The Day After
It's December 26th or, as we fathers of 4-year-olds like to call it, "Some Assembly Required Day."I woke up 4 or 5 times during the night. A few times because of the ol' stone. Once because of the most dazzling lightning display I have ever seen. Lightning crashed again and again, seemingly right outside the sliding glass door of our bedroom. Thunder followed close behind and sleep was not only impossible but unwanted. No Pink Floyd laser light show ever rivaled what God was performing this morning. As beautiful as it was though, it cancelled sleep because of how much it reminded us of similar lights and crashes several weeks ago. We couldn't help but remember The Day of The Toyota and so sleep was not forthcoming. To make matters worse, Lisa went to check on James and he asked if the aliens were coming. Of course, we hadn't let him watch "War of the Worlds" with us the other night, but he had overheard us talking about it enough to wonder if this lightning was bringing Martians with it. Sleep? I think not.
So it was that I awoke shortly before 11:00 this morning with a raging headache and Instructions for Assembly waving in my face. James had been awesome all morning, letting me sleep, playing quietly, opening the box of the Domino Laying Truck, spreading well over 100 pieces everywhere across the front room concrete. Naturally, after waiting so long, he was ready for me to put the whole thing together. Unfortunately, he had shone no discretion as to exactly where he was setting all of the pieces. And the headache took some time to quiet down.
I'm happy to report, however, that as I type, he is setting up dominoes for what I'm sure will be a domino display of Guiness-like proportions.
As for the Christmas service yesterday, it was truly remarkable. We had a great turnout and there was such a wonderful spirit (Spirit) in the place. I had really struggled with the sermon all week. I truly thought it was the most boring thing I had ever written. In fact, I did actually write the entire thing out (available on a Word document for just 13.95) which is unusual as I usually just outline. On Friday night, long after Lisa had gone to bed, I got it to a place where I felt it was less boring than it had been. I retired, having scored a moral victory.
I continued to kvetch (can one kvetch on the way to a Christian service?) Sunday morning and it was then that Lisa reminded me that I was giving myself waaaay too much credit. I thought I was being all humble and self-deprecating in my week-long agony. The truth is, I was allowing pride to convince me that it was all my doing and I should receive any accompanying credit and/or blame. Lisa helped me remember that it is the Spirit who delivers our messages, not us at all. I was more than a little comforted and completely unsurprised when many of the words that came out of me yesterday were nowhere to be found on my printed pages. He worked His will as He always does.
We had a terrific weekend. Time was spent with family on both sides. Presents were exchanged. James was great, continuing to impress us with how little he cares about receiving gifts. He was excited about Santa coming, excited about spending time with his family, and happy when he opened his presents, but he showed not a sign of greed. He has his moments, like any kid will, but we are amazed at the character of our boy.
Blessings to all as we wrap up 2005.
posted by Thurman8er @ 12:36 PM
4 Comments:
Props to Lisa. We need our spouses to fine tune our efforts.
As for the Spirit moving among us when we preach, you need to ask Greg to relay his Terry Rush story.
Lightning display in Fresno? You'd fit in our part of the country which is known as the "Lightning Capitol of the World."
Props to James for being a delight in your life. Enjoy your little boy.
eqbcx (The emotional quotient of bcx)
Did you actually use the words "Pink Floyd" and "God" in the same sentence?
limad (benefit concert to preserve endagered limes)
I did, Randy, but I used them in CONTRAST to each other. I think that's okay.
Besides, the guitar solo in "Comfortably Numb" is fairly heavenly.
Lightning is an awesome display of the power of God! My kids used to say that God was taking pictures of them. I love kids!!
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