You Might Have Been in Northwest Arkansas...

Last Wednesday I went to a meeting of the Marshall, Texas Ministerial Alliance. When they asked where I came from, most of them commented that they had been in my neck of the woods. Whether in Branson or in Eureka Springs they were familiar with northwest Arkansas, especially the fact that the roads are a straight as a ball of yarn.

One of them mentioned that he turned on the news hoping to hear the score of the Texas Rangers game from earlier in the evening to be struck that the only sports news in NWA was the Razorbacks. He was positively dumbfounded that a full sports report could revolve around this one topic.

I have just two comments: First-Well, yeah, welcome to northwest Arkansas. Second-If you think that's bad check out the sports report from Austin.

Pink Ladies

On Thursday, Marie had a doctor's appointment. To the casual observer, there's very little new in that. What was new is that it was her first doctor's appointment in Marshall, Texas. Hooray Marshall, Texas!

I let Marie out of the car at the door and parked in the lot. As I came in about five minutes later, I hear this lovely voice cry out, "Hi Pastor!" It was Martha, a Pink Lady at the Good Shepherd Hospital in Marshall.

There is something so great about hearing a friendly voice as I went into the hospital that it made my day. Thanks Martha.

It also got me thinking about Hospital Axillary. One of the traditions of hospital axillary is the pink jackets the ladies would wear at the desk and around the hospital. It sets them off from everyone else with a splash of joyful color. It makes me smile just to think about it.

It also reminds me of something else.

St. John's Hospital in Berryville, Arkansas was once an independent hospital, but for a million reasons it joined with the St. John's Healthcare System out of Springfield, Missouri. Doing so meant that it lost some of its distinctiveness, including the tradition of the pink jacket.

These days, the axillary wears blue jackets and vests, just like every other business person on the face of the earth. There is no change to the ladies, but there is a distinctive loss of the pink jacket. There is a attitude you have with a pink jacket that just doesn't make it past "business blue." It looses the distinctiveness of "Berryville" and makes it ring "St. John's Corporate." Much of the rest of the hospital has also lost its individual distinctiveness and has take on corporate sameness. More's the pity.

So hooray for Pink Ladies. Hooray for Martha! Long may your banner wave!

Dez Bryant and the NFL, Chapter Two

A couple of weeks ago, I posted this blog about Dallas Cowboy's Rookie Dez Bryant and hazing in the NFL. In short, I wrote that Bryant should have said what he was going to do, not what he wasn't going to do.

Also, if he wanted to do it with swagger, swag away.

Well, Roy Williams finally got Dez Bryant "paid back" for his "disrespect," and it cost in the neighborhood of $55,000. Follow the ESPN link here. Oh well, it could have been worse.

On another note, some of the comments on the article say that he should have donated that money to a food bank or other sort of place. Well, I just want to say, and as a minister you might expect that I would say, he should donate more than just $55K to a food bank or a homeless shelter or a battered women's shelter or his church or the United Way or to his college or to folks who can use it to make life better. As for where the donations are to go, sure, I have my own ideas about giving, I just hope he does give.

An apology...

Dear America,
If you were on the highways and byways of our beautiful nation over the past few days, you might have seen me on the road. I was the guy driving a 27' U-Haul truck at varying speeds depending upon the terrain.

I have a bit of a lead foot myself, though I have no tickets since I got married. (Yes, there is a causal relationship between these two items.) So I've been frustrated behind all sorts of vehicles in all sorts of conditions.

Well, over the past two days I have been the problem instead of the solution. So let me just apologize and tell you that we unload the vehicle today and we will again be overlarge vehicle free. Praise God!

Yours in overdrive, Paul

Now that'll work...

My wife was feeling a little irregular a while ago, so her mother sent this "recipe" to help take care of that:

Mix together:
1 Cup apple sauce
1 Cup coarse unprocessed bran
3/4 Cup prune juice

Mixture will be like a thick paste
Refrigerate in a covered container

Take in the evening for a morning BM
Increase bran mix by two table spoons each week until BM's are regular
Always take one glass of water with mixture

A diet high in fiber and drinking at least 6-8 glasses of water daily can also help with bowel management during the recovery period.

