The really strange thing is that I wrote this blog before I started my 30-day subscription to Kathy’s Maniacal Eating Plan (KMEP), and, of course, the title has nothing to do with the taste of the weird grains and vegetables that she has me eating. I guess it is just prophetic … read on, if your curiosity is piqued.

Allergy season has arrived with a vengeance, and so I begin the unhappy practice of waking in the night, sneezing uncontrollably, and rubbing at my eyes until I look like someone from a horror comic book. About three years ago I started taking Allegra, and I found that I could survive if I started early and stayed current with generous doses of the medicine.

This year I managed to get my doctor to agree that a dosage for a ‘normal’ adult was not quite enough for someone of my girth and weight, but even so, the medicine doesn’t quite suppress the symptoms for the whole 24-hour period.

One happy side effect is that once allergy season is over, I am very thankful for my health for a couple of months afterward.

Recently, I was perusing the book of Numbers, and I read about the episode of the Bronze Snake. As was their frequent practice, the Israelites were complaining against God and Moses, this time about the food. As you may recall, God provided manna for the Israelites during their 40-plus year sojourn in the wilderness, before they were permitted to enter the promised land. As Numbers 19 records, they complained and said, “We’re tired of this detestable food!”

It doesn’t look all that detestable to me. A little maple syrup …

Sometimes I am amazed that any Israelites survived to enter the land of Canaan. Just a few verses before, a good chunk of the tribe of Levi had been swallowed up by the earth for their presumption in challenging God’s selection of Moses and Aaron. Considering the great mercy that God had for the people in providing manna for upwards of two million people every day, it seems the height of stupidity and ungratefulness to complain about it.

While I was thinking about those rascally Israelites, feeling a bit superior, the thought occurred to me that I have a lot in common with that rebellious people. Every time I complain to God (and I do it more often than I would care to admit) aren’t I, in some sense, doing the very same thing that they did, spitting on His grace and mercy and presuming to second-guess His sovereign and majestic will?

Ah, but I do it in such an enlightened, twenty-first century style, couching my complaints as ‘prayers of supplication’ and stopping short (in my words, at least) of open defiance against God.

Share or follow

Related posts:

Once again, a blog entry has languished on my laptop without being posted. This one refers to events that happened a few weeks ago.

Summer has arrived with a vengeance here in Western Washington. As usual, the weather during camp week was spectacular, with only one brief rainshower on Friday morning. We tore ourselves away from the Duckabush late Saturday and arrived home after midnight. I had consumed a liter of Diet Coke late in the evening and so had no trouble, but Kathy was really struggling to stay awake as she followed me in the van.

On Sunday we skipped Sunday School (except Joshua, who wheedled his Mom into dropping him off for his class) and enjoyed a leisurely morning before attending the second service. Our pastor preached on 2 Timothy chapter 3, verses 1-9, which is a bit of a discouraging passage:

“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God … having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.” II Timothy 3:1-5

I was reminded (again) of the movie Groundhog Day in which the arrogant protagonist asks his female colleague for her definition of the perfect man. As she lists a number of glowing virtues, he keeps a running commentary: “Me … me again … me also … I am REALLY close on this one … “, pretending that he fulfills each of the characteristics she enumerates. As I look at the list of sins in the first verses of II Timothy 3, I think about how many of them apply to me. If I were to prosecute myself according to these ‘crimes’ I think I could probably secure a conviction on every one except ‘treacherous’ and (perhaps) ‘not lovers of the good’.

Kathy and I talked about this at some length, because I was a little disturbed by it. The pastor was careful to point out that the passage seems to be referring to people inside the church and that Christians are not to associate with other so-called believers who meet these criteria. But as I thought about it, it seems there is something missing. Let’s face it: if I followed nearly any Christian around with a video camera and did a careful audit of their life, I would find significant evidence of many of these sins in remarkably short order. From a literal perspective, if I was to ‘have nothing to do with’ Christians who match the description given, I would not be able to fellowship with anyone (or they with me).

In the Growing Kids God’s Way parenting curriculum which has largely influenced our parenting philosophy, a distinction is made between a child’s occasional sin and a child who is ‘characterized’ by a pattern of behavior. A parent may extend grace to one child and crack down on another depending on previous offenses of the same nature, much in the same way that a judge may properly consider past offenses when sentencing, if not when determining guilt. One of my children may be characterized by an argumentative, wise-in-his-own-eyes attitude, while another might be characterized by cheerful obedience … in such a case, I’ll tolerate an appeal from the obedient child while I will reject the same appeal from the child who is characterized by disobedience.

Perhaps the same kind of interpretation can be placed on these verses. Clearly any Christian will, from time to time, be guilty of one or more of these offenses, yet they may be characterized by a love for God and a desire to please Him more than by these sins.

Alternatively, we can look at the following verses in the same passage:
” … always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.” (vs. 7)

“Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth … men of depraved minds who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected.”

These verses seem to indicate a deeply-rooted deception and active opposition to the Gospel and to the Church … people who pretend to be pursuing godliness but are actually witting or unwitting double agents within the Body of Christ.

Introducing this passage, the pastor said, “And some of these people are here today.” I fought down a strong temptation to crane my neck around suspiciously in a theatrical manner, not wanting to make light of his observation that, indeed, the people described in this passage would likely be faithful churchgoers and not outwardly distinguishable from those who were seeking God with a pure and contrite heart.

I guess the phrase that really leaped out at me from this whole passage was in verse 5: “… having a form of godliness but denying its power.” This seems to sum up many Christians today; we partition our lives so carefully that we neutralize the power of God from having any real impact in our lives or in the lives of those around us.

And when you think about it, it is really very sad. How pathetic it is to have access to something really wonderful yet never take advantage of it, out of fear or laziness or ignorance. Many pastors have repeatedly chided their flock for the spiritual equivalent of having a Ferrari in the driveway but never driving it, only washing, waxing and polishing it on Sundays, maybe backing it up and down the driveway on special occasions.

As Paul writes in I Timothy 4:8:

“For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”

Historically I’ve taken that verse out of context to explain why I don’t do pushups and situps. In all seriousness, though, it makes me wonder what promise I am giving up when I deny the power of godliness in my life? What is, after all, the power of godliness?

Jesus was very hard on the Pharisees throughout His ministry, frequently criticizing them for outward ‘righteousness’ which did not translate to a right heart before God. It seems that, in order to really enjoy the power of godliness, I must be conducting myself in a godly manner out of a pure and contrite heart, rather than out of any other motives. It seems to tie in rather nicely with what the Lord has been teaching me about humility and forgiveness and contentment and all the other lessons that I am learning, whether I like it or not.

These past two years have been difficult for me, as I have been gently (and in some cases, not so gently) taught the difference between faith and counterfeit faith, humility and false humility, forgiveness on my terms and forgiveness on God’s terms. I was talking with Kathy the other night, marveling at all the changes that God has brought about in my life, and how He has upended and stirred-up the patterns of ‘righteousness’ I have cherished over the years. She asked me, “If you had the choice, would you voluntarily sign up for all the lessons you’ve learned in the past two years, knowing the trouble that would come with those lessons?”

Truthfully, no. I am lazy enough and self-righteous enough that, even in hindsight, I would probably not value the pursuit of godliness enough to experience the hardship; and I am optimistic enough to think that somehow I could learn the needed lessons without having to experience the trouble.

How great is our God, that He doesn’t ask or require us to make that choice, but rather disciplines us as sons, teaching us the lessons He wills for us without needing to consult us. I think I’d rather leave those kind of things in His capable hands, and just take each day with its renewed mercies, as it comes.

Share or follow

Related posts:

Several Sundays ago I had the opportunity to work as a teacher in the 3rd and 4th grade Sunday School class at our church. Now that Summer has begun, the teachers who work year-round are off, and they must make do with substitutes like me from week to week. Kathy and I both signed up for two weeks, thinking we would work together … instead they split us up and, when the dust settled, I was only assigned to work a single week, while Kathy served in the 1st and 2nd grade class both weeks.

