In the words of Inigo, "There's no time to 'splain, let me sum up."
It would be impossible to describe the events of the last six months and their impact.
Suffice it to say, when you thought it couldn't get any worse - you didn't realize how good you had it.
A word that keeps coming to mind is "overwhelmed."
"I know you can be 'overwhelmed' and I think you can be 'underwhelmed' but do you think you can ever be just 'whelmed?' - What movie is that from?
I had a chance over Christmas break to meet with an English prof. - a friend who teaches and also writes. I got some direction for doing the difficult work of re-writing some chapters and organizing my "raw material" for the book I must someday get published. It's about "Conversations with Students" but so much more. Like how to get past the smokescreens to find out what people's REAL questions and issues are. You know, because "people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." So a possible title would be "Tread lightly the Path to a Beating Heart."
I still marvel at my ability to see God at work and then in the next minute or two wonder where He went and if I'm gonna be okay.
The guy who said "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" may have thought he was offering comfort and encouragement, but I have a feeling he didn't struggle much with fear, Real or imagined.
Haddon, age 4, asked me one morning if he could wear an outfit he saw hanging in his closet.
"No," I said, "Those are Sunday clothes."
"Well," he asked, "what day is it?"
"Wednesday, " I told him.
"Okay," he said, "then get me some Wednesday clothes!"
There are an awful lot of "urgent" things I seem to need to do right away.
But when I choose to do the "important" things like spending time with my kids or leading a Bible study or meeting with students for discipleship or sharing the Gospel, I have more peace and don't feel so frantic.
The Enemy wants to distract me and have me worry about plans and preparations, or my lack thereof. But as my friend Leo says, "You did this on purpose!"
"What?" I ask him.
"You left it unplanned so that God would step in and do something."
"Honestly, I'm not that purposeful, and I don't have that much faith. It just always seems to happen that way when i do what comes naturally."
We are enjoying hearing from our daughter in Europe, her e-mails and friends' pics on Facebook. She almost didn't get there because two passes were closed the day we needed to take her to the airport and the third pass closed while we were enroute to it (mudslides).
But God made a way on a flight out of Yakima that was overbooked (they found a bigger plane)
And none too soon - 10:30 for an 11 a.m. flight that didn't leave till after noon but got her to SEATAC in plenty of time for her 2:40 flight to Frankfurt.
So far we've gotten the reports from Berlin and Prague - cold weather but having the time of her life with great companions.
Perhaps getting "back on the bloglist." won't be that hard now that I've broken the ice.
Notice the new family photo - yep eight kids - count'em.
Until next time.
Leaving blogland
Matt
