May
19th
Mon
19th
Humility, the place of entire dependence on God, is, fromt he very nature of things the first duty and highest virtue of the creature, and the root of every virtue. And so pride, or the loss of this humility, is the root of every sin and evil.
— Andrew Murray, Humility
The subjects we teach are large and complex as life…The students we teach are larger than life and even more complex. But there is another reason for these complexities: we teach who we are. Teaching, like any truly human activity, emerges from one’s inwardness, for better or worse. As I teach, I project the condition of my sould onto my students, my subject, and our way of being together.
— Parker Palmer, The Courage to Teach
Here’s the window view of W. Miner Lake in the Chain O’ Lakes. It has all the serenity and inspiration you’d expect from a cabin.
Which cabin you ask?
Okay, it wouldn’t be a Mike story if something didn’t go wrong. I don’t try to make this go awry, but I’m pretty sure its genetic.
Not thirty minutes after I told the blog I was in Ripon, I travelled out to the cabin (10:30ish). As I pulled up to the dark cabin and started to unload, I heard a dog bark and a light came on inside. I rechecked my confirmation letter and, though I had the cabin reserved, someone was in it. Cue the rain. Feeling flustered and not wanting a situation, I took off. As I drove away, I remembered that my friend Paul had given me a key to his cabin in Waupaca weeks ago. So I got out the map and headed north.
It was a long hour of driving roads with numbers but no names. It was raining and deer kept running out to meet my mini van. I was tucked into bed by 12:30 at the other cabin. Classic.
At the Cabin
It Tuesday night and I’m out at the cabin in Ripon for a few more days of prayer, reading, writing, and reflecting. Actually I’m parked behind subway snaggin’ free WIFI and listening to the Cubs on my grainy AM radio.
What a great game. Lotsa hits. Lotsa runs. In the first, Ryan Braun blasted a homerun right over my and John Hartenberger’s head. The guy directly behind us snagged it. Molina was ejected, Tony LaRussa was ejected, and a drunk who hates my Cubs hat was ejected. Great fun!
May
12th
Mon
12th
Josh is back in town. You might remember Josh Chappeau, the intern from St. Louis that rode back to Appleton with us last summer. Over the last year, Josh has visited a few times and stayed connected with some of our students. He will be interning again this summer and needed to vacation early, so he and his friend Taylor drove up to go to a Brewers/Cards game. Oddly fortuitous, today is also the day ACEFC is taking a group, so we will be able to tailgate together.
I miss my church family
Sabbatical has taught me this. I miss my church family. It has been good to see the Kingdom of God being expressed in different places in different ways. But as this extended time away continues and my pile of not-my-church bulletins grows, I feel the tug of our unique and truly amazing church body. I especially miss the laughter and off-beat style.
I know that being in a community is clumsy and lots of work. In a real community you are known more than you want to be. You know others more than you might like to. But for all its rigors and trials, it is better to be in community with others than to not. It is healthy and important to know others and to be known.