Doctors and Babies

This past weekend I caught a powerful bug and spent 3 days in my bed. Wondefully, Ellie caught said death-bug just in time to begin her funk as I said aloha to mine. So she has been sick for the past 2 or 3 days and has been miserable. Our family has also, therefore, shared in Ellie’s misery. It has been a rough couple of days and the really sad thing is that she is not being nasty or mean or anything like that, she has just been miserable and we all feel so sorry for her in all this.

Anyway, Ellie was supposed to have her one-year-old appointment at the doctors. I overheard today that this is called a “well baby appointment”. These are the terrible appointments where the babies are checked and vaccinated and kept well, I guess. Apparently they aren’t kidding around about the name. I just also over heard our wife canceling said doctors appointment due to our daughter’s cold.

So I guess nowadays you can’t come to the doctor if you are sick. Unless it’s for a” sick-baby appointment” or something like that. In the midst of my grouchy, sleep-deprived stupor I found this pretty funny.

One Year

Well, Elianna is one year old (this is a couple days late). What an incredible year it has been. She is growig so much and is becomming a sweet little girl. When I returned from my trip to the Philippines she started taking her first steps. A month later she walks everywhere. She seriously doesn’t even really even crawl anymore. She just toddles around everywhere. She is talking and communicating more and more. She says words like dad, mom, dog, duck, woof, ok and probably more that I forgot. She also signs pretty effectively signing thank you, more, finished and she’s working on others.

My life has also dramatically changed over the last year. You show me how selfish and impatient I am and can be. You have made me into a father, rather than being just a guy who has a daughter. We are growing together, all three of us. Your mommy, you and I are growing as a family and we love having you in our lives. We love this journey we are on and we can’t wait for all the other things that come. It’s been a great year. Thanks for making it so great.

Worship Thoughts

I have been thinking alot about worship lately, specifically musical worship services in church.  Part of this is because while I was in the Philippines they asked me to run sort of a worship workshop for their local church’s worship team (that thought in itself is pretty amazing to me but I guess that’s the type of thing that happens on mission trips).  So, I was thinking about the worship leader’s role and listening to some live Passion and David Crowder* Band music and the thought occurred to me that ideally, the worship leader should function as a more traditional choir or band director.  As the worship team leads their brothers and sisters in in song, it’s not a performance in any sense, but rather, they are the accompaniment for the large choir of the congregation.  So as the worship leader sings and plays, his or her main role is specifically directing and leading the crowd in song.

This means the worship leader has the responsibility to explicitley direct the body in singing, clapping, dancing, shouting, praising, praying, silence, reflection, meditation, scripture reading and all other ways that we corporately worship God.  It was sort of an “Ah-ha” moment for me as I realized all the more that on stage, the leader should clearly communicate musical and spiritual direction to the body just as a choir director would with a choir.  Its such a blessing to see and hear other leaders understand and lead this way, I hope and pray to become this type of worship leader here in my community at FBC.  hope you enjoy these thoughts.  I am writing out an update from my short term mission trip to Cagayan De Oro in the Philippines, and will try posting some of the pics and thoughts here.  May God Bless and Keep You.

Whew!!!!!

I read different articles about youth ministry and college and the transition from high school to adulthood.  I saw one recently stating that somewhere around 65% of students entering a 4 year university don’t have a degree 6 years after they enter.  I am sad to say I am a part of that 65 percent, though I have finally accomplished a big part of it.

As I write this I write with the freed feeling of a college graduate.  Yes, I know I walked through the graduation 3 years ago and then moved to hawaii and worked a job all the while telling people I was a college graduate, but I really did that because it was too much work to tell people that I still needed one class, my GE philosophy requirement, to actually receive my degree and graduate.  So, after two years of working to get residency for in-state tuition (its 1/3 of the price of out of state), and around 5 months of trudging through the class I have done it!!!.  I put in the transcript orders and finished my class this morning.  It is a great relief to know that after spending all that money I don’t have on my UCLA education, I am now officially validated with the degree on the way.

I was so happy I celebrated by taking out some lunch at Fatboys.  it was awesome.

By the way I have posted my Mark studies thus far on the resources link.  You can click on the link under blogroll or go to the resources page and find the link there.  Bear in mind that these studies are still very rough and in outline form, but this is what I’m walking through in my relationship with God and Jesus and God’s Kingdom.  Let me know any constructive criticism in the comments of each post.

Talk

fine, annie, I will talk to you. Here is a great video of Bishop NT Wright sharing thoughts on Post-Modernity.

Silence Ends Explosively

He is risen indeed!

Silence

The Other Side of The Coin

Redemption is a word heard often in Christianity and when speaking of Jesus.  It’s a word that can be used so frequently, that it’s meaning can easily be forgotten or glossed.  When we speak of redemption we are using an economic term, it’s talking about buying something back (like something that was already yours from a pawn shop) or purchasing something, cashing something in so-to-speak (like a coupon or voucher).

In reference to Jesus of Nazareth, redemption refers to this idea that in dying on the cross, Jesus cashed himself in to buy us, humanity.  The former sense also applies when talking about Jesus; biblical history shows that humans were created to have an unblemished relationship with God.  We were created by God and for God, and yet we chose our own thing.  We ate the apple, lied to our parents, lusted and raged in our hearts; however one defines it and specifies it to oneself, we humans rebel.

