Growing up, my wife took dance lessons with the local Recreation & Parks. So, as she has gotten older, she has really wanted to go back and dance some more. So, this year, she did just that. Well, this past weekend was her performance. I took the kids to her first performance on Saturday morning. We sat through an hour and a half of their interpretation of “Annie”. Fortunately, we did not go to the afternoon performance which was 3 hours long. Yikes!
Afterwards, I asked Mia whether she enjoyed it. She did. I then apologized to PJ for making him sit through it. <He did claim that he enjoyed it though.> Ty said that he liked it too. I think he did, but I’ll never know because he repeats everything the other two say, no matter what it is. “I like sardines”…. “I like saheenes”.
Then there’s me. I enjoy dance. However, recreational dance makes me think that I’m on recreational drugs. I don’t want to put anyone down, I am sure they worked hard at it, but I am not going to play it up… it is what it is. My problem is that I look for people to mess up. For instance, we went to see the Rockettes back in November. I pointed out every inaccuracy that I could find to my wife. This is just what I do. I love to notice problems and figure out how to improve them. Saturday’s performance made my brain tired. How many times can I watch 3 year old girls dressed in silly glittery outfits tap their feet and turn around, just to repeat tapping their feet again in absolutely perfect disarray to the oohs and aahs of the audience? Torture, I tell you…. torture! If Jack Bauer saw this, he would never use physical force again.
Okay, I know parents think it’s cute and all… I have a little girl too… I can understand. But you know what happens when it isn’t your little girl (or boy) up there anymore…
I am sitting in the General Session this morning, typing this blog post as people all around me are standing, clapping, kneeling, raising hands and all kinds of stuff. Now don’t get me wrong, I love to stand and sing (my wife would probably not call it singing), clap, and all that stuff like the person next to me. What I don’t particularly like is when someone tells me to go putting my hands on someone else. Okay, so why do I not like it and why do I not like this so-called “spirituality”? Well, a couple reasons.
First, it is an emotional in-the-moment kind of false “spiritual high”. I am not saying that God doesn’t meet you there, but I AM saying that he doesn’t need singing and hand-raising to meet us, he wants holiness. He is the God that draws near, but he requires us to be holy. He makes us holy and it’s not when we’re raising our hands, singing. If people want to praise God that way, I have no issue with it. Just reflect as to why you do it.
Secondly, it creates an uncomfortable atmosphere for others. Now, I think most Christians that are not into the whole thing are going to just get over it and think that you are weird. Those that are used to it are just going to not even realize that not everyone else does this kind of thing. However, what about the non-believer who has never experienced this and has showed up to see what this is all about. What are they going to think? I know what I would think…. “they’re crazy! Why would I ever want to be doing this stupid stuff? These people freak me out. If I don’t do what they do, which I am not going to,because it is awkward for me, I’m am going to be judged and looked down to as ‘not spiritual’” Why do I say this? Because it is what I think. I just get over it, because I know better and am more accepting of other people’s culture. But what those who aren’t like me in that way?
Now, I know that some people are not going to agree and may take it personally. Please don’t, I am not attacking anyone. I would love your comments, just please don’t be inflammatory.
Anyway, I really have enjoyed the music here. Peder Eide has a really nice sound and some awesome music. He also has a great sense of humor. I can’t wait for the rest of the day!
As I am flying the plane to Summit VI, I am lucky enough to be flying on a flight with internet access and I get to post what I have been thinking about for a while. People all around me seem to be struggling in their marriages. This breaks my heart. I have heard the D word come up more times than I would like to think.
This past weekend, I was particularly disturbed by an advertisement I saw in the men’s room at one of the golf courses that I played this past weekend. The advertisement was a picture of a young woman dressed in golfing attire smashing a golf club over the head of her presumed husband. Tiger Woods thoughts entered my head. The caption was something like: “Things not turn out as you planned?” The advertisement was for a so-called family-law legal firm trying to sell their divorce services. Now wait… did things not turn out as I planned? They sure didn’t! The criteria for divorce is that things are not working out as planned? WHAT?
