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Children Screaming at God

December 12, 2008 in family, theology with 6 Comments

A couple nights ago, we were out later than usual doing…something. I don’t remember what.

Annette and I had driven separately. On the way home I had Kenni and Caia in my truck, and Annette was going to make a grocery run. That left me in charge of the bedtime routine.

Now, when you’re driving children home after their bedtime, there are two ways things can go. There’s the first way where the children fall asleep in the car and then stay asleep as you carry them in. Lay them gently on their beds, and they peacefully continue their slumber.

Then there’s the second way.

And on this particular night, things went the second way.

The girls fell out cold somewhere along the road home. But as soon as we pulled into the garage, they woke up. The quiet moment quickly dissolved into exhaustion induced hysteria. After carrying them inside, I sat them both on Kenni’s bed to get them into their pajamas. They were both whining at first. Then something triggered one of them into wailing…which then triggered the other one to follow suit.

Pandemonium. Screaming. Kenni’s crying for milk…”I’m thirsty!” Caia’s just crying for sleep. “Do what you must do, but do it NOW!” Holy Moses. There’s nothing I can do to calm them down but just give them what they need and lay them down in their beds.

As I was standing there in my own agony, I was hit with empathy for God. (Not that he needs my empathy, but stick with me here.) God has hundreds of millions of children living ‘in the world,’ and it’s fair to say that a large percentage of them are crying out to Him in one way or another at every moment of every day. Cries for help, repair, restoration, comfort… All totally legitimate and real needs that He is fully capable of fulfilling.

And then I started thinking about my unborn son, Jackson. He’s due sometime in January. But he’s got some challenges to overcome as he gets closer to his big day. He’s missing an umbilical artery, and his mom has just been diagnosed with intrahepatic cholestasis. I’m not going to lie…it’s a little scary. In his own way, I felt like he was screaming at me in that moment, too. “Dad! Pray for me!”

It was a sobering, surreal experience.

My friend Jason had twittered a thought earlier that day that slapped me in the face as I finally got the girls calmed down and into their beds…

When I pray God has an entire eternity to listen….for He is not within time. He labors over my life as an author over his characters. WOW!

Though our own stories are bound by a window of time, God’s is not. He can step in from anywhere in eternity and create our rescue. He can hear all our millions upon millions of simultaneous cries because He freely arranges his own moments according to His own will. [Wow! That's overwhelming!]

Being loved by a God who is trustworthy and desperately interested in meeting our needs is the greatest opportunity available to any man or woman.

How Crazy Is Your Love?

October 21, 2008 in theology with 1 Comment

Our Journey Group is reading Francis Chan’s book Crazy Love together. The last couple of weeks have been a campout in chapter four, “Profile of the Lukewarm.” My friend Matt Willmington summed up the chapter on his blog a few weeks back.

To get the folks in our group thinking more critically about their own ‘temperature,’ I put together this list of questions. Maybe they’ll get you thinking, too. There are no right answers…the questions are purely intended to make you think about yourself in a way you may not have before.

  1. How do you rate the “quality “ of your worship…both on Sunday and throughout the week?
  2. a: How much should you give? b: How much DO you give? (answer with something other than a quantity)
  3. Is the way you handle stress or conflict familiar to non-believers, or would they find it peculiar?
  4. How do you respond to your own sin?
  5. a: What is the most radical thing you’ve done for Christ? b: What is the most radical thing you can THINK of doing?
  6. How familiar are your neighbors/family/coworkers with your faith in Christ?
  7. On a scale of 1-10, how consumed are you with Christ?
  8. How selfish are you when it comes to loving others?
  9. a: How painful is it for you to give the time, money, energy you give for the cause of Christ? b: What leaves you more drained: Your job, or your serving?
  10. a: Have you ever said, “Jesus never said MONEY is the root of all evil, only the LOVE of money is”? b: What is your “calling”?
  11. When you confess your sin, do you also explain it?
  12. True or False? When it comes to obeying God, I should be cautious and strategic.
  13. How secure do you feel?
  14. How structured is your life routine?
  15. How ‘wholesome’ or ‘moral’ are you?

