Diaper Champs

My daughter poops.

I would apologize for such a blatant statement, but she does not, therefore neither shall I.

But yes, my daughter poops, and not in the toilet. She does her business in the everyday wear of a diaper. We have a fantastic invention to collect the used diapers that we lovingly call the “poop bucket”, although I think the actual term is the Diaper Champ or something uncreative like that. The purpose of this container is to collect the dirty diapers so that your trash can does not regularly smell like poop. That is the plus side. The down side of this foul, waste-carrying, stench receptacle is that whenever it is cracked open the tiniest bit it unleashes the most deadly, unforgiving smell that is something akin to hundreds of dirty diapers trapped in one place over 10 months. Oh wait, that’s exactly what it is.

To make matters worse, our beautiful, joyful, curious daughter likes to open this repository-from-gehenna and unleash its abysmal stink with apparently no shame whatsoever. One minute she’s beebopping around pulling shoes and books off shelves and making cute noises, next minute she has let the reek of death out of it’s cage. At least she’s not pulling it’s guts out.

Why this story? Well bathroom humor is always funny, and I thought this would be an effective form of birth control. Also this is a perfect picture of what we do with our sin.

In the eyes of our loving Father our sins are infinitely worse than the built up stank of a million diapers trapped in diaper jail. What’s amazing is that this knowledge does not make Him love us any less. In fact, He is at the ready to help us change our dirty diapers every time we soil ourselves (forgive our sins). And we need to let God change us. George MacDonald writes, “The sin he dwells in, the sin he will not come out of, is the sole ruin of man.” So at the very least we need to let God wipe us clean.

What we, like my insatiably curious daughter tend to do, however, is open the pail back up. God helps us to clean ourselves from the mess we’ve made and once He sets us down clean and new, we go right to the bucket and let the stink into the room.

And this is why God came: not simply to wipe away our past sins, but to teach us how to stop filling our diapers.

MacDonald continues, “This is what He came to deliver us from—not the things we have done, but the possibility of doing such things anymore.”

Too often we are content in the forgiveness of our past sins, in the correction of old mistakes, but we neither feel guilt nor a compulsion to cease future ones. And God is faithful, He will forgive us our sins (1 John 1:9), but  the sole purpose of salvation is not to cover up our past, it is to free our future.

I long for the day Clara is potty-trained (we were shooting for next week), the day she stops making the same old messes. I am patient in the meantime, but our goal as parents is to teach her how to be clean. And how much more does our perfect Father in Heaven?

Brothers and sisters, let’s stop soiling ourselves and pretending it’s okay because we know that God will clean us up. The Christian life is not settling for a passing grade, it’s aiming and achieving the perfection exampled for us in Christ. Stop opening the pail.

Nicaragua Journal

I found this as I was rereading through my journal I kept in Nicaragua. I wrote this on the plane ride home as I reflected on all we’d done and seen and began to focus on where we go from here. I hope this encourages you today as it did for me:

“I am overwhelmed with a longing for the restoration of God’s creation. God’s world is so beautiful even despite its fallenness. Clouds, lakes, rocks, trees, animals; God’s beauty is everywhere if we will choose to see it.

I’m starting to think it’s the same for us as well. It’s hard to remember sometimes (oftentimes) that each soul God has made has the potential for explosive love and life and glory. I think I am beginning to understand what [C.S.] Lewis meant when he wrote that we’ve never met an ordinary person. What an overwhelming blessing to be surrounded by so much potential for God’s glory, power, love, and redemption! 

Let us not be burdened by the task, let us be honored and humbled to be used. We’re all orphans looking for an open door. We’re all just looking to go home.”

That CS Lewis quote mentioned earlier is the following from The Weight of Glory: “The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken . . . There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal . . . It is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.” 

I am ashamed, but not surprised to admit that this is a lesson from our trip that I had not thought much about over the past month. But as I am reminded of what God taught me during our time in Nicaragua, I realize that this is the reality of not just a trip overseas, but of our every day lives. Here in Dayton we are surrounded by people that desperately need the redemption of God. Let’s bear that burden for them.

The Morning Star

Being the father of an 8 month old, I have recently found myself awake before the sun most mornings. For many this would be a bother, but being awake to see the sun come up is highly underrated. 

There is this beautiful stretch of time when the sky goes from dark to pale gray to an explosion of orange, purple, and other colors I don’t even have names for. As the sun continues to rise in the sky (this always happens much quicker than I expect) everything is still cool and bathed in long shadows because the sun is mostly below the trees, but between those shadows the morning sun shines through the branches to create patches of light that give a golden brightness to everything it touches. This morning light is so marvelous that it makes leaves and branches and even backyard sheds look extravagant and kingly. 

Then there is the music.The crickets are finishing up their nighttime song, but the cicadas have already started and the two songs blend together into a beautiful symphony. The birds occasionally add in their chirps and the squirrels and rabbits play their instruments of the trees and grass. We’ve learned to block it out, but if you listen closely before the interruptions of the sounds of cars you notice how the sound actually fills in all the quiet. Once you listen you realize just how loud and beautiful it is.

The smell is hard to describe, but it is cool and fresh and wet. It is significantly different from the smell of the rest of the day, which is hot and dry and stale. The smell of a morning gives the impression of newness and freshness and possibility. 

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We find in Isaiah that Satan, our great enemy is called the Morning Star. If this is true, then it’s no small wonder that he is often referred to as Heaven’s most beautiful angel. But he fell. Unsatisfied with the privilege of being the beauty of the morning he tried to make his throne higher than God’s. 

But we also see in the very last chapter of the Bible, Revelation 22, that Jesus calls himself the bright Morning Star. Some are confused by the fact that both Satan and Jesus are referred to as the Morning Star, but those who choose to look at the depth of the meaning behind this are given the privilege of seeing one more layer to the beauty of God’s plan of redemption. 

So how can both Satan and Jesus be the Morning Star, the light of the dawn, the beauty and golden brilliance of the sunrise?

Let’s start by assuming that this use of this description for both was not an accident. If Satan is the Morning Star, the sun, the beauty of a morning, then evil and sin have so corrupted creation that even the beauty of the morning sun is fallen. If our enemy can make a fallen and corrupt sunrise look so beautiful, it is no wonder we give in to sin so easily. If our enemy has so corrupted creation what chance do we have?

According to Revelation 22 and Jesus himself, all the chance in the world.

This double use of the term is not simply a mistake or the writers of Scripture running out of analogies. This repeated use of the title of Morning Star gives us a glimpse at how Jesus has overcome our enemy. 

CS Lewis writes in The Screwtape Letters from the perspective of our Enemy: “He has filled His world full of pleasures. There are things for humans to do all day long without His minding in the least - sleeping, washing, eating, drinking, playing, praying, working. Everything has to be twisted before it’s of any use to us”. 

Satan’s true power comes only in twisting what God has made. But Jesus is in the business of straightening the crooked paths the devil has led us on.

If Satan was created as the beauty of the morning, and that position was corrupted (as we know it was), then we can only assume that privilege was either removed at his fall from heaven or will be removed at his final defeat.

But in His redemption of His creation there is not one stone (physically or metaphorically) that God will not turn over. Jesus is taking over duties as the Morning Star. He is reclaiming the beauty of the morning, just as He is reclaiming the beauty of our souls. We no longer will have to live under the oppression of evil, but will dwell in the light of a new and perfect morning that is infinitely more bright and beautiful than the one we know now.

So if you ever have the distinct privilege of waking up before the sun, pay attention. Stop and be silent. And in that silence recognize the beauty of all that God has made. Then take joy in the knowledge that this is not even scratching the surface. 

