but I’m not a national champion

You may have heard that the Hoosiers of Indiana University are the national champions of college football. They beat Miami 27-21 on Monday night. In and of itself, the win should make any resident of Indiana proud. But it’s not just that. It was not the Ohio State Buckeyes or the University of Michigan Wolverines winning the national championship. It was the Indiana University Hoosiers. There are various ways of summing it up. ESPN puts it succinctly. Since records have been kept, IU had suffered “715 losses, which was the most recorded by any team in the 156 years of college football.”

The college with the worst record of all time is now the national champion. Way to go, Hoosiers!

And what or who are Hoosiers and how did they come to be called Hoosiers? No one knows where the appellation comes from, but in its nearly 200 years of use, it has come to mean someone from Indiana. Becky and I have been nomads, having lived in six different states, so our Hoosier identity may not be deep, but, indeed, we are Hoosiers, and Monday’s game adds just a little bit of polish to the name. Continue reading →

Sometime last year the street department put up a bunch of new speed limit signs in our neighborhood. I’m not sure the signs have had much effect. Some of our neighbors have been not so good about obeying the limit. This time of year, school buses pick up children before the sun rises. Fast cars, dark streets, and little kids laden with winter jackets and heavy backpacks are not a good combination.

Apparently, there was an incident last week when a car zipped down the street, adding a little bit of vroom as it sped past the corner where children were waiting for the bus. A mother standing on the sidewalk with her children was not happy and said so on the HOA Facebook page. Her rage was justified.

Most of the comments to the mother’s post were supportive or recounted similar tales of fast cars, dark streets, and little kids. The community cynic, whose quips I often appreciate, posted, “I thought we had new 25 MPH speed limit signs installed?” along with a smile emoji. Continue reading →

Someone asked why I don’t write much about politics. It’s not that I think politics are unimportant, it’s just that they have become such a distraction to my stated purpose here  of offering “observations on living life faithfully and fully in our ‘not the way it is supposed to be’ world.” And they are a personal distraction to what the Catechism tells me is my chief end – “to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”

One dictionary defines politics as “the activities of the government, members of law-making organizations, or people who try to influence the way a country is governed.”  Another speaks of “activities that relate to influencing the actions and policies of a government or getting and keeping power in a government.”  The polis, of course, is the city and it is a good thing for men and women to be engaged in politics as they seek to influence and guide the life of the city. I am not necessarily opposed to getting or keeping power, either, as that power is used to implement policies for the common good of the people of the polis. I am all for politics and politicians, whether I am in agreement with their direction and principles or not.

So, how have politics, arguably a good thing, become a distraction? Perhaps it is that politics have become more about power and less about the common good of the polis. Noble principles have been replaced by base ideologies. Politicians have become personalities in our personality-obsessed culture. Base ideologies and the cult of personality share a common home in the life of the ideologue, the “blindly partisan advocate or adherent of a particular ideology.” Continue reading →

We’ve been out traveling the last week or so – Christmas with one branch of the family in Memphis, Tennessee, and then a few days after Christmas with the Florida panhandle bunch. What wonderful times in both places! Yesterday was our last leg home – up I-65 north of Nashville through Kentucky and Indiana and on to a snowy welcome in Auburn.

The day, New Year’s Day, began with a reading from Psalm 103, and I pondered the words of its first two verses as we headed towards Bowling Green and Louisville, passing Mammoth Cave and the Jim Beam distillery:

Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.

I am not much of a New Year’s resolutions person, but it seems that remembering God’s benefits to us might be a good thing for any year. His benefits, not my list of happy memories or my collection of things accumulated. Benefits – life, family, friends, purpose, the call to discipleship. Benefits – enjoying and glorifying him forever. 2026: forget not all his benefits. Continue reading →

. . . in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Merry Christmas to all of you.

The story as told by Luke:

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. (Luke 2:1-20 [ESV]}