Love

The other night we got to spend the evening with our good friends. We don’t usually get to hang out with all of them together, so we decided to make a late night of it – and were welcomed to do so – and had a fantastic time. The kids played great together, and that allowed us adults to grab some drinks, and a little dessert and just talk about life together at the dining room table.

Earlier in the night, since my birthday was coming up, there was also a bit of a surprise birthday party! Another family was invited to join us (our friends’ neighbor) and then after dinner together, I was told to go in the other room and stay there. I knew something was up… πŸ™‚ After a few minutes, a plate of chocolate chocolate chip cookies was brought in … with candles in it! πŸ™‚ I found out later that was the plan all the time, disguised as a regular evening together as friends. It was fun. Really nice surprise. Even got presents! πŸ™‚

Well, as the adults hung out after all of the other festivities, we got to talking about the people that God has put around us. We’d been sharing stories of what was in front of us at the moment, and a couple stories reminded me of something God seems to keep weaving through many different areas of my life.

We all have heard the verse of Scripture, “Now these three remain: Faith, Hope & Love. But the greatest of these is love.” It’s used many times at weddings, and of course, it’s true. But, at least for me, the fullness (and yet, simplicity) of that has escaped me.

Our friend was telling us how one of the people he works with told him that she feels comfortable talking with him. Different than other people. What God has been teaching me lately is just how life-changing love can be, and it sounded like this was an example of it. I don’t know for sure in this example, but I am pretty sure that this is the core of the gospel – the “Good News”.

“For God so loved the world…” is another famous quote, that just gets glossed over many times. But really, I think it’s the core of the gospel. It’s not the theological discussions, the Mosaic law, transubstantiation, or propitiation. It’s not the way that Jesus was the perfect sacrifice as well as our High Priest. There are certainly things that can be learned from all of these things, but really, life change only happens when we realize we are loved.

After all, God is love. It’s the core of who he is. And when we really get who we are to him, how he feels about us… we begin to be able to love as we have been loved. There is freedom that comes from knowing how much we are loved by our Father, and in that freedom – as opposed to obligation – we can truly love other people (out of the overflow of how we are loved by God) without agenda or any other “strings attached”.

We try so hard as Christians to plan and create opportunities to share the “good news” with people, but really, the intellectual arguments while they may be true, will not change lives. At least, not as much as real love will. It’s so simple, but so infrequently employed – mostly because most of us have still not really experienced the reality of God’s love. We may know it intellectually… academically. But until we really know it, the best we can do is to share our academic understanding of God and his love with people. Which usually just doesn’t cut it.

My point? I don’t really have one. Just sharing what God has been showing me. It’s not something you can just “fix” or “put into action”. You can’t just “feel more loved”. But when we do, freedom abounds. And in that freedom, we can love other people – which can begin to produce a changed life in them.

Pretty cool stuff.

It really is all about love.

(Just a fun link to a great album.) πŸ™‚

On Sean Taylor

The Bills play the Redskins this weekend, and the importance of the game has been seriously diminished by the killing of safety Sean Taylor. Taylor is one of the Redskins best players, leaders, and loved by all of his coaches and teammates.

A lot of people think that will motivate the Skins this weekend, but from what I have read, and especially heard and seen in press conferences and interviews, they are not thinking about football. I could be wrong, but I have a feeling the Bills will end up winning – maybe easily – and they won’t get the credit for it. The Redskins are definitely mentally and emotionally somewhere else.

There is a bit of “good news” regarding the murder. I found this article today which says that the police have charged three suspects and detained a fourth. The “good” is that they have the people who are responsible (and confessions from them) but it’s really sad that these guys are just teenagers. And, according to the story, were not intending to kill Taylor, just got “unlucky”.

Not sure I’m buying that.

So, it’s a really sad series of events, and certainly overshadows any of the fun of this game. It was going to be kind of fun, two 5-6 teams, Trent Edwards starting, London Fletcher playing against his old team, Derrick Dockery for the Bills doing the same… but sometimes there are things more important than football.

33

Well, yes, today is my birthday, but it has already begun to be celebrated. My sister made me a cake while we were down there with them at my Mom & Dad’s… they sang and everything. I got presents from the extended family. Many have been wishing me a happy birthday, including calls/IMs from Dad & Sister who have started this interesting tradition of wishing me a happy birthday on November 29th, so they can be the first one or something… πŸ™‚

Last night we all went out as a family to celebrate. Red Robin gives you a free burger on your birthday, so we like to take advantage of that! We went there for dinner, they sang me a song. It was tons of fun!

During dinner, Kirstie (our awesome 3-year-old) says something about how we need to go to Chuck-E-Cheese for my birthday! I just smiled (as I am now!) and realized that to her, THAT is a birthday! We have done the Red-Robin-Chuck-E-Cheese birthday circuit for several birthdays running now! πŸ™‚

So after dinner, we piled in the van and headed over to Chuck-E-Cheese!!

We got inside and the guy at the entrance said, “Is there a special occasion today?” I answered, “Yes……” He probed further, “Is it a birthday?” We all said, “Yes…….” He said, “Whose birthday is it???”

