From Sampler to Sower

Sunday afternoon the Green Bay Packers strode confidently into the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.  It wouldn’t be long however before they looked less certain.  Early turnovers resulted in an early lead for the Vikings.  Things began to look up when the Pack forced a turnover and ran it back for a score to make up the deficit.  But the victory just wasn’t to be.  They made a good run at a comeback late in the fourth quarter, but in the end fell short.

A key factor in the loss was the Vikings pass rush which hounded the Packers quarterback, created havoc in the backfield and led to some costly turnovers.  The other key difference was time of possession, which Minnesota dominated, especially in the second half.

It proved a tough loss.  But it wasn’t the end of the season.  Favre and the Packers went on to lose only two more games, and gave Minnesota a 38-10 drubbing in week 17 when the Vikings had to report to Lambeau Field for the rematch.  It was an exciting end to the regular season and a good transition into the post-season which Green Bay capped off by defeating Drew Bledsoe and the Patriots in Superbowl XXXI.  But they did lose to the Vikings in Minnesota on Sept. 22, 1996.

Given the lessons learned from history, despite last night’s lost, Packer Nation isn’t worried.  The deciding factor isn’t what happened last night.  It’s what happens the rest of the season.

Christ Bearing the Cross, from the Workshop of El Greco and part of the IMA's Clowes collection.

Granted, this is a bit of a diversion from my normal subject matter for this blog, but I’m too excited about this not to share.

One of my favorite things about living in Middletown is the combined joys of living in a small town (population 2,500), the convenience of being 10 minutes from the retail and restaurant options of Anderson, and the culture of being 45 minutes from Indianapolis.  And one of my favorite things about being close to Indy is the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

Simply put, I love the IMA

It’s free.  (That doesn’t keep me from paying for an annual membership though – it’s a museum worthy of support.)

It really is a world class institution.  They have a very eclectic collection from Chinese Jade, to the Eitlejorg African/Egyptian collection, to old masters, to modern design.  They have one of the best collections of Neo-Impressionism in the Western Hemisphere, and their collection of works from the Pont-Aven School (including Paul Gauguin) is perhaps the best in the world.  I can’t summarize their collection without mentioning their extensive collection of works from J.M.W. Turner in their Pantzer collection.  And, for me, the icing on the cake: their Clowes collection features five works from the workshop of El Greco – my favorite artist of all time.

And it’s 45 minutes away!

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Anyone who’s on Facebook has probably seen the 25 things meme that’s been spreading like wildfire over there.  I myself was recently tagged, as was friend and fellow blogger Todd.  Not to be outdone, I succomed.  Here are my 25 things, reposted for your enjoyment.

Photo courtesy of annamon on flickr

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Wow . . .

It’s hard to believe 2008 is over and 2009 has begun.

But here I am at the Dunkin’ Donuts on Coldwater Blvd in Fort Wayne writing my first blog post of the new year.  (By the way, as Dunkin’ Dounuts go, this one is swank.  Plus free wi-fi.  A great place for some blogging on the run.)

I find myself marveling this morning.  I’ve been out in public on the major “days after” this year.  The morning after Thanksgiving was a madhouse.  The morning after Christmas, likewise.  Maybe even worse.  But the morning after New Year’s Eve might as well be the morning after the Apocalypse.  It’s like I have the whole world to myself.  Well, me and the hosts of Fox & Friends on Dunkin’s big screen.  Apparently they didn’t make the rapture either.

This New Year’s morning, I’m thinking about resolutions.  I’ve never been much of a New Year’s resolutions kind of guy.  In fact, I can’t remember ever making any in the first 34 years of my life.  But this year I’ve spent a good amount of my Christmas break re-thinking my life and ministry, evaluating what is and trying to envision what can be.  And so it is that I’m ready to do some goal setting for 2009.

So, without further ado, here they are . . .

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Recently a fellow youth minister whose blog (The Timbo Times) I read wrote about his love of hot chocolate.  I especially liked his description of coffee as “hot of water that’s been carelessly drained through dirty beans.”  It reminded me of my grandfather, who when asked in a restaurant what he’d like to drink, would invariably reply “bean soup.” But I digress.

I chided him that a true hot chocolate lover wouldn’t just write about it, he or she would share their favorite recipe for the drink.  I figured that I ought not council of others what I am unwilling to do myself, (and I was short a post for today), so here it is.  I will warn you, this is true hot chocolate.

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My friend and colleague, Todd Owens, recently had an interesting idea on his blog: set your iPod to random shuffle and list the first 15 songs that play.  Seemed like an interesting way to get a look into one’s musical tastes.  Of course, I put everything and anything on my 160GB iPod classic.  And given the fact that our youth ministry subscribes to YLO: the works from Interlinc, everything and anything ends up being a lot of things, many of which have nothing to do with my personal tastes.  (If they did, I can guarantee there wouldn’t be any KJ-52 albums on there.)  So I tweaked the challenge a little.  Here’s a random shuffle of the 197 songs in my “My Top Rated” playlist: (more…)