Saturday Odds & Ends

A few things I just wanted to say:

• I'm not over this blogging thing. I know I haven't done much of it lately, but there have been reasons. For one, I've been under the weather (but the weather is better now). Also, I've needed to work out some time-management issues (when do I fit this in?), and think I'm all set now.
• Similarly, and for the same reasons, I haven't been working on my B.I.P. lately (Book-in-Progress), which I'm doing for Milton Stanley's Transforming Publishing. But I'm getting right back on that horse! Whoa, Nelly!
• Last night in our new small group a lady named Brenda told us how she'd been walking her English Setter, Ivy, on the beach at Pine Point (coast of Maine) that very afternoon. The dog was chasing the shore birds (dogs and kids like to do this). Well, the dog jumped into the surf and went swimming after some birds a little farther out. Then a little farther. The dog kept swimming. Maybe she sort of lost her bearings, or maybe there were more birds farther out, but after a while Ivy was so far out her head was just a dot bobbing on the waves. The dog's owner came to our group not knowing if Ivy had turned around or not. You might want to pray for Ivy and for Brenda.
• Did you see Jared's post, Why I Downplay the "Practical" in my Preaching. Good stuff. I wish preachers would just challenge people to work out the application piece themselves (not alone, but in conversation with fellow believers). "Application" is definitely a moving target for everyone, let alone a large group of diverse people. I know, I know, you were taught in "preachin' 101" to always include practical application in your sermon. But I say, don't underestimate the power of simply telling a story effectively (the Bible story, that is), and let your listeners walk away with the story percolating in their hearts, mulling over the application for themselves. Challenge them to do so, and trust the Spirit in others.
• My son Tim is getting married next year (to the lovely Jessica) in Nashville, Indiana. I'm totally jazzed about that. Can't wait. But anyway, when I told my Indiana-born-and-bred Mom about about this, she said, "Nashville! Hey, that's right near Gnaw Bone, where I went to a one-room schoolhouse as a little girl." Gnaw Bone? Who names a town Gnaw Bone, wonders I. So I looked it up. According to Wikipedia:

  One story says that many years ago some one was looking for a certain man and was told, "I seed him over at the Hawkins place a' gnawin' on a bone."

  I love it. Oh, ad I love being the son of a Southern Indiana hillbilly Mama!
• I had some Porkslap Ale on my birthday. Good stuff. I'm thinking I want to have a Porkslap in Gnaw Bone, just for the way it sounds.