Why?

I was reading Irene's blog today which has addressed the fact that we have not been very faithful about going to church on Sunday mornings. We do occassionally but have not gone much lately. This is a huge difference compared to when we lived in Texas. We were very faithful about going to church and those times were highlights of our week. We had even gotten to the point that we were attending regularly on Wednesday evenings for the first time in years. Since arriving in Delaware, we have not been as dedicated. It's very disheartening for us but there are reasons for this; even if they're not very good reasons. The best way to explain this is to describe our church experiences from TX and DE. So, let me elaborate.

TX: Large church, lots of options for adult Sunday School classes, all of the kids had Sunday School classes to attend (even John), large assemblies filled with lots of kids which means John's voice stims are less noticed, lots of friends who were encouraging about having us in church with John, wonderful Care Groups that changed each year allowing us to make friends with lots of people within the church, always a feeling of edification.

DE: Smaller church, not many options for Sunday School, James's Sunday School has kids 2-3 years older than him, there's no Sunday School for John, smaller assembly makes John's voice stims feel like every person is turning to look at us, fewer friends, Life Groups that don't ever seem to change (you're in one group for life), not feeling very edified.

These are no excuse for not being faithful to attending. I've realized, the older I've gotten, that there is a specific reason behind God calling us to meet together. It's not because we can't be saved unless we go to church every Sunday. It's because we need that constant encouragement from our brothers and sisters in Christ in order to be able to face the world around us. Also, as parents, it's our responsibility to put our children in a routine of meeting with other Christians. They don't pick that up on their own. If we're not going to church, we're less likely to give that encouragement to our kids. We notice that, when we're not in the routine, James is very aversive to going. Back in Texas, there were times that he didn't want to go but when we were going regularly, it became an expectation. That's a good habit! I pray that God will help us settle in and become a part of a church here. In the meantime, we dearly miss our friends and family at the A&M Church of Christ!

Madness Udate

So, out of the 60 games that have taken place in the NCAA Tournament, I picked 35 of them correctly. I also picked 3 out of 4 that are in the Final Four. The one I didn't pick was UCLA. I picked my Aggies to beat them for more reason than the fact that I graduated from Texas A&M. I picked them because they match up well with UCLA and they proved that. In fact, they really should have won that game. They had it right up until the last. Kevin Love is incredible!

There's been more madness in March in my household besides basketball. Last week, I got sick. I started throwing up; and not just food. Yes. That's right. I threw up blood! It wasn't just a few drops of blood, either. It was more than just streaks. I threw up a bunch of blood. It was a little scary. The scarier thing was that I went to the closest emergency room, sat there with Irene for 6 1/2 hours and never saw a doctor. It was 5:30, Thursday morning and my stomach had finally stopped hurting enough that I could rest. So, I told Irene we could just go home and I would call my doctor later. Well, I saw my doctor Thursday afternoon and the conclusion is that I have an ulcer. The nurse asked, "Do you have a lot of stress in your life?" I didn't really respond. The list is probably longer than she needed to hear. I'm really trying to hand a lot of it over to God. It's not easy! I get so worried about things and just kind of shut down. It's my defense mechanism. Well, the advantage to this is that the weight-loss incurred sent me down to the 180's. I am now about 188 lbs. I haven't seen this weight in probably 10+ years. I still have about 10-12 to reach my goal. Hopefully, once I can start working out, I'll drop the weight pretty easily.

March Madness

So, this is a huge time of year in our household. I can remember back a few years ago when Juan Dixon was playing for Maryland and they won the National Championship. Irene and I sat right next to each other watching all but maybe one or two of the televised games. We both really get into it. We both like to see close games and we both enjoy seeing the underdog win. One thing I've never done is actually fill out a bracket, beforehand. I just never cared whether I could predict the wins. I just like to see the teams play well. This year, I filled one out. Nobody will know but me whether I picked the wins or not. In the end, I'll probably say how many I called but I did pick a lot of upsets. Even so, I picked three #1 seeds to make the Final Four. I don't know how that happened and I'm not going to say which ones either. I just couldn't see the games going any other way. So, we'll see how it goes. I expect lots of close, hard-fought games. I'm anxious for tomorrow!

