Credo ↔ Oratio

Wow, how’s that for a title?!

When JJ and I started talking about the likelihood of moving, we were immediately faced with a uniquely 21st century dilemma: What to do with our Facebook friends.

On the surface, the answer seems simple: nothing.

The problem is, something seems “wrong” with doing “nothing.”

Here’s what I mean: When I look at my Facebook friends, I notice that they fit into several different categories:

With the possible exception of the first category, each of them contains individuals who’ve “friended” me for various (potentially now-defunct) reasons. There are those who…

Obviously, I want to remain connected with the people in the first category. I may also need to remain connected with the people in the second category (I want to in many cases as well!) The question is, what is the best way of dealing with people in the third category?

You see, there is this strange reciprocity on Facebook. It seems rude to “unfriend” someone after previously “friending” them unless there’s been some kind of obvious break up. On the other hand, it seems equally as rude to put someone in the awkward position of having to “unfriend” me if we’ve been “friended” out of obligation but may not need to (or want to) stay in contact when I move 9 hours away. (This may be particularly true with people who’ve “friended” me because I was their teacher or minister).

(NOTE to Facebook: This is why I think you should set friends to time out in a year if they haven’t interacted at all. In other words, set the software to automatically unfriend people who haven’t written, chatted, or even “liked” each other’s status in 12 months. They can always refriend each other. Or better yet, give them a 1 month warning so that they know they need to get back in touch with one another before the auto-un-friending descends upon them!)

Until Facebook decides to instigate an auto-un-friending policy, we’re left with mitigating these waters on our own. Months of thinking about it have brought me to the conclusion that the best way of handling it is to do a massive-friend-purge when we move.

It isn’t that I don’t like most of the people involved (I do). It isn’t that I don’t want to be friends with them (I do). It’s that I want to give those who’ve “friended” me out of convenience or obligation a gracious way to respond to the fact that they we probably will not stay in contact when I move.

I’m sure it isn’t the perfect way of handling it. I don’t even know if it’s a good way of handling it. I do know that it’s the best option I’ve been able to come up with.

So, if we’re friends now, and you notice in the next few weeks that something happened and you’ve stopped getting my witty and thought-provoking status updates on your News Feed, it isn’t that I don’t like you.

Seriously, if you refriend me, I will eagerly reciprocate the refriendification. If we were somehow connected out of obligation or convenience (and the reasons no longer hold true), you will now have a wonderfully gracious way of opting out.

Don’t worry, the massive-friend-purge will not happen for a few weeks, so the defrendifying, refriending and refrendification will be entirely unnecessary for a while.

I write this now, because I wonder what you think.

How is a situation like this best handled? Leave a comment on my blog… drop me a message on FB… or an e-mail… give me a call… or write on my wall (if it’s appropriate for public consumption). Let me know what you think and what your experiences have been….

Grace and Peace,
`tim

A few years ago I wrote a short little essay on dirt and several people have asked me about it recently.  So, since I haven’t posted it here before, I thought I’d do so (minimally edited from the 2003 version).   Enjoy!

A Thought on Dirt

Until recently, I had never really taken the time to think about how amazing dirt really is. In the last couple of weeks however, as my church (and place of employment) broke ground and started construction on the second half of our facility, I’ve begun to see the beauty of this, the most basic, and yet infinitely complex of elements.

Of course, the modern world doesn’t consider dirt to actually be an element. We reserve that title for substances that are impossible to discern with the naked eye. Fortunately however, our propensity for making everything more complicated than it really should be didn’t stop the ancient world from recognizing the immense value of this unique substance.

As a boy in northwest Iowa, I was raised knowing the worth of good dirt. And even though I now live in Michigan, where the dirt will require another million years or so to reach the moist warmth of the black gold my homeland produced, I have yet to forget the lessons of my childhood.

We had a pile of dirt in our front lawn. Actually, it was my Dad’s pile of dirt, not mine, but in line with the traditions of most children, I quickly took ownership of it. I don’t know where it came from, but eventually that pile of dirt was to end up insulating one of the three walls of the house we built. (Of course, my Dad actually built it, but as with the dirt, that didn’t stop me from thinking it was mine either.) One day, as I bathed myself in the elemental beauty of that black playground, my hand broke through into a nest of baby gardners. It was amazing. Hundreds of green and yellow snakelets hissing and squirming burst out onto my lap like a clown’s peanut can at a birthday party. With the swiftness of animal instinct, I hurled myself away from the roiling mass, but not without learning a very important lesson: Dirt is the root of all life.

