The Blog of Bob Baril

A "THANK YOU" FROM MARY ANN BARIL

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 11:31:43 GMT

I would like to thank all of you who sent me e-cards and e-mails to wish me a happy birthday last week in honor of my 50th birthday. Your thoughts and blessings were so much appreciated. I feel truly blessed to be a part of such a wonderful "family". Blessings to you all ~ Mary Ann

TOTALLY THANKFUL

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 01:11:23 GMT

POT POURRI

Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:58:49 GMT

REMINDER: AOL Journals/Blogs are being discontinued effective Oct. 31, 2008. I plan to continue writing a blog using another service with (obviously) a new URL address. I have not finalized any of the details of that at this point. Any questions please e-mail to revrbaril@aol.com

"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."
(I Corinthians 10:31)

"Pot Pourri" pronounced "poe- POURRIE!" is often a category on the Jeopardy television show. Ironically, I FIRST heard the term used by the late comedian Dick Martin on ANOTHER television show, "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" way back in the late 1960s. It pretty much means an ecclectic mix of a bunch of stuff! So today's posting is a Pot Pourri of stuff I'm musing about. Incidentally, I think this is the first time I have ever listed my mood as "mellow" and NO I didn't use illegal drugs to achieve a mellow mood!

1. ABOUT THE BLOG CHANGE- I've read various "stuff" on-line and realize I was not the only AOL blogger who was unhappy with the news that the AOL Journals/Blogs will end at the end of this month. Some people are upset because their DEAD relatives used to have AOL blogs which they can still access and read and they assume these will soon be gone forever. Some are upset because (apparently) AOL made this decision in July but just decided to tell us now. They feel it was not enough notice. (Actually, I DO think it was enough notice. It would have been much worse if they'd have only given 24 hrs. notice!) I now realize it's not all bad. I get a chance to completely start over with a blog. AOL is offering present AOL blog writers a way they can switch all their archieves to their new blogs wherever they go. My understanding is that information will become available on Oct. 7. Some AOL blog writers are deciding to just jump to someone else and forget about the archieves. I have not made a final decision, but I am leaning that way. My wife and a few others have been critical of the way at times I've written a lot of negative stuff which they feel did not reflect well on me as a person or as a minister. It's a chance for me to leave that stuff all behind. I've also recently toyed with dropping the description "eccentric" and when I go to a new blog with a new service I may drop that. So, it may all work out for good for me!

2. ABOUT MY BLUE COLLAR PROJECTS- For those who ask "What do you DO all day?" my life could be a reality T.V. show! There was enough of a break in the weather on Tuesday morning for me to do some "prepping" for painting as far as the white trim work I have to do. I plan to take most of tomorrow to DO that white trim touch-up painting. I hope within the next week or two to get the gray porch floor done and to get some other stuff done. I had originally planned for all this stuff to be done before Labor Day. (For those of you who are falling asleep...SORRY, please grab your coffee and read on!)

3. ABOUT TONIGHT'S DEBATE- There are some Christian friends and ministers who LOVE when I discuss politics and there are some Christian friends and ministers who HATE when I discuss politics. SO, I am about to make 50% of you mad....well maybe I will make 100% of you mad. I did NOT catch most of the McCain/Obama debate last week. It was on at a very bad time for me and I did not record it. I DO plan to watch the Palin/Biden debate tonight. How do I feel about Sarah Palin? I will admit, I've been one of those middle-aged Republican guys who has really admired her, but I HAVE been nervous by her media interviews. Honestly, even if she is completely stupid (and I hope she ISN'T) I'd still prefer her any day to Obama or Biden. Biden has also made some very regrettable remarks, such as saying that F.D.R. was President in 1929 and that he addressed the nation on T.V. at that time! Most of the media is biased to the left and so that is downplayed as no big deal. Obama like Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick is a very nice guy. The problem is he's a far leftist who makes Hillary Clinton look somewhat conservative and even Bill Clinton look quite conservative. He has all sorts of starry-eyed dreams for America which will cost a fortune and I don't think he has a clue how it will all be paid for. All that said, this economy thing has hurt McCain badly. I know some time ago on this blog, I predicted a huge McCain win in November. I will vote for McCain /Palin, but I'm bracing myself for an Obama win.

