Do you think Jesus whistled his "s's"? I have the Bible on CD and Jesus whistles his s's. Wicked annoying.

I read part of the first chapter of Dangerous Wonder with my high school guys small group tonight. One young man pointed out how safe my life is. Can't say I disagree. I could use some dangerous wonder.

"Did you forget the day he claimed you?
Not just an excuse for godparents to name you
When they poured water on your baby head
God reached down and you were dead...and raised again
Now it might seem like you weren't even there...but God cared,
He cared for you"

-Lost And Found The New New Song

We baptized Kaylee today. My denomination is unique in that it practices infant baptism (from it's Lutheran roots) as well as believer baptism (from the baptistic influence over the years). At some point a long time ago the denom. decided this was something not worth fighting over.

As a minister, I can have preference for either mode, but I must be able to articulate both dispassionately and be will to perform both. For a long time I leaned heavily to the baptistic side. Then I did a paper for a church history class on Luther's view of baptism. Needless to say, it changed my perspective tremendously.

It's a bit long to go into here, but the short version is that infant baptism seems to place the emphasis on God's work in salvation, rather than any decision or profession a believer might make.

Anyway, I love that Lost And Found song, and to me it really highlights this important fact: God loves my daughter and her salvation rests in His capable arms. To perform the baptism was a real privilege. Rock on, yo.

Well, my Hilfiger blog didn't go over so well with certain members of my household. They thought I was reading way too much into my little girl's socks. Perhaps. But maybe not.

On an entirely different topic (or, maybe not) I often remind our junior high students that we have been created to worship, and if we don't worship God we will worship something else. (Probably ourselves and our appetites.) Yesterday I realized that's really true. Not that I didn't know it already, but sometimes it speaks a little louder.

My 4 month old daughter has Tommy Hilfiger socks. Tommy Hilfiger. Tommy socks. If I say it enough maybe it might start to make some sense to me. I’m not sure where they came from. I figure it was from a generous friend or relative. At our worshipping community many commented, “How cute, she’s got Tommy Hilfiger socks.” I don’t find them cute. They disturb me. On the one hand, I’m grateful that someone bought my daughter socks. But on the other hand, there’s something insidious about Tommy socks that I can’t quite put my finger on.

Perhaps its because our culture seems to want kids to grow up so fast. They’re sexualized at such a young age. There’s a bit of that in the socks, but also just the blatant materialism and fashion consciousness, as if that would or should be remotely important to anyone, let alone an infant. Or maybe I’m just being stupid. I don’t know…

Is hockey a violent sport? I don’t think so. There’s definitely a code and it is very similar to the ol’ “eye for an eye” one. Within that code though, is a code of ethics. If a guy is due, you do it clean. You check him clean or you drop your gloves and have a go of it. Bertuzzi uphelp only part of the code and failed miserably on the other part. It’s hard for many people to believe him when he says he didn’t mean to hurt the guy, but I believe him…to a point. He wanted to inflict a bit of pain, the kind that comes with a hockey fight. The kind that usually goes away with a few tylenol. Instead he hit him from behind when he was essentially defenseless. The punishment seems appropriate.

As a Christ follower and a hockey fan, I often get asked about fighting in the game. Personally, I feel that it does have a place and hockey players understand that, and therefore it’s not violence- at least, no one is violated, they all know what they’re in for…this latest incident notwithstanding. Still, perhaps hockey players would be better to follow Jesus advice more often than not.

How's that for a strong opinion? Oh well...

"Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." -Jesus

I turned on the TV the other day to watch a videotape. When the TV came on Oprah was on the screen with the guy who was the owner of "The restaurant" from that reality TV series. (Yeah, I saw an episode or two of it.)

Anyway, I tuned in at the time that Oprah announced everyone in the audience would be getting a set of the pots and pans that the guy was using. The pans looked nice, high quality etc. The people, however, flipped out! I could not believe how excited they were to be getting these pots and pans. They were screaming like it was the Ed Sullivan show and John, Paul, George and Ringo just took the stage.

Yesterday, I happened to catch the end of "Monster House," which I generally like and saw a woman flip out over a real big flat screen TV.

Both of these things reminded me of an experience I had 3 or 4 years ago. I went to a Christian music festival in New Hampshire with da youts. (I've never been back...you can draw your own conclusions.) Anyway, we were in the middle of setting up camp (on the side of a mountain...long story) when Tony Campolo took the stage. Naturally, I stopped what I was doing to listen.

Tony gave a great talk which included an observation about "stuff". He talked about how much we Americans love stuff, and how much useless stuff we have. He gave a plug for Compassion International. The crowd was very receptive. He finished. As soon as he was done, one of the concert promoter guys came up next. "Hey guys, we got some stuff we're giving away" and the frenzy for t-shirts and CD's ensued from there. It was a surreal experience.

Perhaps needless to say, I have a lot of stuff. I even like my stuff. I hope I don't love it, but I'm not sure. I bought a house recently and it seems so easy to slip into a comfortable suburban lifestyle, which, I must say, can really be the enemy of my soul. I was reading Psalm 119 the other day and impressed by the Psalmist's love for God's law (not, I believe, in a Pharisaical sort of way, but in a way that leads to kingdom living and loving the things God loves.) I need God to constantly turn my heart in that direction, because I'm so easily turned to comfort, even though I know adventure and the "dangerous wonder" sort of life is much more fulfilling.

Well, it seems that the Bruins have had a slight shift in organizational philosophy. After many years of turning a profit by merely making the playoffs, enough Bruins fans have spoken with there wallets by not showing up. Jeremy Jacobs may have finally gotten the message that making the playoffs isn't enough, and in order to sell tickets, he better have a team that has a legitimate shot at the Cup. I'm not convinced that he's completely changed his stripes, but this is a step in the right direction.

I love the Nylander deal and like the Gonchar deal. All things considered (i.e. what the Leafs gave up for an older Leetch) I think the Bruins have done well.

As for the Cup, I can see no clear cut lock. If the Bruins get solid goaltending, they have as good a shot as any other team. Go B's.