God knew that. The book of Genesis tells the story of God creating dirt, and then, as if he had created it just for that purpose, on the sixth day, he played in it. You don’t believe me? Check it out. Genesis chapter 2, verse 7. Just a couple of pages into the sacred scriptures, God is playing in the dirt. Imagine the tiny divine sand castles God might have built on the shores of Lake Michigan or the gourmet mud pies carefully crafted from the best the world has to offer. Then, as if growing bored with inanimate objects, God built an adult. Knees, feet, fingernails, earlobes, nose hairs, lungs, appendix – everything but a bellybutton (if childhood jokes are to be trusted) and liking it, God took a deep breath and blew into it. The dirt became a man, and humanity was created.

Jesus liked dirt too. One apocryphal story from his childhood tells of him making small birds in the soil of his childhood homeland, and upon being chastised for playing during the Sabbath, he breathed into them and they flew away. Later, in the course of his public ministry, he healed a blind man with dirt and a little spit. Not to mention, the famous incident where he stooped to the ground and wrote the mysterious words that would set an adulterous woman free and silence her accusers.

Unfortunately, as humanity has “progressed,” dirt lost its position of favor among those of us who were created from it. Now, as if denying our own history, we participate in innumerable personal and familial rituals to rid ourselves of this primal element. Although perhaps providing a certain degree of freedom from disease, the side-effects of a germ-free society are devastating. Why? Well, it can all be sifted down to one very simple equation: E=D.

Enjoyment = Dirt.

The level of enjoyment one has in his or her life is relative to the amount of dirt one encounters. In other words, the more we play in dirt, the happier we are. The opposite seems to be true as well: the less we play in dirt, the less we enjoy life. As a matter of proof, let me direct your attention to two groups of people: Lawyers and 3-year olds. Lawyers encounter a minute amount of dirt in their daily lives, while 3-year olds practically sweat the substance. Let me ask you, who seems to enjoy life more? Is it the executive lawyer with a multimillion dollar office and a cleaning staff to protect her from dirt, or, is it the 3-year old who pulls of his shirt in the summer heat and paints “war-strips” on his chest after tracking down a “hippopotamus” in the grove?

The answer is simple: the child.

Jesus told us to be like little children, which according to pastors and scholars, was in the context of teaching about faith. Could it be possible, though, that faith is only part of what Jesus was talking about. I think so.

I think Jesus was talking about dirt too. Of course, I probably won’t mention that on Sunday morning. After all, if everyone ran outside to play in the dirt during worship, my Consistory might not be very happy – let alone the people who are signed up to clean the church next week. But maybe – just maybe, it’ll happen some other time. Hours after everyone has gone home from worship, and hours before anyone might call for a visit or a counseling session. In those quiet moments just before the moon rises or shortly before the sun peeks its face over the eastern horizon. Maybe, I’ll throw on some old blue jeans, a T-shirt and some sandals and carefully sneak out to the pile behind the church to explore what’s hidden depths of one of God’s most popular playgrounds.

Of course, you’re welcome to join me. I’ve gotten over my childhood need to pretend everything is mine. But please don’t tell the Consistory or the people signed up to clean next week. It’s a lot easier to explain if they think the kids did it.

(c) 2003, 2010 Tim TenClay

Grace and Peace,

`tim

The new year is fast upon us and, as is usually the case when the calendar makes its remarkably over-celebrated transition from one page to the next, I find myself reflecting on the past year. Meditations like this can easily lean either toward the negative or the positive and, to be fair, this year has provided enough on both sides of the list to write several lengthy posts. It’s the positive that gives life though, so I’d like to end the year giving out a few unofficial awards noting those who have made my little corner of the world better and more hopeful in a variety of ways.

My self-imposed rules are simple:

• No one in the family gets awards – they go without saying!
• No one gets an award who would expect to get one – that defeats the purpose.
• Awards are presented in random order; I’m giving 7 for no other reason than that it seems like a good biblical number.

Award #1: Emily… For all the work she’s done at church… all the ways she’s gone above and beyond… all the times she picked up the slack when others fell through.

Award #2: the General Synod of the Reformed Church in America… for an historic vote on the Belhar Confession and taking the monumental step of sending it to the Classes for approval as the RCA’s fourth standard of unity.

