Something to Talk About

Well, in response to Joanna's marching orders for the VRCC kitchen class, I thought it necessary to give y'all something to comment on, but first a couple of quick thoughts related to my weekend trip to Fredericksburg.

1. Cooper's Bar-B-Que rocks!- I learned this weekend that I am old. A relatively short (by Texas' standards) drive can wear me out. Our first night there, I slept more than twelve hours straight. Jennifer woke me up to tell me that the group was heading to Llano for BBQ. I nearly told her that I needed a few more hours of shut eye and "the group" could go without me, but I didn't want the conversation at lunch to be how lazy Jennifer's good-for-nothing husband was, so I pulled myself out of my coma and went to lunch. Man, am I thankful for social pressure! Cooper's is what Boi Na Braza would be if it were going for the "Dive" ambiance and sold its meat by the pound. It is apparently the preferred BBQ of Pres. Bush and, regardless of your political views, the man knows his Bar-B-Que. (Side Note: Shirt and Tie is never appropriate BBQ attire, even if you are Commander in Chief and you are having a photo op).


2. Fine, I surrender! (part two)- While in Fredericksburg, we discovered that all of Jennifer's friends were part of this whole Facebook thing. In the face of such formidible odds, Jen and I cracked and finally signed up. I can't tell you I get the whole thing yet, and I will probably offend some of my newfound "friends" since I have not yet learned the customs of this new and strange culture, but I'm here and trying.

Okay, the real point of the post, which would have been the thrust of my post even with out Joanna's upcoming lesson, has to do with a struggle I've been facing lately that you might help me work through. I am a big believer in "authentic Christianity". I think Church should be a place where we are who we really are, not the place where we put on our "happy Christian" faces and pretend that all of our struggles and problems evaporated off of us along with the baptism water. It is only by sharing our struggles with one another that we can hope to gain perspective on them and ultimately overcome them.

Recently, however, I have had several encounters with those who use this "authentic Christianity" as a pass on their sins. I've had someone tell me, "My church is great! They know all about my X (sin) and they think it's just fine!" I've seen that same attitude in others around me as well. It has become a theme the last few days. My question is: as great as authentic Christianity is, is there no room in it for a "transformative" Christianity; a faith that calls us to become better than we are?

Now don't get me wrong. I've seen first hand how destructive our faith can be when it is applied judgmentally; when the threat of "disfellowship" is used to make sure we lambs walk in lock step, and a moment of weakness is forever held against you. I am thankful that I found a place like VRCC that always errs on the side of love, but I'd like to think that if I dared call night day, or my sin righteousness, one of y'all would slap some sense into me!

It reminds me of the Romans passage, "Shall we continue sinning so that grace may abound?" Paul's answer on that is pretty clear. We don't take the grace that Christ died for and use it as an excuse to wallow in our wayward ways. We stumble; we fall, but we don't do so gleefully, and we certainly don't stay fallen , especially if there are those of the community of faith around us to pick us up.

It is one of the things that I treasure most about my dearest friends. They lead me closer to Christ. They encourage me to be better than I am. The lust, anger, arrogance, and the countless other sins in my life seem as pointless as they really are when I am in the midst of my Christian family.

I feel like I am rambling, which is probably a good sign that I need to wind this up. So, it's your turn: Can we find a balancing act between authentic Christianity and transformative faith?

Fine, I Surrender!!

One of the things I have been most proud about with my blogging is that my blogs were a place where anyone could come and freely post their ideas. That was until the recent assault by Spammers.

In all honesty, I have never felt more violated than I have felt in the last couple of weeks when my email will notify me that someone has cared enough to post a message on my blog, only to discover that the message is nothing more than some opportunistic piece of human refuse trying to sell my loyal readers a sex product or force those same readers to download spyware. I'd like to think that I am a fairly accepting, even loving, individual, but for the life of me I don't understand how people that post things like that have the temerity to wake up in the morning and look at themselves in the morning. They are the very dregs of society, and it makes me indescribably unhappy that they breathe the same air as real human beings.

