New Life'n

Good and dumb byes

Emily (daughter who blogs) talks about saying goodbye to her church family and husband's job, and goodbye to her sister who is moving away from her to here in Charlotte...

Those are the socially acceptable sad goodbyes. But somehow this week, the day after the season finales of American Idol and Lost, I found myself short tempered and weepy. And I felt the same way after watching The Office finale and after the Gilmore Girls series finale party. (That one brought tears during the show itself.)

What does that say about me that the sadness of my sister moving away doesn't hit until my favorite show takes a break for the summer?

My brother said the same kind of thing when I visited him over the weekend:  "I didn't cry at my son's high school graduation yesterday, but now I'm getting weepy saying goodbye to my brother!" 

Maybe some things catch your emotion-switch by surprise, before you can get your hand over it.  Maybe we're quicker to cry over unreal, uncomplicarted things; we know too much about present real life to have it boiled down to one emotion.  Or maybe it's one of those unexplainable human things. 

...Did you know the word nostalgia started out as a medical term?

Shelter from the storm

An Iraqi boy hides behind a US soldier after a suicide bombing in Baghdad Monday.  From the front page of the NY Times yesterday.

Ever been glad you could hide behind someone armed with strength, who stood solid when everyone else ran with fear?

From a thankfully safe distance

Find your family who served in the military -- all the way back to the Revolutionary War.  Free until June 6.

Send a note to a soldier -- "A great way to show your support is to write a few sentences on a specially designed and professionally printed thank you or get well card for our troops..."

Imagine how a few words of thanks or encouragement could boost the morale of a service member far from home, fighting for freedom. Imagine how a get well card would uplift the spirits of an injured service member in a hospital. Words have the power to bring hope and healing and we can only imagine how these cards will bring comfort and strength to our troops...

AND, refight the battle of Gettysburg -- could YOU do better than Robert E. Lee?  (I didn't -- without knowing, I did just what he did.)

More than a candy commercial

Randoms 6

How to pick movies to watch -- without just relying on the TV commercials or trailers in the theaters.  Also, how and why to watch movies.

Review on Michael English's autobiography:

In 1994, a young man from rural North Carolina found himself standing at the pinnacle of the Christian music world.  The previous few years had seen this young singer rise to fame, his stellar lead vocals storming the charts and bringing him accolade after accolade...just after receiving the coveted Artist of the Year award, Michael English found himself on the wrong end of a firestorm that began long before and that would take a disastrous toll on his marriage, career, and life....

Letter to Oprah about The Secret:

But don't worry, Oprah. You still have the power to turn this entire misguided craze into a "teachable moment." And I know how you can do it...

8 pleasures which are free, healthy, never sinful, and doable by everyone

Just a kid

Youngest daughter Emily updated her blog for the first time in two months (it's that priority thing...) --

He'll be 1 in a month. His first year of potentially so many.

I had a birthday last month. A fairly significant one, I think. People who, a few weeks before seemed so much older are now suddenly "my age." 

I like being 30 so far...more than I thought I would. I know technically it isn't really that much different from 29, but somehow, it feels different.

I've been telling the girls in the high school small group I lead that once you turn 18, you sort of feel 18 forever. I know I do, on the inside anyway. Sometimes I look at my 3 kids and my house and my husband and I sort of giggle to myself and think, "Don't people know? How could they let me bring these babies home from the hospital? I'm just a kid!"

But I'm not just a kid. And sometimes that is sad to realize, but mostly lately, I'm thankful for these 30 years that I wear on my face and speak in my words. I feel a bit more real and more secure. One thing I've learned for sure is I sure have a lot to learn.

She has less to learn than she thinks.

Falwell

I asked my friend Steve the first thing he thought when he heard Jerry Falwell died.  He jumped right up and started talking...

You go to breakfast -- then back to your office for another day.

You're planning, scheduling, returning phone calls, making decisions, dealing with all the little and big problems...

You've got the pressure and challenges of a big church and university...you're preparing for another commencement...Newt Gingrich is coming...

And in the middle of it you fall over -- dead.

The Bible says, "absent from the body, present with the Lord" --

And instantly you're with Jesus -- and everything's perfect and you're celebrating and there's no pressure, no problems -- just pure joy that's gonna last forever.

