Jonathan Rowe

"How do I press 'Call'?"
"How does it know when I'm finished dialing?"
"Do I just pick it up when it rings?"
"It works even when the power is out?! HOW?!"

The day has only just gotten started, but we've already experienced one of the WEEK'S highlights: teaching a GenZ kid how to use a corded telephone. ☎️😂

The last 20% of moving boxes might be variations on "Miscellaneous", but the last TEN percent are completely unhinged. 😂

My wife said, "That sounds a bit like 'Cat's in the Cradle.'"

I said, "That's a great song! I wish I'd spent more time listening to it with our kid..." 😂

My father-in-law says that the sermon in church this morning was about people whose experience is "Your father would *like* to play with you, but he's busy on his phone making a big deal". ⚓

This storm is astounding. This is what it was like towards the beginning. 🌩️ #nlwx

So the night before, it MIGHT be reasonable to stay out late, have a party, or act like it's Friday night in the middle of the week.

Or you might wake up, exhausted and hungover, to discover that the regatta committee has cancelled the day off. It's like "storm day roulette", but in summer!
4/4

But no one knows if it's going to be a holiday until THAT MORNING!
If it's too windy for races, everything is put on hold until the next day. It could be cold or wet, but it's the wind that makes it breaks it.

It's the only civic holiday in Canada that's determined by the weather. 😲☀️🌫️☔
3/4

You're never really sure what is and what isn't open, so you might as well plan to do not much of anything productive.

You might go to the lake to watch the races, eat street food, or people watch. Or you might stay home for a backyard BBQ with friends. 🚣🍔🍻
2/4

Something I'll miss most about living in St. John's is our one *TENTATIVE HOLIDAY*.

The #stjohnsregatta is USUALLY held on the first Wednesday of August. (This year it's a week early due to the Canada Games.) If the weather cooperates, most (but not ALL) businesses close for the day. #nlwx
🧵1/4

I don't think there's enough comparison between praying AIs and the "Soul Scrolls" in The Handmaid's Tale (the book, not the series).

Hot Take: Doodle polls are only helpful when:
1) Participants CAN NOT see how others have responded
2) The organisers make it clear how they will select a date

Otherwise, the first couple of people that respond (especially if they're influential) can effectively set the date for everyone else.

Strange deaths in the Bible:
His heart died within him, and he became as a stone, and died ten days later. 😳

See also Herod's death in Acts 12.23:
1) An angel of the Lord struck him down
2) He was eaten by worms
3) He died.

Nabal's death reads like a stroke; Herod's is like... 🤔

I can't remember the exact Fred Craddock line, but I know he said something about preachers resisting the temptation to throw themselves from the pinnacle of the Temple in each sermon. 🤔

I mean, I keep trying to imagine how else you might reverently display and venerate a skull. (Assuming that you wanted to, that is...) 🤔

Is it just me, or does this look like part of an ancient cyborg that should NEVER BE REASSEMBLED? 😲⚓

Many things will be collected by the movers and held in storage.
Others (mostly essential) will go in a UHaul and move when we do. The "OPEN FIRST" stuff will go in the car.
I think our kid is tracking all this with a spreadsheet and colour coded labels. 😲

How sweet of you to assume that the last 20% is ONE BOX! 😂

We're actually way more organized, because we still have almost a month to go. We've organized boxes in major categories:
1) Seasonal (Mostly already packed)
2) Things we had to get out of the house to show it
3) Non-essential
4) Essential

It was labeled, not surprisingly, 'AFGHAN SHOES'.
Because I like to mess with the movers' minds. 😂

In one move, I tried to give myself general hints as to what was in the box by naming particularly memorable items. One contained shoes, miscellaneous USB extension cables, a copy of 'The Frogs' by Aristophanes, a cast iron crow, the quilt my daughter made, and the afghan that my grandmother made.

It seems that the first 20% of moving boxes packed are the most meticulous. Everything in a box makes perfect sense, and each box is specifically chosen to be the exact size for its load.

The last 20% are completely haphazard. Everything goes into one box, along with the closest thing to hand. 🙄

But Peter's mother-in-law also gets up from her sickbed and variously "ministers", "waits on" or "serves" them, and I suspect the traditional understanding is that she made them lunch! The important thing to remember is that διακονέω is so much more than cooking and cleaning. 😀

True, it's a word that carries multiple nuances, and they're certainly not mutually exclusive. I focused on Martha, because she's in today's Gospel. Luke also tells us about women who "διηκόνει", who, from context are financially providing for Jesus and co.

Hot summer days lead to voracious reading, especially when you're too wiped for anything else. Here's what I've devoured in the last couple of weeks. What about you? #BookSky

📖 The #MeToo Reckoning
📖 Romaine Wasn't Built in a Day
📖 One to Nine
📖 So You've Been Publicly Shamed
📖 Heart of Darkness

Don't get me wrong: this story is often beloved by women's groups, since it celebrates women's places among Jesus's disciples.

But how much more powerful would it be if we read it as a story about what happens when *ministry* gets overwhelming (for anyone) instead of *housework*? 🤔

Anyone else notice that when Martha is distracted by "much serving", the Greek word is actually "diakonia"? When a man does diakonia in the NT, it's called "ministry", but for Martha, it's "serving", or even "housework". Why should that be? 📕

July 19th 2025 - Beautiful Crescent Moon before sunrise with the suns glow already coloring it #nlwx #nlastro #AstroPhotography #moon #moonPhotography #nature #NaturePhotography #ShareYourWeather #thebigland #labrador #labradorwest #labradorstrong #wethenorth

There were 19 flood victims from the Houston area, and today I heard from more parishioners who know households that lost a child. Some of those funerals have already taken place, others will be taking place this week. Please remember those families in your prayers. ⚓

Hot Take: Dr. Alan Grant is a pompous blowhard who couldn't *possibly* be certain of the facts he claims about dinosaur behaviour. He's made some conjectures about behaviour based on other large predators, and his theories turn out to be accurate, but he makes such confident pronouncements... 🙄

A screenshot of a Facebook post by Jonathan Rowe. The post, dated January 20, 2017, reads: "Watching Jurassic Park with your daughter involves explaining a lot of our 1990s misconceptions about dinosaurs. And agreeing that yes, it really should have been called 'Cretaceous Park'." A comment by Jonathan Rowe, posted 8 years ago, says: "Yes, CD-ROM was once a big thing. (We had to explain that, too.) And yes, that guy does sound like Mace Windu."

And I'm reminded of her (probably?) first watching...
"Watching Jurassic Park with your daughter involves explaining a lot of our 1990s misconceptions about dinosaurs...