Facing the Giants

Last night my wife, my father, and I watched the movie "Facing the Giants." This film was pretty much all done by a Baptist church in the southern Georgia country town of Albany. But while it was done by a church, I didn't find it cheesy. The quality of the script, acting, and editing were all good.

I was thrilled to hear of this church's vision to communicate with young people and willingness to use film to do so. Like the men of Issachar in the Old Testament, this church seems to understand our time and what needs to be done.

Session 3 of The Marriage Course: Conflict Resolution

My wife and I attended the 3rd session of the Elle et Lui marriage course. I found it the most interesting of the 3 sessions, as the them is "conflict resolution." The meal of beef bourgignon and chocolate cake with cream were excellent. This is an excellent course that I expect we'll somehow integrate into our ministry sometime, as the subject of marriage is a interesting one for many in France.

My father did the babysitting tonight. He flew from Colorado and arrived late this morning. We'll do some fun stuff togehter during his 16 days here.

On Mozart and Martha Stewart (John Eldridge)

I found this section in John Eldridge's book Desire: The Journey We Must Take to Find the Life God Offers to be excellent. He writes (pp. 152-4):

"Somehow," notes Os Guinness, "we human beings are never happier than when we are expressing the deepest gifts that are truly us." Now, some children are gifted toward science, and others are born athletes. But whatever their speciality, all children are inherently creative. Give them a barrel of Legos and a free afternoon and my boys will produce an endless variety of spaceships and fortresses and who know what. It comes naturally to children. It's in their nature, their design as little image bearers. Set a group of kindergartners down with sheets of paper and tubs of finger paint, and you don't have to provide directions. They know what to do. In fact, paint and paper aren't even necessary, chocolate pudding and a nearby wall will do nicely. A pack of boys let loose in a wood soon becomes a major Civil War reenactment. A chorus of girls, upon discovering a trunk of skirts and dresses will burst into the Nutcracker Suite. The right opportunity reveals the creative nature.

This is precisely what happens when God shares with mankind his own artistic capacity and then sets us down in a paradise of unlimited potential. It is an act of creative inviation, like providing Monet with a studio for the summer, stocked full of brushes and oils and empty canvasses. Or like gving Mozart full use of an orchestra and a concert hall for an autumn of composing. Or like setting Martha Stewart loose in a gourmet kitchen on a snowy winter weekend, just before the holidays. You needn't provide instructions or motivation, all you have to do is release them to be who they are, and remarkable things will result. As the poet Hopkins wrote, "What I do is me, for that I came."

Oh, how we long for this--for a great endeavor that draws upon our every faculty, a great "life's work" that we could throw ourselves into. "I was made for this," said one friend who after years of hesitation finally pursued his dream of becoming a high school teacher. "It energizes me." "After years in a wasteland," moaned aonther, "all I want is to be released to be who I am." His career had not panned out, and as he saw his most productive days slipping by, he longed to find his place. "God has created us and our gifts for a place of his choosing," says Guiness, "and we we only be ourselves when we are finally there." Our creative nature is essential to who we are as human beings--as image bearers--and it brings us great joy to live it out with freedom and skill. Even if it's a simple act such as working on your photo albums or puttering in the garden--these, too, are how we have a taste of what was meant to rule over a small part of God's great kingdom. Willard points out:

Here is a truth that reaches into the deepest part of what it means to be a
person...that we are made to "have dominion" within an appropriate domain of reality. This is the core of the likeness or miage of God in us and is the basis of the destiny for which we were formed. We are, all of us, never-ceasing spiritual beings with a unique eternal calling to count for good in God's great universe...In creating human beings God made them to rule, to reign, to have dominion in a limited sphere. Only so can they be persons. (The Divine Conspiracy).

Heaven as a backup plan

I was struck by the chapter "The Divine Thwarter" in John Eldredge's book Desire. Lots of reflective gold nuggets in this chapter.

He writes (p. 99): "For most Christians, heaven is a backup plan. Our primary work is finding a life we can at least get a little pleasure from here. Heaven is an investment we've made, like Treasury bonds or a retirement account, which we're hoping will take care of us in the future sometime, but which we do not give much thought to at present. It's tucked away in a drawer at the back of our minds, while we throw our immediate energies into playing the stock market. God comes in like a corporate raider, ruining our plans as we watch other 'stocks' go into a tailspin."

Bikes in Paris

Over the past year, we have found or been given a bicycle, 2 tricycles, and 2 scooters. Of all these, the scooters have worked the best so far. But the bike and tricycles all have their problems like a tire that leaks, a missing pedal, and a broken piece in the plastic frame that needs a non-existant bolt. I had to dig them out of our basement storage area, which was no small task this afternoon, so the kids could try to ride them on a fairly sunny day.

