Fantasy Football Update: Daisies Win!

Yep, I named our fantasy football team the Daisies. Don't worry, I got Jackson's approval. Why? 1. I think Daisies are a cool flower. 2. We just got a dog named Daisy. 3. I'm rebelling against all the tough-guy fantasy names like "Devil-dogs" OR "Nail-eaters". Just one problem. I didn't think we would really win! I'm sure all the tough guys in my league really appreciate getting beaten by the Daisies.

It was so cool though! Jackson and I got into the championship game. I purposefully didn't check my computer all night, but I knew it was close. Finally, I turn it on to see the score and it's a tie! The score was 88-88. Holy Cow! I never heard of such a thing before. It hadn't happened all season that I knew of! So I frantically check the rules. I scour over them looking for what happens in a tie. The rules state that if two teams play and the starters from both teams end the game in a tie, then the points for reserve players break the tie. Reserves score: Daisies - 51 Bengals - 18. As the old Queen song goes, "We are the champions my friends!"

3 Easy Steps To Understanding the Trinity

Just kidding. Wouldn't that be nice though? Maybe that's why so many book titles or new fads out there have "3 Easy Steps" in their title or tag line? It would just be so nice if losing weight or amassing a fortune were really that easy. So we fall for it again and again. Hey, maybe there really are "3 Easy Steps" to amassing a fortune: 1. Take some time off 2. Write a book 3. Call it "3 Easy Steps To Amassing a Fortune". Who knows? It might work.

There might be "3 Easy Steps" to doing some things, but I'm pretty sure understanding the nature of the Trinity isn't one of them. But what is the Trinity? I get asked that all the time. Well, that's pretty easy, "It's the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit" I say, but it's never enough. It's true, it's biblically sound and theoligically correct, it's absolutely right, but the blank stares I get in return tell me I need more.

The Trinity is a perfect example of how finite our brains are this side of heaven. There's just so much we don't get and couldn't possibly get even if we had a microchip with all the accurate information in the world on it planted in our brains. Side note: I wonder how far away we are from something like that actually? Many explanations for why God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are all the same but really separate are just not good enough. There's nothing that quite captures it. Just try saying the Trinity is like a cup of coffee or a bowl of cereal. That's right, more blank stares.

With all that said, my latest explanation may not help, but how about the nature of the Trinity as compared to the nature of our sun? Hmmmmm. Not bad, huh? The sun is the source of life. Well God is, but you know what I mean. Without the sun, we all die and fast. The sun is this amazing, incomprehensible, bigger than life object in the sky. It's hotter, bigger and more mysterious than anything we can imagine.

Now the sun's light is what reveals this big, hot, amazing, incomprehensible thing to us all. The light is all around us and really fuels the innerworkings of the earth so with the light, we know the sun is there and we know we need it. We can't look at the sun for long or we'll go blind, but the light reveals it's existence and we've seen pictures.

So we have the sun and it's amazing, and the sun's light is what reveals its existence. Now what? How about this? It's warmth makes us feel it. It's warmth washes over us and keeps us from freezing to death. Some days are colder than others though. Some days are downright freezing, but it's only the sun that can warm things up again. There are even days where the sun's warmth scorches us, but every evening like clockwork, it relents again.

Okay, so this is kind of cheesy, but it does help me at least. The sun is really three-in-one: the sun, its light and its warmth. Each one of these things is unique, but at the same time the same. Here's to more confusion and maybe a little en"light"enment on the subject of the Trinity.

My New Year's Resolution

The truth is I really am a fairly well adjusted 39 year old male. I don't think I'm going through any kind of mid-life crisis or anything like that. But I am a sinner, and almost everyday I re-remember that stark reality, which is my day-to-day crisis. Something will happen or a series of somethings that will stick the reality of my sinfulness right back in my face again. I'm pretty sure it's God. Theologically I would bet it's actually God the Holy Spirit doing everything from a gentle and friendly whisper to a swift kick in the pants. It seems like lately it's been kicks more than whispers. I get that from time to time.

I've been confronted by the Holy Spirit lately with a pattern of sin I'll call obsessions. Another word might be distractions. These would be any regular behaviors, not necessarily sin in and of themselves, that you focus on and participate in to the point of obsession, and that distract you from your life's mission. When I thought about this I realized that these two words, obsession and distraction, are not words I want to go together in my life very often because when they do, I'm much less effective as a husband, father, son, pastor, preacher and disciple to name a few. More to the point, when obsession and distraction become characteristics of mine to much degree at all, I'm not just "much less effective", in fact, I just plain suck at everything else but sin.

