A True Coach

I was on the couch or in bed all day yesterday with a cold - for the first time this year I was able to watch some college football. I watched Georgia beat LSU. After I saw the following video, I am happy Georgia won. As long as Mark Richt remains the head coach, and they are not playing a PAC 10 team, I will root for Georgia.

The Shack

Everytime I peruse the book isle at Costco I am tempted to buy it, for it must be quality writing with its current residence at the top of the New York Time Bestseller List. Obviously I am interested in the subject. I have no trouble buying things I should not at Costco, but I have refrained on this one.

My hesitation from the start: with a subtle twist, the essence of God is changed via the powerful literary form of a narrative.

God has chosen, through the Bible, to teach us about himself through story - the narrative. Why? It taps into our emotions and connects our heart with our head. God does not teach us theology by only stating principles for us to learn. For example, he brings us into the scene to watch, feel and understand what happens when an eighty year-old man named Moses approaches Pharaoh, the most powerful King on earth, and ridiculously requests to let a couple million of his slave laborers go. When we leave the scene we not only know God is sovereign, we feel it.

God does not tell just tell us to believe he is our redeemer, he wants us to feel it through the beautiful love story of Ruth and Boaz.

God does not just tell us to love our wives, he wants us to feel it through the sensual intimacy of the Song of Solomon.

God does not just tell us he loves us, he wants us to feel it as it is described four times in the New Testament narrative of the Crucifixion.

The Shack is wanting you to feel some principles about God that are false.

If you care to read more, Gerald Hiestand has a good review here.

I will most likely end up reading it, but remembering to guard my heart as I do. If you have read it, am I off base?

A Wedding Ceremony

Communion, baptism and the wedding ceremony; why is it that some ceremonies elicit emotion from us no matter how many times we take part or witness it? All have been instituted by God and they point to something greater (our souls knows this). The wedding ceremony may be the greatest:

• it points to the past, for we witness God create a new oneness before our eyes as two become one - we think of creation


• we celebrate the present, for the closest communion between two individuals has taken place and it is based on a vow - our relationship with God is based on his promises to us.


• it points to the future, for we are the bride of Christ and some day we will come together with our redeemer

Thank you David and Amber Austin for giving us strength from the past, joy in the present and great hope for the future.

Humpty Dumpty

Pre-wedding activities for David and Amber's wedding - run the kids at the park. The Oregon and California Crummett cousins had fun at Bidwell Park in Chico.

Smoke Detector

This may have been the Crummett's smoke detector when we lived in "the cabin" decades ago: