Cinco de Mayo!

We know that you've been thinking

It's been too long a while

So we've planned another party

Cinco de Mayo W****** style

Even though this day we claim

Is not Mexico's independence,

Celebrate the Puebla victory

By pledging your attendance

Grab a friend to come and play

We'll eat chips and guacamole

It's sure to be a blast

So don't come over slowly

Let's start at evening's 8

But come late if you've gotta

'Cause you sure don't want to miss

Our candy-filled piñata

So pull out that handy calendar

And kindly save the date

Hope to see you all on Wednesday

We're so excited we can't wait!

Love,

Katie, Marisa, Meghan, and Rene

The W****** Girls

object lessons

What would happen if Bobby Dodd Stadium made only 10 soft pretzels and 4 hotdogs to feed all the fans who came out for the Georgia v. Georgia Tech football game? Someone would lose their job. People would be outraged. It might cause a scene.

Jesus' disciples were simply trying to avoid such a scene one evening as Jesus finished teaching. They surveyed the crowd, saw 5,000 men, up to 15,000 women and children, and logically suggested that Jesus send them home before they were too tired and famished to travel. Not a bad idea, right?

Apparently Jesus had a better one. "You feed them," He told His friends. To which they responded, "We have no more than five loaves and two fish--unless we are to go and buy food for all these people." Can you hear the sarcasm? I can, because that is exactly what my response would have been. It would have required at least one year's salary to afford food for so many people.

So as the disciples questioned how they could feed so many people on so little food, Jesus gave them directions that did not seem to clear the haziness at all. He told them to have the crowd sit down in groups of 50. They did so.

It is easy from our side of the story to skip over the entire thought processes they must have been having or realize how absurd the entire situation must have seemed. We know how it ends, but they were clueless. Still, they trusted Jesus. I can imagine that if it had been me, even if I had physically done as He asked, I probably would have rolled my eyes, chuckled with some of the other disciples and inwardly questioned the decisions, authority and ability of Jesus even as my hands seemed to be confident in what He was doing. It really just did not make one lick of sense to them.

But they obeyed. Jesus blessed the food. Everyone ate. And 12 baskets of leftovers were gathered.

My first prayer was, "I want to always obey, even when I don't understand." I pray that I never doubt the Lord's ability and desire to provide for me.

But my second prayer was for my perception of His heart. He wants to give us more than the bare minimum for existence. He is not scraping together just enough for me to survive on. His heart's desire is for me to flourish. That may not always mean He will give me physical comforts, and I may not even always have an abundance of food in the pantry. But He delights in giving me good things. Because the disciples trusted and obeyed, He was able to give them more than they would have had if they had not shared the little they began with.

We also see in this that His aim in asking them to do what seemed impossible ("you feed them") was not to test them or to watch them struggle and strive. He was making a point. On their own, they might as well give up. But with Him, all things are possible. He wanted them to experience the desperation of the human race and the all-sufficiency of God incarnate. He wanted them to reach the end of themselves, not so that they would cower under their lack, and not so that they would hopelessly recognize their submission to their Creator. He wanted them to see a real and vivid dilemma and instantly know the provision of God. He wanted them to find joy in the loving abundance that comes from the Bread of Life. He built their faith in a difficult but small situation so that they might remember His heart when life became harder. And it did. But they knew who Jesus was because they had been challenged and found Him to be the strong and perfect antonym of all their human efforts.

Hopeless circumstance I see

Helplessly I run to Thee

Not my strength but Thine alone

Your holy, tender heart made known

Grows my confidence anew

That all things good are worked in You

Wholehearted faith be ever mine

Through every fire until refined

playing in the sand

One day last week I sat and watched Liam playing in his sand box. I sighed and chuckled as he began to pour sand into the shoes on his feet. It was really pretty cute.

"You really think that's a good idea, bud?" I asked him.

Of course he was clueless and happy even when it was time to sweep up the mess it made when we took his shoes off inside.

And I wondered how often the Lord watches me and asks the same question. Not over sin or deviation from Truth, but just the silly things that I do. My quirks, my inefficiencies, my sense or lack thereof of style, what I find comfortable. The way I love to step on crunchy leaves or stick my nose inside my parents' freezer just to smell the cold. The way I dance around my room or sing in the car when He is my only audience.

He must grin and ask me daily, "You really think that's a good idea, Kate?" But I know He delights in me more than I delight in Liam. He made us both. He enjoys us both immensely.

He is so sweet.

"The Lord your God is in your midst,

a mighty one who will save;

he will rejoice over you with gladness;

he will quiet you by his love;

he will exult over you with loud singing."

Zephaniah 3:17

Houstonisms

light bulbs = light balds

"Santa Claus is coming tonight and he's bringing me farm shoes."

death threats

My count of verbal death threats doubled about two weeks ago.

The first threat was two and a half years ago on Tech's campus. And although it was slightly less explicit than my more recent experience, it probably changed my life in many ways. The details are not important for the point I will eventually make, but my dear friend, Anna, and I were held up at gunpoint outside our home late one Saturday night. We each were only carrying our cell phones, but we dropped them as we proved to our assailant that we had no money. He threatened to "shoot the h*** out of" us if we did not comply, and we ran inside the house as soon as he realized we were bankrupt.

Traumatizing. Shocking. Life-altering.

Two weeks ago I took one of my boys to the park for a picnic and time to play. When he repeatedly refused/ignored my insistence that it was time to go home, I had to inform him of the consequences of continued disobedience. His response? He turned around, put his hands on his hips, looked me in the eye and said, "I'm going to kill you." Wow. I asked for clarification because I did not really want to believe those were his words, but he readily confirmed my initial perception. Not so life-changing, but heart-breaking nonetheless.

The timing of this most recent event led me to consider Good Friday.

My little guy is typically quite affectionate and kind. Exhaustion is usually the catalyst in his Jekyll and Hyde transformation, and this incident was no exception. He really had no idea what the word "kill" even meant until we talked before time-out at home. But still, after spending the afternoon letting him play, teaching him new things, and delighting in all the ways God made him special, to watch his defiance and hear such bitter words was hurtful. I was sad.

I thought of Good Friday. The grief of our Heavenly Father as our words, "Crucify Him!", pierced His ears and His heart. All creation must have cringed, heaved, anguished. The words of the human language are not enough to capture my gratitude that His love is deeper than our rebellion.

And when I reconsider my first encounter, I rejoice. In light of Sunday, the empty tomb, the Risen Lord, the lesser of two deaths was the only threat that our would-be thief could make. Life is not contained in this body. Life cannot be contained, He never will be.

Alive, Forever, Amen by Travis Cottrell

"Death won't hurt me now because He has redeemed me
No grave will ever keep me from my King

Alive, alive, alive hallelujah!

Alive! praise and glory to the Lamb!

Alive, alive, alive hallelujah!

Alive, forever, Amen."

wow

Quoted in this post on Maundy Thursday:

"Christ was all anguish that I might be all joy, cast off that I might be brought in, trodden down as an enemy that I might be welcomed as a friend, surrendered to hell’s worst that I might attain heaven’s best, stripped that I might be clothed, wounded that I might be healed, athirst that I might drink, tormented that I might be comforted, made a shame that I might inherit glory, entered darkness that I might have eternal life.My Saviour wept that all tears might be wiped from my eyes, groaned that I might have endless song, endured all pain that I might have unfading health, bore a thorned crown that I might have a glory-diadem, bowed his head that I might uplift mine, experienced reproach that I might receive welcome, closed his eyes in death that I might gaze on unclouded brightness, expired that I might for ever live." (The Valley of Vision, “Love Lustres at Calvary”)