It was just this past week when I had quite a wake-up call. 

Not only did we lose our precious “nephew”, Ethan Powell to Leukemia, but my dear wife was gone all week with the family in Memphis/Shreveport, the kids were with my Mom & Dad, and I found myself alone.  Several nights… while alone and busy doing work at home, I realized just how fortunate I was to be a part of a community of believers in Bowling Green that is passionate about caring for one another.

A dear brother came and cut my grass, countless phone calls, emails, cards, and otherwise prayerful meditations of people in our behalf were on my mind.  I’m not gonna lie to you, the loss of Ethan stunned me.  Even though I know all of the textbook answers about suffering.  I’ve read the Lee Strobel books, I’ve studied C.S. Lewis and various Christian theologians and apologists, but until you see a perfect little child who has yet to make a decision with a rational mind – die because of a ruthless disease – it’s not terribly real.

God is good.  He is big.  He knows more than I do, and I know that a lot of people were brought closer to him because of their realization of Ethan’s illness and perhaps their OWN deserving what an innocent child got.  Regardless, it is a time to fall on our knees and humble ourselves.

Another great tragedy has occurred in Bowling Green, KY this past week.  Sparing the details, a well-respected man in both church and community passed away by his own purposeful actions.  I found out I have “moderately abnormal” cells in a biopsy they did on me last week, and while not terribly alarmed, the Dr. wants to be sure and remove the spot on my skin.  Work is so busy that I feel like I’m standing on the seashore shoveling sand as quickly as I can, but another two, three, dozen waves come in every moment.  It’s been a heavy last few weeks.

Father, your word says that those who will do what’s right will be tested.  It says that you love those whom you punish.  Whether or not my life (and others around me) are being punished right now, I know you love me, and want my heart.  Forgive my foolish side-tracked mind, and may I be the champion of wisdom and holiness that my family needs.  Thank you for the sunshine today.  Thank you for the fun time watching “Are you smarter than a 5th Grader with my kids and wife”.  Thank you for cars that run, Christian bro’s and sis’s that love, and for our silly happy dog.  Thank you for the wake-up calls that remind us that you’re still here, you’re better than everything around us, and you want us to join you.

…I am with them.  This past Sunday we were out of the country… well, it felt like it!  I was coming down with what I now know was STREP throat, and was laid up in the bed trying to get some rest – which of course I never got since my 7 year old wanted to sleep with Daddy.

We had our annual Spring Convention in the Dixie District of the Barbershop Harmony Society.  In lovely Greenville, South Carolina, the weather was pleasant most of the weekend, and since my quartet was trying to qualify for the International Quartet Contest (the Big Stage!) this summer, it was a big deal for us.  I’m in a comedy quartet called Lunch Break with a dear brother named Shane Scott .  Shane and I almost always share the room, and the other 2 of our quartet buddies share their own.

Shane and I have much in common – especially our faith in Christ.  It would appear that we’re going to be spending a fair amount of weekends in a hotel room on Saturday night/Sunday morning, before either early Sunday morning flights home to Nashville, or perhaps Shane will take the Sunday off (full-time minister for a church in Nashville).

Some months ago, Shane asked me, “hey buddy, on some of these Saturday nights/Sunday mornings (late, late after the afterglow shows), why don’t we share the supper together.”  I agreed that it would be an ideal time and a great idea to share that great communion together in our solitary moments  – So this past Sunday in South Carolina we enjoyed a few minutes together as Shane read out of Isaiah, and we ate some bread and drank the wine together.  GREAT times!

One of the neatest things about it, was that I wasn’t feeling well.  Shane said, “it’s ok buddy, you’re ox is in the ditch – why don’t we do this another time.”  I insisted that we go ahead, and he just pulled a chair up to the bed and we still made it happen.  It was a great moment, and I felt refreshed even though I wasn’t with my spiritual family at the church in Bowling Green.  I couldn’t help but think about the passage where Jesus told his disciples, “where two or three are gathered in My name, I am with them.”  We continued to talk for a few minutes about our special bonds in Christ, and how it was only through Him that we could share in such deep times of devotion together – and perhaps in time, we can use those moments to sharpen one another’s spiritual swords.  Shane is a great friend to me, and a great mentor to my son, Jacob, who loves him dearly.  …Fact is, almost nobody DOESN’T LOVE Shane.  He’s a selfless servant of Christ, who’s about as wacky as a human can be, and still be G rated!

Oh, and our quartet did well… we did in fact qualify to go to the “big show” this July, and will be fortunate to be one of about 45 quartets from around the world going for the International Championship.  Great, great times, with great friends.  Feel free to visit www.lunchbreakquartet.com and leave us a comment!

I’ve been listening and re-listening to Casting Crowns lately on the way to work in the mornings.  It’s a great time to get my head together on my 1-hour drive to Nashville, and the lyrics to this song have been repeatedly coming to mind for me.

This song speaks to the nature of Satan’s craftiness.  More than anything else, for Christians, he may use our own guilt; the deceitfulness of our own hurting hearts from the sins of our dark places.  I love these artists!  They’re clearly conveying the truth of God’s word in the lyrics of this song, and allude to the choice we have of listening to the various voices that battle within us. 

“Voice Of Truth”

Oh what I would do to have
The kind of faith it takes to climb out of this boat I’m in
Onto the crashing waves To step out of my comfort zone
To the realm of the unknown where Jesus is
And He’s holding out his hand

You know that belly-laugh you get sometimes?  It feels really, really good when that happens.  Tonight I got to see Jacob having that, and it almost happened to me just by watching him.  He was watching “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” – of course, the Jim Carrey version – and was laughing amazingly.  One of the funniest spots to him was when Max – the Grinch’s dog – jumps up and clinches his teeth into Grinch’s tail… he squirms and grimaces as only Jim Carrey can, and screams, MAX!  That is not a chew toy!  If we had Tivo Jacob would want to see it 20 more times!

This is a beautiful time of year.  There’s a gang at work that wanted to do something different this year in stead of swapping gifts, and they contributed quite a few $$ to the local boy’s home in Nashville.  The thought has occurred to me a number of times recently – as I’ve come across several Scrooges – that the spirit of giving is what the season is all about.  It is the warmth of family, the kindness of self-less giving to others, and the realization that things are new during this season.

I didn’t grow up celebrating Christmas as a Holy day.  I now can’t help but reflect on the meaning behind the day.  The “whovenile delinquents” in Jim Carrey’s “Grinch” were ones who GOT IT.  They do not allude to Christ in the film; after all, it’s a feel-good happy story of an ugly creep who was spoiled in his youth against Christmas, and how he’s redeemed by the heart of a little girl.  But the thing that appeals to me more and more in the last few weeks, is that in Christ’s birth, the beautiful story of the ages is brought to fruition.  The virgin mother child herself bearing the savior of mankind, and giving us “second birth” as the song says… that is the beauty of the Christmas story! 

The Grinch was redeemed in the end of the story… but not by Jesus.  It’s interesting; the Grinch brought back the gifts he had stolen from the Who’s in Whoville, and he finally understood that it was about kindness and warmth because of something greater than yourself.  The 3 gifts to the Great King were Gold – the bounty of Kings, Frankencense – a costly spice that is used by royalty, and Myrrh.  As Dan Melear said this past Sunday… Myrrh doesn’t fit.  It’s the same root word in Hebrew as “Marah” – or bitter waters.  It’s the spice/ointment they used for embalming bodies in that time.  It was a bitter herb’ish type ointment or spice, depending on its form, meant to cover up the stench of death.

Embalming Fluid as a gift for the Savior of all Mankind upon his birth?  Come on!  …yet could there be anything more appropriate?  I don’t know all of the history of the socio-economic value of Myrrh in that ancient world, but I know that it was used in the burial of Jesus’ body.  2 of the 3 gifts were the gifts of Kings.  The third was perhaps prophetic of the greatest gift he would offer mankind; his own self.  His own body in our stead.  His own legacy of kindness, compassion, love, truth, and his own legacy of setting the standard.  the Anointed One was the epitome of hermeneutics.  He defines what our interpretation should be.  Love, kindness, compassion, mercy, truth, and obedience.  If we “get” that… maybe we would start to see Christmas in a little bit different light.  I’ll close with my favorite Christmas hymn’s lyrics from the 15th Century:

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.

O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to Thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.

O come, Thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
An ensign of Thy people be;
Before Thee rulers silent fall;
All peoples on Thy mercy call.

O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid Thou our sad divisions cease,
And be Thyself our King of Peace.

Tonight, Elizabeth and I took a much needed break from working our house over… finally getting settled in to our first house we’ve been blessed to own.  In moving stuff around, I found 2 videotapes that have been hiding for several years. 

One of the videos was of Jacob when he was about a Year old.  We had taken him to the Zoo in Memphis (a GREAT one!!), and he was such a chatterbox!  He was talking to the monkeys, the tigers, flamingos, and all the while that crazy fuzzy velcro hair of his sticking up everywhere!  He has always been a Mama’s boy, but there were several times he clearly wanted to come to Daddy.  But Daddy was so busy filming everything else that he didn’t get a chance to love on him until near the end of the Zoo trip.