Award #3: Joe Chicago’s Pizza our absolutely favorite pizza joint. Sophia refers to it as the “monkey place” because of the reprinted poster on the wall of a monkey embracing a large bottle of some kind of liquor. This award should probably be shared with Skile’s Tavern, who make the best thin crust, greasy pizza in the world. Truly incredible. The two are too different to be compared, so both win!

Award #4: Joe and Todd… Joe is one of the key organizers of the Men’s Knitting Retreats and Todd, put together the midwest version which I had the pure joy of attending in November.   On a related note, MenWhoKnit.com deserves mention. The people from these two (overlapping) groups have, unquestionably, made up the most supportive, most encourage and most caring group of people I’ve had the privilege of interacting with throughout the past year.

Award #5: Von Morgens früh…und bis zur Nacht… my favorite album of the year. Absolutely life-transforming collection of music related to the daily prayer cycle. The album is worth every penny for the masterful “Laudate omnes gentes” (Track 2) and one of the most beautiful and haunting pieces ever set to music: Arvo Pärt’s “Magnificat” (Track 11). That said, every single track is worth the price of the album.

Award #6: Matt & Ragbrai…. This year I eagerly rode my third Ragbrai; Matt has ridden with me through all three of them. Both the ride and the co-rider have been more valuable than any amount of professional counseling could have ever been in providing perspective, relaxation, and rejuvenating (yes, believe it or not 500 miles on a bike can be both relaxing and rejuvenating.)

Award #7: Seminarians… Ok, this may seem like an odd award. Those of you who know me well know that I did not consider seminary a particularly enjoyable experience. This year, however, I’ve had the opportunity to spend more time with current seminarians than I have since my graduation a decade ago. I can’t speak to all of those preparing for ministry in the RCA, but I can say this: the RCA is on the cusp of receiving some it the most thoughtful and intelligent seminary graduates we’ve seen in decades. I hope and pray that rather than dumping them into local congregations hoping they don’t hurt themselves or others, we welcome them into ministry, encourage them along the way, support them, and help them sail faithfully into ministries (both old and new) that the church needs.

There could be more, but I’ll stop there.

Whatever the past year has brought to you and yours, I hope the new one finds you increasingly healthy and wise and that it’s filled with unbelievable amounts of both joy and hope.

Grace and Peace,
`tim

We’re about half way through a vacation in Chicago – having a great time.

We’ve been to Ikea (an old favorite), Whole Foods Market (our first time), Trader Joe’s (first time… we’re in love…), a Hawaiian restaurant (in honor of Terika!), Wow Bao (yummmmmm!) – just to name a few.

Today I even got to take my first trip to Loopy Yarns. It wasn’t as big as I expected, but I did pick up some great Merino Top:

Anyhow, thought I’d touch in.

And have I told you how much I LOVE mass transit?!

Grace and peace,
`tim

I wasn’t able to make it to the internet truck yesterday and last night I was too busy working on this morning’s sermon to write much about Ragbrai, but I thought I’d write up a quick post.

I wrote last about Friday morning (which was beautiful and wonderful). Friday afternoon took a major twist for the worse – headwinds and heat… ugh. The last 30 miles just about killed me. Finally, when we got into town they put us out in the middle of nowhere. Yep, it’s my biggest pet peeve of Ragbrai. They couldn’t care less about those of us “traditionals” — the people who use the baggage truck. If you’re a charter or in an RV, the towns often give great spots, but if you’re in the baggage truck… out of luck. Mt. Pleasant put us 1 1/2 – 2 miles away from downtown in some fairgrounds with only a single food booth (unless you count popcorn). We had to pay for shuttles (which we did) and ate downtown. They tied with Chariton for the Wost overnight towns of the week.

Best towns of the week: Ottumwa and Red Oak. I liked Indianola too.

The last day was a fairly short day (about 44 miles). I was pretty sore but made it through reasonably quickly. By 2:00, Brenda (my wonderful Sister in Law) dropped off the van and by 3:30 we were on our way back home.

Home by about 11.

Ragbrai is over.

It’s hard to believe it’s all over. In the end, it’s was a great week. Over all, I was severely under-prepared (especially for the hills this year). If I ever end up doing it again, I’ll have to definitely make sure I put in more training miles.

The people this year seemed more friendly than last year. Last year everyone seemed a bit surly. I think maybe it was the heat. This year people were a lot more friendly, more talkative, more cooperative, more patient, etc.

