Tag: Jesus

Posted in Uncategorized

we dance.

Posted on by Wick

It was Father’s Day – a pretty great one if I might add – and they’d each helped select a gift that would make me smile.  Addie got me a Detroit Redwings decal I could put on my new (to us, thanks to awesome friends!) car.  Sophie drew me a picture of myself, and put it in a nice small frame.  Even Phoebe got in on the action from Africa, and sent me a bowtie made out of African fabric.  Each of the girls helped answer questions in a small booklet, all about their daddy.  Apparently I’m a professional cuddler. (said in my best “King Julien” imitation voice)

All of the gifts were awesome, but one that instantly grew was from Ruby.  She helped select the soundtrack to the most recent Muppets movie.  Even though I’ve not seen it yet, the girls knew I’d be excited to experience anything new related to the Muppets.  This gift, of course, came with certain expectations.  We had all afternoon, as it was a Sunday.  No plans, and the girls knew that.  So what should we do?  9ojti

Open the soundtrack, play the music, and dance…of course. 🙂

Confession: We dance a lot in our house.  Two of our girls have had ballet lessons, but the 3rd daughter is the one who’ll convince you she’s had several years instruction.

We danced with them.  We watched them.  Their smiles, laughter, and movements were beautiful and lit up our living room.  This was the un-purchased gift that warmed a daddy’s heart on Father’s Day.

This is the activity we join together in, as we enjoy the gifts God has given us.  To dance and enjoy the goodness of His creation is not a denial of evil or suffering.   Yesterday morning, they were clearing a major area because of shots fired at a hotel.  A suicidal man was firing rounds into the air as many of us simply drove by on our way to work.  It was a morning that faced the harsh realization that our world includes suffering and brokenness.

But last night, over 80 people of varying ages and backgrounds gathered in our church gym.  We shared a meal, talking and telling stories.  We spilled drinks, and laughed as we cleaned up.  We sang songs, some goofy with motions and some straight out of the hymnal.  We told a story that had a 6 year old leading 70 year olds in making trumpet noises.  We confessed the painful truth that some of us have yet to see the response of God to prayers we’ve made for a long time.  We prayed.

Our lives as followers of Christ, are not denials of the evil in our world.  Our lives are powerful statements that even in a world where evil has made an impact, Jesus is Lord.  Even in a world where brokenness exists, beauty abounds even more.  In a world where wrong motivations and false Gods lead people astray – we invite people to dance with their Heavenly Father.

My kids are getting it.  One day at a time.  I think my church is getting it to.  I’m so proud and excited for the family, and church family, I get to dance with.

Posted in Uncategorized

Numbers: @ Family Camp

Posted on by Wick

I’ll confess: I’ve never been to “Family Camp”.  I’ve visited. I’ve camped. I’ve “familied”.  I even serve at a church connected to 3 different camps (1 in particular, hopefully we can get to someday!).  Over the years, we’ve connected to the ministries camp provide and this summer, logistics finally work out for us to attend one fully.  I’m looking forward to how God’s Word, family time, nature-paced time, and worship with God’s people will breathe into us.  37889_447386426583_6477578_n

In Numbers chapter 11, we have one of the very first “Family Camp’s” in the history of God’s people.  They’d left Egypt, and were traveling with a crew of well over 600,000.  That’s quite a camp.  The camp director, Moses, was hearing the complaints left and right.  It’s a bit of a burden, trying to meet the needs of that many people, and lead them toward God at the same time.  Specifically here, they’re not happy with the menu.  Manna just doesn’t abate hunger the way a nice full kosher meal would.  Carrying their burdens, Moses comes before God, and asks why he’s being punished.   I wonder how many camp directors would echo his cries…”God, I’m not their parent!  I didn’t give birth to them! Why is it on me to meet this need?”

God hears Moses, and calls him to get 70 Assistant Directors to share the burden with him.  In a moment of paternal snarkiness, God pretty much says, “They want meat?  I’ll bring a month’s worth! I’ll give ’em so much meat it’ll come out their nostrils!” (Promise it’s in there, read it.)  The people weren’t just complaining about manna.  They were actually entertaining the thought that things were better back in Egypt.  The journey to the promised land was taking longer than anticipated, and even though miracles were happening regularly to care for them, they wanted immediate gratification.

