Sacred Mundane: The Blog

Today while I was out running errands I text messaged Jeff:  “sushi + movie = date night”.  Dombrows are out of town for the weekend and my parents decided to take Dutch to their house for a sleepover, and since Heidi is the easiest baby on earth and goes to sleep in her little closet at 7pm, that meant Jeff and me, alone in this great big house living it up like rock stars :-).  I brought home $3 sushi from Winco (I know, extravagent), and splurged on a movie from blockbuster (usually we rent form the library) and even got wild and crazy with Moose Tracks ice cream from safeway.  I told you, liviin’ it up like rock stars.  Jeff ran upstairs and found the only blanket he could find which happened to be Dutch’s blue fleece with a life-sized Bob the Builder logo on it, and we curled up on the couch under Bob and Wendy and watched Seven Pounds.  Wow.

I won’t give away all the details but the movie could basically be summed up in one phrase: A Life Given.  What fasincates me is how our culture, or really all of humanity is fascinated by the idea of one giving his own life for the redemption, the life, the salvation of others.  We are obsessed with it, with the profundity of such an idea.  We are moved to tears by the utter selflessness of it all.  We’re inspired.  There is something in us that says, This is love.

And that is what Seven Pounds is about.  I want to write so much more about it but don’t want to give it all away. It’s so fascinating that our culture and world will reject the idea of Christ’s substitutionary work of atonement on the cross, will reject the idea of redemption, and yet our hearts ache to watch movies like Seven Pounds, one given for the life of many.

The movie made me want to fall on my knees and worship our God, because even though the movie brought me to tears with the beauty of Tim Thomas’s sacrificial gift of life, but how much greater the gift of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  For in the movie, Tim, acting as Ben, researches, calls, stalks those in need of organs, to be sure that they are “good people”.  But what about Christ?  Is His gift of life conditional?  Scripture says,

“⁶You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:6-8)

Christ’s substitution death on the cross wasn’t for seven. It wasn’t for those with kind dispositions.  Christ died for all. He died for us while we were wicked. While we were helpless. While we were unloving.

And, just as the movie portrayed with Connie, the abused woman who refused help, Christ knocks on the door of our heart, seeks us out, reveals Himself to us…but doesn’t force us to receive His grace.  Connie refused, because of fear. How could she trust this man she didn’t even know?  But Tim’s card was left, and when she came to the end of herself, she called–and a new life was given.

Christ died for us!  A healthy heart for ours that fails, new eyes that we can see, a mansion in glory for us to enjoy for all eternity.  The beautiful part, however, is that Tim had to die forever that the others could live. But Jesus lives!  He is the only one who could die a substitionary death and still rise, and still live, and still conquer sin and death once and for all.

Our right response?  Fall on our knees and worship. Thank Him with every breath and every ounce of our being.  He died that we might live.  His life was given for ours.  Thank You, Jesus.

Did you think perhaps I graduated from seminary and then walked off the edge of the earth?  I’ve felt haunted by this blog all week because I haven’t know what to say.  I’m trying to figure out a new normal now. What is life like without school? And more than that, what on earth is my routine going to be like?  Without the rigor of schoolwork, I’m finding myself sort of floating listlessly through my day.  You see, I’m a hopeless routine girl. I love routine, and apparently so do my children, whose sleep patterns are like clockwork.  I think one of the biggest challenges for me with moving as much as we have, is that I’ve yet to find a rhythm or routine to my life.  I jump from one adrenalin boost to the next.  Just when I get adjusted, we move again or something changes like a new job or baby or something and I’m starting all over again.  No complaints here–everything in our life is fabulous, just trying to learn the dance of the moment and I seem to have two left feet at it right now.

We’re also moving again :)…and don’t know where. But we’re confident. God has just the perfect situation. We actually have a housing opportunity on the horizon, which I’ll share more about as I’m able, but we need a place to stay for four months, preferably near the church. Any ideas?

Anyway, all that to say I’m just trying to get in the swing of ordinary things and catch up on what I’ve slacked on for about, say, four years.  We haven’t gone to the dentist in over 2 years.  Dutch has never gone to the dentist. I have no summer clothes except cut-off jean shorts, which I can’t quite carry off wearing to church with heels (wouldn’t that cause a stir!).  We all need doctor’s appointments.  Oh, and we need a place to live. 🙂

So to help create a sense of normalcy and routine, and to give me some direction, I’m making some daily routine goals.

1. Thirty minutes in the Word and Prayer before kids are up, or at least before Dutch is up.  It’s pretty easy to have a quiet time with Heidi. 🙂

2. Baby Workout (I made this up today! Check it out below) during Dutch’s nap.  Heidi’s laughter was the best part.

3. Walk to park after Heidi’s first nap.

4. Journal and/or Blog before bed

I’m not much into rules, but at least this will help me have some structure.  Wish I had some deep thoughts to share with ya, but this is all I got. Have a great day.

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Baby Work Out: (Requires 7-20 pound baby. Or I suppose a bag of flour would work too.  But then you wouldn’t get the laughs.)

1. Airplane Ride (On your back, baby on shins, knees pulled to chest, extend legs straight out while holding baby’s hands, pull back to chest and watch baby giggle.  Repeat.  3 sets of 15 reps)

2. 50 Kisses (Push-ups, I do them on my knees, baby on her back on a blanket, must kiss cheeks with each pushup, alternate cheeks.  Enjoy smiles.  50 reps)

3. Baby Elevator (basic squats holding baby close to chest. 25 reps)

4. Baby Bench (lie on back, hold baby’s belly/chest with hands above.  Lower to chest and push back up.  3 sets of 12 reps. WARNING: do not do this exercise on a full tummy–baby’s that is.  )

5. Clown Act (prop baby on the couch and get dumbells.  Do bicep curls while making ridiculous faces at baby.  3 sets of 12 reps.  Extra challenge: Sing Jesus Loves Me at the same time.)

So most of you (probably all of you, except my own mother) are tired of me talking about how overwhelmed with joy I am to be done with my master’s and graduating tomorrow.   Please indulge me one last time…  I just walked in the door from graduation rehearsal, which I had thought was going to be a pretty huge waste of time but was actually helpful.  When I’m alone (without kids) driving I feel like I get to think so much more. It’s like I actually have 100% of my mind to focus in one direction instead of listening to Dutch talk, pointing out dump trucks, handing snacks, answering questions, you get the idea.  So after rehearsal, I walked slowly to my car, thinking about my day tomorrow.  About graduation, about this chapter of my life that is coming to a close.

And I know I’ve said this before, but as I drove home, listening to worship music, singing at the top of my lungs, “You are Holy, You are Holy, Seated on the Throne,” my eyes filled with tears as pictures flashed through my mind of the last four years:  Packing four lunches and four dinners every Wednesday night, preparing for the marathon of working full days Thursday, then commuting 1.5 hours, sitting in class from 6-10pm, sleeping at Kris & Nikki’s house, then being back in Portland for class from 8am-5pm straight on Fridays.  I thought of eating goldfish crackers during my Theology final to keep from throwing up from morning sickness (and then unfortunately I thought of throwing up right after the final was over).  I thought of pushing like crazy trying to get Heidi born.  I thought of crying on my knees out to God when the house sold and I was so exhausted and needed to move.  I thought of sitting in my car in San Jose and opening my letter from Multnomah that announced my scholarship and confirmed the direction we were to take.  I thought of nursing Heidi while grading Spiritual Formation papers.

And then I thought of the symbol of it all–the academic hood, which they hang around our shoulders as we cross the stage tomorrow. It’s such a small thing, and will just gather dust in my closet in years to come, and yet there’s so much behind it.  And what came to my mind, as I sang about God’s holiness in the car, was that the significance of it comes from the fact that in a sense I will cast that hood at the foot of Jesus someday.  Every thing that we strive for for the Kingdom of God we will get to cast at the foot of our beautiful Savior some day in glory.  It doesn’t get any better than that!!  We raise our hands to worship Him because our hearts, when they’re overwhelmed by His goodness and glory, can’t help but reach up and want to demonstrate, “I give you all I have, God! You are worthy!”  It’s all for you!  And that’s why we do what we do.  I want to DO something worthy of giving to Christ!  I will cast tears, diapers, prayers, academic hoods, and sweat at His feet.  Please Lord let me not enter eternity with nothing to cast at Your feet. I want a crown to cast.

