Eyes Wide Open

Ahh, welcome to the joys of parenthood. Me thinks our son is a night owl…UH-OHH!

So, according to the Old Covenant our son is now part of the fold (pun fully intended), albeit a few days earlier than what the law calls for. We were discharged this afternoon and made our way to Fargo for a short visit with my mom. We will see her once more in the morning and then drive an hour or so to visit my grandparents who recently lost most everything when their little town was flooded about a month ago. They need our prayers as they try to navigate this transition together after almost 67 years of marriage.

Switching gears, the past few days have been quite surreal. Our nation mourns the horrific events that took place at Virginia Tech, and I’ve not even had the chance to take it all in. I was a member of the student affairs staff at a small Christian college for four years, and I saw with my own eyes some very troubled students trying to make their way through adolescence into autonomy as adults. Mental illness is the real deal. Those who dismiss it as psycho-babble would do themselves a real favor by digging deeper and learning more. Volumes have been written and volumes more will follow concerning adolescent development, mental illness, brain development, and all the rest. And yet, the research and theory will only take us so far before we realize once more the brokenness of our world and our inability to “fix” it. Perhaps as trite or simplistic as it may seem, my prayer is that our inability to play God and find the answers will drive us to embrace the One who is the answer. Faith is funny thing in that it is operates independent of our scientific reasoning and requires a response beyond what we are able to “figure out.”

Gives a new perspective to why Jesus ascribed great faith to children.