Worry free

Me with Katharine and Emma Kate

What a joy it was to have the Williams (minus Lauren and Henry) with us this past weekend. It was so much fun to see the girls play together. It was encouraging to hear how God is working in the lives of those faithful, excited saints at Christ Chapel. It was sweet to sit next to them again in worship and under the Word. It was full of reminders of how far the Lord can take you in four short years...which was a reminder to me to press on to see how much He might be willing to do in four more.

Katharine is a real gift to me. She's running right with me. She's passionate...loving...encouraging...willing to be open to what the Lord might do at any time in any way. I found myself sad yesterday that we're not right beside each other every day...and grateful all at the same time that I had any time at all with her. She and another couple of friends are those that I can just be with... unremarkable except to love each other. Just walking buddies. I treasure them.

It was also good to sit with Katharine and talk about kids, husbands, friends, life, the Word, prayer, schedules, family and to talk about God in all of it. I love it so much because Katharine has a real gift for being able to pull God lessons out of daily stuff. She sees so often how we are or should be or should not be by watching her kids and mine. I love it!

One example from the airport. We got them to DFW right at the time the plane was supposed to takeoff. Usually a bad idea. Not that day. Her mom had called to tell us to check the weather because Atlanta was experiencing terrible weather...snow, rain, sleet, back to snow. Lots of flights canceled...many more delayed including theirs. So, instead of 5:30pm departure, we're at 6:15pm. Until about an hour into the drive to the airport when it was changed to 7:30pm with no let up in sight. Yeah! was what I was thinking. More time with Katharine is always a gift from my Lord. Sorry, John was the other thought. I knew he'd have to be at the office to see patients at 8am regardless of what kind of night they had.

We're in no hurry when we arrive and but the lines are pretty long at the ticket counter. We get them settled in through the downstairs curb-side check in pretty quickly (thank you, Lord for that idea!) but by that time the flight's been moved to 10:30pm!! That means that they'll arrive back in their home town by about 4am. Oh. Sigh...but...that does mean we can leave and get dinner!! Again, if you've gotta be stuck, it's good to be with people you love.

By the time dinner's complete and we're back at the airport we still have a couple of hours to kill...with a small child in tow and Brennan brought nothing to pass the time except a book. What to do? Not even a concern for those two. Emma Kate and Brennan had the best time together. They tossed rolled-up socks to each other and played a soccer-style game after that. Emma Kate performed cheers and tumbling for her adoring audience. They flew paper airplanes of four different types (I love my husband.) for what seemed like an hour. They made sock puppets out of other socks and markers. (What's the cost of a pair of socks for a time like this?) They spun in circles...rolled across the floor...played chase...crawled everywhere... and giggled, giggled, giggled.

Throwing airplanes

After a while of us talking and watching, Katharine leaned over and quietly talked to me about what she saw. Never once did EK seem bothered...put out...bored...worried. She was thrilled to be where she was. She was with her family and friends. If they're okay, she's okay. She wasn't worried about schedules. How she'd do the next morning at school. All that she needed to get done. She was fine being where she was until her dad said Come on. It's time to go.

I know you see it already. Katharine did. We need to be like that with our Father, don't we? Settled in...right where He has us. Not worried about what's to come or whether we're in the right place at the right time. Happy to do what we're made to do...wherever we are...with whatever we've got. I need to show the same trust in God that EK showed in her parents. He's got it, doesn't He? He knows what to do. He can move anyone at anytime to do anything. And I've got stuff to do, don't I? Learn His Word, love His people, display the Kingdom, call to the dying. None of that includes worrying about the trip. Yeah. A good one for me.

We both sighed together...hummed our agreement...settled that truth a little more deeply inside for a quiet moment...and turned to another topic. But I carried it with me as I drove home so Wayne could sleep. I settled into the drive...into the morning...into my week a little better because Katharine saw God through a child's laugh.

Miss you.

Why stop at 25

Yes. I'm on facebook. And if you can see me here then you already know that. If you can't and can relate to this video...feel free to send a friend request. If you find yourself laughing in recognition? Seriously. Find another friend. Cassie would love you.

