main cow pic

01.24.11

how is God involved in the pain of life?

Filed under: God's movement,life — 3:44 pm

My friend went to two funerals last week – for a 26 year old girl in an accident, and a baby who died right before birth.  What do we do with such tragedy…especially as people who believe that we’re praying to an All-powerful, All-loving God?  We had a fascinating, sober, and honest conversation.  A few reflections…

Did God cause the accident?  I don’t know.  (Although I doubt it).
Could God have stopped the accident but decided not to?  I don’t know.
Is God intimately involved with us as we grieve and try to heal?  Absolutely.

Or in my life…

Did God cause us to have two miscarriages?  I don’t know.
Did God consider protecting the pregnancies, but then decide not to?  I don’t know.
Did God weep with us when we heard the painful news?  Absolutely.  I believe this with all my heart.
And does God stay with us during the grieving, as close as the air we breathe, bringing healing and redemption and beauty out of such a terrible thing?  Yes, somehow.  We’ve experienced this over and over.

I don’t know how God is involved on the front end of things.  These days, I lean away from the idea that God is the puppeteer of every moment, but honestly, I don’t know.

However, there is nothing I believe in more deeply than God’s ability (and desire) to enter into every situation and bring good.  He can bring light out of any darkness, hope out of any despair, healing out of any brokenness…bringing “beautiful things out of the dust;  beautiful things out of us.”  I don’t have to try to believe this with my brain;  it’s deep in my bones.  This is why I am still a Christian.

Does any of this connect with you?  How do you wrestle with these deep mysteries?

01.16.11

Nothing like a four-year-old at Disney

Filed under: life — 2:53 pm

This week, Henry had his first experience of Disney World.  It blew his mind and reminded me (and my dad) of how great it is to look at the world through eyes of wonder.  I really want to re-learn this from my boy…

01.10.11

The Place Where We Are Right

Filed under: life,quotes — 6:32 pm

“From the place where we are right flowers will never grow in the spring.
The place where we are right is hard and trampled like a yard.
But doubts and loves dig up the world like a mole, a plow.
And a whisper will be heard in the place where the ruined house once stood.”

Yehuda Amichai (one of the greatest Israeli poets)

01.06.11

confession booth

Filed under: God's movement,life — 1:25 pm

Confessional

I accidentally admitted something to my friend this week that seemed small in the moment, but as I’ve thought about it, feels quite central to my last couple years.  So can I invite you into the confession booth with us?  Here it goes…

My job/career/vocation is too important to me.

When I’m happy at work, my life is full of energy and meaning.
When my job is unfulfilling, I fear I’m wasting my life.
When my job calls for creativity and passion and risk, I bounce out of bed in the morning.
When work feels like a predictable place to punch the clock, I want to stay in bed all day.

For some reason, I’ve given my job the keys to my heart.  This is craziness!  This is sick!  I’ve allowed my sense of purpose, worth, mission, and meaning get WAY too tethered to whatever job I happen to have at the moment, and project this work experience onto every other wall in my life.

Some people live with Rose-colored glasses?  I’ve been choosing to live with vocation-colored glasses:  happy job = life is good.  sad job = life sucks.

I think I’ve anchored my identity and happiness to the wrong thing.  Am I the only one?

01.01.11

My 2010 list

Filed under: life — 11:22 am

Every New Years Eve dinner, my father-in-law invites us to all share our “top 10 things we’re thankful for in the last year” list.  This experience has become one of the highlights of our family time, and last night was no exception.  Can I share with you my list?

1. Shauna – for a million reasons
2. Henry – for a million reasons
3. Health for our entire family, safety
4. Opportunity to get involved with the Palestine Israeli conflict: two trips, many friendships on both sides, tons of learning, and an expanded heart for seeing God’s dream for the world being done.
5. My band guys: Izzy, Nate, and Ben (and honorary member, Becky). We’re really thankful to get to serve the Willow community in the way we do, and love doing it together.
6. The deep friendships that have formed with my friends at work. Every person I work closely with is someone I look forward to seeing, which is a rare blessing.
7. Shauna’s triumphant book and book tour! I’ve never been more proud of her than I was this year.
8. The way the childcare/Zondervan/my mom deal worked out. Great for everyone.
9. We got to visit some beautiful places this year.  I never want to take traveling for granted.
10. The feeling of possibility and energy I feel about 2011.

Even though 2010 was a pretty difficult year in a number of ways, making and sharing this list really helped me.  We all have SO many things to be thankful for.

What are a few things on your list?

12.31.10

So this is the New Year…

Filed under: God's movement,life — 8:31 am

“This New Year’s Eve you can lay the groundwork for continued growth without making any resolutions except one—to let go of the past, connect with yourself, to Wake Up, and be Present.”
(The Enneagram Institute)

12.28.10

Christmas silliness

Filed under: life,willow — 6:42 pm

Matt and I took a couple phone videos during the Christmas services, and last night I used my extraordinarily mediocre editing skills to put them together.  Ridiculous.  Enjoy…

12.15.10

Netflix

Filed under: creativity,life — 4:38 pm

I know that we’re late to the game, but I signed up for Netflix last month and it’s making all my wildest dreams come true.  (Overstatement made for dramatic effect.)

First, let me set the stage.  We have AT&T U-verse, a mediocre surround system, and a decent 40″ TV.  Shauna and I love a few shows (30 Rock, Community, The Office, and most of all Mad Men), but we haven’t figured out the best way to watch movies.

So after getting an Apple TV (the interface is brilliant and it’s great to watch movies/shows from my computer on our TV, but the rental selection is slim), we broke down and signed up for Netflix.  Here’s what I’m loving so far…

(1) Instant, unlimited new movies for Henry.  He’s on a “Scooby Doo Movie” kick right now, but he’s also plenty of “Spider Man”, “Tom and Jerry”, and of course “Batman”.  It’s good to be 4 years old.

(2) Only watching movies that we really want to see.  Shauna and I often watch lame movies because we’re too tired to search for the right one.  But now that we’ve loaded up our “instant queue” with movies we’re excited to see, deciding in the moment is easy.

(3) Flipping through various films and documentaries to see if they catch me.  Instead of committing $5 and 2 hours, I can explore a bit and see what I like.

(4) Watching movies on my iPad on the treadmill.  This, honestly, is the highlight!  It almost makes running in a windowless basement enjoyable.

Favorites so far…

Son of Rambow

It Might Get Loud

Exit Through the Gift Shop

11.25.10

a thought on thanksgiving 2010

Filed under: God's movement,life — 8:55 am

The last couple years have been really intense…so many blessings and so many disappointments. And I’ve come to believe something very strongly:

Nearly every moment in life gives us abundant reason to be legitimately miserable, AND abundant reason to be legitimately grateful.

And we get to choose.

Very little is 100% good or 100% bad. Every celebration has a twinge of sadness (if you’re looking for it) and every tragedy has a glimmer of hope (if you’re looking for it). And although certain times call specifically for mourning or specifically for breaking out the champagne, I’m finding that most situations give us the choice. Do we focus on the beauty hidden in the ugliness, or fixate on what’s missing instead of the gift?

This is very different from overlaying naive optimism on every situation (or hiding behind blanket pessimism). Cornel West says “Optimism and pessimism are two sides of the same coin. Reject the whole coin. Choose hope.”

And so this Thanksgiving, I want to give my melancholic-reductionist-cynical self the day off. (He can go watch “Fight Club” in a NIN t-shirt in the other room). Instead, I want to discover every legitimate reason to be thankful and grab a hold of them with all my might. Join me!

11.10.10

Journey to Israel and Palestine

Filed under: God's movement,life,Palestine / Israel — 4:02 pm

For the last three days, four friends and I have been in the Middle East with two guides…trying to learn about the reality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We’re meeting with people from all backgrounds and perspectives, hearing their stories, and being blown away. Honestly, the last couple days have been a few of the most stimulating, overwhelming, and inspiring experiences of my life…and we’re not even half done!

I can’t wait to get back and share what we’re learning with you all, but let me just say this: We Americans are not being told the whole truth. Not even close. Things are so much more complicated and messy than I would have ever guessed before seeing it up close. I’m extraordinarily thankful to get to be here and have this experience, but I have no idea what to do with all of it…

If you’re at all interested, feel free to follow me at http://www.twitter.com/aaronieq. I’m posting updates and pics every day.

And please pray for peace between Israel and Palestine today. And as we’ve been learning, don’t just pray for peace, but for justice. And not just justice, but God’s dream for every one of his kids: forgiveness and full reconciliation.

