If a tree falls in the forest....

...and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?

A few nights ago I had a dream in which I was a rock star. I don't remember cheering crowds, but I do remember playing an awesome Fender Stratocaster with an adjustable 12 saddle hardtail bridge and a Maple neck with a Rosewood fingerboard.

In my dream I was playing this incredible riff, my fingers were dancing on the frets like a duck on a June bug. Faster and faster I played, scaling new heights of musical mastery while sweat flung off my brow and my wrists became cramped under the intensity of the movements. My calloused fingers flew dear friend, as a melody escaped the strings like a steam from a vintage Rambler's radiator on a 110 degree desert day.

The tune I was playing was clearly the work of genius, and as I began to wake I still had wisps of it in my mind. I think the influence for my dream may have been last weekend when we had our first service in our new church building. We are blessed to have some of Portland's most talented musicians in our midst, including guitar players Tim Ellis, Chad & Rachel Hamar, and Rob Stroup (former frontman for the Baseboard Heaters and now with the Imprints). The service was incredible not only for the music which was fantastic, but for the message as well. I had some of the songs in my mind for days and I think that precipitated the dream.

Anyway, when I woke I wondered if there had truly been music in my dream - was there something tangible or just a fig newton of my imagination? It made me think of the old question

"If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, does it really make a sound?"

Well, imagine to my suprise that it does make a sound, but a different sound if somebody is nearby! According to my reliable sources (that would be, er ahem...the internet):

Apparently, when a tree is about to fall, if it senses a human nearby the biological stresses of human presence cause the cell walls in the plant to become brittle and it is the cell brittleness responsible for the familiar sound we know as that of a tree fall. The cell brittleness also has significant effects to the quality of the lumber, making it much more suitable for use in construction.

Okay then...well, we've probably all heard the noise of a tree falling, but again the miracle of science has provided us with a tape recording of a tree falling in the forest without the presence of human beings in the vicinity. Enjoy!

Calvinism is Cool

I had a delightful conversation recently with a friend, Joey; whom I had not spoken with in several years. I saw his sister one day in Starbucks, and she gave me his contact information which I promptly lost - but then google of all things turned him up for me! Anyway, we both had a good chuckle at the fact that we are theology wonks. You may be wondering, what pray tell is a theology wonk? Well, you might just be a theology wonk if you understand this list - and like it!

Calvinism is cool because:

1. Calvinists tend to wear wool and cotton. Dispensationalists tend to wear lime-green polyester leisure suits.
2. John Calvin was French...being French is very chic.
3. Calvin sounds like Calvin Klein...and his clothes are very chic.
4. Calvinists can drink.
5. Calvinists can smoke.
6. Dispensationalists are into prophecy conferences where they talk about Star-Trek eschatology and the mark of the Beast. Calvinists have conferences on "life and culture", art, social justice, and other high- brow things like that. Afterwards, we go to the local pub and talk about philosophy over a pint of Bass ale.
7. Calvinists have close ties with Scotland and Scotland is very cool: you know --Sean Connery, the movie Highlander, Bagpipes, the Loch Ness Monster, Glenlivet 18 year old Scotch, the movie Train Spotting, Brave Heart, etc.
8. Calvinists think we are smarter than anybody else.
9. It is more socially acceptable to say, "I go to Grace Presbyterian Church" than to say, "I go to Washed In The Blood Worship Center", "I go to Sonlife Charismatic Believers Assembly", or to say "I go to Boston Berean Bible Believing Baptist Bethel", or to say "I go to the Latter-Day- Rain Deliverance Tabernacle Prophecy Center, Inc.", or to say "I go to the Philadelphia Church of the Majority Text", or to say "I go to the Lithuanian Apostolic Orthodox Autocephalic Church of the Baltic union of 1838".
10. Ultimately, I am a Calvinist because I had no choice in the matter.

Credits - I have forgotten where I came across this, but I think it was at the Boar's Head Tavern.

