I've spent the last few minutes reading emails, reading tweets, catching up on some blogs, and writing this post.
Why is this noteworthy?
I DID IT ALL FROM MY VERY OWN INTERNET CONNECTION IN THE COMFORT OF MY VERY OWN COUCH IN MY VERY OWN LIVING ROOM WHILE WATCHING MY VERY OWN TV!!!!!
Hey mom... guess who's probably going to skype you in a few minutes...
May 27, 2010
May 25, 2010
Great Song
This is a song I want you to hear. There's nothing to the video, this was just the easiest way I could find to give you the audio. It's called "The Scotsman," and a local radio show used to play it every Friday morning at 7:45. I always looked forward to it. Please leave comments letting me know what you think!
May 23, 2010
Excitement
A few things I'm excited about:
The LOST finale is tonight. Probably the most confusing and complex script of any show I've ever seen.
I'm getting a new phone. Should be arriving via FedEx sometime tomorrow. There's nothing really special about it. It's just a change from the phone I've had for a couple of years.
I'm about to begin a season of assistant coaching for a baseball team of 15-16 year olds. Our first practice is tomorrow night. Games start in a couple of weeks. My team is the Tigers (our head coach grew up in Michigan where he cheered for and attended a bunch of Detroit Tigers games, so he made sure that's the team we were given). If you want to watch our games on MLB Gameday... you probably can't. But I'll likely post updates right here about how things are going!
Starting this Thursday Elizabeth and I will finally have an internet connection in our apartment. This means that we don't have to walk across the street to the leasing office to check our e-mail, or plan afternoons where we go to church (which has wireless internet) for 3-4 hours to take care of all of our online business. Unfortunately for you (perhaps), it also probably means at least a slight increase in how often I blog.
The LOST finale is tonight. Probably the most confusing and complex script of any show I've ever seen.
I'm getting a new phone. Should be arriving via FedEx sometime tomorrow. There's nothing really special about it. It's just a change from the phone I've had for a couple of years.
I'm about to begin a season of assistant coaching for a baseball team of 15-16 year olds. Our first practice is tomorrow night. Games start in a couple of weeks. My team is the Tigers (our head coach grew up in Michigan where he cheered for and attended a bunch of Detroit Tigers games, so he made sure that's the team we were given). If you want to watch our games on MLB Gameday... you probably can't. But I'll likely post updates right here about how things are going!
Starting this Thursday Elizabeth and I will finally have an internet connection in our apartment. This means that we don't have to walk across the street to the leasing office to check our e-mail, or plan afternoons where we go to church (which has wireless internet) for 3-4 hours to take care of all of our online business. Unfortunately for you (perhaps), it also probably means at least a slight increase in how often I blog.
May 16, 2010
Graduation weekend
Elizabeth participated in graduation ceremonies for Denver Seminary this weekend.
This is her (both in real life and on the big screen) being handed her degree from our seminary's president, Dr. Mark Young.
This is us with her parents and her brother who came to visit.
May 12, 2010
Shadows
The Bible reminds us over and over that our world is only a shadow of that which is to come (Colossians 2:17; Hebrews 8:5; Hebrews 10:1; Psalm 144:3-4; Psalm 102:11; Ecclesiastes 6:12). But what does that mean? Well, shadows can be crisp or they can be fuzzy. They distort the characteristics of the item casting them (they may be taller or wider, etc.). Shadows require a light source to exist. Shadows convey hints of the real -- but they are not the real thing. You cannot grab hold of one. And despite what Disney's Peter Pan has taught us, you cannot manipulate one with a needle and thread (or a bar of soap, for that matter).
One of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis, emphasizes this concept in some of his writings. In a chapter called "Hope" from Mere Christianity Lewis describes heaven as the place we were originally created for. "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." He suggests that earthly pleasures do not, and were never intended to, fully satisfy these desires; they merely "arouse" them, and "suggest the real thing." That is, this world is only a shadow of that which is to come!
This idea is more clearly conveyed in Lewis's allegory The Great Divorce. In his "dream" the narrator stepped off the bus in heaven and "had the sense of being in a larger space, perhaps even a larger sort of space, than I had ever known before: as if the sky were further off and the extent of the green plain wider than they could be on this little ball of earth." As he continues to notice things about where he is, he finds it to be "solider" and more real than our world. Against the backdrop of this solid place, humans look like ghosts or phantoms. They're transparent. They're distorted. The grass does not bend under their feet, nor are they able to lift even a small leaf or bend a flower's stem.
These pictures of heaven, while probably not literally accurate (at least not entirely), serve to help us wrap our minds around the scriptural idea that this fallen world is only a glimpse of the reality of God.
"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17 (TNIV)
One of my favorite authors, C.S. Lewis, emphasizes this concept in some of his writings. In a chapter called "Hope" from Mere Christianity Lewis describes heaven as the place we were originally created for. "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." He suggests that earthly pleasures do not, and were never intended to, fully satisfy these desires; they merely "arouse" them, and "suggest the real thing." That is, this world is only a shadow of that which is to come!
