Category Archives: Tim

Events, Tim

Bounteous Birthday Bash

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When I was a little boy, my Dad used to amuse me and my siblings with stories of a relative who wasn’t very appreciative of gifts. Part of the problem was that nobody seemed to know what he wanted, and so (as a grown man) he received a lot of neckties. As the story went, he opened the box (already guessing what it was by its shape) and, in a sneering, nasally, flatly-disappointed voice, declared: “Oh. Another tie.”

My Dad never did tell us which hapless relative it was, but I’ll bet his luck never changed.

I can imagine poor Uncle Elmer enduring flat, elongated packages for the rest of his life. “Well, dear,” Aunt Eunice would say, as they sat together in a nursing home, “here are your presents from the family: hey, look, a long rectangular package about the shape of … a tie! And another one! How exciting!” My imaginary Aunt Eunice always did have a sarcastic tongue.

Rachel in turquoise
Rachel is very skilled at having something gracious to say.

Gift variety hasn’t been much of problem for me, ever since Amazon created their Wish List. Now, if I’m shopping on Amazon for someone else, and I see something I would like, I just pop it into my wish list. Patiently, I wait for my birthday or Christmas to arrive, watching hopefully (but discreetly) for the UPS truck outside. I try to keep my wish list well-populated so there is still the opportunity for surprise, and, of course, many have their own ideas of what would be the best gift. I try not to discourage such folks — it is, after all, a free country.

Well, sort of. For some values of ‘free’, anyway.

I don’t get many ties, either. This is a good thing, since I only wear them to funerals.

I remember my poor Dad’s birthdays, when I was a kid. He was lucky to get a can of cashews to celebrate the day of his birth. He would often pull out all the stops when remembering my Mom’s birthday, but there never seemed to be many presents on the breakfast table when February 3rd rolled around. Maybe everyone was gifted-out from Groundhog Day; but it happened at Christmas, too. Dad used to re-wrap puzzles and model train cars he had received in prior years just to make it look more festive – this was particularly embarrassing when it turned out that he had purchased the original gift himself.

Birthday sign makers
The kids made me a great birthday sign.

As a forty-mumble-something Dad, I didn’t really have my hopes very high. Dads are supposed to be stoically selfless, deferring their own gratification for the good of the family, soldiering on across a barren and gift-less landscape. As our budget continues to rage, I know exactly how much has been set aside for my birthday (including decorations and any special meal ingredients). It doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle-room for Kathy, if she wanted to inundate me with presents.

Imagine my surprise to find a whole laundry basket full of gifts from various family members. I was overwhelmed by the outpouring of generosity and kindness – I felt very well-loved and cared for, from all sides.

Joshua tucks in
Joshua cared for me so well, he ate cake in my honor.

It was a very good day. I had to work some in the morning, but was nearly done by the time my parents came by to shower me with presents and eat lunch with us. Then Kathy and I went on a ‘hot date’ to Cash & Carry, a low-cost bulk food store in our area which we recently ‘discovered’.

Coming home, we spent some time experimenting with our rendition of Panida’s Thai Curry, with some considerable success and enjoyment. Dropping the kids off at church for AWANA and youth group, we had a little time to go for a quick walk and for me to play a computer game.

Kathy made a Black Forest Cake for me (my favorite kind of cake) and, although it slipped and oozed, it was very tasty. We ended the day with family devotions.

Let them eat cake ...
Sarah graciously agreed to eat cake with us.

There were lots of things I wanted to do, including playing a board game, reading aloud a story from one of my new books, and working on a secret project for Joshua’s birthday. I often find there is usually more fun than time available in my plans. Still, it was a great and celebratory day; I am indeed blessed.

Oozing Cake
Nobody seemed to mind the oozing.

Tim

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Bible Study, Tim

Convergence

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I am constantly amazed at how the Holy Spirit works different threads in our lives together to convict us of sin and spur us on in righteousness and growth. Idle conversation with one person combines with a song we hear on the radio, and then, BANG! Something we read in the Bible connects with us in a way it never did before, and changes us forever. I call this “convergence”, and it happened to me again today.

