As seen on Thinklings, the lost ending to my favorite movie, It’s a Wonderful Life:
“You made one mistake, Mr. Potter. You double-crossed me and you left me alive!”
1
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A great day
A great day . . .
A movie with Jill, Bethany, Blake and his friends on his tenth birthday. At Studio Movie Grill, so we got to eat pizza while we watched.
Seeing Bethany both sing and act at her voice recital today. She did a song from Mulan. Truth be told, she wasn’t really up for doing the recital today. But she’s devoted to her craft, and professional about it, so you would have never known. She did great.
Going with Blake to pick out a flower for Bethany to give her after the recital. He helped me choose, and we gave it a decent amount of thought. I bought him a 20oz Sprite at the check out because, hey, it’s his birthday.
Driving to drop off Molly at an ABS party. Well, actually, she drove. And, yes, that’s a good thing, even for this nervous dad. She’s near getting her license and she’s a good driver. We listened to High School Musical 2 on the way. And I listened to it on the way home too. So there.
Watching two shows tonight with Andrew. One was that Tom Brokaw special on 1968. The other was Minority Report on DVD. Andrew and I think a lot alike and have a lot of the same interests, and he’s going to college next fall so every moment together is important to me. Please pray for him.
Reading an email that blessed Molly. She wanted me to read it because it was such an encouragement to her – it came out of the blue and wasn’t expected.
It encouraged me too.
Seeing Blake sleeping in his mother’s arms tonight. He’s ten now, and so this doesn’t happen very often and won’t happen much longer, but Jill insisted tonight. She’s that way, and that’s just one more thing I love about her.
Minority Report reminded me of how thankful I am to God for my kids. If you have seen it you know why I say that.
All our kids are in double digits now.
I just looked at the clock. It’s after midnight. It’s December 16th.
So I’m forty four now.
These are the days!
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. – James 1:17
Blake soccer highlights
Blake’s been on the same soccer team (CyFair Fury, baby!) basically since he was four. He turns ten today!
At the end of most seasons we put together a soccer DVD for the team, with clips of each player doing their thing over a music soundtrack. The one for this just-ended season was about 15 minutes long, and had a section devoted to each player. Below is the part of the video (about a minute) which highlights Blake’s work.
I know I’m his dad, and thus biased, but this kid has been blessed with some great talent. Take a look at this.
(Bonus points go to whoever can identify the soundtrack for this clip).
Weak, and needing deliverance
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses . . . – Hebrews 4:15a
Today my own weakness and inability to fix what ails me and those around me is at the forefront of my mind. I need deliverance and the hope of the Savior.
I always need His rescue. Always have. It’s just that I don’t always realize it.
Today I do.
Below is the final portion of the iMonk’s latest Advent post. I’m formatting it below like the poetry that it is (and, of course, you should go read the whole thing).
let us all receive him
We go to the manger and worship
We give to him our gifts
We take his light to the poor
Until then, we are the poor
the weak
the blind
the lonely
the guilty
and the desperate
We light candles
because we who are in darkness
are in need
of a great light
We need a savior
So we wait amidst the ruins
we protect the lights we hold
in hope
We sing to one who is coming
We look and wonder
We pray for his star to take us
once again
to the miracle
Come, Lord Jesus.
Warning: False dichotomies may get you trached . . .
The Gospel: d) All of the Above
Both/and.
Yes, but.
Right, nevertheless.
And also.
To get the context, check out this must-read from Jared. Hammer. Nail. Pow.
Best line I’ve read in awhile: “All these false dichotomies make me wanna start handing out tracheotomies”
Bam!
Gain your brother
15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
– Matthew 18:15
This is such great wisdom from our Lord.
Yet it’s hard wisdom. It’s so much easier to go to the sympathetic ear and knowing nod of a compassionate (and biased in your direction) friend then to go to the one who has offended you.
But look at the payoff of the more difficult route! “You have gained your brother”, and pleased the Lord as well!
There is so much destruction hatched in whispered conversations in hallways, in vent-sessions over coffee, in partially-veiled blog posts, in the flaming “press-send-before-I-change-my-mind” email. And there is so much resentment and bitterness brewing (a bitter stew that!) in the hearts of those of us who have gone the other way and left all the necessary words unsaid.
