by Greg

Transformation and Process

One of the most amazing things to me in all of God’s creation is the butterfly. From gross slimy larvae, to slightly cuter (but still sort of gross) worms, to goo inside a cocoon, to a beautifully colored, light and delicate airborne display of it’s Designer’s creativity. It is truly incredible.

But this post is not about butterflies.

Another incredible process in creation is the making of us. By combining the DNA of one man and one woman, a new person is formed. It grows from one cell (is it really just one cell??) to a cluster, and then more… and somehow in that ball of “goo” is YOU, and ME. Throughout the course of the 35-40 weeks, we gain more of the parts we will need for life in this world, all developing while we live in water!? And by the end, the birth process is designed just right for the separation of mom and baby, till a new, separate, wonderful life has been added to the world.

But this post is not about babies.

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

There is definitely a theme of restoration throughout the gospel. It’s what Jesus was all about. He came to “seek and save the lost”. He healed people. So many hurting people. And he loved them. He didn’t turn them away, or heal grudgingly… there are times when it says he healed everyone who came to him, of any malady that might be plaguing them. He could, and he would.

And he does. And I’ve seen it.

I have recently witnessed rebirth. Someone who has for so long been crushed by unwillingness (or inability?) to be loved (by others, and even self) finally having walls broken down, eyes renewed to see all the God is offering through this life lived in Him … years of work He’s done building trust in Him mixed with an intense, four-day weekend of revealing that life to the full that he wants for us all… culminating in a new beginning.

It was the cocoon. It was heart surgery (as well as mind/spirit/soul surgery). It was the final stages of a hard labor.

And we have a butterfly. A healthy patient. A new life.

I read a book recently that brought up the caterpillar-to-butterfly transition. Here’s what it said:

“I love how God has been changing me one small bit at a time. Sometimes I don’t even notice he’s doing that until I’m in a situation and I watch myself respond in ways I never would have before. I am enjoying immensely the [person] he is allowing to emerge.”

“Just like a butterfly taking wing from its cocoon. Isn’t it sad that we thought we could press people into spiritual change, instead of helping them grow to trust Father more and find him changing them? You can’t press a caterpillar into a butterfly mold and make it fly. It has to be transformed from the inside.”

And transform God does. Not just once, at one time, but over the course of our lifetime. That butterfly goes through many stages, and there are noticeable markers along the way, and we do too, but our transformation is a life-long process, a journey. In fact, that’s really what the Kingdom boils down to: a reality that God is inviting us to join him in. A fresh way of looking at him and the world he has made and inhabits, and also a different perspective on us and who he sees us as. We are his friends (Romans 5), his adopted children (Ephesians 1, Galatians 3-4, many more) and it “gave him great pleasure” to give his own life to set us free from sin and shame. Incredible.

When we realize that, we emerge from the cocoon. Still a bit clumsy at first, but a new creation. A completely new creation. Beautiful. Magnificent.

His amazing handiwork.

There are so many ups and downs that life brings (even many of our own doing) but he is there with us in them all, and he continues to mold and shape us from within to be the perfect masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10) that he has planned for us to be.

What a process! What an amazing Father!

I love being a butterfly!

by Greg

Unpredictable

Life is full of unpredictability. We can often live under the illusion that we know what’s coming, that we are in control, but really… life throws you a curveball more often than not.

And that includes the NFL. 😉

As you may know, if you’ve frequented this blog, the Campbell family enjoy a weekly seasonal tradition of tracking whom we think will win each of the NFL games every fall. It’s a fun thing to do together that we all enjoy, but the best part for me is watching the youngest choose the team they think will win. They are usually pretty sure they know, with a good measure of certainty!

And so am I… but this week, not so much!!

All year I’ve been doing pretty well. I had begun to think, “Hmm… I have this thing all figured out!” Going into this weekend, through nine weeks, 130 games, I had gotten ninety of them correct. 90-40. That was several (or many) games better than many so-called “experts”. Nice!

