Book Review: Dug Down Deep

I don't read as many books as I used to. Having several kids and a wife and a job puts some contraints on the time available to settle down with a good book. So when I do have the time to spend with a book, it is important that I choose carefully. I am proud to say that my latest choice, Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris, was a wise investment of time.

The subtitle to the book is Unearthing What I Believe and Why It Matters. This is a pretty accurate description of Harris' purpose in writing. The book is about the importance of good doctrine. There are a lot of good systematic theologies that will provide readers great, solid biblical truth (Wayne Grudem's being my favorite). And although I think that reading a great systematic theology is something everyone should do, I really like Harris' approach.

Harris takes a lot of time to weave his personal experiences into discovering good doctrine. So, instead of another theological tome, we get to understand Truth through Harris' experience. It gives the book a readability that is rare for such a serious matter as doctrine.

My favorite chapter in the book involves the author's father. In this chapter, Harris tells the story of how Jesus saved his Dad. We follow his father through his years as a rebellious, hippie troubadour. God saves him in a "chance" meeting on a California beach with two nameless guys who are talk to people about Jesus. It is a compelling story.

I highly recommend this book. I think that it will be especially useful to people that are young in their walk with the Saviour. It is a good introduction to basic, biblical doctrine told in a way that keeps the reader engaged from beginning to end.

You can pick up a copy here.

Parent Deficit Disorder

Another favorite from my old blog:

In an office, thirty years in the future, with a thirty something young man on a couch and a pastoral looking guy:

“Is this your first counseling session?”, asks the pastoral looking guy.

“Yes”, replies the young man (who is strikingly handsome like his father).

“Well, why don’t you tell me why you’re here?”

“Well, ever since I graduated from Yale Law, I have been kinda, um, listless.”

“Listless?”

“Yes. After I graduated, I spent some time traveling, then organized goat rodeos, then was a meat artist, and now work at Shoneys. I think I have issues.”

“Listless indeed.”

“Yeah. Can you help me?”

“Maybe. Is your dad still alive? Tell me about your dad.”

“Uh-huh. For years wrote this blog under a pseudonym – Uberdog, Innersmog, Outerfrog, something like that. He had a nervous breakdown a few years ago. A lot of times, he just mumbles a lot about needing another Grande Mocha. He just stares into space for hours and with a pained look on his face ask the same questions over and over, ‘How could two toddlers poop in their bath on the same night? How is that possible?’. Its just sad.”

“And your mom?”

“She’s fine. She’s brilliant. Just saw her at Christmas. She loves dad a lot. Buys him a lot of Mochas.”

“Well, I think that I know what is going on.”

“You do?”

“Yes, you have a all the symptoms of ‘PDD’.”

“PDD?”

“Yes, you have what is known as Parent Deficit Disorder. You had parents, but they were just not with the programs. Just had a very similar case of PDD this morning. A Harvard grad. Calls himself the ‘Linebacker Starter Kit’.”

“Really? Blonde guy? About 6’1, husky build?”

“Yep. How did you know that?”

“Sounds like my brother…..”

----------------------------------------------

It’s 2008 and parenting is still humbling. We seem to go in and out of seasons where we gain a little confidence only to be confounded by some unforeseen challenge. Some days are better than others. It turns out that “Shepherding Your Child’s Heart” sounds poetic but does not come easily most days.

Ranching My Child’s Brain? Sure.

Coercing My Child’s Bladder? Check.

Driving My Child’s Hiney? Got it.

Shepherding My Child’s Heart? Not nearly enough.

But as I read the Scriptures and see that my sanctification is progressive, that my maturity is gradual, and that my Father is patient, I also have hope. There is hope in the fact that God loves my children more than I ever will. That God uses even my parenting mistakes to accomplish His purposes. That His will for my children is not trumped by my inabilities as a father.

And in the far distant future, as I suck down Mochas and reflect on sad reality of past toddler poop in the bathtub, I will look back and know that God used even my meager parenting skills to achieve His glorious ends.

Thank God that He gives grace to the humble (including parents!).

Questions for Christmas

This is a repost from my other blog:

December 10, 2007

I love great stories. And most of the time, there are cracks in great stories that allow the hearer to fill in the blanks. I believe that is one of the reasons that God gave us imaginations. As I have read the Christmas story this year, new questions have arisen. The answers are not important to the purpose of the Nativity saga, but for me pondering them adds depth to the narrative and only makes the text more beautiful. Did you ever wonder:

1. If Mary and Joseph passed crucified men on the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem and thought, "I hope that never happens to anyone I know"?
2. Did Mary and Joseph's parents know they went to Egypt with their new grandson? Did they fear the worst?
3. Were the angels that appeared to the shepherds there all along?
4. When the angels sang "Glory to God in the Highest", were they surprised to be singing to exalt a human baby in a manger?
5. Gold, okay. Frankincense, yep. Myrrh, though? An embalming substance? That must have been confusing. (Try taking that to your next baby shower.)
6. What was the first thing that the shepherds said to Mary and Joseph? Did the new parents believe their story at first?
7. Why don't we ever refer to the Virgin Joseph in the Christmas story?
8. Did Herod feel better after killing all those kids?
9. Did Herod's scribes know the prophecy about the Messiah's birthplace off the top of their heads? Did they know the prophecy about "Rachel weeping for her children" when they told Herod?
10. Were any of Joseph's relatives on the road to Bethlehem?

That's all I have for now. I hope that your Xmas season is leading you back to the Cross.

So my Dad can be even more thankful this year

This post is for my Dad, who had despaired at checking my blog for several weeks and always finding the Prosperity Gospel guy's shoes....

Another reason to HATE the prosperity gospel

The Prosperity Gospel from The Global Conversation on Vimeo.

Three things

1. Lying in bed, believing that all of the forces of evil have conspired against your happiness in a mean spirited effort to suck the very life force from the very marrow of your already barely breathing social life....is just a little extreme. It may be true, but come on, lighten up a little, okay?
2. From my Facebook status: Tonight, at the dinner table, during a break in the conversation, my 2 year old son abruptly announced, "I'M PREGNANT!". I just want to say for the record: Josiah does NOT have a bun in the oven.*
3. I am so tired of the healthcare debate. Here is my healthcare bill: let's start with a little self control. Turn off the TV, get some exercise outside, stop eating like crap, and lets see what that does to our healthcare crisis. I may be a simpleton, but I can't be more ridiculous than most of the talking heads in Washington.

*Mrs. Underdog is pregnant and on bedrest. There has been a lot of pregnancy talk around our house lately......

Cool concept

Perspectives from Peacemaker Ministries on Vimeo.

Moments of Illumination

As a father, I live for the moments of illumination in my kids. This cartoon is a good illustration:

These were interesting

These did not orginate with me, but they seemed like a good way to start the week:

Nothing stinks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy.

The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard. This recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will never be ending a work email with the phrase "Regards" again.

Is it just me, or are 80% of the people in the "people you may know" feature on facebook people that I do know, but i deliberately choose not to be friends with?

There is a great need for sarcasm font.

I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....

You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

While watching the Olympics, I found myself cheering equally for China and the US. No, I am not of Chinese descent, but I am fairly certain that when Chinese athletes don't win, they are executed.

I wonder if cops ever get ticked off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey -but I'd bet a million dollars everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time.

(Source)

It starts early...

Three things

This is the "on the mend" edition of Three things:

1. On Monday of this last week, Mrs. Underdog got put on bedrest after only a few weeks of pregnancy, we had six kids in some stage of the plague, and the downstairs bathroom was flooded with two inches of water. It was kind of a difficult way to start the week. Thus, the limited posting.
2. I really miss our church. Not in the "wonder-what-the-new-flannelgraph" way, but in the "I-didn't-get-to-see-people-I-love" way and the "better-is-one-day-in-God's house" way. We have missed a couple of weeks due to the plague and it is a real drag. Sundays have become my favorite day.
3. I think that we would all have to admit that the world would be a more interesting place if dinosaurs were still around. Not only would we be a little more cautious just walking around, but we would have a lot more diverse choices for burgers. Stegasaurus burgers.....Tyrannasaurus burgers....Pteradactyl burgers. Makes me hungry, I have to tell you.....

Animal Cruelty

Don't Be Fooled

Worst joke in the world

I haven't had time to post anything recently, but here is something awful for your edification:

A couple go for a meal at a Chinese restaurant and order the 'Chicken Surprise'.

The waiter brings the meal, served in a lidded cast iron pot. Just as the wife is about to serve herself, the lid of the pot rises slightly and she briefly sees two beady little eyes looking around before the lid slams back down.

