Firemen

Here's the crew during our church's 'trunk or treat.' It made me wish that I really was a fireman, because so many people asked.

The dalmation didn't even have any accidents.

Golden-winged warbler

Last week we had a golden winged warbler vacationing in our yard. I saw it every day for about 4 days, flitting in the backyard grass. According to my Kaufman field guide, they are generally in Iowa only during migration. It was a new siting for us.

Love & Generosity

I was reading Joel Green's commentary on Luke today--the section on 6:27-38. It was the first time in a while that I've really been struck by the radicalness of Jesus' call to live differently. A couple excerpts:
"Jesus calls on his followers to form a community the boundaries of which are porous and whose primary emblematic behavior is its refusal to treat others (even, or especially, those who hate, exclude, revile, and defame you) as though they were enemies (or outsiders)."
"Jesus does not deny the link between social distance and material exchange, but he radicalizes it by insisting that all persons should be treated as though they were close kin, whose actions, therefore, could not be regarded as stealing or begging."

". . .Loving, doing good, giving/lending must all be exercised freely, without calculation, without expectation of return" not as a moral code, but because this models God's character.

Huge ideas that are so far from what I tend to live by, and far from what I see the Church being known for. Frankly, I can see (and have heard) many excuses why I shouldn't live like that. And yet. . .

Entering the water

Our older boys are learning to swim, or at least get comfortable in the water--face in, feet kicking-even if they don't get anywhere; figured it was our turn too. We'll see how we handle the water.