the unlikely orange

lord, we are divided.  if the images on your tv screen of angry white men carrying tiki torches in charlottesville didn't demonstrate that to you, then the polarized response to it certainly did. not that this should come as a big surprise. after the election, we knew that there was a chasm between blue and red states and their corresponding voters. and while no oversimplified binary expression of extremes can ever fully paint the picture of who we are as individuals or groups, the way the extremes continue to attract movement to the polar caps of opinion shows just how divided we have become.  of course it doesn't help that we hear what we want to hear in news, social media, and even the marketplace (personalized ads online try to only show me what they know think i am already interested in).  further wedging the divide is the increasing inability to have civil discourse with those who believe/feel/live/love/look/vote differently than us.  when these factors con...

this mad scientist turns six years old today.  he is a laugh-a-minute, dancing, quotable little Quinton, who alternately keeps us young and gives us gray hair.  he likes to cuddle, wear costumes, and dance dance dance.  the other day i watched him dancing to a piece of classical music and he was whispering to himself "focus...focus."  when he was done i asked him, "why were you saying 'focus' to yourself while you were dancing?"  his response?  with a childlike sincerity: "i didn't want to do anything the music didn't tell me to do."   here's wishing for many years of following the music, and dancing through life with focus, laughter, and joy.   happy birthday, Quin!

remember. today, of course, is memorial day, by definition a day of remembering.  and while i certainly hope that your day is happy and full of the best kinds of joys, i also hope that you find some way and time to remember how it is that these joys came to you.  yes, of course i am thinking about the sacrifices of women and men who served our country whose service included the hefty price of their lives.  even if you don't know any of them, i hope you find a way to remember them somehow, and those who grieve them still. but i am also thinking of something even more poignant and powerful, at least for me.  when i think about remembering how it is that we have come to enjoy such blessedness, i am hoping you'll consider that every good and perfect gift comes from above (james 1:17).  i am hoping we might take a lesson from the poetry of the Hebrews, who never failed to take the time to remember what God had done for them (check out psalm 105, as one exampl...

 it's hard to believe it, but this is the 9th year that the boys and i have been making mother's day videos for Shannon.  Cade was only just a year old when we made our first, and he just turned 10 and will soon finish 4th grade!  we've done videos with a variety of themes: springsteen, athletics, wacky costumes, silent film, and moving, just to name some of them.  as we've gotten more familiar with the process, and as the boys get older, we have more fun planning the scenes, the locations, the costumes, the props, and even the camera work and "special effects."  still, it's a ton of work, and the reason we do it is because we know how blessed we are to have a wife and mother like Shannon, and we feel like these 9 music videos (so far) are all slices of time that she will cherish for the rest of her life.  it's about the best present we could think of, and now its a tradition.  we can only hope that she enjoys them as much as we enjoy making them for ...

i just found out that we have the chance to bring Gungor to state college on july 29th of this year for part of their One Wild Life: Acoustic Tour .  we could host them right at St. Paul's!  all i need is $7,000.  no big deal. seriously.  i need $7,000.  i almost sent them an email back to say we won't be able to do it (i mean, we didn't budget for this or anything, and i'm not sure i can convince my church to invest in something that many of them have never heard of), but then i thought, i'd better wait.  i mean, i have until wednesday to let them know for sure. so, anyone in state college want to make this happen?  if so, message me.  call me.  just let me know.

who's ten years old?  this guy!  this tasmanian devil-like bundle of energy and movement and activity. he will be trying to throw a ball over the house one minute, sweeping the garage while wearing roller blades the next, and then wrapping his arms around you in a solid embrace the next.  he is physical.  he is a collector (of anything he can get his hands on...sports cards, presidential antiques, key chains, circuit boards, etc.).  he is athletic.  and he is now ten! happy birthday to the only one of my children who's punctured his soft palate, scored 7 goals in one soccer game, wants to go to antique stores and yard sales, and watches sports with me!

lent 7 (easter) 2017: stones mixed media collage (found papers, acrylic paint, gel medium on stretched canvas) april, 2017 gregory a. milinovich there are stones everywhere.  but they don't make the best easter symbols.  we prefer bunnies and eggs for that.  but in many ways, stones would be so much better.  they could remind us of the great power of love which moves stones away from graves.  they could remind us of how life can burst forth out of just about any situation.  they could remind us that the same power that rolled away a death-stone in a garden in jerusalem is offered to us.  they could remind us, in a far more poignant way, perhaps, than hollow chocolate bunnies or plastic eggs, that there is nothing, nothing - no, nothing  - that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, the same Christ Jesus who died and then defeated death once and for all for you and for me. have a blessed easter, my friends.