Darn that Henri

So I read this today from my daily Henri Nouwen email and I did not really like it, more on that after you read it...
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Protecting Our Hiddenness

If indeed the spiritual life is essentially a hidden life, how do we protect this hiddenness in the midst of a very public life? The two most important ways to protect our hiddenness are solitude and poverty. Solitude allows us to be alone with God. There we experience that we belong not to people, not even to those who love us and care for us, but to God and God alone. Poverty is where we experience our own and other people's weakness, limitations, and need for support. To be poor is to be without success, without fame, and without power. But there God chooses to show us God's love.

Both solitude and poverty protect the hiddenness of our lives.

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This is a hard thing for an extrovert who likes stuff to deal with. I like being with people. I like toys and cool stuff. But yet I also know he's right. I keep saying to myself and others, "Do what you know you should and don't do what you know you should not do." Sometimes simple, gentle reminders come across with the force of a big stick. What are you going to do?

yes Lord.

On Earl, the van

Okay, so I mentioned in passing the naming of our new family vehicle - Earl.
Well, after the aforementioned breaking of the wheel. There was considerable angst among the new owners of the van. Tara was feeling exceedingly overwhelmed with the "what ifs" (read here... what if we have to pay to get this fixed!!) and I mentioned that a song by the Dixie Chicks, Earl had to die was in my head. To which Tara began laughing in earnest and the new name has arrived.

In all truth, we love our new wheels. We all seem to love road trips a little more and we made one to Prince Albert yesterday where I literally almost bumped into the author of one of the blogs I read fairly regularly. Randall was at the Superstore in P.A. while we were doing some "bulk" shopping. It was neat to meet him and I think it would have happened Only in Saskatchewan.

And for interest's sake, a friend who had been thinking of actually buying the old Intrepid was disappointed to find that it has gone to Saskatoon to be sold to some unknown person...

Prayer, division and a van

Sweet Lord, have patience with us. We build walls that divide. We close doors to keep others out. Teach us how to topple the walls stone by stone. Show us how to open the doors and bless all who enter.
-Christopher De Vinck

I have been thinking about this today. I have just come back from vacation and spent my first day back in the office. I have noticed that everything is still here. I am more refreshed than I expected. However, as I reflected on this little prayer today, I realized yet again in my own life how easily it is to be taken off course in our relationship with God.
Why is it that when things are difficult or challenging we so often try to do things on our own? Why are we so slow to understand and remember that if we simply turn to God at the first moment of trouble/temptation/questioning and seek his help things would be so much easier.
These are not "new" thoughts of mine, just the refrain that seems to permeate humanity with regards to following God. We divide ourselves from each other, and from God himself; even though no one likes to be lonely.

Be assured though that God loves us. I am continually amazed at the protection and blessings God brings. We traded our car (94 Chrysler Intrepid) for a used van (1996 GMC Safari). Bought the thing on Friday. Saturday my family and I along with my parents (6 of us including me) jumped in the new (to us) van and drove around. We ended up putting on about 250kms that day. All got home safe and sound. I went out Saturday evening to drop something off and as I was driving home a ball joint let go. (See picture) Had the van less than 24hrs and it breaks. Now, that might not sound at first as a big reason to be thankful; but it didn't let go on the highway. It was on the driver's side front wheel, had it let go at highway speed we would have been forced into oncoming traffic. Aside from that, because we bought the van from a dealer they are replacing both ball joints on the front end of the van for us. Now, I won't have to worry about that with the van.
Now it has been frustrating to not have the van I bought when I bought it, but we're all safe and a few days in the course of (I trust) years of use is not much. Besides, I'm driving my old car for the time being, it's not like I'm walking (although in Tisdale that would be fine too).
God is good. We were not sure if we would be able to get a van in time for our new addition around Christmas (for those not up to date, we are expecting our third in December, we think it will be a girl). A car doesn't hold 3 kid's car seats, and now we have a van.
There is more to say about the van, but I'll leave that to another post (perhaps I'll even tell you all why we will call the van "Earl"). I'll leave you with a parting shot of our beloved Intrepid
a car that we towed our tent trailer across this great country of ours and has seen more than a few kilometers beneath it's rubber; just before I went to trade it in.

Blessings.

Art, Social Justice and the church

Hey, been a little slow in posting on here, as I have not been too sure what to post. I've been reflecting on the church, the arts, social justice and star wars. Not necessarily in that order, nor necessarily at the same time, although that produces some interesting mental images doesn't it?

I'm not sure what to say about any of what I have been thinking about, although I'd be interested in hearing what you all have been thinking about recently.
I have been thinking about what the church could look like. Specifically I've been thinking about what our church could look like. I am pondering what God is calling us to specifically. What ministries, what programs, what people, what teaching, what preaching, what fellowship, what everything. I am excited with what God is doing here, but it's hard to see where God is taking us. I keep reminding myself to relax and do one thing at a time. To keep my priorities straight, to "be". To be a good disciple, to be a good husband, father, pastor, friend. To not get distracted from things (easier said than done for many of us).
I have been praying more these last few weeks then I have in I don't know how long. I have been waiting and trying to soak in the presence of God. I don't know how successful I have been, but that's okay. One step at a time. God is doing something in my head, I'm not sure what it is yet though. I'm a little nervous, a little frightened, a little excited, and very thankful that I'm growing.

I will leave with one picture that I enjoyed taking the other day.

Thoughts...

So it's been a crazy time recently.
Tara (my wife) and I were in Edmonton for General Assembly. I felt like the week was like trying to drink from a fire hydrant on full blast. Overwhelming. One of the themes that kept coming back was social justice. That is, the church being nice to those not in the church and who don't have much. That would be the poor, the marginilized, anyone we don't normally associate with. Another thing that was thought provoking was a thought expressed by one of the pastor's on a panel discussion I attended; he asked the question about what are we doing to bring the person who has never thought of getting out of bed on a Sunday morning into church. Now, this was certainly something I had thought of before, but I am not sure that I connected that thought to what we do on Sunday mornings in church. Actually, now that I reflect on it, I'm not sure what that thought struck my head like a hammer on a gong but it did (ok, maybe God was trying to get my attention).
I purchased a number of cds of different sessions so that I could try and get through it all later. I am not sure I completely know how to process all of this.

In addition to processing Assembly and catching up on life (like my lawn!) Owen (my youngest son) had some tables fall on him in church on Sunday and he broke his leg. A greenstick fracture is what the doctor called it. From what I understand it's not "broken" like we think, but because his bones are still relatively flexible the bone "bent" and didn't break. That leaves a wrinkle (?), at least that's what it looked like (kind of sort of not really) on the x-ray, on the bone. He has a cast now for three weeks.
It's still quite tender and he is not super comfortable but he's a trouper. I wish I could wear it for him.
Also Tuesday, my mother-in-laws car broke down about an hour and a half away from here and we went and towed her home so that we wouldn't have to pay a tow truck. A long, slow afternoon that was. It's all good.
Currently I'm struggling with studying (don't look at the time this was posted...). Mind is going around in circles and I'm getting a little dizzy. Oh, and did I mention IT'S TOO HOT!! Yuck it was hot today.