(resonance of reforming)
the blog of Jerry Bolton
Remembering Grandpa
Nov 13th
Currently listening to: “Holy” by Brenton Brown
Brenton is a favourite in these parts. We really appreciate his anything-but-showy approach to putting together worship songs. Also, he has a knack for penning meaningful lyrics (with very little “I” and “Me” in them).
My wife’s grandfather passed away last Thursday – November 5th, 2009. I only had the pleasure of spending time with him once, at our wedding last year. We spent the first half of this week down in Kansas for the funeral – a journey that was full of stories in itself. We flew out of Rochester at 7am EST (which meant getting up around 2am to drive down), stopped over at O’Hare in Chicago, and landed in Kansas City around 11:30am CST. We then drove a couple hours west of KC to Abilene, Kansas – grandpa’s hometown.
Throughout our time there, we enjoyed much time spent with family – mourning the loss of grandpa, but celebrating his life. There was a lot to celebrate. If you have a spare minute, please have a gander at his obituary. Grandpa was a missionary to the Philippines, a radio personality, a WW2 vet, a Moody grad, and perhaps most of all – a husband, father, and grandfather. He loved Jesus Christ and dedicated his life to serving him. He left a legacy of faithfulness that touches even me – his grandson-in-law.
Wednesday, we made the trek home.
Today is Friday, I’m thinking about the challenge of following (and some day leaving) a great legacy. Although I didn’t know Grandpa, I’ve spent much of this week mindful of the life he lived, and of the family he raised (which includes my mother-in-law, of whom I am rather fond). Certainly, I’ve inherited a different world than he did – but we serve the same King, and are called to the same faithfulness to that King.
Feel free to check out Grandpa’s radio shows here, and other info here.
…visited here, tenfold on your head
Aug 20th
Current Tunage: Project 86 – To Sand We Return
Surrender to the sound.
I’m just beginning to catch my breath after a whirlwind summer. In June we were able to visit family “up north” in New Liskeard and Timmins for a pair of weeks. July found us house-sitting for friends in the Bayview & 401 area, which was thoroughly enjoyable – among other things, it gave us enough room to invite our “friends who have childrens” over, which of course was a delight. The first weekend of August was, progressively, my brother-in-law’s wedding, our FIRST ANNIVERSARY (hooray!), a great day at the beach with Steph’s extended family, and – moving into the following week – a trip down to Ohio to visit old friends. The last couple weeks have included time up on Baptiste Lake near Bancroft cottaging with my family (as well as my honourary brother Shane) as well as, this past week, a stint of freelance writing, editing, and layout for a great family-run business in Mississauga.
In other words, I’ve been “busy”. Hopefully that fleshes it out a bit.
Of course, I haven’t been resting on my laurels much in terms of things I’d like to be writing about, either. That said, I do have a disturbing habit of falling short on my own hopes and intentions for this space – promises to myself I don’t seem to keep. My friend Todd recently captured some of the dynamics involved (and helpful), in this post.
So, there’s not a dearth of profundity to be found here today. Just a random mishmash of words that have been bouncing around my noggin of late. Words like Church, Marriage, Ecclesiology, Authority, Covenant, Hebrews, Galatians, Titus, Thrice, Beggars, Project 86, Emery, Review, and a host of others. We’ll see what comes of it all.
Galatians 5:22-26 ESV
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
…rawr
Jul 14th
Current Tunage: Project 86 – Destroyer
The new record, Picket Fence Cartel, is out today. I won’t have time to pick it up (which will mark the first time ever I don’t have a P86 release on release day). Looking forward to it though, and to seeing them LIVE in a couple weeks!
We’re alive, well, and enjoying summer and vacation(s). Had a great time up north visiting fam and now we’re having a great time down south visiting friends. I enjoyed a wonderful interview yesterday for a possible short-term position at a sweet, sweet type of place that I can’t really say anything else about. I’ve also been learning the fine art of pool maintenance (all over again). Ultimately though, it’s been my time spent in Hebrews and Galatians lately that has been the most important and foundational. More to come on that, Lord willing.
No promises though. It’s summer and we’re milking it. 
Do expect a review of Emery’s “In Shallow Seas We Sail” very, very soon though. I’m good like that.
Regards,
Jer
…forever and a day
Jun 5th
Current Tunage: mewithoutYou – every thought a Thought of You
“um ya, its good song” – me
So I was just looking at my calendar. The last couple weeks have been insano-crazy. In the busy sense, of course.
How so? I recently graduated from Trent University (BA Joint Hons. in Philosophy and English), I’ve already attended my first pool party of the summer, worked my first-ever 12-hour shift, been to more than one Barbecue, and all this week I’ve been hard at work doing landscaping – resulting in some serious suntan and muscle-mass growth.
The summer is shaping up to be quite exciting, with two wedding to attend, trips up north (one to Timmins & New Liskeard, one to Baptiste Lake), a first-anniversary getaway weekend, DVBS at Harvest, and quite literally “God knows what else”. I’m excited.
That’s it for now. This is your irregularly scheduled update.
…a significant milestone
Feb 15th
Current Tunage: Derek Webb – This Too Shall Be Made Right
A sombre note to end a happy day.
People always told me it would happen eventually:
I had a really great Valentines Day today. First time ever.
“Congratulations, n00b.”
RIP Single’s Awareness Day, you won’t be missed.
…the cost of marriage
Feb 4th
Current Tunage: Mutemath – Noticed
Has anyone else noticed the UNCANNY similarity between the start of this song and the start of Starflyer 59’s “No New Kinda Story” (from their record Everybody Makes Mistakes)? Yikes. If it wasn’t twice as fast, it would be far more obvious. I’m hoping it’s just happenstance or imitation, not stealery.
So, I’ve been thinking. Thinking what? Thinking that there’s some things I’ve done following my wedding that I probably would never have done prior (or at very least, would have avoided doing at all costs until there was no other option). I also thought it would be fun to share them, since they’re tongue-in-cheek and light-hearted and so on. Hope you enjoy.
EIGHT THINGS MARRIAGE HAS DONE TO ME (that i am rather pleased with)
1. Get a cell phone, use it daily.
2. Take a men’s multivitamin every day.
3. Do laundry more than once weekly.
4. Listen to less metal. (But still love it with passion!)
5. Listen to more CCM than could be rationally considered healthy. (At least by me!)
6. Go to sleep around 11pm quite regularly. Feel like a mess otherwise.
7. Get up prior to 7am quite regularly. Feel groggy otherwise.
8. Realize that I don’t actually hate Macs, just the elitist snobs who use them. (When they are elitist snobs, which isn’t always the case, but usually is!) My wife uses a Mac but she is not an elitist snob, she is a well-adjusted computer user who understands the intricate balance of benefits and drawbacks to different operating systems and despite this has chosen the greater of two evils.
Those are what come to mind at the moment, I’m sure there’s more. All this is to say that marriage has profound effects upon one’s psyche, general disposition, and well-being (all positive). It can even result in you doing things you should have done just because it was smart. I love my wife.
…found in the sound of separation
Oct 17th
Current Tunage: Underoath – We Are The Involuntary
Hands in the air and love at our sides.
There’s gotta be something bigger here -
With the beating in our throats,
And the tremble in our grip,
This can’t be it.
I’ll come up, I’ll come up for peace,
I’ll come down, I’ll come down for truth,
I’ll give in, I’ll give up for you.
The floors are shaking
And we’ve lost our step.
Oh Lord, have mercy on us all.
Married life is incredible. It’s been a touch chaotic – we haven’t had time to breathe slow in about two weeks now (though the promise of my soon-coming reading week offers some relief). Amidst that chaos, however, it’s been refreshing and ultimately revitalizing to both our lives. Not just for the obvious reasons, but also the less-obvious, less-overt, less-easy-to-detect. I think we’ve both been feeling somewhat spiritually complacent for some time, and though I can’t speak directly for my dear wife, I can speak from our discussion. All this is to say: we’ve both been so overwhelmed by (first) wedding planning and (second) adjusting to marriage and each other’s constant presence that it’s been very difficult to “find” (read: make) time with God. We’ve been working on solutions together, the two of us, and I’m really enjoying the direction we’re heading now, though it’s still early in the process of implementation.
Marriage is a blessing in so many ways, and I think I (for one) am finding that the chiefest is that it presents an ideal, piercing, persistent opportunity for accountability – particularly in the form of discovering that, when married, sin is rather almost impossible to hide. When you live in such close quarters and intimacy with someone else, you can’t escape from those things you’ve so often overlooked in the name of self-charity or self-preservation over the years. It’s a beautiful thing, and further concretes my earlier suspicion that one of God’s big ideas with marriage was that it be a primary component of many believer’s sanctification.
Along those lines – those newlywed, newly-relocated, new life lines – we’ve found and begun “plugging into” a local church. I suppose the biggest news (or at least, the most newsworthy portion of this news) is that it’s not a Brethren Assembly. Steph and I have both grown up and continued to be members of Bible Chapels that are associated with the open Plymouth Brethren here in Ontario. It’s kind of what we’ve always known, and we both treasure and love many things about it. So, why haven’t we just settled simply into one here in Pickering? I’ll attempt to answer.
The night Steph and I met, we were in the company of many dear mutual friends, and following the prayer meeting (which was our reason for being there), about half stayed around for the “afterparty” – during which we, who were all in some way or another associated with the Brethren, talked about the Brethren – what’s worked, what hasn’t, what’s wrong, what isn’t, and so on. We shared stories and observations and experience and we were there until 2:30am. Steph and I love the Brethren, but both of us (even then) were asking ourselves “Why do I?”.
