Let me begin by saying that the fact the I watch the New Battlestar Galactica is in no way an endorsement of Mormon theology.  Most people do not recognize the Mormonism that is rampant through out the plot of the show (in the original as well).  In fact, it was not until I saw the show on a hotel TV after a theology conference that I saw it myself (I was a child when I first watched the show).  I would say that Mormonism is a fantastic basis for a science fiction show and that it can be argued that Joseph Smith started the whole genre of science fiction!  In the new version I often find myself rooting for the Cylons who worship the "one true god" versus the Colonials who are polytheistic!  In any case, I have the ultimate theory about the course of next season and I want to make it public so that I can mock my detractors when it comes to pass in January 2008.  For the short of attention span type people I will make a list of the key points of my theory.  Let it be know that this was written and published on 1 June, 2007!

1.  Tigh and the rest of the colonials that were revealed to be the "final five" on the season finale, are not Cylons as we know them. 

2.  The earth they are going to find is not present day Earth, but rather an Earth of the future.  This would account for the futuristic version of "All Along the Watchtower" by Bob Dylan (Dylan, not Jimi Hendrix wrote the song)

3.  The Earth they will find has also created AI that has gotten out of control (like the Colonial's Cylons) BUT they have had their war and the two species have already become one race in the same was that Boomer and Helo have had a hybrid baby.

4.  It is this race of hybrid humans/Cylons from Earth that has been engineering this conflict between the Colonials and the Cylons in an effort to draw them to Earth, thus reuniting all of the "13 tribes."  They have been doing this by...

a.  Giving the Colonial Cylons the technology to create the "flesh jobs", although the Cylons are unaware of this fact.

b. Planting the "final five" among the Colonials to be activated at the right time (apparently at the end of season 3!) This is why the other seven models of human-like Cylons do not know the identity of the final five

c. They have chosen Kara "Starbuck" Thrace and Baltar as the human representatives in their plans.  This accounts for Starbuck's visions, disappearance and re-appearance and also for Baltar's and Caprica Six's inner projections of each other.

5.  The "Cylon God"  is the collective whole of the Earth Tribe that has combined with their Artificial Intelligence.  These hybrids are the third party that is obviously part of the plot unknown to both the Colonials and the Colonial created Cylons!

This is the definitive theory on what is happening on Battlestar Galactica and time will prove me right.  If not, then as administrator of this site, the posting can easily "go away" BUT I DON'T THINK THAT IT WILL HAVE TO!

Comments and Congratulations are welcomed....

There are times when a man is blessed with an objective view of himself.  There is a precursor to the blessing however and it is often a heart sickening realization that you do not like what you see.  In the past few years I have become jaded, coarse and bitter in my approach to the world and in my relationships with people.  It did not happen over night and this sort of decent happens so incrementally that it is almost imperceptible.  You do not notice this change in yourself until you start seeing the affect it has made in your relationships.  The past two months has been a reaping of what I have sowed for these years and the fruit is rotten.

I now understand the you can be completely right in principle, yet wrong in how that principle is applied, defended or communicated.  This is especially true for my relations with people outside of the church.  In my sermon last week, I wandered into the idea of being persecuted because of the Gospel, but that is often difficult to discern whether you are reaping the fury of others because of the intrinsic offensiveness of the Gospel or because you are just a jerk.  I said that Christians should strive not to be offensive in and of themselves, but rather only as far as the Word of God offends and brings conviction through the Spirit. 

A recent example of this is the reaction I provoked in someone by doing nothing more than clearly and respectfully stating my beliefs in a situation where I was defending my family.  The negative and frightfully vicious response had nothing to do with me personally and had everything to do with the conviction of sin felt by the person with whom I was dealing.  I understood this, but as the situation continued to degrade, I unleashed my own venomous attacks which had nothing to do with the Gospel what so ever and had everything to do with my own personal vindication and satisfaction.  I quickly left the domain of Christ's righteousness and substituted my own.