The theme for the Summer in the kids program for all ages is Metamorphosis … focusing on the way that God changes believers through the working of His Spirit in our hearts. It seems to be following a cool bug theme and is based on Romans 12:2:

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is … his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Of course, unless and until a person has accepted the gift of Salvation through Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit isn’t able to transform or renew, but seems to rather be limited to convicting of sin … I worry that there are kids in the program who do not know the Lord. Without the power of the Holy Spirit to effect a change in a child’s life, these kind of teachings are like so many self-help books … they sound nice but don’t accomplish much.

Some people need a lot more than self-help books.

This week’s topic was humility … a virtue that is not taught much in the Church and not taught (or valued) at all in the world. While most educated people know to exercise some restraint in their boasting, the command in Philippians 2:3 is foreign to non-believers (and not very intuitive even for people long-steeped in the gospel):

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.”

Western humanistic and individualistic philosophers and sociologists might argue that you can only be a valued, contributing member of society to the extent that you believe in yourself. Certainly Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs seems to indicate that you must take care of yourself in order to reach ‘Self Actualization’, the pinnacle of humanistic achievement.

The idea that I would humbly consider someone else better than myself would be dismissed by the pop psychologists of our day as sick and unhealthy. “What you really need is self-esteem!” they would cry, as though offering some panacea that will cure all society’s ills. As Kathy and I were preparing for Sunday School, I got to thinking about what the world would be like if people really followed Philippians 2:3.

First of all, people would be interested in each other. If I truly desired to serve others, putting their needs ahead of my own, I’d need to know more about them. Perhaps the biggest change of all would be that people everywhere would be talking to each other instead of wrapped-up in their own thoughts and problems.

There would tend to be very little crowding or waiting in lines for anything, since people would not be pushing their own interests or rushing to consume limited resources ahead of others.

Of course, sometimes there are reasons why we might prefer to let others go first.

Indeed, there would be no artificial shortages, and wealth would largely be distributed among those who needed it. I suspect that there would be very little waste, since any surplus would be accompanied by a strong, proactive desire to distribute that surplus. Telemarketers would be calling around offering free stuff that really would be free, with no strings attached (but of course they would never call at dinner time).

Most people in America would probably live much more modestly than we do, but dissatisfaction in a job would be rare or possibly extinct, since anyone who was unhappy in his work would find no lack of job placement specialists eager to find him or her a better fitting position.

It isn’t too hard to live modestly when you have S’Mores in hand.

It is hard to imagine something so basic completely overturning our current economic system, but if we all woke up one morning and truly practiced humility, this world could become a paradise.

I wonder if that is what it will be like during the thousand year reign of Christ, before the final confrontation and judgment?

Closer to home, what would it look like if I began to think of others as better than myself?

• My speech patterns would change. I would spend less time pontificating and seizing the spotlight for myself. My words would tend to be much less judgmental and much more encouraging. I would listen a lot more than I do, and take longer to think before I would speak.
• The use of my time would change. I would spend more time helping and serving others, less time pursuing my own recreation.
• The use of my money would change. I would spend less effort in accumulating wealth for myself and more effort spending that wealth on others. I would become a more careful steward of what I have, if I really thought I was holding it in trust for others.
• I would be much less likely to take offense. It would be hard to trample on my ‘rights’ since I would not be asserting them in deference to others.
• I would make a stronger effort to be ‘nice’ … to be cheerful and pleasant and ‘safe’ to talk to … not given to cynical or sarcastic talk, but someone who you are glad to have talked to in an elevator.
• My life would be much more joyful and contented, as I aligned myself more closely with God’s will for me. Already as I have begun to experiment with this ‘humility’ thing, I begin to enjoy God’s smile and I find myself much more prone to peace and contentment. God is on record that he resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.

