All posts by Jeff

Hi, friends!  God is so good and has so much going on!  I feel like in my heart I have four big pots on the burner simmering but none are quite ready to serve. 🙂  So, for now I’ll say that the Food Stamp Challenge is amazing me–I actually think it is cheaper to eat that way (whole, local, organic, seasonal).  It’s changing the way I see a lot of things.  I’ll also say simplicity seems to be a huge theme in my life right now, and the idea that less is more.

So, I think the pots are almost done, but I’ll let them simmer a tad longer. 🙂 What’s simmering in your life? What are you talking to God about, learning about, challenged about? What’s breaking your heart lately?  I’d love to hear.  Thanks, friends.  Talk to you soon.

Kari

… that is what my last post was, apparently.  For some reason I wrote the whole thing–clicked “publish”, and it disappeared into the ether. Oh well. It was on the blessedness of possessing nothing (AW Tozer, Pursuit of God, chapter 2), and talked about having all things with an open hand. Guess that was my chance to practice what I preach!

Just wanted you to know I’m still alive and well. A very busy week with some wonderful family time. Life lessons to come. Enjoy this sunshine!

“I sense that striving for wholeness is, increasingly, a countercultural goal, as fragmented people make for better consumers…things exercise a certain tyrrany over us…I recall St. Teresa of Avila’s wonderful prayer of praise, ‘Thank you, God for the things I do not own.'” p. 35

“Our culture’s ideal self, especially the accomplished professional self, rises above necessity, the humble, everyday, ordinary tasks that are best left to unskilled labor. The comfortable lies we tell ourselves regarding these “little things”–that they don’t matter and that daily, personal, and household chores are of no significance to us spiritually–are exposed as faleshoods when we consider that reluctance to care for the body is one of the first symptoms of extreme melancholy.” p. 40

Last night and this morning I heard an incredible sermon preached by James Allison, a local area pastor who is also a friend of our lead pastor Joel.  Wow.  I’m not going to attempt to recreate it here because you’re better off just listening to it (I’ll post the link when the audio becomes available), but I’ll just share one little tidbit that stuck out to me.  James and his wife have three children, two boys and a girl, and their youngest was diagnosed with aggressive leukemia when she was 2 years old.  She’s spent 2 1/2 years battling, going throug intense chemo and treatments through her tender toddler years.  Amazing.  The story he shared was from 2 Chronicles 20, where King Jehoshaphat leads the army of Juday in prayer and worship, and God goes before them and defeats the three massive armies that had come to destroy the people of God.

I love it when I hear passages that I have even taught myself, and yet God brings them alive in amazing new ways. That’s what this was for me. I’d always gotten the part about “worship God first and watch Him fight your battles” (by “gotten” I mean seen, not that i’d necessarily lived it out!!), but something James said really stood out to me.  He pointed out how Jehoshaphat received the bad news (armies are coming to destroy you) and he turned his full attention to God.  That’s literally what the phrase means there in the passage.  Now our normal reaction in a crisis is to pray, yes–everyone prays.  It’s naturally for us to go “Help! Help me! Look at me! Focus on me! Help me!”  But even though our mouths are going a mile a minute to God, our hearts, attention, eyes, focus, and energy if still firmly fixed on the problem at hand, on the circumstances.  What Jehoshaphat modeled is what we should do instead:  Rather than just blabbering to God as if He doesn’t already know about the problem, we should turn our full attention away from the trial, away from the fear, away from the circumstance, and consciously turn our attention on God and His greatness, His glory, His perfection, His faithfulness.  That is different than just whining to God about our problems all day long while we are still firmly focused and fixed on the tragedy or trial.  Huge difference!

I’d really suggest listening to the audio if you have a chance.  Very powerful sermon with even some subpoints that were awesome regarding parenting and leadership.  For me, my goal this week is to not just pray with my lips, but to pray with my heart, mind, energy, attention, and emotions firmly fixed on God rather than the waves tossing and turning around me.  To turn my attention to Him.

I shared yesterday about our “Perfect Day”.  The part I skimmed over was the afternoon of boating…the highlight.

A friend of mine was just saying yesterday isn’t it weird when we see our little quirks and idiosyncracies running around with diapers on? Yes, our children are so much like us!  Well I saw it big time in Dutch today.

While he is SUPER BUSY and active beyond words, he’s definitely not a dare-devil.  He’s very shy at first and doesn’t like to try new things.  He’s absolutely content to stay home all day and play with his trucks and read books, without going anywhere.  In fact, the fact that we go to the park every day is because mommy needs a  break and wants some exercise, not because he asks to go.  He’s a homebody just like me.