There was a time after Jacob had come to Daddy on the video when my Dad – Pap – was looking down at the Rhinocerous in the mud – and Pap started smacking the rail at the lookout spot.  My Mom – Nanna – was standing between Dad and Jacob’s view.  Jacob was looking around every which way to see what Pap was doing.  It wasn’t but a few seconds before Pap smacked the rail again (to try and disturb the Rhino’s slumber) when Jacob puts his little hand down and pats the rail himself!  It was much more of a pat than a smack coming from the one-year-old.

I was amazed that this little guy is exactly the same now – at the age of 7 – as he was 6 years ago.  He loves mimicing his Daddy, his Pap, his Mama, and whomever he admires; he loves playing, throwing stuff, teasing you into tickling him more, and more, and more!  

Why don’t we mimic our Master like Jacob did Pap?  Why don’t we still long to please him?  To make him proud?  Is there ever a time when we maintain our pure-hearted diligence to please and obey him as we did when we first obeyed the Lord? 

There are a whole lot more things I got out of watching the video… most of which were sentimental warm feelings.  After all, this is a baby boy that was so unbelievably sweet and happy, and we were blessed with him by God.  And then… Amberlee asked, “can we watch me as a baby, Daddy?”  So we cruised back in time only 3-4 years to watch our little girl.

Praise God for his love and blessings!  I pray that he will guide me into holiness in the same tender way he did when I first became a father, and was so concerned about being a perfect example for my son.  And most of all, I pray that I will try to mimic the every move of my Savior, and with child-like enthusiasm to obey and serve.

(Another reason I’m thrilled that we’re home-schooling Jacob!)
-Drew 

THE GOLDEN COMPASS

The internet is buzzing with emails about a forthcoming movie starring Nicole Kidman based on The Golden Compass by British author Philip Pullman. After doing some independent research for a possible gracEmail review, I discovered that my friend Sam Snyder, age 14, not only had read the entire trilogy of which The Golden Compass is the first book but also had written a review. The third son of my long-time friends Eddie and Leah Snyder, Sam is home-schooled, well-read and insightful. I have great confidence in Sam’s analytical skills and judgment, a confidence confirmed by long conversations the two of us enjoy from time to time over Saturday morning breakfast at a nearby restaurant. * * *The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials trilogy)
by Sam Snyder

Um – yeah – crazy title.  Anyway…  In our subdivision there is an Albino Squirrel.  I’ve seen him for weeks and he’s a pretty big squirrel, as squirrels go.  The kids always laugh when we see him running across someone’s yard, and I got to thinking recently about Jesus’ words about God’s love in the mountain message of Matt. 5-7:

Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?   (Matthew 6:25-28)

Granted, Jesus didn’t talk about Albino squirrels…  but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the (too many) roles I have.  I’m tempted to worry about them a lot, and to fall short in many of them.  Elizabeth was gone last night and I had time to think a little bit.  I was looking at the kids lying in the bed last night, and thinking about them crawling all over me while we were watching the Mark Hamill episode of the Muppet Show, and how they love their Daddy.  In spite of his flaws.  In spite of his failures.  They want time; time cuddling, time horsing around, time laughing together, and time – doing nothing – together.  They are so innocent and such perfect creatures of God.  They were given to us to mold, to train, to teach in “the way he should go”.  Yet when they exhibit the same types of failure that one sees in himself – that hurts… badly.  So it was a time of reflection over the simple, really important things. 

So the way this ties into the Albino squirrel is this – the Father has blessed us with so many things; far greater than the birds or the flowers, or the albino squirrels.  He has given us jobs, food, children, spouses, cars, 2nd and 3rd cars – and how do we repay him?  With attention spans that are short and focused only on what WE want.  That squirrel sticks out like a sore thumb.  I’m not sure where they are in the food chain, but I’m pretty sure he’s not as safe as his cuddly brownish grey counterparts.  He was probably laughed at by the other squirrels when he was in school!  And yet – God provides for that crazy looking squirrel’s needs irrespective of his own shortcomings, failures, or genetic mutations.  How much MORE will God provide and take care of me?    As the greatest of all of God’s creations, couldn’t I begin measuring up to the standards laid down by his matchless blessings? 

I’m so thankful for what God has blessed me with.  In meditation and prayer last night; I was humbled to realize that I need his strength to do several things: 
1)  Trust in Him implicitly, with no stipulations
2)  Obey – and resist Satan’s crafty and subtle deviations
3)  Return to scripture and become the spiritual pillar for my family that I need to be, and have always wanted to become.

Father, help me in my weakness.  Bless any who might be reading this with the same focus, to allow you to be King of their lives, and for us to be your children who love their Father, like my little ones love me.  Bless the growth of the Spirit in my heart so that I may overcome and grow deeper into the unsurpassable riches of Christ.