oakland (neighborhood with pitt and carnegie melon), the craziest of the crazies were hanging out. this is where they flip cars and burn couches. the chopper for the news was showing fires in the street last night. they were burning shirts to start... then a dumpster and who knows how many couches. this is insane! who is donating their couch to this cause!!!!???? seriously! also, i saw parking meters smashed into bar windows. i am kind of wondering if my school will still be there tomorrow... haha!

today, all the schools had a 2 hour delay that they have been planning since last week. they do this so everyone will not skip school the next day (this goes for bus drivers, teachers and students!!!)

tomorrow is the town victory parade with all the players! i wish they would cancel school for that! i mean, come on, this does not happen everyday!

so... there you have it y'all! i hope you have a lovely picture of steeler town to go with the six pack!

GO STEELERS!

e l i z a b e t h

the ear of a teacher...

2009-01-30T14:35:00.004-05:00

The Lord God has given me the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens - wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught.

Isaiah 50:4

this is especially for you teachers out there. i know that not everyone has been blessed with the gift to teach; however, i think this will be applicable for everyone.

it is interesting that this passage in isaiah not only says that this "servant" has been given a tongue to teacher, but, also, and perhaps more importantly, he has been given an ear to listen. there is a cliche - do not speak before you think. i think that God wants even more than that, though. God instructs us, especially teachers, not to speak before we listen.

why? because before we can teach, we must give the subject matter we are teaching an opportunity to "speak" the truth of itself to us. there must be a time for our notions about an object to be corrected by the object itself. this cannot be done through study and observation alone. spending time listening first is the only way to teach honestly, for how can we teach what we do not truthfully know.

this is especially true for God. we can read all about God... in the bible, in theology books, in forwarded emails. we can build up all kinds of knowledge about God, and we can think we have this God-stuff pretty much down based on this learned knowledge. but this knowledge does not mean that we "know" the subject matter - God. it would be inappropriate for me to sit somewhere public, observing someone without them knowing it, and then think that i can make a judgement about who this person is without ever having talked with them. i could probably tell you a little about this person, but i think, for the most part, i would be very wrong about him/her. you see, relationships are dynamic and mutual. we have to constantly hold our ideas about someone up to this person and allow them to be corrected. this is the only way to truly get to know someone.

God gives us the opportunity to do this with Him. He gives us the opportunity to move towards the truth of who He is. One of the psalms in the lectionary today states, "...you have given me an open ear" (psalm 40:6). the more literal translation is, "...ears you have dug for me." this might be a gross imagine, but it is describing the fact that God has dug out holes in our head in order to hear Him correctly. God has to give us the ability to hear Him, as we cannot hear Him otherwise because He is wholly other (this is the meaning of "holy"). you see, we cannot inherently understand God. He is beyond our common experience in His transcendence. there is nothing for us to compare Him to or no previous experience that allows us to assimilate Him into our knowledge. but God has blessed us with this ability to hear and know Him. however, we must be very careful. this relationship we have with Him demands our constant correction and repentance in understanding as we come to know Him more.

can you imagine if i thought that i could teach about God simply because i had taken some seminary classes? this alone is not what prepares me to teach. it is certainly helps in my understanding of God, but in the end, all the seminary classes in the world cannot provide what i need to teach about God. instead, i must be attentive to who God is revealing Himself to be through listening to Him.

as we are all students, i challenge you all to listen for God, allowing Him to reveal Himself and correct your notions of who He is. i pray that you would not think that simply going to church or reading the bible would be enough. a relationship, as i am sure all of you know, takes more than this. i also pray that you will discover what i have discovered - that He is a lot more majestic and amazing than i could have ever imagined on my own. i also challenge all you teachers out there: be careful how you teach. be sure you are not only reading books about your subject matter, but make sure you are spending time in silence, allowing your subject matter to "speak" to you the truth of itself.

cheers,

jw <><

SNOW!!!!

2009-01-30T14:09:00.004-05:00

i am excited to say that we have had 18 inches of snow this month, and it is still snowing! today it is snowing while the sun is shining! it is SOOOO beautiful!

wednesday was a snow day for pittsburgh! it was snowing up, down and sideways! so... jon and i went out for a walk in our snow globe town! this was high quality snow!!!

e l i z a b e t h

the environment...

2009-01-29T15:39:00.004-05:00

i will admit that i am an environmentalist. i believe that God, the Creator of this magnificent universe, has entrusted us with the care of the earth He created. we do much to pollute and destroy it, thinking that we can strip it of all that it is worth. this is irresponsible. instead, i think that we are called to tread lightly and do what we can to protect this gift that God has given to us. we need to work towards more sustainable living, not taking more than the earth can give and replanting what has been taken. this is not only an issue of environmental morality, but it is an issue of human morality, as we have created situations where people in certain areas have nothing to live on due to the stripping of resources. let us remember that we have been called to participate with God in what He is doing in this world through Jesus Christ, the Word through whom the creation came into being, and I think part of this work is the redeeming of creation.

with that being said, however, i wanted to share an article with all of you. it was written by the founder of the weather channel, john coleman. this article brings into question a recent belief that has been wildly popular and is driving political agenda; further, it is one that i believed to be correct. i will let all of you make up your minds about this article, though. regardless of its truth or fiction, i do not think it relieves us of our responsibility to take care of our corner of the world.

http://www.kusi.com/weather/colemanscorner/38574742.html

cheers,

jw <><

the putting to death of the fallen self...

2009-01-28T16:21:00.006-05:00

...I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me...

Galatians 2:19-20

everyday i wrestle with my humanity. i live selfishly. i think and say mean things about people. i am apathetic. i am not compassionate. i fail to trust God. i pray half-heartedly. it sort of makes one wonder why, if i have been crucified with Christ and He is living in me, i do these things.

the fact is that my fallen humanity is dead. it has been all along. you see, if i can do nothing but sin without the help of God (and sin is death), then my fallen humanity is dead. the problem is that, despite being made alive in Christ, it still has influence in my life. when Christ engrafts us into Himself, who is the Life, He so brings us to life and allows us to share the benefits of His Sonship. however, we are not simply dissolved into God. our humanity does not simply disappear, but we are brought to a place where we can, with God's help, live as we were created to live.

God did not create me to be selfish, or mean, or apathetic, or in any other way that is not of Him. what a stupid thing we say when we say, "that's just the way i am." no, actually you weren't created to be that way. but this corrupted part of me is trying its hardest to pull away from this fire that is burning it away. this part of me wants to be autonomous. it wants to draw itself back into non-being, away from God, where it is comfortable in its misery.

so everyday i struggle with these things. on good days, i remember that Jesus Christ took these things onto Himself on the cross and defeated them for my sake. they have been crucified.

yet, it should be our daily prayer that the parts of us that are dragging us into non-being, would be crucified, for these things do not know that they are dead... and that they are dead-weight. thankfully, we worship a God who, as Nichole Nordeman says, gently moves over us like a river moving over a stone, smoothing out our rough edges, and reshaping us into what He had in mind all along.

cheers,

jw <><

a few thoughts...

2009-01-27T19:29:00.010-05:00

i have tried to refrain from making any comments that are political in nature since the election; however, i have a few things i would like to comment on...

1. why is there $4.19 billion in the new economic stimulus plan for acorn? how exactly is this going to create jobs? seems like a pay-off for their work during the election to me, but, then again, who am i?

2. why is obama asking republicans to put aside politics to get the stimulus plan passed when this plan is a wish list of democratic spending items? so the republicans should put aside politics, but the democrats don't have to? all this talk of being bi-partisan is making me nauseous. friends, bi-partisan does not mean that one group gets what they want while the other doesn't.

3. why is there talk of reinstating the fairness doctrine? is it just me, or do we take freedom too far and end up destroying it? for those of you who don't know what this is - the fairness doctrine requires that for every talk radio show (or other things that are broadcasted) there has to be equal air time for opposing views. while it sounds good, it actually kills freedom of speech. the last radio station to suffer the consequences of this doctrine from the early 80's was a christian station, which didn't have an opposing view to the christian beliefs it expressed. the radio station lost its license to broadcast. talk radio died during this time because of the costs and challenges of ensuring the regulations were followed.

4. in a time of economic crisis, why did obama immediately reinstate legislation that sends hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars (i think it was between $700 and $800) to foreign countries for abortion? this will surely create the approval and respect of the muslim nations that we have become so desperate to receive.

5. speaking of muslims, why does obama believe that telling the muslim extremists that we "respect" them will all of a sudden make them not hate us anymore? is it just me or does trying to use rational means with irrational people seem extremely naive? friends, i hate to be pessimistic, but the muslim extremists are always going to hate us. they hate us for who we are, not because we don't respect them. what exactly had we done to them pre-9/11 that caused them to murder us? nothing. we were just being us.

they aren't going to like us just because we send some hippy love vibes their way. this is the nature of being irrational. you can't talk someone out of being irrational with rationality. have you ever lied awake at night worrying and tried to convince yourself everything was going to be okay in order to go to sleep? it doesn't work, does it? that is because fear is irrational. it cannot be driven out by rational thinking.

this is my opinion (which isn't worth a whole lot): obama talked about putting our childish ways behind us in his inauguration speech. part of childhood is naivete. it is time we all wake up and smell the roses. america isn't going to change because of inspiring speeches. the economy isn't going to prosper by turning to a welfare system (winston churchill once said that trying to create prosperity through a welfare system is like someone trying to lift themselves off the ground by standing in a bucket and pulling up on the handle). despite its appeal, big government has never helped prosper a nation. religious extremists aren't going to respond to rational conversation. america has to stop trying to please everyone, we have to give up our obnoxious insistence that the world owes us something, we have to stop confusing rights and privileges, we have to stop putting off personal responsibility and relying on government to save us, and we have to get off our butts and work. this is what made this country great, and this is the only thing that will allow it to return to prosperity.

sorry to be so negative, but someone has to be realistic.

cheers,

jw <><

out of options...

2009-01-26T20:56:00.005-05:00

She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse.

Mark 5:26

it is pretty amazing how slow we are sometimes. why is it that we stick to our plans no matter their lack of results? yesterday's lectionary reading was about a disabled man who had been sitting next to the healing pool for 38 years, waiting for his opportunity to get in when the waters were stirred. 38 years!!!! that is close to the average life span of someone in this time. he had never gotten in; yet, he continued to sit there.

in today's reading, the woman had been bleeding for 12 years - only about a quarter of the time the disabled man had been ill. still, she had tried everything. the result - she was out of money, out of options, and was growing worse. it was 12 years that had been wasted - 12 years in a life that is all too short to begin with.

it seems that sometimes we have to hit rock bottom (and then some!) before we hand our plans over to Jesus. what is Jesus' response to our plans, which we have religiously clung to despite the fact that they have repeatedly failed us? his response is, "do you want to be healed?" translation - "are you ready to give up your plans and allow me to show you the way?"

friends, may we not create plans and stick to them despite their ineffectiveness. instead, may we search out God's plans for us. may we continually hold up what we think His plans are for us for Him to shine His light on and correct. may we not bleed for 12 years or sit crippled for 38. may we not waste our lives chasing after our own plans. may we be healed, pick up our mat, and run after Jesus.

cheers,

jw <><

HACKENSAW BOYS and PIZZA

2009-01-25T18:18:00.004-05:00

REMEMBER ME???? i used to blog here 1 million years ago! haha

sooo... our internet has been down at the seminary for a few days now, and i have found myself itching to blog. how funny is that! i have been totally inspired by the hackensaw boys! i am going to post a video if i can remember how to do this. the video does not do them justice, but i want to spread the word. it was the craziest concert i have ever seen!!!!!! yes, one guy is playing tin cans... with spoons... that he wears strapped to his chest. also, at any moment it looks like their eyes are going to pop right out of their heads! it does not get anymore bluegrassy than that my friends! I LOVED IT!

hope you enjoy! the sound quality is not heard as well when listening online...

another important update from the land of pittsburgh... our new favorite pizza place is bites and brews! we went friday night before the concert with a bunch of friends and got a huge pizza with 8 slices for $6.00! it was awesome, and we are going back very soon. happy hour is a lot happier than i ever thought it could be... haha!

we had a surprise snow storm this afternoon. jon and i were enjoying a sunday afternoon snooze and woke up to 1 1/2 inches of snow! what a beautiful sight to see!!

until next time...
e l i z a b e t h

unplugged...

2009-01-25T18:15:00.002-05:00

just wanted to do a little update on the lack of blogs the past two days. our internet connection went out right after i sent that blog friday morning and has been out ever since. i am at panera right now.

hopefully our connection will be back up tomorrow when our network administrator comes back from the weekend. as soon as it is back up, i will be posting again.

go steelers!

cheers,
jw <><

poem...

2009-01-23T08:46:00.001-05:00

Willing to die,
you give up
your will, keep still
until, moved
by what moves
all else, you move.

Wendell Berry

waiting...

2009-01-22T22:38:00.007-05:00

Be still before the LORD, and wait patiently for him...

