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?

derek jeter too old? no way!

-it's been a really fun start to the baseball season for me.  the yanks have been decent, despite some terrible starting pitching performances, aand (as bas as this makes me sound) its been fun to see the red sox suffer so much, though they seem to have finally turned it around.  but the best part of the season, undoubtedly, is the unbelievable start that derek jeter is having, after the entire baseball universe seemed to tell him that he was washed up and too old and didn't have the physical gifts anymore to play everyday shortstop in the major leagues.  oh really?  he's just hitting like .420 right now.  no big deal.  here's a great article about what number 2...derek jeter...number 2 is up to this year. 

first of all

oh, First of all,
you, who is so often our Last Resort,
who is typically near the bottom of the list,
you are our way - our only way - to health and wholeness...to ourselves.

forgive us for giving you only a glance;
for our passionate prejudice and fierce self-reliance.
where we have treated independence like a golden god,
refine us, and melt it down until we see the spaces in us,
spaces only you can fill. 

when we face those who would challenge us;
when we are questioned or cajoled,
when life seems to cast its cold and callous shadow over us,
whose name will we call, o gentle healer?

will we speak the name our parents gave us as a temporary signpost,
or will we dare to utter the name above all names?
we pray for courage,
for the guts to speak the name
that turns death to life and despair to hope,
which turns broken pieces into beauty, and dead dry bones into divine dance.

we are the rejectors. 
and yet you have redeemed us.

o cornerstone of our hope,
remind us again that your name is not a weapon
to be brandished against those who seek truth,
but is instead a Way for us to live and move
from the grave to the dance. 
teach us again that your name is not a magic ticket,
but a place on which to build our hope:
your name is humility, least, Love. 

help us be ever-ready to give an answer
to the powers-that-be,
and may that answer be you,
only you,
First of all. 
amen. 

april 26, 2012...after meditating on acts 4:5-12

happy birthday, caedmon!

today is caedmon's fifth birthday.  we have already had part one of the celebration this last weekend, with a cars cake with a big paved "5" on it.  this coming weekend will be phase 2, with some other cars-related edible goodness.  pictures to follow. 

cade is a character.  he likes accessories and he loves hiding and playing tricks.  he also enjoys a stage of any kind.  we discovered this during our christmas program last december, when he found the stage and the spot immediately in front of the microphone each week and planted himself there with flair.  this week, as the children sang "give me oil in my lamp" during worship, he kicked his legs back and forth like a rockette.  it is not unusual to find him at home wearing some combination of bracelets, necklaces, glasses, ties, wristbands, hats, capes, etc. 

i can't believe he's been in this world for five years already.  there's no question but that those five years have been tremendously brighter and more full of laughter (not to mention some nearly professional cuddling) because of caedmon.  your play, your joy, your singing, your charisma - all of it - is a wonderful gift to your mother and i, your brothers, and all who know you.  we adore you, little yellow-haired man, and we celebrate you with all the joy we can hold. 

happy birthday!

mondays with max: rollin'

stream of conciousness friday

stream of conciousness on a friday.....

somehow we left the garage door open overnight, and i've discovered at least one thing missing.  jack's not going to be happy about that missing razor scooter....

tom and jerry was a classic cartoon.  tom and jerry kids from the '80's?  not so much.

yankees are going to bos*** (i really prefer not to type the name of that hot mess in mass-a--poo-setts) today.  fenway park is celebrating its 100th birthday.  the red sox are celebrating by starting the season at 4-8.  only 5 teams in baseball have a worse record.  so sweet.  when the only thing you have to celebrate is a 100 year old stadium and 2 championships in the last 93 years, it seems fitting to start off this way.  it's like me throwing a birthday party for my mazda protege because it's been a wildly mediocre car and even once went over 90mph.  but at least it has many miles!  woo hoo! 

here's hoping the yankees do the celebrating. 

i've never watched this show, but i love this commercial. 



here's something:  when shannon and i have a "disagreement," it usually ends with her saying, "how does it feel to be wrong all of the time?"  well played, shannon.

speaking of well played, did anyone else notice that dick clark passed away, rendering our new year's eve celebrations impotent?  do the mayans have anything to do with this? 

we're talking about the movies this month at church.  this sunday we'll be looking at "field of dreams."  i love that movie. "if you build it, they will come," and all that.  such a classic.  i don't have a cornfield behind my house, but i do have a chain link fence, and i wish dead ball players would come out of that and play in my yard.  actually, nevermind.  that sounds creepy. 

