New Theme

You may have noticed some web-page weirdness about our blog recently, especially if you were viewing with Internet Explorer. We just upgraded to the newest version of Wordpress, and the theme that we were using didn’t really like it very much.

I’ve switched to this new design to get everything working again. I’ll continue to tweak and make it more “us” over the next while. This includes choosing some photos or graphics to replace the image to the top right. Anyone have ideas? If you have any comments or complaints about the new theme, speak up!

I’ve also removed the “enter these two words in order to comment” feature, and beefed up the anti-spam detection on our end. The end result is that you get to comment more easily and we still avoid spam. Yay!

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Yesterday MrPages and I watched LittlePage3 grab his hockey stick and head down the street to play a little street hockey with the neighbours who had pulled out their net. He returned moments later, hurled his stick to the ground and proceeded to have a good cry under the oak tree. The neighbours had apparently not wanted his company.

Having very little idea on how to handle the matter, both MrPages and I consoled him as best we could, but my heart broke to watch his little sobs of despair. We talked of grace and forgiveness and boundaries, and he went back out to play with his siblings.

After dinner, MrPages, my hero and a very good man, told LittlePage3 to jump in the car for a few errands. They returned with a new street hockey net and joyous smiles. MrPages put the net together late last night. This evening found all my boys partaking in a rite of passage for all Canadian children (including one of the neighbours who enthusiastically joined our game after his baseball practice!)

Knock, knock!
Who’s there?
Amos.
Amos who?
A-mosquito just bit me!

Knock, knock!
Who’s there?
Andy.
Andy who?
And-he just bit me again!

“The human soul is hospitable, and will entertain conflicting sentiments and contradictory opinions with much impartiality” — George Eliot

That, to me, is the hardest part of dealing with faith.

I’m a rational, logical person. I’ve been spending time trying to reason my way to the “right” answer. I’ve been looking at many deep questions of theology: Free Will vs. Predestination, Cessationism vs. Gifts, large church vs. home church. The more I studied and read, the more I just got deeper into confusion.

I began to read more scripture than other sources and I slowly began to realize that for all of these “Is it this one or that one” type issues, the answer is usually “Yes.”

Christ truly is the stone that makes men stumble (Isaiah 8:14), the one who blinds those who say they can see (John 9:39). I can analyze all things logically, and learn from them, but my trying to logic out an answer gets me no closer to Him.

I have now found that I can hold logic and faith together in my mind and not compromise either. Trying to explain this to a non-believer just makes them think I’m a loony, or that I’ve abandoned logic and therefore have a weak argument. It’s explaining a Kandinsky to a blind man, or a Mozart symphony to a deaf person.

So I decided to discern the benefit of wisdom and knowledge over foolish behavior and ideas; however, I concluded that even this endeavor is like trying to chase the wind! For with great wisdom comes great frustration; whoever increases his knowledge merely increases his heartache. — Ecclesiastes 1:17-18

Guard against self-deception, each of you. 1 If someone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become foolish so that he can become wise. — 1 Corinthians 3:18

For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will thwart the cleverness of the intelligent.”

Where is the wise man? Where is the expert in the Mosaic law? Where is the debater of this age? Has God not made the wisdom of the world foolish? For since in the wisdom of God the world by its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased to save those who believe by the foolishness of preaching. [...] For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. — 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

My life has been far less stressful since I stopped trying to figure out God, and attempting to get all the “right” answers to the world’s problems.

Lord, I’ve been so prideful, trying to figure you out so I’d be in control. Make me a fool.

And, in order to end this post on a suitable silly note, here is an incredibly theologically deep song by Neil Innes, “the seventh [Monty] Python”.

So, there I was sitting in my office working, minding my own business, happily busy. Then suddenly, out of the blue, I hear it: “Daddy?” Oh no! It’s the nuclear weapon of cute! It’s the WMD of irresistible!

I turn around to see LittlestPage, in all of her just-turned-three glory, standing there with a gameboard tucked under one arm (reaching almost to the floor) and a Tupperware sandwich box full of cards under the other.

