Ok not really. More like I sit here holding a sick baby. That's why I couldn't blog on Wednesday - I was busy being thrown up on by a baby who is starting solids but has no stomach for rice cereal. Pears? Sure. Carrots? Bring it. Baby rice cereal, the most benign of all foods? NO WAY. (lesson learned)
And then once I fell off the wagon of my seemingly easy goal to blog for one week, I lost interest. Perhaps that's appropriate as I close shop here at Sunspotted. This was my first blog. I've loved it, but it's all about the kiddos now so I've got bring all blogging interests under one umbrella. Starting Friday, November 13th I should only be blogging at my new blog home: Groundspeed.
Monday, November 09, 2009
Thursday, November 05, 2009
National Adoption Month
And this year we get to celebrate with an adoption! (Our foster son of two years will finally become "officially ours.")
For other ways to observe this month go here.
For other ways to observe this month go here.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
Reading...
These days it seems all I read is stuff about Fragile X. On that front this is the best thing I've read.
Monday, November 02, 2009
Change of Plans
I wrote here that 2009 was going to be one of the most challenging years of my life. Yes. It's also been one of the clearest in terms of God's direction for our family. In April, (when I was starting my 9th month of pregnancy!) we won our custody trial for our foster son. There were soooooo many scary scenarios the jury could have picked, stuff that would have given us custody but that would still give birth parents visitation, stuff that would have forced us to stay in the area. But nope. The entire jury voted to terminate both parents. And then because God was just so showing off on our behalf (and because He answers prayer and because He loves our son and knew the plans He had for him...) neither parent appealed and we were in and out of our legal experience with a single trial. Uh, wow.
Then my husband graduated with his flight degree and we were all set to pursue our family dream of missionary aviation. But. Our baby was diagnosed with Fragile X, and suddenly it didn't seem like such a good idea to leave the country. For about a day (yup, only a day) we were absolutely bewildered why God had cleared us to go anywhere through our trial success only to throw up another road block. But then we learned of MFI, a flight organization in Florida that serves Haiti and the Dominican Republic, suddenly God's direction for our family cleared. To date, the husband has been officially invited to fly with MFI. Our Texas house is already sold, our closing date coming up too close for comfort. We will have to raise support but once we get the check for the equity in our home so we can once again afford to be without a paycheck for a bunch of months. God has made our path very straight and it's exciting.
But here's the one thing I can't stop thinking about out: We're going to be raising our kids in America. And when I think this my stomach drops a little. We weren't going to have to tackle the issues of commercialism etc. We were just going to get out! But now, now it feels as though my parenting duties to usher my kiddos into faith-filled, non selfish living has gotten harder.
For now I'm grateful that my kids have no idea what the Toys R Us Big Book is, in fact they don't really have a concept yet of writing Christmas lists or honestly, even asking for stuff. I guess because we don't do presents at their birthday parties and because at Christmas so many of the relatives give them money instead of unwrappable presents and then I tend to use that money for activities (pay for sports, summer camps etc.) and not on more toy clutter. So, so far so good. I mean I still have human children so they don't particularly like to share what they do have, but they at least aren't all about moremoremore...
We're going to be moving this year over the holidays so I think that alone will help keep things low-key, but starting next year we are seriously going to have think seriously (seriously) about what Christmas should look like for us. Because not only will we be in America, but we'll be in Florida and where I grew up in Florida is so much more superficial than anywhere I've lived since.
New challenges! When you're kids are young, so much of parenting is about keeping them bathed, fed, and put to bed. It's very physical. But now that I have a son in public school kindergarten I can already see the shift where our duties as parents will be more concerned with intellectual and spiritual shaping. The environment for this shaping isn't what we'd originally planned, but we know serving with MFI is exactly where God wants us, so I know we're equipped. Right?!
