In our last post, I (Robin) wrote about how we look at death. After a discussion with a new friend, I realized that how we look at ‘good and bad’ also dramatically affects how we live.
We all know that there is a progression with life. The older you get, the wiser you get. With that knowledge progression comes a different perspective of what is bad. For example, a child is distraught over not getting candy or cries profusely when a $3 plastic toy breaks. The parent comforts the kid, however, she knows that the situation is really not ‘bad’.
The next level happens around adolescents/teens. Pimples are the end of the world. They are horrible. Then, older teens and college students have another set of good and bad. I have counseled several college students lately that have struggled with losing a boyfriend or girlfriend. Their world is crumbling all around them. They are swimming in a sea of ‘bad’. Again, as older adults, we look to these situations and think they aren’t that bad.
The reason we think things are not bad is because of our experience of much worse things. When life gets progressively worse, then when we see minor issues: broken toys, pimples, and girlfriends and think of them as small hurdles.
So what happens to an adult when rape, incest, murder, disease, bankruptcy, suffering children or other haunting life situations happen? What is our perspective on life? Especially, from a ‘God believing’, faith perspective… Why does God allow these ‘real’ bad things to happen? How do we deal with them?
The truth is that they are bad, and God does allow them.
What is His reason for allowing them? Does he look down at us (when facing a huge challenge) and have the same perspective we do of our 4 year old when she is crying and not getting her way? Does he allow it because he thinks it is not that bad, and we just need to get over it?
All those questions lead us to this… If he allows something like rape is that because he has seen something (in his all knowing power) much worse than rape and therefore, he doesn’t really think that we should fret over it?
No. At some point there is a end to the ‘bad’ scale and getting over bad is not simply graduating to the next worse thing. God is able to handle all bad things because he has a clear understanding of how Good He is. At some point, we will find the ability to deal with difficulty when we get a better picture of the power of God…not more life experience. The School of Hard Knocks does not have a solution for everything.
When we suffer and simply have no idea of how to deal with the pain, then we should rest in the fact that there is more God to know. The good of His attributes are more powerful than the bad of situations. If we aren’t living in that realm of consciousness, then we pray. We pray for a better understanding and revelation of God before we pray for bad things to go away. If we are more like God, then we understand like He understands. We live in the truth that strength and power and are able to face any situation.
Sometimes, God’s power overturns wrong here on the earth and we experience a supernatural miracle. The wrong is reversed. At other times, God doesn’t reverse the wrong on earth but he gives us the grace to live through the situation.
Heaven is the ultimate culmination of God’s goodness and where all wrong is reversed. Tears are dried. Timothy Keller says in The Reason For God,
The Biblical view of things is Resurrection…not a future that is just a consolation for the life we never had but a restoration of the life you always wanted. This means that every horrible thing that ever happened will not only be undone and repaired but will in some way make the eventual glory and joy even greater…
At the final scene of Lord of the Rings, Sam realizes that his friend Gandolf was not dead but alive. He cries, “I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue?” The answer of Christianity to that question is…yes. Everything sad is going to come untrue and it will somehow be greater for having once been broken and lost.
This is our hope now. When we face the reality of our broken world, we find peace in the future destination of Heaven. We pray “Maranatha”. Come ever so quickly, Lord Jesus. We long for the presence of the Lord. We long for more revelation of God’s attributes. We desire to be more like Him. And if that is where we find ourselves…where else would we want to be?
We (everyone except Robin) had been looking around for a new little pet and couldn’t quite decide.
I (Erica) had printed out info on little pets, but we weren’t quite sure what to do.
After lots of looking around, the boys and I headed home where I found a good deal on Craigslist.
$10 for a mouse and all the accessories! I figure this is a win-win. They get a pet, it doesn’t cost much and if bad comes to worse, we let our little friend run away in fields of green. Problem solved.
Well, we went to pick up the mouse that afternoon. The girl said to give her an hour. Suspicious? Nah.
So, an hour later we go pick up such a sweet little mouse.
The young college girl and her friend come out carrying our newly treasured family addition.
“Here you go” she proclaims. “Sometimes he scratches a lot and looks kind of nappy, but he is good”
“Oh, and you might want to use a washcloth the first time they hold him, just in case he is nervous, I wouldn’t want them to get bit.”
Did she just refer to a mouse as “nappy”? This is were the red flag pops up, but apparently it didn’t wave hard enough because we were full steam ahead.
“Oh, look how cute!”
We got home, got the new little creature set up in the boys bedroom.
Bedtime rolled around and we headed upstairs to their bedroom.
Except for one minor problem. The room REEKED of cute little mouse pee. The puzzle pieces are now coming together. Mouse, $10, cage and all.
Within about 15 minutes our new little addition got moved to the garage.
At this point, we aren’t sure what will become of “spider man/peter parker”, but for now he resides in the garage.
So, tonight at dinner, the eight year old is devising a plan on how to oust the new little friend, while his brother is figuring out how to add other animals.
The six year old says “let’s get a bird!”
The eight year old says “Poppa, let’s get fish!”
At that moment, my precious husband gets up from the table walks to the carpet and assumes the fetal position.
All I hear is “WHY PEOPLE! ”
I begin laughing hysterically.
Our dog “Pearl”
If you have ever seen Beethoven the movie, you can just insert my husband as the main guy. Minus the miserable attitude, his general feelings toward animals are spot on.
You see, I grew up with a mom that let me harbor almost any animal I could think of.
Here is the list:
Fish
Birds
Lizards
Hedgehog
Dogs
Cats
Pot bellied pig
So, needless to say, I feel like my kids should at least have the opportunity to have a pet, or two, or three.
My poor husband.
Kennady on the other hand is down with whatever animal we choose, as long as it lets her bite it.
I would like to start this blog off by quoting what my husband said to me.
“be funny, babe”
Hmmm. Not sure I am gonna pull that off folks. But I will give my best at being real.
Disclaimer: this is not the normal traveling arrangement. Usually, Avery is seated with a belt on, and Robin looks much worse.
We made it to Spring Hill on Thursday and settled right in to finding a sitter for the kids, so that the adults could go and play.
Our kids adore each other and love hanging out, which makes the time there so sweet.
Human Sleeping Bag
The adults headed to P.F. Changs for a delicious dinner and then over to Puckett’s downtown for coffee, dessert, music and great conversation. You know how it is when you just get someone? That is how it is with the Lowery’s, they just get us and we get them. It makes time spent with them easy.
The constant travel leading up to getting to their house made the time there wonderful. When we are at their house, we can lay around and not feel like we have to do anything. That is a great feeling.
Thursday we got up and Lori and I went and “got our nails did”, which was a wonderful treat. However, I am certain that the main working on my feet was a.) disappointed when I would not upgrade my services and b.) discussing the very horrible state of my feet. I looked at Lori and then looked at them, trying to give them the “I know your talking about me” look. I have heard that sometimes that is convincing and people will quit talking about you RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU. It really didn’t help though. Lori did confirm that I looked serious though, and that is a bonus.
When we got home, the men headed out to the movies.
I was exhausted and needed a nap due to staying up so late the night before. I thought that I would sneak in a short little nap on the couch while Lori ran to the produce stand. Little did I know that this would not be a good plan.
I layed on the couch and snuggled in. Ahhh, sweet rest.
I was out, when all of the sudden, in my deep sleep I hear “ppfffllluuppp, pppffflllupppp, hhheeee, hhheeee, ppfffflluuuuuppp”.
I start to feel something on my face. Open my eyes. Reach for my nose where a nice giant blob of white face cleaner has been squirted.
You see, my sweet precious 8 year old son and his equally sweet and precious 10 year old cousin decided, was that it would be sooooo funny to pull a prank on their mother/aunt while she slept.
Let me assure you this is not a good idea.
It is always funny for the onlookers, but never the victim of said prank.
I got up, wiped my face off, and without saying a word I looked at them and pretty much gave them the “daggers are shooting out of my eyes” look.
I mentally reminded myself that they are kids and I should be laughing, however, try as I may, no laughter would come. Every party has a pooper.
Obviously, no sleep would come after that, so we packed up and headed to the pool.
We had a great time swimming and came home and had a wonderful veggie meal.
Our brother-in-law Jacob, plays bass for Michael W. Smith, he had to get on the bus that night. I (robin) took Jacob to a Walmart parking lot in Franklin, TN. Do you notice how often Walmart parking lots come up in our trip? It is a common thread. At 11pm all the band and MWS meet and load the bus. I got to meet the other band members and tour their really cool bus. Ok, back to Erica…
On Friday, we hung out and did a whole lotta nuthin. We left the Lowery clan around 5pm and headed to the western side of Nashville to visit our dear friends, John and Kristin Ragsdale. We have been friends for almost 18 years!
It is awesome to sit down with friends and talk about life, love, heartbreak, church, friends, kids, and everything else. With folks like this, we catch up and it feels like we haven’t been apart.
We left their home around 10:30 and drove two hours to Jackson. TN.
short Robin trying to clean tall windows
We found a Cracker Barrel parking lot and crashed for the night.
We woke up today, called in a ‘to-go’ order at Cracker Barrel, went and picked it up, ate, and hit the road!
We all know that there is a progression with life. The older you get, the wiser you get. With that knowledge progression comes a different perspective of what is bad. For example, a child is distraught over not getting candy or cries profusely when a $3 plastic toy breaks. The parent comforts the kid, however, she knows that the situation is really not ‘bad’.
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