Go to your brother. Be reconciled. Gain each other! This is the wisdom of our Lord, and it is very good.
“Having resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die” — Malachy McCourt
(thanks to the Anchoress for this quote).
Did you know . . .
. . . that to replace the battery on a Chrysler Sebring*, you have to remove the wheel and the wheel-well cover.
That was some fun, today, I’ll tell ya what.
* The Sebring is the car Michael drives on The Office. It’s a convertible for people who can’t afford convertibles. It was my present to my better half on her last significant decade-crossing birthday.
And the battery is located in the wheel-well, just so ya know . . .
His grace is sufficient
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
– 2 Corinthians 12:9
I’m not sure I can articulate what I’m trying to say here (now there’s a surprise! . . . oh wait . . . ), and thus the fewer words the better:
The iMonk linked to another brother’s confessional (may not be the right word) post about his use of anti-depressants. This is an interesting, thought-provoking, and sometimes heart-wrenching topic, especially if you have experienced depression among family members, or in your own life.
The question the brother asks is “Is Jesus enough?” The comments thread has been full of grace, and that’s so refreshing. But it got me wondering. Is “Jesus is enough” a Biblical thought?
Wait, don’t go away. Let me explain. I mean, of course we know that Christ is our all-sufficient Savior. But have you ever known anyone who truly needed nothing else but Jesus? In other words, no food, water, clothing, shelter, medicine, etc.
I’m not trying to be hyperbolic here. But when we say “Jesus is enough”, what do we mean? Do we mean that we currently need nothing else? If you say that, do you live that way? Is it wrong to have other needs?
Did anyone in the Bible ever say “Jesus is enough”? And here I am asking a genuine question. There may be a time when someone said that. But as I begin thinking through this, I begin wondering if that’s really a Biblical statement.
What Paul said (or rather what God said to Paul) was that God’s grace is sufficient. When we say (or sometimes even sing) “Jesus is enough”, it almost seems that what we’re saying is that we need nothing else, and any material, family, or emotional blessing here on earth is superfluous and somehow unnecessary.
And, on a more cynical note, “Jesus is enough” dances closely to what I call “brag worship”. In this I lump all those songs we sing about how much we love God, how we would run for a thousand years to be closer to Him, how He is all we need and every breath that we breathe is for Him.
Do you see the difference in focus between “Jesus is all I need” and “His grace is sufficient”?
I like “His grace is sufficient” more as a Biblical statement of our dependence on Jesus. Grace works in every aspect of our lives, through the material, familial, emotional, spiritual . . . God’s grace invades the air we breathe and the roads we walk, and it is there in our good times, in our bad times, in the times when we are full and overflowing, and in the times when we are desperately needy for a smile, a listening ear, a meal, a bath, some joy, a friend, money for the rent, a laugh, a cry, some fun, a light in the darkness, some deep thought, a good book, a good word.
I don’t know if I can honestly say “Jesus is enough”, because I’m not even sure I know what that means, and I certainly don’t think I live that way. Jesus is my Savior, without him I am nothing, but with him I can live in the grace that he has given me, abundantly and without measure, enjoying and needing and growing and striving and alive in him.
His grace is sufficient.
I hope this made some sense. Feel free to offer any correction on this thought in the comments section.
Changes to the bloogroll
I did some reorganization and cleaning-up of my bloogroll tonight.
A few notes: First, I removed a lot of blogs from it. If you are one of my three readers and if I removed your blog, I want to assure you that it’s not because your blog isn’t great. I removed some exceptional blogs. I can’t articulate the reason very well (heeeey, now that’s new! Just kidding 🙂 but it has nothing to do, I assure you, with the quality of your blog. All of the blogs in my bloogroll were top-notch, in my opinion.
It probably just has to do with a deep need I have these days to simplify. And to tone down the volume a bit. There are plenty of well-written, intelligent, thought-provoking, necessary things being said these days on the blogosphere, but I can only handle so much. I’ve been on a virtual blog-fast for the past month or two, other than a few blogs that I kept reading (the ones in the “Must-reads” category). I don’t want to step too quickly back into the firehose.