My wife

My wife is incredible. I've been sick for a week and somehow she has held this home together. When I get sick I don't get the sniffles, I get the I'm going to be in bed for a week straight with medicine that knocks me out sick. It's happened a couple times over the past few months because I'm a wuss and my body can't take not getting enough sleep and keeping the frenzied pace that life requires lately. Lauren is pregnant, she's been taking care of our son by herself every night after coming home from working all day, she's been doing laundry, rearranging our house in anticipation of our new son, and been taking care of her sick husband. I'm starting to feel better now. It's time for her to have a break. What does she do this morning? In the midst of getting ready to start another long week of work and getting our son up, fed, and ready, she starts dinner in the crockpot so it will be ready for us to have dinner as a family when she gets home around seven o'clock tonight. This is just the surface of what an incredible wife I have. It would take days to write about how she cares for me, how she is the best mother I've ever seen for Benjamin, how she inspires me to try and be a better man, and how beautiful she is. My wife is incredible. The kind of wife that I think God had in mind when he created the family. 

It's raining

It's raining. I love it when it rains. I love it when I can sit in my new "office" and read Jim Thompson and Rich Butlers blogs between doing schoolwork. The Rain makes me think. Not really about anything in particular, but just think. That's the kind of thinking that helps me. Today I thought about many unrelated things. I thought about last night at the Trans-Siberian Orchestra when the man with the amazing voice sang "every man is your brother, and every child is ours". What a thought. I could benefit by thinking that way more often. I believe that we all have common desires, but we seek to fulfill them in different ways. We all want happiness and satisfaction. Of course I believe that these things can only come from God but that's not what I'm talking about here. Even those of us who know God go about satisfying these desires differently. It may be easy to say the man that robs a bank and the man that neglects his family and works 80 hours a week are both seeking happiness through wealth and they are both going about it the wrong way. What about the man desperate to get home to his family who rides the bumper of the man who's going slow because his family is in the car and he wants them to be safe. Which man is justified more in his anger. The first man just wants to be with his family, is it too much to ask that the car in front of him at least goes the speed limit? The man going slow wants to make sure that his family is going to live through the traffic so he can be with them for years to come, can't that idiot behind him understand, and drive just a little slower? Yeah I'm a sucker for stupid examples, but maybe that one will help with my road rage next time. Maybe next time I'm stuck behind a lady with 57 coupons and a checkbook as I'm just trying to buy some orange juice, I'll think of her trying to save some money so she can buy her kids some Christmas presents this year. Maybe I'll think of her kids as my kids too. Children of this society. Yes I want the best for my kids, but does that have to be to the detriment of others kids? Would I make the world a better place for my boys by having the same compassion for other boys as I do for them? Would we be able to avoid partisan politics, religious animosity, road rage, riots, and wars if we realized that we are not competing for our side to win but that both sides are striving for the betterment of everyone? Would it make it easier to figure things out through debate and discussion if we didn't resort to arguing and attacking each other? I don't know. I was just thinking. I was thinking "every man is my brother, and every child is ours".

One

Ephesians 2:11-22

Pastor Brian Haibig has an incredible way of taking scripture that is dead to me and making it come alive. I have prayed often for this to happen for me over the past few years. I've heard the stories so many times, seen so many of the same illustrations it is easy for me to miss the meaning, the gravity, the incredible, almost crushing weight  behind the words that were breathed by none other than the Almighty Himself. On Sunday we were in Ephesians where we have been dwelling for some weeks now. When the scripture was read at the beginning of the service it didn't do anything to grab my attention. I was listening with apathetic ears. Then I began to feel the weight. You have to hear me out on this but...Paul is reminding the gentiles that when God originally made promises to the patriarchs He wasn't making deals that applied to them. The promises of redemption, mercy, hope, etc were made with the Jews. The dire state of the Gentiles (of which I am one) was overwhelming. The desperation, the hopelessness, the state of absolute destitution, the promise of condemnation was so heavy I almost fell from my chair. Stop. Think about it. No promise that God will redeem you, clean your slate, intervene in your judgement. Imagine standing in front of God covered head to toe in wretched sin pleading for mercy, screaming out for a savior that will not come. BUT... though those promises were made to the Jews, God in his unending grace has covered not only the sins of the Jews but also those of the Gentiles.  My wretched sins have been washed clean. Not just mercy but grace has been poured over me. My Saviour has come. Never before have I wanted so badly to stand and yell "hallelujah I am redeemed". 

And what of the Jews who (with a nasty sarcastic 6th grader tone of voice) were calling the Gentiles "the uncircumcised". The Jews were God's elect. They were looking down their nose at the inferior Gentiles. Oh but Paul a word for them too, because in Christ we have all become equal. Jew or Gentile, black or white, Arab or American, Baptist or Presbyterian, Republican or Democrat, richest of the rich or poorest of the poor. The Gentiles were not welcomed into the family as the red headed step child. They were a full fledged unabashed member of the family. There is no second class Christian. Oh what a relief. We can now unite with no prejudice. We are one church. There is only one bride for Christ. 

Thinking about this unity I went home and watched something that was mentioned in the sermon. If you watch it just normally it's pretty entertaining. If you watch it with the unification of the church in mind, with these ideas ringing in your ear... well it's nothing short of amazing. It's a youtube video that's blown up over the past year called "where the hell is matt (2008 version)". Here's the link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlfKdbWwruY