the unlikely orange

One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” Jesus replied,  “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The L ORD  our God is the one and only L ORD .    And you must love the L ORD  your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’   The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”                                                                                                    -mark 12:28-31 Jesus was pretty clear about it.  when you boil it all down to its rawest, most basic form, the rules for good living are pretty plain: love God, and love your neighbor.  these ideas are pretty counter-cultural.  i mean, you don't find these "laws" written into the fabric of the way we do politics or business, do yo

"lent 1, 2015: connected" mixed media collage on stretched canvas (tissue paper, string, acrylic paint, gel medium, wallpaper glue) 10" x 8" gregory a. milinovich sunday we began our lenten series called "journey to hope."  we began by talking about two parts of the journey, roadblocks and companions.  as far as roadblocks go, sometimes there are things that block our progress in the journey of faith.  whether it be the refusal to forgive someone, or to receive forgiveness from God, or the pride of being unwilling to admit the selfishness of your choices or behavior, or something else altogether different, there are many things that impede our forward movement, and keep us still and stagnant.  but it doesn't have to be that way.  God has made a way where there seems to be no way, and every possible roadblock can be overcome, by the grace of God.  the question is are you willing to do your part in overcoming it? secondly, we discussed the

"ash wednesday 2015: with dirty hands" mixed media collage (tissue paper, acrylic paint, gel medium, chalkboard paint) 10" x 8" february, 2015 gregory a. milinovich tonight in our ash wednesday service we will talk about how sometimes, although we begin a journey with a clean car, we sometimes end up with pepperidge farm goldfish scattered throughout every orifice in our minivan, even ones we didn't know existed.  there will be several gummy snacks permanently embedded into the carpet, and every possible beverage will have spilled, even ones i didn't know we brought with us.   journeys just get messy.   that's part of the journey, isn't it?   on this journey of lent, which begins today in the somber awareness of ash and dust, we will not have any different experience.  just like a family road trip, this journey will be marked by mishaps and messes.  in fact, we start right there.  we start right in the thick, sticky, powd

this is my 1,900th post on this blog!  who would've thought i'd be at it this long?  i'm thinking that if there is a better way to celebrate this milestone than these pictures of my family on this day of love, i can't imagine what it would be!  we are so blessed!  love wins!

crunch.  crunch.  crunch.  the sound of my slippery-bottomed dress shoes as i trudged through the snow on my way home from church.  i was looking down at the snow, at first so i wouldn't slip, but then because i noticed the footprints of all three of my sons alongside Shannon's.  i could see where they had stepped, both on their way to church, and home again, some steps obscured by others, bearing witness to the traveling circus that is our family.  but the shape and direction of each little print revealed its maker. three little boys.  following their mother.  through the snow.  in their dress shoes. it's enough to make a dad cry.  and it was certainly enough to make this dad think.  where will these footsteps lead?  at the moment, they were leading me home from church, where those three precious boys and their mother would likely be sorting laundry, getting lunch ready, and already making preparations for the afternoon's soccer game and monday's return to s

brrrrrr.... i actually like winter, but every year there comes a time when i've simply had enough. and that time has come.  when i saw that the stupid groundhog was predicting 6 more weeks (might as well be months) of winter, i felt like i could punch that rotten rodent in his smug little snout.  i wanted to wring his whiskery little neck!  i wanted to turn him into groundhog gumbo and eat him while sitting outside on some new orleans patio, where i'm perspiring because of the temperature, and wearing flip flops so that my tanned little toes can breath in the warm air.  i was mad at that wannabe meteorologist mammal.  and then i saw this picture and i calmed down.  i mean, he is pretty cute, now that i get a better look at him.  i think we could be friends.  look at those adorable little ears!  i guess i could live with a few more weeks of ash-gray snow all over everything, if that precious little creature thinks its best.  (a steelers hat changes everything). st

sometimes you read something about someone and you think, "man, i really wish someone would say that about me someday."   well, at least i do.   and that happened this morning.  i was reading frederick buechner's words about a teacher he once had who taught the old testament with passion and pizazz, just close enough to foolishness to be memorable and meaningful in a way that only a person possessed with conviction can really do.  anyway, buechner is writing about this man, "james muilenburg," and he writes: "'Every morning when you wake up,' he used to say, 'before you reaffirm your faith in the majesty of a loving God, before you say I believe for another day, read the Daily News with its record of the latest crimes and tragedies of mankind and then see if you can honestly say it again.' He was a fool in the sense that he didn't or couldn't or wouldn't resolve, intellectualize, evade, the tensions of his faith but liv