Category: Different Moments

Posted in Different Moments, Different Thoughts

the benefits of begging.

Posted on by Wick

A couple weeks ago, our church had a “Family Scavenger Hunt” that was to benefit our church’s food pantry.  Each family was given a sheet of instructions that included a list of food items.  Each item was assigned a different point value, and the goal was to get as many points as possible.  We grabbed our list, and off we went to a neighborhood that had safe sidewalks for our girls to go door to door.   Pulling their little red wagon behind, the people didn’t stand a chance.  The cuteness level of our daughters was breaking any sort of measuring device that day, and we got 2nd place in the “Hunt”.  But we won, also.

We won because it was an experience of wrapping the story of our family in the even larger story of God’s moving in our world.  I’ve posted before on the fact that wherever “Kingdom work” is being done, the veil between heaven and earth becomes just a bit more thin.  We joined God’s work in marrying heaven and earth that day, and our daughters experienced the joy of being connected to feeding the hungry.

Rewind almost 20 years, and see my own family.

We didn’t live on the streets.  We had clothes, and gas, and all that.  But we were hit by life pretty hard, and lived on foodstamps and the donations of some church food/clothing pantries for a season.  My kids have no idea the story they’re connected to, but someday I’m sure they’ll learn.  My hope is that they’ll be thankful for where we’ve come from, but receive their IDENTITY from where we’re going.  Our prayer is that the story we’re telling through our family today becomes the plot they find their character being developed within – with a resurrection-powered resolution on the far horizon, but moving ever closer.

The more moments we share as a family that are centered on joining in the work and heart of Jesus – the more likely my children will naturally see this as the story they are growing up into.  As parents, it’s so much more than simply taking our children to church, or even praying with them at meal times.  It’s about learning the heart of Jesus ourselves, and then just as we do when crossing a busy parking lot, we say to our children with outstretched arms, “Hold daddy’s hand.”

As we invite our children to walk with us, as we follow Jesus, some pretty amazing things can happen.   The hungry can be fed.   The unloved can be loved.  Heaven and earth can come crashing together.  As our kids experience this reality, they continue to be challenged by a world who’s commercials present a completely different reality of self-absorption.  With their hands in ours, we move through this journey of sharing the resurrection power of Jesus Christ with a world in need of healing and New Life.

Kinda feels worth skipping soccer practice, eh?
How is your family finding itself in the midst of the Story God is telling this week??

Posted in Different Moments, Different Scriptures

hope as daydreaming.

Posted on by Wick

Me: (talking out loud, assuming my daughters are listening to every word I’m saying, smiling to myself because of how funny a dad I am.)

Addie: (literally laughs out loud…almost too loud to be believable)

Me: That was pretty funny, eh?

Addie: Huh? No daddy, I was watching Megamind in my head!!  (laughs again)

Me:  (realizing I wasn’t the source of her laughter)  Oh.  Yeah.  That’s a good movie.  (she laughs again, eyes closed)

Our children are generally very impacted by the moment to moment forces of life.  If we run out of milk, it’s a tragedy.  If someone took my spot, the world is about to end.  If our sucker falls on the ground and gets dirt stuck to it (and dad’s not around to wipe it off), it’s a time of mourning.  But every once in a while, our kids are a great reminder that we are not slaves to the moment.  We do not have to be controlled by whatever external forces or happenings are surrounding us.

It’s a message we hold fast to as followers of Christ also.  We live in a time (very much like others before us) filled with uncertainty.  Disease, weapons of mass destruction, drought, disasters, people who want to spread terror, and random acts of selfishness are happening on a daily basis.  We are  tempted on one side to be self-sufficient and hippie-like in our approach to this uncertainty.  A pessimistic and apathetic approach that says, “whatever”.  On the other side, we are urged to purchase “food insurance” and warned that a time is soon coming when the only survivors will be those who secured underground bunkers and farms in the middle of nowhere.