Psalm 37:7

recently, i have been doing hospital visits for members in the congregation i am serving. i don't know if my presence has done anything for these folks, but i have learned a lot about life in the few visits i have made.

you see, hospitals aren't just a place that people go to get well... or maybe to die... but hospitals seem to be places where people go to wait. everyone in the hospital is waiting. people are waiting to see loved ones who are not well. patients are waiting to be seen by doctors. some are waiting for test results or to go into surgery. others are waiting to be released to go home. a few are waiting to pass on from this world. everyone that i have gone to see has been waiting for something.

i will admit that i have felt rather helpless in the hospital. i don't have the results that people are waiting for, or the drugs that will relieve the pain they are in or make them well, or the answers about what decisions to make concerning their health. so, i have found that my job is to wait with them. this waiting is not without purpose, though.

it seems most of my life has been about waiting. wait to get to drive, or to graduate high school, or to get married, or to go back to school. now, it seems i am waiting to be done with school, to get a job, to have children... but so often in life we run ourselves ragged in these times of waiting. we don't create opportunities to stop and think. we don't live in the moment. we just go, go, go, go, go to get to what we are waiting for. and as one of my youth pastors used to say, our lives end up like whirlpools. everything looks great until the jets stop, and all the junk that was unseen in the raging waters floats to the surface. it is all the junk that we don't want to deal with, so we keep ourselves busy in order to avoid dealing with it.

hospitals force us to stop... and wait. it is unfortunate that it is only in times that we are unwell that we stop and wait, for there is great value in this waiting. it is patient waiting (no pun intended, serious!)- albeit somewhat forced because there is nowhere to go and nothing to do.

it is in this time that Jesus becomes so apparent. it is in this time that He can deal with the junk in our lives. not that He wasn't always there, but it is just that He is less apparent when we try to fit Him into our schedule. scripture shows us that Jesus doesn't work on our schedule. in fact, there are instances where people are upset with Jesus when He doesn't show up "in time," and someone has died. as if God's timing isn't always perfect.

the thing is, we have to learn to stop and patiently wait for God. He will reveal what He is up to. He does this on His time, though... not ours. in the meantime, maybe we should stop waiting for things to come and enjoy the things we have.

so this is what i do in hospitals. i patiently wait with others. and Jesus always shows up.

cheers,
jw <><

creating good soil...

2009-01-21T17:37:00.004-05:00

And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.

Mark 4:20

in preparing sermons, i have come to understand that i must speak in ways that makes the message accessible to the congregation. this is hard work. not only does the preacher have to exegete the scripture, but the preacher must exegete the congregation, in order to speak God's Word to them in their needs.

but the work that a preacher does in preparing the sermon does not do much good if the congregation doesn't understand that they too have a task, which is perhaps even more difficult than the preacher's task. this task is not to critique the sermon - how "good" the sermon was in terms of entertainment or in terms of the preacher's ability to deliver it. instead, their task is to receive the Word of God.

the problem is that we have been trained to listen in a specific way. it is much like the way we are taught to read. we read for information purposes. we read to analyze... to pick out specific details that we find relevant.

further, information is cheap. we are exposed to all kinds of information daily, which we simply put in our information database and move on. this information doesn't affect us.

when we read the Word of God, it must be done devotionally, though. it isn't simply for information... it is to find the living God through the words, which scripture tells us are dead (the letter kills!). if what we are reading doesn't affect us, we aren't reading it correctly.

the same thing happens when we listen to a sermon. if we can listen to a sermon that doesn't affect the way we live, the Word has fallen on bad soil. i realized the other day that most of the time i come out of a worship service wanting to analyze the sermon because i didn't prepare the soil of my heart to receive the Word. i leave the church no different than i went in.

friends, we have not been attentive to God if we are unaffected by His Word. because we are sinful, we cannot receive His holy, perfect Word and remain unchanged. we, by nature, cannot receive it without being affected by it, just as a piece of gold cannot be put into a fire without its impurities being burned away.

may we all figure out how to listen devotionally that the soil may be prepared to receive the seed that will produce fruit in our lives. may we create room for God to dwell within us, burning away all that is not of Him.

cheers,
jw <><

hope in God alone...

2009-01-20T12:22:00.003-05:00

Do not put your trust in princes,
in mortals, in whom there is no help.
When their breath departs, they return to the earth;
on that very day their plans perish.
Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD their God...

Psalm 146:3-5

on this inauguration day of our 44th president, let us remember that we do not put our trust in men and women. our trust is in the Triune God, our Creator and Redeemer. there is one Messiah, and His name is Jesus.

rulers come and go, policies change, nations rise and fall... but there remains one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

cheers,
jw <><

unity in God...

2009-01-19T13:29:00.004-05:00

We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people's trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body's growth in building itself up in love.

Ephesians 4:14-16

on this day that we celebrate the life of martin luther king, jr., and all that he did to unify our country, it seems appropriate to speak of our unity in Christ. this is, indeed, a day that we recognize how far this country has come in terms of race relations. we have made progress and, hopefully, will continue to make progress in this area.

dr. king revealed the importance of unity - that no group of people should be treated as sub-human. he helped america see that we were all created in the image of God and that life should be valued in light of this truth.

but i fear that our country is more divided than ever over different issues. we say that we value unity but not at the sake of what we have deemed as necessary "progression" in society. we think that only when we achieve this progression will we be unified.

to this, i fear that we have pushed progress for the sake of progress and seek unity for the sake of unity. may i say that we are confused about what is truly progressive and unifying?

let me explain. someone once asked me if i would support peace and unity over purity in the church. this question is ridiculous to me, however, because peace and unity without purity are only distortions of peace and unity.

peace and unity only occur in Christ. if this is the case, these things cannot occur in a way that is inappropriate to Christ. you see, the only way to be progressive is to come together in ways that seek to support life, not destroy it (do you ever remember Jesus doing anything other than healing people?), in ways that seek to recognize that people are created in the image of God, not to support them to live in ways that are a distortion of this image (does Jesus not heal peoples' afflictions and then instruct them to "go and sin no more"?). as athanasius said, sin is a movement into non-being because it is a movement away from the way God created us to be. any movement for the sake of unity into non-being is no unity at all. do we really wish to be unified in our non-being? if so, that should be a piece of cake. this is not possible, however, because unity does not come at our terms. it comes by the terms of God in Jesus Christ.

we have been deceived by these discussions, however, because they have been masked with language of freedom and rights. friends, freedom to sin is no freedom at all in the end. as paul warns, let us use our freedom, not for selfish gain, but for Christ. in Him, we have been set free. using our freedom for sin only creates for ourselves a prison. in light of this, perhaps we should evaluate things we have deemed progressive. are they, in fact, really regressive... a moving away from God instead of a moving towards God? do we really want to support a freedom that only imprisons people?

further, let us not be confused about the difference between right and privilege. may we stop making demands about things we think we are entitled to. the world owes us nothing.

unity is extremely important. may we grow up together in Christ and discover that it can be used to give people true freedom to live by truth in love.

cheers,
jw <><

bumping into Jesus...

2009-01-18T16:06:00.003-05:00

Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city.

John 4:28

Jesus interrupts our lives. He has a knack for doing this. Right when we are in the middle of living our lives, doing things that we have deemed important - maybe even essential - Jesus shows up. we had no expectation to find Him here. we were just trying to get by. nonetheless, He shows up. we had come looking for the ordinary, and we find the extraordinary. we find what really sustains... what really gives life.

and if we are smart, we leave behind what we were doing. we drop our plans, our expectations, and we allow the one who controls the universe to have control over our lives. we allow our lives to be rearranged... re-prioritized. then, we run to the masses to share the Good News.

cheers,
jw <><

desires...

2009-01-17T12:40:00.004-05:00

May he grant you your heart's desire,
and fulfill all your plans.

Psalm 20:4

what is it that i desire? it seems that we have translated passages like this to mean that God will bless us with all the material blessings that we want. we have turned the gospel into something to do with worldly prosperity. and what happens when He doesn't give us material possessions? does it mean that He is punishing us?

perhaps God gives us more than material possessions. perhaps our heart's desire is something that is God-given... not human created.

st. john of the cross went through what he called the dark night of the soul. it was during this time that everything was stripped away from him. in this time, he was challenged to love God, even when this came with no extra blessings. could i love God if i went through a job-like experience... a dark night of the soul?

it was during this time that st. john discovered the most amazing thing, though. he realized that God was the blessing. he realized that God is in fact giving all that He can give, which is much, much more than material blessings. God gives us Himself. this is our heart's desire. God has created us with a God-shaped hole in our souls that only He can fill. and He fills it with Himself. we see this in psalm 20:7. it states, "some take pride in chariots, and some in horses, but our pride is in the name of the LORD our God."

perhaps we will discover that when we recognize that God is what we desire, our plans are shaped by what He plans for us. for when we desire God alone, we are able to truly participate in His life and work in the world.

cheers,
jw <><

the path...

2009-01-16T11:50:00.002-05:00

"You show me the path of life.
In your presence there is fullness of
joy;
in your right hand are pleasures
forevermore."

Psalm 16:11

there are a lot of choices that we make in life. when we come upon a fork in the road, we struggle to decide which road to go down. which way is the right way to go? which way will lead me to God? many times, it seems to me, that it doesn't really matter, though, as long as we are walking with God in the first place.

john calvin says that the right hand of God is omnipresent. this means that no matter what decisions we make, God is there. we spend way too much time deciding which way to go and very little time looking for God along the way. friedrich nietzsche said of tourists: "they climb mountains like animals, stupid and sweating; one has forgotten to tell them that there are beautiful views on the way up." i think that this is me most of the time... just struggling to get up to the mountain, forgetting to enjoy the view that is a product of the effort.

what if we knew that God was always with us? it seems that recognizing that we are in the presence of God is the only way to discover that "there is fullness of joy." fullness... as in lacking in nothing. what a place to be in life...

cheers,
jw <><

the silence...

2009-01-15T23:47:00.002-05:00

Though the air is full of singing
my head is loud
with the labor of words.

Though the season is rich
with fruit, my tongue
hungers for the sweet of speech.

Though the beech is golden
I cannot stand beside it
mute, but must say

"It is golden," while the leaves
stir and fall with a sound
that is not a name.

It is in the silence
that my hope is, and my aim.
A song whose lines

I cannot make or sing
sounds men's silence
like a root. Let me say

and not mourn: the world
lives in the death of speech
and sings there.

Wendell Berry

let the broken promises begin! a glimpse at the next four years...

2008-10-29T10:32:00.002-04:00

please look at the below link and watch the video:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/28/campbell.brown.obama/index.html

we couldn't even wait until after the election to find out that what our candidates have been telling us all along isn't, in fact, what they are really going to do. yesterday it was the definition of who is rich (pay attention. it has gone from $250,000 down to $150,000). today it is this.

i love the justifying responses below this video. it simply amazes me how we allow ourselves be deceived. i will hand it to obama, though. he has figured out that the media, with a few exceptions, is on his side, and he has been playing them. for instance, how is it that he has convinced the american people that mccain is the one running all the negative ads when it is he that has far more negative ads? even after criticizing mccain for this in the previous debate, he immediately took clips from the debate and made negative ads with them. unbelievable. i have become annoyed at you, barak, for all your whining. is this how you are going to run our country? by whining that people aren't playing nice every time things get tough? i hardly think that the leaders of countries like iran, north korea, and venezuela are going to be sympathetic. further, i find it hard to classify something as negative when it is true. perhaps mccain did run more negative ads in previous months, but perhaps he had more information to use for negative ads. yet, i heard a guy on the news last night say that he wasn't voting for mccain because of his use of negative ads. there might be plenty of reasons not to vote for mccain, but this is not one of them.

i guess when we really want something we are blinded to the truth. that, my friends, is the downside of hope... it has to be placed on something in trust and when it is placed in the wrong thing it is no hope at all.

cheers,
jw <><

stop buying oil!

2008-10-21T19:51:00.004-04:00

my friends, we have a serious problem. our lifestyle is making the entire world unsafe. while we have been living ignorantly, consuming large quantities of gasoline to power our play toys and making everything with oil, from plastics to the materials used to pave roads, we have been unknowingly helping leaders of rogue countries gain money and power. money and power they are using against us. they have gotten us addicted to this drug they are selling - a drug which we almost entirely rely on them to give us and which we have been so intoxicated by that we have failed to see what is going on. even now that we do see, we cannot break our addiction.

why do i say all of this? because opec announced today that they are going to cut production of oil in order to skyrocket prices because oil prices have gotten too low (just when prices were starting to fall at the pumps). this is bad news for the global economy, which they clearly have little regard for as they know people will always need oil. what are they doing with the windfall profits they are making? well, besides living extravagant lives, they are building nuclear weapons and purchasing weapons from other countries. by buying their oil, we are literally fueling their hatred and greed against us.

all the while, we are getting weaker with a crumbling economy (mostly because of our desire for things), and we have almost literally handed over our fate to militant dictators who hate this country. all the while, they are getting richer and more powerful. they have found our vulnerability (the missing scale in the dragon's armor if you will), and they are exploiting it. this has to end. and, mark my words, it is not going to be pretty.

with this said, please be very careful who you vote for in two weeks. we need a secure nation. even more, we need energy dependence... now! actually, we needed it yesterday.

please see this article and prepared to be very disturbed: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,442343,00.html

goodnight and good luck,
jw <><

the change america is looking for... socialism?