So this morning when we told him we were going boating he firmly insisted, “No! I want play home.”  We tried to tell him how fun it would be but he wanted nothing to do with it.  Finally we lured him with a peanut butter sandwich and got him in the car, but when we got to the boat dock he started crying and said he wanted to go home and go to bed (now that’s serious).  When we tried to put on his life jacket he went totally ballistic and clung to me, crying–huge tears streaming down his face (that is rare).  So I carried him onto the boat and just held him for the first little while as he got more used to things. Sure enough, he slowly began to lessen his grip, look outside, and eventually even walked around, put his feet in the water with Daddy, and cheered and clapped for Daddy as he wakeboarded.  He was having a blast.  But when we asked him if he wanted to go in the water it was still a firm, “No!” and then he’d cling to me again.  Yes, it is true, I have a mama’s boy on my hands.

Then there’s me: Dutch + 100lbs. + a ponytail.  I used to waterski.  But I realized today it hadn’t been since early college, ten years ago, that I last skied.  Certainly not since Jeff and I have been married.  I’m always wimping out, or too cold, or pregnant (that’s a good excuse), and I never go.  But as I watched Dutch today, as I watched him try to be brave but come back and cling to me, as I watched him refuse to go in the water, I thought, “I’ve got to ski for Dutch.  That’s the only way he’ll be brave is if I do it first.”  So, I pulled on the lifejacket, jumped into the water (cold!!!), and pulled on the skis I hadn’t seen in so many years.  As soon as I sat there in the water I thought, “there’s no way I’ll get up. We used to have a pole and now we don’t, and I haven’t done this in so long.”  But as soon as I yelled “hit it” Dad took off, and would you believe it–I popped right out of the water and found myself screaming at the top of my lungs in delight as we raced through the water.  When I finished (I don’t like crashing so when I get too tired I just let go of the rope and slowly sink), they were all cheering and I was beaming ridiculously, bursting with silly pride.  I swam over to the side of the boat.  Then, to my amazement, Dutch says,

“I want go in the wa-wa.”

We all look at him with wide eyes. “You want go in the wa-wa with Mommy, Dutch?”

“Yeah!”  So to all of our surprise instead of waiting for my dad to lift him carefully over the edge, he goes to the back of the boat and just like he does with me in the pool–he jumps right off the back of the boat into my arms.  Poor guy, the water was COLD and I don’t think he expected that, so it was a bit of a shock, but he stayed for a second before getting back in the boat.  You better believe we cheered like crazy at his brave little self jumping in the lake!

But this was where I really saw how similar we are: of course I’m an adult so I hide my ridiculousness but I must admit when I got out of the water I felt pretty darn pround. We had driven past this decked out boat full of high schoolers and skinny little girls in their barely-there bikinis, and I thought, “Ha! I got two kids in the boat! Take that!”   I know. Silly.  I realize waterskiing is NOT a big deal. But you’d have thought I scaled Mt. Everest by how happy I was.  So then later Dutch gets brave again while Jeff is in the water and decides he wants to go back in!  And this time, Jeff holds him and jumps in and accidentally tips just right so that Dutch’s basically dives in headfirst–dunked under the water! Dad and Mom and I gasp, horrified, thinking he’ll never want to see water again after being dunked in the icy lake. And yes, Dutch was a little shaken, but after coughing for a sec, he was all smiles, and when he got back in the boat, it was the most hilarious thing, it was like watching myself, except without adult inhibitors. He jumped around and shouted, “I got in the wa-wa! Way in the wa-wa! Wa-wa on me! I wet!”  You could tell he felt like some gladiator, a conqueror of all things marine.  We were hysterical

So by the time we left, Dutch was driving the boat–literally.  He drove the boat in, he loved the boat. He was ready to move into the marina.  What a change from the scared little boy clinging to mama who had arrived just hours earlier.

So I had to reflect on the drive home, how like Dutch I am.  Dutch is so busy and wild it’s easy to think that he’s naturally brave.  But he’s not.  And you know I can create a whirlwind with my busy schedule and pretend like I’m taking on the world, but inside I’m pretty much a wimp, clinging to mommy instead of diving into the water.  So today was big, for both Dutch and me. How thankful I am for my son, who shows me more about myself than I ever wanted to know, and challenges me to do more than I ever want to do.  Thanks, son.

Jeff and I just crawled into bed and both declared that today was the perfect day.  Of course it wasn’t actually perfect, but just about as close as you can get, and perfect for us and where we’re at and what we needed.  And since God’s Word says we are to proclaim His wonderous works, I’ll proclaim about the sweet day He gave us.

