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Of getting my kids into treatment or not……

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I am thinking of taking Ben to a treatment center. He is totally addicted to Veggietales. Of course Steph and Scott knowing every song does not help. They are enablers to be sure. But I suppose of all the things to have an addiction to, religious singing/dancing vegetables is not something to lose sleep over. I, in fact, am a big fan.

For those of you who have not seen Veggietales I encourage you to. They are brilliant, and not just for little kids……the humor (and even the lessons) can touch the souls of adults too. We own quite a few DVDs and have the movie “Jonah.” And yes, on October 11th I will pick up our reserved copy of the long awaited “The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything.” (They don’t even sail!)

If you can read this blog you can see them on YouTube or other video sites. And in an era where even Disney is getting a bit risque’ it is nice to have something the kids can watch that you do not need to worry about!

Anyway, I need to get back to my boy and his vegetables. I hope you have had a great day! Goodnight and God Bless!

Tom+

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On faith, on freedom, and on responsibility……

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Dear Friends,

Our country is becoming more and more of a strange place, and particularly as a parent, it is becoming disheartening. Congress and even the President, have all time low approval ratings, and the things that come from people’s mouths these days are atrocious! The economy is in crisis, yet it’s based a lot on debt. And people choose sides, yet too few can really explain why they are there. The country I love, and the one that I thought would only get better, looks to be at great risk….particularly in its current form.

As for me, I have always been interested and involved in politics, but my job prevents me from speaking out about it because of our tax-exempt status. Yet more than ever, I am concerned about where all this is headed. We are a country still under 250 years old. I worry about us continuing past 300. In history, even some of the greatest civilizations collapsed…..usually due to ideological conflicts too. I do not want to be an alarmist, but these issues and changes are significant. The swing in order to save the economy currently being presented is not capitalistic, but socialistic, and freedom is truly sacrificed there. And if our freedom is sacrificed in one place, then others, I believe, will follow. I have been ordained 20 years next year…..and I guarantee you that religion, particularly Christianity, has been under assault. If we continue to head down these roads, we are headed for even harder times.

My friends, pray for good men and women to make good decisions, not on the fear of being re-elected or not, but on our behalf. And pray for our country, that America may be restored, and not further divided. Pray that freedom may reign free, and not be restricted. And pray that those who feel freedom is to do anything, will grow to understand that freedom is not really about self, but about the giving of self for the good of the whole. It is truly preposterous to think that freedom just means doing what you want or saying what you want. That is a grave misunderstanding of what it means to be free, and I do not use the word grave lightly. Yet it appears to be THE definition of freedom in our modern world.

My friends, keep the faith. Stand firm for it, and for the freedoms that so many have given their lives for, and that so many still stand in harm’s way on our behalf for. Freedom, in fact, is not free, but has come to us at a great cost. And that price has been paid on our behalf many times. Let’s be grateful for it and not squander it. It is far too important to take any of this lightly.

Okay, I am calling it a night, but will stay up here on my soapbox, for these are important issues…..far too important in fact to not keep in front of us!

Goodnight my friends and God bless. Pray for our country, and pray that just paths may appear and be followed.

Fr. Tom+

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Tails of a Faithful Dragonslayer……………

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Tonight the cat did not want to come out here on the porch tonight and I cannot imagine why. Perhaps it was the five dogs I had out here with me while Amanda led her Bible Study tonight in the other room. I wanted to let them have a bit of air before it started, but when it rained they became wet, and there’s nothing that says “go sleep in the garage” more than overshadowing all of your wife’s preparation for her guests than to make the house smell like wet dog.

As for the cat, she is not afraid of any of them, even though she weighs just 6 pounds. She is just a typical cat, annoyed easily, and just didn’t want to mess with the five of them…..plus the wet dog smell. Tonight she appears much smarter than me!

But all and all, I loved being out here with them, wet and all. Four of our dogs are show dogs, but to hang with them you would never know it. They are our family, and quite frankly I get a lot out of hanging around them. They are all about tail-wagging fun, and often I am a bit too uptight. I need to get something accomplished, while they constantly tell me to lighten up….after all there is always time to chase just one more ball.

In the times of my life that have been hard, I always have appreciated my family, my friends, and my faith…..but also my beloved dogs. They make no judgements, they hold no expectations. They don’t worry about what kind of day I have or what I need to do. They just love me and are happy to see me.

God knew what He was doing when He made and gave us dogs…..particularly His favorite dog, the Golden Retriever (I bet I get some comments on that one!) But tonight I thank God for those 16 golden legs and 4 wagging golden tails, and yes, even for the 4 legs and 1 tail on our “spare dog,” Amanda’s dog Spencer. They’ve made my night a lot of fun!

Goodnight my friends, and I hope you have had a great day! God bless!

