Friends in Christ,
Later this month (the week of July 22nd), my three younger brothers and I will embark on a little “brothers’ excursion” in the Twin Cities. We have tossed around this idea for a long time, but have never actually done it, given family commitments, job responsibilities, and the fact that we really don’t like each other all that much (just kidding, Mom and Dad). Truth be told, the boys and I are blessed with a huge slab of love for one another, and even though we’ve had our fair share of whiffle-bat-tossing, who-has-to-sit-in-the-middle-of-the-back-seat-for-this-trip disagreements over the years, we are ferociously fond of each other and wouldn’t trade our growing up together for anything. Although, every once in a while, it might have been fun to have a little sister for us to dote on, pick on, and protect!
So, what are we going to do on this big-city, male-bonding getaway? Well, it’s not exactly a packed itinerary, and God knows we all can’t handle staying out much past 11:30 p.m. these days, but we are doing at least two rather cool things together: One, we are all attending an ELO (Electric Light Orchestra) concert together, mainly because all the band members will be older than we are, which will make us all feel better (we are all now in our 50’s; eek, I’m now closer to 60 than 50). And two, we are going to a Twins/Yankees game at Target Field together, which, given our common love of baseball, has the potential for “Field of Dreams” watery-eye moments. I could suggest that we all bring our baseball gloves and play a little catch before the game like they did a lot in that wonderful movie, but, given that I have the oldest body in the bunch, I’m afraid I’d pull a muscle and start crying like a little baby and the boys would tease me unrelentingly.
So that’s it. I know it doesn’t sound like much (or for some of you, all that exciting), but a packed, electrifying (pun on ELO intended) itinerary isn’t the point: being together is. And I can’t wait. And as long as we steer clear of talking about the next presidential election, we just may end up putting another brother bonding bash on our busy schedules for next summer.
So now, since most of you have only heard me share snippets of my three brothers and their families over the past nine years, I thought it may be helpful for you to know just what kind of shady characters I will be hanging out with later this month. Besides, I’m not entirely sure how many of you are actually reading these articles, but I know my parents are, and I know they will get a kick out of this. So here goes; not much theology in this month’s article, but a whole lot of gratitude—from me. To God. For these three guys, without whom my life would be sorely impoverished. Here’s a little recent snapshot of the bros…
I am the oldest, and next comes Tim. Tim is 54 and lives in Bismarck. He works at the West Central Human Services Center there and is married to Molly, who works in the Nursing Department at the University of Mary. I did their wedding a little over two years ago in their backyard on a beautiful May Saturday evening. Their blended family includes Tim’s two grown daughters and four grandkids; and Molly’s teenage son and her sweet 20-something daughter. And get this: Tim’s daughter, Micki, is about to give birth to twins! Tim and I have probably locked horns the most over the years, but we grew a lot closer a few years ago when the wheels came off of his marriage and God plunked me down and said, “He needs you; you’ve gone down this road. I will use you to hold his hands and help him walk through this painful process. Just steer clear of politics and listen more than you yak.” If ever I have felt useful in my life, it was during that time, as Tim and I communicated almost daily, and as Tim moved into a new family paradigm. I hit the lottery! he is now fond of saying, frequently. Tim fulfilled a life-long dream of becoming a cartoonist when he created “Weirdles,” which are little cartoons that have appeared during the weekdays in the Bismarck Tribune for 10 years and counting. Tim most recently accepted the part-time position of Legion Baseball Coach for Kidder County (Steele area), the team stepson Jake plays for (they were supposed to play our Harvey kids today, in fact, but the game got rained out).
52-year-old Dan is third in the Leer brother foursome and among other things, holds the record in our family for most children, with six! Dan lives in Owatonna, Minnesota, with his second wife, Courtney (a teacher), and they keep very busy going on jogs together, zipping off to college baseball games and graduations, and scooting around Owatonna to attend a plethora of pre-school and grade-school activities. Check this out: the 6 kids range in age from 2 to 25! Diapers and diplomas, anyone??!! It’s a lot of fun to watch, and it makes me tired just trying to keep track of all my nieces’ and nephews’ activities; but they make it work just beautifully. The compassionate and tender-hearted Dan is a high school English teacher and girls’ cross country and basketball coach, and once played college baseball at Concordia. He also loves to play guitar and sing in a band called The Gogs with several of his buddies, which many of you know, since I make a yearly March trip down to hear them play.
Youngest—and tallest!--brother Joel, who’s just a kid at 50, rounds out the gang and we need not worry about the bases being covered (Twins game pun intended) with our excursion because Joel ended up stealing some of the usual “oldest brother” organizational characteristics that were supposed to be included in my birthright. Joel and his wife Beth get up very early, are both in educational careers, and are both still--as of this writing--in the process of collecting marathon running medals and college degrees. Joel is the principal of Northfield (MN) High School, and Beth is a professor of Education at St. Olaf College there. Beth and Joel once thought they were going to be travelling all over the place going to their boys’ sporting events, but all three of their kiddos have gravitated mostly towards theater and music, with their middle boy (Isaac) even landing in a Broadway production (which many of you are aware of, since Old Man Leer here got to be a chaperone for the I-man last November). Joel also attended Concordia and sang in the concert choir there; as deep as my bass voice is, his is just the opposite in the tenor range.
