Site work has begun on the new house on Iron Mountain!

McPherson Weekend Update - a.k.a. Lessons from Cartoons

It was, as usual, a great week. We all enjoyed a trip over the Camden, Friday afternoon. We had a great meal with Jennifer's parents and then, like probably a lot of families with young children did this weekend, watched the Finding Nemo DVD. I have to admit, watching a film with a couple of your children on your lap is the highlight of any week. We all had a great time together.

I couldn't help being introspective after the movie. I wondered how many hours of my children's young lives I have missed due to worrying. In the film, Marlon, the father because of the loss of the past, cannot enjoy the present with his son, Nemo. Marlon, wonderfully voice acted by Albert Brooks, spends every moment of every experience attempting to guard Nemo from danger. While there is never any question of how much Marlon loves his son, Nemo begins to resent him for it. Sounds to me like Marlon wasn't doing too good a job of following Ephesians 6:4, "Fathers don't exasperate your children...". Sometimes I think that I might miss a great moment to share with my sons, because I am to worried about the future or what might happen. My worry is different than the worries of Marlon the clownfish. I tend to worry more along the lines of, "If I don't stay hard after these boys, they are going to 'turn out bad'." (Whatever that means?!?) The love of a father in me, wants to protect them, ensure their complete and total maturity, but my own prideful human nature thinks that I can do it completely on my own. What have I become if I worry about it too much? Eberhard Arnold said, "Do not worry. Worriers build life on wealth just as much as the wealthy. Look at the birds and flowers, and believe in the loving God, the Father who provides everything." It's sometimes hard to balance on the razors edge of watching and protecting on one side and not frustrating on the other.

Saturday we goofed around El Dorado and watched some football. Sunday morning we were in church with Jennifer's parents at Cullendale. Judy had me leading worship and it was a great morning. Winfield gave a very thought provoking message on the Second Coming. Sunday evening we rode back to Mena and got ready for another week.

On the way home, Jennifer and I talked about the next few weeks and how exciting/hectic they are going to be. We are all looking forward to our trip to Atlanta for Thanksgiving. Ezekiel is hoping and praying that we can go and see his beloved Titans who are playing November 23 at the Georgia Dome against the Falcons. It will be great to see my mom and dad and my brother and his family.

A Special Moment

Last night we had a great night at the house. Of course this was magnified by the fact that the Razorbacks won their prime time football game. After Zeke, Joby and Abby had went to bed, I got down on the floor and was playing with Zoe. We laughed and chased around for a few moments. Then I began to notice that she was moving a little slower. I took her in my arms and held her face to mine for a long time, and then laid her on floor right in front of me. She stretch out and looked up at me. I just smiled at her and rubbed her belly. Then gradually, her eyelids slowly begin to droop. Her hands gently fell to her sides on the floor. And I sat there and watched her drift peacefully and contently off to sleep.

That was a special moment.

McPherson Family Sports Interests

After an amazing 7 OT win in Kentucky, the Hogs must turn around quickly and play South Carolina tonight in Little Rock. Check out Hogwired for the latest. Go Hogs!

Everyone is talking about Kobe these days. I thought this article was interesting and gave a different insight. Psalm 27 is an amazing prayer to live by.

The Strength of God

An old man said, "Rising and walking and sitting, if God is before thine eyes, there is naught that the Enemy can affright thee. If that thought abides in a man, the strength of God shall cleave to him." (The Desert Fathers, Waddell p.159)
I'm going to put Jesus in my sights today. I'm going to hold to the idea that I rest under the shadow of His wing. I realize that nothing happens in my life or around me that He doesn't already know about and is in complete control of. These thoughts form a smooth solid concrete pad under my stumbling feet. They provide braces to my weak and crippled legs. I realize that I can only stand with the strength of your undeserved grace. I know I do not rise, I do not walk and I do not sit without your presence with me giving me breath to live and strength to act. In all and through all, around me and inside me, Blessed be His name.

Pleasing God

The abbot Agatho said, "If an angry man were to raise the dead, because of his anger he would not please God."

It's important to do 'Christian' things. It may be even more important to be 'Christian'. It sounds so simple to say, and it has been said for so many centuries, but why do we have such an easy time rushing past simply 'being' Christ's disciple to get on with 'doing' Christ's work. It's not that doing great exploits for the kingdom of God isn't in God's plan, I just wonder if we have empasized the actions more than the relationship and the inner workings of the personal Christ in our lives. If we focus the majority of our attention on what we can get done for Jesus, we could very well become hollow frames carrying on in the name of Christ, but completly empty of any real presence in our lives. On the contrary, when a person consciously pays close attention to keeping step with Jesus, talking and listening to him, being his disciple, and constantly guarding the attitude and character of the inside man, the deeds of a true Christian spring up. The desert father Agatho calls our attention to this fact. To him it was utltimately more important to be inwardly clean before Christ, than to perform a miracle for him. Not only that, Agatho teaches us that great deeds done in the name of Christ are negated when not originating from the correct motive or attitude. Kind of reminds me of the story of Saul and Samuel in 1 Samuel where Saul feels he can make ammends for his impatient and prideful heart by performing an act of worship for God. One of the many lessons I grasp from that story is that demonstrative actions done for God can never take the place of being honest and 'right' before him.

It's hard to be Jesus' disciple. It's much easier to put on the costume - which I think can be purchased at your local Christian Bookstore.

Living with Jesus

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me.
Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ to the left of me, Christ to the right of me,
Christ in my lying, Christ in my sitting, Christ in my rising;
Christ in the heart of all who think of me,
Christ on the tongue of all who speak to me,
Christ in the eye of all who see me,
Christ in the ear of all who hear me.

excerpt from St. Patrick's Breastplate Prayer from Celtic Christian Spirituality:An anthology of Medieval and Modern Sources by Davies and Bowie

~I am thinking so often about walking in closer step with Jesus throughout the day. I'd like to learn what it means to be 'yoked' with Christ. He said his yoke (the demands of his teaching) was light and easy to endure. Keeping pace with Jesus is a blessing and a treat. This prayer helps my mind concieve in some small way just how connected I am with Jesus and just how present he is in every moment of every day. He is transcendent, yes, in all and through all, but how does he manage to be so personal? To borrow a phrase, 'There's no friend like the lowly Jesus". I hope that one day he can say the same about me.

Spiritual Blaze
Alexander Solzhenitsyn

If the world has not approached its end, it has reached a major watershed in history, equal in importance to the turn from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. It will demand from us a spiritual blaze, we shall have to rise to a new height of vision, to a new level of life where our physical nature will not be cursed as in the Middle Ages, but even more importantly, our spiritual being will not be trampled upon as in the Modern Era...No one on earth has any other way left but upwards.

~Continuing along the lines of the Friday, October 31 post, I wonder what part I need to be playing on a personal level in the "Spiritual Blaze" of Alexander Solzhenitsyn or the "Third Wave" of Charles Wesley. If this is a watershed era in history, I want to be found flowing off the 'right side of the roof'. Isn't God asking us to live ablaze in ways that impact our whole existence? Isn't his love, compassion, justice and ferocity supposed to break free from the small Sunday - Wednesday Night prison that we have been contented for them live? I desire to be that life lived on fire, but how often am I chasing after opportunities to dole out of the blessings that God has given me? As I go over the gospels, I find that Jesus was aggressively looking for people that he could show mercy. A blaze has to be out of control, constantly taking new ground, changing what it comes in contact with.

We really had a great weekend. Friday night was fun with all the trick or treating and candy. The kids absolutely loved walking the neighborhoods. Saturday Morning we finished our soccer seasons and had a good time outside. Later on that afternoon the boys helped me clean out the van, and give it a wash and wax. It was fun to do something together. Sunday, Jen and I sang at Union Mission and they had a children's service in the evening. It was so amazing to watch Zeke worshipping God. I just cried, prayed for him, and worshipped right beside him.

Jennifer and I talked alot his weekend about Mike Yaconelli. It seems that we closely identify his life and work in our minds with the change that has started to happen in our own life. This is probably due to the fact that much of what he has said has been so influential as well as the fact that his ministry was in proximity to us as we began to see things differently. At any rate, 4 or 5 days after the news of Yaconelli's death, we are still talking about it and wrestling with what it means.