Studying the eyes of my one-year-old daughter gave me a glimpse of the battle we face all of our lives. One tiny moment in the middle of nothing all that special was a window to truth far greater than a moment.

For the hundredth time that day I was defining her boundaries. You parents know the tireless testing of boundaries by those little hands. There never seems to be an end to the string of “No!”s coming from your lips. At varying volumes according to your current level of frustration with the whole process.

Well, this particular instance was not all that forceful, just another “No” to continue building her fence of restrictions. But this time, I noticed her face when I told her. There appeared to be in her eyes a glint of recognition. Not so much a recognition of the specific limit in question, but of the whole concept of the word “No”. No meant more than a simple boundary. In this case, it represented her standing with Dad. In that tiny little mind, I think I saw the first processings of performance-based approval. Her look made me think, “Oh no, I’m teaching her to understand her worth based on my approval of her actions!” Realizing, of course, that she could not possibly have been thinking that at such a young age, but her eyes just seemed to be conveying that simple cause and effect type of behavior.

To an extent, we want that. We give her boundaries, and she learns that life goes well when she adheres to them. That is better for her and for us. But the problem arises when we learn to perform as a child, and forget to stop the performance as an adult. The boundaries help keep us safe for a time while we are taught what really matters in life. The words “Please” and “Thank You” do not of themselves hold merit, it is the consideration of the worth of the recipient that mirror’s God’s heart. Not touching the special items on Grandma’s coffee table will prevent breakage (and perhaps costly replacement by Mom & Dad), but more importantly, it allows time to learn to honor other people by respecting their stuff.

At some point, we must make a transition from rule-keeping, boundary-obeying living to a more pro-active, humble submission to loving other people around us. Considering others better than yourself. Just like Jesus.

Man, he was amazing. He is amazing. Even when I spit in his face, he stands by my side. Even though it was my stupidity that presented him with the choice of giving up his own life. Even then, he loves me.

I don’t have to perform. I don’t have to get it right all the time. He still loves me. And it is the same for my kids. Ian is learning that, I hope. He is certainly into the transitional years. We don’t have to slap his hand anymore when he touches things he’s not supposed to. 🙂 I so badly want him to understand that just like God’s love is not conditional upon our obedience to Him, that my love will not be withheld for any of Ian’s wrong choices. What a fine line that seems to be.

And yet, after an evening with just Dad and the three kids, I think they get it. We have had some discipline issues today, but the prayers at the end of the night all flowed with big thank yous to God for a night with just Dad. They love me. 🙂 And best of all, they know I love them. I really, really do.

Please know tonight that you are loved. Not because of what you do. Not at all. Just because of who you are. God loves our victories and cheers our successes… but he doesn’t shun you when you mess up. Even a lot.

Oh that you might know how wide and long and high and deep is his love. It continues to rock my world.

I hope it forever will.

The books have arrived! You can now purchase using PayPal right from us, and we’ll ship them to you on the next buisness day!

Click the Add To Cart button to your right and you’re on your way!

We’re having fun! Jen even bought me pizza and wings from Nima’s today to celebrate!!! Whoopeee!! 🙂

I am feeling a bit like George McFly today at the end of the movie (Back To The Future), where his book just arrived and everyone’s all excited.

Yeah. I kinda feel like that.

Now, if my book would just arrive. 🙂

Well, it’s out there. I can’t believe it, but it’s out there. I should receive the first official copies in the next couple days. I will sell most of those from this website, look for a link soon. (Or, we’ll sell them if we are out gigging somewhere). I have compiled the list of links where you can find the book so far. Click on a link below to purchase your copy (or copies!) 🙂

iUniverse.com (the Publisher)
A Journey Shared (at Amazon)
Barnes&Noble.com (there is a wait here)
BooksAMillion.com

Again, link to buy direct from me is coming soon, and WalMart.com will be up there eventually too. 🙂

Oh hey. It will also be available in the next few weeks (I think?) at the Palmyra King’s Daughters Free Library, as well as the OWWL Access program of the Pioneer Library System. You can get my book at the library! Ha!

Whoohooo!! (Just had to get that out!)

So, hope you are able to purchase a copy, or two or three, and share them with folks. The book is all about sharing the journey of life. So, hope you can!

