Peanut Butter: The Solution to Sappiness

We had a great Christmas. Simple and fun. The girls got most of the stuff and, to confirm ancient wisdom, expense is no indicator of a child's joy--Kayla's favorite toy is a plastic $6 dog that she can pull around the house by its leash.

For the last several days I have spent a few hours each day working on painting the kitchen. Yes, I still have a honey-do list of things that need to be completed on our house. Don't remind me; it makes me want to curl up in a ball and start rocking in the darkest, roundest corner ... No, I'm not crazy. They put me in a round room and told me to stand in a corner, and that drove me crazy. Crazy? No, I'm not crazy. They put me in a round room and told me to stand in a corner, and that drove me crazy. Crazy? No, I'm not crazy...

Over Christmas we also decided to put the girls in the same room and turn the second room into an office area; we accomplished it that same day. That was two days ago and they are still trying to get used to each other being around while they sleep. Kayla talked at Maddie and laughed all the way through their nap time yesterday, which means they were grumps when they got up. Today was a lot easier ... they were so tired, they were practically asleep by the time we said, "Go to your room. It's time to go night-nights."

I took down the tree today. I broke a bunch of branches when I took off the lights. When I grabbed it to sling it out on the curb, I got sap all over my arm. And soap and water doesn't get it off.

The solution is peanut butter ... I've heard nail polish remover and rubbing alcohol work also, but thanks to WIC, I had plenty of peanut butter on hand (pun intended).

I've gotta get back to painting. The transitions in life are never-ending.

Bono Follow-up

For obvious reasons, there are lots of questions and speculation surrounding Bono. Without getting into the details, I have a couple observations. Since these are just thoughts, they may not be related to one another.

First, God never called us to be ambiguous about our faith. When asked, we are to answer plainly. That is something I do not believe Bono does. And let me be clear, I believe that to be a huge downfall.

Second, when Jesus came the first time He shunned the religious leaders of the day, even though they were convinced He would hop on their bandwagon of issues and be in their subculture club. If He were to show up today, He may do the same ... and while He was at it, He may take up for social issues like fighting AIDS, and getting water and prescription drugs into Africa. Bono does this. He's got more brownie points for this than I could ever hope to have.

Third, so many Christians are concerned with being seen as "cool" that when a cool person like Bono looks like he's toeing the line of spirituality, they throw him into their camp and hold him up as a viable reason to become a Christian. It's like saying, "See, I told you Christians were cool. Just look at our newset member--he's super-cool!" That's just lame and everyone knows it. Logically, if you showed a positive person and said, "Here's why you should join us," you would also have to admit that for every bad person in Christianity, you would have to say, "Here's why you shouldn't join us." The logic just breaks down.

Lastly, God knows our hearts. We don't even know our own heart, let alone someone else's, which makes it very hard to judge a person's heart. So we may just need to leave the man alone until he makes his decision (one way or another) public. We can look at his actions concerning Africa and honor them as noteworthy, but that's a far cry from transitioning into judging Bono's heart. And that's shaky ground to be walking on anyways.

The man is an enigma, a blessing and a curse: challenging stereotypes, pressing us out of our comfort zone, leading an honorable charge for social justice, speaking of God as if he knew Him--without subscribing to one firm way (which may or may not be good or bad)--and rocking the house day after day. And I thank him for it.

Bono

Relevant Magazine published an article that seemed to show Bono as becoming more Universalist (all ways lead to God, not just Jesus). There was such a strong response (from depression to anger to I-told-you-so) that they followed it up two days later with a podcast to discuss it all. Check out the links.

Relevant Magazine Homepage

Relevant's Bono article

The follow-up podcast -- For this, it is at the bottom of the page in the center. Either click Play or download it to your iTunes. It's interesting because you will also hear some of their heart concerning the culture we live in, what "Relevant" means and a few very telling stories.

War of the Girls

Yes, I'm sure H.G. Wells passed up this title, but it makes for some splendid homebound narrative. Take today, for instance.

Kayla, our two-year old, has an issue with sharing--she doesn't want to. Every time Madeline started to play with a toy, Kayla would take it from her. This continued on for quite some time since Kayla doesn't understand the diplomacy involved in weaseling a toy from someone else without them catching on. Finally Maddie wasn't going to take it anymore. When Kayla reached for what she had, Maddie let out a yell. Kayla froze in her tracks ... she really wasn't expecting that and she didn't know how to handle it. It was hilarious! Welcome to the fold, little lion cub-ess. Seems like you're learning how to defend your meat.

Later on, Amy put them close to each other in their highchairs and they passed their sippy cups back and forth. They are so cute!

