No. 3 has an ear infection that he didn’t complain about until today, and it turned out to be pretty bad. Poor kiddo. The doc gave him antibiotics in both oral and drop form, as well as pain drops. Nana and Granddad graciously offered for him to spend the night with them tonight, and he’ll stay home from school tomorrow with Nana.

At bedtime tonight, the other boys and I took turns saying prayers, and we prayed for No. 3 and Dad, specifically. (Dad called from Iraq tonight and isn’t feeling well, either. He thinks it’s a stomach bug.) When it came time for No. 1’s turn, he prayed that Nana “wouldn’t lose her mind” while she’s home with No. 3. LOL

I talked to Nana a little while ago to check on him, and she hasn’t lost her mind yet, haha! She said that he is disappointed about missing school tomorrow, because they’re doing something with meal-worms in science. Boys!!  :p

I heard one of my favorite authors, Max Lucado, speak on K-LOVE radio this week. He talked about the Saturday of Easter. We hear a lot about Friday, of course, because Jesus’ death is such a crucial part of the story. And, naturally, we hear a lot about Sunday – who could overlook the resurrection?! Oftentimes, however, we just glaze over the Saturday in between.

Pastor Lucado reminded us that the disciples had scattered and were in hiding. They knew what they thought they believed about Jesus, yet his death sent them reeling. He related that “Saturday” experience to the times in our lives when we’ve been stunned, inundated and overwhelmed by our circumstances. Trials can feel suffocating, at times. We may want to bury our faces in our hands and pretend like whatever tragic situation just happened – didn’t happen.

I don’t know about you, but that coping mechanism hasn’t worked out too well for me. Pastor Lucado finished his message with a reminder that although Saturday is tough, Sunday is just a few hours away.

Easter – our promise – our hope – is only a few hours away.

I have a friend at work who is not into social media … at ALL. We tease her about all the fun things she’s missing on Facebook, especially, but I like to pick on her about Twitter, too.

Today, I forwarded an article to her about a couple who plans to exchange their wedding vows on Twitter. We had a playful  banter in our office about whether social media is here to stay and whether Jesus would have “tweeted” back in his day.

Not to wax theological, but yeah, I think he would have. He was all about grassroots efforts & engaging everyday people.

Perhaps a sample Twitter conversation would go something like this:

@JC: Free lunch on the Mount of Olives today; hope you like fish!

@Peter: Lord, I hope we don’t run out of food! RT @JC: Free lunch on the Mount of Olives today; hope you like fish!

@JC: Oh, @Peter – such little faith you have.

Lately, I have tried to be mindful of commonplace moments with spiritual applications – recognizing the blessing or finding the meaning in the little things, day in and day out. It’s so easy to lapse into tunnel-vision and focus on all of my to-dos and scarcely notice the world around me.

Every morning when I drop off my little two at preschool, there are always one or two retiree volunteers from the church next door (the daycare is affiliated with that congregation) who open the doors and greet everyone. They know us and call us by name, and seeing them is a bright spot in our morning.

One lady, in particular, always says, “Have a grand day!” as I’m leaving. Her enthusiasm is contagious; it’s hard not to smile as I walk to my car, even if I’m not having such a grand morning. She spreads joy and kindness, and it reminds me often that God never fails to care about me, either.

My oldest two boys get to stay up an hour later than the younger three, so they came into my room after the little ones were in bed and started peppering me with questions about how they could earn some extra money.

Their first idea was to hold a car wash – in our driveway! They said that they wanted to save some money so they could get stuff for themselves, but then they would also give me some money to help pay for supplies, and then they would give some money to church and a little bit to their brothers (IF they helped).

I didn’t want to squelch the idea right off the bat, so I asked some questions about how they would manage the traffic, seeing as we could only get one car in the driveway at a time. I suggested that they go to the study and write a business plan showing how much money they wanted to make and how much they would set aside for themselves, church, etc.

They came back in a little while with a couple of break-downs of how the money could be divided. The 10yo had a list that showed 50% of his profits going to church. I said, “Wow – that’s a lot! What made you decide to do that?” and he gave the sweetest answer I could ever imagine.

Please don’t take this as a pat on my own back, but I’m so proud of him for “getting it.” The boys like to be the ones to put the offering envelope in the basket at church, and I always tell them to turn it upside-down, because our giving is private – between us & God (and the church accountant, but that’s beside the point). They like to peek at the envelope where it shows the amount enclosed, though, and I don’t really mind as long as they don’t announce it; I figure it’s laying the groundwork to encourage them to tithe when they are older. So, back to the conversation …

He told me, “You know how you write that big, huge check to church every month?” Stunned, I just said, “Uh, ok,” and wondered what he was getting at. He said, “Well, I figured if I gave some of my money, then you wouldn’t have to spend so much of yours.” My heart swelled hearing him say that. I tried to explain that Dad and I give because we get paychecks from our jobs, but if he wants to give some, too, then that would be great.

