Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl!

What a difference a year makes.

June 8, 2009



June 8, 2010


I love you, little girl.

"the cares of this life"

Yesterday morning I glanced at my copy of The Daily Light devotional so that I could say I at least looked at a bit of scripture that day. (The link takes you to the exact reading that comes up for June 3.)

The verse that caught my eye was this one:
"Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly." (Luke 21:34)

Of course, carousing and drunkenness are not necessarily my weaknesses, but being weighed down by the cares of this life? Yes, I can get caught in that.

As an aside, when I looked up a different version of this passage, the word used in place of "carousing" was actually "dissipation," an archaic word from the 15th century, but is the noun form of "dissipate". I know about feeling like my day, energy, and focus has completely "dissipated." And it's not anyone else's fault, so maybe it does apply to me more than I'd originally thought.

Back on track.

I appreciate that Jesus said that our hearts can be weighed down by caring about the "stuff" of life, just as much as other sins that can be detrimental to our souls. So yesterday morning I made the conscious choice to not be worried about "what we shall eat or what we shall wear, for our heavenly Father knows we have need of these things."

The providence of God is amazing. No sooner had I read that and put the baby down for a nap than I discovered that I'd missed a phone call from Sam. Since I had both hands free for the first time all morning, I called him right back.

"Well, they laid me off."

I have to confess, I had a kind of sick feeling in my stomach when he said that. However, as we talked, we both had faith rise in our hearts. We had been expecting this, since he has graduated and the internship is really only as long as he was in school. The really strange part about it was that they had offered him a job last week and gave him a few days to consider it, but before they asked him whether he wanted to take the job, they gave him a separation notice. That was pretty low. The job they'd offered him would have required 300 miles of commuting each day so it would not have been ideal at all, but ... well, I won't say anything more about it.

As strange as it sounds, we are encouraged this week. This is a very obviously closed door. Up until a week ago, this job was a very real possibility, albeit a sort of job that would end up going nowhere. Now it is not an option anymore, so Sam must look elsewhere. We are praying that they will give him a new separation letter saying that it was due to 'lack of work' so that he will be able to collect unemployment.

There have been a few people who have offered already to give Sam's resume to their companies. We are praying those contacts are solid and come back with job offers. We are also praying that the next job he gets will be something that is a significant step toward a career, that will allow him to be a parent and a husband, and that will meet our financial needs. We are also praying that it does not require a relocation, but if we must move, then we can do that, too.

No, we do not really know how we will pay our bills in the next couple of months. But we trust the Lord. He is our provider; a corporation is not our provider. Granted, we do hope that very soon a particular corporation will be God's instrument to provide a regular paycheck, though!

The Kingdom of Heaven is Like...

This is going to be quick (I hope) because I just put the baby down for a nap, and I have a few things that need to happen before we head out for a visit. But since last night I have been thinking about this and I have to get it out.

The Kingdom of Heaven is like ... a kingdom!

Last night I realized I am very appreciative of the fact that Jesus speaks of the kingdom of heaven as a kingdom. Everyone understands a kingdom, even a 3-year-old. There's a king, and he's the boss. No one else is the king. He has dominion over his kingdom. If he's a good king, there is peace and security. If he is not a good king, then, well, there is mud, and slop, and repression.

"I didn't know we 'ad a king. I thought we were an autonomous collective."

Conversely, I appreciate what the kingdom of heaven is not like:

A bureaucracy. God doesn't have to deal with red tape.

A family. God is not dysfunctional.

A utopia. No one understands what utopia really is. Try explaining it.

An autocracy. Like everyone doing what they want is really conducive to society.

A republic. Aren't you glad you don't have to speak to your representative every time you want to ask God for the funds to pay your bills, or to help your baby poop, or to make a hemorrhoid go away, or to help you change your attitude?

A democracy. I'm glad we don't vote on who is in charge of the universe.

A corporation. Thank God we don't have to worry about heaven being downsized.

A university. I am so glad I don't have to work to get in, don't have to keep my grade up, and can't fail out of life or the kingdom.

In all, I am so grateful that the Kingdom of heaven is like ... a kingdom. Which cannot be shaken, and endures as long as its King.

The Magic of Words: Innocuous or Insidious?

This morning I was channel surfing while waiting for the Universal Sports channel to finish its infomercial and start playing the Boston Marathon live. I landed on the PBS Kids station, where Word World was playing. It is a great show, with a little jingle every time they put letters together to sound out a word. Today's word was H-A-T, hat.



There was a very cute little story about one of the characters having a H-A-T, a magician's hat, to be exact. Then the wind blew it to the next character, and it changed to a chef's hat; then it blew to the third character, where it became a silly beanie hat with a propeller on top. Behold, the magic of words: any kind of hat is still called a hat!

But that's when it started to get interesting. The first character (Sheep, if you really must know) said, "For me a hat meant a magician's hat. For Pig it meant a chef's hat. And for Duck it meant a silly hat!" That's all fine and dandy until she went on: "That's the magic of words! One word can mean different things to different people. "

Yes, H-A-T is a hat, whether it keeps you warm, keeps the sun out of your eyes, or is just for decoration. But what about when you come to abstract words, like T-R-U-T-H and R-I-G-H-T (or R-I-G-H-T-S, for that matter) and W-R-O-N-G? Do they all mean different things to different people, or is there a standard meaning for them, unchanged by our individual perspectives?

Lizzie is too young to know what any of the phonics or philosophy are about, and I'm not about to boycott PBS, but I'm that much less inclined to use the TV as a babysitter.

