everyday i'm shufflin'

yesterday caedmon looked at me and said, "everyday i'm shufflin." 

so it occurred to me that a meme with a bunch of old peeps playing shuffleboard would be appropriate.  so i made this one.  hope it gives you a chuckle. 

greg food

how great is this?  he even looks a bit like me!  mmmmm.....greg food (said in homer simpson voice).

thanks to my friends Roberta and Sam for sharing this with me.

cade birthday, part 2

the festivities for caedmon's fifth birthday celebration are finally over, and i thought i would share a few pictures from the second installment.  it was a continuation of the "cars" theme (how about those cookies that shannon meticulously made?), although it was certainly a lego birthday, with all kinds of lego sets from super heroes to cars to toy story.  he's been having fun building, and even more fun playing with the sets once their built.  he also got a steelers helmet and jersey, which you can see in the bottom picture.  unfortunately, the helmet doesn't fit daddy. 

the next birthday in our family will be quin's first birthday this summer!  wow!

counting our bones: a prayer for general conference

why? 

why has it come to this, O Lord? 

in your great green growing world, how is that we have come to

counting our bones?

we lament the loss of limbs,

cracking our gnashed teeth

and recalling our former flesh:

full of great glories and many members. 

have you forsaken us, o God? 

or have we too long rested on our reputation,

content with counting bare bones?

forgive us, God of abundant life,

for our powder dry mouths when your living water is

latent in us and among us.

and are we yet alive?

and can these bones live again and dance?

yes! 

deliver us, Lord of broken bone and torn flesh;

deliver us, God of the downcast Spirit and the bone-weary ones. 

deliver us from our past selves, and the sometimes crushing weight of our inheritance.

deliver us from our present fear, and our crippling contentment with cutting our losses

and counting our bones. 

deliver us to our future, to your kingdom, to a wild and dancing hope

that moves us to eating richly only once we have invited all our neighbors to the table,

even those whose differences scare or frustrate us. 

deliver us to a fleshly hope, not one that is biding its time until we might evacuate the premises,

but one that builds your Kingdom today, petition by petition, vote by vote, person by person. 

deliver us to a future with hope, O God, our God,

one in which brokenness is stifled by grace,

bones are covered in blood-pumping vibrant flesh,

and death is robbed of its approaching victory by resurrection.

for we pray it in the name of one whose death-defeating dance

has given us life

and hope. 

amen.

a prayer for the general conference of the united methodist church in tampa, florida, 2012
after reading and meditating on psalm 22
gregory a. milinovich 

mondays with max: squinting in the sun

these are some pictures i took of our beautiful bulldog max in some bright morning sunlight, which his eyes had not yet adjusted to.  i liked the way they turned out. 

these mondays with max are particularly important to me right now because it seems that max's health is declining.  not sure how long we'll have him around, so we are cherishing our moments with him. 

the united methodist church: the sexuality fight continues

the united methodist church has gathered in tampa, florida for its general conference, which meets every four years. one of the things this means is that the national media pays some attention because they want to report on whatever goes on in the discussion regarding homosexuality. from whati'm reading, that long-unresolved conversation has already begun, as the conference set up what they called "holy conversations" in which small groups of people could sit and discuss this sensitive topic. however, it seems that some of the conversations turned to an opportunity for bullying and name calling, rather than looking for truth, understanding and ways to show love and compassion. as a young(er) methodist, i am so tired of this conversation, and am weary of my tribe (united methodists) being so unwilling to love people. when the culture has done a better job of loving people than the church has, we have a problem. Jesus said that the world would know us by our love, not by our stand on the issues, or on ANYTHING else. just love. and yet we continue to show a 44-year inability to love well when we continue to fight about this issue. i, for one, am so tired of it. the church has WAY bigger issues to deal with, but we can't deal with them when we are so distracted by continuing to pick at this scab rather than let it heal. it is an awkward position to be in when you are disappointed in the denomination that ordained you. i think this blogger got it right.

and so i am praying for all the bishops and delegates and demonstrators today.  praying that we can move beyond this disagreement.  that we can figure out a way to live beyond our fear and make some decisions based on love for a change.  will you pray with me?

with their first pick in the 2012 draft....

last night was the first round of the nfl draft. the steelers were near the bottom of the order, 24th, but were given a great gift in right guard david decastro from stanford. i'm not a draftnik by any stretch, but after watching some tape on this guy, he looks like exactly the kind of pulling guard that the steelers love. he looks quick and balanced and like he will be a force in the middle with pouncey and will also pull across formations to set up some running lanes. i'm looking forward to seeing red zone redman follow him to the second level. he's not a "sexy" first round pick, but a great pick, in my opinion.

are you ready for some football?