Riding with Rain Face

Published
by
Justin
on September 5, 2008
in Amsterdam and other Dutch Oddities
. 1 Comment

Bicycles…They are as Dutch as windmills, canals, and pannekoeken (pancakes that you put bacon, cheese, and syrup on…they are delicious). The other day in Den Haag I needed to go run some errands in the center of town, so my buddy Al offered to let me use his bike. I had been dying to ‘be dutch’ and ride a bike around so I jumped on the chance.

With excitement I went down to the garage where his bike was, unlocked it, and opened the door to leave. Just to discover it was raining. I thought to myself,

“Lot of people ride in the rain. This could be fun.”

I started off with a smile that the rain would soon wash off. Growing up in Oregon, I’ve been in the rain. I’ve seen lots of people in the rain and I always laugh at people’s ‘rain face’. You know…that squint with the eyebrows raised. I’ve always tried hard to not make the rain face and keep a normal face in the rain…I’ve found that making the face doesn’t really change the fact that I’m getting soaked or that it’s raining.

But in this case…I was making some mad rain face. I was getting hit in the eye balls by rain drops…big rain drops. I had rain running down my face and dripping off of my pointy nose. While making rain face.

I wasn’t alone in this.

And this is what amazes me about the Dutch. I mean the weather here isn’t Spain…it’s not even France…It’s like the rain of the Northwest but even colder. But the Dutch suck it up and hop on a bike all year round. A couple of people specifically struck me on my rainy ride.

I was wearing jeans and a windbreaker sort of jacket…both were as wet as if I had laid stomach down in a water puddle. (only the front of you gets really wet while crusing on a bike) Not cool. But I was way better off than these two people who joined me in my surprise of the rain:

Person One: Middle aged business woman. Medium long brown hair. Beige blouse. Skirt. Soaking wet. Her hair was pushed back over her head and she was just pedaling away trying to get out of the downpoar. But it was too late. Her ride home from work was more like a shower than a commute. And yes, she had crazy rain face.

Person Two: Guy a bit older than me, but obviously a job where he had to dress up. He was wairing a navy blue suit, light blue shirt, and gold tie…all soaked! I seriously couldn’t imagine most business men in the United States riding a bike to work in their suit, much less in the rain! A cab would be called. But a bike would never be pedaled in the rain (unless in Portland where people are also die-hards, but this is normal guy ‘Albert’). He also was making a pretty good rain face.

So, there I was, in the rain. Got to the store and walked in dripping. My jeans were stuck to my legs and my jacket was glued to my body. But nobody stared…I think that the Dutch are used to this sight.

On my way home I had a pretty good tail wind…But then it really started raining! When I got back to the office I was drenched and was ready to get in my basketball clothes!

Yesterday Jen and I went out for a ride to the Jordaan and got stuck in rain on the way back. This time I was wearing my glasses…This was not good. I couldn’t really see. And was making a new version of rain face while trying to see through spotted lenses. But Jen wrote more about this ride that you can read here…And just to mention it…Jen made a much more sexy version of rain face…but rain face none the less!

We both have our bikes now and we’ll both be getting rain gear soon! And we’ll have to figure something out for Maisie so her little hands don’t turn blue again! I’ll post a picture of my bike soon…It’s pretty much awesome.

As a Kid…and a whole lot more that got added in as I started writing

Published
by
Justin
on August 30, 2008
in Life, Posts That Even Make Me Mad and To Think About...
. 5 Comments

In my last post…a lot of people chimed in…I’m really glad about that and thanks for all of you who contributed…not all of us are coming from the same place or ending at the same place, but that’s ok and the dialogue will hopefully land us closer to Jesus in the end.

So, Jeremy made a comment about life when we were younger that got me thinking about my life as a kid. I wanted to share some of my thoughts on that…

I think that every generation thinks two things: 1. This is the evilist of all generations. And 2. If you are a follower of Jesus, that this world is sooo bad that He’s coming back in our time. Seriously, people from every generation since Christ have thought this…each one more certain than the last.