4. AT CHURCH- This past Sunday I preached one of the strongest sermons EVER and I used no notes. We've had several very powerful Sundays at church. ALSO, last night we had another very powerful Wednesday night prayer meeting...the 4th in a row. I have been praying for the growth of attendance on Wednesday nights and THAT IS HAPPENING. We continue to have many challenges at our small church...yes finances are tough, but somehow we're getting by financially. Preachers have a tendency to exaggerate, but I'm not doing so. God is doing something powerful at our church. I'm actually a bit scared about it. When nothing is happening but you feel comfortable, that's not scary. When God is moving in surprising ways, it's exciting but it's scary. That's how it is. Last Sunday an Assemblies of God minister from Rhode Island (that I don't know) was visiting in the service. He phoned me yesterday. He was blessed and impressed by what he saw.

That's my pot pourri for now!

MASSIVE SHAKEUP OF THE BLOG OF BOB BARIL COMING!

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:42:39 GMT

I received an e-mail from AOL that all AOL Journals will be shut down effective October 31, 2008. I am not sure why that is the case.

Supposedly, they will have info. about how I can transfer my writings to another blog service, etc.

There certainly ARE other blog services out there.

When I set up my "AOL Public Journal" in Feb. of 2006, I did it because it was very easy to do so, and I had absolutely no idea what I was doing and how to set up a blog! Thus, it was "user friendly"! I will say I've NEVER liked the very long URL address you get with an AOL Journal, but certainly once it starts getting a certain amount of "hits" it shows up on a Google search, AND for regular readers, it's just saved as a "favorite" you can go to.

I thought the whole thing about no more broadcast analog T.V. in Feb. was bad enough! Now THIS! (We have cable in the living room, but actually have several broadcast analog T.V. sets.)

Well, it's ironic that Hallowe'en will be the last day of AOL Journals, and I don't even know what to say about that one!

I plan to still be posting here during the month of October, and one way or another, the Lord willing, I'll have some sort of a blog someplace later in the year!

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 18:02:32 GMT

"...this day is a day of good tidings..." (from 2 Kings 7:9)

Tuesday, September 30, 2008 is a very special day. It is my wife Mary Ann (Gardiner) Baril's 50th birthday. I know you're not supposed to tell a woman's age, but there's something about the very special 50th birthday that (sort of) makes it O.K.! Actually, Mary Ann is one of those who DOESN'T mind people knowing her age, so that makes things a lot easier!

I turned 50 on a Sunday in 2004. That was kind of cool since I was actually born on a Sunday. It was a BIG occasion for me! My friend Ed from Texas came and spoke. We had a special dinner at a local restaurant for around twenty family and friends. It was just a big, impressive day! I felt like the only thing missing was a visit from President and Mrs. Bush!

Pastors go through a lot of difficulties, but they also get a lot of public fanfare and praise which helps make up for the hard stuff.

Pastors are expected to be almost perfect, but Pastors' wives are expected to be PERFECT. They have to be perfect wives, perfect mothers, perfect homemakers, perfect leaders, perfectly merciful and comforting people, perfect teachers, perfect counselors, and pretty much perfect everything else, too! Pastors' wives often receive little or no fanfare or praise. Those who have special ministries to pastors, their wives, and families, tend to report that many pastors' wives are sad and hurting and feeling unappreciated and neglected. In addition to all that perfect stuff I mentioned, today's typical pastors' wife works a full-time job and is the chief breadwinner in the family.

That's true in my family.

A recent prominent Christian magazine reported that in the past few years most all denominations and churches have eliminated health insurance from the salary and benefits package they offer pastors. In almost every case, the pastors' wife has gone out and gotten a full-time job, largely for the health insurance package THEY can provide. It's a national crisis, and it's hit the Baril home, as well. The church provided health insurance until about three years ago, but as in thousands of other cases, it just became cost prohibitive. So, Mary Ann works full-time as the Administrative Assistant at Marian High School...brings home a salary that enables us to "live" instead of "exist" and provides the health insurance, plus doing an unbelievable amount of stuff at the church including being the Treasurer.

SO, let's make sure Mary Ann has a happy birthday!

Send her an e-mail greeting...maybe even an e-card! I think it would be cool if she got something like a hundred e-mail birthday greetings at
mabaril@aol.com

A HARD WEEK'S SUNDAY

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 19:26:29 GMT

"But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you." (I Peter 5:10)

As I write, I think of the Beatles' song, "It's been a hard days night, and I've been workin' like a dog...etc.". My son is good at writing parody lyrics and COULD probably come up with the lyrics for a song called "A Hard Week's Sunday"! Last week seemed like an unusually busy week and an unusually difficult week. From my father, I have inherited the tendency to be a perfectionist. Perfectionism is good, but it's bad. My friend and mentor, the Rev. Dick Germaine says perfectionists long for the perfect world that existed before the fall of man. I think that's true. Perfectionists DO tend to achieve a lot of things and to excel, but they also are DEVASTATED when things do NOT turn out "perfect", and they can be excessively hard on themselves. I don't think perfectionists are really happy people. That's why it's got a good side and a bad side.

I am a stickler for "perfectionism" with my schedule. When I accidentally "double book" something, and then have to let somebody down, it REALLY bothers me, and THAT happened this past week!

I hate when the bank makes a mistake in my savings account pass book and they DID this week. They DELETED hundreds of dollars and listed an incorrect balance! I discovered the error quickly, went right back to the teller, and insisted it be corrected, which it was.

I have a "decent" amount of exterior painting work to be done at the parsonage. That may surprise people since it's vinyl sided, but the front porch and some of the trim are PAINTED. the paint is peeling and looks terrible. I've tried to schedule days to "prep" for painting and for painting over the summer. Virtually every day I have scheduled, it has rained. I had thought about doing painting work this past Friday, and THAT was "out" due to weather. I have also seriously thought about painting on this coming Tuesday or Friday. Guess what? The long range forecast for those days is RAIN!

I can't write much about this but I have a couple of people at the church right now who are disgruntled with me. I don't think either one of them reads this blog, but even if they read this, I don't think it would matter. The bottom line is, this caused some stress for me this week.

I had a Board Meeting this past week. I ran a Men's Fellowship meeting this past week. I had several outside commitments this past week. By Saturday night, I was four and a half days behind where I ABSOLUTELY HAD to be in my schedule! (I STILL am!)

You may have been able to tell if you read my last posting that last Wednesday I was kind of jolted by the criticism of how I describe myself and think of myself. That may seem silly, but yes I WAS jolted by that. Even so, I kind of "processed" the whole matter over a couple of days and got over it!

Friday was my daughter Rachel's birthday, and even aside from that, Friday was a VERY busy day and a very stressful day!

Last night, I was so tired I felt I could sleep 24 hours! I wondered how I'd even function for Sunday morning. I hate going into Sunday mornings like that! I was kind of fearful I'd be "spaced out" today. The church building took in SOME water from the rain, and I had to deal with that this morning, but it was far less than it could have been, thank God!

In spite of all that, we had a fabulous Adult Sunday School class, and an even more fabulous service. I honestly preached the strongest sermon I have preached this year. It was NOT the sermon I'd planned! I used NO notes! (I have only done that once before.) It ended up being an unusually powerful service. Looking back on it, I'm surprised.

People may wonder why I have such faith in God. When you've had a very difficult, tiring week; when you feel like you barely have the strength to put one foot on front of another, and then when you go out and minister like that, and really, it's NOT "you", it's the power of the Holy Spirit, well, THAT'S EXCITING and that's PART of why I have such faith in God!

Incidentally, there was a family visiting our church this week. It turns out they are from Rhode Island and the "Dad" is an Associate Pastor at an Assemblies of God church there. Well, if HE liked the service, and he did, I guess that confirms it was good!

LATELY ...

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:34:01 GMT

“Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.” (Matthew 16:22)

There’s another topic I had planned for today, which I may get to another time; but right now I have an urgency to ask for some feedback from my readers...those who know me well, those who know me casually, and even those who don’t know me in person but have only “met” me through this blog.

Over the past seven weeks or so, three people have bluntly and strongly (and unexpectedly) told me I should stop describing myself as “eccentric”. (Well, actually, it would be FOUR people if I count a guy last week who out of the blue recommended a better descriptive word for me, and it’s such a huge fifty dollar word that I FORGOT what it is!) Today’s was LEAST expected and came from someone I have a lot of respect for. He believes when I call myself “eccentric” I’m demaning myself in an inappropriate manner.

I explained to him that while the word “eccentric” HAS often come to have a very negative connotation, that’s actually NOT the original meaning of the word. The word means, “out of the center, or outside of the center”, or as I like to say, “outside of the circle”. I told him that when I describe myself as “eccentric”, I don’t mean I’m standing in the middle of traffic drooling all over myself and trying to wash people’s windows with a squeegee. Nor do I mean I’m dressed up like Rudy Valley in a mink coat and 1920s attire, with the heat of my house turned up to 90 while it’s in fact 85 degrees and humid outdoors. I realize we DO often think of that kind of stuff when we think of “eccentric” people! I told the guy today that when I say I’m “eccentric” I’m saying I march to the beat of a different drummer...that I’m DIFFERENT...that I don’t think or act the way most other people do. One of the dictionary’s definitions of “eccentric” is “unconventional” and I’m definitely unconventional! I also (tongue-in-cheek) sometimes describe myself as “weird”. In comparison to the typical 50ish Assemblies of God minister, or even the typical 50ish white collar American male, I AM (tongue-in-cheek) a little weird and eccentric.