About eighteen months ago, I discovered what I wanted to be when I grow up: I want to be a Champion for Jesus. I was attending a prayer seminar down in Oregon, and the speaker was talking about how most pastors would give their right arm for someone who could be, er, their right-hand man. “A champion is the kind of person you could ask to start a new program in a church, and they make it happen and get it done. They don’t complain about how busy they are, or come running back to you for every little decision, but they boldly use their gifts to build up the body of Christ, and God gives them success.” Since this was a prayer conference, it was pointed out that champions are generally men and women of prayer.

Ice cream! Ice Cream!

Sometimes they also let me be the Ice Cream Man.

One of the best things about our church (from my perspective) is that I am allowed to teach (or at least lead) an Adult Bible Fellowship (ABF) class. Cooler than traditional adult Sunday School classes, ABFs are adult Bible classes that meet on, er, Sundays.

Many churches don’t do Sunday School for grownups anymore — in fact, when we first moved to this area and were shopping for a church, we had a hard time finding one that offered anything beyond the ‘standard’ worship service with a sermon. Personally, I think this is unfortunate for several reasons:

  1. An adult Bible fellowship class can focus on an exegetical study of the scriptures, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. While some classes are topical in nature, I tend to study the scriptures book by book, taking each verse and dealing with it as it comes. Over the past several years, we’ve studied nearly all the epistles and a handful of minor prophets, and now we’re most of the way through the gospel of John.
  2. There’s a difference between having the scriptures explained to you, and working as a group to understand them. I’m a big fan of the Inductive study method, in which I (as ‘teacher’) come up with a set of Observation, Interpretation and Application questions, which we all discuss in class. We hammer out a group consensus answer to each question, not pooling our ignorance, but rather pooling our knowledge of related scripture and the revelation of the Holy Spirit in our individual lives.
  3. There’s a big difference between having a message preached ‘at’ you, and taking part in a discussion about the scripture. Our class ranges in size from 8 to 18, and nearly everyone speaks up. It is very hard to fall asleep or tune out in that kind of a venue — whereas even the most disciplined mind can wander when sitting in a church pew, disengaged from the sermon.

I could go on and on — I’m a huge believer in adult Sunday School. “Show me a person who attends an adult Sunday School class, and I’ll show you someone in whose life God is actively working,” I often say (or at least I would say that if anyone ever gave me a chance).

Some people worry that Adult Sunday School classes can compete with or dilute other ministries, and some churches have stopped offering them because they fear that people “won’t come to church for so long on a Sunday”. I think this is hogwash. Members of the early church met every day for prayer and fellowship in the upper room they rented, and (at least some of them) attended daily teaching in Solomon’s Colonnade (in the temple) as well. I don’t think there is anything about modern life that precludes a much higher level of participation in church programs, Bible studies, service projects, and the traditional worship service experience.

I can catch that truck.

That clown wants some ice cream BAD!

But I digress. I set out to write about convergence, and I must make good on that promise.

Today we were studying the 16th chapter of the gospel of John, in which Jesus begins to explain the transition between His physical ministry and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Concerned that the disciples might fall away, He exhorted them (in chapter 15) to remain connected to Himself, as the Vine to their Branches. We speculated about how the disciples must have felt, exchanging a solidly-present Jesus for an invisible Spirit “for their own good”, according to Jesus.

One thing led to another, and we began talking about the way that, as good servants and citizens of Heaven, we persevere and endure trouble and hardship for our King for the good of the Kingdom as a whole, not necessarily for our own comfort or enjoyment. We talked about Paul’s word picture of running a race, and how it serves as such a good metaphor for the Christian experience.

Less than an hour later, our pastor preached on Hebrews 12, with a primary focus on this verse:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12:1

BANG! Convergence!

Bang - that's scary!

“Daddy, did you say a bad word?”

Sitting in my usual pew, I noticed a new banner hanging near the front of the sanctuary. The image portrayed a runner, bursting through a finish-line tape as he came through wide open, heavenly gates. The caption was something like “Be a champion for Christ”, and so I nudged Kathy. “That’s what I want to be,” I whispered.

BANG! Convergence!

It is just one more of the cool ministries of the Holy Spirit, to further cement the truth that He reveals during Sunday School by affirming it again in the worship service. I would say that it is rare that a Sunday goes by, and we fail to find a connection between the sermon and what we studied in class — and I’m pretty sure that the pastor and I aren’t comparing notes.

