How Deep is Your Love

This song came on while driving to my parents house this morning, and Will, from the back seat says, “Oooo!  This is a nice song for a husband and a wife to be in love together!”

So, in honor of the Bee Gees and my son’s astute observations, all you husbands, go grab your wives, cuddle up next to YouTube and “be in love together.”

It’s beginning to look a lot like… Crowder.

So, when you have kids, Christmas time = crafts a’ plenty.  We’ve definitely had a few come through here already.  Here’s a few that are currently on display at our house…

…and then there’s this little piece…

This is one of my favorites for 3 reasons:

1. It’s really creative.  Hands and Feet make one cool lookin’ reindeer!
2. It looks really stressed OR slightly insane; both are fun depictions of the Christmas season as it’s been consumerised.
3. It oddly looks like one of my favorite worship leaders, David Crowder.

As to the last one, I did a little a little photoshopping to try to visualize this phenomena, and I’m happy with the results.

So, Merry Christmas, Mr. Crowder!  You fill our Yule Tide with Joy!

Things you don’t say

You don’t describe your art as “Ok.”

You don’t say “no” to mom.

You don’t say you’re praying when you’re actually falling asleep in church.

You don’t say, “I’m almost done with this level,” when you’re wife calls down from 3 screaming kids upstairs.

Comment on what else you don’t say…

Back seat Karter

My son, Will, is the ultimate in Back seat drivers when we play Mario Kart Wii.  He asked me to “unlock” some stuff by winning races, and after 10 minutes of him saying,

“DADDADDADTURNHEREDADYOUHAVEABULLETYOUHAVEASHELLDADDADUSETHE STARDADTURNHEREDAAAAAAAAAD!!!!”

I heard these words come out of my 29 year-old lips, “Will!  Stop telling me what to do!  I’m bigger than you and I’m a better racer!”  

Certainly, a high point of my parenting career, and may it forever go down in the annals of kings that I, a grown man, responded to a 4 year-old in kind.

Upside Down Christmas

A man of men that I work with showed me this video today.

It’s really amazing.  It’s written by a worship leader in Texas named Pace Hartfield, and it’s extremely well done.

Upside Down from Pace Hartfield on Vimeo.

A note for the Sexually Immoral… “nooooo!”

Geez!  What a nutty month November was!  From teaching about the Holy Spirit in Sr. High to a really cold weekend retreat with the Jr. High (which got our whole family sick for the next 2 weeks!), a birthday present in Kansas City with Jamie and a 4 day trip to Wisconsin to visit some lovely friends, followed by multiple Thanksgiving get-togethers.  Somewhere in there, we went to Ted Drew’s (a St. Louis delicacy) and bought a Christmas Tree (and some Ice Cream).  Finally, I closed the month by teaching in our Quest service about [DUN DUN DAAAA!!] Sexual Immorality.

[OBJECTIONABLE CONTENT WARNING!!]

Children, please close your eyes for the next couple paragraphs.  Somehow, God has designed Sex to be much bigger than a simple procreative act.  He’s made it to be a pure and complete Union of two people: “pure” because He made it clean and beautiful, and “complete” because it’s all that is needed.  It is perfect.  Something about it (I’m speaking in a vague way because I don’t exactly understand it) binds two people so wholly, that if they are not within God’s permission, it actually divides them from God.  It keeps them away from Him.

Being Sexually Immoral is a really big offense to God.  He has intended that a man and woman should become one flesh in the most committed way, and that those two should also be unified with His Spirit.  Sexual Immorality kills the chances of both.

His advice?  RUN.  “Flee sexual immorality,” He says.  For every other sin, He instructs us to “take up the armor of God,” “stand firm” and “resist,” but for this one He says, “RUN AWAY!”

On our way back from Wisconsin, we stopped at our favorite Illinois exit for Lunch, and the only place open was a Wendy’s attached to a Truck Stop.  After lunch we did the Baby Bathroom Rituals with me and Josh in one bathroom and Jamie, Will and Aiden in the other.  Josh and I, having finished first, waited in an enclosed arcade across from the bathrooms with a few electronic card games, cycling through 5 or 6 different games. One of those games had a lovely picture of a scantly clad woman in the bottom corner.  While I stood at the door, I heard Josh behind me start saying in his little baby voice, “nooooo!  noooooo!” [pause] “nooooo!  noooooo!”  I turned around to see him sucking his fingers at the base of one of those card games, and every time that woman would cycle around, he would remove his fingers, point at the screen and yell, “noooooo!”  “noooooo!”

Men, may that be your battle cry as you flee the almost constant war against Sexual Immorality:  “nooooooo!”

———

This month will be no less hectic.  I think Jamie figured out that with all the rehearsals, parties and events, I’m home a total of 5 evenings from now to Christmas.  To that I say,