The past 24 hours has been a revelation of how many of the current battles I currently face have taken a turn in the same direction as the situation I described above.  My attitudes and reactions to these battles sicken me with regret and shame.  I do not want to be this way anymore.  I want to be restored to a place where I can be a witness of the resurrection and leave my own defense in the hands of God and His providence.  This is not to say that there will be a relief in the conflict that I will encounter in my life, but it will lead to a conscience that is freed from convictions of my own sinful offensiveness.  The Apostle Paul did not leave as much as escape from many of the places that he preached, but he could rest assured that it was not due to his own teachings, but rather the Lord's.

I am thankful for the grace of God that restores men and cleans them of their offenses.  I am thankful that there is condemnation for those who are in Christ.  I am thankful that in Christ, it is never too late to do the right thing and that He has the power take this burden of sin from me.  I am thankful for the conflict in my life that comes from being a witness of His resurrection.  I am thankful for the work of the Holy Spirit, without whom I would never be able to see myself through God's eyes. 

Psalm 51

Have mercy on me, O God,
   according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
   blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
   and cleanse me from my sin!

For I know my transgressions,
   and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
   and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
   and blameless in your judgment.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
   and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
   and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
   wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
   let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins,
   and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
   and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
   and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
   and uphold me with a willing spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
   and sinners will return to you.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
   O God of my salvation,
   and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
O Lord, open my lips,
   and my mouth will declare your praise.
For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
   you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
   a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
   build up the walls of Jerusalem;
then will you delight in right sacrifices,
   in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
   then bulls will be offered on your altar.

I have been leading a local church body for the past eight years.  In this time I have come upon some hard fought lessons about leadership in general and more specifically, spiritual leadership in the Body of Christ.  One of these lessons that is that we are in need of less church legislation in the form of constitutions and by laws, more leaders who are led by the Holy Spirit and more people who look past the dangers of human nature and place their trust in God's leading. A quick glance through the By Laws of most Baptist churches will reveal a history of particular events causing knee jerk rule passing.  This rule passing is always in lieu of allowing real leadership inside the church to work since we have no trust in this leadership.  Even within the church, the oft used phrase "there ought to be a law" comes into play.  This is a type of legalism that is completely acceptable to most Baptist, even though legalism in general is spurned by most of us (at least in word!)

¹⁰ For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” ¹¹ Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”  ¹² But the law is not of faith, rather “The one who does them shall live by them.” ¹³ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— ¹⁴ so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001 (Ga 3:10-14). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

The issue then is one of "living by faith."  In this context it means that we must trust that we can, in fact, make good judgments through the work of the Holy Spirit without attempting to codify every particular circumstance that might arise in the church.  We abdicate our responsibility to judge rightly by relying upon church policy.  For example, one of the many By Laws that our church did away with was worded something like this; "The church shall not buy flowers for any person that is not a church member or the family of a church member."  It is clear that there is a story behind this policy and it probably had to do with someone getting flowers that someone else thought should not because of budgetary restraints.  Around the time that we were reviewing this policy a local pastor passed away from cancer that was neither a member or related to a member.  Should we have not sent flowers to the family?  Of course we should have sent flowers, it was the right thing to do, but this decision needs to be made by people, not by some policy.  Instead of saying "we have a policy" we should instead make Godly decisions, through the Word and Spirit, taking into account circumstances that policy writers could never have foreseen. 

This is living by faith and not allowing ourselves to be burdened by the written code or man's pail attempt to mimic God's law.  Our policies have the appearance of righteousness but in the end are only a substitute for real leadership.

The apartments that we are moving into gave us the phone number of a seminary couple who lives in the apartment complex we are moving into (affectionately called the preacher ghetto by some) so that we can go in and do some measuring on Memorial Day.  This couple acts as resident assistants and they program all kinds of activities for the housing complex like VBS, cookouts, food drives, movie nights, etc.

