Something to Do This Summer

There is this scene in a movie I remember watching with my wife a few years ago where the romantically involved couple goes out to a park in San Francisco, sits under a beautiful tree as the sun is setting, and watches an old movie on a makeshift screen with hundreds of others. I remember telling my wife that watching old movies in a park at night would be a pretty great way to spend an evening.
So, you can imagine my thrill when I found out last year that this is precisely what they do in Fairhaven (the south side of Bellingham) on Saturday nights throughout the summer. And its free (all the Mennonites just sat up). You can find out about the schedule and the movies they play at this link (http://fairhaven.com/content/2009_summer_movies). And if you are going to look into doing it, let me be the first to suggest you take along your family and do a couple of things beforehand…

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Uncovering Unvoiced Expectations

I would like to suggest something to you, something I believe we do constantly. It is unconscious and unvoiced. It has the ability to put us into a state of euphoria or deep depression depending on the outcome. It is cultural and very human, yet fraught with false expectation and impotent power.

We do this from young on. Its root at the very worst is pride – I’m central, I’m deserving, I’m superior. At the least its root is fear. And we know that neither root is of God. In fact He says:

God opposes the proud but favors the humble. (Proverbs 3:34; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5)
The Lord is for me, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me? (Psalm 56:11; 118:6)

This thing happens when we ask God for something. We might say, “Lord, please help me find work.” What we really do is tack on the word “NOW” without even realizing it.

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Are You Multi-Lingual?

I can remember taking French class back in high school and asking the question most students across North America ask, “What good is this going to do for me 10 years from now?“ French, Spanish, Greek class…it doesn’t matter; and in fact if we were honest, most of us really were not all that interested in “broadening” our linguistic horizons.

Nineteen years removed from high school and I’ve re-thought my stance that a working knowledge of a second language could have come in handy!  It amazes me how people can learn to communicate in 2, 3, even 4 different languages…and do so fluently.  It certainly opens up a wide range of possibilities in life. Now if you’re anything like me (and one of me is enough!), you probably have learned a lesson or two in how to communicate in a relationship.  Whether you’re married, single or have children, we’re all ingrained with distinct and natural ways of receiving and initiating communication. 

I’ve come to learn a harsh reality in life that, in most situations, unhappiness in marriages and families often has a simple root cause: we speak different love languages!  We all have the need to love and to be loved, and we all express and communicate that in distinct means.  What if we could learn how to be multi-lingual in our love and expression languages?  Could that possibly make relationships, and life, a little more sensible?

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Mother’s Day Part II

On Mothers’ Day I got to thinking about all the different types of mothers there are in the world. Please join me in praying for them. Ask God to bring a name to mind for each category so you can pray for them specifically.

Moms with preschoolers – Lord please give them energy.
Moms for the first time – Lord please put someone in their world who can encourage them, that God will give them wisdom for all the unknowns.

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