just for fun...

I am constantly laughing at things the kids say and keep telling myself how I should write things down as they say them to document it. Yesterday we had a really nice family day after church. We went to the "Apple Festival" at Eckerts in Grafton and enjoyed the cooler temperatures and the sunshine. On the way home, we didn't want to end the relaxing day, so we stopped past a park in Godfrey to let the kids play for a while. We didn't tell the kids were we were going (in case the park was too crowded or closeed). Anyway, we went past the Godfrey McDonalds and Joey said, "Hey, that McDonalds has a playground, are you guys hungry"... It is sometimes hard to keep the lauighter in when she does that sort of thing (which by the way is several times a day). One of the hardest things I face as a father is disciplining my children. Joey has a GREAT sense of humor and Ian is fast developing one as well. They seem to know pretty well how to manipulate me by employing humor at just the right moment. I think it is something about having me wrapped pretty securely around their little fingers. Yeah, they do get frustrating at times with testing the limits, but for the most part, we realize how very blessed we are with our children.

Another playground episode that made me pretty proud was Joey making friends with another little girl named "Layla". After a few minutes of friendship with Layla, a little boy named David took one of Layla's shoes and took off running. Joey knew this wasn't right and chased David down and got the shoe away from him and took it back to Layla. I watched this from a distance initially thinking that Joey was in on the shoe stealing, but was very proud when she took it back to Layla. She does know injustice when she sees it and seems to choose the right path from time to time. We must be doing something right... YEAH!

Where is God?

Just last night, I found a YouTube video by Kevin Gerald that sparked me thinking and I am not finished thinking about it yet. But, Kevin said something in that video that resonated with me a bit. One of the most common questions I get as a pastor from people who are hurting or facing grief, brokenness, illness, divorce, etc. is "Where is God?"... Kevin said something that at first made me cringe and later got me thinking further that there is some truth in it. Kevin said... "The truth is God is not everywhere". I don't think he was talking about God being less than omnipresent, but rather that God is not in our stupid actions, or in our lack of faith, or in our doubt, or in our confusion, or in anything that is out of sync with his best for us. Rather, God is ever-present in the wise choices we make and in the loving things we do and in the peaceful and justice filled approaches we take towards people, even towards those we disagree with. God is always there, but not everything that happens in our lives is caused by God. In fact, for me, it really is as simple as the fact that we live in a world that is in general woefully out of sync with God's best intentions for creation. (Something about the fall in the garden of Eden...) and until Christ returns and sets things right, people will deal with pain and brokenness and loneliness and disease and distress and all manner of things. God may not be in the poor choices that we humans make, but he is certainly never far enough away from those moments that we can't fall into his arms and be lifted up by them! I'm still working on t his, but that is where it is for now... More later.