Then my husband graduated with his flight degree and we were all set to pursue our family dream of missionary aviation. But. Our baby was diagnosed with Fragile X, and suddenly it didn't seem like such a good idea to leave the country. For about a day (yup, only a day) we were absolutely bewildered why God had cleared us to go anywhere through our trial success only to throw up another road block. But then we learned of MFI, a flight organization in Florida that serves Haiti and the Dominican Republic, suddenly God's direction for our family cleared. To date, the husband has been officially invited to fly with MFI. Our Texas house is already sold, our closing date coming up too close for comfort. We will have to raise support but once we get the check for the equity in our home so we can once again afford to be without a paycheck for a bunch of months. God has made our path very straight and it's exciting.
But here's the one thing I can't stop thinking about out: We're going to be raising our kids in America. And when I think this my stomach drops a little. We weren't going to have to tackle the issues of commercialism etc. We were just going to get out! But now, now it feels as though my parenting duties to usher my kiddos into faith-filled, non selfish living has gotten harder.
For now I'm grateful that my kids have no idea what the Toys R Us Big Book is, in fact they don't really have a concept yet of writing Christmas lists or honestly, even asking for stuff. I guess because we don't do presents at their birthday parties and because at Christmas so many of the relatives give them money instead of unwrappable presents and then I tend to use that money for activities (pay for sports, summer camps etc.) and not on more toy clutter. So, so far so good. I mean I still have human children so they don't particularly like to share what they do have, but they at least aren't all about moremoremore...
We're going to be moving this year over the holidays so I think that alone will help keep things low-key, but starting next year we are seriously going to have think seriously (seriously) about what Christmas should look like for us. Because not only will we be in America, but we'll be in Florida and where I grew up in Florida is so much more superficial than anywhere I've lived since.
New challenges! When you're kids are young, so much of parenting is about keeping them bathed, fed, and put to bed. It's very physical. But now that I have a son in public school kindergarten I can already see the shift where our duties as parents will be more concerned with intellectual and spiritual shaping. The environment for this shaping isn't what we'd originally planned, but we know serving with MFI is exactly where God wants us, so I know we're equipped. Right?!
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Heaven
In Relevant Magazine’s Sept/Oct magazine there’s a brief article on heaven. Jason Boyett, a father who also happens to have just authored Pocket Guide to the Afterlife, ruminates on the gaps in Christianity’s afterlife picture as brought out by his young children’s’ questions.
Beet discusses the afterlife pictures created by other religions, and let me tell you, Jannah, the Islamic post-death paradise sounds like where it’s at. He also admits that our Biblical clues painting our heaven-picture are limited. Pearly gates, gold streets, and lots and lots of singing. From the lack of participation in the vocal worship segment of most of the churches I’ve attended, I’m guessing this heaven picture is not so exciting to the average Christian. No wonder Hell Houses are so popular this time of year. If we can’t excite young believers about heaven, we’ve just got to scare the hell out of ‘em.
This got to me think, what do I want heaven to be like? But just as soon as I asked this I knew this was the wrong question. I’ve read Mitch Ablom’s The Five People You Meet in Heaven and it made me mad. Oh. My. Gosh. For once, just once, could something not be about ME.ME.ME.ME.ME.ME.ME. I firmly believe that self idolatry is everyone’s biggest spiritual problem; the least we could do is contain that to this world and not extend it into the afterlife.
So what is the right question? For one, WHY is the Bible so silent on the specifics of heaven? I can’t help but think it may have something to do with, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” or “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Maybe we are to be so immersed in the work of restoring this fallen creation one love-action at a time, that we aren’t supposed to be thinking about heaven. We are supposed to be living heaven and in living heaven we will grow closer to God and our wisdom about God and all things God (including heaven) will grow out of this.
Which leads me to my next question, what has your faith-walk with the Holy Spirit already revealed about heaven?