I could go on and on. This simple spiritual adjustment in the way I think can have far-reaching effects on my entire life … in some sense it is the difference between living in world and living in the Kingdom of God.

One of my favorite movies is Groundhog Day, in which an intensely self-centered weatherman is forced to repeat the same day over and over again, perhaps as some kind of Karmic penance for his utter disregard for other people. Ultimately, the character Bill Murray portrays learns to love others more than himself … I think that Hollywood stumbles upon a deep spiritual truth, and does a pretty good job of painting a picture of what that would look like. As you follow weatherman Phil Connors around town on his final iteration of Groundhog Day, you see that almost everything he does is aimed at serving others, at treating them as more important than himself. He is not a cringing or fawning character, but rather moves with gracious dignity as he accomplishes the many good deeds of his day. One tiny example is the way that he greets a portly gentleman in the hallway of the bed and breakfast in which he stays … instead of brushing the man’s cheerful greeting off (as he has done many times in prior iterations), he takes the effort to respond with an gracious word, and leaves the man encouraged and with a lifted spirit as he walks away.

Bill Murray in Groundhog Day

I guess I’d like to do more than just play Phil Connors on TV. Rather, I’d like my life to be a blessing to the people around me, showing the love of Christ so that more and more people are drawn to the One who fills me with joy.

Humility isn’t easy. Even the tiny doses which I have sampled have been hard-won and are extremely counter-intuitive to the way that I habitually think. Yet I feel a strange stirring in my heart as the Holy Spirit continues to convict and mold me into a person who can truly, if only occasionally, think of others as more important than myself.

Share or follow

Related posts:

Today the train seems empty, which is odd, considering it is a Friday. Although they promise clear skies today, a combination of low clouds and fog hides the sun. It is almost a relief to the eyes, after all these days of sunshine. I’ve actually heard people complain about the weather, saying things like “If I wanted weather like this, I’d live in California.” People are funny.

Daniel loves to climb the tree in our front yard.

I’ve been reading in Ezra the last day or two, which chronicles one of the return parties from the 70-year exile in Babylon. The story starts out very cheerfully, with the Persian king granting permission to return, and supporting the endeavor with gifts and letters of authority. When Ezra arrived in Jerusalem, however, he found that a number of the existing Jewish leaders have taken foreign wives. Apparently this practice violated the covenant they had made with the Lord and had historically caused them to adopt the practices of the pagan people living in the lands around them.

Reading the last chapter of Nehemiah, I see that there was more to the story. Apparently a number of the children of these marriages could not even speak the Hebrew language, so thoroughly had they been assimilated into the local cultures. Additionally, the peoples of Moab and Ammon were explicitly excluded from the assembly of Israel, in accordance with Deuteronomy 23:3, because of those nations hostility to Israel when they returned from Egypt. Nehemiah writes that he even resorted to beating some of the men and pulling out their hair in an effort to shame them into doing what was right. Nehemiah seems to have been a real stickler for following the law … I must say that I like him and admire his courage. He seems to have had his enemies, though … throughout the book and four times in the last chapter Nehemiah calls on God to witness what he has done and to remember those who opposed him.

And yet Ruth was a Moabitess, and an ancestor of David. How strange are the ways of God!

Ultimately the men of Judah took an oath to ‘put away’ these foreign wives and their children; presumably sending them back to their non-Jewish relatives, with the aim of re-establishing their covenant with God and maintaining the purity of the ‘holy race’. It made me sad to think of the fathers explaining to their little children that they were ‘unholy’ and had to be sent away. I can’t help wondering if there wasn’t a better way to honor the holiness of God and to keep the covenant without breaking up these families, perhaps by offering up some expensive sacrifice or going through some exhaustive baptism ceremony? Wasn’t there a precedent for bringing aliens into the assembly of Israel, as was apparently done with Rahab and her entire family?

I’d have a hard time sending these three away, even if their Mom was an Ammonite.
(Picture from 1999.)

