Miscellany

Idyll

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It’s county fair week in my pastoral community.

When you live in the country, you step through a rift in time. Whatever life you once lived vanishes in a flash, and you wake à la Rip Van Winkle in unfamiliar environs. But in the reverse of old Rip, you half expect to turn around and see Andy and Opie in black and white out back by the old fishin’ hole.

Back in Mayberry’s heyday, the entire community year revolved around the county fair. Youngsters primped their 4-H livestock,  fresh-faced young women coming into the bloom of maturity practiced their finest equestrian moves with their own personal Flicka, while their moms slaved in the kitchen, hoping against hope to beat that Edna Mae Krebs and her strawberry-rhubarb pie that takes home the blue ribbon year after year, “Bless her little heart—You thinkin' that's Silver Queen?and I hope she gets bit by a rabid polecat after stepping on a rusty nail because heaven knows she’s good, but she’s not that good.”

You know, what I’m talkin’ ’bout.

Or maybe you don’t.

Around here, 4-H rules, Flicka still rides, and Edna Mae Krebs continues to be the source of a lot of ground-down teeth amongst the womenfolk. It’s fair week! Around here, local businessowners throw in the towel because, heck, no one shows up for work.  It’s fair week! And the schools? Forget about it. Little Jess and little June are too busy making sure their stew rabbit plumps up nicely for the judges. The principal’s got a bull he just sold at the cattle auction. School? Hey, it’s fair week! Who’s going to be Tobacco Queen this year?

When you live in the country, the local newspapers ain’t like nothin’ you read in the big city. The op-ed pages resemble a seminary debate, as the pastor of the Holiness Church takes umbrage with the editorial written by the Methodist pastor the week before, the darned liberal. And the pastor of the Pentecostal church complains that people today aren’t like they were when he was growing up. Back then, people had no problems with a Tuesday night service, a Wednesday night service, AND a Thursday night service. Now you can only pack ’em in on Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, and Wednesday nights. The world’s goin’ to hell in a handbasket. And, of course, the general store is running a sale on handbaskets through the end of the month.

Probably won’t be any elders’ meetings at the churches because it’s time to get the crop in. When you’re a farmer, the pastor’s just gotta understand that nothing stands in the way of the crop. God knows.

That cloud of dust? It’s the combines harvesting the soybeans. If you look carefully, the corn farmers wear a crooked smirk because they timed their rotation right this year and made a killing. Too bad for the soy guys. Too darned bad.

Out here in the country, you ponder daily the fate of your mailbox, but when that’s about the only thing you’ve got to worry about, life’s not too bad. Your neighbor invites you over to hang out on the back porch, and the old farmer’s wife across the way brings one of those orange cakes slathered in homemade whipped butter frosting with the little bits of pineapple and mandarin oranges in it. A cake good enough to set Edna Mae Krebs’s teeth on edge, I’ll tell you.

You cool your heels on that back porch and listen to the debates about whether Silver Queen is still king, or whether White Magic, Fantasia, or Silverado has got it goin’ on now. And if you’re the city-slicker—like me—you pay extra special attention because you know this is a life or death sort of discussion that might determine your ultimate eternal destination. Even if it is about corn.

It’s fair week. And the Lord Himself is smiling down on us all.

Death Plunge On Display

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I write the majority of my posts between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. This Sunday evening, when my Monday post would normally be written, will be spent outside on our acreage taking in the night sky. Even though SW Ohio comes with far too much light pollution, we’re far enough away from the bright lights and big city to still have a decent starry sky. Meteor displayWe can see the Milky Way, and that’s more than most of the world’s population centers see.

So instead of blogging profundity, you get…well, not one iota of theological controversy.

Instead, we’re out considering the heavens, the work of His fingers, the moon and the stars which He has created. With the new moon and our dark sky, we get a stupendous view of the Perseid meteor shower. I was out the night before and caught several spectacular burnouts, one flaming rock after another screaming out a death song, as if launched from Sagittarius’s bow, an attack on Antares, the heart of Scorpius.

The shower itself originates in rubble cast off by a comet. Earth travels through the debris every August and gives us a celestial show. I’m posting this now so a few of you might catch the spectacular.

All Creation attests to the glory of the Creator. Turn off the TV and get outside! Forget Second Life! Live the real thing.

Blessings.

That Busyness Thing Again

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The phone rang off the hook Wednesday. I spent nearly my entire day glued to my desk and the computer on top of it just trying to pull all the threads of my life together. Then I went to the visitation for the mother/mother-in-law of some friends of mine. Afterwards, I shopped for some milk to replace the entire gallon of milk that just so happened to spoil completely one day after its expiration date.

One stinking day. In other words, those bacteria spun out of asexual control.

I’m attempting to blog on Word and Image, but the more I write, the more ponderous it all gets. At some point, I either overemphasize my point, add in too much supporting material, go down too many trails while illustrating the extent of the problem, and possibly even include too many Scripture verses. Yes, you heard that last one right. When a blog post get to be about ten pages long, perhaps you’ve included too much of everything.

So my post is too busy. Subsequently, it’s in limbo. Maybe I can get it out next week. Maybe.

In the mean time, just so reading this hasn’t been a total waste, here are a few blogs worth noting:

Letters from Kamp Krusty

I’ve been reading Brant Hansen’s blog of Christian snark for about a year. His commentary on the lamer side of all things Evangelical is not only shamefully accurate, but brutally funny. Not always for the faint of heart, and definitely not for the self-righteous, Brant’s what Larry David would’ve been had Larry been born an OT prophet.

The Gospel-Driven Church

Jared Wilson of The Thinklings uncorks a new blog, and like champagne, it goes down smooth, but with some kick at the end. And though he didn’t like my post on saints and sinners too much, I still say, “Check the brother out.”

Chandrakant Chavada

If you want to know what’s going on in the Church in India, Chandrakant’s blog is a great way to start. I’m blessed every time I read of the miraculous works going on in that country. God is moving in India and restoring people to Himself. And that’s always a good thing to read!