2008-10-13T18:18:00.004-04:00

below is an interesting statement from senator obama that was in response to a question from a plumber in ohio. i thought all of you would be interested in seeing it.

"Your new tax plan is going to tax me more, isn't it?" the plumber asked, complaining that he was being taxed "more and more for fulfilling the American dream."

"It's not that I want to punish your success. I just want to make sure that everybody who is behind you, that they've got a chance for success too," Obama responded. "My attitude is that if the economy's good for folks from the bottom up, it's gonna be good for everybody ... I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody."

here is the link for the full article: http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/10/13/obama-plumber-plan-spread-wealth/comments/

jw <><

grace alone...

2008-10-01T17:04:00.003-04:00

When St. Paul taught the doctrine of justification by Grace alone he was opposed by those who thought he was encouraging moral irresponsibility, and in fact undermining the law, but Paul insisted that on the contrary he was establishing the law. Similarly when Luther reasserted the same doctrine at the Reformation he was met with the charge of fostering antinomianism, but he showed that the contrary was the case, for out of justification flowed the life ruled by the law of love, and that far from subverting moral responsibility justification by Grace alone established it upon a profound and unshakeable foundation.

Theological Science, T.F. Torrance

Perhaps we should try to get our heads around this radical truth that is the Good News that our salvation is not conditional on our actions but that our actions consequentially follow God's saving action! After all, what is grace if we have to earn it? When we realize that we are saved despite ourselves, then we are freed to live in joy and love. We no longer have to serve God out of a feeling of obligation or duty, living in constant fear of whether we are doing enough, but we develop an unceasing desire to serve God in response to His great mercy, being empowered by the Holy Spirit to act. My friends, I pray that you would begin to grasp the enormity of how high and wide and deep the love of God is for us in and through Jesus Christ!

cheers,
jw <><

the Word...

2008-10-01T16:57:00.001-04:00

We only know persons whose words are in addition to what they are and whose words in themselves are impersonal acts separate and distinct from their persons. With God this is not so. His Word is His Person in communication, for in His speaking He Himself is personally present communicating Himself. That is in the Word of God who became flesh in Jesus Christ in whose self-communication God communicates Himself in Person and confronts us with His Person as Word.

Theological Science, T.F. Torrance

crucifixion...

2008-10-01T16:48:00.002-04:00

In Jesus Christ the Truth of God has broken into our human life and history in such a way as to involve crucifixion on His part as He endures the contradiction of sinners against Himself, and 'crucifixion' on our part as we take up the Cross and follow Him in an act of obedience in which we repent of our untruth and are changed in adaptation to the Truth of God.

Theological Science, T.F. Torrance

silence...

2008-10-01T16:47:00.001-04:00

There is always a point before the face of the Truth of God as it is in Jesus where we break off speaking and are silent in order that God may declare Himself to us and the Truth be His own witness.

Theological Science, T.F. Torrance

some nuggets to chew on...

2008-10-01T16:29:00.003-04:00

Where our statements have to do with the ultimate Truth of God true verification must be through appeal to the judgment of God Himself. It is to be sought in a way that guards the true Majesty of God and preserves the true limits of the creature and so does not allow the creature to exalt himself above God, and thus to falsify himself or to turn the truth of God into a lie. We cannot anticipate or arrogate to ourselves the decision as to the truth but can only cast ourselves upon God, offering ourselves with our statements for His criticism and correction, for His approval or disapproval, and praying that through His judgement they may receive justification and truth.
In this submission to the judgement and Grace of God we rely upon the Incarnation, upon the condescension of the Truth to enter within our weakness in order to make Himself accessible and communicable to us (i.e. upon its own objective effectuality), and by the Grace of His revelation and reconciliation to be the object of our knowledge in spite of the limitations and inadequacy and poverty of our words and thoughts, for far from allowing His power to be limited or halted by them, He sanctifies and elevates them in His assumption of our humanity, and gives them a content in His Truth which they are utterly unable in themselves to hold or possess. Thus in Jesus Christ God has not only revealed Himself, objectified Himself, given Himself to be known but has actualized understanding and knowledge and speech of Himself within our humanity and its creaturely forms. It is that Truth spoken and heard, given and received, communicated and understood, and therefore spoken and given and communicated again within the idiom of our existence in space and time, that comes to us and claims from us understanding and thought and speech. Therefore as we hear and receive and understand the Truth of God and think it out and communicate it again in statements, we cast ourselves upon the reliability of God behind it all, by resting as Augustine used to say, upon the same Grace by with the Truth became incarnate, praying that our words and statements which we seek to utter in faithful conformity to the Truth of God as it is in Jesus may by Grace be given actual content in the Truth to which they humbly and obediently claim to refer. And we believe that according to His promise and in accordance with the judgements of His Grace, He will adopt them and give them their Truth in Himself, as it pleases Him.

Theological Science, T.F. Torrance

hymns, part 2...

2008-09-27T19:36:00.002-04:00

here is another one of my new favorite hymns:

awake my soul

1. The image of God invisible
The firstborn of all life
Before and within,
He holds it all in
One name, one faith, one Christ

Chorus: No one is good enough
To save himself
Awake my soul tonight
To boast nothing else

2. I trust no other source or name
Nowhere else can I hide
This grace gives me fear,
and this grace draws me near
And all that it asks it provides
(Repeat chorus)

Bridge: No seam in this garment
All my rags to hide
No less than your love
For Jesus is mine

3. When I stand on the edges of Jordan
With the saints and the angels beside
When my body is healed
and the glory revealed
Then still I can boast only Christ
(Repeat chorus twice)

©2002, Same Old Dress Music (ASCAP).
Used by permission. All rights reserved.

you can listen to it here: http://ruf.org/sounds/mp3/AwakeMySoul.mp3

enjoy!

cheers,
jw <><

americans deserve to know the truth...

2008-09-25T12:58:00.004-04:00

so, monday as i was driving around i just happened to have on the radio, which is very strange for me. it just happened to be on a talk radio show, which i began listening to... also, very odd for me. any way, i was listening to this radio show before i realized who it was. if i had realized earlier i probably would have turned it off (because i am not very fond of this person), but what was being said absolutely infuriated me. the topic was the current financial crisis and who was responsible. i have provided a link below, which will reveal who the talk show host was, but i cannot refrain from sharing this because i think we deserve to know the truth about what is going on. all we have heard (and statistics have shown that we remarkably believe to the truth), is that this whole mess is due to lack of restrictions and big business policies of the current republican administration. apparently, the liberal media has duped us all again, and we have bought right into it. however, conservatives are not pointing out what has happened (do they even know?).

i will warn you that this article is sort of long, but please read it. you will be blown away.

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_092208/content/01125108.guest.html

after you read it this will make sense... bill clinton was interviewed by matt lauer this morning on the today show. he was asked to respond to president bush's statement in last night's presidential address that the roots of this crisis date back more than a decade - an obvious reference to the clinton administration. clinton's response to his party's pressuring freddie and fannie to give out mass amounts of extremely risky sub-prime loans was that it could be blamed; however, it was the right decision at the time because freddie and fannie had plenty of money at the time. as if his despicable inability to recognize the huge future problem they were creating wasn't enough, he also failed to mention that the democratic party had refused in the past few years to agree to bills proposed by republicans who recognized the coming problem and tried to correct it. each bill was shot down by the democrats in an effort to protect their ridiculous policies and interests.

even more than this, as i have listened to the remarks of people like barack and hilary and others, i have gotten even madder as they have pointed fingers at the republicans. what they are failing to admit, while doing an excellent job shifting the blame to the republicans and the "corrupt" ceos of freddie and fannie, is that these ceos are all democrats and are leading donors for barak. all of this is quite disturbing.

enough is enough. it is time for real change. it is time the american people became educated, stood up, and put an end to these ridiculous political games and agendas that are putting us all at risk.

jw <><

9/11

2008-09-11T22:47:00.000-04:00

we remember...

recent oddities in the news...

2008-09-08T23:16:00.007-04:00

so, i have come across some questionable things in the news in the past few days. i thought i would highlight a few.

first, there was a news story about russia blaming george bush for the georgian conflict. apparently, bush created this whole thing "as a plot to install John McCain as his successor." this is no joke. here is a link: http://www.aol.com.au/news/story/Putin-blames-US-for-war/916561/index.html.

i think it is interesting for several reasons.
1. i read this story on cnn, whom putin apparently enlightened and entrusted with this disturbing information. however, when i tried to find the story on cnn again today, it had mysteriously disappeared. thankfully, others saw it too and have raised questions about it. why did you get rid of it, cnn?
2. should we be wondering why putin would like us to think this? apparently he wants us all to vote for obama. i will make no further comments about this. i just think it is interesting.

next, today msnbc announced that olbermann and matthews will no longer anchor political night coverage. here is the link: http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/09/08/msnbc-hosts-olbermann-matthews-booted-from-political-night-duties/.

surprise, surprise. they received the lowest ratings for the political conventions because of their liberal bias. here is a little news flash to the media - we don't like your opinionated garbage. just report the news and let us make up our own minds about what we think.

more on slanted news coverage, fox news reported today that john mccain has gone ahead in the polls by 4 points, while cnn reported that mccain and obama were dead even. what? if you read the articles closely, you would see that fox news is using a gallup poll, while cnn is using their own poll. however, cnn admits that in their "poll of polls," which is an average of several polls, john mccain is up by a point. whatever. later in the day, cnn's article about mccain and obama being dead even turned into an article entitled, "why obama lost his lead." nice one!

finally, i just wanted to applaud jordin sparks for what she said at the vma awards. it is about time someone said that sex should wait until marriage and perhaps hollywood should stop patting themselves on the back for living such careless lives. you can see the article here: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,418487,00.html.

that's all i have, but let this serve as a reminder that we must be careful with the information we receive from the media. as john mayer sings, "when you own the information you can bend it all you want."

cheers,
jw <><

hymns...

2008-09-05T13:57:00.002-04:00

i thought i should do a new post just to move those terrible pictures of myself down a little. any way, i have found some hymns that i love recently, so i wanted to post some lyrics and links so all of you could take a listen. before i do, though, all of you should go out right now and buy the new chris tomlin cd - hello love. it is amazing!

jesus, i come

1. Out of my bondage, sorrow and night,
Jesus, I come; Jesus I come.
Into Thy freedom, gladness and light,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of my sickness into Thy health,
Out of my wanting and into Thy wealth,
Out of my sin and into Thyself,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

2. Out of my shameful failure and loss,
Jesus, I come; Jesus, I come.
Into the glorious gain of Thy cross,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of earth’s sorrows into Thy balm,
Out of life’s storms and into Thy calm,
Out of distress into jubilant psalm,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

3. Out of unrest and arrogant pride,
Jesus, I come; Jesus, I come.
Into Thy blessed will to abide,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of myself to dwell in Thy love,
Out of despair into raptures above,
Upward forever on wings like a dove,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

4. Out of the fear and dread of the tomb,
Jesus, I come; Jesus, I come.
Into the joy and light of Thy home,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of the depths of ruin untold,
Into the peace of Thy sheltering fold,
Ever Thy glorious face to behold,
Jesus, I come to Thee.

© 2000 Greg Thompson Music.

take a listen to a clip: http://www.igracemusic.com/ig3/

i hope you all enjoy! i will put up some others in the days to come. keep posted!

cheers,
jw <><

2008-07-26T02:01:00.003-04:00

here are some sweet pics that i have been trying to get up for awhile. i wish i had a mullet to contribute to this super trashy facial hair. oh, well. maybe next time. elizabeth didn't want me to put them up, but against her better judgment, i did... i just had to do something to compete with jim beaty's amazing snowman pic (a little shout out to our joint effort to return to the blog-o-sphere).

why i am not a very good artist...

