I actually thought we’d see this headline long before now… but it is still sad. And, it’s even crazier that he was killed by a sting ray, which only happened to three other people in Australia.. ever?! I figured it would be a snake or a croc or something.
Sad for his family, too… he leaves his wife and two young kids behind.
I really love what God created when he made family. There are not many things that get me “choked up” in life, but family coolness is one of them – even in the movies.
OK, so I wasn’t really “choked up” tonight, but there were some real moments of coolness in the movie Cheaper By The Dozen 2. I don’t know what you think of that movie, or the idea of 12 kids in one family, but I don’t really think that matters. You may choose to stop earlier than a dozen for financial (or, sanity?) reasons… and we will likely do the same. But the coolness of belonging, acceptance, and sacrificial love that can happen in a family is so worth all the hardness.
Before I continue, please know that I am well aware that not every family is a great place to belong. I was talking with a friend tonight who has apparently had a not-so-good family life, and another friend came over for lunch and mentioned at some point how she really wants to make sure her child(ren?) have the family she didn’t. And another friend is even writing a book about how his family life was way harder than it should have been. I know. The world is not as it is supposed to be, meant to be. That is quite obvious. But actually, that’s one of the cool things of the CBTD movies.
The family is obviously not perfect, but beyond the squabbling, constant mischief and a few internal arguments, there is that place to belong. Gary & Anne Marie Ezzo in Growing Kids God’s Way call it “Family Identity”. It’s the things that you do together, the things that you are, things that are important to you… these things define who you are. The Campbells are loved by God and want to love others the same way. We want everyone in our family to know they are accepted and loved as they are. And, we want our kids to see that we try to love other people that way – the same way God has loved us. I think that is our identity.
There will be other things like, walks through town in the evening after dinner… Monday nights at the library… trips to Chill & Grill for ice cream… reading the Bible with Dad in the mornings… reading books with Mom… learning math and other book things from Mom… eating meals together (though at the moment with a 4-year, 2-year, and 5mo old that is not all that pleasant…)… holiday traditions like making cookies with Dad, decorating with Mom and visits from the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and the Three Kings. All of these things add to the richness of who we are as the Campbells.
But the greatest of these is love.
That was so obvious in the movie tonight (they did a good job) and it just seems so obvious to me in life. The most fun people to be around are the ones who have learned to listen to you, and accept you, and help you feel like you’re important to them. Ideally, the people who are that for you the most are your family. Often, we let our busyness get in the way of that. Certainly it is mostly unintentional… but it still happens. Dad’s too busy with work, Mom’s too busy with projects, and everyone else is to busy with whatever is currently distracting their attention from the important stuff in life – relationships.
In the end, that’s what it comes down to. The old, tired cliche is so badly wrong. “The one who dies with the most toys, wins.” We know that’s not true, but sometimes we still pursue it. It doesn’t even have to be for financial gain. My goodness… I have so much to keep me occupied that doesn’t pay me a cent. (Thankfully I don’t actually need more than 6 hours of sleep a night, so I do get to keep doing a lot of those things… and don’t have to sacrifice time with friends and family to do it…) 🙂
This is not a condemnation. I am not calling anyone out. I was just reminded again tonight of how amazingly I have been blessed with a wife who loves me – a lot – and great kids who are such unique and fantastic creations of their Father (the one who “Art In Heaven”…) who loves them more than I can even imagine. I love the friends God has placed around me, and I even love that I can be a friend to people I don’t even know.
Most of all, Father astounds me. I like to call him that. I’m glad Jesus did. I’m also glad I have a great Dad here named Tom who has been a great reflection of how our mutual Dad loves us. Generous, sacrificial love. My dad’s not perfect. But he’s done (is doing?) a great job. I hope I am, too. For my kids. I love them so much. (Can you tell?)
I really hope you get time today to love someone God has put close to you. You are not where you are by accident. We can take that too far sometimes and say that “everything happens for a reason”. I suppose I don’t know that it doesn’t, but I am pretty sure that God knows who is where. And who you’re with (family, friends, neighbors) are who you can love and be loved by.