This reminded me of a difference between life in Paris and in suburban America where I was raised. In my youth, everyone had bikes. One rite of passage was learning to how ride a bike without training wheels. This new transportation freedom made it much easier to get around than walking. Of course, there were less cars around there then there are in our Paris neighborhood. The narrower streets with more cars make it more dangerous to bike, especially for children who don't always look out for cars, pedestrians, etc.

Our older 2 kids have learned how to ride bikes in the recreation court of their school. That's one advantage of being here, as the kids start much earlier than I ever did with a bike. So even though our kids don't have good bikes, they already know how to ride them much earlier than I did.

To encourage less cars, Paris has had since last year these bike stations all around the city where one can borrow a bike for a small fee. We haven't tried this yet, although my wife would like to. As her family biked together, she seems biking as a normal part of life.

It's funny what is normal for our kids: living on the 4th floor of a 14 story apartment builing, taking the elevator to our apartment, being in a multicultural classroom, having French as the first language at school, not having bikes, etc. But this is most of what they know, as they have grown up in this system. It's home to them.

Elle et Lui marriage enrichment course

Last night my wife and I attended the first of eight sessions of the "Elle et Lui" (literally, "Him and Her"). A week ago, we were discussing about taking this course at another church in Paris. Then last Sunday, someone announced that the course was starting last night at our church. We caught him right after he left the stage and said that we wanted one of the 2 remaining places.

Last night we were amazed to see how God worked out the whole thing for us. There are only 6 or 7 couples participating in this pilot course of Elle et Lui at our church. There is a leadership team of at least 4 couples who did an amazing job of preparation and service yesterday.

Yesterday's theme was "laying a good foundation for marriage." One thing that struck me was the importance of making time to be together. They suggested finding a 2 hour slot each week just to be together and do something enjoyable. This usually needs to be scheduled in, with the busyness of life, especially with young kids.

It was just good to have the time together around the meal to talk. It took some work, especially for my wife, for us to get there. We had a 16 year old named Thomas from our church who watched the kids. While the older 2 had fussed at different times about us leaving, they ended up loving Thomas. This morning, our older daughter was sad because Thomas wasn't there this morning. So I think we've found a good babysitter that the kids like.

I look forward to learning and growing with my wife during this course. I also am curious to see how we might be able to be involved with it afterwards.

Jazz night at the Pavé d'Orsay in Paris

This evening I had a meeting with Jim, whom I've been working with on a couple of different Paris projects since we both returned to France in 2000. The meeting was about different ways that I could be involved with la fonderie. It was a meeting that I felt good about leaving afterwards, as the air was cleared on a number of different matters.

After the meeting, I attended the monthly jazz night at le Pavé d'Orsay. It was a relaxing concert be 3 talented musicians. I helped clean up afterwards before catching a subway and bus and arriving home after midnight. Such is life in Paris with artists.

2 ploys of the evil one

While reading John Eldridge's book Desire: The Journey We Must Take to Find the Life That God Offers, I was struck by the following words (p. 84):

The evil one has basically two ploys. If he cannot get us to kill our hearts and bury our desire, then he is delighted to seduce our desire into a trap. Once we give over our desire for life to any object other than God, we become ensnared. Think of the phrase 'She's a slave to fashion.' We become slaves to any number of things, which at the outset we thought would serve us.

This helps me understand the different addictions that I and others have. Even ministry itself can become an addiction if ministry becomes an end in itself. Even simple pleasures like blogging, surfing the Net, rooting for certain teams can become snares, rather than things that serve us. I need to think about this more.

Questions

It seems like our kids have suddenly been pulling questions out from left and right during the last several days. Some of these are theological, while others are not. Our 4 year old is asking lots of questions about what she was like as a baby. Some of the theological ones that she and our almost 6 year old ask have very complex answers that theologians have discussed for centuries.

We have many potential teaching moments these days.

Sometimes it's inconvenient to kept having questions fired at us. But someday we may look longingly back to these days of discovery and wish we had invested more time to handling these questions. Or they might stop asking questions and we might wish that they would ask us more questions.

Day of firsts for our son

Today we celebrated Epiphanies at our church. This is remembering when the Magi came to find the Baby Jesus. We had a special cake called a "galette des rois" ("kings' cake") with a porcelain figure called a "faivre" inside.

This afternoon my wife went through the gospel cube with our nearly 6 year old son. Afterwards, he apparently prayed to receive Christ. I tend to be hesitant about the certainly of this, as children don't always understand everything that they agree to. However, from personal experience, I know that childhood decisions can be legitimate and that God can and does honor them. In any case, we'll follow up with this decision and try to bring more understanding to it. But this probably still is a moment of rejoicing.

Tonight he lost his first tooth. It's gotten looser the last couple of weeks. My wife was concerned that he may have lost it at school tomorrow in the playground. So we helped it come out tonight. He seems young to be already losing teeth, but we know that this does happen.

