30 days to think about pride

Pride is considered one of the seven deadly sins because

It glorifies oneself and not God
It is selfish
It rages against all wise counsel
It is not submissive to authority
It is judgmental
It leads to discrimination

For sure!

"In the Bible, the first sin committed by human beings, often referred to as the original sin, was rooted in pride. Adam and Eve's disobedience in the Garden of Eden came from their desire to be like God, to have the knowledge of good and evil, and to assert their independence from Him."

So, it may be good to have 30 days devoted to remembering the failures and unhappiness caused by pride. Especially that part about wanting to be like God.

When God visited, Sean of the South, Nov. 23, 2022

You probably didn’t hear about it. But yesterday, God visited earth.

Contrary to what you’ve heard, God is a big fan of people. He’s a huge fan. In fact, that’s why he came.

His visit was an under-the-radar thing. It was non-publicized. God wasn’t in it for press.

First, he came to Birmingham, Alabama. Of all places.

He stepped into a sleepy hospital corridor last night, and wandered the aisles barefoot. He stopped in the room of a little girl with terminal brain cancer.

The little girl was sleeping. He touched her bald little head. She never even knew he was there. All she knew was that she was dreaming of “angels and stuff.”

When the little girl awoke, something wonderful had happened. Something almost too impossible to believe.

Her mother was seated beside her bed. Asleep in her chair. The little girl sat upright. She stretched her arms. She yawned. She remarked how good she felt. Doctors checked her out. They couldn’t believe she felt “good.”

Because for the last six months, the child has felt like heck. For the last six months, the little girl has been dying. But today, something had shifted. All the treatments. All the therapy. Something was working.

Turns out, the scans the doctor sent away had come back all clear. The child okay. Not just a-little-bit okay. She is totally fine. No traces of cancer. Not a single bit. This child will live.

“My baby will live,” said her mother.

After that, God went to Oklahoma City. It’s not clear how he got there. Maybe he took a Greyhound. Maybe he flew. Maybe God doesn’t take public transportation. Maybe he just did the Star Trek thing, and beamed himself up.

Either way, he landed in a little town outside Oklahoma City. A dusty town which shall remain nameless, because it is small, and everyone knows everyone’s business.

There was an old man who was was suicidal. He is Cherokee. He was locked in his bathroom. He had the gun. He was going to do it. Really going to do it.

But then something warm washed all over him and told him, in an audible voice, “Don’t do it. Rachel drew you a picture.”

He stepped out of his bathtub when he heard the phone ring. It was his granddaughter. She was Facetiming him.

“Hey Grandpa,” said the 6-year-old child. “I called because I just drew you a picture.”

Her name is Rachel.

Then God then traveled to Oregon. The 33rd state. A state with rainforests, mountains and harsh deserts. God must have taken a pretty fast plane because he got there in just the nick of time.

There was a young man named Rob who was having a heart attack in his home. Rob is 26. He was standing in his hallway, and he was so scared. It’s not every day a 26-year-old collapses in his hallway, clutching his chest in terror.

“Don’t let me die, God,” Rob uttered.

When he woke up, he was in the ICU. The doctors said he had been dead for several minutes before they revived him.

His mother, who was sitting beside his hospital bed asked what he’d seen when he was clinically dead.

Rob said, “I just met my father.”

The young man’s father has been dead since he was a toddler. He’s only seen pictures.

“What did he say to you?” his mother asked.

“He said something about Baltimore, Maryland.”

His mother started crying.

“Why are you crying, Mom?” the kid asked.

“I never told you this, but your father asked me to marry him in Baltimore.”

Listen, I don’t know where this letter finds you tonight. I don’t know what you’re doing right now, or where you are spending Thanksgiving.

I don’t know whether you’re happy or sad. I don’t care whether you’re religious or not. Thanksgiving is one day away. And I don’t give the tiniest crap what you’ve heard, I want you to know that no matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done, God is your biggest fan.

I hope you have a happy Thanksgiving this year.

Thanksgiving - Sean of the South (seandietrich.com)

There's some good news in endurance and recovery!