Things are not going to work out as you planned; they NEVER do. Now, I am not going to say that divorce is never the right option. What I am going to say is that it is seldom the right option. I by no means have the marriage thing down pat, but I’m not doing so bad, either. The advice I am going to give is not something that I have come up with on my own or something that I think is the end-all-be-all of marriage advice. I do think it holds a lot of water, though.
I hear a common complaint from both men and women about their spouses. I hear, “he just…..”, or “she just…”, or “my needs …”, or “I’m not happy”, and many other things like this. The common reason for the complaints is that the spouse is not holding up their end of the bargain. When you get married, you do not have a “treaty”, so to speak. Rather, we make promises and the only condition assigned to them is being alive. We do not say, “I will love and honor you as long as you make me happy.” No, we simply make promises. However, we set the expectation in our heads that the other person will satisfy some set of needs that we have. When they don’t, people think that all bets are off.
I am not trying to get on a soap box. What I am trying to say is that marriage requires something of us that is difficult. What happens when expectations aren’t being met is that you will often end up shutting down and your spouse ends up with the same exact complaint about you. Here in-lies the problem. This situation is an endless cycle of nobody ever being happy. My suggestion is that instead of focusing on what you are not getting, dedicate yourself to making your spouse happy. I know, this sounds crazy, but try it anyway. Do it not because you hope that they will return the happiness to you, but do it because you promised to love them. Genuinely pursue their happiness with a passion. If you wait for your spouse to make you happy, you are never going to be happy. Find happiness in making your spouse happy and see the difference that it makes in your marriage.
I turned on the news this morning as I was waiting for something on my computer to finish running. In that news broadcast, I saw a very short news article and I was reminded of something that I witnessed when I was a little kid that has disturbed me since. In New York City, there was a homeless man who helped a woman who was being attacked and ended up getting stabbed. He laid on the sidewalk for over an hour while 20 people walked by him. A couple people looked at him, turned him over, talked about it, and then left. Someone else took a picture on their cell phone. By the time the fire department showed up an hour and twenty minutes later, he had bled out and died. From Fox News:
What I was reminded of when I was young was a trip that my family took to the Big Apple around Christmas time. As we were on our bus, we had come to a stop. I looked out the window and saw a sight that I could not completely understand. However, the image still is haunting. A man was on the sidewalk, leaning against a fence. One hand was up holding on to the fence and the other was down at his side. A river of red ran from his wrist that was down, across the sidewalk, and into the street. Person after person walked by. Some stopped and kicked his feet to see if he was alive and then continued on their way. Nobody seemed to care.
The story that Jesus told two thousand years ago is still as relevant as it was back then. More people walk by, not wanting to concern themselves with the problems of other people, than those that will stop <by a disturbing margin>. It was the homeless person, the person that society looks down upon, that tried to help someone else. How sick is this culture that we live in?
Okay, I am going to be a bit more serious in this post for a change. There has been a significant amount of news and discussion around this family who took their adopted child and sent him on a plane with a one-way ticket back to Russia. People are so quick to judge this family and their action. Did they do the right thing? Absolutely not! I cannot condone what they did. However, who was providing them with the needed support?
We in the US are horrible at this thing called community. It is indeed true that it takes a community to raise a child. It is especially true when the child has been adopted and even MORE so if the child was not an infant when adopted. However, in the US, we are a “strong”, “independent” people that cannot show weakness or request help from others. This is just pure hogwash. We are no different than anyone else; we need other people. There are not enough people supporting adoptive parents. I know first hand that raising an adopted child that was not an infant when adopted is hard. It has been much harder than raising my biological children.
The Church needs to step in and support these families. If we as a Church do not step in and support these families with whatever it is that they need, meals, counseling, an ear, anything, then we are as much to blame for these kind of events as the family. We need to stop complaining and step up and make a change. We cannot simply hope that somebody else is going to take action. YOU must take the action and help. And if you need help helping, Melissa, myself, and several others are here to help you!
So, the topic of conversation yesterday was: is it appropriate to talk about your *** life in a blog post. Certainly most of us would agree that there are definitely certain aspects of what goes on in the bedroom, or wherever it happens to take place, that are certainly to be kept between husband and wife. However, I have a big problem with the fact that Christians don’t want to talk about ***. God sure talks about it; try reading His book sometime, I hear it’s a best seller!
So, I ask, why not be open about the husband/wife relationship? Perhaps if we did, the divorce rate among Christians would not be the same as the rest of the population. What if newly-weds or pre-weds (is that a word?) were given a realistic view of marriage before they had their expectations shattered because they were set by TV and movies (and the media at large)?
Don’t worry, you’ll never hear me talk about the *****, or ***, and definitely not ********.
As for my wife, she has decided to “respond” to my post. You men can tell her that *** is not a “perfect end to a perfect day” or “an ultimate fix to a crappy one”. Rather, it is just the end of the day . AND, contrary to her opinion, it is definitely a theology post!!!!
So, I’m new to this whole blogging thing, but my wife has told me about this UBP and that I should link to it and all that jazz. So, just above this text, somewhere, you’ll see a link to it. If you blog and read this you should go to www.5minutesformom.com and check it out. The directions from the 2007 event say that I am supposed to put my prettiest dress on for it, but alas, I think that that will not happen.
Anyway, if you are a blogger, you can win big prizes!
I find it funny that my wife sent me to a mom-blog…. hmmm… any ideas as to why?
So, I went fishing the other day and was out for a few hours. I fished for a good hour and a half casting in my lure over and over and over again in different spots, hoping to get a bite. Then, I decided to cast somewhere that I didn’t think anything would bite, and wham…. I wasn’t ready and missed setting the hook. About a half hour later of repeatedly casting and reeling, another cast and wham, missed again. Another half hour or so later… same thing. You end up getting so accustomed to dealing with the mundane that when the sacred shows up, you miss it, you just are not ready. Are you ready or are you too caught up in what is going on in your life everyday to set the hook when the time comes?
Last year, at church, we decided to do a Seder dinner at church. A Seder dinner is the traditional Passover meal celebrated in Jewish households. What astonishes me is that the Christian church generally does not celebrate this. For the life of me, I just cannot understand why we don’t celebrate the Angel of Death passing over us. Jesus certainly celebrated the Passover. Although there are some who are uncertain, the consensus is that Jesus’ Last Supper was a Seder dinner. This is where he broke bread (Matza) and passed the cup (wine, not grape juice) saying this is my body, eat; and this is my blood, drink. Unfortunately, this year, we are not doing it at home. However, next year will begin an annual celebration for us of a Christian Seder at home on Passover. Experience it once and you too may want to start this long-practiced tradition in your home.
Baruch Ata Adonai, Eloheynu Melekh haolam
<Blessed are you Lord, our God, Ruler of the Universe>
In American society, we are bent on being entertained. It seems as if though we won’t do anything if it is not entertaining to us or in some way leads us to entertainment. It seems to be so much the case, that it has found its way into mainstream Christianity as the norm. I am not saying that there is not a place for it, but it seems to have proliferated to all aspects of the church. The church uses entertainment for all kinds of purposes. People don’t seem to want to go to church unless the “entertainment” factor is good. It is almost as if the measure of a church is how good the band is or how well the pastor preaches. In most Protestant churches, kids get seperated from their parents because the entertainment isn’t geared to them in the “main” service, so they are shuffled off to Sunday School. I dare someone to point to a Middle School or High School ministry that doesn’t have entertainment as a primary focus of reaching and keeping kids coming. This seems also to be one of the primary methods of evangelism <a big word for telling non-believers the Good News (gospel)>.
So, here’s my question. <drum roll please>. Are we okay with this? Is this the what Christianity is about? Is it about God entertaining us? Or, rather, is it about the holiness and awesomeness of God? Are we focusing on the right thing (i.e. what we get out of it)? What do you think?
. AND, contrary to her opinion, it is definitely a theology post!!!!