FIDE-O usually writes things I agree with, in content, but sometimes not in manner. They can tend to be caustic. So I was surprised today when reading the current post that it seemed so well-balanced, both in content and in candor. Then, as I finished the article I noticed a link to read the rest of it at modernreformation.org. It was an article by Michael Horton. (I’m not sure my link will work, but you can go to the archives, and then go to the Sept/Oct 2006 issue). I don’t mean this a knock to the FIDE-O guys. I’m glad they posted it. I just wish they wrote with as much grace more often.

And speaking of grace, I sure need an extra dose of it today. On Monday we found out my mother-in-law would no longer be able to keep our girls after preschool (and on the days they don’t go). The termination of services was immediate (due to a pinched nerve). So I am taking vacation the rest of the week to keep the girls. It’s been fun, some. But it’s also been unnerving. My “anger problem” has resurfaced. But let me focus on the positive. For example, how much fun is it to stick a doll up your shirt and announce, “I have a baby in my tummy!”? Evidently it is tons of fun. At least for 3 and 4 year old girls. It is also “fun” for the 3 year old (well almost, she’ll be 3 next month) to announce “I tee tee’d in my pull-up,” just mere minutes after putting a clean one on her. Then, not doing a very good job of containing my frustration, I find her sitting in a puddle in my chair. Yes, my chair. Evidently, the way she was sitting, the pull-up didn’t do it’s job. And so now, my chair is drying and I have to sit in a hard wooden chair as I type this. Do you feel my pain?

Now, I’ve just been told, we are at the hospital and we’re going to take my daughter’s baby out of her tummy (that’s the way they do it, you know). But the baby has to stay until she’s ready to go home. So Aggie is now getting and giving shots to everyone. Oh, the drama! But I can now announce that I’ve held her precious baby and that we must all be quiet now because she is resting.

Jerry Falwell died unexpectantly. It’s been interesting to read some of the responses, from Ralph Reed’s initial response just moments after the announcement, to Jason’s at FIDE-O, to Jolly Blogger’s, and maybe most especially Steve Camp’s. For the most part, many Christians seem in some way appreciative of Falwell and his ministry. It seems to me, from my reading, the closer that people were to him in relationship, the more committed they were to him as a person. May you’re saying, “no duh!” But my thought is that most want to admire from a distance those in Christendom who are controversial. It’s safe. I think that is what many have done and will do with Falwell. But the reality that has struck me is that those who knew him in some way, who have spent time around him, are unapologetically appreciative of him as a person and his ministry. That ought to teach us something of the importance of relationships. In our denomination, Frank Barker is in many ways a father of the PCA. Now in my short history, I’ve actually had people say to me things that were less than complimentary about Dr. Barker. But I’ve always defended him. Say what you want about Frank Barker, the man lives what he believes. I know this from working in the church he planted 40+ years ago, and from passing him in the halls, sitting under him in seminary classes, seeing him at church on Sunday, etc… He is the same man every where he goes. He’s authentic. He’s the real deal. I may not agree with everything he says (e.g. we differ on the creation account), but you can’t argue with his life. He doesn’t have “preacher mode” that I’ve ever witnessed. He speaks in the same voice wherever he is. And he acts the same way. He’s humble, and lives simply so that he can give generously. And the only way I know those things are from those around him. He doesn’t brag. So my guess is that those who knew Jerry Falwell best, and who spent any time around him, have the most right to speak about the man following his death. I may not agree with him that teletubbies are evil, but it sounds like he genuinely loved Christ and wanted to make Him known.

Okay, so to end on a lighter note, let me whole-heartedly endorse a new choice in breakfast cereals: Arrr-mini-ohs, with the tag line, “It’s all up to you maties!” And last but not least, my friend Van forwarded this to me: a disturbing, frustrating, yet humourous account of why people don’t like Christians (not for the easily offended…Mom!).