There's a guy in our church I've known slightly over the years--a fantastic musician and a gourmet chef. What a combination. So we "friended" on Facebook, but a year ago his name was on the church list for prayer. I learned he had a brain tumor--so over the past year I've sent five cards since he didn't seem to be getting better. But today on Facebook he posted this, and I was so happy to see it.

"Well, friends and family, I’m still here! One year ago today, I was admitted to Riverside Methodist Hospital for a “routine” craniotomy in order to remove a tennis ball-sized brain tumor (benign, thankfully). I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid as we had no idea what to expect after it was all over. Was that indicative of my lack of faith in God? Maybe. Or perhaps it was just simply my mortal fear of the unknown and what the future would hold manifesting itself.

The tumor removal surgery went fine, but as an added bonus, I earned three subsequent trips to the ER for bladder issues, sepsis, and blood clots; two by ambulance, (one of which I don’t remember at all), along with a 10-day stint in a rehab hospital. I’m not even going to approach the question of why some people are healed and others are not - I’ll ask God about that later. The point of this is to simply give thanks.

But where to start? There were so many people involved in this journey, all of whom played various roles along the way. First and foremost, I thank God for seeing me through this, even when I doubted Him. I thank God for the tumor (I know, that sounds weird), but it serves as a reminder and affirmation that good can come out of just about anything. I thank God for the multitude of doctors, nurses, and caregivers who attended to me while I was in the hospital. They are truly His angels on Earth facilitating His work. 

I thank God for First Responders (I still have flashbacks when I hear sirens). I thank God that we live in a place where we have access to quality healthcare and clean hospitals. I thank God for all of the additional support people, including Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapists, along with visiting nurses, who helped me re-learn everyday things that I took for granted, like walking, writing, and peeing, just to name a few. I thank God for an employer that provides good benefits along with bosses and co-workers who were understanding, accommodating, and genuinely concerned with my wellbeing and recovery. And most of all, I thank God for my wife and daughter, who, because of their diligence and attentiveness, literally kept me from dying on several occasions. 

I thank God for the Body of Believers - everyone who prayed and/or sent positive thoughts and well-wishes (too many to count!) I thank God for everyone who sent cards, provided meals, called, visited, and checked in on Connie and Alissa to see if we needed anything. I thank God for the men who provided us with a Christmas tree and decorations after we lost ours in a storage facility fire. And I thank God for everyone who otherwise contributed care and concern for us. 

“Thank you” just seems so inadequate compared to what you all provided. I am humbled and will be eternally grateful for each and every one of you. If this past year has taught me anything, it’s to take nothing for granted - every day is a gift from God and tomorrow is not guaranteed. If you’ve read this far, I honestly believe that the past year can best be summed up in the following scripture verse: “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer” (Romans 12:12). 

Amen! God bless all y’all!

Oh God movie (1977)

We had a nice Sunday with our son who has brain cancer--enjoyed lunch at his home and then watched the movie, Oh God, with John Denver, Teri Garr and George Burns (1977), directed by Carl Reiner. Hardly seemed possible that the movie is 42 years old! It's sweet and funny--it's spiritual, not religious. Good laughs (which we all needed) and some serious moments. Sort of pop-gnostic, a real set-up from the last century for the "nones" of this century. It makes fun of a minute portion of organized religion--the health and wealth gospel with a crooked TV preacher played by Paul Sorvino.

Teri Garr who is Denver’s wife in the movie played a lot of moms and supportive wives and girlfriends, so I wondered what had become of her. I checked, and she "retired" in 2011. She has MS which she kept hidden many years, but came out as an advocate for others and helping with fund raising. She also had a stroke and recovered. Lakesiders enjoy a grass roots program called Porch Stories,, which is modeled on the Moth.  Garr told a LA Moth Story where she discovers her boyfriend has been cheating on her. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TI8E4p_U6A (language alert)

What I've always been

I’ve always been a CREATIONIST and I’ve always been PRO-LIFE. There were many years I didn’t know the HOW, but I’ve always understood the WHAT and WHO even as a very young child observing life around me (probably 3-4 years old).  There were 25 years between my baptism in 1950 and my recommitment/confirmation when I let go of God’s hand, but I never let go of those two beliefs.

