Wheel of Fortune

One of the greatest joys of being a parent is watching my young son grow and learn new things. It's also refreshing to see a child so intrigued with life. My son is curious by nature, a trait that I'm sure he gets from me, and he is interested in so many things. In watching him, I learn things about life. Often everyday things just get taken for granted. I've forgotten how fascinating things like buttons, drawers, lights, and cell phones can be. But, as I watch my son, I am reminded of the thrill of life. There is so much to be thankful for and so much to be amazed by all at the same time.

Recently, our 14 month old son has taken great joy in watching Wheel of Fortune. Now I must confess, I am a Wheel Watcher. Often my wife and I will watch Wheel of Fortune after we finish dinner, but now Anderson has come to love it as well. Once the show starts he will clap his hands. Then, every time the wheel is spun he will clap his hands and smile as the wheel spins around. I suppose the only thing left for him is to get a Spin ID number.

As I watch my son, I hope that I can regain the fascination with life that he possess. There is so much to be thankful for and so many places where we can see God at work. I hope I can see the joy and the thrill in the mundane. But right now, it's time for Wheel. Gotta go.

Sabbath

For the past four weeks I have been training for my first half ironman. In case you don't know, a half ironman is a triathlon in which you swim 1.2 miles, ride 56 miles, and then run 13.1 miles. I've done some shorter triathlons, and I figured it was time to move up a little and challenge myself with something longer. Now, truth be told, I suppose you could say that my training started months ago. For months I have been swimming, biking, and running, but it wasn't until four weeks ago that my specific race training started.

According to my training plan last week was a rest week. Now that doesn't mean that I didn't train, but it dead mean that my distances were shorter and my efforts easier. I cannot tell you how refreshing that was. Really, my rest week was essential. After my first three weeks of training I was tired and I could feel it. I needed a break to re-energize myself and remind myself why I am doing what I'm doing. My body also needed this break so that I did not find myself injured and unable to race in two months. When it comes to training, rest is essential. In fact, there are many who would argue that rest is the most important part of training because without it you never give your body an opportunity to actually grow stronger.

Taking a rest week made me think about Sabbath. When I was a kid Sabbath was just another name for Sunday. It meant we went to church, we didn't go shopping, and we were forced to take a nap. Actually, that's what I thought Sabbath was for most of my life. But I've come to realize that Sabbath is about so much more than just that. I still go to church on Sundays (as a pastor that's kind of important), I don't often go shopping, and I now force my son to take a nap, but for me Sabbath has become, and is becoming so much more.

Sabbath reminds us that we don't cause the world to spin round. Sabbath reminds us that for all that we do, our worth does not come from what we accomplish, but from whom we are. In Scripture it says that people were not created for the Sabbath, but rather, that the Sabbath was created for people. You see, just as in swimming, biking, and running, we all need those times to re-energize, to remind ourselves what we are doing, and to allow ourselves to grow in light of where we've been.

Now, in talking about Sabbath I also must say that as a pastor my Sabbath does not come on Sunday. But I do work hard to keep my day off. It's easy to take a day off. It's a little harder to practice Sabbath. I'm working to allow my day off to be a time of rest. Really, I think rest is recreation. That doesn't mean I must sit around and do nothing, but through a change of pace and time with my family and God I can allow God to shape me into more of the person God wants me to be. Not a bad result for taking a break.

No Pain, No Gain

I remember growing up playing sports. It always seemed that inevitably, when someone would start to complain, the coach would always say, "No pain, no gain." Which, was supposed to mean that if you ever wanted to get better you had to put up with a little discomfort along the way. I'm not sure that I was particularly motivated by this saying, but it is true.

If you want to grow you must change, and change always hurts. I know that in so many areas of life. When it comes to running, biking, and swimming, I'm trying to get back into shape after a 2009 that was filled with a series of freak injuries (not to mention the fact that we had our first child). And it's tough. Running four miles right now seems way too hard, at least, way to hard competitively. But I know that if I want to get back into the kind of shape that I enjoy, and if I really want to do that half-ironman triathlon I've been looking at, then I must be willing to endure the pain needed to change.

I also realize that this is true when it comes to relationships as well. Both relationships with people, and our relationship with God. Soon my wife and I will celebrate our 5th anniversary. I really have to say that our marriage has been great, but like any couple, there is still (and will always be) room for growth. We've been talking lately, and we both really want to grow, but that's easier said than done. For us to grow each of us is going to have to change some things, and that will hurt.

