This blog began as documentation of my journey into formal ministry. Now that I have received a call it will continue to function as a place for me to address concerns, celebrations and anything else that might catch my fancy. Please remember to "Be A Blessing To Someone Today"! God Bless, Roy
It is difficult to believe but another year has passed. Last year I published a paper that I wrote concerning Dr. King for my ELM classes. Since my late Mentor Jesse was such a good friend of Dr. King's it's impossible for this day to come and for me not to spend time reflecting on Jesse and the things he taught me. I do believe he'd be proud of the book I've started penning and I do wish he was here to help me along the way. His prowess with Greek and Hebrew would be of immeasurable help to me. May this day of celebration concerning the life and teachings of Dr. King find you all well and blessed. In God's Constant Care and Ultimate Grace, Roy (below is the introduction to last year's blog post and a link to that post) As I have stated before my late mentor Jesse was a close and long time friend of Dr. King. As a part of my ELM education I did write a paper about Dr. King. As an American Baptist Dr. King is a very important man to our denomination and most likely the most famous American Baptist Pastor of all time. May this essay stand as a tribute to both Dr. King and my friend Jesse's memory. God's Eternal & Undivided Blessings to you all, Roy My 2013 Post for MLK Day
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Yesterday we started the day off by attending the 8:30 am service at Benson Baptist Church. It was a good service and we sat beside Susan Gilles. I had a brief but good conversation with Susan, it is always a pleasure to see her. After church we came home and made ourselves 'brunch'. I cooked up some sausage and Gail and Maddie prepared waffles and scrambled eggs. We all did a little bit of reading after cleaning up before setting out on a shopping mission to prepare Maddie to return to UNL for Spring Semester classes. Shopping with Madeline can be a tiring event, she loves to shop and unfortunately neither Gail nor I are particularly fond of running from store to store to find that perfect item. We ended up going to five stores in all before Maddie was content with what we had found. Once we got home I started doing some laundry and in between spent time reading from the Bible using an RSV translation. For whatever reason I find that I prefer the Revised Standard Version when I read scripture. I have finished re-reading "If Grace is True" and I started the other day a book on the Kindle entitled "Hope Beyond Hell". This book is jammed full of Scripture references and is a fairly dense read. In order to really do the book justice one would have to reference each and ever bit of scripture as the Author only provides short snippets of the text. I suspect that at least some of the scripture references are being used out of context however I simply don't have the time to dig up each and every one. Honestly it would take months to read this book doing so, as it's a fairly long book and as I said it is jammed with references. I have some fairly strong disagreements with the author on some of his conclusions and I have some areas where I firmly agree with him. In this book, as I see all too often when reading the author has his own particular set of 'blinders'. Some of the determinations he references to make a point on one aspect of theology would and do completely submarine a position he raises and supports in another chapter. This is all too common in our world, inside and outside of religion. I see this in politics to a large degree on both sides of the aisle. Rarely do we sit down and try and weigh one position against another, this is why as I often say "we are all hypocrites, we just pick different areas to be hypocrites". This is one of the things I enjoy so much about my friend Dustin Bower. Dustin is the Pastor of the DOC Church in Hastings; and Dustin spends an enormous amount of time reconciling his various beliefs about theology, and the rest of the world. If there is anyone who is rarely a hypocrite it is Dustin. I also spent some time reading in one of Jesse's books of prayers. This book is called "Prayers for a New World" and was published in 1964. It uses a lot of old prayers and the language for most is quite old, but I find that many of these prayers speak to me very well and I do enjoy reading them. One of my resolutions this year is to finally write a book. I've wanted to write a book ever since High School and honestly I did write a manuscript back then but never quite finished it. Somewhere around here I believe I still have that binder. I wrote a good deal and there are several hundred pages composed. However, that was a sci-fi book and I no longer have a desire to write science fiction. So the book I have started (actually I started it over a year ago) is of course a book on theology. I pulled in up on my computer yesterday and read through and edited what I had already written. Frankly, I was surprised how much I had composed and I was overall delighted with the composition. While we were out shopping I picked up a small journal which I intend to keep on the table beside my chair with a list of the minimum things I want to do reading and writing wise each and everyday. Before I turn in each night I'll go through the check list and make sure that I've accomplished each goal and check them off. If I've fallen short I'll simply have to stay up until I've reached my minimums, which are not too stringent and honestly wouldn't take much over an hour to satisfy. The idea is that if I set a minimum time to commit, I know myself and once I get started I'll easily go past that small increment. But by forcing myself to get started (more so on the writing) I'll actually sit down and put words on 'paper' or spend time reading. I've set time allotments for reading scripture, reading about scripture, and for reading prayers or devotionals. The writing won't include my blogging but