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But the truth also is that I’m tired. I’d like to settle down and stare into space for a few years, thank you very much.  And while that’s perhaps understandable, it’s not admirable.  My default mode is so to just live a safe, comfortable life.  Not too hard, please.  And that reminded me of this video Jeff showed me, by Francis Chan:  I pray we would perform valiently in all God calls us to.  That we can have reason to raise our hands when we dismount. That we can have a crown to cast.

I read an interesting and, quite honestly, rather disturbing portion of scripture this morning.  Second Samuel chapeter 21 gives an account of how David avenges the Gibeonites, righting Saul’s wrong.  So there’s a famine in the land 2 years so “David sought the face of the LORD” basically saying, “Uh, something’s not right here. WHat’s going on?”  and the LORD said, “There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gigeonites to death.”  Now, the Gibeonites are a curious group and always kind of puzzle me.  When Joshua and his guys first inhabited the promise land, the Gibeonites got scared that they’d get wiped out, so they pretended to be from a land far far away, wearing old worn out clothes and bringing moldy bread (interesting that apparently the ubiquitousness of moldy bread was the same then as it is now), and asked the Israelites to make a treaty with them and deal kindly with them. The Israelites didn’t seek the Lord, made the treaty, and then and only then discovered that the rascals were their next door neighbors and the Lord had intended for them to be wiped out.  So, basically what they had done was agree to share their promised land with these tricksters for all time.

And because God honors a vow, the treaty would last for all time. Never were they to slaughter the Gibeonites. Well, Saul, who is famous for not following directions very well, had put some Gibeonites to death during his reign.  We’re talking a long time ago. David wasn’t even around then so it obviously wasn’t his fault.  So it kind of seems random that God’s allowing this famine because of a sin that some dead king did a long time ago.  So David asks them basically, “how can I make it right by you?” and they respond they want some of Saul’s blood.  So, David agrees to avenge the Gibeonites by executing seven descendents of Saul.  Wait, what?

That’s the part that really trips me up.  So these seven men, grandsons of King Saul, who probably didn’t even know the guy that much, are executed because of some stupid thing their grandpa did? That’s harsh.  So I’m not going there, but the point seems to be that sin is a big deal, and requires restitution.

Now we know we’ve been bought and redeemed by Christ, but I wonder if there is a principle here for me/us. Because when David did that, and avenged the Gibeonites, it says, “And after that God responded to the plea for the land” v. 14.  Hm.  Who do I need to avenge?

I just wonder if maybe God thinks it’s important for us to be mindful of ways that we need to make things right.  So I prayed and asked God if there was anything I needed to be reminded of, anything that need to be made right, so that a spiritual famine would not take place in my life, but that God would hear my plea.  I was reminded of two things:  Jeff and I had decided to support some certain missionaries in February, but then the house sold things got crazy, and I realized today that we never followed through and called the mission agency.  That might seem small, but if those missionaries were counting on our contribution, we were essentially robbing them, not letting our yes be yes.  This passage showed me that in order to make it right, we should not just start now, but pay back the months we’d neglected.  In essence, righting the wrong we’d overlooked.

Secondly, God brought to mind a very difficult relational/business situation we’ve been in. THe other person, through an amazing change of heart, chose to bless us.  We have an opportunity to make a pretty significant choice to bless her back, and in light of this passage, I think any measure is worth being upright before God and man.  Thankfully we don’t have to find anyone’s sons and have them hanged.

I know Old Testament passages like this can be confusing. I still don’t understand why God would let those seven men die for sins they didn’t commit. But I also know He sees stuff I don’t. But what I love is when those old dusty musty stories come alive with conviction and truth for today.  Because He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  And now I need to go, I have some checks to write :-).