If you're not having the greatest day, maybe these words from John Eldredge and Brent Curtis will help.
"God created us for intimacy with him. When we turned our back on him he promised to come for us. He sent personal messengers; he used beauty and affliction to recapture our hearts. After all else failed, he conceived the most daring of plans. Under the cover of night he stole into the enemy's camp incognito, the Ancient of Days disguised as a newborn. The Incarnation, as Phil Yancey reminds us, was a daring raid into enemy territory. The whole world lay under the power of the evil one and we were held in the dungeons of darkness. God risked it all to rescue us. Why? What is it that he sees in us that causes him to act the jealous lover, to lay siege both on the kingdom of darkness and on or own idolatries as if on Troy--not to annihilate, but to win us once again for himself?...What he is after is us!"
Monday, January 05, 2004
Wednesday, December 17, 2003
Busy With Baby
Rochelle and I have been busy to the point of exhaustion with a new baby at our house. My apologies for not posting more often, but I will get back to blogging when things settle down a little.
You should probably know that just when I begin to think my wife couldn't be any more incredible, she surprises me. She cares for our daughter as if she was born for that job alone.
Keep us in your prayers!
You should probably know that just when I begin to think my wife couldn't be any more incredible, she surprises me. She cares for our daughter as if she was born for that job alone.
Keep us in your prayers!
Tuesday, December 02, 2003
A Baby at Christmas.
Well, she's here. Our not-so-little bundle of joy has arrived, and apparently has the lungs of an Olympic sprinter. I have never heard anything that loud in my life!! When our daughter is unhappy, everyone in our neighborhood is unhappy. She doesn't cry, though. Someone, somewhere told me that babies cry a lot. Our's doesn't. She screams! I regularly fear that the neighbors are secretly suspecting that Rochelle and I are child-abusers. We aren't, we just gave birth to a shouter...she's bound to be Pentecostal.
Anyway, I writing today to simple ask for your prayers as Ro and I begin our foray into the world of parenting. It's already more difficult and trying that I thought it could be. As Rochelle and I pray for the life of our daughter this Christmas season, let's turn our attention again to the world's most important birth--Jesus. It's His birth that gives meaning to the rest of our lives.
Anyway, I writing today to simple ask for your prayers as Ro and I begin our foray into the world of parenting. It's already more difficult and trying that I thought it could be. As Rochelle and I pray for the life of our daughter this Christmas season, let's turn our attention again to the world's most important birth--Jesus. It's His birth that gives meaning to the rest of our lives.
Monday, November 17, 2003
Moments Into Memories
My most sincere apologies for those of you who have been faithfully checking in on "The Palmer Perspective" only to find out that it was woefully missing updates. My schedule, both at work and at home, forced me to focus my attentions in other areas. Preaching (and all the other duties that come with it), youth ministry, and baby preparations have kept me up late into the night during the week and awakened me early in the mornings on the weekends. So today I decided to take a much needed break.
Rochelle and I spent the day looking for what I'm sure many soon-to-be-parents have to look for: a high quality digital camera. We had a great 35 mm camera that my brother gave us for Christmas several years ago, but it was dropped and broken. So, alas, we set out to upgrade our camera to digital quality.
When you shop with a pregnant woman, store personnel notice you and read "sucker" written across your forehead. You could feel the salesmen, sharks circling around us the minute Rochelle popped through the electronics room door with her belly shouting, "I'm nine months pregnant and might blow anytime!" They were on us like white on rice. We needed a camera, did not have long to look for one, and we didn't have a whole lot of knowledge about what we wanted. Behold, the perfect prey! First it was Wal-Mart--not enough selection. Next came Best Buy--too expensive (as are most things at Best Buy), then Sam's Club--only ONE camera please (all things aren't meant to be sold in bulk), onward to Conn's--a close relative to Best Buy, and finally Radio Shack!
We came home with a camera, but more importantly for my wife, the assurance that the first days of our daughters' life would be archived and preserved for lifetimes on end. The human hearts loves to make moments into memories. We love to revisit those minutes of mystery when we are reminded that life is about the people that you love and the time that you spend with them.
Cameras are powerful! I'm guessing that the next few holiday weeks will witness their share of families and friends sitting around tables and turkeys looking back over family albums and shoeboxes stuffed to overflowing with pictures from the past. In those moments we will realize again how fast life moves and how much we miss it. We learn again how special people are and tear over the fact that other people think we're special. There is no price that can be put on that. At least, there is no price that we would not pay!
Baseball umpire Durwood Merrill tells of his rookie year calling balls and strikes in the major leagues. In his first game, Nolan Ryan, the great fastballer himself was pitching. The second pitch of the game was so fast, Merrill never saw it. He froze, unable to make the call. Finally, he yelled, "Strike!" At which point the batter backed out of the box and said, "Ump, don't feel bad. I didn't see it either."
I think life is like that sometimes. It moves so fast you might not ever see it. But when you get a chance, when life slows down, if even for just a moment, grab a memory! Snap a picture!
Rochelle and I spent the day looking for what I'm sure many soon-to-be-parents have to look for: a high quality digital camera. We had a great 35 mm camera that my brother gave us for Christmas several years ago, but it was dropped and broken. So, alas, we set out to upgrade our camera to digital quality.
When you shop with a pregnant woman, store personnel notice you and read "sucker" written across your forehead. You could feel the salesmen, sharks circling around us the minute Rochelle popped through the electronics room door with her belly shouting, "I'm nine months pregnant and might blow anytime!" They were on us like white on rice. We needed a camera, did not have long to look for one, and we didn't have a whole lot of knowledge about what we wanted. Behold, the perfect prey! First it was Wal-Mart--not enough selection. Next came Best Buy--too expensive (as are most things at Best Buy), then Sam's Club--only ONE camera please (all things aren't meant to be sold in bulk), onward to Conn's--a close relative to Best Buy, and finally Radio Shack!
We came home with a camera, but more importantly for my wife, the assurance that the first days of our daughters' life would be archived and preserved for lifetimes on end. The human hearts loves to make moments into memories. We love to revisit those minutes of mystery when we are reminded that life is about the people that you love and the time that you spend with them.
Cameras are powerful! I'm guessing that the next few holiday weeks will witness their share of families and friends sitting around tables and turkeys looking back over family albums and shoeboxes stuffed to overflowing with pictures from the past. In those moments we will realize again how fast life moves and how much we miss it. We learn again how special people are and tear over the fact that other people think we're special. There is no price that can be put on that. At least, there is no price that we would not pay!
Baseball umpire Durwood Merrill tells of his rookie year calling balls and strikes in the major leagues. In his first game, Nolan Ryan, the great fastballer himself was pitching. The second pitch of the game was so fast, Merrill never saw it. He froze, unable to make the call. Finally, he yelled, "Strike!" At which point the batter backed out of the box and said, "Ump, don't feel bad. I didn't see it either."
I think life is like that sometimes. It moves so fast you might not ever see it. But when you get a chance, when life slows down, if even for just a moment, grab a memory! Snap a picture!
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