Praising God for His Work Through Our Friends

Tonight my heart is full of gratitude and aw for how God has worked, not only in my life, but in the lives of my peers.  Last weekend we went on a short support raising trip to Tennessee, and despite the fact that we got in a car accident which left us bruised, sore, and without a vehicle, we came back (in a rental car) thanking God not only for His protection, but for the glimpses of Himself that He has showed us in the lives of our friends.  In fact, this was the very conversation we were having as we drove down highway 27 on Saturday morning when that car pulled out in front of us.

I am so, so encouraged by the way that God is working through my college friends. 

Just 6 years ago we were all living in dorm rooms, attending class, and eating together in the cafeteria.  Yet since then our college friends have served the Lord in Bolivia, China, Kenya, Mexico, North Africa, South Korea, Spain, and Suriname. 

In the states they have ministered in the name of Christ to high school and elementary students from broken homes, the urban poor, and financially struggling families from all walks of life. 

They have worked to train and equip high school and college students to be servant leaders in the name of Jesus.

In local churches they are leading worship, teaching children and youth, leading adult small groups, serving on outreach teams, and planting new churches.

Many have started families and are waging war against the enemy through passing their faith along to the next generation, equipping them to be true worshipers of the King, and all of this before a world of watching neighbors, co-workers, and daily acquaintances.

Several friends have shared incredible visions that God has given them for taking the gospel to unreached people groups around the world, ministering to children in China with special needs, serving overseas on a Mercy Ship, reaching out to backpackers in Mexico, and working to expand education options for home school parents around the world.

On top of all of this, so many of them are supporting the work of foreign missions by supporting us in our mission to Peru.

How incredibly blessed and humbled we are to witness the advance of the kingdom through our dear friends.  Yes, the world is a dark and scary place, and evil sometimes seems to rule the day, but today our Lord has testified to our hearts as He did in John 16:33, "Take heart, I have overcome the world!"

Failed Passport Photo Attempts

Must have eyes open
Must be looking at the camera
Must not include any part of another person
Must not be smiling
Must not be moving
Must have white background

Apparently the flash is funny.

Escape!

OK, Mom, this is getting old.

Stop flashing that thing in my eyes!

New day.  Fresh start.

Can I have the camera?

An Older Brother Missionary

It occurs to me, that the story of Jonah and the people of Nineveh is strikingly similar to the story of the prodigal son and the older brother.  Jonah obviously was under the impression that he was more deserving of God's salvation than the people of Nineveh.  He apparently thought he had earned his salvation.  The Nenevites were rotten to the core, so what God did for them was quite blatantly a complete rescue.  Jonah didn't see his rescue that way.

I'm encouraged to know that God still used Jonah as a missionary, and still brought an entire city to repentance through his effort. 

God still uses and offers second chances to older brothers!

God Went for the Jugular

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A couple of days ago I randomly found myself reading an article online by some agnostic about how if there is a God of the Bible he must be evil because of all of the killing and rape condoned in the Bible.  And it shook me.  I thought about how as a reformer, I believe that God does whatever He wants to and is right in doing so because He defines right.  He made the clay and can do what He wants with it.  And I asked myself, "If God decided to send us all to hell someday, despite everything in the Bible, would that be good?"  As you might imagine, I found myself in a worrisome place, considering whether my faith was not largely brainwashing.   

I prayed that prayer from Mark 9, "I believe!  Help my unbelief!" and was called upon to move on with my day.  Finn has been extra clingy the last couple of days for some reason.  8 month developmental leap?

Anyway…  Then this morning I was doing my Bible study homework (Idol Addiction with Julie Sparkman), and it instructed me to meditate on Romans 8:1-4 in The Message.  And these words hit me in the face:

God went for the jugular when He sent His own Son.  He didn't deal with the problem as something remote and unimportant.  In His Son, Jesus, He personally took on the human condition, entered the disordered mess of struggling humanity in order to set it right once and for all.

Jesus is the answer.  Yes, God could choose to do whatever He wanted to with us, and He could choose to call it good, because He's the Creator and can do what He wants, but we know He's good because He chose to enter our struggle and condemn His son to death for us.  God the Son personally chose torture, rejection, loneliness, and death.  For us. 

