What's in a Name?

Our third child will be arriving sometime in late June and we have stalled out on naming the new little one. We do know it's a boy. I've got some ideas, so does Denise...but we haven't come together on it yet. So last week I consulted an expert on living, a life-coach if you will: my (almost) three-year-old son Levi. I asked him what we should name the our baby boy. He looked at me, dead-serious, and said "Waffle." At first I thought that I misheard him, so I asked him again. He looked at me with a bit of an annoyed look and said, "Yeah Dad, Waffle."

So that's that.

Christmas Letter

December 2007

We hope you’ve had a good year. It’s been a great one for us, although very busy. Levi and Avery are growing up faster than we can believe. Levi will be three in April. He loves our kitties, riding his trike, and pushing the limits with his little sister. He has brought so much joy to our family. Avery is one. She just started walking and has an infectious laugh. She can get all of us going. Denise and I are doing well. I finish school in May with my Masters in Professional Counseling; and Denise has been working double-time to get us there – taking care of the kids during the day and tutoring in the evenings. Our biggest news though is that we are expecting our third child in June! We are so excited! Levi said he is hoping for a baby brother and Avery will just be happy to be bigger than someone else. We hope this next year brings blessings to each of you.

Love,
Jeffrey, Denise, Levi, Avery, & (baby)

The Lord bless you and keep you

Santa

I've never really liked santa. The kids in this slideshow don't either.

Going Back to Our Roots...Way Back

Some guys from church recently asked the age-old question: if a bunch of dudes go to the woods, but there are no ladies there, do those guys make strange noises? (yes)















Dave makes pancakes.















We spent the morning almost making fire.















Yes, I was there...and Justy is strange.

The God's aren't Angry

On Monday I was part of a group that went to see Rob Bell at the Tabernacle. Rob is a pastor from Michigan--I've been to two training conferences at the church he is part of. He is in the middle of a month-long speaking tour called "The God's aren't Angry-Why people invented religion to make themselves feel better." The general idea of the talk was how religion has developed and evolved over time and that God has always been calling people to a new level of understanding and enlightenment. He spoke about sacrifices (animal, crops, human) and how the sacrifice system always fails. We can't really know where we stand with the gods.

Then he talked about how Abraham entered this historical perspective and how God called him to something that no one had done before: leaving his father and his father's way of dealing with the gods.

The lecture was 1.5 hours so obviously I'm not going to go on and on, but here are a few things that are lingering in me a day after the talk:

I tend to look down my nose at historically "primitive" people for the way they worshiped their "gods," but I have at times been willing to sacrifice my health, family, spirituality, friendships, and on and on to the gods of ambition, greed, money, and success. I'm beginning to realize (and last night was an great reminder) that these gods will never be satisfied. Checking out of the system may be the best bet.

Another thing that's working me over is that there is only one sacrifice left worth giving. The writer of Hebrews calls it, ironically, the living sacrifice. With all I've been blessed with and given, what will my response be?

Finally, there's no way to really know the heart of someone without actually knowing them, but you get the sense that Rob is doing his best to live what he is teaching. He could make major bank off this tour, but he is donating the money to an African microfinance project. He and his family have made a commitment to living simply (he is married w/ 2 kids and lives in a 2 bedroom home in a rough area of Grand Rapids). He talked honestly about the real challenges in life like suicide, depression, financial hardship, and without attempting to turn frowns upside down, looked for the redemption in hard stories. How do we find the resurrected Christ in our stories...even our most painful stories?

For those who went, I wonder what your experience was. For those who didn't, but are interested by some of these topics and ideas, let's get together to continue the discussion.

Jesus Thinks N.T. Wright is Metal!

Jesus Camp

I've been wanting to watch the documentary, Jesus Camp, for a while and Denise and I finally saw it last weekend. The movie is about a right-wing fundamentalist summer camp for kids. The kids worship, pray, ride go-carts, chant about supreme court justice nominees, and do other fun kids' stuff like that.

It was a riveting picture of a distinct subculture. Kids were speaking in tongues. They prayed in ways I don't. One kid had a sweet rat tail (I'm thinking of growing one now). I grew up in a Christian fundamentalist subculture, so it was really interesting to see another version of fundamentalism. By the way, I define fundamentalism as living in the absolute certainty that I am right and everyone else is wrong--and having a harsh attitude about that fact.

Part of the camp's time was spent teaching (or perhaps indoctrinating) the kids about right-wing American politics--abortion, supreme court justice nominations, etc. At one point in the film, some of the kids were at a large church in Colorado. The pastor of this church was Ted Haggard. You may remember him from such things as doing meth with a gay prostitute. The movie was filmed before he was found out. To me, his appearance in which he railed on homosexuals and was moderatley mean to a ten-year-old, was where I found God in this movie. That scene and the thoughts it brought up caused me to look long and hard at the way I judge other people. I believe judgement and conviction of sin are key parts of my faith, but this movie caused me to look at myself and the ways I go about judging and convicting.

If you haven't seen the movie, watch it and pay particular attention to the moments that are uncomfortable for you.