Heaven and Comfort

I watched an inverview special with that name a few days ago. Kind of interesting, but it didn't answer any questions really.

To me, one of the interesting parts was Barbara Walters' chat with the Dalai Lama, the leader of the Buddhist religion. There was a strong emphasis on ridding yourself of negativity to achieve "nirvana," a state of perfection, bliss and peace; basically it's the state of being completely and perfectly boring. Anywho, it occurred to me that living on the edge of the Himalayan mountains, with a small community of other Buddhists (all pursuing perfect nothingness), shutting out the world, living mostly in silence or meditation, seemed to be the easy way out. Try living downtown and doing the same thing; it's more difficult to rid yourself of negativity when saturated by society. It could be argued that mystical Christianity has many of the same emphases, just with the understanding of the true God as the anchor. My point is that their version seemed like the easy way out.

Another observation. The too-long-for-it's-own-good film Seven Years in Tibet (great cinematography, lame plot, waste of three hours of my life), had a few scenes that saddened me for the Buddhists. The young Dalai Lama has a dream that his entire village is slaughtered, including his family. By his own words, he admits that there is no way to know whether they will get to Heaven (eh-hem, probably not, dude). Then when the village actually is attacked and his family is killed, he sobs and sobs ... but has no comfort whatsoever. He had nothing and no one to lean on, no one to comfort him. They have no answer for suffering, they have no judgment for wrongs, and they have no assurance of Heaven. How sad. How lonely. What a waste.

Jesus' heart is full of love; His heart is bursting at the seams with a voracious desire to be with you forever. And because of this desire, He went to the cross and took the judgment of God against our sins on Himself. But if we will not accept Him, it is as if we are saying, "No thanks, I'll take God's judgment myself." The bummer is that His wrath against our sins is eternal ... we will suffer forever if we decide Jesus isn't the way.

We have a comfort; we have someone to lean on; we have an answer for suffering and for every wrong thing that has happened in this world ... at the end we are not left on our own, or sequestered to boring perfection. Jesus will come to each of us personally and pay back every wrong that has ever happened to you. But he will do the same to others as well ... which means the ones you have hurt. But if you have come to Jesus, He will take on Himself the judgment you should have received for hurting others. God will make everything right. His plan is to be a judge for us, meaning in our favor. He doesn't want us to be in pain, He wants to be our comfort eternally. Allow the passionate Bridegroom-Judge to comfort you. Lean on Him and you will be with Him forever.

Success Pressure

I used to watch movies or sitcoms about going to a reunion and the story would always turn out the same: the character hasn't made much of themselves since high school, so they put on a front. Somehow the whole act gets blown and they are inevitably humiliated in front of the entire school ... just like ten years ago when they were humiliated the first time.

The pressure to succeed and to be doing better than you were before is pretty rough. I used to laugh at it, but now I can sympathize with it a bit. It's good to evaluate your life, but not because you want to base it on someone else's, not because you want to outdo someone else, and not because you have to prove to the world that you are better than what's-his-name. Being a success is never really about anyone else anyways. It's about you. It's about your heart. The kid in this picture is the best because his heart is okay and happy, not because he's the strongest kid on the block. It has always been about our heart and it always will be.

1996 Class Reunion

I was just told by one of my dear friends that our ten-year high school class reunion has been planned. For April 1st. That's April Fool's Day, Sherlock.

Knowing this friend, I thought she was trying to pull one on me, but I looked into it and it seems to be true. So for any of my old friends deciding to stop by, welcome and thanks for great memories. Great Bridge High was the source of some great times. Lots of friends, taking naps in English class, getting in trouble in Spanish and Math, loving Chorus (Mrs. Meiers is the best!) and Drama ... and, of course, all the prayer clubs and Bible clubs I could be a part of. Now I realize (a bit too late) that I wasn't the nicest guy in the world, and that sometimes my boldness/abrasiveness got in the way of genuinely loving people. But the truth is that I truly did love people and wanted the best for them, even though I wasn't a pro at getting that across in the deepest way.

If you are one of the ones I have hurt in one way or another, please let me know so I can make it right with you. For those who remember me as mostly decent, you are too kind ... and that means I probably owe you some money. Either way, drop me a note so we can connect. By the way, I'm broke if you're asking.

Ten years ... wow. I don't know if that's good or bad. At least I'm not bald. That would be bad.

Aptly Named Church

Let me start by saying Jesus--just His name alone. Just Jesus. He's the reason you have your life and breath, He's the One who upholds all things. The second Person of the Trinity, the Savior of the world, the God-Man sequestered within a human frame, glorified and humiliated all at once. Unlimited power in undignified dust. He was by no means born in December, but that is when we officially celebrate His birth ... apparently some of us rejoice with protests and misguided energy.