It’s not your house, car, job, hobby, church, pets, volunteer work, dreams, or any other thing you can do that will matter in life. What will be remembered of you is how you loved and were loved. The other stuff is mostly irrelevant.
Hope you’re part of a great family today. Blood relation, or Blood relation.
Tonight at the grocery store, our seven-year old son Ian saw a poster with a smiling youngster about his own age in full martial arts uniform, inviting him to come take lessons (for a small fee, of course). He asked if he might be able to, and my immediate reaction was, “No, Ian… we’re not going to do that.” It’s not because I have some reason to not like martial arts. Chi knows martial arts, so it can’t be that bad… right?
As I pondered my immediate, and somewhat stronger-than-I-anticipated reaction to Ian’s question, the obvious reason for my rejection of his idea was our busyness. Karate would be just one more thing. It’s obviously not a bad thing, but it’s a thing. We only have so much room for things…
But, you see… in America… we have full access to as many things as we want. We can do anything and everything. Things dominate our lives. We go from one thing to the next to the next… sometimes juggling a few things at a time. There are so many options, and we don’t want to miss any of the things.
I know. I am a super-perp of this.
We are overrun by our busyness, and end up being stretched so thin that the things we are trying to do end up being more of a drain than an enrichement to our lives. That’s not to say we can’t get good stuff from all of the good things we’re trying to do. We certainly do. But the busyness can just minimize the good we can get.
I looked it up a bit tonight, but could not find anywhere that busyness is talked about as a “sin”. I’m certainly not trying to make a list of what to do and what not to do… just want to see if it’s one of the things God warns us about. But I couldn’t find anything topically like that. Hopfeully God will lead me to some scripture that deals with this idea. I am not ready to call the compulsion to keep doing more and more stuff a sin… but perhaps in a way it’s gluttony?
We mainly think of gluttony as being with food, but perhaps it could be with our time, and our activities. We fill every moment with some activity… some busyness. Is that gluttony a “sin”… or just making the most of our time?
I am certainly making no sweeping accusations or judgments. And, perhaps my thoughts tonight are really just for me. Perhaps God wants me and my family to not be busy. But at first glance it sure does seem that our culture is overwhelmingly busy. Going from one thing to another… never time to connect with each other, and just enjoy the people and the life God has given us. Again, it could just be me, take a look around and I think you’ll notice that we live at a blinding pace… just because we can. There’s so much to do.
I have no clever ending to this story. Just processing these thoughts tonight as they enter my head. Of course, I welcome your feedback and insights on the “threat” of busyness to our culture, and to us individually. Would love to hear your thoughts, too.
In my most recent post, I received a comment to which I was replying… when I realized that the comment was way too long to be a comment. And, I wanted to bring to light some more thoughts I had on that “What If?” article I linked to last time.
The comment I reads:
Mike said…
Greg… So, if i’m understanding what this interpretation is saying, ‘we’ are the Kingdom of Heaven? We are the pearl that the merchant sold everything to get? Are we the treasure that was found, re-hid, and then unearthed again? That’s the one that most intrigues me. The Kindgom of Heaven was found… then hidden again until the finder had sold everything to purchase the land, and then re-found once the land was his. fun!
Perhaps the Kingdom is not the object of the story, but the nature of it. Perhaps the Kingdom is as simple as the God who is love. The three stories have in common the one who is seeking, and then finds, and then gives everything to have what he has found. (At least, the first two stories include the last part there.)
Not sure about the chronology of the analogy… but it really seems to fit my picture of who God is, and the nature of his Kingdom. It’s so backwards. The one who should be served, is the one who serves. The one who should be loved, is the one who loves.
Jen was reading Zaccheus’ story again recently to the kids, and Jesus says at the end of that time that he came looking for the lost. Sounds like that guy who was “on the lookout for choice pearls”.
I love the way that story reads with that different perspective.
The kingdom of heaven is not something to be laid hold of… or taken by force. (Jesus talked about that somewhere..) It’s a reality where we are the objects of God’s love. We are the beloved, and he is the lover. Scripture reveals that over and over.
