sweeeeet

This is terribly stupid, and I apologize.


You are Napoleon Dyanamite and a buttload of gangs
are trying to recruit you.


Which Napoleon Dynamite character are you?
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world got you down?

The last few days have been the kind where the world is weighing heavy on your shoulders. I spent some time on Monday at the batting cage. I hit about 120 balls. Jarod, Garrett, TJ you may remember the last time I had to go to the batting cage, I think it was sophmore year on your favorite day with me.

Anyway, I got home to hang out with little Jack yesterday while Christine was teaching her performing arts class. We played and he ate, then I put on some baby einstein and sat down on the floor. Then he climbed up in my lap, and we watched pigs and cows etc go across the screen to beethoven, and all my troubles drifted away. Thank God for 1 year olds. Thank God especially for mine.

the small things

This is a comment from Adam Ellis, a youth minister in West Virginia. The question posed in the blog he was commenting on was (paraphrased) "Where is God in all this Katrina mess. People are dying and God is sitting back watching? There are small things happening, different individuals and small groups doing things, but it's like throwing bb's at a tank. Why doesn't God come down and really do something?"

Adam said this:

"The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed. It IS the small stuff. It's individuals opening their homes. It's a sunday school class of small children sending spare change and pictures drawn with crayons. It's God being born in a stable. It's Jesus leaving "turning the world right-side-up" in the hands of a handful of followers. I want the kingdom of heaven to be like an explosion. I want it to be something huge and spectacular. But the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed. That is how we change the world"

Wow, that's so true.

Big Picture

I read the story of Jesus healing the paraplegic today;(you remember that one from the felt-board don't you?) I noticed something I'd never noticed before. When the paraplegic's friends lowered him down through the roof, Jesus was touched, and he forgave his sins. That's it. He said your sins are forgiven, then he turned. It wasn't until the religous leaders started grumbling about how he couldn't forgive sins that he showed them that he had the authority to forgive sins and heal diseases.

But he forgave his sins first. It seems logical to me that he would have healed his disease and then forgave his sins, but I think in earthly terms. To God, our eternal status is more important than our earthly well-being. This life is a vapor, a mist, but eternity is, well, forever. God wants us for eternity, in our perfect state. The way he intended for us to be before we turned our back on him. I think that is evident in this story of Jesus. Our sins are forgiven, now rise and walk.