Biting and Ordaining

So, this will probably be brief (well, we'll see).

Seth has begun his progression towards dentures ... that is, he has a tooth now, which may lead to decay, which may lead to dentures in a few decades. But TEETH are really cool. What a day to celebrate!!

Mark got ordained a week ago at District Assembly. That was a really neat experience for him. His mom and step-dad came from Illinois. It was also neat to have my brother there and Lexa too. It didn't occur to me to get him a gift 'cause I'm sorta dumb like that. So today I was thinking about framing his favorite poem, "Buttprints in the Sand". We've been talking about that for a long time now. I really just have to follow through.

Hey, another cool thing was visiting with my old college roomie on Monday!!! Hooray to Sara and Scott for visiting Maryland. I consider this your first step to falling in love with the area and moving out here like the rest of us nerds.

Neato burrito!

Oh, I am so excited!

Good news to announce!! I am just glowing with joy!! This weekend my dear friend Charlene gave birth to a brand new baby boy, Reece. I feel as excited as I have every time I have become an aunt again!! New babies, new hope, new excitement, new energy ... and new exhaustion for the parents :) It's so totally worth it. Congratulations, Charlene and Jeremiah!

Today was Easter. In the ministry we say "whew" at about this time on Easter evening. Not to take away from the joy of birth or resurrection. But I have 2 (or 3) things to get written down.

First, I just read part of a sermon by Ron Benefiel, president of NTS. One comment riveted me. The discussion was about doing inner city ministry. The interview preceding the sermon asked a question about what he had learned about this type of ministry. He said that he learned through his ministry in LA that the church is about compassion, but is also about social justice - combating the systems that trap the people in the city (and elsewhere, I suppose). Our church is really very compassionate. We love to give out food baskets, etc to the needy. We have one family in our church that is about social justice. When they speak, everyone just sorta rolls their eyes (even if it is just in their spirit). This has frustrated me for some time. Why do people do that? Maybe then there would be no more poor and they would no longer get that warm fuzzy feeling for handing out food baskets? I don't mean to make light of the complex issues that enslave the lower classes. Maybe it is because people do not understand those issues? I don't mean to claim that I do. Maybe it is because people don't think the issues can actually be solved. I don't know a whole lot about how they can.

Seems like we have to ask these questions somewhere. Seems like we have to start with change in ourselves. Seems like compassion is the start to where social justice changes lead.

I'll save the other struggles for later.

Bart, Vart, Fart

I love the English language. There are so many funny words and what's cool is that you can make up words as you go. So I have invented 2 new ones this week.

Last night I took a bath and since our tub does not hold water well, by the end there was just a thin layer of water left. Now, probably due to having had two children, there's all this extra skin around my abdomen and so when I pulled my belly up a little this hideous noise erupts (resulting from the suction created by the water). It cracked me up so much that I kept making it ... until Levi woke up, beat loudly on his door and Mark came upstairs to put him back to bed. Then I showed it to Mark and dubbed the occasion a "bart."

The other word, well, I thought I ingeniusly coined it in the midst of a conversation with my sister last week (to our mother's dismay - she honestly tried to teach us better). Then I looked on Urbandictionary. com and it turns out it is common wordage for almost exactly what we were discussing, although our version was less intimate.

All these new words at a time that I can't say them anymore. Mark and I are trying to clean up our vocabulary as Levi is learning so much in that area these days. So we 'pass things' in our family these days.

Sin and forgiveness

Maybe I had a bit of a spiritual epiphany this week. This is about forgiveness, which as they always say is easier than it sounds. I feel recently like I have been carrying deep hurts for the way that some church members have treated Mark and myself. There is one particular 'offender' whom his own family members have given up on, claiming he is too hurt and hardened to change. Like many others in the world, his personality is driven to being A-type and controlling. There have been a couple of hurtful things said or done which I have struggled to release.

A few weeks ago our small group began a study of my favorite book, Compassion, by Henri Nouwen and others. We explored the beauty of God as Immanuel, God-With-Us. We delved into the reality of God becoming sin for us so that sin could be redeemed. We talked about God becoming particular acts of sin - God becoming the sin of rape, or abuse - huge sins that create life-altering wounds. It was a powerful lesson because God-With-Us means that God became that offense so that victim and offender can be restored to God. It was powerful because we have in our group people who have faced those evils.

I never have. But, this week, I believe God led me to see that the cutting words of even a brother in Christ are not the 'personality flaws' that I had previous labeled them as. No, those hurtful things are sin. And because they are sin, forgiveness is easier for me. Because I believe in a God who stooped so low to become sin so that I, and my brother in Christ, can be redeemed from the effects of sin - not just the eternal but the very emotional pain I feel, and, yes, even the broken relationship between us that is also sin.

I don't label the 'sin' because I feel that I am the judge. Really, I think proper perspective has been a healing balm for me. Does this make sense?