Let's just say that my name for this concoction sounds a lot like "Weapon of Mass Destruction." My wife also noted that the whole "increase bran mix by two table spoons each week" was highly unnecessary.

This is the sort of mix that takes Jamie Lee Curtis' yogurt and leaves it in the dust.

I am not a doctor nor do I play one on television. I received this information and share it in a humorous vein. As with all "medical" advice, please contact your doctor.

Ode to Merlin

Here's a question, where do you see Christ in your life. The answer for me is easy, I see Christ everyday in my wife Marie. I see her reflecting the light of God everyday. There is no better example of her love than in her choice of pets.

This is Merlin. We, rather, she adopted him from the Good Shepherd Humane Society in Eureka Springs, Arkansas soon after we moved to Berryville. Marie didn't pick the prettiest kitty at the shelter, oh no. She selected the cat who needed love and a home more than any of the other cats at the shelter.

We don't know about his life before the shelter, but we suspect it wasn't good. We do know that Merlin had been returned by his first adopted family. They were looking for a cat who would be a kitty for a family with small kids, and that was not Merlin's demeanor.

I know that cat's don't have facial expressions, but Merlin's continence was dour, he looked sad and when his eyes were just so, he looked scared to death. We suspect that he was abused at one time because he was always skittish. But you know what, that's what Marie saw at the shelter. She saw a cat that needed a home. Now, isn't that Christ-like, loving those who need love most of all.

She saw a cat that needed love, even if all he would do is cower under the bed or in the corner. She knew that she could give him the love he needed to be a cat again. And he was a cat again.

Yesterday we had to put him down. He was just too sick and there was nothing we could do to make his life better. Marie cried, and God love him, I did too. We miss you Merlin, but where you are now, there is no fear, there is no pain, and there is joy.

Thanks for being our cat.

The Past and the Future and My Impressions of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

In the most recent issue of the Presbyterian Outlook magazine (Vol. 192, No. 19, September 20, 2010), the news from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary (APTS) goes like this:

Austin Seminary continues to see a trend toward younger students with a demonstrated commitment to service. The median age in the last two entering classes was 28.

and so on.

Austin Seminary did not herald the building of its new residence facility, as it usually does, in this issue of The Outlook. Anderson House is a new multi family facility built with Green Energy partnership codes from AustinEnergy.

On the facade of the building is a quote from the Rev. John Anderson, major donor and building namesake:

"Send us preachers who are not boring."

Of course, it's in Latin because that way nobody will know what it means. It's an inside joke.

Now for my rant: When Marie and I got to Austin, the average age of students was in the mid-30's. That was fine with us because we were in our late-30's. When we got to APTS, we were as welcomed as seminary could make us.

Is it easy to get welcomed in seminary? I always said that seminary was the best and worst of the church with the best and the worst of higher education, and as an ordained Elder in the church who worked at a major university, I felt I could speak from experience in both realms. I feel my assessment is not good or bad, but I feel it's accurate.

Today, with the push toward youth, I do not know if Marie and I would be welcomed at APTS like we were ten years ago. We weren't young. We didn't have two kids and one more on the way. We weren't then and still aren't the hip "Keep Austin Weird" folks the area is so proud of fostering.

I think it's wonderful, but I don't give a rip about a green building after living in the 650 square feet they accorded us upon arrival. Finally, my first call was to a church that could barely support a pastor, not one that supports a pastor that can support the seminary. (That's what we all get for going where I was called.)

Looking at this blurb from The Outlook, I only believe my assessment of our newly minted outsider status is firm.

Honestly, when I was a student at APTS, the push was toward worship and preaching the Word of God with integrity and grace. In my opinion, a call to be "not boring" is pretty shallow.

Jim Jones wasn't boring, but I'm not selling or drinking that Kool-Aid. Joel Osteen sells out the Compaq Center and sells a billion books, but I'm taught to go for something deeper sharing the fullness of God's grace on God's people.

I guess I'm sad. I guess I'm disappointed. But I guess Thomas Wolfe is right, you can't go home again.