For me, a few things…
1. It’s not in the Bible, but I think C.S. Lewis at least would support me in my firmly held belief that we will share our community with animals in heaven just as Adam appeared to in Eden. Once upon a long time ago, at an aquarium in Mystic, CT I looked into the eye of a whale as it slowly swam past me. It was chilling. I expect to be able to do that again without the glass between us. One upon another long time ago a sea turtle was trailing me in Hawaii. When I turned around there we were, face to face, and I screamed underwater. Of all the animals to be trailing you, a sea turtle is a nice benign pick, but it’s still a wild animal whose actions are, well, wild, so no, I didn’t think, Oh hey cutie, stick out your leg? Fin? (What is it called?), I’ll hold on and we can swim together. No. I was thinking, please don’t bite me. But I’d love to someday swim playfully with a sea turtle. Actually I expect to. I also expect that the Alaska moose that chased me off from my journal-writing, beaver-anticipating, pond-side spot will bump into me again and we’ll share a great laugh over what I must have looked like quickly gathering all my stuff. I have no idea what a moose-laugh will sound like, but that, that will be heaven. That’s what my faith-walk in and around nature has taught me.
2. My faith-walk in serving has taught me that the place Jesus has prepared for me in heaven will be a place where everyone’s physical needs (if they exist at all) will be met. No mission trips to build houses in Mexico. Jesus prepares all our spaces and places. No Saturday mornings at the soup kitchen because uh, no soup kitchens! I’ve worshipped with people of other colors and nationalities and the Holy Spirit in me resonated clearly that it pleased God so I know that I will finally be shoulder to shoulder with all colors in my daily heavenly worship.
3. And one last thing I know to be true about heaven: no knee sprains. My body, whatever my body will be in heaven, will be fully restored as God intended it to be and the one thing I know for sure about that is that if I have knees, they won’t sprain. Between 16 and 21 I averaged two really bad knee sprains a year. I cannot tell how frustrating it was to be young and vital and running around and then bam, I’m down on the ground writhing in pain no longer feeling so young or vital. It sucked so bad. Bad enough that after I suffered another knee-sprain AFTER my arthroscopic surgery I swore off lateral movement. This pretty much meant no sports, no pivoting, just straight-line walking and elliptical machines for my athletic future. And this has worked. My last knee-sprain was the one and only after my surgery and my husband (who was then just my boyfriend) and I have never again attempted another game of racquetball. This is mildly disappointing and I imagine it will be worse as my three boys get older and I want to play football in the yard with them (I’m not a wuss!) but when/if I still get discouraged about my knees I remember a clear promise I received in the midst of my knee-sprain years – It won’t be like this in heaven. In heaven, I’ll never know that pain.
So, in summary, Jason Boyett, to help you and your kids with your heaven-picture you can add:
Moose laughter
Whale/sea turtle swims
Multi-racial worship
Something beautiful existing wherever the soup kitchens would otherwise be
And me, out there on the heavenly sand volleyball court, and maybe I still won’t have perfected my serve but at least I will have zero worries of spraining a knee.
Oh, and I bet that if you prayed about what “something-beautiful” is, He might just tell you.
Beet discusses the afterlife pictures created by other religions, and let me tell you, Jannah, the Islamic post-death paradise sounds like where it’s at. He also admits that our Biblical clues painting our heaven-picture are limited. Pearly gates, gold streets, and lots and lots of singing. From the lack of participation in the vocal worship segment of most of the churches I’ve attended, I’m guessing this heaven picture is not so exciting to the average Christian. No wonder Hell Houses are so popular this time of year. If we can’t excite young believers about heaven, we’ve just got to scare the hell out of ‘em.
This got to me think, what do I want heaven to be like? But just as soon as I asked this I knew this was the wrong question. I’ve read Mitch Ablom’s The Five People You Meet in Heaven and it made me mad. Oh. My. Gosh. For once, just once, could something not be about ME.ME.ME.ME.ME.ME.ME. I firmly believe that self idolatry is everyone’s biggest spiritual problem; the least we could do is contain that to this world and not extend it into the afterlife.
So what is the right question? For one, WHY is the Bible so silent on the specifics of heaven? I can’t help but think it may have something to do with, “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” or “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Maybe we are to be so immersed in the work of restoring this fallen creation one love-action at a time, that we aren’t supposed to be thinking about heaven. We are supposed to be living heaven and in living heaven we will grow closer to God and our wisdom about God and all things God (including heaven) will grow out of this.
