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December 22 Amaryllis UpdateI realize that yesterday's edition was a little on the heavy and long side, so this will be fairly light and short. It's time for another amaryllis update! When last we checked in with amaryllis 2006 it had spent most of its' energy growing long leaves, but the bud had barely started to grow; my how things have changed. In only a couple short weeks, the bud has grown just as tall as the leaves now, and has bloomed four flowers!
One of the flowers is starting to get kind of wilty and slimy, but the rest are still looking great. Amaryllis 2006 definitely grew up a lot faster than amaryllis 2005, but like I suspected, it doesn't have nearly as many blooms. This years' seems to have only one bud as opposed the the three from last years'. It's amazing how the same species of plant can do so many different things. Anyways, updated pictures are attached at the bottom.
Happy trails . . . (I really gotta come up with a decent way to sign these posts off, so I'm going to experiment over the next little while until I find something that fits.) December 21 Jesus "through the eyes of John"Well, yesterday was a reading day here for the most part. Most of my pre-christmas responsibilities have wrapped up here at the church (other than the sunday morning service), and we don't have any more youth activities until New Year's Eve, so things have slowed a bit here; a good day to catch up on my reading.
As I noted in my reading list, I finished "The Last Eyewitness: the final week . . . John relives Christ's last week before the crucifixion". It's a part of "The Voice" series which is essentially and attempt to breathe new life into the narratives of the bible and unlock the power of their stories in a new way. It's basically more contemporary translations interjected with editorial comments from "John" to flesh out the story and explain "what he meant" in certain parts of his gospel. It was a really good, easy read. It's only about 120 pages, but it's pretty powerful stuff. You really feel like you can hear old John sitting down and telling you his story.
A few parts in particular really popped out at me. First of all how Jesus loved. He knew how it was all going to end, he knew Judas would betray him, but yet he still picked him to be his disciple and loved him just as he loved and taught the others. He had Judas follow him and learn from him and likely heard, "I love you," from him on more than a few occasions, knowing the entire time that Judas would finally betray him. He loved him despite the pain it may cause in the end. He loved the man that would lead to his death knowing full well who he was.
"Betrayal by one you love is more painful than the most horrid forms of Roman torture. It cuts deep into your heart and does not allow you the benefit of any kind of defense. But, in Jesus' case, He saw it coming and allowed Himself to be injured. By letting me in on this betrayal before the fact, He shaped my beliefs about what it means to love the way that He loved. Which means that, even when we see betrayal on the horizon, we continue to make ourselves vulnerable. We take on the risk of betrayal by continuing to love. There were many in our community that wanted to love without risk. It's not possible, not in marriage, friendship, or the church - you open yourself to betrayal every time you love." -50
Quite often we as the church, and even as individual believers, are guilty of trying to love safe. We want to meet the needs of the poor, but we don't really want to give handouts because "those people might abuse our gifts and just waste it all on drugs anyways." We find ways to insulate ourselves from truly loving and giving without strings attached as Jesus did. We don't want to minister to "dangerous" people because it's not safe and we have the responsibility to save ourselves or who else would do the work. Well, it seems to me Jesus loved without regard for his own life. He spent time with the thieves and liars, and loved the man who would lead to his death. I'll be one of the first one's to admit that I've avoided doing things because "they aren't safe". They could be dangerous or uncomfortable and so I convince myself that God wouldn't want me to minister in that place, or to those people, becuase he wouldn't want to put me in danger. Well, Jesus loved and ministered without regard for his own life; maybe we need to too.
This world isn't always safe, and people won't always be easy to love, but Jesus loved this creation enough to become a part of it. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son for them. He wanted to save the world, not have to destroy it because of sin. He sent Jesus to redeem the world, not just to give people a way to get out of it. It's great to have eternity to look forward to, but Jesus came to redeem creation here and now, and called us as ministers to his creation. He didn't just come to give us a way to escape the desolation of creation, we came to give us a way to fix it.
