Tuesday, January 19, 2010

The latest

The lack of updates has not been due to a lack of activity... but perhaps a combination of Facebook updates and lack of blogtastic inspiration. We've been busy with a number of things, most notably getting more involved with our church. In addition to being asked to lead worship Sunday mornings every four weeks (three other men and I share the responsibility), Amy and I were asked to teach an equipping class. Our church has a concept of "Win, Build, Equip, Send" for growing the body; the goal of Sunday school (aka Equipping Classes) is to build and equip so that we become missionaries not in the classical sense but in the workplace and neighborhood. For a time last fall enthusiasm was at a bit of a low for us; one Sunday we attended Redeemer Presbyterian in Manhattan to experience worship with intelligence before going to see The Milkmaid. What we heard from the mouth of Tim Keller was "we need to as a church win people to Christ, build them as believers, and equip them with the tools they need to be sent into New York to repeat the cycle." We came away from the service with an appreciation for our country bumpkin Evangelical Free church and our pastor who is evidently 5 years ahead of the leader of the most intelligent church on the east coast. We don't have small groups for post-docs and artists and executives, and that's ok. We do have classes for engaged couples and on world religions and in Galatians and that's ok too. Our goal for the class we are teaching is to explain how that just as a successful marriage is so much more than just sticking it out until death because that is the vow, a successful life in Christ is so much more than just forgiveness of indiscretion because that is the Promise. It is a beautiful thing.

This past fall the Piker within roamed freely and with little hesitation decided that bookcases are too expensive. Instead the #2 pine from and Amish-made shipping crate transformed itself into a proper bookcase and surprised us both. Now I've received requests from a particularly enthusiastic fan who would like a few more things of that nature. An end-grain cutting board made an appearance in the kitchen, and a maple buffet table is on the way and set to debut in the late spring.






This is about the way it should look. Very likely in the spring I'll be more humble about it...



But for the winter we are holed up reading marriage philosophy and freeing ourselves from the bondage of chasing fulfillment and learning the freedom of servanthood, and while she paints an accurate sand piper beach scene with her hands upstairs I smash and cut mine in the basement with power saws and spinning knives. The general appreciation for hand tools and the safety and lack of dust that comes with them is growing within our household.
"PRIDE GOES BEFORE DESTRUCTION" AND IN OUR MODERN ERA, PRIDE AMONG THE NATURAL SCIENCES HAS TAKEN THE FORM OF OVERESTIMATING OUR KNOWLEDGE, OF ARROGATING FOR SCIENCE A KIND OF OMNISCIENCE THE WE DO NOT IN FACT HAVE. OR, TO REFINE IT A BIT: "PLAYING GOD" MEANS WE CONFUSE THE KNOWLEDGE WE DO HAVE WITH THE WISDOM TO KNOW HOW TO USE IT.