I think in our time we have more mediums for bad things to happen, but in an upside down world like ours, the potential for sin is just as great 1000 years ago as it is today. The reality is that we have always had to be wise, engaged, and involved in our kids lives. Sheltering our kids from the world is an illusion. Our power/witness/influence in this world won’t come from how well we shelter our kids from what’s not good, right, and true. It will come through teaching our kids how to find and choose Jesus while they navigate the pain in this world that is sure to come. Jesus never once promises us physical safety, physical protection, or physical comfort…it’s our ability to find these spiritual realities in an upside down physical world that will be our true sign to others that He is with us and there is a difference in our souls. Simply trying to avoid pain or what is ugly in this world (which may just be the opportunity to discern right from wrong) will not get us the results we hope for.

So…now on to what I intended to write…

When I was living in Indiana we lived on a street with some rough kids…they smoked, drank, listened to Beasie Boys, mooned my mom, talked about sex, had pornography, watched Nighmare on Elm Street, fought, cussed, flipped off my dad, and stole. And these are my memories from when I was 9. Sure, I got into some trouble with these guys…like throwing a log through a window and breaking into an unlocked mobile home to drink their 7-up. All growing up I went to public school with ‘all the sinners’…heard a bunch of stuff that kids shouldn’t be talking about, saw a bunch of things that I shouldn’t have seen…said and did a bunch of things I probably shouldn’t have said or did! Through all of this I think my parents did a bunch of things really well…What they didn’t do was try and remove me from the environment I was in. Looking back, I can see how they helped me navigate where I was and the issues I was facing…

1. They communicated to me very clearly what was right and wrong about what I was seeing.

2. They instilled in me a sense of self and encouraged me to be myself and to be an example, not a follow the crowd.

3. They stayed engaged in my world.

4. They knew my friends and welcomed them into our world.

5. They helped remind me that Jesus was more important to ‘impress’ than my friends.

Now, I screwed this up a lot…especially in college. But they gave me the tools to figure things out on my own instead of trying to manage my ‘life-experience’. I greatly appreciate them for this! (among other things!)

So, back to the ideas in my head…My hope in talking about this is that we’ll all wrestle with how our families will be the kingdom of God in our worlds. If we only change the places we go, the things we watch, the things we read, and miss out on figuring out how to love, trust, give grace, forgive, and be free, then we’ve missed the point. But if we do learn to trust Jesus, love others, forgive ourselves and others, be rich with grace and forgiveness, and experience the freedom we have in Jesus while living in this world, then we truly give honor to God and express gratitude for what He has done in and for us.

Ok…this post is long enough…

Ok…one more thing: Why does God keep us on this earth with it being as messed up as it is? What can we learn about His trust in us and purpose for us through this?

This may have just done did it for me…

Published
by
Justin
on August 27, 2008
in Posts That Even Make Me Mad
. 14 Comments

Some of you may know this and some of you may not…and most should probably not even care…but I don’t like the idea of Christian private schools as they currently exist and from what I’ve experienced/observed. I’m not saying that in every situation they are bad or wrong, but they are just not for me, or for the way that I want my family to engage with the world around us. So, know that I’m not being a hater or trying to be judgemental…

But when I came across a Facebook group called “I Am So Happy I Left FLCS!!!” I couldn’t help but broadcast this. Here’s a screen shot from the groups page, and please read it before moving on…

Doesn’t this just seem a bit strange to anyone else?

Does it confuse anyone else that a student would complain about being taught the Bible at a Christian school? (there are numerous ways to look at this…I both agree and disagree with this at the same time)

Am I the only one who finds it sad that parents would shell out for private school just to have their kids hate it? (or walk away from God all together as one person on ‘the Wall’ says)

I’m sad about this because I relate on some levels. I also went to a small Christian school for college and I understand where these kids are coming from. Just because a place says ‘Christian’ doesn’t mean that everybody gets that it’s supposed to be oriented around Christ. I certainly didn’t get that…Christian school is where I smoked, drank, and partied more than anywhere else! Not everyone who enrolls their kids or who is enrolled loves Jesus and is sending their kids to be educated around a Jesus orientation. (…most likely if students encountered Jesus in a radical way the result would be inverse to the original desire of sending a kid to Christian school.)

My thinking is that if we are going to call schools Christian schools they ought to be a lot more about Jesus than simply a safer, more predictable alternative to public school.* I don’t get the point of duplicating educational options just to put the name ‘Christian’ on it. I believe that if we are going to use the word Christian…which means Jesus…to describe our schools there better be something life-giving and culture shaping about them. They should have the same calling, as educational institutions, to be salt and light to the world…not just more light to light and salt to salt. There has to be a way to redeem Christian education and those of us who are a part of it.