But then what happened? Who knew Seattle could actually beat Baltimore? And, who in the world could have predicted the John Skelton-led, 2-6 Arizona Cardinals could fly all the way across the country to Philadelphia and beat a much more talented Eagles team???

Not me.

So, I have fallen from my perch atop our family league’s standings (at least, I think I was previously atop it…) and I’ve also slipped into second place in another league of NFL pick making.

What is this world coming to??? 🙂

For now, I think it’s a good reminder that you never really know what’s coming. No, life is not one big NFL game. (Or even a collegiate level or otherwise lesser game.) However, it does seem to throw just as many curve balls as some crazy NFL weeks, like this one!

Speaking of unpredictable and the world of NFL football… how about those Buffalo Bills?!

Good thing we at least know there is Onewe can always count on in this crazy unpredictable world. 🙂

by Greg

Programming of Life

Wow! We just finished watching this video (which is available in its entirety at their website, where you can also order the DVD).

It was produced by some friends of ours, and man, they did a fantastic job. It’s the incredible story of the cell, DNA and all the “building blocks” of life. Just so incredible. We had seen this video from some other friends of ours who have a website full of Health and Wellness Facts. The kids think it is so cool looking, and we all think it’s AMAZING what happens inside each cell, let alone the whole bodies of living things! (And even more amazing are the bodies of we people!)

When you have the time, please watch this 45 minute video and enjoy!

(And if you can, let them know what you think of it, either at YouTube, their video website, or their business website. From what I know this is the first in a series of at least three more. Already looking forward to them!)

by Greg

Beautiful Skies

Darkened Fall Skies

I truly love the beauty of the fall season. This was the view out of my third-story window today. A very dark sky on the horizon, with fluffier white clouds above and blue sky (and sun) behind. And this was just minutes after a wet, heavy snow was showering down on us.

It’s more than just the colors of the leaves. And the sky. The angle of the sunlight this time of year does wonders with just about anything it falls upon. The colors, the shadows, and of course the contrast against magnificent skies!

And if that wasn’t enough, have you seen the skies on a clear autumn night? Beautiful full moon for most of the night. (It even accompanied me on an early morning walk just after sunrise today!) Close beside the bright large orb in the black sky you’ll find a smaller one, though seemingly just as bright. Jupiter is doing a little dance with its larger partner these last few days in November.

Somehow the sky has always fascinated me. I am drawn to it. I love to just stare up at it, marvel at its visible beauty, as well as the beauty of what we know of how it is made and how it works. Magnificent. Beautiful. Majestic. Breathtaking.

There is certainly beauty in every season, but if I ever had to be stuck in just one, I’d most definitely choose autumn!

Note: The photo does not begin to capture the beauty of the sky I saw, but the iPhone camera was all I had with me at that moment… 🙂

by Greg

Local Politics

If you’re like me, you got a sticker similar to this a couple days ago at your local polling booth. (Our son, Ian, was with me, and he actually got my sticker.) It is your badge of honor for participating in our great representative governmental system. This year may not have been the more exciting, national-level elections, but they’re still important.

Right?

When I scanned the ballot as I was casting my vote, I noticed that in many cases, the people running for the various local town, village, and county positions were unopposed. Some of them were listed as the representative for all of the parties! (How can you be backed by all of the parties?)

This made me wonder, why are we even doing this? I’ll admit to not being too plugged in to all the issues that face my village, town, etc, but I really didn’t know that these local representative positions were so unimportant as to have only one person raising their figurative hand to accept the spot! It actually made me want to run, just to compel people to look into the reasons you might want to cast your vote for whomever you end up choosing.

The trouble is, I don’t think that matters. We’ve become so politically polarized in our country that we just let the party that the candidate is listed under direct our vote. (That’s good for those chaps who were listed under all the parties!) It doesn’t matter what the person under that banner has done, or believes, or wants to do … as long as they have the right party flag, they get the vote!