2008-07-25T23:21:00.000-04:00

so i have been reading this book called the war of art (along with several others i am reading right now) by steven pressfield. i started reading it because i have been really trying to write music lately. i always get writer's block or feel that what i have written is crap. well, i don't just feel it is crap; i know it is crap. the book is quite interesting and inspired my blog about how we are boring people (and will inspire several more that will be coming soon that i have been thinking about). the book talks about how to break through what pressfield calls "resistance," which is personified as being the thing that holds us back from being creative. for someone coming from a secular perspective, i am finding many spiritual applications. i encourage you all to read it if you feel you are struggling with the same sort of thing. it is a super easy read. any way, i have been thinking a lot about what holds me back, which sort of morphed into trying to figure out why i think i am a crappy at art and being creative. you see, artists have this ability to see things in ways that no one else sees them... to see beauty where others just see ordinary things. but even more than that, they have this ability to express and present things in a stirring but ambiguous manner that invites the viewer/listener/etc. in and allows one to come back to the work of art time and time again and find new things (perhaps that the artist didn't even think of). no good artist just comes right out and says what they mean. there is always something deeper there. that is the point of art, right?

so i have discovered two reasons why i have failed at being creative. first, i am simply no good at not just coming right out and saying what i am thinking. this is probably good in the practical world, but i wish i could turn it off sometimes. i am too dang literal all the time, which probably makes me a pretty dull person. for as much as i love art, it is sort of weird that i really hate to beat around the bush. maybe that is why art appeals to me so much... because i need to escape myself sometimes! i think i have this fear of being misunderstood. i want people to hear exactly what i am saying and see exactly what i am seeing. this is why i spend hours working out sermons questioning just how people will interpret every single word i say and making sure that it is just right. but i have always been jealous of people who can just let things be put out there for others to interpret. this is what makes art both great and risky. it demands interpretation but does not demand a particular interpretation. it only invites. laura foxworth used to write songs while i was preaching at intermission. she was literally doing what i could not do. i could say, "okay, here is what has really inspired me this week (and that is what i preached in a very literal way)," and she would take that (while i was preaching it) and turn it into something that was expressed in a way that allowed others to enter into it wherever they were at that moment. amazing. i could have just preached to her before the service and just let her sing my sermon. it probably would have been a lot more effective (and time saving!). so this brings me to my second problem with being creative... inspiration. art requires it. where exactly does a song originate... or a picture or a poem? this is not to say that i don't have plenty of inspiration (i have an infinite source actually), but i don't think that i spend enough time keeping my eyes open to see things in a deeper way than they first appear. anyone can look at a mountain or an ocean and say, "that is beautiful." but we are constantly surrounded by beauty in the ordinary things of our day. and i miss it 99.9% of the time. this is what makes a good artist good. they take the ordinary and show it to us in a new light because they have kept their eyes open in a way that allowed them to see it in a new light. and the art invites us in and we relate to it because it is ordinary things (just expressed in a moving way). perhaps this takes special talent. perhaps it just takes attentiveness.

figuring this stuff out helps me move forward because at least now i can practice putting thoughts out there that don't demand a certain interpretation and keeping my eyes open. i am also very open to any suggestions that any of you may have.

cheers,
jw <><

aliens? what aliens?

2008-07-24T23:26:00.000-04:00

check out this article... very suspicious.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,390161,00.html

to infinity and beyond,
jw <><

we're boring people...

2008-07-24T13:24:00.000-04:00

friedrich nietzsche wrote, "we have no dreams at all or interesting ones. we should learn to be awake the same way - not at all or in an interesting manner." good point.

i have realized that we christians are a really boring people. i am certainly including myself in this. i have just been very convicted lately that the very people who claim that God has blessed them with spiritual gifts, talents, and creativity are the very people who seem to spend most of their time being very rigid and unoriginal. further, we claim to be created in the image of God who is THE CREATOR. honestly, could we live in a more boring fashion? worse yet, we make God and His message boring. it is like we are saying that this message that we have (which we claim is life-altering and provides life and freedom itself) isn't worth our time to figure out how to live out and show to others in an interesting way.

please don't misunderstand me... i don't want to risk sounding like it is our job to make God "relevant." this is an ridiculous idea, since it is God who makes all things relevant. i do think that God has blessed us with gifts and talents (and brains that can reason!) in order to bring glory to Himself, though. and there was a time when people's faith was expressed creatively in their lives - some of the greatest art (including music, architecture, and literature) ever produced came from these expressions. but the church has ceased to be creative and has begun copying secular society. and we wonder why the church is shrinking at drastic rates. perhaps the world looks at our laziness and lack of zeal and thinks that these things have spoken pretty loudly about our attitude toward our faith.

further, there are a lot of problems in the church and in the world that don't get solved because we don't spend time thinking of how to handle them. we feel like it is too costly to dream these things up. we are struggling to hold things together as they are now, right? here are some crazy thoughts: what if we didn't just see our professions as a means to an end - retirement? what if ministers didn't view sunday morning as just another sermon to get through but as a time (maybe the only time) to deliver the life-giving words of God? what if teachers saw their work not just as a job but as a time to share with children the knowledge that would help their lives be productive? what if scientists saw their work for what it is - as a chance to learn more about God's creation in order to protect and sustain it? the list could go on and on. the point is - what if all this struggle to hold things together is just self-created because we are not doing things in a way that allows us to be creative and passionate? what if this freed us up to do them as they should be done?

the truth is, nevertheless, that it takes a lot of energy to live this way, and it is easy to get caught in the flow of life and lived tired and boring. my friends, life is a battle either way, and we have only one chance. you can choose to struggle to just make it through each day or you can choose to struggle to make it through the day creatively. my attitude is - i would rather live forty hard-fought years and die than live a boring life to be a hundred. i choose to fight because, frankly, i am sick of a morally inept society with its poverty (spiritual and financial), corrupt politicians, failing school systems, wars, and polluted environment. i choose to fight because i think God wants more from the church than just becoming secularized with its diminishing influence and attendance, its biblically illiterate members, its ineffective and boring educational programs, its wimpy stand on social and moral issues, and its stressed out clergy. more than these things, i choose to fight because death has already been defeated. i choose to fight because there is beauty and truth that just needs someone to shine some light on it. i choose to fight because i believe that God continues to move in this world and continues to do new things. i choose to fight because one day this battle will be over and LOVE WILL WIN!

each day is a blank canvas, an empty piece of sheet music, a shapeless lump of clay or stone, a blank roll of film... what are you doing with it?

cheers,
jw <><

i'm doooonnnnneeee!!!!!!

2008-07-24T13:18:00.000-04:00

everyone get excited - i completed summer hebrew today. i have to admit that i enjoyed it more than greek, which seemed kind of rigid and boring to me. any way, i have been wanting to blog for sometime now, so i think there is probably about to be a flood of blogs. so it goes.. a drought of blogs followed by a flood of blogs.

cheers,
jw <><

a little summer fun...

2008-06-13T10:54:00.000-04:00

elizabeth and i took a random trip to ohiopyle state park. it was super hot one friday, so saturday morning we woke up and decided the only way to stay cool was to hang out all day in the 58* river! here are some pics:

a nice little hike...

nice scenery for the hike!

just soaking the feet after lunch by a waterfall...

lunch cooler doubles as a great pillow!

this was our view of the waterfall while we napped and ate lunch.

we did some rock hopping out to the river. it was SOOO fun!

where is jon? he is hidden in this one... haha!

here is the river at ohiopyle. see the rafts and kyaks coming down.

look at these rapids.

fun fun fun!

we have a front seat to watch all the rafting.

yay! jon did not fall down!

i made it across the slippery rocks!

ahhh! lovely waterfall!

this is the natural water slide... it looked really scary!

this part of the slide sucked you under water. we decided not to try it on this ocassion. we did watch some crazies go down, and they survived.... so maybe we will try it next time.

love from us!
j o n & e l i z a b e t h

wedding weekend in starkville

2008-05-19T18:35:00.001-04:00

we just had to snap a few pic of the trees around the seminary before we left for the airport. these are in the court yard in front of the library. spring is gorgeous!

yay for us! the is me as an official 2nd year student. whaahooo!!

i fell asleep before we even took off... haha. that was the best plane sleep i have ever had! i had no clue jon reached under my seat to get my camera out. i was out like a light!

dressed for the rehearsal (so i thought) and brother ben

jon and me in the dress i did wear... haha. pretty nice bow tie! we have to thank dr. purves for the lessons on making a great bow tie!

lovely laura and me

the bride and all her maids at the rehearsal dinner

we are getting ready

we are ready. me, mary adele, kylie and molly

chi omega pic

all the chi omegas sing farewell to laura

reception pic

laura in her pretty dress

this was awesome! he started with a blank canvas at the reception. i am the tall one in the pink dress under the tent

yay for laura who fought for the boquet!

mr and mrs rackley are off to the honeymoon!

yay for family! ben, jon, me, mom cooper, adam, and abi

what a wonderful weekend!

e l i z a b e t h

preaching...

2008-05-16T18:49:00.000-04:00

i am offering a challenge to all you preachers out there. please read the following and consider whether you are doing your job properly:

to preach a sermon, i think, is not the hardest part; and yet what skill is necessary to make the truth plain; to convince the hearers, to let irresistible light in to their consciences, and to keep it there, and drive all home; to screw the truth into their minds, and work Christ into their affections; to meet every objection, and clearly to resolve it; to drive sinners to a stand, and make them see that there is no hope, but that they must unavoidably either be converted or condemned - and to do all this as regards language and manner, as beseems our work, and yet as is most suitable to the capacities of our hearers. this, and a great deal more that should be done in every sermon, must surely require a great deal of holy skill. so great a God, whose message we deliver, should be honoured by our delivery of it. it is a lamentable case, that in a message from the God of heaven, of everlasting moment to the souls of men, we should behave oursevles so weakly, so unhandsomely, so imprudently, or so slightly, that the whole business should miscarry in our hands, and God should be dishonoured, and his work disgraced, and sinners rather hardened than converted; and all this through our weakness or neglect! how often have carnal hearers gone home jeering at the palpable and dishonourable failings of the preacher! how many sleep under us, because our hearts and tongues are sleepy, and we bring not with us so much skill and zeal as to awake them! richard baxter, the reformed pastor (pg70)

is it possible that we have made the message of life and hope boring and irrelevant? perhaps we have failed to preach "the message" at all in an effort to not offend, or to entertain, or to make God relevant. perhaps we should remember that we do not make God relevant... He makes us relevant. perhaps we should not take our work so lightly and come so causally before God Almighty...

cheers,
jw <><

politics

2008-05-11T16:59:00.000-04:00

okay, so i want to write a word or two about the one thing i know ministers are not supposed to discuss... politics. don't worry, though. i am going to stay as neutral as possible about my own political affiliation. i am not going to support or tear down any of the candidates. i just wanted to raise some questions. perhaps it will evoke some thought if there are any of you out there still reading this blog.

i was reading something about evil recently that got me thinking. shirley guthrie wrote,

important as it is to take the social context of evil into consideration, social explanations do not get to the heart of the problem of evil. they do not explain how or why social structures themselves become evil. moreover, instead of solving the problem, blaming a familial or social system for evil can make it worse. we do not have to take responsibility for our own lives, nor will we be able to do so, so long as we can blame our parents or someone else for our faults and problems. we cannot encourage and help others to take responsibility for their own lives or to challenge a repressive social system so long as we allow them to continue blaming family background or "the system" for their faults and problems. on the other hand, those who believe that evil can be overcome by changing a particular social, economic, or political system forget that when the oppressed who have no power get enough power, then the oppressed usually become the oppressors, doing unto others what has been done to them. evil does not end; it only changes managers and forms of expression. (christian doctrine, pg 177)

i will be the first in line to say that things need to change in american politics. perhaps we should be very weary of those promoting drastic change, though. i think we need to ask ourselves a few questions.

1) what is the purpose of the government?
i think one could give numerous correct answers here, but i do not think that one of them is to give handouts.

2) do we really trust the government enough to give it more power to regulate?
i think that this should be a no brainer. we blame the government for the mess we are in, yet we want to elect officials who want to give the government more power to fix the mess that the government supposedly created in the first place. this seems somewhat nonsensical to me.

3) is the problem really the government?
i think that the government certainly isn't helping things; however, is the problem government or the people of the democracy? it seems interesting to me that blaming the government for problems of the u.s. isn't really getting at the heart of things.

having said that, i think that we take a long look at ourselves. perhaps the government is not the problem. perhaps the problem is our own sinfulness. although america has been very generous in times of need, it seems we are becoming what others countries have seen us as for so long (maybe a self-fulfilling prophecy)... greedy, egocentric, conceded. what happened to the people that made this nation great? the people who worked their butts off and didn't demand higher wages and better benefits. please do not misinterpret me. i am not saying that i do not believe in fair wages, but i do not think that a bus driver should be making over $100,000, as they are in pittsburgh. we have been become a bunch of greedy whiners who wonder why it costs $15 to ride the bus two blocks.

if we think we can just change the government and fix the problem this country is having, we are sadly mistaken. we will not eliminate the problems. they will only change "forms of expression." this country will implode in on itself as we elect officials who cater to our greed.

maybe we should give some thought to this... perhaps our nation wouldn't have so many economic problems if unions' demands wouldn't keep running companies to the ground or out of the country, or if people wouldn't keep living beyond their means, or if parents would impress on their children the need for the education they have been freely offered. this is just a start... further, perhaps we wouldn't have problems oversees if america hadn't failed the first time in places like afghanistan. if we hadn't crapped out but actually rebuilt the country after the russians were run out. instead, we decided our job was over and left it helpless to serve as a breeding ground for terrorists. it would be nice if we actually learned from our mistakes for once. it looks as though we are just doomed to repeat them.

or maybe we should just blame our government for people taking out loans that couldn't be repaid. perhaps we should tax the crap out of companies and individuals who actually are working and making money. perhaps we should just demand that the government keep dumping money into our failing education systems and promise to leave no child behind. as if dumping money into a problem ever fixed it. i could go on... maybe we should all just play dumb and continue to ignore the real problem... ourselves.

despite these things perhaps we should recognize one thing. we have seriously messed up when we put our hope in this world. my friends, barack obama is not a savior, nor is john mccain. come january 2009, it is my bet that things have not changed... at least not for the better. gas prices will continue to rise, producing higher food prices and everything else for that matter. politics will be politics. life will go on. the fact is real change only comes from one place, and that is where i choose to place my hope. maybe it is time we recognized that and allowed the One who can change things to begin with us.

cheers (and a hope for a better-not-just-different tomorrow),
jw <><

study break!!!!!!!!!!

