the light at the end of the… day from hell, which was covered in crap

last week was a crappy week…

in the health care business, one typically works longer than an 8 hour day… if one wants to have a string of days off, they must then pay the price of stringing several days of working together… four days in a row is a lot, at least doing what i do…

this very long week hit it’s hardest on the third day… now known in my home as “the day from hell covered in crap”

particularly difficult patients were being particularly difficult, as was a particularly difficult nurse (as she had been for 2 days prior)… the treatment schedule just wasn’t working, and i found myself flustered and hurried, despite a few patients not even coming in that day… very little is more frustrating than being behind when you ought to be ahead…

but… 1230am came, and i set myself toward home… on time! (being late getting home would qualify as one of the few things more irritating than being behind when you should be ahead)

as i pulled up to my house some 20 minutes later, the christmas lights were still on!  i know for most people this would not be that big a deal, but it made me smile… and almost cry…

 yes, i am a bigger chriistmas fruit-cake than most… but the lights, at that moment, had less to do with christmas than they did woth thanksgiving… i was suddenly and violently over taken with grattitude for all the things in my life… my wife, my dog, my cat, my house… these stupid icicle lights that i didn’t want because i wanted my house covered in colored lights but we put them up because she thinks they’re pretty and i think she’s pretty…

those stupid lights reminded me that despite the amount of crap this day from hell had been covered in, it was all going to wash off…

yes there will still be tough days… days when there is less money in my accounts than gas in thetanks… days when nurses are just venomous vipers and the patients resemble scorpions… i’m sure to see more days from hell… more days covered in crap… indeed, more days from hell which are covered in crap…

but even if the icicle lights, my house, my cat, my dog, and my wife have all gone a.w.o.l…. Gid will still be there…

Lamentations 3:21-23 -

But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:  The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

cleveland WINS!!!

well… cleveland CHEF wins!!!

however, after the brownies dropped a woulda-shoulda-coulda at three-rivers yesterday and the disturbingly convincing defeat of our beloved buckeyes, the 2 most important words in that phrase are, indeed, “cleveland wins”.

last night, in the final challenge on the food network’s “Next Iron Chef”, Michael Symon (chef/owner of Lola and Lolita) bested New Orleans’ John “Big Country” Besh in a head-to-Head, winner take all cooking brawl.

The battle was won with typical “Iron Chef” drama and camp, the secret ingredient of swordfish being prepared in several different ways… even desert… courtesy of the cajun…

anyhow… this is the competition of the last three days that I, as a clevelander, am choosing to focus on…

have a good one

reflections

After a long absence, here I am to post again!!! 

I was blessed this past sunday to preach at my home church, Christ Presbyterian, in Chesterland, OH.

Here is the text, roughly, of that sermon:

Jesus, in John 14, tells us that those who have seen Him have seen the Father, because the Father is in Him and He is in the Father.  Without Jesus here now, how are people to see the Father?  Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:5 (as it reads in the ESV) that the Father “even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive TOGETHER with Christ…” We want to show the Father to the world because it was part of what Jesus came here to do.  Since we are now, as believers, alive with Him, we are to be about the things that He was about.  Verse 12 of John 14 says, “whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.”

            Why will we be able to do the things, and greater, that Jesus did?  He is going to the Father.  Jesus is no longer simply spiritually close to the Father, but they now occupy the same place in the heavenly realms.  Now Jesus is in an even better position to show His disciples (that’s us, btw) the face of the Father.

            Think about a large, full length mirror.  If it is held, say, fifty feet away, how well do you think you would see yourself in it?  Would you be able to fix your hair or count your freckles?  Would you be able to if the mirror was at twenty feet?  Ten?  Chances are you would need to be just a bit closer, at least to do these things well.  Also, the cleaner the mirror, the easier these things will be to see.

