More Pictures

Here's some more pictures of our fun travels...



This was a bluff overlooking Haystack Rock on the Pacific Coast at Cannon Beach.








We saw our share of waterfalls...





Sara and I in front of Multnomah Falls outside Portland.


















Up close and personal with Sea Lions at the Astoria Pier.

Creative Beauty

Vacation can be a beautiful thing. But even better than vacation itself is the beauty of the place where you spend it. So far the Northwest lives up to its billing as a beautiful place and we haven't even left Oregon yet. God is such an amazing artist and it is a blessing to be in the midst of another part of his beautiful creation. Here is one of his creative portraits we have witnessed to this point...
Here we hiked down a cliff to get to the edge overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The result was breathtaking!

I'll post some more pictures later...

Re-envision the Redemptive Possibilities...

Our culture attempts to sell us on something daily. We are told that we are inadequate without certain life-altering products. The underlying message is that we too could be more complete, popular, thin, beautiful, respected or admired if only we used our resources to pursue a particular way of living in this world. So we easily get caught up in the rat race toward "perfection" by attempting to be someone or something we are not. Thus, the challenge for all of us becomes finding ways to be real (with ourselves and with each other) in a facade-driven world.

The superbowl is an example of one night in which the onslaught of much that runs counter to living the Christ-life finds its way into our living rooms. Yet I believe we do not have to give in to cynicism because God is at work in and all around us. At least one commercial could help us re-envision the redemptive possibilities of encouraging people to live as they have been created.

Campaign for Real Beauty

I realize at the end of the day this is still a company hoping to sell beauty products, but I can appreciate a company encouraging people to be real in the midst of a society that many times persuades us to be anything but ourselves. Often we find ourselves caught in a trap when we realize all the voices that have been calling us forth into the "limelight" have really only led to an empty darkness. We have been called to be redemptive vessels who break forth like the dawn from a facade-driven world. We have a message of hope that isn't based on what we can create of ourselves but on the promise that we have already been created in the image of a God who loves us and continues to transform us into what is ultimately real beauty.

That is a message I hope could not only penetrate our living rooms, but also our hearts.

Let the Children Come...

I was impacted the other day by a couple stories involving children from church:

One girl was extremely excited about her upcoming birthday. She had been talking about it for weeks. Apparently you couldn't see her without hearing that this special day was approaching. Her mother began talking with her about having a birthday party with five of her friends. But this soon to be seven-year-old didn't have a typical request. She told her mom that she wanted to invite five kids she didn't really know so that they all could become friends with each other. I marveled at the wisdom of this six-year-old. All this talk about being missional, living our lives as reflections of Jesus, and sharing the love of God and the peace of Christ with those around us and it's a child who understands it better than many of us deemed "older" and "wiser" ever could!

The second story involved another girl similar in age. I don't know her full story but needless to say she's had some rough childhood years. She was a foster child recently adopted by a godly and loving family. Unfortunately not as many 7-8 year-olds with her history find themselves in the open arms of a new family with possibilities of new life, but she did. When the adoption was almost complete and the official paperwork all but finished, the mother asked this young girl if she would like to keep her old name or pick a new one. At this offer the girl's eyes lit up with excitement. "I've always wanted the name Morgan," she said. So with that, a young girl with the life experiences of many veterans received a new name appropriately represeting new possibilites, a new family, a new future and a new way of life!

Hmm, they may be children, but it looks a lot like gospel to me! May we learn to be like our children.