Hodge & Podge

From la Casa de Chen

It's Friday. Welcome!

This will probably be a hodge-podge style post. My week has been something of that sort, so why would my blog reflect anything but?

I will start by saying that we had a lovely, relaxing Easter with my family after church. Instead of the traditional big dinner, we "cheated" and picked up KFC. It was really liberating.

Here is our little Easter princess in her Sunday finery, with her basket and plastic eggs. She might just be the cutest drooling princess I've ever seen.

Sunday morning I had my first week of my rotation to be "in the nursery" even though I've spent probably the last 6 weeks staying in the nursery anyways. (I'm trying to smooth the transition for Lizzie. If she's well enough this week to bring her, I will leave her there.) Unfortunately, Lizzie was sick, so she couldn't stay there. At least I couldn't let her be there with good conscience. But being the noble man that Sam is, he stayed in the foyer at church with Lizzie, while I stayed with other people's children. It was actually easier for me that way!

Yesterday was Lizzie's 10 month birthday, and she celebrated by tearing up a roll of toilet paper. See image 2, below:


Her recent toddler accomplishments are as follows:
Waving "bye-bye" at appropriate times!
Taking 1-2 steps together, though mostly unintentionally. No real walking yet, but we're pretty close!
Sharing food from the high chair
Trying to tear the non-slip mat off the bottom of the bathtub
Turning off light-switches (turning on is trickier)
Finding Daddy's and Mommy's belly buttons (not her own yet)
Sleeping through the night most nights (hallelujah!)
and producing cups and cups of drool and snot

My weekly accomplishments have included:
Figuring out which medicines are safe to take for a head cold, allergies, and general yuckyness while nursing
Taking Lizzie to the pediatrician to find out that "she has a cold"
Getting dressed before noon every day
Going through at least one box of tissues, singlehandedly
Making a menu plan, then:
Going to the grocery store
Making stew in the crock pot
Clogging the kitchen sink making previously-mentioned stew
Cleaning up under the kitchen sink after Sam fixed the previously-mentioned clog
No, it has not been one of my best weeks.

Sam's weekly accomplishment is huge, though. Thanks are due to all-powerful God, and everyone who has prayed for him and his school project this month, because his project has finally been approved to continue! This means that he can finish working on it and if he manages to meet all his other deadlines in the next month, he will graduate this spring! It is a tremendous breakthrough, and we are so grateful.

Easter Anniversary

Easter is one of the few holidays that is actually observed on the day that the event we celebrate occurred.

Thanksgiving is on the 3rd Thursday of November.

Christmas is an arbitrary day in December.

Columbus Day is just observed on a convenient Monday.

President's Day is a combination of both Washington and Lincoln's birthdays.

But Easter is the Sunday following Passover.

Just like it was originally.

That goes to show how important it was then, and how important it still is.

He is risen.

He is risen indeed.

The Day We Did Not Deserve

Today is Good Friday.

Today a friend's sister gave birth to a 20 week old boy who did not make it.

Today an acquaintance through an online forum lost her dad.

Today a friend's little boy in the NICU is 2 weeks old; or 29 gestational weeks old. He's a fighter, but he has had a hard 2 weeks, and has many more hard weeks ahead.

Today I see the fine line between death and life, and I am thankful for the One who made life stronger than death.

Today we commemorate the crucifixion of the Son of God.

Today is the day before Passover, commemorating when God "passed over" his people who in obedience and faith brushed their doorposts with blood of a lamb, and did not perish when Death visited Egypt.

Today is two days before Easter, commemorating when Jesus, having submitted Himself to the Father, even unto death--even unto death on a cross--was raised again, alive by the power of the Holy Spirit, so that we can in obedience and faith live and not die.

Today is a day that none of us deserve.

I read Luke 7 today and had never seen the emphasis on deserving before. All emphasis is mine.

When Jesus had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. There a centurion's servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. The centurion heard of Jesus and sent some elders of the Jews to him, asking him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with him, "This man deserves to have you do this, because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue." So Jesus went with them.
He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to him: "Lord, don't trouble yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof."

I admire the honesty of the centurion's heart. He knew whether God owed him any favors or not, even though the people who were impressed by his generosity and character seemed to think he had earned something.

That story ended well. As did this one a few verses later:

Soon afterward, Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. As he approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her. When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, "Don't cry."

Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, "Young man, I say to you, get up!" The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.

She did not deserve to receive her son back, but the Lord had compassion on her, and showed his power over death.

When John the Baptist inquired about Jesus, because he had heard of all the things happening, he asked "Are you the one we have been expecting to come? Or should we still look for someone else?" Jesus answered in a way that was almost like a riddle, but it surely spoke to John's heart. Then Jesus applauded John, but says something about the kingdom of Heaven and who deserves it:

"I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he."

(All the people, even the tax collectors, when they heard Jesus' words, acknowledged that God's way was right, because they had been baptized by John. But the Pharisees and experts in the law rejected God's purpose for themselves, because they had not been baptized by John.)

I emphasized the words "rejected" and "acknowledged" because they are opposites in this instance. The "righteous" people did not acknowledge their sins, and the "sinners" did. The "righteous" did not need redemption, but the "sinners" were aware of their need, and were willing to humble themselves to be baptized by John, showing their repentance.

There is no commentary necessary for the final example of "deserving" in Luke 7. It is moving no matter how many times it is read.

Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.

When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner."

Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you."
"Tell me, teacher," he said.

"Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?"

Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled."
"You have judged correctly," Jesus said.

Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."

Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."

The other guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"

Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

So we see that the only thing that lets us receive this peace is what we did not deserve: The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.