the day after....

Yesterday marked one of the greatest decisions and moments of my life. It was four years ago yesterday that Pearl and I committed our lives to each other till death do us part, for better or worse, and a list of other conditions that basically means SHE SAID YES!

It’s been an absolutely wonderful four years… four years! That’s a college degree! I have a bachelor of Pearl.

So to celebrate our special day, we had special events.

It all started with flowers (note to all guys, start all things with flowers!)

That led to a cup of Pearl’s favorite drink

(Starbucks whole milk, no water Chai)

Which only naturally could be accompanied by breakfast in bed.

(Bacon... yet another one of Pearls' favorite things in life)

(biscuits... mmm)

Here’s the spread… All this prepped by 7:00am and hot to greet her as she woke up.

It was a great morning… Pearl really appreciated the cheesy eggs, Chai, etc but mostly she just loved being the center of my attention and knowing that I was trying to love her… even if my cooking was not so great.

Shortly after, Pearl scooted out to work and I went to the gym, talked with my crazy funny old neighbor Barney for a little while,

(that’s not sweet tea he’s drinking… he tricked me one time in to taking a big gulp, only to receive a big surprise)

we talked a lot about photography, our new business was going and then places he had photographed. He showed me some really nice work he had done, surprisingly nice work.

After I wrapped up our conversation, I was finally was greeted by my lovely bride in the afternoon to start our evening date.

We went to Strawberry Hill Restaurant, which I will now be telling everyone to give a try. It was a wonderful time. The food was amazing and my company was breath taking.

She looked so fine… so I had to take a picture.

but she thought I looked fine too, so she had to take a picture

Here’s the rest of what our evening looked like. A wonderful meal, then a great time at the movies (we give StarTrek 2 thumbs up).

Pictures on a tuesday - once again

Here's a couple of shots from walking around today.

enjoy...

coffee, coonhound, couch...

So this morning I find myself sitting on the couch, legs out stretched and comfortable, a perfectly brewed pot of French pressed coffee inviting my senses to do a little dance, our coonhound curled up next to me in a deep sleep and the sounds of a favorite CD filling the airwaves.

As I enjoy such a blissful moment I find myself reading a letter written by a man named Luke, to other man named Theophilus, about a third man named Jesus (did you catch all that?).

I’ve been rereading the writings about Jesus and his teachings from a renewed set of eyes these past few weeks. This brings old stories into a wonderfully new light.

This morning I read Luke’s account of a section of teaching called “the Beatitudes”

Basically this is a section of teaching where Jesus says you’re blessed if you’re poor, hungry, weeping, excluded, etc. and giving a “woe” if you’re rich, full, laughing, and loved by others. So I’ll be honest, I’ve never really gotten this teaching. I’m sure there’s really smart people who have some really great explanations of these passages, and if I really wanted to impress you I could probably conjure up a couple of ideas of my own. But I’ll save myself the embarrassment and your boredom and pose the question that’s running around in my mind this morning.

Here it is… “Are the Beatitude teachings really about blessings and curses or perspective? “

In essence “when this life is lived in light of God’s kingdom, this life’s the dumps”

Almost a sense of when you know what’s coming, what was originally designed for us to experience, you’d feel like this life is like being hungry all the time, being poor and never needing, or like you’re constantly weeping.

Does that make sense?

But I’ll say again, I don’t know and these are only questions, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

But for now, my legs are a sleep and need to be woke up, the coffee is calling me to the bathroom, the coonhound has found an itch and is scratching/kicking me, and I’m tired of this CD and ready to change it.

I guess a lot of life is perspective driven… and for me, if this life is THIS GOOD, I can’t wait to see how much better it’s going to get!

It’s Half full and about to heap over

questions of faith

The other night I ran into a girl from the church I worked at last year. It was good seeing her again and we did the social verbal dance of asking about life and parents and the such. I noticed a little hesitation in one of her replies about school and when questioned a little she revealed a deep chasm of questions, doubts, fears, and mess she is trying to process through.

In a nutshell she was done with religion. She was burned, hated what her parents, church, and friends where trying to sale as faith and even at one point she referred to her parents faith as a "toxic pool of religion" (strong words, yet made me laugh a little).

I had a strange reaction to her thoughts and rejection of faith.

I wasn't scared for her, although I might should be.

I wasn't afraid she'd never return to what I believe to be correct, although I hope she does

I was simple proud of her.

Proud that she was willing to really wrestle with her faith. That she just wasn't opening her mouth and saying "give me the Blue Religious cool-aid and I'll drink"

She's really trying to figure out what she believes, why she believes it and then ultimately spend the rest of her life backing up these beliefs.

This is risky business... this is hard business for Christian families and faith leaders.

She may never believe like I believe again... her beliefs may be similar or drastically different.

But I think I'm ok with that.

I'm asking what is better, a person to say they believe what I do, yet never really own it? believe it? commit to living it?

Or someone truly believing something, yet something that I do not believe in?

I of course think my beliefs are right, thus why I believe them... just as you believe what you believe because you believe it is right.

So all that to say...

my dear college friend,

May you continue to wrestle with faith, hope and love.

May you find people who will give you space to reflect and question, yet also find truth and love.

May you come out of this season owning what you believe, and believing in how you live.

I hope you will believe like I do, but if you don't may I, and those like me, give you space to believe next to me.

And if I was honest I'd confess I need to question what I believe more, pausing more to really chew on what I'm reading, acting out of, and declaring I believe in. Even this morning as I read sections of the book of Mark I found myself needing to pause and ponder, to ask many questions, questions I still can't answer. But for what ever reason I choose to still believe, to have faith, and to say that this ancient text has authority, truth, and life.

Faith is a tricky business. and giving someone else's kid permission to question it is easier to do when it's not my kid wrestling... so may I remember these words when my kids do wrestle many many years from now, and may my house be a safe place to have honest questions and true searching. And may I demonstrate a humble faith that never stops chewing on what it means to love God and to walk in according to his Story.