great gifts...

my friend kyle gave me 2 books this weekend by a guy named eugene petersen. he's the guy who 'wrote' the message bible, a pastor and teacher, and now a retired man who lives on the lake he grew up on in the mountains of montana. i'm so excited about these books -- petersen's writing is about spiritual theology -- trying to find the places where the theological world intersects the spiritual -- experience, worship, service -- side of life. essentially, living out visibly and physically what mentally we hold true. sounds like it makes sense, huh? seeing the life of Jesus formed in us and lived out in the world around us. i'm so excited about this stuff that it may well be my emphasis in seminary -- helping the formation process take place in others.

thinking about the gift that these books are to me, what greater gift can we give our kids than to help them grow in this area? as a parent, helping my kids shape and form what they believe is a super big job. we all do it, even with the tiniest kids. and how exciting -- i've spoken about it before -- when they start to get it!!! amazing stuff.

read an excerpt from one of those books today that talks about the grind of the everyday, and how we get distracted from our resurrection life -- the new, hopeful, perspective when our life is found in Jesus. petersen talked about meals and how in the Bible, food and eating together is linked with living faith. what a great thing -- something we all have to do, being an avenue that God uses to draw us closer to Him and each other, to form our lives to be more like His. hopefully tonight you'll take the time to eat, enjoy, and connect with each other. and remember that even in simply eating, God uses these things to make us more like Him...

eat and drink and be happy, in celebration of who He is!