This idea is more clearly conveyed in Lewis's allegory The Great Divorce. In his "dream" the narrator stepped off the bus in heaven and "had the sense of being in a larger space, perhaps even a larger sort of space, than I had ever known before: as if the sky were further off and the extent of the green plain wider than they could be on this little ball of earth." As he continues to notice things about where he is, he finds it to be "solider" and more real than our world. Against the backdrop of this solid place, humans look like ghosts or phantoms. They're transparent. They're distorted. The grass does not bend under their feet, nor are they able to lift even a small leaf or bend a flower's stem.
These pictures of heaven, while probably not literally accurate (at least not entirely), serve to help us wrap our minds around the scriptural idea that this fallen world is only a glimpse of the reality of God.
"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17 (TNIV)
May 10, 2010
Final
Today finals week started. And for me, finals week ended. That's what happens when you're only taking two classes in a given semester.
This afternoon I took my Greek final on the book of James. It was tough, but fair.
Tonight I taught a class for my teaching practicum. I taught on James 4:1-10 (which was, coincidentally, the passage on which I wrote my big huge "James Paper"). It went really well, and I had a great group of people in my class.
Now I'm done with homework until September(ish). WHOOOOOOPPPPEEEEEEEEEE!!!
This afternoon I took my Greek final on the book of James. It was tough, but fair.
Tonight I taught a class for my teaching practicum. I taught on James 4:1-10 (which was, coincidentally, the passage on which I wrote my big huge "James Paper"). It went really well, and I had a great group of people in my class.
Now I'm done with homework until September(ish). WHOOOOOOPPPPEEEEEEEEEE!!!
May 9, 2010
The Best
The first day of school I ever missed in my whole life was in the spring of my 6th grade year when Mom came and pulled me out of class so that she could take my older brother and I to the Quad Cities for the day to have some fun. It was the best "skip day" I ever had.
If you check out THIS blog post and its 17 accompanying comments, you will see that Mom taught us countless crazy songs and sayings. They mostly happened on road trips, and our family took road trips a LOT.
Mom was a "room mother" at just about every single Halloween/Christmas/Valentine's Day/Easter party of my entire elementary school career, bringing cookies and other snacks to all of them. I'm pretty sure she chaperoned every field trip I ever took as well. On an ordinary school day, I was probably in the 50th percentile of popularity in my grade, but on field trips, when Mom was around, I jumped to "coolest kid at school." All because I had the coolest mom. Other kids avoided their moms who came as chaperones on our trips. I clung to mine for every minute.
She came with the high school band when we took a week-long trip to Toronto and New York City. The trip included tickets to see the Broadway show "The Lion King" at the Princess of Wales Theater in Toronto. The band had a chunk of seats reserved right in the middle of the theater for the show, but when the director told us that two of the seats were "worse" ones, off to the side of the theater and away from everyone else, Mom was the first to volunteer to take one of them. She had paid just as much for her ticket, but thought it was more important for the kids to be able to enjoy the show.
Most moms relax a little when their youngest child finally "leaves the nest." They travel, or they work more. My mom got more kids. What are we at now, Mom, a couple dozen kids who have considered you "mom"? She tells people that the reason she's adopting four more kids is because she messed up so badly with her first four and she wanted another chance. But we all know that's not true (I mean, look how awesome her first four have turned out!). She's really doing it because she believes, as I do, that being a mom is the most important job God can give to someone.
And she's the best one I've ever seen.
I love you, Mom.
If you check out THIS blog post and its 17 accompanying comments, you will see that Mom taught us countless crazy songs and sayings. They mostly happened on road trips, and our family took road trips a LOT.
Mom was a "room mother" at just about every single Halloween/Christmas/Valentine's Day/Easter party of my entire elementary school career, bringing cookies and other snacks to all of them. I'm pretty sure she chaperoned every field trip I ever took as well. On an ordinary school day, I was probably in the 50th percentile of popularity in my grade, but on field trips, when Mom was around, I jumped to "coolest kid at school." All because I had the coolest mom. Other kids avoided their moms who came as chaperones on our trips. I clung to mine for every minute.
She came with the high school band when we took a week-long trip to Toronto and New York City. The trip included tickets to see the Broadway show "The Lion King" at the Princess of Wales Theater in Toronto. The band had a chunk of seats reserved right in the middle of the theater for the show, but when the director told us that two of the seats were "worse" ones, off to the side of the theater and away from everyone else, Mom was the first to volunteer to take one of them. She had paid just as much for her ticket, but thought it was more important for the kids to be able to enjoy the show.
Most moms relax a little when their youngest child finally "leaves the nest." They travel, or they work more. My mom got more kids. What are we at now, Mom, a couple dozen kids who have considered you "mom"? She tells people that the reason she's adopting four more kids is because she messed up so badly with her first four and she wanted another chance. But we all know that's not true (I mean, look how awesome her first four have turned out!). She's really doing it because she believes, as I do, that being a mom is the most important job God can give to someone.
And she's the best one I've ever seen.
I love you, Mom.
