Snow - the theological implications

As I sit here at 12:30 on March 2, I'm watching the back of a snow storm Charlotte is going through. We had something called "Thunder Snow" which, to me, sounds like the name of a really bad band from the 80's. What it is, however, is the winter equivalent to a Thunderstorm in the summer, complete with heavy show fall, thunder and lightning - it really is a beauty to behold.
Let me also say this, having been raised in Texas (which I am grateful for), I have never seen a weather occurrence like this. There's several weather occurrences I have never seen, typhoons, earthquakes, tsunamis, mudslides, just to name a few. Yet this snow fall was such a beautiful picture to me.
Aside from the flittering huge white flakes floating to the ground and landing in an exact pre-determined spot (okay, maybe not, but it's kind of cool to think about), there's the fact that the snow, especially when it falls in such a great amount begins to cover every surface it touches.

Wood, covered.
Plastic, covered,
Automobiles, covered,
Roofs, covered.

It doesn't matter what the surface, hard or soft, new or old, light or dark. The snow will cover it.

This is a picture of God's grace. His grace covers all surfaces, no matter how cracked and weathered, no matter how small or large. The snow doesn't look at the roof of a mansion and think "oh man, that is WAY too big of a surface, let's skip that." It falls where it wants, and in this type of storm, it falls EVERYWHERE. My car has more snow piled on it right now than it has ever had before. I hope it starts in the morning.
Earlier tonight, Ang and I went out to play in the snow for a bit (this included running around on the deck without shoes on and slipping and sliding all over the place.) It was a blast. Spontaneity keeps people young. After we made our places in the snow from tromping around, I watched, hour after hour as the snow continued to fall - that those spots in which we disturbed the snow were being covered up again. As if we had never been out there, and I began to see a new picture of God's grace.

God has given us a perpetual, unstoppable snowstorm of grace in our lives. He gave us this when Jesus Christ took on our sin and died on the cross. Now we live, not free of sin, but hidden beneath the snow of God's grace, we we no longer are slaves to our sin. When God sees us, He doesn't see our sin any longer, He sees us as undisturbed, pure white snow. This is God's grace. It doesn't matter what you've done, or how dirty or old or worn down your surface is, God's snow still falls on it and covers that brokenness with His perfection.

This would have been enough for me, but as I sat out here watching the snow fall just a few minutes ago I noticed how heavy the snow sat on the trees, how much it weighed them down especially when the wind would pick up. The way the trees lamented having the extra weight, you could just feel the stress in their branches. And I thought, "okay, smart guy, so how does God's grace weigh people down?" and maybe this part is a bit of a stretch, but track with me for just a moment.

Have you ever met someone that was so involved in everything? Every activity, every opportunity, every possible social, ministerial and community event that they had nothing left of themselves? Did it seem as though they were weighed down?
I have been in that place. Where I could not say no, where I was worried about not making the right people happy and pleasing their ideal of what I should be. I was weighed down, I wasn't aware of the freedom which grace allowed me to have.
Rob Bell puts it this way - the only thing I have to focus on is pursing my relationship with God to reflect His glory and discover how beautiful He is, anything beyond that is sin. So it is possible to be weighed down, maybe not necessarily with God's grace but with our perception of what we need to be or do in order to win God's grace. What we must realize is that God has already given us all the grace He can and all the grace we need. There is nothing more we can do to convince God to give us grace.

All we can do is accept it or ignore it.

If we ignore it we live life like those trees, heavy laden, lacking vibrance and energy and hanging our head to the ground.

If we accept it, we live life hidden underneath the snow storm, covered in a white, continual blanket of God's grace.

The snow has just about tapered off now, though there might be more coming, who knows. But I pray that we would all learn to live under the blanket of God's grace, not weighing ourselves down with the expectations others put on us,

My brother Trey, and I had a conversation when he first moved back to Texas a couple of years ago. He said "I don't have time to worry about what other people think about me or the ministry in which God has placed me, I have to focus on running after God."

Maybe Trey should write a book...

A Lyrical Ode to the of Love of My Life on Her Birthday

Here it is your Birthday
And it’s your 29th
30’s just around the corner
Let not think about that tonight!

For 29 amazing years
You’ve brought joy to all you’ve known
You’ve showed them all the love of Christ
And how you too have grown.

You’ve grown into a Christ Follower
You’ve grown into a Friend
You’ve grown into someone that we all can trust
From now until then end

But for me you’ve been so much more
More than literary efforts can portray
A friend, a helpmate, cheerleader, and true love
Growing closer day after day

And although I’ve known you now
For only nine wonderful years
I’ve seen in you all that is beautiful
Through laughter, hope and some tears

I am so blessed to call you my bride
To come home to you each night
To hold you, protect you, care for you too
To love you, even when we fight!

So here’s you my Princess Goldstar
My Icy Hot, daughter of the Most High King
Happy Birthday, my wife –the love of my life
I can’t wait to see what tomorrow will bring!

In the classroom all day

and only 1 meltdown and it wasn't me. There was 1 poop in the pants during nap and 1 wet the mat during naptime. But I didn't have to clean either up. WooHoo! But I like my class. There's definitely opportunity for ministry to kids and parents. I'm making cake pearls tonight since Tim's at Men's Frat. Other than that not much is going on!

1st day at IHBC & Happy Birthday Daena

Happy Birthday MOM! We miss you and love you and hope you're having a wonderful day! Our first day at IHBC was great! We spent the night at Judy's so we'd have a bed, but overslept 30 minutes past when we wanted to get up. We still were early to the 7:40 call, but we sure would have liked to have been there earlier. I flat ironed my hair and put on makeup in the church bathroom but no big deal. First service went amazingly well (contemporary), and Todd and Tanya (pastor and wife) and I snuck off to Bojangles for breakfast during the S.S. hour. (Shhh it's a secret!) They don't have donut shops on every corner so they have to eat real breakfast foods on Sunday :) Second service was again great and we're about to go eat Chinese with the Children's Pastor Sarah and her family! Have a great day! Oh if you haven't see our video on Facebook - Now all of NC thinks we're nuts too!

Love you,
Ang

1%

So I had an interview today with Wachovia Child Development Center for their 3 & 4 year old class. They were super nice and I have a working interview (I go to the classroom for a few hours to see how I fit) on Tuesday. So why the 1%. I put my resume on careerbuilder.com and our Children's pastor told me that 1% of people who put their resume online get an interview. Wow! That is a God thing.

Back to our Mingus drama - So last night he was cold downstairs and started barking at about 3am. So Tim brought he and the crate upstairs and while a little happier, barked until 4am. Tim put a towel over his crate and finally he clued in that it was time to sleep. It's got to get better!

So our belongings should arrive Monday and we'll have 2 cars again and pots and pans! I miss cooking and baking and such. But things are great! You can see videos of Tim's office and the church on our Dads' facebooks.

Ang

North Carolina

So we're here. I'm in Tim's office and he's at staff meeting. Be looking for a video of our travels on Facebook. Our apartment is nice, the living room is much larger than I remember, so we may not have to put as much in storage. This post may be a little random and skip around since the last 2 days I was stuck in a car.

We left at 6:15ish on Monday and I slept for the first few hours. Of course it rained the whole way. Mingus took his sedative and was perfect! We stopped in Shreveport at the Cracker Barrel for breakfast and I drove through Louisiana and Mississippi. We stopped in Meridian for a late lunch at Chick-Fil-A and bought some sheets for our air mattress at Ross (Great tip, Amanda!). Then we took on Alabama. Did you know it probably the longest state in the world to get across? I felt like we were never going to get to Atlanta, GA. Finally at about 10pm est. we got to our La Quinta (they don't charge for pets - Great tip, Elizabeth!) and we ordered some pizza, video conferenced with the Nugents and went to bed. We left at about 9:30 Tuesday morning and found a Shoney's for breakfast (my fave from my childhood trips- love me some cheesy eggs). We stopped in Greenville, SC (such a pretty downtown - Great tip, Dad) and had coffee and walked in the rain a little. On to North Carolina, we got to the house and Judy was so excited to see us. We unpacked what little we had (the movers will be here on Monday, 1/12), and asked where the Wal-Mart was. Judy suggested we go to the Target, but we had several gift cards we wanted to finish up. She said no one goes to the Wal-Mart, but sent us anyways. It was pretty ghetto, not a Super Walmart and there had been several robberies and broken cars, so we didn't take anything but the necessities. We got our air mattress, a shower curtain, a little food (no microwave or pots/pans), 2 towels, and some dog shampoo (gross wet dog). We made it back in one piece and Judy took us to the local Mexican restaurant. It was good, but there wasn't enough kick! (needed lots more jalepenos, less tomato) We cleaned up some and went to bed. Judy was kind enough to lend us a TV, so we didn't have to sleep in silence, but Mingus decided out of defiance that he would eat his bone and his teeth scraping across it nearly made me lose it! But we slept well and are excited to clean Tim's office. We're going to brown paper the walls (Great idea - Mom) and bring all Tim's guitar/recording gear here. Thomas and Kevin (praise team members) had already come in and gotten rid of a lot of things (the music ministers office was the catch-all, IMAGINE!). So we don't have as much to do as we thought, but I am finding music from 1955 to the present so I have work to do still.

I have a job interview with the Wachovia Child Development Center on Friday at 10am. So be in prayer that if that's where I need to work, everything would fall into place (including coming home opportunities). If not, I've applied at the schools, and can sub until God opens the perfect door for me.

We have a couple of nibbles on the lease of the house, so that's coming along as well.

Pray for us as we start this new adventure/chapter and that Huntersville/Charlotte gets on fire for the Kindgom. Todd (pastor) has a vision that there are 100,000 people in a 5 mile radius of the church (Wow!) and we are going to try to touch all of them in the next 5 years. (That's five people a week!) (And always pray for babies.)

Love much (come see us)
Angela

Insights on American Theology

What’s the problem with American theology?

It's not the styles, or the stages – it’s our mentality

While people of the world

Loose their life for Christ the King

We’d rather sit in comfort,

Then raise our voice and sing

---

What would the church look like

if singing Sunday morning

Meant risking your life?

Would you show up? Would I?

---

We need to learn to sacrifice,

For the sake of Jesus Christ

We need to get off of our selves

And learn to pray (really pray)

We have no time to delay,

What if Christ came back today?

Would you be able to testify,

That in your life you glorified

The only One who’s worthy,

With all your might?

Would you? Would I?

---

What’s the problem with Church priorities?

It’s not the programs or attendance, it’s the lack of empathy.

In other countries they follow Christ,

Even if it means they lose their life

In America, we get excited

Over football Monday night

---

What would the church look like

if saying no to yourself

Meant following God’s will?

What would you say? What would I?

---

Who cares if you have a Lexus?

With bumper to bumper?

What does that do for the man who’s damned to hell?

Does your family love you more?

Cause their involved in every activity?

Have you shown them with your life,

The selfless love of Christ?