Another journey through The Lord of the Rings

For several years now my daughters didn't seem to age much. They were children. They would get taller and taller and more articulate, but they remained children. That seems to have changed overnight. I look at my two oldest daughters and think, "Did I miss something? When did this happen?" They are turning into young ladies - by the hour. I am exceedingly proud of them, but a little stressed out too. It's all happening so fast.

Well, Abby, my oldest (age 11) loves action stories, sports, science, space, and adventure. She has read the complete Chronicles of Narnia multiple times. She has been waiting patiently to get the "ok" from mom and dad to read The Lord of the Rings.

As you can see from my list of "Notable Favorite" books on the side panel of this blog, The Lord of the Rings is one of my faves.

Now, I realize that there are some Christians offended by the magical qualities of The Lord of the Rings - and I can understand that. But, it is such a wonderful story with such wonderful themes running through it - themes like sacrifice, courage, sin, good, evil, redemption, friendship and forgiveness. I love the picture of sin as portrayed by the ring. If you try to possess the ring it will end up possessing you. I love the picture of "burden bearing" as pictured through Frodo. Frodo has a burden that he alone must bear, but he is utterly helpless without his friends. They can encourage him, protect him, guide him, and take care of him but ultimately they cannot bear his burden for him. What a great picture of what Christian community is supposed to be as we help to carry one another's burdens. We cannot take the burden away, but we can encourage and protect and take care of one another so that we are not crushed by the burdens we bear.

Good stuff.

There are a whole lot of wonderful themes running through this story. Plus, there are some really good battle scenes.

So anyway, I decided that Abby was old enough to appreciate The Lord of the Rings. But, I wanted to experience it with her so we could talk through some of the issues. So, I decided to read it out loud to her. We are not very far into the first book, but it's been great - absolutely great.

I am sure there will be a day in the very near future when she won't be that excited to get into her p.j's and listen to dad read an exciting story. But, right now, she thinks it's pretty cool.

And so do I.

Common Grace

I had one of those "stopping to smell the roses" moments after work today.

We have gardens that Kelly and I have planted all around our house. Today I took the time to stroll around the house and look at the flowers. One part of the garden was swarming with Monarch Butterflies. It was really quite spectacular.

Here are a couple of pictures that I took.

Before I walked out there, this beautiful scene was already being played out - for no one's enjoyment except God alone. I was able to enjoy it for a few short minutes. Then I went back inside. The butterflies continued their display out in the garden.

It's common grace.

God creates beauty and scenes of wonder simply because he is good, and as Annie Dillard says, "The creator likes pizazz". Whether humans take the time to notice it or not, the beauty is there. And, it's there for everybody - the sinner and the saint - the pagan and the pious. It's there for whoever will take the time to notice it. Anybody could have walked up and enjoyed the beauty in that garden today. His beauty as displayed in creation is a common grace.

I am glad I wasn't so dull today that I missed his gift outside my own back door.

Jesus on the offensive

Last Sunday made me woozy. I still haven't quite recovered.

I am teaching through Luke. Last Sunday I was in Luke 11:37-54. These are perhaps the harshest words that Jesus speaks to anyone - anywhere in the gospels. While having a meal at a Pharisee's house with both Pharisees and scribes present, Jesus goes "gloves off" to the religious authorities of his day. It is blistering.

An interesting thing about this passage is that Jesus is not rebuking them for rejecting Him (which eventually they would do). He is rebuking them for things like: hypocrisy; having a polished external religion that betrays the sin in their heart; for creating a religion that majors on the minors and ignores what's most important; for seeking status; for burdening people with unnecessary rules that actually draw people away from a pure relationship with God; for wrongly thinking that they are the orthodox ones in line with the prophets of old (when in actuality they were cut from the same cloth as those who killed the prophets).

Those descriptions that brought about the harsh rebuke from Jesus - I am ashamed to say - are present in my own life much more often than I would care to admit. And, I am embarrassed to say, the Christian community is rampant with this stuff. We spend a lot of effort polishing an external facade - making ourselves look more spiritual than we really are. We are all too often guilty of majoring on the minors while ignoring things that really matter, things like loving God and loving people, grace toward sinners, justice for the oppressed, mercy for those in need. We have turned a relationship with God into a definable religion that has a certain look to it (certain way of dressing, acting, talking, etc.) - but often times does not share the same heart of Christ for those who are lost, sin sick, in need, physically hungry, scared, lonely, and hurting. Are we not just as guilty of looking the part but lacking the heart?