Every time I watch the Weather Channel, I am simply amazed at how many places we have been. When they show the map, I know all of those places. An image, or a memory, or something comes in to my head. Even today, Alex heard them talking about California on the news, and he said, “We’ve been there!”

Perhaps we travel a tad too much?

Heard an interesting story on the news today, so I followed up and found this article.

Press Release

I wrote about this back in November, after traveling the country and finding that there are many residents (perhaps citizens? of this country who do not speak English. I had no idea that there was an entire organization dedicated to making it legislation of some sort that English is the official language of the US. (I didn’t know it wasn’t) 🙂

Just interesting, thought I would pass it along. For those of you who missed my original post, click here.

Well, guess what!!! The page is up, the book is available for purchase!!! They are $14.95 at iUniverse, (I will be selling the 30 copies they send me for $9.95) but they are there! Whoopee!!! There’s even a brief preview of the book available there. Awesome!

Click here to order!

I was thinking about the words of Jesus to the woman he was introduced to in John chapter eight. They are an amazing picture of the unpredictability (at least in my mind) of the heart and mind of God.

Here came a mob of self-righteous religious folk, dragging with them a woman “caught in the act” of adultery. Now, we all know what that means, so this woman was obviously quite embarrassed by her actions, and perhaps even more so by her current state of dress. These men wanted to trap Jesus. They wanted to see how he handled a clear cut situation like this. The woman was a sinner! If Jesus did not condemn her, then he was obviously not to be trusted. If he DID condemn her, they figured he would lose some ground in the popular opinion polls.

So he stooped down, and began to write in the dirt. After continued pestering from the accusers, he stood up and said, “All right, stone her. But let those who have never sinned throw the first stones!” And he went right back to writing in the dirt.

You know the rest of the story. Obviously, everyone knew they were not without sin, so they all left one by one, from the oldest to the youngest. We don’t have a complete picture of what happened there that day, but what I really want to focus on is what happened after they were gone.

Jesus stands up again, alone with the broken woman. He says to her, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” She is probably tensing up for the final blow. She may have heard of Jesus… who hadn’t? He was a great teacher and did astounding things in God’s power. She knew she was wrong, and deserved condemnation from one so righteous as he. But she boldly, and likely quite meekly, states, “No, Lord.”

This is where the Holy One is supposed to rip into her! This is where he comes down with the weight of his wrath on this putrid little sinner! Fire and brimstone for all those who would DARE to cross the Holy One of Israel! The Lord hates sin and punishes sinners for every evil deed! Praise the Lord!

Right? Wrong.

John 8:11 – And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

Neither do I. The NIV adds the rest of the phrase, “Neither do I condemn you.” Oh how often we miss that. Jesus did not come into the world to condemn it, but to save it. (John 3:17) God’s wrath is not against US… it’s against our sin.

I have mentioned here before an author we have recently come across in our travels, named Wayne Jacobsen. He tells a story in his book, He Loves Me, that is a pretty cool picture of God’s wrath. He has made his book available in PDF format for free from his website (lifestream.org) Please do go and check it out. Lots of great stuff there. This story is well written by him, so allow me to recount that story right from his text.

(From He Loves Me, pp. 125-127)
“It was the most poignant picture of wrath I’ve witnessed. I had taken my family camping in the Sierra Nevada mountains to escape the heat of our home on the valley floor and to soak in some rest and relaxation. I was hunkered down in a lounge chair deeply engrossed in a novel. My wife, Sara, was coming to join me when suddenly we heard screams of pain from our two-year-old son, Andy.

He’d been playing in the dirt not far from our campsite. As I looked up he was stomping his feet and waving his hands wildly. Swirling around him were flying insects, backlit by the sun, Sara immediately recognized them as bees. Somehow he had stumbled into their nest in the ground and they were attacking him relentlessly.

Before I could extricate myself from the reclining chair, Sara had already rushed to the sounds of his screams. Even though she is allergic to bee stings and got stung for her efforts, she angrily swatted at the bees as she scooped up her son to run with him to safety. When I got to them she was stroking his head with comfort while still panting from the overload of adrenaline still coursing through her veins. Soon she reacted to the venom and we took her to the hospital for treatment.