As we studied today in John 16:

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth …

We serve a great God.

Tim

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Holidays, Project 366, Tim

Happy Father’s Day

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The children have returned to us! They ate their way through the grandparents’ house and so decided to come home. After several days alone, we were very glad to welcome them back into the fold. What a blessing to have grandparents who will take ALL FIVE CHILDREN for several days!! Not only do they feed and care for them, they also help with their homeschooling, read to them from classical literature, and pay them for the yard work they do.

Is that an incredible deal or what?!
And they’ve already asked when the children can return.
Blessings and more blessings!

slurpees anyone?

Of course, what would Father’s Day be without a run to 7-11 for slurpees?

I am thankful for my heavenly Father and all the ways He fills my life with joy and peace.

I am thankful for my earthly father who brought me up to love the Lord and walk in His ways.

I am thankful for my father-in-law who raised a godly son and taught him how to be a good father.

I am thankful for my husband who pours hours of time, attention, love, teaching, and laughter into the lives of my precious children. I wouldn’t want anyone else to be their father.

Kathy
Project 366 – Day 167

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tn_May23rd1992
Kathy, Marriage, Tim

Sixteen Candles

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No, I’m not referring to a Brat Pack film about unrequited love and a forgotten birthday from the early 80′s. Instead, I’m privileged and delighted to celebrate the 16th anniversary of my wedding to the girl of my dreams.

Kathy and her Dad, minutes before our wedding ceremony
“Daddy, I’m not sure I want to go through with this … “

As we stood in the hallway this afternoon, sneaking a quick smooch, Kathy asked me, “Doesn’t it seem like yesterday, that we were living upstairs from Nancy in our little Stamford apartment?”

It does seem only a few years ago … I remember when it was just the two of us, and we still felt like kids, just pretending to be married people until the real grownups came home and sent us off to our rooms.

Wedding Recessional
Mr. and Mrs. Edgren take their first few steps together …

Time’s relentless current has swept us through the years, and here we are with five children, less energy, a very full and busy life, and just a little more wisdom, than when we started. In all this I have learned one important thing: to give thanks. We have so much to be thankful for, so (as any good parent will agree) I should write a thank-you note.

A Thank-You Note to God

Thank you, dear Jesus, for loving us and for saving us from our sin through your death on the cross. Thank you for adopting us into your family and giving us the Holy Spirit to guide us in joy and righteousness. Thank you for arranging our lives so that we could meet at a time when we were both capable of loving and being loved.

Thank you for protecting us from being too intimate (with others and with each other) before we were married. Thank you for blessing us with good communication skills, and with a good marriage. Thank you for teaching us how to fight gently, and for restraining our speech so we didn’t say things that would hurt each other deeply.

Thank you for giving me the ability to work and earn a good living, and thank you for helping us manage our money. Thank you for blessing us with the courage and desire to raise five children, and for giving us the fertility to conceive them and bring them into the world. Thank you for growing us in maturity and grace, and for helping us to build our faith and our love for you.

Thank you for giving us excellent examples in our parents, of marriages built for the long haul. Thank you for allowing some trouble in our lives, so that we could learn to hope and persevere. Thank you for sixteen great years of life together.

I have some regrets about my life. I wasted some years in high school, fighting spitefully with my parents. I spent nearly a decade getting through college, carelessly losing my scholarship and taking a lot more time to grow up than I should have needed. But I can’t say that I regret any of the years since I found my sweet Kathy — she has filled up my days with fun and joy and purpose and meaning, as we build our family and present it as our offering to our Lord.

Kathy at Crim Dell
They say that if you kiss a girl at the top of this bridge, you’ll be with her forever. Kathy and I took extra care to make sure.

Indeed, candles are a poor metaphor, burning out so quickly and dribbling inedible wax on the cake. Perhaps it would be better to speak of jewels in a crown, one for each year that we have enjoyed, loving and serving each other as unto the Lord. A few months ago we had the chance to honor a couple at our church who had been married some sixty-plus years. As the applause of the congregation washed over the white-haired pair, I quietly resolved, “unless the Lord takes us home, there’s Kathy and I in fifty years.”