Due in part to the fact that Jesus is now near the Father in more than just a spiritual way, we have an opportunity to draw so close to Him ourselves that we might be strong, clear reflections of Him to a world so in need of Him, His Spirit, His Love

This is important to accomplish not just as individuals, but also as congregations.  Whether it is a local church, a bible study, a group of friends or a family, the closer a body is to the God it serves, the more effective it will be at being that shinning City on a Hill.  The better equipped it is to bring His love and healing, not only to the world, but to it’s own membership.  The more ready it is to attack and prevail against the Gates of Hell.

      The best way for a congregation to be drawn nearer to, conformed more closely, to the image of God, is for it to be made up of individuals who are desperately seeking that closeness in their own personal lives.  Each one sharpening the other, pushing and pulling, challenging each other to… “be all that they can be.”

How can we as individuals be all that we can be?  How can we, each one of us, enjoy intimacy with our Father that spills over into everything we do?

Worshiping publicly is where intimacy with the Father really gets started.  It forces us to outwardly recognize the awesomeness of God.  To show or tell others how we feel about our Father, about Jesus, and about the Holy Spirit.  It teaches us to get outside ourselves.  Brings us into the throne room of God, where we can cast ourselves at His feet.  We can abandon ourselves to the acknowledgement of His praiseworthiness, and lets us bring ourselves low.  Like King David before the congregation of Israel, including his own servant girls and his wife, stripping down to his underpants and dancing with joy at the return of the arc to the House of Israel.  This is what he said in 2 Samuel 6:21-22 “I will celebrate before the LORD.  I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes…”Humiliated in his own eyes.  That’s the first key to the intimacy that we are after.  We are NOT God.  WE are NOT the biggest or the best thing going. God IS.  We cannot be saved without recognizing this.  The process of sanctification stalls the second we forget it and even worse, reverses as we ignore it.   Sanctification is exactly what we’re talking about: the process of becoming more and more conformed to the image of God, as was intended in the beginning.  It’s how and why we were createdCould the kind of humility that leads to intimacy with God, the pride-less brokenness that David showed, possibly be exemplified by our Savior?  Why, yes!  In the second chapter of his letter to the Philippians (v.5-7), Paul tells us: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.”Jesus, who IS God, who IS the biggest and best thing going, was able to humble himself.  Puny us should have little trouble, right?  Maybe not, but it is an encouragement.  This humility allowed Jesus to submit to the baptism of John, despite His sinless state, breaking open the heavens so the Father could speak the words found in the third chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.”“…MY Son, whom I LOVE.”  These words of intimacy result from an act of humility.

Of course, Jesus modeled other disciplines that lead directly to intimate knowledge of the Father.  Mark 1:32-37 tells this story, which happens right after He heals Peter’s mother-in-law:

“That evening after sunset the people brought to Jesus all the sick and demon-possessed.  The whole town gathered at the door, and Jesus healed many who had various diseases.  He also drove out many demons…”

Realizing the healing service must have ended fairly late if the entire town gathered after sunset, we get a little more impact from this next part. 

“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.  Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”The art and discipline of solitude is another key to achieving intimacy with the Father.  It offers us the opportunity to reset our focus, to pray, and to think and learn.We are best tuned in to the Father when we tune out everything else. We reset our focus on God and on His Heart.  It is a time to refresh His presence in our lives.  The end of Luke 10 shows us Mary and Martha, sisters of Lazarus.  Martha sets about fussing; it actually says she was distracted with much serving.  She comes to Jesus, mad at her sister, Mary, for just sitting and listening to Him.  Instead of telling Mary to go and serve, it might be inferred that He is telling Martha to sit with them when he tells her that Mary has chosen better.In Luke 5:16 it says Jesus “often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”  Pastor Tony Evans believes this is how Jesus was able to have such an impact on so many lives.  He spent significant and meaningful time in prayer, and in momentary encounters changed lives.  Most of us spend little or no quality time in prayer, yet we expend a lot of time and energy try to impact even one life.  Even those of us who do commit to prayer often spend too much time talking and precious little listening.  It is in the listening that the third aspect of solitude comes out.Henri Nouwen calls solitude “the furnace of transformation”.  The transforming power of being alone with God, meditating on Him, devouring His Word, would be difficult to over state.  The other two aspects of solitude result in the thinking and learning aspect.  It is by resetting our focus and indulging in prayer and study that we are transformed by our time alone.  Similarly, the third key to drawing closer to the Father can be a summing up of the first two keys.

