Facebook, Transformers, Austen, and loving each other

Just some pics from Sochi this morning--Han with her sweet Aunt Diane. My kids (and their parents) are fans of Aunt Diane and Uncle Don!

I cannot remember the name of this app, but this is our friend, Jane, showing my kids how to make these hilarious videos. Clearly, they were delighted by it.

My pic of Uncle Brian taking a pic of Han. Uncle Brian and Aunt Inna are some of my kids' favorites.

But I trust in Your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in Your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for He has been good to me. Psalm 13:5-6

I am enjoying the laziest of lazy mornings. I have already had three cups of coffee (my limit before putting some food in my stomach), and there is fruit baked oatmeal in the oven (a yummy, yummy weight watchers recipe--look for it on pinterest), and so my whole apartment smells like apples and cinnamon. I've already talked to Sarah Beth this morning (I usually at least chat with her when I get up and before she goes to bed), and I've heard from both Marc (in Ukraine) and Hannah (in Spain) about what great trips they are having. After a night of Greek mythology and Percy Jackson, John is sound asleep in his room. (Saturday is--generally--his sleep-in-and-take-no-adhd-meds day.) And so, while the oatmeal is baking, I thought I'd check in with the outside world.

Lots and lots of random thoughts this morning. This was quite a big week for us. My parents have sold their house in Florida. That's big news. It's sad news, but it's not. It was hard for my kids, because that has been our stable place since coming overseas. They had the same reaction when my Aunt Angie and Uncle Raleigh sold their Florida home and built a house in our hometown of Clarksville, TN. It's part of who we, as a family, are, these places where our children have run and grown up. But life marches forward, and my parents really need to be near one of us. (Remember that they moved to Florida and WERE near one of us, but then ONE of us had to take off and move to Europe. Inconsiderate.) So that was big. Hannah turned sixteen on Wednesday, and we surprised her with a visit to Madrid, Spain, and one of her closest friends. That was fun. Marc went on a trip to Kiev, Ukraine, where he is working with some folks out of Richmond, but staying with one of his favorite people in all of Europe, so he is having a great time. John and I have had a pretty good week, enjoying some fun time together. There was a startling moment Thursday night when I heard a man's voice upstairs...only to discover that it was John. Hmmm....I'll leave that for another time.

Among the many things I've been thinking about is Facebook. I know there are people who think it's basically the downfall of civilized culture, and there are certainly things about it that I don't like. (If you are very political, for example, I have not unfriended you, but you are probably hidden from my news feed. I love you, but seriously--I can't take the ugliness.) But generally speaking, I love facebook, because I can keep in touch with people, see what my nieces and nephews are doing (whether my nieces and nephews by blood or because we have lived overseas together), know how to pray for folks, keep up with our home church...if you try, you can find lots of uses for facebook other than those that are negative. This morning, for example, I played a little guessing game with some friends (including two of my college roommates) about which movie trilogy is my favorite (and thus my pick for John and I to watch today/tonight). (For the record, it's Transformers. Yep. You read that right. Transformers. I love them. Bumblebee is my favorite. Don't judge me.) In turn, I have agreed to reread some Jane Austen books, which I do not like, but I am willing to give a second chance in deference to my long friendship with the two who were my college roommates. (And because I SHOULD like Jane Austen. I am a complete and total book nerd. But she's so...girly. I don't know. I'm going to try, Deb and Jerrie. I really am.) Plus, it's a way for my parents and sisters to check in on us, and to keep up with what's going on with the kids. (My mother reads every single thing any of us puts on facebook--diligently. She is serious about keeping up with all the grandkids. It's pretty impressive.) So, if you choose to use it well, facebook is a way to encourage others, to participate in their lives, to love them. Marc uses it to pray over people and situations during his quiet time every morning--a practice I've heard several people mention. Like anything cultural, it can be used for good or evil, but it's your choice how you use it.

I also have been thinking about Christian blogs. This is, technically, a Christian blog. And I have several friends overseas who blog diligently and whom I follow. But those aren't really the blogs I'm talking about here. I'm talking about the big guys--denominational guys, sites, seminary presidents and professors...you know, the big guys. I read some with whom I usually agree, and I read some with whom I generally disagree. But I do read them. But lately...I don't know...they talk about stuff I just find very disconnected from my daily journey as a person of faith. If I tell you that I don't really understand what Calvinism or Reformed Christianity or Landmarkism is, will you think less of me? Because I'm serious about what I believe, I really, really am. And I think it's important to know exactly what I believe and what I profess as a Christian and as a Baptist. I do. But as I grow older and (hopefully) more spiritually mature, as I diligently look at and study the life and person of Jesus...maybe it's a very simplistic approach or view...but I just keep coming back to love. Loving God, loving people. Jesus had serious compassion. He wept for Jerusalem and longed to gather its people like a mother hen gathers her chicks in protection. He loved Peter, even though He knew...He KNEW Peter would let Him down and deny Him. But He also knew that Peter would be crushed by that failure, and He had compassion for him.  He Loved, with a capital 'L.' He was diligent and serious about loving people. More and more, on a daily basis, my requests of God look like this: show me who You are. Let me know You. Help me to love like You love. Sift my heart, because there is nothing good in it that isn't You, and make me more like You. Help me to love everyone better--my family, my friends, those with whom I have a relationship, but also those with whom I disagree, those who are sometimes ugly, those who sometimes accuse and say things that simply aren't true. Help me to love them, too. Not because it will get me somewhere or make me happier or make me anything, but because You love them. Don't all things for the believer and follower of Jesus Christ come down to love? Increasingly, I think they do.

Now, don't walk away thinking that I'm some hippy-dippy, free-lovin' wild woman, or that I don't think there are hills to die on in terms of what I believe. Of course there are. This is not an I'm-okay-you're-okay-all-paths-lead-to-the-same-place kind of post. Because I don't believe that. Clearly I don't believe that. Jesus is THE way, THE truth, THE life, and the Bible clearly says that no one comes to the Father but through Him. But once that truth is acknowledged, once that is accepted in the core of our souls...then it is about loving Him and loving the people He loved enough to sacrifice Himself so that they could be saved. I don't know what you want on your tombstone, but I certainly don't want it to say that I was a person who loved a reasonable, logical amount. I want my life story to be one of someone who loved unreasonably and illogically and extravagantly out of the overflow of my Savior's love for me. That's a lot to put on my tombstone, but I hope it's the truth, nonetheless.

Well, the baked oatmeal is out of the oven, and there is laundry to do before John gets up and our Transformers marathon begins. Wherever you are in the world, whether you are an atheist, a noncomformist, a Calvinist, a Landmarkist, or just a person trying to follow Jesus the best you can, I hope you know how deep and wide the Father's love for you is, and I hope the end of your life is marked by tributes of the extravagance of your love for the Father and for the people He sent your way. Blessings to you and yours!

His,
Kellye