by Greg

The Soul Felt Its Worth

O holy night…
the stars are brightly shining.
It is the night
of our dear Savior’s birth.

(With me so far?)

Long lay the world…
in sin and error pining
till he appeared
and the soul felt its worth.

I was listening to a podcast1 recently (titled, Your Sense of Belonging) where the lyric from that familiar Christmas carol became the topic of poignant—and relevant—discussion.

Here’s my attempt at a transcript:

W—“Only when you find that soul finding its worth in who God is then you can belong to him, then, THEN you can experience what community really is. Because it’s not people trying to find their worth in each other, cause that’s—”

B—“Well I don’t need to get it from you.”

W—“Yeah!”

B—“And if I find it from Him, then I find myself free to enjoy relationship, as opposed to NEED relationship.”

Oh that we could understand—and live—this! How freed we would be to enjoy the greatness that God has packaged into every one of us. As it is, when we are so relationally bruised, battered, or afraid of being so, we hide behind our various defenses, and we find we use others for our own relational needs, rather than simply enjoy being together, sharing all this life we have in Jesus, to whom we are all so deeply connected.

The real issue is that our souls have not felt or found worth. At least, not their true worth.

We have an intrinsic value because we are created by the One who is Worthy. And beyond him just giving us breath (as though that statement could be qualified by the word “just”) … he shows again and again in the pages of Scripture as well as through all of history—and in my own life—that he deeply desires a friendship with us, and for us to know him and find our whole life and being in him.

That worth sets us free to live and to love.

We love because he first loved us.
Christ’s love (for us) compels us.
Love as you have been loved.
Love your neighbor as yourself.
Treat others as you would want them to treat you.
Take an interest in others.

These actions flow naturally from a heart that no longer needs to seek fulfillment. You might say such a heart has no needs. That is inaccurate, however. True, this heart in Jesus lacks nothing, but the need is still there—it’s just already met.

The soul that has not found its worth will work extra hard to prove its worth.

We are made to relate. It’s what matters most. It’s the thing that we always treasure when faced with losing everything. At our core, in the depths of you and me, we are made to relate.

For some that is so hard because they feel unlovable. For others it’s all too easy because they know how to “fill” their own relational needs by being with other people.

But to be already filled with Living Water means that we can enjoy the fullness of our friendship with God, and share the days he gives us with any others whom he puts in our lives. (And we in theirs.) Some we walk alongside will also be fully connected to the Vine, and so, be a joy to share life with. Others will be struggling, perhaps barely connected to the Vine, straining for a taste of the Life that flows from it, but weak and fragile and even defensive (or aggressive, trying to get from you what they really need from the Vine).

In the end we are all just weak branches who can do nothing on our own.
Apart from him we have no Life.
In him we live and move and have our being.

When our soul knows its worth, then we are free to live.
I pray today that you are fully alive.
He has overcome our brokenness, and he calls you friend.
Even better, he wants you to call him Dad.

1—The podcast is The God Journey with Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings. I’ve mentioned it here before, but as I listened to a few episodes this week I remembered that it really is quite an encouraging 30-40 minutes each week. They just talk about life with God as it relates to the events of normal days, and even current events, etc. I do highly recommend.

by Greg

Children Obey Your Parents

We had an interesting conversation with our teenager the other night.

Ian is thirteen. That means he’s officially a teenager. He’s been there—especially in his own mind—for quite a while now, even before the calendar said he was. That’s how he came into the world, actually. He’s usually ahead of the game.

And that’s his biggest problem. He’s pretty talented in a lot of ways, and he’s quite intelligent. That can very easily add up to a big trap. It can start to seem like you’ve got it all figured out.

I think at some point we all face that. And you might be saying, “Greg, of course he thinks he knows everything … he’s a teenager!” And, you are certainly right that what I’ve said so far could be said of most of us (maybe ALL of us?) in our teen years. It is the time when we are discovering ourselves. When we are invincible. When we are definitely smarter than our Mom & Dad.