I’m about to paint in some broad strokes, so bear with me. This isn’t an attempt to typecast or stereotype, and certainly I’m aware of many exceptions. Regardless, to keep this from becoming a sort of mind-dump, I’ll attempt to keep it brief:
We love a lot of the Brethren’s “big ideas” – autonomous local churches that are elder-lead, interdependence between local churches, being Bible-centric (which necessarily results in being much-more-importantly Jesus-centric), the importance of Worship being both solemn and energetic, loads of friends and friendly folks who love Jesus, etc. There is a lot to love.
We definitely do not love a lot of other things we’ve seen over the years. This really isn’t the place to name them all, and I’m not going to. No system is perfect, and no system of ecclesiology (church) gets it “right”. It’s not really my intention to criticise the Brethren, because really, that’s where my roots are – that’s what I was “raised on”.
So, you’re wondering: If I’m not going to criticise, what am I going to do?
And who the heck am I? What makes me think that I have anything to offer?
Stay tuned.
…a covenant sealed in dreams
Aug 12th
Current Tunage: Derek Webb – Lover
Folky beauty – we love dwebb dearly, especially with his recent “noisetrade” thinger (ie. his support of new-school music distribution and dissemination). Check it out at noisetrade.com – free and/or smartly-priced tunes that rock!
What follows are the covenant vows that my wife Stephanie and I made this recent Saturday August the 2nd, 2008. They are quite copyrighted, but we would be glad to share them with you if you ask us. So please, ask us, mostly because we like to know they’re getting used. We did a lot of work on them over a couple months off-and-on, so while we don’t want to see them squandered or wasted, we also do want to see them shared and used of God to bless others… or something like that. I have a really hard time sounding stoic, I’m still pretty pumped and whatnot.
The gist is: We love these vows, we hope you do too. If you want to use them, ask us, we’ll almost definitely say yes – we just like to know who’s using them.
Here ya go:
I, Jerry Taylor Bolton, take you, Stephanie Ruth Jenkinson, to be my wife. I recognize that God has blessed me with your love and entrusted your life to me as a gift that I have not earned. In recognition of this, I promise to sacrificially love you as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. I promise to courageously protect, fearlessly guide, selflessly serve, and generously provide for you, as he enables me. Through the pressures of the present, and the uncertainties of the future, I promise you my complete faithfulness; body, mind, and soul. I promise to lead you through all of life’s experiences even as the Lord leads me, that together we will grow in the likeness of Christ and establish a family that brings him glory and honour. I promise never to half-mean, never to half-love, and never to halve us – now that God has made us one. May the LORD deal with me as He sees fit if anything but death or His return parts me from you. These are my promises to you before God and the witnesses gathered here today.
I, Stephanie Ruth Jenkinson, take you, Jerry Taylor Bolton, to be my husband. I recognize that God has blessed me with your love and entrusted your life to me as a gift that I have not earned. In recognition of this, I promise to respectfully submit to you as the church submits itself to Christ by following his leadership. I promise to tenderly encourage, fearlessly follow, selflessly serve, and humbly counsel you as he enables me. Through the pressures of the present, and the uncertainties of the future, I promise you my complete faithfulness; body, mind, and soul. I promise to follow you through all of life’s experiences even as the church follows Christ, that together we will grow in the likeness of Christ and establish a family that brings him glory and honour. I promise never to half-mean, never to half-love, and never to halve us – now that God has made us one. May the LORD deal with me as He sees fit if anything but death or His return parts me from you. These are my promises to you before God and the witnesses gathered here today.
Jer & Steph’s Weddding Vows™ are ©2008 The Conglomerate International Corp. Unauthorized use will suck, and will probably doom your marriage. Asking permission is fun, good for your health, and Jesus most likely encourages you to do so. Almost for sure.
Side note: the “half mean, half love, halve us” part is taken from one of my recent poems.
Feel free to leave a note if you dig. ^_^
Side note: this was post #750. Not bad for ~5yrs.
…anticipate the backlash (grins)
Aug 11th
Current Tunage: Mars Ill – Flipside
Long lost track from Raw Material… gah! Epic awesome!
…and that, my friends, is what I like to call “getting married”. We just got back from the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee (highly recommended) and I feel disconnected and awesome. Hoping to have something to say soon. Marriage is good for you, and hard, and definitely an important component of sanctification, and I love it and plan to for a very, very long time.
…praise god from whom all blessings flow
Jul 30th
Current Tunage: Five Iron Frenzy – A Flowery Song
What a great recessional song! ^_^
note to others: folks ain’t jokin’ when they say the week before your wedding is stupid busy. ain’t jokin’ at all.
almost there, it’s packing time -_-
^_^
epic win