I just want to know when a pallet is headed my way

The problem with large numbers especially when it comes to money is that it all seems so fake. When the news tosses around thoughts like "the stimulus package may exceed $8 trillion"...what are we supposed to do about that? Most of us have proved that we can't handle the $50,000 that we get paid much less something that's 20,000,000 times that. Then there's all those fantastic people in Washington who can't manage to pay their taxes even though they are the ones who passed those IRS codes into law. Seriously.

So, how do we get a handle on what a trillion dollars looked like? Well, around here we use a cash system for a lot of our purchases...just save up some money and literally hand it over in cash. (The look on their faces is so much fun to watch. You can really tell that cash is a disappearing commodity.) I say that not so you'll figure out where we are and rob us blind...though Hebrews 10:34 comes to mind...but to tell you that I know what a lot of cash looks like. (Well, a lot to us anyway.) But even our yearly salary bundled in hundred dollar bills would only stack about 2 1/2 inches high. Kind of puts everything in perspective. All we work for doesn't stack very high. And even if we work and work and work for 100 years straight, you'd have about 4 stacks all of about five feet high. A little disheartening frankly.

This was brought sharply into focus this morning with this post by Justin Taylor who found it from a guy...who found it from a guy, etc. I've seen it on several spots, but it never fails to startle. Click here to see what it looks like when those folks in Washington toss around figures like one trillion dollars.

Can I take my pallet home please? Half a pallet? One stack? Please?

We're going to be in the Hudson

One last post (probably!) on the Hudson River landing. The video below is an animated reproduction of the flight with audio from the cockpit. Amazing to see what it was like to watch it happen and to hear the calmness in the voices of those involved.



For what it was like inside, see my posting of Andrew Jamison.

HT: A Boomer in the Pew

I hate thank you cards

But sometimes I really do get why people send them. Sometimes you just overflow with gladness. You've told them, but it lingers even after they've left. But I'll say it again, I hate thank you cards. The obligation...the one-more-thing-I've-got-to-do feeling...the same words to everyone (They even have pre-printed cards!! Dear ______, Thank you so much for the _________. I'll use it every day! Love, _______ SERIOUSLY bad.). Please know when it comes to thanking me just say thanks. I can't stand the thought that because I did something for someone, they now have this task hanging over them.

But Paul didn't hate them. John didn't hate them. (No, Cassie...not the Beatles. You know...the Apostles? Jesus' friends? Yeah. Now you're with me.) They delighted to write to people about how grateful they were for them. Like they couldn't wait to do it. So there must be something to it. Perhaps...just maybe...their hearts were overflowing with wonder, love and praise. Maybe...just possibly...their words weren't forced but raced across the page as tears of gratitude to their Savior flowed. You think? So, maybe...just the slimmest chance...the problem isn't the cards, but my heart which is so lacking in thanksgiving that I fail at Psalm 145:43...to consider the wonder of God's steadfast faithfulness shown in the marvelous works to the children of men.

Well, given that my heart is overflowing now, let it not be so today. In that light, here's my takeoff on two guys who really got it right in Philemon 1:7 and Philippians 4:10-20 to some people who really blessed me today...

I rejoiced and marveled in the Lord greatly this afternoon that now after so short a time you have revived your concern for me. Not that I should be speaking of being in need, for I am painfully and joyfully learning in whatever situation I am to be content. I long to know how to be brought low, and...even more difficult to learn...I long to know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I pray God will teach me the secret of facing being able to eat out one day and having no money to go to HEB for milk the next week, being able to buy a truck one month and not being able to even host friends for dinner. But I know...deep inside, I know...I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

But even though what you gave was extra...just icing really on what God is already doing in our lives...it was so kind of you to think about us...to be moved to share my trouble. And you, our brother and sister in Christ, you yourselves know that in the middle of football season, when I was so very low, no one else saw me...really saw me and felt moved to enter into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. Even in during the holidays you sent me help for my needs once and again.

Not that I seek the gift (though feel free to keep me in mind anytime the Spirit moves!), but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied (overflowing actually), having received from you the gifts you brought over, which will be a fragrant offering (when cooked anyway!), a sacrifice, acceptable and pleasing to God. And how amazing is it that my God and yours will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus so that you may abound in more good works from love for Him. To our God and Father be glory forever and ever. Amen.

P.S. I can not tell you how much joy and comfort fill my heart from your love, my friends, because the hearts of my girls have been refreshed through you. That means more to me than I could ever say.