Which leads me to my next question, what has your faith-walk with the Holy Spirit already revealed about heaven?
For me, a few things…
1. It’s not in the Bible, but I think C.S. Lewis at least would support me in my firmly held belief that we will share our community with animals in heaven just as Adam appeared to in Eden. Once upon a long time ago, at an aquarium in Mystic, CT I looked into the eye of a whale as it slowly swam past me. It was chilling. I expect to be able to do that again without the glass between us. One upon another long time ago a sea turtle was trailing me in Hawaii. When I turned around there we were, face to face, and I screamed underwater. Of all the animals to be trailing you, a sea turtle is a nice benign pick, but it’s still a wild animal whose actions are, well, wild, so no, I didn’t think, Oh hey cutie, stick out your leg? Fin? (What is it called?), I’ll hold on and we can swim together. No. I was thinking, please don’t bite me. But I’d love to someday swim playfully with a sea turtle. Actually I expect to. I also expect that the Alaska moose that chased me off from my journal-writing, beaver-anticipating, pond-side spot will bump into me again and we’ll share a great laugh over what I must have looked like quickly gathering all my stuff. I have no idea what a moose-laugh will sound like, but that, that will be heaven. That’s what my faith-walk in and around nature has taught me.
2. My faith-walk in serving has taught me that the place Jesus has prepared for me in heaven will be a place where everyone’s physical needs (if they exist at all) will be met. No mission trips to build houses in Mexico. Jesus prepares all our spaces and places. No Saturday mornings at the soup kitchen because uh, no soup kitchens! I’ve worshipped with people of other colors and nationalities and the Holy Spirit in me resonated clearly that it pleased God so I know that I will finally be shoulder to shoulder with all colors in my daily heavenly worship.
3. And one last thing I know to be true about heaven: no knee sprains. My body, whatever my body will be in heaven, will be fully restored as God intended it to be and the one thing I know for sure about that is that if I have knees, they won’t sprain. Between 16 and 21 I averaged two really bad knee sprains a year. I cannot tell how frustrating it was to be young and vital and running around and then bam, I’m down on the ground writhing in pain no longer feeling so young or vital. It sucked so bad. Bad enough that after I suffered another knee-sprain AFTER my arthroscopic surgery I swore off lateral movement. This pretty much meant no sports, no pivoting, just straight-line walking and elliptical machines for my athletic future. And this has worked. My last knee-sprain was the one and only after my surgery and my husband (who was then just my boyfriend) and I have never again attempted another game of racquetball. This is mildly disappointing and I imagine it will be worse as my three boys get older and I want to play football in the yard with them (I’m not a wuss!) but when/if I still get discouraged about my knees I remember a clear promise I received in the midst of my knee-sprain years – It won’t be like this in heaven. In heaven, I’ll never know that pain.
So, in summary, Jason Boyett, to help you and your kids with your heaven-picture you can add:
Moose laughter
Whale/sea turtle swims
Multi-racial worship
Something beautiful existing wherever the soup kitchens would otherwise be
And me, out there on the heavenly sand volleyball court, and maybe I still won’t have perfected my serve but at least I will have zero worries of spraining a knee.
Oh, and I bet that if you prayed about what “something-beautiful” is, He might just tell you.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Happy...
Halloween. Florida/GA game day. All Hallow's Eve. Whatever it is you're celebrating today.
Just peeking in to say my time at Sunspotted is drawing to a close... Officially. In honor of National Blog Post Month I'm going to do an abbreviated version and post here the first Sunday to Sunday in November and then I'm out.
What can I say? All things family have just taken over. The family blog remains very active but password protected. When my middle son's adoption is complete November 13th, I'm started a new public blog with a family focus but one that will hopefully be more rounded out to represent my other interests as well.
That's the news. Till tomorrow... (I promise!)
Just peeking in to say my time at Sunspotted is drawing to a close... Officially. In honor of National Blog Post Month I'm going to do an abbreviated version and post here the first Sunday to Sunday in November and then I'm out.
