Archive for the 'Family Life' Category

Walking the Path around a Convent in Ferdinand, Indiana

Published on 6/3/2010 in Bible Study and Family Life. Closed Tags: , , , , , , .

Outside view of the Convent

Sunday I took my two oldest sons to Family Day at the Monastery Immaculate Conception in Ferdinand, Indiana. My Aunt, who is in her 60s, has been part of the community there since she was 18.

It’s pretty cool walking around such a place. I’ve taken them to St. Meinrad and we’ve snuck around, but yesterday we had a tour from a lady that has lived in and even had cleaning duty on almost every part of the place except the catwalk on the roof (she said she wants to get up there sometime before she gets too old to climb the stairs or balance up there!)

There were two things that stuck out the most to my kids, and they really are the coolest things of our day there. The Monastery was built in 1915 (we found the cornerstone) and you can see pictures of that here. As we walked up to the church, we noticed a large circular window on the side, and 4 tiny square statues around it. After a closer look, I noticed that they are the four creatures mentioned in Rev. 4.

Around that circular window, you’ll see the heads of the four creatures from Revelation 4

Four creatures, one with a head like an eagle, one with a head like a man, one with a head like a bull, and one with a head like a lion. For some reason my boys think that part is super cool and draw those creatures sometimes, so that was pretty exciting. My oldest said seeing those was his favorite part of the day!

When we got inside the church after lunch and some games, we noticed something even more cool. That window that the four creatures were around? It was a stained glass window showing Jesus seated on the throne. That made the whole thing even more complete. To the outside world, they were just weird creatures, but when you’re inside the church, you can see that they are eternal continual worshipers of the King.

One of my favorite parts happened inside the church. Just inside the door, is a big marble bowl full of holy water. People in the catholic tradition have water at each entrance to the church, and when you go in the door, you dip your fingertips into the water, and then make the sign of the cross. This is a way to reflect and remember your baptism.

Note me all excited & pointing things out, and Davo chowing on a roll he stole as we passed through the kitchen.

I explained that to my boys. They were confused because the baptistry they are used to seeing is at Crossroads. It’s an indoor pool that could hold about 5 people! We’ve even seen a guy float in it with an air mattress and a cigar! But I digress. So I start talking to my mom and what does Sister Jane do? She gets her hands wet and flicks Isaac right in the face! You gotta love that. Water fight in the sanctuary!I’m just glad Isaac didn’t retaliate with a hearty YMCA splash.

We walked all around, checked out the serious pipes on the organ and the whole upstairs. We stood within inches of the ropes connected to the bells and resisted the urge to pull and bring the whole city up the hill. We walked up and down some of the turrets outside, down a hill where we heard about the real tunnel that is on the hill, and then ended up at the Labyrinth.

The details on the Labyrinth can be found here. When I read this, I thought, “this is weird. What kind of over-emphasis on spirituality and diversion from the Gospel have they gotten into!” [one of my fellow Bible Attack League members do refer to me as Zealboy] Then I realized that walking while praying has been a HUGE part of my life! The #1 thing that I do when I have a lot to pray about is go for a walk! So my prayer labyrinth is a rectangle around my park, or a big labyrinth through the hood–and the prayer labyrinth of the sisters is mowed in the grass of their hillside.

My boys kept calling it a maze and Aunt Jane corrected us.

“A maze is full of choices about which way you should go. A labyrinth just has one path.”

How about that! So the only decision you have to make is: will you step into the labyrinth‽

Is he praying in the middle? No, he's playing with an inch worm.

We had a great time running or walking around the path, and we did alter the rules a little bit. We didn’t pray, we played. And the soothing wind chimes in the center served as our victory bell that we rang when we got to the middle. (It took about 8 minutes at a brisk walk to get there.)

The coolest part was on the drive home, and my oldest son told me why the labyrinth was his 2nd favorite part of the day.

Dad, that labyrinth was kind of like life. You can make all kinds of choices and cut across the lines and get to the middle, and you think there are all kinds of ways to get to the middle, but they are wrong. And there are all kinds of people going to the middle all kinds of ways, but they aren’t getting there right. There is only one way, and when you take that one right way, you get to the middle, and you know you did it right!

Pretty cool. If there is one thing I’ve learned from reading the Gospel of John, it’s that Jesus is indeed the Way. He’s gone ahead of us to make the way, and He also became the Way.

All you have to do is decide if you’ll step into the Path.

Victory!

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A Great Good Friday Passover Night

Published on 4/11/2009 in Bible Study and Family Life. Closed Tags: , , .

Last night we had our little Friday night get together and it was a really good time. We set up the sitting room with no furniture in it and covered the floor with korpatchas, sort of like sleeping bags that dont open from Central Asia, to sit on. Five families all sat around in our cramped little room (we closed the pocket doors for an extra wall to lean on) and talked about the Passover meal. Everyone had a little something to share, which was cool.

Some of us had been to a sedar before, other people had read books, and everyone knew their Bible and was looking to learn a lot and have a lot of meaning in it all.

The biggest part for me was hiding the Afikomen. The afikomen is the center piece of the bread in the 3 pieces that are called the Unity it is taken out, broken, and half of it is hidden somewhere in the house. I hid it behind the couch while all of the kids were in the sitting room. We enjoyed our snacks of cheese, grapes, almond windmill cookies, and talked about all kinds of things, spiritual and unspiritual.

We ate some horseradish to taste the bitterness of sin, and drank down some wine to wash it away. Cindy said she thought her nose was going to fall off. Eric Youngblood took a huge chunk down in two bites. Isaac cried and cried to me that he wanted to taste the wine, but I told him he could only do it if he at the horseradish. I could tell that was an impasse, and he was just getting sad so I let him have a little taste. It blew him away. He hated it and seemed a little disappointed that he cried for it so, but was happy to get some grape juice after that.

At the end of the party, I told the kids that it couldnt be over until they found the Afikomen. They took off in a mad race, running up and down the stairs, all over the place looking for it. I was so moved that I went in to the parents and we prayed that our kids would grow up to hunger and run after Jesus with such zeal passion hunger joy as they had seeking after the symbol of Jesus at Passover.

While we were praying, David came in and asked me if he could have a hint. I was so moved then that I told him it was downstairs and then prayed that they would ask the Father for help as they seek out the Son. David told everyone it was downstairs and they all came down to look for it.

As they were getting closer, I went back to the parents and said, Watch and see what joy there is then they find it. and just then I could hear shouts from the next room. I found it! I found it! I got it! Its here behind the couch! and sure enough David came in jumping and stomping with the cloth napkin and bread held as high as he could over his head.

We haggled for the redemption of the afikomen, He asked $8 at first, I got him down to 50 and then told him Id give him $5 because Jesus more than paid for us, and then all the kids got PEZ. it was a really good time.

May we all seek after Jesus with such chaotic, driven fervor. May we not fear tripping down stairs while we run or banging our heads together, but run after the hidden and waiting to be found Savior of the world, and when we find Him, hold Him up as high as we can with a cheer of victory, knowing deep down that the Father designed this gift to be found from the beginning.

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Churched by Matthew Paul Turner: Review By Mimicry

Published on 10/14/2008 in Bookstore, Family Life and Short Quotes. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , .

When I was in second grade, I was of the age, just like everyone else in my second grade class, to have my First Communion. Mental maturity or physical maturity, or personal belief for that matter, didnt really come into play, but since June of 1981 had come and gone and I lived until September and the start of second grade, I was ready for The Lords Supper.
Now before you can do something so Holy and powerful as eat the flesh and blood of Jesus, you have to confess your sins, so a few weeks before you have your First Communion, you have to undergo a much less fun, and less celebrated, First Confession. My 14 classmates and I sat at Holy Spirit School and Mrs. Vote explained to us what would happen.
Whenever you are ready, but dont wait too long, go up to Father and say Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. and then he will ask you to tell him what youve done.
I forget the exact script, but that was the jist of it. Then, in order to help us think up some sins that we could confess, she began to make a list on the chalkboard. Lying to our mother, lying to our father, lying to our sister, lying to our brother, lying to our grandma, lying to our grandpa, cheating in class, fighting with our friendsĶ You want to tell him about three things that were sins that youve done
THREE! I looked at the board. I had lying to my mom down, but I was an only child so that wiped out a lot of my options. All of the fighting I did fit more under the heading of getting beat up, so I couldnt confess that. I started to think through the 10 commandments. I loved God and didnt bow down to statuesĶ I said gosh instead of godĶI went to church on Sundays, and Mondays and Wednesdays and Fridays and any Holy day in between (benefit of going to Catholic School: on any day religion class could be cancelled and youd have to go to Mass instead!) I honored my mother and my father (as far as I knew) and I still wasnt sure about that adultery thing except that it was something that adults did. I was pretty sure I had probably stolen something. I couldnt think of what, or when, but I was pretty sure I had.
What if we only have two? I asked. Mrs. Vote just kind of stared at me for a minute. I think she might have rung up an extra one in that moment while she was still talking and writing on the board, but interrupting your teacher wasnt on her list.
If you can only think of two, thats fine, but try to have three.
I stuck with my two. My first confession was still 3 days away, so I had time to add on number three.
***
The big day came and I was all dressed up in my school clothes and a tie. Since I wore navy pants and a long sleaved white shirt every day to school, getting dressed up was just putting on a tie or borrowing a suit that was too big. I was glad that for my first confession I just had to add the tie.
Our whole class went in and sat in the front few pews of the church. The priest said some stuff, and our parents looked across the aisle at all of us sitting together, proud as can be of their little confessors.
In a Catholic church, there is a stage area in the front. Not a stage like in a protestant church covered with electrical cables and theatrical lights and subwoofers propped up on Bibles, but a sacred stage. Its an area of foreboding, and area that is very clean and clear and open and forbidden to civilians. You have to cross yourself whenever you pass the center line, so you learn to make your trips up there all on one side. I was an altar boy, so I had been all over on the sacred stage, except behind the altar. Only the priest went up there.
In front of the altar were two chairs, and after the priest said some things, he went and sat down in one of them, and then stared at all of us. There we were, expected, called, if you will, to come up and sit IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STAGE AND CONFESS OUR SINS! At least there was no microphone, but what about the cool closets on the side of the church?! What about the cool screen that you could go to and the priest wouldnt know it was you confessing that you lied to your mother! Would he come next Tuesday and talk all about how we shouldnt lie to our mothers like little Danny Sullivan did!?
One by one all of my friends went up and sat and talked and then came back down and prayed. They all seemed to come away with a big grin on their face, so it didnt seem like such a bad thing. I went on up, hoping that no one else would go up at the same time and draw a lot of attention to me. It was bad enough having all of my friends sitting there watching, but their parents too! And my MOM! Would she hear? Would Father Foster tell her what I said?!
There was no turning back now, I crossed my self and stepped onto the holy stage. I went up and was greeted warmly and it was all over in about 15 seconds. After I was done, Fr. Foster told me to go say 10 Our Fathers and 10 Hail Marys and to not do it again. As I stood to walk off, he stopped me and said, hold on, was that not enough!? Did he just peer into my soul and notice one that I forgot?!
Here you go, good job he said, and handed me a Clark bar.
A Clark bar. Clark Bar
The crunchy peanut butter wrapped in chocolate taste of forgiveness was all mine. Good job.
I went smiling back to my seat and stared at my Clark bar for a few seconds before remembering the prayers I had to say.

***

That story was buzzing in my head the whole time I was reading Churched. I must say, if Matthew Turner wrote that out, it would be funnier than my version. (his website is www.matthewpaulturner.com )Turner does a very good job of telling stories in a way that you can definitely see what is WRONG about this story, but he doesnt spoon feed you about what the right way should be.
Since a lot of the story happened when he was in 2nd ish grade, the book made me think a lot about how Im raising my own sons. Do I mindlessly follow rules that when I really think them through, contradict the teachings of Jesus? Am I living a life-example that is different than the things I want my kids to learn about Jesus? Im not sure, but Turners book has subtly made me consider those things, and consider how I steer my kids down their path towards God.
If you grew up in any church, Catholic or Protestant, this book is going to bring back some funny-only-in-retrospect memories. And if you didnt grow up this way, youd better read this book to make sure you arent awash in cultural legalism and calling it Christianity rather than living out the life of Jesus that has been resurrected into you.
So heres the deal: I probably wouldnt have picked this book up and read it if somebody didnt ask me to, but Im really glad that I did read it. I usually read stuff thats a lot more complicated (on the surface anyway) and makes me angrier, so this was really refreshing. I wish all of my Christian books made my laugh till I had tears in my eyes. So Im giving away a copy of this book. You can try to win one or go buy one, whichever.
So how should we do the contest? Should we do the comment thing and then I draw out a name? Or do some email thing? Or an in-person contest?
Oooh, wait wait wait! Well do an essay contest, yeah, thats fun.
Write in the comments a short and weird church thing that happened to you growing up. Ill read them to my wife, without saying your name, and the winner gets the book! That will be fun. No over-shares though, people, this is a public blog!
Ill even give you a week to do it. You have until October 21 at Midnight.
The runner up will get a Clark bar.
Good job.

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Funerals

Published on 9/17/2008 in Family Life. Closed Tags: , , .

Today I went to a funeral for a guy that I was friends with as a kid. He’s just a few months older than me and he died this past weekend of pneumonia and complications that came from the surgery to fix his pneumonia.

One thing that struck me funny at the funeral was how the guy officiating did not know the guy that the funeral was for, and said he wouldn’t act like he did. That’s not the funny part. What’s funny is that I’ve been to a couple funerals where the officiator makes the person sound a lot holier and better than they were, but different from the way that they were actually really holy, or actually really a great person.

I remember when my step-brother Jake was killed in a car wreck. At the funeral the lady pastor that didn’t know him made him sound like he was Billy Graham. He was a normal, plain, down to earth guy-which is great! He didn’t have to be made into someone else at his funeral. I remember my step-mom and step-sister commenting “who were they talking about??” and chuckling.

I think there is also something that needs to be said about the obligatory “gospel” message that happens at every funeral and wedding you go to. I think the idea is that since a lot of people that DON’T go to church are here, as a captive audience, we’d better preach the gospel.

Well I don’t know about the wedding, but at a funeral, it comes across as a surprise Amway meeting. It seems like a very vulnerable time to strike with the threat of damnation and Jesus as the key out of it. I’ve heard a guy say that he will never pimp the people he serves. He shows no pictures of them and never tells a story of theirdesperateneeds. He just talks about us living our lives for Jesus.

It’s the same for the weddings and funerals. When the preacher says, “Dan would want me to tell you that whoever believes in Jesus will be saved.” if you never heard me say that or saw me live it, it comes across as a hoax. It’s exactly the same at a wedding. The guys sitting in the back that know the real me would say, “That guy is making this stuff up to get us to come to his church.” and blow off the preacher.

It reminds me of a story in “The Signature of Jesus” by Brennan Manning. The jist of it is that there is an old white man in a cell serving a life sentence next to another young, muscular, black man. After a few years the old man dies. It turns out he was passing his leftovers over to the young man that needed more to eat, and when he did he would tell the young man about Jesus. At the old man’s funeral, the prison chaplain says a bunch of stuff, taking the opportunity to use his captive audience to talk about Jesus. At the end, the young man stands up, points to the casket, and says, “THAT man was the only Jesus I ever knew!”

I think there is also an insecurity at funerals. There seems to be a drive to convince and be convinced that the person that died went to ‘heaven.’ I know it wouldn’t be very comforting for the family to tell them their loved one is in hell, but I think it is really really dangerous how many people become universalists at funerals.

Heh. I just realized something. The person preaching at the funeral talks like we’d better get our house in order or we’re doomed (extreme #1) and the people talking to each other talk like everybody ends up in the same happy Precious Moments Angel Heaven anyway (extreme #2).