Uncertainty

September 10, 2008 in family, theology with 1 Comment

So Annette shared a few days ago that we found out via ultrasound that our next addition to the family is a boy! I can’t lie… Now that we know, I was really hoping for this. In fact, the Sunday before we found out Annette was pregnant, I was walking through our kitchen when I had a random rush of thought run through my head, and I just blurted out to God, “I would really like to have a son.” Go figure.

Our baby man is scheduled to arrive somewhere around January 31. He looked pretty good and is measuring on target. In fact, Annette’s post originally got pretty specific about his measurements. Fortunately we re-read it and she made a subtle change. It originally said:

But I digress.

He looked good… His heart has four chambers and they’re all thumping along at the right speed. His arms and legs are all where they should be, and he’s moving them all over the place.

But while the ultrasound tech was going through her checklist, she made that “hmm” sound that you never want a doc or nurse to make. Not a long, cataclysmic “hmmmmmm,” but a quick, “hmm” that translated to, “that’s odd.”

She explained that it appears that “Little Dude” (Annette has gotten in the habit of calling him that) only has two blood vessels in his umbilical cord. Obviously, with a two-dimensional, run-of-the-mill ultrasound it’s tough to see too much detail in there. But she checked from a few different angles, and only briefly thought she might see the third that should be there. The doctors call this “SUA,” or Single Umbilical Artery. There are some pretty serious issues that can be associated with SUA, and to be honest, the odds that there’s nothing at all out of the ordinary linked to the SUA aren’t all that encouraging. Some studies show that one in four SUA kiddos are born with birth defects, and another one in four are born prematurely or at a low birth weight. (And since both our girls were tea-tiny, this fella needs all the help he can get.)

So, today at 2:30, we will be driving across town to visit with a Perinatologist. He’ll supposedly look at Little Dude with some pretty serious ultrasound machinery to see what he can see. Personally, I feel in my gut that he’s going to fire up his big machine and pretty quickly find that third artery, or at least see that the blood flow in the one remaining artery is nice and strong letting us leave his office with nothing but serious peace of mind and some pretty cool pictures of our kid. But there’s obviously that wee bit of apprehension that makes this a pretty nerve-abusing day for us.

So if you happen to think of this as you go about your day, would you mind praying for Little Dude? Like I said, I have a pretty severe peace about the whole thing. But in the interest of full-disclosure, I’d rather my peace stem from his being 100% healthy than from being able to accept and pull through a frightening prognosis. Know what I mean?

I’m sure Annette and I will both be blogging what we find out before we hit the sack tomorrow night.

In the mean time, we sure could use some stories from those of you who have experienced this same “anomaly” only to find out everything was fine and dandy.

Mere Christianity

September 2, 2008 in theology with 1 Comment

CS Lewis published Mere Christianity more than six decades ago. I’ve been aware of the book for probably one of those. But I have just read it in the last week.

It has changed me.

I’ve enjoyed some books this year that have a bent towards the fundamentals of Christianity. I read Chesterton’s Orthodoxy last Spring (published in the 19th century), and just a couple of weeks ago read Chuck Colson’s The Faith, published in the last year.

The theme that God has woven together through these three books is brilliant. I have never been so intrigued by the very foundational concepts of Christianity. The fruit of that intrigue has been the reinforcement of my own views and of my own understanding of our Faith in Christ.

I have, however, been overwhelmed by ideas that these three books have in common that collide with views I’ve taken for granted for many years, but for just as long have had an almost subconscious skepticism towards (or against, as the case may be). It’s almost like my gut wants to claim that it had told me so. I’ve found a new confidence that my soul is more able to distinguish truth than my intellect. And I can only attribute that trust to the work of God in refining my ears to hear what the Holy Spirit testifies to be true about Him. After all, He does call for the “renewing of my mind.” And I suppose that would not be necessary if my mind were pre-programmed to understand the nature of God.

