Dona Nobis Pacem

Blogging For Peace

Click my peace globe to read Mimi's fantastic BlogBlast post as well as links to hundreds more from around the world

 

In a world that is ravaged by chaos, war, tragedy, conflict and hatred, it is difficult to look around and be optimistic.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while, ever since I listened to a podcast episode of NPR’s RadioLab called “New Normal”. It opened with a short piece in which a reporter followed around a guy, John Horgan, through the streets of Hoboken conducting an informal, one question survey. “Will humans ever stop fighting wars?”

It’s a question he has been asking people ever since the United Stated invaded Iraq in 2003.

Its one of life’s unanswerable questions. And as John explains, it’s not just a question about war. It’s a question about whether or not humans possess the ability to change who and what we are.

An overwhelming majority, 9 out of 10, answered quickly and adamantly, “NO”. Many of the explanations involved the term “Human Nature”.

Can we change?

Is peace possible?

As a Christian, I try to live my life in a way that embraces hope and love. I have to believe that peace on earth is a worthwhile and attainable goal. It is still hard to be optimistic, but I have to believe that it’s possible.

However, as a human, the best I can do is to change me.

Which is why, like Mother Theresa, I want the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi to be my prayer every day. Because it’s not about assigning blame or responsibility; it’s about taking it.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

It’s also why I am participating in today’s BlogBlast for Peace; a day when bloggers around the world unite in a moment of solidarity, regardless of our differences, to embrace the hope of Peace on Earth.

Dona Nobis Pacem

The Best God Joke Ever

Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump.  I said, “Don’t do it!”

He said, “Nobody loves me.”

I said, “God loves you. Do you believe in God?”

He said, “Yes.”

I said, “Are you a Christian or a Jew?”

He said, “A Christian.”

I said, “ME, TOO! Protestant or Catholic?”

He said, “Protestant.”

I said, “ME, TOO! What franchise?”

He said, “Baptist.”

I said, “ME, TOO! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?”

He said, “Northern Baptist.”

I said, “ME, TOO! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?”

He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist.”

I said, “ME, TOO! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?”

He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region.”

I said, “ME, TOO! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?”

He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.”

I said, “Die, heretic!” And I pushed him over.

~~ Emo Phillips

Voted best Religious Joke of all time in 2005 by Ship of Fools.

What A Week

This has been a week for the books. Even though it was shortened by the holiday on Monday, it seems to have been weeks long. I had a couple of large projects looming overhead that I really should’ve been working on, but was unfortunately derailed by a nasty virus. No, not Swine Flu, but rather a virus of the computer kind. One that infiltrated and corrupted our database server, where all of the data for our company resides. Finding and killing the virus wasn’t too huge of a deal. That was accomplished fairly quickly actually. But in the process we lost a good day & a half worth of transactions, customer orders, purchase orders, shipments, receipts… all of which had to be rekeyed and reprocessed one at a time.

At the same time, my wife’s week wasn’t much better. She had her own laundry list of issues at work which caused her a great deal of stress, anxiety and anger. Not to mention that her father went to the emergency room yesterday and they wanted to keep him for a day or two to drain fluid off of his lungs. (Don’t worry by the way, he’s okay. Just needed some rest and diuretics and he will be fine.)

But as I sat here today, decompressing and reflecting on what a crazy week it has been, I hadn’t even thought about today being the anniversary of 9/11. I mean I knew it, but I hadn’t really processed it. That is, until I read a friend’s blog post that made me choke up and reflect on that terrible day eight short years ago. When I look at my life through the lens of such a horrific tragedy and the ever present effects that it brought on, I inevitably have two reactions;

First I still mourn for the immense loss of human life, for the scarring of a nation, and for the trigger of a monstrosity of a war that continues to this day.

But secondly, and more importantly, I thank God. I have been so unbelievably blessed that it’s sometimes easy to take it all for granted. I could easily take this moment to actually count my blessings, and to be honest I have been internally, but I won’t bore you with it just now. Instead, I want to encourage everyone to do the same. Take a few minutes. Close your eyes. And thank God for your blessings and the knowledge that no matter how horribly your day or week or month has been, there is still so very much to be thankful for.

The tragedy that was 9/11 changed our country and our lives forever.

But time passes.

Scars heal.

Love grows.

Flowers bloom.

Life… Goes… On…

And we are committing a major error if we fail to recognize and thank God for it. Life is good. God bless all of you.

God Bless the United States of America!

Circumvolution is Salubrious

One of my stranger collections is made up entirely of tops. People often ask me why one would collect so many tops, and I really can’t offer much of an answer except that I just really like them. I like the idea of simple yet fascinating toys; toys that require no electrical cords, no batteries, no complicated instructions, no assembly; toys that don’t necessarily inspire competition or winners and losers. A chunk of wood with a sharpened stick through the middle and a little wrist action is all you need.

I guess if I think about it through the lens of my mechanical engineering background, I would like the fact that the design is simple but requires precision in order for it to work more effectively. The top must be perfectly balanced for each spin to last longer. The axis must be exactly centered and perpendicular to the outer disk in order to achieve this level of balance. Every aspect of the design can affect its overall performance; the length and position of the axis, the diameter and thickness of the disk, the weight distribution of the two parts, the surface that it is spun on and so much more.

Historically, according to Wikipedia, “the top is one of the oldest recognizable toys found on archaeological sites. Spinning tops originated independently in cultures all over the world.” Which fascinates that Discovery Channel part of my brain.

It’s been said that a top only exhibits the illusion of spinning. In reality it is always falling, but turns too quickly to actually fall. I’m not sure that I buy that explanation as I tend to lean more towards descriptions of gravity, angular momentum, and gyroscopic effect. But it does make for an interesting analogy. It’s not a perfect analogy (as Judge Sotomayor said during her confirmation hearings, all analogies are imperfect), but it’s an analogy just the same.

As a Christian and as a human, I am always falling in a billion different directions. I am an imperfect being and cannot possibly even dream to be able to continue spinning on my axis or standing upright under my own power for very long. Life is hard. The forces of the world are continually pulling me in every direction, trying to disrupt my life. I require something or someone bigger and infinitely more powerful than myself in order to keep going or to pick myself up and start spinning again. Which is why I, as the hymn says, turn my eyes upon Jesus.

Resurrection

God,

Sometimes

We’re as tightly bound

As Lazarus

In a tomb:

Unseeing

Unfeeling

Unmoving.

Then,

In our bondage

You send

Another

To help free us;

A friend

Who believes

And rolls the stone away.

Unbound,

Enabled to emerge

From the caves of our making,

Our eyes are opened

To see your loving face.

We are released -

Resurrection!

- Roberta Porter

An Easter Miracle

We have all seen the miraculous sightings on television or the interweb, some would say coincidences, of religious figures in everyday items, like Jesus in a pancake:

Or the Virgin Mary on a grilled cheese sandwich:

Or even the infamous “Nun Bun”:

But now the phenomenon has presented itself to me, one of the biggest skeptics of such things. Perhaps for no other reason than to convince me of their existence. On the North wall inside the sanctuary of my church, right in front of where I normally sit, the old plaster wall is starting to crack. The cracking has caused the paint to chip and fall off in chunks. We didn’t think too much about it, until finally during morning service two Sundays ago, we noticed this…

That’s right! During the Lenten season, just before Easter, God gave us… a Chocolate Bunny!

It’s my own personal Easter Miracle! (Now if only it were made of solid Dove dark chocolate…)

Better start your pilgrimage now people!

skeptics!

A Prayer for Today

I know I have used this prayer on this blog before, but with the inauguration yesterday and the peril that we find our country in, it seemed like a very appropriate time to recall it. Let this prayer be for us as a country, a people united & strengthened by our diversity and working toward a common goal, as well as for the new administration.

The Prayer of St. Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

Merry Christmas!

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
(Luke 2:14 KJV)

Martin de Vos., Nativity (1577)

A “Sign” of the Times?

Funny… and sad at the same time!

Remembering 9/11 (repost)

I posted this a year ago today, not long after I started blogging. I feel like it’s worth re-posting today as we remember the events of seven years ago rather than my usual randomness, silliness or ranting. Thanks.

It’s one of those defining questions of our time. Where were you when JFK was shot? Where were you when the Space Shuttle exploded? Where were you on 9/11?

I was at work that morning, listening to a CD so none of the news had filtered down to me yet. That’s when a coworker came into my office & asked if I could take the company van to St. Louis to pick up our plant manager. He had been dropped off the night before in order to catch an early flight, but before it could take off, all of the airports in the country had been grounded. I listened to the radio all the way up including a live report as the second plane struck. We drove all the way back, a good two and a half hours, in relative silence.

I had a town board meeting right after work, but when I returned home Leah & I spent the rest of the evening in the living room watching TV. Like most Americans; we couldn’t take our eyes or ears off of it long enough to do much of anything else. We watched the reports in a daze but had yet to feel any real impact of the situation. We were emotionless & numb. We had watched for so long that the channel we were tuned in to went off the air for the night. At that moment, in place of their usual sign-off, they showed images of an Eagle in flight as an instrumental version of “Amazing Grace” played softly. That was the moment our emotions finally broke. We simultaneously burst into tears. Sitting on the floor, holding each other, we cried long into the night. Every cell in my body trembled. Every nerve-ending ached. Every element of my being wept. It still hurts when I think about it today. 

That is the one moment from the day of those tragic events that I will remember the rest of my life.