GroshLink

Jim Sire begins his Signals of Transcendence central PA tour tomorrow/Tuesday at noon when he speaks with the C.S. Lewis Seminar at Penn State - Harrisburg.  In the evening, he'll take part in a dessert emphasizing the value of InterVarsity's Graduate & Faculty Ministry.  Later in the week Jim will speak at F&M, Penn, and Dickinson.  He'll wrap up his visit by leading a Learning to Pray Through the Psalms Prayer Retreat. 

Pray for Jim's safe travel, strong health, and clarity in presentation.  Pray for participants to remember the opportunity, to engage in thought/conversation, and to continue wrestling with his material (as it reflects coming face-to-face w/the Logos).  Pray for me to drive safely, grant Jim space to rest, and to manage the details with forethought.

Not sure what to do with Tim Hawkins. Friends keep passing links of his material to us. Here's a representative piece on Church, Food, Prayer. As for music videos Cletus Take the Reel is hard to beat. ;-)  Any thoughts on Christian humor?  How does he compare to Anita Renfroe, famous for her Wiliam Tell piece?

Tom informed me that it's time for another Eden update, so here's what the little cutie pie is up to.

On Thursday night/Friday, I [Tom] started evidencing the symptoms of the flu which has worked its way through our children. Maybe I turned the corner when I slept almost all this afternoon [while Eden took a 3 hour nap (wow!) and the rest of the girls gardened].  The loss of most of Friday and today means that I've not finalized every detail regarding Jim Sire's April 1-5 visit. But I confess that I can't make it all work just right and that's not a helpful perspective to let into the planning process. As such, please join me in prayer as I once again offer my health and next week's ministry to God care/oversight.

With regard to this week, pray for me to have the strength to participate in the Screwtape Letters conversation at PSU-Harrisburg tomorrow. Last week, I received a deep impression that our conversations will lead to a lot of 'practical,' daily spiritual life concerns mixed with larger, framing questions. Personally, I've been reminded of the importance of praying for the Lord's direction in order to triumph over the devil's distractions in my own life.  Praying for resurrection power.

Pray for my continued healing and Theresa's protection from illness!

Many of you have asked what boy names we were kicking around before we knew we were having another girl. I finally decided to clean up my desk and would like to throw away the receipt on which I was keeping the list. So for the record, these are the options, in no particular order. And, I should add, this is my (Theresa) list. I didn't run these by Tom:

Rowan
Aaron
Bradley
Eric
Evan
Carter
Elliot
Calvin
Conrad
Brady
Mason
Micah
Mitchell

Either I only got through the M's in the book, or I didn't see anything else that struck my fancy. I can't remember. For those of you who are wondering, we still have not decided on a girl's name, but we won't announce the name until the baby is born anyway. So wait patiently :)

These two stimulating and enriching articles were passed along by a InterVarsity Christian Fellowship staff colleague, thank-you Tom.  I would encourage you take a few minutes to soak them in . . .

Mikhail Gorbachev admits he is a Christian [Comment: To God be the glory!]

Atheism and Atonement [Comment: A well stated case].

Thank-you to my campus ministry friend who passed along Findings: The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors. Here's a quote from the article regarding a study at MIT,

Closing a door on an option is experienced as a loss, and people are willing to pay a price to avoid the emotion of loss,” Dr. Ariely says. In the experiment, the price was easy to measure in lost cash. In life, the costs are less obvious — wasted time, missed opportunities. If you are afraid to drop any project at the office, you pay for it at home. 

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Holy Week: An Invitation to Walk with Christ by Ruth Haley Barton
Tenebrae and the enactment of faith by Deborah Leiter

both caught my attention entering this Holy Week. Tenebrae and the enactment of faith ends with the below paragraph

I’m profoundly thankful for the childhood services that gave me a glimpse of these possibilities, because it’s not enough for me to hear bits of the story each year. Perhaps it means my faith is that of Thomas’s — I have to see, to touch, to believe. I’m not sure. What I am sure of is that these performative Passion Week rituals help me to understand the central, hard-to-understand events at the center of the Christian faith year by year, and I’m profoundly thankful for that.

Those palm fronds, after all, take on more weight as they are followed by the story reminding me what followed them. And the meal seems more urgent when the bread and wine are accompanied by a consciousness of the snuffing of the candles that will come the next day. And sometimes, just sometimes, it takes standing outside with many others in the dark and the cold to appreciate the true joy that pulsates through my veins with the re-entry into the warmth of the church, the light of the candles, and the echoing of the refrain, sung over and over again. Each year I believe it a bit more: that Christ is risen from the dead. That he trampled down death by death. That he bestowed life. On me, and on all others who have believed, and all who will ask to believe. That He is risen, He is risen indeed. Alleluia.

