Category Archives: Love

Celebrating Eight

Posted on by
2

We celebrated it yesterday, but it was at this moment eight years ago that I was getting last minute things together to marry my wife. We were just babies at the time, as the picture can attest, but we knew that we had to get married. There was no doubt. There’s never been any doubt. The last eight years have been the best of my life–I have spent them with my absolute best friend and cannot imagine what life would have been like had we not chosen each other. I’m not lying when I tell you that we fit together better than any other couple (sorry every other couple), we’re a match, we’re perfect for each other, we compliment each other in every way that you should and are different from each other in ways that bring joy and intrigue to our world. She’s spontaneous and beautiful and laughs at everything (everything that’s funny I should say). She tells amazing stories, makes amazing food, and is the most thoughtful person I know. We do life well together and I’d fight anyone who thinks they married better than I did. Marrying up is an amazing gift.

I’ve only ever kissed one girl. She journaled about me when she was eight, about how she was going to marry Ryan Woods. We started dating on January 1st of 2000 (that’s right, remember Y2K) and have never looked back. The first few years of our marriage were easy–we found so much joy in being together, in being poor together (some things never change), in playing house together, in just doing life together. Those first years were a whirlwind of laughter and joy. Who said marriage was hard and took work? Riiight. The next few years started to get real. We discovered that once you add in children you have to learn a new level of selflessness that never existed before. With every child (all two of ’em) came a new level of depth and challenge to our relationship as we began to discover that marriage really does take work and intentionality. In the last eight years I’ve been blessed to parent with my wife, to plant a church and a half with my wife, to purchase a minivan with my wife, to live in six amazing houses (OK, not all of ’em were so amazing…) with my wife, to begin raising two spectacular children, to suffer through twenty months of vomiting and bed rest, to explore new ideas and pursue new ideals that have shaped who we are today, to eat amazing food, visit amazing places, and to do it all laughing and smiling along the way. Nobody smiles like my wife does.

We have no idea how many more years we’ll be given together–but if the previous eight years tell us anything its that whatever time we’re given together whether it is six months or twenty-six more years will be filled with joy, laughter, moving, good food, exploration, and an intense friendship that drives it all.

If I were to make an attempt to capture what best describes us I could use words like awesomeness and love and all that. But I think if I were honest, I think if I spoke with clarity, I think the best word would be partnership. In ever sense of the word we are partners. We do life together, we do life as partners, we view our life as an opportunity to partner together in making a new future.

I love you Jess.

Westboro

Posted on by
1

Today the Westboro Baptist Church will be in little ol’ Vancouver Washington protesting at one of the local high schools because of the rampant homosexuality taking over our schools in Vancouver and Portland. We hope to be able to go to a counter protest today at the local YWCA.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon:
where there is doubt, faith ;
where there is despair, hope
where there is darkness, light
where there is sadness, joy
O divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Or, in the words of Jesus…

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
69XNQJZK9R7R

Seriously, Do We Really Need God?

Posted on by
Reply

Being a follower of Christ is not rocket science. I spent much of my life thinking that it was. I spent many years placing guilt on myself if I could not “sufficiently” give “proof” for my beliefs. That is, I had to be able to both show from science and history that the Bible and Jesus were everything that they claim to be, and I also had to be able to prove from the Bible that the certain set of rules that I followed from Scripture were the “right” set of rules. This carried with it the constant fear of being wrong in your interpretation of the Bible, it cultivated a defensive atmosphere and also was very good at creating sides that we could all pick and defend.

I would contend that being a Christian is not rocket science. It’s not all that hard to figure out…living it out is something entirely different!

**page break**

Ok I’ve got to shift. I’ve written this whole post now (you just haven’t finished reading it) but another post, a more important post has emerged that I’ve got to get your input on. Here’s the question, do we really need Jesus to be a “Christian” (obviously the term christian itself is worthless without the christ part, but lets thats not the point)? Jesus simplified things by saying that the whole of Scripture could be summed up in two statements. Love God. Love people. But what I’m wondering right now is how essential is the “love God” part to what it looks like to be a follower of Christ.

Virtually all of the practices that define Christianity (if we’re being positive and not deconstructive) would be and should be practiced if you lived by the one simple rule to “love your neighbor” Here are some quick examples:

  • Alcohol: If you continually  lived out of your love for people you would not drink too much alcohol because you would never want to impair your decision making in such a way as to do something destructive and to hurt people. Also it could be argued that a strong love for people can only be healthy within the context of an appropriate love of self. And if you value yourself you would take care of your body.
  • Sex: You definitely wouldn’t be sleeping around or sleeping with anyone that was not firmly committed to being “yours” (I’d consider marriage to be this appropriate context) because how in the world could you ever justify sleeping with another mans not-yet-wife! Not to mention the fact that anyone who has had sex can attest to the life changing intimacy that takes place and the fact that if you love others you cannot take that piece of intimacy away from people that you are not forever committed to!
  • Compassion: This is the most obvious of all. If your only rule in life was to love others than you would be serving the poor, collecting clothes for children, feeding the hungry, caring for widows and single mothers, etc. How could you not if you loved people (oh the irony I see in this bullet point)
  • Church: you would most definitely be a part of a church. But it might not look like churches traditionally look like. If your only rule was to love people I imagine you would be compelled to get together with like-minded people to recharge and challenge each other to go back out and continue loving people in new and creative ways.

That was a quickly assembled four examples, but I believe that you could nearly reassemble all the practices of the Christian faith under the one umbrella “love your neighbor”. So the question is, do you really need to love God? And if so, how in the world is that played out? And please tell me that going to heaven and thus avoiding hell is the only impact of bringing God in the mix!