Sadness...

This is the first opportunity that I have had on writing since my last post. This weekend has been a roller-coaster. My son was born Friday morning after a relatively uneventful labor which changed dramatically with a footling breech birth that had to be delivered via c-section after the water broke. I was just recovering from the birth when the news reached me yesterday about the shooting at my alma mater, Virginia Tech. Anytime news like this reaches me, it just generates such sadness and a loss to even understand. This is even more so when it is somewhere I know, and really do love to be at. Man is sinful, and that is why these things happen. Americans aren't good, no one is. That is why Christ had to save us. Pray for those who lost loved ones and those who have been wounded. God bless those affected, and those on campuses around the country and the globe.

Repetition

This blog will be short because my third child, a son, was born on Friday morning and I have been fairly busy with other important matters. I had to put this out because it puts in clear focus the reason for those "repetitive, boring services" that are the same week after week. You learn them! Doubt it? I don't. Last night, while dressing my two kids for bed, my daughter started saying a phrase that I couldn't help but wonder at. She was saying "very God of very God..." over and over. She was reciting part of the Creed without studying it! I explained where it came from and the next couple lines before she lost interest, but she knows part of the Creed. She is 3!

The service is the basics of the Word, and the Readings and the Sermon should include the meat. But the point of the repetition is to teach the service, the psalms, and the important aspects without the need for fancy classes. It is placed in the rote memory. It is just there. If you toss that out for ever changing services, there is no continuity. You deprive yourself and your kids from the consistency and the rote memory of the Church. It isn't a catch all for preventing apostasy, but it is a great spot to start. If you don't have a doctrine, how do you know if you have left it?

Bumper Stickers

You can learn a lot from bumper stickers. I saw one today that, I believe, is used by pro-abortion supporters. The sticker said "Keep your theology off my biology." Catchy, huh? There were also several budda references and Eastern mysticism stickers. My thought was "without "theology" (ie God), you wouldn't have a biology." People think they can force God out just by saying "I don't believe in you," as if God is an "imaginary friend" that you can wish away. It is sad, but it is a fact of the fallen human nature. Sometimes what people stick on their bumpers (or email signature or whatever) gives you better clues as to who that person is than actually meeting them. I try to avoid stickers myself- I don't want to peel them off later on when they are faded. Plus, if I put a Christian sticker on, then violate a law (regardless of intending to or not), I might cause someone to fall. So my car is boring.

So, what's on your bumper?