The same is true when it comes to our faith. It seems like we are constantly told that God can do all things - and that's true. But for some reason we think that the fact that God can do all things means that God will do all things. We also have a tendency to think that God's primary concern is to do good in "my" life. I find it interesting that when Jesus taught us to pray he taught us to pray that "God's will be done" even if that goes against our desires. So, what can happen when we put these two strains of thought together is that we begin to think that if we just pray real hard God will magically accomplish change in our lives while we sleep. However, in reality, God calls us to "work out" our salvation. God does do the miraculous in our live - he frees us from our sins, but God also expects us to respond to His grace in active ways. I suppose when I think of all of this, my prayer is that of Jeremiah:

"I know, Lord, that a person's life is not his own. No one is able to plan his own course. So correct me, Lord, but please be gentle."

Favorite Things

So the other day I fed my son before I put him to bed. When I finished feeding him he abruptly let out one of his burps that would make any frat guy proud, and then he fell asleep. Now, I would never have known before my son was born how wonderful it is to have your child sleeping on your shoulder. What makes it even better is that my son does not like to cuddle. He's too busy trying to explore the world around him. I guess he's just naturally inquisitive like his father. But those few minutes that he slept on my shoulder were absolutely wonderful. I can't tell you how much I just love to be with my son, even when were not doing anything.

That got me thinking how much God loves to be with us. We don't even have to be doing anything, simply being in his presence. God's love for you and me is far greater than my love for my son will ever be. Yet how many times do I put off time with God because I have too many other important things to do. I hope I would make it a priority to spend some time with God and not make Him long for those times as I long for those times with my son.

Bar B Que

So yesterday I had some bar-b-que for lunch. Prior to moving to Kansas City for seminary, I thought that bar-b-que was something you did in the backyard with a grill. Quickly, however I learned how wrong I was. Since that time I have loved bar-b-que, although moving away from Kansas City has made it difficult to find truly good bar-b-que. The thing about bar-b-que is that it takes a while to cook. My last year in seminary I waited tables at KC Masterpiece. At Masterpiece, all of our meat was slow smoked for over 18 hours. You can't just whip up some bar-b-que real quick. It doesn't happen.

There are so many things in life that work like bar-b-que. In spite of being surrounded by movies on demand and easy mac, much of what is truly good in life takes time. I'm a runner and 2009 was not a good year for me. I was plagued with some freak injuries and didn't have that great of a running year. Last fall I was actually getting my mileage back up again when I pulled a muscle while getting dressed for a Thanksgiving morning race. Then, two weeks later I slipped on some ice and landed hard on my knee. Thankfully, both of those injuries are now behind me and I'm pain free once again and building my mileage slowly. The thing about running though, is that like good bar-b-que, it takes time. It takes time to get back into the kind of race shape that I want to be in and there's no way to rush it. If I try to push myself too much I'll just get injured again. There are also those days when I really don't want to run and the real battle is just getting out the door.

I think our spiritual lives are not all that different from good bar-b-que and running. If we truly want to live for God and grow in our relationship with Him, it takes time. Far too often though, we get caught up thinking that God can just sort of exist in the background. Then, when life get's rough we start reading our Bibles and praying everyday and think it's going to in some way please God into doing what we want.

That way of thinking is wrong for so many reasons. Following Christ does not mean that life is going to go our way. Yes, Jesus said that he wants to give us life more abundantly, but he also promised us, "In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world." So whether we're Christians or not, we will face our share of troubles. Now, that being said, God does want to work in our lives and even bless us so that others can see his goodness. But when it comes to growing in our relationship with Jesus Christ it's like running and bar-b-que -- it takes time. All of a sudden reading your Bible or praying everyday is like doing a power-floss before going to the dentist. One time doesn't really make much of a difference, but, on the other hand, if it's a practice that you make a regular part of your life it makes all the difference in the world.

So I hope when it comes to the truly good things in life - relationships with my family, my friends, and most importantly God - I hope that I'll be patient enough ti give it time, and committed enough to be consistent.

Sick Day

So yesterday I took a sick day from work. My original goal was to work from home, but that proved to be impossible. I hadn't realized how challenging it is to care for a sick 7 month old. He was fussy and clingy and didn't want to eat, and I had to take him to the doctor. The report from the doctor was good - just a cold - but the trip to the doctor was interesting. Why is it that babies have to wait to poop until you're in the car? That left me trying to change one of the messiest diapers I've ever changed on the fold-down changing table in the bathroom of the Dr.'s office. I'll spare you the details, but I will say, it was quite ... interesting.

