• Sickness
  It would appear we are finally past the sickness. The last time we had anything come back up was when I last posted here to the ol’ blog. That was late Thursday night, so… we’re looking good, I’d say.
• Clean Basement
  This past weekend we spent all of Saturday and much of Sunday cleaning out all the GARBAGE in our basement. Just extra stuff we’d collected for about 2 years. We took much of it to thrift stores, some we will ebay, and a bunch more was just taken this morning by our wonderful trash collectors.

  The other thing we got rid of may not have been so good. The other night I was sitting in the basement playing a quick game of Sega NHL Hockey 98, and I noticed an abundance of flitting and flying things that were not there before. As my anger grew toward the pesky creatures, I realized that they were there in such quantity because I had eliminated ALL of the spider webs in the basement. 🙂 Ha! Come on back, spiders!!!

• Robbers
  There have been no more theives in the night. We do lock our van now though, and Jen brings her purse in these days. I’ll let you know if we ever come across that $3.85 in change we lost…

I discovered an uninvited guest in our newly cleaned basement this morning. I heard some stuff fall down… thought that odd. Then I heard it again, so I knew something was down there with me. Well, I saw him finally… thought it was a squirrel, and that made me mad! I don’t like squirrels.

But then he peeked out and I saw it was a CHIPMUNK. They’re at least cuter.

I tried to get him to come out so I could get him outside, and as he was coming out he fell in a 1-foot deep plastic tub. Awesome! This was going to be easy! However, as I approached the tub to put the lid on, HE JUMPED OUT! Whoa! Quite a vertical on that little guy…

So, he scurried, I chased… for about 10 min. Then I was done. I told him he should come out now, and get in my plastic tub. Otherwise, he might not like the alternatives I select. No answer.

And so, there remains a chipmunk in my basement.

Perhaps we’ll enlist the services of a neighbor’s cat….

I’m not sure why I am up so early this morning. I woke up at about 7:30, and was just … awake. As I was lying in bed, trying to go back to sleep, I was thinking about how I used to spend my Sunday mornings. I would most often be up far earlier than 7:30! More like six! There was major work to be done to put on a masterful performance that would not only not distract anyone from “worship” (by making mistakes, or not knowing what was next), but knowing what we were doing so well that it was effortless, and God could just connect with people right through every piece of what we had planned. My heart was solidly right, I think, but I just think that the very thing we wanted to bring people closer to Jesus might actually be what’s keeping them from him.

As my mind continued to think about where I have come from, and where I am now, I began to focus on the progression of my relationship with Father. I’d say my relationship began when I actually realized his existence. Yes, Mom & Dad, I knew about him from you guys, and Sunday school, and most of my life hearing about him at meal times, bed time and church times – but to me, it seems like my relationship with him began near the end of my high school years when I realized that all the stuff I had heard about him was real.

The next step in the progression was the reality of him in spiritual things. As my eyes were opened to the reality of his existence, I began to want to know him more. The best way I knew to do that was to do as many spiritual things as I could. I began reading the Bible, having quiet times with him, reading devotionals, praying (even had lists of things to pray for that I would chart the results of), then obviously, going to “church” and other related activities. The more I could do at that building, or with those organizations (including the Campus Crusade groups I hooked up with), the more I felt like I knew him.

And it was true. As I did all of those things, I began to know a deeper reality of him. I learned that he transcended those things, those times, and was a reality in my whole life. I would sing songs at “worship” that spoke of giving him my whole heart, my whole life. Every part of me. And as time progressed, and as I knew him more, that became my true heart’s desire. I wanted to know him more, and give him every part of me. Some of my “parts” were a little embarassing to give to him, but he reassured me that all of me was OK, that his grace covers all of me. So, slowly the reality of Jesus in my life seeped out past the spiritual things and began to permeate other areas of my life – the everyday things (work, school, etc.)

This is easy at Bible college. By now, I had decided I only wanted to use all of my life to help people know the reality of life with God that I was now beginning to understand. I did not know what that meant. I was fairly sure (no, I was certain) that it did not mean signing up to be a preacher at a church. I wanted no part of that. But from what I knew at the time, it had to involve going to seminary, and learning more about him. So, I enrolled at Cincinnati Bible College in the fall of 1994. Some friends of mine were there, including one of my best friends (who is now my wife), so it was a logical choice. This place is full of people who long to know and live for God. Not everyone, but mostly everyone. So in many ways, his reality permeates all of life. There is no part of life where he is not. That was cool, but perhaps made heading to the “real world” a bit more shocking.

Perhaps that was the next step of the progression. As he began to become more of an everyday reality for me, I figured it was that way for every other believer as well. To my surprise, it seemed that not everyone had learned that. The first church that I got to work with full-time seemed to be more concerned with programs and numbers and “results” than with the reality of God in every part of life. More concerned with “church” than with the people and their relationship with God. Now, don’t get me wrong, that was the aim of all the programs, and all our efforts, but it was almost like the story Jesus told of the different kinds of seeds… it was like we were the seeds among thorns. The cares of this life were taking our focus off of what seemed more important, at least to me.

So for several years, I struggled through the system – as it was the only way I knew to live out life with my Father and his people. It’s where everyone was, it’s what everyone did. There wasn’t even any other option. Still, the reality of him in every part of my life clashed with the world we had created for him to live in. We continued to relegate him to the spiritual times and places (though we spoke of him wanting all of our lives it was more of a Master/Slave thing, rather than a Father/Child all the time relationship).

As we were traveling the country, we experienced many versions of the “church”. Stiff, high-church varieties (not for me…), super-energetic “worship” (those were fun), and lots of stuff in between. One of the most intriguing was a group of churches that did not meet on Sunday morning, but rather they met in homes, throughout the week. Various groups met on various days in various locations on various days of the week. That seemed odd, but really cool. We went to several of their gatherings over the week we were there, and it was so refreshing to see people sharing real life, with God. There was food, conversation, Bible study, and praying for each other and people who were close to them. We talked about issues with work, family, personal life, etc. It was very cool. I do believe that this was a big step in opening my eyes to something beyond the Sunday morning, put-on-a-show structure of life together.

After this, and reading some books, listening to people talk about life “outside the box” of organized religion, I began to progress to my current place in my relationship with God. It began with the reality of his existence, moved to the reality of him in spiritual things, to the reality of him in everyday life (mostly), to now, the reality of him in real life. After we began to realize that God was not relegated to one form of knowing him (aka “the church”), and even more that his Church was not relegated to one form of existence, we began to actually live life with him. I did not have to only meet him during special quiet times or other spiritual moments, but could carry on an ongoing conversation with him through every part of my day. He was not just in the things that I did for him, or for “the church”, but rather, he was with me always, in everything.

This is very different for me. I did not understand some ten years ago what it meant to only live with him, and help other people know that, too. I think I am experiencing it though. It is interesting how he has allowed me to tell people about life in him while I am still learning about it. 🙂 I feel like this is only the proverbial “tip of the iceberg”. I am just now beginning to understand the reality of him. There is no life without him. Religion is something you can whip out (or put away) any time you like. The reality of him in my life is not. He is always there, in everything. And again, he’s not scared of one bit of it. Hebrews chapter four tells me so. 🙂

So now, life consists of… life. There are not really any special times that I meet with Jesus, because I am always meeting with Jesus. (For real… those aren’t just words. There is an ongoing, daily dialogue between us.) There aren’t any special times that I meet with believers, I am always meeting with believers. Believe it or not, they exist outside of those meetings on Sunday mornings. 😉 In everything I do, he is there. Pretty amazing. Very freeing, actually.

I wonder right now what the next step in the progression will be? Perhaps there are no more “steps”, but just the deepening of our friendship. I get to live the rest of my life with him, and beyond. He is in me, not just with me. I can’t imagine another step, but I suppose I couldn’t really imagine any beyond even just originally knowing about him. What a journey it has been so far.

And it just keeps getting better.

