On Moving to Two Places-and Why

I decided to take a short break from packing stuff to move, preparing a sermon, grading papers, and writing books (not all at once-I’m not that good at multitasking!) to catch up the blog.

For those who haven’t heard: I have returned to the denominational church of my youth: The United Methodist Church. After joining Ebbert Memorial UMC in Springfield, OR and completing my dissertation, I found I had too much spare time on my hands-and a need to do something with my calling. After a chat with my DS, I was sent as a lay person assigned (even though I hold ordination credentials) to Hope UMC in Drain/Yoncalla, OR as their pastor. Long story short, this past July first I have been sent instead to Pioneer UMC in Coquille, OR. This is a 1/2 time slot; I’m hoping to remain there while I undertake the things I need to do to become a full elder. That's a three year process, so I have some time.

The good news is, there’s a parsonage to live in. This means for the first time in over eight years, most of my books are on shelves-and have been thatched and duplicates pulled and donated to the church for their rummage sale next month. I have an actual office as well, and I have a church with good people who want to see things happen. (Not that the folks at Hope didn’t-they also want to see things grow and get bigger as well. Join me in praying for them and their new pastor, Jerry Steele.) The downside is that we’re in the middle of a move that is having to happen much faster than we’d planned...they want to rent the apartment we’ve been living for five years by the first of August. Geez, I hate moving. Nerves are frayed, money’s tighter as a result for a few weeks-but God is good. (There’s also the part about commuting 2 1/2 hours one way to get there, but I’ll come back to that in a moment.) 

Add to that I’m now the interim director for the Cascade Chorus, the Barbershop chorus I have been the assistant director of the last five or six years or so. Toss in doing things like attending Annual Conference and a Pastoral Transition conference...and you find that ol’ Doc Crandall’s been a busy cuss.

Little things one takes for granted-like working internet-are coming together. I spent most of my Monday getting that back up and running; my wireless HP printer was balky and the Airport Express needed to be "persuaded" to play nicely with the new wifi router. I can find things in the kitchen now, and many of the boxes and tubs we’ve hauled down there have either been sorted and their contents found homes...or will be in short order. (Have I mentioned how much I hate moving?) And the fun part is that it’s only half the stuff. 

See, Deena-who lost her full-time job the end of June-now has a part time job doing the same stuff with a different department, and some per diem hours as well. If she makes the CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) course she’s trying to get into, she’ll be busier than I am. As a result, she has to stay in the area to work. So we’re moving half our stuff into her folks place and will pay them some rent, and I get to commute that 2.5 hours one way I mentioned earlier. 

I want to make one thing profoundly clear: this commute is not a sign of trouble in our marriage. Just the opposite: we are having to work harder on our relationship as we won’t have the time together we’re used to spending. On the other hand, because we are both so busy, the time we do have together is made more special. 

So...to my students, I ask your indulgence for about another seven to ten working days; I’m starting to have enough time to grade like I’m used to-which means back papers will get caught up fairly quickly. To my parishioners, I ask your continued grace as I get settled into being your new pastor and find a routine that works. To my chorus, I ask you hang with me a little longer-and keep working on your music at home. And to everyone else...when you think about us, keep us in prayer. Now, more than ever, we need God’s grásta agus síocháin-His grace and peace-to help us through a tough period of time. 

2012 Has Come and Gone....

Nollaig Shona Dhaoibh! (Happy Christmas to you all!)

It’s that time of year again. This is likely my last blog for the year, so I might as well make it part Nollag litir (Christmas letter). We’ve loaded the CD player with Christmas CD’s-some 51 of of them. (We decided it was better than letting some commercial station play off the wall Christmas stuff all the time.) Our tree is up, and the Christmas cards are all sent. A candle is in the window, and I have decided to take a few minutes to reflect on the last year. That reflection starts off with a question: Where the heck has 2012 gone?!? I mean, come on! I know I’ve been busy. I didn’t think I was that busy...until I sat down to write this. 