We do our own thing, because we don’t need or want God.  Christians call this sin and because of it, we no longer have the unblemished relationship with God; we separate ourselves from the unblemished, uncreated God.  Now the incredible thing is that even in our rebellion, God still relates to us, and Redemption proclaims that God came to us in our rebellion and paid the price for our rebellion simply to be back in a right relationship.

There is another side to this redemption coin, however, a side a never noticed till recently.  I am focusing my personally devotional time on Mark’s gospel account and in it I notice an interesting and a little confusing sentence that Jesus uses (as if this is the only statement in that gospel that interests and/or confuses me, ha!).  In the third chapter and twenty-seventh verse, Mark shows Jesus describing his own earthly ministry in a very peculiar way, “But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man.  Then indeed he may plunder his house.”

This phrase always confused me till I began reading a couple commentaries, one by Ben Witherington III (the coolest and smartest new testament scholar in the world) and another by James Edwards (also a really awesome and smart guy, I just haven’t seen as much of his stuff).  Both of these commentators pick up the fact that Jesus uses this statement to describe his ministry and mission.

Say What?!  Is Jesus describing his ministry in these violent and criminal terms?  Why would God in the flesh describe his time on earth like this?  Well, again, we must look at the other side of this redemption coin.  We are bought back from something.  We aren’t bought back from nothing, but we are, in fact, bought from evil personified.  The thing to remember, though is that the evil one is not willingly selling.

Jesus tells us that before him, we are the strong man’s property, literally in his house, and Mark shows that during Jesus’ wilderness trial this strong man was bound.  Jesus overcame the evil one face-to-face in the desert, and then began of ministry of stealing the strong man’s stuff.

What’s interesting about this is that we see that God and satan both value the same stuff, but for very different reasons.  People are the valuables that Jesus is taking back to God.  I picture of the violence in Jesus’ image and I see how much God values humanity and each person specifically.  I also see that this same God is really in control; Jesus subdues the strong man, and we see for the rest of Jesus’ ministry people being bought back to God and liberated.

And then we see something that’s easy to miss, but is really incredible.  That this same loving, powerful and caring God passes this mission on to his disciples.  Many time Jesus passes on his own authority and mission to his disciples, and his disciples still roam the earth today.

So I have been given this new picture of what it means to be a disciple of Jesus in this world.  It still includes being with Jesus and being sent out with Jesus’ message, but it also absolutely includes running into the strong man’s house and stealing valuable things back for and to God.  The kingdom of God advances, and for this to happen the opposing kingdom must be overrun, and this is what we see.  Lives are changed by God, not good works or ourselves, and this happens when people are radically taken back to God and see their value and worth as beings created by God, loved by God and brought back to God by an unstoppable and uncontainable love.

Back

It seems my life is starting to get back to normal after I had to spend a couple weeks away from my ladies.  It makes life a little crazy to be by yourself and try to maintain things that it usually takes two people to maintain, let alone trying to do that without your support system.  Well, I am back with my family and we are struggling through this week a little as Ellie is having a hard time napping and pooping for some reason (she’s even crying in her crib right now, just like she has for much of the last 4 days).  We think she’s adjusting, maybe she’s also teething and getting ready to pass some other milestone or marker in her life.

She does love being back, though.  When I first saw her Sunday night, she seemed like she was still trying to remember  who I was, though she was happy to see me.  I am very thankful for technology, because with ichatting and speaker phone, she was able to remember much better.  But since then, more and more she has grown attached to me and has been babbling “dadadadadadada” all the time the last couple days.  Nothing could melt my heart more than this little one army-crawling close to me on the bed in the morning saying, “dadaddadada”.  I love it.

I am also sorry that this blog has not really been operational too much lately, I am just super busy.  I know that’s not an excuse really, but I am also being spiritually focused on diving into the gospel of Mark in every part of my life.  I am working to create a second resources blog/page where I can post my thoughts and reflections and lessons from Mark and hopefully open it up to discussion and constructive criticism.  Thanks to all the loyal readers who I dissapoint with my posting infrequency. More to come (hopefully)

JD

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I know I have been horrible at communication and I truly apologize, my life has been wicked busy. I am taking to college level classes right now, one Philosophy GE at Windward Community College (to finally finish my degree) and Perspectives on the World Christian Movement at our church. On top of that, our wonderful dog Rowdy is drivin’ me to drinkin’ by breaking out of our house and yard and finally getting himself hit by a car one time. He then requires weekly vet visits which drain both our time and money. He is fine, though, resilient, happy and healing…

After all that, I have watched my daughter grow and change. The Yes title is basically because she is just wrapping Daddy around her finger lately by doing a couple things. The first happened the other morning when she had finished her morning nurse snack. She was laying in between annie and me and I was laying on my side facing them. I was tired and my eyes were closed when my wonderful daughter gave me the sweetest kiss ever. I figured that Annie had picked her up and put her up to my lips, but she apparently lunged forward just to kiss daddy. Well, of course my heart melted.

My heart melted again the other dauy when I was at the store and annie called me. She was very excited and told me that Ellie finally said, “Da”. She didn’t ay it while we talked on the phone that trip, but today, I was at the store again, called annie to ask a question, and when Ellie heard my voice, I heard her say, “Da” a couple times( not dada, but were getting there). Anyway, that’s how my daughter is melting my heart in the middle of busyness, readings, papers, outrageous vet bills and everything else. Sorry I have been a blog chump and I will try to get better.