Obedience, the third key, requires that we know the commands of the Father and that we follow them.  Knowing the commands comes by cultivating solitude, knowing the will of God.  Following the commands requires acknowledging that we are not God, and that His ways are higher, and better, than ours. (P.S., Is 55:9) Back into John 14, specifically verse 23, Jesus says, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

If we love Jesus, we’ll obey His teaching?  If we obey His teaching, Jesus and the Father will come to us?  Sounds like this is passive.  Our obedience “enables” God to draw near to us.  Obedience is the opposite of sin, isn’t it?  Is it not sin that separates us from God?  God is a Holy God, and therefore can have nothing to do with sin.  So the more sin within us, the further God is from us.  Consequently, the more obedience we have within us, the less sin there is and the nearer God comes to us.  Look into your own lives, are not the times you feel the Lord most closely the times when you are walking the most closely in obedience?

Sin is dirt on our mirror.

The discipline of solitude and the gift of worship are ways that we actively draw ourselves towards the Father.  Ultimately, however, they lead us to obedience and it is our OBEDIENCE that allows the Father to draw near to us.  However, we cannot allow ourselves to be fooled into thinking that obedience will be easy.  With obedience comes sacrifice.  Philippians 2 continues in verse 8, “And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!”

Living in this nation, it is doubtful that any of us obeying will lead, physically, to death.  The death of our own will, perhaps.  Working at a youth center rather than going out on a Friday night.  Becoming a teacher rather than a baseball player.  A worship leader, rather than a rock star.

There is one other thing that should be said of obedience.  It IS NOT the means by which we are saved.  It is, more accurately, the way we show our love and gratitude to the Father for His grace.  We can only receive the gift of grace through faith in Jesus, by believing that what He did in His obedience was enough to satisfy the Father’s need for Holy Justice.  James tells us “faith without works is dead”.  Faith is like the wind, it cannot be seen.  Works, then, become the motion of the trees.  It is only by the motion of the trees, works (obedience), that the wind of faith can be shown— to the Father, to each other, to the world.

Do you desire closeness with God?  Are you willing to make attempts to draw near to Him through worship and quiet times alone? Are you ready to commit to obedience as He makes you able, so He might draw near to you?  Are you willing to take the steps NECESSARY to become an obedient servant?  To become a servant so close with their master that when people see you coming, they see very little of you and very much of Him?  Can you be a clean and close mirror for the Father, so His love can show into the world?

I am very much interested in feedback on this, so I might improve in both clarity and content.

this will mess you up… i promise

at the start… my appologies to anyone who clicked here expecting something other than what you are about to get… deal with it… the Spirit of God is like that sometimes…

i sat at my computer prior to begining my writting for the day and, as is my custom, began clicking through my list of favorite news sites and blogs.  many wonderful things awaited me.  pastor rick, out at cuyahoga valley church, was blogging about prayer (the topic some of you may have clicked here thinking you’d be reading about… and now i realize… you will) winn collier was blogging about the death of Madeline L’Engle.

then, i clicked over to the blog of andy sikora, the pastor who performed  the ceremony that joined me to my beautiful wife.

i watched the video… the song is one that i’ve heard several times, many of which have brought me to or near to tears… i was on the brink of tears when we used it as a song of reflection at church one sunday morning… but i actually wept tonight…

it messed me up… that bad

watch it.  it’ll mess you up, too.