I guess it started last night–Jeff had a 9pm softball game, which meant he wouldn’t be home until 10:30 at least, and he’d been gone every night this week, and I feel like it’s important for us to do as much as we can as a family, so I decided to be wild and crazy and take the kids to the game, even though it’s obviously WAY past bedtime. We bathed, jammied, got snacks, diapers, the whole bit, then loaded into the car with daddy.  Now understand, I have a strange breed of children who NEVER sleep in the car. Ever. Ever.  They come by it naturally because I never could either. But anyway, we almost get to the ballpark and I say, “Wow, Dutch you’re getting to stay up WAY past your bedtime tonight, is’nt that fun?!” and I turn around and he is sound asleep–out–in his car seat.  Hilarious.  Now what do I do? So I say to Jeff that maybe we could park near the field and I could try to watch from the car. Less than ideal, but it would do.  We get to the park and it’s packed, and I realized we might not even find A spot, let alone a close one. Plus, there are 5 fields and only one has parking near it.  Then right as we pull around, a car that’s parked RIGHT behind the backstop of the main field (the only one with close parking) pulls out.  Jeff spots it, swings in, looks at the # on the backstop and says, “This is our field…”  I figured as soon as we parked they’d wake up, but to my amazement, they both slept the whole time, and I got to just sit outside, right behind the stands, right by the car, and watch the whole game. They slept the whole way home, we tucked them into bed, and ate ice cream. 🙂  Good start, huh?

So my recent struggle has been getting up early enough to have my quiet time in the Word and prayer before the kids get up.  But, by God’s grace, this morning I woke right up and bounced out of bed while Jeff got to sleep (he’d been running on WAY too little sleep lately). I had an amazing time all alone with God, sipping my tea, savoring the silence of the house.  At 8 I went in and snuggled with Dutch before getting Heidi up and making breakfast.  Then Jeff was wonderful and remained “unplugged” almost the whole morning. He played with Dutch while I did my mountain of ironing (ok maybe the day wasn’t perfect) , and I got the whole thing done.  He then read him Bible stories while I packed our picnic lunch, then we did our new favorite thing: family dance party.  Jeff bought me the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack, which has killer dance music without words, so Dutch and I hold hands and jump around the room while he laughs hysterically.  Then I even got to go on a run alone (that’s a big deal to a mom!) and worship God to Tenth Avenue North on my hand-me-down ipod that I love.  Lately running has been an amazing time of refreshing for my soul.  And for me there’s nothing like running alone.  Just me and Jesus!

Then we packed up a big picnic lunch and met my parents out at Promentory Park for a long afternoon of boating, which was amazing. The weather was perfect–I learned some things (more later), and we crawled back into our car with that awesome feeling of exhaustion that’s physical not mental or emotional, the kind of exhaustion that actually feels good.  Then after contemplating having people over for the night, we opted to stick to family night, and got home, had dinner, bathtime, storytime, and both kids in bed by 7pm. It is now 9 and I’m headed to sleep after having a few wonderful hours to sit with my honey uninterrupted.  Oh, and I ate two bowls of ice cream. I know–somebody pinch me.

I share all this just to say thank you to our good and faithful God who knew we needed a day like this.  After a FULL week and some hectic days, we felt like all day God was slowly but surely recharging our batteries, filling up our tanks with His presence and His joy.  And since this is loooong already, I’ll save my little “lesson from today” for … tomorrow. Goodnight.

“Day in the Life” post to the left.

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I am blessed beyond words.  I am thankful tonight for women who truly recognize that ministry is all about Him.  I mentioned earlier that I will be taking on a little more involvement in a formal ministry setting, and tonight Joy and I had a meeting with several ladies, long-term servants at our church who have been faithfully providing leadership to the women of Willamette.

I was truly blessed.

Far too often we view the work we do in ministry as “ours”.  Our small group, our Bible study, our our our.  Anything that’s about us isn’t about Him.  And I must say that I am blessed to be part of a body where I consistently see people demonstrating, with their actions, that this is about Him.  His glory. His fame. His recognition. His power being demonstrated in people’s lives.

Lord, we bow to You. We look to You. You are the King, the glorious One.  Make your name famous, make your glory known. Draw people to You, we pray, In Jesus’ name.

Before you read the title and think that I’ve backslidden into oblivion, hear me out.  I’ve been thinking a lot about prayer lately, partly thinking I really need to “get serious” (whatever that means) about praying for our house to sell, because I really sense God’s up to something cool (when is He not?), but somehow I’m to be partnering with Him in this.

I’ve also been motivated to pray because I really sense that we (Jeff & I) and perhaps our church too, is really under attack.  I’m possibly getting more involved in serving at our church (besides the informal stuff I do), and Jeff is up to his eyeballs in ministry work, and as we’ve headed into our 7th year of marriage, we both sense that if we’re not careful we can get engulfed in the stuff of life and lose each other in the process. No good.  I’m not saying we’re falling apart, I’m just saying that as we’re juggling life and ministry, and two kids and the house stuff we’re trying to learn how to stay in stride with each other. Fair enough.  That said, I need to pray like never before for God’s grace and power in our lives!