Fr. Tom+

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Of Angels and Archangels…………

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Today at Church we celebrated the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels. It is always such an awesome day for me, in that St. Michael himself is a Saint I totally admire. In the Revelation to St. John, in chapter 12, we hear that St. Michael the Archangel leads the battle against Satan and his angels and casts them out of heaven. Unfortunately for us, Satan and his angels were cast down here to earth, but we are not left without the power of Christ and the protection of St. Michael and all his angels still.

I always felt the naming of our ministry after St. Michael the Archangel was so very appropriate. We had thought about it and prayed about it, and it just became clearer and clearer the more we did. It was not a shot in the dark. Our mission, our call was serious, and there was no better name to reflect that we too meant to stand from the start with what was true and what was right. St. Michael is a great Defender of the Faith, and Protector as well. We see our ministry in very much that same light.

The Feast of St. Michael the Archangel also marks the one year anniversary of the ordination of two of our deacons, PT Morgan and Dan Conley. PT and Dan have been Godsends to our ministry, and we would not be where we are without them (and I mean that in the good way!) Congratulations guys! Just 40 more years to retirement!!

St. Michael’s Feast Day is actually tomorrow on the 29th, we took the liberty of moving it to today in order to celebrate it in all our missions. But say a prayer of thanksgiving for our ministry tomorrow on our Patron Saint’s Day. We are so blessed at what we do, and we are happy you can be a part. If you just read these blogs, we invite you to come join us. And if you live too far away to attend, we hope you can listen to the sermons and read about us online. You also can partner with us online and join our ministry by making a donation online. But mostly we just ask for your prayers.

Thanks for checking in! Goodnight and God Bless.

Fr. Tom+

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The blessings and curses of nocturnal living……….

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If I just heard a fog horn, could see a light house, or had a guide dog, I might be able to get through all this fog!! I hadn’t been sleeping correctly, and the new doctor has scheduled a new sleep study on Wednesday and changed when I take some meds, but suddenly I am not sleeping hardly at all! I feel like Father Chuck who is up at all hours watching old movies! Not that they are bad, it’s just killing me during the day. I often feel as if I have turned a corner, yet find myself on the wrong street!

I have a full Sunday scheduled nonetheless. Two services and two hospital calls, and no, none of them are me! I am hoping (and praying) that by the time I get home I am exhausted and can get back on a “non-vampire” schedule. Don’t get me wrong, I love our cat, but I do not want to be up walking around at three with my eyes all dilated looking for something to do with her. I just want to sleep like a normal bloke.

Anyway, I am going to bed to pretend I can sleep. At least I will be in the right place. And if by some miracle I am able to go out, I will spend Sunday being quite thankful……as I am sure my family will do as well!

Goodnight and God bless!

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Of the joys and pains of fatherhood……..

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Tonight Scotty and I practiced lacrosse in our backyard. Scotty is going to follow in his sister’s footsteps and play for the high school this year, and I thought it would be great fun to get out there with him in the yard and mix it up a bit. After all, I am a former long-time ice hockey player, and certainly know and enjoy how to dish it out. I thought it would be good exercise for us both, and a great lesson for him to work to get by me.

So we got out there and went at it…..Scott in full lacrosse gear, and me in an old facemask-free hockey helmet. Scott 15 and determined, and me, 47 and a legend, apparently only in my mind.

I really shouldn’t be that hard on myself. He acknowledged that I gave him a real battle, particularly when he said I “fouled.” Apparently driving him into the fence and/or the bushes is considered “illegal” in men’s lacrosse. What a whiner! In neighborhood hockey all was fair….no penalties. But what went around came around!

Of course his 31 year advantage came to light quite a few times over the course of our practice, particularly when he launched me with a check that I would be envious of at any point in my life. My helmet (though unstrapped) stayed on, but I was in the air and came down hard! How I LOVE this game! I only wish it were around when I was younger! We are going to practice again tomorrow too! I will take some Advil prophylacticly however.

It is always a blast though. I coach my daughter and the women’s high school team, but I know very little about men’s lacrosse. I am however, trying to learn. I do know quite a bit about ice hockey though, and so I try to fake it when I mix it up with Scott. I may need some x-rays, but I believe it is all worth it. Ben best beware, by the point he is ready for me, I probably will be pretty wicked with my walker!

I love being a dad more than anything else in the world! What a blessing!

Goodnight my friends and God bless!

Tom+

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Happy Birthday Sarah, I miss you…….

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Today I have been remembering my sister Sarah, who would have been 43 today. She died in 2004 from cancer caused by a rare genetic disease that she and my sister Stephanie both had, Bloom’s Syndrome. It is a disease that causes cancer. Stephanie died in 2001.

Sarah and Steph were both pretty good people, I mean as much as sisters can be. Because of the Bloom’s they were both exceptionally short at 4’6″ and weighed maybe 70 pounds as adults soaking wet. Though through the majority of both their lives I was better known as their chief antagonist, I really do miss them. Steph had a heart of gold and Sarah was one of the funniest people to ever walk this earth. When we were younger she often wore bunny ears, and she once even gave an instructional speech for school on how to do the “Bunny Hop.” I understand she got an “A.”