Everyone pointed to me and said, “Dad’s birthday!” He looked a little surprised, but handed me the birthday balloon!

We got a few dollars worth of tokens and headed out to have some fun. Strangely, most of the stuff we tried to do was broken, but the one thing I wanted to do – that cool little sketch/photo machine – did work and we got a funny photo memory from the night. I did get to play one game of skee ball with the boys, too. πŸ™‚

So, for my 33rd birthday, I went to Red Robin & Chuck E Cheese! πŸ™‚

But, there’s more. So far today I have received some awesome steak “plates” (they are boards!) hand-crafted by my almost-9 year old son and his crafty Grandpa Tom, and a BUNCH of e-mails, IMs, and other electronic birthday greetings. Jen has some plans for tonight too, but won’t divulge them just yet. πŸ™‚

More later… unfortunately today is still a busy work day! Just wanted to tell the stories of how everyone has been celebrating my birthday. It’s been really fun so far, and much appreciated.

Thanks! πŸ™‚

Post-Thanksgiving Thoughts

We had a marvelous time with family in Ohio over the past several days. Besides my parents and my sister and her family of six, we also got to spend some time with my grandparents, two aunts, one uncle, three cousins (and one first cousin once removed). That was all topped with the news this morning that another cousin had delivered healthy TWINS the night before. (Funny part was, twin #1 was born at 11:52pm Nov 24th, while twin #2 entered breathable air at 12:03 Nov 25th! These twins have different birthdays!! Ha!!)

All in all, it was a wonderful trip, and a great time with family.

Tonight, reflecting on all of it (and troubled a bit by our current financial standings) I was truly thankful. Not some cheesy kind of Hallmarky thankful induced by an annual over-commercialized holiday. I mean really thankful. It was kind of a neat feeling. I was looking around me at all the stuff that we do have and enjoy. Much of which has been given to us by our generous family. And I was thinking about my four kids and my wife, along with the other tot on the way. All of these that God has given me.

Money may be an ever-present pressure, cause of stress, and the lack thereof a source of fear, but really… in the important things, I’m set. Life could not be better.

A few stories for tonight.

First, at one point on our trip a random file came up in our iPod song shuffling, and it was just precious. It was a little audio clip I had recorded of Ian and Alex for our now stagnant basicmm radio show. Man, I forgot how cute the three-year-old Alex was! The kids all wanted to hear that one several times.

But, speaking of cute three-year-olds, our current three-year-old, Kirstie, was dishing out her own cuteness throughout the weekend. She had plenty of classic lines all weekend, some of which I won’t repeat here, but one particularly cute moment was when I offered to lay down with her when she was supposed to be taking a nap. Unfortunately, at the moment, I forget what it was! πŸ™‚ (I’ll add it tomorrow if I can remember it!)

Other cuteness came from little Julia this weekend. She doesn’t say much, but over the holiday at Grammy’s house – which is well-stocked with chocolate – she learned to use the word “Choc-latt” well, and OFTEN. AND, the best part was the true, deep sadness that followed any time she uttered the new word, without the appropriate results! πŸ™‚ If we ever said no to choc-latt, the tears flowed freely!

Pretty cute, and apparently she has a sweet tooth like her dad!!

There’s a bunch more obviously, but as my sleeping time is quickly dwindling, I think I will head to my bed to get what I still can. (Yes, I really do sleep!)

Hope you are aware of and enjoying the blessings in your life, as God has reminded me of mine tonight.

Picks

NFL FootballThis season I have been asked to join a panel of “experts” in predicting the outcome of each week’s NFL games. So far I am in second place, behind my Buffalo Bills Review partner, Dave Drake, and another guy who are tied for first.

This week, after hearing the boys subtly add their voice to the discussion of my picks each week, I decided to let them in on it! So I made up little sheets for them to each make their picks and we’ll see who ends up with the best record by the end of the season. πŸ™‚ (Actually, you might be surprised… there’s a good chance they will!)

It’s fun to see how excited they are about it πŸ™‚

Even funnier was seeing how Alex changed a couple of his picks after announcing the games he was not going to get right – only to find out he could still change his picks up to kickoff time. πŸ™‚ He’s pretty cute. He now assures us that he will go 16-0 this week.

The big game of course is tonight, where our Bills face the New England Patriots. Ian and I have our Bills winning in the end (good boy, Ian!) and Alex changed that one… which will of course help him go 16-0.

We’ll see!

Go Bills!

My Music

More than a dozen years ago now I started writing songs. Sorta out of the blue. (Yes, Mom, I do remember the songs I was writing when I was eight years old, but really… the first real songs I started writing were a bit later in life, and seemed to be “out of the blue”.)

At first these “OOTB” songs were a neat time for me to reflect on God and for me to express my heart to him. But slowly I began to share them with other people. A song here and there “at church”, and then for my college floor-mates (I still remember Brian loving the song What You Say, and predicting it would be “a hit”.) πŸ™‚

Eventually, we formed a band and made a cd. And for a time, that was that.

We went separate ways after college, and I continued to write songs, but used them in public a bit less. Even less when Jen & I were married as she had a strong aversion to them. No worries, it was fun while it lasted…. let’s move on.

