Necessary Roughness

Epiphany is here, and so is the revamped podcast.

I’ve been getting useful feedback from friends and others who are involved in Christian internet broadcasting and podcasting. “Time Out” doesn’t need to be played at bedtime. There is also no commentary, other than what can be implied from the readings I choose.

“Time Out” will be a reading from Scripture, the Book of Concord, or church fathers. Following that will be one or two hymns, as “live” and as fresh as I can make it.  One might think of it as melodic sushi — perhaps some cutting, but no cooking. I am open to submissions from other musicians, provided that hymns are in the public domain and don’t contain any doctrinal errata. I would love to have performances with and from people I meet on the road.

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This time, the Buckeyes didn’t beat themselves in a bowl game. Texas did it, and they deserve the credit. Texas won in the last 16 seconds, 24-21.

For the record, I thought the 4th down was a conversion, and I knew they won the game right there.

I’m very glad Todd Boeckman got involved, but Texas should have been anticipating that QB-QB touchdown pass. Duh.

Texas-Ohio State is becoming a rivalry, with never a bad game between the two. I hope they keep it going. Congratulations, Longhorns.

And I am rooting for the Sooners Thursday. Hey, I lived there for nearly two years.

My girls, who will be six in a matter of days, showed me something cool this evening.

During tonight’s routine, we read the Follow and Do books for the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostles’ Creed. There are six books in the series, one for each chief part of Luther’s Small Catechism, with illustrations and little-kid-level summaries.

The younger twin has most of the summaries down pat and insists I read them. That’s not much of a surprise.

The older one tonight started saying some of the “What does this mean?” sections of the Lord’s Prayer. Tonight she did the parts in italics:

With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.

Stuff I didn’t know until seventh grade, she’s learning before she’s six. How cool is that?

Kinda makes up for the extra couple of times I asked her to help clean up the living room…

On the whole this year has been better than last year, except for the incredibly shrinking 401(k).  Next year will have some issues to navigate through early, but hopefully things will get better as things become more certain.

Got good gifts this year from the whole immediate family, including a Blue Snowball microphone from the NR Wife, the Treasury of Daily Prayer from my parents, and a slew of books from the in-laws that include the latest Star Wars novel as well as books by Giertz, Sasse, Veith, and Harrison. Good stuff, all. The microphone works very well.

NR will probably continue the slower posting rate until I start traveling again in mid-January. Western Virginia isn’t the hotbed of Lutheranism that northeast Virginia near D.C., is, and the state is about eight hours driving time over there. Going the other way, there are churches in Tennessee that intrigue me, particularly one in Knoxville. Things were much simpler when I was going back and forth to Houston, but at least I don’t have to deal with airports.

The last time I crossed some mountains and went into Virginia, it was funny to listen to all of the radio stations cut out, one by one, as I headed south. The last radio station standing was playing “A Boy Named Sue” by Johnny Cash, and it was the first time I’d heard the whole song. These people were some strange critters, I thought to myself.

Happy New Year!

I’ve not been well for the past three days or so, and we had to miss Divine Service at our congregation. When we do miss, we still have Matins at the piano, and the Treasury of Daily Prayer which arrived yesterday (thanks, Mom and Dad) came into good use.

I only used one ribbon (Gold) as I had the LSB Accompaniment for the Liturgy to use for the Order of Service, and I didn’t feel like adding extra psalms or prayers for the nearly six-year-olds.

Gold was enough, though. Today is the Feast of the Holy Innocents, Martyrs. A stark reminder of how we don’t know when it’s our time, how brutal man can be, the fulfillment of several prophecies, and the death of the ultimate Innocent for our salvation.

The Psalm, the Prayer of the Day, the OT Reading, and the NT Reading were right there for December 28. The TDP had a verse from “Sweet Flowerets of the Martyr Band”, LSB 969. I played and sang the whole thing — it turns out that’s quite a pretty tune. Nice job, guys.

Pr. Weedon has a terrific sermon for the occasion. It is a must read.