Sick Kiddo

Lydia has always had this allergy thing. She gets it multiple times a year and it's pretty bad. It starts as a cough and then she usually has a fever at some point. When I got home from work yesterday, she had it. I made her dinner and put her to bed by 7:30. I gave her this breathing treatment and some medicine the doctor recommended; we keep a large stash on hand.

So 3 am I hear her cry out, "Daddy!" (Which is some sick, I-need-to-be-needed kind of way, is one of the most beautiful sounds to me.) I go in and take care of her. Get her her medicine. Do the breathing treatment. Mostly, I just cuddle her and try to get her to relax so she doesn't cough as much.

As she is doing the breathing treatment, I've built us a little "nest" on the bed and she is cuddled into me. I read her a story and am stroking her head. I turn off the light. Then we sit quietly in the dark for a good 15 minutes or so...no talking... just being with each other. (One of the best times of my week.) I'm stroking her forehead (which she loves) and she is doing this thing where she strokes my arm (which doesn't exactly bother me either).

At some point, I decide that both she and I need sleep, so I gently say to her, "Lydia honey, I think you need to lay back down and get some sleep."

To which she replies, "Awwww! 'Cause this was really working for me!"

It was working for me too.

Beauty

This is going to sound rude - it's not meant to be - but I'm discovering that most people look better to me in two dimensions.

What I mean is that I can know a person for years and never think, "Wow, that person is attractive." But when I take their picture, I see something in them I didn't see before. Maybe it's that I ALLOW myself to see something in them when I look through the lens that I don't see in "real life."

With that said, there is no woman more beautiful than my wife. She is beautiful, bright, funny, godly -- and no camera anywhere can capture her beauty.

Love Rubs Feet

This post was written back on May 5th. I often write posts and never post them. Honestly, for me, much of blogging is personal journaling. But I was thinking about this again this week, looked up the post, and decided to go public with it.

______________________

This weekend I'm teaching on love. It's a sermon I have done before... actually several times. I heard another pastor at a conference give this basic outline back in 1991 and said to myself that day that I wanted to preach that outline every year of my ministry. Well, that hasn't happened. But I have given this outline maybe 5 or 6 times between the two churches I have served. Of course, some of the content changes... I would get bored with it otherwise... but the simple message is a good one:

Love boldly.

I have been thinking about love a lot lately. And much of it is born out of pain. I have been watching my parents struggle through dad's decline. I have another man I deeply respect who is in a battle with leukemia and doesn't seem to be winning. My friend and co-partner in ministry has a mom who is fighting her own health issues. In the midst of all of this darkness... there is this light. It's the love I see breaking through in these dark places.

Today I sat with this man named Paul. He is a pastor of sorts. And he is one of my heros. I had heard of him before I came to Athens and was really excited to meet him. In the past couple of years he, his wife and son became a part of the church I pastor. And at first, honestly, it was kind of wierd to have this guy who I kind of looked up to, be a part of my congregation. But in these years I have gotten to know him, his wife and son and I have seen a spiritual maturity that just blows me away. (Maybe I will write more about this another time).

But for now I just wanted to say: true love is really hard.

It rubs feet.

It changes bandages. It cleans up messes. It calls out the best in people. It forgets the worst in people.

So often our culture thinks of love as naked bodies writhing in pleasure. We even call it, "Making love."

That's stupid.

I'm not even sure "love" happens in the first years of marriage.

Love is when it becomes difficult. Sacrificial.

Love is when you talk to that friend and you don't want to talk.

It's when you give and don't want to give.

When you call and don't want to call.

Love rubs feet.

________________________

Paul Martin
June 28, 1946 - August 14, 2009

We got it right.

Okay, maybe the United Methodist Church finally got it right... at least in the advertisement.

I really like this.

Just amazing

So this is one of the most amazing, creative videos I have ever seen. I can't imagine how long this took to put together... but the I think experiencing the creativity behind it is well worth the 4 minutes you will spend watching it.

Thanks Tobias for sharing this.

Play, the sequel (4 years later)

Almost 4 years ago I wrote this post.

Go ahead, read it. I will wait.

[Waits]

You done? Good.

