All posts by Fr Tom Tirman

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No, not go 81……it’s now 13

Tonight would have been over a few weeks ago had it not been for the ice and snow that cancelled their games in Texas, but tonight my daughter is in California where the Lindenwood Lions take the field against the current number one team in the country in their division. It will be Steph’s first game as a college player, and I am pretty nervous to say the least.

Steph is an amazing player. She was an All-State player here in Indiana and on top of the heap here. But Lindenwood is different. Steph would share how much she had to learn and how bad she was in comparison to the other girls. She went from the top to the bottom, and has had to work hard (which she has) to work her way up. As a Freshman, I told her to prepare to ride the bench and earn her way, for as good as she was, she was bound to get better. She was a center here and one of the best in the state. She rarely lost a draw (what we in hockey would call a face-off) on top, but ironically, at Lindenwood she has never even taken a draw. She has been moved to defense…..and she has excelled in that role.
I expect she will probably play, if not start, but if not, it will all be in her future. As a coach I understand the concept of team and hard work. No one is above getting better, and in my experience as an ice hockey player, nothing was ever better for me to develop than to have to earn my way back up. It builds skill and character. It also builds a better team.
I have only ever missed one of Steph’s games, and it was when I had my stroke and was hospitalized. I coached every one of them since. But tonight I will just be hoping that the next three days sees them knocking off three of the best teams in the country. They WANT a National Championship, and those dreams are built on hard work and execution, one game at a time. I am so very proud to know she is going to be a part of that. She is no longer #81, but now #13….one of my old numbers ironically. And although I am many miles away, I am still her biggest fan……and I will be cheering them on via the live Twitter feed tonight as they play.
Go Lions!
Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+
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New life or not….I still stink at basketball……

Although a few weeks ago I would not have thought it possible, today my driveways, both front and back are clean and free of ice. Granted, there are piles of ice on the sides of the drive that are very high, but at least I can drive on it now.

And as an added bonus, we cleared it away from our basketball hoop too. But in all honesty after a few shots I considered bringing the ice back. Don’t get me wrong, I love basketball, but in reality I came to grips rather quickly with the fact that I am an ice hockey player at heart. I was what they call an “embarrassment” shooting hoops, but had I been on skates and had a stick, I am sure things would have been different.
The best part however is that today I got a glimpse of Spring. The green was popping through and it reminded me of new life. I really needed the reminder too. It rejuvenates me at a time I can appreciate it too.
But the lesson for today is that we can all thank God that our salvation does not depend upon my ability to shoot a basketball, because today we all would have been doomed. But God created basketball is for the tall, and among them I am clearly not. So for now I will rejoice, and as long as it stays warm I will keep shooting each day……just in case I am called on.
Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+
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Enforcing the rules……


The very fact that he is next to me at a restaurant is, in our family, a bad sign. Three year old little boys only like to sit by their daddys when their mommys (Indiana plurals are only grammatically correct in Indiana) are not around. But his mommy actually took this picture, which is him doing his time in restaurant “time-out.” He was totally out of control right before this too.

I’d like to confess that this is a very rare occurrence too. Normally it is Amanda that misbehaves in public, so this was pretty new for us. Of course Amanda tends to straighten up when threatened with having to sit by me. And Scott of course doesn’t mind it now that he is a foot taller than me.
But once everyone understood the rules and we played “musical booth,” dinner seemed to go on just fine. We do enjoy being together and Ben endured sitting in the penalty box for the duration. I am just thankful it was not me.
I just am not sure how we would handle the whole penalty phase, especially since I appear to be the enforcer.
Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+
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Looking up……..

Well it is finally finished. Today the furnace company came and installed the chimney liner and everything is a-okay! In the next couple of days I will be able to do some painting and get everything back to normal.