I'm not always the brightest bulb in the box, but I eventually catch on. For almost 2 weeks now Hayley and Ellen have been complaining that they were cold in their basement bedrooms. First I chalked it up to being sick -- they did suffer from chills. Then I decided we had all gotten used to warmer outdoor temperatures and sunny days warm up our upstairs to 70 degrees even in the winter. So comparatively the basement just felt cooler. The basement thermostat always read 68 degrees, so it was obviously just our perception.

Then it hit me yesterday. Lucky's box and requisite heat lamp sat directly under the thermostat! Of course it was toasty in that spot. But the rest of the basement was cold! So I moved Lucky's box to the other side of the room and wouldn't cha know it -- the basement feels pleasant again.

Ever wondered about why Easter varies so much (and even across church traditions)?  Then take a minute to read When Is Easter This Year? I enjoyed reading the author was born on Easter. So was my sister, on April 19 (a month away). I enjoyed watching the classic film 10 Commandments with Grandmother Grosh . . . another Easter/Passover tradition.

Pray for the C.S. Lewis Seminar at PSU-Harrisburg which will begin conversation of The Screwtape Letters today. Pray for the consideration of Lewis' classic to bring to our attention the wickedness of our own hearts, the illusion of the liberating power of evil, and the call to godliness as we move from Lent to the celebration of Christ's Death/Resurrection, Christ's Ascension, Pentecost, the mission of the People of God, and the New Heavens/New Earth.

As time permits, I'll post more background regarding Lewis and some reflections based on the conversation.  I'm particularly interested in how participants articulate the tension between good-evil, the concrete reality-allegorical nature of the writing, and comparisons to other representations of devils in our cultural history.  

Moving from the Preface(s) onto Chapter 1 (nothing like reading your old margin notes and making new ones), if you have thoughts of your own regarding The Screwtape Letters and the chapters which I comment upon, please post.  

PS. I must confess that I am quite drawn to the critical manner in which Lewis harnesses the image of bureaucrats in our Managerial/Admin Age. 
PPS. When paging through a copy of Ambrose Bierce's The Devil's Dictionary (passed along to me by a friend), I can see Lewis' concern with regard to how such writing can become obsessive. Of course Bitter Bierce's work is more expressive of his satirical perspective/writing . . .

Dear Partners in Prayer,

Your prayers were greatly appreciated as Ellen was sick the whole time I was in Chicago for meetings with InterVarsity's Graduate & Faculty Ministry (GFM)  and InterVarsity Press (IVP).  Theresa pressed on w/grace, patience, and strength.  Pray for Eden to overcome her current bout w/the illness which has swept through our family.  Pray for both Theresa and myself to press on, by God's grace, through Holy Week . . . setting our eyes on and reflecting the hope/joy of Christ Jesus.

Having survived his first week in our home, Lucky is flourishing.  He eats at least 2 dishes of feed each day and his wings have sprouted "real" feathers. He's also become more skittish of being picked up. I suppose we should handle him more if we want him to become more pet-like.

[Note:  Visit the Lucky Comes Home to Roost folder to keep track of the photos.]

Most importantly we need to seriously think about what kind of home he will move into next. We'd like him to be outside, yet protected from predators and the elements.  But what do we do in the winter? Can a chicken survive outside alone all winter? Maybe we'll get some cute Easter pictures with a real live chick this year.  Just so he doesn't poop on the new Easter dresses...

Week 3 of the Flu.  Hayley, Ellen, now Eden.  Symptoms are fever and a cold.  The fever lasts for 5 days, gradually getting better.  The cold lingers longer.  Eden's fever spiked at 104 Sat. night and was nearly gone by Sunday morning.  But it has returned off and on today, peaking at 101 this afternoon.  She was clearly not herself today -- very clingy and whiny.  She laid on the sofa most of the day, but finally perked up a bit this evening.  She even ate a hearty supper. 

I'm disappointed that she won't be able to go to preschool tomorrow since we missed last Friday and they have a week and a half off after tomorrow.  That means she misses therapies too.  She'll have swimming therapy on Thursday, if she's feeling up to it.  I'm optomistic that she'll be feeling better by Easter.  And hopefully the flu stops with her! 