The other night my wife and I took our daughter sledding for the first time. It was really a spur of the moment thing. I was going to make a snowman with her in the front yard. Wrong kind of snow. So I pulled her around on a sled in our yard (which is basically flat). There is a small dip in the yard, and when she went down the dip (I thought she wouldn't like it -- she frightens easily) she giggled at the top of her lungs and yelled, "Wheee!"

The quest was on.

Now, I live in a town called, "The Plains."

No, really.

This is NOT a good name for a town when you want to go sledding. But we went over to a local church in the next neighborhood over that has a small hill behind it. Driving by, the hill hardly seems big enough to sled on. But walking up the hill with a four-year-old, the hill seemed mammoth. I had visions of her getting on the sled, going down the hill, crying and screaming -- never wanting to get on a sled ever again.

She had a ball. She loved it.

Her mom and her went first. And originally I was just going to let the two of them keep going. Two years ago I had surgery on my knee and I have been a little hesitant of anything physical ever since. I had visions of slipping or breaking the sled or whatever. Watching them sled was enough at the time. It was cold and I figured one or two trips down the hill and we would go home. But I decided, I wanted to go down with her.

I sat down on the sled and put her between my legs, shoved off and down the hill we went.

Wheeeee!

Okay, so I can't tell you how much fun I had. No really. I haven't been on a sled for over 25 years. All though my childhood, sledding was a huge part of my life. Every winter we would drag out our sleds and a bunch of us neighborhood kids would race down hills together.

And in that simple moment with my daughter, going down the hill on a sled, I was young again.

There were no financial pressures, no terrorist bombings, no Sudan, no friend with Leukemia, no leading an organization trying to make budget, no aches and pains. I was on this hill behind my house in Toronto, Ohio, racing down the street. School was canceled the next day and I didn't have a care in the world.

After multiple trips down the hill, the snow started to turn to rain, and my wife said, "We better go home." I could have gone a thousand times more. I didn't want that night to ever end.

"Just one more time, please!"

And now, like a child, I sit in anticipation of my next snow day when I can skip school and play once again.

Best Magician, part 2

I've said in a previous post that I think David Copperfield is the best magician in the world.

I can't begin to tell you how hard this is to do.

No. Really.

No Fruit?

This was a day of a lot of effort expended and yet little work accomplished. The week in and week out task of preaching means that you give birth on Sunday only to find you are pregnant again on Monday. "Labor" is a common analogy used by those of us who preach (yes, even the women). It was one of those days when I sit in front of a screen and type a lot of words but never really get anywhere. It was really, really frustrating. I hate when I'm not productive.

And yet...

Today, I also worked with some good friends at a food pantry. A very pleasant surprise, as I wasn't expecting any of them to come and they are some of the people I enjoy hanging out with the most. (4x4=16 peaches).

I talked with a fellow pastor about a dream I have for ministry and plan to call him again in about 25 minutes to ask him more. He is doing what I want to do. I am betting I can learn a lot from him.

I picked up my daughter from pre-school. Her eyes lit up and she ran to me yelling at the top of her lungs, "Daddy!!!!!"

I pushed her little body on the swing for what seemed like forever but went by in seconds as I realized that the day will come when she won't want me to push her. But I was aware of every push. The feel of my hand on her body. The look of the wind blowing her hair. Her 4-year-old smile and laugh. The rhythm of her shadow playing on the grass.

I made her dinner.

I played with Play-Doh.

I tucked her in and read her a story.

We prayed and talked about God.

She asked me to snuggle her and she fell asleep in my arms. Her last words were, "I love you daddy."

All in all... a pretty productive day.

I am blessed.

Dance

Okay, I gave her all day to post this....

Thanks to Mdog who sent me this earlier today. I'm at home, really sick, and I must have watched this 10 times. It just really makes me happy. And I LOVE the song. There really is so much I like about this video... but to analyze it on this post would be like describing humor ("You see, it's funny because...")

Just turn up the volume on your speakers...and dance.



FYI - Lose translation of the words

"Stream of Life"

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day

runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth

in numberless blades of grass

and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth

and of death, in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.

And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.