Labor Day

I am currently working on a sermon that I'll be delivering on Labor Day Sunday.  With retirement... and with the terrible unemployment situation, I am viewing Labor Day a little differently this year.  I have always viewed work as a way to develop and live out our beliefs.  This is the synopsis blurb for the service...


Sermon Title:  Work as Worship

Just like "jumbo shrimp" and "tough love", you may find that "work" and "worship" are two terms that do not go together. Perhaps you see a worship experience as a needed and welcome refuge from the world of work.   But as we celebrate Labor Day during these very uncertain economic times, we will explore the role of work in our personal journey and spiritual growth.

Happy Labor Day everyone... you teachers be sure to catch your breath!

Timeout for Clarence

Meet Clarence - our one-year old Brittany.  Just like Clarence Oddbody, the guardian angel in “It's a Wonderful Life”, this angel appeared unannounced in the frigid waters on a snowy evening. Apparently he had been caught in the rapid current of the winter floods;  and we found him (cold and wet) adrift in the Yadkin River. And just like his namesake... he is sometimes an inconvenience, but a true blessing in the end.


I mention this on the blog because Clarence must see the vet to have a "procedure" this week (yes... the big one), which will postpone my backpacking trip due to the post-surgery convalescence..  Yet another inconvenience, but he's worth it.

The Purpose of Schooling

Checkout this YouTube recording of Alan Watts' perspective of Western education.  Watts was a British philosopher who died in 1973 - long before the accountability movement in American education.  Wonder what he would say about our current standardized testing regime?

Don't forget... our current educational system was designed after the industrial model of Henry Ford's assembly line.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCoHnGarAFI

Contemplative Poetry

I have been planning a solo backpacking trip to the middle of nowhere.  I had planned on beginning it soon... but I was holding out to see if a break in the heat is forthcoming.  Regardless - I will be taking copies of five poems with me.  I will read (multiple times), contemplate, think, and record my thoughts about a single poem each day.  My hope is that by focusing on one poem for an entire day, that my thinking will be directed toward depth in lieu of breadth.  I have put together a short list of poem possibilities, but I am definitely interested in your suggestions.  I will be posting the final choices before heading into the woods.  I treasure your submissions.

Wisdom Commons

One of my favorite websites.  Be sure to subscribe for the daily wisdom quote.

http://www.wisdomcommons.org/

Just a Thought

What if employees (especially teachers) could collect 7/8 of their salary, and take a year off (with pay) after seven years of service. Imagine how refreshed the educator would be as he/she returned to the classroom!  Perhaps some would choose not to return during their "sabbatical"... but is that so bad??? Maybe it was time for a change after all. I have always thought that the state retirement system promotes folks to "do the long haul" without a break.  Is this really best for teachers and students???

Seems like Moses (or whomever) may have had it right after all.

Food for thought..

My Personal Retreat

On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, 

where we expected to find a place of prayer. (Acts 16:13)

Origin of the Sabbath

The original meaning of the word Sabbath is the seventh day of the week observed by Jews as a day of rest (Hebrew shabbath, "rest") and solemn assembly for worship. Jews (and some Christians) observe the Sabbath from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday. Besides attending worship services, the principal duty of Jews on the Sabbath (also known as the Sabbath Day) is to perform no ordinary work or act of labor.

Jews regard the day as sacred to God because of biblical texts explicitly stating that sanctification. Early in Genesis, for example, is this clear passage: "And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made" (Gen. 2:3). The same idea is also stated elsewhere, as here: "But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work" (Deut. 5:14).

The word Sabbath also refers to any other Scriptural period of solemn rest or cessation from usual activity. The best-known such period is also referred to as the Sabbatical year, a year of rest for the land observed every seventh year in ancient Judea.

The Sabbatical year is explained in Leviticus: "Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a sabbath unto the Lord. Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the Lord: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard" (Lev. 25:2-4).