One of my favorite memories of Sarah was one night very late when she and I were watching TV. It was about 1 in the morning. I was a senior in high school, and she was, I think, in 8th or 9th grade. A commercial came on for this scary movie with this killer-type guy staring right out at us. In a great panic she covered her eyes and started shaking and said “tell me when it’s over, tell me when it’s over!” So I did, but before I said it was okay, I opened my eyes just like the guy on the screen, and moved right in front of her face! It was too good to pass up, and I thought it was a riot.

Needless to say, there was A LOT of screaming at that point! Sarah went berserk and screamed her brains out and then leaped at me and tried to take my eyes right out of my head with her own hands. By the time my mom came out of her room, both of us were screaming! She had scared me probably more than I her….after all, I was just kidding around, she however was really going to kill me I am sure. But live and learn….I never messed with her again!

Sisters can sometimes irritate you beyond belief, and most days I really wish they were still around to do it too because I miss them. I usually have a Margarita on Sarah’s birthday (her favorite) but tonight I just forgot that part so writing will have to do. If heaven is a perfect place, which I believe it is, she is probably having one right now for me! And I hope to have one with both of them, many many years from now, when I get there myself!

Here’s to ya Sarah. Happy birthday……I miss you.

Tom+

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Oh those dwarfs……Stephy, Scotty, Mandy, the little monster, and Sleepy Doc……..

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Today I had a follow-up MRI. MRI’s are not that difficult for me anymore, particularly since I am extremely claustrophobic and they Xanax me up to take them. I seem to always be awake for the test. I suppose even the power of the pill can’t take away the underlying reality of what you are going through. But afterwards everything catches up and sleep ends up getting the best of you. Not that I mind……I enjoy sleep. But I spent the first hour of that time trying to convince Ben that he did too when he apparently did not. The old, “Come on Ben, daddy is tired. Just lay down and take a nap with me,” fell on deaf ears. I am not his sleeping buddy, I am his jungle gym. So Ben had to head to his room alone!

The good news is that they are not expecting to see anything unusual on this MRI other than to compare it to my first one. I have had problems and struggles that really should not be there, and this test will give a baseline of right now. I will go back to a different neurologist tomorrow to talk about some of these other struggles, and hopefully we can get them all worked out sometime soon.

But tonight, though quite tired, I am finishing this up on the back porch with “Jenny” our oldest female Golden. This explains why the cat is not out here with me…..she is not too fond of the dog invading her space. Right now however, we are not too fond of the dog invading ours. You see, last night Jenny got out into the corn field behind our house and found some “fertilizer” that the farmers put on their field and rolled all over it. And though I know she feels quite attractive, all polls indicate that she is dead wrong. She is still kenneled out here on the porch until her bath in the yard in the morning. Typing out here, though quiet, is a lot harder. She is a cutie, but only if you do not breathe.

So with that, I am off to “cleaner pastures.” I will keep everyone up to date with the results and progress like always, but I do appreciate your prayers.

Goodnight my friends and God Bless…….

Tom+

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The looming sound of a steak knife…..but the question is who’s?????

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It has been a busy week so far, and sadly it is just Tuesday. Our weekly clergy meeting is moving to tomorrow to accommodate an MRI and a doctor’s appointment for me to hopefully put this long drawn out mess behind me. So tonight Puddy and I will write and then I will head to the Kroger to pick up lunch for tomorrow. Our clergy team does not have a “team-mom,” so they just have to deal with what I get.

I will say we are coming up on not just the anniversary of Deacon Dan and Deacon Morgan’s ordinations, but also the finish line of a bet we made last year…..who would lose the most weight by September 29, 2009. The prize is pretty twisted considering the bet….it’s a fattening steak dinner! But surprisingly we all seem to be leaning toward continuing it for another year. All three of us have been down and up, and though we are better than we were, we all would like to be better than we are.

I guess the point is that though clergy are often put up on that pedestal, even we have real life struggles and problems just like everyone else. Our jobs are long and hard, and they often are sown deeply with the seeds of stress. And when you travel and cannot always be around a healthy meal, convenience is not always your friend.

In a couple of weeks, Deacon Morgan and I will be walking and then officiating at a service for the American Diabetes Walk in Indianapolis. We are taking pledges for our walk, and do it because it is a good cause. My mom is in a nursing home (initially) because of it, and my grandfather had it as well. Being better with our personal struggles will help us avoid it ourselves! Your prayers would be appreciated, as well as your support for the walk. And of course, if Dan or PT decided to not put off the bet, your prayers for me to win it are welcome as well!

Seriously, and in truth, the Lord wants us to be healthy in body, mind, AND spirit. The Bible tells us that the body is actually the temple of the Spirit, so we should all do our best to take care of it.

Tonight I am doing my part. Though the cat is eating bugs, I am drinking a diet soda. Hopefully I can continue to move down a healthy path.

Anyway, off to the Kroger I go! Pray for a healthy mind and choices at the store!

Goodnight my friends and God bless.

Fr. Tom+