I’ve been writing, working, and singing. A lot of free time has been spent writing books in the Cosantóirí Chronicles series; the first five books are done and in epub format. Book six should be done by the end of the month, if all goes well; then I am editing all six books for iBook format. (There is part of an outline for a potential book seven, but that outline won’t even get finished until the others are edited and in iBook format.) You can check out what they’re about here: http://cosantoiri.wordpress.com. I’m also transcribing some old travels to the digital age; I have a few Hawai’i trips, some visits to Canada, a trip to Ireland, and if I can find them, a missions trip to Mexico. Then I’ll add some band and choir tours, and maybe a little Drum Corps and Barbershop stuff. It’s a long term project.

I also finished all the work for my third doctorate. All I have to do is pay the final bill (which isn't cheap) and they’ll send me the diploma. It’s a Ph.D in interdisciplinary studies; I’m done taking classes for right now. I’m busy both teaching and grading courses for Master’s International School of Divinity, and when I’m not writing on the fiction side I’m busy developing a course on a Celtic View of the Spiritual Disciplines. I am also developing a course on the writings of C.S. Lewis. Both of these should be done early next year if all goes well. C.S. Lewis will be done first; I’m still reading books for the other class-and enjoying them immensely. As a result of the fiction writing and the one course, I’ve been teaching myself Gaeilge (Irish Gaelic). It’s an interesting language-and easier than Japanese, Greek or Hebrew was. For fun and to clear my head I've also picked up the feadóg stáin, or tin whistle. I can play three songs on the thing already, and I've only had it a month or so.

Deena and I have traveled quite a bit this year. She competed with the Pride of Portland Sweet Adeline Chorus in Denver the first week of November; they took eighth in the world. Not too shabby! I taught Music and Performance VP for the Evergreen District’s Western Regional Leadership in Langley, BC a few weeks later. There have been a few trips to see Mom, and we all spent a week with 6,000 of our closest friends at the Barbershop Harmony Society’s International Convention held in Portland over the 4th of July week. We did a little camping, and I even managed to get in my first baseball game at AT&T park. (There’s more travels, but I’m not gonna go there right now.) Then there was this two week period at the beginning of August where it felt like everything stopped for the Summer Olympic games. Don’t tell me some of you weren’t up until midnight-or at least 11:00-watching some of that....

Speaking of activities, I’m still the assistant director for Eugene-Springfield’s “Cascade Chorus,” but resigned as the Music and Performance VP this fall due to health reasons...most of which are stress related.  After the Division IV competition in Medford the quartet I sang in-“It’s About Time”-stopped singing together. It wasn’t due to anyone or anything...we just decided enough was enough. We’re all still good friends and laugh about stuff at chapter meetings. And I’m continuing my work as Director of Education for the Evergreen District of the BHS-for now, at least. I’ve kept busy with our local church, Ebbert Memorial UMC; I’m involved on the Congregational Leadership Team. I also update their website every so often, as time allows. I dropped off the Worship Planning team and the Wednesday night dinner crew for the same reason: stress. I have had to learn I can’t cram eighty hours of work, volunteering, writing, and so forth into a forty hour week and not have it impact my health. Being epileptic does place limits on the output of energy I have, and frankly I don’t have the same energy at nearly 48 as I did at 33. As a result I don’t handle stress as well any more, and so have needed to reduce my stress levels. 

And oh, yes...we’re cleaning up around the place, sorting through stuff, and getting rid of things. That is both of us; I’ve been going through all kinds of stuff a little bit every day-old files in the filing cabinet, stuff in the storage bin, stuff in storage at Deena’s folks. It’s time; I have stuff I want to put up and haven’t been able to. For example, I don’t really need my class notes from TEDS and Moody any more. (I haven’t looked at them in years.) The notes from TEDS got sorted today, for example. I pulled the syllabi and tossed the rest. Yesterday, another piece from my collection of Royal Tara china went up: A china cat. (It sits next to the Waterford crystal panda Deena got for me years ago.)

Like I said-I’ve been a little busy, maybe too busy. So why am I telling you all this?

