mental clutter

There's been a lot in my brain this week...too much to get it into any coherent post. So, naturally, I've abandoned coherence as a goal and decided to write anyway. In no particular order:

I currently have a strange desire to eat French Toast and/or waffles. I cannot explain this.

re-reading Harry Potter and re-watching the movies. I'd forgotten some things about the first book, and while watching the first movie I was reminded how flat-out COOL it is to watch quidditch!

re-reading Walking the Bible and am reminded of how frustrated I was by Zionist overtones last time. As I read, I'm constantly talking to the book saying things like "when are you going to talk to a Palestinian who's just as connected to the land? Or an Israeli who is sympathetic to Palestinian concerns?"

Listening to the news early this week (like Monday) about Abbas dissolving the Palestinian government and appointing a new Prime Minister, and then hearing the Israeli government make comments like "now there's a new opening for peace talks" makes me angry. Wasn't there this same opening 18 months ago, before Hamas was democratically elected? Maybe if there'd been any significant progress in the past, maybe if people in the region actually saw a good-faith effort on the part of the Israeli government, maybe if there was real desire for the justice and compromise that need to be the foundation of peace...maybe then Hamas wouldn't have been elected to begin with, because Palestinians would see other options, another way out of the hell in which they live, surrounded by a 20 foot concrete wall and a hostile population. Just saying.

I am preaching on Elijah and the still small voice this week. It seems rather counter productive to talk about silence. So at 8.30 we are doing a kind of guided-imagery-meditation thing that allows us to place ourselves in the story and practice listening for the quiet whisper in the sound of sheer silence. At 9.30 we are doing Taize instead of a traditional service, so there will be an opportunity to practice silence there as well. At 11 it's traditional, with sermon and all. No, I have not yet written the sermon. I'm still trying to answer the preaching-prof question: "what do you want to say?" When I figure out what I want to say, then I'll be able to write it. I hope I figure that out sometime today.

The Lakeside Festival is this weekend. Taste of Crystal Lake (which I think is a funny thing since I used to live in Chicago and Taste of Chicago is awesome and huge), the cardboard cup regatta (where people build boats out of cardboard and then actually have to ride in them on a course on the lake--prizes for all kinds of things including Most Spectacular Sinking), etc...all this weekend. Fun. Must have sermon done in order to go....

Game night last night was fun. Grownups don't really get human battleship, but they figured it out and we had a good time.

It's cold in my office.

I don't think my thermostat at home actually works properly--I turned it up to 85 and my air has still been coming on sporadically. So I turned it up more and am using my beautiful new fan from Target.

I think that's all for now....I'm going to go satisfy my french toast needs.