May 6, 2010
Why the title?
I know for a fact that you have all been wondering, for quite some time now, exactly why I've named my blog "The Cliffs of Insanity." I understand that this question has basically been burning a hole right through your brain. I apologize if you've suffered any insanity of your own due to my lack of explanation.
But right now I shall try to redeem myself.
If you know me at all you know that I believe that the greatest movie that has ever been made is The Princess Bride. If you've ever seen it you also know that "The Cliffs of Insanity" is a reference to the location in the movie where Fezzik carries Vezzini, Inigo, and Buttercup up the gi-normous cliffs in order to escape the Man in Black. Once at the top, Fezzik, Vezzini and Buttercup run ahead while Inigo stays at the top of the cliffs to kill the Man in Black, who has climbed up the rope behind them. Inigo and the Man in Black hang out for a few minutes and then they have a super awesome sword fight, which the Man in Black wins.
So what connection is there between a location in a movie and my blog? I can't believe you haven't discovered them on your own. Here, I'll help you out:
The Cliffs: For Vezzini and his merry men (and kidnapped Princess), the Cliffs of Insanity are (believed to be) a safe haven.
My blog: A safe haven for all of you (or so it would seem...)
The Cliffs: Only Fezzik is "strong enough" to climb them.
My blog: Only I have the ability to post here (cuz none of you know my password).
The Cliffs: Often coincide with the use of the word "inconceivable."
My blog: While I don't often use the word, my blog could accurately be described as such.
The Cliffs: Rock-climbing and sword-fighting.
My blog: Rock-climbing and sword-fighting.
The Cliffs: Awkward conversations + nobody that has six fingers on their right hand.
My blog: Ditto.
The Cliffs: The Man in Black has to empty rocks from his boot.
My blog: Sometimes I get rocks stuck in my shoe.
The Cliffs: "I am not left-handed."
My blog: "I'm not left-handed either."
The Cliffs: Inigo has to get used to disappointment.
My blog: If you've been reading for any length of time, you probably already are!
The Cliffs: Mistrust of Spaniards.
My blog: Mistrust of Spaniards.
The Cliffs: Amazing feats of strength, athleticism, and skill (during the sword fight).
My blog: Okay, bad example.
The Cliffs: Man in Black knocks out Inigo so he can't follow him.
My blog: I don't like it when people follow me either (except on twitter).
Not an exhaustive list, but it should give you an idea of why I chose the title I did.
But right now I shall try to redeem myself.
If you know me at all you know that I believe that the greatest movie that has ever been made is The Princess Bride. If you've ever seen it you also know that "The Cliffs of Insanity" is a reference to the location in the movie where Fezzik carries Vezzini, Inigo, and Buttercup up the gi-normous cliffs in order to escape the Man in Black. Once at the top, Fezzik, Vezzini and Buttercup run ahead while Inigo stays at the top of the cliffs to kill the Man in Black, who has climbed up the rope behind them. Inigo and the Man in Black hang out for a few minutes and then they have a super awesome sword fight, which the Man in Black wins.
So what connection is there between a location in a movie and my blog? I can't believe you haven't discovered them on your own. Here, I'll help you out:
The Cliffs: For Vezzini and his merry men (and kidnapped Princess), the Cliffs of Insanity are (believed to be) a safe haven.
My blog: A safe haven for all of you (or so it would seem...)
The Cliffs: Only Fezzik is "strong enough" to climb them.
My blog: Only I have the ability to post here (cuz none of you know my password).
The Cliffs: Often coincide with the use of the word "inconceivable."
My blog: While I don't often use the word, my blog could accurately be described as such.
The Cliffs: Rock-climbing and sword-fighting.
My blog: Rock-climbing and sword-fighting.
The Cliffs: Awkward conversations + nobody that has six fingers on their right hand.
My blog: Ditto.
The Cliffs: The Man in Black has to empty rocks from his boot.
My blog: Sometimes I get rocks stuck in my shoe.
The Cliffs: "I am not left-handed."
My blog: "I'm not left-handed either."
The Cliffs: Inigo has to get used to disappointment.
My blog: If you've been reading for any length of time, you probably already are!
The Cliffs: Mistrust of Spaniards.
My blog: Mistrust of Spaniards.
The Cliffs: Amazing feats of strength, athleticism, and skill (during the sword fight).
My blog: Okay, bad example.
The Cliffs: Man in Black knocks out Inigo so he can't follow him.
My blog: I don't like it when people follow me either (except on twitter).
Not an exhaustive list, but it should give you an idea of why I chose the title I did.
May 4, 2010
baffling
Kevin DeYoung has a fabulous post on What to Do When the Bible Baffles. As someone who is working on a Master's degree in Biblical studies, let me be the first to say that the Bible does indeed baffle quite a bit!
It's well worth the read, though.
It's well worth the read, though.
I'm ashamed
If you're a Rohde brother, this post needs no comment at all.
If you're not, just skip this completely. Nothing to see here.
If you're not, just skip this completely. Nothing to see here.
May 1, 2010
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