Klutz

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It’s that time of year — back-to-school dental & eye exam time! My eldest and I went to the optometrist today, and we both had our eyes dilated. The last time I had it done, I didn’t have Transitions lenses (the light-sensing glasses that get dark), so I used the freebie sunglasses inserts that they give you at the checkout counter. Today, however, I just handed a pair to my son as we walked out the door.

About five feet from the door, the sun hit me like a laser light show, and like a dummy, I shielded my hands over my eyes as a make-shift visor and kept walking toward the car, eyes watery and blurry … and promptly tripped over the handicap ramp/curb and landed on my knee.

Oh, yes – my knee. That would be the knee with the torn meniscus, the one I’m having repaired next month. The one that now sports a skinned-off piece, which – amazingly – didn’t rip my pants. How does that even happen?

It feels ok now, though my pride is still wounded, and I’m going to have a lovely scab in a couple of days. The knee itself – praise God – doesn’t hurt worse than usual.

I had to laugh when my son took off his sunglasses insert and handed them to me: “Here, Mom – you obviously need these more than I do.”

When Heroes Hurt (Prayer Devotional for the week of July 15, 2012)

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One of my favorite lines from the new movie, The Avengers, is when groggy Bruce Banner rouses in a pile of rubble after his transformation from being the Hulk, and a local farmer eyes him warily and says, “Son, you have a condition.” Being a hero isn’t always about using superpowers and defeating the bad guys. Sometimes, being a hero is tough work. Sometimes, it isn’t fun at all. Sometimes, it just plain hurts.

What makes an act heroic? One element is that it requires the willingness to put oneself in a potentially dangerous situation that the rest of us could not – or would not – do. Think of a firefighter who enters a burning building to rescue someone, a police officer who chases an armed criminal or a soldier facing live ammunition.

Although we like to focus on the accomplishments of our favorite heroes, part of the job description for being a hero can also mean suffering – physically, emotionally, even socially. The prophet Isaiah talked about the suffering of a hero, many years before the hero was even born. In chapter 53, he foretells that Jesus would be despised and rejected, and that he would be “familiar with pain” (v. 3).

The apostle Paul, arguably one of the great heroes of the Bible, continued Isaiah’s line of thinking in his letter to the Philippians when he said, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings” (3:10, NIV). Did you catch that? He didn’t just say that he wanted to know the power of Christ’s resurrection, but he added that he wanted to know Jesus so deeply that he even suffered with/for him.

If we are to truly become heroes, then we have to move beyond just desiring power, authority and special abilities. We need to be willing to bear the burden of suffering for our faith, if and when the time comes. (And if we’re close to Christ, then those times will come.) Like Bruce Banner was tested to manage his rage and first-responders are tested to exhibit courage in the face of danger every day, we will be tested to determine if our faith is legit (Romans 8:16-18). When we come out on the other side of that suffering time, though, then we will share in Christ’s glory – not to the benefit of our own egos, but in celebration of God’s mighty power.

Grocery shopping silliness

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I did something today that I seldom do; in fact, I make every effort to avoid it. I went to the grocery store with kids … and not just one kid … with three kids. Usually, I will sweet-talk my mom (Thanks, Mama! 🙂 ) into picking up a few items here or there for me (and pay her back – don’t worry, I’m not a moocher), or I’ll get the eldest to babysit after the younger ones are in bed one evening and go by myself. Today, however, we were desperately out of a few things, so I decided to stop by after picking up three of the kiddos from day camp.

It was a last-minute decision, so I didn’t have my grocery list with me. I thought of most of the items as I was driving, so I asked the boys to help me remember (since I couldn’t jot them down). Creative lil’ dudes that they are (and totally on their own accord), they made up a song for the list, and it went something like this (sound it out sing-songy, and you’ll get the gist):

“Mom needs wiper fluid, shampoo, milk and spray starch!”

A mile or so down the road, I remembered that I also need hair mousse. I said that it’s by the shampoo, so let’s work it into the list. They sang:

“Mom needs wiper fluid, shampoo, mousse, milk and spray starch!”

That resulted in a hysterical laughing fit where we speculated what moose milk must be like.

Then, I remembered that we’re out of bananas:

“Mom needs wiper fluid, shampoo, moose milk, spray starch … and bananas!”

Needless to say, we didn’t forget anything on our list! 😉