Why I don’t post here often-

I think I’m better at living life than documenting it. 
Likewise, actually ‘doing’ life seems to take up most of my time these days.

However, now that I’m here- I might as well talk a little bit about what we’ve been up to. I’ll break it down into 5 points in no-particular order:

1. Salsa Dancing- whenever Ian ‘lets’ us
2. Planting a garden (veggies and otherwise)
3. Watching ‘Mythbusters’ on Netflix
4. Refinancing the house
5. Tackling our ministry areas, or finding new ones God opens us to

For the sake of brevity I’ll leave it at that.

-C

and yet….

continuing from last post-

I know acutely that there is something slightly off-  Specifically with regards to the topic of suffering.

Numerous times in the Pauline epistles (2 cor. 1:7, phil. 3:10, col. 1:24, tons in 2 timothy) suffering is mentioned as a calling of the faithful… even a promise from Christ that we will suffer for his sake.  Yet the verse that most strikes me is this: Romans 8:17 “and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”

So I’m not really suffering right now-  and I can’t particularly think of a time when I was specifically afflicted for Christ’s sake.. I will have to think about this some more…

On another note-

Today I was confronted with a bit of a ‘holy slap’ here at church today- something that might remedy my sugar-glazed outlook, that I might more soberly judge myself.  The passage today was on God’s holiness.  How He is utterly holy.  A golden sash around his chest- the garb of a judge.  White hair like snow and wool, indicating wisdom.  Burning eyes that peer through all facades and see all the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  Feet like hot burnished bronze- the same material of the judgment seat in the temple.  From whose mouth comes a sharpened two edged sword, able to defeat his enemies by the awesome voice of his mouth, which has the sound of many waters.  Have you heard Niagra falls?  It’s loud… I mean REALLY loud.  Have you listened to the ocean at night?  His voice is like that too.

So here is an utterly powerful God- able to easily destroy all of his enemies- fully competent and capable of judging all sin. Yet he chooses to spare us.

The message today made me realize that if I were to honestly and soberly evaluate myself, I would fall down to the ground before God as a dead man because of the condemnation that would be upon me because of my sins.  I would surely writhe in agony before the awesome reflection of his utterly holy visage and his face which shines as the burning sun. Mercifully I have just enough discernment to understand how hopeless my case would be without Christ- and my discernment too was not from me, but from Christ as well.  Without his calling me, and the gift of his Spirit,  I would not even be able to understand my own condemnation- though, perhaps, I might feel the need to satiate some cosmic law.

The more I think of it, the more I realize how Christ spanned so great a chasm between God’s perfection and my utter sin.  Yet still, I think I will not be able to comprehend it fully in this lifetime.

-C

‘Poobah’

–noun (often lowercase)

1. a person who holds several positions, esp. ones that give him or her bureaucratic importance
2. a leader, authority, or other important person: one of the pooh bahs of the record industry
3. a pompus, self-important person

Confession- this post is almost completely unrelated to the word ‘poo bah’ other than the fact that I think it’s fun to say ‘poo bah’ and ought to try and work it into my vocabulary more often, as though I were a ‘poo bah’ of vernacular speech.. well… British-English speech at the least… now where was I?

Life, as it stands now, seems to have settled into a pleasent comfortable rhythm.  I wake up, kiss the wifey and son, go to work, come home, re-commence with the kissing of previously mentioned wifey and son, watch some TV, read Bible, practice verses, go to sleep.  Wash, rinse, repeat.  Admittedly there are times of variation, Bible studies on Wed., having friends over for game night/conversation, but by-in-large I am a creature of habit, what of it? 

I have a sense that maybe I ought to be doing more.  I’m not exactly sure what that more would consist of- only that maybe it ought to be there.  The difficulty is classifying this ‘ought-ness’:  1. Genuine Spirit of conviction- that Christ really is demanding my all, and being at home isn’t my ‘all’ by a long shot.  2. My ‘all’ is at home right now- growing close with my family and conducting personal ministry through hospitality, and this ‘ought-ness’ is more of a lie of discontentment (or at least the beginnings thereof)  3.  A nagging supposition that somehow, someway, things are going to change (inevitably they will… but I can be ‘wistfully stubborn’ about things)

As most things go it is probably some combination of the three along with some other factors I haven’t considered yet.  I am most confident that Christ did not call me into a life of confort- yet living under Christ does bring a good deal of comfort: emotionally, spiritually, physically, relationally.  I think now, that as long as comfort is not my end goal, but enjoyment and service of Christ is- it is perfectly acceptable to enjoy the comforts given and the rhythms of life such as God makes them.

Lydia and I are spiritually moving towards working in the children’s ministry at church- I want to be reaching out more to the other new hires I work with; these are potentials that are on the immediate horizon.  As long as we actually do such things, and not sit and endlessly plan and then make excuses (not to be hearers only of the Word, but doers) then we are on the right track.

Moving

One of the things I really like about Lydia is she makes places feel like home.
Not just a ‘house’ or a ‘place to stay’, but something more… permanent….
Something that’s as difficult to find as it is to describe.  Yay for Godly wives and their ability to create the ineffable quality of home.  :D

It feels a little weird to have a ‘home’ at my age…. I feel as though I should be hanging out in college still- watching movies or playing videogames with the buddies.
Yet here I am, a brand new baby (yay!) and a brand new mortgage (yay?). 
For external appearances it looks like I’m just seeking the American dream- whatever that is.

Hopefully I’ll be able to leverage said ‘appearance’ into a radical hospitality (my most earnest prayer).
Whatever I have I know it’s been given to me as a gift- that I might bless others with it.  I don’t think God gave us this house so we can just sit on it and fill it with useless stuff we accumulate.

Maybe I need to come up with an official ‘resolution of the house’- print it and frame it.  That sounds like a thing the man of the house would do anyway- I just need to collaborate first

Most new things start very very small.

As a matter of fact, I can’t think of anything organic that begins life fully grown… (whale babies might be big, but even they have lots of growing to do.)

In any case, here’s us with the newest addition to our family, Mr. Ian Robert; yes, I am aware that ‘newest addition to the family’ is a phrase bordering on trite, but it’s true- mathematically at least… unless you represent the family as a ‘set’, in which case, adding a baby adds a whole new dimension instead of a linear growth.

Family = F{Daddy, Mommy, Baby1}

Behold! We are now a 3D family! You can even watch us with those cool two-toned glasses.
It may be that even this representation is too shallow- it might be more like so.

Family = F{Daddy+Baby, Mommy+Baby, Baby+ Self, Daddy+Mommy+Baby, Daddy+Mommy}

I think I’m getting a bit ahead of myself here- but I’ll continue to work on the formula. Maybe when I’m 80 or 90 or (Lord willing) 120 years of age, I can write down as my magnum opus the formulaic representation of the family set.

-C

Aren't we a happy bunch?