So yesterday we spent a glorious 4th of July holiday out at my parents’ house at RiverSong.  A few friends from church joined us and we had a fabulous time truly resting, soaking up the sun, playing badminton, eating s’mores and homemade ice cream, and watching Dutch be his ridiculous hilarious self.  Since it’s always so fun to show new people the beauty of RiverSong, we took our friends down to the river, to our neighbor’s swimming hole, and swam around in the cold river water.  Jeff swam all over, then as he and his friend Matt got out of the water, all of a sudden he stops: “Oh no.  My wedding ring.”  I look down at his left hand. Gone. I close my eyes.  He lost his ring in the river.

He lost our first wedding ring in Half Moon Bay when we lived in California, but this current one was way more significant.  I’d saved and saved and secretly gone and taken my purity ring, the one my parents gave me when I was 13 and that I’d worn every day for ten years until Jeff and I had gotten married, and I had the jeweler actually stretch that yellow gold band and inset it into a white gold band, so that Jeff’s wedding ring was actually melded into my yellow gold purity ring. Needless to say, it was pretty cool, and very significant, even to me, Mrs. Non-sentimental.  And it was gone.  They looked and looked, but the river was murky and super deep.  Eventually we gave up and went back to the house.

Later on that afternoon, Jeff found some scuba gear and took his friend Jerrod back down to the river to look some more. I knew there was no way they’d find it.  When we got back down to the water, Jeff and Jerrod stood on the shore, holding their scuba masks, and prayed together. Jerrod cried out to God that He’d just be gracious and lead them to the ring. Then they searched. And searched and searched, while a friend and I sat on the shore and watched. Finally Jeff gave up and came ashore, it was shady now and the water was dark and it was hard to see anything. Just then he called out, “Let’s give up–” and as Jerrod took a step toward the shore, he reached down, “Here it is!”  And to our absolute astonishment, there it was, at the bottom of the river, in an area shallow enough Jerrod reached right down and picked it up. Needless to say we were amazed.

Wow, the power of prayer, right?  Well, not quite.

You see, today Joel pointed out a key aspect of prayer that I’d always kind of vaguely thought about but never was able to pinpoint it exactly.  So many people talk about the power of prayer.  Prayer is amazing!  We talk about different kinds of prayers to pray–prayers that avail much perhaps.  We pray Jabez’s prayer or so-and-so’s prayer, and I’m not saying that written prayers are bad, not at all.  But I would insist that I don’t believe in prayer.  I believe in God.  I don’t believe in the power of prayer, I believe in the power of God.  Anyone can “pray”–muslims pray, Catholics pray to patron saints.  There is no power in prayer. There is power in God, and the point of prayer is to connect with God and partner with Him as He works His will on earth as it is in heaven, aligning our hearts with His.  Prayer isn’t magic. It’s supernatural to be sure, but not magic.

I’m saddened by how often I’ve prayed just to pray, and missed the point entirely–fellowship with God.  I’m saddened by how often I’ve really just been praying because I want to see my will be done, instead of laying down my will so His can be done.  I’m wondering how often our belief in the “power of prayer” isn’t really belief in the One True God who can do whatever He pleases.

Perhaps it seems a small thing, but to me it changes my perspective entirely.  Do I believe that prayer works?  No. But God does, and that I know for sure.  Do I believe that God can do everything and that He has graciously chosen to allow us to partner with Him through prayer? Yes!  Do I believe God enabled Jerrod and Jeff to find his wedding ring, despite the fact that it seemed an absolute impossibility? Yes! Do I believe God can sell our house? Of course! Do I believe that He’s writing a cool story with our lives that will bring glory to HIS name and draw people to Himself? Yes!  In fact, what’s so cool about the ring story is that Jerrod (who found it) is one of Jeff’s Jr. High leaders, and today’s lesson for the Jr. High kids was on prayer and Jerrod was in charge of sharing a little lesson from his own life on prayer.  Um… how amazing is that?  Just the day before Jerrod happens to come out to our place, Jeff loses his ring, and after praying, God miraculously enables them to find it in the murky dark river waters.  And today they were able to share that story with the Jr. High kids.  It’s about so much more than a wedding ring…God’s name was glorified.  And God’s glory is what it’s all about.

Prayer is not the end. It isn’t the goal.  God, and His beauty, His glory, His fame, His worth lifted up and praised by every tongue, tribe, and nation. That is the end, the goal.  God is the goal. God is the gospel. God is what we get.  I believe in God.