2008-05-08T15:31:00.000-04:00

it has been absolutely gorgeous around these parts lately! we missed spring last year since we did not move until the end of may. we had NO idea how awesome spring time is here!

i had cabin fever! who wouldn't after studying for nine finals and just knowing how beautiful the weather is outside??? so we decided to go out for a photo shoot of some of our favorite spots.

these tulips are literally lining up on both sides of 5th avenue. it is crazy how many there are. there are sooo many colors and even multi-colored, too! you have to see it. our pictures cannot explain!

the trees are all blossoming! yeah they are all turning green and sprouting leaves, BUT they also have beautiful flowers on them!! the white and purple ones are my favorite. i should just start taking my camera whenever we drive around. yesterday i saw a few trees with HOT pink flowers on them.

i have been wanting to get a pic with this special dino since we moved here! this is outside of mr. rogers studio on 5th avenue. notice how the dino is dressed in a red sweater and blue sneakers just like mr. r!! how cute is that!

more blogging to come!

e l i z a b e t h

Weekend and Wedding in Niagara Falls

2008-05-06T21:42:00.000-04:00

jon's parents came to visit us for a few days, and then we all traveled to the falls for lou and shana's wedding. we loved having visitors and getting together with the whole wagner family at grandma wagner's house.

we're at the wedding.

the wedding party.

uncle al, aunt kathy, lou and shana

the wedding party rides in the lovely white hummer.

uncle allyn says jon and adam look like twins in this pic. they do look like cousins, but i think twins is a little overboard.

here we are with grandma wagner. she told us she was dressed as a butter cup for the wedding - haha! she is too funny.

hannah and caitlin were the best dancers of the whole night!

hannah, caitlin and whitney

at the reception we had dessert and cake, too! yum-yum!

precious!

justin and adam's girlfriends are trying to teach uncle dee to dance!

after all the wedding fun, the family was moving everything out of grandma's house. i loved hearing all the stories about the good old days while we were going through all the stuff.

we found a really cool record player upstairs and lots of old records to go with it. we were pleasantly surprised to see it still works!!

the coat closet was filled with the most fashionable hats you could ever imagine! everyone thought the hats were great. we all had fun playing dress-up... haha!

sorry we are soooo behind with posting! i am to blame because i am on break... haha!

e l i z a b e t h

comments...

2008-04-01T02:26:00.000-04:00

hey y'all! you might notice that when you leave comments there are a few changes. it should not be that big of a deal, just a word verification thing you have to type in and your comment won't go up immediately. i am going to review them before they go up from now on. basically, we have been getting some span comments, so i am just trying to cut that out. any way, thanks for all the comments. please don't let this extra step or two defer your comments. we love to hear from you!

cheers,
jw <><

A Formal Easter Dinner

2008-03-29T14:44:00.000-04:00

the Easter bunny brought me some of his bubba teeth! aren't they beautiful!
we were sporting out msu gear and checking the bball score during dinner!

if you smile, your teeth fall out! i was not good at keeping my teeth in!

there. they are in. hurry and take the picture! haha

guess what! after all the fun, you can eat them, too!

i hope everyone had a happy Easter!

e l i z a b e t h

ski trip!

2008-03-13T20:57:00.000-04:00

jon was demonstrating how to fall! he does a good job!

jon, erica and tres practicing on the bunny slopes.

we were playing dress up! i am captain jack sparrow. who knows who jon is!?

adair literally got snowed in! the snow storm blew open her door while the dead bolt was locked!

yes we are crazy! it was 100 degrees in the hot tub and 15 degrees outside!!! we had to walk through 5 inches of snow on the patio to get into the hot tub. it was FREEZING! your head would freeze with icicles every 30 seconds. you had to dunk yourself to melt the ice on your head. it was great! haha

we LOVE ski trips. ski season is almost over for the year... boo! i can't wait to go again!

e l i z a b e t h

brett dennen

2008-03-10T16:58:00.000-04:00

i hope all of you are well. it has been a while since i have blogged, but i wanted to share something i ran into recently. in my last backpacker, they had a story on a guy named brett dennen, who apparently is a big backpacker and has been working at a high risk youth camp taking kids on backpacking trips. any way, this guy played guitar and sung for them around a campfire and has since made an album and gotten a record deal; although, he still does stuff with the camp. he has recently been playing with the likes of john mayer and dave matthews band.

below is a video for one of his songs. you may not care for his voice or his style, but it is a pretty powerful song and video. watch it and check out his website: www.brettdennen.net.

cheers,
jw <><

HOORAY FOR SATURDAY

2008-03-01T11:29:00.000-05:00

jon and i are very excited to have a day to ourselves. with jon finishing finals then me having midterms, our weekends have been FULL of studying for the past few saturdays.

last night we started our weekend by having our weekly pot-luck dinner party. it snowed like crazy all day yesterday. i was going to make shrimp and cheese grits, but the weather was so bad we could not go out to the store. we just ended up making our favorite one dish mexican casserole because we had all the ingredients on hand. my friend vanessa lives a few blocks away, so we decided to just trudge through the snow to her house. we took turns carrying the casserole through the blowing snow. it was fun except for the crazy people who were out driving sprayed us with snow when passing us.

we did start the weekend a little early... thursday afternoon we went SNOW TUBING!! it was soo much fun. we went to boyce park where they have a snow tubing course up a HUGE hill. they have a magic carpet lift up to the top. it is like the moving floors on the jetson's cartoon. once at the top you choose a lane to go down. jon and i tried them all out to find the fastest ones! they were REALLY fast! if you lay on your stomach and keep your feet and head down, you'll speed all the way down and smash into the big blow up air tube that stops you at the end. that was my favorite thing because i would fly off the tube. it was great. after about an hour and a half my toes were freezing off, so we went inside to warm up by the fire. jon took off his gloves and.... NO WEDDING BAND. we were freaking out! he had taken his gloves off once while we were riding the magic carpet to check his phone, so he was sure he lost it then. our hands were so cold. we were sure it pulled off then, and we were never going to find it. we hopelessly searched for it for awhile and left our names with the manager just incase it turned up. i was hoping jon had forgotten to put it on that day. we all the sudden decided to go and got ready really fast. we got home, and it was here! we were sooo excited. it was really a icky feeling to think it was lost. i know... it is just a ring, but it is not something you want to buy again... it seems not as special as the first one.

next weekend starts my spring break! jon and i are going skiing with the shadyside youth group at the wisp resort in maryland. it is like 2 hours from here. we are super excited. we are staying in a cabin for the weekend and skiing all day saturday. what a sweet way to start my spring break!

it is snowing again today! i was wishing for so much snow that we could not open the door... maybe i will get my wish! haha it is getting warmer... like 33 degrees! haha so maybe some will start melting. i hope not!

sorry no pictures this time. i have just been having too much trouble loading those things. also... whenever i take my camera on our snow adventures it freezes! haha it is just too cold to work for some reason.

e l i z a b e t h

SNOW DAY - the pics...

2008-02-23T14:47:00.000-05:00

finally... here they are!!!

SNOW DAY!!!

2008-02-15T17:05:00.001-05:00

there are pics that go with this post, but they are not uploading right now. look for the pics in snow day part 2.

tuesday was a great day. we knew that snow was coming but had no idea it would be closing things down! jon was especially excited because he has finals next week, so an extra day to study (...or SLED!) is always needed.

the university of pittsburgh is notorious for staying open no matter what. i think they have only officially closed once. so i bundled and snow-booted and sure enough a bus came to pick me up. when i got home at lunch, the weather and the roads were still awful. since i have to drive quite a piece to clinic, i was off for the day!! wahoo! jon was sweet to dig my car out for me... literally, but i did not end up having to go after all. it is a hard, cold job to scrape off layers of ice and snow. supposedly it is pennsylvania law that your car must be completely clear of ice and snow before you drive it.

jon and i were outside starting my car when i found out i did not have clinic. as soon as i got off the phone, jon pelted me with a snow ball! haha what a perfect way to start our SNOW DAY! this led to many more snowballs... which we are not very good at making. the snow is soo powdery that it is hard to get it to stick together. i love it! of course i had to make a snow angel. this time i did it face up. by the way... it is lots more fun face down! also, i signed my work. too bad i was wearing khaki scrub pants because we had to go inside afterwards since you could see right through them!

after our fun, jon decided he would take advantage of a free afternoon to study. however, i was just getting over a neuro exam and decided sledding would be the best way to spend the afternoon! my friend vanessa (who is good at any and all snow activities) was also off clinic and knew a great place to sled. we had a blast! we sledded backwards, forwards and in circles. it was sooo much fun.

i also went ice skating on friday night with vanessa and andrea. the shot of me is of my phenomenal turn. vanessa snapped the pic just as i was putting my leg down from over my head... you know, like sasha cohen does it. hahaha

what a fun filled week! i hope we have more snow days very soon!

e l i z a b e t h

step into powder...

2008-01-26T20:24:00.000-05:00

well, it's official. elizabeth and i love skiing. yesterday we went to 7 springs, a local top-ranked northeastern ski resort, with a group from the seminary and skied for the first time ever. i am pretty proud of us, as we did it without any lessons. we were supposed to take lessons from someone that goes to the seminary, but it was chaotic when we were getting our gear on, causing us to get separated from the group. we decided to just figure it out ourselves (well, we had some help from a friend who had been skiing a few times). i must say that even a beginner slope is quite terrifying when you have no idea how to stop or control yourself. also, i was super scared on the ski lift, which took us up about fifty or sixty feet with nothing holding us in. i was pretty sure that i was going to slip off and fall to my death. any way, i didn't, and after two or three times down the mountain, numerous falls for me, and one run-over kid later, we had the hang of it. it is exhilarating to be able to rush down a mountainside on snow. we don't even hurt today (except for a strawberry on elizabeth's thigh that occurred when she ran over a snowboarded who had decided to take a nap in the middle of the slope at a very steep turn and a bruise on my hand that i like to say occurred when i punched an annoying snowboarder in the face). we can't wait to go again!

here are some pictures (sorry we don't have more. our camera actually froze and wouldn't work again until we got it thawed in the car going home!):

the big 6-0...

2008-01-23T17:04:00.000-05:00

here is a little tribute to someone who is very special to us for his 60th birthday! enjoy! (p.s. sorry about the picture selection. we didn't have many in our computer. also, sorry this is a bit late. we have been having trouble loading photos on blogger the past few days! plus, what is a week when you are 60? just kidding. i only said that because someone has been a little grumpy about being a year older! but just look how good those years have been...)

dad, we hope you had a great 60th birthday! we love you!

jon and elizabeth

IT IS EQUAL!!!

2008-01-17T21:34:00.000-05:00

this was jon's exclamation after our wishbone pull. you will never believe what happened. so... i have been patiently waiting for the wishbone to dry out. today is finally the day. jon and i clutched our respective bones to begin the dual. jon even corrected me on my finger placement. he made me move my fingers down because i had too much leverage. we were all excited about the pull, to say the least. then a 1,2,3...... SNAP. i immediately knew jon had won because i could see i was breaking below the topper. well, next thing i know the top has flown off into the sink. jon screams, it is equal!!!! then i jump up and down clapping because we both won! how often does that happen???? ummm... never i think! i think this is news worthy!

in other news this evening...
stories from the hospital. my friend crystal and i were sharing events from the week. i was walking this dude back to his room, and he told the nurse that we were dating! crystal had a lady tell her that she was pretty, expect she needed to trim her eyebrows! hahaha there were plenty more... i thought these were the best. i guess it will always be interesting!

frustration with the media...