Her description of life in this complex is almost idyllic.   With so many devout Christians, there is an incredible atmosphere of community.  This couple also attends the church that we plan on trying out first: Clifton Baptist Church.  I first noticed this church when we visited Louisville because of the sign that announced that this week's sermon was going to be about church discipline.  I said "Tracy, that just might be the church for us!"  This young women did admit that they will probably never have this kind of church again in their lives because of the unique concentration of seminary professors, seminary students and seminary affiliated members.  

Talking with this women confirmed many of my hopes for Louisville and the benefits of living there.  She even said that our end of the complex had a lot of particularly good people.   Her one complaint is that the Seminary expected to much out of her husband (spoken like a true pastor's wife to be!).  They require 25 to 30 books to be read per semester, they also expect them to be active in their churches, support their families financially, and be good fathers and husbands.  Her husband has not been a pastor on the field yet, so he might find similar circumstances from the local churches as well!  I am excited about the high academic expectations at Southern Seminary and I hope that it is going to help unlock the sleeping academic giant that I have always felt was present in me.  Prophet or Poser?  This is yet to be determined! 

This place sounds so nice that I wonder if there is a degree I can get after PhD! 

I have a really busy day today, so I am going to abbreviate this post with a key word list:

1.  Giant snake

2.  Aunt Connie

3.  Unexpected meeting

4.  Hysteria

5.  Valium 

6.  " #$%@ your country living!"

I am not sure why, but everyone at this coffee house that I have been going to lately dresses like Che Guevara.  I believe that they are attempting to stage a revolution in between Lattes and Half-Caf Mochacinos.  There are whispers around that the means of espresso production should be in the hands of the proletariat and the rumors abound that there is going to be a counter-hegemonic offensive against the new Starbucks out at the Mall.

I am sure that Che Guevara would be very proud that all of these well fed, middle class, Midwestern college kids have Che bumper stickers on their brand new cars and are wearing 100% cotton Che T-Shirts that are probably made in Vietnam by child workers making .10 a day.  I really get a sense of these kids civic outrage when I hear that they plan on using their marketing degrees in companies that use only recycled paper and provide corporate sponsorship to Cheryl Crow's world tour to save the planet.

Despite my return to an analog system, it is impossible to live in the modern world without some computer enhancements.  For a while I had a cell phone, a PDA and a Laptop, but since the Laptop went with me everywhere, the PDA became redundant.  The Dell Inspirion E1405 is used for emails, Fear and Trembling post, writing papers and it holds two of the most important programs to my existence: Logos and OneNote.  Logos is a digital library system that contains over 1,000 theological and religious titles that I can access, do extensive searches in, and annotate as I read.  It is an amazing program that shaves hours of time off of my Bible search every week.  The program has every major Bible translation and even the original language bibles with their corresponding language tools.  I can look at passages in parallel translations (any combination that I want!), do original language word studies with parsing, do topical searches and even find every occurrence of a particular passage in the entire library of 1,000 volumes!  I really do not like doing long term reading from a computer screen, but how else can I have the entire text of every single theological journal from the last 20 years at my finger tips?  I have electronic version of many of the print volumes as well which allows me to search, for example, the entire writings of Martin Luther or the 21 volume set of Ancient Church Fathers!  This program might just come in handy at the seminary too! 

The second program that use everyday is OneNote.  This program is part of the Microsoft Office suite but is rarely advertised or promoted.  This program allows me to set up "Notebooks" for each subject that I am studying, make notebooks for ministry notes, a journal section, and any part of my life that needs a place to collect electronic information.  I believe that it was developed for the Tablet PC originally, but the whole writing on the screen defeats the purpose of having nicely typed notes.  My handwriting is so bad that I would spend more time fiddling with the program's translation functions as I would writing.  I type about 70 words a minute, so why bother?   In OneNote you never have to "save" anything, it just automatically captures notes, weblinks, screen shots, scans of important papers, and just about anything that is digital.  In a class note book for my poetry I had a copy of the Syllabus, all of the poems that I wrote, all of the revisions that I made, all of the word sketches that I would create, and all of the comments that the professor would make about the poems.  In the personal section I had a notebook dedicated to the Bio Diesel project that I had planned to make.  The note book had the weblinks, ebooks that I downloaded, pictures that I pulled of the net, notes that I made, etc.  Everything is in one place on one page and ready for me to access for my use.   It sure beats searching through windows folders for the books that I saved or the word documents that I have created.  Theoretically I could take class notes with it as well, but I have not taken more than 10 pages of class notes in the 120 hours of schooling that have completed (I am a very active listener!) and I have never reviewed the ones that I have taken.