Thanks for helping today.
It meant to me that I was seen. Nothing brings me to tears faster than that.
I love you, too.

Update on the last post

ESPN picked up the story and gives us a look at those involved with the game between DeKalb and Milwaukee Madison...

A good loss for one who lost

You know by now that I love sports stories. But only the stories that make me cry! There's a lot of yuck in sports at any level. Coaches who go too far. Players who couldn't care less about anyone but themselves. Fans who act like the 4th quarter is real life and worth destroying the reputation of Jesus Christ for.

But then there are those stories I read of kids who step beyond the game to show that life is what happens off the court and that relationships will always matter more than the score. I love those and the one below is a good one. If you want to read a couple of others I've posted check out the ones here and here and the video in this post.

And yes, Angela, I really do love this and believe it even though we tell our girls to make sure their opponents feel their presence on the court...and I mean feel their presence. After all, that's why they give you five fouls, right?

Amid the grieving, a rare act of sportsmanship

Associated Press

The coach never considered any other option.

It didn't matter that his DeKalb, Ill., High School basketball team had ridden a bus two and a half hours to get to Milwaukee, then waited another hour past game time to play. Didn't matter that the game was close, or that this was a chance to beat a big city team.

Something else was on Dave Rohlman's mind when he asked for a volunteer to shoot two free throws awarded his team on a technical foul in the second quarter. His senior captain raised his hand, ready to go to the line as he had many times before.

Only this time it was different.

"You realize you're going to miss them, don't you?" Rohlman said.

Darius McNeal nodded his head. He understood what had to be done.

It was a Saturday night in February, and the Barbs were playing a non-conference game on the road against Milwaukee Madison. It was the third meeting between the two schools, who were developing a friendly rivalry that spanned two states.

The teams planned to get together after the game and share some pizzas and soda. But the game itself almost never took place.

Hours earlier, the mother of Milwaukee Madison senior captain Johntel Franklin died at a local hospital. Carlitha Franklin had been in remission after a five-year fight with cervical cancer, but she began to hemorrhage that morning while Johntel was taking his college ACT exam.

Her son and several of his teammates were at the hospital late that afternoon when the decision was made to turn off the life-support system. Carlitha Franklin was just 39.

"She was young and they were real close," said Milwaukee coach Aaron Womack Jr., who was at the hospital. "He was very distraught and it happened so suddenly he didn't have time to grieve."

Womack was going to cancel the game, but Franklin told him he wanted the team to play. And play they did, even though the game started late and Milwaukee Madison dressed only eight players.

Early in the second quarter, Womack saw someone out of the corner of his eye. It was Franklin, who came there directly from the hospital to root his teammates on.

The Knights had possession, so Womack called a time out. His players went over and hugged their grieving teammate. Fans came out of the stands to do the same.

"We got back to playing the game and I asked if he wanted to come and sit on the bench," Womack said during a telephone interview.

"No," Franklin replied. "I want to play."

There was just one problem. Since Franklin wasn't on the pre-game roster, putting him in meant drawing a technical foul that would give DeKalb two free throws.

Though it was a tight game, Womack was willing to give up the two points. It was more important to help his senior guard and co-captain deal with his grief by playing.

Over on the other bench, though, Rohlman wasn't so willing to take them. He told the referees to forget the technical and just let Franklin play.

"I could hear them arguing for five to seven minutes, saying, `We're not taking it, we're not taking it," Womack said. "The refs told them, no, that's the rule. You have to take them."

That's when Rohlman asked for volunteers, and McNeal's hand went up.

He went alone to the free throw line, dribbled the ball a couple of times, and looked at the rim.

His first attempt went about two feet, bouncing a couple of times as it rolled toward the end line. The second barely left his hand.

It didn't take long for the Milwaukee players to figure out what was going on.

They stood and turned toward the DeKalb bench and started applauding the gesture of sportsmanship. Soon, so did everybody in the stands.

"I did it for the guy who lost his mom," McNeal told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "It was the right thing to do."

Franklin would go on to score 10 points, and Milwaukee Madison broke open the game in the second half to win 62-47. Afterward, the teams went out for pizza, two players from each team sharing each pie.

Franklin stopped by briefly, thankful that his team was there for him.

"I got kind of emotional but it helped a lot just to play," he said. "I felt like I had a lot of support out there."