So Moses gathers his assistants.  They assemble around the tent, and God comes to share the Spirit Moses carries with each of them.  They prophesy in that moment, and it seems to end.  But there were two “dads” who didn’t leave camp, for whatever reason.  They were registered, but stayed in the camp, and somehow the Spirit empowered them to prophesy as well.  Instead of getting upset along with the son of a Nun, Moses is glad!  He says, “If only all of God’s people had the Lord put His Spirit on them!”  (Spoiler alert: God totally does that eventually!)

Then comes an all-camp activity that probably wouldn’t go over very well at most camps today: Quail Collecting.  About 3 feet deep of quail seems to form a wall about a days journey all around camp.  The LEAST anyone gathered was about 100 bushels of quail.  I’m not sure if it came out their nostrils, but it was a lot of meat for sure.  While the meat was still in their teeth, God’s anger came in the form of a plague that killed so many, the camp was renamed “Graves of Lust” (Try to market THAT camp to next years campers!).

God was writing a powerful story, on a scale large enough for it to be written down and told for thousands of years.  Reminding us to have faith, even when it’s hard.  Even if you want to go back in time, to before you stepped out onto this long, dusty road of the unknown.  You stepped out, hand in God’s hand, believing He was guiding you.  There is still Hope.  There is still a promised land ahead.  You may get impatient and frustrated…but keep your hand in His.  As His people gather in Family Camps all around this summer, it’s a great reminder that we are not alone on our dusty roads.  We gather as families, and as the family of God.  May we encourage, pray with, and share each other’s burdens.  There is Hope for us all, though we may have to travel a bit farther still.  Let’s travel together…

Posted in Uncategorized

confession: I want to prove God.

Posted on by Wick

For as much as I wasn’t a giant fan of “God’s Not Dead” for reasons we can talk about in person…I will confess I have something in common with the young college student.  I have a desire to prove God.   It’s not that I want to prove His existence, or even prove to someone that Jesus was divine.  It’s not an intellectual debate I want to win.  I want to prove to my children, the goodness and faithfulness of God, in the midst of a world where such testimony may be hard to hear behind other noises.

It struck me in a particular way recently, as I was praying for our adoption.  You may have something else weighing on your heart.  Something your family is praying fervently for.  Something you and your children name regularly every night in family prayer time, and the main thing your kids might mention if they’re praying before bed at a friends house.  Whatever that thing is, beyond praying for that “thing” itself….as a parent we also find ourselves praying it for the sake of our children.   That they will experience God’s hearing of the prayer, and be able to celebrate together as a family when He responds.

So what happens, when that “main family prayer”, becomes the one unanswered?  The one a family is left to struggle with.  What if our children grow up praying about it, almost as a reflex, but slowly and accidentally learn never to actually receive a response from God on the issue?http___makeagif.com__media_5-05-2014_dpmt43

In my anxiety and frustration, God calms me down.  Hand on my shoulder, tears welling up in his own eyes, He speaks with love.  “You and your family are not the beginning, or the center of what I’m up to, Chadwick.”  In a moment of humility, He reminds me of where I sat just a few weeks ago, at a Seder dinner with my children. From my own lips, my children heard God’s story as one we are now the continuation of.  That His people lived for hundreds of years in slavery, and have faced suffering and death for millenia.  That the story of God’s people is one of embracing what it means to suffer in a world that is not yet made right.  What it means to not pretend everything is easy or can make sense.  Imagine what it would’ve been like for an Israelite parent to teach their children the goodness of God, in the midst of generations of slavery.  God calls us to live uncomfortably in a world that idolizes comfort and ease.  We are a people who have been crying out to God for thousands of years, and God has been/continues to respond to that cry.  He invites us to actively participate in that response as well.  Not by denying or avoiding the brokenness of the world – but by how we suffer as those who know God is with us.

His was a reminder – one of the greatest things we do as a parent is to give our children, and younger generations a context for their struggles/doubts.  A safe place to express suffering…(any youth pastor who’s heard a teenager lament at a broken relationship can understand this)…and a larger view/context that helps to bring genuine perspective and comfort knowing God is with us even in these moments.  Not promising to make everything better for every individual who comes to Him like a genie inside a magic lamp.  Yet….not like a removed deity who has nothing to do with the world He set in motion, either.

God is at work.  In faithful and world-changing-ly large ways.  But also in small, thankful whispers of reminder.  We know that His heart is seen being revealed in “Immanuel, which means ‘God with us.'”

All of that to say, be encouraged.  Even when it seems our prayers aren’t being responded to.  Not because “God’s working it all out to be even better than you would’ve prayed.”  But because, God is with us.  Always.  Has been, and will be.  That’s the story we invite our children to live within.   That’s the story that invites them to prove God…