365 Short Days, One Long Year

It all started with a cup of coffee with her dad. That was a year and seven months ago. Who knew what all would come of it. In the last twelve months Natalie and I have experienced: our first kiss, a car accident, home remodeling, financial ups and downs, livestock successes and failures, lots of good wine, food shared with good friends, and the birth of our first son. It has been a good year, and I look forward to many, many more.

Real Beautiful Bodies

I can't help but think that our world, in its full scale fleshly materialism, is in the clutches of gnosticism. The whole world is obsessed with bodies. We want six pack abs, bulging biceps, and fuller busts. We associate beauty with a robotic, utilitarian, youthful type of body. You know, buns of steel. When we are forty-five, we regret that we no longer look twenty. Some still try. The body has a tendency to mature, and that involves stretching, bulging, and sagging. That is the reality of it. But we are obsessed with perfect bodies. Ones that are tight, hard, and don't wear out. That's not reality, it gnostic. It denies the fundamental physical reality of being a physical being in a fallen world.

This gnostic view of the body denies life. It is a view that says the primary purpose of the body is to give life to itself. But we know that to live we must lay aside our own life. This is easy for me to say as a guy. I don't see the effects of this as quickly. Laying aside my life physically may actually make me look stronger, tighter, and all of that. When I work, because I do work, my body for a time will improve. But what about my wife? What happens when she embraces the purpose of the body God has given her, and lays aside her life to give life? For starters, she gives life. Life grows inside of her. And then she starts to grow and change, and the world looks at her and says, 'eww'. She is uncomfortable often, and by accepting pregnancy she has accepted changes in her body that may never go away. Many in the world, and in the church, look at that kind of sacrifice and cannot fathom why she would do such a thing. It is because only by laying down our lives can we live, and she will not only live, but will have given life to another.

But it is not that she has accepted the idea of looking ugly to give life. Far from it! She has accepted a different idea of beauty. Hers is a more mature beauty. It is a beauty that in twenty years will not look like a girl's, but will look like the beauty of a woman who has given life to the covenant children of God. We will both one day be old and wrinkly. I hope we can look back through the years not regretting that we have lost our youth, but rejoicing that we have given it. I hope that we will look at the past not as somewhere we wish we could be still, but as somewhere that was a step to where we are going. Where we are going is a real world of real redeemed bodies. Mature ones that are more beautiful than any we can imagine here.

Cupboards, Keys, and Evil Witch-Queens in Full Audio

I found a great new way to enjoy a good book. Just finished 100 Cupboards by ND Wilson (known by some as the strange son of that heretic Doug Wilson). Great book. It's riveting, full of plot twists, action, character, and an evil witch queen. It is definitely the type of book you would pick up and not put back down until you can finish it. But I couldn't do that. You see, I was reading it aloud to my lovely wife. I could only read so much before my voice would begin to go. Two chapters was about my limit. I couldn't read on silently, because my dinner was on the line, and I tend to be ticklish. So I would read a section and put it down. Then I would spend the rest of the next day dying to know what happened. One night I stopped reading, and couldn't sleep because of all the little things going bump in the night (...so the book has a slight suspense to it, we're all human). It was great. I highly recommend this approach to reading a good book. Especially the wife to read it to. That part's great.

Great Big Day

It's not every day that I get to spend two year's income. But, for the smile it puts on Natalie's face, it's worth every penny. I am now the proud owner of 1100 sq. ft. of shelter from the rain, which sits on 5 acres of God's green earth. A kitchen for her, a front porch for me. Life is good.

Sodium Deficiency

How odd to think that only a few hours ago I was eating a nice Sunday dessert with a group of guys conversing with Doug Wilson, 300 miles away. Okay, they were conversing. Believe it or not, I couldn't think of anything to say that didn't begin with, "I'm engaged, and I was wondering about..." Yeah, I've got tunnel vision. Go ahead, make fun. I'll be laughing along.

I had a great weekend at the Cornerstone Annual Theological Conference and Ball. But it was missing something. Like a great big feast without any salt. It may be good, but the whole time you know it could be better. It was like knowing a joke and not being able to share it. It was like being engaged and having to dance with other girls. It was very like being 300 miles away from your betrothed. But I did have a good time learning and fellowshipping with beloved bretheren.

And while I went around having all this fun and lamenting, my faithful bride-to-be stayed home and worked hard, as she has been working hard all along. She is faithful, and she brings me joy.

Happy, Distracting News That Might Knock Your Socks Off

Up until now you all have known me as a tall, strapping, and brilliant single, young man. But I would like to announce to you that I have graduated. Yes, I am still a tall, strapping, and brilliant young man, but no longer can you attach to me the pronoun single. I am not. No longer will I bow down to the tyranies of those who lord their married status over me. No longer will I, like a foot, be walked on all day long, but like a head, full of hair with no signs of a receeding hair line, will flourish. Evermore I will stand and grow as a husband and father. I will, like the strong arm of Stalin, lead my red army to victory. All this to say, I am engaged to the most wonderful, Godly young lady, Natalie.