GroshLink

Jim Bibza, Professor of Religion, suffered a heart attack on the morning of Saturday, January 19. He tried to push through it, but on Tuesday, January 22 he went to the hospital for tests and it was confirmed that he had a heart attack on Saturday. He had successful double bypass surgery on Friday, January 25 at Butler Memorial Hospital. Pray for his continuing recovery.

Eden's really excited about the Big Baby in her mommy's belly.  But she also thinks she's having 2 babies of her own!  And she knows what that means, because she now counts up to 4 on her own (part of playing hide-and-seek).  Maybe she'll start saying that she's going to be having 4 babies!  Can't wait for the stories she'll tell as she's consistently speaking in sentences . . . what a joy to witness God healing and developing hand.  He is Eden's Hiding Place. 

Praise God for the good growth He's given the young one as she is knit together in her mother's womb by His hand.  Pray for our Father to be her refuge & strength for all the days of her life.  Pray that Theresa and I will be filled with His Spirit/insight as we seek to raise her in Christ-likenessness in the midst of our family's struggle (in the context of the people of God) with the flesh, the devil, and world.

A brief update regarding the Mid-Atlantic Graduate student retreat which I directed this weekend, before I take a much need rest (particularly considering I picked up bacterial conjunctivitis again). The retreat was a God thing in a way that I may never have experienced before. Pictures and stories will go up shortly, but here are participant responses to What I enjoyed 'most' about our time together.

 

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Dear Brothers-and-Sisters in Christ,

In a few minutes I'll finish packing and head to Camp WoMeTo, Jarrettsville, MD for the Mid-Atlantic Graduate Student Winter Retreat. As conference director I've had a number of last minute details and conversations which have taken my attention for the past several days, in the midst of a number of other projects. Pray for my safe travel, strength for various situations which will arise, and preparation for leading a Sunday morning reflection upon Psalm 120-122 based upon material from Eugene Peterson's A Long Obedience in the Same Direction

Some items to remember in prayer over the course of the next several days:

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A meditation for you as you wake up this morning and focus for your new day. Thank-you Miller.

"There are always some in the church who say that the best way to express the Christian faith is as a pastor, or missionary, or monk, or nun-- or in medicine, or social work, or educational enterprises. There are always some who know exactly what another is best suited for. But no one knows us well enough for that. Each of us has unique gifts, for which there are no precedents, yet which will be used in ministry. And we are quite free to resist anyone who tells us differently."

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My friend Miller passed along a recommendation of Arseny James Melnick's America's Oldest Corporation and First CEO:  Harvard and Hendry Dunster (infinity pub, 2008, isbn 0741442744).  Note:  Jim is a graduate of Westminster College and Harvard University.  Go to bbotw.com for the cover and link to take a sneak peek inside.  Here's Miller's comment:

i'm trusting that jim melnick's new book on the early history of harvard and its first president henry dunster receives attention...on page 175  jim says, "Harvard's abandonment of its Christian core values would sadden him (Henry Dunster) deeply but not in any final sense.  Henry Dunster realized that 'an inordinate love of human learning' apart from God leads to emptiness. ..he beileved that pride of learning for its own sake, without bringing knowledge under clear direction (to Veritas, to truth) would leave both the individual and the College soulless...as former harvard Dean Lewis said in his book "Excellence without a soul"..

Also of interest, R.R. Reno's First Things article Harvard’s Postmodern Curriculum, take particular note of the conclusion:

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A few days ago, when I was in a funk regarding pioneering work among faculty and pressing on with our Mid-Atlantic Graduate Student Retreat, I received an email from InterVarsity's donor services confirming another new donor. Praise God for His calling of His people to support His work!

I emailed back regarding the importance of the new support which we've been receiving in Central PA as we pioneer faculty ministry. My colleague at donor services responded:

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I confess I lacked faith in the G-men as they went into overtime . . . but the 3rd field goal try was the charm.  Maybe the Patriots will learn some humility at the hands of a Manning.  Good to have all my encouragments to Giants fans this season to not have been in vain.  A team of destiny which plays hard on the road.  What talk.  Love the hats the commentators are wearing    Wish Plex was as disciplined in 'da Burgh.  Not going to mention anything about Dallas.  Anyone having a Super Bowl Party?  Enough rambling.  Time to go to bed.

The other day, a faculty member shared how seldom he found reading outside of the classroom, i.e., when it wasn't for a grade.  How does InterVarsity address the countercultural nature of mentoring/apprenticing students into a life of practical reading and contemplation of the divine?  I confess it's hard, except among a small group of students. 

