Falling

unday night Leon came over and hung out with PJ, Elijah and I. Elijah usually plays with his cupboard full of tupperware throughout the day, it keeps him entertained and when you have a walking baby anything that entertains him, is a plus for mommy! Well, at times he brings the tupperware all the way to the living room, and in this horrific story, he did just that. I was sitting on the couch, while Leon sat opposite of me, and PJ sat on the window ledge near the door. I got up to do something, but to my surprise I stepped on the tupperware and I started to slide with it under my feet, so in order to not completely slip, I lifted up my foot, to try to get free of the tupperware dish, but as I did that I started to loose my balance so I stepped down quickly in order not to fall, but as I stepped down, my foot landed in the very place, I tried to avoid–the tupperware dish! So my foot ended up on it again but this time I slide and broke the tupperware to pieces as I fell to the floor scared and ashamed of my terrible accident that happened in front of my friend Leon, who in turn said “What the heck happened!” What words of comfort. And in front of my upset husband who thought I was playing around. What an encouraging crowd I had around me. After the incident, I remained on the floor and was laughing at what had happened and started to replay the comment that Leon said and the sour face my husband had. I still laugh thinking of it and the funny dialog that had taken place. Thank you Lord for humbling me!

Falling

Sunday night Leon came over and hung out with PJ, Elijah and I. Elijah usually plays with his cupboard full of tupperware throughout the day, it keeps him entertained and when you have a walking baby anything that entertains him, is a plus for mommy! Well, at times he brings the tupperware all the way to the living room, and in this horrific story, he did just that. I was sitting on the couch, while Leon sat opposite of me, and PJ sat on the window ledge near the door. I got up to do something, but to my surprise I stepped on the tupperware and I started to slide with it under my feet, so in order to not completely slip, I lifted up my foot, to try to get free of the tupperware dish, but as I did that I started to loose my balance so I stepped down quickly in order not to fall, but as I stepped down, my foot landed in the very place, I tried to avoid–the tupperware dish! So my foot ended up on it again but this time I slide and broke the tupperware to pieces as I fell to the floor scared and ashamed of my terrible accident that happened in front of my friend Leon, who in turn said “What the heck happened!” What words of comfort. And in front of my upset husband who thought I was playing around. What an encouraging crowd I had around me. After the incident, I remained on the floor and was laughing at what had happened and started to replay the comment that Leon said and the sour face my husband had. I still laugh thinking of it and the funny dialog that had taken place. Thank you Lord for humbling me!

Blessing Last Night

Grama shared a blessing last night at prayer meeting: she always reads Isaiah 41:10 when she is afraid or when she worries about life or her eye recovery. She was praising God that the eye surgery went well and her voice started cracking as she read Isaiah 41:10 from the little print out of the verse she always carries with her. She was very encouraging to Frances and I. It’s a good verse to memorize.

Isaiah 41:10 fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Update: We also celebrated Grama’s 72nd birthday by eating at Thai Village. But we forgot our camera (we’ve done that a lot lately).

Fiddler On the Roof

Last night my family and some friends watched Fiddler on the Roof at a Christian High School. It was a blessing to see Elijah sit through the whole thing! We went to see one of our high school students, Sandy Dela, who was in the play. She did a good job. I thought that the performance was edifying to me for a few reasons: (1) it helped me to again appreciate tradition in the family and culture. As an evangelical of a non-denominational church I feel in large measure cut off from tradition and that is not good. To be sure, it is not completely my church’s fault, but the absence of knowledge of and respect for tradition is a sad deficiency in my life and upbringing. (2) I saw the intimacy of prayer again in the life of the character Tevia and was challenged to pray with more intimacy with God. (3) I grew in conviction that the gospel must remain central in Christian living, ministry, education, and thinking.

The last point is rather significant. This was a Christian group performing to Christians and non-Christians. There was no gospel presentation at the end of the play though there was an invitation to prayer and counseling to have peace with God by praying. No Jesus, no cross, no resurrection. I was saddened by it. A senior in the school shared some thoughts that were no more compatible with Christianity than with the Judaism of today that reject Jesus as the Messiah who fulfills the Old Covenant and mediates the New Covenant through his death and resurrection. I was glad for the exhortation to intimacy in prayer. I was saddened by the lack of centrality of Christ and his work to those thoughts. It seemed that the gospel was assumed. I praise God these kids wanted to glorify God. I think they did in some ways. I don’t think much significant glory goes to God apart from the cross-work of Christ proclaimed (at least mentioned), but they could have glorified God dependent on the cross in their hearts and minds as they performed. I was saddened because I think the senior who shared these spiritual thoughts was not taught or shown the centrality of the gospel in all of life. I want to keep Christ even more central in my life now and I want to make sure he is central in my teaching and ministry lest we assume the gospel and a generation (or two) later neglect, ignore, and finally oppose the gospel. I think those kids knew the gospel and for that I’m grateful. I pray that it will be shared more in future days and that as a result of some who read this, they will be encouraged to keep the gospel central to their life and message.

Ascension Thursday

We honored it yesterday. Christ is not here, he is in heaven. Wow. I can’t wait for him to come back. Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus. I need that to be a constant cry of my heart. And I want the church to make this the constant cry of her heart. Jesus left, but he left us his Spirit and will come again. He represents us at the right hand of the Father right now and is preparing a dwelling place for us. He is alive and coming!

We read Acts 1:9-11 in the car, read questions 46, 49, and 50 of the Heidelberg Catechism and prayed. It was on the way to Sandy’s performance. It was a good time of reflection for me, the first time I ever really reflected on Ascension Thursday. Christ ascended, he represents us at the Father’s right hand, he’s reigning up there right now over us, he’s coming again. These thoughts are spurred by the ascension. What a blessing to think about these truths more regularly!