Thursday, April 10, 2008

Finally a post

OK, so I've decided to get back to blogging. I had attempted to start up where I'd left off, but I think the tongues topic will have to be put on hold since I have tons of info and not enough free time to sort through it and write it in a way that does justice to the history of this topic. Keep an eye out though and there will be some additions in the future, just sporadically between other posts (hopefully).

Part of the reason that I have been slow to post is that I have had a lot going on these past few months. For starters, I'm at a new job which I like. I won't bore people with the details, but I am working with people with disabilities and I get to work from home. I've also gone back to school (I got accepted into the Masters of Counseling program at VU) which is really awesome, I got a new car (2005 Honda Civic EX Special Edition deep blue), and the biggest news of all my wife Sara is pregnant! So there is a whole lot of activity at my house and not as much free time as I would like. But I like blogging so I'll just focus on shorter posts and things should work out.

Since this is my not so grand return, I will take a moment to write a brief musing.
With the baby coming I've been pretty much a big ball of concerned dad to be. I think that most people who have had a child could probably relate to the millions of concerns that have been going through my head. Mixed in with the smiles and daydreams about what color his or her hair might be or how they will respond to their first guitar (I'm currently picking out by the way) I have had all sorts of questions ranging from "Would it have been better if we got pregnant after the second floor is finished?" or "Am I really informed enough to be a father now-a-days?" to "What if the economy/environment/middle east/nanobots/lab created black holes go to hell in a hand basket; how will I care for children in the midst of that?" While dealing with all these thoughts I was reading through some sermons by Gilbert Meilaender including on titled Fellow Fetuses. In the article, Meilaender explains how we are to view the unborn making the points that 1) we are all fellow fetuses "unable to speak for ourselves in the court that really counts-before God and 2) That we should, out of hope and trust in God, be "eager to receive children into the human family." It was his latter point that struck me, particularly when he quoted two poems by Madeleine L'Engle that I will quote here.

The risk of birth

This is no time for a child to be born,
With the earth betrayed by war and hate
And a nova lighting the sky to warn
That time runs out and the sun burns late.

That was no time for a child to be born,
In a land in the crushing grip of Rome;
Honour and truth were trampled by scorn--
Yet here did the Saviour make his home.

When is the time for love to be born?
The inn is full on planet earth,
And by greed and pride the sky is torn--
Yet Love still takes the risk of birth.

After annunciation
This is the irrational season
When love blooms bright and wild.
Had Mary been filled with reason
There'd have been no room for the child.

These words did more to calm me and correct my perspective than anything else. After reading this I thought about my fears and realized some things. We often convince ourselves that we do not want our children to suffer or be in circumstances that are not ideal because we care about them so much. I wouldn't say that this is entirely false, but I think there is an element of selfishness in this as well (perhaps much greater than we like to admit). I think that we want to spare out children from suffering because it is difficult for us to endure. We are called to love our children so deeply yet part of such love is the potential for great pain that we are also called to endure. One of my former professors once told me after an Ash Wednesday service how strange and almost disturbing it was to go up and watch the pastor place ashes on his 2 year old sons head and tell him "from dust you came and to dust you will return" yet that is the call of the body of Christ, to die. For most of us this death is a metaphorical one but there are those who are called to a true physical death as a servant of Christ. As a parent, we do not get an itinerary of our children's lives. We do not know what call God has for them or what difficulties they will face. But in a world that is so rotten with deceit and doubt and that only gives when it gets more in return, how beautiful of a testimony to have faith in God and let love take the risk of birth.
Dan, 10:28 PM | link | 10 comments |