What I did this Week: Just stuff

  This week was mostly uneventful. Aside from the rain.

  Monday I babysat and a nerf war happened.

  
  Tuesday, a stray kitten adopted our family.

 

  Wednesday I made some cinnamon swirl bread and some bows for my baby sister.



 

  Thursday, the older kids stayed up a played monopoly till the wee hours like the party animal we are.

 

  Then Friday and today I sewed a vest.

 

  Also, Jon Foreman released his first EP in his Wonderlands series. Its hard to pick a favorite, but I do really like this song.



 

 And so went my week!

 





 

Still Don't Get It

  God does things that defy the understanding of man. If I were God, I would have saved myself the trouble of making people. All mankind has done is caused Him pain. On the sixth day of creation, I would have created the animals and stopped there. Their instinctive drives them from the deliberate messes humans make by exercising free-will. Animals do not contemplate life, they do not go on adventures. They sleep, eat, reproduce, and die.
  Humans are similar to animals: they are biologically classified as mammals. They are not animals though. In humanity, God married temporary, physical bodies to eternal souls. While humans have biological drives, they also possess so much more. Their thoughts go beyond the how and travel the sphere of why. Young animals learn how to survive, young humans' lives are marked by the everlasting "why".
   There is a great capacity for humans to get into trouble. Establish a rule and man is bound to break it, or at least bend it to the last extremity. That is why the world has fallen into disrepair over the ages. Adam and Eve broke the one rule God gave them in the garden of Eden and brought death on themselves and all mankind. What is more is that in the rule-breaking, in their sin, Adam and Eve voided their ability to have a personal relationship with the God who created them. God is a perfect God and by virtue of His holiness, He cannot excuse the short-comings of mankind.
  This is where God blows my mind, this is my why. When God made man, He knew we would disobey Him. And He knew the only way we could have a relationship with Him would be if He first sacrificed for us. God did not just make mankind and then leave us, He loved us. He sent His only son to die  and take on the punishment we deserve so we might have a personal relationship with Him, so He might call us His children. The sacrifice He made was more painful then anything in all of the eternal experience. The holy God took the weight of the world's sin upon Him so He might erase it, might make the world clean and new. Might make those He called to Himself holy so He could have a personal relationship with them.
  Why does He take the pain we give Him? Why did God create such a troublesome rabble? I know in my head that the ultimate purpose of creation is to glorify God; but when I live in it, I have trouble seeing how creation will glorify God. While I am living on earth, there are some things I never will understand. And God's great love for the mess of mankind it the greatest thing I will not understand here, if I ever do.
 

Diet Coke

  We do not drink diet soda at our house. We shake up the cans, throw them in the air, and watch them explode.

Me and my Creature Comforts

 

  It is time for a confession about my bad attitude when the weather has an effect on my creature comforts: the things I think of as necessities. Things like running water, and air-conditioning, and electricity, and whatever I want to eat for breakfast, and coffee. There are many people in the world who do not get those things when they wake up, but the spoiled American I am, I do.

  The weather in Texas has made the news, so I feel I ought to say the effect it has had on my family and I has been minimal. Of course though, the selfish person I am, I must feel in my heart of hearts (I am ashamed to admit) there is no suffering greater than mine. Yes, there are people who have lost everything, but what is everything to the inconveniences I faced this morning. 

  Last night, sometime around midnight, the power went out. I woke up and nothing was on in my room. So I climbed out of bed, set the alarm on my phone, and crossed my finger in hopes of the power being back on in the morning. In the morning, I woke to find the power still was not on, so I let myself sleep in. When I finally did get out of bed and the power was not on, I was very frustrated. I would have no coffee. I could not have yogurt with my granola for breakfast. And there was no running water. Now, I realize the water part is important, but there are worse fates. Then the power did kick back on at 8:30 thanks to the hard work of the power company.

  Once we had power (and the internet) back, I starting reading the news. People lost a lot more than a night of power because of the rain. Cars, houses, loved-ones, lives. Me and my petty concerns about not getting coffee. There is a lot of selfishness in my veins, and it is not that I do not care about others at all, my thoughts just turn to the girl that lives in my skin first.

  There are times when I need to be appalled at myself, and this mornings was one of those times. Blessed beyond measure and all I can think about is me. And apart from the grace of God, that is all I would do. But thanks to Him I do not.

The Home Star

  Here's some pictures of the star whose orbit our planet calls home that I took at Big Bend.

Hellfire and Healing

  The mouth is the rather faulty filter of the heart. In the book of James we read that the tongue is a restless evil, set afire by hell itself. The tongue requires control.
  Oftentimes, I do not think about what I have said, or what I am saying. Words take nano-seconds to slip out and then leave my mind moments after they have taken form. Yet these seemingly insignificant collections of sounds are incredibly powerful. If I do not remember them, someone will. Whether they be written down or branded on the heart of a hearer, words will continue past the realm of sound. There is no bigger farce than the phrase, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me." The things I say have an effect, and the effect has the potential to be devastating to my fellow man.
  If that is not scary enough, it gets worse. There is not a word that slips past the all-knowing God. Every word, intentional or idle, will be judged by Him. My words have more than immediate consequences, they have eternal consequences. I will be held responsible, not only for the things I do, but also for the things I say.
  Because of my fallen humanity, I say far too many things I should not. In my anger, my selfishness, regrettable words slip out. There are so many sorrows I and others could have been spared had I simply kept my mouth shut. By my own power, I am hopeless to be saved from the whirling hellfire that lights my tongue.
  As a Christian though, I can give the words of life with my tongue. There is more to me than just a fallen nature. I am redeemed by Christ, the Holy Spirit lives in me. Through His strength I can do more than just hurt with my tongue. I can heal. The words for my mouth and the meditations of my heart can be pleasing in the Lord's sight. They can be uplifting to others. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, I can control my tongue, it can be bridled. I do not have to live in the light of the fires of Hell.