In my own work, prayer, encouragement, and drawing together small learning communities around particular topics (i.e., discussion/conversation groups) have been valuable.  I'm not quite as strong a critique of the One Book reading clubs as John Wilson in his recent Books and Culture article On Eloquence.  This fall I participated in One Community, One Book program which read/discussed The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night.  Several years ago, the whole CMU Grad Fellowship read Deitrich Bonhoeffer's Life Together, watched Hanging on a Twisted Cross, and had a presentation by a Lutheran pastor which drew attention to the importance of Bonhoeffer's writing/actions/death. 

But Wilson's recommendation of Denis Donoghue's On Eloquence looks particularly good and I commend it those with such concerns. A quote from the book/article is given below.

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Thank-you for all the cards and emails.  I particularly treasured Ellen's Birthday note & banner.  Her note read

Dear Dad,

You are the best dad in the whole world!  Of course for my opinion.  Do you know what I will give you for a present?  Open and find out! 

Love your hugable, kissable daughter,

Ellen Grosh

P.S. I am still working on cursive.

I've been waiting to post King Tut's Visage for quite awhile.  So why on my birthday?

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The Chronicle’s post Pope Cancels University Visit in Wake of Protests has been receiving quite a range of responses and attempts to clarify the facts. The post/responses (and a little more research) might be a helpful discussion topic for faculty regarding freedom of academic/religious conversation on campus and how one should respond to controversy. I’m thinking about bringing it up with some faculty later in the week and/or in early next week. I don't currently have the time on hand to research the complexities of the situation.  If someone comes across helpful material, please pass it along to me.  Thank-you.

Here's a helpful quote for visionaries like me who are sold out for the Gospel and who wish we could have lived in the early days in order prove we're willing to pay, the price of costly grace.  May God grant me the grace to Not be Ashamed of the Gospel, i.e., the Living Person, Word and Work of our Lord Jesus Christ and His Body, where the particular time and place to which I have been called to be a witness:

So the martyr stories had to get across a very important message: Don't go seeking wild beasts and torture chairs! But if you are forced to suffer for your faith, here is how to act and what to say—be like these brothers and sisters in Christ who did not give in when persecuted, but trusted God. -- Christianity Today Article Dying to be Faithful: Persecution brought out the best and worst in the early Christians" by Jennifer Trafton.

I'm sitting in the kitchen while Ellen and Eden take a bath together nearby.  I heard Ellen talking to Eden, but I wasn't paying attention until the very end when I heard something to the effect of, "when you get bigger you use them to feed babies, like a cow!"  Eden's reply, "OK."

Now Ellen is telling a story in which Eden needs to fill in the blanks.  Perhaps it's time for me to intervene . . .

I'm still processing my thoughts regarding Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles, see a piece below which drifts from an assessment into some reflections which have been brewing inside me as approach my 34th birthday on January 17th.  Would love to know your reactions to Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles (that might include why it's of no interest to you at all). 

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Great to read the Lancaster Sunday News' coverage of Amahl, in which my cousin John will be performing as Amahl. His brother James and their father Phil will be shepherds, see the family of performers at the Merchandiser's article Lancaster Opera Production Features Area Family. Praying for the performances to go well, the girls can't wait to get to their seats for the show!

Updated: 1/16/2007

A friend passed along an introductory reading recommendations for followers of Christ seeking to understanding the Islamic faith given by a friend who is currently having many converations with Islamic scholars and students.  May you find the list a blessing as you share your life in Church across faith and culture.

1.  For a single volume I would recommend Colin Chapman's Cross and Crescent which is being re-released in February (IVP). I have the '95 edition, and I'm not sure what is new, but this volume strikes the right tone between information and witness and concentrates on proper attitude, which is so important. Must reading at the introductory level. After every chapter it also has recommended reading if the student wants to go deeper [Note: An InterVarsity Press (IVP) book tops the list!]

2.  Then, probably Michael Nazir-Ali's Islam: A Christian Perspective (Westminster Press) is good especially for history of Islam.

3. A shorter classic is by David Shenk in conversation with a Muslim, Badru Kateregga in A Muslim and a Christian in Dialogue. David is very successful partly because he takes a very irenic approach (owing to his Mennonite background) . . .

4. Kenneth Cragg. He's probably too intellectual for most, but anything he has written is worthwhile. He's now about 97 years old but still lecturing from time to time at Oxford, his mind keen as ever, although he now gets around in a wheelchair. Call of the Minaret is still a classic and useful. He is writing from the Christian perspective, but gets into the emic side of Islam like few others, and most Muslims find he understands Islam better than they. Extraordinary.

Previous posts which relate to Islam-Christianity include:

June 8, 632
London: Muslim Gateway to the West
Prophet Muhammed in the Context of the Abrahamic Traditions

Came across an excellent interview of Os Guinness with regard to The Call provided by Impact 360 (a nine month residential high school to college transition ministry).