Carlitha Franklin's funeral was last Friday, and the school turned out for her and her son. Cheerleaders came in uniform, and everyone from the principal and teachers to Johntel's classmates were there.

"Even the cooks from school showed up," Womack said. "It lets you know what kind of kid he is."

Basketball is a second sport for the 18-year-old Franklin, who says he has had some scholarship nibbles and plans to play football in college. He just has a few games left for the Knights, who are 6-11 and got beat 71-36 Tuesday night by Milwaukee Hamilton.

It hasn't been the greatest season for the team, but they have stuck together through a lot of adversity.

"We maybe don't have the best basketball players in the world but they go to class and take care of business," Womack said. "We have a losing record but there's life lessons going on, good ones."

None so good, though, as the moment a team and a player decided there were more important things than winning and having good stats.

Yes, DeKalb would go home with a loss. But it was a trip they'll never forget.

"This is something our kids will hold for a lifetime," Rohlman said. "They may not remember our record 20 years from now, but they'll remember what happened in that gym that night."

When a plane goes down

Don't we all think about it? What would it be like to be involved in a crash? What would we do? What would we say to those around us? When the trial of imminent death arrives what will it reveal inside of us?

Andrew Jamison got to find out and provides a strong Christian witness for the presence and peace of Christ in that moment.

Andrew was aboard US Airways Flight 1549 that crash landed in the Hudson River. He's a member of the Christian Medical and Dental Association and did an interview with them that you can listen to at the CMDA website. He admits to the fears that came mostly after the crash with the water filling the plane. It's amazing to listen to him speak of what it was like to live through it.

They also speak very candidly about how this has been used by God to grow them both personally. They talk about assurance of salvation...the sovereignty of God...worry about loved ones traveling...trusting in God for all things...and just about the way God pulls us to exactly the place he wants us to be to know Him better.

And there's even a connection to our little town of Temple. He and his wife, Jennifer, are both 4th year medical residents at Medical University of South Carolina and are doing their matches right now in dermatology and family medicine. They mention in the early part of the interview that Temple, TX is one of the places they've traveled to before this fateful flight. Maybe they'll end up sitting beside some of us someday, worshiping together at TBC. If so, I'll be so glad to be able to tell him that I praised my God today because of his testimony!

HT: Ligon Duncan writing at Reformation 21

You might be a redneck if...

I really will get back to serious stuff! But for now, I'm needing some levity and God's providing...

Redneck Seafood

HT: The Blazing Center

For Patti

Looking in the mirror

Part 2

Yeah. Keep a close watch on yourself. Not someone else. I knew I should have turned it off then. But I was caught and I could feel it. No sense wriggling when the hook is set, you know?

Matt pointed out what he called the bookends of the chapter. At the front end you have the understanding that there will be those around you that are not believers, who will come and go in the church. At the other end is Paul's summary exhortation to Timothy that there is a way to live and preach the gospel that will as Paul says save yourself and your hearers. And in between instead of a bunch of things to tell them or to do for them, there are a list of instructions for Timothy. The focus is on us.

Here's the heart of what I received from his message...italicized sentences are Matt's...

Verse 6: Be trained in the gospel ~
Getting the gospel right matters. And mostly we have to distinguish between what the gospel is and what morality is. When we teach people what to do and how to live without the foundation of Christ crucified what you’ve done at best is restrain the hearts of people, but you won’t see their hearts transformed. If you don’t get the gospel right, you will inoculate your people to Jesus. You give them just enough of Him to never know Him. The gospel matters.

Translation: If we don't stop focusing on how people behave and focus them on what Christ has done, we will give them enough of Jesus to make them think they know Him, when all they will know is a how-to and how-not-to list that will never get them to the cross. We must give them Jesus. Let it stir up your affections. We must be experts in the gospel. Give them the cross so that when they see Him they not only recognize Him, but praise Him rightly.

When doctrine fades, worship fades. Seeing God rightly stirs the affections of the soul. If you see Him wrongly then even with affections stirred...to this clarify this, Matt gave a great analogy:

Let's say I just feel really stirred up toward my wife. I don't know what did it. I just know that all of a sudden I love that woman. So I walk into our house and she's sitting on the couch...and I get down on my knees in front of her and just grab hold of her and tell her, "Baby, I just love you so much. I mean my heart hurts, I love you so much. I don't know if it's your black hair or your deep, brown eyes...but I am crazy about you."