In the midst of all of this, we are living as Easter people.  People who are called to announce to the world (even when it doesn’t seem to look like it), “JESUS IS LORD!”  We are living examples of a life that isn’t chained up by the happenings of this world, but have been set free.  Not simply free from worry, so that we can go on eating and drinking with an apathy for tomorrow.  But freed from worry and TO HOPE that God has already begun to make all things new.  Yes there are horrible things happening on a daily basis.  But there have been pretty wonderful things happening as well.  Beauty is all around us.  People are loving.  Healing is coming.  New Life is being born on a daily basis.  Resurrection is on the horizon.  Heaven’s veil becomes thinner by the day, and will soon be lifted completely.

“Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what it fears, or be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, him you shall regard as holy; let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. He will become a sanctuary, a stone one strikes against;” Isaiah 8:12-14a

And so, may we find our sanctuary this week in Christ.  As the world gives us reason after reason to fill ourselves with anxiety and become slaves to fear – we laugh with our eyes closed.  After all, we are remembering those beautiful moments of covenant.  We are imagining what will be when the resurrection life of Easter flows out over all creation.  Then we open our eyes, and live it out today…

Posted in Different Learning, Different Moments, Different Thoughts

12 days is fast.

Posted on by Wick

On the way to Vegas last month, I read an interesting article on fasting that stirred a desire in me to try a long-term fast.  It seemed appropriate that my goal be 40 days, given the season of Lent, and so I would eat my last meal Feb. 27th, and fast until Easter.  I’ll confess, it wasn’t a remarkably “spiritual” article, but a health and human body type focus.  My fast began partially as an experiment to see what would happen to my body, and what God could do if I offered Him this exercise in self-control.

I ate nothing, drinking only water, and boy was I thirsty. 🙂  As many say, the first 3-4 days were tough, as my “hunger” faded.  What most don’t say after that, however, is the amazing amount of appetite that remains.  I didn’t want to give up routines, or being a good father/husband.  So I would still help prepare/clean up meals, and being close to food was increasingly tough.  The hardest times were when I attended a youth pizza party, catered meal, or went out to a sit-down restaurant….which seemed to happen more in these days than the previous year combined. 🙂

My energy levels remained fairly consistent.  I still did pretty much everything the same, minus heading to bed early the first few nights.  On day 6, I did allow myself to take communion at church.  The small piece of bread tasted amazing, and the juice was sweeter than ever!  I felt cleaned out and healthy, and after a week even felt a bit more alert than usual.  But as time went on, the impact became more and more pronounced.

Toward the end of my 12th day, I made the decision to move toward food again.  I say “move toward”, because after 12 days of not eating, the stomach isn’t ready for a bacon-cheeseburger.  I ate a little spinach and carrots, and because it was my wife’s b-day party, a few crackers with cheese-ball, and couple bites of her cake. (I paid for eating that cheese-ball a bit. 🙂   )

I had lost 22 pounds in 12 days, which seemed a bit unhealthy, thanks to my high metabolism.  My pants were sliding off, and people were asking me what I was doing to lose weight.  It was hard to sit with my family, and still feel like I wasn’t quite “with them”, since as my 5 year old was saying, “Daddy doesn’t eat anymore.”  My wife found out she was allergic to gluten, and was baking all sorts of new dishes – I could tell it was hard for her to not get any of my thoughts on this new menu for our home.  I’d begun wearing socks at night, due to my feet being bricks of ice.  The blood-flow had slowed to the point that even in the afternoon, my hands felt like cold fish.  I could go on with more reasons, but don’t need to.  The point is, I decided to stop. 🙂

I definitely recommend a fast of 1, 3, 5, or even 10 days.  It’s right there with prayer in the Bible, but somehow we’ve let it go as something beneficial and God-given – not just for our spiritual, but our physical lives.

During this time, I gained a lot (except weight).  I was reminded to have control of my appetites, since we live in a culture that goes way beyond satisfying hunger.  We often “eat until we are full”, both literally and figuratively.  I discovered fasting is not a magic spell to force God’s hand, but it does make it easier to get through the wall of “me” in my prayer life.  I was even taught that perhaps the humility of choosing to stop, even though I’d told those who asked I was going to try 40 days – was good for my soul.  Fasting is, after all, about letting go of self, not asserting self’s desire to succeed.

On a side note: This is best darned Naked Juice I’ve ever had. 🙂