My Kids Need A Puppy.

All three of my children have been through the phase of pretending to be a puppy. The crawl around on hands and knees on the floor - even in public - the mall - the grocery. They eat pretend food from off the ground and lick my face. You know, normal everyday stuff. They play fetch. They will literally fetch for as long as I will throw. While they can't wrap their cheeks around a tennis ball, we do find other great items to fetch - socks - lincoln logs - veggie tale characters - sometimes even an actual stick. Yes, it looks exactly like a game of fetch with your own dog back home. I say, "Ready Puppy? FETCH Puppy!" and they take off (on hands and knees). The advantage they have over the K-9 is their ability to pick the item up with their hand and place it into their mouth before returning it to me. I pat their head and say "Goooooood Puppy!"
Sometimes they pant and sometimes they bark. Other times they roll over so I can scratch their tummy.

I'd say it's time to give in and purchase a dog.

The Conversations I Get Into...

How do you answer the question, "Do you believe in hell?"??
Is hell an actual place or a metaphorical concept? Is this a "lake of fire", or a place of "outer darkness"? Is it a place of eternal punishment or a place long forgotten? Is it "Sheol"? Does one hear only "weeping and knashing of teeth"?
I actually like anwering questions with questions.
What do you think? Is there an eternal nature to humanity? Will we exist in some form after this life? Will we be conscious of this existence? If so, will we exist in the presence of our Creator? Is there a choice we must make in this life which will determine how we will spend eternity? Or is the choice eternal (thank you C.S. Lewis)? Do we merely die and decompose? Is heaven an actual place? Is heaven simply another word for eternity?
Does anyone even buy Eternity by Calvin Klien anymore? Or was that a '90s thing. Remember those sensual black and white Eternity commercials starring Christy Turlington and some lovely man + two perfect kids playing on the beach in white, breezy clothes? P.S., wasn't Christy Turlington in a Duran Duran video back in the '80s? Notorious, I believe. How old is she?

Feeling a tiny bit naked.

It is amazing that hair, which is nothing more than an outgrowth of protein (Keratin, long chains or polymers of amino acids) atop a person's head, can be such a source of security.
I recently removed 10 inches (roughly 3-4 years) of hair. My reason for doing so was noble. I have always wanted to donate hair to locks of love, and did so with a great sense of do-gooder accomplishment.
The strange thing is that once it was all said and done, I started to feel a true sense of loss. I felt myself mourning this part of my body as if it were an amputated limb. And I wonder, is my identity and self-image tied (or twisted in a clip) to my hair? Not sure of the answer, but I am sure of one thing. I wish I could call and get my awesome braid back.
Not to over-spiritualize, but this experience reminded me of a couple of scriptures. One is the 1 Corinthians passage about "her hair" being "her glory" and head coverings and issues of praying and prophesying in church. The other is the admonition in 1 Timothy 2: 9 in which women are urged to "adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments..."

Do we reincarnate?

Sooo, the disciples talk to Jesus in Matthew 17 about Elijah (after the Transfiguration) saying, "wasn't Elijah supposed to come again?". Jesus describes how - yes he was to come again and he did come again and was not recieved and was treated poorly and killed.... The disciples realized, and I quote, that he was talking about John the Baptist. What is going on here?
Either Elijah reincarnated as John the Baptist, or the essence of Elijah was in John the Baptist, or John resembled Elijah and Jesus was simply pointing out the similarity between the two. This is, however a tad confounding.
Elijah is mentioned a lot in Matthew. I know he was a famous Hebrew Hero. John is also mentioned a lot in Matthew. I am interested in the connection. But truly curious about the "John is actually Elijah" scenario.

OMG

I just realized that it has been two months and some change since last I wrote. Feel the need to make up for it with two posts in one day. Wow, I just have been SOOOO busy. Umm, walking my son to and from kindergarten, cleaning my house, calling my sister 4+ times a day, oh, working, planning for Cosmo's 2nd birthday party 9.29.07 (which was a smash), landscaping our backyard (which looks so fine), going to meetings, watching Design Star on HGTV, oh, reading the bible and praying.... Of course there has been some complaining mixed in there, feelings of discontentment, probably some pre-mid-life crisis frustrations. But for the most part, these last two months have been largly uneventful and pleasant.

John the Baptist

We have been reading through the book of Matthew with our Life Groups at Wesley. I am so captured by John the Baptist is Matthew 11. Here this man has given everything, his whole self and whole life in the service of Jesus - everything seems to be going great. Then out of the blue, he gets thrown in jail. I imagine this is unexpected. I mean, when we are giving selflessly and serving God, aren't we supposed to be blessed and have success? Well, he gets thrown in jail. John the freaking Baptist of all people gets thrown in jail.

I would have been protesting like crazy, "Umm, excuse me. Maybe you don't know who I am. I am the forerunner to Jesus, I'm kindof a big deal. That song Prepare the Way, they wrote that about me. There is no one born of women greater than me."

Instead, we hear John simply human, "Are you the One we have been waiting for or should we look for another?" I am struck by the beauty of this raw, authentic expression of weakness and doubt. John the Baptist has doubts. Just like me. That's refreshing because it seems like every other day that I end up asking the same thing because of my circumstances or my mood or my frustrations or expectations.

Matt 11: 2 - 6
2 John the Baptist, who was in prison, heard about all the things the Messiah was doing. So he sent his disciples to ask Jesus, 3 “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?”
4 Jesus told them, “Go back to John and tell him what you have heard and seen— 5 the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is being preached to the poor. 6 And tell him, ‘God blesses those who do not turn away because of me.”

Jesus responds to his cousin whom he loves with a word of hope. "Tell John about all the miracles. Tell him he has not labored in vain. Oh and p.s., tell him that God blesses those who do not turn away because of me."

We just can not know what the outcomes of our labor for Christ will be. And we are not promised success or prosperity, awards or fame. We simply are asked to be faithful.