I've often wondered at the way God chose to do things.  It seems that if He is going to make us all perfect one day, and live with us in a perfect place, then He could have started everything out that way.  And if He can ensure that we won't make wrong choices in the future like Adam and Eve did in the garden, then surely He could have done that for them as well.  We could have all been born into the garden and never had to deal with any of this mess!  But then Jesus would not have died, and we would not know His goodness as we know it now.  Maybe we will appreciate the righteousness of God more because we have known unrighteousness. 

So I'm still unsure about how to justify some of the "awful" things that happened in the Bible, and I will have to pray the prayer of Mark 9 often, but for now at least, I am satisfied in the knowledge that God must be good - because of Jesus.  And Jesus offers a hope like none other, that every person on this broken planet needs.

A photobook of our first months with Finn!

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Finn's Budding Independence

Finn has recently started crawling and pulling up on things, and it has made life with him so fun!  He is exerting his own independence and will, and I am enjoying it so, so much (most of the time)!

New Shoes!

One of our favorite things to do is play peek-a-boo.  I'll crouch around a corner and pop out to say "peek-a-boo" in a high octave (and super cheesy tone) that would probably drive most people up the wall, but Finn rewards me with the biggest grin every time!  And then comes after me.  He crawls right up to me, puts his soft little baby hands on my lap, and progresses to do everything he can to get into my arms.  It makes my heart melt.  I know I will miss this so, so much one day!

Playing piano with dad a couple months ago

 Finn also gets really excited about the piano.  Any time his gaze happens to drift up to the piano keys from his vantage point on the floor, he instantly heads that direction and proceeds to pull up against the piano bench and stretch his little arms out as far as they will reach.  He's just tall enough to be able to play a note or two this way.  It's so precious!  Of course, he doesn't stay satisfied with this situation, however, and soon lets everyone know that he wants to be lifted up onto the piano seat so that he can bang on the keys as vivaciously as his little heart desires.  He gets so excited and animated when you sit him at the piano.

And he wants to use the whole keyboard too.  Because his arm span can only cover about a third of the piano keys at any one time, he wants to be constantly moved from the low notes to the high notes and back again.  He'll reach and stretch as far as he can in one direction until you move him.  It's hilarious how particular he is.

Another favorite pass time is playing on the front porch. Finn loves to be outside, so several evenings ago, after he was in bed for the night, I took a mop and bucket out there and washed the floor boards so that Finn could crawl around without getting filthy.  Since then we've gone out there to play every day.  This activity, however, brings out a bit of Finn's emerging struggle with obedience.  Our porch is completely surrounded with a railing except for the exit on one side where there are 3 steps down to the sidewalk.  Finn is aloud to play anywhere on the porch except for in front of those steps.  When he starts to head that direction I watch very closely, and when he gets too close I say, "No no," in as firm yet calm a tone as I can.

And the beautiful thing is that he gets it!  Ninety percent of the time he stops in his tracks and turns around and looks at me for a moment before turning back to look at the steps and determine his next move.  I love to watch this reaction, because I can see the wheels turning in his head as he decides how to respond to my command.  He often turns back to the steps and begins going that direction a 2nd and 3rd time to see if I become more lenient, but usually he pauses and turns back to look at me each time I give my rebuke, and eventually he gives up on that part of the porch.  Occasionally his curiosity does get the better of him, and I get to swoop in and provide a more demonstrative admonition. 

Here we are enjoying the porch together!

Finn is also learning lessons from the leaves that occasionally blow onto our porch.  He's so curious about them and loves to feel them, crunch them, and unfortunately, taste them.  I'm always torn between sweeping the leaves off the porch first thing when we go out there and actually giving him the freedom to feel them, knowing full well that I'll have to take them away when he inevitably decides to put them in his mouth.  I know this dilemma is a baby version of much more difficult and consequential parenting decisions Derek and I will be called upon to make in the years to come.  Dear God, give us wisdom!

In other news...  changing Finn's diaper and clothing him can be quite the feat these days.  He's not nearly as receptive to "No no" while lying on the changing table, and man, can he squirm!