Okay, enough venting. The point of this post is to tell you that even though it saddens me deeply, I feel that I have no other choice but to activate all of the comment moderation features blogspot offers to prevent spammers. I will now have to approve all comments that are posted, and it also means the dreaded (by me at least) word verification system:


It is my hope that you can understand the need for these steps and that you will continue to visit and comment when you get a chance. Thanks, guys.

Exciting News!

Well, okay, not so exciting for you, but I'm pumped about it. I think I've shared with you that in returning some of the extra gifts my mom gave us for the Christmas o' Plenty that I received a fairly sizable credit on my Amazon.com account. Jennifer and I used a good portion of that credit to buy a new printer. But not just a new printer, a LexMark WiFi Printer / Copier / Scanner. It is unequivocally the most hi tech thing I own that wasn't bought by the Irving Independent School District. Here is a picture of me trying out the scanner feature. As you can see, it is awesome!


In addition, after weeks of my whining, Jennifer found the USB cable for the digital camera, so I can start putting up new pictures on the ol' blog. Of course, now I have to take more pictures.

Oh, and apparently it snowed.

I't Me, It's Me, it's Paul-y B.

I can't believe I only posted once in February! Hopefully March will be more productive, although I have low expectations of that being the case. As I've mentioned in my last two posts, I can't download pictures from my digital camera to my computer because I lost the USB cable that transmits that data (notice how I finally stopped calling it a dohicky?). Does anyone know if they make a replacement one of those, because I really don't want to have to buy a whole new camera. Anyway, it seems pointless to post without new pictures to post alongside.

For those interested in an update about the Renaissance Hotel, it was awesome; one of the best Valentine's ever (comparable to the time Jennifer bought me Resident Evil 2 when we were dating). We did have a view of the Dallas skyline, which was breath taking, while the Cheese/Fruit and Cookie/Milk trays were delicious. T Bones also would have been awesome, except I was really full of fruit, cheese, and cookies before we ever got there. We should have thought that one through a little better.

I'm a little light on material to post about, but here is the short hand version:

1. New Church Building- We are up and running at the new Church building. There is a learning curve with the new place (I can't quite get a handle on how to administer communion and gather servers), but with familiar faces in the pew, it is starting to feel like home.

2. Odd students- I have had two different issues with student oddness in the last few days that mystify me. The first was when I had students come up to the board and demonstrate how to work a problem (which was basically me asking leading questions until they got to the right answer). It was a grade, and a virtual guaranteed 100 if the students tried, but I had one girl that absolutely refused. Even when I threatened a zero, a detention, and a much more difficult and boring alternative assignment, she still refused to take the easy 100. I get that to some degree, because public speaking can be a big fear, but it was an easy grade, so now I have this assignment with 119 students getting a 100 and one student with a zero. The second example of oddness was more perplexing. We were correcting a test, which involves me pairing the class based off score (highest scorer with lowest scorer, next highest with next lowest, etc.). Again, I had one girl (a different one from the first) who just refused to work with the student she was paired with. Now I teach Middle School, so I'm used to drama, so I assumed that there was some story behind her refusal to join her partner. Nope! According to her, she just doesn't "talk to him" because they don't "know" each other. Again, I tried to explain to her that her grade was dependent on her working with her partner, that there would be negative consequences if she refused to work, and even acted out how civilized people begin conversations with people they don't "know", but she insisted that it felt "weird" to ask her partner what he got as an answer to number 1. She chose to fail instead of working with someone she didn't "know". Now, y'all know that I'm not the social butterfly, but this easily had two of the three rules involved.

3. Depression- I don't know what is going on, but I've been battling the blues on and off for more than a week. It hasn't been constant, and I have had more than a few "up" days, but I've had just about as many "down" days. I'm feeling very incompetent, like I can't say or do the right thing. So, if you noticed me being off the last little while, that's why. Pray for me as I try to shake this.

Anyway, you are always in my prayers.