My coward heart fears to give up its toys

I was reading from A.W. Tozer's The Pursuit of God, last night. In the end of chapter two he writes this prayer;

Father, I want to know Thee, but my coward heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I do come. Please root from me heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that Thou mayest enter and dwell there with-out a rival. Then shall my heart have no need of the sun to shine it it, for Thyself wilt be in the light of it, and there shall be no night there. In Jesus' Name, Amen.

I could not sum up the embarrassing battle that wars with in me of knowing what I often choose to spend my time on is worthless in regards to God's divine plan, however it is pleasing in the temporary. I am very excited about where Tozer takes me in the following chapters.

Post Rapture Pet Care, I'm dead serious

So just when I thought this world couldn't get any crazier I stumbled across this. For those of you too lazy to click on the link, it is a business that is run by atheists who will care for your pet after you are raptured. For only $110 you can have confidence that your animal will be loved after you are gone.

Ever wonder what will happen to your animals if you get raptured? I have to admit I've never thought about this. I've had the, "wow I wonder what will happen to air planes, or governments, or sports teams" thoughts. I've never once worried about my animals. Which I do have a few of.

Well have no fear, the atheist's are here to help.

Here's what I take away from this. These guys are creative. You have to admit this is a pretty niche market. They are savvy. Who's going to enforce it if you are raptured? They even address it, but really honestly how will you know.

Finally they will be surprised when;

1 Thessalonians 4

According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever."

I wish I could spend more time on this. I'm speechless.

The Bible is old, really really old, no kidding

Check out this jewel from the weekend news. Turns out that maybe just maybe Israel was around for a while, and maybe just maybe the Bible is older than we thought. This fragment dates back to the time of King David and shows an established written language and history at that time meaning that the culture goes back much further. Actually it was pretty cool to find this on the news.

Man Points

The Holy Spirit works funny ways sometimes. My friend Nick is here at Grace this weekend and seeing him reminds me of our running tally of man points. I think to myself, "that might make a good blog topic." Then I go to the blog and see that Ryan has posted a blog on boys. So, not by our plans, but because God is sovereign you are reading about the "y" chromosome again.

I doubt that we started the phrase "man points" here at Grace a few years ago. But ever since Nick was trying to get a dead branch out of a tree and I mentioned he would get man points for succeeding, the term has stuck. Nick did get the branch out of the tree after some ingenuity and strength. Now at any display of strength, cleverness, or facing some great challenge we randomly provide man points.

The idea of being a man has been around for some time. Actually God started it way back with Adam. It may seem silly to mention this fact, but take some time to observe how our culture has tried to eradicate gender differences. People like John Eldridge have done a good job, helping us remember what it should be like to be a man. Unfortunately, we so often take a good idea and pervert it. For example, I totally support equality of rights for all people no matter what their combination of "X" and "Y" chromosomes. I do not think that men and women are essentially no different.

A simple look around a room and the differences are obvious. I thank God every day my daughters look like their mother and not me. You must ignore the truth to deny there are differences in all aspects of a man and woman; mind, body, soul, strength. Maybe God was on to something when he said in Isa 55:8, "for my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways..."

So I celebrate the differences between male and female. My two sons will not be raised to be some gender neutered 21st century person. They will become men and participate in the Man Games at Grace Adventures (the first annual Man Games were held this past summer). Don't worry there was a poetry event and understanding women event and Nick will continue to earn Man Points.

Boys and feelings

I'm reading a book right now that I got for Christmas called Wild Things; the art of nurturing boys. My mother bought me this book and as a woman who has raised 4 boys (yes I include my father in this list) and countless others by proxy I think she could have written it.

I really appreciate that the book doesn't shy away from boys becoming conquering warriors with maidens to save. It has anecdotal stories that I like to read to my wife to scare her. For instance there was a young man who wanted to become a smurf, so he found his mother's blue finger nail polish and painted his whole self blue.

In case you haven't picked up on it yet Kendra and I are expecting a son in April. I'm very very excited and so is she. However the sobering reality of raising a little cowboy is starting to sink in.

One of the biggest themes through out the book is teaching a boy how to connect with his emotions. This includes avoiding behaviors as a parent that will shut him down emotionally or frustrate him, but also educating him on his "emotional vocabulary", or literally teaching him what different emotions are when they're happening.

Here's where I get lost. I think we as men have a very deep emotional vocabulary. We can just display it in one word. So here we go.

How many emotions can be expressed with the word "fine"?

1. How was your day? "fine" said with a slight emphasis on the end of word and quick delivery.

Meaning: It was okay, nothing special, nothing bad. I don't really want to talk about it further, but I'm not upset you asked. I may even be glad you asked but I don't want to let you know that. I feel cared for, complacent, and melancholy.

2. Can you clean up the dog vomit? "fiiiiiiine" slightly drawn out and a little deeper in tone and a little sullen.

Meaning: I will do this because I love you or owe you, but I don't really want to and I'll passive aggressively let you know. I feel sad that I have to clean up the mess, and hurt that you asked me instead of doing it yourself.

3. Seriously for the last time you need to put down the toilet seat. "finnne" exhale just a little, bob your head, and sound exasperated.

Meaning: I'm getting tired of the nagging and it's not really important to me but if I don't listen you won't stop. I'm feeling frustrated and irritable.

4. How do you feel right now (after being corrected or getting into a fight)? "fine!" said very short and punchy.

Meaning: I don't want to talk, I probably don't even agree with you. I feel angry, and embarrassed so I'm going to take it out on you even though it's not your fault.

5. How do I look? "fine" said again with a slight uptick in inflection, and usually a reassuring head nod.

Meaning: I really hate this question and don't know what to say. You may look terrible to stunning or anywhere in between and I'll still use this one word to describe it. I'm feeling afraid, non-committal, and conflict-avoidant.

6. Are you hurt? "I'm fine" said with a grimace and unconvincing groan

Meaning: I really am hurt, maybe badly, but I certainly can't let you know that. I'll just walk it off even though I'm missing a good chunk of my foot or something. I'm feeling angry, prideful, and embarrassed

I could go on but as you can see men have lots of emotions, just not enough words. I guess maybe I need to expand my own emotional vocabulary before I can help out my son with his.

Be a Hero

Do you want to be a hero? I do.

I love walking into my house after work. My 2 yr-old son runs to meet me (almost every day) and wants to be picked up and hugged. I can see in his eyes - I am his hero. I know it won't last, I know as a teenager (and probably sooner), he will disagree with my parenting. But hey, let me enjoy the feeling while it lasts.

He loves his mom. He especially loves his grandpa. But no one is even close to being Dad in his world. I hate to brag, but I am on top. No one else measures up. If he is sick or scared, he looks for his hero: Dad.

I love that feeling. Being the hero.

Our program team here at Grace is planning our summer theme for 2011. We are leaning toward a "hero" direction. We know everyone loves a good story (whether book, movie or message) because we identify with a character. All of us long to make a difference, to be known, to be respected, to be appreciated.

Here's the cool thing: God is our hero. He has rescued us from evil, eternity in hell with the villain, Satan. Jesus has died, risen and is exalted. God however, wants us to do heroic things. The twist here is that God definition of a hero is a humble servant. Someone who gives and sacrifices allowing others to get the glory, the attention, the admiration, and the fame. But in so doing gains fulfillment (not necessarily happiness), and true joy.

Do get me wrong, we will get accolades and rewards, we just need to wait for heaven.

So if you are tired, worn, or frustrated. Don't give up, keep serving, giving, and sacrificing, because in God's eyes you are being a HERO!

News Flash, Cigarettes taste bad

I was reading Mlive.com this morning when I stumbled across this gem. Sometimes I don't know what to write about but the news websites make it easy.

Apparently in an effort to reduce smoking related house fires the State of Michigan has joined 48 other states in regulating how cigarettes are made. Now they have three rings that reduce the flow of oxygen so an unattended to cigarette will extinguish much quicker.

However this little engineering marvel is not without unintended consequences. Just ask Ashley May.

"Ashley May, a 22-year-old smoker from Roseville, told The Detroit News that the fire-safe smokes taste foul and are hard to keep lit.

"I don't like them," she said after a drag from a Kool. "You have to constantly puff on them every 30 seconds or else they're going out. And then when you try to re-light them, they taste horrible.""

And there you have it. Cigarettes taste horrible. No need to test this one out let's take Ashley's word for it. I'm very glad she cleared that one up for me. I was sitting around yesterday with Kendra looking for a desert to snack on and I almost chose a cigarette as a tasty treat. Now I know that they taste bad because of these new rings.

I'm glad I settled on Kendra's home made turtle cheesecake and cookie dough ice cream. It was probably just as bad for my health but that's another post.