Monthly Archives: June 2007

Kinda Spooky

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So, the WTS Bookstore has sent me another free book! Seriously, if you own a blog, you need to hook up with this.

Anyway, the book they sent me was eeirly up my ally. The book is titled A Journey Worth Taking: Finding Your Place in This World and is written by Charlie Drew. Of the book, Dr. Timothy Keller has this to say:

Charles Drew has given us a great book to give away–especially to those who want a purpose-driven life and want to dig more deeply into the mysteries of that purpose. It is at once clear, personal, culturally up-to-date, and theologically rich– a perfect combination. Drew takes us a step beyond the literature that is presently available on the subject. Highly recommended.

From the Publisher:

People have always been keen to figure out their place in the scheme of things. This book helps by providing a “theology roadmap” for the journey. These great biblical truths, when held together in our minds, will take us where we need to go in a healthy way.

So, the book looks great and seems timely to my life and the process I’ve been going through the last 8 months or so. The kicker is that the author is a church planter with a special love for the college community. He is currently Pastor of a church plant near Columbia University in NY.

So, we’ll see. I can’t wait to dig into it… but got to get some work done first… so, off to work…

Tired

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l o n g w e e k . . .

Just got in a couple hours ago. Had an unexpected extra night added to my trip thanks to Delta.

Took a brief nap (at least it felt brief) and now I need to do some work before I go to physical therapy.

Jenn and the kids got backlast night. From the little we’ve talked it seems like they had a good time.

It is nice to be back. I really missed my wife.

Out of the office…

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Not sure Jennifer or I will be able to write much over the next couple days, so I wanted to leave you with something to read in the meantime.

Over the summer I have the great honor to speak, from time to time, at a weekly meeting of college students. Below you will find the two sermons I’ve preached so far this summer. For my sermons I typically type out what I want to say, word for word, and then when I get up to speak my notes become a guide for what I actually say… So, what I have below is the bulk of what I wanted to communicate. What came out of my mouth wasn’t necessiarly these exact words.

I hope you are encouraged and challanged… and repentant… I really like that word… Repent!

Week 1:
The Gospel and Our Response

Week 2:
The Gospel and Good Works

…

Oops on Friday

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I fully intended to post on photo friday in ryan’s absence, but accidentally blew up my aperture library in the process & can’t figure out how to make it come back. I could have gone in & done it in ryan’s ‘computer’, but that thought didn’t occur to me until just this second. Btw, ryan, I blew up my aperture library…forgot to mention that to you. ..heh….

On the go, go, go…

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Sorry for the lack of posting lately… we missed “photo friday” and “monday musings on sunday sermons” this week, along with most other postings.

I’ve been really slammed with my web development company (its always feast or famine). Along with that I had to run down to Alabama to pick up a car that we were given. So, with me so busy Jenn is super busy keeping up with the kids. So, all that to say, “sorry for not be daily here at the daily burns.”

The Skin You’re In

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i was in the process of responding to an email a friend sent me thanking me for the previous post…& decided to just go for it & post it here instead. So, basement…you will probably not be vacuumed today, Diapers, Asher will help me fold you later.

My real soapbox is not really the sexualization of kids (though boy could that be one), but the DEsexualization of married folk. Mostly I’m referring to women/mothers, so this is for us & those who will be us:

The following sentence was in the “thank-you” email i received:

    I’ll never be a size 2 again…but my husband thinks I’m hot so I need to just keep taking care of myself and learn to love my baby bearing “scars”.

That’s what i’m talking about. If i did not feel too ‘naked’ in a bikini i’d wear one simply to flaunt the stretch marks. i don’t necessarily LIKE my stretch marks, but i think i should. they’re battle scars, like tatoo’s that tell a story. I’m trying hard to see it all as a process & being a new person, not trying to find the 19yr old i used to be. Praise the Lord i’m not her anymore! I had lots of time that i thought i was fat when i was a size 2! now i think i’m really thin & i’m somewhere between a 6 & 10 depending on the store. i don’t want to look back when i’m 50 & be sad that i didn’t enjoy my 28yr old body. I’m not saying I’m 100% there, but I’m trying to be aware of it. When I hit the gym I like to think in terms of “stronger for activities with my kids, toned as a gift for my husband, fit as a gift to my heart”, not “if I could only squeeze back into that slinky dress, that’d stop them all in their tracks!” I’d like to say I don’t even look at the scale…but I do. Maybe I’ll stop. A lot of it is social/cultural pressure. But all of it is succumbing to vanity.

Another thing i always think about i believe came from a Mark Driscoll sermon, perhaps Piper? That men like variety, which is why it is assumed men cheat. However, if they would open their eyes to what they have they would see that instead of having to have lots of women, the one wife provides plenty of varitey. A woman will go through many changes throughout her life, not only physical but mental & sexual. Heck, from day to day i don’t want the same thing (mentally, physically, sexually), so there’s variety for you. i like to joke that ryan’s gotten to see what it’s like to be with a woman who’s 125lbs & one who’s 175lbs & everything in between.

