Excelsior!

Latin for "Ever upward!" It's also the motto of NY state, and as a Long Island boy, I believe it was the first Latin word I learned. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of stomach among us for digesting much more of Peterson's book. If that can be confirmed by a RESPONSE FROM Y'ALL, then I'd suggest that this blog can still be quite useful to us, providing a forum for chewing over various topics of current interest to us. I don't think we've exhausted the Peterson book, but as LeRoy will no doubt put it, we've been exhausted by it. Your thoughts?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our blog will have a brief Thanksgiving vacation, but we'll pick up the conversation after the holiday. Robert and Sue, LeRoy and Judy, Randy and Linda, Kevin and Dudley, Jim and Debbie, John and Judy, Bret and your wife (sorry I don't know her name!)--we thank God every time we think of you!

Pointed reflections

In doing some sermon prep, I came across the etymology of our word examination. Comes from the Latin examen, which originally referred to the pointer on a scale. To examine something was to weigh it to find out just how much substance was really there (as opposed to what might appear to be there). Without doing any judging or piling on, I'd like to reflect on Ted Haggard's all-too-painfully-public crash-and-burn. (Don't know about you, but my early responses, as the situation unfolded, was "Sounds a lot like me!" Not that I'm tempted in the specific ways that he apparently was--more that I recognized myself in the hypocrisy, dissembling, self-deception, etc.) Could we provide some encouragement and support (and possibly some protection) for one another by responding to a question: Have you developed any spiritual "examen" techniques or practices that keep you well in touch with the deep realities of yourself and the deep realities of God? I don't mean anything technical or precise by "spiritual examen techniques," I'm simply asking for ways in which you help guard/keep your heart.