This past week we visited our daughter, her husband, and our 8-year-old grandson.  In addition to Star Wars and Legos, the 8-year-old loves karate and, related, the old Chuck Norris television series, Walker, Texas Ranger, where the Chuck Norris Texas Ranger typically uses his karate skills to apprehend the villain of the week.

During our visit we were able to attend one of our grandson’s karate lessons and watch an episode of Texas Ranger (and Episode VI of Star Wars). I preferred the karate lesson.

At the karate studio, the sensei (teacher) instructs the karatekas (students) mostly by demonstration. The sensei makes a move and the karatekas mimic what they see. It is a fascinating process. I’m not sure most adults would fare any better, but among the under-10 set there are many lapses in replicating the moves of the sensei. Of course, because the sensei typically faces the karatekas as he or she teaches, the left-right mirror image can be confusing, but at other times the student just doesn’t see what the teacher has done – how high the knee was lifted or whether the punch was a lunge or a hook. Perfection comes through repetition.

Our grandson has been a karateka for several years, and it is encouraging to see how much he has improved. Chuck Norris would be impressed, as are his grandparents.

In many ways the life of the Christian is like the life of the young karate student. Jesus is our teacher and we are his disciples. Of course, we listen to what he teaches us in parable and saying, but we also seek to replicate what he does – his healing the sick and feeding the hungry, his love for the children and his forgiveness of sinners. We may not get it right at first, but repetition, while it does not bring perfection, brings a life remade and reformed to the glory of God.

Jesus is our great teacher, but he gives gifts to some in the church to be teachers under his authority, as well. “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you,” the Apostle Paul says. (Philippians 4:9)

Our grandson has learned a lot of karate from his teachers at the studio, and even a move or two from Chuck Norris in Texas Ranger.

The stories of Jesus as told in the gospels are our great teacher in the life remade and reformed to the glory of God. Thank God for that precious gift.  But thank God, too, for those in the church to whom he has given gifts for teaching, those words and way of life offer a model for what we are to practice. I won’t mention names, but the good senseis I have known have taught me a lot about the Christian life, thanks be to God.

If all goes well, Becky and I will be in Memphis visiting family about the time you read this. We should escape our upper Midwest smoke for some deep south heat and humidity – headed towards 100 degrees and 82 percent humidity in Memphis on Monday. Still, it will be warm enough in Indiana while we’re gone, with no or little rain in the forecast. Fortunately, we have a programmable sprinkler system to help keep the lawn half-way healthy. Every other morning the sprinkler heads will pop up and spray their life-giving water on the thirsty grass. 30 minutes for each section. Besides that, not only will the lawn receive its measured dose of water while we’re gone, if it does rain, the system knows not to add more moisture to the wet ground. The WR2 Wireless Sensor is an electronic rain gauge, and once a half an inch of rain falls, the irrigation system is turned off for 24 hours.  No wasted water. No sprinklers spraying while rain is falling. The idea is to keep the lawn green, to conserve water, and to save money on the water bill. It’s a nice system.

The Psalms begin with a description of the righteous person. Like our lawn that needs water in order to remain healthy in the hot summer, the righteous person needs God’s word to remain healthy in the droughts and storms of life. The righteous person is one who “delights in the law of the Lord” and meditates on it day and night. The law of the Lord, the torah, the written word of God given as a gift to the faithful. (Psalm 1:2)

The psalmist paints a picture of the righteous person as being “like a tree planted by streams of water.” (Psalm 1:3) Continue reading →

It was a bad customer service experience, and I was the victim. But I don’t want to talk about my victimhood. I’ll get over it. The short version of the story is that we had made a service appointment several weeks ago with a promise that we would receive text-message reminders as the service date neared. Well, the service date came and went with no reminders and no service. In fact, the reason for what we discovered was a cancellation was quite understandable, and, after all, it was a scheduled service call, not an emergency. The frustrating lapse in customer service came after the cancellation. The first time I called about the cancellation, I was told that it couldn’t be helped, but that I might be put on a waiting list for future service, but that they had no idea whether the new service call might be in a few days, a few weeks, or even a few months. Stuff happens. Yes, I was frustrated, and I am afraid my frustration showed – not in expletives or accusations but in tone.

I waited a week to make my next call, and as my frustration subsided, I vowed to myself not to add to the tension and anger that fills too much of our social interaction in our age of victimhood.

Back to customer service below. Continue reading →

The heatwave that hit much of the country the first week of July did not spare northeast Indiana. It was hot.

One of those hot days a friend asked me if I still went out to run in the warm mornings. Yes, I did (virtue signaled, please acknowledge – if virtue is its own reward, virtue seen is a close second). I am usually out at daybreak, and so avoided the worst of the high temperatures, but with a 75-degree morning the coolest part of the day, the 86-degree “real feel” put me well into the warm-running category. The 80% humidity didn’t help.

There’s a lot not to like about running in the heat, but there was something invigorating about it, too. Despite the sweat, it felt great. Was it a runner’s high from the heat causing more endorphins to be released? Were my muscles and joints more limber than on cold mornings? Or was it just the reward of my virtue? I asked Google why I was feeling so good, and I was told that one of the advantages of warm-weather running is, “increased maximum cardiac output (measured in liters/minute of blood flow) and increased blood plasma volume, both contributing to an increase in VO2max. (VO2max is the maximum rate of oxygen consumption, often referred to as the size of one’s ‘engine’.)”

Nothing makes you feel good like an increased VO2max.

This week’s morning temperatures, even “real feel,” have been back into the lower 60s. No virtue in such running and I think my VO2max may have decreased a bit. Still, there’s a lot to like about running in the cool(er) of the morn. Looks like we’ll be back to hot by the middle of next week, however. Get ready to rise, VO2max! Continue reading →

I am preaching at our church in Ossian on Sunday and very much looking forward to it. The text I was assigned (I really do like being assigned a text as opposed to being left to my own devices to choose one) is 1 Peter 2:9-17. My sermon will be the middle sermon of a three-part series on “Seeking God’s Best for the Places we Call Home.”  This past Sunday our pastor preached on “God’s Best for our Community.” Next week a visiting missionary will talk about “God’s Best for the World.” My topic is “God’s Best for our Nation.” Yes, it fits well with July 5 and the semiquincentennial (I may even say that word in the sermon – our pastor said it Sunday) of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Oh, there will be a tiny bit of red, white, and blue in the sermon, but the point that comes from the 1 Peter text is that we Christians, while citizens of various earthly nations, are called to be a different kind of nation, “God’s holy nation,” Peter says. Unlike Rome’s goal to spread Caesar’s rule, our nation’s purpose is to “proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9) Continue reading →