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Missional Advent Candle Meaning: Week One

Photo by Per Ola Wiberg (license)

Years ago, I decided to introduce the rhythms of Advent to our family by making candle-lighting a family ritual. But when I looked up the Advent candle meanings, I was not satisfied with what I found. Since there are multiple meanings anyway, I decided to create my own ritual, but with a missional bent. When I say "ritual," you probably picture something formal and solemn. So I offer, for whatever it's worth, a glimpse into our chaos.

One candle: The light of the world.
Suggested scriptures: John 8:12, Matthew 5:13-16

I Dream of Mikey

Mike Abrahamsohn in our living room (May 6, 2008, 8:17 PM)

Which do I write? "This morning, I dreamed about my dear friend Mike." Or, "This morning, my dear friend Mike appeared to me in a dream."

Saturday morning. A child's alarm mistakenly goes off at 7:10 and is silenced. Kay & I look at each other, roll over, and go back to sleep.

I am at some kind of wooden mansion with other people. We go around and enter a large room. Something happened earlier in the dream, but it was unremarkable and quickly forgotten. Then I notice Mike, standing in a corner, looking straight at me.

Life triumphs over death

Προσκυνέω — worship. (Not a tattoo, but a stamp from this Sunday morning.)

For Mike, where he cut himself in his first attempt.
Someday we will rock again.

Monkey Jive Blues

Evil Mike, back in November 2003. (Some kind of dried fruit?)

Michael Abrahamsohn was a man of many talents. One of them was the ability to whip out weird rhymes on the spot. "Mike, where do you get this stuff," I would ask. He'd reply, "I pull them out of my butt."

Once when Mike was having a rough day, not from OCD but from girl trouble, I said, "Come on, let's record a song about it, right now." I sat him down in front of a Mac laptop and found this GarageBand loop. Without a real mic (just using the computer’s internal microphone), these words spilled out spontaneously. I just kept saying “Again, more,” to keep him going, then edited and arranged it. All the “vocal effects” are just Mike, sitting in front of my computer, cupping his hands over his mouth.

One of the songs we played in church at the time went, “Holiness, holiness, that’s what I long for.” Look for MIke’s twisted version in the last verse. Only Mike…

So here it is, a rare treat! Enjoy: Monkey Jive Blues

Mike Abrahamsohn 1966-2009

Me & Mike jamming

My dear friend Mike struggled with mental illness for twenty-five years. This past Sunday, he committed suicide. It's been a hard week, but after the wake tonight, I finally feel able to write something. I will repeat what I shared at the wake:

Puzzle 1989-2009

Today, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died. But my tears were for Puzzle, our twenty-year-old cat.

Puzzle died peacefully in his bed this afternoon. I am sad, but glad that he was not in any apparent distress. He just gradually slowed down. I would like to go like that when it's my turn.

We got Puzzle when we were missionaries in Japan, twenty years ago. He was from our favorite place in the whole world, Lake Nojiri, where Kay & I met. He joins his adopted brother Tigger beyond the veil. Hey guys, further up and further in. Oh wait, you're cats, you don't take instructions. Never mind, you'll figure it out.

Twenty years. Peace, old friend. You deserve it.

"Christian artist" vs. "Artist who happens to be Christian"

Our daughter Shelly is an avid reader. You have no idea. We have had to discipline her for reading too much. "If you don't put the book down, we will take it away!"

Satisfying this appetite is hard work; my wife Kay searches out new authors all the time, and we probably put a strain on our local public library system. The results are hit or miss:

Kay: "So these didn't work. I guess we can scratch Christian fantasy."
Shelly: "Is that what was wrong with it!"
Me: "What do you mean?"
Shelly: "They didn't blow stuff up or anything."
Kay: "The problem is these authors let their religion interfere with their storytelling."

Wedding ceremony message

Last week, I had the privilege of performing the wedding ceremony for two very dear friends. Though short and simple, I relied heavily on this wedding service planner. The ceremony itself took all of 15 minutes.

I am not ordained, but was deputized by the county for one day. (At the courthouse, the bride-to-be made the clerk laugh by asking if I could be given a deputy star.) My official title was "deputy commissioner." By popular request, here is the text of the message I gave at the beginning of the service:

Merry Christmas!

Facebook status for 1 month

One of the things I enjoy about Facebook is the status updates. Twitter started it, I suppose, but you can think of it as micro-blogging: one-line updates about your activities or mood. So for you non-Facebook people, here's a snapshot of my past month. Well, more like a sequence of snapshots. Like a flip-book.