It makes me wonder. Who in today's society would receive the harshest words from Jesus?

There are many in the Christian community that think we are in a "culture war". We are warring against immoral media, liberal politicians and activist judges. You will hear many harsh words from the Christian camp against those who threaten to take our nation away from its "Judeo/Christian" roots. But, are those the types of people that received the harshest words from Jesus in his day? Did he pull out the big guns against Roman authorities? Were his harshest words against those who led a public lifestyle of sin like immoral prostitutes or thieving tax collectors? Did he fight political battles in an attempt to moralize a pagan culture? Jesus was in a war alright, but it wasn't against the culture he lived in - His war was against the Devil. He did not see people as the enemy. He saw them as hostages in a Spiritual battle.

His harshest words were not for the hostages. Nor were his harshest words directed toward the pagan, awful culture that those blind hostages created. His harshest words were for those who claimed they could see - for those who claimed to know the truth - for those who were supposed to be the rescue swimmers for the lost and drowning. They were supposed to be representing Him.

So, here is the question again - who in our day would receive the harshest words from Jesus?

Like I said, this sermon made me woozy.

I hope people come back this Sunday.

the latest big thing in the Holmes' household

My two oldest daughters have always shared a room. They are only a year and a half apart. And, since we have not lived in very big houses - having them share a room has always made the best sense. All that changed on Monday.

We have have begun a new chapter in our household. In the lives of my daughters, this is a REALLY BIG DEAL. They now each have their own room.

It is becoming quite evident that my girls are very different from each other. With each year that passes their interests are seeming to get more and more divergent. It's almost like they are they are totally different people. It's strange. And while I genuinely think they love each other - they don't always want to be in the same room with each other. So - recently they began lobbying hard for their own space.

I was the toughest sell on the idea, for two reasons. Reason 1 - I tend to think it's healthy for them to have to work things out and be forced to live together. Good life training - know what I mean? But, then again, I never had to share a room with anybody when I was growing up. So what do I know? Reason 2 -while I know it's selfish, I didn't want to give up our guest room/home office space. Now our home office stuff has to be put somewhere else in the house - making our house feel even more smallish.

Oh well - we'll live.

In the end I was convinced that making the move was a good idea. Now, two days after the move I am even more convinced. Their personalities are blossoming - even in how they choose to decorate their space.

My prayer is that they won't grow apart from each other and become distant. I hope this will help them get along if they are not in each other's face all time. If we see them becoming more and more distant from each other, we may have to make yet another change. We'll see.

Boy, this parenting thing is tough. We are told in Proverbs to train up our children in the way they should go. Too bad there is not a one size fits all approach that works for every child and every family as to how to go about doing that. It's clear that "the way a child should go" is more than just moral standards. "The way a child should go" has a lot to do with the way a child is wired by their creator. Within the constraints of clear moral behavior there are a lot of different paths to choose - a lot of different personalities, a lot of different interests. One of the roles of a parent is to help that child navigate and find the best possible path for them - the path of greatest kingdom impact - that path that will best use the strengths and talents and gifts that their creator has given them.

And, to do all that while trying to maintain a relatively peaceful household.

I'll say it again - this parenting thing is really tough. It takes an incredible amount of discernment, and agility, and emotional flexibility, and humility, and strength, and communication, and love, and patience. and... Any author or speaker who boils good parenting down to a handful of steps is lying to himself and doing a disservice to his audience.

I realize that in the grand scheme of things, deciding to give the girls their own room is a relatively small decision. There have been much bigger decisions we have faced - and I know there are much, much, much bigger decisions we will make in the future. But, this week, the room thing is the decision at hand.

A year ago I would have said, "Abby and Emma will share a room until they go to college". And I could have clearly explained why. But, I am learning that sometimes it is not healthy to "stick to your guns". Sometimes it is better to take a dynamic approach to parenting that requires a reassessment at each new season. Sometimes what is required is humility, and flexibility, and maybe even a change of course.

big fear #3

Here to round out my top three fears in my phobia theme.

The fear of failure.

This one is the hardest for me to write about. There are very few areas of my life that are not touched by this fear. The fear of failure has gone a long way in shaping who I am - I am sorry to say.