2008-01-10T12:10:00.000-05:00

i just wanted to vent for a second. these are rhetorical questions. unfortunately, we all know the answers.

why is it that the only things in the news these days are about britney spears, teachers having sex with their students, what is happening on myspace, parents killing their kids, or the like? why does the media focus so much attention on insignificant things? just get on foxnews.com or cnn.com today and look at the headlines. i guarantee you that over half of them will disgust you because they are not newsworthy... at least for the national news. does it really matter for america that britney is having another breakdown or someone was murdered or someone's dog ran away? i don't want to take away from these individual people's problems. i know that they are real and life is hard, but this stuff happens to people worldwide on a daily basis. it doesn't mean it doesn't suck, but really, is there nothing else going on in the world that is occurring on a much larger scale that we might be interested in knowing?

the international news really makes me sick. one of the leading stories for the past two days is about a man in poland who went to a brothel and found his wife working there. honestly, who gives a crap? is there nothing else more important to report on? i could care less that some man discovered that his wife is a prostitute on the side while he himself was being unfaithful. there are probably a million other people today that found out that their spouses are unfaithful. why don't they get news stories? i want to know what is going on in africa and asia instead. i want to know what is going on in iraq... besides the places we are bombing. they say the troop insurgence is working. really? what are the details? what is being accomplished? how can we really vote for a new president when we don't know what issues he or she should be focused on? we are seriously uninformed.

i just really feel like there are big things happening every single day, and ten years from now we will find out about them. we will say, "my gosh, that was happening and i had no idea... there was genocide that has been going on for ten years on a massive scale that we could have done something about. instead, we were hearing about britney's latest meltdown. media, the blood is on your hands. you have failed us at a very elemental level. you have sold out for corporate sponsors and television ratings, and people are literally dying because of it.

are people really that interested and consumed with what the media reports on that the media should continue in its current direction? if so, america is in serious trouble.

goodnight and good luck,
jw <><

something to think about...

2008-01-07T12:11:00.000-05:00

for those of you who didn’t know, elizabeth and i have been helping out with a youth group at a local church here in pittsburgh. at youth last night, i realized something (or maybe confirmed something that i had been thinking about for some time). the lesson for the evening was “what does it mean to respond to god’s love?”. one would think that we christians would have some pretty good answers to this question, but we really don’t, do we? when asked this question, we stumble and fumble and give Sunday school answers like “love your neighbor as yourself”. i have heard enough conversations of this subject to be very disheartened because when it comes down to it we don’t really know what that means. and if we don’t know what it means, it certainly doesn’t play out in our lives. this leads me to two conclusions:

1. we are scripturally illiterate. we very simply don’t know scripture, which makes it sort of hard to know how to live our lives. i admit that this includes me even though i am in seminary. i don’t know when the church became so apathetic to scripture, but the church has certainly failed at educating kids and new christians in scripture, the disciplines, and tradition. i have a feeling that very few “christians” read their bibles (there is actually evidence of this – something like 93% of americans own bibles and only 30% can name the four gospels), and the ones who do read their bibles probably a) don’t really understand what they are reading and don’t bother to try to figure it out using some sort of reputable resource (scripture was written in a different time and place than we are familiar with. if we think we can just read scripture as if it was written for us today we are sadly mistaken.). b) fail to actually apply the scripture to their lives (as the parable of the sower in matthew 13 warns) or c) get to a point where they think they have read scripture enough that they don’t need to read it anymore (this is a sad day because we are denying the holy spirit the power to breath new life into the text for us. is there really ever a point where we know scripture so well that we don't need to read it anymore?). i would like to think that i am being pessimistic here, but i fear that this is more the rule than the exception.

2. all of this, I think, is just a symptom of a much larger problem, though. this is the problem of what I am going to call the uncritical life. i have noticed that almost all of us fail to think critically about our lives much of the time. i have been reading thoreau, who thought very critically of his own life and of the time in which he lived and who has challenged many people to think critically for many years. he writes, “one farmer says to me, ‘you cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make bones with;’ and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying his system with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plough along in spite of every obstacle.” now, i know that this isn’t necessarily where thoreau is going with this (and neither is the point that we should be vegetarians), but we somehow just meander through life living by the example of the others around us or before us or heeding others advice without ever really asking ourselves if this is the correct way to live. you may like to think that not all of us were cut out to think deeply about life. only people like thoreau can do it because they have the time. our busy lives certainly don’t allow for hours of contemplation. is this really the truth, though? do we really think that we can live well without constant thought? is action more important than thought and should it, thus, precede thought?

it isn’t even necessarily that we don’t ever ask ourselves deep questions, but we are scared to really think about them and answer them. we know in the back of our minds that answering these questions would lead to drastically different lifestyles that we very simply refuse to accept. going back to the love question, do we really think about how our actions affect others? do we ever think about how the things we say, do, and consume even on the most minute level might really adversely affect others, and how this isn’t really congruent with love?

i must admit that i recognize the power of sin more than ever since i have been in seminary and recognize the enormity of trying to constantly be aware of how my actions might not be loving, but do we really think that when we stand before god we can legitimately claim ignorance because we didn’t bother to stop and think once in a while? god didn’t give us a brain for nothing. in fact, i think we play right into satan's trap when we don't think about our lives. the last thing he wants us to do is try to understand scripture and apply it to our life. the last thing he wants us to do is think about love at every decision of our life. so, do we really have tangible answers that work out in our daily lives to the challenges of the bible? do we know what it really means to love god and our neighbors? have we resided to saying, “well, at least i live better than joe blow down the street”? did christ really come to show us the perfect example so we could compare our actions with those that live worse than we do? if we don’t know scripture and think critically, how will we ever begin to grasp the beauty of the gospel – that we can stop flailing stupidly and thoughtlessly around, trying desperately to just do enough to satisfy god, and just rest in thoughtful silence in christ?

here's to love, life, and thinking,
jw <><

prosperity gospel...

2008-01-04T16:42:00.000-05:00

i don't always care too much for john piper, but i think this is interesting (although i think it could have been done a little more tactfully.)

cheers,
jw

sunset at 35000 ft...

2008-01-04T11:08:00.000-05:00

well, we are back in pittsburgh. it was great seeing everyone, and we hope you all have a great start to a new year! our planes, of course, were delayed again, which resulted in another midnight arrival back to our apartment. what can you do, though?

by the way, some of you have called and complained about how cold it is down south. i just wanted you all to know that it didn't get above 20 here yesterday! how is that for cold?

flying to chicago, where it was a warm 9 degrees.

cheers,
jw

crazy cold and i am off duty

2007-12-16T20:48:00.001-05:00

well, well, well... i am free at last! i am sooo glad i do not have to think for the next 3 weeks! someone decided to allow us to have SEVEN finals. say bye-bye to your sanity. the practical tests really wear me out. you always feel like you are performing... which is pretty much the case. i have actually done better on my practical exams than the written ones, but they require a lot more energy! it is much easier to be tested by reading yourself the questions and answering them on your own time, or even skipping some and coming back if you so choose. i study a lot more simply because i do not want to look like an idiot in front of my teacher. also, if you violate the more than one safety rule you fail! i understand that it has to be that way, but it does stir up some tension. enough said about school!

it is snowing like crazy here! only 24 degrees and frigid. i love the snow! my goals for this next week of relaxation include making a real snowman and taking a snow-flurried christmas picture. also, i would love to have a snowball fight and go sledding, but we might save those activities until the big snow comes to town- which we have been told comes after christmas. speaking of christmas, pittsburgh is forecasted to have a white one folks! how sweet! also, i would like to finish some christmas shopping, if i want to get out in the snow that is. i might just sit in my slippers and drink hot tea all day and stare out the window and watch the snow fall. sounds wonderful, right? feel free to join me. we will be here until the 21st.

jon and i have felt the need to settle into a church around here and get involved. we do not want to join anywhere... don't worry ollie pollie! we just miss being active in church. now that we have some free time, we started working with the shadyside pres youth group. it was a really fun night of sardines all over the church, a lovely mac n cheese dinner, and a service project/ bible study/ discussion time. i hope we have time to keep it up next semester. the kids were great, and i think we fit right in.

jon and i are trying to watch as many christmas movies as possible this year. so far it is not going so well. we have seen christmas vacation, the holiday and part of white christmas. and now i am off to watch the rest of white christmas! do not tell me how it ends. this is my first time to see it!

merry christmas friends!
e l i z a b e t h

happy birthday, love!

2007-12-06T04:46:00.000-05:00

today is a great day. it is a great day because 23 years ago today elizabeth anne cooper wagner was born. what a blessing to this world! so today we celebrate your birth, elizabeth, with great rejoicing.

henri nouwen wrote, "birthdays need to be celebrated. i think it is more important to celebrate a birthday than a successful exam, a promotion, or a victory. because to celebrate a birthday means to say to someone: 'thank you for being you.' celebrating a birthday is exalting life and being glad for it. on a birthday we do not say: 'thanks for what you did, or said, or accomplished.' no, we say: 'thank you for being born and being among us.' ...celebrating a birthday reminds us of the goodness of life, and in this spirit we really need to celebrate people's birthdays every day, by showing gratitude, kindness, forgiveness, gentleness, and affection. these are ways of saying: 'it's good that you are alive; it's good that you are walking with me on this earth. let's be glad and rejoice. this is the day that god has made for us to be and to be together.'"

so in honor of elizabeth's 23 years on this earth, here are some pictures that i think really show what a blessing she is to us all:

one year older, one year wiser, one year more loved.

thank you, love, for being you and being here with us! you are truly adored, cherished, and loved!

love,
jw <><

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas!

2007-12-05T12:53:00.000-05:00

the first big snow!!!! below are some pictures of us frolicking in it...

outside the window...

eating some snow... hey, was some of that yellow?

elizabeth with a snow face...

fun with an icicle.. please notice what a fabulous job the city of pittsburgh does cleaning the snow off the roads! i learned a few lessons about snow driving today - don't accelerate quickly, don't brake quickly, and don't drive quickly

a little snow angel action... good form, sweetie!

this snow angel was pure perfection... only a true southerner could make one this good!

shaking the snow off... elizabeth going nuts after making the angel...

a little snow on the face...

pittsburgh seminary chapel...

cheers,
jw <><

let it snow!!!

2007-12-04T00:54:00.000-05:00

it is snowing!!! it has snowed here a few times the past few weeks, but this is the first snow that is sticking. we just thought we would share some pics and our excitement!

right outside our apartment in the courtyard.

trying to catch snow in my mouth, which is probably not the wisest thing to do. who knows what kind of nasty crap is in these flakes!

yay for snow! elizabeth eating some snow off my car... not really. if you notice, i have blurred out my plate. who knows what kind of shady folks out there might be looking at this! ha!

a little snow in the hair. one of the pesky things about snow that i have discovered is that it gets all over you and melts... not so appealing. another pesky thing is that it pokes you in the eyes when you are trying to walk. i have to walk around with my eyes closed now. elizabeth said earlier, "just close your eyes and open your mouth and discover a little treat!" what?

any way, these pictures don't really show how much snow there actually is (which wasn't actually all that much) but there is definitely a lot more now after it has been snowing all day. we are supposed to have a few more inches by tomorrow night... and that is just with "light snow showers." then, the mother load is supposed to hit wednesday! high tomorrow... 28! burrr.

bundle up out there,
jw <><

tension in between...

2007-11-02T02:40:00.000-04:00

there is tension in life, in which we must learn to live...

elizabeth and i live in an apartment at the seminary. the building in which we live is one of three buildings that form a square with a courtyard in the middle. roads run parallel to each of the four sides of this complex. our apartment sits right in the middle of (what I consider) the back building of the complex. since there are apartments on our left and right, we only have windows on two sides of our apartment, half looking into the courtyard and half looking into the neighborhood that lies behind the seminary – and let’s just say that this neighborhood is not what I would consider upper-class.

i recently became aware of the importance of the positioning of our humble abode. monastics (called anchorites from the greek, anachoreo, to withdraw to a place apart), who started appearing in the first few centuries after the start of christianity, began withdrawing from society to devote themselves entirely to contemplation and prayer. eugene peterson describes the living situation of anchorites, who “often lived in sheds fastened to the walls of the church” and sometimes had a “world-side window through which the nun or monk received the sights and sounds of creation as data for contemplation.” these sheds were called anchorholds. our anchorhold has some world-side windows. i have been quite amazed at what i see on this side of the apartment. there is a house that is directly behind our apartment that is home to a group of men (these guys are not simply roommates, if you catch my drift). the road that lies only feet from our apartment is more like an alleyway, and being in such a great neighborhood, you can imagine some of the stories we have heard about as to what has gone on back there (rest assured, we are very safe!). the most interesting characters with the most colorful language walk this street at all hours of the day and night, sometimes stopping to hang out just outside our living room windows. their conversations tear at my heart (although not like the conversations I have heard on the bus – that is another blog).

this is quite different from the life outside the other end of our apartment. these windows look out on the center of the gated holy fortress we live in. recently, i have felt that our complex resembles some ancient near eastern cities in israel, which had city walls that enclosed and fortified these cities. peoples’ homes were built right into these city walls, so half of their windows looked out at the land surrounding the city. this served for security purposes (see joshua 2 – the story of rahab). life in our fortified city is a utopia. christians (all of which are ministers and middle to upper class) live all around us. we sit out in the courtyard, relaxing, chatting, enjoying life. We talk about what we are learning in all of our classes and discuss the material. We grill delicious, plentiful meals and eat as a community. Often, there are children out there playing and laughing, safe inside the fortress.

