tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27958144982947114582024-03-13T10:54:41.329-07:00The Fullness of LifeThe life of a normal American family, one un-doctored snapshot at a time.Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.comBlogger222125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-60842552402578982902012-12-08T08:10:00.000-08:002012-12-15T06:37:00.045-08:00THEIR WATCH OF WONDERING LOVE ~ 12/8/12
I imagine curiosity. Intense, burning, compelling curiosity, the angels of heaven, all a twitter. I imagine them crowding the best vantage points, jostling for position to watch the big reveal of a plan that's been 'before the foundation of the world' in the making. But what would this plan entail, exactly; it was all so mysterious-- what in the world was He doing?
See, I'm not sure Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-49791471144545147802012-01-22T08:43:00.000-08:002012-01-22T11:36:54.585-08:00STACKING SNOWBALLS ~ 1/22/12Last week, after a drought-ish sort of winter, we had our first 'real' snow. It was an AWESOME storm. I was standing at the sliding glass door, watching the boys play, when I noticed my oldest son having some difficulty making a proper snowball. He was getting frustrated, so, being that I'm an Africa-raised snowball-making expert, it only made practical sense for me to venture outdoors and help. Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-62233456383926299122012-01-17T07:22:00.000-08:002012-01-17T10:50:17.300-08:00TOOTHING ~ 1/17/12There’s probably a reason the words ‘tithing’ and ‘teething’ sound even remotely similar; I suspect the similarity has to do with pain. Pain is a contagious sort of thing. I think we’d like to assume that hurting when someone else hurts is the product of a maturing Christian heart, but really, if you think about it, we hurt all the time when other people hurt. Only usually, it’s for selfish, Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-48936755109837699582012-01-09T17:16:00.000-08:002012-01-09T17:18:45.142-08:00NATHAN'S DAY ~ 1/9/12The other day Nathan found me (Esther) journaling and asked what I was doing. Being Nathan, he was very curious and asked many questions! What is journaling? Why do you journal? What do you write about? How old do you have to be to journal? With that last question I knew just what he was getting at and asked him if he would like to try journaling. He was very eager and we immediately went on a Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-86429205258966011602012-01-06T07:32:00.000-08:002012-01-10T10:39:15.865-08:00LAYING LAW ~ 1/6/12A scream issued suddenly from the dining room, where two of my three boys sat eating their lunch. “Why is there screaming?” I screamed back from the living room. No answer. More screaming. Irritated beyond words, I set my laptop aside and groaned my way up to my feet, stumbling into the kitchen in time to see the two older siblings flailing arms, butter knives and forks in each other’s faces. Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-51921584776301805312012-01-01T08:24:00.000-08:002012-01-01T17:32:02.462-08:00NEW YEAR'S PUMPKIN ~ 1/1/12“It’s destroyed! It’s DESTROOOYED!” wailed the 7yr-old as he sprinted past me and down the hallway to his room, slamming the door when he got there. “Highly doubtful,” I thought to myself, assuming he was talking about his special pumpkin. It was, after all, a second chance pumpkin. As it turned out, he was actually upset about a tray of art supplies that had accidentally spilled from the dining Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-1652506962605218392011-12-28T20:42:00.000-08:002011-12-30T14:58:03.042-08:00HOPE YOU STICK AROUND ~ 12/28/11Hey Everyone ~
Just wanted to let anyone who checks this blog know that even though I've been "offline" a few weeks and will continue to take a short break from regular blogging for personal reasons, my blog will be back soon. The name will change, and probably some of the content, but I'll most likely be back up and posting sometime in January, so-- check in, watch the changes, and... I hope Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-41077091318890512322011-12-05T09:46:00.000-08:002011-12-05T09:48:12.970-08:00BEEF JERKY FOR THE SOUL ~ Guest Blogger (My Dad)My Dad is a general surgeon who has served as a missionary doctor in the wilds of Gabon, equatorial Africa for over 34 years. Recently, he began writing regular letters to my siblings and I-- small, blog-sized chunks of wisdom he has entitled "Beef Jerky For The Soul." Today, I've decided to share his latest letter with you.