But see, the thing is… this has been plaguing Ian since before he could speak.

There’s a war being waged in his spirit. I can’t know that, of course, or see it directly; but I see evidences of it. At once Ian is the most gentle, caring spirit, and also completely unbending and arrogant. He can be both.

From his earliest days, when we were training him the simple ‘yes’ and ‘no’ of what he could, and could not touch, where he could, and could not go, Ian has defied us. He has somehow had deep within his spirit a need for autonomy. More than a need, a conviction. He. Is. Right. It causes him such grief with his Mom, especially, but also with me. We’ve spent so many hours and hours talking about it, praying, learning from Jesus, and hopefully even showing by example.

But he persists in his right-ness.

The other night after a long day of head-butting with Mom, we had an emotional, confrontational “talk”. (It was mostly me doing the talking.) What came of that was a nugget of truth (at least, truth from Ian’s perspective) that helped me see the command from Scripture, “Children, obey/respect your parents…” slightly differently.

What I saw was that those words are not the end, but just the beginning.

God’s blessing comes after our will (as children) can quietly and trustingly submit to our parents. There are two things we learn from that. First, we are learning to submit ourselves to someone we trust whom we know loves us (like our heavenly Father), and second, we are learning the value of obeying Father, even when it doesn’t yet make sense to us—which we will have countless opportunities to practice through the rest of our adult lives.

Ian said, “So then I’m just supposed to lie?” He meant that he doesn’t agree with us, so, if he complies with a respectful-on-the-outside “Yes, Mom” and the subsequent carrying out of his orders, then that equals obeying? That is somehow a good thing?

In reply I said, “No, Ian. You are not supposed to lie. It’s not a lie. It’s a choice. You are saying, ‘God, even though I don’t agree… even though I think I’m right here… I’m going to trust you. I’m going to show my parents respect, and willingly do what they are saying is best, because I trust you, and your love for me.’ We hope that you can trust our love for you, too, and the wisdom we have gained by our quarter-century of additional experience. But the first choice you make, and the one that matters, is to choose to trust God.”

And I realized, that’s so true. I added, “Ian, I think the only thing God asks of you while you are a child, is to respect and obey your parents. As you get older, a LOT more will be expected of you, and you will be responsible for a lot more choices. But right now, it starts with this simple one. If you can choose to do that (respect your Mom and Dad, and do what they say, even when you think you know better) then you will start to see God’s blessing. When we trust him, he begins to unfold more truth in front of us. Not to mention, you’ll have peace—inner peace, peace with your Mom, with me, and your simple choice will begin to grow peace through our whole household.”

This is not “pick on Ian” time. Ian is (as I said earlier) incredibly talented in many things (sports, writing, reading, knowledge, understanding and caring about people, art, humor, and more). I love my son, Ian. He’s also—at times—incredibly hard to be around, because he does not see himself as an equal (or, in the case of his parents, a subordinate). His arrogance, unchecked, will eventually—once he is no longer under the protection of our supervision and guidance—be his ruin.

Pride, the worship of self, is the beast that is in all of us. Somehow, God put something in us that has a great desire to protect us, to defend us and all that represents us. It is the undoing of many. Perhaps it’s stronger in some than others (that’s what we seem to see in our firstborn son) but it is definitely something we all battle.

Ian and I had a subsequent discussion about heroes and villains. He’s writing a book with some seemingly ordinary folk who have super powers, who battle other seemingly ordinary folks who have super powers (or super technology). It’s a classic good versus evil, superhero story. He’s got some fun twists he’s working on, and he’s becoming a pretty good story teller, so it should be an entertaining read!

We thought about the one most common distinction between the “good guys” and the “bad guys” in any story, “super” or not. The answer was surprisingly consistent, and easy: bad guys are always in it for themselves, and good guys are always looking out for other people, even (especially) at their own peril. Those are heroes, the ones of us who sacrifice self for someone else, expecting nothing in return. (If reciprocity is expected, then the “selfless” act was really not selfless at all.)

Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

I’ve quoted those few sentences from Philippians 2 here before. A few times, I believe. Don’t forget the sentence that comes next (perhaps the more familiar words):

You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

There are so many commands in the Bible. Do this, don’t do this; go here, stay away from there; be this, don’t be this. It trips us up, big time. We get stuck on the “dos” and “don’ts”. The one thing that matters is to love God (and trust him) with all that you are, and equally important, love other people like you’ve been loved. There’s no “me” in that. The me is the “others” part for you. YOU are taken care of by me, and by everyone else who is “taking an interest in others, too”, and by our Father.

What more could you ask for?

So we’ll keep trying. We’ll keep loving. We’ll keep talking, praying, studying, and doing—leading by example. We’re going to fail. We do all the time. But hopefully part of our example is a humble acceptance of our own brokenness, our own quite obvious IMperfection.

Do what’s right… love mercy… walk humbly with [our] God.

And in the end? Well, we don’t get to know the end. We only get to live the now. We hope that as we do what God is asking us, that he’ll bless us by giving us the joy of seeing HIS Life lived brilliantly in and through our son (all our sons, and our daughters). They will each get to choose to trust him along the way. It might be “easier” for some of them than it seems to be for Ian in his short thirteen years so far. But I have a hunch that each of them will face their own obstacles, just as great, just as impassible …

But nothing is impassible with God. (Or, something like that.)

And it is HE whom we trust. From the very first, when we say, “Yes, Mom,” and “Yes, Dad”. And through the rest of life, with the first choice to trust—when much (or all?) seems to say otherwise—we take the first step and choose to trust him.

Then we begin to know the Life he has for us, the Life he is.

It all starts with a simple choice.

by Greg

Detective Dad

Sometimes as a Dad, you find yourself in the role of detective. The cases are often thrust upon you quite circumstantially. There may not necessarily be a victim, who comes to you asking for the mystery to be solved. Often, the clues lie before you and it’s up to you, Detective Dad, to solve the unexpected puzzle.

Today was such a day.

This time I found myself sorting through the various clues in reverse order. I had dismissed them previously, as just a normal part of the managed chaos of a home with a two- and a three-year-old. With such folk around it is not uncommon to find a toy here, a puzzle piece there, an article of clothing pretty much anywhere. Very easy to think nothing of such “clues”—missing the fact that they point to a great, unsolved mystery.

The final piece of the puzzle today was the sugar bowl spoon.

As I began to prepare some yerba mate this morning, I opened the sugar bowl to discover that the spoon was coated in sugar. This happens, of course, when the spoon has gotten wet and then is placed once again into the sugar bowl. Being quite fastidiously against this action, I knew instantly that my sugar had been “disturbed”.

A quick recall of (many) past events allowed me to quickly piece together the evidence and reach a(n easy) conclusion. Pieces of evidence like the cars discovered in the hallway… the sugar bowl on the floor, rather than in its proper place—which I had overlooked before, since on occasion in my haste I have left it there, not properly replaced to its comfortable home amongst my various beverage supplies. Everything was pointing convincingly to the obvious culprit.

You see, a while ago Cameron discovered that there was a quite readily available supply of the white stuff just a staircase away. And often, it was completely unguarded! What more could a two-year-old sweet tooth as for???

Now it seems he has gotten a little better at covering his tracks, though. Previously I would find the sugar bowl, lid off, sugary spoon on the carpet, surrounded by piles of white crystalline evidence everywhere. (Plus, stray crystals in and around the various mugs that surround its normal resting place.)

Once—and only once—I found the lidless bowl ON my comfy reading chair, much of the contents all over the cushion, the footsool, and the surrounding floor are.

As I said, that only happened once. 🙂

Another time, the sugar bowl evidence—coated with dampened sugar—hidden around the corner in a narrow storage alcove, well out of view of any who might stumble upon his enjoyment of the “forbidden” treasure.