It tickles me to pieces to see that they are thinking about giving as well as making money. We haven’t narrowed down their extra “job” yet, but I have a couple of other ideas brewing … like picking weeds or raking leaves.

Know of any good “job” ideas for a 9-10yo?

A friend surprised me this evening with some very negative comments about someone I have heretofore had only high regard for, namely, Rob Bell. I’ve seen several of his “NOOMA” videos and found them to be inspirational, moving, grounded and theologically sound. Granted, I have not read his books, but I intend to very soon. In fact, I may see if the electronic version is available for my nook before I shut down tonight.

I did read an excerpt of one of Bell’s books (I think it was “Velvet Elvis”) in the context of a critique, and the critic berated Bell for raising the question of “what if” we learned that the virgin birth never happened? It sounds like a ludicrous question and is certainly the sort to invite prompt and harsh backlash, but from what I can tell (and again, this is without having read all of the book), I think Bell was trying to get the reader to dig down to the core of their faith and find out if the God they know and trust is enough, period. If you were told that everything you were raised to believe was wrong, would God still be enough for you? Would your faith survive such a test? Sure, it’s a crazy question, but Bell isn’t saying that he disbelieves the virgin birth (quite the contrary, if you read the narrative theology statement of Mars Hill church, where he pastors); he’s trying to make the reader think about concepts that they’ve always taken for granted. The book was published by Zondervan, for goodness’ sake.

Perhaps it is his closely-shaved head and funky glasses that makes people uncomfortable with this young, hip pastor/author. *Gasp – I wear jeans to church, and I’m a woman … maybe I’m a heretic, too! He reminds me of David Crowder, who is passionate about missions and doesn’t seem to give a rip what anyone thinks. On a side note, I imagine that C.S. Lewis took heat for writing fantasy back in the day … He dared to share gospel concepts through fiction, but I digress.

Truth isn’t something to be afraid of. One of the reasons why I believe Baylor has been so successful, to date – and is poised to become even more so – at being both a high-activity research university and firmly committed to its Christian roots is because Truth is not the enemy. In fact, I think that questions can strengthen our faith, in the long run. Asking questions ultimately leads people to seek God, and God is Truth.

I once had a dumb question (ok, not just once, but I’ll only tell you the one story here). Since we’re on the subject, I remember grappling with the question of the virgin birth back in high school. I even asked my mom if it were possible for there to be another immaculate conception. I vividly recall the horrified look on her face … I think she wondered if I was talking in code to tell her that I was pregnant! (She does read my blog, so I hope she doesn’t disown me for sharing this story.)

Of course, I was most certainly NOT pregnant; I was just trying to come to terms with what seemed to be a very far-fetched and difficult to understand topic. Did I believe then that Jesus was born of a virgin? Yes. Do I still believe it? Yes. Was I a heretic to ask questions? I sure hope not. My God is big enough to handle even my craziest questions.

My vision is terrible, but if you think I’m exaggerating, let me explain. When I put on make-up in the mornings, I use a hand-held magnifying mirror, and I have to hold the mirror so close to my face that sometimes it fogs up when I exhale through my nose. It happened again this morning, and while I was waiting a few seconds for it to un-fog, I remembered something that I did back in high school. I fasted from sight.

My then-boyfriend’s parents were having major marriage trouble, so he and I committed to praying about it. I felt compelled to fast, but I didn’t want to be conspicuous. It’s pretty difficult to skip lunch in high school and avoid rumors about having an eating disorder, so I started brainstorming alternatives. I wore contacts at the time, so I decided to forgo my lenses and carry my glasses for back-up. There’s nothing in the Bible that I can find about fasting from corrective lenses (lol), but I figured God would honor the spirit of my intent.

I went through the entire school day without my contacts – the exception being class changes, because I was afraid I would fall down a flight of stairs. I couldn’t see the blackboard, overhead projector … heck, I could hardly see the back of the kid’s head in front of me! I had to hunch over in order to write, and I had to listen extra-carefully, since I couldn’t see what the teachers were doing.

It was a challenging day, but by the end of it, I felt so triumphant! To my knowledge, I pulled it off – no one knew what I had done, and I felt like I honored the concept of a secret prayer fast. Eventually, my boyfriend’s parents did reconcile, so I like to think that God honored my prayer time that day.

Funny, the things that a little mascara will bring to mind!