I read a cool line yesterday while I was going to the bathroom. I wish I could quote it perfectly, but that would include me standing up to go get the book. In essence it said that giving isn’t a luxury of the rich. It’s a privilege of the poor.

cool.

All people have the opportunity to give. The act of giving itself is a gift that many people miss out on. I like it. I want to be better at it. I want to make out with it. Can I say that?

Jesus said that it’s hard to be rich and to live a kingdom life (Renovatus is talking about what kingdom life is like, and it’s all about being like Jesus…duh). I’m glad I’m not rich. Being rich can be a blessing and a curse. So can being poor I guess. I prefer being poor. Is that weird?

Here’s the thing, though, we need rich people. If there aren’t good, generous, loving rich people then the poor, the needy, and me will go without much of what could have been. I’ve got some friends who are a good example of the kind of rich people that we need. They aren’t rich by many peoples standards but according to mine they are quite wealthy. And they are two of the most giving people I know. I’ve never asked them to give to a cause without them responding generously. They have blessed Jess and I more than I’m willing to blog about. Sometimes they just give us stuff ’cause they want to. And they rarely ever let us give them stuff. Occasionally they let us buy them lunch or something, I think it’s because they want to let us enjoy the benefit of giving too. I pray that all you poor people have friends who take care of you. You may not need money, but maybe you’ve got a friend with a generous ear whose always willing to listen when you need it. I thank my God for my generous friends. May God truly bless them.

It makes me want to bless others. I may not have as much to give but I’m learning to relish the privilege.

Hey, this is post #200. Cool.

The Cran is back. The Cran goes to hospitals to drink their unlimited supply of cranberry juice. Sometimes The Cran appears more than at other times. Well, last night The Cran came back.
We had to take Jess (The Cran as we call her) to the hospital because she was having a lot of contractions. She had pretty consistent contractions from 8-midnight at about 10 minutes apart. Kind of scary. We are at 20 weeks which means that if we go into labor we lose our child. Kind of scary. They were eventually able to stop the contractions for the most part and we left the hospital by 2am. Jess is still having sporadic contractions but is now on partial bed rest to prevent more pre-term labor. At 26 weeks there is a chance that our baby can survive, though 36 weeks is the safety point we’re waiting for.
Pray for Jess’ body. Pray for our family. And pray for our little unnamed baby girl (did you catch that?).
It’s kind of scary, but God is our refuge.

To end on a completely inappropriate note but to add some humor to this blog:

(this video has been removed by the admin. If you’d like to view it go to funnyordie.com)

People can be so stupid. Can I say that? Is there ever a reason to walk on a school campus and open fire? Did you fail a pop quiz? Did people make fun of you? Did you loose your favorite beany baby in a game of Magic or Dungeons and Dragons?
I’m sorry, pardon me for being rude. That is not actually a good representation of what I really think.
Actually it makes me incredibly sad to think that people get so messed up, so…lost, that they cease to be able to see through the clouds. I think myopic might be a good word, but I’m not quite sure what it means. It breaks my heart that people can be so consumed by their own pain, anger, or you fill in the blank that they can make choices like that dude did in Virginia yesterday. Just as sad, though, is that there are thousands and millions of people who live in that same cloud. The only difference is that they don’t hurt others, instead they only hurt themselves.
Maybe we should start praying for better perspective to see through the clouds.

This is nearly off topic, but at a spiritual discussion group that is held at our house we posed the question, if you could ask God one question that he had to answer immediatly what would it be? My wife said that she’d ask God how she could better see people as he sees them.
I love her.
Hey, you should answer that question too. What would you ask God?

This week was a big one for Jonesy boy. He peed in the toilet for the first time. Big deal. And he get second degree burns on his hand for the first time. Big deal.
First the peepee…
You see, he only learned that pee came out of his penis a couple of months ago. Before then he thought he just had a toy at his disposal. Once he figured out that pee came out of it, it was only a matter of time before he put two and two together (toilet and peepee, that is). Sometimes he prefers to go in the big toilet, so we just hold him over and he drips a couple of times into the water. It’s funny though, ’cause he only thinks about going pee after he’s gone in his diaper. So when he sits to go it’s as if he’s severely constipated or something. He just pushes and pushes until one, two, or even three drops come out.
Good times.
We used to have a lock on our dishwasher. Jones ripped it off. Twice. Here’s what happened. First he turned the heated drying option on. Then he turned the dishwasher on. Then he opened it up. Then he grabbed the burning hot filament at the bottom of the dishwasher, thus burning three of his fingers. Poor kid. I’ll try to post a picture of his hand all wrapped up like a club. He’s been real strong, but the burns are pretty nasty…maybe he won’t get into the dishwasher anymore.
Jess is doing quite a bit better, she’s up and around these days. Me and her even went out for dinner tonight. Jones is enjoying having his mom back. But a couple of days ago when Jess was reading him a story, that familiar feeling of nausea began to overwhelm her. She quickly set Jones down and ran to the bathroom to spew. The saddest thing was when Jones quickly ran after her crying and saying “No! No, mommy! All done.” He just burst into tears and kept closing the toilet lid and trying to pull Jess out of the bathroom and off the floor. Poor kid was scared of loosing his mom again to being sick.

I’m done with lent so I’ll start commenting on blogs again. Peace out.