I think the search for fundamental truth and the understanding of that truth should be the journey of every man. And not in the respect of ‘should’ as in, “it’s a good idea to search for truth.” Rather, it is the call of God on every human to seek out reason and fundamental truth because He is the founder of reason and He is, by His very own definition, Truth Himself. And as we get more familiar with Truth, we see the very mandate of the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus to satisfy the nature of that Truth.

What good is it for me to gain the things of this whole world, but lose my own soul? I, by the power of Christ, want to gain the whole of God so that I may gain…the whole of God. It is for that single purpose that I exist.

Rain, Grass, Tru-Green/Chem-Lawn, and Christianity

August 25, 2008 in life, theology with Comments Off

So after getting fed up with weeds in my lawn a couple of summers ago, I decided to invest in one of those companies that keeps your lawn fertilized and weed-treated routinely. I did the math and figured the price difference between doing it myself and paying them to do it would be money well spent.

So my little patch of green hasn’t seen a weed since 2006.

My neighbors? Not so much. The folks across from us have beautiful shrubs, flowers, and nicely fluffed pine beds…and about 4000 18-inch tall dandelion flowers. The folks to our left? Well, let’s just say you can tell where our two patches of green meet.

It’s tough to not feel a little proud.

The irony? Um, that would be the fact that Georgia has been plagued by a severe drought since last summer. While I haven’t seen any weeds pop up, I’ve barely seen the first green blade of grass in as much time.

But that has ended, perhaps. At least for now.

Hurricane/tropical storm/depression Fay has smiled on our .5 acres and dumped quite a bit of liquid gold on us the last couple of days. And now, my neatly trimmed sod is actually…dare a say it?…growing! And it’s also turning an odd color. I think they call it “green.”

I’ve waited two years for this. Too bad it’s almost SEPTEMBER and it won’t be long before my patch of green becomes my patch of blonde.

Let me warn you now that I’m the king of cheesy analogies. But it’s how God teaches me, so I make no apologies.

I’ve had a very discouraging couple of weeks. It’s hit from all sides. And one of the more discouraging things happened to day. It had nothing to do with my job, my finances, or the unity of my family. It was just ‘one of those things’ that probably wouldn’t have knocked so much of the wind out of me if I weren’t so prone to a bit of melancholy. But if today’s discouragement were a storm, it would have been one of those long, soaking rains that doesn’t stir up a lot of trouble… It’s just enough to make you want to stay in the house and hope there’s not a leak in the roof you didn’t know about. Just enough to get you a little depressed. (Maybe that’s why they call the leftovers of these storms “depressions.”)

Like our little state down here in the south, I’ve been a bit of a drought the last couple of years. Not the kind that leaves you parched…but the kind that just barely keeps the grass alive. You know…where you don’t HAVE to cut the grass every week unless you just want the exercise.

It’s been tough to follow-through consistently, but I feel like I’ve been hearing God say through all this time, “Stick with me. We’re still moving forward. The rain is coming.” I’ve complained about the heat plenty. And I’ve sure as heck let myself get dehydrated from time to time. But He’s been faithful to me. He always is. I’ve tried to keep praying without ceasing, even when I’m being smacked around. And I’ve tried to keep asking the tough questions and looking to Him for the answers. It’s been kind of like fertilizer during the drought. It’s tough to see what good it’s really done. But now that there’s been some rain the last couple of weeks, I’m thinking I may start to see a little something happen. I’m hoping to find out that the rain has made me grow and that He may be shaking things up a bit.

I don’t want to miss this lesson: To keep our Christianity alive and ready to grow at a moment’s notice, we need to keep ourselves spiritually disciplined. It is TOUGH. But the fruit it bears in season is juicy, ripe, and plentiful. God honors OUR faithfulness to HIM with HIS faithfulness to US. And His faithfulness obviously exceeds the breadth of ours exponentially.

Pray even when He doesn’t tell you He’s listening. Give even when you don’t know where it’s coming from. Encourage others even when you feel like all of your own hope is gone. Seek Truth even when you wonder if there really is any. And believe His word even when the text is blurred by your own tears.

He WILL redeem what has been broken for His sake. He always has, without fail.

…

And then there’s the issue that once the grass starts growing, you’ve got to keep it cut down to size. That’s an entirely different spiritual lesson for another day. I don’t want to think about that right now. ( :

What do you magnify?

August 18, 2008 in theology with Comments Off

When you have worries, fears, sin, or other weight that is heavy on you, what do you magnify? Do you magnify the trouble by letting thoughts of it consume you, or do you magnify Christ and the hope He has for you?

I AM the New American Idol!

June 6, 2008 in interesting, theology with Comments Off

So I had this dream last night that I won American Idol. But it was very anti-climactic because the next morning, no one cared. I didn’t make front page of the newspaper. None of the news channels called. I didn’t getting any late night talk show invitations.

What a rip! Isn’t that the whole point?

In my sleepy dejection, I recalled all the criticism that had been circulating the media as the finale approached. “He can sing, but he’s just not as cool as the Idols who have won in the past.” “Did you see what he was wearing? It was like he didn’t even buy anything new for the show. He was just in his everyday clothes.” It MIGHT have been the kind of feeling that a kid may get while walking down a middle or high school hallway…NOT that I would know.

And then I looked at this this morning…

12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. 14 Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

Colossians 3:12-17 [nasv]

Is that passage not straight up perfect for us in our Idolizing world? We’re not looking for the vote of the masses. Our faith in God is not a democratic event. The only ‘third party’ who has to certify the vote is Jesus Christ. And there’s only one vote that counts. Winner takes all. It’s His show, and he’s the only judge. He likes the song choice, because He wrote the song. He likes our ‘look’ because He’s the fashion designer. Jesus the all time star mentor. When it’s time to perform, the buzz in the room is fueled by the Spirit of God. And when the finale is over, we’re not dependent on trends, Clyve Davis, or digital sales to make our mark: Our mark is the Word of God, and it will top the charts for eternity.

So, the million dollar question: Why do YOU sing? Maybe you DON’T sing! If not, why do you write? Or draw? Or take pictures? Why do you teach in front of a crowd, or a small group? Why do you write contracts, paint, sell, program, assist? Why do you wake up every morning to the same routine hoping to just keep the kids fed, bathed, alive?

Who is your audience? My dream last night, as big a let down as it was, was a very good reminder that there is only One person in the crowd who is really listening to my song. If others join to sing along, it’s because they’re impressed by Him, not by me.

Leftovers [John 12:1-8]

April 30, 2008 in theology with Comments Off

So this has been rolling around in my head the last few days… Remember the story from John in chapter 12 where Jesus is chilling with his close friends the week before his final Passover? By the calendar, it would have happened a couple of weeks ago (Passover began last weekend). He’s with Martha, Mary, Lazarus (in my best Carman voice: “Come forth!”), and some other family members, I’m sure. And there’s at least one of his disciples there (Judas is the only one mentioned by name). Read the passage, and then I’ll share my thought.

{SIDENOTE: I dig reading from The Complete Jewish Bible. But just wanted to warn you that it throws in a little Hebraic here and there, so I just stuck the English translations in parentheses.}

John 12:1-8 . . .
1. Six days before Pesach (Passover), Yeshua (Jesus) came to Beit-Anyah (Bethany), where El`azar (Lazarus) lived, the man Yeshua had raised from the dead;
2. so they gave a dinner there in his honor. Marta (Martha) served the meal, and El`azar was among those at the table with him. Continue Reading…