He’s no dummy. And he sure loves his sugar!

So today, thankfully (I think?) there was only the mess of a wet spoon returned to my sugar bowl. Otherwise all is well. Not sure how much he ate, but the bowl is only half-full now … could he have eaten half?? Hopefully not, for his sake!

When I next speak to Cam, I’ll remind him again that this delight is off limits. Again. Not sure what effect it will have. I’ll just have to keep a vigilant eye towards all those small evidences of crimes against my beverage stand.

And for now… remember to lock the door. 😉

by Greg

[RCS] Amazon Prime

Welcome to another edition of RCS:

Really Cool Stuff!

Being readers, it makes sense that we are big fans of Amazon.com. (Remember when they just sold books?)

Over the years Amazon has kept improving their amazing collection of books (both sold from their warehouses, and links to seemingly thousands upon thousands of booksellers around the world) and along the way added so many other items. It’s really the first place we look for just about anything we plan to purchase: books, appliances, food, diapers, computer hardware and software, music, videos… really, nearly everything.

About a year ago, Jen discovered Amazon Mom, where she found so many great deals on the things we need for our youngest ones (like diapers, wipes, pull-ups, and more). She then discovered that you could save even more over the already better-than-most-places Amazon price by setting up a Subscription to these items. Since we already purchase these anyway, it was a no-brainer. We subscribed!

As a bonus last year (not sure if they still do it), Subscriptions to these Amazon Mom store products you’d receive one free month of Amazon Prime service. If you haven’t heard of it—and you’re an Amazon user—then you’re missing out! (Plus, you’re either an infrequent user of Amazon, or you really don’t pay attention to anything on their site…) 😉

Well, Jen figured out a way to get that monthly service extended to the maximum 12-month offer. So, we had free shipping on every order for a year! That definitely spoils you!

Once that year expired, we debated whether or not to spend the $79/year to reinstate our Prime membership. We decided to let it slide, and save the $79.

It didn’t take us long to decide we wanted to go back!

We love the free shipping option. It’s 2-day shipping, too, not just a super economy shipping option. Also, Prime members can get next-day shipping for $3.99/item. We purchased a fairly large, heavy item when we reinstated our Prime membership and it was shipped to us for free!

Neat! 🙂

Amazon almost sold me on purchasing an Amazon Prime membership and a Kindle when they announced this: the Kindle Owner’s Lending Library.

At first glance, I really thought this was the idea I’ve had for a while: a library system with the catalog of (someone like) Amazon.com. Nearly every book, available for purchase or to borrow.

We love our library system. It’s dozens of libraries offering their catalog of books as one joint collection that we can easily browse and borrow—and all from our “home” library! So great! But even with the number of libraries involved, there are frequently books (or videos, audiobooks, and other media) that they do not have. (There are SO many books!)

So what if they had more resources? What if the pool of books and lenders was larger.

What if the books were delivered electronically!??!

Kinda like Netflix meets Amazon, for books.

I really thought they had it, but the fine print convinced me to hold off on my Kindle purchase for a while longer. Unfortunately, for your $79/year you can only borrow one book per month. Bummer. The way I read, I’m usually reading about 10 books in any given month!

That slight disappointment aside, we can still wholeheartedly recommend Amazon Prime membership. We love it! Jen loves the speedy FREE shipping. I’ve been using the free streaming video service. They have quite a large selection of streaming video that is free for Prime members. (We even found Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood! You might find it odd to place an exclamation point at the end of that previous sentence, but we’ve been looking for that everywhere for a long time, and it’s harder to find than you’d think!!)

So if you’ve really not looked into it, we do highly recommend that you do.