Clearly, it’s talking about $, but good ole Philipians 4:11-13 never fails. “I have learned in whatever situation to be content….I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Whether too skinny or too fat, wrinkly or firm, blonde brown or grey….nothing will separate us from the love of Christ.

Have I mentioned that I have no intention of covering grey hairs once they start to arrive? I’m not saying I won’t have moments of doubt, & don’t stare blankly at the wrinkles forming around my eyes, but I refuse to deny it. I too will get ‘old’. And by the way, I thouroughly enjoy the salt & pepper look my husband’s head is taking on. I honestly find it attractive.

This week’s book quote for you

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On the chapter titled, “The Glory behind the Grime” in Sacred Parenting, regarding Britney Spears in her “heyday” as a sex icon & Debra Winger ‘retiring’ from acting at age 39:

“Something is wrong – profoundly wrong – when a girl defines sexual desirability and a woman is viewed as past her prime before she reaches her forties”

oh, i could go on & on….that is one of my favorite soap boxes of late (teenage bodies are sexy, but post-motherhood (or in the process of..) bodies should not be put in bathingsuits, when it’s the mom’s who are the ones who are supposed to be….well, having sex…not teenagers) but I will stop there.

Physical Therapy

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So, I went to physical therapy today. For $25 I got sit on a table with a heating pad on my hip for 10 min. Then I was given 4 exercises to do.

  1. Lie on back, flex leg muscle for 10 seconds, relax, repete 10 times.
  2. Lie on back, flex booty muscles for 10 seconds, relax, repete 10 times.
  3. Lie on back, lift right leg, repete 10 times.
  4. Lie on side, lift leg, repete 10 times

“Well Mr. Burns, work on those for the next couple days and I’ll see you back on Friday… for another $25…”

Yup, that was it… Why I needed to see a professional to get those sage exercises I don’t know… Sheesh…

Schoobie

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A few months ago my husband came home with a new gift for “me”. It was certainly not something that fit into the budget, but nothing really is so on occasion the budget has to be ignored. It is a Scooba. Honestly, when Schoobie first came home (yes, he (yes, it’s a he)has a name), I was less than thrilled to have him here. Unhappy to have a sweeping/mopping robot in my house? Yes. The fact is, he created more work for me. Now instead only very occasionally sweeping the floors & absolutely never mopping, I had to deal with filling up & cleaning out this little robot everyday.

Really it’s Grace’s fault that schoobie & i didn’t get along at first. See, before she was born I had this great schedule down where I cleaned one or two rooms a day, including dusting, windows, mopping, the works. Then along came Grace & i’m lucky to get the laundry done & dinner on the table. Now that she’s a little older & I’m a little less “recovering from child-birth” I am capable of a bit more housework. However, mopping never really fit back into that picture…niether did sweeping. So suddenly I’m competing for my neat-freak husband’s affection with a robot. However, after discovering what it feels like to walk around barefoot without having to brush who knows what off my feet every 2 seconds, I’ve come around a bit. I mean, he even goes under the beds…heck, he goes under the DRESSER. He found a cute shoe in grace’s room that had been missing for months. We ran out of schoobie soap last week & i was a bit sad.

So, while i do still appreciate the occasional love note from my husband that simply says, “i love you more than i love schoobie” thank you ryan & welcome to the family…schoobie. If you have hardwood floors & hate mopping, I highly recommend it.

Monday’s Musings on Sunday’s Sermon

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Ok, after mentioning this idea twice previously, I’m going to follow through. Hopefully this will become a regular feature on the daily burns and maybe we can even drag Jennifer into it.

So, here is the idea… What difference does the sermon you heard on Sunday make when Monday morning arrives? Does the message simply fade into the noise of the week? Or do you allow the message to actually penetrate your heart and give it room to transform you?

Well, for me, I try to go for the latter. I really try to walk out of a sermon and not simply give the pastor the obligitory, “great sermon preacher.” But rather, I try to articulate why it was great (in the case that it wasn’t great… or even stunk… I just try not to say anything. Please don’t lie to the preacher). I try to let the preacher know exactly what was said that really hit my heart and will hopefully cause me to treasure and trust Jesus more? SIDE NOTE: as a preacher, we really like this… telling us nice sermon is good, telling us why you think that is much better…

So, with that in mind, I enjoyed (as always) Pastor Robert’s sermon yesterday on transformation. I think the thing that most stuck with me was the idea of being a student vs being a disciple. The subtle difference is in seeking to know about Jesus and seeking to know Jesus. Early in my college years I was much more obssesed with wanting to know about Jesus. I didn’t so much care about knowing him, but rather I wanted to know lots of fact. I wanted to understand everything in my brain. However, there was eventually a change in my heart where I realized that I can know lots of facts and informaiton and yet never actually know Jesus. So, a shift began in my life.

Yesterday, the sermon was a reminder to me that knowing stuff is important, but more than that, I really need to know Jesus. As I seek to know Him then I will begin to see transformation in my life.