Something goofy's going on with my template

OK, something goofy's going on with my template. The "recent posts" list should be a sidebar column beside the current post(s) rather than above or below ... along with my profile information. I've tried switching up templates to correct the problem. With some, the "recent posts" sidebar doesn't start until way down the page below the currently active posts. With others, it's the other way around. The current posts don't start until below the "recent posts" sidebar.

I think it may be something I inadvertently did to the html code, but I don't remember editing it recently. When I do edit it, I do so very carefully because I don't know much about it.

I had some significant trouble getting the post yesterday to post [got some kind of error code then a double posting which I finally was able to delete after several tries]. I don't know if I had the problem before then or not. I'd really like for the side bar to be a side bar at 800x600 screen resolution (since that's what my old eyes like). Right now it's on the side, but not until below (or above) the current posts.

Feeling stupid ... not that that helps anything.

some of life's recent twists and turns

After I posted the "Thinks Too Big for Me to Think" blog, I learned late Wednesday afternoon that my Mom was to have major back surgery in Birmingham (6 hour drive from here) Thursday morning. The doctor-sister (lives in CT) couldn't get there until Friday around noon. In conversation with the designer-sister they worked out their tag-team timing best they could. Meanwhile I felt it only right that one of the kids be there to help Dad with the whatever aspects of the event (even though Mom's brother was already there with them ... and thank God he was). I handed off my Wednesday evening rehearsals to my organist and pianist respectively (and respectfully, I might add ... I really appreciate them), then went home to get things ready. In order to help me keep alert on the road, Pappaw (my father-in-law) went along.

I really had too much on my mind to fall asleep at the wheel, but with him in the car it helped the trip to be more enjoyable ... and it helped the lovely wife to worry less about my falling asleep. We got there about 2am CDT. The surgery really didn't take place until late enough Thursday morning that we could have left here early (5-ish) and gotten there in time, but there was no way to know that Wednesday night. More important than sitting with Dad was for Mom to see me before she went into surgery. You see, as a result of our experiences with Mom's first back surgery (2-1/2 years ago) and her knee replacement (a year later), my designer-sister has declared my doctor-sister to be the best hospital help, herself to be the best home help, and me to be the comic relief. I'd like to think I'm a little more useful than merely comic relief ... but for now I'm comfortable with being at least that. My presence there was as much a morale thing as anything ... and even though she already knew I would be there by the time she got out of surgery, I think it gave Mom even more peace of mind to see me before she went in. As it ended up, we had a good couple of hours to visit together before she was taken back to the OR.

As we chatted (uncle, Dad, Pappaw and me) while waiting, we had a very enjoyable time. I've always been thankful for my family, but my gratitude has deepened over the past few years. With Grandmother still keeping her own house at 96 (or as she says, "My house keeps me"), Mom and her brother share the burden of her needs as well as any siblings I've ever witnessed. In many families, the lion's share of the responsibility falls to just one. I've seen it time and time again in my ministry. Not so with my family ... and I'm quite proud of them. Not only that, they are also among the most likeable people I know.

Pappaw and I stayed until Friday afternoon (picked doctor sister up at the airport) and gave her the report from the neurologist. I had to get back for stuff I gotta do (home and work). I realize I'm not as irreplaceable as I'd like to think I am at work, but I am the only one who can be the lovely wife's first husband and dad to the toothpick and the stickboy. I missed seeing the toothpick march on Friday night (I just love to watch those size 10 feet on that 5'7" 105lb body). But I rejoice in having gotten to Birmingham and back safely. I'm trying to keep my calendar flexible. Comic relief may be needed sometime in the near future, and I may not know exactly when.

This post may get edited for detail or improvement over the next couple of days. Right now I'm just getting thoughts out of my head because parenting two teenagers is requiring that I really need room for other thoughts to take place up there. If we get our boys through school before we lose our own heads, I will be quite happy ... and a little bit amazed.

Thinks Too Big for Me to Think

This Monday marks the 5th anniversary of the 9/11 attack. Profound events like this often leave me feeling very much at a loss for words. I want to say something that means something, but I find the reservoir of thought echoing like an empty water tank. Maybe it’s because I’ve not taken the time to fill it through quiet meditation. At times like this I begin to think my thinker can’t think big enough.

I have always struggled with the reality that there are indeed some evil people in the world who delight in the massacre of others for what they deem “righteous” causes. Lest we Christians think too highly of ourselves, we must remember that some who have claimed to belong to Christ have also done this. I have read quotes from practicing Muslims who say that the “infidels are worthy only of death” attitude fueling the terrorism is far from the true faith of Islam. (“infidel” is interpreted – at least by the Muslim terrorists – as any non-Muslim.) There are others – Muslims and non-Muslims alike – who say that there is no other way to interpret certain passages of the Koran. I don’t know enough to offer an opinion.

