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As I sit down to put together some words for this week’s “Lessons from the Book of Matthew” I do so from around the other side of the globe. Two weeks into a three week journey I find myself looking out a hotel room window at the city of Jerusalem, Israel. My journeys have taken me from the Southern region of Europe in Greece, Crete, Turkey, Cypress and now Israel. I hope to share more over the next several months in future “Lessons”. I will not fully be able to digest everything I have seen and experienced until I get home and let it all sink in. I have visited the places that Paul visited during the early stages of the church, walked in the footsteps of Jesus in the cities of Bethlehem, Nazareth, Galilee and Jerusalem. I have stood and prayed at the place where Jesus started his public ministry, where he gave us the Beatitudes, where he ate the Last Supper, where he prayed his last night, where he was crucified, died and was buried. What I want to share with you today is the thought that occurred to me as we were taking a boat ride on the Sea of Galilee where Jesus approached four fishermen. As Jesus walked along the shore of the Lake Galilee, he saw two brothers who were fishermen, Simon (called Peter) and his brother Andrew, catching fish in the lake with a net. Jesus said to them, “Come with me, and I will teach…
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As I send this out this evening I am sitting in a hotel room in New York City on the eve of leaving for a long, 21 day journey. The last few days have been full of last minute details and packing. The though occurred to me over the last few days about the stark difference the packing list is between whether or not you are taking children with you. On Tuesday I leave with a friend to travel to the Holy Land on a tour of Greece, Israel and Petra. I am sad that I will be leaving my family at home but am encouraged by all of our friends who have offered to help out if Theresa needs it. It is truly a miracle in how this trip came about…through the generosity of the friend I am traveling with, his wife and the answer to prayer that they both received and felt that I was supposed to accompany him as a travel companion on this trip in her absence. I am excited about the trip. I really do not know what to expect but those who have gone have told me that I will never be the same and it is an incredible growing experience. Back to the packing topic…I recall several years ago when we made a trip to California to attend a CHARGE Conference and spend a little time sight seeing…we nearly loaded down the plane. Just the things for Matthew was almost enough to fill our van. Feeding supplies, diapers, clothes, extra stomach buttons,…
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As a young boy growing up in a small college town I was like most other boys in that I participated in t-ball, then minor league, then little league until I was old enough for pony league baseball. I was never very good at it, but I did enjoy being part of a team who did well once in a while. I even pitched an inning in an All Star game and did surprising well. Well in that I didn’t hit anyone and struck a few people out. This next week we will enter into the 107th post season of what we know as Major League Baseball. If you are a baseball fan, or even a fan of any sports, nothing is more engaging than the World Series. Over the years we have seen hallmark stadium names being replaced with corporate names, there have been drug and gambling scandals that have scared the game, even for a brief time ladies played the game while the boys were off to war…but the game itself has not changed. Even though it has been a while since I have actually played the game there is nothing like the feel of a brand new baseball and smell of the leather cover. The feel of a perfectly broken in glove or the solid feel of a bat when a baseball hits it in the sweet spot and the ball launches into the outfield between two fielders. Watching my own kids play the game brings back a flood of memories of…
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I think I am safe to assume that most of us would not rank a visit to the dentist as one of our favorite things to do. The annual or semi-annual ritual of having ones teeth cleaned can put even the most detailed person on edge. Afterall, the visit really is a report card of the progress of our daily regime of brushing, flossing and laying off the sweets…or lack of. Personally, I have experienced the good and the bad of an office visit to the dentist. The bad included the final demise of a tooth that had a root canal many years ago, cracking in half years after that and finally progressing to the point that it had to be pulled. Many of you may be squirming in your chair at this point…I have to admit, it makes me uncomfortable even thinking about it. Why would I talk about such an uncomfortable subject? Well, this week included and annual visit for Matthew to University of Michigan Dental Clinic to get his teeth cleaned. There is no way to prep Matthew for this visit. He simply does not understand that it is for his own good…Yeah, we have all heard that before…”it is for your own good” or “this will hurt me more than it will you”. A trip for Matthew to the dentist either includes sedation, which is not always a good thing for him, or the dreaded Papoose Board. A device that wraps the body to a board so arms and legs…
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Just before writing for this blog for the week we witnessed yet another time a behavior that Matthew has been developing over the past year…doing something he knows is wrong and then punishing himself for doing it. It started with his way of getting our attention, his way of letting us know: “I know you don’t like this…but I get a reaction when I do it”. He began pinching us to get our attention and progressed to pinching when he was mad or upset. We started to correct him and discipline in the form of telling him “nice hands” and having him fold his hands nicely as a form of time out. Now he pinches and self-disciplines by folding his hands and flashes his trademark smile. His newest thing is to push his baby sister Sarah down and then run to his bedroom to take the mandatory time out by setting the timer and taking a seat in the appointed chair. I have the same response you may be having…telling myself that he knows what he is doing but decides to do it anyway. He knows that there is consequences but doesn’t care if he hurts someone or something. He has figured out that there are consequences but hasn’t figured out that the things he is doing are serious grievances. He hasn’t come to the point that by doing the things he does hurts other people…not only physically but emotionally. As I was reflecting on what I was going to…
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Our church congregation began a new sermon series this week and have embarked on a look at the Gospel of John. The series has been titled “A Beautiful Life”. I can imaging from a non-believers perspective the title may sound cliché and maybe even a little naive. But, coming from a family who are experiencing the heartaches and joys of raising a special needs child, being able to say that we have “A Beautiful Life” does not just happen. It is the total sum of all of our experiences, including pain, rejection, worry, mis-understanding and joy, miracles and being able to see the very fingerprints of God in situations and events. I am convinced that the more we experience  trials the more we can clearly see the joys and are able to be blessed as a family and individually. This is the very thing that our pastor spoke about in the area of faith. Faith in the form of a verb, or action and not as a noun, or thing. It is no secret that I enjoy the outdoors and especially fishing…so it should be no surprise that I am going to share a quote from a book about fishing and faith. One reason Paul caught more fish than anyone else was that he had his flies in the water more than anyone else. “Brother,” he would say, “there are no flying fish in Montana. Out here, you can’t catch fish with your flies in the air.” Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It I…
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