interestingly enough, most of my best time (and much more of my time) is spent on the world-side, sitting on the back porch just watching and listening (and occasionally studying, eating, and talking on the phone). there are birds and squirrels out on this side, which are living playfully and talking with one another. the “guys” have some dogs that they bring out a few times a day to walk, which I have grown quite fond of. a cat, which reminds me of our stray pet back in starkville, comes by almost everyday, and she even came up on the porch to say hello the other day. no animals live in the gates of the fortress. it is too enclosed. the harsh realities of the world live outside the walls of the fortress, no doubt, but it is real out there. i find inspiration there. there is a beauty with the wild-ness. there is grace in abundance. there is holiness if you just pay attention.

i think my living situation is a microcosm of the life i live. i have found this tension in my education. i have learned so many useful things here already. i think i have enough sermon ideas to last a lifetime if i can remember them all. i am learning about discipline and obedience. i am learning how to read and use scripture – how to meditate over it and allow it to speak to me. i am learning how to pray and especially how to just be quiet and allow the still small voice to speak. i am learning how to pay attention to the world around me and find the subtext. i am learning how to think and speak about god in the appropriate language. i am learning how to be grateful. i am learning what it means to be a pastor. i am learning all the correct answers, but underneath there is friction... unrest. for i have discovered there is a big difference between how it is and how it should be. i have been a christian long enough and worked in a church long enough to know that some of this stuff (while “correct”) doesn’t translate simply in a practical sense. i am tired of accepting the "correct" answers without a fight to discover the meaning and application in my everyday life. what do these things really mean? how do they really play out? what are their implications? it is easy to know what is right. we even talk like that. "oh yeah, this is what you do in that situation." we are so confident... so certain. it isn't so easy to actually apply the answers, though. the only thing that is simple and certain for me to see is that there are too many "correct" answers and not enough "correct" living. i have committed myself to a struggle which i know i will never win. nonetheless, i will fight.

i have a window looking out into the world and one looking in on the christian perfection, but I live in between. I have discovered god there.

jw <><

yay for costumes!

2007-10-27T11:37:00.000-04:00

crystal looked good as a hippie... haha! she worked hard to get her hair really big. the pic does not do her "do" justice.

jamie felt bad about her goth looking costume because people upstairs to see the band were really dressed like that... haha oops!

dave was the best oompa-loompa i have ever seen. i think he came right from the chocolate facotry!

shaggy was scared as usual, so i am trying to save him! haha the dude in the back giving the thumbs up was a band groopie... haha i guess he wanted to be in our pic.

i think matt is borat's twin for sure! not only does he look like him, he had the voice down, too! matt is our class president.

my pt class had our first class party last night. we had a sweet turn out with a wide varity of costumes!
jon and i went as daphne and shaggy from scooby doo. a special thanks to connor for providing the daphne constume! we of course did not have time and/or money to put together costumes. we wanted to do something different because jon's shaggy costume (green shirt and brown pants) did not really apprear to be a costume, although that is exactly what shaggy wears! we could have done a shaggy wig, but i am not so sure jon would have worn it anyway... haha. jon did shave his beard to look like shaggy which was a nice touch! it was a fun night!

the band that night was quite a sight to see... wow! this was the hardest rocking, head banging crew i have ever seen. luckily we could go downstairs to get away from these crazies. i have to admit we did sitck around for the first few minutes of their show just because it was so shocking to see a band and a whole crowd of their followers going absolutely nuts! i am talking long hair, smashing and jumping dudes screaming songs. i think my jaw was hitting the ground at this point, and i am sure my ears were about to start bleeding at any second. so we took our party elsewhere! i am not sure if i was more scared or shocked... haha! either way.... it was an experience for sure!

e l i z a b e t h

some HUGE hamburgers

2007-10-27T11:22:00.000-04:00

for some reason this had me laughing one evening, so of course i reached for the camera to capture the moment for all my blog readers! although it does not seem to have the same effect looking back at the pics now... haha oh well.

also, i know how some of my readers out there have a great appreciation for a good home grilled (not a fast food, mass produced pattie of who knows what) hamburger!

jon has mastered the art of grilling. these burgers were huge and delicious!

we vow to use the grill as long as we can. you can pretty much grill year round in ms; we are not so sure that will be the case here in pa, but we're going to give it a whirl. we will keep you updated! haha

happy grilling everyone!
e l i z a b e t h

thank you, god, for the routine...

2007-10-23T22:24:00.000-04:00

i have to be honest - i sort of assumed that most of my classes in seminary were going to be a lot theological jibber-jabber that would leave me (after seminary) trying to figure out how to apply what i learned to everyday life. not that this is a bad thing. i think it is important to believe in a triune god and a christ who is fully god and fully man, for instance, even though it is difficult to figure out how all that works and the implications for our lives.

however, since i have arrived here, i have realized that i could not have been more wrong! the professors here at pittsburgh have a special way of making everything very practical - even the most theological things. i will give you an example from today's spiritual formation class (or as we affectionately refer to it - spifo) with dr. barnes. this particular lecture was about several things (a little augustine, justice and compassion spirituality, etc.), but one of these things was spirituality in everyday, ordinary life. i hope this will bless your soul as it did mine! by the way, this is dr. barnes' stuff - not my own. i am not this clever, and i do not wish to be accused of plagiarism! also, i will certainly not articulate it as well as he did, but i hope you get the point. so here it is:

apparently if you add up the instances that are talked about in the gospels, it only adds up to a year worth of days. those of you who are on your toes will be asking, "i thought jesus' ministry was 3 years." good point. so what was he doing the rest of that time? as dr. barnes put it: "this means that 2 out of every 3 days jesus looked at the disciples at the end of day and said, 'well, don't write down anything from today... nothing significant happened.' it was just a routine day." it was a laundry day possibly... or another day running around town... or working... or whatever you do on a normal day.

but, no matter how ordinary, these are nonetheless significant days because god loves routine. think about it. everything in creation hinges on the routine. electrons moving in circles around a nucleus. planets moving around the sun. seasons come and go and come again. the sun comes up and goes down and then comes up again. everything in creation is in a constant routine, and we would be in serious trouble if any of these things got out of wack. but through this routine, all of creation is singing doxology to god because, through this routine, everything in creation is doing what it was created to do. praise god from whom all blessings flow! the sun comes up every morning, not necessarily because of natural order, but because god instructs it to.

those of you who have played with little kids recently know the truth of routine being a god created thing. if you start a game with a kid, what is the first thing they say after you stop (say you are swinging them in circles)? that's right... do it again! do it again! do it again! soon you realize that they are going to keep this up a lot longer than you can. why do they do this? simply put, they love routine because they were created in the image of a god who loves routine.

the problem for us is that we are real good with our spirituality during times of crisis or when things are going really well. but not everything is valley and mountaintop experiences. what about the plains in between which take up the majority of our lives... the days when we are waking up and going to school or to work and picking up the kids from school and cooking dinner and doing laundry and cleaning the house and cutting the yard and going to meetings and practices and ______ (you can fill in the blank). the real challenge of spirituality for us is to pay attention to the things happening in our routine - this is the task of spirituality! as dr. barnes said, "you have to see the mystery beneath the ordinary." it is all about the subtext. if we got to go back in time and we met jesus, chances are that we would see him on an "ordinary" day... a day when he was not healing or casting out demons but going about his daily routine (if there was such a thing!). but was there truly anything "ordinary" about anything jesus did? certainly on the day he was crucified, people walked by and saw something that was ordinary. unfortunately, everyday people were hung on crosses. surely, people saw him that day, and it was just part of their routine. but christ was at work in that ordinary event to make it extraordinary!

too often we don't see the holiness of routine. i know that i don't. i even get upset at it! it is boring. i want constant change to keep me entertained. but this is why it is so important for us to live in community. the people around us can see the holiness in our routine. they know the subtext. they know the mystery beneath our ordinary lives. we certainly can't take our beating heart for granted when there are those around us who know what a blessing a healthy heart is. we certainly can't get sick of tending to our children when there are those around us who desparately want the frustration of tending to children but can't get pregnant.

karl barth stated that all sin begins with a lack of gratitude. how can there be room for sin when we are grateful? may we be grateful for our "ordinary" routines. may we look for the subtext and find the holiness in everything we do. may we find christ making the ordinary extraordinary.

cheers,
jw

by the way, the theology of the triune god is extremely important in everyday life. check out james torrance's worship, community, and the triune god of grace. just another great, practical lesson taught to us here at pts!

msu vs. wvu

2007-10-22T12:46:00.000-04:00

the day got off to a wonderful start! we dressed in maroon with cowbell in hand and set out to cheer on our dawgs. the sun was shinning and it was cool and breezy outside... just the perfect weather for a football game.

the drive to morgantown was beautiful! we did not get a pic because we were conserving battery life for the rest of the day (i forgot to charge my batteries.) don't worry we will post fall pics soon! we passed lots of wvu fans on the way, and we made sure to display our maroon and white! haha

after about 90 minutes we arrived on the wvu campus. it is an odd campus i might add. we first saw soccer fields and then continued to dirve a mile or so until we reached the wvu alumni center. the stadium was about another mile from the alumni center, and we did not pass any other campus buildings in between. so we are not really sure where their heart of their campus is. anyway... i quickly spotted our tailgate!! jon questioned, "how do you know that is our tailgate?" i answered.... "well, they are all wearing maroon!" haha he immediately rolled down the window and rang the cowbell out the window (we are still sitting on the hwy stuck in game day traffic.) everyone at the tailgate responded by ringing their cowbells right back at us! haha it was a good feeling.

this was not the "tailgate" i am familair with. this was catered with glass plates and glasses. there was no plastic cutlery for at least a mile or so. although we did have the usual hamburgers/hotdogs/beans/chips/cookies meal, it was the nicest version you could have.

we got to see a couple familiar faces from home which absolutely made our day... (straton greeted us walking in, brad fuller, adam telle.) also, we chatted with other random msu grads from all over which was fun, too. we send out a speical thanks to stacey's mom and dad for taking us under their wing. haha we got to spend some quality time together at the tailgate! it was lots of fun!

after the mini pep ralley and the door prize give-aways (no i did not win anything... it must have been an off day for me), we decided not to wait on the shuttle and just hike over to the stadium. as i mentioned earlier, we passed nothing like dorms, or class buildings... or anything marked wvu for that matter. it was just like walking through town... we passed kroger, burger king and other businesses. i guess their campus is really spread out.

we could tell we were getting close to the stadium when we filed into the the cattle herd of navy and yellow. oh yeah... we stuck out. the worst part was marching through their tailgate parties. we have it good at msu as far as tailgating goes. they seriously tailgate in a HUGE parking lot from their trunks or truck beds. we did end up walking next to some dude who was a little on the sober side and nice to chat with, so that made the walk through the enemy terriotry a little less painful.

once inside the game... we notice everyone standing along side a glass wall looking down. we assume is it the little tram car they have buzzing all over campus. but to our surprise, you can look down on to the team's workout room. i wanted to take a pic because it was really neat, but then i felt odd and decided against it. feeling odd usually doesn't bother me, but this time it got the best of me for some reason. you could see the players all geared up pacing around, all the workout equipment lined up painted in school colors, and a snack bar of some sort. the snack bar was serving power bars and protein shakes for a little pregame boost.

once safely seated in our msu section we were anxiously awaiting the game to begin. it was great until we forgot how to kick off the ball. we were a little flustered after that and never found our heads again. i do not know how you could ever find your head in that stadium... they play LOUD. obnoxious rap music for every down in the game. it was seriously so bad that everyone was sticking their fingers in their ears. our least favorite was at EVERY thrid down they would play these doom day bells that would shake your brains out. i kind of felt bad for the bands... they never got to play. it was homecoming, so they had an alumni band as well. we did get to cheer during the 2nd and 3rd quarters, so that was fun!

here are the pics from the day...

a little pregame. everyone in the band wears a cape. it was pretty sweet. their band was huge and ran everywhere on the field.

so wvu has a bad history of couch demolition. i think it is a thing of the past, but the alumni are still making reference to the old days.

a shot from the 2nd quarter when we actually decided to play.

we were hoping to take a pic with the score board after the game and send it out for christmas cards... haha since the game was clearly not going our way, we opted out.

this turned out to be quite a blog... whew!

e l i z a b e t h

ynz

2007-10-19T14:34:00.000-04:00

oh my friends. i have heard it! ynz!!! so let me explain... ynz = y'all here in the burgh. i am really trying to think of a decent pronunciation, but i am not coming up with much. this is the best i can do... say you-ins. now abbreviate you to just the y+ins. i have been told that you will know a true "pittsburgher" when they say, "ynz!"

last night at work, i was in the receptionst's office chatting with a patient who was making an appointment. as the conversation dwindled, he ended it saying, " ynz have a good night." i had to replay it over in my head a couple of times to make sure i heard him correctly. yep... he said it, yzn. hahaha

another funny word that i did not expect to sound differently is bagel. everyone around here says it one of two ways:
1 they actually say bag with a short "a"... so bag-el
or 2 they say begel... with short "e" sound

these words have been dubbed into pittsburghese.

remind me to never stop saying y'all!

e l i z a b e t h

schenley park

2007-10-13T09:52:00.000-04:00

schenley has quickly become our new favorite weekend hang out spot! we just cannot seem to get enough. even when it gets cold, schenley will be the place to go. they have one of the best out door ice skating rinks around here! we can also go watch hockey games there. it will be nice because they have big heaters set up on the hill over looking the rink, so you can keep warm when jack frost comes to town.

here are some pics from last weekends picnic/ disc golf/ play/ study afternoon:

from our favorite spot, you can see the skyline of downtown.

another shot where you can see downtown on the left of the pic and oakland (u pitt's neighborhood) on the right.

this is u pitt's most famous building, the cathedral of learning. you can see this place from pretty much anywhere in pittsburgh. i have only been in it once... only because i was lost, haha. i would like a tour. the classrooms all have themes and are supposedly remarkable.

this play place is for big kids! there are a number of these throughout the park. the one we were playing on was not very fancy, so no kids usually play on it. james was brave enough to show our claim on the territory! when i went to grab my camera i could hear other park goers saying, "what is that guy going to do up there?" hahaha it looks like jon is trying to be dangerous as well by choking himself on the swing.

vanessa and i chose the simultaneous slide.... wheeeeeee!

guess what!!?? it is 42 here this morning! burrrrr!

e l i z a b e t h

breathing air again

2007-10-11T19:10:00.000-04:00

i am sure none of you care, but fall is my favorite time of year. maybe it is because some of my best childhood memories seem to be related to fall. i remember very vividly, for instance, playing in the leaves while my dad was trying to rake them up at our old house on ponderosa dr. there are even songs that i relate back specifically to fall. try out toad the wet sprocket's "all i want," and see what you think!

any way, there is something about this time of year. there is something about how the cold weather kisses your face and exposed skin, leaving your ears and nose with this strange burning sensation. it makes it even better when the rest of your body is layered in warm clothing. there is something about knowing it is cold outside and being able to be cuddled up in a warm home. all the clothing seems softer and more cushy (fleece and down anyone?) beginning in the fall. there is something about the cold air filling up your lungs that makes you feel like you are breathing for the first time in your life. i have never felt so alive as i do during first few days of fall. actually, i find it sort of ironic since we usually associate death with this time of year. any way, you can ask elizabeth about the feeling alive part. she was going wild yesterday! it was like someone had given her tons of sugar and caffeine. when i asked her why she was bouncing off the walls last night, she simply said, "it is something about this cool air." there is a scent in the air, too, (maybe from all the dying leaves) that smells so clean and pure. it is like nature wishes to give life a peaceful, clean send off into death. there is no other time of the year that smells like fall.

visually, i would take the changing colors of leaves in fall to the blooming flowers of spring any day. maybe that is a little wierd, but i stand firm in this opinion. it might just be the magnitude of it all - trees for as far as the eye can see in brilliant reds, golds, oranges... the glory of it all is overwhelming!

even on the palate, fall brings welcomed change. the foods and drinks associated with this time of year are second to none. who would disagree? when else can you drink warmed liquid chocolate or warm caramel apple cider? when else does it feel better to get up in the morning to a hot cup of coffee? what other times of the year do you get excited about hot soups or chili? what other times of the year are the foods that are pumpkin spice flavored? fall is delicious! everything seems to be comfort food.

any way, i just felt like sharing. i should probably be stressed right now with two exams in the next few days, but i am having trouble getting myself worked up about them in this feeling of sheer delight.

long live the fall,
jw <><

reading with a seminarian...

2007-10-10T22:50:00.000-04:00

i thought i would give all of you (although, i am not sure anyone is reading this anymore!) a list of some of the things i am reading, so you can read along with me if you are bored. here it goes (and yes, i am reading almost each textbook front to back for my classes which end in a month):

the oxford annotated bible - i recommend the rsv after doing some greek translations!

confessions - st. augustine
devotional classics - richard foster
the secret life of bees - sue monk kidd

life of antony - athanasius
a short history of christian doctrine - bernhard lohse
the story of christianity - justo l gonzalez

nestle - aland novum testamentum graece - you might want to learn greek before getting this one!

the old testament - michael coogan

some just for fun books (a.k.a my light reading):

union in christ - andrew purves
reality and evangelical theology - t.f. torrance
the nature of atonement - john mcleod campbell
worship, community, and the triune god of grace - james torrance

i hope you enjoy!

jw <><

why hello fall!

2007-10-10T22:40:00.000-04:00

apparently, fall officially came today. yesterday was summer with highs in the 80s, and it was 90 like two or three days ago. today, though, is fall with highs barely in the 70s. this wasn't just a cold front, either. the extended forecast shows that the highs will not be getting out of the 60s for the next 15 days. this is fall, my friends.

the trees freaked out today about this sudden change. i was all excited about the changing colors of the leaves, but today i went outside and the leaves are just all falling off. they weren't falling off yesterday, and they haven't even changed colors. it is like the cold air hit them and the trees thought that they had missed something. so, the leaves are just falling off. whatever.

cheers to the cool weather,
jw

luck... or not?

2007-10-10T22:18:00.000-04:00

do you believe in luck? lately, i have noticed christians beginning to say "blessings" or "grace" instead of saying "good luck." this has me wondering, "is it really wrong to wish someone good luck? is it wrong to believe in luck as a christian?"

this evening i went to the grocery store to get some ketchup for the dinner recipe we were making. i thought, "ah, no big deal. the store is right around the corner. i should be back in 15 or 20 minutes." i was seriously wrong. i got to trader joe's and discovered they didn't have any ketchup. they have always had ketchup! i had a few other items, though, so i figured i would check out and go to the other grocery store across the street.

i picked out the shortest line - only one person in front of me. this should be quick. wrong! the grandma has forgotten her checks in the car. no problem. the parking lot isn't that big. i watch her walk out the store and into the parking lot. where the crap is she going? she seems to have parked down the street. forget this. i am changing lines. i spot one with only two people, and the one person is finishing up.

i change lines pleased with myself. now what the heck is going on??? grandpa in front of me couldn't find something. this is an easy fix, though. the cashier rings a shelfer to come get the item for him while he finishes ringing the guy up. a few moments later, the shelfer hasn't returned. the cashier leaves to go find the item himself. you have got to be kidding me.

grandma is back. i am starting to get steamed. at least she is taking an hour to write that check. the cashier finally comes back and gets grandpa checked out. my turn.

i race to the car and head across the street. 30 minutes have already ticked by. oh my gosh! the lines are thirty people deep in this place. i get the ketchup and head to the 12 items or less line. there are only 8 or 9 people ahead of me. this shouldn't be too bad. i stand there for a moment (which felt like about 10 minutes) and realize that no one in any of the lines are moving. some lady with screaming kids is checking out in my line, and, of course, there is a problem with something. literally, ten minutes later i still haven't moved. once again, i have picked the stellar line. during this time, i am counting the items in the genius' basket in front of me out of boredom and frustration. at least 15 or 16 items. come on lady, this is the 12 items or less line. finally she gets to the check out. i count the items as she puts them on the conveyor belt. i count 20, plus more four items that she appears to be trying to steal as she leaves them in her basket. the cashier catches her, though. while checking out, she decides she needs some more items and proceeds to go get these items, which she also tries to basket without paying for. i realized that she couldn't count, though, when she pulled out 4 $20s and a few $10s to pay for a $48 bill. i kind of feel like a jerk for hating her for being in the 12 items or less line. i finally make it home over an hour later.

so here is my question, "is there such thing as luck?" i think this raises some interesting questions. if we do not, we are saying that nothing is left to chance. god has control of all things at all times, including me standing in lines for an hour for ten items when i should be studing for tests that will help be become a minister. there is never a time when we are simply left to the elements.

what if we do believe in luck? i don't think that it necessarily means that we don't believe that god puts his hand into our lives at times. free will has to be in there sometimes, right? so having good or bad things randomly happen to you could be considered luck. on the other hand, it is fine for times when one or two things go right or wrong, but how do we deal with things like tonight when nothing goes right and we can't catch a break? it seems to be a pretty big coincidence that i managed to wind up in all the wrong places at all the right times. could it simply be bad luck to make all the wrong decisions? but if it wasn't luck, why in the world did it happen? is god trying to teach me patience or something? i don't know.

good night and good luck,
jw <><

lessons learned from the grill... and other random things

2007-10-08T19:15:00.000-04:00

i know that i haven't written in quite a while... i attribute this to writer's block - that and the fact that i read about a million pages a week. i am having trouble processing it all in my spare time (what little i have)! any way, i am going to try to start writing again to give elizabeth a break, since she has been holding the site up on her own. maybe it will help me straighten out my thoughts. sorry if i am unintelligible.

i just had a few quick things to say, which are entirely unrelated to each other.

1. grilling kebabs (ha! this word is spelled funny!) is difficult. I have three serious burns on my hands to prove this. my suggestions for doing so are: a) be careful when placing and moving the kebabs when you have a upper rack on your grill. this bad boy gets very hot and will burn the crap out of your knuckles. b) don't use metal skewers unless you have to. c) if using metal skewers, don't try to pick them up with your bare hands to move them while they are on the grill. they, too, will burn the crap out of you. i am not sure what i was thinking about while doing this (maybe something about athanasius or the doctrine of the trinity), but i have a perfect skewer imprint burned into my right index finger and handy opposable thumb (you got to love it. it always wants in on the action.). for some strange reason, once you remove the skewers from the grill they are almost immediately cool. go figure.

2. be careful cooking hotdogs. they apparently burn quickly and will easily roll out the hole in the back of the grill when the cover is open and onto the ground. they do wash off nicely for a tasty meal, however.

3. it is hot here! what happened to fall? temps in the high 80s is not fall. i am sick of this weather and very ready to see some leaves changing colors.

4. dr. purves is the coolest man alive. welcome back to the burgh, dr. purves!

I think that it is for now. i will be back again soon.

cheers,
jw <><

yay for shea!

2007-10-07T21:40:00.000-04:00

wow! it is hard to believe shea has come and gone already. i think time literally flies here... i always knew there was something odd about the eastern time zone. anyway... i will try to capture all the fun. we were not good about taking pictures either. sorry, i know the pictures usually give the blog a spectacular boost of fun!

pittsburgh is having a great event going on called radical days. these radical days have been going on for the past 2 weeks. it is a city funded program where each of the attractions in pittsburgh are open for one day each year for FREE!!! they are really awesome places... the zoo, tours of heinz field and pnc park, art, science and history museums, andy warhol... the list goes on. so the saturday that shea arrived, the art and history museums were on the schedule for the free day. it was a toss up between kyaking and museums. shea picked museums, so we did not waste any time! it is really just a tease to go for a day. you cannot possible see everything. it was great!

here i am in the modern movement of the art museum. i am mostly confused in this gallery, but somethings are pretty sweet... like this dandelion.

after all that fun, we went back to the apartment for a tour of the seminary and a little grilling out. we decied not to go to the pirates game because dave and andy's ice cream and watching the game from mt. washington was like "having our ice cream and eating it too!" back at the apartment, we decide to check out what is going on over in the dorm (better known as the seminary hilton!) boy were we in for it! i have not stayed up that late in a long time. we hung out with james and kelsey in the kitchen while she was baking cookies for the movie nighters in the game room. it got a little crazy for sure! i think the night ended sometime around 1 am, and we were all sore from laughing. conversations can get so twisted late at night. i will spare you the hilarious talk, but be sure to ask me to explain it sometime. here is a quote from the evening, "it's ok everyone. jan's pregnant." - shea

sunday was shea's big trip to shadyside presbyterian church. the day was full of surprises. we are being ushered up to the front row because the dude told me he had saved us some good seats ( i did not think he meant the very first row, but he did!) it is a little scarier than the first row at fpc in starkville! on the way up, shea notices dr. purves (jon's hero) sitting in one of the pews. side note here: shea has never met dr. purves, yet pointed him out to jon and me... hahaha!!! so after the wonderful shadyside experience we chatted outside with jon's professors for almost an hour! it was uncle dee's birthday, so dee and marsha joined us for worship as well. they took us out for a lovely italian lunch at joe mama's (pretty much our favorite place to eat here in the burgh, YUM!)

jon and shea played for worship at the night service we attend ( the open door), so they were tied up all afternoon with practice and setup. we actually gathered a crew of friends from the seminary to go to church with us that night. kelsey, james and lisa came to pick me up and vanessa was over hanging out, so kelsey drove this crazy bunch to the open door. afterwards, it was late so we just made pizzas to feed our growling tummies.

once the week started, it was not as easy to sight see and play around all day because jon and i had tests. jon and shea did check out the sharp edge monday night after class. we also made sure to take shea to our favorite park and parmanti brothers to hit some hot spots while he was here!

and before we knew it... it was wednesday!

sorry we are so behind on the blog... like i said- time flies!

e l i z a b e t h