Go to the New Blog

I've decided to retire the blogspot. So go to the new and improved www.carenfog.wordpress.com peace out!

My New Favorite Thing

My new favorite thing is having something that I've written quoted back to me as good advice.

Also carving pumpkins, I like those too!

me in three months!

A Book Review and Dust on my Laptop

I just finished reading They Like Jesus but not the Church by Dan Kimball (who I haven’t really liked since I saw him at the National Youth Workers Convention, however Bill had the book on his desk and I was avoiding doing other things, so…). I did like this book, not really earth shattering for me, but it’s nice to have someone else articulate the things I am feeling. Here are some of my thoughts mixed with Kimball’s:

• The Church has to draw us in and allow us to be something we can’t be on our own. Not something we simply attend to or passively absorb.


• Christ is the center of the Church (the head of the body if you will) both in dogma AND form. The worship should be an unapologetic gathering of Christians, Christ-followers, or Jesus people, whatever title you prefer. I can’t overemphasis form and means here; they matter tremendously both in the ‘end product’ they create and they culture they communicate.


• The goal isn’t to get non-Christians to “go to church”, but to participate in the life of the church as a community. Perhaps, we should consider coming worship gatherings as a later step. This means we shouldn’t be gearing the worship gatherings to non-Christians, if that is the only thing we do that we can invite people to participate in we are in trouble.
• The Church is Jesus! We need to read the gospels a lot more

On a lighter note, why does my laptop attract so much dust? I’m sure there is a simply explanation involving electric fields and magnetism… maybe wikipeda has an answer?

Meditations on The Road

I've been going through a lot of fiction lately, the residual effect of three years of forced theological reading. The latest book I read is call The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The story is about a father and son in a post-apocalyptic America - pretty heavy stuff. I picked it up because it won the Pulitzer Prize this year. Parts of it are devastating, other parts are painfully hopeful.

I finished it last night and have been thinking about the book since then. In the end it is our love for each other, the goodness at makes us human, that separates us from the tide of chaos that consistently laps at the edge of our civilizations and lives. One of the books nameless characters says to the boy of his father, "She said that the breath of God was his breath yet though it pass from man to man through all of time."

We can't forgot who sustains us, who created us, who came to live with us in the world, and who call us to shine like stars. There are things we cannot do, because to do them denies and destroys our very ontology. Sin doesn't just separate us from God, sin separates us from ourselves.

Remember, it is the breath of God that fills us all.

Kill the Gnats!

The kitchen is infested with fruit gnats (I'm not sure what their offical name is). As I'm typing this they are hovering about, crawling on the two bananas and dish of rine wine vinegar and soap meant to both attract and kill them. The picture on right show the current sucessful of the trap.

Thanks for Margaret for helping me take the photo and being such a sport about blogging about gnats in her house. On a whole their house is spotless, very clean, no other bugs! I'm not sure how they got in, but they are going out!

If You Find Yourself Eating Too Many Milk Duds...

There is way to much candy in the CCC offices lately. Milk Duds, Kit Kats, M&M - I feel like I'm in Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory - sans chocolate river. Perry especially needs to lay off the Milk Duds, every time I see him he has got a box in his hand. Food is not the answer Perry, if you are stressed out you should just take a swim in the pond, drink more coffee, sneak out of the office and watch a movie tomorrow afternoon with the Leadership Residents (3:10 to Yuma is supposed to be good). And remember you are not the catalyst, the Holy Spirit is the catalyst and the Holy Spirit isn't high in corn syrup and partically hydrogenated soy bean oil.

My First "War Eagle Moment" in Chicago

I have had my first Auburn alumni sighting in Chicago on Saturday at the Morton Arboretum. He had on and Auburn hat and the dialogue went like this:


Me: "Did you go to Auburn?"

Him: "Yes."

Me: "Me, too!"

Him: "War Eagle!"

Me: "War Eagle!"

Him: "Are you excited about the game tonight?"

Me: "Yeah, it's on ESPN2."

Him: "All right, War Eagle"

Me: "Bye."


I don't want to talk about that horrible atrocity of a game. It's good to know that the Auburn Spirit is alive and well, even in a place so far from the loveliest village on the plain. It's also good to know that those "War Eagle Moment" commericals the school does really do happen.



I'm including this picture from the Arboretum. It was beautiful! Though the mosquitos were life-threatening. Repeat after me: no West Nile virus, no West Nile virus...

Special thanks to Sher for bringing me along.