I had a flu shot this year, but word is that the vaccine missed the mark this time.  So I may be susceptible to this strain.  And somehow Thomas has dodged it too so far.  Ellen went back to school today after missing Mon.-Fri. last week.  If only spring would come and we could get some fresh air into this house!

Thank-you to those which have kept me up-to-date on Tim Keller's ministry as pastor of Redeemer Church, NYC, NY. I have found his material, particularly his work on A New Kind of Urban Christian, of great interest. 

Tim's The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism stands at No. 18 on the New York Times bestseller list (anyone interested in passing along a copy in my Easter basket?) and recently he's has spoken on material from his book at a number of Veritas Forums.

As you begin St. Patrick's day, are you preparing for a snowstorm like we had in central PA last year, see footage at March 07 Snowstorm?  

More seriously, how does one celebrate St. Patrick's Day during Holy Week?  I hear some have delayed St. Patrick's Day until after Easter, others will just pass over it (e.g., Roman Catholic Church), and die hards place St. Patrick's Day above Holy Week . . . nothing like a parade for a 'secular' holiday.

Previously, I posted on St. Patrick's Day Celebration and The Real St. Patrick.  The Patrick Paradox.html from The Christian Vision Project is another piece to add to the mix, here's the conclusion:

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Pray for us as Tom's in Chicago, IL, from March 11-15 for meetings with InterVarsity's Graduate & Faculty Ministry (GFM) followed by InterVarsity Press' (IVP) Staff Advisory Team.  During the GFM meetings, Tom will have some significant conversations regarding the development of materials for the Emerging Scholars Network, role as director of the Mid-Atlantic Winter Graduate Student Retreat, pioneering of faculty ministry in Central PA, and continued support of GFM in Pittsburgh. 

During the IVP Staff Advisory Team Mtgs, the staff present will consider how to best use IVP publications on campus with students, faculty, and InterVarsity staff.  This will be our second official gathering, but our first at the IVP headquarters.  Pray for clear communication, packaging of resource offerings, and next steps in distributing our recommendations.

While at the IVP meetings, Tom will stay w/Dr. James Sire in order to discuss Sire's April visit to central PA.  Pray for our preparations for

-campus outreaches at Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall College, and Penn State Harrisburg.  Pray for insight w/regard to how we might find an opportunity for him to interact with several other campuses including a possible visit to Penn.
-campus missions presentation on Tuesday, April 1, for those who desire to learn more about our work with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.  For more on this drop us an email or go to April_Events_James_Sire_and_InterVarsity.pdf.
-prayer retreat on Saturday, April 5.  For more on this drop us an email or go to April_Events_James_Sire_and_InterVarsity.pdf.

On Friday we adopted Lucky Fluffernutter, the lone chick from Hayley and Ellen's classroom embryology unit. Each second grade class was given 12 eggs to hatch. All 12 of their class's eggs died. Another class generously gave two more eggs to them, of which one hatched. Appropriately, they agreed to name him "Lucky." It's now up to us to keep this chick alive--single-handedly holding the delicate psyches of 25 second graders in the balance.

We held a "Blitz Paint" on Friday and completely painted Baby's room and Eden's bedroom. We couldn't have done it without the able assistance of the "Ginder Girls", my (Theresa) aunts and grandmother who have lent their expertise for many a home improvement project over the years.

 
Note: For pics taken by Marie and Hayley go here.  (More)

In case you haven't been keeping up with CMU's Randy Pausch, check out his webpage.  He's passed the 6 month mark given at his last lecture (note: the book should be out in April).  Praise God!  What a joy to see the healing/sustaining work of God through human hands/research, although Randy attributes it to the will and finds encouragement from works such as Stephen Jay Gould's The Median Isn't the Message. 

Praying for another perspective to shine through as he hits the wall. For me, as I've shared before, my experience with cancer and continued recovery provides a daily reminder that the world is not about me, that I depend upon Another, and I have been given one more day to be a blessing to those among whom I've been called me to minister.  To whom much is given, much is required.

Earlier posts which feature Randy include: 
Randy Pausch on Oprah & some reflections
Randy Pausch's final lecture
Video Games Are Their Major

We're not 100%  Pray for Hayley who became really sick Thursday night or Friday morning w/103, chills, etc.  We've been giving her ibuprofen, juice, and naps.  When she takes a nap or 2 during the day, doesn't want to go in a Dunkin Donut store to receive the 29 cent donut on February 29, and just won't eat a whole donut over 2 days, you know that she's not feeling well!  This morning she's been sleeping on the couch w/juice and WJTL's Kid's Cookie Break while Eden and Ellen hangout with Grandma Ginder.