Archive for September, 2008

Home…

Published
by
Justin
on September 24, 2008
in Head to Fingers
. 2 Comments

I think that I’m realizing something more clearly now than ever: I miss the feeling of home. I miss ownership of space. I would have thought this was weird more than a year ago, but after this season of life I am finding myself wanting to sit at my own table, clean my own kitchen, sit in my own chair, and sleep in my own bed. None of these things have been a reality for us. All of these things are more of an expression of familiarity, and this is what makes home feel like home. Living overseas adds even more strain to not feeling like much is familiar…and the issues kind of multiply themselves.

Familiarity is not a sentiment I would use to describe our lives. I think nomadic is a much better word. The only things are familiar to me now are the suitcases we have, clothes we wear (which are wearing out quickly), and the reality that the only thing constant has been our little tribe.

I’m at a place now, where I can’t even imagine what it would be like to live in the same place for more than a few months. It will be weird when we settle into a city. The thought of it kind of excites me to be honest. I never would have thought I would hear myself say, “I wish we could just get settled…” But alas. Here I am, wanting and praying that God will make a way for us to find familiarity in the sea of all that is unfamiliar.

Our journey over the past year or so has made me reflect about how spiritually speaking we’re never going to feel like home in this life. Our souls (should) be nomadic, wandering this earth, leaping at anything that resembles what our spiritual home will be. We should carry with us the excitement that one day we’ll get settled, but at the same realizing that God has us in a nomadic place, as hopefull sojourners, to give this hope away to other nomads who don’t have it.

So, pray for our family as we wait, seek, listen, and pursue. Pray that our souls won’t lose hope and that our bodies will quickly find some place familiar to rest.

**updated** The Renewed Mind Is the Key vs. Jesus is My Friend

Published
by
Justin
on September 24, 2008
in From Out of Nowhere
. 5 Comments

This is seriously amazing…I half way respect their effort, but the rest of me just can’t this ‘are you serious?’ grin off my face…you know the one: where you’re kind of smiling because it’s awkward…and you don’t know what to do with your face.

Anyway…watch this and you’ll see what I mean.

The Renewed Mind Is the Key.

ht: mike g

After a couple of comments by Erin and Kozmo this had to be put in the mix. I don’t really know which one I like more. Both have such positive messages and nice matching outfits that I’m sure honor Jesus more than unmatching ones…but this is a toughy.

Castles Made of Sand

Published
by
Justin
on September 21, 2008
in Babies & Spirituality
. 1 Comment

The other week Jen and I got to go to the beach while visiting Valencia, Spain. The beach with Maisie is much more fun now that she’s a bit older! The last time she just kinda laid under the umbrella! But this time we went down to close to the water and started to dig a hole together. What started as a hole became a castle that ‘we’ were building together. As we were building this mini-kingdom of sand together a number of things were going through my mind about the spiritual kingdom that we’re also building. I’m not so sure I want to draw any conclusions to my story, so I’ll just tell it and let you see the metaphors you see…

As we were building this castle ‘together’ Maisie was doing her thing. She was taking up handfuls of mushy sand and putting them in other places. She would even attempt to put the sand on top of the little towers we had made. But there were times where she was kind of missing the point…you would think that at the old age of one and a half and with all of 3 beach trips under her belt she would be a pro castle builder, but she’s not. She was digging out sand from outside of the walls and putting the sand inside of the walls. I was quickly realizing that I was the one building the castle and Maisie was just actively participating…her real contribution wasn’t in what she did or didn’t do. Or in what she did or didn’t accomplish. The point is that we were doing something together. Regardless of her contribution, I found joy in working together because she is my daughter.

Castles made of sand are never meant to last forever. Eventually, the water wins. Our castle did ok. We built it in a spot where the sand was still wet, but water would still get to it. Our first rush of water didn’t make Maise too happy. Not really because of what it did to the castle, but because it got her! She wasn’t a big fan of the Mediteranean water taking residence in her diaper and creating goose bumps on her legs. Despite Maisie’s situation, the castle held up pretty well! The mote was filled with water and the walls didn’t get completely destroyed. But there was some maintenance to be done and we learned some things about how to better handle the next wave.

Eventually, we had done all we could do…or had the patience to do…and we went back up to the blanket to eat lunch. As we walked away, I got a different perspective on our tiny, one building, kingdom. While working on it close up I thought that it looked pretty good, but seeing it from a distance proved that I was wrong. One tower was all crooked, and it was much smaller than I thought. But it was what it was…and Maisie and I did it together. I had fun and she had fun….and it’s a memory I’ll hold on to.

While watching people walk by I saw them look at our castle. Some almost didn’t see it (see paragraph above) and almost stepped on it. Other kids did see and looked like they wanted to step on it. Part of me wanted to yell, “Hey! Watch out!” or “Don’t even think about stepping on that! It’s mine!” The truth is…that castle is only owned by time…and wanting to hold on to or preserve it was nearly futile.

I just decided that it’s better to be grateful for what it was, knowing that Maisie and I will build many more castles together.

Maybe even bigger ones.

Paul Tall

Published
by
Justin
on September 17, 2008
in Life
. 2 Comments

Maisie has gotten really familiar with our friend Paul becuase they gave us these onesies with his picture on it! So, Paul…this video is for you!

Back from Spain

Published
by
Justin
on September 16, 2008
in Life
. 3 Comments

I love it that I’ve gotten requests for me to write on my blog again from more than one person. Two people in fact: My mom and Jen’s mom!

Anyway, life has been full the past week. We’ve been down to Spain to continue to pursue where God is leading us. We had a great time together and feel more and more confident in our calling to head to Spain. We spent 3.5 days in both Barcelona and Valencia. Time to fly by as we stayed on the move the whole time. I wish that I had worn a pedometer or something to know how many kilometers we walked! On average we probably walked over 4 hours per day. Even the public transport can get you from A to B faster, walking is the best way to really see a city, to get a sense for its size and to see its people. My feet are tired and were very ready to get to pedaling on a bike in Amsterdam instead of walking on flip flops….but very soon they will my flip flop tan lines.

I want to write more about our trip…and I will soon…specifically about what I learned about church planting by buidling a sand castle with Maisie. And also about the diversity of the cities we visited….later…

Riding with Rain Face

Published
by
Justin
on September 5, 2008
in Amsterdam and other Dutch Oddities
. 2 Comments

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.