I’ve always known CREATION has a purpose and LIFE has meaning, even when I was taught otherwise in school or church.  Whether CREATION took 6 days or 6 billion trillion years, makes no difference in my belief; both are equally marvelous.  Whether she is a is a zygote making a journey down a fallopian tube or a frail woman 105 years old in the nursing home bed who hasn’t spoken since she was 87 making a journey home to Jesus, I’ve always believed she is God’s creation and loved by God.

I’ve always known there was a rich and glorious life beyond what I could see, experience or understand, no matter if it was the vastness I saw in the night sky, or the pictures in the family encyclopedia with transparent drawings showing a baby’s development month by month in the womb.  I’ve always been a wise old woman, even when I was a child.

I’ve always cared about and loved God’s physical world--and wondered about the events and choices that moved lives and nations.  As a 5 year old I wondered why my grandmother was blind and my uncle was killed in the war.  And I still don’t know, but I know God does.  And until the past two decades or so, I thought caring was enough, because caring made me a “good” person.  Caring made me better than people who didn’t care as much as I do. Caring elevated me above the hoi polloi, the commoners, the great unwashed who didn‘t believe as I do.

In brief moments of extreme self-love, I even imagined I was more merciful and caring than God because I knew better how life should be ordered and what made sense and what didn’t!  At this age I know caring does nothing, so I will speak out when I am able to promote God‘s CREATION and LIFE. You can argue about candidates or fossil fuel with me, both were put here by God, but you won’t budge me on CREATION and LIFE.

Consequently, I won’t change what I believe about Man and Woman who were made in God’s image. Perhaps you are enamored by a current social or political movement and you care deeply and sincerely about this blip in time, but I care about history and the future.  Next year, next decade, maybe you’ll move on to yet another political cause-- legalizing polygamy or incest perhaps renamed to remove the stigma--but I’ll still be where I started, loving and respecting God’s CREATION and LIFE.

I believe God enjoys and delights in the sanctity of a life He created yesterday or 100 years ago. What I believe is not just who I am, but it is rooted outside myself in who God has revealed himself to be in his created Word spoken in the beginning, his written Word, in his Word Jesus Christ who came to us through the womb of a woman, in his Church on earth, and in all other forms of religions which don’t yet have his full revelation, but do grasp that Creation and Life are precious and holy.

This blog was originally published here on May 11, 2012

But it was all an accident

Researchers at Indiana University have combined scaling laws with a model of biodiversity to produce a new estimate of the number of microbial species on Earth: somewhere between 100 billion and 1 trillion. (The Scientist, May 4). And at the other end, Hubble reveals an estimated 100 billion galaxies in the universe or so, but this number is likely to increase to about 200 billion as telescope technology in space improves. Minor league stuff--the human body may have 37.2 trillion cells--depends on who is counting--and each cell has a sex--male or female. But hey, it's all an accident, it all evolved. No thought or design.

St. Augustine, Confessions, Book 1

What, then, are You, O my God-what, I ask, but the Lord God ?
 For who is Lord but the Lord? or who is God save our God (Ps. 17:32) ? Most high,
most excellent,
most powerful,
most omnipotent ;
most piteous and most just;
most hidden and most near;
most beautiful and most strong, stable, yet contained by none;
unchangeable, yet changing all things;
never new, never old;
making all things new,
yet bringing old age upon the proud without their knowing it (Job 9:5);
always working, yet ever at rest;
gathering, yet needing nothing;
sustaining, pervading, and protecting ;
creating, nourishing, and developing;
seeking, and yet possessing all things.
You love, yet do not burn;
are jealous, yet free from care;
You repent, yet do not suffer;
are angry, yet serene;
You change Your ways, leaving Your plans unchanged;
You recover what You find, without ever having lost it;
You are never in want, while You rejoice in gain;
never covetous, though requiring interest.'
That You may owe, more than enough is given to You;
yet who has anything that is not Yours?
You pay debts while owing nothing;
and when You forgive debts,
You lose nothing.
Yet, O my God, my life, my holy joy, what is this that I have said ? And what does anyone say when He speaks of You? Yet woe to them that keep silence, seeing that even they who say most are like the dumb."

Translation 

My own translation (by Edward Bouverie Pusey, public domain) uses the thy and art and shouldest,  which isn't that difficult, but I looked for more current English.  Then I rearranged the spacing; looks like a nice poem or liturgy.