Because I haven’t been blogging much of late. And I felt you all deserved a reasonable explanation as to why. Unlike certain other bloggers, I have a little something called a life. And life gets in the way of blogging sometimes. My goal for next year on the blog is roughly fifteen articles; at the very least I’m aiming for one a month. (Heck, even if I only put up ten, that’s twice as many as this year.) Another part of the reason for not blogging: It’s too easy to get into matters political-and I didn’t want to go there. Not this year. Not ever, if I can avoid it.

And so I want to leave you all with this thought. 2012 is over, effectively. Instead of complaining about what is, work to change what you can-and try to make peace with what you can’t. Better yet, to paraphrase Adam Savage: Reject the current reality and substitute your own. No, you can’t become deity, or replace the President. But you should do what you can to make your little corner of the world a better place. That’s part of having a whole new year to play with, after all. And it is also the Christmas message: hope. Hope for a better eternity, hope of new life, in Jesus-who we celebrate the birth of this time of year.

Nollaig Shona agus Athbhliain faoi Mhaise Daoibh! (Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year to you all!) 

On Ash Wednesday, Facebook's Timeline, and Life

Ash Wednesday was not that long ago as I write this. I did something that evening I haven’t done in quite a while: I went to an Ash Wednesday service. (Yes, I took ashes.) To me, this is a time of reflection on my own mortality and sinfulness. 

This also coincides with Facebook’s impending rollout of their timeline. So I’ve been adding stuff to my timeline, and I’ve been struck with a new sense of my mortality, if nothing else. It’s been easy to look at my life in small chunks; with the short-term memory problems I’ve had since long before high-school, that’s easy. But to start adding things like the beginning and ending of schools, my marriage (now twenty years strong), a little employment, some travels, and few events that helped shape who I am today...and one thing occurred to me.

Despite myself, my failings, my feelings, and my sheer stubbornness...I’ve spent my entire adult life either chasing God, or being chased by God. (And in a few cases, both.) Bible school, seminary, church work, my current ministry with Master’s International School of Divinity (coming up on twelve years there). Starting with high school, going back to church. Going on a mission trip. Then a year plus later, leaving church for a time (for reasons I won’t publish). Getting my business straight with Jesus in 1984. Surviving with my faith strengthened after my Navy time. Surviving re-entry to college and the civilian world. Dealing with God’s call on my life. Surviving Bible college, for all that. Surviving my first ministry position (and learning from my mistakes there). 

But to see all that, in a linear form also reminded me of a lot of good things. Life hasn’t all been in survival or crisis mode. Deena and I have traveled a lot together. We’ve been to Ireland, the Grand Canyon, Canada...and all over the US. (I’m not going to put in all our travels-but some highlights will be added.) We’ve seen a lot, learned a lot, laughed a lot. You have to laugh a lot on long car trips with your spouse or you can get cranky in the middle of Kansas. Or Nebraska. Or Iowa, Wyoming, Georgia...you get the idea.

It also reinforced that I don’t always understand today’s culture. I don’t watch a lot of TV; if I’m not singing barbershop somewhere or doing something online, I’m probably reading something. What TV I do watch tends to be oddball stuff: some news; hockey or other sports (like Canadian football); Food Network or Weather Channel (remember the days when you could actually get a weather forecast there?), on occasion the Discovery Channel, PBS and National Geographic. Movies? I think the last movie I saw in a theatre was The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. The last movie I watched the video for? The live-action Speed Racer. (I can hear you all now: Geek!) Modern music? My poor iPod must feel like it’s stuck in a time warp. A lot of stuff from the 70’s and 80’s, and a lot of that is what we used to call “Contemporary Christian Music.” There’s also a boatload of Southern Gospel and Praise and Worship...much of which is from the late 80’s and the 90’s. (Yes, there’s a lot of barbershop-both quartets and choruses-on it as well, as well as some Celtic and Hawai’ian.) 