(I’ve often wondered if this same Rahab is the one mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus, mother to Boaz. Now that I think about it, there would have been only three generations, to span the entire period of the Judges, which seems to have been more in the ballpark of 300 years. Not saying it couldn’t have been the same Rahab, but perhaps it was actually someone who was named after her.)

In Malachi 2:16 it is written, ‘”I hate divorce”, says the Lord God of Israel … ‘. Yet only a few verses before, Malachi also speaks against the practice of marriage outside the covenant. Is there is any application of this principle within the context of the New Covenant? What does God think of our nation’s now-commonplace practice of divorcing ‘the wife of our youth’ and marrying outside the faith?

The wife of my youth with her new haircut.

Ultimately our relationship to God comes first, which may explain why Paul tells the Corinthians that if an unbelieving spouse wants to break up the marriage, we are to let them do so. Yet we also know that marriage is a picture of our relationship with God and is one of the few institutions established by God. I think it would have been very hard to live in the time of Ezra, and to make the choice to ‘put away’ a wife from outside the covenant. It makes me wonder if there are things in my life that, while similar to things that God blesses, are actually man-made substitutions from ‘outside the covenant’? Certainly a job can become like a ‘foreign wife’ if it is relied upon apart from God for provision, or if it becomes a God in itself. I can see how certain friendships might be ‘unholy’ and a believer might come to the point of ‘putting away’ those relationships which hinder them in their walk with God. Maybe I’m trying too hard to find application in this historical event.

Perhaps the essence of the application is that anything that lures us away from God (as happened with Solomon and his pagan wives) should be treated ruthlessly. As Jesus says in Matthew 5:30:

“And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”

One thing that constantly amazes me is the depth and beauty of God’s creation.

Share or follow

Related posts:

I slept in last Tuesday and didn’t leave the house until after 8:30 am … how nice it is to sleep in from time to time. If I wait until the traffic thins out, I can make it to work in a little less than an hour (as opposed to 1:40 if I take the train). Still, I miss this time on the train to read my Bible and write.

I have received permission to move to a four-day work week, starting this week (in fact, by the time I have published this, we’ve already had our first ‘field trip day’). I am excited about the change and about the opportunity it will give me to go on field trips with the kids. As the weather starts to warm up and the days get longer, it will be good to be out and about … we’ve huddled indoors much of the winter. One trip I really want to make is to visit Mount Rainier … some days I see it looming majestically to the east as I travel on the train, but it has been many years since I paid my respects, and I have no decent digital pictures of the mountain.

Monday was the first day that it was still light (sort of) when I got off the train, and now I see a glimmering of light to the east as we move through Puyallup. Pretty soon my entire commute will be in daylight (at least on sunny days), which makes a big difference to me. The lack of light really seems to affect me … I get gloomy very easily in the winter here in Washington. It always surprises me how extremely the seasonal difference affects the length of day at this latitude … we’re almost six degrees north of Detroit, and the day gets pretty short in January. Of course, we have no complaints in terms of cold weather … again today I walked out the door in shirt sleeves … and the rain just doesn’t ever seem to materialize in any great amount.

I’ve been reading in II Chronicles lately, reviewing the exploits of the kings who followed Solomon in both Judah and the remainder of Israel. It is interesting to note that a substantial number of people from the tribes of Levi, Ephraim, Manasseh and Simeon also joined Judah and Benjamin once they saw that the southern kingdom was really following the Lord. I had always wondered at the disparity in size between Israel and Judah, and now I see that they were more evenly divided than I had suspected.

Under Rehoboam, Judah makes one attempt to re-unite the kingdom, but is instructed by a prophet of the Lord to desist from civil war. Some years later, under Abijah, king of Judah, there is a massive battle between Judah and Israel in which 500,000 soldiers from Israel (more than 60% of their army) are killed. Although this is a major triumph of God over the pagan idols of Israel, I wonder what it must have been like to have such huge casualties in Israel. Perhaps as many as one in five of the men of Israel were killed? It must have been a very bittersweet victory for the people of Judah, to see God’s judgment come upon the northern kingdom in that way.

