Saturday, December 31, 2011
On my way to ODS
I've been up early packing. I should be arriving at ODS in twelve hours or so! I can't believe that this day has finally come.
Friday, December 23, 2011
Advent Candle Verse for "Joy to the World"
Perhaps it was brazen to seek to improve on the timeless lyrics of Isaac Watts, but I've written a new verse to "Joy to the World" for our Christmas Eve service. My inspiration came from the structure of the service itself, in which we will be lighting the advent candles of Joy, Hope, Peace, Love, and Christ (mirroring my denomination's mission).
As to the tune, it was left alone: I know my limits, and Handel is light years beyond them.
Peace to all, and Merry Christmas!
UPDATE: Watts had the last laugh! The powerpoint froze as soon as my new fifth verse appeared, and the congregational singing fell apart. To give it another chance, I asked the pianist to play Joy to the World again as the closing hymn, and had our tech reset the slide show; but, thinking that the same problem would occur again, our worship liaison instructed the pianist not to play the extra verse. Oh well!
Joy, hope, and peace--and love a-flame,
For Christ came down to dwell!
Salvation in Nativity:
The Lord Emmanuel,
The Lord Emmanuel,
The Lord, the Lord, with us did dwell!
As to the tune, it was left alone: I know my limits, and Handel is light years beyond them.
Peace to all, and Merry Christmas!
UPDATE: Watts had the last laugh! The powerpoint froze as soon as my new fifth verse appeared, and the congregational singing fell apart. To give it another chance, I asked the pianist to play Joy to the World again as the closing hymn, and had our tech reset the slide show; but, thinking that the same problem would occur again, our worship liaison instructed the pianist not to play the extra verse. Oh well!
Monday, December 19, 2011
Preparing for ODS
On the sixth of October, 2011, I did something I had dreamed of doing for fifteen years: I commissioned in the Navy as a chaplain.
True to military experience, after rushing to get all my paperwork completed, I have spent the last three months waiting to go to Officer Development School in Newport, RI.
The wait, however, is almost over.
I'm excited, nervous, and ready. At least I hope I'm ready. This isn't my first experience with a "boot camp": I went through basic training as a new enlistee in the Army in 1998 at the age of 17. I was much younger then, but I made it through--and God willing I'll do it again. My body might complain a little more now when it's pushed, but my soul has increased in its long-suffering (at least I need to remind myself of that until it becomes true).
It has been quite the journey since my first boot camp. I have become a committed minister to the cause of Christ's peace. As such, (re)joining the military--an organization whose craft is war, and whose wake can be and often is death and destruction--hasn't come without serious deliberation. I've spent many a night wrestling with an angel, but am convinced that this is where God would have me serve, to proclaim peace to those in the midst of war.
This blog is an effort to document what, for me, is a dilemma. But I think it is (or should be) the dilemma of any Christian, who finds themselves in a world abounding in alienation from God, while they are called to build the kingdom of God on the earth. It is my hope that ministering in the military only punctuates how torn we ought to be between the world in which we live, and the world as it might, should, and will eventually be through Christ.
Thus, my personal dilemma is not mine alone, nor is it new. A century ago, what I consider inspired counsel spoke to the challenge:
True to military experience, after rushing to get all my paperwork completed, I have spent the last three months waiting to go to Officer Development School in Newport, RI.
The wait, however, is almost over.
I'm excited, nervous, and ready. At least I hope I'm ready. This isn't my first experience with a "boot camp": I went through basic training as a new enlistee in the Army in 1998 at the age of 17. I was much younger then, but I made it through--and God willing I'll do it again. My body might complain a little more now when it's pushed, but my soul has increased in its long-suffering (at least I need to remind myself of that until it becomes true).
It has been quite the journey since my first boot camp. I have become a committed minister to the cause of Christ's peace. As such, (re)joining the military--an organization whose craft is war, and whose wake can be and often is death and destruction--hasn't come without serious deliberation. I've spent many a night wrestling with an angel, but am convinced that this is where God would have me serve, to proclaim peace to those in the midst of war.
This blog is an effort to document what, for me, is a dilemma. But I think it is (or should be) the dilemma of any Christian, who finds themselves in a world abounding in alienation from God, while they are called to build the kingdom of God on the earth. It is my hope that ministering in the military only punctuates how torn we ought to be between the world in which we live, and the world as it might, should, and will eventually be through Christ.
Thus, my personal dilemma is not mine alone, nor is it new. A century ago, what I consider inspired counsel spoke to the challenge:
[I]t is incumbent upon the Saints ... to be in the world but not of it, living and acting honestly and honorably before God and in the sight of all men, using the things of this world in the manner designed of God, that the places where they occupy may shine as Zion, the redeemed of the Lord. --D&C 128:8b-cWhile my tradition has come to interpret this instruction in a less insular manner, it is still true a century later. All who live in the world yet seek Zion must proclaim peace amid war.
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