Our son, who in my opinion is the greatest in the world, is quite the child. He loves people, he loves to be active, he loves his mommy & daddy, but he does not like to cuddle. You try to hold him close, but unless he's exhausted, he wants nothing to do with it. Most of the time he wants to play on his own or sit on the couch on his own. However, all the while he's busy doing things "on his own," he wants you're full and undivided attention. Then he gets sick. All of a sudden this same baby boy wants to be held and wants to be next to you all the time. Interesting.

But you know, as a pastor and someone who's been a follower of Jesus Christ for some time now, it occurs to me that we often act the same way toward God. We love God, a lot, but at the same time, we like to go through life on our own. We want to play, and rest, and work on our own; however, it's nice to know that God is nearby watching us in case we get in trouble. But then when things go wrong and we're not feeling so great, all of a sudden we want to be held and comforted by God.

Now I know that following God means that we can't just sit back passively waiting for God to "do something." Yes we wait on God, but our waiting must be active. So while we should be busy living our lives for Christ, it's also important that we don't forget that God is the one in whom we "live and move and have our being."

Oh, by the way, even when our son is sick, he's still awfully cute.

Celebrating Life

So yesterday I watched some of the youth from our church at Celebrate Life. Celebrate Life is a district event in which students come to use their talents for God. Events like these are often called talent competitions. I suppose in a sense they are competitions since there are awards that are given and those who advance and so on. For a while this really bothered me. I didn't think there was any place in the Church for competition, but as time has gone on my thinking on this issue has moderated dramatically.

I think some of what I've come to like about Celebrate Life is that all students receive positive feedback -- there is no such thing as "bad" at Celebrate Life. But even more than this, Celebrate Life teaches youth to use whatever gifts God has given them. Scripture teaches us that each one of us have gifts, "according to the grace given us." Not all of our gifts all the same, nor are our gifts given to the same degree, but whatever God has given to us is to be used for the glory of God.

It seems that as we get older we can become too concerned with comparing our gifts to those of others. In doing so we can forget that we have gifts, and we can fail to use those gifts for the glory and honor of God. Hopefully each of us can find our own way to Celebrate Life each day.

Cars

So I've never really been much of a car person. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, cars are a necessary evil. You put money into them to buy them, and from that point on it's a loosing proposition. There's money to maintain them and their value constantly goes down. Whenever I say this there's bound to be someone to say that not all cars go down in value. And then there's the inevitable story about the '57 Chevy that they bought for $2,000 in high school and would be worth 10 times that today had they not sold it or totaled it or whatever. But, every car that I ever have, or ever will buy is going to go down in value. So like I said, it's a necessary evil.

That being said, I went to the Detroit Auto Show yesterday with a group of guys from my church. This is the third year in a row that I've attended the Auto Show, and while I'm not a big fan of cars, I actually had a good time. I suppose it helps that I'm a naturally inquisitive person, so I can find a lot of interesting things with both production cars and concept cars. It also helps that I'm a people person - I like being with people and watching people - and the Auto Show gives me an opportunity to spend some time with guys from my church and observe all kinds of different people.

Still, for all of that there is a part of me that wonders, "Is it ok to like the Auto Show???" Not that I think it's wrong to attend the auto show, it's just that it's consumerism in all it's glory. And for all of the rational parts of my mind that say that cars are a necessary evil, there's something about new, shinny cars with that new car smell. It kind of makes you want to take out a great big loan and make monthly car payments so that I can have the newest thing that's going to go down in value as it gets me from place to place.

On second thought, I think my current cars are just fine thank you very much, but there's always next year...

Conversations

So this morning as I was getting ready for work, my son, who was sitting on our bed, starting talking to me. It was one of those conversations that I didn't really understand even just a year ago. My son is seven months old and speaks in his own language. Before he was born I'd always thought that people like me were just proud parents. It's not that I'm not a proud parent, I am. It's just that I had no idea what it was really like to have a child.

The last seven months I have learned so much about children, about myself, and about God. One of the things that amazes me the most about being a father is how much you can bond with another human being without even speaking words. Sure, my son tries to talk, but he can't really say any meaningful words yet. But at the same time, we can have a blast together, especially on mornings like today. He's always in a good mood in the morning.

The other thing that both amazes me and humbles me is how much my son learns from me. Even at such a young age he is constantly mimicking me and following my lead. I guess that's why we're reminded in the Shema to allow our love for God to so fill our lives that it's constantly repeated to our children and lived out in our lives.

My hope is that one day my son's words won't just be baby talk, but that one day his words will be an echo of mine and give glory to God.