My last word is this, as I realize that this has turned into a big gripe/rant, (sorry about that). This one is about my own funeral.

If anybody gives any kind of plea about how I would want to see you again so you’d better get saved, will you punch them in the face? No offense, but at that point, I’m going to be eye to eye with Jesus, and I probably won’t think of anybody else but Him for about the first 12 million years or so. All of my hopes and needs and voids and everything will be fulfilled fully in Him. So don’t get saved and expect to see me waiting at the gate for you when you come. I mean, I’m glad you’re there and all, but, well, you know, I’ll be with JESUS.

Go to Jesus today, and expect to see The One waiting for you that has been waiting for you since the beginning of time. He’s the one worth dying to meet.

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Jesus, the Thief King

Published on 9/16/2008 in Bible Study, Family Life and Urbia. Closed Tags: , , .

So last night it was a cool night and I thought it would be good to open some windows and let some of the cool night air fill up our house. I went around and, since it was well after dark, opened each blind, pulled the window open a bit, and then closed the mini-blinds back again. Two of the windows in our living room open out to the front porch. I stepped over my daughter that was sitting by the window and opened the mini-blinds. There, running away, was a man with a camcorder in his hands. I only saw his silhouette because there was a white pickup truck parked in front of my house. It was running and the headlights were on. I closed the blinds real quick and stood there, kind of shocked, kind of worried, while I realized what had just happened.

In case you are far away or are reading this months from now, some context. This past weekend Hurricane Ike hit a front and sent major major winds into our town. I put up a gallery of tree damage on my smugmug (http://dansullivan.smugmug.com click events, then Sept. something windstorm) All of my neighbors were without power for at least 24 hours, and the park was pitch black. We, however, had all kinds of power.

So I stood there for a minute. Was he videoing the trees that came down…or how dark the park was??? the media had been around all day…no, he was running away!

So anyway, who knows what he was doing, but he certainly destroyed a lot of our peace. All day today weve been wondering if he was sizing up our belongings so he could come back another day or if he was filming our daughter as she sat on the floor watching Madagascar or what.

Needless to say, he wasnt doing anything fruitful.

So tonight I was cleaning up from my evening housework and I started thinking about how Jesus talked about theives coming in the night. If you dont like theives, it wasnt very reassuring. If you dont like Jesus, the thing He said wasnt very reassuring either.

Matthew 24:42-44

Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.

Whenever Jesus returns, be it before some trib or after or after all of the people disappear and Kirk Cameron videos pop up everywhere, all of that is arguable, this is clear, whenever Jesus returns, it will be a surprise.

It will be just like when you open your blinds and see that there was a thief there, that came in w/o you knowing it, but now hes there.

Got a gun? No time to go get it. I have a friend 2 blocks over that walked into her house, thought that someone had been there and saw something sitting on the back porch. She walked back through the house, realized that YES, someone HAD been there, and went back to the porch and the something was gone. They were there at that moment and she didnt realize it. The thing on the porch? The family shotgun.

Got an alarm system? It only works if you turn it on. Car alarms have become so common now that no-one responds to such an annoyance.

When a thief comes, you dont know it until its too late. That is how it will be when Jesus returns. Never mind when it will be or how many nuclear wars well have to if the Temple will be built.

Whenever he comes, it will be a surprise to us all.

It is so wild that Jesus compares himself to something like this. A thief is evil, hidden, tricky! Aha, but thats where Jesus gets you.

Tricky, yes, because its too late.

Hidden, yes, because you didnt see Him coming.

But evil, no. A thief is evil because he takes away something you want.

This Divine Thief wont take what you want. If you try to save your life, youll lose it, He said. He is coming to take whoever would give themselves up for Him, and there is nothing evil about being joined with perfect perfection for eternity.

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Since I forgot to post yesterday…

Published on 9/15/2008 in Family Life and Urbia. Closed

I just realized that even though I read and thought and did stuff yesterday, I forgot to blog!