As far as Microsoft Outlook is concerned, I have used it off and on for many years.  I much prefer just using the Windows Live Hotmail to write and send emails.  I use the calendar for important dates, but I never use the To DO list or other tools because that is why I have my Hipster PDA.  I guess I could use the Windows Live Calendar too, but I do not want to be limited if I do not have net access.  In the end Outlook is much too complicated for my uses and has too many bells and whistles to wade through.  I also use it to keep my master contact list, but my Razr cell phone has most of the information that I use the most.  One last tool that use to make the car ride more efficient is a little pocket Olympus digital recorder that I can make verbal notes into when I am driving and cannot write something down.  This tool is particularly useful for making observations after a ministry visit.  I just download the files into the Ministry Journal of my OneNote and OneNote can even search for keywords in the audio file! 

I was talking about the Getting Things Done system in my previous post and I would like to flesh out my version of this system as it is used with my Hipster PDA. Here is the link to the original site that I got the idea.  This system has help me manage the logistical nightmare involved with moving a family of six to another state, joining the Illinois National Guard, graduating EIU, signing up with Southern Seminary and transitioning my current church to living without a pastor for a while.

Again, the approach is a bottom up approach to dealing with task management.  There are six important aspects to the system.

1. The Inbox

2. The File System (Analog and Digital)

3. The Tickler File

4. Project Cards

5. Task cards

6. Daily To-Do list

Sitting on my desk is a plain old metal inbox, nothing fancy, just something to hold papers and such.  Throughout the week I receive mail, forms, and other various pieces of material that need to be processed and dealt with in some manner.  I put everything in this box, not on the kitchen table, not in a drawer, not in my satchel and hopefully not on the floor of the car.  This is a relieve my mind of the concern about where something is or is not.   When I go to the inbox every few days to process what is in there I follow the important rule that once you grab the paper you have to do something with it.  If the task takes 10 minutes or less, I just go ahead and do it right then and there.  If there needs to be other task to deal with that piece of paper, like a signature from my wife, then a 3x5 card is generated with the specific task that needs to be done and on that card I also put the information that I am going to need, like phone numbers or email addresses that I am going to need when I do the task.  Instead of going back into the inbox to be handled yet another time, I put the paper, form, or whatever in the TICKLER FILE.  The tickler file is nothing more than 12 big folders with the months on them and inside the current month is 31 numbered manilla folders that represent the days of a particular month.  I check this everyday and when a day is done it goes into the next month so the system is perpetual.  I put the item in the day and month that it needs to be mailed, or faxed, or whatever I am going to do to it and I record this day on the card that I have made to represent the task.  I know where the item is and I am confident that I will come across it on the right day EVEN IF I FORGET.  I can wipe this item from my mind because it is safe and sound! I might have some sort of task that I am supposed to do, but will not need to do it for several weeks or several months, so I generate a 3x5 card and put it in the time frame in which I need to do the task.  Then I can purge it from my mind because it is in the system.    For example, I just received the Medical forms that need to be filled out for my kid's transfer to the Louisville school system.  These do not have to be done until the end of June, so in the file they go waiting for the doctors appointment that has been made for them later in the summer!  When the time comes I know where they are and I know when they need to be done.  If the paper or item needs to be filed away with nothing left to do with it, then I just put it in a normal file under an intuitive name that is just alphabetical.  If it is a very important document like a birth certificate, then it goes in the fire-proof safe (next to my .45!) 

