Ahhh…my first official attack of blogorrhea! Unfortunately, it’s stemming from a rare, but serious bout of insomnia as well, so there’s no telling how much sense this will make later in the day, but here goes.

I’ve been pondering the story of the Good Samaritan quite a bit lately: Man asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life…Jesus says, “What do you think?”…Man says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself…Jesus says, “You got it.”…Man says, “And who’s my neighbor?” Jesus responds by telling the story of a Samaritan who takes the time to help a man who has been badly beaten and left for dead. And not just any man, but a Jewish man; a man who treats Samaritans like second-class citizens. Add in two fellow Israelites, a priest and a Levite, who pass by without stopping to help, and you have the makings of a beautiful parable.

With that understanding of the story, I tend to become rather proud of my answer when I ask myself “Who is my neighbor?” I’m pretty sure I’ve got this one down pat. My neighbor is the old boss who treated me poorly at my last job, the ex-con who lives down the street, the girl who teased me in middle school, my sister. No one’s disqualified from the mercy God calls us to give. Got it.

What hit me the other day was that I was missing a vital part of the story. The Samaritan recognized the value of this man’s life and served him with humility and grace, though he could have easily justified leaving him behind. But what I had never thought about before was the fact that, before he ran across this man, the Samaritan must surely have been on his way to do something else. This may sound like a simple thought, but to me, there are few things I value in this world more than my time. If I could use another theological source to help get my point across, I would have to use that brilliant and wise beacon of truth we’ve all come to know and love: Veggie Tales. In their version of the story, (”Are You My Neighbor?”), the priest and the Levite (or the mayor and the doctor in this case) sing together as they quickly pass by their fellow townsman in need:

We’re busy, busy, dreadfully busy. You’ve no idea what we have to do.
Busy, busy, shockingly busy; Much, much too busy for you.

This catchy little song changed my entire perspective of the story, and made me realize that I had more in common with the priest and the Levite than I cared to admit. Knowing who my neighbor is doesn’t help me too much in my quest for righteousness when I see a person in need and whisper a five-second prayer for them as I rush by on my way to a more important event.

Last Sunday my husband and I passed by two sets of homeless people asking for help as we rushed to our church Youth Group meeting, making sure to avoid eye contact (maybe I don’t have the first point of the story down after all, huh?). How many times have I driven by stranded cars on the side of the road as I headed to work (or maybe the mall) and felt confident that someone else will stop? And I can’t forget the countless times I avoid checking on someone who’s going through a hard time because my favorite television show is coming on. While I can’t say I’ve ever run into someone who’s been beaten and left for dead on the side of the road, the concept, as it applies to my life, is still the same.

We’re not called to simply be knowledgeable of whom we’re supposed to show compassion. We’re called to lay down our generally meaningless agendas and be the hands and feet of Jesus when we see someone in need. But does that mean everyone we see in need? Always? Is it more important than getting to work on time? What about the kids’ soccer game? Won’t I be thought of as inconsiderate or irresponsible if I don’t arrive for Sunday dinner at the in-laws’ before the ham gets cold? When does the call to serve others take a back seat to my need for lunch?

Veggie Tales may have added a bit of dramatic license to the story in that I’m not sure if we really know why the first two men didn’t stop. But I think the point of the interpretation is valid. The Enemy uses a brilliant and effective strategy for keeping us from acting upon the will of the Father - he continuously reminds us that we have better things to do.

I’ve been digging this new song by Aaron Shust called My Savior My God. Well, honestly I don’t know how new it is since I don’t listen the local CCM station that much. But I digress… I went to his web site and found that he’s done a devotional type thingy for each song on the album. For this song, he starts out saying :

When I have a good day, I say, “God, thank you. You are really blessing me.” Blessing is a word that I only hear Christians use. I have heard it means to “speak well about a thing”, but I think it’s used more often in the sense of I need a raise, or a gift, or something specific. “God, bless me” in this context means: I want my business to do well, or I want a motorcycle, or I want to pay my rent this month.

When I’m having a bad day, I say, “God, don’t forget me. Please hear my prayers”, as if He may have forgotten about me.

One of my favorite communicators, Bill Bahr, tells a story of a man who, through a series of events, misses his flight and, when the plane crashes and everyone dies, an article is written in a Christian publication saying, “God was watching out for him.” Not long after that article appeared, another article is written by the wife of a man who, by a series of seemingly miraculous events, made it onto that flight, and the last communication that they had was waving goodbye to each other with joy in their hearts at how God had orchestrated events that allowed him to make his flight…that would take him to his death. So who was God really looking out for? Was God working in one man’s life and not the other? (read more)

This echoes a lot of the thoughts that have been going through my head lately. We tend to thank God only for the nice stuff that happens to us. But many times if something “good” happens to us then this precludes it from happening to someone else. If we get the house we’ve been wanting then it’s likely someone else didn’t. If we get that last ticket then someone else is left sitting at the terminal. Quite honestly, it is presumptuous for us to think that God has explicitly directed things so that we might be more comfortable. Not discounting the personalness(is that a word?) of God, I think He is interested in far greater things than seeing to our comfort.

Like I said, these thoughts have been itching the back of my brain so stay tuned for more on the subject…

From: The Attributes of God, Vol. II

You may have been serving God quite a while, but instead of getting better, you feel you’re getting worse. You know what’s happening to you? You’re getting to know yourself better! There was a time when you didn’t know who you were and you thought you were pretty fine. Then, by the good grace of God, He showed you yourself - and it was shocking and disappointing to you. But don’t be discouraged, because He is faithful that calls you and He will also do it. God will finish the job.