It is sad to note that king Asa, although he trusts in God in dealing with a foreign invasion from the south, ends his reign badly. Toward the latter part of Asa’s rule in Judah, the king of Israel began to fortify a town near the border to stem the tides of those defecting from his kingdom to Judah. Much like the iron curtain or the Berlin Wall, this pagan king seeks to prevent any of his subjects who loved God from voting with their feet and heading south. Although this seemed to be an opportunity for God to teach the nation of Israel yet another lesson about His sovereignty, Asa chooses not to trust in God, but rather sends tribute to the king of Aram, hiring him to attack Israel to take the pressure off Judah.

Perhaps Asa lacked the counsel of a good Queen?

Ultimately this choice is shown to be bad, yet the knowledge seems to embitter Asa against the Lord and he ends his life with a painful illness, still refusing to turn to God for healing. It is a sad progression of one bad choice followed by others, each seemingly cementing Asa’s stubborn position and souring his reign. Towards the end of his life, II Chronicles 16 records that this once-godly king began to oppress some of his people brutally, effectively doing the work of the Enemy by discouraging any further southward migration among the people of Israel.

I suspect it was the desire of God to re-unite the kingdoms of Judah and Israel or at least to draw all of those who loved Him south into Judah. If I was a God-fearing person in, say, the tribe of Issachar, I would have thought seriously about relocating to Judah during the early years of Asa. Toward the end of his reign, though, I expect that there was no need for a fortified city to guard the border … Asa’s oppression was enough to keep any remaining god-fearing subjects of Israel at home.

Over the past months I have allowed my heart to become a little cold toward God, perhaps consciously and unconsciously blaming Him for some of the disappointment in my life. This story of Asa rings a warning bell in my mind, and I am convicted of my lack of humility toward God. Asa could have repented of his lack of trust in God, turned away from his stubborn pride, and ended his life as one of the most godly kings of Judah. Instead, he became more and more set against God, imprisoning God’s messenger and ultimately betraying his trust as king over God’s people and bringing shame upon God’s name.

The prophet Micah gives a very succinct summary of our responsibilities:
“He has shown thee, O Man, what is good and what the Lord requires of thee: to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.” Micah 6:8

Once more, I need to humble my heart before God and to trust Him. You’d think I would learn this, once and for all!

I’ve been reading the allegory, “Hind’s Feet on High Places” to the kids at night lately … I’m not sure they are really getting it (I wonder I understand it myself, for that matter). One of the things that surprises me every time I read it is the choice of companions that the Shepherd makes for poor little Much-Afraid, as she heads off on her epic journey to the High Places. Sorrow and Suffering are definitely not the companions I would choose for my own journey to the High Places … like Much-Afraid, I would much prefer Joy and Peace, to encourage and strengthen me on the way. Yet God seems to care more about our development along the way than our speed or comfort in arriving at our destination. This is a hard teaching, and it resonates as truth, but I really don’t have a good handle on it yet.

I guess that once we are with the Lord in Heaven, there will be no more resistance or impediment to loving Him, and everyone will be able to fully give themselves to Him in love and adoration. Yet we know that true love is only possible where there is a choice, a choice we must apparently make outside eternity … which is probably why God does not take us immediately home to be with Him. Is it possible that the extent, depth, or quality of our love is also determined by the growth that we experience during our short lives on this planet?

Throughout my marriage with Kathy, one of the things that makes our relationship special is the confidence we have in each other’s love and fidelity. Because we were both still virgins when we married, we knew that we could trust each other. Sometimes, when life is hard and we have disagreements, it is natural to wonder about the depth of each other’s love … it is at times like that when it becomes very important to remember that your spouse chose to marry you over all others.

If everything was always easy, and life was one long honeymoon, I wonder if our love for each other would ever grow? Love is about sacrifice and putting the other person ahead of yourself more than it is about hearts and flowers. Perhaps the preciousness of our love for God is in its depth and completeness … maybe the sweetness of our savor is increased as we demonstrate our willingness to love Him deeply and truly in spite of hardship.

