Day Nine: Mission Impossible… Ending Impossible — A Critique

Spoiler Alert

Just for starters, spoiler alert. I mean it.

Spoiler Alert — For Real

If you haven’t seen the movie… stop now. In fact, if you haven’t seen the movie, wait for it to start streaming online. Your bladder with thank you.

OK, here goes…

I may tell the ending of the movie. In fact, here it is: it ended like every other Mission Impossible, only that Ethan Hunt’s girlfriend didn’t get killed in this one. His buddy Luther did.

So there you have it.

I took Heidi to see it, and honestly, they could have made it shorter by about an hour. It seemed like every scene went on endlessly, like unraveling a 500-foot extension cord. It never ends.

If they has 12 minutes to disarm a bomb, which happened twice, they would stand around talking for 13 1/2 minutes, before finally, getting the bomb disarmed enough so that all of London didn’t disintegrate, just Luther and their underground hotel, conveniently located in an abandoned portion of the Tube. With the second bomb, they had more time, but threw in the an endless airplane scene to show off Tom Cruise’s ability to cheat death as he fought villains flying the bi-plane upside down.

Then there were the Tom Cruise running scenes. “You know Ethan, a taxi could get you there faster…”

And then the endless submarine scene. Ethan had to descend 500 plus feet, wearing a special, one-time only suit that was never tested, then find away into the sunken submarine, and then through the behemouth, (it was not your grandfathers World War II submarine, which would have been bad enough), get all the right doors open, all while the submarine started to settle all over again, by rolling down and over an underwater cliff, all the while Ethan had to dodge dislodged nuclear torpedoes, to keep from getting crushed, and get into the secret chamber where the special computer code was located, after seeing dead crew members and having a flashback to the sinking scenes, which Ethan didn’t witness, but were there for our sakes, so we could see how tragic it all was and … all in 10 minutes time!

Yup, according to the inventor of the suit, Ethan only had 10 minutes at that depth to do all that. Not only was it a long sequence of information, it was a long scene to sit through. Then on top of all that. Ethan drowned.

But, seeing that they wanted us to sit through another hour and a half of actions scenes, Ethan was raised from the dead. So it’s a resurrection movie… I guess? Ethan as the Christ-like figure? Can’t keep a good man down???

Anyway, the point of all this is that Heidi didn’t want to be there, and after the first 90 minutes, neither did I.

I felt like it was never going to end.

But look at the bright side… Ethan saved the world… again! He was still alive… so if you thought this was the last Mission Impossible movie, think again! They will find a way to write up another script with endless actions scenes, like Ethan digging out of Chateau d’if while a nuclear bomb with a three-minute timer ticking down, and having a deep conversation with his long-lost buddy about life and what they want to do before they die… a bucket list type of thing… but getting out just in time and only the cruel jailer dies… and Ethan’s estranged brother… for dramatic effect.

OK, let my script writing career begin… Don’t worry, I will keep the movie under 4 hours.

Day Eight: More Plants, a New Tree, and Taking Dominion

On Monday, Day 7, I read a lot, and didn’t do much.

On Tuesday, Day 8, let the digging begin.

Removing St. Augustine

Well, actually, let the digging end. I began a week ago on expanding our flower bed on the east side of the house. Heidi suggested planting a couple of hydrangeas. But in order to do that, I had to remove the grass, which was tough work. I went back and forth between using a pick ax to break up the roots, and a shovel, just digging it all up. The goal is to get ALL the roots so the grass, St. Augustine, doesn’t come back. It will try to come back.

But I got enough of it up, and ended up planting two hydrangeas and a cherry sage.

A New Tree!

But I also got a new tree. If you remember from last week, I tried to transplant a Souther Oak from my front bed to the lower 40. It died quickly.

While at the nursery yesterday, I picked up a second Red Oak, like the one I planted in the back 40. The guy at the nursery told me what I did wrong with the Souther Oak. I didn’t get all the air pockets filled in around the roots. He said I needed to stamp it down all around the tree as I’m planting it to keep that from happening.

Taking Dominion

Now some might question why all this gardening? Well, the way I see it, the LORD has given me this corner in Waco, in which to take dominion. I can’t farm it, not enough land. I can’t run cattle on it either. Nor, plant a vineyard. So a garden it is.

If we want to spiritualize my reality with the priest, king, and prophet motif, if falls out like this. I can oversee the growing of wheat, which a concern of the priests and the bread. I can’t make the wine, which is a kingly activity since is requires wisdom and skill. But I can plant a garden. Which is the prophets concern, since history both began and ends in the presence of God, in a garden.

Here are some pictures from yesterday’s work.

The tree that I hope lives…

The three new plants…

The entire flower bed along the east side of the house…

Day Five: Exploding Gas Can

Day 5, Saturday, was not without its adventure. Or should I say, misadventure. When I was taking a break from working on my sermon, I worked in the yard. It actually helps me to think through what I’m trying to preach, and brings some clarity.

Out to work. Saturday’s goal was to work on the front flower bed, getting the weeds out and reworking the brickwork around the bed.

On a side note, I was also going to deal with the bad gasoline problem I had, which was causing problems with my weedeater.

Now, let me be very clear and upfront. I hate weedeaters. I know that everyone uses them, but their design is such that it brings nothing but heartache and trouble. I’ve used them since they first came out in the 1970s, and even witnessed the two inventors of the damn thing, trying it out in a park where I was playing.

I thought: what a great idea.

Then years later… we had one and the trouble began.

What trouble? Weedeaters, and the all the knock offs, all have a sensitivity that demand for the perfect fuel. Then there is the problem of the trimmer line. No matter what type of system one has, the trimmer line is a constant source of trouble.

So let us review: the problems with weedeaters is the need for perfect fuel, and the trimmer line systems. Two of the basic systems of the weedeater are flawed.

This led to me getting help from a man in my church, who knows a lot about them. He has replaced the trimmer feeding head on mine, but the new one was just as troublesome as the old one. He also informed me, my fuel was probably bad and needed to be dumped.

He said I could put it in my car, and get rid of that way.

I was OK doing that with more normal gas can, which had about 4 gallons of fresh gas. And that is what I did, but didn’t get all the gas out.

I set the can down, and went back to work in the yard where I found a Southern Oak growing in the front flower bed. I transplanted it. It’s the second time I’ve tried to transplant a tree in my yard. I was hoping for a different result.

Since I hadn’t poured all the gas out of my big can into my car, I decided to pour the rest into the lawn mower. What I didn’t notice was that the can had heated up and expanded, so that when I inserted into the lawn mower, and manipulated the EPA’s version of a finger torture test, the pressure in the can blasted into the lawn mower, causing geyser of gas to explode all over me.

I spent the next hour cleaning up the mess I made when I ran inside to the shower, the get the gas all over me.

And the tree that I planted, died quickly.

Did I tell you how much I hate weedeaters?

The flower bed I worked on…

The tree that quickly died…

Day Four: Sermonizing on Prayer

This morning (Friday) I decided I would spend most of the day working on my sermon for Sunday. This meant that I would also be praying a lot, since the sermon is on prayer. Reading about prayer always inspires me to pray more than usual.

I noticed this truth years ago when I was reading through John Calvin’s Institutes of Christian Religion, the section on prayer. I believe it is in the beginning of Book III. Getting through that section took me longer than any other part of the book because I kept putting the book down in order to pray. It was a wonderful lesson to learn.

The sermon I’m working on is the second one from Matthew 6, which deals with the way hypocrites corrupt the religious practices of charity, prayer, and fasting. You can listen to the sermon on charity here. The hard part is actually honing in on the definition of what a hypocrite is, according to the Bible. I think I finally got close:

But before we jump to the two ways the hypocrites make prayer an abomination, let us think through what it means to be a hypocrite?

Some would say that a hypocrite is someone who believes one thing and does another, or does the opposite. But the definition biblically is one who is pretender, or a stage-actor. The person is performing in a role, as if they were in a Greek play. This if fine for a play, but not for things of the faith.

Hypocrisy, when it comes to the faith, is a problem. The hypocrites were pretending to be godly. It wasn’t so much that they were believing one thing, and doing another. They were not believing at all, and acting as though they did believe.

It is actually worse than one who believes in Christ, but then fails in an area of our faith. In fact, when we fail, we actually affirms the truth that we profess: we are saved by grace through faith, yet, we still stumble and fall into sin.’

This reality is not hypocrisy because we do have faith. When we fail and repent, we are restored. This is typical for the Christian. I’m not trying to belittle our failures, but to show that hypocrisy is much worse.

They hypocrites didn’t believe at all. There was no faith in them. There is no belief in God at all. They were and are performing as if they are in the faith, yet they lack faith all together.

Therefore, the audience and the praise they hope to gain, becomes their god. Their praise and attention they seek, is their god. When it comes down to it, they themselves are their god.

Hopefully you can see that hypocrisy is more than just failing to do what we believe. It is the absolute absence of belief, but pretending in belief for the praise of others, instead of the honor of our Father in heaven.

Day Three: Lots of Yard Work

Today (Thursday) was perfect for yard work. The temperature in the morning was in the mid 70s, and it was overcast. So the sun was prevented from beating down on me as I worked.

I went immediately to work on the front flower bed. Since I hadn’t worked on it since last year, it was a mess. The joy, was ripping out weeds that I had been fighting for while. The work: there were a lot of weeds. But that was done, after about four hours of work. Why so long? Most of the soil was in its “mud form.” It kept caking up my tools and my boots, and I had to stop and break it free for my tools to function properly.

ADDED Bonus: as I was working on the flower bed, I found a Southern Oak sapling behind the biggest bush. I pulled it up, and decided to plant it in the lower 40 just to see if I could get it to grow. I haven’t had much luck transporting trees from one part of the yard to the other. I think this is because the two times I’ve tried, I didn’t take the soil with it. Hopefully, with enough TLC, this one will take root. See the picture below.