Here is an article concerning the recent protests over Christmas/holiday semantics.

The facts: many Christians are apparently upset that "Merry Christmas" has been replaced with "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings". Lots even signed an online petition to prove that they were really upset. Bill O'Reilly has featured his Christian disgust on his TV spots, which brings it to a whole new level of "majoring on minors".

The most ironic part (sad, funny and very telling) is the church's actual name in this article. I don't care how they came up with it, there's no good way to spin this one. You have to read the article to understand what I'm saying here.



Really, folks, let's think this through a little. Wal-mart's chief goal is to make money, not converts. If you want to pick an issue to support, if you really want to throw your energy, time and resources behind something, take a look at the AIDS epidemic in Africa, the Blood and Water Mission in Africa (and other third-world locations), orphans in Iraq or Mozambique, your town's battered women's shelter or homeless areas, etc., etc.

But, for the love of all things reasonable--and holy--, don't take your protesting to the doorstep of a money-making business where their primary focus is not God, but money. It's your responsibility to honor Christ, not Wal-mart's. It's your responsibility to raise your kids, not Wal-mart's. It's their responsibility to get everyone (from different religions) to buy at their store, not disseminate doctrine from their shelves at low, low prices. Who in the world wants Wal-mart representing Jesus Christ anyways?!

While I personally wouldn't mind Wal-mart saying "Merry Christmas", nothing of religious value whatsoever hinges on whether they do or not. Has anyone ever gotten saved because they saw "Merry Christmas" in a store? No. Any revivals due to a store's choice of advertising? No. And, tell the truth now, when was the last time (before this Christmas season) you dropped to your knees, overwhelmed with thankfulness, upon walking into a Wal-mart to see "Merry Christmas" displayed? Have you ever gone out of your way to thank the Manager of a store for hearing "Merry Christmas" from a greeter?

It's funny to me how everyone looks at tele-vangelists who ask for money and immediately writes them off, but some of those same people want to sell Jesus for the holidays in every store on the block. If money-grubbing tele-vangelists disgust you, you should be overjoyed that general stores are not using Jesus to make money. If you allow stores to do this at Christmas, you have to allow it all year. It's basically (not exactly, but close) like bringing the money-changers back into the Temple after Jesus just kicked them out. God is either an advertising pawn or not; He is worth more than that to me.

This is yet another reason normal people think Christians are all wacked out in the head--because some of us mistakenly demonstrate that life hinges on two seasonal words, rather than on our compassionate actions toward others throughout the year. Let's pick our battles, folks. And let's just be honest, on the scale of eternal significance, this couldn't even register a heartbeat. By the way, God is not an American, so I doubt He circled December 25th on His calendar.

The Sound of Annoying Music

Tonight I am finishing the final draft of a book in the kitchen of our very small house. Amy is eight feet from me in the living room watching "The Sound of Music". I, being a guy, do not particularly care for musical movies (especially girlie ones) so Amy and I have a running banter.

When I figure out that the story takes place during WW2, Amy (wrongly imagining that my interest is somehow heightened) says, "Yeah, and now they have to try and escape." She's trying to get me interested. It's not working.

Without a second thought I said, "Well, all they have to do is run up into the mountains and start singing. No one will follow."

This Just In ... Microsoft Ain't All That

The oh-so-trustworthy news source, MSNBC, has just realeased a funny headlining story. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the MS stand for Microsoft? Hmmm, so they are saying their own company pretty much bites? I thought so. Check it before ya wreck it, yo.

Rant-a Clause

Beware: I think I'm gonna rant.

I don't know why, but I was thinking about this today and it just struck me as odd. How many well-meaning parents let their kids believe in Santa (either through encouragement or through their silence)? Lots. I was one of them. My folks may have reservedly mentioned that the red-suited chub didn't exist, but when the 8-o'clock news came on, the whole family looked for the Santa Radar to show us where he was. We did the milk and cookies too.

Now, no kid in their right mind is going to turn down some free gifts, so what do they do? Make a list, checking it twice against their sibling's to make sure it's longer, give it to their folks and go sit on Santa's knee to see if we can fake him into believing that we have been the purest of angels all year 'round. Kids are the best actors in the world. And Bill Cosby was right, we'll say the darndest things. "Have you been good this year?" "Sure have, Mr. Red. I know because I can remember every word I've ever said and every thing I ever did for the last twelve months. I am a prodididigy, can't you tell?" Inevitably, what does Red-us Imposter-us tell the kid? "Sure, you can have whatever you want." What does the kid think? "I'm getting everything I asked for." Who foots the bill? The parents.

