On a recent trip to Louisville to see my mother and brother, I read a short column in a local newspaper and quickly dashed off a response to the author using my Yahoo address. What followed was a wonderful conversation with a liberal Christian brother on the war with Iraq, homosexuality, the evil of George Bush and other topics. The author of the column, Dan Trabue, is worth reading and agonizing with. I was reminded in the night of the honest, open, bitter Christian dialogue occasioned by the Civil War. Both sides read and revered the same book and followed the same Lord. Neither wanted war, but it came. Both Dan and I believe that there is REAL truth, but we are not near each other in our thinking and we know that it is quite possible that one or both of us is deluded in our current vision of what appears to be the truth. These are trying times for us all.

A street scene taken with home video this AM showed street tourists laughing gaily as they were surprised by the first wave of the Tsunami that would soon take many of their lives in Cambodia. Am I on that same street, watching portents of doom, without understanding what they may mean to our life?

At home at lunch, I find that my daughter Carrie has married the father of her seven year old son, abruptly to comply with the needs of a real estate contract they have submitted to buy a house. My now son-in-law lives with his mother, grandfather and sisters and her children in Silver Spring, Maryland. They wish him to continue to support them and stay in Maryland. I'm not celebrating. I'm hopeful and thankful, but terrified for them. The blessings of God in church was something my daughter wanted, though my wife's objections to Catholicism and his family's objections to anything else placed them in the courthouse marrying each other with their seven year old son as witness. Carrie bragged, awkwardly, that it was easier to get married in Colorado than nearly anywhere else. God help us all. I hope this precipitates a move and the formation of a family to replace the occasional visits to Colorado to reassure his son of his father's love for Chris, her, gulp, husband. I pray this is the beginning of a resolution of the trial of tears that their relationship has been for all. I hope Glenda Gay can find closure on this subject, without rancor. I hope I find it in my heart to love and support whatever God is doing through this marriage in our family.

Storm on the Sea of Galilee is a special image for Christian men. I was introduced to it by Peter Bernstein as the cover of his book on Risk. In a lecture I heard him give in New York, he indicated that he believes that the men onboard illustrate nearly every reaction to risk. Some fight, some turn their backs, some get sick, some talk to each other and some turn to God. If you count carefully, you will see that there are 14 men onboard. Jesus has just been awakened in the stern. But who is the fourteenth? It is Rembrandt himself in blue, a famous self portrait. The artist is looking directly out of the painting at the viewer, shading his eyes. He wears blue and is right in the middle of the painting. What a testimony!

Loin Girders

Storm on the Sea of Galilee - Rembrandt 

Tonight I'm adding a couple of images for the first time. One is me and one is Christ, the Light Giver, a special icon to me and to our church. I intend to learn to blog here with a little help from my friend John Holder (Scriptus). A blog is good spiritual discipline. A blog is a place to think out loud. Images animate it.

Loin Girders

Christ, the Light Giver 

Kevin P. Condon, Ph.D., CFP 

Giving Testimony! Our priest has asked me to give my testimony on January 9, 2005 at Epiphany Church in Denver. It is an honor and a formidable task. My Christianity is really all I am. How do I describe the long search, the side tracks, the blind alleys, the childhood songs and the adult choirs? It is tantamount to describing my "call", which Glenda Gay, my Methodist pastor wife, tried to preach on annually when she was appointed to a church in Baltimore county. At that time I was also a pulpit preacher, though not ordained. I served two small churches as a Lay Preacher, preaching in both every Sunday: combined attendance 50, perhaps. It was a wonderful experience. I preached from the leccionary and found obvious, vital messages every week in the scriptures and in the acting of the Holy Spirit in my heart. The last few years have been less structured, but I have been no less attentive to the leccionary and the messages.

Men's ministry is now the thing. Lord, show me what's next. I want to serve you, Lord and King. Be my guide and comforter in this "between" time.

The second conversation is about tolerance. Here is a masterful summary column from Dennis Prager on the topic.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/dennisprager/dp20041207.shtml

Two large conversations are going on around me these days. One is among Nazrudin, a listserve that discusses financial planning issues, from the right hemisphere. This is a very New Agey group. They like Buddhism and Alternative currencies. They like deeply personal money forces and issues. They don't like it when one of their membership brings up God. Someone posted a much forwarded "prayer" to open the Kansas legislature one morning a couple of years ago. The prayer asks God's forgiveness for many cultural fads which violate God's law, but please liberal sensitivities, if that is not an oxymoron. The poor man was attacked immediately by an offended person, asking him to cease and desist making her uncomfortable or she would be forced, by his intolerance, to leave the group! The next twenty posts were discussions of whether a New Age site that combined spirituality and money wasn't just the forum for a discussion of God, even in his incarnation as our Lord Jesus Christ. The group was pretty sure this was very dicey stuff. I'm sure many tears are being shed by offended group members. I'll report on the other conversation tomorrow with opinion.