A-town Down

I meant to post from Nicaragua, but it wouldn't post. Well regardless, we're in Atlanta! Hopefully the other post will publish, but the gist is that we've had a great time but we are ready to come home and practice what God has taught us which is to simply be His and listen to His Spirit. We can't wait to tell you all about it!

See you around 7ish!

Guest blog: Chad Brandt

Today I have the privilege of allowing Chad Brandt to share his heart with you all. This is a young man I am most impressed with. His heart for God and God's church is humbling and inspiring. But enough from me! Hear from Chad:

My journey thus far had been beyond words. I'm filled with certain emotions that I can't categorize as either grief or joy. Believe me there is plenty of love, grief, and joy to go around in Nicaragua. As I'm on a journey with my teammates and with God I realize Nicaragua is only the tip of an iceberg.

On trips such as this one may get caught up in the poverty and deterioration of humanity. Though it's beneficial to see these things we cannot dwell on them nor try to fix all of them as I often find myself doing. The only thing we can do is pray that God's Will will be done, whether it's through us or the groups that follow. I've learned on this trip that it's not us that fulfill God's Will, but rather God in us. God does not need us, He can add to his own number of followers. Despite this hard to grasp fact, He chooses to allow to let Him use us.

I no longer want to use the term "missions trip" because an experience like this has a much deeper impact in the team's lives than the phrase "missions trip" allows. Although there is certainly work of God's mission done, there is too much individual-growth to be overlooked.

As I write this I don't mean to sound self-centered or cocky. But if someone goes on a trip like this how can he share the word of Christ if he is not growing himself. With this knowledge I view the term "mission trip" as one-sided.

Another subject I've grasped on this trip is that I must let go of my plans and my words and let the Holy Spirit guide them. Personally, I tend to feel that I have to dress up my faith to make it appealing to others. But God is all too quick to tear the makeup and fabrications down. If you grasp any of my words here, my wish is that these would be them: always rely on the Holy Spirit to guide you through your everyday thoughts and decisions. Doing this you will draw yourself and others closer to God.

For those of you that have loved ones on this journey know that along with me they are truly blessed to be on a team with such strong believers grounded in the faith. God could not have put together a stronger team in my mind.

Niños everywhere!

Yesterday we worked at the abwe center to help the nationals put on a camp for some of the local children and we had an absolute blast! We were all stretched linguistically And everyone had a story of a conversation they had with a Spanish speaker despite the barrier. I can't wait for you to hear all their stories in person.

Lots of soccer and lots of swimming in our down time. We love you all and are so appreciative of your prayers.

Josh

PS: I apologize for not being able to post photos on here, technology right? I'm working on finding a way to share those with you.

First full day

Well our first full day is done in Managua. I honestly can't believe just two days ago I was worrying about the process of getting here, and here we are chugging along. The girls had an opportunity to meet some cool young ladies at the feeding center while the guys helped move dirt. Typical.
It was a day full of anticipation as we looked toward the week's ministry and how we will use the skills God has prepared us with. Tomorrow is a full day of helping with camp and loving kids. The adventure is just begun, but it already feels as though we've been here for a while. We're settled and ready to go.

Josh

Looks like we made it

We have arrived! Just as Bilbo ran out of his house without his pocket-handkerchief, so too has or adventure started with a rush of adrenalin.
After spending far more time in Dayton than we wanted, and far less time in Atlanta than we planned (about the amount of time it takes to run the length of a terminal), we boarded the plane that waited solely for us and made our trek into Managua.
So far everything we have seen of Nicaragua has been in the dark, but already as i see people milling around this morning we are being greeted by a while new environment.
I was reminded through our airport "fun" just how much God is in control. We made our plans, we checked them twice, and still couldn't get out of Dayton without putting our flexibility, patience, and trust to the test. We trusted that God would guide us through our Atlanta transit and He did. I am so thankful that He is in charge and not me.
Thank you so much for your prayers.