If you're looking for something good to do during the season of Lent consider drinking only tap water and supporting blood:water mission with the money you don't spend.
http://www.bloodwatermission.com/index.php
24 February 2009
16 February 2009
Saint Murphy
Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. You know this adage as Murphy's Law. In the months (and months) of waiting for our visa (and house sale, and all the other things that need to happen before we can move to Belgium) it has seemed like lots of things have gone wrong. My previous post "8 months to give thanks" was an effort to change my heart from one that focuses on the Murphy's Law list in my life to one that is full of thanksgiving to God. But today life added something to my Murphy's Law list. My wife is sick, and I had to back out of teaching at a student training event tonight, and I'm very disappointed. I'm not asking for your sympathy, and she's wouldn't either. But sometimes we feel like we've been assigned an angel named Murphy as our guardian.
It's tempting to make a big theological deal about things that go wrong. While, it's a good idea to ask what God is up to when you are sick, when you can't pay a bill, or when your vehicle breaks down (even the really nice new van you borrowed from your brother-in-law so that you wouldn't have to deal with breakdowns on your trip to northern Minnesota). But it is just as good an idea to ask what God is up to when your child is born with no complications, when you lose 5 pounds, or when your car runs fine (even though you haven't changed the oil in about 5000 miles). But instead of offering a theological foundation for suffering (and all the little things that get on our Murphy's Law lists), or sharing my list with you, I'm going to introduce you to a character who knew how to respond when Murphy's Law seemed to run rampant.
The prophet Habakkuk looked at the world around him and asked "How long, O LORD...?" God dialogues with him, reassuring the prophet that he is indeed involved in the affairs of the world. But it is Habakkuk's final response in chapter 3 that really instructs and inspires.
It's tempting to make a big theological deal about things that go wrong. While, it's a good idea to ask what God is up to when you are sick, when you can't pay a bill, or when your vehicle breaks down (even the really nice new van you borrowed from your brother-in-law so that you wouldn't have to deal with breakdowns on your trip to northern Minnesota). But it is just as good an idea to ask what God is up to when your child is born with no complications, when you lose 5 pounds, or when your car runs fine (even though you haven't changed the oil in about 5000 miles). But instead of offering a theological foundation for suffering (and all the little things that get on our Murphy's Law lists), or sharing my list with you, I'm going to introduce you to a character who knew how to respond when Murphy's Law seemed to run rampant.
The prophet Habakkuk looked at the world around him and asked "How long, O LORD...?" God dialogues with him, reassuring the prophet that he is indeed involved in the affairs of the world. But it is Habakkuk's final response in chapter 3 that really instructs and inspires.
17 Though the fig tree does not bud
and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails
and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen
and no cattle in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will be joyful in God my Savior.
19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to go on the heights.
For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.
Life lesson: If I rejoice when there are no grapes on the vine (or money in my account) I will be strong in the LORD, and instead of blaming Murphy for everything going wrong, I'll thank him because I have had another occasion for joy. And I think people just might notice that.
05 February 2009
8 months to give thanks
Our new baby girl, Elisabeth, is 3 weeks old today. When she was 6 days old we submitted her passport application. (We were quite the spectacle trying to get a week old baby to open her eyes in front of a white screen for a passport photo. The staff at Harold's Photo are probably still telling the story.) We went to the post office in Brookings (rather than the "big city" of Sioux Falls) and one of the clerks (Lowell, armed with small town helpfulness) let us go through the passport application process even though it was later than the posted time for accepting applications (and we'd like to thank everyone in the line that formed after we began for their patience). Just 13 days later we received her passport in the mail. That's fast.
Here's what remains in the paperwork process before we can board a plane bound for Belgium. In their haste the bureaucrats forgot to return Elisabeth's birth certificate with her passport. So we need to
1. Get another birth certificate for Elisabeth.
2. Get an apostille (a special seal that makes a document "more legal") from the South Dakota Secretary of State.
3. Wait for the arrival of my religious worker's visa.
4. Submit the family reunification visa application (connecting my family to the visa for which we currently wait).
5. Wait again (and this part should only take a few weeks as it gets processed in New York).
We have been waiting three days short of three months. That is significant because a representative at the consulate told us the visa would take 2-3 months (to the American mind that's slow). She has three days to be a woman of her word. Before that we waited five months for a paper needed to start our visa application process to arrive from Belgium (to that same American mind that's slow, too). So we're at the eight month mark.
Eight months of waiting, and still some waiting to do. For my mental and spiritual health I'm going to offer a list of eight things that cause me to be thankful for the wait.
1. We had our baby in Brookings (bucking the trend of Brookings people coming to Sioux Falls to have their babies) with doctors and nurses we've come to love and respect through the births of our other three kids.
2. We got to spend another Thanksgiving and Christmas with our families.
3. I have been able to speak, lead a Bible study, and participate in prayer ministry at several InterVarsity conferences and campuses.
4. My kids have had some really great birthday parties getting one more chance to invite friends and cousins.
5. I'm starting a men's discipleship group with some of my friends.
6. We were able to secure a beautiful home in Gent and friends over there (including some we've yet to meet) are filling it with things it takes to run a household.
7. God is using Sunday worship services at the church we're now attending to challenge us and give us his peace.
8. My son get's to participate in another season of Junior Bible Quiz.
Life lesson: God has instructed his children this way: "in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Thessalonians 5:18) I guess everything includes paperwork and bureaucracy.
Here's what remains in the paperwork process before we can board a plane bound for Belgium. In their haste the bureaucrats forgot to return Elisabeth's birth certificate with her passport. So we need to
1. Get another birth certificate for Elisabeth.
2. Get an apostille (a special seal that makes a document "more legal") from the South Dakota Secretary of State.
3. Wait for the arrival of my religious worker's visa.
4. Submit the family reunification visa application (connecting my family to the visa for which we currently wait).
5. Wait again (and this part should only take a few weeks as it gets processed in New York).
We have been waiting three days short of three months. That is significant because a representative at the consulate told us the visa would take 2-3 months (to the American mind that's slow). She has three days to be a woman of her word. Before that we waited five months for a paper needed to start our visa application process to arrive from Belgium (to that same American mind that's slow, too). So we're at the eight month mark.
Eight months of waiting, and still some waiting to do. For my mental and spiritual health I'm going to offer a list of eight things that cause me to be thankful for the wait.
1. We had our baby in Brookings (bucking the trend of Brookings people coming to Sioux Falls to have their babies) with doctors and nurses we've come to love and respect through the births of our other three kids.
2. We got to spend another Thanksgiving and Christmas with our families.
3. I have been able to speak, lead a Bible study, and participate in prayer ministry at several InterVarsity conferences and campuses.
4. My kids have had some really great birthday parties getting one more chance to invite friends and cousins.
5. I'm starting a men's discipleship group with some of my friends.
6. We were able to secure a beautiful home in Gent and friends over there (including some we've yet to meet) are filling it with things it takes to run a household.
7. God is using Sunday worship services at the church we're now attending to challenge us and give us his peace.
8. My son get's to participate in another season of Junior Bible Quiz.
Life lesson: God has instructed his children this way: "in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Thessalonians 5:18) I guess everything includes paperwork and bureaucracy.
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