Seizure Story Number Three - 9/10/2005

Wow! I want to thank you all for your prayers, support, and the anonymous batch of fresh chocolate chip cookies that were left on our porch. Oh wait! That hasn’t happened yet! J Truly, I am blessed and humbled by your friendship. You have all been faithful with emails, phone calls, encouragement, post-church poker games, and even rides. Before my update, I want to mention that my issues pale next to many, even on this distribution there are families that have suffered far more than I have. Just this morning I was talking with my friend who has terminal cancer, chemo is not working, and he has been given a timeframe of little more than a year to live. Yet, he is joking, focused on God and his family, and is loving life (we even shared a laugh that with a terminal illness he is still a better baseball player than I’ll ever be!). Maybe the only reason that I’ll ever have this side of heaven for my seizures is that it has given me compassion and a little bit more understanding for those who are suffering.

Well, there she was – beautiful and elegant, sophisticated and sexy, clean, attractive and alluring. Behind her stood my wife – smiling as she presented me with my birthday present – she had had my 98 Ford Ranger detailed! The black paint sparkled and everything was washed, waxed, polished, shampooed or shining with Armor All. We knew that the next day’s blood test would confirm MY FREEDOM TO DRIVE AGAIN and I would resume it with one nice ride.

Alas, ‘twas not to be! My friend who shall remain anonymous but whose name rhymes with ‘pill heaven’ (kind of sounds like ‘Jill Blevins’, doesn’t it?) gave me a ride to the clinic. It was a sterile, dry place that had – you guessed it – Highlights magazines! Oh, those childhood memories of Goofus and Gallant (Gallant lights the fire in the barbecue for dad, Goofus burns the garage down with dad in it). Well, when my name was called I didn’t want Jill to be bored so I advised the technician that due to legal circumstances surrounding my illness my lawyer needed to accompany me for the test. The lab tech looked at me kind of odd for a moment (perhaps it was indigestion) and then said sure, that would be fine. As the tech stuck me with a horrendously long needle and began to draw a little vial of blood she mentioned that she would need to draw another one. I looked at Jill and said ‘is that permissible’? Jill bit her lip to keep from laughing and managed to choke out that she didn’t have any issues with that. The tech rolled her eyes and I’m not sure but as she withdrew the needle I think she wiggled it just a little bit to teach me a lesson. Ouch.

The next day the doc called and laid down the law – no driving for ANOTHER THREE WEEKS. Sigh, I am probably the only guy you know who is required to take tests to ensure that I have enough drugs in me to drive! And, to dispel the rumors at work I am not applying for medical marijuana (where do people get these ideas?!?). Apparently the Dilantin level needs to be between 10-20, and even after 2 weeks of taking 400 mg a day it’s only at 7. Now, I sprinkle Dilantin on my cereal, put one in my mocha, and jam a few underneath my fingernails – anything to get enough of it into my system.

I had my MRI with contrast and it was cool. They injected me with some kind of metallic fluid (I think the tech said gallanium (sp?) but it might have been decommissioned cooling water from the Hanford nuclear reservation for all I know. Apparently the metallic properties ‘fill in’ some of the gaps between nerve endings temporarily with the net result being my head became a receiver for radio waves. By moving my tongue to different parts of my mouth and pulling simultaneously on my earlobes I could actually scan the FM dial. OK, I’m just making that up! It went really fast and when I got home I logged on to my work email and sent my boss a note. She replied and said “are you done with your brain scan already?” I couldn’t resist the opening and replied “well when you only have half a brain it doesn’t take long”. Badump dump bang!

The good news is that both my MRI and the EEG are absolutely fine. So, there is still no medical explanation for what is happening (Sherry is willing to share her psychological explanation though with anyone who will listen! J). I feel fine, and am getting over the initial side effects from taking the drug. I am a bit discouraged about another 3 weeks of no driving, and being potential tied to a drug for the rest of my life; but I pause now and then and think about the horrors of hurricane Katrina, the difficulties many families face with loved ones in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere, the fact that I have a job and a home and a wife to come home to every night, a wonderful church to find eternal truth and relationships in, and my only conclusion is….I am blessed.

