Sunday, September 30, 2007

Time

Tomorrow, my daughter goes to her first day of pre-school. My wife and I were just talking about how it just doesn't seem like it has been three years. Time is flying by so quickly. It's funny, as you are going through life, sometimes days seem to stretch on... time can feel like an eternity. But it really is just a blink. A dot on a page. Often we don't see this until hindsight; until it's too late.

I suspect, three years from now I will be typing on this keyboard, posting pictures saying, "I can't believe she is in Kindergarden. I can't believe she is already 6."

I wonder what my daughter will be like when she grows up? I wonder what our relationship will be like? I wonder if she will walk with God? I wonder if she will think of her childhood with the same warmth that her mom and I do?

I'm lucky to be her dad.

Tired

Friday, September 28, 2007

What sustained me...

From one of the books Mdog lent me to get me through the "post surgery days," I give you:

"Great Lies to tell Small Kids."

Rain is Jesus' wee-wee
Wine makes mommy clever
Milk feels pain
A slice of cheese will play a short film about cows if you insert it into a DVD
One in ten fish are afraid of water
Mugs are just cups who've been to the gym
If you try a vegetable, you might like it
It was grandpa who burned all your Barney videos, not us
Most birds wear parachutes in case they suddenly forget how to fly
You know the mug in the Kitchen? The one that says "World's Greatest Dad?" There are only 3 in existence. They are awarded just once every 100 years.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

... a plot

...When I came to ask them I found they had really no proof of this unavoidable repetition in things except the fact that the things were repeated. Now, the mere repetition made the things to me rather more weird than more rational. It was as if, having seen a curiously shaped nose in the street and dismissed it as an accident, I had then seen six other noses of the same astonishing shape. I should have fancied for a moment that it must be some local secret society. So one elephant having a trunk was odd; but all elephants having trunks looked like a plot. I speak here only of an emotion, and of an emotion at once stubborn and subtle. But the repetition in Nature seemed sometimes to be an excited repetition, like that of an angry schoolmaster saying the same thing over and over again. The grass seemed signalling to me with all its fingers at once; the crowded stars seemed bent upon being understood. The sun would make me see him if he rose a thousand times. The recurrences of the universe rose to the maddening rhythm of an incantation, and I began to see an idea...

A man varies his movements because of some slight element of failure or fatigue. He gets into an omnibus because he is tired of walking; or he walks because he is tired of sitting still. But if his life and joy were so gigantic that he never tired of going to Islington, he might go to Islington as regularly as the Thames goes to Sheerness. The very speed and ecstasy of his life would have the stillness of death. The sun rises every morning. I do not rise every morning; but the variation is due not to my activity, but to my inaction. Now, to put the matter in a popular phrase, it might be true that the sun rises regularly because he never gets tired of rising. His routine might be due, not to a lifelessness, but to a rush of life.

The thing I mean can be seen, for instance, in children, when they find some game or joke that they specially enjoy. A child kicks his legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, of life. Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, "Do it again"; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony.

But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, "Do it again" to the sun; and every evening, "Do it again" to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical ENCORE...

I had always vaguely felt facts to be miracles in the sense that they are wonderful: now I began to think them miracles in the stricter sense that they were WILFUL. I mean that they were, or might be, repeated exercises of some will. In short, I had always believed that the world involved magic: now I thought that perhaps it involved a magician. And this pointed a profound emotion always present and sub-conscious; that this world of ours has some purpose; and if there is a purpose,
there is a person. I had always felt life first as a story: and if there is a story there is a story-teller.

[Orthodoxy, GK Chesterton]

God gets sued

God, according to the Bible, is omnipresent. God is everywhere.

This means, according to State Senator from Nebraska, Ernie Chambers, God can be sued, since he resides in all the United States. Specifically, Senator Chambers is suing God for what the insurance companies usually call "acts of God"-- namely natural disasters, such as the tornadoes that recently struck Kansas and Nebraska.

Check out the story on msnbc.

Of course the Senator is going to have a difficult time getting God into court, one would think. Those of us over 30 all learned that this is a bad thing to do from the movie, "Oh God!" with George Burns. In fact, God will have a much easier time getting Senator Chambers into court, in due time.

But the story raises an important issue, which one of my seminary professors pointed out: "To what extent should God be blamed for what might be called random natural disasters? I am not talking about specifically targeted judgments like those depicted in Exodus or Revelation. I am simply talking about your average generic twister that causes mayhem for God's people and everyone else in its path. Think of hurricane Katrina and the mayhem on the Gulf coast, not just on sin city in New Orleans, but also on the First Baptist Church in Biloxi."

