I've thought about starting a blog for a while. It's hard to find the time. We've been shorthanded at work for a while, so I can't find time when I'm in the office. I get to work at a church, which I love, and serve as a pastor, which I love. And I get to write all the time, sermons--lots of sermons, and I love that too. But musing about life, faith, music, sports, or family doesn't happen much. Not in print anyway.
I've thought about spending some time writing at home. The problem is that my youngest son gets up super early when I do, and he's full of questions and conversations. And my oldest son is sometimes still awake when I fall asleep on the couch in the evening. I don't want to ignore them while they're here. They're growing up too fast. The words "learner's permit" have been uttered quite a bit lately. It's time to start studying for the driving test. And I can't believe it.
From the time when the youngest wakes up and the oldest goes to bed, everything in between is filled up. Office work, piano lessons, soccer practice, meetings, hospital visits, go, go, go.
Until now. Now it feels like the whole world hit the pause button.
In a way, I'm glad. It's easy to recognize that we're cruising along at an unhealthy pace. But it's hard to stop it.
Of course, the reason why the world hit the pause button is not a glad reason. Covid-19. Coronavirus. Something that was just a meme weeks and even days ago. Now everything is cancelled. Everything.
We still had church yesterday, but we're going to have to reevaluate that. New CDC recommendations were released last night. We welcomed a new Director of Christian Education to our church yesterday. She is excited to do youth ministry in our church--a great blessing! But what a strange start for her. We're going to have to figure out how she can meet people in a time when we're not supposed to meet people.
When I came home, Nicole and I spent a lot of time processing how we would get through the next few weeks as a family. Over the weekend, we've already gotten impatient with a son or two or three (we have three total) who wasn't picking up his stuff. We've had tears. We've had laughter too. Lots of love.
I didn't have any more time than usual with the family, but because we knew we were really going to be stuck in the house with each other for a while, we were more intentional about it. We started tidying up the basement, making things worse before it got better. We dumped it all in the middle and started deciding which toys could be sold at a garage sale, which should be thrown out, and which we'd like to save. We're not done yet, but we've made progress.
Then I pulled up pictures of our last Florida trip on my computer, hit the AirPlay button and a thousand pictures played a slideshow on the TV. That kept the boys greatly entertained while Nicole and I cooked dinner together. Imagine, people used to be quarantined without internet access. I guess in some places people still are. Nicole read me a quote that's popular on social media right now, something like: "Our elderly generation was called to go to war for us, now we're called to sit on the couch for them. We can do this." But let's not sit idle.
After dinner I read out loud the first chapter of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" to the family. (Random side note, I just noticed that C. S. Lewis does not use the Oxford comma in the title of his book, which is ironic because he taught at Oxford). Oh...something about me: I'm super nerdy. It's kind of like being Geeky, except with less tech. I'm not saying I'm super smart, I'm just interested in weird things. Maybe the title of the blog hinted at that. We'll have time to talk about that later.
Anyway, we read the first chapter out loud, and I was thankful. I'm critical of myself for not doing stuff like that more often. But I'm thankful for the opportunity now.
After that, the youngest went to bed, Nicole and I discussed at length how to plan for this unplanned extra family time, making sure that we don't just vegetate for weeks but have exercise, chores, reading, devotions, prayer, (safe) outings, laughter, and love.
Lots of love. We're all going to need it.
Dear people, we can get through this. God promises that he is always with us, that his mercies never come to an end, and that his faithfulness is great. He has proven it with the cross. If Jesus didn't abandon us then, he certainly won't now.
Time to go. My youngest is up and is asking me questions, and now wants me to read to him. Time to take off my brand new blogger hat and put on my dad hat. Till next time, peace.
truth + love
I've thought about spending some time writing at home. The problem is that my youngest son gets up super early when I do, and he's full of questions and conversations. And my oldest son is sometimes still awake when I fall asleep on the couch in the evening. I don't want to ignore them while they're here. They're growing up too fast. The words "learner's permit" have been uttered quite a bit lately. It's time to start studying for the driving test. And I can't believe it.
From the time when the youngest wakes up and the oldest goes to bed, everything in between is filled up. Office work, piano lessons, soccer practice, meetings, hospital visits, go, go, go.
Until now. Now it feels like the whole world hit the pause button.
In a way, I'm glad. It's easy to recognize that we're cruising along at an unhealthy pace. But it's hard to stop it.
Of course, the reason why the world hit the pause button is not a glad reason. Covid-19. Coronavirus. Something that was just a meme weeks and even days ago. Now everything is cancelled. Everything.
We still had church yesterday, but we're going to have to reevaluate that. New CDC recommendations were released last night. We welcomed a new Director of Christian Education to our church yesterday. She is excited to do youth ministry in our church--a great blessing! But what a strange start for her. We're going to have to figure out how she can meet people in a time when we're not supposed to meet people.
When I came home, Nicole and I spent a lot of time processing how we would get through the next few weeks as a family. Over the weekend, we've already gotten impatient with a son or two or three (we have three total) who wasn't picking up his stuff. We've had tears. We've had laughter too. Lots of love.
I didn't have any more time than usual with the family, but because we knew we were really going to be stuck in the house with each other for a while, we were more intentional about it. We started tidying up the basement, making things worse before it got better. We dumped it all in the middle and started deciding which toys could be sold at a garage sale, which should be thrown out, and which we'd like to save. We're not done yet, but we've made progress.
Then I pulled up pictures of our last Florida trip on my computer, hit the AirPlay button and a thousand pictures played a slideshow on the TV. That kept the boys greatly entertained while Nicole and I cooked dinner together. Imagine, people used to be quarantined without internet access. I guess in some places people still are. Nicole read me a quote that's popular on social media right now, something like: "Our elderly generation was called to go to war for us, now we're called to sit on the couch for them. We can do this." But let's not sit idle.
After dinner I read out loud the first chapter of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" to the family. (Random side note, I just noticed that C. S. Lewis does not use the Oxford comma in the title of his book, which is ironic because he taught at Oxford). Oh...something about me: I'm super nerdy. It's kind of like being Geeky, except with less tech. I'm not saying I'm super smart, I'm just interested in weird things. Maybe the title of the blog hinted at that. We'll have time to talk about that later.
Anyway, we read the first chapter out loud, and I was thankful. I'm critical of myself for not doing stuff like that more often. But I'm thankful for the opportunity now.
After that, the youngest went to bed, Nicole and I discussed at length how to plan for this unplanned extra family time, making sure that we don't just vegetate for weeks but have exercise, chores, reading, devotions, prayer, (safe) outings, laughter, and love.
Lots of love. We're all going to need it.
Dear people, we can get through this. God promises that he is always with us, that his mercies never come to an end, and that his faithfulness is great. He has proven it with the cross. If Jesus didn't abandon us then, he certainly won't now.
Time to go. My youngest is up and is asking me questions, and now wants me to read to him. Time to take off my brand new blogger hat and put on my dad hat. Till next time, peace.
truth + love
Comments
Post a Comment