This may sound complicated, but it really isn't.  It is certainly a lot less complicated than losing everything and not turning in important items on time!  Most importantly I can contemplate the nature of God and the Universe without worrying about where my W-2's are when it is time to do my taxes!  This system is meant to handle the minutia of life so my mind and spirit can climb higher on the ladder of significance.  It is these higher ideas that allow you to advance and be truly productive in your chosen field of study or career.   The only thing that I am worried about now is that I will no longer have an office to house this system and I will have to carve out a niche in our small apartment.  In the next post I will explain the most important part of the whole system, the Hipster PDA, my very mobile and flexible "Day Planner." 

Uh, yeah about three times a week man.  I don't see it personally, but the guy I bought my new bicycle off of said that to me today.   I picked up a Cannondale hybrid bike today that was clearanced and I hope that it will be a main means of transportation for me in Louisville.  Almost everything we need is within about 1 mile from the apartment that we have rented.  There are going to be some definite advantage to living in a major metropolitan area.  Between now and then I am going to use it to lose some more weight for the Army and it sure is faster than walking into town.  This evening I rode the bike to Pesotum to visit a couple of church families and it handles like a champ. I installed a big rack on the back and will stick a milk crate on top to hold a couple bags if groceries.

After a delay of 14 years I have finally finished my Bachelors degree at Eastern Illinois University.  EIU has a fantastic program in which adult students can transfer all of their hours to EIU and finish up my meeting some basic requirements and hitting the 120 hour mark required for an undergraduate degree.  Half of my classes were online and the other half were three weekend classes in which you went Friday from 6 to 10p and Saturday from 8a to 6p.  10 hours on Saturday is a long day (I had a chemistry class like this and 10 hours of Chemistry is quite a marathon) but it fits the schedule of adult learners in ways that most classes cannot. In addition to the flexible schedule, the classes were of a high quality, not the kind of blow off classes one might expect in such a program.  Even classes like music appreciation had enough meat on the bone to keep my interest. 

I see this graduation as a real watershed moment for my life in that it allows me to pursue the higher degrees that I have always desired.  It also marks the end of my uneasy relationship with academic marks that date back to when Jimmy Carter was the President.  No longer do I want to be the kid that is not working up to his potential.  For the first time in my entire life I was actually anxious about what grades I would receive this semester (I got 4 A's and a B).  This is in contrast to my friend Andy Rice who remembers fretting over grades as early as grade school. My wife was also wired like this and I have often envied them in their concern for achievement.  Modern psychology would describe people like me as "internally motivated" which has some validity to it.  I have never done anything for praise of others or recognition.  This sort of thing is nice, of course, but it has never been the main factor for me.  This quality that has wrecked my GPA over the years has also made me well suited to preaching the Gospel, however.  So in the end, I suppose I just had to wait for a sort of convergence of circumstances to give me the proper motivation to achieve academically.  I now see academics as a means to an end and the end is being the best preacher that God will allow me to be. 

J, man of letters, out...

What, drawn, and talk of peace! I hate the word,
As I hate hell, all Montagues, and thee:
Have at thee, coward!

I decided that with gas prices nearing 3.00 a gallon and my need to shed some weight for the Army (Its kinda like that episode of Gilligan's Island when the Skipper and Gilligan are making plans to go back in the Navy after they are rescued and the Skippers needs to lose 30lbs and Gilligan needs to gain 30 lbs!), that I would "walk to work."  I took off at 6:30 and made it 7 miles into Champaign before deciding to hop the bus the rest of the way.  The bus only cost me a dollar and the gas plus parking would have cost me $4.00 so I guess I came out ahead!  7 miles used to be a stretch of the legs, but my backpack full of books and computer started to feel real heavy by the time I reached the airport!  I figure if I spend a few hours of day walking about, then I can take off the pounds pretty quick.

Give my banana to Gilligan...