A few things about good through-towns:

A few things about good overnight towns:

I’m totally sorry it’s over, but am sure glad to be sleeping in my own bed and was incredibly happy to NOT put my seat on a bike saddle this morning!

Thanks for following. If you’re interested in pics, I put a few up on facebook here and a few (some overlapping) on flicker here.

Grace and Peace,
`tim

I’ll be the first to admit that MOST blogs are drivel. My own often deserves that adjective. Having said that, most of us who blog end up putting a lot of time and energy into our posts and hate the idea of losing them all in some kind of digital belch.

Enter the idea of turning your blog into a book.

The problem with that? Books are expensive and blogs are ever-changing.

Enter the website Blogbooker. With almost no effort, Blogbooker will convert your blog (if you use WordPress or LiveJournal) into a single .pdf file. And best of all? It’s free! Yeah… free!

You can’t format or do anything particularly exciting with it, but it does backup your entire blog in a single, reasonably small file. Even better? It does it quickly.

Check it out. That’s b l o g b o o k e r [dot] c o m.

Grace and Peace,
`tim

Yes, I’m a slow bike rider. Slow enough, in fact, that those I’ve ridden Ragbrai with over the past two years have occasionally referred to my biking style as “tortoise pace.” It’s true, actually and I don’t mind at all. Indeed, last year I decided I would ride SLOWER than the year before, and this year it looks quite likely that I will ride even slower yet. Any real biker would be ashamed of that. Not me. Ragbrai isn’t a race; it’s more like a family reunion or a county fair. So this year I decided to embrace my pace and celebrate it.

How? You might ask… I ordered bracelets. Blue… glow in the dark… silicone with a trendy little tortoise and my new motto: …the slower the better!

They just arrived, and I know, you’re jealous. I ordered enough to share though; all you have to do is ride a little tortoise pace and I might even give you one!

1 week….

Grace and Peace,
`tim

PS. Interested in ordering your own bracelets for something? The company I went through was great: http://www.wristbandsnow.com/

STRIP-ing a book… not to be confused with yesterday’s post on “ripping” a book. Again, it’s something I’ve put together to help me — maybe you’ll find it helpful….

Upon graduating from seminary, new ministers quickly learn that one of their most unwieldy tasks will be maintaining some sense of order in an ever-increasing library. Even more importantly for those who do extensive reading, is the ability to find a quick and helpful way to “remind” oneself about the positive (and negative) qualities of a book without taking the time to re-read it.

With that problem in mind, I developed the STRIP system. It is nothing dynamic or difficult (and, for that matter, could probably be improved on), but it can be easily printed on a label and placed on the inside cover of a book allotting each book a numerical “grade” by which I can remind myself about its content (Note: the numerical “grade” does not necessarily indicate “good” or “bad”). The label is simple:

Enjoy.

Grace and Peace,
`tim

First, I should tell you that I absolutely love reading. The problem is, I don’t always like to take the time to read things I feel like I should read. I could take a speed reading course, I suppose, but haven’t seen one offered that was convenient. So, I’ve begun “ripping” books. It’s nothing fancy but it saves me time and get’s me through books that I might otherwise not want to spend so much time on or simply don’t have the time for (even if I want to). I figure, now that I’ve been doing it for a few years, that I can get through anywhere between 100 and 300 pages an hour depending on the book – sometimes a bit more. If the book uses archaic language, is quite technical, or is a professional book from a different field, the page count per hour drops dramatically.

I don’t know if anyone else would find it helpful, but here’s how I do it:

This evening I ripped The Celtic Way of Evangelism. It wasn’t as great of a book as I had hoped, but it did have some good content. If you’re interested, here’s what my final product looked like (.pdf).

I know the process doesn’t have much finesse – it’s more skill than art; but I’ve developed it through use and it works well for me — feel free to steal it if it’s helpful!

You might also consider STRIPping books too (an equally as self-developed method I use for evaluating them) – I’ll post instructions on that later.

Grace and peace,
`tim

One of my favorite websites is http://www.despair.com – great stuff. Anyhow, today I ran across one of their new(ish) T-shirts. It is among the funniest I’ve seen in a long time:

Social Media Venn Diagram

Gotta love it.

That one doesn’t trip your trigger? Check on the others… one is bound to!

Grace and Peace,
`tim