the unlikely orange

as a pastor, i constantly struggle with what it means to pastor people with passionate differences of opinion.  the congregations i have served have always been made up of both red and blue, black and white, gay and straight, conservative and progressive, passionate and apathetic, and so on and so forth.  in the midst of these differences, i wrestle with how to love and act and speak in a way that welcomes all of this diversity of belief and thought. when i find myself struggling with how to do this, my guide is always and ever Jesus. and Jesus had one pretty major rule (he called it a new commandment): "love one another as i have loved you." so on this day, when i am a bundle of emotions, and i find myself swinging between them freely and rapidly; when i find that i am blessed and humbled to be an american, but not nearly as proud as i have been before; when i see some of my facebook friends giving one another virtual high-fives, while others are openly weeping and...

i'm not sure how many americans right now are feeling optimistic about the government.  i know i'm not.  in fact, while i didn't live through the civil war or anything, i have to think that faith in our elected leaders - indeed the whole system of electing them in the first place - is at one of its lowest points.  i just don't have a great deal of confidence in those individuals who have been elected, or in those who want to be.  i find myself slipping at times into what feels like a swamp of apathy: sinking, to be sure, but not sure that i care enough anymore to do much about it.  i see this attitude all around me: in conversations, on social media, and in popular culture.  perhaps there is no more clear indication of our nation's view of the government than this current election season, when we would teeter on electing liars and thieves, crooks and clowns.  which is why i was so startled as i sat down to read psalm 72 this morning. as i read the...

  happy Halloween from a mad scientist, George Washington, and Clark Kent (and one of the referees who tries to keep them all getting along)!   we went to a Halloween party at church last night, and then the state college Halloween parade, where clark kent won 4th place in his group, and the mad scientist won 3rd in his!  we had a great time!   shannon made these awesome cookies for cade's classroom.     on Saturday we had some friends over and we had a blast carving our pumpkins!   the guy chewing the apple is mine.  Shannon's is the owl.  Jackson made the superman logo, cade made George Washington's profile, and Quinton's is obviously "a bear cave with a bear looking out."  happy Halloween!

if my sermon on sunday could be represented as a song, perhaps it would be this one by drew holcomb, who says, " 2016 has been a very confusing year for me. I wrote a new song about it called "Wild World". Here it is." love is all we've got to give away.  amen.

seasons change.  by definition, that's what they do.  they are reminders that life, ever beyond our control, is in a constant state of movement, from what is known to what is unknown.  the weather itself is a sometimes wondrous, and sometimes terrifying reminder that we are not as strong as we think we are (those words written with an affectionate nod at the late, great rich mullins).  but it is in the midst of those in-between times, as one season spins its slow descent into a new one, that i recognize the constant movement of life. of course, as aliens in a new land (for that is what we are, even with the incredible hospitality of the good folks of state college, pa), the concept of constant change is nothing to our family.  we are living exhibits of the seasonal nature of life.  just as the colors on tussey mountain, which sits regally, enthroned in a wide sky, and gloriously visible from our back door, are starting to rust to more earthy hues, and ...

on saturday we went to our first ever penn state football game. we are!.... ....new at this! but we had a blast.  we left at 10:30am for the 3:30 game at beaver stadium, just a few miles from our house.  we got there without any traffic, got into our parking space and set up "camp," which meant that we had table and chairs and food and snacks and drinks and games and toys.  we played board games, threw the football, had a dangerous throwing competition, and took a walk around the perimeter of beaver stadium to fully emerge in this "cross cultural experience" as i kept calling it.  the weather was spectacular, and helped us to fully appreciate the pregame, as well as the game itself. once we got into the stadium, we were blessed with padded seats (with backs!) and truly enjoyed all the pomp and circumstance of the blue band, the student section, the nittany lion, and more.  so much fun! the game was sort of meh, at least in the first half, as penn st...

today is labor day, the official end of summer, and so i find myself reflecting today on the summer of 2016.  as different as this summer was, we still did our annual tradition of making a summer bucket list, which i wrote about here , back in july.  shannon designed the bucket list with a patriotic theme, knowing that we would be vacationing in washington dc this summer: and as awesome as that week in dc was, it certainly wasn't the major event of our summer.  no, without question, the mark of summer 2016 for the milinovich's was moving.  everything was either leading up to the move (putting all of our possessions in cardboard boxes) or resulting from the move (unpacking all of aforementioned boxes). but we woke up the first day after moving out of our home for the last 6 years, a place that had become home to us, with great friends at a great church, and this is how that first morning greeted us: and somehow, we knew everything was going to be ju...