I met with a pastor friend of mine today... he son has Cerebral Palsy. Is this God's fault? Is it God's will?

Recently, John Piper had a post about the disastrous collapse of the bridge over the Mississippi in Minneapolis. His view was that, however random it might seem to us, this actually was the will of God...and, in essence, we should just suck it up. God is sovereign and he disposes things as he will, and according to his sovereign pre-ordained plan.

Is this really what we believe about God? Does God's sovereignty REALLY mean that God causes everything?

You are welcome to post your thoughts, or, for a slightly lighter view on this story, go here.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Trade in

Tonight I feel like a failure as a parent. As I write this, my daughter is eating...finally. But this was an evening of temper tantrums, screaming, whining... and that was just me. Then there was my daughter.

If you have never had kids you can't understand the frustration. I'm sorry. I used to hate when my friends would say that before I had kids... but it's just true. There are some things you can't appreciate until they happen to you. But the frustration of hearing your kid screaming... and you can't stop her... wow.

The problem is it is a mix of things. She is hungry (but won't eat). She is tired, but can't go to bed. She missed her mom... can't do anything about that. And probably a good deal of it is around my limited mobility... I can't direct her or play with her or even pick her up.

Yep, parenting is a joy, but it can be hard.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Brat

My wife is about to leave for a multi-day conference. I'm not very good at being alone, to be honest. We have been married 14 years and a still tear up when she leaves (I used to go into weeping spells, so tearing up is an improvement).

Her boss called her to tell her that the agenda was sparse tonight and she could come in the morning, rather than tonight. Which means she would have to leave at 6 am. But my wife is not a morning person (now THERE is an understatement). And I know it would be best for her to go tonight, even though MY preference would be for her to stay.

But I want her to stay so I decide to pull out the big guns.

I wake up my 3-year-old from her nap, and she and her daddy have a private meeting. The next thing you know she walks into our bedroom, walks over to mommy, wraps her little arms around her leg and softly says, "Mommy... stay?"

[Insert sound of my wife's heart breaking]

Now, if that were the end of the story, I would not be sleeping alone tonight, but unfortunately, there is more.

My wife says, "Aww, that is so cute." [at this point I still think I'm going to win]. Then she turns to my daughter and says, "Did daddy put you up to that?" and without missing a beat, my daughter smiles and says, "yea."

Brat.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Holy People

"The truly holy people I’ve met in my life are really interesting people. They’re a mix of the most incredible godliness and at the same time, the most unbelievable earthiness. I know a woman who curses like a sailor, but she’s the most holy woman I know. She is! I’m not kidding.

We’ve created this image of what holiness looks like that’s just nonsense. Good holy people probably drink too much some times, and have colorful language, and there’s plenty of room in the Bible to see people like that. We have to see life for what it is, entirely more complicated then simple. Spirituality is not simple; it’s complicated. It gets messy sometimes."

Mike Yaconelli - Founder of Youth Specialties.
July 24, 1942 - October 30, 2003

Thursday, September 13, 2007

Profound

For one of the most profound things I have read all month, go read Kevin's September 13th reflection.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Shameless Begging

I'm going to be doing a message on forgiveness in a couple of weeks. I would like to include some real stories of people who have experienced forgiveness: either you forgave someone who offended you, or received forgiveness from someone you hurt.

Would you take a moment and share your story of being forgiven or forgiving someone?

These need to be kept to a paragraph or two. It would include some details of why you needed to forgive (or be forgiven), and a bit of the struggle to forgive. A key to them is to have the concept of "Before I forgave (or was forgiven I felt...)" and "After I forgave (or was forgiven I felt..." ) So, as an example... as a part of your story it may read something like:

"Before I forgave him, I carried around a lot of anger and resentment. It affected not only my marriage, but my relationship with others and, ultimately, my relationship with God. Now I feel the freedom to love again... not only him, but also God and my husband."

I would really appreciate your contribution. It may or may not be used.. but in any case, reading them will inform my thinking as I write. The key is that there is a time crunch of only a couple of days -- really the sooner the better. I need these by September 17 at the latest.

Feel free to reply anonymously.

Saturday, September 08, 2007

Okay, time to post again

First, thanks for all of your comments. If I could just get you all to comment all the time, we would have quite a blog going here! But then again, I would feel pressure to say something interesting all the time. That's way too much pressure. But it is nice to know people keep in touch.

To the (at least) 8 readers I know who read this thing but STILL didn't post...

pfffftttttttttt

:O)




So, I have a couple of post stored up that I will unfold in the coming weeks. I enjoyed my sabbatical, but it's nice to be back.