50 years at the highest, most visible level of public life and ministry -- done -- and never a scandal!

To others -- you're a social force.

To others -- you're controversial.

Not to the Lord.

To the Lord -- "well done good and faithful servant."

Steve also said 20 years ago he read a book by Falwell.  Right out of Bible school, Falwell was going to start a church in Macon, GA with a buddy.  But a group of people in Lynchburg, VA also wanted him to go there and start a church.  He didn't know what to do.  But he ended up feeling God was saying something to him -- "you choose; I'll bless it."  Knowing what happened, Steve said that really rattled his cage and he's never forgotten it.

So -- if God told YOU -- you choose, I'll bless it -- what would YOU choose?
                           _______________________________

And who said this? --

My mother always told me that no matter how much you dislike a person, when you meet them face to face you will find characteristics about them that you like. Jerry Falwell was a perfect example of that. I hated everything he stood for, but after meeting him in person,..Jerry Falwell and I became good friends. He would visit me in California...

Randoms 5

Christian biography reading ideas for this summer -- with links to buy and read summaries for each one.

What's wrong with young, single guys -- or, a lot of 'em...from a young, single guy --

How do we know if we have it? And what does it look like if we don't have it? (While women struggle...as well, I'm going to write to young men out of my own experience. I invite women to read along and encourage their friends.)

Available now!  Free!  The Spiderman 3 Bible Study Guide!  Plus, Spiderman 3 clips and spiritual illustrations HERE.

And, what we know so far about the teen-age clerk who busted the terrorists...

Then when news broke on Tuesday that federal authorities had arrested six foreign-born Muslims in the terror plot, the frightened teen decided to lay low - not coming to work or going to school until the situation blew over, his pals said...

I was the one on the left

Betty Jean

I still remember her voice.  I thought she could have been a singer, but I never told her that, and I never heard her sing a whole song. 

She drank Pepsi in the morning but told us we couldn't because it would 'stunt your growth'; she was kidding but I believed it. 

When I was 9, I wrote a horrible sports story about a football player who was carried off the field 'with seven cracks in his helmet.'  There was blood, too.  She read it and offered to type it up for me.  Whaaaat...?  You would do that....?  Like it was a real story....?  I never forgot that.

The house was usually messy and dirty.  I realized years later she had just given up.  Dad's alcoholism pretty much dominated the family and there wasn't much energy left for anything else at home.  I think she lost hope in house and family ever being like anything she had dreamed of.  Maybe that's why she worked two jobs for so long after me and my brother and sister were grown; it got her away from the hopelessness. 

When she was growing up, her parents used to fight a lot.  Dad told me one time that he thought he married her because he felt sorry for her, more than for being in love with her.  I remember thinking, you just need to shut up. 

She loved Christmas and made it the most exciting thing in the world...she never learned to drive...I know she believed in me, even though she didn't say it...she was a peacemaker and hated confrontation...she was my sister's best friend... 

Fifteen years ago, on a Sunday afternoon in July, my sister called and said Mom was in the hospital.  She'd had a stroke in bed overnight.  Dad found her all tangled-up in the sheets.  It was bad and we needed to get to Indiana now.  It was a 10-hour drive and the whole way I rehearsed everything I knew about the Gospel and how to be right with God.  Today I would have prayed more than rehearsed.

She lived for three more days.  The first day I know she knew I was there.  She would squeeze my hand slightly.  I told her about Jesus and assumed she heard everything.  I have no idea if she believed.  The second day she was way worse, and the third day she died.      

Back at the old home, as soon as you walked in, you could sense the life was gone out of it.  Just like a body at a funeral.  No spirit.  Her lottery tickets were still on the table by the TV in her bedroom; she had checked the numbers before going to bed that last night.  I picked a gray hair off the pillow, and took her old sneakers that were so her.  I have no idea where they are now. 

I realize I had always wanted to make Mom's life better, but had no clue how to do it.  Part of her heritage is two sons and a daughter who may be subconsciously motivated to create the kind of home and family that we know she wanted and deserved, but never got. 

Another part of her heritage is a granddaughter who looks a lot like her...