Dangerous Wonder

Here are some fun pics I took of Dean recently. One of these days I'll actually understand my camera and Photoshop well enough to make these pictures great!

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving. We spent the day and the day after in Cheyenne seeing both Kyle and I's family. Dean was a trooper and charmed everyone. He didn't sleep much, must be the new environment, but managed to not even be that grumpy. It was his first sleepover and gives me hope that he will be a portable baby.
I am so thankful to God for the many blessings in our lives. Despite the turmoil and change we are going through I know that God is steady and faithful and will watch over us. As the Matt Redman song goes "Blessed be your Name" no matter what the circumstance. I am most thankful I think for God's peace and the presence of friends and family around us that love us and care for us. Throughout the last month I have not once felt alone. Thank you! I am glad that Kyle has been home more lately too. We have been getting a lot of home projects done. The homemaker in me loves a well put-together and clean home with some extra time for fun.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Dean with Great-Grandma Griggs.
Dean and Aunt Lisa.
Four Generations of the Griggs-Fisk Family.
Dean "reading" the paper with Great Aunt Kerry Quinn.

I saw this on a friend's registry and loved the idea of it. It's this chair that babies can sit in even before they can sit up by themselves that teaches them to sit up. They say it can be used as early as 3 months or when baby can hold his/her head up on their own. I found this one on ebay and bought it. Dean likes to sit up and see the world, but often falls over and gets stuck. He wasn't so sure about his "Bumbo" at first, but I think will end up loving it. It does make them use their abdominal and back muscles to stay up. It looks like it's hard plastic, but really it's this soft foam "stuff" that is firm enough to hold babies up, but not so hard as to be uncomfortable. I love new technology. It's fascinating!

After my super serious posts of late, I thought I'd add some more pics of my beautiful boy. He is eating a lot and learning to sit up on his own! How fast they change!

A trip to the park on an unusually warm day. Dean riding in his big boy stroller!Dean drinking out of his sippy cup. Actually I think he just chews on it and happens to occasionally swallow water!
Dean playing in his new toy!

Hypocrite- a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; especially : the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion (www.merriamwebster.com)

This word has been thrown around a lot lately in the past week, especially in the general direction of Christians. Now we know that only God knows the true contents of one's heart and what they truly believe. However, our Bible does tell us that we can know a person by the fruit they bear. So how does Paul's ruminating in Romans fit in?

Romans 7:15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[c] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

Paul seems to be saying here that though he has certain beliefs and morals, he doesn't always live by them. I guess according to the definition he is a hypocrite, as one indulging in hypocrisy. If this is the case, then I would argue that anyone with any belief and standard of moral living is a hypocrite. Who among us hasn't found themselves doing the very thing that they believe to be wrong? It doesn't even have to be of a deeply controversial nature. For example, the diet and "health food" industry in America is a billion dollar industry and yet more Americans are overweight and obese then ever. We must conclude then that we are a nation of hypocrites. We claim and, I think most believe, that good nutrition and daily exercise are good for us and an important part of a healthy lifestyle. Why aren't we seeing that lived out?

Humanism has become a very popular belief system in our culture because it holds us accountable to nothing. I can believe one thing one day and if I change my mind the next or live contrary to what I've said it's ok. I am the master and dictator of my own life. It's my "get out of hypocrisy free card". I think people fear the label hypocrite more then any other racial or ethnic slur. For some reason the one virtue our country clings too is to be people who "live what they believe". That's pretty easy when you don't believe in anything greater then yourself.

Monothesitic religions ARE hard. Only one God and one set of standards. Not a lot of room to squirm if you don't want to be labeled a hypocrite. Jesus used the term hypocrite to describe the Pharasees and Sadducees (i.e. church leaders of the day). They were not living what they preached and were inacting burdensome laws on the people, that weren't apart of God's original body of law. Many in the secular world today would argue that that scenario is being repeated in present times. However, if we look closer we will see that Jesus lived much of his life with hypocrites. Many theives, liars, swindlers, and sexually immoral people came to listen to Him preach. These were people who had agreed to set themselves apart from other nations and live according to a holy covenant with God. They were in a word- hypocrites, members of a nation that espoused one way of living and yet blatently practised another. So why is it that Jesus condemed the Pharasees and Sadducees and not the others? I contend it was a matter of the heart. Not only were most of the church leaders of the day hypocrites by the true definition of the word, but when confronted with it refused to humble themselves and confess their sins. The others that Jesus welcomed, loved, and forgave were truly repentant. They realized their sin and hypocrisy and found forgiveness and redemption on the other side.

The point I'm trying to make with all this is that at some point or another, all of us are going to fit the definition of hypocrite and most of us more then once. The important thing is that there is grace for the repentant and strength in the midst of our weaknesses. Do we continue then in sin because of grace? Paul answered that very question:

Romans 6:1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?

We are always going to struggle and war against that sin nature, however because of the grace of God we will overcome and some day soon in that "sweet by and by" we will be able to forever shed the label - hypocrite.

The following is an excerpt from my journal entry today. Normally I don't write journal-type entries in here. As I've encouraged my sister, journals are a place to dump all your thoughts and emotions without any logical process or such, whereas blogs are for the refined versions of all those thoughts and feelings. However, this entry today somehow came out in my journal very logical and moving, so I wanted to share it with you.

"Now that the shock and grief over the sin has passed, I simply grieve for our loss and theirs. I'm such a status quo kind of person and am reluctant to change, especially when I foresee the change as bad. I like things to be 'restored' to how they were intended to be. Will I ever be able to walk the halls of New Life, look up at the corner office, or drive by Old Ranch Road and not wish for the 'good ole' days'? I think the church will do great, and will probably flourish more now that the sin of the leader as been pulled out. I guess we, as staff, will just miss them. Life will carry on, the church will thrive, God will be worshipped and preached to all nations; but there will be a hole in our hearts the size of the Haggard family. They have left their legacy not in buildings, books, influence, or money; but rather on the hearts and lives of everyone they touched. WE are the church they built,not the building we worship in. The best way for us to make sure that the last 21 years are not wasted is for us to live life as they taught us. A legacy left in another always becomes bigger then the originator. Perhaps it was time (though not the circumstance) for Pastor Ted to move out of the way so that his legacy could grow beyond him. May we continue that legacy for years and generations to come!"

How fragile life really is. We think we have things under control and the future planned out and in a matter of minutes or hours that is all radically changed. I am faced today with the fall of a dear friend and spiritual leader. It feels like almost his death with the way I'm grieving. Perhaps that might have been easier. He was the last person I ever would have suspected or even accused. It seemed that he had great defenses in place to guard from such sin traps. This all brings me to the sobering realization that if he can fall, it is ONLY by God's grace that I am where I am. Here is one who knows his Bible and God far better then I and yet not even he is immune from sin. It gives me cause to look at my life and began eliminating those areas that may become "foot-holds" for satan. How much more important my time with God and choosing carefully what I spend my time on seems. May God turn what was intended for evil and destruction here and use it for His good!