Seizure Story Number Two - 8/27/2005

I had the EEG on Wednesday, and it was fascinating – the technician pasted about 30 electrodes all over my head and looked at my brain waves as they were being displayed on the computer screen and being recorded for a neurologist to ‘read’. I watched the waves scroll across the screen, then in utter fascination watched them spell out the words ‘mene, mene tekel upsharin’ which I believe is Sanskrit for “bring me some cookie dough ice cream – stat!”. Oh wait, that was just my imagination. The technician was a lot of fun, and part of my test was to flash a strobe light at various intervals onto my closed eyelids. It was bright as day, even with my eyes closed. The purpose was to stimulate some stress and see how my brain reacted. She (the tech) mentioned that at Cher’s 513 th farewell concert they had 2 people brought into their ER due to strobe light induced seizure (Personally, I think a Cher concert alone would be enough to induce a seizure – THIEVES, THIEVES, TRAMPS AND THIEVES – AUUUUGH!). The technician said that my brain waves looked good; she didn’t see any abnormalities – hopefully the neurologist would say the same thing.

Thursday - who could tell that a seemingly normal day would end up (as Bert says) crazier than a peach orchard boar? I got good nights sleep and was feeling relaxed and confident going into the day. About 8:45, I felt like I had some flu symptoms – almost like an out of body experience (later on I would find this is called an aura and commonly precedes a seizure). Next thing I knew I was in an ambulance enroute to the ER, having had a massive seizure and flopping around the carpet at work like a duck on a June bug. I came to a little bit and remember asking the paramedic “what is happening to me, I don’t understand?” and then lapsing again into unconsciousness. There was a danger in that a seizure victim’s muscles typically contract very hard, and in my case the ER personnel were concerned that my bicep contractions, due to their large size; would create a mini-shock wave as they displaced the air around some of the sensitive instruments. Oh wait, I guess that was still part of my unconscious fantasy….

So now, I’m not in denial anymore! And as you all have been aware for many years and that I’m just coming to grips with, there is something definitely wrong with my brain. I’m still very sore all over from the muscle contractions, I feel like a human piñata. I’m on medication to prevent seizures, and see the neurologist again on Tuesday. I want to thank all of you for your calls, prayers and emails. I have truly felt an outpouring of love and concern that humbles me. I don’t know what’s down this road for me, but I know I don’t go it alone – and I’m grateful to God and all of you! So, here are my prayer requests:

1. It’s now a very real possibility that my license will be revoked, and my ability to do triathlons (or swim, bike and run). Please pray that the doctors will find the suitable treatment that will allow me to resume a normal life!
2. Please pray that I will resist the temptation to ‘fake’ a seizure in front of Sherry for a practical joke – I’ve already been tempted and I think she would kill me if the seizure didn’t.
3. Kip, a special request – if I go down in church, would you perhaps just let everyone know that this isn’t an Ananias/Sapphira type of judgment? Thanks!

Seizure Story Number One - 8/18/2005

There have been some rumors circulating about me for a few weeks that I wanted to bring some clarification to in the interest of the pursuit of truth:

1. Dave Mundt has been cloned in a secret lab in North Korea: Not True!
2. An extensive genealogical study has discovered that Dave Mundt is third in line to sit on the British throne: Not True!
3. Dave Mundt had a seizure: True!
   
   

On Wednesday July 20 I suffered a seizure at home early in the morning (Sherry was walking the dog). I went from sitting on the couch working on my laptop to regaining consciousness about an hour later, in bed; with horrible confusion and terrible pain. I had thrown my back out, chewed my tongue raw, and had a few significant bruises. Apparently all my major muscle groups had flooded with lactic acid as my legs and arms were very sore. I have no memory of that lost hour and have no idea what was happening. The good news is that I saved a bunch of money by switching…just kidding! The good news is that the MRI came back clean, I don’t have a brain tumor and I didn’t have a stroke.