While visiting with the Raines family in Virginia (singing at their VBS) we found out that their daughter, Erin, loves to keep track of the funny things Alex says. He is certainly unique, and so his little brain does churn out some fantastic one-liners…

Well, we kept track of a few of those over this past week and wanted to share. 🙂

Here’s Alex.

“Dad, go between ’em!”
(When we were behind two enormous semi trucks driving right next to each other so we couldn’t pass.)

“DAYTIME??????????!!!!!!!!!! It’s a loooooooooooooong day!”
(After all the stuff we had done on July 4th, Alex was pretty sure it should have been night time. We came to a clearing in the trees as we were driving, and we heard those words of astoninshment coming from the back seat…)

“Dad! That’s my craft-giver!”
(At the Raines’ house looking at pictures on their fridge. One of the ladies in the picture was working Alex’s craft room for VBS that week… so she was “the Craft Giver”.)

“Let me out!!!!!!!!!”
(After struggling for several seconds trying to push open the bathroom door at the Raines’ house, but you need to pull it open.)

“Sick and sick can go next to each other… yeah. Sick and sick.”
(Last night, after Alex had thrown up, and Ian was carrying around a bucket, ready to throw up… I was saying to Jen, Ian can’t get sick again, cause he was already better… she said he could get another bug, and Alex interjected the above words of wisdom.)

One conversation went like this:

Dad: What’s everyone having for dinner tonight?
ALL: Skyline!!!!!!!
Dad: No. No Skyline.
ALL: Pizza!!!!!!!!!!!
Dad: No. No pizza.
Alex: I know… Chicken and peanut butter and jelly.
Dad: All on one sandwich?
Alex: Yeah, just like that.

🙂

This past holiday weekend, while playing with my daughter Kirsten, I had an idea for a cute little story. Kirsten and I found a play room at my sister’s “church” with a little play house. She went right in and we pretended that I came by for a visit. Well, she being 2 years old, fit just fine. Dad however was a little more cramped. So, we played and pretended all the funny things about a really big person in a really tiny house, and I thought… that would make a fun story.

The next morning, I woke up with a more complete version in my head, along with images of what it should look like. And thus was born the story of Eunice and The Very Large Aardvark. Speaking of publishing books, I do have 5 or 6 children’s books I’d like to publish someday. We’ll see how that goes. 🙂 I’m still trying to get my Mom (who is a very fine artist) to illustrate them for me. 🙂

One of the best parts so far was reading that story for Kirsten the night I wrote it. It was her first time hearing it. I put this picture of Eunice on the first page that I printed out. And as I was reading about her, she just smiled and laughed… finally pointed to her and said, “Faaat!!” And then just laughed! 🙂 That was funny. 🙂

So, blog readers… meet Eunice. (Named after Jen’s grandma… who was definitely not fat.) 🙂

Just a quick update on the soon-to-be-available books from GregsHead…

I was supposed to have received the copies of Rearview Mirror in Ohio, but they were shipped to my sister’s neighbor’s house… they didn’t know who I was, so they sent the package back to Nebraska where it was shipped from. It shipped again yesterday (due to the holiday weekend, it took a bit longer) and will arrive at my house on July 11. Yeah!

I just received an email from the printer for the Here’s The Church book, and they said they should be shipping out by July 14. So I’d say I will get them no later than July 19. Yeah!!

This means that I will be setting up the GregsHead bookstore very soon… 🙂 I’ll have copies of all of my books available through there.

We’ll be back with more, after this…

By a super-bizarre set of circumstances, we stumbled across my first school on Tuesday. I went to kindergarten here in 1980 I believe… That’s a long time ago. I only lasted here 3 weeks before my parents put me in a Christian school. (More advanced educationally… public school wasn’t cuttin’ it.)

This is me and my son (roughly the same age as I was way back then) at the site of my first experience with “the system”. 🙂

It was definitely a moment. 🙂

This is for real. A massive structure visible for miles on the interstate (I-75 north of Cincinnati, OH). A really big, really scary Jesus.

Yikes.

UPDATE: Touchdown Jesus… Butter Jesus… whatever you might call him, perished on June 15th, 2010, from a lightning strike that engulfed the statue in flames, leaving only the charred, steel frame behind.

