Just what I need... another hobby.

I am not lacking extra curricular activities. In my past I have pursued drawing, painting and ceramics. More recently I have focused my attention on woodworking, gardening and home coffee roasting.

Now I am into bread.

A year or so ago I read Peter Reinharts book The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I was inspired, but overwhelmed. It's definitely the advanced class. And, I knew nothing about making bread. Well, this past Christmas my parents bought us a grain mill (since we are in Kansas, and there is plenty of wheat around here). Kelly also bought me Reinhart's latest book Whole Grain Breads.

I'm diving in.

So far so good. I have mostly been experimenting with sandwich breads (trying to get whole grain bread soft, light and airy).

Today I made a new bread. It's an adaptation of a recipe called "broom bread" (because it has so much fiber it really sweeps you out). It really does have an explosively high fiber content. It has whole wheat, rolled oats, oat bran, and flax seeds. I think a better name would be "super colon blow".

It tastes really good, though. And it looks cool too. Here are a couple of pictures.

Next time you visit I'll give you some.

"Too bad the rules don't allow me to be merciful"

This past Sunday I used yet another movie for an illustration in the message I was giving. I think that the story of Les Miserables is one of the most poignant and dramatic that I have ever come across. I have seen the live performance twice. I have seen the most recent movie (the one with Liam Neeson) multiple times. I have been told that previous versions of the movie are even better. I don't know. I haven't seen them. Someday I will muster my courage to read Victor Hugo's tome by the same title. Maybe someday.

There are so many themes touched upon in this story - it would be impractical to recount them all here. At it's heart it is a story of redemption, law and grace. Grace as portrayed by Jean Valjean, an ex-convict who is shown extraordinary, life changing grace at the beginning of the story. Law as portrayed by Javert, a police lieutenant who has spent his entire life "trying to never break a single rule."

As the story progresses, the one who has been shown mercy and grace bestows grace upon others. The one who lives under law shows no mercy and needs none for himself. Nor will he accept grace once it is offered. Grace is out of keeping with a man of justice.

But, throughout the story grace can't prevail. Valjean is hunted. There is still a price to pay. The law requires it. Good intentions cannot overcome the requirement of the law. And the law is good and right and just. Only by one final act of self-sacrifice - under the law - by the one who keeps the law - can the law be satisfied and grace truly prevail. Only then can there be freedom.

Wow. That'll preach.

If you haven't seen it, see it. There are multiple movie versions. I am sure there is still a traveling group somewhere still performing the musical. It's well worth the price of admission - or at least a dvd rental.

A restless present

I was reading Philip Yancey's book Reaching for the Invisible God the other day when I came across this sentence, "Strong memories soothe a restless present". It stopped me. I stared at that sentence - and stared at it. It was what I needed.


In the chapter I was reading, Yancey had been talking about what it means to walk in faith in our present circumstances. Sadly, it seems that much of the time, the lives we actually experience appear to betray our notions of what the Christian life is "supposed" to be. We believe in a God who is powerful, and who loves us and who intervenes in the affairs of men and who answers prayer and delights in blessing us. That's what we believe - a personal, intimate, powerful, loving God who is actively involved in our lives. We also have assumptions of what a life like that is supposed to look like - supposed to feel like. But we all go through times when one (or many) of those characteristics of a relationship with God seem seem to be absent - or just plain false. Times when God seems neither powerful nor loving. Times when He seems to be in no particular hurry to answer prayer or be involved at all.


What does it mean to walk by faith in those times? How is faith maintained?


Yancey argues that a key to walking by faith in the present is the ability to hold onto the past and the future at the same time. To lift our eyes from our current life and gaze at the life to come and also to look back at God's faithfulness and intervention in the past. We see His involvement and his faithfulness to his promises much easier when we look at broad brush strokes over long periods of time. We have to have these types of bird's eye views on our life or else we'll go crazy. Our circumstances will draw us away from what we know and believe about God. We'll believe the lie that our present circumstances teach us.


To a large degree, faith is the ability to trust in the goodness of God even when all the circumstances of our life seem to argue against it.


I know what it feels like to go through long stretches of silence - when God seems to have forgotten my address - times when a relationship with Him does not at all feel like I thought it would feel. I know what that's like.


And I imagine that anyone who might be reading this blog also knows what it is like. Yancey's statement is a good reminder to lift our eyes - to take a deep breath and gaze far into the future and into the past - to see that our present circumstances are not the complete story. There is more to life than meets the eye.


Don't be fooled. God still loves you. He is still in control. He is still listening. He still deserves our trust.


Hang in there.