Redeeming creation one byte at a time
Faith
Posts specifically linked to just Christian topics.
Meeting God at airports
2There is a primer on Calvinism called ‘Calvinism at the Las Vegas Airport’ that I need to read at some point. If I were to write a tomb surrounding airport theology, I’d have to call it ‘hooking up the transient to the intransient’. It’s been said, but airports are great – I like them a ton. There’s a beauty inside larger airports that, originally designed, were supposed to convey a feeling of transcendance and of something bigger than yourself. I think that’s why I love them.
There’s also a certain poetry to seeing people from all around the country and knowing that the interactions you have with them will probably be the only time you’ll see them in your entire life. Normally walking into a large crowd of people within your city (even in B-N) there’s somebody that looks familiar. Walking into a large crowd inside an airport there is absolutly no chance that you’ll ever see someone who’s familar unless you’re traveling with them.
In all of this temporary permanence, I find that as a Christian I often bump into God at airports. It’s seems that there is a growing list of cool stories I have about making impossible connections or praying big prayers and watching them answered in real time that continues to keep me facinated with these places.
Happy Anniversary
1Today marks a rather ominous anniversary for us as a family. A year ago today was a Sunday and Melissa, Aidan and I headed out for a Youth group activity at church. Aidan had been feeling a bit ill the whole weekend, but it wasn’t anything that was particularly devistating and it seemed that he was on the mend. Well, following the activity as we were all sitting aorund, Aidan’s fever spiked and he had a fairly big fever seizure in the lobby of our church that caused him to stop breathing for sometime.
There were a lot of tears, a lot more prayer and a lot of fearful hearts that evening. It was at that moment we shook loose the bonds of medocrity and complacancy and again started down the path to what God intends for us. I wish I had enough time and a trusted audience to speak of what this event did to our church and our family. Suffice to say there is a good story there for Aidan one day in the future of faithfulness, of love and of community.
If you want to read the original post, it’s here, and a post from our dear friends the ouns is here as well. One of the more poignant moments from the evening was after having our entire pastoral staff come in to visit that night talking with the nurse, who was a believer, and the paper that she wrote on for us as she heard that a child was coming in ‘under full arrest’ and how she was praying for us with the possiblity of not seeing Aidan ever again. I also remember later watching Aidan sleep not knowing the implications of the seizure and possible long term damage it had done; he woke up and immediately asked for his elmo doll. It was a gift to hear those words.
So, tonight, we’re celebrating. It’s been a trial-filled year as God has lovingly beat some things out of us but we have emerged much different people than we were 12 months ago and 12 months from today we’ll be different people yet.
I think it will be good and right to mark today as part of our family’s calendar and use the day to be thankful for having a God and friends who won’t let us be complacent, who speak truth into our lives even when it hurts and who will weep with us when we need it.
I wish I could put into better words what I’ve learned about myself from this experience; about being real, about loving well and keeping people close even though it hurts sometimes. Instead, I turn to a favorite ‘poet’ of mine – Joey Belville. Lead singer of the group The Echoing Green, this song sums up this day so well for me. Love to you all.
SUFFER (Joey B., Chrissy J.)
With a moon half-empty
and a sky that’s gone to waste
and the twilight offers cold embrace
the amber of autumn fades
and the greys of summer’s mistakes
and the dreams we try to replicate…
they fall away
isn’t this world something wonderful
that we were made to suffer both it’s honesty and cruelty?
today
with a heart half-empty
and a light I’ve yet to see
and the sadness takes ahold of me
and fire-white burns like…
agony.
entropy.
we all fall apart
to the cadence of our bleedng hearts
they fall away
isn’t this world something wonderful
that we were made to suffer both it’s majesty and cruelty?
they fall away…
and is grace not something beautiful that we were made to suffer?
the lucid touch of clemency.
and our tears become a sanctuary we are made to suffer
with tenderness and empathy.
we are made to suffer.
Simplicity is Innovation
1There are a few disjointed ideas that have been floating around in my head the past couple of days in advance of a talk I’m giving for InterVarsity a week from Thursday. The purpose of the talk will be to cover the part of IV’s doctrinal statement that states that we believe in:
The indwelling presence and transforming power of the Holy Spirit,
who gives to all believers a new life and a new calling to obedient service.The unity of all believers in Jesus Christ,
manifest in worshiping and witnessing churches
making disciples throughout the world.
It more than likely will be one of those talks that really touches some nerves because there are alot of different directions I can take it…
Remembering: a nuturing mother.
0This is my last post in this series; I need to move on to lighter topics, but I want to share just how important of an event this was and what a special person my mom was.
Remembering: a stunning woman.
0A week from today marks an anniversary of an event that, I believe, really threw me headlong into adulthood. I believe in learning from ‘watershed’ moments, but 10 years ago, there was an even that is unmatched to this day; an event so earth shattering that the effects are felt to this day. My mom died of cervical cancer on August 29th, 1996. Since it is the 10th anniversary, I think I want to spend a few days (I’m not sure how many) looking at the effects of this event on my life and remembering things that I loved about my mom.