have a good friday. 

is my face glowing?

in exodus we can read about how when moses would come down from the mountain, after speaking with God, his face would be glowing and he would wear a veil when talking with the people. 

it seems that his times with God on the mountain were pretty intense. 

and it makes me wonder....did he really want to come down from the mountain at all?  after spending face time with God (which must be at once terrifying and exhilarating), did he really feel walking back down the steep mountain path, putting the veil back on, and dealing with all the mundane stuff his people were dealing with (you know, making golden calves and whatnot)? 

of course i don't know the answer to that.  but, having spent the last few days literally on top of a mountain, and spending time with God in silence, and then coming down off the mountain to face a hundred emails and way-too-long to-do lists, i can't help but feel that i'd rather be back on top of the mountain. 

plus, this veil is annoying. 

anyway, it was truly a great retreat.  i loved being silent.  i loved practicing the divine hours from the benedictine tradition.  i loved the rhythm of it.  i loved having some time to do some reading and writing and listening and praying.  i loved spending some time in the labyrinth.  i loved being able to breathe some fresh mountain air.  i'm not sure about this glowing face, but i am really glad i went. 

thanks for putting up with the silent blog for a couple of days.  i'm back now. 

grace|peace,
greg.

shhh!

for the next couple of days you won't be hearing from me.  actually, no one will.  i'll be silent.  absolutely silent.  taking a little break from blog/facebook/google/phone/talking.  it's time to just shut my mouth and open my ears....it's time to listen closely to the sounds of my life that i'm usually too distracted to hear.   i'll be back here at aor in a few days, and until then i wish you grace and peace. 

saturday song: the water is wide

if i'm ever somewhere and the thought occurs to me, "hey, i should really sing a song right now."  whether it's just to pass the time or to put a baby to sleep or whatever, there is one song that always seems to be the first to pop into my mind, and it's this one: 



what's yours?

keeping easter alive

i've written about this in prior years, but each year after easter i feel a particular pull to make sure that we don't too hastily "move on," and forget about the "he is risen!" joy we've just experienced.  easter isn't a day; it is a way of life.  and so, i thought today, in an effort to keep the newness and the miracle of the resurrection fresh in our minds, i would share this poem by john updike.  i had never read this before until a colleague shared it with me last week, and i was deeply moved by it.  i hope you find it compelling as well, and that you allow resurrection and the hope it gives us to continue to shape you in the journey ahead. 

Make no mistake: if He rose at all

it was as His body;

if the cells' dissolution did not reverse, the molecules

reknit, the amino acids rekindle,

the Church will fall.

It was not as the flowers,

each soft Spring recurrent;

it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled

eyes of the eleven apostles;

it was as His flesh: ours.

The same hinged thumbs and toes,

the same valved heart

that--pierced--died, withered, paused, and then

regathered out of enduring Might

new strength to enclose.

Let us not mock God with metaphor,

analogy, sidestepping, transcendence;

making of the event a parable, a sign painted in the

faded credulity of earlier ages:

let us walk through the door.

The stone is rolled back, not papier-mache,

not a stone in a story,

but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow

grinding of time will eclipse for each of us

the wide light of day.

And if we will have an angel at the tomb,

make it a real angel,

weighty with Max Planck's quanta, vivid with hair,

opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen

spun on a definite loom.

Let us not seek to make it less monstrous,

for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,

lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are

embarrassed by the miracle,

and crushed by remonstrance.

-by john updike

from "telephone poles and other poems"

1963

i fought the toilet and the toilet won

a couple of weekends ago shannon and the boys went away for the weekend, leaving me at home alone with the dog, and a honey-do list.  well, it was a short list, actually.  it really only had one item:  replace the bathroom floor.  the main bathroom here at our parsonage had an old linoleum floor that was a bit yellowed with age (i hope), and we had purchased some of those adhesive floor tiles that are supposedly easy to install, and it was going to be my job to do that simple job. 

riiiiiight. 

first thing i did was remove the toilet.  then i cleaned the bathroom floor with some pretty intense chemicals, so as to remove any waxy residue from the linoleum (side benefit: chemicals also removed all traces of hair from inside my nose).  then i began to  lay those tiles.  that seemed relatively easy until i had to start measuring and cutting to make the tiles fit around molding and the bathtub.  what a disaster.  i'm a collage artist who is used to randomly pasting things together, so this "being exact" thing didn't exactly come naturally or easily for me.  let's just say, i quickly needed a trip to the hardware store for some more tiles. 