Nobody's Grandfather

 In modern culture most tend to have a tame view of God. "God is love," is perhaps one of the most clichéd phrases in "Christian-ese". And it is true: God is love. Sadly, though, people say God is love and then go on living their lives however they wish to. The God who is love simply remains in the background.
  I once read that in America, people tend to view God, not as father, but as a benevolent grandfather. He is an authority figure, but a very relaxed one. He gives  men blessings galore. Though He prefers they follow the rules, He winks at their short-comings. They are human, after all, and He understands they cannot be perfect. Everything is okay as long as men do the best they can.
  A grandfather god is small. Petty. A god under the control of the will of man. God is nobody's grandfather. He is God: mighty, powerful, righteous and just. And love. He is not a grandfather who excuses sin. He is the Father to sacrificed the life of His only begotten Son to wipe away the sins of those He has called.
  God's attributes of might, of holiness, of justice, they make His love that much greater. They make Him that much greater, more than any human imagining could ever create. They make Him God.

What I did this Week: Apparently Discretion is the Better Part of Valor

 

  The beginning of this week was spent with my family at Big Bend National Park for our Spring vacation. And Sunday, I learned an important lesson, but more on that later. Here we are:

 

  Sunday morning, we hiked up to Grapevine Hills.

 

  In the afternoon, we walked the Chisos Basin Loop Trail.

There is a white-tail dead center in this picture.

 

  Then in the evening after dinner, my brothers were riding their scooters down the winding mountain roads. My fifteen-year-old brother took one of the scooters higher up the on road than his little brothers did. Much higher. He rode down successfully, getting up to about fifteen mph before he reached the bottom. All I needed was for him to tell me he thought it was safe before I decided to tackle the hill. And I ended up with scraped knees, road-rash on my elbow, and a concussion. Really exciting stuff. Next time, I will think harder about what I intend to do instead of just going on the advice of a fifteen-year-old boy, because discretion is the better part of valor.

 

  Monday morning, we woke up to fog.

 

  We drove to Tuff Canyon, explored the floor of the Canyon and climbed the walls.

 

  Then we headed for Santa Elena Canyon.

 

  Late afternoon, we hiked Boquillas Canyon.

 

  Evening brought a killer sunset.

 

  Tuesday morning brought a killer sunrise.

 

  We drove out to Ernst Tinaja for one of our morning hikes.

 

  Then we went on the Rio Grande Nature Walk. With a name like nature walk, it sounded like a little path that wound along the banks of the Rio Grande. Instead, we climbed up a hill and were greeted with this view.

 

  Then we came back to camp and started packing up. Before we left the park Tuesday evening, this lovely little fox came and bid us goodbye in her own silent way. We still don't know what the fox says.

 

























  We got home Wednesday morning and spent the day unpacking. Thursday I got the urge to bake so I made these cookies.

 

  Friday morning, I acid-washed a pair of jeans.

 

  In the afternoon, I made a dress for my baby sister.

 

  And today I made her another.

 

  Then I made some guacamole for me.

 

And so went my week.



wonder.

 

We have wonder to keep us mesmerized for a small moment.

And then to keep us searching for more.

Trying to fill our ever-hungry palate with the taste of glory.

We cannot fill the void: the gap we seek to fill because we keep wondering.

Life cannot be grand if we do not meet creation with the wondering eyes of a child.

Cynics are never satisfied because they looked and then decided the world is not good enough.

They lock themselves in boxes, close their soul's eyes in a casket, dank, dark and self-absorbed.

Those who chose to never be pleased will never be pleased, and it will be their own fault when the day of the Lord comes.



But those who let themselves wonder, let themselves be awed, they will live their lives blown away by the beauty of God.
They will see the world in all of its majestic, created glory.
They will not merely study God, they will be dazzled by Him.
It is with that wide-eyed wonder that the world becomes wonderful.

This Thousand Words

 

  A picture is a memory. A pixel of a sight we viewed once that is no longer a reality. Now we are left with a picture. This thousand words of color on a page to remind us of that which we once saw. To try to convey to others the feeling in our souls when we reached the top of the trail and looked over the land. Or the joy in our hearts when we saw the faces of those we love. But we can never recapture the moment, never fully re-live that feeling. All we now have is this thousand words.

Summer is Coming

  Instead of blogging about what I did this week, I am just posting pictures of the blackberry picking attempt my younger brothers and I made.

And this is why we only had an attempt at black-berry picking. This is all we got.