Saturday, March 30, 2002

He Is Risen!



I wish I knew how to say it, and not have it sound like a cliché. But I have to say it: Jesus is risen! On this day, when so much pain encompasses the world, when the very land of Jesus is wracked with violence and suffering, I must speak the truth. He is alive!

The problems of the world seem so overwhelming. I find that despair is often at my door. But we can know in our heart of hearts that the pain we see will not have the final answer.

The pessimist would say that all of the suffering in the world is reality. He would say that Christians who are joyful and have hope really only have their head in the sand. Yet the pessimist misses the fact that the joyful, the beautiful, the sacred things that happen are just as real as the evil that we see. To see only the evil is to despair. To see only the good is to deny reality. To see the evil, but to see that God will eventually be victorious, that good will win, and that truth, beauty, and mercy will have the last say, is to be a Christain.

I’ll say it again: He is alive! Jesus is risen!

Tuesday, March 26, 2002

Great Joy



I want to make a note today of the great joy in my life. I tend to
write in order to deal with problems. When life is going well then I
tend not to write.

I love my family! I look at my children and I am overwhelmed
with love. It just flows and wells up within me. I desire their
happiness, holiness and growth with my whole being.
Hektor, in book six of The Iliad, captures this feeling:

Then taking up his dear son he tossed him about in his arms, and
kissed him, and lifted his voice in prayer to Zeus and the other
immortals: `Zeus, and you other immortals, grant that this boy, who is
my son, may be as I am, pre-eminent among the Trojans, great in
strength, as am I, and rule strongly over Ilion; and some day let
them say of him: ``He is better by far than his father''
...',
(emphasis mine)


It must be a tremendous burden to have children, love them like this,
and not know the Lord. I would have unrelenting anxiety if I did not
know that Jesus loved them even more than I do. I would go crazy with
fear for them. Thank you, Lord, for your love and care.

Friday, March 22, 2002

On being a rotten parent



Last night was a very frustrating night. My four-year-old daughter, Amanda, has pink-eye. She is supposed to receive drops in her eyes three times a day. Amanda doesn’t want drops in her eyes three times a day. She doesn’t want drops in her eyes once a day. She would rather be forced to sit still for ten straight hours than get drops in her eyes. (Actually, if given the choice between the two, she’d choose neither. She has yet to fully grasp the concept that a choice between several things you don’t like has to include one of the things you don’t like. But I digress.)

I tried a variety of tactics to get the drops in her eyes, but they all boiled down to bribery, threats, or force. Last night, none of them worked. (I didn’t really try force. I made her sit in my lap, but I couldn’t figure out a way to make her hold her eye open against her will.) She kept getting more and more upset, taking more and more time. Eventually I had to give up. By that time it was also time for Emily, my six-year-old, to also go to bed, so they both went without our usual long story time. I really didn’t know what to do in this situation. I felt bad for Emily since she missed out on the story and had to put up with all the screaming from Amanda. I felt bad for Amanda because she needs the medicine, plus it does her no good to win fights with me. (More on that thought later.) And I felt bad for me because it put the whole evening in a depressing mode.

I am glad that I had the grace to not try to really force her to take the drops. In a situation like this it is very hard to tell how much of her behavior is motivated by fear and how much is willful disobedience.

A good friend and I were talking yesterday about how much our image of God comes from our fathers. It is an awesome responsibility. I realize that I fail miserably in that responsibility in many ways. Yet, I also have many times where I can see that Jesus gave me the grace to do the right thing, say the right word, and show my children the love of the Father.

We have to be really humble, begging God to make us the parents we should be and to protect our children from our failings.

Thursday, March 21, 2002

This is a test to see if Blogger and opera get along. Hmmm.

It looks like Opera works as well. That's good to see. Now, one of
these days, I'll eventually write something that isn't a test. Really.

Monday, March 18, 2002

I'm afraid I'm doing another test. This is a check to see how well Blogger and Mozilla get along. So far, so good. What if I try to emphasize text?
OK. It looks like I actually have this set up to operate in a reasonable manner. Now I just have to have something reasonable to say.
Updated the template.
How about this?
This is my first entry after transferring to the new server. Does this work?
This is my very first blog. Did it work?