But for now…this group may have just done did it for me never wanting to send my kids to a Christian school…I would rather my kids be ‘little Jesus’ in public school than to have them resent God because of talking about Him in science class. I would rather my Maisie learn to find God in all things and in all places than be spoon fed a form of Christianity for a grade. (oops..that was a bit to revealing) I think that we need to pray for wisdom and ask how Jesus would want to us to engage our world.

*Random Fact: the school in question in the Facebook page is 93% white compared to 73% of another local school.

Get Me Jesus on the Line

Published
by
Justin
on August 18, 2008
in Photography
. 1 Comment

This is the title of the picture if you follow this link….think about the title, look at the picture…wow

http://wink.nixone.com/archives/925

I love how pictures can just capture something in our hearts…

Michael Phelps’ Diet

Published
by
Justin
on August 17, 2008
in From Out of Nowhere and Leadership
. 2 Comments

Thanks to Jen for finding this article on the BBC…

As US swimming sensation Michael Phelps sets his sights on more gold medal wins at the Beijing Olympics this weekend, the BBC’s Michael Hirst examines the part an extraordinary diet has played in the sportsman’s remarkable success.

If it is true that you are what you eat, then here is the suggested intake if you want to become history’s most successful Olympian:

For breakfast: three fried egg sandwiches, with cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, fried onions and mayonnaise, followed by three chocolate-chip pancakes; a five-egg omelette; three sugar-coated slices of French toast and a bowl of grits (a maize-based porridge), washed down with two cups of coffee.

For lunch: half a kilogram (one pound) of enriched pasta; two large ham and cheese sandwiches on white bread smothered with mayonnaise, washed down by energy drinks.

For dinner: Another half-kilogram of pasta, perhaps with a carbonara sauce, followed by a large pizza and more energy drinks.

That combination may not sound very healthy, and at a staggering 10,000 calories, would feed five average men for a day.

But the menu is reportedly all in a training day’s eating for champion swimmer Michael Phelps, who won six gold medals in the 2004 Athens Olympics and is aiming for eight this time round.

“Eat, sleep and swim, that’s all I can do,” said the US swimmer, after winning his 11th Olympic gold.

In addition to being amazed that Phelps doesn’t sink after eating all of this, I was thinking about my own diet of spiritual food.

I got a picture of myself being a spiritual race…what kind of food and how much food would I want to eat in order to finish and even win the race? I think I’ve often convinced myself that it’s ok to live like I’m in the off-season…so I get lazy in my training, my diet shrinks, and then I have no energy to sustain me even trying to run (or swim) the race even if I wanted to.

Spiritually speaking, I need to packing in the grits, the eggs, the energy drinks, the pizza, the pasta…to sustain me in the race (battle is a more appropriate word most of the time!) that I’m in. I want to be training in a way that makes the race enjoyable…not like an out-of-shape, ex-athlete trying to set out to do a marathon without even being able to jog around the block! (not that, that was any commentary on me of course!)

Two things on the more positive side:

1. I did go jogging yesterday and had a great time! I woke up less sore than I did yesterdaay and feel great. I think I’ll be running more now.

2. I do down two cups of coffee at breakfast like Michael Phelps…Somebody’s got to beat him at something, so I’m going to go for three cups today.

Jesus the Pet Hater

Published
by
Justin
on August 17, 2008
in From Out of Nowhere
. 0 Comments

I’m utterly grateful to Mike Goldsworthy for this and this is a complete rip off of his post…but this was too good not to pass on…

This is an excerpt from this real Craigslist posting:

Surely without you there, they would be stuck inside your empty house, starving to death with no one to feed them, let them out to potty, or clean their litter box. This is probably not what you envision for your pets after you are gone. This is where I come in…

I am here to offer you pet care service for after the rapture. As an atheist, I will surely still be here on this earth post rapture and would love to look after your pets for a small fee…

They will get adequate amounts of food, water, and shelter as well as plenty of exercise and socialization as I would imagine there will be a lot of pets that will be abandoned by Jesus the pet hater that will need to be cared for.