I’ve had a few emotional ups and downs about all this, with the most significant being anger – feeling violated and lost for an hour thrashing around and being injured without the ability to stop whatever was going on (actually, that’s a pretty good description of my typical mornings before coffee). I was praying about the whole episode and as clear as I’ve ever heard the Lord speak, I heard him say softly to my spirit that during the episode He was cradling me and protecting me from more extensive damage. Brought tears to my eyes, let me tell you!

Being faced with my own mortality has given me pause to think that should I be called home and my ticket is punched for that train to Chicago, that I wouldn’t want my service to SouthLake and the people I love so much be interrupted so:

1. If I pass out during a wedding - Steve, Cammie and Diane have heard me officiate enough that they can drag me aside and finish up.
2. Kelli is more than capable of continuing Foundations with me ‘in absentia’. If a question comes up that you can’t answer, just tell ‘em we’ll discuss that when we talk about supralapsarianism in the context of the pre-millennial Trinitarian eschaton.
3. There are many wonderful teachers at Southlake who can partner with Barb for the weekend sermon notes (I finally met Andy Cramer Saturday night!).
4. Reid can take over doing circumcisions.
5. Bill, I’m not sure who can replace me on the Worship Team – oh wait, I’m not on the Worship Team – just a wannabee!

I’ve also given thought to my memorial service:

1. I’d like Ken Belden, Brad Eller, Charlie Blevins and Daryl Stewart to do a barbershop quartet a cappella version of Led Zeppelin’s Stairway to Heaven. I’d like Wilson Smith to choreograph.
2. I’d like Todd Hing and Len Winkler to light a candle for each year I lived.
3. I’d like Reid Smith and Scott Trumbo to deliver the eulogy. To the tune of ‘The Brady Bunch’.
4. I’d like my dear wife Sherry to serve my favorite food, weenie wraps.
5. I’d like my good friend Dan Riley to tell a few stories about our adventures in life.
6. I’d like Jill Blevins, Cheri Harris, Liz Martin and Sherry Mundt to do a salon quartet and sing Amazing Grace. Wilson to choreograph.
7. Finally, I thought I’d ask Charlie Blevins and Steve Abrew to scatter my ashes from a speeding patrol car doing about 110 mph going down I-5 with the lights and siren flashing. But then, because of my belief in a physical resurrection I don’t think I want to be cremated. So Charlie and Steve, again with lights and siren flashing at a high rate of speed just chuck my body out the window.
   

Won’t that be fun! I have an EEG coming up next week where they will look for abnormalities in my brain waves (yeah, yeah go ahead and insert Dave Mundt joke here). From what the neurologist tells me, the worst case scenario is that they find something and revoke my driver’s license and make me take medication for the rest of my life. The best case scenario, and this is what the doctors believe, is that we’ll never know what happened and life goes on. Guess which way I’m praying! Because I have no other physical symptoms (headaches, dizziness, vision problems) that can accompany a seizure I’m probably still in a little bit of denial.

Anyway, that’s the scoop on what’s going on with me. And that’s the truth!

Cain's Wife

An interesting question came to me a few days ago, and it went like this:

A co-worker brought up a question regarding creation/evolution yesterday. I was looking for the answer and was a little puzzled as to where Cain's wife came from (Gen. 4:17). My co-worker once was told that Adam & Eve were created by God and had Cain and Abel. She knew that Cain killed Abel (and thought that there were no other children by Adam & Eve, which is clearly not true according to the Bible) but then the speaker - whomever she was listening to - said that was where evolution came in and the rest of the human race came
from.

Here's my reply:

That’s a great question, and is very important to answer appropriately for three primary reasons:

1. The authority and inerrancy of the Bible.
2. Who is eligible for salvation?
3. Doesn't the Bible teach against family intermarriage, thus this would be an internal contradiction and undermine scripture?
   