These days many think that when marriage gets tough, they are free to walk. Others don’t bother with marriage at all, and some misguided folk even think same-sex relationships should be called ‘marriages’. Kathy and I place a high value on marriage in the sight of God, between a man and a woman, and we continue to honor our vow from that day, sixteen years ago: ‘Til death do us part. My heart still skips a beat when I look at her sometimes … not because she’s still a 21-year-old hottie, but because our love and trust and investment in each other has grown and grown over these years.

Happy Anniversary, Beloved.

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Musings, Tim

Sleepless in Seattle

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When Kathy organized the 5 for $5 contest earlier this year, I decided to sign up (even though I was the only person of male persuasion to do so). I knew there wasn’t a chance I would win, but I wanted to motivate myself, and I figured it would placate Kathy. Now that she has kept her weight off for more than two years, she casts an appraising eye on me, with a physical makeover in mind.

“How’re those push-ups and sit-ups coming along,” she’ll ask, pretending to be subtle. “What are you going to do to get some kind of cardio workout?”

Power Nap
Not my actual power nap strategy.

I bite back a sarcastic retort and smile ambiguously, avoiding eye contact. “I’ll figure something out,” I mumble vaguely. Whenever Kathy begins to be satisfied with her weight, she pays more attention to mine. “Maybe we need more magazines around here with unattainable, waif-like female bodies on the cover,” I muse to myself. (Sometimes when I’m musing, I’m not very kind.)

Anyway, the point of the 5 for $5 contest was to come up with five health-related goals that you could measure and track over a five-week period, with a maximum of 100 points each week. I came up with four pretty easily, but I couldn’t seem to think of the fifth. Then I remembered a recent study I heard about where they tracked sleep patterns of two groups, and found that those who slept at least 7 hours a night were more likely to lose weight than those who slept less than that. So I set my fifth goal such that I would try to get 7 hours of sleep at least four days a week.

Sleepy Giraffe
Have you ever seen a giraffe asleep? I haven’t. Maybe this giraffe is dead?

It is surprisingly difficult to get that much sleep in this season of my life. I have to get up pretty early most days, either because of my commute or in order to meet with ‘my boys’ for prayer before work. I’m a night-owl by nature, and there always seems to be one more thing I want to do before I sleep. Because of my involvement at church, evening meetings are not uncommon. From time to time I do some side-work, much of it volunteer labor for non-profit organizations. I try to spend time with my wife and my five children each day, and I do like to play a half-hour chip’s worth of computer gaming whenever I can fit it in. And then there’s writing blog entries whenever Kathy comes up empty. There just don’t seem to be quite enough hours in the day, and so I cut it out of sleep time, more often than not. To compound the problem further, during allergy season (late February to early May, for me) I don’t sleep very well and often wake up in the middle of the night, sneezing and congested.

Monday came too early
This could have been me on the train this morning.

Some people get by on less than six hours of sleep a night, while others need at least eight. One friend of mine routinely sleeps less than four hours a night, and I know several who view sleep as an enemy to be vanquished or avoided. People vary, but nearly everyone I know complains of being tired, especially on Mondays. I find that when I’m tired, my view of life darkens and narrows considerably, yet I’m unwilling to give up many of the things that vie for my time.

Don't wake me 'til at least 10 am.
I thought about posting pictures of myself asleep, but the logistics were kinda tricky, so I settled on sleepy animals.

Scripture seems a bit divided on this topic. On the one hand, sleep is portrayed as an enemy to financial security:

”How long will you lie there, you sluggard?
When will you get up from your sleep?
A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to rest-
and poverty will come on you like a bandit
and scarcity like an armed man.” – Proverbs 6:9-11

Yet on the other hand, even God rested when He had completed His work, creating the world. And Christians are encouraged to look forward to their eternal “Sabbath rest”. As I get older, the idea of eternity as ‘rest’ begins to seem a lot more attractive to me.

”There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience.” — Hebrews 4:9-11

Polar exhaustion
We have a bear like this at our local zoo …

So I’ll take an informal comment-poll: What is your philosophical view of sleep? Is it important for your health, or is it a necessary evil? How much sleep do you get, and what steps do you take to improve your chances of getting enough sleep?

Tim

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