rather writing on the book. The next step after writing the book (which I suspect will take me over a year as there is a considerable amount of research to be done in order to complete it) will be to get back to the screenplay that I started writing about twelve years ago. I have transferred the file from computer to computer and it is saved on the hard drive of this laptop. That however is a horse of a different color as the screenplay is about a couple during World War II. Who knows perhaps I'll work on both the book and the play at the same time. I have finally beaten the dental infection that was plaguing me and I was able to get in a few workouts this past week. Hopefully I'll be able to do a complete week of training this week. The only possible road bump would be that I'm getting a root canal on Wednesday. Wednesday is a rest day for me so unless it is still bothering me considerably on Thursday I should be okay for working out. One of my goals now is to improve my flexibility. I've concentrated for so long on gaining size that my flexibility has suffered, so I've started a stretching routine which I will do daily (it's also listed in my little daily journal) and see if I can't make some improvement in that area of fitness as well. Madeline starts her second semester at UNL today and she has now switched her major from Psychology to Nursing. She has always been interested in medicine and for many years talked about getting into dermatology. Now she's thinking she wants to focus on geriatric nursing which of course is a field which will see nothing but increased demand as all of us baby boomers age. We drove her back to school last night about 7:00 pm, and as always it was sad to leave her behind. Waking up this morning with just Gail and I there (and all the cats and dogs of course) the house seemed pretty empty. I am still waiting to hear from any of the Churches that I've asked to have resumes submitted to. Hopefully now that the holidays are all past I'll hear something from one or the other or both. The most difficult part of this process is the waiting. God will eventually find and direct me to the place where he wishes me to serve him and I place my faith and fate in His Almighty hands. I would appreciate prayers though for His guidance and directions. May this short update find you all very well and very blessed. Make this year the year that you grow the closest to our Lord. God Bless, Roy
Yesterday was a quiet day. I spent most of my time just trying to finally fight off this infection in my tooth. Ultimately, I don't think any of the antibiotics have done much for it (though I am still taking the third antibiotic as directed) and it has come down to my body fighting this thing off. It's now been over two weeks and I'm feeling very drained by it all. I am at this moment however planning to go to the gym this evening come hell or high waters.
I did watch the Huskers play yesterday and just the one play was worth the time invested in watching the game.
Unfortunately I did miss the last few minutes of the game as I dozed off in the recliner. I was watching the game alone and 'Pansie' wanted to sit on my lap. Whatever it is about her as soon as she curls up on your lap and goes to sleep she makes you fall asleep shortly as well. Oh well, I saw most all of the game and I certainly watched that incredible pass play. So it was all good.
The rest of the day I spent reading in a book of theological essays that Creath gave me for Christmas. I listened to an Audio-Bible online for a while, and listened to 'Sting' while I read. The image above is now a couple of days old but, it still applies. We have a stack of blank pages ahead of us all, let's fill these pages with interesting and enriching words and events.
Each of us has a book or our 'Life' just as Sting says in this song, which is one of my favorite songs of his by the way. And certainly, the Chapter on religion that we don't understand, but we and myself feel compelled to try and understand. Even as I am fully aware that it is not possible. But what we can and all should do is try to improve and strengthen that relationship that we each have with the Almighty. Trying to feel and see the hand of the Creator that is all about us on a constant basis.
For what it's worth this is my favorite song by Sting. Though the video leaves a great deal to be desired. The song lyrics are haunting and one I have burned to several CD mixes of my favorite music.
Likely my second favorite song by Sting, but more for the melody and not the lyrics for this one. The video on this one is somewhat racy so you've been warned if you are extremely sensitive about such things.
Yesterday I did learn that my Aunt Sylvia discovered a mass in her lung. The Doctor is fairly certain that it is cancerous but they have not done a biopsy yet. Sylvia is the last surviving sibling of my Father's siblings. She has been a smoker for years along with her late husband so in many ways this is not a surprise but it is still heart breaking. She is such a wonderful lady and if all goes well we should really try and get up to South Dakota and visit her before anything else happens. It's been far too many years since I've seen her and it is sad how the years slip away from all of us.
Just this morning I've decided that it's time for me to reread the book 'If Grace is True' by Philip Gulley & James Mulholland. This is one of my favorite books of all time and I'm suddenly feeling the need to read it again. So I will, it's a fairly quick read really so it shouldn't take more than a day or two for me.
I'm looking forward to 2014 as a year of change for my family and myself. Where will the dawn of 2015 find us? Wow, that number sounds 'large'... I can remember as a child thinking I would be lucky if I lived to see the year 2000! At any rate, there are a number of things 'brewing' for this year and only the Good Lord has any idea what is in store for the Karlen family.
I hope that each of you has a wonderful, deeply blessed and productive year here in 2014. May God protect and guide you all.
