Since we've told most everyone in person, figured I'd put it on the blog that no one reads, but at least I'd FEEL like I shared the big news with all of cyberspace. LeAnn and I are expecting Baby Bird #4 sometime around September 1! We are super excited, but I tell people we'd be even more excited if LeAnn wasn't so sick. So you can pray for my wife and our family as we battle through conflicting emotions of excitement and discouragement (and pray that LeAnn would feel well!).
Our family website has been updated too (finally after two years!).
Personal Thoughts
LeAnn and I received am unexpected $25 Target gift card as a late Christmas present. Since LeAnn will be gaining weight this year, and I need to lose some, we felt that after 11 and a half years of marriage it was finally time to get a scale.
After opening the box and placing our new Taylor scale on the floor, I thought I'd better skim the manual (you know, it's been so long I wasn't sure I knew how to use one anymore...). I stepped on the scale, and the number was way too high, so I thought I had better check the manual to make sure I did everything right. But the manual said nothing about the scale having a sense of humor and randomly elevating the number on the LCD screen.
As I got ready to throw my incredibly-extensive-and-highly-informative-and-very-possibly-sarcastic manual away, I noticed some words on the back page at the very bottom. It said "Made to our exact specifications in China."
I laughed! I found it funny they put "exact specifications" so that you didn't think the scale was a piece of junk. But that's what "Made in China" means to a lot of people - junk. And so the Taylor Company felt they had to add a clarifier in order for the scale to be accepted.
It's kind of like when G.W. ran for president. He classified himself as a "compassionate conservative". The term "conservative" had taken on a bad reputation in the public's eye, and so George's team added a clarifier to make him more presentable and acceptable to the voting public.
Unfortunately, many in Christendom have felt the need to do the same thing. We need to be "Evangelical Christians" or "Charismatic Christians" or "Liberal" or "Conservative" or some other clarifier so that we will be accepted by the right groups.
Why do we do this? My theory: a need to feel accepted. We tack on clarifiers so that we are more palatable. Maybe we should call these "sugar words". They shouldn't be necessary, but we seem to think they are needed in order for us to be liked by the right people.
But I notice something about Jesus in the Scriptures. We don't see him living life with clarifiers. He wasn't labeled as a Pharisee Jew. Or a Saducee Jew. Or an Essene Jew. He's not even associated with other rabbis (as the disciple of Rabbi Hillel or Rabbi Shimmai). In fact, many of the religious leaders tried to get him to add clarifiers to his identity. "Who gave you this authority to teach or to heal or to forgive sins?" "He gets his power from Beelzebub" "If you really are the Son of God, come off that cross - then we'll believe!"
But Jesus lived his life without clarifiers to make himself more palatable or presentable or acceptable. Does this mean we find a jerk in the Scriptures who lived life devoid of love, caring nothing of people and their opinions? Hardly! But because Christ didn't allow himself to be shaped into the image of a particular group, he was free to love everyone. He was able to be a servant without it being detrimental to his self-esteem. He was able to hang out with "sinners" despite the opinion of the elite. And He was able to die on a cross for the sins of the world.
So let me ask you: are you living with clarifiers? Are you trying to make yourself more presentable to certain groups so that you will be liked, or given a raise, or nominated for that coveted award, or more loved by the God you've shaped in your mind?
Be like Christ: seek to be who God made you to be so that you can love those God sent you to love. May you not live for the acceptance of others, but rather may you live for the acceptance of the Father through Jesus Christ, who gave his life for yours upon a cruel cross.
No comments:
Post a Comment