“Would you play Candyland with me?”

There is a long pause. I resist for a few seconds. “But I’m… You see sweetie, I…”. The cute is too strong. I can’t possibly resist.

“Of course I’ll play Candyland with you. Let’s sit right here on the floor against the treadmill.”

It’s a vicious, neck and neck game. She gets stuck in the molasses swamp, giving me the edge I need. However, the joy of victory is somewhat dulled by the fact that LittlestPage doesn’t care a hoot about getting to the end of the board. She thinks that the only part of the game worth anything is drawing the “Plumpy” card. The Plumpy square is right near the beginning of the board, so if you get the card it’s like having to start the whole game over again. But that doesn’t matter. She loves that card. If she draws the Plumpy card, it’s a great game for her.

Once again LittlestPage teaches me a lesson. It doesn’t matter what everyone else says the point of the game is, I have my eyes on something far better. Even if it doesn’t look like success to everyone else, I finish happy.

As a belated birthday activity for me and the LittlestPage, as well as a Mother’s Day event, we headed to the top of the street for a little Glow Bowling. We bowled all seven of us on one lane, much to the trepidation of the staff and had a lovely time.

MrPages led the field, bowling a strong 133, with two headpin hits. LittlePage4 threw his very last ball, watched it bounce off the bumper two feet from him, and then wind it’s way down to the end of the lane to our one and only strike. He finished up with a 131, to place second.

LittlePage2 and I tied at a decent 98. LittlePage3 has a beautiful hop, skip, throw-the-ball-sideways-down-the-lane style that earned him an 86. Not-so-LittlePage1 hit a pin with every single ball, to finish with an 84. And the LittlestPage hit a pin in every frame, to end with a 42. The attendant also sent her home with a stuffed dog as prize for the cutest bowler ever!

YES, LORD.
Your will is my conscious choice.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
Nothing else.

Even though the feelings don’t evaporate at once, they have been surrendered, and the Lord knows what to do with them. Mine had to be surrendered over and over again, but He took them, and over the next few days He transformed them.

Elisabeth Elliot

Here’s how to replace a guitar string so it won’t slip and also won’t have a huge ball of extra string wrapped around the tuning peg.

I play guitar with a pretty heavy hand, so I’ve replaced an awful lot of strings. Over time, I’ve found a method that consistently works for me. I hate having 20 winds of string around the tuning pegs, but having only a few winds means that they can slip when you are getting the string up to tension. So, without further ado, How To Replace a Guitar String, as demonstrated on my Ovation 6 and 12-Strings.

First, an important basic: The tuners on the top of the headstock turn counterclockwise to tighten the string, and the tuners on the bottom wind it up clockwise. The strings all run together between the two rows of tuners. This is important. If you wind the strings the wrong way, they will have to bend around the other tuners to get where they are going, and you’ll break them easily, and have tuning problems.

(Click any image to go to a larger version)

So, lets string the guitar. First, cut off the old strings. Use wire cutters and cut them just above the bridge. Sliding the whole string out through the hole in the bridge wears things down, takes longer, and sounds terrible. If your guitar uses white plastic pins to keep the strings in the bridge, cutting the strings lets you reach into the sound hole to help remove the pins. Unwind the strings from the tuning pegs, coil them and discard them. Do that now, because if you forget you’ll poke yourself with them later.

I always start with the bass strings. Insert the string through the bridge. Pull it through gently until the ball end sits neatly. I always line up the ball ends so it looks pretty, but I’m retentive that way.

Turn the hole in the tuning peg until you can place the string straight through it. Insert the end of the string through the tuning peg and tug it straight, but not tight. Check that the ball end is still sitting properly in the bridge and that the string is sitting in the correct slot in the nut.

Trick number one: Tug the string straight, place your finger on the string at the nut, then slide your finger back to the first fret. This should pull the string back enough to give you some slack over the body.

This is just the right amount of slack to wind around the tuning peg a couple of times. Experiment, the bass strings need one fret, the higher strings sometimes need one and a half, it’s entirely up to your preferences once you see how this works. It’s important that you hold the string at the first fret during the next couple of steps to keep the string going where it’s supposed to.

