A Wild Ride Worth Taking

When I was ten years old, my family went to Florida’s Disney World theme park. I remember the highlight for my older brother was going on Space Mountain, the famous in the dark roller coaster that had many false rumors of people falling out and dying on the ride. How my brother got my mother on that ride I will never know. Riding in the same car with her, how we didn’t become the first casualties I also will never understand. My mother had a great talent for transferring her fears to us. It took a while for me to like roller coasters after that. However, over time, I grew to enjoy a good roller coaster and other amusement rides. Carnival rides, on the other hand, are something that I have learned to be skeptical of as I have matured. Something about a bunch of trucks descending on an empty lot one day and then a whole amusement park up and running the next day makes we wonder if they tightened all the bolts.

Mere Improvement is not Redemption

This afternoon, I was busy doing some things in the kitchen, when it occurred to me that I had been hearing a recording of  John Piper’s voice over and over again in the background.  What had happened is that while working on his homework, Drew had been listening to one of his favorite songs that had a small excerpt of a John Piper sermon as part of the bridge to the song.  Apparently, he had pressed repeat and then had forgotten to turn it off and went to play outside  after finishing his HW.   I must have listened to John Piper saying at least a dozen times, “God in eternity looked down at me foreseeing my  faults, my sin, my pride, and said, ‘I want that man in my family. I will pay for that man to be in my family with my Son’s own life.’  That’s love folks.  That is off the charts, mega love!”

Amen,yes it is.  But only for those who see their sin and pride.   For we cannot know the magnitude of God’s love until we have seen the utter wretchedness of our own sin.  I am more and more convinced of this as I continue to read through the Gospels with my family.   Christ constantly has run-ins with those who do not see him as a Savior and who refuse to see their need for a Savior.  The other day in Matthew 19 we read about the rich young man who was told that if he would be perfect he must sell all and follow Jesus.  The young man went away sorrowful because his possessions were great; they were his substitute Savior.   Jesus goes on to teach his disciples that it is not easy for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.  In fact, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle.  The disciples were astonished.  “Who then can be saved?” they wonder.  Christ answers, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Sanctified Leaf Piles

I currently live in an apartment complex (an exceptionally well-managed complex), which means that I no longer have to worry about shoveling snow, mowing lawns, and especially raking leaves. Raking was always my least favorite task because it never lasted. Just as soon as you thought you were down more leaves would fall or blow in from your neighbor’s yard. However, I do remember the fun that I had as a kid jumping in the leaf piles that we would rake up, and the fun I would have with my son as I would put piles at the bottom of his slide. Something about leaf piles that brings back wonderful memories, and it is what ND Wilson says about leaf piles in his book, Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl, that inspired this post.

The leaves are not falling. Not yet. They are changing, growing, accepting a new role. When they do fall, I shall rake them. I will scrape this sidewalk until the cast-off many-colored robes are mounded high. Then I will heave them into my yard. I will watch my sweatered children discover and rediscover the joy of playing with death, the joy of jumping, laughing, sneezing, and rolling in the remnants of another year, the joy of being buried and resurrected, of climbing in and out of a grave.

Whoever thought leaf piles could be sanctifying. Thank you N.D. Wilson for helping me see so much more in what seems to be so little.

Understanding What the Will of the Lord is

Our family is reading through the Gospels right now in our personal Bible reading time, and then discussing it together  later on.  John and I have found that reading the same passage as Drew is a very helpful way to disciple him.  At his age(actually at any age), it is so easy to just read something without really thinking about what it means or how to apply it.  We’ve asked him, and we’re asking ourselves to look for the answers to two questions: what does this chapter teach us about Christ and what does it teach us about being a disciple of Christ.  We’ve had some great conversations so far as we’ve read the first 16 chapters of Matthew. I’m looking forward to all that God will teach us through this project, and my prayer is that all three of us will see the depths of the love and mercy of Christ and follow after Him more and more.

Embracing the Other – My Own Journey to Complementarianism

John and I are reading Tim and Kathy Keller’s book, The Meaning of Marriage, and it has been a fruitful experience for both of us.  However, it was with a little trepidation and much anticipation that I began reading the sixth chapter, which was about Biblical gender roles.  Here’s why: I didn’t want to be disappointed in the presentation of gender roles, and I had experienced a lot of disappointment, especially of late.  Let me give the background to this statement with the following explanation:

My World’s a Stage

I am currently reading through Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl by N.D. Wilson, and it is fast becoming one of my favorite books. In talking about differing visions of the world he beautifully and correctly writes,

I see a stage, a world where every scene is crafted. Where men act out their lives within a tapestry, where meaning and beauty exist, where right and wrong are more than imagined constructs. There is evil. There is darkness. There is the Winter of tragedy, every life ending, churned back in the soil. But the tragedy leads to Spring.

“Beautiful but badly broken”

This world is beautiful but badly broken. St Paul said that it groans, but I love it even in its groaning. I love this round stage where we act out the tragedies and the comedies of history. I love it with all of its villains and petty liars and self-righteous pompers. I love the ants and the laughter of wide-eyed children encountering their first butterfly. I love it as it is, because it is a story, and it isn’t stuck in one place. It is full of conflict and darkness like every good story. And like every good story, there will be an ending. I love the world as it is, because I love what it will be.

- N.D. Wilson, Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl