Red Dinner 2009!

Red Dinner has become a HUGE Valentines Day tradition at our house. Kelly began this tradition long ago when the kids were little with just a few red items served as part of the meal. Since that first meal it has progressed to EVERYTHING is red - including the red heart shaped butter, the red heart shaped ice cubes in the glasses, yes even red bread! This meal is a lot of fun. As Kelly admits however - it is a ton of work. Many of the red items need to be prepared in advance - like the butter and ice cubes. In recent years we have shared red dinner with family and friends and it always puts smiles on everyone's faces to see the final product. I am amazed at what this meal has evolved to over the years - and it is just one of the ways my amazing wife has continued to bring joy and laughter to this family. Her hard work and extra effort is our gain - she is truly an amazing lady with so much creative talent - it even comes out in the food she prepares on nights like red dinner night. Last night Kelly capped of the amazing red meal with little heart shaped red velvet cakes with red cream cheese icing - YUM! EVERYTHING is better with cream cheese icing. Hats off to Kelly for another successful and amazing red dinner - can't wait for next year!

Who am I?

I find myself asking this question more and more these days? There is so much "clutter" in the world telling us who we should be/need to be. So who am I? Why can't I have more, do more, be more? Why am I afraid to let others truly see who I am? But, if I don't even know who I am - maybe that's where the fear lies? Why am I so controlling? Why do I always have to win the argument? Why do I struggle with my ability to surrender it all to God? Surrender seems like loss, like becoming less - only "losers" surrender! Once again I find myself caught up in the the worlds interpretation/translation of surrender. What does God's interpretation of surrender look like?
Who is my argument with anyway? Is my argument with God? Perhaps I am just arguing with myself? I want to have it all, be all, do all, end all - Am I trying to be god?
A.W. Tozer said, “The reason why many are still troubled, still seeking, still making little forward progress is because they haven’t yet come to the end of themselves. We’re still trying to give orders, and interfering with God’s work within us.”
WOW, there it is - control - who has control? We think we do, but in reality it is only a facade - our own reality, not reality. We have no control. Life happens and we are unable to control it or stop it. We say, "let go and let God" - but somehow for some reason we always take the reigns back from God.

Reading some C.S. Lewis recently caused me to realize that my thoughts are certainly not new - He struggled with these issues too? Once again I am reminded that life is about the struggle not about the destiny. There is no such thing as "winning at the end" - it's about winning one day at a time, by submitting all to God each and every day. And then perhaps we begin to see our true selves emerge as the whole human that God intends us to be....maybe some day I will get this....someday, but today I have things I must get done....

C. S. Lewis observed, “The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become – because he made us.He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be. It is when I turn to Christ, when I give up myself to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own.”

The newly passed "spending bill", er I mean stimulus package...

How can anyone stay quiet on this subject? Where is all the discussion about this new “spending bill” that congress passed this week? This is NOT a discussion about Democrat or Republican – liberal vs conservative; this is a common sense discussion about right and wrong? This is the largest most massive bill EVER passed in these United States. How many congressional leaders even read the bill? This bill is 1,100 pages long and nobody had time to read it all the way through. The American people were promised by this new administration that everyone would be able to read the bill and understand where the money is going. Full transparency is what we were promised and yet, the bill has passed and no one has read it. Where is the outrage? Where is the discussion? Where is our democracy? Never before has any leader been given a pass like this one? OK, so perhaps many people are thinking well if it doesn’t work they will hang themselves with their own rope….But at what cost to all of us?

The issue and the discussion here is NOT about whether this “stimulus” package will work or not – unfortunately we won’t know for a while – so this is not the point of this discussion. The point for me is that this new president promised us transparency and clarity, honesty and openness. So far we have not seen that demonstrated by this administration. Where is the transparency? Where is his leadership to stand up to the fellow democrats who loaded this bill with pork spending? There are 100’s of items in this bill that have nothing to do with stimulus and everything to do with the normal spending that this congress has been so anxious to get to.

I for one am hopeful that I am completely wrong about this bill. I hope somehow it works because we desperately need it to work. But here’s the deal, just like everything else in life – when something is hidden, or accomplished in the dark – then it is probably not something worthy to be illuminated – but rather should be exposed to the light so that all can bear witness to it’s real purpose. Full transparency, full disclosure, letting full light illuminate all the details – isn’t this what we all need to be about?

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