1. It was not easy watching the Cardinals be eliminated from the post season. But what is harder is knowing baseball season is nearly over.
2. It is nearly impossible for me to enjoy any cop shows anymore. There are a number of reasons but two are significant. The arc of the story throughout the run always rises and falls on the cop becoming either a victim and/or the accused. Second, every bad guy is always a calm, cool sociopath. I blame Foyle’s War for my high standards.
3. Thursday night I saw Jason Isbell under Autumn stars with a train running behind the stage. It was a perfect scene in which to see the reincarnation of Townes.
4. Speaking of baseball, I got to play in a parents against kids game last night. I was surprised at the instincts I had after not playing first base in 20 years. I knew the footwork and instinctively where to go. You never forget. Also, I’m sore.
5. Kindness towards others is an unsung melody of Christian vocational ethics.
6. My son Knox is not a natural athlete. But he wanted to try baseball this Fall. I’m so thankful he ended up with the coach he did. His coach has never showed one moment of impatience with Knox and has never been anything but encouraging. What a gift.
7. I have never not wanted pizza.
8. Louis Armstrong on Vinyl.
9. I went from dreading work every day to looking forward to work every single day. It’s hard to live here. I had gotten so used to being in a dark place. The light is almost blinding.
10. Last Saturday my wife and I had lunch with Dee from The Wartburg Watch. This will be one of those meals I’ll never forget. She is truly a hero in the church today. And she’s unsung by the big name preachers and leaders. She makes nothing and works at it like a full-time job. She cares about the hurting the way pastors are supposed to. Which is why we need The Wartburg Watch. No one else seems to care.
(Photo: courtesy of the Tuscaloosa Amphitheater)
Echoes and Stars 
I am a fan of Dee and Deb at The Wartburg Watch! Glad you got to dine with Dee! Too bad they have some nasty enemies in the Church.
I’m also a fan of the Wartburg ladies.
I was a fan of the Wartburg Watch until I was literally scorched by the WW group in a manner that was eerily similar to the pastoral attitudes they are so much against. It was ugly. Never again.
BTW, if you want to try a really cool cop show, I can’t recommend Longmire enough. Try it.
There were a few months of some misunderstanding at first but I get alone fine with dee and Deb. I have, however, been concerned about the scorched earth approach of commentary there. I think that’s much less the case for dee and Deb than for some commenters who participate who feel strongly about a one-to-one correlation between certain doctrines and harmful people. Since I’m a Calvinist that meant I had to put up with Servetus rants for a few months but people eventually worked out that I’m a Calvinist rather than a Calvinista, to use a Wartburg term.
It takes people some time to figure out which of they two you may be and people can guess wrong.
Love the Wartbug Watch. Those tow ladies have opened my eyes in so many ways.
Sons who live their fathers play baseball!
I have a sincere question, because, honestly, every time I read a blog like WW, I lose a little bit more of my faith. How do you keep your faith strong and maintain your love for God and others? How do you resist the pull of agnosticism or deism, if not flat-out atheism? Do you struggle with this?
I want to keep my faith in God and the power of the Gospel.
The only solution that I can even conceive of is to stay as far away from the “celebrity” commercialized version of Christianity that fills Christian bookstore shelves everywhere.
But, I don’t want to live in blissful ignorance either.
Anna,
Those are good questions. But really I guess I haven’t lost my faith because even though I see a lot of ugliness in the church, I see a lot of goodness too. If you’re reading the Bible correctly, you aren’t surprised to see corruption in religious leaders. You’re also not shocked to see unlikely heroes and unknown men and women looking out for the weak and hurting at their own expense. If anything TWW along with others has had a prophetic voice that has strengthened my faith.
Thank you for your response. I had not thought of looking at it from this perspective; rather, I had chosen to be discouraged.
PS. Thanks for #5. A good reminder – I should post this on my telephone and computer monitor at work, because that is often when I need this reminder the most. 🙂