So, for your viewing pleasure, dear reader, here is a link to the photo gallery of what the wind did yesterday in my park:

This is a big old tree that got uprooted

This is a big old tree that got uprooted

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A brief commentary on my current bike rack.

Published on 6/5/2008 in Family Life and Short Quotes. Closed Tags: , .

I did not buy you a $300 bike so you could strap a big bucket of kitty litter to the back of it.

My wife, after seeing my latest bicycle rack hack.

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Bike Ride Day 1

Published on 6/2/2008 in Family Life. 2 Comments

With the closing of N. Greenriver and $4 gasoline, I’m going to try to bike to work today… We’ll see how it goes.

If all goes well, I’ll slip in a detour to the Donut Bank on my way!

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Disturbing Church

Published on 5/26/2008 in Family Life and Short Quotes. 5 Comments Tags: , , .

During the most important part of the church service, the background music played is an anthem to their country. Pictures of their military are shown, some even with guns in hand, while the congregation meditates on the Eucharist-the body and blood of Jesus who said “blessed are the peacemakers.” At the end, the men’s choir who is usually brought in to sing the most stirring and powerful songs about the saving power of the Gospel puts words to the same song played earlier, singing about God’s favor for the country and the men that fought in bloody wars to keep it ‘free’. The final moments of the song were punctuated with video of huge guns being shot off and cheers from the congregation.

This is not a tale from some state-controlled church in a third world military dictatorship. This is from my church in Indiana, and to all of my non-american friends I say I am so sorry.

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Closing on My House at the Twilight Zone Mortgage Company

Published on 2/27/2008 in Family Life and Urbia. Closed

So there I was, going to close on my house. The realtors from both sides were there, the loan guy, and the closing guy. It was kind of refreshing to sign a bunch of documents in a language that I could read. After two years of getting docs shoved in my face in the 9th most corrupt country in the entire world with the command Signature! I was a little gun-shy going into the closing.

I threw fear to the wind and signed everything they put in front of me with hapless abandon!

After signing enough documents that they stacked up a full inch, we were done and they handed me the keys to my new house. At last, I was a homeowner.

ok, says the loan guy Now my assistant will just make copies of all of these for you and well be done. Now who wants to see some fish?

[insert record scratch sound here]

Yes, you read right. he said,

 NOW    WHO     WANTS     TO     SEE    SOME     FISH?

And with that, everyone in the room (except me) jumped up with excitement and big smiles.

I wouldnt have been weirder if he would have opened up a jar of pickles for all of us to share.

I went along as he ushered us down the hallway, out of the signing room, and to an unmarked door at the end of the room. He opened the door for all of us and we walked in and there was another hallway and then a room full of tropical aquariums! The walls were lined with tanks of exotic fish, the center of the room was a big open tank full of coral and clams and snails.
A man was standing in the middle of the room and my loan guy said to him, This is Steve and Judy (names changed) and they want to switch from freshwater to saltwater and this is Dan Sullivan and he needs a saltwater.
Steve rescued me by starting to talk to the fish salesman while I stood in a little shock. A tropical aquarium business in the mortgage company?
Then two people came in another door with a younger high-school kid. He began to talk genus and species with these other customers and I wondered if there was a sign outside that door.
I checked and there was. There in the backyard, the sign said Employees Only
Ok, so this is really weird. I said to Judy. I figured the next thing was that they would block the doors and commence to steal our kidneys. After about another minute, I had enough. I didnt leave work early to close on a house Ive been waiting for for months to look at fish.
I headed for the door and got the classic handshake at the door that I learned at the Shoe Carnival. If the customer is leaving empty handed, shake their hand at the door and thank them for coming to turn them back toward the store, you may be able to turn them back in from there.
In the signing room, it was no surprise that my documents were ready and after a few moments, I got out of there.

All of this led me to think about first-fruits. All over the scriptures, God asks that we give Him the first part, and He will make all the rest Holy. Im wondering about the first-fruits of my homeownership. If the first 10 minutes were so bizarre, what will the next 10 years hold?

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