But what struck me the most was the pursuit of the Holy. My entire adult life has been spent studying the Bible, learning about how God and Jesus work in our lives, learning theology from several different angles. I remember the kind of person I was prior to 1984, prior to that time when Jesus grabbed me and shook me and said “Follow Me!” I told him I accepted His gift, and would go where He sent me and do what He asked. I’ve never regretted it. (I’ve questioned my sanity and His sense of humor at times, but never once regretted it.) It took three years of His prevenient grace before I got the hint, and some reminders-gentle and otherwise-along the way. 

Earlier on, I mentioned both my mortality and my own sinfulness. He died for me and my sins, and He died for you and yours. That’s what Ash Wednesday’s about, really. I’ll be spending a little less time online, and a little more time thinking about being a better Christian. Spending a little more time in the Bible, and in prayer, and some quiet time where it’s just me and my thoughts. 

The best news of all: He rose again. That’s why we celebrate Easter.

Enough for now.

What is this Blog of which I hear?

I’m taking some time to address some new readers today. Greetings to all my students! Since many of you will have found this by clicking the link next to my name on the MISD Faculty and Staff webpage, a brief introduction to my blog is in order.

This is a personal blog, and not one sponsored by MISD. What that means is what you will find here is mostly random thoughts on things that interest me. These may be Theological, technical, humorous (an example of that is here), geeky, or merely off the wall. (An example of that is here, by the way.)

I update this as I see fit. That means I will update it when I have something to say. Which may be weekly, every couple of days, or there might be a month with nothing new here. (I doubt that, but one never knows.)

If you are expecting this to be deeply religious and devotional... you’re in for a shock. You will learn about my personal life here. Amazing as it may seem to some of you, I don’t simply go to bed after work and sleep all weekend (though I admit It’d be fun to try, sleeping until noon on a Saturday.) I have the same problems you do, and some of the same interests. Much of what I write relates to technology; it stems from being an electrogeek (a title I’ve well earned, by the way) with Christian overtones.

A few of you may wonder why I write what I do. I could say just about anything here, but the truth is (as more than a few of you have found out) I am slightly no...let’s try mildly--no, that’s not right either...hmmm....how about...somewhat...opinionated. That works.

There are plenty of thought provoking, devotional blogs out there. Dr. Frey, President of MISD, writes a really good one; I’ve linked to that off to the right. Skip Moen--our Academic Dean--writes a good one as well, and you’ll find a link to that off to the right too. You really should read those; there’s some deep thoughts there.

I’m not even in their league when it comes to that kind of writing. I am my Father’s son--both my earthly and heavenly fathers--and thus, I write the way I do because of that. My Dad was an Electrical Engineer who taught me to teach myself, and he taught me a lot about electronics and computers. (You can read my eulogy to him here.) Outside of Theology and some music, that’s what I know best. So that’s what I write a lot about.

So enjoy the reading. Take a few minutes and read some of the back posts here. Feel free to post replies to anything you read here.

Just remember who grades your homework.

Enough for now.

So...this is a blog.

This is my first entry on my first blog. What to write about? Looks like an intro is in order.

Bible Study, Theology (and Theological Education) is what I do. I love what I do, and where I work. I work for Master's International School of Divinity, as the Dean of Students. (Website: www.mdivs.edu.) I hold two doctorates: An D.Min in interdisciplinary studies, and a DPTh in Biblical Counseling. (I also have an M.Div.) I'm also working on a Ph.D.

Barbershop harmony is one of many hobbies I have. I've been barbershopping since 1982; and I have a ball! Other hobbies include Anime/Manga, Star Trek, Sci-Fi, Photography, Computers and Tech, and Animation generally. (I also have a decent LEGO collection, as well as an interest in Old Spice collectibles.)

I'm married (nearly 16 years). My wife Deena has formed her own company, Circle of Gold International. (Her blog: http://circleofgoldintl.wordpress.com.) She's also a ten year Sweet Adeline. As a result of our work and our hobbies, we travel...a lot. We have no kids but do have four adorable cats.

One of which is wanting dinner right now. She'll have to wait a few more minutes; as we try to feed the cats on something resembling a schedule.

On the other hand...it's basically dinner time for them. So now they're fed.

Enough for now.

(Posted 1/11/08)