With the ransom note for the child's happiness in hand, the parents are then left with some decisions: go into debt to get them the latest whatever, or expect that the Red guy in the mall's La-Z-Boy really will get it for them ... yeah, right.

I don't know about you, but the whole situation strikes me as a bit of a "bad babysitter" story. Sitter comes to the house, the parents leave for the night. The sitter tells the kids they can have and do whatever they want, and proceeds to fill them with candy. Parents return to hyper and demanding kids, and the sitter smiles and says, "Hope you can deal with the mess I've made for you." As a kid, I was oblivious--not a care in the world except for getting what I wanted. As a parent, I'm really not a fan of the one-sided deal because it's not in my favor. Can you guess why? It's because Santa doesn't exist and we have to foot the bill for our extraodinary commercial appetites.

So, question for all the wise ones out there. Since most parents don't think there's a bearded, red spandex-wearing fat guy planning on breaking in your house in the middle of Christmas Eve night (because there isn't), how do you talk to your kids about the whole deal? From experience, I understand that you just grow out of it, but in the meantime what are we teaching our kids about commercialism, selfishness, coveting, expectations and the like? And how concerned should we be? I haven't figured this thing out, so I'd really like to get some input on this. Let me know what you think.

More Pictures

I've posted some more pictures on our Flickr account. You can get to it by clicking on the Flickr badge in the sidebar to the right. Enjoy!

Blessings

Some great friends stopped by the other day and they gave us a Christmas tree. We are blown away by their generosity and so thankful for their wonderful hearts. You guys are the best!

You see, we are not at the point where we could get a tree of our own (I don't know if they knew this or not), and the Christmas season is probably one of the biggest things for Amy. She loves everything about it: hot chocolate (or a vanilla latte), a warm fire, fresh snow (minus the blizzard ordeal that knocks out the power), beautiful lights, a fragrant pine tree, ornaments that hold memories, and friends and family that only add to the season.

I love all that stuff too, I just prioritize a little different because I am a guy. Usually I'm all about the freebies like driving to see lights, but I don't generally want to spend a massive amount of time and money lighting up our house like an electric bonfire (or in the case of a Burning Man convention, electricity plus a bonfire). Like most guys, if I have to choose, I'm more concerned with function instead of form.

There are little blessings that come along like this. You don't expect them, so you don't really know what to say when they happen. I sure didn't. It may not have been a big thing to our friends, but it was massive to us. It feels a little more like the holidays now. Again, a big thank you for giving us a little blessing. You are true, and that is rare.

Snowfell

Today was a record-breaking day in the Kansas City area. We were told we would get between five and eight inches of snow. I'm not sure about everywhere else, but I'm positive our driveway got the eight. I have the wet boots and the [borrowed] snow shovel to prove it. I'm just praying (oh Lord, hear my cry) that I cleared it enough for Amy to get out in the morning and she won't feel the need to wake me up to do more shoveling at 5AM. One of those fancy start-your-car-from-the-comfort-of-your-living-room buttons would be wonderful right now. But I'm trying to keep the coveting to a minimum this holiday season.

Sorry for not updating the blog more regularly. I'm feverishly working on an editing project that is due the 15th ... only a few more days to go, but it's turning out well. And I really like doing this editing stuff.

Illusion

Alrighty, one more and then I'm done. Here's an optical illusion for the fans out there.

Toofer

Madeline has two bottom teeth right now. Last week she started getting her first top tooth ... but it's not looking positive. Let's just say if she could run (she still hasn't mastered actually crawling yet) and she smacked right into a wall, we might have to look for a crowbar. It's a west-bound tooth on a south-bound gum. Restraint is in order: Bucky and Snaggle aren't necessarily esteem-builders.

More news. Maddie has officially mastered the cheesy grin. During dinner she just wouldn't stop. She didn't want to eat, she just wanted to be the center of attention with her perpetual schmultz. Bring on the personality!

OneThing 2005

Each year at the House of Prayer, we welcome in the New Year by gathering 10,000 young adults (give or take a few thousand) in the local sports complex for an event we call OneThing. We saturate them in worship (an hourand a half to two hours at a time), teach them about how much God loves them and talk about the End-Times (since we believe it's really close). Intimacy with God and the urgency of the hour is what it boils down to.