The other piece is the glamorization of the national political elections. Any news you might hear about elections is often so heavily weighted toward the national elections, national issues, that the local races aren’t even noticed. They aren’t exciting enough to want to vote for (or apparently, to run for).

And in the end, I’m not even sure what our local government does. (Which is likely all my fault. I’m sure I could do a little investigating and fairly quickly find out at least more than I know now.)

So if I were to add my name to the ticket, what is it that I would be hoping to accomplish? Probably lowering taxes (we pay something like $23/1000 for our school taxes, plus town/county, and village property taxes) as well as trying to figure out why we need all that tax revenue in the first place!

Then, soon after that, I think I’d try to figure out a way to let other people in our community know (once I discover what it is) what exactly it is that our elected local representatives do for us. (If I discover that such positions are so unnecessary that there aren’t even people willing to volunteer to run for that office, then we can just probably do away with it altogether!)

So, this year’s elections are over. The unopposed candidates have been duly elected to their spots. But watch out in 2012 (maybe 2013, since 2012 is the big presidential election year…) you might have to make a choice which candidate you choose! And, since I am not affiliated with any particular party … I might just create a new one! 🙂

[post-tiles posts=’4′]

by Greg

Testing The System: Failure?

Curious as to the scope and effectiveness of the Nationwide Emergency Alert System test scheduled for 2pm EST today, I did a little research. A quick scan of various news sources seems to suggest it didn’t go off “without a hitch”.

ABC News out of DC reports that the first-ever nationwide test today “appeared to be a failure“, while CBS New York reported still more technical difficulties.

The ABC report described the test as being, “designed to allow the president to commandeer the airwaves and deliver an audio message to the U.S. people in a national emergency.”

This is either complete technical ignorance and buffoonery, or maybe something slightly more insidious? I’m guessing it’s the first. Hoping?

Haven’t these people heard of social media? Within seconds of the event, the entire world now knows news before any big cable news or radio station can broadcast it. Twitter, Facebook, Google+… you name it. Regular people report the news and literally within seconds to at most minutes, that news has spread with more success than apparently the EAS had today. (And they had their test planned for weeks… even months?)

Fascinating …

Maybe someone can give FEMA a crash-course in the latest technological advancements. Seems like they could benefit from a little refresher.

by Greg

So Cliché

It’s football season, and this year’s campaign is no different than any other. Each team is going to be taking it one game at a time, giving 110%, and leaving it all on the field, hoping to come away with a victory.

When the game begins, when the chips are down, if you’ve put in your time in the film room, studied your opponents tendencies so you know what they’re going to throw at you, and you’ve got your game face on, even though the outcome is always up in the air, chances are you’ll have the upper hand. Plus, if you’re playing in your own back yard, you’ll have the aid of the 12th man!

Once the game is underway, you’ll have to keep your head in the game. Stick to your gameplan. Your best defense is a good offense. Let your backs pound the rock, or your QB air it out, and get a jump on your opponent by getting on the board early. Then get ready for the ensuing kickoff.

On the other side of the ball, you’ll need to just pin your ears back, step up, and play a full sixty minutes. Make sure you cash in on your takeaways, and whenever possible flip the field on special teams. You have to win in all three phases of the game.

At the end of the day, when the final whistle blows, the better team always wins the game.

And that’s why we love this game.

Note: I didn’t “scratch the surface” of the breadth of terms employed by football players, coaches, and especially media personnel “week in and week out” in the world of NFL football. So, if you have some to add, “throw your hat in the ring” in the comments below. (What does that really mean, anyway?)

by Greg

Clocks

Sometimes in life, you just have to take the bad with the good.

I’ve always loved the “fall back” Sunday, where you get an hour of your life back. Who couldn’t use an extra hour!? Either another hour of sleep in the morning, or really, whatever suits your fancy!