Relief came when Heidi called me to lunch. We had a Sloppy Joe salad. Yes, delicious. It hit the spot.

Who would have ever dreamed Sloppy Joes could have been added to a salad? Heidi. And she did it.

The movie of the night: Shawshank Redemption.

The quote of the day: J.C. Ryle.

“I hold salvation by grace as strongly as any one. I would gladly offer a free and full pardon to the greatest sinner that ever lived. I would not hesitate to stand by his dying bed, and say, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ even now, and you shall be saved.” But that a man can have salvation without asking for it, I cannot see in the Bible. That a man will receive pardon of his sins, who will not so much as lift up his heart inwardly, and say, “Lord Jesus, give it to me,” this I cannot find. I can find that nobody will be saved by his prayers, but I cannot find that without prayer anybody will be saved.”

That is part of my sermon preparation on prayer. See Matthew 6.

Day Two: Summer Vacation!

Coffee, breakfast and eventually a dash out the door is how today got started. I was hoping to take it easy since the rains came again. But alas, I remembered something I had to do.

Our church, Waco Reformed Church, has been meeting in my living room for about three months now, and we have to find a new location. Not only are we too crowded inside my living room, but Heidi and I have cats. You would know this if you follow along. When we got the cats, Pericope and Synecdoche, we had no idea we would end up with the congregation meeting in our living room. Wasn’t on our radar.

But providentially, this is how things are. What makes this more difficult is that we have two families in the church who have family members who are allergic to cats. This means finding a new place to worship is a top priority.

I committed to going by an older church this week and speaking to the pastor in the hopes that they would be able to allow us to use their building in the afternoon. Turns out, his congregation and another congregation are looking to merge. The building will be sitting empty if that happens. Details are sketchy, but we may be able to lease it. We are praying to that end.

AS for the rest of the day:

More projects completed.
Another episode of Band of Brothers watched.
A lot more rain and thunder, making my reading time more enjoyable.
Worked on my sermon for Sunday.
Fixed a cat toy out in the garage.

Here is my rain gauge.

Day One: Summer Vacation

Today got off to a much better start than yesterday did, which is good, because today is the actual first day of summer vacation. There are roughly 60 days to go before returning to the grind of teaching full-time.

But enough of that negative talk. Today began grandly: coffee in the morning with Heidi, then taking her car over to our local mechanic for service. Nothing exciting there, but that fact that we were together, was enough.

Dropping off the car is actually where things got interesting. Danielle, the lady who is the cashier in charge of the books at Freddie Kish’s Automotive, also rescues homeless cats. She is the reason we already have two cats, Pericope, and Synecdoche. (See below). She finds homes for strays and betrayed kittens all across the county. Our two, Pericope and Synecdoche, were found abandoned in the trunk of a tree, and rescued. This caused them to be a bit stand offish when we first got them. After a year and half, they’ve warmed up to us.

But alas, back to Danielle. She was letting Heidi hold a beautiful little black male kitten… and … well… it looks like we are going to get a third cat in about six weeks. He has to grow beyond the bottle feeding that he is going through now. I would put my foot down and say “enough! we already have two cats.” But I couldn’t do that to Epitome… did I say we already named him?

We had to name him in keeping with the literary terms, and Epitome fit. We had Grok help us, but actually came up with Epitome on our own.

Once we dropped off the car, she decided she wanted to go to Atwood’s… for a dress. They sell farm and ranch stuff, along with clothes and chickens. She saw the chickens and said she wanted about 10 of them. Nope! I stood firm. Three cats will be enough… unless… well, let’s not go there. (I think I plan on not letting her around Danielle any more.)

The day was filled with other events:

A trip to Hobby Lobby for knobs, hooks, and paint. She wants me to add more hooks to the many we already have. A woman cannot have enough hooks!
Yard work: I cut the front yard in an attempt to thwart the local man who wonders around looking for an extra $40 by cutting my yard for me. He never does as good a job as I do.
Trying to save one of the bushes I planted two weeks ago after someone stepped on it.
Digging up grass that is in the wrong place. This is a full-time job.
And watching the first part of Band of Brothers in honor of Memorial Day.

I think this was a great first day. I pray that I have many more.

Wait, I also published two sermons on the church’s Substack, Waco Reformed Church.

The first sermon is Bless Those Who Curse You and focuses on Christ’s instructions on turning the other cheek.

The second was Do Not Sound a Trumpet, and deals with how we are to give charity to those in need, in view of the Father, and not what others think of us. The surprise in preaching this sermon is the realization that the Bible forbids giving to those who will not work. We are to give to those poor, who do not have enough. This is really quite a realization since so much of what is done in the name of charity gives to the sluggard and the lazy in our culture. That needs to stop. More on that later, perhaps.

Well… that is a great start to summer vacation.

This is Pericope, hiding from my amongst my commentaries.

Here is Synecdoche. As I looked for a picture for her, I realized I have very few of her. Pericope is obviously the family ham, or as some would say, the photo bomber.