C.S. Lewis wrote, "We don't have a soul. We are a soul, and weJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-79478297628402615222011-11-22T22:30:00.000-08:002011-11-23T08:17:22.518-08:00SHOCK VALUE ~ 11/22/11I was reading today about how so much of the original power and shock value has been lost in our understanding of the Biblical parables. The author compared it to a joke that loses its humor when you have to explain why it’s funny. We're just so distant from the cultures and contexts of so much in the Bible that without a lot of hand-holding, we simply don't get the joke. Or at least, Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-12175983713492712512011-10-18T16:11:00.000-07:002011-10-18T22:02:44.190-07:00HIJACKING HALLOWEEN; A Seasonal Re-post ~ 10/18/11This is a touchy time of year for many Christians. And because it’s a touchy time for Christians, it’s automatically a touchy time for Churches. How should Christians act on a holiday I’ve heard referred to as “Satan’s Birthday?” Should we let our kids go “trick-or-treating?” Should we let them dress up in costumes? Should we let them out of the Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-940497070637841012011-10-02T19:15:00.001-07:002011-10-02T19:20:51.361-07:00A SHACK OR A FORTRESS? ~ 10/2/11A message about the conditional promises of Psalm 91 I was privileged to give this past weekend at Neighborhood Church of Redding.
Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-57920024459202255652011-09-28T13:20:00.000-07:002011-09-28T13:44:32.805-07:00HIKING, WITH A GUN (Part 4) ~ 9/28/11I’ve discovered in the last 4 years that there are two basic mindsets when it comes to blacktail hunting in the Trinity Alps. The first mindset says, “There’s no way I’m going to shoot some tiny little forked-horn after all the work it took to hike all the way in here!” The second mindset is slightly different: “There’s no way I’m going to pass up a forked-horn and leave empty-handed Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-16046016672676825272011-09-26T21:43:00.000-07:002011-09-28T13:48:10.442-07:00HIKING, WITH A GUN (Part 3) ~ 9/26/11‘Bob ‘n weave,’ I thought to myself in the dark—‘As long as I’m a moving target, maybe the mountain lions won’t eat me.’
We’re taught from a young age to conquer our fears of the dark, especially in the presence of other men, where these and other childhood hauntings are downright dismissed. Unfortunately, this stoic indifference is greatly diluted in the absence of company. The pre-dawn morning Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-11792328265566523242011-09-24T08:14:00.000-07:002011-09-28T13:51:27.444-07:00HIKING, WITH A GUN (Part 2) ~ 9/24/11There's no realm in which I more fully understand the frustration of works against the unfairness of grace than in the realm of blacktail hunting. This is because in blacktail hunting, as with the Christian faith, ‘victory’ is not based on output of effort. There simply is no promise of getting what you want, based on the best you can do.
Certainly, effort helps. There’s a great degree of truth Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-21445641387061569092011-09-21T21:42:00.000-07:002011-09-22T09:00:12.882-07:00HIKING, WITH A GUN (Part 1) ~ 9/21/11The morning was cool, with a rising fog that flanked the foothills of The Trinity Alps with an aura of mystery and the hint of Fall. It was a spectacular dawn. I took up the rear in a procession of four, accompanied in my hunt by a friend and his sons on a trail not one of us had previously hiked. It was the morning before opening day and adventure was in the air.
The trail was wide and Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-59933710298826881642011-09-09T12:13:00.000-07:002011-09-09T23:02:59.321-07:00TO NUMBER OUR DAYS ~ 9/9/11I was privileged to share the gospel with a 92yr-old woman today. We sat together on a porch painted black and shadowed by wind-teased oaks. Geese played nearby in a man-made pond stocked with bluegill, bass and fat brown catfish, and all the bucks I’d been looking for all season lay sleeping in the lawn under low trees heavy with apples and shade. We sat together on a porch painted black and theJoshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-15019083848063336222011-09-04T14:42:00.000-07:002011-09-04T14:44:20.996-07:00EPIC HUNTING RAPSometimes, there are just days when you sit up and say, "Well, why not?" Last Friday was such a day. Why not make a music video? About hunting? A rap music video about hunting? I mean, come on... why not? And so we did. 'Cause that is how we roll.
Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-32555527967591049322011-08-22T12:14:00.000-07:002011-08-22T18:21:28.648-07:00A DAY & A LIFETIME ~ 8/22/11There’s an old and well-known Chinese proverb adopted by the Peace Corps that says, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” And this is the work of the Church. We believe in feeding the man. The whole man. Not just ‘Man as soul,’ but Man as he is portrayed in the Bible, as a body-soul fusion that cannot be dissected into separate parts.Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-69429657976062356572011-08-15T13:51:00.000-07:002011-08-15T14:58:14.591-07:00THE TRUEST JOYS ~ 8/14/11There’s a sadness to reunions, the good ones, the ones you actually look forward to. It’s a predictable sadness, a welcome sadness even, because the truest joys are known only by the deepest contrasts. The shadow proves the sunshine. There’s a sadness to reunions, and it is the ache of fixed sepia memories, reexamined in the fading light of short-lived todays. We recycle the past and look to the Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-83560259559066072192011-06-20T21:29:00.000-07:002011-06-21T16:35:13.897-07:00THE TRUST OF A CHILD ~ 6/20/11The trust of a child is remarkable.
I took my two older boys to Redding today. It was hot. So, as any good American parent would do, we headed for the nearest air conditioned facility with free entertainment. In our case, it was the mall, domain of the tweens. I was terrified.
I parked near the closest entrance to the kids play area and we headed in, sons, pulling me forward reluctantly. A man Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-21154314457824642892011-06-15T14:14:00.000-07:002013-11-11T05:29:28.047-08:00FRIGHTFULLY BRAVE ~ 6/15/11
The porch light winked through the wind-tossed boughs of a creaking white cedar. “You’ll wish for this place once you’ve left it,” the night whispered, and I nodded a silent assent. In Ezekiel chapter three the prophet ate a bittersweet scroll, and as the sun dimmed fast over the north valley floor, I drank in a sweet Summer evening.
It had been a full day, and rich, but now I stole more, Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-31121321411936408802011-05-25T22:43:00.000-07:002011-05-26T22:12:24.114-07:00SOME DUSTY OLD ROAD ~ 5/25/11The ‘slap, slap’ of my five dollar flip-flops echoed off the dark facades of a sleeping neighborhood. The dog that normally barked did little more than raise it’s head to mark my passage, collar jangling softly before losing itself in the moan of a love-sick dove perched high in one of the ancient walnut trees lining the long street home.
I looked at my feet as I walked, at the earth, Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-79337847164395170592011-05-17T11:32:00.001-07:002011-05-17T11:34:14.163-07:00YOUR CHOICES MATTER ~ 5/17/11A sermon I was privileged to deliver last Sunday at Neighborhood Church in Redding, CA.
Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-65484277765981590232011-05-04T23:43:00.000-07:002011-05-04T23:49:02.156-07:00A TIME TO DANCE? ~ 5/4/11Is it right for Christians to rejoice at the death of Osama Bin Laden?
Exactly 12 days before the Twin Towers fell to the ground, I stood at the top of the south tower, taking in the highest terrestrial view of New York City with my wife, Esther. It was breathtaking. Just under two weeks later I woke up, not just to the news of the attack, but to the sight of smoke rising from the direction of Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2795814498294711458.post-18330177864288670332011-04-29T12:49:00.000-07:002011-04-29T20:24:25.054-07:00KINGDOM CONNECTION ~ 4/29/11Uniforms, waving flags, men in formation, salutes. Cheering multitudes, church bells, military flyovers, royalty. For some reason that I was at a loss to articulate this morning, these were the images on the computer that made me choke up discreetly as I sat next to my wife on our comfy green sofa. I felt my heart swell, a lump rise in my throat, a chill run down my spine. Goosebumps rose on my Joshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17547677070880363965noreply@blogger.com2