even so, i was able to complete the floor without too much difficulty.  it isn't a professional job, but it looks better than the yellowed linoleum that was there.  everything was done except reinstalling the toilet.  i simply had to replace the wax ring and put the toilet back.  i did. 

i reconnected the water line. 

i flushed the toilet. 

and i realized that water was leaking from the bottom of the tank. 

after some investigating, i determined that the rubber washers/gaskets at the bottom of the tank were old and rotting and all the jostling involved with resetting the toilet had probably caused the seal to break, and now the tank would leak at those bolts.  so i was going to need to replace them. 

so i went the hardware store.

i brought home the new parts. 

i turned off the water. 

i drained the tank.

i sponged out the tank.

i disconnected the water line. 

and i tried to take out those bolts at the bottom of the tank, but don't you know that they were really stuck.  so in the process of trying to remove them, i broke off part of the flash valve. 

just snapped it right in half.

so i went to the hardware store.

i brought home the new parts. 

i installed the new flush valve. 

i reconnected the water line.

i turned the water on and filled the tank. 

no leaking!  problem fixed!

i flushed the toilet. 

and water began to literally pour out of the bottom of the tank. 

so i shut off the water. 

i drained the tank.

i sponged out the tank.

i disconnected the water line.

i removed the tank.

and i removed the main flush valve gasket, which looked rotted.

so i went to the hardware store. 

i brought home the new gasket.

i installed it. 

i replaced the tank.

i reconnected the water line. 

i filled the tank with water. 

i flushed it. 

it gushed everywhere. 

i cried. 

maybe not literally, but just about. 

and then i called the plumber. 

the end of the story is that the plumber came and told me that i'm not entirely stupid, but that the brand of toilet i have requires a specific gasket made by that company and no other.  and the only place you can really get those gaskets is from a plumber, or wholesale. 

and the real end of the story is that next time when shannon goes away, i'm going to call the plumber first, grab a cold beverage, put my feet up and watch a movie. 

g.i.g.i. joe

at baseball practice the other night, jackson was very busy not paying attention to the ball, and was instead searching the ground for treasures.  partially buried in the dirt, he found this: 

well, it was much dirtier than that, but you get the picture.  we brought it home, cleaned it off, and examined our new find.  and cade was particularly excited about the find, saying "we found a G.I.G.I. Joe!"  now, this wasn't him playing with words or anything, he really thinks that's what they're called.  it's a mix of old mcdonald with the great american toy hero.  i love it. 

oh yeah, you didn't know the boys were playing baseball?  well, they are.  practices have already begun in earnest, and games are coming soon!  proof:

a blessed easter

i hope everyone had a blessed easter....we sure did!  while the easter season is incredibly exhausting for me as a pastor, it is equally rewarding and incomprehensibly blessed.  now to continue to live in the light of the resurrection....

new collage: easter 2012 - tears of joy

"lent 7 2012: tears of joy"

mixed media collage on stretched box canvas (acrylic paint, vintage papers, glue)

april 2012

gregory a. milinovich

 sometimes we weep for sadness and grief.  sometimes we weep with emotion beyond what we know what to do with: some mixture of joy and pain, like we can feel something deeper than our language, stronger than our hearts, and beyond time and space.  sometimes life is just too terrible and too wonderful at the same time.  sometimes we're just chopping onions.  in any case, many of us find ourselves crying from time to time. 

i wanted to end this series of lenten collages with a tear, reminiscent of mary crying outside the tomb of Jesus.  "why are you weeping?" she is asked twice.  and at first it is because she thinks Christ's body has been stolen.  and then, she finally recognizes his voice.  what do you think happens then?  well, we aren't told specifically, of course, but i know that if it had been me in her sandals, i would have begun to weep in earnest, with a joy unspeakable. 

and that's my point.  isn't that what Jesus does to us.  isn't he the upside-down and inside-out specialist who takes the foolish things and makes them wise;
-who takes the outsiders and invites them in;
-who takes the humble and makes it great;
-who takes the broken and fixes it;
-who takes what is dead and gives it new life;
-who takes our tears of sadness and turns them into tears of joy?

this Jesus that many of us follow and whose name we so loosely associate with, he was upside-down and inside-out.  he had it all backwards.  and i, for one, am forever thankful for that.  his backwards story and his upside-down and inside-out way of living has saved my life and challenges me to be a better person. 

here is the whole series of collages i made this lent.  i hope you enjoyed seeing them as much as i enjoyed making them and interacting with the biblical texts in order to create something that reflected my own understanding of them. 

and i hope you have a truly blessed easter.  life is abundant!  love is victorious!  Jesus Christ is risen!

saturday song: the easter song (old school)

today, on this holy saturday, i thought i would go all old school on you. 

when i was a teenager i was VERY involved in my church, and that was a really good thing for me, as those were some of the most formative years of my life.  i owe so much of my current situation to that foundation.  anyway, part of that involvement was singing in the church's youth choir.  as part of that choir i was able to go on a couple different tours in different regions of our country.  i'm not sure i remember any of the songs we sang except this one, for some reason. 

it was easter morning, circa 1993.  we were on the front steps of our church (wilmore united methodist church), and it was awful early to be singing, as i remember.  we were singing a song that i had already known, a song performed, among others, by a band called "2nd chapter of acts."  i believe it is called "easter song."  the picture above is a picture of this actual performance, and i am the dude in the back row, in the middle - the only one who is actually looking at the conductor.  you can also tell it is me as i have a classic milinovich look on my face which says, loosely translated: "
this is the most intense moment of my life.  i have to give 120% here or else i will be a total failure and if i mess up and hit a wrong note then my entire life will be ruined and everyone will be disappointed in me.  focus!  give it your all!  don't mess up!  AHHHHHHHHH!!!!"

i actually am saying that to myself (and with the same look on my face) about 80% of the time.  it is part of my milinovich inheritance.  in fact, i have that face on right now as i am typing.  (note to self: talk to therapist about the self-loathing i feel when i make a typing error). 

anyway, the good news which i was singing about then and which i am still celebrating today is that all my mistakes (even the real and serious ones) are forgiven and redeemed because of Jesus. 

amazing.  stunningly amazing. 

and so, without further ado, here is 2nd chapter of acts singing the very repetitive and slightly annoying "easter song."  as you listen, just picture that adolescent agent orange singing his heart out as seriously and sincerely as possible.  at least get a chuckle out of it.  my therapist will help me through it. 

deathday

"an endless bleeding - crucifixion" by thomas watson

on this day-
an earthquake day,
a boundary breaking, curtain-splitting day,
a turn things upside down and raise the dead day,
a dark, dark, 'where is the sun?' day,
a creation calling out in pains of labor and delivery day-
on this day,
life gives itself up.
lets go, surrenders.
all that has ever been seems to shake and shiver
in the cold dark grasp of death and despair.
the hopes of a million years, or more,
the hopes of every creature ever preyed upon,
the hopes of the huddled masses,
the hopes of the powerful ones, only hoped in secret, private moments,
the hopes of the broken everyone,
the hopes of this mess i call me,
are crushed like cracking stones,
along faultlines of fear
on this day,
this deathday. 

cade washes feet and teaches daddy a lesson

we're outnumbered.  that's what having that third child does to a family: parents - 2, children - 3.  if the family were a democracy, then we would be eating captain crunch and root beer for every meal.  this majority problem leads to all sorts of unintended consequences, including the necessity of the parental zone defense, in which one parent, who in the old man-to-man defense only needed to worry about one child, now has the responsibility to look after double that (2 children, for the math-impaired). 

when you have a baby, sometimes you let that baby "cry it out."  i'm not saying that you go all dr. spock and let him scream for hours on end, but i'm saying that you just can't always run to him at the first little whimper.  if mommy is making dinner and daddy is busy playing legos or thinking deep thoughts, sometimes baby will just have to work it out for awhile.  sorry, dude, but you're the third child.  this is your destiny. 

_________________________________________________________________

today is maundy thursday.  it is so called not because it feels something like a monday, but because it seems to be derived from the latin word mandatum, meaning 'mandate' or 'command.'  okay, so we are essentially calling it "mandate thursday."  but why? 

well, this is the day that we remember Jesus' last supper with his disciples, a meal which began with Jesus doing something rather unorthodox.  in a classic illustration of leading by example, Jesus grabbed the pitcher and basin and bent down before his disciples, taking their nasty-old feet and putting his hands on them, washing the dirt and dung off of them.  as uncomfortable as this unusual arrangement may have made them, he did it to prove a point to them.  he said it right after he finished washing them, and you can read it in john 13.  "a new command (mandate) i give you" he says, "love one another.  as i have loved you, so you must love one another.  by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." 

and so generations of Christians have been challenged by these words that tell us that if we are really going to go by the name "christian;" if we are really going to try and follow this man whom we believe saved us from death, then we must obey this command to love one another, a command illustrated by Jesus in the washing of feet, not only of his friends, but also of his betrayer.  we don't just wash pretty feet, or clean feet, but all the feet of those who are placed in our path. 

that is our command.  that is our mandate.  that is what we remember on this maundy thursday.