I loved sports growing up. But, by the time I was a senior in high school, I didn’t go out for any sport. Why? - because, while I was a pretty good athlete as a 13 year old, I was a mediocre athlete as a 17 year old. And, because when you are a senior there is no JV to fall back on. You either make varsity or you get cut. There was a very real chance I would get cut as a senior. So what did I do? I quit before I gave the coaches a chance. Not one of my prouder moments.

What’s even more embarrassing is how often this fear of failure pops up in my relationship with God. And I should know better. Christianity is so wonderful precisely because it is not a merit based system where success and failure are determined by our behavior. My standing before God; my acceptance in his family; my eternal security… has nothing to do with me. It has everything to do with the righteousness of another. Our obedience – our Christian life is not to be some lame attempt to avoid failure in something we could have never been successful at in the first place. Jesus has purchased our success. Our victory and our hope are in him – and him alone. We need never fear that we might lose God’s favor or his love toward those who are in Christ. That’s what I preach at least; that’s what I tell others when they come into my office for counseling; that’s what I believe – really and truly.

But, believing that and remembering it day by day are two very different things. Grace seems so foreign to me at times – so contrary to my nature. I keep having to tell myself that grace is true. But… it just seems too good to be true.

In my weaker moments I tend to imagine God shaking his head toward me, “What a disappointment you are, Greg. You had such potential – I had such high hopes in you. You were going to do such great things for the Kingdom. Look at you. You are a failure.”

I wonder how much of my obedience, how much of my ministry is prompted not out of love and gratitude for the one who loved me first – but out of fear that I might actually hear those words from God.

It’s kind of sad isn’t it? Living in fear that the God of the universe who loves me so much that he would give his only son in my behalf, would get fed up with me because I didn’t have a quiet-time today. It doesn’t make much sense does it?

I realize how silly it is. But, it’s hard to teach a stubborn soul new grace. God is still working on me. I still have a long way to go.

There is one who wants me to feel like a failure. But, it isn’t God.

New and Improved

I have tried to freshen up the look of my blog. I hope you like it.

I have added something new. If you scroll down the sidebar you will see a "currently reading" and "recently read" list of books. If you would like to add your two bits about any of those books - I welcome your comments. Some of those books are not necessarily books I would recommend (for one reason or another), but I always think that knowing what people are reading helps in getting to know them.

If you have any books that you highly recommend, I would love to hear about them.

I also hope that by giving a list of "currently reading" books I will feel that much more pressure to actually finish them. I have this problem, see. I love books, but I tend to think that most books are too long. This is especially true for books that would fall under the "Christian Living" title at the Christian book store. I can usually enthusiastically get through the first half of a book in a day or two - but then it takes me months to finish. I tend to think that most non-fiction books could pretty well end by chapter 5 or 6 and save everybody a lot of time. So, I start a book - get tired of it and then start another. Hopefully I can move some of those books into the "recently read" column soon.

Espresso saga

A couple of weeks ago our espresso machine died. I don't know what's wrong with it. And I am not the most mechanical of men - not really one to take a something apart and fix it. So, I am not quite sure how to find out the problem. I cleaned it real good. Descaled it and all. But, alas... nothing. I talked to the tech people over the phone and they told me it was out of warranty. Of course. They were not much help. They told me it could be this one thing... but, then again it might not. And, the part that might fix the machine is on back order for a few weeks. Lovely.

I know that the responsible thing for me to do is to wait patiently for the part to come in and see if it does the job. That would the reasonable thing to do. What I have actually been doing is waiting rather impatiently and searching the Internet to find a good deal on a better espresso machine... an upgrade. Nothing so far. The machine I had was already pretty nice. An upgrade would cost lots of $. I can't really justify it. We only do a couple of espressos per day.

So, I am trying something new - a stove top espresso maker. I picked one up at a discount store last night. It was super cheap - not much of a loss if it turns out to be a dud. I have always been a bit leery about stove top espresso makers. I am a bit fuzzy on the physics of the whole thing. (But, in all honesty, it doesn't take much to make me fuzzy about the physics of anything.)

And, I read somewhere that stove top espresso machines are what real Italians use in thier homes. I have always wanted to be like a real Italian.

We tried it out this afternoon. Not bad. Not bad. It would probably be more accurate to call it really, really strong coffee instead of espresso since there is no crema on the top (that dense foam on the top of properly extracted espresso). But the flavor was good. I think it should make good "iced Americanos" (which is our favorite summertime drink).

So, I think we may have found a substitute until our machine gets fixed.

It's a good day.