Faith, Family, Forests and the Field: Me, Myself and I at the Holiday Inn Express

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Me, Myself and I at the Holiday Inn Express

Well... here I am on a Thursday night, away from the family, looking at a long day tomorrow with an early morning meeting, an Indiana EMS Commission meeting and a long drive home... and the wait... teaching about four hours of a Wilderness First Aid Class for the BSA Friday evening with another all day session on Saturday... then an Evansville Icemen game Saturday night.

My schedule is sometimes insane to say the least.

After a three hour drive today with it's share of near mishaps, working on some educational programs for my primary job and an employee dinner this evening in Greenwood, Indiana, I was a little tired. Since then, I have went to Walmart and retrieved a Coke Zero, a Kit Kat bar and a comb, read over the entire agenda again for the Commission meeting tomorrow in Brownsburg and spent some intermittent time of Facebook. In between responding to Facebook posts, I have been reading from the Matthew 1:1-1:11 Concordia Commentary by Dr. Jeffrey Gibbs while listening to Pastor Jonathan Fisk at www.worldvieweverlasting.org

Tonight, I found a wealth of understanding of the Word in both Gibbs and Fisk. In trying to read and listen as I often do, an episode of Fisk's work from last week somewhat grabbed my full attention away from my reading for a few minutes as he really did explain well how as American Christians we attempt to divine what God is up to in the present. Specifically, what is God trying to tell me right now... rather than understanding what he has revealed is in the Word and what occurs in the world is allowed by God, but not his directly trying to tell us something. That is nothing more than mysticism. It was an excellent episode. You can watch it at:

The House That Mysticism Built

Back to the commentary by Dr. Gibbs...

Both of my Pastors had Dr. Gibbs for classes at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis. Both speak very highly of him. Other Pastors I know highly recommended this commentary. Since it is Advent, I found it a good time to start with Matthew 1:1 and do some deeper reading and experience the exegesis of the first part of the book of Matthew by Dr. Gibbs. I could have probably picked something on the book of Luke also for Advent, but that is usually where I have concentrated in the past. As Gibbs clearly indicates, Matthew early on describes who Christ is in a multitude of ways.

The text is amazing. In many places, there are more footnotes on a page about the text than the text itself. There are some very deep dives into the Greek and an extreme level of explanation. In short, even for a lay person like me, this book is hard to put down. This copy is borrowed from the church library, so the urge to highlight and make notes must be suppressed... although, i think I will be adding this text to my "want" list.

So... am I enjoying myself? Yes, to a certain extent. I like driving, but I hate being on the road away from my family. I like being able to read and learn, but I miss having six year twins crawl up on me to snuggle.

So as I prepare for sleep and the hectic schedule of the next two days, my mind will turn to my thoughts such as this...

www.girlversusdough.com

My friend Shannon Marshall, posted a recipe link to my Facebook timeline yesterday. It is for sausage filled Piggy Rolls. You see... I have a six year old daughter infatuated with Pigs who just happens to love sausage... I cook, but I have never made dough before. After looking at this recipe, I guess I will be learning how to make dough. It doesn't look fun but I will manage.

But her reaction when they come out of the oven will be worth it.