It all started early last Saturday morning. We had driven across the state of Virginia, visited with friends, and enjoyed a night in a decent hotel room on the previous Friday. We awoke early in the morning so that we could get a jump on the day and enjoy more time with family in Ohio. As we were just about to head out for breakfast… Kirstie tossed her cookies. Totally out of the blue. No idea it was coming. She was not acting sick in any way before just blowing chunks.

Gross.

So, we initiated clean up mode, and called ahead to our awaiting family to let them know we’d be a bit behind.

Kirstie was definitely sick. She was slower, complaining, and just looked sick in general. She continued to throw up a couple more times till there was nothing left in her little tummy.

We finally got on the road, but not till after I had managed to slice a fairly large chunk of my thumb off with a razor cleverly concealed in one of our travel bags. With a couple bandaids and some paper towels I managed to get the blood flow stopped. Quite a start to the morning.

Kirstie ended up being OK enough to go to our family reunion later that day, but she did have a few more rounds of the up-chuck. Actually, she was pretty sick for the next couple days. Just… off. Perhaps she still is a bit, though her appetite may be starting to return.

Well, on July 4th we had a super celebration with my cousin Jimmie and his wife, as well as our Grandma Alta. We went out to lunch, then back to their place to hang out. Then we went (just the six of us) to Young’s Dairy (a favorite hang out of mine since I was a wee laddie). We had a fantastic day. As I was showing off the photos from the day just before bed time… Ian spewed his lunch and dinner and whatnot ALL OVER the room. I mean all over. It was super, super gross.

Very gross.

Well, Grammy & Grandpa (and Mom) did a great job cleaning up. I helped get the other kiddos in bed, then with Ian. Whoa. It smelled bad, was really gross, and I was SURE we were in for a long night. (Especially with how long Kirstie’s tummy trouble lasted.)

We weren’t. Ian seemed better even before bed, then slept the entire night till after 10am! The sickness was a very brief one time thing, apparently.

Until tonight.

On our way out for McDonald’s on the way to Frontier Field for a Redwings Game – Alex hurled. Fine, nothing wrong, then BOOM… large mess all over the van. Thankfully, Ian was quick with the bucket, and much went in there.

Well, that was the end of our fun night out, and the third kid since Saturday to spew. What’s worse… Ian starts acting sick again! AHHH!!! Both boys were wandering the house with little buckets. We got the boys in bed, with no more incidents.

Then about 11:30…

BARF!!!!!!!!!

Ian loaded up his bed with the good stuff. More clean up. More bad smells. More nasty.

So far, at 1:06… we’re still OK. I’m going to bed now, and fully expect to be awoken to the sound of coughing and massive amounts of liquid flying against the wall.

I hope I’m not grossing anyone out…

Well, we’ll keep you updated on the pukefest….

STAY TUNED

We just got to spend a few days with my sister at her house in Cincinnati. That is so rare. We usually see each other in large family gatherings, and then for only an afternoon or something. So this weekend was greatly anticipated, and in many ways, did not disappoint. We had a great time with them.

However, there was one thing I noticed that disturbed me. It had nothing really to do with my sister, except that we are complete opposites, and so perhaps that was the instigation of my unpleasant thoughts and/or words.

I noticed that I am prone to complaining, at least about heat. My body was not made for heat, or sun. I said to my brother-in-law today, “I think I’m part albino…” But, whatever my physical condition, I could not stop commenting on my discomfort. Worse than that, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. That’s all that I was thinking about, so that’s what I was commenting on.

Was that complaining? Do I need to hold my tongue more? Can I? I’m not sure. I determined this weekend that I would like to, though. It wasn’t just the heat. That was perhaps the best example, but I also (perhaps in my unusual openness) had a few things to share regarding my disagreement with some chosen activity for the day. 🙂

Why must we complain so? Why must I? I think I am pretty good at thinking about other people, at least in general. But this weekend proved I have so long to go.

Hope you had a great time, Sister. We did. I’d like to see if I can do less complaining next time, and use my words to encourage, instead of complain.