email can haunt you

really that is a true statement for many reasons. once you've sent it... there can be some real ouch, I can't believe I just did that moments.

that was not my problem today. I hadn't been at work very long when my wife calls and asks if I'm on my computer. No, why? You just sent out an email advertising some electronics website she says. Hmmmm, that's not good. SO I quickly discover that someone used my email to send out this ad and they set a vacation response with the same info for any incoming emails. This of course led to a fun time of resetting email passwords, security questions, reporting the email to my provider... As a side note the website in the emails is based on a server located in China and I'm willing to bet most of the electronics are not legit. I'd also give out all of the registry info for the site but that would be going a bit overboard for this blog.

that was not the end of the email sagas for the day. the spam filters were not working properly for our company email systems today. oh the fun of a major corporation and the plethora of crap that comes through the email system. all day long the questions came, why is so much spam getting through the filters? cause they don't work! anyway, that's mostly fixed now but it's amazing the sheer volume that came into mail boxes today.

all of this to say that as much as I love email, it can be a real pain in the ass.

the cost of rubber

I just had to replace two of the tires on our van. I wanted to make sure that they would last a while and were good quality since it's my family riding around on them all the time. In the past I probably wouldn't have thought much about the cost other than to complain that it was a lot. But in the past four years I've made multiple visits to the Firestone rubber plantation in Liberia, Africa. Working with kids there you see the living conditions, the rates of pay and the amount of work that goes into collecting raw rubber from trees. Throw in a lease for the land that is horribly lopsided in Firestone's favor and there's little question that fair trade is not in play.

Thanks to Wendy for these pictures.

a spot of peace?

There is no denying that our lives have been filled to the brim with craziness and some real struggles lately. It seems that each time a little window of calm appears something new pops up and stirs the water back up. In the midst of all this I had really been looking forward to climbing Mt. Adams this weekend. There's something about standing on a mountain and looking out across the distance. The sheer beauty of the sunlight hitting clouds below, reflecting off the snow, the brilliant blue of the sky... God is amazing and you can see the truth in the Psalmist's words that all of creation declares His glory.

But I won't be on Mt. Adams this weekend. Forest fires have closed down access to the climbing routes and so we've postponed. And tonight Abby is having a sleepover for her birthday. An evening a screaming girls and for a while some screaming boys. So here I am watching Apollo 13, it's after midnight, but it's quiet. The kids are all sleeping. Sara's working hard organizing photos form her Liberia trip. Even though it's not what I was expecting its a strangely peaceful moment. I'll take it.

kids

I am constantly amazed by my kids. Beyond a shadow of a doubt they stretch me, force me to grow in new ways and show me how deep love can go all at the same time. Today my girls celebrated their birthdays. 8 and 17! I'm not really sure which is stranger, that 8 years have past since Abby's birth or that Jumah is three short years away from exiting her teens. Connor, well, he's the baby at 6 and really doesn't seem to take anything seriously and yet takes everything seriously at the same time.

Kids teach you so much about yourself. They reveal what your priorities are. They make you realize how little you really know. They make you wonder how your parents did it and why you turned out even halfway ok. They are mirrors that show us both our best and worst traits. And even in the hardest moments when things are really frustrating you come to knew understandings of how much you love them. They simply are tremendous blessings.

freedom from the box

Galatians 5:1 states "For freedom Christ has set us free" Now I know that this verse is referencing freedom from the slavery of sin, but I have found that Christ brings freedom in all aspects of life.

Recently I've really struggled with consistency in my devotional time. As I was talking about it with someone I trust he asked me in what ways do I connect with God best? And none of my answers included the typical "quiet time" reading the Bible and praying. Naturally the next question was why have I been doing things that are good but not the ones that are most effective for me? I had boxed myself in by the things I had been taught to do and I felt were expected of me to do.

I'm not going to stop setting aside time for reading my Bible and praying. But I do feel a renewed freedom to realize that I also need the time for the activities in which I best experience that connection with God. They need to take a more prominent place in my life. Let me set aside the guilt of trying to fit into the box of the "quiet time" and step into the freedom that Christ brings even into my relationship with Him.