J Out

Back in 2000 I bought a Handspring Visor to help keep me organized.  I liked the Handspring a lot but it had an incredibly brittle screen and it wasn't long before it cracked.  The Handspring had 1 killer I used all the time, a grocery shopping program that helped me with aisle based list and a function that helped me keep track of the lowest price at various stores.  the program paid for itself and the Visor in a few months. 

Fast forward a few years and I decided that I was going to upgrade to an HP Pocket PC.  The zippy color screen was really nice and, theoretically it could play MP3s.  I had this Pocket PC when SD cards were only at about 512 MB, so I could not carry a substantial number of songs and the sound quality was questionable.  The biggest problem was that I could not find a shopping program that came anywhere close to the one on the Handspring.  The real deal killer on the PDA's is data entry.  I had bought a little folding keyboard for the Visor, but since I had a laptop, it was a bit redundant.  The handwriting recognition was just not good enough to quickly write information in the place that it needed to go.  I tried all kinds of different software to help organize my life and activities, but nothing really worked because the PDA was such a pain to use most of the time. 

What is a tech junky to do?  GO ANALOG!  I found a website that described a growing trend of people like myself going back to 3x5 cards bundled together with a big clip and maybe some little 3x5 dividers!  No batteries, no worries about quickly writing something down, super flexibility and about 1000% more effective than any PDA I have ever owned.  Don't get me wrong, computers have their place and I use my Hipster PDA in unison with my laptop, but the interface and input techniques are just not worth the cost and hassle. Most of the Hipster PDA people use a book called "Getting Things Done" or GTD as it is referred to by most devotees. 

This book struck a chord with me due to its "bottom up" approach instead "top down."  The idea is that if you are overwhelmed by minutia and have a hundred unfinished projects in your head gumming up the works, you can never ascend to the sort of higher order thinking that most of need to be effective in our intellectual pursuits.  Most book of this type start out with people getting in touch with their "dreams" (blech!), but Getting Things Done starts with your physical workspace and the methods by which you process information and make decisions about what to do next.  If you have a dependable way of capturing specific task and the projects that they belong too, then you can get them out of your head and into your system. 

The move to Louisville and my commissioning as an officer has created an incredible swirl of activity in the past month.  In the month of April I have had to...

1.  Finish up the semester at EIU

2.  Arrange for graduation and other loose ends at EIU, like student loans

3.  Develop a financial plan for resigning my full time pastor position

4.  Prepare the household for the physical move, including liquidating most of my personal items

5.  Apply for The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

6.  Register for classes, financial aid, work

7.  Find a place to live in Louisville and all the stuff that goes along with that.

8.  Sign up for the Army and the maddening amount of paper work that the Army has for its soldiers

9.  Develop a plan to transition my church to being without a pastor

10. Get endorsed by The North American Mission Board as a Chaplain

11.  And the very last thing that I have started to do, LOSE 20 more pounds and get in good enough     

      shape to pass the Army PT test! 

I am going to make my next posting about how someone as absent minded and totally lacking in administrative skills manages to pull off all of these task simultaneously.  One might expect that a blogger such as myself has an arsenal of electronic gizmology to assist me in this, but you would be wrong.  I have gone ANALOG for a good percentage of my organization and planning.  I will detail this old school approach to planning and execution in my next blog post!  Stay tuned faithful tremblers!

K came with her coaches stopwatch Monday night.  he promised that if she got a 16 in the 100 meter dash then she could take the watch home for a few days.  he just did not expect it to be so soon!  She not only ran a 16.4 she had a couple of 16s and a 17 in the 100 meter.  She is regularly beating Junior High Boys that are training with Abe also!  They are bigger and faster, but K is seeing the power of form and technique.   I have also been checking on some state 100m times for Junior High girls and it seems that the winners of those races all run in the low 14s.  Something tells me that when K goes to junior high in THREE years, she will probably be pretty competitive!  The first meet that she is going to run in will be next Wednesday at the all school district track and field meet for elementary school kids.  Tracy wanted to get her a set of spikes before then, but I am afraid that she is going to have too much of an advantage the way it is, I don't want to be a bad sport. wink.