Full disclosure: Because I am an Amazon Associate, links to Amazon (with my user ID in them) will generate a commission for me, if you make a purchase at Amazon after clicking the link. (That’s true of any link on this site to Amazon.) BUT, Amazon is in no (other) way compensating me for this glowing review of their awesome Prime membership program. 🙂

by Greg

[From The Archive] Feeling Loved, And Lovable

Highlighting Articles from the GregsHead.net Archives!This week’s trip into the Archive will be much shorter than last week’s (sorry about the link overload with that one!) Maybe because there’s been so much to read here lately that I want to give you a break…

But probably more because the content of this previously-posted article is beautiful in its simplicity.

I’m not talking about my words, or any idea I’ve had. It’s the core of the message Jesus spoke. We are loved.

Better yet, we are love-able. Worth loving.

And he does. With great pleasure.

Enjoy your visit to the Archive. May it encourage you again. And again.

You are worth it.

Feeling Loved, And Lovable
[link]

by Greg

Always Be Thankful

“And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.“

I have recently been reminded of the book One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp. I read the first half or so, and then it got buried under many other reads over the past months, nearing a year.

Jen loves her blog, and last year (maybe even more than a year?) purchased Ann’s book and connected deeply with the themes developed within its pages. She quoted much of the book to me in small snippets as she read it. Then she suggested I read it—or, maybe I even just wanted to on my own, both on her somewhat “unspoken” recommendation and because since Jen so identified with it, I knew I’d find some more of my wife’s heart in those pages.

And I did. And the book was saying what we needed to hear—probably what we all always need to hear.

Be thankful. Always.

The scripture quoted above is from Colossians 3:15. Definitely one of the books of the Bible that most resonates with me. I quote often from it. I have several songs that are based on truths Paul shared in his letter to the Colossian Christians. So much great truth found in those few pages.

These couple of verses have been meaningful recently as we have really needed peace. And he has given it. Deep peace. But it’s meaningful beyond the more difficult times of life, even in the ordinary. Especially for a large family with many youngsters like ours. “You are called to live in peace.” Yes, children… you are. And sometimes they do. Sometimes they don’t. But the source of peace—inner and outer—is obvious from the first sentence. It’s Jesus. When his peace rules in our hearts, then it overflows to the people in our family—whether by blood or by spiritual family connection.

But one of the shortest sentences from the whole letter might be most meaningful to our lives.

And always be thankful.

Sounds like an afterthought. “Oh yeah… don’t forget…” But it’s somehow the foundation of our joy, our happiness, our Life. So much junk in life: our own, our family members’, junk from other people around us, and just the junk that is beyond anyone’s control. But somehow—when we can transcend the hurt, often by a simple trust in the person most worthy of trust—we can even be grateful for the junk.

Jen read a story for us recently from another book she just finished (The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom) which was also about “always be[ing] thankful”. In summary, while detained by German soldiers in a flea-infested and otherwise nearly uninhabitable room, Corrie’s sister discovered the key to the Life God wanted for them was to be thankful—for everything. That meant even the fleas. Corrie reluctantly agreed to be thankful for all things, even the ones that seemed to have absolutely no value at all.

Much later, looking back on everything, they realized (or learned?) that the guards had left them almost entirely to themselves because of the fleas! They were able to pray, have and read from their Bible, and have many freedoms they might not have otherwise had… because of the fleas. And they lived life a bit more fully because they were thankful for something that seemed only awful, even without knowing how it could be used for good.

Now several days later, at bedtime, after a day with some hard things in it, I decided to ask the girls to share some things they liked about the day, and some things that were hard or sad from the day. They came up with both fairly easily, with only slightly more thought put into choosing the one thing they found most difficult from the day just lived. Once we all had shared our favorite and maybe least favorite moments from the day I said, “OK, now let’s tell God how we are thankful for those things.”

I started out with the good, and then repeated back the things that each of us had highlighted as our difficult or bad thing from the day. When I got to Julia’s she was surprised that I strung together “thank you” and her bad part of the day. I smiled at her and asked if she remembered the flea story that Mom told earlier. A light of recognition flashed in her eyes and she said, “Oh yeah! Like the fleas! They were bad, but then they kept the soldiers away so they could pray!”

