Family Picture Overload

Work is busy these days, but we're managing to do some fun family things too. Here's a peak.
We love our yard. These orchids are in full bloom right now.

 Some serious crafting.

I found this one morning last week and it made my heart smile. Justice had all of our toothbrushes ready when breakfast was over.

 Halloween. Justice wanted to be a Christmas Present. And Micah is happy in any dress-up clothes.

 Building Daddy's birthday present one slow day at a time.

 Target's 90% off post-halloween sale!

 Beach time. Justice is learning to swim and it is so beautiful.

 The hard work of cleaning the pack n play when you draw on it with a marker.

 A BEAUTIFUL sculpture we WON at a recent fundraising event we attended for The Pregnancy Center in Kona. The sculpture is called Keiki Honu, and it is easily the most beautiful non-living thing in our home.

 Lots of blocks these days, with both kiddos.

.

Learning how to Talk about God

I had the opportunity, with a little help from family and friends, to join the Point Loma Center for Pastoral Leadership “Holy Conversations” event the last weekend of Oct. I was excited to interact with a few people I know – but have never met – and join a conversation that highlighted two things: generational perspectives on our place within the denomination (with an emphasis on the millennial generation); and our changing understanding of holiness and the church. And perhaps I will share a few thoughts from this event at another time.

But the story I want to share did not happen during this event, but rather on the way to it. I’ve been teaching a class on “Declaring the Gospel of God” for those called into ministry from our church. I’ve tried to teach this class with an eye toward the every day. The way we eat, practice justice, talk with our neighbors, show compassion, organize our daily routine, worship, and pray are all ways that Christians declare the Good News of God. In short, declaring the gospel of God is an everyday practice that involves the very mundane acts of life. And Christians practice these things publicly, for the world to see (what we call ‘witness’). But I should add, we share about God’s work in our life, putting words to our faith, not to persuade others, but because we can’t speak the truth of our own life without talking about God. As Thomas Long puts it:

At the most profound level, Christians talk about faith because it is a truly human act to want to tell the truth…Christians believe that we cannot tell the truth, not the whole truth, without talking about God, and if we cannot tell the whole truth, we cannot be fully alive as human beings.

Christians talk about God because we can’t talk about ourselves without talking about God. So here’s an example. I was staying at a hotel downtown and thought that I’d save money by taking the bus. Except my plans were disrupted from a missed flight in San Francisco which put me in my hotel room in San Diego just before 1am. I woke up at 4am Hawaii Time (7am in California) in order to get ready on time. I was tired, running late, and wasn’t interested in learning to navigate a new public transit system. So, I hailed a cab. 

A tall slender man welcomed me into his world. And while I couldn’t make out exactly where his accent was from, I knew it wasn’t from San Diego. So I asked where he was from, and he told me Ohio (I was also certain his original home was not Ohio). We made small talk. I told him I was a pastor visiting an event planned by Point Loma Nazarene. He said I looked too young to be a pastor (I get that a fair amount). And then we arrived at my destination. I hadn’t asked him his name yet. I was actually hoping to finish browsing through the morning's news and relevant Facebook posts on the cab ride; so I introduced myself, shook hands, and got his name: Kareem.

I figured I would end up meeting someone at the event who could come the next morning to pick me up. I assumed I would not meet Kareem again, but I was thankful that I was able to contribute to a local person and profession that often has a hard time making ends meet. 

Well, apparently no one lives close to downtown and my plans for a ride were thwarted. And when I checked out the next morning for the last day of the event, Kareem was sitting in his cab outside my hotel. So I waved, opened the door, and said, “Good Morning Kareem.” A smile slowly stretched across his face. He called me John. After re-introducing myself, we began a nice a little conversation about halloween. About halfway through our short cab ride, Kareem made a simple statement:

“World is full of problems, isn’t it?"

Now, I’m not sure why he decided to say this. Maybe people intuit that pastors are especially aware of the world’s brokenness. Hopefully, people see how pastors draw close to people in times of suffering or grief. For whatever reason, Kareem decided to slightly steer the conversation in this direction.

“It sure is Kareem. Just this morning I read about an eight month old baby killed by the Israeli Defense Force by tear gas inhalation."

“Eight months old? That’s bad. That’s really bad. You know, in Islam we believe that God will bring judgment to this world."

And there it was. Simple. Everyday conversations can sometimes naturally flow in and out of a persons belief system. And that’s how it should be. Talking about God should be the easiest thing we do. But it should be noted, it’s not just Christians. Billions of people integrate a life of faith with life itself, where there exists no separation between one’s spiritual life and everything else. And, as a true Wesleyan, I believe God’s grace is present everywhere as we learn to be attuned to where God is already working. And when we learn to see God’s grace outside of the boundaries the church is notorious for constructing, sharing God’s life flows abundantly. 

“Kareem, Christians also believe that God’s judgment will come. For us, God grieves when people suffer – that suffering, pain, and hurt are not God’s will. And we see this as good news. There will come a day when God heals the world’s problems.” Kareem smiled a simple smile of recognition, perhaps even kinship. 

That’s all I said. We arrived at our destination. I asked him where he was from, and he told me Somalia. He asked if I had ever been to Africa. I was in Egypt five years ago. He knew that was close to the Egyptian Revolution and inquired about the timing of my visit and why I was there. So I was able to share that I was only there for a few days about 6 months before the Egyptian Revolution but I actually spent most my time in Palestine as a Christian peacemaker. 

I paid. We shook hands, and said goodbye. 

I like these holy conversations.