Amazing…and the rest of the ad is good too…Thanks again Mike…Get used to your work being copied now that you’re the man…whom I greatly admire.

Observations at the Beach

Published
by
Justin
on August 15, 2008
in Life
. 1 Comment

Tonight Jen and I went down to the beach in Den Haag, it’s an area called Scheveningen. I didn’t really realize that Den Haag was so close to the beach…it was only about a 5 minute drive from the office. But it was quite nice down there. The reason for the trip (other than to hang out with friends) was to watch a firework competition out over the water. It was a great time…and here are some of my observations from the beach trip:

1. This part of Den Haag totally had a Santa Monica feel to it! When people had told me this before I thought, “Sure.” But it really does. I think we’re going to try and head back down before we settle back up in Amsterdam..

2. Bonfires are strictly forbidden on the beach. A group of people started one and within minutes a ‘beach patrol’/police truck was there and made them put it out. It’s really too bad because it’s cold and a beach bonfire would have been perfect tonight!

3. Being the Netherlands, some people nearby thought that they would enjoy the show more if they smoked some pot. So they did perfectly legally while sitting next to us and the other families. It’s crazy, you can’t do a bonfire, but you can smoke a joint.

4. The fireworks were not too bad…tonight’s competitors were South Korea and Ireland…and Ireland smoked South Korea…no pun intended in regards to the pot or the fire…or the fireworks.There was no music or anything to the fireworks, but it was cool to just listen to them. If it weren’t for the girl constantly talking very loudly behind us (Sophie said she was just talking about nothing…) we would have only heard the sound of the fireworks. It was really interesting how thousands of us just sat there silently watching and listening.

5. I got to see the sun set over the North Sea…England was out there somewhere…but this was the first time I’ve seen the sun set over a body of water that wasn’t the Pacific. Also, we could see the big dipper…It’s crazy to think that thousands of miles away in California I could see it there too.

Ok..it’s late and I’m exhausted. goodnight….

What *does* it cost?

Published
by
Justin
on August 14, 2008
in From Out of Nowhere and Posts That Even Make Me Mad
. 9 Comments

Have you ever stopped to think, really think, about the impact that our choices make on the world? By ‘world’ I don’t me the world that exists immediately around you and me, I mean the world as a people group…a very…large…people group. I know this sounds trite, but the stuff that we use on a daily basis, the shirt I’m wearing, the shoes I wear, the contacts in my eyes, the case that holds my sun glasses…all of this stuff comes from somewhere. It doesn’t magically show up on the shelves of our favorite stores…it comes from somewhere.

It is this ’somewhere’ that I’m thinking about as I write at the moment. Here’s what is on my mind: If I am a person that wants to see the beauty of the Kingdom exposed and evil destroyed, do I only care about that happening in close proximity to me? Or do I care about that globally? If we want to take seriously kicking the darkness away, we have to act small and think big…We have to realize that our small choices matter because they end up influencing someone, ’somewhere’.

Check out this video:

My friend Deb showed this at the start of her talk at our conference the other week and it has haunted me since. I can’t get the picture of my Maisie gluing those freakin’ shoes together for 8 hours a day out of my head. I can’t imagine my Maisie waking up in a pile of other kids in a room the size of a closet. I can’t imagine my Maisie eating a small bowl of rice for lunch everyday. So why do I live like it’s ok for someone else’s child to do this? They have a name too…

I don’t know what to do about this.

I guess the reason that I am posting this is because I hate my own apathy towards this problem so clearly. I also think that any of us followers of Jesus who desire to see the Kingdom of God reign in this life need to look at how we have turned a blind eye to the ways our lives contribute to inhumanity…which is one of the ultimate forms of evil we can see. The Scriptures talk so much about God siding with the oppressed, protecting the innocent, and caring for the poor…it is His heart and we are to join Him where He is. I once heard a modern day prophet say, “God, my friends, is with the poor. And God is with us when we are with them!”

I am going to start by praying: God, give me eyes to see what needs to be seen…and courage to not turn back towards comfort when I see something I wish had stayed hidden.

I’ll end this post with this…In the book Amos, who was a fig farmer turned mouthpeice for God (7:14), Amos is quoting what the oppressors of the needy say, they say, “We can buy the poor with money and the needy for a pair of sandals” (8:6) Watch the video again if you need to make this connection.