What I do know is that there are pastors and worship leaders all over the United States this week wrestling with how to appropriately acknowledge the 9/11 event in our worship this week. There are ways to overdo it and ways to underdo it; and it’s a struggle to find the appropriate balance, keeping our focus on God. In the weeks and months following the attack, several of our contemporary hymn writers put pen to paper, allowing their God-given talents to help those of us less gifted in that area to give expression to what we may be thinking and feeling. One such writer is Carolyn Winfrey Gillette who wrote this:

God, we’ve known such grief and anger
As we’ve heard Your people cry.
We have asked You, “How much longer?”
We have sadly wondered why.
In this world of so much suffering,
May we hear Your word anew:
“I will never leave You orphaned;
I will not abandon you.”

By Your grace comes resurrection;
By Your love, You cast out fear.
You give strength and sure direction
As we seek to serve You here.
You give comfort to the grieving,
And You bless the ones who mourn.
May we trust in You, believing
Out of chaos, hope is born.

Hope is ours for, God, You love us!
You have claimed us by Your grace.
And through Jesus, You have called us
To bring hope to every place.
In each rescue worker’s caring,
In each faithful volunteer,
In each Christian’s love and sharing,
God, we glimpse Your kingdom here.

(found at http://www.churchworldservice.org/Hymns/9-11anniversary.html):

Thank God for gifted writers! In that hymn I find tremendous balance. We acknowledge that we are still hurt and confused. We still struggle with what to think, feel, and do as individuals, as communities of faith, and as a nation. Sharing a hymn like that helps us to find purpose and direction anchored by our hope in Christ.

That’s enough to think about for now.

Small World, Isn't It?

[Blogger's note]: due to some health problems I've been having, trying to figure out how to appropriately protect a certain degree of anonymity, and the Labor Day holiday, this blog entry posting has been delayed several days. Though a link to my blog is included in my e-mail signature, I try to preserve a high level of discretion when using the names of other people ... unless, of course, their own personal blogs give their names more freely. Maybe I'm too anal about that (won't be the first time), but there it is. And here's the blog that should have been posted last Wednesday or Thursday:

>>>>>>>>>>>>

One of the frustrations that Ministers of Music deal with from time to time is that sometimes publishers decided to allow excellent pieces of music go “permanently out of print”. What that means is that, though they still own copyright, they are no longer publishing it. We have at least a couple of anthems that we have added to our library in the past few years that fall into that category. Fortunately I had a reference copy from which we could make copies for the choir (after securing permission and paying the appropriate licensing fees and royalties to the publisher). There is another piece (David Danner’s “Give Me Jesus”) that tried to order for my choir last week. It is also permanently out of print; however I do not have a reference copy so we will have to wait until I can borrow one. We regularly lend music to other churches from our music library and I have borrowed music from other churches for our use here.

I had an interesting conversation last Tuesday with the music director (part-time) at another church in our state. I’m looking for the accompaniment CD to a Children’s Christmas musical our Young Musicians director is considering for the Children’s Choirs. We have the books, but can’t find tape or CD for accompaniment in our library. If we can’t locate the accompaniment CD to borrow, we’re out of luck. I put out a query via e-mail and heard from someone who used to be music director at the church in question that they did the musical when he served there.

Long story short, I called this fellow and identified myself. He hasn’t had a chance to look for the CD yet, but he related that several years ago that he got a call from someone from this town asking if he were [name omitted], to which he replied in the affirmative. She asked if he were [name omitted] the music director. Again he answered yes. For further confirmation of his identity, she asked if he were [name omitted] the music director from [this town name]. He again answered yes. Then, he said, she proceeded to update him regarding people he did not know from Adam.

It turns out that there was another [name omitted], who had led music in a church here in [this town], who retired to that area a number of years ago (perhaps some of you may remember him). The [name omitted] with whom I spoke was indeed from [this town name], but from [this town name] in another state. That sparked another conversation because that town is not far at all from my wife's hometown. At any rate, I feel a connection with this gentleman now (nice fellow, too) because of some common ground we have walked. As I watched tropical storm Ernesto’s progress, I prayed for the few people I know on the Carolina coast … and for someone I just met over the phone Tuesday night.

What’s the point? How often do we miss an interesting acquaintance because we just blow through without pausing to connect? It can be risky at times, because to connect often means to care … but isn’t that why we’re here?

That’s enough to think about for now.