I don't know about you, but it seems like there's a laundry list of these kinds of things that wrestle my attention away from the really important stuff. Actually, most of the time it's more like inviting me out for an ice cream cone than wrestling me or picking a fight. I want to give in because I enjoy each thing so much. Put what you want under the category of obsession or distraction from fantasy football to video games to watching t.v. By the way, my fantasy team is about to win the championship! See what I mean?

I am disgusted often when I add up how much time I spend on things that don't matter versus things that my life depends on. I'll bet I could have read the Bible through three times in the same amount of time I've studied espn.com this year for example. Well, I guess I have a new New Year's resolution. Here's to doing better next year! I pray you'll do better too.

Adoption Update: December 2007

It will be three years of working "the system" on January 7th. That date looms like a date for major surgery, or at least having a root canal. We're looking forward to it about as much as surgery or a root canal too. I guess it's because no matter how hard we try or how much we wait, we just can't seem to finish this and get our kids home.

January 7th isn't just the three year anniversary of this crazy process, but it's also Jimy's birthday. Jimy is the little boy we're adopting, and he will be turning five. So I guess January

7th is also a reminder that this is all worth it. These two beautiful children (Eden is our little girl) will be getting here someday. We just hope it's someday soon.

Sorry it's been so long for some of you since you've heard anything from us. We're just tired of saying, "not yet", I guess. But there have been a few key developments lately that bring us hope so I wanted to let you know about them.

God has blessed us with a friend in high places. His name is Mike DeWine. He was a U.S. Senator for many years, and his home happens to be in Cedarville. Not only that, but as providence would have it, he also has a passion for Haiti. It turns out, the DeWine's started a school in Port au Prince called Becky's School. It was named after their daughter Becky who was killed in a car accident many years ago. The DeWine's are very involved in that ministry, traveling back and forth to Haiti, and working with government officials there.

In getting to know us, Mike and Fran have taken an interest in our adoptions and now share our ongoing consternation. As a result, Mike talks to the President of Haiti and his staff regularly about helping us get this done. He also has a friend in Haiti named Nahoum Acra. This man is highly respected in Haiti and also has friends in the government. Mr. Acra has agreed to do what he can to help us push this through.

Obviously, the only One who can really push anything through is God. We know that and we're praying daily. Thanks for your prayers, your financial support and your regular encouragement. It helps so much. We will press on until God's timing is right. Thanks for pressing on with us.

Truth Exploration

Back in caveman days, the people saw the moon but had no idea what it really was. They probably wondered daily what secrets it held. Was it a god? "What the heck. Let's worship it just in case" they might have thought to themselves, and then they did. But as time went on, we figured it out. The moon is incredible, but it's not a god. We figured out that the moon is just one of billions of incredible worlds to explore out there.

There was time when there were still untold numbers of worlds to explore on earth too. I mean, Christopher Columbus didn't sail the ocean blue til 1492, remember? The point is, we know incredible things exist out there, but we only learn more about them the closer we get.

The same is true with truth. First, there is a truth to be found. It doesn't matter how much I want something to be true. It's either true or it isn't. It's not logical or possible for two contradictory ideas to be true at the same time. For example, I can say, "There is an ocean and it's blue" but I can't say, "There is not an ocean" at the same and be right about both. The reason is it's not reality. Something is either real or not real. It's either true or not true. You could say, "But there are different interpretations of truth". That's fine. Go ahead and say it, and on some level you might be right. But you still cannot say there's an ocean and there's not an ocean at the same time and be right about both. One of those statements has to be false.

The same is true for the existence of God. The same is also true regarding the Lordship of Jesus Christ. There either is a God or not. Both can't be true at the same time. And Jesus Christ is either Lord and Messiah or not. He can't be both at the same time, and we could go on from there.

We discovered the truth about God and His Son Jesus Christ a long time ago. It was like Columbus discovering the new world. Since this great discovery. We have explored this new world. We've built on it and we've settled down here. There's still much more we don't know, but we've learned the basic reality along with many intricacies as well.

There are other worlds out there and more truth. The Holy Spirit is like climbing up Mount Everest. The Sermon on the Mount and its applications is like a trek to the North Pole. We don't know nearly as much about these places as we think we do, but we know a lot more than we used to.

Now, we're off to the moon and beyond. We're off to places like Mars, Venus, Pluto and even the next galaxy. Each new place we visit and explore offers new perspectives. It's like venturing into Paul's letters or the Old Testament prophets. It's like landing on the surface of the doctrine of election, predestination or the sacraments. You could even say it's like observing up close the supernova of the book of Revelation.

Each place we visit does not supersede or negate the places we've already been. The foundation upon which we've already built still exists, and it's solid. But do we really know as much about the supernova or the planet Pluto as we do our own backyard?

This position we're in of not knowing it all doesn't have to be scary. Let's think of it as beautiful instead. We have a God and Lord who has done all this and given it to us to explore and learn from. There's no limit to the universe of God's amazing truth so let's blast off together and enjoy.

Dirty Minds

What if we actually did some of the things we think about doing? Take a second to inventory your recent thoughts. What were they? Be honest. If you're like me, you probably break at least one of the ten commandments in your mind every day. And if you're thinking you're not like me in that way, I'll bet you just broke commandment #9 (see Exodus 20). It's amazing to me the actions in my mind I tolerate that I would never tolerate in real life. In fact, it's amazing what I'm free to do in my head that people get thrown in prison for every day because they act them out. Why do I do that? Why has that become okay? Can you relate? I mean, Jesus did teach that a sin in my mind is equally as sinful as a sin anywhere else. Lust in my mind really is a type of adultery. Anger in my mind really can be a type of murder. Check that one off today for me. I guess I killed that guy who tailed me into town. Well, I did imagine running him off the road. Coveting in my mind really is a type of theft. Obviously, when people do act out, the consequences are much more intense, but that doesn't change the sin. Thank God for His amazing grace. I guess I really need it. How about you?

Before Baby Jesus

I was just thinking about what Christmas pageants today would be like without the baby Jesus. Now that would be a little weird. Christmas and the baby Jesus kind of go together, don't they? There was a time though when nobody knew about the baby Jesus. All anyone knew was that God had promised a Messiah to come. What would it be like if you knew you needed a Messiah, He hadn't come yet and you had no idea when He would finally get here? I imagine many people prior to the first Christmas morning longed for their Messiah in a way we've lost track of today. Today we have Christmas every year. We send Christmas cards every year. We sing the same carols every year. We get the tree, hang the stockings, maybe even read the Christmas story every year. But where's that longing? The repetition is fun and it's tradition, but is it necessary? Do we need Christmas to come? Do we long for it and for our Messiah like we were waiting for the first Christmas morning ever? Well I think we need to. At least, we need to again. May the baby Jesus be born again in our hearts this Christmas. Let's long for God. Let's groan for the Messiah who saves us. Let's need Him again, and let's say new prayers that our loved ones and friends will find the baby wrapped in swaddling clothes...like it was the first time.

Coming Soon

It seems like just about everything these days is "coming soon". That's pretty much a good thing. I love living today with all the latest advances and all the newest promises. There's so much we can do now, which means more stuff I don't know how to do. Can you relate? For example, this blog is a new project for me. I'm a quick learner with all this stuff, but just yesterday I didn't know what a blog really was. I guess I'm a step behind on most things, but perfectly willing and able to catch up. A year ago or so I caught up on the i-tunes thing. Now, it's time to blog. I decided to start one cause I knew it could help me somehow. Everybody talks about them so they must help, right? So now I'm determined to figure out the next big thing: I want to post my sermons online. Guess what? That's coming soon. I'll keep you posted.

More Than Just a Title

I thought of the title, sixfootnine and counting, in about 30 seconds. I just needed a title for this blog experiment. But as I thought about it I was struck by how appropriate it was. It really does say a lot, doesn't it? It says a lot about who I am, how people see me, how I see myself, who I am becoming and much, much more. That's a God thing.

As a preacher I feel myself to be in the position of speaking for God a lot. I try not to let that get to me much cause, let's face it, that's pretty intense. How could I (underline I several times) speak for God? What helps me is to remember that I'm not speaking for God, but He is speaking through me. So when something even close to profound comes out of my brain or heart and through my mouth or pen or fingertips, especially when it only takes 30 seconds, I remember again that God works and speaks in and through me (and you)-even in the title for a blog. Therein lies the vantage point of my life: it's not about me. It's all about God.