_______________________________________________________________

i continue to learn grace and to meet God through the masterful teaching of my children.  they are my teachers.

a few weeks ago shannon was making dinner and i was doing something that i don't recall right now, possibly thinking of great ideas for my blog, and quin had decided it was time to wake up from his nap prematurely.  so he cried.  since details necessitated a breakdown in the zone defense, he was left on his own to cry it out for awhile.  this would have likely continued until such a time as dinner was served, but then something happened. 

caedmon took it upon himself to go and help the fussing child.  the crying stopped.  after some time had passed, and the quiet had become suspicious, shannon went into the baby's room to see if everyone was okay.  there were tissues and babywipes lying in heaps around the base of the crib, and quin was making happy noises.  there was a recently-full bottle of anti-bacterial hand sanitizer in cade's hand.  struck by the curious sight, and more than a little worried, shannon asked what was going on.  caedmon then explained that he was washing quinton's feet with the sanitizer and the (dozens of) babywipes. 

the baby was upset.  so he washed his feet.  without being asked to, he served his brother.  with no hope for reward or recognition.  just thought it would be a nice idea.

"a new command i give you," said Jesus.  "and that is that you figure out a way to love each other by serving one another.  if you want people to know that you are following me, you will prove it by loving one another." 

even if it wastes the baby wipes or dispenses the better part of a bottle of anti-bacterial hand sanitizer, you'll step in when the baby is crying and the mommy is frantically trying to get dinner ready and the daddy is busy with something-or-the-other.  you'll stick your fingers in between the toes and wipe gently and stop the crying.  you'll help.  you'll serve.  you'll wipe.  you'll love. 

that is the command.  thanks, cade, for reminding me again. 

new collage: lent 6 - the greatness of humility

"lent 6, 2012: the greatness of humility"

mixed media collage on stretched box canvas (acrylic paint, found papers, vintage papers, glue)

april 2012

gregory a. milinovich

this sunday was palm sunday, and we continued our lent-long look at the paradoxes of our faith, focusing this week on mark 11:1-11, in which Jesus enters Jerusalem on an unbroken colt.  as the people shouted "hosanna" to the blessed one from the line of David, the one they hoped would restore the kingdom, Jesus knew he was approaching the cross upon which he would hang under the paradoxical sign, "king of the jews."  this festive parade was certainly a triumphant entry and a kind of inauguration, but the kingdom being set up here isn't one ushered in by a mighty warrior with jeweled swords and shields riding in on a great stallion.  instead, this is an enigmatic teacher, riding without weapons or defense, on an untamed (jumpy?) colt.  this is a king, but a very different kind of king than the one the world expects.  this is the king who says that the greatest in his kingdom would be a servant of all.  this is the suffering servant kind of king, who shows us by his actions - by his very life - that the way to greatness is called humility.  hosanna.  bless him. 

mondays with max: tuesday edition

okay, so i'm a day behind.  i realize that.  i really do. 

today is tuesday, not monday.  but since i spent most of monday and sunday fighting with a leaking toilet, i am a bit behind this week.  i want to write about the epic battle greg vs. the toilet, but i will resist the temptation to vent right now and will instead wait until the episode is finally over, so you can get the whole story.  in the meantime, enjoy this tuesday edition of 'mondays with max," again doing what he does best: sleeping. 

have a blessed palm sunday.

have a blessed palm sunday. 

remember: a kingdom is being celebrated here.  in this kingdom the first will be last.  the low will be lifted.  the dead will live.  the broken will be fixed.  the servants will be the greatest.  the blind will see. 

what a kingdom. 

and the king?  you'll find him riding an unbroken donkey at the wrong end of town. 

upside-down and inside-out. 

as usual. 

are you paying attention? 

things are not always as they appear to be. 

sometimes, the most profound moments are the most mundane ones.  sometimes, when we put others before ourselves, we find our true selves in a way we had never before understood. 

"Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,  not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus..."  Philippians 2:3-5