if you’re still capable of reading after you watch it, i’ll explain how it connects to what i had thought i was writting about today… (ps… if for some reason it doesn’t post here, please go to andy’s site and come back for the rest of this)

you see… today’s post was supposed to be about praying dangerous prayers…  about how the other day, i prayed a prayer i would later regret, because it led to a particularly trying day at work… i prayed the LORD would just help me get better at loving the unlovable people, and the single most difficult patient for me to care for was “coincidentally” in my assignment… i had some plan of incorporating the idea of “ask, seek, knock” from Luke 14, and of using Romans 8:26 to explain that it wasn’t even really my prayer at all.  i was even going to include the lesser known story of Jephta and his daughter from Judges 11:29 and following.  but i’ve never prayed a dangerous prayer.  i’ve prayed prayers that led to discomfort, the opening of minds, of my own heart.  but i’ve never prayed a dangerous prayer.  not like that.  it pains me to admit, i don’t think i would if i could.  my heart doesn’t ache for the lost the way it should.  the way Jesus’ did.  for “when we were yet His enemies…”

yeah…

at long last…

I’ve been a close-walking Christian since I was about 17.  I was marinated in a strong Catholic home, one that did not favor tradition over faith.  Don’t get me wrong, when I came out of Catholicism, it was tough on my parents and our relationship.  Let’s just say that the stereotype most evangelicals and protestants have of the “Mary is more important than Jesus and superstition supersedes prayer” type Catholics, is as far from the life I grew up in as right is from wrong. 

Because of this emphasis of faith in my up-bringing, prayer has always… and I do mean always… been a part of my life…

but never like this…

Some 10 weeks deep in this married life, I’ve come to the realization that I’ve never prayed as well as I have in the last 2 months.  My prayer has flourished in the earliest days of my marriage, and I think Peter has a little something to say about why.

at long last… 1 Peter 3:17

“Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.” (as it appears in the NIV, emphasis added)

Well happy freakin’ birthday!

I’d read a little something about this verse in Gary Thomas’ book Sacred Marriage*.  So many people like to think that a strong prayer life is the key to a strong marriage.  Thomas points out that this might be a little backwards.  It seems as though Peter is saying a strong marriage can foster a flourishing prayer life.

So what’s the point?  Why is it that my prayers have been blossoming?

I think it’s like comedian Jeff Allen says, “Happy wife, happy life!”

I’ve made it my goal, though I know I fail enough, to make Shannon happy.  I don’t mean content or comfortable.  I pray every day my paycheck will do that.  I mean actually trying to make her happy.

In trying to make my wife happy, instead of myself, I think I realize a bit more deeply that I am not the most important person in my life.  I’m not even second place, or distant third.  Having this other person in my life to esteem higher than myself has actually drawn my attention even higher, to the God who created her and saw fit to bring her into my life.  See, I realize that God is bigger, higher, and more important than my wife.  I don’t always realize He is bigger, higher, and more important than me.  By putting her in a position that is between me and God, it shifts my perspective in a supernatural way.

I now find that my heart is being more conformed to that of the Son.  My prayers reflect a consciousness of others out in the world.  I’m praying more for other people than ever before.  My personal prayers usher me deeper into the presence of the Spirit than I have previously known.  It’s amazing.

How do we make our wives happy?  I believe Peter’s words above (the ones I emphasize, as a matter of fact) help us figure that out.

If we are considerate of our wives, what do we do?  We do things like putting the seat down after we pee.  We let her sleep as late as she can, and remind her when she absolutely has-to has-to get out of bed.  If she’s had a crappy day, we don’t get pissy because the dishes are still in the sink (and all over the counter).  We find out if she had a crappy day before we say anything at all about the dishes.  Better yet, we figure she might have had a bad day, and do them ourselves without saying anything.  (Not that I’ve gone to that extreme, I’m merely making suggestions.)

What does respect for our wives look like?  I think it means we let her unload her baggage on us.  Literally and figuratively.  Even if she’s done nothing but stay at home and do the dishes, or lay out in the yard catching some rays (which they do for us anyway), that doesn’t mean that there isn’t anything she’s concerned about. 

We’re supposed to be partners.  That means her concerns get equal voice.  It might be my place to be the brains (Lord, save us all) and her role may be the heart, does that make one less important than the other?  I think just the opposite.  I believe it fortifies the idea of equality… symbiosis.  Look at the example of your own body!  If your brain cuts out, does your heart not stop beating shortly thereafter?  Likewise, if the heart is no longer beating, the brain becomes little more than a lump of gray nastiness, roughly the consistency of tapioca pudding.

Respect, to me, is acknowledging equality.  Respect and consideration will take you far on the path to making her happy.  Interest, kindness, gentleness, and leadership.  They’re all wrapped up into that.

So… put the toilet seat down, do the dishes yourself.

Make the bed (after she’s up and about), put gas in her car so her hands won’t smell like gas.

TiVo the game and take her to dinner.

Take her to dinner, but make her dessert. (If you need help here and can fry an egg, message me… I’ve got the easiest recipe)

In short… make her happy, and then pray… pray much, and often and for everything that pops into your head.

If it doesn’t work… the worst that will happen is your wife will be in a better mood.

*my favorite quote from Sacred Marriage reads like this:

“A man might be able to preach a sterling sermon, write inspiring books, quote the Bible front to back.  But if he hasn’t learned how to be a servant to his wife, to respect her, and to be considerate of her, then his spirituality is still infantile.  His prayer life– the lifeblood of his soul — will be a sham.”

circle the wagons

“For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.”

Matthew 18:20 (ESV)

 

When wagon trains headed out west, they formed a rather tight knit community.  This community formed despite the fact that many of it’s people had precious little in common.  Some where pastors, others prostitutes.  Men looking for land to farm.  Men looking for land to sell.  Families.  Runaways.  They shared little, save their great journey.

The Bible Study/Wrestling Match Shannon and I attend on tuesday nights often seems that way.  Metallica fans sit next to Chris Tomlin fans.  King James and English Standard Versions are used.  Guys with BFAs in pottery and fellas with BS in… whatever it is that lets you be a “Personal Banker”.  Gator fans and Buckeye fans.  Protestansts, Catholics, Evangelicals and Randoms.  We share precious little.  A love for food, perhaps, and the great journey we’ve undertaken.  To trudge through Scripture.  To work through it.  Together.  To me, that’s an acurate cross-section of what the church, the Body of Christ, should look like.

Maybe without the Gators fan… (I kid, I kid)

Now, when the wagon train fell under attack, this diverse group of people would come together to protect each other.  They “circled the wagons”, which created a mini-fortress.  We as a church have a similar practice.  Its called “prayer“.

Some of the number of people who attend the Bible study with me and my wife are leaving us for a time.  Some, including Shannon, have taken on an added responsibility to choose the next pastor at the church a few of us attend on sunday mornings.  Some of us are trying to make changes at work, at home, or simply in our own spiritual walks.  All of which, open us up to attack.  Last night, it was time to circle the wagons.

Prayer, particularly the laying on of hands, has such an impact on the life of a believer.  That’s our life line, or mode of communication between ourselves and our God.  Last night was a time of girding each other for battle.  We acknowledged our appreciation for each other, thanking God for each other.  Despite, and sometimes because of, our differences.

I left refreshed.  Exhuasted (9:30p-2:30a is a bit on the long side), but refreshed.  Ready to face a new day of challenges, and to issue one.  Lift each other up, before God.  Each other’s concerns, certainly, but don’t forget to express grattitude for the brothers and sisters that the Lord has allowed into your wagon train.  Express it to the Father in the presence of those whom you appreciate.  This, to me, is a raw, honest time of thanksgiving.  You may, from time to time, tell someone that you appreciate something they’ve done.  When you tell it to God, in front of that person, you are expressing the depth that appreciaton runs.  Not only in the things you are greatful for, but in the things you lift up on their behalf.

So, I strongly encourage, circled your wagons.  Set aside your differences within whatever group you find yourself in.  Lift each other up, encourage one another, be refreshed.

LOVE.

 

*”duh” comment- this is not the 1PT3:7 blog I’ve been working on, but this felt more important. 

deeper walk

No legit post, at the moment. (though I’m working on a doosey–pre-read 1PT 3:7, if ya like.)

Just wanted to post a link to the “deeper walk” blog.  It’s written by a pastor named Winn Collier, who’s written a few books, and contributed to Relevant Magazine in the past.  Today’s entry struck me, and it added a little wonder to my life.  I hadn’t quite put together how we need a physical Savior-God for any reason other than as a sacrifice.  Also, I hadn’t put together that we truly do treat the physical God as almost as far off as we sometimes belive the Lord of Heaven to be.

Anyway, go check out the entry titled “Physical God”.

More from me later.

i HATE c.s. lewis

I hate C.S. Lewis.  He drives me completely crazy, and steals all of my ideas.  Oh, sure defend him.  Point out that he was born 80 years before me, and that all of “his” ideas were written decades before I had them.  Seriously, I think Jules Verne stopped by sometime in the ’30s and took him an implant from 2120.  Then, he, bribed the doctor who delivered me to implant it in my brain, so that his past-self could receive transmissions of my thoughts.

Not really.

I actually adore the writings and thoughts of C.S. Lewis.  I have a feeling he and I would have gotten along pretty well if we’d ever met in life.  I also have a feeling that, if we meet in heaven, we’ll have a good laugh at how much we had wrong in our ramblings about God.

Part of why I like his writing is how much he makes me think, and how God always seems to deliver a reminder of thoughts I’ve had before though them.  Almost like God is saying, “remember this… yeah… I wanted you to write something about this, too.”

In The Problem of Pain, Lewis talks about the sin that caused the fall.  How it is simply the first act of self-will superseding the will of the Father.  This seems to imply that the actual act of eating the fruit is of little consequence.  The Lord could have said “Don’t stand on your heads, or you shall surely die.”  The sin was not what they did.  Rather, it was in that they did what God had commanded them not to do.  The desire to be happy from our own initiative, outside of God.  Self-idolatry.  Pride.  The first sin.  In Lewis’ estimation, the only sin man was capable of before the fall.

At what point was it sin?  The philosophy of motive brings this question.  As does Christ, Himself, when He puts forth the idea that when we are (unjustly) angry, we commit murder.  When we lust, we commit adultery.  So when did our ancient ancestors actually sin?  Was it when Eve’s teeth first pierced the apple?  When Adam’s did?  Was it when they first realized their desire to be like God?  Was it having that desire in the first place?

Does temptation equal sin?

I don’t personally, think that it does, unless you would like me to suppose Jesus was a sinner.  Indeed, He was sinless, yet tempted in many ways.  Certainly, in ways we’ve not the means of imagining.  I also find that uncontrolled anger (which He equates to murder) and burning lust (leveled with adultery) are sins in their own right, not mere temptations to the later.

So when did the sin occur?

I love my buddy’s Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder.  It’s a covertible, slick and silver.  Have I coveted by admitting I love his car?  I don’t want his car at his expense.  If the Lord so chose to bless me with my own Spyder in the future, I would gladly accept.  Have I sinned in any of this?  So did Adam and Eve sin when they realized the existance of the knowledge of good and evil?  That that knowledge was desirible?  Was it when they made that first move toward obtaining it for themselves, at the expense of their relationship with God?

The reason I ask these questions, I suppose, is to inspire each of us to search their heart.  There are many of the purest people I know who go through life just thinking they are the worst people, because they are always tempted.  People who so rarely give in to that temptation, yet it distances them from God because they feel like failures.  There are others who feel closer to God simply because they haven’t given into the temptation to a degree that it had some quantifyible consequence.  Yet they stare a little to long at the girl in the next pew, or pause a little to long on E! during the “Girls Next Door” marathon.  But they’re cool with J.C!

Our motivation is key.

If we are living to please God, we should take joy in knowing that He is our refuge, even when we mess up.  If you want proof, read about King David.  An adulterer, murderer, and “man after God’s own heart”. 

If we are living for our own pleasure, and acting like the Sons and Daughters of God, we should live in fear.  We will be found out.  If this is you, you too can take heart!  Our God is here for you as well!  Come and lay it all down again!  Let Him into the places You’ve tried to lock Him out of, and He will clean them and fill them.  He will fix your motivations and use you to further His Glory!

amen

statuesque

Just a random little tid-bit for any fellow Dane Cook fans (su-fi!):

You know his bit about how guys of different ethnicities approach fights.  How, for example, we white dudes lick our lips a LOT before we through down.  Okay… so my dog Molly is a border collie/BLACK lab mix.  Shannon and I took her for a walk in the park by my parents’ house.  There were like 5 deer up on a hillside.  Molly planted her hounches and cocked her head and did NOT move.  All I could think was, “She looks so statuesque.”  Then, I chuckled to myself, and watched as Shannon tried to distract Molly long enough to break her stance.  She did, and we moved on, but ah what a little slice of glee-pie for me!

“our house is haunted… it is…”

Molly stuck her little puppy nose into the waste basket in our bedroom, as Shannon and I were laying on our bed.  I called to Molly to cut it out.  Shannon sits up, seemingly terrified.  At first, I thought she was just playing around, but she explained that she only saw Molly’s back and thought she was simply staring at the attic door.  Shannon hates that attic door.  Shannon also doesn’t like to be at our house, alone, at night.  That’s at least 80% of the reason Molly is in our life.  (The other 20% being that she is the most impossibly cute/awesome dog ever)

Shannon is sometimes creeped out by the sound of a little girl playing… outside… at 1AM…

“Our house is haunted… it is…”

I don’t believe that she honestly thinks this to be true.  Neither do I.  If I hear an unexplained noise, though, it definitely freaks me out.

Later on last night, I had the distinct pleasure of holding my wife as she slept.  There was a moment where I realized that God had placed her not only in my life, but also under my protection.  In that moment, I was awash with fear.  I now had a wife, a dog, and a home to protect.  Eventually, if it how God chooses to bless us, there will be children to protect.  I felt completely vulnerable and naked (despite the 2 blankets on our bed… on a july night… you really don’t know someone until you live together).

Here I was.  Her protector.  Completely open to terror.  I started to think, “Who is here to protect me?”

A hand miraculously reached through the bed, smacking me in the back of the head.  “God, you IDIOT!” I heard, in not quite my own voice.

Everything I’d learned about the protection of the Lord came rushing back into my head, and into my heart.  How Hebrews 13:5 leads us back to Psalm 118 (v.6-7 specifically) in telling us that He will never forsake us.   That if He is with us, who can be against us?  I remember the verses I eluded to here just days ago.  In Psalm 20:1-2, King David, aman after God’s own heart prays for me, across 1,000s of years:

          “May the LORD answer you in the day of trouble!

           May the name of the God of Jacob protect you!

           May he sand you help from the sanctuary

           and give you support from Zion!”

My own awe at the God of Psalms, how He is the same God that died for me on the cross, in whose splendor I am daily invited to sit, who’s counsel I can seek in the person of the Holy Spirit so I am not led intop places of unneccessary danger.

Prasie God who has raised up an Army!!!  I have not only Him, but His warriors on my side to help me in the tasks He sets before me… not the least of which is protecting my family.  Halleluia… I am not alone… because I AM is always with me!!!