Yes! Like the fleas!

And so we continued, thankful even for the harder parts of the day. And sleep came quickly, and peacefully.

They are not magic words, that somehow make us cheery and unnaturally full of joy despite current circumstances. But it is a somewhat magic truth. When we can implement them, like the Ten Booms, we can know peace. And even joy.

And thankfulness.

Ann Voskamp uses the refrain Eucharisteo in her book. The Greek “give thanks”. The words, the idea–but even more, the action—have power. A power to give us life, from the One who is Life.

It comes from our perspective. Thankfulness gets the focus off of us, and onto him. He is the source of our Life, and hope, and every good thing. (Even when we can’t yet see goodness.)

That’s not to say there isn’t still junk. Or that some junk is just plain bad.

But always be thankful. That’s the succinct afterthought from Paul’s email to new believers that can still bring us much more of the life Jesus wants for us to live. One where we see goodness in the craziest places. Even where it doesn’t seem good, or isn’t good. We have hope, and we trust his goodness.

And we can always be thankful.

by Greg

The Reading Chair Beckons

All day I have been thinking, I would like to sit down and write this article, or that one; things I have had knocking around in my brain and at least partly begun as drafts. But somehow almost immediately after I’ve had that thought another quickly replaces it: It’s really time to read!

I have found that sometimes it’s necessary to either read more or write more, rather than attempt to find a balance between the two. Sometimes one begets the other. (Especially perhaps writing flowing from reading.) Either way, I’ve found today that my spirit is definitely leaning toward importing rather than exporting.

So today’s post will be short—in fact, it’s nearly over—since my reading chair beckons.

Current reads are always showing in the far right sidebar, but what has particularly captured my interest lately are The Original Argument (a modern translation of the Federalist Papers by Hamilton, Madison, and Jay) and related, Woodrow Wilson and the Roots of Modern Liberalism by Ronald J. Pestritto, as well as a thriller by Brad Thor, The First Commandment. On top of that we’re reading together as a family an inspirational little book titled The Christmas Jars by Jason F. Wright, and the boys and I are working our way through Fellowship of the Ring by Tolkien as well as Bold Robin Hood and His Outlaw Band by Louis Rhead (for a book club with Ian).

As I’ve mentioned before, if you’d like to read along, please stop by the Library page to see what’s currently being read and what’s in the queue (and what’s recently finished). Feel free to add your thoughts and/or recommendations!

For now… my reading chair awaits.

by Greg

Imitation: The Highest Form of Flattery

Tonight at the dinner table, our youngest boy—who bears a good deal of physical resemblance to his Daddy—was particularly tuned in to my every move. He was watching (and mimicking) everything that I did. When I leaned forward onto my elbows to rest my head in my hands and wipe the tired of the recent past from my face, so did Cam. Whichever way I moved, just about any posture I assumed, Cam followed to near perfection.

It didn’t take me long to notice, and when I did, well, I was certainly heartened by his quite evident love for his me, his Dad.

They say imitation is the highest form of flattery, and I guess maybe “they” are right.

Paul also said that the people whom he introduced to Jesus should “imitate [him] as [he] imitate[s] Christ”. That thought came to my mind, and I hope that’s just as easy for them to see and to follow as my physical motions at the table.

The best part was when, once he knew that I knew he was imitating me—though for this moment, I had momentarily forgotten—I moved my dish aside, being done with my food. Moments later, Cameron moved his dish in front of me. Typically, when this happens it means he’s refusing to eat more (even though he probably still should). However, once I saw where he had placed it, it was exactly the same amount to his right as I had placed my dish! 🙂

Still makes my face and heart smile as I recall and type the story here. Such a sweet boy.

In truth, it happens quite often, the imitating. More than I’d like. Often I’m quite glad for it, and I hope that it continues. But other times it’s too revealing. It can be unpleasant to hear the way your tone returns to your ears through the mouth of your biggest 2-year-old fan. But, a mirror can also be your best friend. I am thankful for the mirror that my kids can be for me.

Firstborn son, Ian, is more like me than I admit at times. He is creative, talented, gregarious, frequently charming, and also stubborn, confident to the point of arrogance, and often unteachable. At times, I am like all of that, too—the good and the bad.

During a recent clash of our similar personalities, where I felt (maybe incorrectly) that I needed to press Ian on his apparently unteachable/rebellious position or attitude toward me at that moment, I asked, “Ian, what is going on? Why are you being like this right now? Why do you have no humility at all?” He quickly responded, “I really have a hard time being humble!”

Slightly taken aback by his astute observation and open admission, I paused, but only slightly.

Though there was only a slight moment in which Ian’s words were allowed to resonate, his sister, Kirsten—more than five years his younger—managed to slip in the kindest, and perhaps most profound words of encouragement recently spoken in our home.

“That was humble, Ian.”

The kindness and pure, caring heart revealed both by her choice of words and her delivery of them, as well as the depth of understanding of the concept of humility that was evidenced by her quick assessment is overwhelming to me. In the midst of what had been a very draining, tense, frustrating series of moments for me (and everyone else, I think) she spoke such words of life that I had to encourage her, “Kirstie, I think those were the wisest, kindest words I’ve heard spoken here today. Thank you.”

There is beauty in our brokenness. In the moments where we are weak we can be lifted up. Either by someone else who is somehow less weak for that moment, or by God himself whose grace makes us strong, even—especially?—when we are weak. Sometimes the truth of that is revealed in the words, from the heart, of a seven year old girl, or by the actions of a two year old boy.

I hope that I am mostly characterized by a love and grace—toward my kids (and wife) directly, as well as toward every person that I might interact with—that overflows from the Life I have in me in Jesus. I am not him, and I can not be perfect. I will choose poorly, I will fail. But even in my brokenness, I hope that my kids will get to follow my example as I follow Jesus. Even in the way that I handle the images I see in the mirror: be they glass, or flesh.

Imitation is the highest form of flattery. Perhaps children are the highest form of imitation.

This day, I am so thankful for the mirrors God has given me.

Bible references above are from 1 Corinthians 11, and 2 Corinthians 12.

by Greg

Just Sickening

Sickness has invaded the Campbell home once again. We really aren’t sick all that much here, but we have of course had our bouts with various illnesses (illni?) over the years. When they hit us, they tend to stick around and cycle through all the warm bodies here a time or two.

Thankfully this time we’re just dealing with stuffy and/or runny noses. (Only a tiny bit of stomach bug, and that only for poor Emma. Throwing up sick is the worst!) But, yesterday I got my “taste” of it, and lemme tell you, it’s nothing to sneeze at.

(HA! Puns…)

I woke up (or tried to) at around 7:45am and had a massive pressure headache. Yuck! In that no children were yet awake, I tried to get back to sleep. A while later, I was awakened by normal morning commotion, and still didn’t feel that great. After a very slow shower and then just sitting on our bed waiting for the fog to lift, I realized this wasn’t going away any time soon.

I guzzled some daytime cold medicine and hoped that would do it. Nope. After more sitting, head still just aching, I grabbed a pillow and fell asleep sitting up on the couch. Finally just moved back to bed and crashed there for a couple hours.

The rest of the day was sort of blurry. I remember thinking many times that I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing!

And all this from just a “little runny nose”! Ugh.

So, this post will be shortened in order for its writer to get some proper rest.

For your entertainment (seriously… it was a funny read just now, since we’re not in the middle of it) I’d recommend from March of 2009, You Can’t Make This Stuff Up, Folks.

Enjoy!

(And drink your OJ!)

by Greg

The Illusion of Control

For some reason, though everything tells us otherwise, we all seem to have this illusion that we are in control of our lives and our surroundings.