And some of you may go, "Well, that's really sweet of you Chandler." And it would be really sweet...except my wife is a blond and she has blue eyes...so it's going to go bad for me.

Seeing God rightly leads to us being transformed...leads to humility...leads to godliness.

God's already been working on me in this area. As I'm teaching through When I Don't Desire God, Piper is hammering this point right now. We must know the difference between justification and sanctification. We must know how to fight the good fight in a way that doesn't take the grace out of the gospel and replace it with all the stuff we do. Our goal must be to continue to follow Paul's example of being resolved to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified.

Especially in my home with the girls this can be so hard. How many times a day do we moms have to correct behavior? Stop hitting that. Eat that. Don't eat that. Don't say that. Say that. Don't touch that. Pick that up. Don't do that. You better do that. Don't jump on that. Don't throw that. Stop. Go. Come here. Come here. Come here! AAAAHHHH! Sorry...flashback to the toddler days...

But at some point as the girls grow in their ability to understand (which is much sooner than we realize) we have to move out of do's and don't's...well, it's not so much move out of them as reveal the undergirding of it all. We have to show them Christ. We have to reveal Him as lovely as He really is...as amazing as He really is...as worthy as He really is...so that there is reason to obey. They have to see the problem of sin in them and in me. They have to understand who they are in that sin so that they can see the cross of Christ as amazing as it really is that God would send His Son to become sin for them...His enemies...while they were still mired in that sin. Christ died to free them to obey. We do it for love of Him, not to gain us anything with Him.

Oh, how hard a message it is to overcome in our kids when we've told them for years what good girls they are...especially when they do good for us. Good girl, Cassie! You cleaned your room! Wow, Brennan! You did great! Then we turn the message on them somewhere (or maybe we'll just let the Sunday school teachers do it!) and try to tell them that they are dreadful sinners in need of saving. And that their good works have earned them nothing but wrath. Hard transition, isn't it?

It hit home to me that I am as guilty as anyone out there at giving my girls morality instead of the gospel...which can leave them with the taste in their mouths that doing matters more than becoming. Oh, how far from the gospel is that message. They must know the heart of their unworthiness of God to feel the impact of the cross rightly.

Understand, I want my girls to know we're proud of them...to be their biggest encouragers...to be the first to cheer and the first to celebrate them. But there must be an undergirding that it is who they are that we delight in not in their performance. I don't want to make wives who need to achieve and want men who will perform rightly for them. I want a generation of homes which permeate the grace of God that is given while we are yet sinners. Who pursue obedience because of His great love...not to earn it. Who stand for right though the heavens fall...not because it's the ticket to God's pleasure but because God is my right.

I can hear Candace in my head...so what's that look like? Well, to start it means focusing on ourselves just as Matt has taught. The problem is what's coming out of me. I need to focus hard on the gospel. I need to understand rightly what happened on that cross. I need a clear picture of Isaiah 6...and Isaiah 50-54...and Ezekiel 16...and Ezekiel 36...and Zechariah 3...and Romans 1-16...and Ephesians 2...Philippians 2...and so many more.

It is not as easy as say this and do that...or stop that and start this...we must be transformed by renewing our minds in the gospel of Christ. We must know ourselves who we were and be amazed at this Christ. We must have a word ready to identify with their sins...to lead them to Jesus. Not to say Jesus doesn't like that. But that Jesus died for that. We must be ready to rejoice when they do any good in this world not because it means they are good little girls, but because it reflects rightly the image of God in us. We must become students of Scripture. We must know, deeply know what it is when we say gospel.

Can you feel it like can that you need work in this area? I've begun by starting a new John Piper book called Finally Alive. You can buy it here...but if, like me, finances aren't available right now, join me in reading it free online. I can't say enough how much I appreciate Desiring God and the fact that almost all of their material is free online. Also, if you just really want the book in your hands, but can't afford it...just call them. They'll let you have it for whatever you can pay. Promise.

The work is not in our words but in our hearts. And I know it. But I can feel myself wriggling on the hook. But this isn't even the hardest hit I took from his message...I know...exhausting isn't it? Now you see why I can't blog when I'm under the knife...

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