I told my friends a story last night about Lily receiving a much wanted -- but completely unexpected -- gift for her birthday. It's the boxed set of The Chronicles of Narnia. The look on her face (and her sister's!) says everything.
The gift of Life ("Zoe" in Greek) is free.
Receive it, open it, enjoy it!
Adam and Ben, young men whom I have mentored for a few years, came over to the U.K. and Europe for an extended biking trip.
Look at the picture. Notice the age of the bikes. Notice the lack of gear, and the small paniers for a month's travel. Notice the look on their faces. . . . like "we're not comin' back until we do this thing."
I've been doing some reading in adventure education where recent research is claiming many Western young adults go on "packaged expeditions" with all the "right gear" so they can claim an adrenalin buzz and "veteran experience" with minimal risk. Trouble is, life's not like that. Sooner or later, real risk is involved in life. Safety nets are really only helpful in the circus.
I'm proud of Adam and Ben for doing something that will make them better men. It's not a mission trip. Its not a service trip. But it is a risky trip on old bikes with very little money. They'll have to think quickly and learn how to survive on almost nothing with hardly any gear except new helmets for their new noggins! And maybe along the way, they WILL serve, WILL share God's love, WILL salt the earth with a little daring and strength from their Father.
I submit to you what the world needs is not more men softened by the padding of their office chairs or a padding of a life lived without risk -- the world needs dangerous men hanging over the edge of eternity whose only safety net is the Almighty God and only strength is from the Master, Jesus, and for His loving purpose in the world.
I believe Adam and Ben are taking risks that will help them be this kind of man.
Pray for them during this coming month.
Pray for them on the pilgrimage when they return back to Scotland on July 6th and travel with me to Iona.
Little girls and parties!
Does it get any better or more innocent and special?
Lily had a wonderful little party with a few friends at a "paint your own pottery" place. After painting their little ceramic animals, they ate cake and had their faces painted too!
Happy 6th Birthday Lily!
I haven't written much on our site about what work is like for me these days. Now that the "taught" portion of classes are officially over, and I've turned in my last major paper, all that's left is the 20,000 word dissertation. . . . yeah, all that's left!
Janette goes to work and Lily goes to school and Zoe, well, Zoe stays home with Daddy. Nursery is done now, and Zoe actually stayed home for the last three weeks too. Partly because we travelled a bit, and partly because nursery fees were a bit steep.
So Zoe stays home with dad and does her own work and play. Every now and then, there'll be a little monkey climbing on my back begging for a story or a "buckin' bronco" ride.
And Dad stops writing about the hermeneutic process as an interpretational tool for listening to the stories young adults tell about their motivations for being summer camp staff and picks up "Where the Wild Things Are."
We read and talk and, if its a "good day," Dad gets a few more hours of study without interruption. Its just a fact of life, that dad's have to sometimes get things done, and they have to say "no, I can't do that right now." But for me, that isn't easy to do.
The other day, we were reading a picture book about Jesus and Zacheaus. We took our time -- really took our time and looked at the pictures and wondered what the people were thinking.
"What is Jesus thinking?" I would ask pointing to him walking in the crowd.
"What is he thinking?" Zoe asked, pointing to the little man climbing the tree.
"Good question, hon'." . . . . . . what IS he thinking?
I was the little man in the tree, I was the little man wishing and hoping for just a sight. Not a conversation, just a glimpse of compassion. I knew all the people in the crowd below, knew all their dirt. And they knew mine too. What a distance between us all. Like galaxies staring at one another through the wrong end of a telescope.
And he walks up and stops and looks right at me. And he wants to come to my house and eat dinner! I am the little man in the sycamore tree, I feel the smooth, peeled bark under my hands and the wind pushing through the leaves and I am really, really there stuck in that tree.
"Zacheaus, come down. I'm going to your house today."
"Daddy, why are you crying?"
"I don't know."
"Are you sad?"
"No, I'm not sad."
"But you have tears," she says, and touches my cheek.
"I guess they're happy tears."
"What are happy tears?"
"They come out of you when your heart is really full of happiness and you can't help it, so you cry."
"Daddy. . . . are you okay?"
"Yeah. I'm okay. I'm more than okay."
Sometimes its the little stories, the ones we learned as kids, that come back to haunt. A tree, a crowd, a little man, a daddy and his little girl. And Jesus. Always Jesus.
Zoe had a wonderful little sending off at her nursery with her other classmates. There were little grad caps, parents all dressed up, smiling teachers (were they smiling because it was sunny or because they were done?), food and punch and cake!
What a joy Zoe has been in our lives, and how beautiful it is to watch her grow. Little did we know that her name "The Life that is Found only in God," would be so profoundly true about her.
She has a way with making people feel comfortable around her, she has a way of sharing life with others that doesn't wait for them to "get it all together."
Zoe prays for her cousin Addie every night--and sometimes during the day too! Will you keep Addie in your prayers as she lives up to her name "Hope" and keeps us hoping in the strength of the Master, Jesus?