From the little hallway in my Jerusalem hotel room (the only place to find enough wireless signal!), blessings…

Just for fun, here’s a pic of Jon and Jon and I at the Sea of Galilee…



10.30.10

some stuff I love…

Filed under: books,life — 9:03 pm

Phil

(1) The weather getting colder. Fall came blowing into Chicago this week with “the biggest storm the midwest has seen in 70 years”.  And behind it was some of my favorite weather:  sunny and cool.  If I could wear some kind of light jacket every day, I’d be a happy man.

(2) Watching Modern Family and Mad Man. Shauna and I have been absolutely loving these two shows.  Modern Family makes us laugh the way The Office used to, and has shown me an inspiration for my future:  I want to be Phil Dunphy.  The sharp wit…the incredible social skills (or should I say skillz?)…I plan on morphing into Phil a little more each day.  But Mad Man has been our favorite.  We’re new to the show, but have quickly worked our way into the middle of Season 3.  Nearly every night is a rush to put Henry to bed and then find out what our favorite smoking scoundrels are up to.  Great show!

(3) Learning Stuff. For some reason, I can’t read or learn enough right now.  I’ve been tearing through a number of books over the last month and soaking up as many ideas as possible.  Most of the books have been about the future of faith (The Next Evangelicalism, Almost Christian, and The Next Christians), but others have stretched me also (Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle was pretty intense, Mobilizing Hope is inspiring, and The Much Too Promised Land is the most engaging book I’ve read about the middle east conflict in a while.)  A couple other stinkers, but no point mentioning those…

iPhone 4

(4) All-you-can-eat sushi and the iPhone 4. These two aren’t related…other than both being capable of making all your wildest dreams come true.

(5) Seeing Shauna become more and more who she was made to be. In the last month, I’ve been able to watch Shauna in all her glory:  1) Captivating people on her book tour with the poetry and wisdom of her words, and 2) Throwing dinner parties that can only be described as “glorious”.  Whether she’s speaking, cooking, writing, being interviewed, doing Q and A, setting a perfect table, dreaming up an incredible menu, or sharing her story, Shauna has a way of building a bridge and inviting people into the journey with her.  She makes big rooms feel small….small people feel big….and the whole world look a little more beautiful.

Here are a couple event pictures and a fun dinner video…

book signing

speaking at Catalyst bfast

10.19.10

Paper books or E books?

Filed under: books,life — 12:35 pm

iPad

I’m here on vacation – with lots of time to read – straddling the great book divide.  This seems to be the week where I officially move to reading from a screen…OR defiantly run back to the world of paper.  But I’m torn!

I love the feel of real, paper books.  I love the tactile experience of opening the Amazon package, reading both covers, and diving into the pages.  The texture of paper matters.  The font matters.  The smell matters.  And I always read with a pen to mark up my favorite sections and take notes in the margins, actively interacting with the author.  I’m a slow reader (and Shauna would say that I read the most boring books!), but I love to read.

However, last Friday I took the train to/from the city, and rather than bring a backpack with a couple books and my trusty pen, I just pulled my iPhone from my pocket and chose one of a dozen great books in the Kindle app.  Did I enjoy it as much as a real book?  No way.  But it wasn’t as bad as expected and I ended up spending two hours reading when I otherwise wouldn’t have. That’s no small thing!  I also found the highlighting feature pretty easy to use and MUCH easier to read later (than flipping through a book).  

Honestly, it feels just like the move to an iPod.  I really miss the experience of opening a CD and looking through the artwork – and .mp3s don’t sound as good as a CD – but I listen to SO MUCH MORE music now than I ever did with my disc-man.  I’d never deam of going back.

So how much am I willing to compromise the experience to gain convenience?  (Wow, writing it that way sounds terrible!)  Let me try it this way:  Am I willing to give up some of the reading experience in order to read more?  Can I give a little style to gain a little substance?

Honestly, I’m not sure.  What do you think?  Have you made the move yet?  Why or why not?

10.09.10

two fun videos

Filed under: life — 2:27 pm

Here are two family-related videos that make me laugh…

First, may you behold the epic rivalry of Batman and Super Smash Man…

Second, here’s a fun moment from last weekend at Willow…

09.14.10

Who needs Christian Bale?

Filed under: creativity,life — 5:10 pm

From the mind (and iPhone) of my bro…

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