I do not think that his love detracts from his holiness, or his deity. Nor is it a removed, obligatory love… just “part of his nature”. Rather, I think those attributes magnify the audacity of his love. It’s outrageous, and not what should be. The King should not be the one who is in love with his servants. But the Kingdom is backwards from what it is “supposed” to be.
Everyday in the Kingdom (it would seem) is “Opposite Day”. 🙂
Know you are loved. It is the good news. It makes all the difference in the world. It makes it a different world.
The other day I was reading a blog that Jen & I have been talking about a bunch and wanted to let you in on the conversation. I commented on the blog, so you can just read what I wrote over there, as well the blog and other comments. Basically, it’s another way to look at the parables Jesus told of the “pearl of great price” and the treasure hidden in the field. It’s amazing.
When you get a moment, take a look at the blog, “What If?”
Happy Bloggiversary! Today is the third anniversary of the day I began this blog. Three years, three books, and now 764 posts later… I actually haven’t run out of words yet! 🙂 Somtimes I guess I think I will…
Here are some of the highlights from the three years as I see them:
Well, I could probably keep going, but that’s a pretty good list. Thanks for reading along with me, and for joining in the conversation. In fact, if you have anything to add to the list above, please do add your comments below.
Happy third bloggiversary! Looking forward to more!
Saw this today, and had to post. I know, I know… just adding fuel to the fire. But… really… it’s true! I brought this up a few months ago… and now other people are realizing the same thing. 🙂
Read the Yahoo! article here:
I believe we are in the throes of everyone’s childhood nightmare…
CHICKEN POX!
Ian has a crazy rash all over his face, and it’s spreading. It certainly has all the signs of C-Pox, so, I guess… here we go! Our neighbor has already asked if she can have Ian come play so he can infect her kids. Is that not the weirdest thing? “You have the chicken pox?!? Oh man! Can you come over and be around my kids so they get it too??” I’ve never quite understood that, but perhaps it’s cause I have never had them as an adult.
Hope I am still “immune”…
Well… we’re going to try the home remedies and I’m sure we’ll be getting a lot of advice over the next week or so. But for now, Ian just itches. A lot.
I went to the post office today, in a bit of a rush, just getting the week started and as I was walking up the sidewalk to the entrance, I noticed an older lady approaching the building as well, but she stopped before reaching the sidewalk … to smell a white rose that was in the middle of a bunch of other weeds. She actually stopped to smell the roses.
Made me smile. I love that not everyone is so distracted and completely swallowed up by their own busyness. Helped me sorta relax for the rest of my errands.
Perhaps it will help you relax today, too. 🙂
It’s 7:47am, and I am awake. On Sunday. While that is sort of odd, it’s perhaps more odd that we are awake this early to go to the county fair. 🙂
Jen’s dad is preaching at the worship service at the fair this morning, so they asked if we would like to join them singing. We did, so here we go.
Last night’s bedtime was later than it was supposed to be because as I went to post my article to the Buffalo Bills Review, I found out that I had lost more than half of it. That was not possible, since I saved every 5 minutes as I was writing it. But what happened was probably the strangest thing that has ever happened to me on a computer.
I originally saved the file to the wrong directory. So, using OS X Tiger’s Spotlight search window, I found where I put the article. It was in a strange templates directory. So, instead of going to that directory the normal way, I decided to try to drag the file FROM the search window to my desktop. That apparently made a copy of the file. So, then I took the same file (which was apparently in the same (wrong) place) and sent it to the trash. I saw the one on the desktop still, so we were good.
I didn’t think about it after that, and closed out the application after finishing the article. There was no “Do you want to save your file” warning or anything, so all was well. When I opened the application back up, the file was saved at the ORIGINAL save point!!!!!!! I could not figure it out, until I traced back what I did and realized that somehow I had REALLY confused my computer, and every time I saved the file… it was saving a phantom file or something?
Don’t know, but had to share. That was the strangest thing I have ever seen a computer do. 🙂
