He's only 33!

Yep - that's right, Donald Miller is only 33 so, that means I can "legally" have a crush on him! YEAH! Anyway -isn't it neat how God takes care of you - even when you thought He was busy on another continent! Today - after my "I am so lonely" speech yesterday - I got an amazing email from my brother encouraging me and then Vicki came over and hung out and we laughed and solved the world's problems and then tonight Bobi and Kevin came over to check on me - so I was shown once again that I am loved! It was great! It is so cool when His grace takes on flesh and shows itself to my thick-headed self! Thanks God! I feel as if Chris Rice's song has come true to me today! He sent them along and I knew that everything was going to be ok! but for a blog on the day - believe it or not that is not why I sat down to write! I had a crazy day where everything was upside down - I did no work at school today - it was a true babysitting day - i mean the most work the kids did was color a picture! It was truly babysitting! But I enjoyed it because it wasn't much work - I too have become lazy and I am always looking for a short cut! I found it funny how I could go from the madness of my classroom - and I mean madness - 23 kids today, most of them have this ailment that keeps their bottoms sore because none of them can sit for more than 5 min. And they all love to run around the class! I spent the morning letting them play so that I can do assessments on a few of them - and then we went and played Red Rover - what a great game! And then, we had a major interruption in that the tailors came to measure my kids for their costumes for the concert that is coming up! So, for about 40 min. I had to manage the class (did I tell you that my assistant was out sick?) and get the tailors to get the right costume for the right kid - and in the midst of all this madness I was straining to hold on to my sanity! But then it was time for Arabic - My Break! And amazingly I ran out of the class, grabbed my book and settled in for a long read - A little escape in the hallway to 17th century England! It was great - and then I had to run back into the madness - it was an amazing contrast - a quiet read compared to a maddening class - a silent retreat compared to a bunch of monkeys needing a zoo keeper! But such is my life! And then it occurred to me that maybe that is what happened in Isa. 63 - I have been thinking about this passage for a while - and I am baffled! It starts off with God talking about why His robe is red - and He says it is because of the blood of His enemies! I mean, that makes gladiator look like Mr. Rogers! And then, just as stunning, the author then starts talking about the kindness of God - I mean WHAT? How do you go from bloodstained robes to kindness? How do you go from destruction into kindness? How does one make that kind of comparison? And it hit me! That is life - I mean, I have been trying to see how you can get those attributes of Wrath and Love and Justice and Kindness to mesh - and then it hit me - they don't have to mesh! I mean, my life today was full of contrasts - quiet and madness, friends and loneliness! It was life - and such is God. He doesn't have to fit into some package that I can understand all the time - rather He is complex - even more complex my life! And that as I try to attempt to fit Him into my box, the bigger He gets! And I want somehow to understand and believe all the aspects of His character and love Him for all of them too! But lately I have gotten bogged down in my trying to make Isa. 63 disappear and make my own god that I can understand and like all the time ( a god like me!) - and in the words of the great theologian, Dr. Bingham - "if Isa. 63 doesn't fit into your theology, you don't love the God of the B - you love some god, but it isn't the God of the B!"