Eating & Talking

This encouraged me in light of the fact that we aren't doing church services every Sunday anymore. I'm up for eating and talking anytime you would like!

Ramblings About My Day in Court

Earlier this week I spent two hours at Family Court doing a required court observation. It was an eye-opening experience. I watched a divorce hearing, which was pretty much as expected. I also watched a former husband and wife dispute over back child support due. Again, though ugly, it was not that surprising. But then I watched a motion for termination, which is basically one parent having the other parent's legal rights as a parent taken away. I watched a biological father lose his legal right to be a father. He had it coming. His life was realy (I mean really) messed up, and he had completely igonored his three-year-old kid for the kid's entire life. It was still sad.

I left realizing how broken our world is. For this guy, who made a feable last-minute attempt to get his life together to avoid losing all rights to his son, and then deservedly lost them anyway, there was probably nothing left for this guy to "try for" in life. I fully expect him to fall back into his cycle of despair. His absolutely only hope is the kingdom. I prayed that somehow he would stumble across the kingdom in a real way.

I also left feeling very glad that law school is so hard, and that becoming a judge is even harder. I mean, do you want somebody who isn't really a responsible person making decision about whether a drug-addict man gets to be a kid's father or not? These are major issues. I know judges get a bad rap, especially in Christian circles. The Christian media loves to bash the Supreme Court. Sometimes the Christian media is correct. Other times they don't really understand the complexity of the issues. Even when they are correct, we have to remember that the Supreme Court is less than ten people. Other judges are working every day to make sure that drug-addicted dads don't get to keep their three-year-olds overnight.

One last rant. For those who still belive that our culture is dong just fine, and it just needs a little Christian tweak to be a terrific place, please wake up. This place is messed up. And deeply so. By all human efforts, it's beyond repair. It's time to live in a counter-cultural kingdom that declares a totally different reality than the one we've been given. If I sound too extreme or too fatalistic, please spend a day at Family Court. For me it was a reality check.

An Arrival, (of sorts)
This life is a journey. People who pretend they have already arrived scare me, or at least, depress me. So I won't pretend that the journey ends anytime soon. But I do celebrate that one mountain has been climbed, and I can look out over the horizon and see that we have journeyed far (even though the next part of the trail already beckons).

Over the past year I have moved houses (twice actually), moved offices, had a baby, worked through the transition to monthly Apex gatherings, and gone back to school (beginning what is supposedly one of the most rigourous academic pursuits that exists). I'm kind of hoping that the next year involves less change!

I'm kind of hoping that the next year involves more time hanging out with my family, Rebekah, Tori, & Lucas. I'm kind of hoping the next year involves more time hanging out with my intimate spiritual family, the Boyds, Caldwells, Nybergs, & Parks. I'm hoping the next year involves more time hanging out with the other twenty or thrity families that make up my extended spiritual family.

I hope to see beaches and mountains this next year. I hope to learn how to walk daily with Father this next year. I hope to avoid filling out mortgage forms & real estate agreements this next year. I hope that in this next year I will be free to allow my Sunday afternoons to spill into my Sunday evenings more often. I hope to hang out more with Dave & my other school friends. I hope to call some of you at the spur of the moment to go out to dinner. I hope . . . I think you get the picture. This next chapter of the journey may be much different than the last one for me. I feel free today. It's time to head down the next path. I'm excited.