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Archive for 2007

shakedown, breakdown … new strength: Daniel 9-10

Posted in textures, tagged , , on November 8, 2007| Leave a Comment »

It is so often this way when the Lord or his messenger confronts a prophet-to-be in the biblical literature. The chosen mortal quakes in fear, falls upon his face, confesses that he’s nothing but a child, trembles in awe of the messenger and his Sender. One recognizes a familar pattern, a classifiable response. It is usually this way when heaven and earth mingle, the men and women at the seam of these two realities suffering the almost unspeakable angst that accompanies the unsought terror of standing at the juncture. (more…)

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easy: Early Baroque (Sunday Times Music Collection)

Posted in reseña, tagged , , , on November 7, 2007| Leave a Comment »

There’s a reason why all those drug store compilations with the breathless titles (‘Most Relaxing Classical Music Ever!) sell year after year. The pre-Classical baroque style really is relaxing. (more…)

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a suburban secret: Seki Edge toenail clipper

Posted in paterfamilias, reseña, tagged , on November 7, 2007| Leave a Comment »

A dirty little secret stains the neat homes that lurk behind the tree-lined streets and across the manicured lawns of suburbia: those little nail clippers you picked up at the Walgreens for $3.99 will never cut through a man’s gnarled, oaken toe nails.

They’ll make little cuts in it, they’ll promise and fail to deliver, they’ll even break apart in ashen resignation to the formidable power of the nail.

Those cheap little metal gizmos were made to sell on promise alone. You need a nail clipper that was not designed by the bean counters and the marketing wizards, but by the car guys … I mean … the toenail engineers.

That would be the Seki Edge. (more…)

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strong that way: Reflections, Carly Simon’s Greatest Hits

Posted in reseña, tagged , , on November 6, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Every once in a while an anthology covering the high points of an artist’s career simply dazzles with the accumulated weight of one memorable musical statement following upon another. The danger of beginning a review of Carly Simon’s Reflections with such an observation is that it may understate her achievement. (more…)

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integrity’s seams: Daniel 5-6

Posted in textures, tagged , , on November 6, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Daniel, this Jewish advisor in the court of a foreign king, has perfected self-control and diplomatic restraint. He is able to recognize the majesty of a pagan king in terms amenable to the king and acceptable to the standards of Daniel’s truth. His self-image is not on the table, the hair-trigger of religious and ethnic sensitivity has not been set, the safety lock is turned to ‘on’. (more…)

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family resemblance: 1 John 3

Posted in textures, tagged , , , on November 5, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Among the strongest claims that the New Testament makes bold to present is the idea of our divine parentage and, therefore, our family likeness to Jesus. Awash in the notion of love as the foundational component of Christian life, the first Johannine letter discerns divine initiative at the root of this familial inclusion. Paul would have called it ‘adoption’. The Johannine tradition captures the same objective while avoiding that distinctive Pauline vocabulary:

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.

(more…)

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the strongest man cries: Dan Fogelberg, Souvenirs

Posted in reseña, tagged , , on November 4, 2007| 2 Comments »

Back in the 70s, Dan Fogelberg’s lyrics were written into the pages of college yearbooks and his emotive sound pencilled onto the hearts of the students who read them. Today he is regarded with a kind of what-were-we-thinking (?) morning-after cringe.

No reason to worry. His music is as good now as it was back then. Don’t follow the herd. Just listen up. (more…)

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getting more done: make sure you have a reason (David Allen, Getting Things Done)

Posted in clarity, denkschrift, tagged , , , on November 4, 2007| Leave a Comment »

For almost two years I have been weaving the principles and practices of David Allen’s Getting Things Done into, as Allen himself would call it, ‘the business of life and the art of work’.

I’ve read and re-read DA’s signature book as well as a second collection of the man’s thoughts, attended his one-day RoadMap conference in Manhattan, and subscribed to GTD Connect. (more…)

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the writing on the wall: Bob Seger, Face the Promise

Posted in reseña, tagged , , on November 4, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Don’t judge a book by its cover, nuestros abuelos taught us in a spasm of earthy wisdom.

If you did, you might think Bob Seger was about to declare himself washed up and done for in the blues-rock entree to this 2006 album. Where the younger Seger could claim that things were gettin’ better and better’, the grizzled graybeard of Face the Promise finds things decidedly on the down swing, and toys with the idea that he might just ‘wreck this heart’. (more…)

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schooling Daniel

Posted in denkschrift, missio dei, tagged , , on November 4, 2007| Leave a Comment »

Some human endeavors run stubbornly against statistical probability. Fishing, for example, or standing in to the batter’s box. Or training a Labrador puppy.

Reflecting this Autumn morning on the education of the biblical Daniel, I wince more strongly than ever at the short-horizoned pragmatism that pervades our view of preparation for Christian leadership today. A thoughtless consensus seems to make hay with the expense in terms of time and money of preparing such leaders through formal means. We think we ought to be batting about .950—though no one ever says that—and so we grow resentful and dismissive at, say, a solid .310. (more…)

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