Anger

This is an interesting topic that I had a brief discussion about on another blog. It is related to my previous blog on losing faith. It seems that many people lose their faith because they are angry at God. The debate was/is, is it okay to be angry at God. The other blogger's thoughts and many of the comments were a resounding, "Yes!" My thoughts, not really. I think anger is a dangerous poison to mess around with. Now, I DO get angry. I DO have a bad temper, at times. The thing is, even though life really sucks sometimes, I'm very careful about blaming God and being angry at Him. One of the commenters on the other blog mentioned the end of Job when God spoke to Job through a storm. The commenter said that God justifies Job for being angry, if I remember correctly. I went back yesterday and read this story to see exactly what God said. Now, Job tends to be known as that guy in the bible that was tested to the extreme and never doubted God. Actually, at the end of Job, he starts reaching the end of his rope and begins to question God for all the bad things that had happened. He is worked up even more by some of his friends. Then, God appears in a storm and speaks. In a nutshell, God says, "Who do you think you are to question what I do? Were you around when the world was made? Did you put barriers on the oceans? Do you have the power to feed all the beings of the earth?" He pretty much tells Job that he has a purpose for everything he does and is not one to be questioned. So, I don't think it's okay to be angry at God. In fact, we know that God didn't make all the bad stuff happen to Job. He merely allowed it to happen. There's a difference. Job's response to God, "Sorry!"

Losing Faith

I read a blog yesterday that told of a man who was once a preacher and teacher at a seminary. This man has lost his faith in God. He has lost faith that God could exist in a world filled with so much pain and suffering. In fact, he's even written at least one book talking about this very thing.
There's so many ways Christians can explain why God does or does not allow things to happen. I heard a very good sermon by Foree Grove years ago. He talked about the fact that we live in a "thorny" world. This imagery stuck with me for a long time and has developed quite a bit in my brain. I even came up with my own analogy for some atheists that I discussed this with when I studied in Mexico. To me, God is like a clock-maker. He made the world like a clock. He put all the essential pieces together and made them work in harmony. He wound it up and let it go. Sometimes the watch goes too fast and He has to reset it. At times it starts to slow down and He has to wind it up. The pieces, at times, break and have to be repaired or replaced but, for the most part, it runs on it's own. The clock maker checks on it regularly and does what needs to be done when He feels it's necessary. You may agree or disagree with this analogy. Leave a comment. I'd love to hear it!
In the end, is the world perfect? No. Do bad things happen to good people? Yes. I see God work through many of these occurences and He gives us plenty of opportunity to glorify his name through all of these things. We just have to be on the lookout for the part He wants us to play. Most importantly, we have to act on what that part is. That's the hard part!

Surgery

Surgery seemed to go pretty well on Friday. In fact, I felt almost good enough to walk on Friday and most of the day Saturday. The problem started Saturday night. In absence of taking anti-inflammatories, my knee continued to swell on Saturday evening and became quite uncomfortable. I say this is because of not taking the anti-inflammatories but I don't know this for sure. Today, my knee is still extremely swollen and I have quite a bit of difficulty walking on it without crutches. I hope that things will get better quickly but I plan to be coaching our last practice and game on crutches.

Stolen Game

I have a hard time blaming anyone but myself and my team for losing games. I especially don't like to blame referrees. They have a tough job and I don't make it any easier on them. Thursday, I can truly say that the refs stole the game from my team. We lost by 4 points. We made some mistakes down the stretch. But, when I asked a ref in the second quarter why she wasn't calling the other team for certain fouls, her response was that both teams were doing it. The problem was, at that point in the game the foul-count was 8-2 against us. In the 3rd quarter, they didn't call a single foul against the team we were playing and called 6 against us. The final count for the second half was 11-4. To put this in perspective, let me throw out a few figures from the game. The other team's leading scorer (14 points) had 4 fouls. The other team's post player had no fouls. One of my starters fouled out. We shot less than half as many free throws as they did. I had one girl get pushed down on her face right in front of the ref in the last 2 minutes of the game and he didn't call anything. I just about lost my mind!!

In my heart of hearts, we won that game. The score just didn't show it. The more disappointing thing is that, in my girls' hearts, all our hard work and progress over the last four weeks was voided by that 4-point loss. I just pray that they can bring it together and try to get a win in our last game tomorrow.