hodge podge

Obviously it has been some time since my last post. A lot has been happening since then. The last 30+ days have been, in most ways, completely devoted to my daughter. Well, at least the time that I'm not at work. Our entire life revolves around her now. She gets fed, changed, bounced, rocked, smiled at, laughed at, cried at, swung, cuddled, hugged, kissed, swaddled and pacified. Some of our best times have been in the middle of the night, or the wee hours of the morning. She loves to make funny faces and silly sounds. There are time already that I can see her thinking about things she touches or sees us looking at her strangely. What a great 5 weeks it has been.

This past weekend Larissa and I traveled to Fort Worth with Greg and Megan (in a minivan I might add) to meet with our team and to present ourselves before the missions committee at the Richland Hills church. It was a satisfying weekend filled with great food (thanks Mother McKinzie), great friends (we were blessed to be prayed over Saturday night by some of our closest friends), and good conversation. We met on Saturday with Bryan and Eralda and were able to spend some time talking about the team and where we are now and how we see the future unfolding before us. Our meeting Sunday morning with RHCC went very nicely I think. They responded to us positively and we await some feedback from them in the next few weeks.

Larissa and I have been watching a little more TV than normal these past few weeks. Our favorite shows are (in no particular order): House, Heroes, Studio 60, Law and Order: SVU, and Bones. We've also watched a few of the American Idol auditions, some of those people trying out are hilarious.

A blog that I've found that I visit frequently is scottfreeman.info. He's had some great posts concerning non-violence in the past few months that have really had me thinking about the issue and wondering how I got to this point in life without thinking about it. This leads to other issues such as serving in the military, as a police officer, protecting your family, etc. that I may write something about in the future. For now I'm reading and thinking about this and I hope you will too.

This article is very interesting. Any thoughts?

the home stretch

Well here we are almost halfway through November. I cannot believe I am roughly 7 weeks away from becoming a father. I think I’ve been hoping that I’ll have some deep thoughts, spiritual or otherwise, concerning my impending fatherhood but such thoughts have eluded me. I know that I feel a great sense of peace concerning Shaye’s birth and entrance into the world. I have the greatest wife who has loads of experience with children to make up for my ineptitudes. I have lots of family and close friends that are committed to me and my family. The only thing I have to worry about is this feeling I have of already being wrapped around her little fingers (Shaye’s fingers).

On a happy note, Greg and Megan are not only pregnant and due 3 months after us but are also having a baby girl. Greg let me know by saying: “It looks like it’s sleepovers instead of dates.” Greg and I have been friends for 11 years; I look forward to witnessing the relationship that our will daughters have. Our team now has 3 children including Jack, that is a neat thought.

On a non serious note, the NBA (which I don’t like) has passed a rule against players whining over foul calls they do not like. I approve of this ruling and would say to these multi-millionaires: Get over yourselves. You are paid loads of money to play a game, act like professionals. On a similar note Gary Sheffield of the Evil Empire (New York Yankees) has lashed out as his team for picking up his option just to trade him. I hope he ends up without getting traded and has to play DH all year. It would send a clear signal out that professional game players have no business whining and complaining when they make the money they do.

On a ‘spiritual’/moral note: I have recently begun thinking more and delving deeper into the idea of non-violence. Let me say that by non-violence I do not mean non-action, but I am becoming more convinced that there are virtually no instances where killing is proper. Yes I even mean in defense of my family and especially in defense of myself. If we, as children of God and followers of Christ, are to model our lives after Christ then it would seem that we would become non-violent change-agents in the world. Christ certainly modeled this ‘pacifist’ lifestyle. Many would argue that the OT advocates violence in certain situations and I cannot disagree with that at the moment. Christ, however, came to be our new covenant, our new exemplar of how to live. He said to love other people at all costs, he did it even to the point of death. Are we called to anything less? At what point to we stop and say “I am justified in taking this persons life.” How can we say that? Are there times when doing violence to someone else would be serving the “greater good?” Is the idea of a “greater good” a fallacy and nothing more than the lesser or two evils? Can Christians be police officers or serve in the military? Your thoughts are welcome, more on this later.