Saying Goodbye to Blogger

We hope your Christmas was blessed and that your new year has started off in just the way you wished. We've enjoyed having J's mom and dad here with us for the last two weeks. Our Christmas was, of course, thoroughly non-American but it was sweet nonetheless, and we experienced joy as we contemplated the birth of Jesus with our loved ones.

J's parents leave us on January 8th and we'll be sad. But we're so very happy that they got to live our lives for three weeks and experience what we do. Such understanding is, for us, invaluable. It's just good to know that our families "get it."

Well, it's a new year. I want this year to be better than the last for my family. I want to spend more intentional time with them and live more in the moment--not always an easy thing for me to do. And then there's the reality that each day has only so many hours in it and I have only so much energy to expend. I want to live my life to the fullest this year and choose joy.

To that end, I've decided that I'm going to refrain from writing about our lives for quite some time, maybe for always. Writing is a hobby of mine but it requires me to finely comb my daily experiences for meaning and merit. It means that I have to be the scientist in the lab, straining into the microscope as he attempts to name and conquer. And you know what? That might be ok for me to do someday, but not now. Not this year.

This year my life--our lives--are going to be private. We're going to laugh a lot, work hard, love God and people (by His grace) and do a lot more than hang on by the seat of our pants. We're going to have hard times if the last two years are any indication of the future. But we're going to be more than conquerors.

Most of you all know our e-mail address and many of you already get our family newsletter. We'll be in touch. In the meantime, I'm going to be too busy living my life to write about it. Love to all of you and Happy New Year.

Merry Christmas

If something really interesting or noteworthy happens between now and Christmas, I may just have to blog about it. But if not, we pray that this season will be the most meaningful, the most real, the most life-changing one you've ever had. And may you (and we) pass on the reason for our hope to someone else this Christmas. Love to all of you.

Our Crazy, Cozy Indian Living Room

A Good Reminder

"People are not easily divided into saints and sinners. Most of them are more complicated and more interesting, a mixture of strengths, weaknesses, insights, and blind spots. If you demand perfection, you'll be disappointed. If you decide to only listen to perfect people, you'll find that you are pretty much on your own."

--Charles Sykes in 50 Rules Kids Won't Learn in School

Good Times

We're back from our trip to one of our favorite cities. We celebrated C's birthday, ate American food, visited with friends, and had a great time. Oh, and I got six inches cut off of my hair. It was a very successful trip. We are now exhausted and walking around like the undead. But we're putting up our tree, cleaning the apartment, and getting ready to see Mamaw and Papaw in two weeks!!

Radical

Living in a staggeringly poor country is a hard thing. You never, ever forget that you are among the richest in the world, existing among those who have next-to-nothing. You want to help, to do something, all the time--to stop the bleeding and make things better. And sometimes you do something that actually makes a small difference and then something washes over you and you feel genuinely happy for a moment or two.

I haven't read David Platt's by-now-famous book "Radical." I know many people love it, are challenged by it, shaken up and made crazy by it. And from what I know, I agree with Platt's stance that the western church needs to be totally different from what she is now,and that we all need to be turned on our heads. We need to be ridiculously generous and give of our wealth until it makes other people nervous.

But I read an excerpt of a review of "Radical" today, by Kevin DeYoung and I think he makes a very important point. It's a point that rings true all the more for me since I live in a land marked by government corruption, graft, backroom deals, and a belief that upward mobility is not the right of every kind of person, only some kinds.

He states:

"The Christian needs to be generous, but generous charity is not the answer to the world’s most pressing problems of hunger, inadequate medical care, and grinding poverty. Wealth is created in places where the rule of law is upheld, property rights are secured, people are free to be entrepreneurs, and there is sufficient social capital to encourage risk-taking. We can and should do good with our giving. But we must not lead people to believe that most of human suffering would be alleviated if we simply gave more."

So today, when I go to McDonald's and I save some of my food to give to the little professional beggars waiting outside, I'll do it because that's what Jesus would have done, and I'll tell them why I'm doing it, and that he loves them. I'll rest in that and I'll feel his smile. But I won't believe that I'm saving the world.

Because only he can do that.

Happy Birthday, C!

The last eight years have been the greatest, little man.