Restore Us O God

³ Restore us, O God;
make your face shine upon us,
that we may be saved.

Psalm 80:3

first dose of barbicide...

This Sunday I listened to a message on the first Beatitude, "Blessed are the poor in spirit". Essentially, a prerequisite to being a follower of Jesus is to know that we have no spiritual resources sufficient for entering the Kingdom of Heaven or doing Kingdom work. Instead, our sufficiency is in Christ. This was a very good dousing in barbicide for my soul, killing off the fungul growth of self-sufficiency. It will probably grow back...

Here's the sermon:

http://bit.ly/6IPluh

double-edged razors

My friend Steven introduced me to a website, The Art of Manliness (http://artofmanliness.com/). One of the articles that grabbed me was on shaving (http://bit.ly/16VSI). In the picture are two safety razors that I bought from Bart’s Flea market for $5 and $8 (and I now find that I probably overpaid!) and restored. As part of the cleaning process, I boil the razors, soak them in hydrogen peroxide, then soak them in barbicide (the blue liquid in old barbershops that they soaked combs in). I really, really want to kill anything on them (blood-borne pathogens).

On my sabbatical, I hope to take a good soaking in God that will kill the nasty stuff in my life.

Note to Laramie friends: if you want to give this a try, I will keep an eye out for razors to restore for you.

rest and/or restoration

The theme for this blog came to me because of three events:

1. I have been restoring old double edge safety razors
2. I have been restoring old fountain pens
3. I'm having my shoulder "fixed" (rotator cuff surgery)

All three have the following in common:

1. They involve something old and worn out
2. Just letting the item sit around and rest wasn't going to do anything
3. They all required some procedure done to them to restore functionality

An Academic sabbatical is not only a time to rest, but also to rejuvenate. However, as I thought about these three things, I realize I need to very intentional about restoration in addition to just resting. I don't believe rest and restoration are mutually exclusive and I will try to capture my thoughts on this during the upcoming year. I am planning separate posts on the razors, pens, and shoulder.

a year of rest and restoration

This is a blog of my sabbatical experiences. As I start my sabbatical, I realize that I not only need rest, but restoration. I will post my thoughts on this as I progress throughout the year. I've already started my sabbatical, but the big kick-off will be when we leave for New Zealand on Februay 9.