   
   Let’s look at the first point – the authority and inerrancy (without error) of the Bible. As you pointed out your friend thought that there were no other children by Adam and Eve which as you correctly stated is wrong (see Genesis 5:4,5 - After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters. So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died.). So first of all we have an issue with the authority of scripture where the speaker now is at conflict with what the Bible teaches. We know the Bible is true for several reasons, but a short answer is the acronym MAPS – the M is for manuscript evidence, more than any document in antiquity the ancient manuscripts prove themselves to be in agreement and have an amazing degree of accuracy. The A is for archeological discovery, where the Bible talks about locations archeology and history are in agreement not conflict. The P is for prophecies fulfilled, where statements recorded in the Bible prior to the event actually happening occur just as prophesied. The S stands for statistical probability, which relates to the vast period of time over which the Bible was written, in palaces and prisons, by kings and shepherds, yet there is a singular message and theme that weaves the books of the Bible together. So, if there is an opinion or statement that contradicts the Bible, we would hold the Bible to be the truth.
   
   The second point is who is eligible to receive salvation. As you related, your friend said that the speaker she heard mentioned that after Adam and Eve evolution started (my assumption is to then propagate the rest of the human race). Wow! That creates a huge problem. The Bible is very explicit that just as sin entered the human race through Adam and Eve, salvation will be provided to the human race through Jesus – the second Adam (see Romans chapter 5 and 1 Corinthians 15). If the speaker’s assertions are true, we would have not two different races, but two different SPECIES – mankind created by God, and other “people” (but then they couldn’t even be called “people”!) created by evolution. The Bible is clear that the descendants of Adam are eligible for salvation. How could these other creatures be saved then? It would require some pretty wild conjecture to try to bridge that gap!
   
   Finally, doesn’t the Bible teach against marrying within one’s family? It does (see Leviticus 20) but it is important to note that was many years (likely 2,000+) after Adam and Eve that the law was given. By that time, there was good reason as just as sin spread through every human post Adam (again see Romans 5), the effects of sin began to spread including (we believe) genetic imperfection that make it important to not marry or birth defects would and would occur.
   
   To summarize, we believe that Cain did marry a sister or cousin, but it is important to recognize that with Adam’s long life (hundreds of years) there were likely to be many, many of his children that began to inhabit the earth. Due to time and geography, it is entirely plausible that Cain did not even know (as a child or teen) his wife and met her well into adulthood.

2005 Pole Peddle Paddle

One of the races that I enjoy every year is the Pole Peddle Paddle held in Bend, Oregon. It starts at the top of Mt. Bachelor and finishes in the city of Bend. Consisting of six separate events, it starts with a downhill ski, then transitions to a cross country ski, cycling leg, running leg, kayaking leg and then finally a 200 yard dash to the finish line. The team consists of a core trio of myself on the bike leg, Gordon doing the cross country and kayak, and Sam on the 8K run (we rotate people in for the downhill and 200 yard dash).

I changed my training this year, realizing finally that I'm not Lance Armstrong, and focused on pedaling on a higher gear at a slower RPM, utilizing leg strength more than aerobic capacity. This worked very well for the bodytype I am, and I shaved about 3 full minutes off of last year's time pretty much at the same bodyweight just be changing my training. I had a mid-life crisis 4 years ago and bought my dream bike - a Trek Hilo 2000. It is awesome for short races and triathlons I do, but not a real comfortable bike. The bike leg from Bachelor to Bend is about 22 miles, with one short, hard uphill, approximately 7 miles of rollers/flat, and then the remainder various degress of downhill - including a section where I've gotten up to 54 MPH! That, dear reader; is a rush. Here's a pic of my bike:

In 1999 we actually got third (I think in our category (business/service teams), but as the race became more competitive and we have gotten older, we lost some focus and have been finishing out of the top ten. It's been interesting to look at our previous results, check out how close the times have been 2002-2004:

2002: 2:30:14

2003: 2:30:45

2004: 2:30:28

2005: 2:24:15

Yup, 2002-2004 we were literally within seconds of the same time. This year, about 5.5 minutes faster! We would have broken the top ten this year but there was a blown exchange and that approximately 45 seconds was just enough to bump us to 13th in our division. Oh well, there's always next year!