But what a spectacular event this was! It too forever for them to position the crane, but when he was up at the top of it I swear he could touch the planes going by. I was able to stay and work from home today, and it was a real blessing, because it was a real treat to see.
What shocked me was that the guy up high was, like me, afraid of heights. (Sure I can fly on any size planes, but not anything like he did) I was truly amazed at how he overcame that, and believe me, it was no easy feat. There was quite a bit of wind, and more than that, the bottom of the crane was setting on snow and ice. Early on in the process of setting the crane I pointed up to three buzzards that were circling (I swear that was true) and we all laughed. At first that made me uneasy, but then I remembered that buzzards are truly some of the dumbest birds in all of nature, so I wrote them off.
So the furnace and chimneys are done, and that is a big weight off my shoulders. Now if the ice would just melt off the driveway. I have been working on clearing it every few hours. And come to think about it….maybe that’s what the buzzards have been waiting on all along.
Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+
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Happy Valentine’s Day……


What a weird day! This has been the first Valentine’s Day that I have not seen my daughter, and Scott made a quick appearance at the house. He however, had a date.

So Ben and I decided to cook dinner for his mom, and he was a big help. He made the dessert, he helped with the fruit appetizers, and provided comedy relief all through the preparation. He was more than willing to sample everything he liked, but made sure to shy away from that he didn’t. And after Amanda arrived home, he was the star of “dinner and a show.” The picture below is from his clowning around at dinner.
Of course Amanda wanted that picture to be on the blog tonight, but she didn’t know the other one existed. And the first one is the actual evidence of him making the dessert. He looks great in the picture, although he wanted to wear the over sized clothes because they were red and that was all that he had that was red. But within minutes of the first photo his face was covered with pudding and he was even happier than he was before.
But despite the mess, it was a pretty good evening. We are all tired and Scott should be home any time. Yep, Valentines is done for the year and I am done for the night.
But I do hope you had a great day!
Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+


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Sleep deprivation……

I have had an interesting day. I celebrated at two services with just a couple of hours sleep. Okay, that’s not totally true, I had three. And of course I had a very long and stressful (that is clearly an understatement) travel day on Saturday. So I was so very pleased to be able to finally arrive home for a much needed nap. Amanda, Scott, and Ben would be heading home from visiting Steph, and as long as the dog or cat didn’t make any noise, I would be unconscious.

But the best laid plans were interrupted by the fact that I forgot that Scotty’s girlfriend and her friend were coming by to secretly decorate his room for Valentines Day. So as a guy I thought, “well how long could that take?” But the key observation any reader will make is there is a BIG difference between men and women, and that is at any age. Women apparently put a lot of care and thought into things. And they were here for an hour and a half.
But it looked spectacular and they were very proud of it…..and they should have been. Scotty was really surprised by it too. It was really a thoughtful gift to him. And I was glad to be a sneaky part of it too. In truth, it was well worth missing that nap.
But we are all home now and I am not surprisingly going to bed with Ben right next to me laughing his brains out and sticking his feet into my side. I have not had that happen for a week, but I have missed it. It really is good to be home.
Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+
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Gullible’s Travels……

Although I wish I weren’t, I am writing this blog entry from what feels like an empty terminal at one of the nation’s busiest airports….Washington Dulles. Why I am here is somewhat of a mystery, in that all I am trying to do is get home, but apparently my good friends at United Airlines want me to see as much of our great country as possible. My location is their fault, but the timing is mine. I was scheduled to get into Indianapolis at about 11:30 tonight, but when my schedule seemed to clear out I made the decision to try and fly home on “standby.” Of course I have never done that before, but now I understand that the word “standby” actually means “sit around a deserted airport for longer than you ever imagined possible.” I did get on the flight at 2 from Greensboro TO Dulles, and I DID get my boarding pass and foot on the walkway into the plane PAST the gate. But the gate agent came out saying “sir, sir,” and I knew it was over. The passenger who’s seat I was given walked up just after me. It was his seat, and I was happy to give it up, but it was close. And I was really blessed to see that he was a man who was handicapped and old. There was no way he should have been sitting here for five additional hours. It is hard on me, it would have been super hard on him. As I write this, he is already there. So here I sit, typing a post with a dead cell phone, and the ability to get online and post this if I am just willing to pay a fee…..an expensive one. They charge for Internet, they charge for bags (which they lose) they charge million dollars any time you eat a thing, and so far the only thing I see that they do not yet charge for is to use the bathroom. Last year I drove, and though it was a long and difficult trip, I will be doing that again next year I think. As I understand it though, next year we will be meeting in Houston, so I probably will need to be gassing up the car to leave next week. But in all honesty, I am thankful to have had the opportunity to be at Winter Conference despite the travel problems. I however will be even more thankful to be home. No one is home, (they are all in Missouri) and I have to do some laundry, get to bed and be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the 9am service at St. Patrick’s in the morning, well at least bushy-tailed. But the good news is that I will be there! Goodnight my friends and God Bless! Tommy+