'Good grief, did you see that?' she asks her husband. He hasn't, so she asks him to look in the pot. He reaches for it and again the lid rises, and he sees two little eyes looking around before it slams down.

Rather perturbed, he calls the waiter over, explains what is happening, and demands an explanation.

'Please sir,' says the waiter, 'what you order?' The husband replies, 'Chicken Surprise.'

(You're going to love this. You're going to hate yourself for loving this!)

'Ah! So sorry,' says the waiter, 'I bring you Peeking Duck'.

Three things

Three things that I admire in my wife, Mrs. Underdog:

1. Love. Her love for me has matured over the years. I am a difficult person to love. I have weaknesses aplenty. Yet she has loved me faithfully despite those deficits. Sometimes her love has come through calling out those weaknesses as sin and gently encouraging change. Sometimes she has waited patiently for the Lord to have His way in sanctifying me.
2. Humility. She is pursuing humility as a mom. I see her on a daily basis seeking wisdom from the Lord and older women about how to lead her flock. She desires good for her children, that they would follow Jesus and love Him.
3. Passion. She cares deeply about certain things - - - children, food, health, Christmas, etc. Her passion for these things drives her to act and imagine and pursue excellence. And her drive is something I want to emulate. I thank God that someone in our marriage gets things done.

Maybe there is nothing sweeter on this earth than the exquisite knowledge that we are loved far better than we deserve.

Wow

"There was no badness in Jesus. None." --- John Piper, in a podcast.

Think about that for a moment.

Just for you.

You know who you are. You are having a really bad day. You don't quite understand why things are going the way that they are. This whole thing does not align with your plans. And that stinks. But I want you to know, that even as you are reading this, that one thing will always be true:

God loves you with a love that you cannot imagine.

He created you with a specific purpose and has you where you are to achieve that purpose. He will use even this circumstance to mold you and sanctify you. And He is for you. Since the moment He adopted you, He has been on your side, shielding and protecting and providing and watching you. He is doing ten thousands thing outside of your awareness to draw you to Himself.

You are not alone.

Relish the thought that one day, ten thousand years from now, you will be with your Father in the place that Jesus has gone to prepare for you. And no eye has seen and no ear has heard what awaits you in that place.

These are just momentary struggles and He will be your strength.

Hang in there.

Things I have learned as a parent...

1. Children are a blessing from the Lord, except for the hour before dinner and the last two hours of the return trip home from vacation.


2. Children do not recognize the rights of anyone else outside of themselves.


3. For toddlers, items that have the words "flourescent" and "permanent" in their description have the gravitational pull equal to a black hole.


4. Never leave your laptop open to a toddler with his plastic play tools.


5. It is amazing the amount of damage that a child can do with a set of fine quality plastic play tools.


6. A child's faith has not been diminished by experience. Neither has it been emboldened by experience.


7. To a child with a favorite NFL team, every game of the season is the Super Bowl.


8. Children respond with tremedous grace to a humble parent.


9. A child's hissy fit is simply the outward manifestation of something I do in my heart all of the time.


10. It is important to remember that it is hard being a parent and it is hard being a child, just in different ways.

Sobering.

From John Stott in the Cross of Christ:

The kind of God that appeals to most people today would be easy-going in his tolerance of our offenses. He would be gentle, kind, accommodating. He would have no violent reactions. Unhappily, even in the church we seemed to have lost the vision of the majesty of God. There is much shallowness and levity among us. Prophets and psalmists would probably say of us, "There is no fear of God before their eyes." In public worship our habit is to slouch or squat; we do not kneel nowadays, let alone prostrate ourselves in humility before God. It is more characteristic of us to clap our hands with joy than to blush with shame or tears. We saunter up to God to claim his patronage and friendship; it does not occur to us that he might send us away. We need to hear again the Apostle Peter's sobering words, "Since you call on a father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives. . in reverent fear." (I Peter 1:17) In other words, if we dare to call our judge our Father, we must beware of presuming on him. It must even be said that our evangelical emphasis on the atonement is dangerous if we come to it too quickly. We learn to appreciate the access to God which Christ has won only after we have first cried, "Woe is me for I am lost." In Dale's words, "It is partly because sin does not provoke our own wrath that we do not believe that sin provokes the wrath of God.

This is powerful.

I wonder if the church would consider adoption more if we were simply wiser with our money?