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"Shabbat"

A friend of mine at Campbell who is also a pastor told a story once. He was mowing his lawn on Sunday afternoon one day, when a member of his church drove by in the car. The church member stopped and greeted his pastor kindly. However, during their short conversation the church member asked what the pastor was doing mowing his grass on a Sunday? “Keep the Sabbath holy” was behind this question no doubt.

We get the word, Sabbath, from the Hebrew word שַׁבָּת (shabbat) meaning "cease." After six days of creation, God 'ceased' his work during the seventh day. Like wise, the fourth commandment is a command to take a day of rest and honor it, because rest is simply important.

I recently read a passage in John where Jesus is "caught" healing on the Sabbath and getting into trouble with those wily o'le Jews. Jesus responded to them by saying, "My Father is always at work, to this very day, and I, too, and working."

But when Jesus healed on the Sabbath the Pharisees, or religious leaders, paid the healing part no mind. They were too concerned that Jesus had "worked" on the Sabbath and thus broken Jewish religious tradition. Jesus had not broken a commandment, but simply religious convention. Over time, the Rabbinic oral tradition had made the Jewish laws even stricter. They had set regulations about what you could and couldn't do on the Sabbath so as to avoid doing work. These were regulations such as how much weight you could carry and even how many steps you could take on the Sabbath. What Jesus did was not forbidden by the Torah, but by tradition.

The Sabbath is supposed to be a time of rest. Got rested on the seventh day and so should we. For many of us it is also a time of worship. It ought, however, to be a break from the daily grind. (Get it, God took a break from the "day-ly" grind!) My guess is, whether you mow your lawn or not, the Sabbath should allow you adequate rest before you resume work.

Americans are probably the worst for never taking a Sabbath. We quit working at our regular job on Friday, but then too often fill up our weekend with other obligations and other forms of work. This often leaves us drained for work come Monday morning. That is not a Sabbath.

Perhaps you need to take a time for quality restful rest. When is the last time you took a Sabbath: time to rest for rest's sake? If you can't remember, it might be that time.

Rest well my friend.

DOG Theology

There's an older but familiar bumper sticker that reads, "God is my co-pilot." Soon responses to this sticker began appearing on car bumpers. One response was written trying to one-up it saying, "If God is your co-pilot, switch seats." Another was written looking to make a clever come back: "DOG is my co-pilot."

As a dog owner and lover I have often had the opportunity to reflect on the strange yet profound connections between dog and man, and man and God. Over the years I have noticed parallels in these two relationships. And at times they have been a bit eerie, but sometimes they are teachable moments.

My dog, Dakota, is a hound. And any hound owner knows that hounds are driven by their noses even more than other breeds. Her sense of smell is amazing...and frustrating. It causes her to get into anything and everything.

Her two favorite places to stick her elongated snout are bathroom trashcans and our house plant's dirt. Dakota knows she is not supposed to do this; many punishings and time spent in her cage have taught her this. And so she never gets into them while we're around. But often, when my wife and I come home we find little bits of dirt scattered playfully around our plant, and oftentimes bathroom tissue in various rooms of the apartment. Mostly she tells on herself when she happily greets us at the door with dirt on her nose.

Grrrrr.........!

Isn't if funny how sometimes we people think we can 'get away' with certain things when God isn't watching. Mark 13:35a says, "Therefore, be on the alert-- for you do not know when the master of the house is coming." We may be able to fool other people about what we do, but God sees us even when no one else does. Dakota doesn't know when we're coming back, and too many times we have caught her "dirty snouted."

I wonder if that's how God sees us sometimes? We come running to Him in prayer or to church and all he sees is dirt on our snouts. The neat part is just like I always forgive my daughter dog and end up rubbing on her floppy velvety ears, God will always forgive us too.

And lastly, Dakota has never stopped being cute. I wonder if sometimes, to God, we just look cute?!

A step in the right direction

Recently, for her birthday my wife was given a Wii Fit pad and game. Anyone who knows the two of us knows that gift would probably better suit me than her. Just to be clear I did not give this to her as the stereotypical male attempt to get something for myself out of her birthday. No, I'm not so think as you dumb I am.

When the Fit first arrived on the market I was skeptical at the potential for variety. I knew the Fit would be a novelty and sell out just like all of Nintendo's Wii products. However, I wonder if the Fit pad is something that can reach longevity in usage. But now I can see for myself.

Video games have had a history of doing two things, 1) entertaining both youngsters and oldsters with games that tap into scenarios only attainable in the digital world, and 2) causing long time gamers to spend hours on a sofa engaging in no more exercise than rigorous thumb work. For years, video games have been a contributing factor to childhood obesity. They keep kids indoors gaming when they should be running and getting dirty.

Dance Dance Revolution was the first modern game to incorporate physical movement into the gaming scene. (I do recall a track and field game for the original NES that utilized the same concept.) But the Nintendo Wii provided the perfect marriage between physical movement and gaming. This is something overweight gamers can benefit from.

With its newest product, the Wii Fit Pad, Nintendo has taken a step in the right direction towards physical activity for gamers. The game that accompanies the pad is very health conscious. When you first turn it on the computer gathers your weight and height to calculate you Body Mass Index (BMI). Then gamers are encouraged to set a fitness goal involving how many pounds to lose within a time frame. Health facts and tips are sprinkled throughout the tutorial. Actual game play involves yoga, aerobics, strength training and other balance games to help build stronger muscles. The game also promotes good posture, something most lazy Americans could use.

All in all, after only having played it once, I give the Wii Fit Pad a thumbs up. There are too many fat Americans that aren't getting healthier playing video games. I doubt American teenagers will ever be weened fully off of their dependence on gaming media and get outside to exercise instead, but Wii Fit sure is a good start.

As good as it gets

The comic book movie gengre has taken HollyWood movie makers and audiences by storm over the last 8 years. Since the dawning of the 2000 release of X-Men, directed by Bryan Singer, a new standard has been set for the gengre. No longer would viewers tolerate the movies of the abomidable quality that was Batman Forever.


When Spider-Man 2 burst onto the movie scene viewers thought comic book movies had reached the pinacle of their potential as the second installment of the wall crawler's heroics dazlled audiences with scenes like the airborne fights with notorious villan Doc Oc. Things only got better as Chris Nolan and a team of dedicated comic lovers created an origin story that topped all origin stories: Batman Begins.


At this point we were convinced comic book movies were as good as it gets. This new approach to movie making used a serious approach bringing a sense of belieability to our favorite childhood characters. In the summer of '08 Iron Man flew onto the scene as Robert Downey Jr. took on the befitting role of Tony Stark with all kinds of pinash. The movie is only good things. Like most first super hero movies it is an origin story, and it follows the typical hero movie plot line.


But I've never seen it done better.


I will admit, there were aspects to Batman Begins that I liked as much or better, but over all Iron Man rocked! Moving at a fast pace the story gives adequate attention to character development, plot motive, special effects, and all around fun. Audiences love soaring through the air with the metal hero, struggling to create the perfect gold alloy suit, and moving ever closer to a love interest with protagonist Tony Stark. The movie is fun and thats all she wrote.


In my opinion, Iron Man nudges the movie making bar a little bit higher to a new starndard of exellence. I can only wonder if this is now as good as it gets for comic book movies. If so, then I'm happy with the high quality they've reached. But I do hope movie makers will continue to push themselves to get even better.


Is Iron Man as good as it gets? I hope not.