Lately Maisie has been smiling a lot…if we look at her and smile and talk expressively then she starts to work her face into a grin…the cutest grin in the world might I add. There is something about when she smiles that makes the rest of our world just seem to stop. I can’t explain it. There have been times when we have been watching a tv show and we’ll catch her staring at us with a huge smile on her face…at that moment it doesn’t matter what is going on the screen, her gummy smile is a million times more captivating. There is a deep satisfaction in knowing that our baby is happy…that she is enjoying life.
As a believer that Jesus teachings bring us joy in this life…I must believe that God also finds joy when we enjoy the life he has graced us with. One of my favorite passages in the Bible says, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Phil 2:13) The ’smiles’ of our lives are all gifts that He has given us that He finds pleasure in…In effect, God has given us gifts that we enjoy, but He enjoys seeing us have joy.
As I was writing this, Jen handed Maisie to me. When she looked at me she smiled. This gave me a deep sense of joy and gratitude…and in this God finds pleasure.
I really wanted to write on my blog tonight…I don’t want everybody thinking that the only thing on my mind is still the Colts’ Super-Bowl win! This entry is more of a blah-g and may end up just rambling.
So over the past few months we’ve started a new group at our place. The first few weeks were great and then a big change came into our lives…you guessed it…Maisie. A big part of our group is the idea that there isn’t only one leader, but that we all embrace the different giftings that God has given us and lead from those (see Romans 12, Eph 4). My personality naturally has a problem with stepping back…I just don’t do it well…and honestly, never have really tried! So the idea of not being the dominant leader-type is against the grain for me. So, for nearly all of January I just stopped planning stuff when our group would come around. This was mostly because I wanted to see what would happen and who would respond how, but it was also somewhat because I’ve felt pre-occupied with sorting out things in my mind lately. Three or four Sundays ago, a few of the guys came to the group and expressed frustration that things weren’t more organized…I was glad they saw this because Jen and I were also frustrated that group didn’t seem to be forming any direction…it was hard not to be defensive as I realized that their expectations of me were a bit different than I thought…But in the end this was a great learning lesson for me. I now realize that the whole, “Where there is no vision, people perish” thing is in the Bible for a reason…and I realize that God has made me to be me…and I need to use all that I am to serve and not be afraid of being too used…I can be life giving and inclusive of others without having to exclude myself. (processing this is still a work in progress)
Tonight I posed this issue: The reality is that right now most churches in Paris are reaching the same type of people…yet very few are really making an effort to be the Church for the millions of people who would never go to a ‘normal’ church. There continues to be a widening gap between the Church culture and ‘normal’ culture and with every passing generation it only gets bigger. Somebody must be willing to radically rethink the way in which we think about Church and how it functions or we will ‘worship service’ our way into irrelevance. I challenged our group tonight to begin to ask the question: What will it take for us to be the Church and reveal the message of Jesus to the people in our lives who would never attend a traditional style church? It will be a very big challenge as most people here who are not a part of the Jesus traditions really don’t know and don’t care much about it. The gap is already a monstrous one to cross. My hope is that we can be creative, be biblically guided, be bold, and be passionate about this effort.
On a recent trip back to the States one of our teammates was told that maybe they should just ’shake the dust off of their feet’ as the people here are obviously unresponsive to the Gospel…That makes me want to puke. To think that Church has really done a good job in the past few hundred years of telling the true Gospel would be a far stretch…I believe that we have been trying to put the new wine (meaning the emerging generations of Europe) into old wineskins (non-inclusive and non-accessible models of Church) and they just can’t hold it. We need new wineskins…and I’m privileged to be amongst my friends here discovering what that may be like here.
Super Bowl XLI (41) is in the books and the Indianapolis Colts are your 2006-2007 NFL Champions! I was able to watch the game in France at my apartment. One of the French stations was picking up the game, complete with commentary all in French. Words like: offsides, false start, touchdown, Dungy, linebacker, etc…are all pretty entertaining to hear pronounced the French way.
The game started at 12:30am here and got over around 4am…When the game was finally over I was both tired and really excited that they had won. One of my first thoughts was that I wished that I could have been in the States at Mark and Monica’s (sports bar) watching it with the guys in Sac…at least a place that I could yell or something…that wouldn’t go over well with my neighbors or with my wife and baby who were trying to sleep!
My pick of Colts 34-Bears 17 was pretty close! The final score was Colts 27-Bears 17…If they had hit the field goal, the extra point, and kicked a field goal at the end of the game instead of turning it over on downs I would have been money! I was actually surprised that the Bears only got a field goal after the first quarter! The Colts’ game plan was nearly perfect and they made the Bears defense look only normal. The Colts defense was amazing (as they have been during the playoffs) and pretty much shutdown the Bears offense.
I also called the MVP as Manning. I do think that he Peyton was the most valuable player, but I don’t think that he was the only really valuable player. A case could easily be made for Dominic Rhodes, Joseph Addai, or Bob Sanders. But the offensive line was great and the entire defense was outstanding. But for the Colts Peyton Manning is the mastermind behind the offense. The way in which he runs the offense sets up success for running plays and keeps defenses on the defensive…It also helped that after a secondary miscue in the first quarter the Bears practically played a prevent defense the rest of the game and allowed Manning to dump the ball on short passes and gain yards, completions, confidence, and time.
Another thing that must be mentioned is the character of Tony Dungy. I have always had a ton of respect for him and how he coached and I could not be any more happy that he won the Super Bowl and is the first African American to do this as a coach. I am proud of him as the coach of ‘my team’, but even more proud that he is a fellow Christian that lives out the values of the Kingdom in a very public way.
So now it’s on to next year…I already love our chances and the attitude of the players. Most of the ’stars’ are coming back and they always pick up good players in the off-season. And now that monkey (that never existed) is off of Mannings back I think that they will have more potential to be dangerous…at least I hope so!
When I was 7 years old I remember my dad taking me to see the Indianapolis Colts play the Buffalo Bills at the Hoosier Dome (now due to corporate takeover it is called the RCA Dome)…The Colts lost that game badly…27-3. I became a Colts fan on that day. When we moved to Portland I still rooted for the Colts because Portland didn’t have an NFL team. When I moved to LA I still rooted for the Colts because both the Rams and the Raiders had moved out of the city. When I moved to Sacramento I still rooted for the Colts because God knows I could never root the Raiders and I was certainly not going to root for the 49ers. And besides…I was a Colts fan. Now I live in Paris. NFL games are only on TV at Canadian pubs and the games are on late at night, but I still go watch games when I can.
Last year, like the last oh…7 years, the Colts had a good team, but every year they came up short…If it wasn’t the Patriots..ugh…it was some other team that Colts found a way to lose to.
But then there is this season. Not the best year they have had, but this is a different team. Manning is no longer playing desperate. The defense is stepping up when they have to. Despite injuries to key players (Stokley, Harper, Sanders, Simon) and the departure of Edgerin James they have come together to finally win the AFC Championship. They weren’t supposed to be able to stop the run on defense…but oops..they dominated the run in all three playoff games. They weren’t supposed to win if the Colts couldn’t score touchdowns…but they did. They weren’t supposed to win if Manning played bad…he hasn’t been himself (yet) but they still won. This year is different. They found a way to score 31 points in the second half against a Patriots team that hadn’t allowed more than 27 points in a game!
And now…the day has come. Super Bowl Sunday. As a long-time fan that has had his fair share of disappointing season endings I believe that they are finally going to win the Super Bowl. My prediction: Colts 34-Bears 17. Manning MVP. Justin Happy fan on Super Bowl Sunday for the first time since 1987 and my first trip to the Hoosier Dome.
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