So, there you go. Not too many theological insights for you all this month, but just a little gentle glimpse into three undeserved gifts of God’s grace in my bruised-but-beautiful life named Timothy, Daniel, and Joel. God knows we and our respective families are far from perfect, but I will be forever grateful for these guys. I’ll let you know if we end up needing earplugs for the ELO concert and if we manage to make it past 11:30 any of the nights…😊
Peace in Christ,
Pastor Phil
(As posted in July 2019 Newsletter)
Later this month (the week of July 22nd), my three younger brothers and I will embark on a little “brothers’ excursion” in the Twin Cities. We have tossed around this idea for a long time, but have never actually done it, given family commitments, job responsibilities, and the fact that we really don’t like each other all that much (just kidding, Mom and Dad). Truth be told, the boys and I are blessed with a huge slab of love for one another, and even though we’ve had our fair share of whiffle-bat-tossing, who-has-to-sit-in-the-middle-of-the-back-seat-for-this-trip disagreements over the years, we are ferociously fond of each other and wouldn’t trade our growing up together for anything. Although, every once in a while, it might have been fun to have a little sister for us to dote on, pick on, and protect!
So, what are we going to do on this big-city, male-bonding getaway? Well, it’s not exactly a packed itinerary, and God knows we all can’t handle staying out much past 11:30 p.m. these days, but we are doing at least two rather cool things together: One, we are all attending an ELO (Electric Light Orchestra) concert together, mainly because all the band members will be older than we are, which will make us all feel better (we are all now in our 50’s; eek, I’m now closer to 60 than 50). And two, we are going to a Twins/Yankees game at Target Field together, which, given our common love of baseball, has the potential for “Field of Dreams” watery-eye moments. I could suggest that we all bring our baseball gloves and play a little catch before the game like they did a lot in that wonderful movie, but, given that I have the oldest body in the bunch, I’m afraid I’d pull a muscle and start crying like a little baby and the boys would tease me unrelentingly.
So that’s it. I know it doesn’t sound like much (or for some of you, all that exciting), but a packed, electrifying (pun on ELO intended) itinerary isn’t the point: being together is. And I can’t wait. And as long as we steer clear of talking about the next presidential election, we just may end up putting another brother bonding bash on our busy schedules for next summer.
So now, since most of you have only heard me share snippets of my three brothers and their families over the past nine years, I thought it may be helpful for you to know just what kind of shady characters I will be hanging out with later this month. Besides, I’m not entirely sure how many of you are actually reading these articles, but I know my parents are, and I know they will get a kick out of this. So here goes; not much theology in this month’s article, but a whole lot of gratitude—from me. To God. For these three guys, without whom my life would be sorely impoverished. Here’s a little recent snapshot of the bros…
I am the oldest, and next comes Tim. Tim is 54 and lives in Bismarck. He works at the West Central Human Services Center there and is married to Molly, who works in the Nursing Department at the University of Mary. I did their wedding a little over two years ago in their backyard on a beautiful May Saturday evening. Their blended family includes Tim’s two grown daughters and four grandkids; and Molly’s teenage son and her sweet 20-something daughter. And get this: Tim’s daughter, Micki, is about to give birth to twins! Tim and I have probably locked horns the most over the years, but we grew a lot closer a few years ago when the wheels came off of his marriage and God plunked me down and said, “He needs you; you’ve gone down this road. I will use you to hold his hands and help him walk through this painful process. Just steer clear of politics and listen more than you yak.” If ever I have felt useful in my life, it was during that time, as Tim and I communicated almost daily, and as Tim moved into a new family paradigm. I hit the lottery! he is now fond of saying, frequently. Tim fulfilled a life-long dream of becoming a cartoonist when he created “Weirdles,” which are little cartoons that have appeared during the weekdays in the Bismarck Tribune for 10 years and counting. Tim most recently accepted the part-time position of Legion Baseball Coach for Kidder County (Steele area), the team stepson Jake plays for (they were supposed to play our Harvey kids today, in fact, but the game got rained out).
52-year-old Dan is third in the Leer brother foursome and among other things, holds the record in our family for most children, with six! Dan lives in Owatonna, Minnesota, with his second wife, Courtney (a teacher), and they keep very busy going on jogs together, zipping off to college baseball games and graduations, and scooting around Owatonna to attend a plethora of pre-school and grade-school activities. Check this out: the 6 kids range in age from 2 to 25! Diapers and diplomas, anyone??!! It’s a lot of fun to watch, and it makes me tired just trying to keep track of all my nieces’ and nephews’ activities; but they make it work just beautifully. The compassionate and tender-hearted Dan is a high school English teacher and girls’ cross country and basketball coach, and once played college baseball at Concordia. He also loves to play guitar and sing in a band called The Gogs with several of his buddies, which many of you know, since I make a yearly March trip down to hear them play.
Youngest—and tallest!--brother Joel, who’s just a kid at 50, rounds out the gang and we need not worry about the bases being covered (Twins game pun intended) with our excursion because Joel ended up stealing some of the usual “oldest brother” organizational characteristics that were supposed to be included in my birthright. Joel and his wife Beth get up very early, are both in educational careers, and are both still--as of this writing--in the process of collecting marathon running medals and college degrees. Joel is the principal of Northfield (MN) High School, and Beth is a professor of Education at St. Olaf College there. Beth and Joel once thought they were going to be travelling all over the place going to their boys’ sporting events, but all three of their kiddos have gravitated mostly towards theater and music, with their middle boy (Isaac) even landing in a Broadway production (which many of you are aware of, since Old Man Leer here got to be a chaperone for the I-man last November). Joel also attended Concordia and sang in the concert choir there; as deep as my bass voice is, his is just the opposite in the tenor range.
So, there you go. Not too many theological insights for you all this month, but just a little gentle glimpse into three undeserved gifts of God’s grace in my bruised-but-beautiful life named Timothy, Daniel, and Joel. God knows we and our respective families are far from perfect, but I will be forever grateful for these guys. I’ll let you know if we end up needing earplugs for the ELO concert and if we manage to make it past 11:30 any of the nights…😊
Peace in Christ,
Pastor Phil
(As posted in July 2019 Newsletter)