Growth of internet use and church membership

Is internet use and higher education affecting your church's attendance? "In the 2010 U.S. population, Internet use could account for 5.1 million people with no religious affiliation, or 20% of the observed decrease in affiliation relative to the 1980s. Increases in college graduation between the 1980s and 2000s could account for an additional 5% of the decrease." Allen B. Downey, professor of computer science (http://arxiv.org/pdf/1403.5534v1.pdf)

Before turning on your computer, smart phone or I-pad, arm yourself with the Lord's Prayer, one of the creeds, or a favorite psalm to balance out your strong social needs and to make contact with the One who really cares and listens and is never off line or out of range.

Perhaps God’s love is like this

Yesterday we were eating lunch in the dining room of the Hotel Lakeside.  We’d ordered our food and were waiting while conversing with our friends Rob and Lynn.  Then I heard a crash.  At the next table there was a mother and her two young daughters, perhaps 7 and 5.  Somehow, the older girl had knocked her plate to the floor, and it shattered with glass and food all scrambled.  I was very surprised because the floor was carpet over wood.  But there it was and everyone turned to look.  The little girl got down and started to clean it up.  I was horrified.  I expected to see blood any moment.  “Oh don’t do that,” I said out loud because her mother seemed immobile and couldn’t see what I saw.  Then the mom got up and started to clean it up, as slowly some staff appeared.  Finally, she sat down and a bus boy with a tray picked up the food and shards of glass.  After he left and everyone in the dining room returned to the soup and salads, the little girl’s frozen face crumbled, and she got down and ran to her mother’s lap where she sobbed and sobbed.  Mom didn’t say a word—just held and rocked her.

The dish was still broken; the food was still ruined; and yes, people had stared at her and she was still embarrassed to have been the “big girl” in the restaurant who had spilled her food.  But Mom held her.  It’s a reminder to me of how God’s love works. He can’t always undo what we did, but he can hold us close until the hurt and embarrassment goes away.

         

Questions in the Bible

The first recorded question in the Bible comes from Satan (in the form of a serpent) which was, "Indeed, has God said. . .?" (Did God really say. . .Yea, has God said. . . )

Since Adam and Eve fell for that clever ruse, the second question recorded was from God, "Where are you?"

And upon rereading this very carefully today, I see that God, when giving them (Adam) instructions on how to take care of everything he had created he said, "but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die." It was Satan that told Eve she would be like God if she knew good from evil, and we've been dealing with that lie ever since.

The rug

There's a lot to think about in this simple video.

No creator, designer or planner

"MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding RNAs found in viruses, plants and animals. They regulate gene expression by binding to complementary sequences within target miRNAs. The mammalian genome encodes hundreds of miRNAs that collectively affect the expression of about one-third of all genes."

And to think this all just happened. No creator, no designer, no planner. We couldn’t exist without "the awesome power of miRNAs" as Nature magazine calls it. Awesome. Power. Seems I've heard that theme before.

Psalm 66: 1 Shout for joy to God, all the earth;
2 sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise!
3 Say to God, “How awesome are your deeds!
So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.

Meet our newest pastor

Eric Waters. Here's his first sermon at the X-Alt service at Lytham Rd., UALC (Upper Arlington Lutheran Church which has 3 campuses) and it's on God's wrath. http://tech.ualc.org/mp3/audio/080217EWLRX.mp3 Listen carefully as he reads God's word to the Romans. He's not reading. He speaks the scripture from memory, and it makes a huge difference as you watch him, because he's also performing it with facial expression and hand movements. But before you get the good news, you need the bad news. So it's a good introduction not only to him, but to the gospel. His speech pattern, you'll notice, is not midwestern--he's come to us from Fargo, ND but grew up in New York state. However, he was a Russian major in college, worked for awhile in Siberia, and I think I detect that in the up and down, the flow, the staccato. See what you think.

3892

There's more of us than you think

"Gov. Mike Huckabee was right: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." So was Sam Brownback, Tom Tancredo and Duncan Hunter who also had the courage to raise their hands for creation in the presidential debates.

And now a new USA Today/Gallup Poll has found two-thirds of Americans agree. And those who believe creationism is "definitely true" more than double those who believe strongly in evolution." Janet Folger