For years I looked for a term to describe who and what I am. Around five years ago, I began describing myself as “eccentric” due to the reasons I’m stating here. I’ve been comfortable with that. As you know, I describe myself on this blog as eccentric. As I see it, I kind of have a “schtick”. Well, there’s another word...”schtick”. That’s a Yiddish term. I’d have to have my friend Don Splansky, Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Beth Am, define that if I really want accuracy, but I guess I’d say a schtick is kind of a behavior, a way of doing things, a manner, and it includes personality, characteristics, eccentricities (there we go!) and so forth. I have a schtick the way someone like Andy Rooney has a schtick or the way someone like Jack Benny had a schtick. For you evangelical Christians, I mentioned Mike Warnke in a recent posting and HE definitely has (had?) a schtick.

The unsolicited comments of three (or IS it four?) people over the past few weeks HAS got me thinking: IS it a bad thing to describe myself as eccentric? IS it a put down? Is it dishonoring to God? Is it dishonoring to my family? Is it dishonoring to the church I pastor? I’m not sure.

I DO know someone with a lot of wisdom that I know made a statement many years ago that I never forgot. It was about the name of a particular church which was a confusing and hard to understand name. The church’s pastor was ALWAYS having to explain what the name of his church meant. My wise friend said, “If you have to keep explaining a name then it’s not a good name.” The pastor of the church with the confusing name changed the name to something much better.

SHOULD I DROP THE “ECCENTRIC” DESCRIPTION? Then again, wasn’t it Shakespeare who said, “To thine own self be true.”? If I am, according to the correct and original description, “eccentric”, then what’s the big deal?

A lot of times I ask for comments and I get maybe 2 postings on the blog and maybe 1 or 2 e-mails and that’s it. (Sometimes, not even that much!) I’m really serious. As a famous female Boston media personality used to say, “I want you to weigh in on this!” I do. What do you think? What is your advice for me? Should I keep the description? Should I drop it?

FOLLOW UP TO "HEY MOW!" (or "Leave it to 'Bill-ver'!")

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 18:28:02 GMT

"In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." (I Thessalonians 5:18)

A week ago I wrote the posting entitled, "Hey Mow!" and I was "lower than a dead toad in a grave"; as I like to say.

I just want to give a follow up to that posting.

My friend Bill did look at my mower last Saturday. He concluded that it's getting plenty of gas and that's not the problem. He suspected the spark plug. Bill took the spark plug off, blew on it, dried it, did whatever he could to it, and carefully reattached it. When we started the mower, the R.P.M.s sounded faster. The mower sounded "more confident" if it's possible for a mower to sound confident.

Bill wrote down the number of the spark plug and is going to pick up a new one and put it in soon.

Today, I just figured I'd try to start the mower and get as far as I could with the lawn. I GOT THE WHOLE LAWN MOWED WITHOUT IT QUITTING, SPUTTERING OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT! It was great! I got the whole lawn mowed in 35 minutes. Normally it takes me an hour because I also weedwhack it and clean everything up, but after spending hours weedwhacking the whole lawn last week, this was all I wanted to do today, and it LOOKS GREAT!

Incidentally, regarding the store that begins with an "M", Bill said the spark plug should have been one of the first things they thought of. Anyway, I'm glad for this good follow up report!

AN EARLY HALLOWE'EN?

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:32:00 GMT

“Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:” (Colossians 2:16)

Without doubt I’m “opening a can of worms:” on this one. Even so, I think I’ve written about Hallowe’en on the blog once or twice before.

At least twice in the past week as I drove around Framingham with my car radio on, I heard some very heated discussion about Hallowe’en and specifically whether Hallowe’en activities should be banned from public elementary schools due to religious reasons, the whole “politically correct” thing and the whole “separation of church and state” thing. Apparently, a couple of Massachusetts public school systems are banning Hallowe’en this year and a number of others have already banned Hallowe’en within the past few years.

It’s amazing to me how angry, well, how IRATE adults become about this. Now, they get annoyed when Christmas and Santa Claus are kicked out of the schools, but touch Hallowe’en and WOW= they’re ready to egg your house, “key” your car, and smash your mailbox with a baseball bat!

Boy, has Hallowe’en become a “sacred cow” in our society! It’s amazing to me.

As with a lot of issues, I’ve “run the gamut” on Hallowe’en. I will cut to the chase and say I pretty much DON’T like it, although I’m not as hostile and negative about it as I was at one time. As a child from a middle-class Catholic family in the Boston suburbs in the 1960s, I remember Hallowe’en as one of my favorite days of the year, dressing in costume, and going door-to-door loading up on candy. In those days there WAS a lot more DESTRUCTION on Hallowe’en than there was today, but if you liked candy as much as I did, it was a GREAT night!