Intimacy and urgency are two key components to every believer's heart, and they specifically give fuel to the prayer movement. Intimacy without urgency creates a lazy, introspective, self-absorbed church. On the other hand, urgency without intimacy creates a lot of tension without any real reason for having it, or a bunch of doom-and-gloomers who get burned out quickly. We must have both.

Last year, there was a father who came to the young adult conference. He accidentally fell asleep during a worship set (going for four days straight at a conference will wear you out). When he woke up, a monumental shift had happened in his spirit and he immediately moved to Uganda as a full-time missionary; a year later he is still there pursuing God and reaching the lost.

Last year some high school students came for the event and were radically touched. One of the guys comes from a well-off family. His father had just built a game room in their guest house two months prior. When he returned home, the teen asked his father if it would be okay to move out the pool table and other stuff and turn it into a prayer house for anyone who wanted to come. It is still going. This is only two stories that I know of, but many more will follow.

The prayer movement is unstoppable. And throughout history the prayer movement has always preceded the outpouring of God in renewal, revival and outright spiritual revolution. The prayer movement birthed the Welsh Revival. Charles Finney had a small group of intercessors that went two weeks ahead of him into the next city. It was led by David Nash and Abel Clary. Once Nash died, Finney's ministry stopped--cold.

Intercession is Heaven's way of invading Earth; God will have it no other way. And intercession (agreeing with God) is one of the few things that will continue on in the next age. And we are proud to be a part of it.

Our Girls

This week I made a piece of toast for Amy while Kayla watched. As soon as I handed it to her, Kayla said, "Toast ... bite." I don't know where she gets this stuff from, but she's awfully cute. She has also decided it's a great idea to copy whatever I do with Maddie with her little plastic baby, including dancing around the living room or tossing her up in the air. It just brings home the point that our kids may not always do what we say, but they will always do what we do, whether they understand it or not.

At the moment, the girls are sharing their toys ... but give it a few minutes and Kayla will take something from Maddie. Good thing Maddie doesn't know any better than to be possessive. But that will come in time, I'm sure. Maddie is just happy to drool on whatever is placed before her. Ah, the simple times in life.

Refuge Homework

For those following the Refuge theology, here's your assignment: look up five references to the word Refuge in the Bible (all you teacher's pet-types out there can look up ten references for extra credit). Look at the context, the descriptions used and the emotions behind it. Hint: my guess is you will find the three faces of God represented in each one (Bridegroom, King and Judge). The Psalms is an easy place to start, but beware, the Psalms has about twenty names for the Refuge, each showing a different facet of God while retaining the same invitation into His heart.

If It's Broke, You Can't Fix It

This just in...

Microsoft has been fumbling its way through its next operating system update for quite a while now, and they still aren't going to release it until 2007. It was code-named Longhorn, which then changed to Vista ("view" in Spanish) at their demonstration this past summer. Still, as a Mac user, the view is much better from over here. Case in point, click the image to see ... well, the same thing you've always seen from a Microsoft machine--error messages. And this one is on the initial setup screen. You've been warned. And I am laughing.

Why?

Don't worry, I'll pick up the Refuge stuff in a bit here.

Until then, why would a God who has Love as His primary quality allow, for instance, the Holocaust, slavery in America, and genocide in Africa?

It has to do with the three faces we were talking about: Bridegroom, King and Judge. And it has to do with making Him your Refuge. But the questions need to be faced.

Thoughts On A Natural Law

I've had a thought the last few days...I know, you're impressed, aren't you? I've been thinking about the human makeup and the natural laws we all observe.

I don't know if there is an actual name for this, so I'll call it the Law of Crescendo. It's when things get bigger, better, more profound and more fascinating. If they don't, we lose interest.

Your favorite reality show has a certain pattern, but unless they do something you weren't expecting, you may not tune back in. Next year, next season, next "whatever" has to be bigger and better than last time to keep the attention of those it attracted originally. That's one reason movies that do a "part two" have to make them so outrageous. The "new" becomes the average and we want more. We simply expect life to crescendo. Even in the case of looking at history, we see things growing more and more dramatic, more and more tense, more and more of a crescendo.

Just think of your favorite music; if it never hit a crescendo, you would get bored real quick. What about computers? If they didn't get better, faster and cheaper we would be disappointed. We simply expect they will. We expect everything will.

Whenever you get involved in something, you expect it will continue to crescendo. Sometimes, as when speaking of a vice, we may hope it doesn't grow, but it always does. What about a drug habit or alcohol or gambling? It almost never stays at one level. We always desire something more along the same lines of what we're involved in. That's the funny thing about human fascination: we were created to be fascinated again and again. Call it what you will, I believe the Law of Crescendo is part of mankind.