The office building is almost finished!

Here are some pictures of what will be my office.

The left one looks out over a wooded area.

My desk will probably be in front of the window on the right.

a chalice of grace

I had a chalice of "grace" the other evening courtesy of Dr. Tom Yearwood. What an amazing, beautiful, poignant... delicious picture from "Domaine Serene" - from the kingdom of peace.

Tom got this out because our son Ben is now in Portland, and worked at a vineyard this week. Ben worked at J.K. Carriere.

Once again, my favorite line from George Herbert, from the last stanza of "The Agony":

Who knows not Love, let him assay
And taste that juice, which on the cross a pike
Did set again abroach; then let him say
If ever he did taste the like.
Love is that liquour sweet and most divine,
Which my God feels as blood; but I, as wine.

(Thank you Brooke for getting me another copy Herbert's works for Christmas!)

Sin is...

I loved this definition of sin I heard from Rob Bell in a podcasted sermon:

"Sin is the culpable disturbance of shalom - the degree to we which have destroyed the peace God intends for things. And we are guilty of that."

leaf bug

Check that out. It's a bug. Not a bug carrying a leaf. But a leaf bug!

"Things in nature that make be believe in God: mimicry" by Peter Illyn

good ideas...

My friend and next-door neighbor, Brian Jones, forwarded this post from Marshall Goldsmith. It's a good one, and certainly speaks to me. So often, adding our "good" ideas to those of others - whether to someone reporting to us, a working group of peers, or our children - is disheartening to them and really only intended to show how smart or clever we are. ouch.

When You Should Keep Your Ideas To Yourself

Brian is a leadership consultant with Pat Lencioni's "The Table Group."
http://www.tablegroup.com/consulting/partners/

Gene Robinson and the BCP

Scot McKnight had a good post comparing Bishop Gene Robinson's prayer to open the inaugural concert and the collect for the Third Sunday of Epiphany which we prayed yesterday, and referencing Fleming Rutledge's comments (which Robert had shown me last week) -

There was quite a dust-up about the prayers at the Inauguration. Analysis of the prayers of others is not something I'm fond of, so I stayed back but this week's prayer in The Book of Common Prayer -- to be repeated by all Anglicans and Episcopalians -- speaks volumes about Bishop Gene Robinson's inaugural prayer...

To keep reading go to Scot's blog at Jesus Creed

Lily Red Sox

One of the better Christmas pics! Beautiful Lily Sofia sporting her (papa's) team's hat :)