I may be speaking a good deal from my American perspective, but I do feel like it’s more of a human thing than a cultural thing. (We Americans just have more resources to fool us into the illusion that we have control.)

Think about it. We can basically do anything we want, any time we want. We can eat any food we’d like, no matter what the season. We can wear any clothes we like (for the most part) because we have our climate perfectly controlled. We can operate on any schedule, since we have lights to replace the sun.

Our current technology takes it a step further. We can access practically any information we want from any place at any time. That’s astounding. To those of you too young to remember a time when with “the internets” that might sound less amazing, but it is truly remarkable. Then add all the other ubiquitous means of communication (cell phones, email, you name it) and we can even be somewhat omnipresent: doing our job or living our lives through a virtual presence.

We can get anywhere we need to in a very short amount of time. Medicine can prolong our lives far beyond what was possible in centuries past. We can have as many or as few children as we want for our family to have. (And there is even the potential to change the life growing inside the womb before it is born through our knowledge of genetics, no?)

All of this stuff (and so much more) makes us think that we are in control… until something happens.

It can be minor, like a kink in your schedule for the day. Maybe an accident sidetracks your plans for the day and the immediate future. Maybe an appointment goes long. Maybe illness causes a long-planned event to be rescheduled or missed entirely. Maybe something as simple as the weather changes your plans (or worse).

Or, it can be a much more rude awakening.

Not one of us is immune to death. We are all mortal. That is the one truth that I’d say even trumps “taxes”. We don’t know when it is coming, but we do know it’s coming. For us, and the ones we love. Our parents, our spouse, our kids. Everyone.

But we go through life assuming that we have tomorrow. It’s because we think we have some amount of control over what happens around us. (And I’d say we do have some, but much less than we think.) It’s just an illusion. A mind game that we have played on ourselves, really.

Do not take for granted the time that you have with the people you love. There is nothing more important than them. We have a friend who lost her Dad not too long ago, and I know she wishes she could have more time with him, even the smallest amount. And I think that’s probably a universally true sentiment.

“You don’t know what you have till it’s gone.”

But it’s not just about the ultimate, guaranteed loss that we will all experience. Most of us multiple times over. There are other ways we live the illusion.

We are sometimes fooled into thinking our money guarantees us some amount of control. We have all sorts of (wise) plans to save and invest and manage our money… but the reality is that could all be gone in an instant. Whether a technological catastrophe that could deny us access to whatever funds we have, or a rapid and complete crash of the value of whatever currency you use, or (more likely) something less global, but equally personally devastating. You just never know. Whatever our current amount of wealth, it is definitely not a constant or a given.

Beyond these things, we even have this notion that we are in control of other people.

Perhaps we parents exhibit this the most. We tell our kids what to do, give them specific instructions, and witness the power of our words and influence in their obedient actions much of the time. Our kids are, for the most part, the compliant sort. We know we can trust them. But they’re normal kids. They’re people. All of us have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.

Indeed.

We can’t even control ourselves.

We—you and me—are not in control. Bad things will happen. Accidents will happen. Mistakes will happen. Evil and malice will happen.

The other constant—the other thing we can be sure of—is that God is good. He is love. And he loves us. That is so foundational to a life fully lived. If we know that he is good, and we live knowing that despite all of our flaws, quirks, idiosyncrasies, he is fully committed to us—loves us, is for us—then as the verse says, “nothing can be against us”.

That’s how we are able to break free from the illusion.

When we can admit that we do not have control—that all this stuff we think we can count on (including fellow Image Bearers) is at some point guaranteed to fail us—then we are free to really live. Our freedom comes from the trust we have in the One who is in control. Because we know he’s on our side, he’s for us.

It still hurts. Life can really beat you up sometimes. Often, even. But we know that we’ll make it to the other side. (Eventually to the other side, if not before.) And we know that God’s not just waiting for us on the other side, we know that he’s with us every painful, broken, seemingly-chaotic step of the way.

While everything else may be an illusion, our Father is most certainly not.