Christmas remained a little longer here, as my wife went around our building with our kids and offered plates of homemade cookies to some of our neighbors. These were made during the 3 cookie days with kids. These gifts further expanded the impact of the cookie days to more families. May God use these humble gifts to bless and touch lives for Him.

Tomorrow school starts up again. Then it will be life to normal, as normal as it gets for us.

3rd cookie afternoon, Star Academy

We had our 3rd and final cookie afternoon today. Besides our kids, there were 4 others present. This was a calm group, which was nice for the last one. One of them was a neighbor from our building.

During the 3 cookie afternoons, we had 13 children who came from 11 different families. I think that we have a closer to bond to all 11 families, as well as to those whose children weren't able to attend. Those who came got to see where we live and a little bit of how we live. We got to create something together and create a good memory. We didn't preach or give an evangelistic talk. But I think that Jesus was present and shone forth during this time together. But we hope this opens the door for future conversations about the hope that lives within us. So it was well worth the time and expense to pull these events off.

Right now I'm relaxing and watching Star Academy. I have always loved this show, as it has provided a number of talented young Francophone artists the opportunity to get discovered and develop their skills. I still long for the day when French creativity is combined with a movement of God among the artistic community.

Happy and sad day

Today was my wife's birthday. While she and my son were at a meeting this morning, I and my daughters mixed and cooked a lemon box cake for her. The cake turned out well and my wife was pleasantly surprised that we made it. It was cute to see the kids really get excited about her birthday.

While we made the cake, my wife had to get an icing recipe for it, as that went beyond my expertise. She ended up calling her mom for the recipe. She and the kids made the icing. I guess that this is what life as a mother of young kids entails. Hopefully by next year, we'll be able to do the whole cake without my wife's help.

One thing my mom taught me was how to follow cooking directions and use the mixer. Even though it had been years since I'd done a box cake, I had no hesitation about doing so, thanks to my early training.

While I don't miss my mom much, some experiences or songs trigger instant memories of her. The cake baking did such a thing. Suddenly I felt sad about not having her around. She used to bake different Christmas cookies and desserts each year. In recent years, she hadn't done so, which was sad.

This grieving process isn't as easy as I thought it would be. For me, it's not constant grief about my mom passing. Much of the time, I still feel relieved about it. But it's still a void. It's good to have to deal with this process, as I had no idea what it was like, nor what others grieving might have felt like. Now I can be more sensitive and empathetic to them.

Cookie Making Event #2

It's another late night in Paris. My wife is sleeping on the sofa in our living room, as our bed is full of displaced boxes and stuff from today's cookie making and decorating event. We had our first cookie making last Thursday with 5 classmates and several parents. Today we had 4 classmates and one parent. On Friday I expect that we may break our record for participation.

We basically have invited some friends and classmates of our oldest 2 children. The majority of the invitees are in their class at French school. One reason why we are doing this now is to get to know some of the kids and their parents. Opening up one's home means something more in France than in the U.S. The French generally do this as easily with people they already don't know very well.

All 4 attendees today seemed to enjoy the event. I think some of our friends were praying for today. It was basically just my wife and I doing all the leading. It could have gotten wild today, as the guests were less calm than last week's ones. But once the cookie making got going, everyone was focused.

Several days ago one of our neighbors on another floor knocked on the door and asked if she could borrow an egg. I was glad that she felt comfortable enough to knock on our door. While my wife has no problem asking for this, the French are less likely to do so. My wife ended up inviting her daughter to come this Friday. I think that she helped color Easter eggs last year as well. Who know what kind of relational doors this might open?

Our 2nd floor neighbors moved last week. They have 3 kids around our kids' ages, but we never connected with them, although we tried. But as they were doing the final cleaning, I ran into the husband in the basement. He asked if we wanted their balcony plants, as their new apartment doesn't have a balcony. So we now have 3 more plants on our balcony. It's hard to understand why we didn't connect with them, but do with some others.

We will trust that God will do them good in their new neighborhood and bring people into their lives who love God too.

One thing that we seem to do well is to make people feel comfortable when we invite them over for a meal or an event. We hope to do this more often in 2008. We already have a lot of the physical items that make hosting easier. We need to trust the Lord to provide the finances for the ingredients.

Late night in Paris

It is past 2:00 a.m. and I just dropped off Michael, Jennifer & Abby at their hotel. They are all teachers here in Paris with a school group from Michigan. 2 (and possibly all 3) of them are from a partnering church in Michigan. It was good to have several hours with them tonight.

The nature of ministry in Paris often requires late night meetings like this. Over the years here, we often have returned home after midnight and sometimes on the last train. People intensive ministry requires being available when people are available, rather than just when it is a convenient hour for me.

Earlier today we got to see some of the decorated windows at "les grand magasins/the big stores as a family. There were lots of other families there as well.