But God wanted something different. I could not put them down. I was compelled to use them. For other people. And use them we did. Listening to God in that moment (and watching him lead Jen toward the same thing) led to some six or seven years of full-time music traveling across the entire United States, and recording some five, six or seven albums.

Then in 2005, again at God’s leading, it just stopped. Check out the “past events” at the calendar page on our website. Incredibly sparse over the last two years! (Compare it to 2002-2004!) So it would seem that at least for the time being, God does not have a use for my music.

Or does he?

Two nights ago, as I was saying good night to the girls, I just sat down next to Kirstie’s bed and stayed there. She asked me what I was doing and I said, “I just wanted to stay here a while. I don’t have anywhere to go right now, so I wanted to stay with you.” She smiled a big “I love you” smile, and after a little pause she asked, “Dad, can you sing us a song on your guitar?”

“Not tonight, Kirstie. I don’t have a song tonight.”

“Can you sing the ‘Lay your head on your pillow’ song?” she asked, again with a big “I love you” smile. Now, it took me a second to remember what she was talking about, but it really was a song. A song I had sung once for the girls… about TWO MONTHS AGO. πŸ™‚ I just brought my guitar in the room and made up a song, as I am wont to do for the girls, and the boys.

And she remembered.

At that moment I realized that God is still using my music. But instead of audiences across the country, and indeed the world, the audience is my four beautiful kids.

My little girl is listening, and loves her Daddy’s songs.

Could it be any better?

They Earned It

Yesterday the boys were just a bit rambunctious to start the day. They were not being bad necessarily… just sort of annoying, and out of control. I happened to be on the phone with my parents at the time (which was part of the reason they were annoying) and was relaying the story to them. Jen said we should send them out to stack firewood. But, since we don’t have any firewood… my Dad said, send ’em out to rake the yard!

“Great idea,” I said.

So, we bundled them up for the chilly morning, set down the ground rules and, truthfully, I expected to be refereeing, and end up doing the work myself.

However, much to my surprise… they did an amazing job. They both worked together. They worked hard. They even had fun, I think. They took an HOUR to do our front yard (Ian said, “How long has it been, cause the bell tower has rung twice since we’ve been out here…”) and they never complained, even though their hands were getting tired.

Near the end of their assigned task I asked them, “Do you guys want to ask our neighbors if they would like you to do their yard? You could ask them to give you $5/each for doing it?” (I just picked a random number out of the air… wasn’t sure what the neighbors would be willing to pay…) At first, they were too tired, but for some reason, Ian was able to convince Alex to try it, and they went and asked.

I checked on them and saw them raking the yard, and learned that they would be paid two dollars each for raking the front yard. They were pretty excited, and diligent in their work. I smiled and left them to it.

I continued to check on them pretty frequently. (The front yard is right near a very busy road, and well, I love my boys, so I wanted to make sure they were still there!!!) They were doing great! And they took almost another hour to do that yard!! They never stopped, just kept at it till it was done. I have to say, I have never “felt” more proud of them. It was a fun parental moment.

When the task was complete, I saw them go to our neighbor’s front door and receive the payment. Alex got his first and ran away from the house cheering and saying, “Dad!!! Look what I got!!!!!!” while waving his two dollar bills firmly gripped in his right mitten. Ian was pretty excited too, but Alex couldn’t stop talking about his TWO DOLLARS!!! πŸ™‚ I told him, “That’s great, Alex! And you earned it! You did a lot of hard work to earn that.” Next thing I knew he was headed to the basement to find mom, saying, “Mom!! Look what I earned!!!!” πŸ™‚

Too cute. πŸ™‚

So last night, after telling them how proud I was of them for working together, and doing what we had asked, and then for doing twice what we asked, we went to Wal-Mart and they each got to pick out a treat that they earned with their hard work. Alex paid for his and the cashier gave him his receipt. He couldn’t have been happier. He said, “I got a receipt!! This is my receipt!”

Pretty sure he’s keeping that one for a while.

10th Anniversary Vacation Photos

Greg & Jen celebrating 10 years of marriage!
Yes folks, we had a blast. And now we are back home taking care of our four kids, and last weekend, we kept our friends’ three girls for three days to boot! So, I haven’t gotten to sit down and share some of the highlights of our trip with you. We haven’t even gotten to post the photos we wish we could just yet. So, for now, here are the links to the albums I have posted on Facebook. So far.

PHOTOS
Self-Portraits
Sunset on the Coast
Marine Wildlife
Apple-Related Photos

More to come! πŸ™‚

What Color Am I?

Personality Test
I don’t know why these quick little quizzes are so fascinating to me, but they are… My pick was interestingly accurate. It said to choose the “most appealing” one… that could mean a lot of things, so I chose the one I noticed first. Here’s what it said about me.

You love a free and spontaneous life. And you strive to enjoy every moment, in accordance with the motto: “You only live once.”

You are very curious and open about everything new. You thrive on change. Nothing is worse than when you feel tied down.

You experience your environment as being versatile and always good for a surprise.

So, click the image above and take their one-click test. See if it accurately describes you. πŸ™‚