the unlikely orange

check out this cool video that Jackson made out of legos, his camera, and some video software...

Merry Christmas from the Milinovich family!

one of my favorite Christmas traditions as a dad is the annual Christmas video we have made for the past 9 years now.  it is such a joy for me to put these together and watch my way through them, like a digital "ghost of Christmas past," walking me through the better part of the last decade.  directly below is this year's addition to the lineup, set to Pentatonix' "That's Christmas to Me."  the video begins with some ad libbing by Quinton, which is happening most of the time.  this advent,  he's been very concerned about the fact that the Bible never mentions a donkey in the story of Joseph and Mary traveling to Bethlehem.  so he decided to sing about it.  that's pretty normal in our house.  singing, dancing, merry-making: that's Christmas to us!   and, in case you want to walk with me through Milinovich Christmases past, here are our previous eight:

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.