One night after I finished work, Kathy wanted to go to Costco and Target to do a little shopping, but I wanted to stay home. At first I refused to go with her (for some reason she didn’t want to drive to Costco at night) but then I remembered that the scriptures instruct husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the Church, and to lay down their lives for their wives. So I told the kids about this and lay myself down on the floor in the living room, telling Kathy that I would go with her if she wanted me to. Joshua immediately pounced on me, taking advantage of my prone position … I was forced to remind him of the frequent brochures and flyers I receive from the Spitsbergen Military Boarding School and Arctic Exploration Center (SMBSAEC).

West Spitsbergen, controlled by Norway and nestled in the warm and sunny Svarbald archipelago, is the home of one of the finest military boarding schools available. While some complain that the latitude (near the 82nd parallel) makes the winters a bit long and nippy, others maintain that such is the talk of sissies.

We went to Costco to pick up a new mattress for Sarah (we think she is ready to take the big step of moving from her crib to a real bed) and checked the prices for replacement glasses for Daniel. I bought everyone ice cream and we wheeled the mattress out with the four younger kids all sitting on the mattress happily eating their chocolate and vanilla swirls, much to the envy of several bystanders. A good time was had by all until we got to Target, where the lines were long and Kathy was delayed while the rest of us waited in the van. The mattress (which was now resting on the heads of all five children) began to be much less fun, and we were all glad to be on our way home again when Kathy finally emerged.

About a half-mile from home we witnessed an accident between a man in a big SUV and a woman and child in a smaller sedan … fortunately no one was hurt, but there were shards of plastic everywhere, filling the intersection. Both drivers insisted that the other one had run the red light; unfortunately Kathy and I had not seen enough of the collision to reliably testify. The little boy, perhaps five years old, was pretty shaken up and cried and cried while his mom held him and shouted at the other driver. The woman who was hit may have been uninsured … I felt badly for her and prayed with her, but there was little else I could do apart from sweep up the debris. The police never did come to investigate the accident, which I thought was pretty unprofessional.

Today is a rainy day, and the train is pretty full already, and we haven’t even reached Tukwila. I think a lot of people are like me, in that they sometimes take the train, and sometimes drive their cars to work. Personally, I like the variety … there is nothing quite like sitting in traffic to make one appreciate the train, even if it is crowded. I heard yesterday that the Washington State Ferries have finally implemented a wireless network on the ferries and in the terminals … that will be very nice for the commuters, I think, if people can handle e-mail and be connected to their work systems. I wonder if I will ever be a ferry commuter again? In many ways my heart is divided about moving back to the Duckabush.

Daniel loves gymnastics, especially the foam pit. As far as we know, that other little boy survived this encounter.

Last Friday marked the beginning of our involvement in a local homeschooling cooperative … the kids are very excited about spending the day in classes rather than doing the usual schoolwork at home. They are each enrolled in four classes, two before lunch and two after, from 8:45 in the morning until 3:00 pm. Kathy is required also to work as an assistant in one of the classes, so the whole family (except me) is involved. I’m a little jealous … I do hope that they enjoy their classes and teachers … the co-op seems to be well-run and fairly comprehensive in terms of the classes offered, with what seems to be as many as a hundred children enrolled. This semester covers the next sixteen weeks, ending in May, so it is a big undertaking.

My mind keeps coming back to poor king Asa and his stubborn embitterment toward God … I went back and re-read part of his story. This blog entry has already gone too long, but I think it is worth noting the difference between Asa’s reaction and that of king David, when confronted with his adultery. Instead of having a teachable heart, Asa became angry with the prophet who rebuked him and put him in prison. David, in contrast, accepted the rebuke of Nathan and repented before the Lord. It seems to be less about the severity of the sin and much more about our response to God when corrected. I need to look for the Holy Spirit’s conviction and correction in my life and be humble and responsive to His rebuke. In the words of Paul:

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. I Corinthians 9:24-27

Share or follow

Related posts: