Sarah

It's high time I gave a ringing endorsement to the writing of my dear friend, Sarah Marker. If you know Sarah, she matches an incredible intellectual capacity, with the artistic expression of a master wordsmith.

Her site is linked from this blog, where you can find links to all of her writing. Be sure to check out yesterday's blog entry on William Faulkner (June 27).

Happy Reading...

Sarah Marker

Listening Whiskey

Certain settings make you really uncomfortable.
Others, can be thrilling, captivating even. Some though, leave you in a stunned state of mind, really, unable to grasp it.

This past week I was in Denver, Colorado (a very, very cool city by the way) for the national meetings of the denomination I'm a part of, the EPC (Evangelical Presbyterian Church). I spent most of the week surrounded by men and women who are much cooler than I am, so much more talented than I, and seem to be even more passionate and given to their cause than I think I can ever be to something.

You learn to respect others as you age. You realize what the legacy of a lone pastor in Warsaw, Indiana is, and how much more impressive that is than whatever I'm doing right now will ever be. I found myself walking aimlessly around this giant assembly of men so impressive, I felt kind of lost for a day, not able to see how I could ever amount to anything quite like this.

And then, with the light of a cigar, and the pour of a bourbon, it all changed.

One night I hung close by my father, suddenly feeling like the 5 year old that used to cower behind his leg at the approach of strangers. We came upon a circle of men on the hotel patio enjoying the smell of Domincan tobacco, the sweet subtly of Maker's Mark, and the cool Colorado air.

Friends of my father, I then realized how far his name reached. How influential his voice is. How so many call him friend.

Still the bashful child of 25 I guess, I kept quiet. Lit a clove and drank my beer intent on just listening to men.

From the talk of the goings on of the assembly, the frustrations of life, to the freedoms of hobbies in golf and corvettes...this night was turning, incredible.

Our circle widened. More joined the discussion, until the cigar box gave up its final offering. At that point, I gazed around the circle, and realized whose company I was in. Leaders of educational insitutions. Pastors of hugely successful churches across the nation. Leader upon leader, men who have done something. Many things. Oh yeah...and me.

What the heck am I doing here?

Isn't there some other place I should be right now?

Wait. Here I go. I'm going to try and say something, enter into the conversation, open my 25 year old punk mouth, say something funny...

They laughed! Ha, phew.

A king has his hearth. The fire in which he shares his life with freinds and guests, food and wine flow in the presence of greatness.

That night a young punk shared the hearth of the Colorado sky with men much greater than himself. And with the puff of a cigar, and the sip of whiskey, I just sat with my mouth shut...and listened.

Timeless

"If you're lost, you can look,
and you will find me
time after time."

"If you fall, I will catch you,
I'll be waiting
time after time."

Cairn

follow the road and it will lead you somewhere
but with a watchful eye I can’t but think
this is as good a place as any other

sometimes there's a calmness in a moment, a nothingness
paralyzing, it roots your feet deep into the ground

leaving you open, rendered,

not to the world,

but to the moment, a nothingness


the Ancient Celts believed in “the time between times”
an open door where the world met a better world, a more beautiful canvas
lavished in beauty, forged in truth, and spun with honor and love
moments there do not fall into nothingness,

they last, they inspire


beyond the glen, there is a cairn,
a meeting place, a crossing

there I will wait, before dawn, before dusk
hoping that upon that Hero’s mound, something will break

waiting…

for something…

The Coolest Guys in the World

Some of you know my fascination with the "Ocean's" movies. Not because they're any great achievment in film, or ground breaking movie going experiences, but because they're "exercises in cool". And with that, they always deliver.

You watch these movies, and think, these guys are the the epitomy of cool! How can I be like them?

Haven't seen 13 yet, (this thursday night).


Check out this week's cover article from EW and you'll see what I mean:

Pitt and Clooney

greedy at your door

Lover Part 2
lyrics by Derek Webb


i’m living in a car graveyard
my heart is up on blocks
i’m dying on a sail torn ship
i’m wrecking on your rocks
i’ve got a promise breaking foolish heart
that’s broken into three
you took it Father, Son, and Ghost
and i have been set free


i’m dressed up like it’s halloween
i’m greedy at your door
i’m naked as a crime scene
you’re murdered on my floor
though i’m cornered by the words i say
you’re telling me to speak
you teach me how to kill and be killed
and how you set me free


i am my beloveds and my beloveds mine
and i am as surprised as any man born blind
but it’s still coming in blurry
the images i see
but someday it will all come clear
and i will be set free

Rockets and Astronauts

Believe it or not, there are still some things in this world that make me stand back and say, "wow!" Even though our world presents us with so many new things, so many new technologies that boggle our minds, there are still a few human feats that capture our imagination in a tremendous way. For me, still, there is absolutely nothing like seeing a rocket-fueled shuttle filled with humans, explode from the earth on a collision course with the heavens. I mean, come on! How awesome is that!

Today though it seems as if our space explorations and NASA in general have taken a back seat in the public mind. How many of us even knew that we sent another shuttle crew up the other day, its mission to rendevous with the International Space Station miles above our heads. Yes, there is a space station with men and women on it, floating out in space. Again, incredible. Unfortunately, it seems that the only attention NASA ever recieves is linked with tragedy. So what happened? What happened to the final frontier for us Americans?

Are the missions to boring? Is it time for us to head to Mars? Am I sounding like a total BattleStar Gallatica geek? (which I'm not for the record) All I know is..
.

When you see these pictures. When you watch a launch live, or even on TV, and the orange light show that erupts beneath the seats of 7 astronauts, shooting them into space, you can't help but still find your jaw on the floor in amazement wondering...How can we do this? How did we figure this out?

We all know there are some things in life that make us feel like a kid again. You all have yours whatever they may be. For me, seeing a rocket fly into space, still makes me want to eat my ice cream cone and tug on my daddy's arm.

Henry V and John 17

One of my favorite, if not my favorite story in all of literature is William Shakespeare’s play, Henry V. In it, Shakespeare depicts what many have called “The Righteous King”. The role of the Good King in battle engaging the enemy for the sake of his beloved brothers, his “few”, his “happy few”. What beauty there is in strength, and yet perhaps the greatest strength is found when the truly good and righteous king falls to his needs and pleads to a greater king, a more sovereign Lord.

Today in church we heard about the priestly prayer of Jesus in John 17. This tremendously powerful time in which Jesus retreats to the garden awaiting his betrayal and arrest, and he cries out to his father, pleading on behalf of his followers. And the startling part in all of this is that Jesus does not just mention those following him in his time, but all those who would know him but not see him. He prays for us.

John 17
20"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24"Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25"Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them

I do not want to say that Shakepeare’s mind was only on the model of Christ when he wrote the character of Henry v, but it was there. The Good King, who pleads on behalf of his people, to his father, being the perfect mediator, the perfect high priest.
The writer to the Hebrews in the New Testament puts it like this, “ 14Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens,[e] Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

How true, how gracious, how beautiful. King Henry’s cry in the face of the French army at Agincourt is one of beauty, and pleading…

O God of battles! steel my soldiers' hearts;
Possess them not with fear; take from them now
The sense of reckoning, if the opposed numbers
Pluck their hearts from them. Not to-day, O Lord,
O, not to-day, think not upon the fault
My father made in compassing the crown!
I Richard's body have interred anew;
And on it have bestow'd more contrite tears
Than from it issued forced drops of blood:
Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay,
Who twice a-day their wither'd hands hold up
Toward heaven, to pardon blood; and I have built
Two chantries, where the sad and solemn priests
Sing still for Richard's soul. More will I do;
Though all that I can do is nothing worth,
Since that my penitence comes after all,
Imploring pardon.