"But there are also a lot of believers, I think, who misunderstand Jesus. When our King said, "My kingdom is not in this physical realm," He didn't mean it was for another time or another place, as if this world didn't matter. No. This world mattered to Jesus and it mattered ultimately. Otherwise, why would He have became flesh, a piece of this fallen, broken creation became divine. When the Voice rose from the dead, a piece of this fallen, broken creation became eternal. No, my friend, the kingdom of God is about this world. It may be sourced above, in heaven, but its focus, its realm is the cosmos that is our home. Jesus, in fact, taught us to pray everyday, "Bring about Your Kingdom. Manifest Your will here on earth, as it is manifested in heaven" (Ma 6:10). If you pray this prayer like I do, every day, then it finally sinks in that the kingdom of God has to do with our lives, here and now. It is the time and place in history when God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven. It's not about going to heaven when we die. It's not about getting us out of here so the world can go to pot. Every day we pray for the King and His kingdom to come; we long for that day. The older I get, the more I ache, the more I long to see His will done on earth." -67
I'm more and more convicted all the time that we need to spend far less time judging unbelievers, and spend more time judging ourselves and those already in the church. We need to spend more time reaching out in love to the unbeliever, and less time loving our own security. Maybe if we spent more time defining ourselves by what we are supposed to be (love and redemption) than by what we aren't supposed to be (cheats, liars, gays, drunks, thieves, etc.) the world would be more interested in being a part of what we are instead of what we aren't. I can remember plenty of occasions where Jesus reached out in love to the unbeliever, and judged those who thought they were holy, but I can't think of where the reverse was true.
I'm not totally sure what it looks like yet to be defined as a church by what we are, as opposed to defining ourselves by what we aren't, but I'm working on it and so is our church. I'm sure that things like our car care ministry, food bank giving, and connectedness to our community are part of it, but I think it's only the start. I think most of the world knows what we are against, but unless they know what we are for, why would they want to be a part of it.
Like I said before, I think part of it is redemption too. It's more than just forgiveness from sin, it's redemption to something better. Jesus didn't just come to keep us from being punished for our sins, he came to set us to a better life and a higher calling. He came to redeem his creation, his people. We need as a church to give people something to strive for, and not just to run from. Someone who's debt is cancelled is saved from their punishment, but unless they are given a way to support themselves and a future, they will be back in debt sooner than later. Redemption through Christ needs to be forgiveness from sin, but it also needs to be a restoration and call to greater things.
"What Jesus did next was nothing short of brilliant. Three times He asked Simon whether he loved Him. Each time Simon said something like, "Yes, Lord. You know that I love You." Simon was perturbed that Jesus asked him the same question three times. But later he figured it out, with my help, I might add. Three times Simon denied Him. Now Jesus gave him three chances to repent, confess his love, and be restored. Face-to-face with His Lord he declared his love, and as he did, he felt the burden of his betrayal lift. He began to feel more like the rock he was. Jesus forgave him and then commissioned him to take care of His people. We all took notice. Jesus didn't just forgive him and then offer him some menial task. Our Master put Peter, the Rock, in charge. Since then, Peter's been prominent among us - some have even said a bit too prominent. But it's what Jesus wanted.
We all learned a lesson that day. No matter what we have done, no matter the weight of our burden and sin, our Master wants to forgive us and restore us to be the oeple He mad us and called us to be. Something happens when we confess our love for Jesus. We are transformed. Our burdens lift. And we see clearly, more clearly than before, what He wants us to be and do." -106
When Jesus forgave Peter for denying him, he didn't just absolve him of wrong doing and let people carry on in that path. He absolved him, restored him to where he was before his fall, and gave him a call for the future. People need to have something to aim for if they are going to move on. I just wonder how well we do that. How well do we restore and encourage people after they've fallen? Or do we continue to hold people's pasts over them and keep them from rising up from their ashes? This may seem like kind of an extreme example, but I just think of guys like Jimmy Swagert or Jim Baker or the like. They were prominent in Christian circles, they sinned, they repented, and now somehow seem to continue on as inside jokes in Christian circles; never really being allowed to live past their past. Maybe it's something that we need to look at a little closer; truly forgiving and restoring people after they've fallen, as opposed to "forgiving" them but never really letting them move on.
Anyways, I realize this was a little long winded, but I just wanted to get down my thoughts before I forgot them. If you've made it this far, you win a prize . . . fun and enjoyment! You may not be able to get anything at walmart for it, but I think we could all use a little more of it in our lives.
