stuff i think

A year gone by....



Something that slipped by during my self-imposed blog exile was the recognition that we had been here in Kansas City for a year.

One morning in August, 2003, we woke up in upstate New York - having been there visiting Kelsey's family - and left about 4 AM, heading west. The plan was to drive early, while it was cool and the kids would sleep. Mid afternoon found us in Cincinnati. It was too early in the day to quit, so we picked up our second car and headed further west. We finally gave up at midnight, about 120 miles from Kansas City, because after 20 hours driving we came to an area of road construction that had no lines painted on it...my eyes felt bad anyway and it just didn't seem safe to go any further. 1000 miles in one day...a roadtrip only rivaled by the Burning Man excursions, but this one included kids and excluded a plush RV!

Having been here a year, we have grown - perhaps morphed is a better word - more than we ever imagined we would. So, in recognition of a year gone by, here is a partial list of:

Things I learned the first year after we up and moved our family half way across the country to join a prayer movement much to the shock of many and dismay of some of our friends.

• That whole thing about 'faith as a little child'? That's dead on. I know you never questioned it, what with it being scripture and all, but I'm telling you that I see it happening. Our kids are still very much their ages. We deal with the trials of having an 11, 7 and 3 year old. They are not angels...but the Spirit of God is all over them. Jackson loves going to the meetings to pray for healing. Grayson is radically disturbed by injustice. Zion straps on his guitar and sings the song of the Lord. Kelsey and I watch and are amazed.

• People are not looking for a convenience-religion. Much of the efforts of the church in America in the last two decades have been in making church easy. There's been very little room for a church that is profound. I am still a big proponent of church being made accessible to everyone - but the dumbing down of the faith is something that will haunt our generation. The culture that gave rise to McDonalds and Walmart is wretching over the commodification of big box religion, even if it is being driven by purpose.

• The ancient seer, Isaiah, spins my head. He is becoming the Old Testament character that I would most like to share a chia with (of course, I have a few questions for Noah as well, but most of those surround logistics). In the writings of Isaiah I find the full breadth of the emotions of God...and the stunning, dichotomous manner in which God can fully hate sin and love people. In January, I had a dream that I had an encounter with a well known person who was spewing vile words at a crowd, but doing it unknowingly. I stood and prophesied against their words, but not against the person...for just a moment, in the dream, I understood how God could make that separation. Moments later, fully awake, I went back to my old self - in other words, I have difficulty walking that out. I tend to fall off the beam, one way or another.

Well, that's enough for today, but it's just the start. I'm beginning to think this could be a series of posts, because no ones' going to read them as one chunk! :)