Fathers and sons

Samuel is still a shrimp, but not such a shrimp as he was. This week he graduated from his three-to-six-month onesies to his six-to-nine-month onesies (he is nine months old). And today, Karin brought him some large pacifiers. We’d worried that he would swallow one of his older pacifiers; he’d begun slipping them entire into his mouth. Samuel also did his first crawls today. He’d been standing on hands and knees without moving, but this week he took a few crawls forward. I hope he walks soon so I can let him wander around the back yard.

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I’ve finished reading Book 2 of C.P. Snow’s Strangers and Brothers series. Nine more books to go. This particular novel used to be called Strangers and Brothers, but for the omnibus edition it was rechristened George Passant. This month, I’m reading Book 3, The Conscience of the Rich.

I also am reading John Stott’s IVP Romans commentary which I used to notice my dad assigning to his seminary students. (They’d usually read it in Spanish.) I’ve put off studying Romans long enough. And now that I’m beginning, I’ve resolved to limit how much I study it. Some people get sucked in and read dozens of commentaries on that epistle. That isn’t for me. If I find a tidy 400-page Reader’s Digest Condensed version that makes sense of Romans, that will suffice.

Today, coincidentally, Samuel and I were having a video call with my parents when my dad, who was writing study notes on Romans, gave me an impromptu presentation of his worked-out theory of the Atonement. Indeed, he presented it several times in response to my clarificatory questions. He is the same father who used to sit with me in the middle of the night when I was too afraid to sleep, answering questions such as What is faith, questions upon which salvation hinges.

Gains and losses of our church

After a three-month hiatus, Karin & I have returned to our adult Sunday school class. Our attendance lapsed when Samuel was born, and, each week, we just kept on sleeping in through the Sunday school hour.

But now it’s good to be back. The current text is John Stott’s 1 & 2 Thessalonians: Living in the End Times. (The link is for a new edition that will be released this summer; Stott is the sole author of the edition we’re using.) It’s amazing how insightful the discussion is when we try to answer Stott’s study questions.

The class meets in a new room, around a stylish, curvy table. No, it isn’t quite like the table in the classic scene in 24 Hour Party People. The whole church is being frugally rearranged. Its basement rooms will soon be rented out to a fostering agency. The agency will pay less rent than it did for its downtown offices, and the church will recover a significant proportion of its maintenance costs. Everyone will win.

The church has another connection to fostering. It hosts a “foster closet,” in which donations of clothes, books, and other household items are collected for foster parents.

We attended our small group meeting tonight and heard some bad news: the church’s garage had been broken into. Nothing of value was stolen, but a lock was snapped off. Apparently, our church has been robbed for several years. It used to own a couple of vans which, from time to time, would be vandalized. Parts would be stolen, probably for resale in Chicago, and gas would be siphoned off. That’s the disadvantage of being located in such a picturesquely isolated part of town.

Leading Sunday School

For whatever reason, I’ve been made the de facto deputy leader of my church’s Sunday School class for adults. So far, I’ve led three sessions, and it looks like I’ll be given charge of all of the next series, in which we’ll read through John Stott’s study guide on the beatitudes.

I really like these study guides by Stott. I understand the biblical texts much better after discussing them, under Stott’s guidance, with my classmates. Stott’s questions are open-ended, yet they always seem to direct us to the truth.

Tomorrow, though, we’ll finish a different series, Jim Cymbala’s Life-Changing Prayer: Approaching the Throne of Grace. The plan is to watch a 24-minute DVD episode; to answer the two discussion questions left over from our previous meeting (we watch every episode twice); and then to spend the rest of the session praying (it is the last session, and the unit is about prayer, after all). Like Stott’s curriculum, this one also pretty well teaches itself.

(I’m glad to have been put under the spotlight at the very end of the series, since the final episode, “The Church That Prays Together,” has been my favorite by far.)

Closing credits (2018)

A rainy New Year’s Eve. Still, 2018 ends with more warmth than 2017 did.

This is my 120th entry of the year. I’ve written ten entries each month.

For providing material to discuss, I again thank Karin, Jasper, and Ziva; my tutees; my blood relations; and Brianna and other in-laws.

Additionally, this year, I acknowledge:

The poets.

Boca Juniors and River Plate.

The Mormons, who, until mid-October, were very friendly to Karin & me. They must have then given up trying to convert us.

Brett Kavanaugh.

My dissertation adviser for – so far – allowing various prolongments.

The St. Joseph River for declining to flood our apartment complex.

The city of Austin.

Maj Sjöwall & Per Wahlöö for authoring the Martin Beck mysteries.

Aimee-Ffion Edwards for acting in four of the best screenworks I viewed this year:

• Skins (a lewd TV soap opera about Bristol’s teens; not for the faint of heart);
• Detectorists (a gentle sitcom – featuring the excellent Toby Jones – about rural, amateur metal detectorists; quite suitable for the faint of heart);
• Luther (a quasi-fantastical crime show starring Idris Elba; for the great of heart); and
• Queen & Country (the long-overdue, surprisingly un-cynical, cinematic continuation of John Boorman’s Hope and Glory).

I also thank the moviemakers of 1996.

And I thank our new church, which welcomed Karin & me during a rather turbulent period. We watched over the two- and three-year-olds during many services. Starting in the spring, we also wrote, printed out, and folded each week’s bulletin. (Mercifully, that task will soon be performed by a new secretary.) The most rewarding event each week was the adults’ Sunday School class. For authoring that class’s discussion guides, I heartily thank the late John Stott.

Finally: thanks to everyone who offered money and prayers on our behalf. Please pray for me to complete my degree soon. Karin & I long to get out of this rut in which we’ve been living.