where did you get his name?

SAINT AIDAN OF LINDISFARNE

AD 627
Aidan, bishop of Lindisfarne, founds Lindisfarne as a Celtic monastic center/bishopric.

AD 651
Saint Aidan, bishop of Lindisfarne, dies. He restored Christianity to Northumbria and the midlands of England after the rise of paganism.

It's a boy...

...and his name is Aidan Peter Godbold!


That's right... You can just call me "Da-Da Squared".

It should be also known that I am currently batting a thousand [1.000 ba] when it comes to knowing the gender of my children before even the doctor knows. I have had no verification whatsoever - unless mere hunches count as something - and yet I have been able to correctly - and quite early on, I should add - make the call that Imogene was going to be a girl and that Aidan was going to be a boy. Lindsey, however and sadly, has gone for a terrible 0-2. Lookout, though, because - with numbers like that - she's due for a hit.


Let's go ahead and get it out of the way: Yes! He is adorable, handsome, beautiful, incredible, stunning, breath-taking, speechlessness-causing, and down-right amazing. He's bound to be a heart-breaker. [Well, take that back - He's bound to be a heart-stopper! He would never break a heart, though chances are he might stop a few - or at least cause a some mild fibrillations.]

He was born on Tuesday 11 September at 1453 (2:53 pm), weighing in at 6.0 lbs. and measuring 18.5 in. in length. After a good washin' up, it appears that he might have gotten dark hair from his momma. His eye color, of course, is TBA (indefinite for up to a year).

He did have some trouble breathing and was, therefore, put into the NICU, but he has been making wonderful strides of improvement. This morning, however, he had a bit of a set-back, though he is expected to make a full recovery here very soon. Hopefully, Lindsey and I will soon be able to take home the newest addition to our parenting pride, Aidan Peter Godbold - quite a man with quite a name!

a call to arms -

For some time now, I have thought about the most recent front against the Christian Faith. To be quite honest, these attackers speak of being against faith in general (i.e., any theistic belief whatsoever); however, their attacks do seem to be quite intently targetted against the Church.

Personally, the most frustrating thing about these attackers is their snide tone and demeaning comments against those who proudly carry the banner of Jesus.

They present themselves as being the only ones in the debate who think rationally and speak intellectually, but often their efforts only consist mere cheap shots that are filled with anger. For instance - a simple look at the debate sponsored by - if my memory serves me well - "Dateline" only a few months back. When all the fluff was picked out, the front against the Faith was essentially an assumption that Christians must be ignorant and that - if there really is a divine One - He's just a big meanie.

Just this evening, I read a post on a discussion forum sponsored by Decapolis.com [see links]; in it, a guy [I'm assuming the male sex.] exasperatedly wrote about a friend falling away from the Faith after being first exposed to this great onslaught.

[I find it pretty funny that all afternoon long - and you can ask my wife - I have been walking around the homestead singing a quite fitting though all-too-simplistic hymn. Just a taste: "The devil tried to tell that the Bible was a lie, that Jesus didn't love me, and that I was doomed to die..."]

Below are my comments on Decapolis.com...

--- --- ---

voice,

i too have noticed a relatively recent onslaught. of course, in the scholarly world this onslaught is quite aged - historically, culture has always followed the pattern of the scholarly world only a few generations later.

now, the long-coming attack has finally hit the streets. this could quite possibly have something to do with the chaff among the wheat; nevertheless, the church must not remain silent and simply fold our hands in contempt. rather, christianity must answer its attackers, and unless we do so with profound coherence and internal consistency we are doomed to be laughed into oblivion.

i, for one, am quite annoyed by the vehement debunking, yet i know that i must not respond merely in anger.

still, the church today finds itself in great need to a polemic front that is sensible and well-developed. for the most part, though, it seems that most of the debunkers are what i personally call "angry atheists" - people who quite honestly are more mad at god than they are genuine disbelievers. they would probably not look too kindly at that characterization, though, but you can hear it in the tone of their words (both, spoken and written) - quite frankly, they are as mad as the anger of hell itself.

pray, we must. fight, we must. love, we must.

"are you ready for some football?!"

I am.

the ivory tower of this poor and simple parson

I like words - varied words, big words, technical words, fun words... words of all sorts.

When using words beyond those of "simple English", it often seems that others are quick to assume the speaker (or, writer) to see himself as on another level; namely, one above them. That assumption often fails to be rightly grounded.

So, here in the beginning, I simply want to make it known that my ivory tower is actually made of wood and can be visited by anyone who wants to climb into it at a local park. As I write the posts on this blog, you (the reader / viewer) can quite comfortably feel certain that I am more than likely not in some old-world study with a pipe hanging lazily from my mouth. On the contrary, probability would have it that I am actually in the parsonage so kindly granted to my by a loving body of Christ just outside of Ackerman - a town with a populace numbering not quite 1700. In this comfortable parsonage, there is probably a beautiful little terror running around. (Days ago, she just learned to walk.) She is - no doubt - screaming, crying, drinking water from a wash cloth recently dipped in a toilet, digging in every trash can she can find, unrolling every square of all-too-valuable toilet paper from its roll, leaning over my lap with her eyes mere inches from mine so that I must look at her instead of my book or laptop, or quite likely jibber-jabbering on a couple of remote controls she mistakenly confuses for cell phones. In the background, you can probably here "What Not to Wear" on TLC, for which I cannot entirely blame my wife - I like it about as much as she does.




That being said, I enjoy living in the reality that this world is undeniably present and immediate, while more remains just beyond our sight. Therefore, I am summoned to think, to pray, to live.