If you want a picture of God’s wrath,I can think of none better. She was as angry as I’ve ever seen her, but the anger wasn’t directed at Andy nor did it seek retribution. She simply risked herself to rescue someone she loved so deeply.

THE WRATH OF GOD
That’s what God’s wrath is like. He sees the evil that mars his creation and destroys people he loves and he must be rid of it. His wrath consumes evil and wickedness and as such does not exist as the opposite of his love, but as an expression of that love. It must protect and set free the object of his affection.

I’m sure when my son first saw mom running at him eyes blazing with anger, he thought he was in trouble. Even though he didn’t know what he’d done wrong, he was already recoiling from her as she approached. Only after she had swept him to safety did he realize he was not in trouble.

I think our shame-consciousness toward God does the same thing. Whenever we see God acting to consume sin, we internalize the anger against ourselves. But that isn’t where the wrath is primarily directed. “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men …” (Rom 1:18).

It’s not people that God seeks to destroy but the sin that destroys his people. In that sense God’s wrath is far more curative than it is punitive. Its primary purpose is not to hurt us, but heal and redeem us.”

There’s more. But please go buy or download the book. The audio version is available as well.

Point is, we see God as a hugely righteous and imposing figure who squashes all evil with great pleasure the moment he find it. (As though he somehow didn’t know it was there before?) God is not waiting to condemn us. Jesus said, “Neither do I.” He is angry at the sin that destroys us, but not at his creation who is trapped by it. That is why he formulated a plan before he created the world to come and defeat sin and death FOR us. (Eph 1:3) And that gave him great pleasure. Not our destruction or condemnation, but our salvation.

Remember those words today, “Neither do I condemn you.”

Just to confirm the previous post:

Mac Forums – New Apple Stores?

“With the new store locations coming so quickly it is hard to keep up, but here is the updated list of impending locations confirmed by Apple’s own listings.

1. South Shore Plaza – Braintree, Massachusetts
2. Century City – Los Angeles, California
3. Lincoln Road – Miami Beach, Florida
4. St. John’s Town Center – Jacksonville, Florida
5. Pioneer Place – Portland, Oregon
6. The Gardens at Palm Beach – Palm Beach Gardens, Florida
7. La Cantera – San Antonio, Texas
8. Green Hills – Nashville, Tennessee
9. Woodland – Grand Rapids, Michigan
10. The Woodlands – Houston, Texas
11. Gateway Mall – Salt Lake City, Utah
12. Yorkdale – Toronto, Canada
13. Bluewater – Kent, England
14. Bullring – Birmingham, England
15. Crabtree Valley – Raleigh, North Carolina
16. Bridgeport Village – Tualatin, Oregon
17. Manhattan Village – Manhattan Beach, California
18. Penn Square – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
19. Pentagon City – Arlington, Virginia
20. Garden State Plaza – Paramus, New Jersey
21. Northbrook Court – Northbrook, Illinois
22. Florida Mall – Orlando, Florida
23. Beverly Center – Los Angeles, California
24. Shibuya – Tokyo, Japan
25. Flatiron Building – New York City, New York
26. Eastview Mall – Victor, New York
27. Annapolis Mall – Annapolis, Maryland”

I saw it coming. In fact, I tried to get in on it before it came. To no avail. The Apple juggernaut steams ahead, bringing their computing joy to the nation. Next stop, Eastview Mall in Victor!!! That’s only like 15-20 miles from my house!!!! WHOA!!!!! There is joy in the Campbell home! I am actually inquiring about part-time employment… I should get paid for this insane love of all things Apple, don’t you think? 🙂

If you go to Apple’s website, and look up Job Opportunities (link at the bottom of the home page) and search for job opps in NY… you’ll find listings for the store!!! Whoopeee!!!!!!

And, if you’re really interested… here’s a link to apply for the manager position!!!

Job Posting

Some of you know I am pursuing opening my own Apple store. This has put a definite twist in the path of that plan, but that does not dampen my joy as an Apple fan! I am thoroughly excited about the store coming to town… and perhaps I will hold to the old saying, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em!” 🙂 We shall see.

Employment or not, this is a good day. 🙂 Thanks, James for being the bearer of good news!