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My bed…my empty empty bed……

There is part of me that wishes I were already home, but of course that is not the case. I will barely miss my family as I arrive back home tomorrow and they leave to visit Stephanie in Missouri. I will miss Scotty reminding me that he is taller than me. I will miss Ben letting me know he is the boss of me. And I will miss Amanda not saying a thing but knowing she is the boss of me. So the dog and cat and I will be there alone tomorrow with me being in charge…..at least I think.

But I remember a few years ago a dear friend and mentor of mine, the Reverend Joe Russell (God rest his soul), speaking about how as returning home form a trip like this approaches that you begin thinking about your own bed…..and that I am. I absolutely love being here, but in truth I can tell it is North Carolina, and not Indiana….and I belong at home. And my next blog entry will be from there….thank God.
But for now I will enjoy my last night’s sleep here. My world will be just as empty tomorrow night too. But soon it will be filled with Ben’s talking about Transformers and Astroboy. But in the meantime, his brother will have to take all that in.
I hope Ben doesn’t give him the full dose of it though…….because I really do want grandchildren from all my kids.
Goodnight my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+
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On becoming an old fogey……

The coherency of such a post as this may surprise some, but I am standing by it. Tonight we met with many people in and interested in ministry, and to be honest I was impressed by them all.

And I know many will say I am “just a pup,” but at just shy of 50 I need to say that talk like this just needs to stop. Staying up past 7 is now hard for me, and although my wife is just 20, (or at least she thinks she is) staying up late is hard for her too. So nights like tonight are pretty impressive. After all, it is just after 11 and I am still awake.
But the blessing in all of this is that I am meeting many people that I believe will really impact our world over the next few years.
Of course I hope to be one of them….that is as long as our world needs to be impacted before 7pm.
After all, I am getting old and I want to get to bed.
Goodnight my friends and God Bless!

Tommy+
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Gathering with old friends……

The Winter Conference officially opened tonight (though we were already in meetings all day) and the biggest blessing of it all was to have the opportunity to hear a sermon from Archbishop Onesphore who is our new Primate. It was a marvelous time and a great way to kick things off. I was so happy to be a part.

After the service and changing back into civilian clothes, I was able to spend some time talking with some old friends as well as some new ones too. One was Father Sean Templeton, who used to work with us in Indiana, and he joined us for about an hour. He has recently started publishing a journal called “The Anglican Quarterly.” If you get a chance please check it out.
The lion’s share of the evening was spent catching up and sharing. I am blessed to work with a great group of people who I truly love. They are some of the finest I have ever worked with, and I not only consider them my colleagues, but my friends. And although I speak to most of them from time to time on the phone or via emails, it was a real gift to be able to be with them and get to talk face to face.
Tonight has been a big boost to me, and it is only Wednesday night. And since I fly home Saturday night I have a feeling that this time here will be a huge blessing to me.
Of course I want to be a blessing myself, but for now I will just take it all in. Thank you God for the wonderful day!
Goodnight to you my friends and God Bless!
Tommy+