Go read this excelent post at Tent Pegs. I had a similar experience today. OK, no trees were talking but I did get caught up in a Hallucination.
The house next door just sold and the new owners have been coming buy painting and making the house theirs. I hadn’t had the chance to meet them yet, and this evening he and I were both out cutting grass. We nodded at each other out in the front yard, but when we both came around to the same corner of the rear I motioned at him and we both shut the mowers down and introduced ourselves.
They were moving from a town house across town, had a 1 year old boy, were originally from Akron, then Chicago before Columbus and were glad to have a house. hey had been beaten out on two other homes in the neighborhood before getting this one. At some point, I can’t remember why, h mention he was planning to put up a fence. “Oh really, what type?” I asked. “Six foot.”
Now when we moved into our home 5 years ago it came with a fence. A six foot privacy fence. I felt like I was in prison. Two or three summers ago we cut it down to size and spread the boards out so we now have a less restrictive 4 foot-ish open fence. So when my new neighbor tells me that he’s putting up a six foot fence, I’m angry. My biggest fear was that the new owners would put up a privacy fence. Never mind that they might be ax murderers, cannibals or child molesters, they might erect a tall fence!
So, in my most loving and Christ like way I mentioned how we had just took our six foot fence down and, well, let’s talk before he puts up his fence so we don’t have two fences running together. Hard to control the weeds between. He was pleasant enough in reply and we went back to mowing.
As I continued on I kept thinking about that conversation. Here was a guy I hadn’t known for longer than 5 minutes, a guy I’d have to live next door to for several years and I was already trying to set him straight on a fence. Worse yet, I’m an ambassador of Christ, and what does he see? A controlling, self focused, manipulator. Ouch.
When I read Patrick’s post at tent pegs, I was even more convicted and ashamed. I had bought a hallucination that the fence was an important issue. More important than building a relationship of mutual trust and respect with my new neighbor. More important than demonstrating Jesus. I now have an uphill battle if I’m to really show him Jesus, up a hill of my own construction. I fully intend to apologize for my attitude in the hope that a little humility and contrition will help him see me as something other than a meddlesome neighbor.
Month: July 2005
What a Tangled Web We Weave
Virusdoc’s blog is one of the reasons I’m blogging. I ‘met’ Virusdoc at Odyclub. Through Virusdoc I met Soup. Soup is a friend of Virusdoc’s. They’re both linked at left.
Kelcy is an ICOC member. Kelcy runs ICOCinfo, a site with regular news tidbits from ICOC churches. I don’t remember how I came accross ICOCinfo, but Kelcy introduced me to Pinakidion. Pinakidion is a member of the ICOC (or former ICOC, which is it?) church in Omaha, NE.
Scott is a friend of Pinakidion’s. He has no connection to the ICOC.
So, I’m browsing Soup’s blog and find a comment from Scott. And Scott says he found Soup through Virusdoc. I’m assuming that he found Virusdoc through me whom he found through Pinakidion. I found Pinakidion through Kelcy who I found because I got into blogging. I got into blogging because of Virusdoc and a minivan. Hmmmm.
OK, so it’s probably not that interesting, but at the time I thought it was cool.
Congrats BEG
Updated 7/6
Frequent commenter and salguod best friend BEG and wife just welcomed their second child into the world Tuesday afternoon at 4:28 PM central eastern time. The so far unnamed little girl Delenn Elise was 8 lbs, 13oz and 21 inches long. 3 year old big sister Laura is quite excited. “I love this baby!” I think she said. Mom and baby are doing just fine, I hear.
My wife flew to WI Monday evening so she could be there in the delivery room with her best friend, just like she was when Laura came into the world.
Congrats BEG and JG! (I’ve still got the lead on you, 3 girls to 2 😉 )
Style Tweaks
Observant readers may notice that thing look a little different around here. Very little different, so you really have to be observant.
First, I’ve changed to a sans-serif font. I know, radical move, I’m really living on the edge.
Second, I’ve changed the default look for blockquotes. Smaller font, black text, gray background. Now I’m just over the top, crazy.
Third, I’ve changed the trackback section to have a gray background too, with black text. I think that cleans up the trackback/comments area making it a bit easier to read.
Fourth, I tweaked the individual archives, adding categories under the title and removing the link to the trackback pop up.
Whatcha think?
I may try tweaking the colors a bit later. I know your waiting in anticipation.
You can now go back to your regularly scheduled programming.
Why I Love
Lesson to the Kingdom Kids teachers, July 3rd, 2005.
Luke 15:11-31 – The Parable of the Lost Son
Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
“Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ “
Why does God love you? If you’re like me, your answer is something like “I have no idea!” I can think of all sorts of reasons why God shouldn’t love me. I can’t think of many reasons why He should. To be able to do so would be rather arrogant, something He frowns upon! But being a father, I think I may have stumbled on why He loves me, and it gives me great hope and great peace.
My three girls are awesome. They’re cute, generally obedient (though they have their moments), smart, talented, bubbly, adorable – shall I go on? But none of those reasons are why I love them. In fact, they could not increase my love for them by becoming cuter, more obedient or more talented. They are, at times, also annoying, whiney, complainers, mean, loud and rude. But none of those things diminish my love for them.
So why do I love them? I love them for one simple reason – I am their Dad and they are my girls. I love because of who they are and who I am. It’s how I was created to be, as a father, but it has also been instilled in me by my upbringing. It’s both biological and sociological. Sure, I know that I should love them, but that knowledge cannot explain why my love for them is fairly constant despite their behavior. Their behavior can make my happy or sad, give me joy or frustration or make me proud or angry, but has little impact on my love for them. This, I think, is of God, created in me. It’s part of my make up, outside any decision of my own or teaching from others. I love because that’s how God made Dads.
My love is also a commitment, a covenant that I agreed to when I married their Mom and proceeded with the act of creating children. I committed to loving them always before they were born. I became a parent and that identity, not any attribute they may have, defines my love for them. The same sort of thing could be said of my love for my wife. But this too, though less biology than sociology, comes from my identity rather than from their worthiness. I love because I am a Dad and a husband and nothing can shake that.
The same can be said of God. He is love, and our sin cannot shake that love. It seems harder to believe, however (although sometimes it can be hard to imagine that our fathers love us.) Perhaps it’s because we are surrounded by a western religious culture that tries to measure us, to tell us how good or bad we are. Perhaps because we, as humans, fall short of living up to whom we are. I say that my love is not dependant on what my kids do, but the truth is told that’s not completely true. My anger at their ‘failures’ masks that love, sometimes making it invisible. In some families, the love is completely hidden by years of abuse. We look at the world around us and see value judgments, condescension, criticisms and tearing others down to build ourselves up and it’s hard to understand how God loves us no matter what. But He does.
When it seems impossible that God could love you – that He could delight in you – parents think of your children. Think of how you feel about them. Think about how their folly can not possibly diminish the love in your heart. How, despite the number of clothes they’ve ruined, the items they’ve broken, the silence they’ve shattered and the embarrassment they’ve caused, there is no length you will not go to protect them, to save them from harm and to see them grow. Nothing can shake your commitment to them, and realize that the same is true of God. If you don’t have children think of your spouse or your own parents. Hopefully, this will help you see yourself through God’s eyes. You are His child, His precious and special child and nothing you can do will change that.
John 3:16-17
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
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