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 - Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

Psalm 139:23-24
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

So yesterday, Reon and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary. Yeah! We both intended to post something about it, but time got the best of us. So I decided to give my best impersonation of having logorrhea and blog about it.

7 years….wow. Seems like it has been longer than that…and sometimes seems like it has only been a few days. Wierd how that works, yeah? Well, we both agree that it has been great, even though it certainly hasn’t been what we thought it would be, as there have been several twists and turns in our life that we never expected. I guess that unexpected turns in life should be one of the few things that is expected. Wow, so profound and yet, so obvious to most.

I just want to say that Reon is a great wife and life partner. She has been very willing to allow me the freedom to pursue many of my dreams, even at a great lifestyle cost to her. I’m excited about this next chapter in our life, as we anticipate new things and changes to our current reality. I hope that we will be able to allow her to realize some of her hopes and dreams in the coming years.

So, I’m very thankful and thrilled to be married to my best friend. I’m grateful to God for giving us these past 7 years, and I look forward to whatever is in our future. My prayer is that with each year, we (by His grace) will love each other more self-lessly and demostrate a Wonderful, Loving God to the world through our marriage & family. Wow…I can’t believe I just said family…

I’ve always thought I wasn’t an awful speller, but my spelling has become more labored as my reading has decreased. (One of those joys of young children no one talks about.) As I began posting some here (and commenting other places) I find myself wearing out my favorite online dictionary. So I was intrigued (no dictionary usage needed) by this site which tests your spelling skills on 42 previous National Spelling Bee winning words. My favorite word?

logorrhea: excessive use of words

As in, Reon and jlove could never be accused of logorrhea on their blog.

…a hug to us is an open invitation to all and rarely involves just one person. When you see a hug in process, if you hurry, you are welcome to get in on some good lovin’.

(Brian’s homecoming was fun!)

Honey, while I’m gone maybe you can use one of these…

HT : Office Spam

I find myself in a position where I am wishing we were already up and running with a regular readership. I have a solicitous question. I suppose Reon might have some wonderful insights, so I’ll continue even though there may be no other person on the earth who reads this.

Here’s the deal: Brian finds himself away on a business trip. This does not happen very often at all, for which I am extremely grateful. Unfortunately, this lack of business travel has an unexpected side-effect. When Daddy is gone, his girls miss him at night. A lot. DD2 cried for almost 45 minutes last night. I tried everything in my bag of tricks.

Solution 1: Prayer.
Result? Uncontrollable sobs emitting from both bunkbeds by the end of the prayer.

Solution 2: Give them more information. (This sometimes really helps dd1. What is in her head is often a little confusing and more information can sometimes scare the monsters out of her imagination.)
Result? Unending questions and more tears. (Example: Why can’t Daddy drive back and forth? Why does he have to work? Doesn’t Daddy want to be home with us? Does he know we miss him? Is it night where Daddy is? etc…)

Solution 3: Give them each a picture of Daddy to hold.
Result? Oh my, the wailing that occurred…

Solution 4: Threaten to beat them both to a pulp.
Result? Again, the weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Solution 5: (After apologizing for losing it) Offer to let them sleep in one of Daddy’s t-shirts.
Result? Two little girls exhausted from crying for 30+ minutes have no interest in changing their clothing.

Solution 6: Use the monotony of crying emanating throughout the house as a sweet lullaby of sobs for DS. (Yes, through this entire thing so far I was also juggling a very tired 18mo!)
Result? DD1 fell asleep listening to DD2 cry and whimper while I rocked DS to sleep. After putting DS in his crib, I then rocked DD2 to sleep while singing her special lullaby to her over and over and over and over…

So there it is. My dilemma? We have to do this again for three more nights! Does anyone have any other ideas??? I could sure use a few. Although, I feel like this has been a bit cathartic. Maybe I’ll just plan to blog more about it tomorrow…

Okay, it’s really no secret that I love A.W. Tozer. He has a way of writing huge thougths in such a succinct manner that blows me away. I’m considering making this a regular post for me, so I’ve added a whole Tozer category. (I know, I shouldn’t be messing around with the behind-the-scenes stuff. I might mess things up so badly that even Brian and jlove couldn’t fix them!) Anyway, here’s the latest Tozer quote to hit me. It’s from The Attributes of God, Vol.II.

Faithfulness is that in God which guarantees that He will never be or act inconsistent with Himself. You can put that down as an axiom. It is good for you now and good for you when you’re dying. It will be good to remember as you rise from the dead and good for all the eons and milleniums to come. God will never cease to be what He is and who He is. Everything God says or does must be in accord with His faithfulness. He will always be true to Himself, to His works and to His creation. . . .

Now that may sound a little dry, but if you get that inside of you and build on it, you’ll be glad you know it the next time you’re in a tough circumstance, You can live on froth and bubbles and little wisps of badly understood theology - until the pressure is on. And when the pressure is on, you’ll want to know what kind of God you’re serving.

This is the kind of God you’re serving: All that God says or does must accord with all of His attributes, including His attribute of faithfulness. Every thought that God thinks, every word that God speaks, every act of God must accord with His faithfulness, wisdom, goodness, justice, holiness, love, truth and all His other attributes.

The web is slowly creeping into what used to be the domain of the desktop. Online applications of word processors, spreadsheets, project planners, etc. are popping up all over. The latest of these I’ve run across is Zoho. The benefit of these online services is that they can be updated/accessed from anywhere and you can collaborate with a geographically diverse team. Zoho offers the standard office suite type stuff along with a Virtual Office and Web Application creator - two things I had not seen from other, similar sites.

Can these applications approach the functionality you find on the desktop? Not quite yet, but they’re getting better every day and filling a niche quite nicely that was previously vacant.