Running and thinking
I ended up helping ref crazieabby's soccer game today, when the center ref needed the assistance on the sidelines. I appreciate my expertise being brought into play, but I didn't feel as comfortable cheering for her on the breakaway. It was a bit difficult, keeping my mouth shut. Her team lost anyway, 1-0, though the game could have gone either way; lots of missed opportunities on both sides of the ball. Either way, I got a hell of a workout just trying to keep up. She's probably as fast as I am at a dead sprint now.
I had a discussion with her coach last week, and asked about her prospects for high school and whether he thought she would make the junior varsity team at Long Reach. He replied that that was a foregone conclusion, and the real question was whether she would make the varsity team as a freshman. This of course has me thinking about scholarships again, despite the fact that she could probably do so on her academics alone. Now, Kid-2 is also thinking about taking up some sports and continuing with them into high school. I'm thinking of her a great deal because she's at Outdoor Ed this week, and spending an extended period of time away from home for what I think is the first time ever, really. They're both very special kids, and of course have the potential to pwn the world in short order...and I keep second-guessing - heck, multiply-guessing my role as their father. I so want them to be the strong women that they are growing into, and I know that they will do so unless I screw something up. And yet, I know that the surest way to not succeed is to go through life trying hardest not to screw up rather than just positively doing the right thing. I just wish I was wise enough to know what that right thing was at all times.
So, yeah, Falwell. I've had some extremely mixed feelings about this. As a believing Christian, I mourn the passing of a fellow man of the Word. Being a Christian is not an easy thing; sometimes the path to follow Christ leads to some areas you'd rather avoid. We are to love our enemies and wish for peace and reconciliation, even when our common, worldly sense tells us that such a thing is either impossible, or futile, or injurious to ourselves or the world. So it is here, and it's compounded by the fact that this man specifically damaged Christianity itself in far-reaching ways. He contributed to the popular perception that Jesus Christ the Lord is a figure of hate and intolerance and bigotry. He has actively promoted this view in a calculating and organized way, and his poisonous ways live on. He was Pharasaical in his wrongness; I'm not sure that "evil" would be the wrong adjective to describe his works - so contrary were they to the message of Christ, and so damaging to the world that He tried to save. But the Bible teaches love for enemies, even such as he, and it is profound in so prescribing. If I was to repudiate this part of the teachings of Jesus - perhaps because it was not "convenient" for me - I would be as guilty of hate and anti-Christian behavior as Falwell himself was.
Combatting hate with love is not an action that comes naturally. And OMG, it is not easy. But it is the best thing to do - not just in a self-congratulatory way, but in the fact that it is the only practical defense we have. Hate must be opposed by something other than hate; otherwise, the battle's lost.
I had a discussion with her coach last week, and asked about her prospects for high school and whether he thought she would make the junior varsity team at Long Reach. He replied that that was a foregone conclusion, and the real question was whether she would make the varsity team as a freshman. This of course has me thinking about scholarships again, despite the fact that she could probably do so on her academics alone. Now, Kid-2 is also thinking about taking up some sports and continuing with them into high school. I'm thinking of her a great deal because she's at Outdoor Ed this week, and spending an extended period of time away from home for what I think is the first time ever, really. They're both very special kids, and of course have the potential to pwn the world in short order...and I keep second-guessing - heck, multiply-guessing my role as their father. I so want them to be the strong women that they are growing into, and I know that they will do so unless I screw something up. And yet, I know that the surest way to not succeed is to go through life trying hardest not to screw up rather than just positively doing the right thing. I just wish I was wise enough to know what that right thing was at all times.
So, yeah, Falwell. I've had some extremely mixed feelings about this. As a believing Christian, I mourn the passing of a fellow man of the Word. Being a Christian is not an easy thing; sometimes the path to follow Christ leads to some areas you'd rather avoid. We are to love our enemies and wish for peace and reconciliation, even when our common, worldly sense tells us that such a thing is either impossible, or futile, or injurious to ourselves or the world. So it is here, and it's compounded by the fact that this man specifically damaged Christianity itself in far-reaching ways. He contributed to the popular perception that Jesus Christ the Lord is a figure of hate and intolerance and bigotry. He has actively promoted this view in a calculating and organized way, and his poisonous ways live on. He was Pharasaical in his wrongness; I'm not sure that "evil" would be the wrong adjective to describe his works - so contrary were they to the message of Christ, and so damaging to the world that He tried to save. But the Bible teaches love for enemies, even such as he, and it is profound in so prescribing. If I was to repudiate this part of the teachings of Jesus - perhaps because it was not "convenient" for me - I would be as guilty of hate and anti-Christian behavior as Falwell himself was.
Combatting hate with love is not an action that comes naturally. And OMG, it is not easy. But it is the best thing to do - not just in a self-congratulatory way, but in the fact that it is the only practical defense we have. Hate must be opposed by something other than hate; otherwise, the battle's lost.