Calling is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion and dynamism lived out as a response to his summons and service (Os Guinness, The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life, p.4).

I'd encourage you to take the 25 minutes to listen and pass it along to those which would find it helpful at this time in their life. 

I returned from InterVarsity's National Staff Conference to quickly catch Bacterial conjunctivitis in my left eye from Eden.  Wednesday was particularly bad for me. 

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Once again Thank-you to Miller for raising an important question regarding our walk as the people of God. Recently, he shared some questions regarding how one delinates specific teachings in one's ministry as central. When discussing the topic he reflected upon

[when] jesus [was] saying to the jews, "you search the scriptures because you think you'll find life in them, but you don't recognize that the purpose of the scriptures is to point people to Me" .... the many intervarsity bible study groups in the dorms at hillsdale college in michigan ... students come from diverse backgrounds, and yet they fellowship together with a common bond in christ, and desire to study scripture together, and love each other...why isn't that possible...why can't that be enough...why do we have to bind people with long lists of requirements? it's very sad...i hope there's a lot of wisdom somewhere on this subject

Out of the conversation, John Frame's free online offering of Evangelical Reunion was suggested as a helpful resource. AND have to agree that it is an excellent piece regarding how Christians should learn to tolerate at least minor differences within their ranks and quit splitting up into denominational and other “distinctive” (actually sectarian) groupings.  If this is a concern of yours, prayerfully meditate upon it.

The other day, when sidelined by pink eye I read John Grisham's Skipping Christmas. What a trip as it brings up one popular American Christmas cliche after another. In the crux of the book, Nora and Luther find themselves suddenly back on board with the popular American version of Christmas celebration:

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Ellen just brought this note home from school today:

Dear Mom,

Congratulations!  Mom! I am happy too for you!  Here are some names:  Kayla, Taylor, Alexis, Kylee, Morgan, Tessa, Alyssa.

Love,

Ellen

Note:  All names of 2nd grade friends at school ;-)

How about Big Think? As I registered and started to troll around the provoking interviews and stories, I was reminded of the hours of conversation w/students, staff, and faculty at Carnegie Mellon through the years. Can Big Think fix the cliche sound byte pop-media system and develop a well-informed global citizenry which loves one-another?

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January started off with excitement in the Grosh household.  On New Years Eve Ellen and Hayley spent their first night in their new bedrooms.  Since then they haven't always spent the night in their own bedrooms, but that was to be expected.  When you shared a womb with someone I suppose it's a little disconcerting to sleep in a separate bedroom.  But they especially enjoy their bedrooms during the daylight hours.  Ellen's room is pink with yellow trim and has somewhat of a garden motif.  She also has a small door into what we dubbed "Narnia" -- the space under the basement stairs.  Watch what you say when you think she's not around because she's been known to hide quietly in Narnia when you don't know she's there.  Hayley's room is blue with tan trim and will eventually have a bit of a surfing theme to it.  Friends of ours have promised to make a surfboard to hang on the wall.  Not sure that will "go" so well with the frilly canopy bed, but she loves it.

Eden keeps us ever so busy.  She loves to be read to.  That's an understatement.  And she plays with her dolls, especially "Baby Nee-Nee" constantly.  One of her latest entertainments is hiding.  She loves to hide in closests and has no fear of the dark.  When she hides she really likes it if you open the door so she can say "Boo!"  But frankly she can't get into much trouble in a closet so I'm not exactly in a hurry to open the door.  True confessions.  She's getting good at doing puzzles and a recent milestone for her is that she's now able to look at books by herself.  She wasn't able to do this until recently because looking at a book works best when you use two hands.  But she didn't have the dexterity in her right hand to manipulate a book.  So this is very exciting.  She'll lay on the floor looking at books all by herself -- quietly!  She's rarely quiet at home so I'm especially thrilled about this development.  Tom mentioned the improvement in her walking in a previous post.  It is very exciting.  We've been hoping that she'll be walking by the time the baby is born, and maybe she will be.  I certainly hope my days of the double stroller are over!

I'll even give an update on our newest daughter!  As yet to be named, she has begun to make her presence felt!  Just slight kicks and somersaults, but even the doctor today commented that she was quite active.  I'm going-on-19-weeks and in the words of a friend I'm looking "cute."  I'll take that.  There are worse things than cute.  I'd like to be able to say that I am never nauseated anymore, but alas I cannot make that claim.  I have my moments.  I'm coming off my supplements that addressed that, but I hope it completely disappears soon.  At least by the time I start to get big and uncomfortable.  I'll trade one discomfort for another.  You may gather, I'm not the jolliest pregnant lady.  But I'm pretty happy when they put that warm, screaming, squinting bundle into my arms!

It's a . . .

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