The evangelical Christian community (“born again Christians” which is what I am now) pretty much had no trouble with Hallowe’en until around thirty years ago. Up until that time, it was common for Protestant evangelical churches to hold Hallowe’en parties and other events. I think the principal blow to Hallowe’en for the conservative Christian community came from a popular dynamic and charismatic speaker named Mike Warnke. Mike claimed to be an ex-Satanist high priest. Mike was a riveting speaker- cool, long-haired, captivating, sensational, and opinionated. In the ‘70s Christians, especially young adults, bought his tapes left andright the way secular young people bought George Carlin tapes. Sadly, much of Warnke’s “testimony” was later exposed as highly exaggerated. (It wasn’t ALL fabricated, but enough of it was proven false that he pretty much disappeared from the traveling Christian circuit.) Anyway, Mike Warnke attacked Hallowe’en head on. His Hallowe’en material WAS accurate; in fact what Warnke was teaching and preaching was also being taught by German theologian Dr. Kurt Koch. The bottom line was that Hallowe’en was a pagan, Druid festival, was essentially Satanic and demonic, was an absolute insult and affront to the Lord Jesus Christ and NO decent evangelical Christian should have anything to do with it.

What I guess could be called the “hate Hallowe’en” days in conservative Christian circles probably ran from somewhere around 1977 to somewhere around 1989. In that era, many churches began offering alternatives to Hallowe’en for kids on the evening of October 31. Typically, dressing up as ghosts, witches, etc. was a big no-no. Kids would be encouraged to dress as Bible characters, or maybe friendly animals like big Teddy bears...stuff like that. They’d still play games, and get candy, and everybody was happy. The alternative to Hallowe’en events usually were called “Harvest Parties”. I believe such Harvest Parties still take place, but I think there less common than they were at one time.

Many Christians just plain refused to give out candy on Hallowe’en night, shutting off their lights, and pretending to not be home.

I must confess that in that 1977-1989 era I was VERY anti-Hallowe’en. I even wrote an anti-Hallowe’en letter to a major daily newspaper which pretty much had flames shooting out of it! My own children were little kids in that anti-Hallowe’en era, and we never had them go trick-or-treating. Like most evangelical Christians, we took them to the Harvest parties.

Again, I still don’t like Hallowe’en, but I’m not quite as “anti” as I was at one time and I think that’s true of a lot of evangelical Christians. My daughter Amy has told me that out in the Bible belt city of Springfield, Missouri where she lives it’s not uncommon for even fairly high level evangelical clergy and denominational executives to sent their kids out trick-or-treating, so I guess things have changed in twenty years!

We give out candy, but we also give out children’s Hallowe’en tracts. Usually they're cute little stories with titles like, “The Happy Pumpkin”. The bottom line of each tract is the kid is urged to “ask Jesus into his or her heart”. I’m sure that offends some of you, but if somebody comes to MY home asking for something, well, that’s what they’re gonna get!

Now, to the matter of schools banning Hallowe’en. I’ve gone back and forth on it, but I’ve concluded that if I were a school official I WOULD ban it. Our courts have taken the view that anything even remotely religious or offensive should be banned from the schools. I think those are really stupid rulings. I’d LOVE to have bold and open prayer and Bible reading in the public schools. But it’s not allowed. And Christmas is not allowed. And Hanukkah is not allowed. I think that’s stupid, BUT if all that other stuff is not allowed, then Hallowe’en should not be allowed either!

THE BOATS ARE STILL THERE!

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:54:04 GMT

"...And there were also with him other little ships." (from Mark 4:36)

I'm actually writing this entry from the Boston Public Library's "Washington" internet access room. I have taken my birthday off and I'm spending it in the city. Each year I take either Sept. 18,19,or 20 off and go into Boston. For the past several years, when I've gone on my mid-September trip to the Boston Public Garden one item of the day was always a little sad: Each year on that they they've been hauling the swan boats out of the water and disassembling them for the winter. It's a sign summer is over and winter is coming and it's always a little sad. Today, I was so happy to see the swan boats running and in business. For some reason, they're not putting them away until next week. All is right with the world! Weather-wise this has got to be the nicest day I've spent in the city EVER! I've often been in here on oppressively hot and humid days in the summer and I've been in here on dreadfully cold days in the winter. Spring and Fall are really nice in here, but today has been just outstanding! I have really been blessed today, and I just had to shart that!