The extra hour was always especially helpful when we were regularly working Sunday mornings, doing music for churches around the country. Sometimes that was quite early, and/or after a gig the night before… and sometimes that was in a different city or state! So an extra hour was a very welcome gift. We loved ending Daylight Savings Time!!

But it does seem that every good things has a bad side, too, no?

In the spring, when you lose an hour (the bad), it’s at least very easy to just bump all the clocks up one hour. All you need to do is click the “hour” button once (the good).

In the fall when you gain an hour (the good), depending on the clock, you may be able to do 60 minutes backwards, or, you may have to go 23 hours backwards. That’s 23x more button clicking! (The bad.)

The best part is, one of my wife’s favorite things is to have a clock in every room. (Some rooms have more than one.) So… 23x more clicking … times many clocks…

Well, let’s just say I’m super glad I have an extra hour. 😉

by Greg

Whispers

I am hearing whispers on the wind.
Signs that life may return to these pages.
Evidence on the horizon that this keyboard will once again freely bring forth thoughts long subdued.
Could it be?
Dare I hope?

I do.
I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill [me] completely with joy and peace because [I] trust in him. Then [I] will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. (Rom 15:13)

Yes.
Overflow.
I hear it coming.
A whisper… but I hear it.

There is a cautious but giddy excitement but almost apprehension in me right now.
But I have hope.
And faith.
And definitely love.

And those remain forever.
Loud and clear.

by Greg

It’s Just a Long Way Home

Steven Curtis Chapman - re:creationSteven Curtis Chapman has a new album out. It’s called Re:Creation (I think because many of the songs on the album are new versions of old songs, some are really good! Others will take getting used to…)

But for now I’m not talking about the whole album. Just a song (or two). I started listening yesterday to a few songs, and one song in particular kinda caught my ear. Could be the ukelele. That was different. But I think it was the words. Especially this part:

And my heart gets so heavy with the weight of the world sometimes

Then this morning, I woke up singing another song from the album, Morning Has Broken. An old hymn that his son did with him. (That part is neat, too.) But the words from the song, “Praise with elation, praise every morning, God’s recreation of the new day.”

New day. His mercies are new every morning.

No matter the weight (or greatness) of the season, that is true.

The song was an encouragement to me, so I am sharing it here. (I’m probably not supposed to, but hopefully he’ll be OK with me sharing the lyrics below …)

(And if you want to hear it, you can play it at Spotify or buy it at iTunes or Amazon.)

Enjoy.

Long Way Home

Steven Curtis Chapman

I set out on a great adventure
The day my Father started leading me home
He said there’s gonna be some mountains to climb
And some valleys we’re gonna go through
But I had no way of knowing
Just how hard this journey could be
‘Cause the valleys are deeper and the mountains are steeper
Than I ever would have dreamed

But I know we’re gonna make it
And I know we’re gonna get there soon
And I know sometimes it feels like we’re going the wrong way
But it’s just a long way home

I got some rocks in my shoes, fears I wish I could lose
That make the mountains so hard to climb
And my heart gets so heavy with the weight of the world sometimes
And there’s a bag of regrets, my “shouldda beens” and “not yets”
I keep on dragging around
And I can hardly wait for the day I get to lay it all down

Well I know that day is coming
I know it’s gonna be here soon
And I won’t turn back even if the whole world says I’m going the wrong way
‘Cause it’s just a long way home

When we can’t take another step
Our Father will pick us up and carry us in his arms
And even on the best days
He says to remember we’re not home yet
So don’t get too comfortable
‘Cause really all we are is just pilgrims passing through

Well I know we’re gonna make it
And I know we’re gonna get there soon
So I’ll keep from singing and believing what all my songs say

‘Cause our God has made a promise
And I know that everything He says is true
And I know wherever we go he will never leave us
Cause he’s gonna lead us home
Every single step of the long way home

(keep going, we’re gonna make it … I know we’re gonna make it … we’re just taking the long way home…)