What's So Amazing about Grace? How about this Edition of it....

I recently borrowed a friend's copy of "What's So Amazing About Grace?" but not the regular book (which I have & I read years ago) but a small paperback copy called the Visual Edition. I was a bit skeptical at first, and I'm not a real artsy person by nature. And Phillip Yancey mentions in the intro that he was initially skeptical too about "someone messing with his book." But what that "someone" (a bunch of artists, in reality) has done is create a beautiful, thought-provoking piece on the marvelous and counterintuitive idea of grace, by mixing excerpts from the book along with some great photographic and other visual imagery.

Their use of fonts, colors, and spacing is superb. This book will make you think. It will make you uncomfortable. It might even make you cry as you realize more of the depths of God's unquenchable grace towards us as rebellious people, and towards you as a rebellious person (Romans 5:1-2, 17).

I've put it on my Christmas list, and I suggest you do, too. Who knows? Maybe someone will give it to you even if you've been naughty this year...

Quick funny quotes

Rita is 5 1/2 months and getting stronger (and more self-willed!) everyday. She wears us out and makes us smile so much. I can't believe how fast time's passing...we can't wait to visit our family & friends in the USA over December.

Here's some quick quote from Meagan's "Moms" baby calendar from this month:

Baby Bibs
"If you're close enough to read this, you're close enough to change my diaper."

"Don't Talk About Me Like I'm Not Here" (that one's my favorite)

It's a GIRL! It's a GIRL!

It’s a GIRL! It’s a GIRL! Our little Rita Elizabeth Williams came into this world on May 10, 2009 (Mother’s Day). She shocked us right from the start- one, in how long she took to join us (32 hours of labor), second, in that she was actually a girl (We both thought the baby would be a boy!), and third, how much love we both felt for this precious little girl right away. It’s hard to describe the joy that we feel to be parents, and especially to be the parents of our little Rita. Momma Meagan did a TREMENDOUS, FABULOUS job, stayed focused through the whole exhausting time and didn’t use ANY pain relief meds at all!!! I got to help deliver little Rita (got to pull her right out!) and cut the cord as well. What an experience it’s already been!
Praise GOD with us for so many ways He’s shown Himself- for a healthy and safe (though long) labor and delivery, for excellent health for Meagan and for baby Rita though it all, for great hospital staff and facilities, and for so many friends and family who’ve come around us to celebrate and help out with meals and such. We are so incredibly blessed and thank so many of you who have prayed for and helped us out. We give all the glory to GOD.

In these last 4 weeks we’ve loved getting to know her, taking heaps of pictures, and we’ve struggled to find rest during those days and nights when she’s not sleeping much. Please do pray for patience and energy for us as we figure out this whole ‘how to be a family of 3’ thing. Gosh we love this little girl!

Receiving love in order to give it... and not the other way around

It’s funny to me, because the idea of receiving love has been such a foreign concept to me for most of my life. I don’t think I even actually verbalized the words “receiving love” until maybe a year or two ago.

Why is that? Well, I guess for one I’ve been taught that it’s the giving of love that counts, especially as a Christian. I ought to be loving others, loving those who love me, and even loving those who don’t love me. I’m even called the love those who Jesus calls, ”my enemies” which is an unsettling thought because 1) honestly I don’t have any people in my life I would consider to be enemies and 2) even for those who are not “enemies” but just people who tend to be a pain in the neck or get under my skin, it is definitely not my nautral tendency to love them.

All in all- the call for me to love others is real, it’s vast, and it’s challenging.

And yet it’s not the primary call to love that I have. My primary call to love is to receive love, before I even give it. The apostle John says “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” (1 John 4:10-11) This is but one example of countless times in the Bible in which God makes his point that He is the initiator of all goodness and love. We as his redeemed and forgiven children are the recipients of that love. And from that standpoint we are called to love God in return, to love ourselves because we’re loved by Him, and to love others too because God loves them just as much as He loves us, among other reasons.

So I ask Why do I love others? On what basis?

John says to the Christians who will read his letter, “We love because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

Hmmm…
How well do I receive love from God?
How much do I actually just let God love me as He says He does in His Word?
Am I even taking the time to allow God to love me?

These are all key questions I have to ask myself and struggle with. I’m just starting to realize how important this is for me to do a heart check and address these questions in my own heart.

How well do you receive love from God?

Don’t answer too fast without really thinking about it…. You might be surprised at what you find about yourself.

Just a couple of other q’s to think through on that: How well do you let yourself be loved when you’re weak, or when you fail, when you have absolutely nothing to offer anybody, or when you’ve flat out wronged someone else? How well can you let God love you when you think you’re unlovable?

“This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9)

I ask it again- How well do you receive love from God?

Rain Man in the summertime

I've gotta confess- I (Jimmy) love the $5 DVD movie bin at Walmart. Sure, about 80% of the movies in there are titles that have been thoroughly mocked by Mystery Science Theater... but every now & then I find a really good movie in there. And when I do, I usually buy it without much hesitation- after all, it's great and it's only 5 bucks! So when I was back in the States over the holidays, I happened to sneak a peak in the Walmart bin- and lo and behold, I found a great film for only $5- the 1988 classic Rain Man, starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise. So naturally, I bought it & brought it back to Australia.

Tonight we came home and watched Rain Man (It is the end of January, but that is the summertime in the southern hemisphere) It was the first time I’d seen it in about 3 years. And man, was it good as ever…..

I was struck by how much, at the beginning of the film, Charlie Babbit (Cruise’s character) sees his brother Raymond as a nuisance, an annoyance, a person he has to endure in order to get what he really wants- money to save his business, and more than that, his half of the inheritance out of which he feels he’s been cheated.

True, he doesn’t understand Raymond’s autistic, savant condition…but the truth is he really doesn’t want to understand. He just wants to get to LA, to get his money, and to get back to his normal life of pursuing things and being independent. The last thing he wants is to babysit this “retard” (as he calls Ray during their road trip) whom he happens to be related to, though no one ever told him.

I was convicted as I watched, because I saw a lot of myself in Charlie (or did I see a lot of Charlie in myself?) I’ve seen how often I tend to view people as an inconvenience, a nuisance, simply talking heads who are getting in my way of the things I want to get done. I get so focused on doing stuff- even “ministry” related stuff for my job- that I forget to check my heart. Am I loving people well? Am I even seeking to love? Am I asking for God’s power to help me love them well? Yes, at times I am. But the truth is that I’ve seen so many, many times that I’m not. I’m often in some kind of work, performance-driven mindset that leads me to totally forget to simply love people, and seek to love them well.

That’s sad to me- but I’m thankful that God is pointing out this sin in me because He wants to change me. I’ve seen a few instances lately of very simple, small things I’ve done as I’ve asked God to help me love people around me- and they’ve been great results for which God deserves the praise. (No joke- when I helped a woman lift some very light boxes into her car outside Ikea, she told me that I'd "restored her faith in men." Good gracious- I helped her lift a few boxes that were not even heavy...and yet she sounded a lot more serious than I'd ever expect)

It awesome to see how Charlie Babbit’s heart changes through the film Rain Man. He ends of valuing and loving his brother, this brilliant yet needy man who really can’t bring much material profit for Charlie. The movie is a broad picture of Charlie’s change of priorities- stemming from a change in his heart.

Lord, will you keep changing my heart so that I may be most concerned with the things You care most about? Like loving You and loving people around me (Mark 12:29-31)

Like I said, I really love the $5 DVD bin. It’s amazing the gems you can find in there.