I think a lot of people in the church are starting to wake up a bit from our slumber, and realizing we've got a lot of work to do. I for one am glad to be a part of it. A year or so ago that may not have been the case in my life, but I think if we really look at it there is a lot of hope on the horizon for God's Kingdom. A lot of work to be done, but a lot of hope for the future if we really want to grab a hold of it.
This was a little on the serious side, but hopefully I'll have an amaryllis update for you by the end of the day too and maybe my thoughts on the future prospects of my beloved Bears. Until then, . . . December 14 Iron Stomach No More . . . ugh.Well, it's been about a week since the last post, but it feels like about a year. Today was my first time out of the house since Sunday afternoon, all due to the "Death Sickness: Part Deuce"; the sequel to the "Death Sickness" which I had my 4th year of college for those of you who may remember. The pictures below will show you a little of my life cycle over the past 4 days, and it wasn't pretty.
For those of you not around those many years ago to remember the original "Death Sickness" (which from hereforth will be known as DS1, and "Death Sickness: Part Deuce" will be known as DS2, to avoid overuse of the "air quotes" . . . sorry did it again), I will give you a little history. Not unlike Jerry Seinfeld, I have taken great pride over the years in my ability to avoid vomiting despite how sick I may be. Until DS1 5 years ago, I had gone approximately 13 years since my last experience screaming at porcelain. I took great pride in that fact until that fateful night when my Iron Stomach let me down around 2:30am in the dorm. I went to bed with some nausea, but nothing some tums couldn't handle I thought. Unfortunately I rolled over in bed that night and that sent things over the edge to the point I could hold it in no longer and Iron Stomach let fly just outside the door of my dorm room in the hallway. (I'm still amazed to this day that my roommate heard or knew nothing of the comotion until the morning.) Anyways, much pride was lost that night, along with much food as my 13 year record went down the drain, quite litterally.
Well, 5 years had passed since DS1. Things seemed well, and despite developing acid reflux over the past few years, Iron Stomach seemed to be making a comeback having made it through more than a few stomach bugs with now incidences. That was until Monday night. At first I thought it may just have been the sketchy taco's we had for supper, but Jenn was fine. So I thought maybe it was the stress of the Bears game on Monday night combined with my precarious position in the Fantasy Football playoffs, but it soon became obvious that wasn't the problem either. Iron Stomach was in for the test of his life, a test that would come to beat him 4 times over the next 8 hours. Iron Stomach met his match and was humiliated by DS2.
Unfortunately, Tuesday was just a blur between bedroom and bathroom. Wednesday offered some hope of deliverance from DS2, but left a great deal of aches and exhaustion in it's wake. And predictably for me, the 20+ hours of sleep accumulated over Tuesday and Wednesday lead to a near sleepless wednesday night/thursday morning. So today, only 1 day removed really from DS2, I sit here a lifeless shell running on 2 hours-ish of sleep. Here's to hoping for better tonight.
Needless to say, Iron Stomach has been defeated and will never again boast of his feats of strength and endurance.
Hopefully, once I am whole again, I will post you some pictures of our now blooming amaryllis and maybe offer a little more hope for my future.  December 06 Ben and Jenn's 2006 AmaryllisWell, what better way to start a brand new blog than to steal an idea from a different blog. If you've been a regular reader of my brother Jon's blog or his amaryllis blog from this past Christmas, than you'll know who you should contact to launch the plagiarism suit against me, but regardless of my fears of legal action, I will press on and give you this update on the amaryllis my parents gave me two weeks ago.
To be perfectly honest, it has grown far quicker than I could have expected. It has grown at a rate that almost equals the rate of amaryllis 2004 which had the "tropical rainforest" type climate to spur on it's exponential growth rate at Davidson Crescent. Amaryllis 2005 was a late bloomer in our significantly cooler house on Sinton. Amaryllis 2006 (I just realized I had been spelling it wrong to this point, and have stolen even the spelling from Jon's blog now to correct it) has sprouted up quickly for some reason, but it has only one flower bud thus far as compared to the three which 2005 gave us. It looks like we'll have much quicker gratification this year, but maybe not as extensive.
Anyways, that's it for stolen blog numero uno. Pictures of amaryllis 2006 are below. As you can see, the longest leaf is about 24" tall so far and the bud is around 12" tall. Just click on the pictures to see a larger view. |
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