Who I Am

Who I am on my own:
   I am selfish.  I am quick tempered and impatient.  I am a worrier, a controller, and an idolater.  I am quick to let you down and often don't even know it.  I am lazy when I need to work and work when I should be resting.  I am quick to put all the wrong foods in my mouth and let all the wrong words come out of it.  I am ageing and feeling it more each day.  I am entropy on the outside and chaos on the inside.  I am a sinner.

Who I am to world:
  I am a number and a credit card.  I am the target market.  I am a consumer.  I am part of the traffic jam, part of the crowd, part of the long line, part of the problem.  I am a property tax, an income tax, and a sales tax.  I am one amongst billions.

Who I am in Christ:
  I am beloved.  I am alive and always will be.  I am eternal and eternally loved.  I'm forgiven, accepted, reconciled, redeemed.    I am blessed and a blessing.  I am a part of a body, a part of a family, a part of a Kingdom.  I am an heir and citizen of heaven.  I am sealed with the Holy Spirit.  I am accepted and justified.  I am more than a conqueror.  I am secure and can never be snatched out of His hand and never be separated from His love.  I am salt and I am light.  I am a disciple and a disciple maker.  I am a son of the King

What would they look like in Heaven?

As I mentioned in a previous post I have been re-reading the Great Divorce.  Throughout the book the character's heavenly body is often compared to their earthly one.  The pitiful and wretched look like kings and queens and the high and mighty are pictured, among other things, as dwarfs and monsters. 

I passed a man the other day in my car who I knew from my time working at family dollar in Franklinton.  The man is probably in his twenties, close to my age and would always come in with his grandmother.  He clearly had some mental disabilities but was as nice as a guy as you could meet.  In fact, he was always talking about Jesus.  You hand him his receipt and he would say something like "Praise Jesus."  Ask him how he's doing and he would say something about Jesus helping him and still praising Jesus.  It was as if it was the only thing on his mind, no matter what the topic.

I couldn't help but think as I passed the man what he would look like in heaven.  What would he look like once he never struggled with his disabilities and only his love for Jesus was left?  I must admit, I wonder if he'll shine a bit brighter than me.  He was never ashamed to say the name of Jesus or proclaim his love for God- and proclaim it loudly!  Maybe if we looked at people with heaven in mind, we might just be a little less tempted to impress the wise of this world and a little more eager to serve the future kings and queens of heaven.

"But many who are first will be last; and the last, first."- Matthew 19:30

Sesame Street

Things I learned on sesamestreet.org today:

Big Bird is 8 foot 2 inches tall

He is written to be on the same pyschological level as a 6 year old

His costume is made of more than 4,000 turkey feathers

He was the first sesame street character introduced, Oscar the grouch was 2nd

AND MOST IMPORTANT... his birthday is March 20.  I hope you all have a present prepared. 

Too sentimental?

Anybody else have a box like this sitting around their house?

The Great Divorce

With everything going on with Stephanie I decided to read a bit lighter book and have decided to tackle "The Great Divorce" by C.S. Lewis again.  If you've never read it than you are really missing out.  Lewis has a bus full of people leave hell and take a trip to heaven, or really the beginning of heaven to be more accurate.  They appear as ghosts and the world around them appears to solid for them to really walk on, much less live in.  That's a pretty shoddy description but you get the idea.  The interesting part of the book comes when each of the ghost-like people from hell have a conversation with one of the "solid" people sent to take them across the mountains and help them become solid themselves.  Nearly every one of the ghosts, usually after an argument, gives up the idea of going on to heaven and chooses instead to go back to their little part of hell.  They all have excuses-

A self-righteous man refuses to let a forgiven murderer help him go through the mountains. 

A bereaved mother is angry that she must first see and desire God before she can see her lost child (the hardest one to read)

A controlling woman will go but only if she can continue to help her husband fix all the things that only she can fix. 

Lewis himself is even chastised by his solid person (author George MacDonald) and warned that some people are more concerned with proving Christ than loving Him.  "As if all the good Lord ever had to do was exist." 

Certainly not all of these are temptations to hold onto for me, but I'm sure I have some things of my own.  Jonathan quoted author Cynthia Heimel in his blog and I will shamelessly steal it from him “I think when God wants to play a really rotten practical joke on you, he grants your deepest wish.”  All the people that went back to hell went back there because their deepest desire was not for Christ.  What a challenge. 

^" Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it."- Matthew 10:39

Aiden's Ultrasound pictures

Here's a few of the ultrasound pics we got today.  If you click them they get bigger and a little easier to see the details.

Waving

Can you put your foot up to your nose?

A sweet smile

We got the thumbs up!

Chubby cheeks never looked so good.