May 2010
7 posts
To Walk is To Fall
Eve is walking right now. And that means Eve is falling right now.
She has a big bluish, purplish bruise on the right corner of her forehead. Her bottom would be black if she didn’t wear a diaper.I remember London during this time—always dirty. Always with a bruise on her head.
I honestly can’t believe Eve keeps getting up. I think I’d have thrown in the towel at fall...
April 2010
1 post
Why I Named My Daughter Eve
I’m teaching Bible class on Wednesday, and I’m stoked about my topic: “Why I Named My Daughter Eve.”
I guess it’s a little strange to name your daughter after history’s first sinner, after a woman who’s become a symbol for temptation. Eve is classified as one of the (if not the preeminent) “bad girls of the Bible.” And, of course,...
March 2010
7 posts
B Salt. Make life taste good.
My brother Bobby salted his ketchup. A friend recently reminded me of this and I thought, “Yep. That’s Bobby—excessively seasoning.” He poured salt on everything. He’d use three salt packets on already-super-salty McDonald’s fries. He’d take dares to pour salt directly into his mouth. Once, I saw someone dare him to do it for twenty seconds straight. He didn’t hesitate (and I think he made five...
How Would God Discipline My Kid?
Lately London’s been testing my worth as a disciplinarian. The results? Eh.
Sometimes I’m good. Sometimes I’m mean. Sometimes I’m too soft and she ignores me completely.
I’ve been trying to ask myself in each situation, “How would God love His child?”
At first I was convicted I wasn’t loving enough. That I needed more hugs, more tenderness. And...
Love
I cut my finger this week. “Cut” is an understatement. To say I almost lost a huge chunk of my pinky is more accurate.
Anyway, as I was standing at the sink watching my finger bleed, wondering what to do about it, yelling (in a surprisingly calm voice), and musing at what a beautiful shade of red blood is, Justin showed up. Immediately he wrapped my finger, stopped the blood, and made...
Discussion Ten Commandments
(This is one of the eight handouts from my teachwell session on facilitating excellent discussions in Bible classes. I couldn’t stop making handouts. Let’s be honest, we never talk about how to do this. So, I had a lot to say.)
If you want to facilitate a worthwhile discussion, keep the following things in mind: • Discussions must be instigated and led. They take preparation and...
Why I Love Lost Today
I am so happy Ben Linus found redemption.
Reminds me of people like Peter—or the Jews who stood in the crowd and cheered for Jesus to be crucified but then repented on Pentecost and got to celebrate what Jesus actually accomplished because of and in spite of them.
It is so breath-takingly beautiful when a lost soul is found. When a person chooses to stop making the wrong choices and takes...
Seeking Something New
I introduced Eve to outside today. She fell in love. She found sticks and leaves and rocks and held them up dramatically like she’d just found diamonds and rubies.
I’m always giddy to introduce my girls to a new experience—a new taste or a new smell, a new temperature even. I love watching them interact with something completely unfamilar. I love the joy that creeps across their...
A New Song
At Teachwell this weekend Justin talked about Isaiah 43 and the teacher as a harbinger of new things, about how teachers don’t just talk about what God did, they also point out what God’s doing.
He said, “Have you ever noticed how often God calls His people to sing a new song? Do you know why? Cause stuff’s happened since the last song.”
I LOVE that. I’m going...
February 2010
10 posts
The Incredible Book Eating Boy
It’s been a while since I’ve written about one of London’s books. The Incredible Book Eating Boy by Oliver Jeffers is one of my favorites. It’s about a boy who eats books (the book itself has a bite out of the back cover).
“Quite by accident,” the boy discovers eating books makes him smarter (plus he just likes the taste) and so he eats and eats and eats....
“There are two ways of getting home; and one of them is to stay there.”
– G.K. Chesterton The Everlasting Man
Brainstorming Crazy
Sometimes I feel like my life is too safe. I live in a middle class home in a safe little town with a safe job and middle class money woes. I eat spaghetti for dinner every Wednesday night. I drive a Taurus.
I honestly cannot think of something risky I’ve done this week.
I’m not okay with that.
Jesus was risky. Christianity should be risky.
So, I’m brainstorming crazy. You...
Tithing
I recently read Tithing: Test Me in This by Douglas Leblanc, another title in Thomas Nelson’s Ancient Practices series. Unlike other volumes in this collective work, Leblanc shies away from personal exploration or scholarly research, choosing instead to study tithing in action. Leblanc takes a journalistic approach, interviewing eleven individuals (or couples) who tithe and who’ve...
Broken in the Toy Aisle
Last night in the toy aisle of Target I met a woman who made me cry.
While our four girls, two of hers and two of mine, played with plastic-wrapped dolls and balls that weren’t ours, we introduced ourselves. She realized quickly that even an introduction was impossible without backstory.
I didn’t know her name and yet there she was, telling me about finding her husband in bed with...
“I can’t help but think that if we really believed our misplaced sexual...”
– This is one of the last lines in Randy Elrod’s new book Sex, Lies, and Religion (it releases today). I think it’s probably the most important thing he says. Longing, all longing, ultimately points to God and rightly ends in redemptive love.
I wish every person downloading a pornographic...
Does the body have to be present for a funeral to... →
Yesterday,on his blog, Justin asked the question, “Can a funeral be good without a body?”
He and I have been discussing this as he’s been reading through an assignment for one of his graduate classes. The book he’s studying has been very body-focused. At first I rejected this. After all, a person isn’t his or her body. Right?
Sometimes when I’m thinking...
Too Busy?
Yesterday was a LONG day. Started off on the wrong foot when I couldn’t find an open classroom in which to teach my 9 am Comp class. Ended with me writing this post at midnight. Somewhere in between I managed to get a lot done, including cleaning my house. I’m amazed at my efficiency, especially given London’s unusually sensitive temperament and general clingy-ness—totally...
“Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress?
Why embrace the bosom of...”
– Skimming through Proverbs today, on the hunt for a different, less challenging passage, I found this one. This line especially, “He will die for lack of discipline,” had me amen-ing and nodding even in the quiet of my living room.
This passage is about adultery, about the way a loose...
January 2010
22 posts
Let the Great World Spin
For the past few weeks I’ve been reading Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann, sipping it like a latte, hoping to draw out the pleasure, to preserve the intensity. I’d list this book as a contender for the great American novel if it weren’t written by an Irishman. But then maybe an outsider can see us most clearly. Maybe we need an objective third party to tell our story.
...
