31 December 2007

Happy Birthday 2008!!!

A friend of mine posted on his blog that it feels like he remembers a whole lot that happened this year, but at the same time, he doesn't remember much.

I kinda feel the same way. Such huge and wonderful events happened this year, milestone events, life changing events, yet somehow it all gets blurred together into this lump sum that we remember as 2007.

I'm not good with dates anyway, so I've never been one to look back and remember specifics. But this year was full of milestones, that is for sure!

I had a significant number appear in the box where it says age. This just recently happened, so it's fresh in my mind.

My wife and I are expecting our firstborn, a son. With whom I will be well pleased...hehehe...

That has been the major happening this year for us. It's a little paradoxical, though, our biggest event consisted mainly of us not doing much except the neccessary housework and other chores. Well, nesting a bit as well, we are now one room closer to being done with our house, but full of the knowledge that we will finish just in time to start again!

My grandmother on my dad's side also left us this year, and that was a wonderful time with family and friends, looking back on our family forest(it's too big to be a tree), and looking forward to just how our forest will look with that huge gaping hole of sunshine that she left.

She was a major prayer warrior for us in our journey of infertility, and though it pains us that she will not be able to meet her eighth great grandchild, there is some poetry in the fact that everything seemed to have happened at the same time.

My Bride and I this year celebrated five years of wedded bliss, and can't wait for the next five...and beyond. The road wasn't always paved as good as you'd think, but we have four-wheel-drive. Our relationship is stronger now than it ever was, and we look forward to our marriage and family growing stronger with each day.

2007 was a banner year for us here in quiet Jenison. Our house continues to become a home, our church continues to become our community, and our God continues to show us that He is indeed in control.

May 2007 hold the same fond memories for you and your family, and my 2008 be fuller of the Grace and Peace of God than you could imagine!


wingnut

24 December 2007

Thoughts on Christmas

Ypres, Belgium. This little town in Europe probably doesn't hold much meaning to us today, at least not that we know, anyway. Those who are more familiar with The Great War will recognize it as the scene of intense trench warfare and massive numbers of casualties. Throughout the course of the war, the fighting raged through the area and town of Ypres, not once, not twice, but three times. The last of these battles, more commonly known as the Battle of Passchendaele, raged through the area from mid-July 1917 until November 6, 1917. Over seven hundred thousand men were wounded or killed.

Ypres also shares the horrible honor of having been the first battle to see mustard gas, which was also called Yperite for a time.

But at Christmas time of 1914, Ypres was the site of a story so beautiful, so compelling, that it still now stands as a story that celebrates the true Christmas, the Real Christmas.

We Christians get our Christmas story usually from Luke. The writer of Luke, whomever he was, was well spoken, intelligent, and well educated. His account of the life and times of Jesus and the early church shows a keen eye for detail, and a respect for history, as well as absolute reverence for his subject matter.

In Chapter two, he relates the nativity story as he knows it. In verse 14, he has the shepherds watching in awe as a great company of angels and other heavenly hosts give a choir concert for them.

"Glory to God in the highest! And on earth, peace to those on whom God's favor rests!"

The phrase is familiar to us, probably a bit too familiar. I mean, what is Glory? What does it mean to give glory to God? Glory is one of those words that everyone knows what they mean by it, but nobody really knows what it means.

So, let's figure this out!

The Hebrew word that we translate as Glory is Kavod. The word means "significance, weightiness. Honor and majesty are other words that compare.

When the psalmist says that the heavens declare the Glory of God(Psalm 19), the word used is Kavod. In the Book of Exodus, when Moses asks to see God, God replies that "the best I can do without absolutely destroying you is to show you where I just was." (33:17) (Wingnut paraphrase). In other words, God tells Moses that humans can't handle the full presence of God without being totally and completely reduced to our elemental parts.

Pastor Rob jokes that then Jack Nicholson came along and said to Moses, "You can't handle the Kavod!"

So when we look up at the stars in the night sky, we are filled with awe and wonder. We begin to contemplate how absolutely massive the universe is, and how massive God must be. We also begin to realize how small and insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things. We are realizing the kavod, the weight, the significance of God. The heavens are telling us how big God is. And we stand and marvel at it. My backyard is dark. On a clear night, I can see millions and millions of stars. I can see the Milky Way, the constellations, and I can't help but feel tiny. I could stand out there for hours, shivering in the dark, just staring at the sky. I let my mind become a starship, and wonder how long it would take to travel to all these beautiful and wonderful places that I see, and knowing that I could live forever, and still not see them all.

It must have been similar to what Moses felt, seeing where God just was.

But even that wonder, that awe, that totally consuming excitement of the vastness of the universe isn't God. It's merely a small glimpse of His presence.

This idea is reinforced in Psalm 8, where it says that God has set His glory above the heavens.

So now we go back to Luke. The writer is writing in Greek, and trying to find a word that carries the same idea as kavod in the Greek language. The word chosen is doxa. In Greek, the word means the unchanging essence of something. Something's doxa is the way that something is. When we picture, for instance, a couch, we get a certain doxa about it.

When the angels sing doxologies to the shepherds, they are singing about the very essence of God. They are singing that God is too big to understand, but He sent all his power down into this little baby to redeem His creation. That is the power of Christmas: A huge God that cares so much about the universe He created, that he sent His power to live among it.

Now we go back to Ypers( pronounced "Eeper", by the way)

It is December of 1914. The war has been going on since summer, and has already descended into the chaos of trench warfare. The ground is deeply scarred by shell holes and trench systems. It is cold now, and the high water table has filled many trenches with water that now freezes at night. The trench systems are only about 200 yards away from each other, separated by the hellish moonscape of no-man's land. Machine guns and accurate rifles make being above the ground at all deadly.

In the middle of this hell, the German soldiers at the front begin decorating their trench and the surrounding trees for Christmas. On Christmas Eve, the sound of their Christmas carols rises above no-man's land. The British who are facing them in their own trenches, respond by singing out the same songs in English. It is cold and clear out, and as the frost forms, the two armies shout out Christmas greetings to one another.

As Christmas Day dawns, the greetings continue, along with calls for a gift exchange. A few brave soldiers on both sides actually leave their trenches and walk through no-man's land! Groups of British and German soldiers meet in the middle of no-man's land and exchange gifts, small jars of jams and chocolate from their rations, or cigars and whiskey from their personal stashes. They show off pictures of their families, and trade pieces of their uniforms.

The artillery does not fire on them, and so they continue. Fallen soldiers are properly buried, with the honor of having both armies present at their funerals. At one funeral in particular, the gathered soldiers recite Psalm 23 together.

Some of the soldiers start a game of soccer in no-man's land. Apparently, the German team won, 3-2.

It is very important to remember that this was not ordered by higher authorities. The generals on each side were not a part of it, and in fact, the French and British generals took active measures to stop the truce, and to ensure that it did not happen again. This was totally unofficial, absolutely spontaneous. In some areas, the truce remained in effect until New Year's Day.

What kind of power does this day have over all others, that soldiers are willing to leave the relative saftey of their fortifications, and enter into the hell of no-man's land, literally walking into the unknown, to exchange gifts with men who are trying to kill them?

What kind of power makes people who don't even believe in God still believe in the spirit of Christmas?

What kind of power rests, in this day, that makes it endure like no other holiday?

Could it be that Christ's birth was so monumental, so loving, so absolutely awe-inspiring, that our celebration of it still bears the significance of this event and will for all eternity?

Could it be that God's kavod rests so heavily on this day, on this time of year, that we cannot escape it?


My Christmas wish is that the Glory of God, the kavod of the Almighty, will rest upon you and your family. That you will find the kavod of God, brought down to earth, is still present, still alive, still redeeming His Creation.


wingnut

13 December 2007

A Blogger Looks at Thirty

Happy Birthday to me!
I have been alive on this earth for thirty years now. I don't feel like it. Not all the time, at least. There are mornings where my body does it's level best to convince me that I should retire tomorrow. Those mornings usually happen in wintertime, but I think it's more of a weather-related phenomena rather than related to my birthday. Let's just say that my shoulders are getting pretty good at meteorology.


I usually, when I sit down to think about it, consider myself around 25 or so. Not 25 and holding, though. I don't want to be one of those people that hates to grow old, you know the type, the ones who are actually insulted when they have another birthday. I don't want to be one of those people, so i will freely admit and accept my age. I can't do anything about it anyway, and if I am going to lie, it will be something more important than my age. Why do people care so much?

So I don't feel like I'm 30 yet. Not all the way.

Oh, and if you're not in the mood for one of those cheesy "looking back" type posts, you might want to read something else.


When I look back on the last thirty years, I am amazed at what has happened. I think that I didn't really begin to live until around college or so. My childhood was awesome, don't get me wrong. I have wonderful memories of growing up with my sisters, getting into trouble, getting them into trouble, camping, playing in the mud, bringing home all sorts of critters, camping, road trips...you know...awesome stuff!


But for the most part, I was just along for the ride. I was a fairly quiet, shy kid. With my close friends, I was okay, but I really wasn't a social butterfly in school. At home, I would have preferred Lego's or books to anything else. I guess I still do, really. Yes, I still have my Lego's. I'm not so sure I'm going to let Eli play with them, either!



But when I was in my senior year, and then in to college, I started being more assertive. Not much, though, and those that know me now would not believe that I could be less assertive at all! But in college, I ran with a bunch of guys who were always talking, always joking, always active. I had to become louder just to be heard. That continued when I met my wife. Not that she was loud and obnoxious, because she wasn't, but that I had to remain rather outspoken. I'm still learning that, by the way.

My wife, just this past weekend, said it marvelously: "I feel like I have lived more in the past ten years, than I had all the years previous."

Yes. I do too. All the things we've done, and experienced, the trips, the house, the family, the miscarriages and infertility questions, Mars Hill. They have all combined to create a life full of experiences, and growth, and given me a deeper, more mature understanding of what really matters.

Now, with a child on the way, I stand at the doorway of my next thirty years, hoping that this was only the beginning.

I can look back, and I can see that there are things in my first thirty years that I would have done differently if given the opportunity. But these experiences have made me the person I am today, and I would not trade that for anything.

And I really can't wait for my next thirty years. If these past few are any indication, it will be one heck of a ride, for sure!


wingnut

07 December 2007

Dear Diary, Today I blahblahblahblah.....plus a pregnancy update!

First, the update: Normal.

Shan's doctor says everything is textbook. I really wish he would give us a copy of this textbook, it would have been handy to be reading it these past few months. Maybe prepare us a little bit. This is imminent, and the weight of that is starting to rest firmly on Shan and I's shoulders. Not that it's a bad thing, don't get me wrong. We are both super-psyched for this to happen, for this new chapter in our lives. We really do thank God for the opportunity to experience this miracle!

But the number to over there to your right is a lot smaller now than it was(myspace and xanga, click here). As in a month and a half. As in we could go at any time. As in, I really should be packing a bag for the hospital instead of typing this. But here I sit...

I usually don't go for these "Dear diary" types of posts. Usually, my days are not thought-provoking enough for me to think that someone might actually be interested in reading about them. Now that I'm reading that sentence, I'm wondering if that's a good thing or not...

Anyway, today was a day about running in to old acquaintances. This morning, I had to pick up the Blazer from the shop. The shop was right down the road from a coffee shop that was started by an acquaintance of mine, Martin (Mocha & Music. Go there. Buy coffee. Listen to live music). I really didn't think he would be there, but he was, so I was able to catch up with him a little bit. I hadn't seen him in a long while, so it was nice to catch up. I could have stayed all morning, but I was on my way to do some Christmas shopping for my bride. By the way, the coffee there is just as good, if not better, than my beloved Starbucks.

At Barnes & Noble, shopping for my bride, who doesn't read, I ran into a former co-worker of mine at Complete Music, Tom. Tom is a pastor, and so it was fun to finally have someone in the office at Complete that approached life from a similar world view as mine. He only worked there a short time, but we would talk, and we would answer questions and debate the other DJs after our shows. Tom also was launching a youth ministry with some friends of his, and it was going very well.

As he got busier with that, though, he had to stop DJing, so I kinda lost track of him. The next time I ran in to him was at Church, and he looked like he had slept about eight seconds in the last year. He had lost everything. He had been pouring his heart and soul into the youth ministry and his church, and everything was crumbling right in front of him. His wife apparently had cheated on him, and was now leaving. On the way out, she had gotten the ear of a few influential members of their congregation, and had told them her side of the story, and in the space of about a week and a half, his wife was gone, his church had booted him, and his best friends had decided that maybe he wasn't a healthy influence for the youth ministry.

Today, I was glad to see him doing better. Not all the way, obviously, but better than the last time. I mean, how can you fully recover from your whole life being destroyed like that? We talked a little bit about me, and how things were going, but I didn't want to talk much about it. I figured that was probably one of the last things he wanted to hear. Mostly, we talked about him. Or he talked about him. I listened.

I really had to get these gifts bought, and I really had to get home and fix lunch, and go see my bride, and get to work on time. But I sat and listened. Not because I wanted to, mind you, but because I had to. I mean I did want to stay, but that's not really why I stayed. Know why I stayed? Because he needed to be in church.

Matthew 18:20.

That's my day. Hope yours are filled with the same random coolness!


wingnut

03 December 2007

Man was That a blast!!

This past weekend, I had the very enviable opportunity to play paintball. I am a bit of a paintball dork, and I enjoy every opportunity I get to go play. Unfortunately, it is a bit cost-prohibitive, so I don't go near as often as I would like. But my streak is changing, I have gone twice this year! That's more than I have gone in the past two years combined!

Although not everyone could make it, there was a small group that did show up. Since it was open play, where anyone can simply show up and take the field, we were a bit nervous as to who exactly would show up. Sometimes, you get paintball teams that enjoy "practicing" against those of us who do not play that often, and do not spend a mortgage payment or two on their gear. It seems a bit one-sided to me, and not really practice. If you want to get better as a team, shouldn't you play against teams that are better than you?

I digress. It was a great time, made all the more fun by it's nearness. Most paintball places around here are at least a half-hour away from me here in Jenison, and some of those are only worth the drive because there's nothing else around.

But not anymore! Magnum Sportz is located inside the Soccer Zone complex, right behind the Meijer in Jenison!!

And the field is worth a half-hour drive, in my opinion! It was spectacular! Basically, they took one of the indoor soccer arenas, and put paintball netting around it, and some bunkers on it. It's large, well-lit, and well-laid out. It was one of the best places I've played, honestly. But you might want a few grains of salt with that, I can probably count on one hand the places I've played....nope....wait....If the hand had eight fingers, then yes...so yeah, I guess never mind the salt. I'm qualified.

It was a great field, great friends were there, and a great time was had by all!

Oh yeah, I guess I should mention The Gauntlet. It's sort of a tradition among the Jasperse clan that when we go paintballing for bachelor parties, the groom to be is singled out to run "The Gauntlet". "The Gauntlet" is a hunter-type paintball game, where one person is sent out alone, to battle the entire opposing team. Since that tradition was not started until after I got married, I was not able to take part in it. Until now. I was privileged enough to experience the once in a lifetime thrill of taking on nine people at the same time. I could not get eliminated, but everyone else could. The goal, obviously, is to give the Gauntlet runner as many welts as possible before you are eliminated. I didn't count. But the game was done in under five minutes.

I know that my cousin Matt did better than I did. When we did this at his bachelor party, he somehow managed to escape with only two or three welts...Must be all that Police Academy training. Or the fact that he's so quiet you don't hear him coming until you feel a pop on the back of your neck...

And now.....the battle wounds!!! And other pictures...



This is the whole group...But I don't know the guy on the right, in the white sweatshirt. He was there with a different group. The more the merrier, though, right?


Prepping for another round!


This is me on the field. Everyone else had rental equipment, and then there's Rambo!



I can't see if that one broke or not...Am I hit?



This is my worst "Battle Scar". Yeah, it hurt. That's the front of my left bicep, if anyone was wondering.


Bob took one on his wrist....


...and Floyd got one in the kidneys!



Here's some more of them. I'm right handed, which means my left side is always facing towards the opposing side. Can you tell?

Everyone seemed to have a good time! I hope to do it again soon, so I can share more pictures with everyone!!


wingnut