I love my imperfect church

I'm taking a course at seminary this semester called "Seminar in Congregational Studies: Learning to love the local church, warts and all."  Every church has warts.  There is no such thing as a perfect church.  At least, I have never been to one.  The same applies to marriage.  There are no perfect husbands, and no perfect wives, yet we still fall in love, and still commit ourselves to our spouses.

I love my church.  It is not perfect.  I love my wife.  She is not perfect.  What a beautiful picture of grace.  God loves us, and we are not perfect!  I'm thankful for these powerful pictures in my life that remind me how God loves us.  At our Thanksgiving service this past week, I was reminded again why I love my church.  We shared a friendly football game, ate donuts, and enjoyed spending time together.  There was anticipation and energy before the service started.  People came ready to meet God in worship.  We were encouraged and challenged by God's word.  We shared stories of gratitude because of God's goodness in our lives.  We shed tears.  We laughed.  We celebrated.  It's easy to love a church like this.

But it's not that easy.  People let us down.  There are disagreements.  We get hurt, and most likely we are involved in hurting others too.  But let's not forget that we love each other.  And that means grace and forgiveness must define our relationships.  Jesus loves us even though we are not perfect.  And that is why I love my church, her warts and all.

Chaotic Week

I woke up Monday morning and said to my wife, "this is going to be a crazy week...I'll see you on Friday."  Here's why:

Monday: Class all morning, work all afternoon, homework all evening
Tuesday: Work all day, class in the afternoon, more work all night
Wednesday: Class all morning, Work all afternoon, rehearsal all evening
Thursday: Attending a conference in Chicago all day, leaving early, getting back late.
Friday: Class all morning, work all afternoon.  FRIDAY EVENING is FREE!!!

No doubt, weeks like this are tough, but thankfully they don't happen every week.  Although, most of this stuff is great, and I'm looking forward to it, it is tough to not feel guilty for neglecting my wife and son.  (That's because I am).  Here's to looking forward to next week: no school, Thanksgiving dinner, extra sleep, and extra time with family.  To my generous and supportive wife, and to my amazing son, I love you both dearly, and I am so thankful you give me grace when I'm not around as much.  I miss you and I'm looking forward to spending time with you this weekend and next weekend!
How about you? How do you survive long weeks and chaotic schedules?

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year...

Some may say Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, and while Christmas is wonderful, I'll take Autumn, thank you very much!  Take a look:

A Song for My Family

The lyrics to this song overwhelmed this past weekend.

Still letting it sink in.

This is a song for my family
Outside the walls of Sunday morning

from some within.

This is a song to confess our sins,

Lay it all out, and try to begin again.

To hope again.

Please forgive our ignorance

In looking down on you

Please forgive our selfishness

For hiding in our pews while the world bleeds

While the world needs us to be what we should be

This is a song for my family who 

Just can’t believe in the Jesus that you’ve seen

on Sunday morning.

This is a song for the cynical saints.

The burned out and hopeless.

The ones that we’ve cast away.

I feel your pain.

Please forgive the wastefulness of all that we could be

But don’t forget, there’s more than this

Her beauty still exists

His bride is still alive

His bride is still alive

His bride is still alive

His bride is still alive

His bride is still alive

This is a song for my family inside

The walls of Sunday morning.

Be what you should be.

aaaaannnd I'm back

So ya, it's been a few months.  I needed a break.  But now I'm back, for now.

I went to the David Crowder concert this past weekend.  Wonderful time!  I'm sad to see this group of creative, musical, socially awkward, clever, entertaining guys break up.  But I'm thankful for what they've produced over the last 11 years.  Plus, I always love me some sweet face melting solos...

Gungor opened for *DCB and they were spectacular as well.  I mean, come on, a cello player beat-boxing at the same time?  Seriously awesome!

That's all for now.  Happy October everyone!

Things I've thought about blogging about...

I know...I've been absent for awhile.  It's not that I didn't have topics that I wanted to blog about, but sometimes it's wiser to remain silent.  Here's a list of topics I thought about commenting on.

-The End of the World/The Rapture  (Which didn't happen today, by the way)
-Obama's speech about Israel
-Rob Bell's book, "Love Wins"
-The death of Osama Bin Laden
-The state of MI cutting state funding for public schools
-My brother's wedding
-The Royal Wedding

etc...  But really, who cares!
Now for some real news.  MICAH IS WALKING!!!

Lots of Foto's for Friday

We are very blessed to have moved into a new duplex in Kentwood.  We spent a lot of time and energy removing wallpaper and painting to make it our own.  Here are some "before" and "after" photos of the progress.

Dining Room

Kitchen

Border in the Living Room and Hallway

Micah's Room

Master Bedroom

Bathroom

 

 

 

Isn't the wall paper lovely?  Don't worry.  It's all gone.  Here's the "after" photos.

Living Room looking into Dining Area

Hallway from Living Room

Master Bedroom

Micah's Room

Bathroom

I'll try to add more pics later that include the furniture, window treatments, and wall art, etc...  Until then, thanks to all of you who helped or wished you could help with the move!