Sunday, October 21, 2007

so. i hear that there are some of you who continue to check in and watch this silly platform we stand on. you've been waiting a long time and nothing has happened. at least you know about jermaine though, and his allergy to chocolate.

yes, we are still here.
yes, we both have full-time employment (jake + 1/2 time).
yes, we are finding ourselves wicked occupied with lovely children and delightful neighbors.
yes, we are enjoying finding people we can do life with.

and because of all of the previously mentioned entertainers of time juggling through the air, no, we have not been writing. evidence provided by the date below in the last up-date.

i have to share with you though - i hate not having written to each of you in so long. i hate the distance of time that has passed since last up-dating you on the happenings not only in our life together but in the lives of our neighbors. john & elena. eddie & nora. pedro & abuela. edgar, eric, giovanni, jeremy, ethan, jermaine, kaylanie, destiny, justin, serina, kayla, stephanie, andre, etc. lani & pablo. grandma & irene. i wish that i would make the time to be more diligent in sharing their lives with you. their lives are worth talking about. much more than mine.

john & elena are doing well. now that summer is fading they aren't outside as much, i really just need to take some time and knock on their door. regardless though, they both claim to be doing well and keeping busy exchanging broken coffee grinders (elena) & trying to stay out of elena's mentally challenged son's path (john).

yesterday eddie spoke with one of the christian missionary girls who come into the inner-city from hammond, IN to "save" people and recruit them to come to their church (one hour on a bus) on sunday mornings. eddie asked one girl if she thought she was a better lover of christ than him because she was part of a congregation on sunday morning and he likes to stay home and watch football. she was silent. he asked if she thought god loved him less because he does not go to church. for all reports, she remained silent. eddie shared with her a fraction of his life and showed her the tattoo he has on his chest of Jesus with text, "only God can judge me." the missionary girl asked for his forgiveness. he accepted. she asked him if he would come to church with her after football season. he shared then basketball season would begin. she inquired about after basketball season. he said yes, in july he will go. we told him we'll be his date. later that afternoon eddie invited us up to his apartment. he wanted to show us something. in his bedroom, with pictures of 3/4 naked girls strewn about the walls, directly before his bed was a shrine set up with crosses, pictures and literature he had been given in prison. the picture alongside adored the center of his sanctuary. he shared how and why he can relate to this picture so deeply. he then led me to his devotional and showed us some verses by which he tries to life his life by. he had made notes & stars, lines & highlights by them all. eddie knew where to find what he was looking for. he had poured over this book daily as all evidence shows. he asked me if i wanted to take his book home to look over it. i told him no thank you, i didn't want to take his book away. he insisted. i asked him if he wanted to take out the sheets of paper inside on which he wrote notes. he said no. i told him i was going to read what he had written. he said that would be okay.

i am sure that eddie loves, trusts & understands the love of Jesus more than I could ever comprehend. I still have to battle the demons within me that tell me if i cuss Jesus is angry.

here is eddie though - ex-convict, 3/4 naked women hanging in his bedroom, street "square" selling, lost, found, redeemed, joyful eddie who gets the love of Jesus, knows scripture and exercises forgiveness consistently.

i hope to become more like eddie i think. aside form the 3/4 naked women hanging up in my bedroom - i think he is most whom Jesus would like for me to be. i think.

ugh - i got carried away. later, more on those mentioned above. until then...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Basketball, football, water sports, baseball, all that "stuff" is "permissible". I Corinthians 6:12 says: "Everything is permissible for me - but not everything is beneficial ..." If my time is consumed by "permissible" things, but are not benefiting my walk with Christ, or providing service to others, perhaps I need to refocus my time and energy.

I am trying to live a life like that, have I "arrived"? I'm not even close! Do you know we serve an awesome God?!! :o) But he is a jealous God as well!!

I have been missing your blog postings - welcome back!

Indian Lake Papa

Anonymous said...

wow. i check almost daily to see if you've written, and was surprised to see you had today...what a great entry. it is an interesting issue you bring up: we get so caught up in what today's church (generally speaking, of course) says we have to do...be there weekly, join Bible studies, recruit new members, not do this, not do that...and then we allow such "requirements of being a good Christian" to mirror what we require of others. eddie is an important lesson...and that's not to say i want to mimick some of his behavior. but it's an important lesson that we can love God right where we are, all of the time, without ever stepping inside of a church building.

i miss you guys. really, i do. i hope we can get together soon...trip to canada? ;)

Robin said...

Thanks Jessica! I've missed you... of course it was nice to talk the other day :)

Ditto to Indian Lake Papa and Kate - their comments sound like they came out of my head - sorry if that scares either of you :)

Rachel said...

"the missionary girl asked for his forgiveness."

Incredible.

Thank you for sharing these thoughts with us.

-she who sometimes swears like a sailor

Antonius said...

Yep, you getting there.

Join my journey once a while

http://www.atomystic.blogspot.com/

Shanti

Tonbaba (now, just "Ton")