Weekly Meanderings, 22 November 2014

Last updated on: March 13, 2015 at 10:11 pm by Scot McKnight

Weekly Meanderings, 22 November 2014 2015-03-13T22:11:59-05:00 Scot McKnight

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Welcome from San Diego — Kris and I are at our annual attendance at the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) and enjoying a brief respite from the cold weather in Chicagoland. (By the way, I checked the Dashboard and this is the 473d Weekly Meanderings… wow, that’s almost 9 full years of our weekly posting of links to news and blogs.)

Incredible story from this week: Jason Brown, from NFL to the “gleanings farm.”

LOUISBURG, N.C. – CBS NEWS – At one point number 60, Jason Brown, was one of the best centers in the NFL.

At one point he had a five-year, $37 million contract with the St. Louis Rams.

And at one point he decided it was all meaningless – and just walked away from football.

“My agent told me, ‘You’re making the biggest mistake of your life,'” said Brown. “And I looked right back at him and I said, ‘No I’m not. No I’m not.'”

So what could possibly trump the NFL?

You wouldn’t believe.

Jason Brown quit football to be a plain, old farmer — even though he’d never farmed a day a in his life.

Michelle Van Loon on prayer for a troubled (adult) child:

Way back in the beginning, when this child’s life began to unspool more than a decade ago, I did what most moms would do: tried to figure out how to get help in place, blamed myself (isn’t it always the mom’s fault?) and took too much to heart all the sometimes well-meaning, sometimes over-spiritualized or judge-y advice people were trying to give my husband and I at the time. It didn’t take long for me to realize that there was no road map to guide us through this particular kind of grief. Only a determination to maintain a pilgrim’s heart as a compass as I gyrate through the darkness of Space Mountain. Counseling at different stages of this long journey has helped. A NAMI support group helped. The care of some of our friends has been a lifeline. Others who apparently attended the Job’s Comforters School Of Friendship became less a part of our team during these years. Still others distanced themselves from us. Living in the valley of the shadow has certainly clarified relational priorities.

I was grateful for the Moms In Touch 2.0 group, and was sorry I had to stop attending due to distance after our move a couple of years ago. Even when I remained silent about the newest chapter of our family’s ongoing crisis, I appreciated their maturity (as in, no one judged, or tried to fix, us or the situation.) There are others in my life who are now or have continued to carry us in prayer: the women in my Tuesday morning Bible study group, and a small group of long-time friends who’ve walked alongside of us faithfully, even when we’re white-knuckling a particularly hair-raising twisty-turn.

Parents of special needs kids live this reality. They, too, often go silent at a table full of the usual kvelling, kvetching parent conversations.

The brain needs physical exercise:

While there are many theories about how physical activity may improve brain health, Davis said there is no one answer so far.

The researchers can’t say physical activity by itself led to the improved brain health, because the participants may have benefited from interacting with other children and general education from the program.

Sports keep heart rates up and simultaneously test the brain in a unique way. In some sports, for example, the brain must predict where the ball is going and where teammates will be, Davis told Reuters Health.

“Kids need to be physically active about an hour per day,” Hillman said.

Parents who don’t have access to an after-school program like the one in the study could take their kids to a park or the YMCA, Hillman said, or some other safe environment where the kids can be physically active.

This guy never gets old.

Jim Martin’s wise post about holding personal secrets:

The myth that many people live with is that the detection of sin is what really makes it a bad thing. However (according to this thinking) if no one ever finds out, who is going to get hurt?

The truth is that my sins, either detected or hidden, hurt the people in my life.

If I engage in behavior that is immoral, the people in my life are impacted whether my shoddy behavior is ever detected or not….

I may be in my house, at work, or a thousand miles away from home on an airplane. No matter where I am, my behavior really does matter. It impacts my family, my friends, and my church. Most importantly, my behavior impacts God, who has called me to live in a way that reflects well on him.

I want to remember as I consider my behavior, my secrets really do matter.

Thank you to Whole Foods — coming to Chicago’s Englewood:

Glen Fulton opens a window on the fourth floor of the bank building on 63rd to look out at all this blank space. “What I experienced as a child,” he says, “I want to experience again.” He imagines a shopping hub that would bring back jobs and retail dollars and basic goods that are now hard to find here. Maybe a Corner Bakery, a Gap, a Famous Dave’s barbecue chain. And in the middle of it, an anchor that would serve the function Sears once did: an 18,000-square-foot Whole Foods.

The grocer, which has built its fortunes and reputation anchoring condo developments in wealthy enclaves, has never gone into a neighborhood like this. But last year, to the disbelief of many, the company announced plansto open a store in 2016 here, in one of Chicago’s most economically depressed neighborhoods.

When the city held a ceremonial groundbreaking a few months ago, Walter Robb, Whole Foods’ co-chief executive, showed up in Englewood and vowed that it would be “one of the most meaningful things we’ve done as a company.”

Some very cool tree houses. Beyond cool.

This is not your father’s Ireland, by Patrick Semple:

It is difficult to believe how much the religious atmosphere of Ireland has changed over the lifetime of many of us. Life itself, of course, has changed radically in the last 60 or so years.

For those of us who are older, if our parents, or certainly our grandparents were to return for a glimpse of the world in which we live, what are the things they would marvel at most?

TV remote controls, mobile phones, the internet, or maybe it would be the prevalence of the F-word on radio and TV, or the open discussion of sexual matters in the media?

However, I feel our parents and grandparents would notice and be most surprised at the changed condition of religion in Irish society.

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