Lindsay Willis

Random thoughts on a Thursday night

anderson cooper 360 is on in the background as I take a night to rest and read.  Several things crossed my mind and I decided to just share with you (that is of course if you continue to read this....)

I would take a blizzard over a hurricane any day.  You can stay home through a blizzard, and they are much easier to clean up after.  Blizzards also seem to be a bit more predictable; we generally know what course they are going to take and how much it is going to snow.  So why do people like to live in places where hurricanes keep showing up?  Oh, I guess it is warm where hurricanes hit...maybe that is why I like colder weather rather than hotter weather!

I don't think I would ever want to run for public office.  (I know that is a dangerous thing to say because sometimes God likes to challenge our thinking, but I will risk it here!)  I don't think I could be "on" that long and I would definitely not want my every word, intonation, and hesitation analyzed the way Sarah Palin has been analyzed (or Barack Obama or John McCain).  The media truly can make a mountain out of a molehill (have you mentioned lipstick today?).

Golf is a great game, a golf course is a great place, and (most) golfers are great people.  I played a round of golf today with Pastor Rob, Pastor Jeff, and Anthony Richards--all of them fall into the "golfers are great people"category.  Even though it started wet, it turned out great!!!  I am reminded how much I like the game of golf.

And that brings me to my last ramble...The Ryder Cup starts next week.  It will be a GREAT week!

From my devotional today

I am reading through the Bible in THE MESSAGE BIBLE, Conversations with Eugene Peterson. In my devotional today I read Psalms 139 (which is one of my favorite passages of the Bible).  Peterson's notes there are worthy of repeating here:

"The man in this psalm has experienced the scrutiny of God.  God knows everything about him, down to the most trivial of details.  He knows when the man sits down to dinner and when he gets up to go to work.  Even when he isn't thinking about God, God is thinking about him and knows what he is thinking about.  Before the man comes out with an original statement on a new subject, God has anticipated it and knows it.  When he walks forward, he discovers that God is there ahead of him.  When he goes backward, God is there, too.  God has not only an infinite knowledge of him but an intimate knowledge.

The central item in the (life of relationship) isn't my knowledge of God but his knowledge of me.  Not my faltering search for God, but his search for me.  God's aggressive search for usand his exhaustive knowledge of us have resulted in an existence in which there is no place we can go where God is absent.  We can take the Bible out of the hotel room, take prayer from the classroom, take the Ten Commandments out of the courtroom, and we haven't diminished his presence in any of those places.  We can take his name off the coins and he is no less a present reality than before.  We can deny him, we can curse him, we can ignoree him, and he is still intimately acquainted with all our ways, still tenderly holding us in his love, still faithfully extending his mercy to us, and still generously offering us his grace."

Back to normal

I do not normally spend a lot of time in front of the TV...except for the last four weeks!!!  First there were two weeks of Olympic coverage that I found pretty riveting and inspiring.  That certainly cut into my evenings (and my sleep!).

Then last week was the DNC and this week was the RNC.  I found both of those very intriguing.  I know there is a lot of political rhetoric on each side, but I managed to listen to most of the speeches.  Doing that helped me frame my own thinking...especially when they all happened so close together.

Now the next can't miss TV is the Ryder Cup Matches in mid-September.  It is an international golf competition that is the second most important golf game in the world (right behind the Masters Golf Tournament in April!)  The Ryder Cup is MUST SEE TV.  (Hmmm...some network should use that as their slogan!!!)

And then come the debates...both the presidential and vice presidential debates...they will also be MUST SEE TV. 

Wow, guess the fall of 2008 is going to be quite interesting!!  I am loving it!  Hope you are too!

Listen up

I was reading my devotional the other day and came across what, for me, was a stunning commentary from Eugene Peterson, the one who wrote the paraphrase of the Bible we know as THE MESSAGE BIBLE.  This commentary comes at the end of

Luke 10

, and is about the story of Martha and Mary. 

As I re-read it this morning, I wanted to share it with you.  I am spending time watching the convention proceedings this week and last, and I am reminded of how important Jesus admonition to Martha was in

Luke 10

. 

Here is Peterson's commentary on the passage:

Luke’s setting is the home of Martha and Mary at a time when Jesus was pulling everything together, gathering everyone who was willing into the holy community that would continue to give witness and live in obedience to him.  Jesus was the center.  As the days were drawing to a conclusion, every word was important.  There was going to be a lot to do—healing and teaching, preaching and hospitality, suffering and helping—and the disciples needed to learn to do it the way Jesus did it.  ALL the disciples, not just the Twelve.

 

 When we look at it that way, it turns out that Mary, as one of Jesus’ disciples, was the practical one and Martha the impractical.  Mary was listening to Jesus.  She was listening so that she would know what to do and how to do it.  But Martha wasn’t listening to Jesus, Who was there to train and prepare her to live to the glory of God in the days ahead when he would no longer be dropping in for a bed and a meal.  People who don’t listen usually do too much or do the wrong thing, or do the right thing but in the wrong way.

 

65 years and counting

September 2, 1943, Charles Allan Willis married Marion Mae Peterson at the National Cathedral in Washington DC.  Sixty-five years later, they are celebrating their 65th wedding anniversary. 

Charles (Bud) and Marion are my mom and dad.  I am going to spend the day with them today.  They live in the Brainerd/Baxter area. We will go out for lunch on a beautiful lake, we will go for a drive around several lakes...maybe stopping for an ice cream cone along the way.  Then we will do some shopping (that is one of mom's favorite past times) and we will do it all and get them back to their apartment (in a senior living center) in time for the first pitch of the Twins game (which is dad's favorite past time).

I love being able to spend this time with mom and dad...and I am thankful that they have lived long and relatively healthy lives.  They have set a wonderful example for our family. 

A change of pace

It is Monday night...Labor Day.  I am sitting on my couch and relaxing.  WOW!  What a novel idea! 

I am blogging while I listen to the Rick Warren interview of Barack Obama and John McCain.  I know...the interviews actually happened several weeks ago, but this is the first time I have had a chance to watch them. 

It has truly been a crazy season for me.  I have flown almost 60,000 miles this year...and almost all of it is within the country.  That means I have been on a lot of airplanes and in a lot of airports so far this year.  I am sure glad that I really enjoy what I do.

September is a different month.  Right now, I do not have a trip scheduled for the month of September.  It seems odd to me to not be thinking about a trip....it seems downright weird, to be honest.  Making an adjustment from traveling to being home for a while is old hat for me.  I have done it many times before.  And I will do it again.  But it is still an adjustment after having traveled so much this year.

I am pretty sure that I will have a trip pop up pretty quickly, but for now, I am just going to sit back and enjoy this season of being home!