What can I say? All things family have just taken over. The family blog remains very active but password protected. When my middle son's adoption is complete November 13th, I'm started a new public blog with a family focus but one that will hopefully be more rounded out to represent my other interests as well.
That's the news. Till tomorrow... (I promise!)
Thursday, October 08, 2009
Is Jesus really the only way to God?
Let me preface this by saying that I am not "losing my salvation" over this question! :) I believe in Jesus and have staked my entire life on his death on the cross and resurrection. But I still have a few thoughts...
Recently, my pastor's Facebook status read, "Is Jesus really the only way to God?" Of course, everyone that replied in the comments said yes and gave their reasons, some scriptural and some...not so scriptural. Someone even quoted C.S. Lewis' liar, lunatic, or Lord idea. (Perhaps they haven't read Lewis' The Last Battle in the Narnia series.)
The fast, obvious answer to the question is, yes, Jesus is the only way to God. Learned it in Sunday school, said the prayer, still go to church. Proved by scripture:
John 14:6 "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'"
1 Timothy 2:5 "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."
But...
The Joshua Project estimates that there are over 6,000 unreached people groups, totaling about 40% of the world's population. That's almost half of the world that has never heard the gospel, never heard about Jesus, the cross, or Christianity. How can I reconcile that fact with 2 Peter 3:9? ("The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.")
Acts 17:26 "From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live."
So, God doesn't want anyone to perish, wants everyone to come to repentance, and has also determined the time and place we should live in.
What if I had not been born in America, but to a family in an unreached people group? The Bible tells me that God would not want me to perish, but to come to repentance. But I would never have heard about Jesus.
Psalm 19 says, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world."
What about those people that have never and will never hear about Jesus? The Bible says that God's creation bears proof of His existence that is visible to every speech and language. Is it possible that a person could come to acknowledge and worship God by meeting Him through His creation and NOT through Jesus' death on the cross? Would someone like that still perish because they didn't know Jesus existed?
I don't think God would allow someone to perish under those circumstances, but that's just my opinion. What I do know is that God is bigger than my brain and bigger than our understanding of Him and His Word. We shouldn't place limits on what He can do.
This whole thought process has lead me to think about the Bible being infallible vs. inerrant, but that's another can of worms!
Recently, my pastor's Facebook status read, "Is Jesus really the only way to God?" Of course, everyone that replied in the comments said yes and gave their reasons, some scriptural and some...not so scriptural. Someone even quoted C.S. Lewis' liar, lunatic, or Lord idea. (Perhaps they haven't read Lewis' The Last Battle in the Narnia series.)
The fast, obvious answer to the question is, yes, Jesus is the only way to God. Learned it in Sunday school, said the prayer, still go to church. Proved by scripture:
John 14:6 "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'"
1 Timothy 2:5 "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."
But...
The Joshua Project estimates that there are over 6,000 unreached people groups, totaling about 40% of the world's population. That's almost half of the world that has never heard the gospel, never heard about Jesus, the cross, or Christianity. How can I reconcile that fact with 2 Peter 3:9? ("The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.")
Acts 17:26 "From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live."
So, God doesn't want anyone to perish, wants everyone to come to repentance, and has also determined the time and place we should live in.
What if I had not been born in America, but to a family in an unreached people group? The Bible tells me that God would not want me to perish, but to come to repentance. But I would never have heard about Jesus.
Psalm 19 says, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world."
What about those people that have never and will never hear about Jesus? The Bible says that God's creation bears proof of His existence that is visible to every speech and language. Is it possible that a person could come to acknowledge and worship God by meeting Him through His creation and NOT through Jesus' death on the cross? Would someone like that still perish because they didn't know Jesus existed?
I don't think God would allow someone to perish under those circumstances, but that's just my opinion. What I do know is that God is bigger than my brain and bigger than our understanding of Him and His Word. We shouldn't place limits on what He can do.
This whole thought process has lead me to think about the Bible being infallible vs. inerrant, but that's another can of worms!
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