Next, turn the tuning knob so that the tuning peg makes about a quarter turn, like this:

This quarter turn helps make sure you see which way to do the next step. It doesn’t work right if you wind the string the wrong way around the post.

Trick number two: The lock. It might make more sense for you to just do it and see what’s happening than it will when you read it. Bear with me, it’s quite a simple concept when you see it.

Loop the string backwards around the tuning peg and under the string. This is the OPPOSITE direction that the string winds up to be tightened. (That’s why the quarter turn helps, you can easily see which way the string winds).

Tug the string end fairly tight and bend it upwards under the string going down the fretboard. This bent-upwards piece will be held tightly in place by the string once it gets wound a little tighter, which prevents the string from slipping. Even if you only have a half turn of string around the tuning peg, it grabs itself and won’t pull out.

Still holding the string slightly taut against the fretboard, turn the tuning knob to tighten the string.

Keep tightening until it is near the correct pitch. It should look something like this:

Using your handy wire cutters, trim off the extra string as close as you can to the tuning peg. It’s okay if your wire cutters don’t have grinder marks on them like mine do.

And voila! You can see in this picture how the string grabs and holds itself.

That’s all there is to it. Lather rinse and repeat 5 more times (or 11 more times if you have a 12 string, or 3 more times if you have a bass) and you’re done!

Let me know in the comments if you’d like anything clarified.

I was going to reply in a comment on this post, but Ash’s comments here were far too insightful and relevant not to make into their own posts.

[A]bout our small group prayer. Although I enjoy the way we’re doing it, I also feel as though we’re still weak on the ‘acknowledging that Jesus is part of the conversation’ bit. Yes, Jesus is with us and listening, but sometimes I personally forget that he’s there and listening. It’s part of a larger lifestyle direction of mine to try to learn to constantly and consciously live in the presence of God. But I’m unsure of how to remind myself and everyone else that as we talk, God is also there in the conversation with us. Well I know how I might to it, but my cheeseometer would hit the roof!

Also, I do miss the times of approaching the throne together, hearing other’s prayers and being able to agree with them. I would like to spend more time in prayer together, not getting through the lists, but just talking with and listening to God together as a community.

Right off the bat, let me say that I completely and totally agree. 100%.

And there isn’t even a “but…” following that sentence. I think you might have been under the impression that we disagreed on this, but we don’t.

I don’t think our small group prayer time is what it should be, but I am quite happy that we’ve moved away from the very uncomfortable list-recitals-in-the-round. I (and Mr. Spencer in the source article) wasn’t trying to say anything other than “Hey, folks, prayer isn’t for a grocery list of gimme gimmes”.

Corporate prayer can be an incredible act of devotion. It can bring us together as worshippers before Him. So perhaps, if we’re both (the four of us?) feeling similarly, we should bring it up at the next meeting. I’d like to discuss (here, and in person) what a prayer time is, what it could and should be, and how we deal with the laundry list type stuff that we’re so attached to.

I realize that it’s difficult to nail down exactly what prayer should look like, especially in a group setting, but what do you think? How do you have God there in the conversation without breaking the cheeseometer, and without demanding selfish things?

The purpose and content of prayer is one of the things I’m currently struggling with. Not “the purpose of prayer” as in “why bother praying?” but more like “what is prayer FOR?”. I am consistently bothered by those news articles where the sole survivor of a bus wreck says that God was looking out for him. What about the non-survivors? What about the parents of lost children who pray and their children don’t come back? I’m not so much wondering whether I need to pray, so much as I am convinced that the common understanding of prayer, the North American cultural Christianity ideas about prayer, are completely wrong.

Where that goes, I dunno. Hopefully we can work it out together.

LittlestPage, breathless and panicky:

LittlePage3 is killing all my Little Friends in the sandbox with water!

Questions that ran through MrsPages mind:

Are the neighbours over?
Can they swim?
Is he using the hose?
Where did he find it?
How much mud is going to be involved in this?
And just exactly how does my three year old know about “killing”?