Burger King Sold Me Wrong

When God calls you on the carpet it is about this much fun. It is about, oh, never exciting to be told that you are going about something the wrong way. If you think about it, you have everything under control when it is your way. You can look out for yourself, do what you want to do, and not have to deal with anyone unless it is on your time schedule. Since life is not one huge Burger King we have a problem. The problem presents itself in that the "all about you way" is not "God's way" and that is where things usually start to get way bad. Way.

Correction stinks. No body wants it. Yet, correction/discipline is one of the most used tools by God. His discipline is given because He loves us. The bible says that the discipline from God is for our own good because His discipline draws us closer to holiness. It molds us into the image of God.

Now that sounds really cliche, but please bear with me. Imagine when my young daughter gets old enough to sit at the table and she is snacking on a deliciously moist ding-dong. My little girl, new to the whole ding-dong experience, thinks it looks like a perfect projectile to be launched at mom's face. I catch her in mid windup and tell her you don't throw your ding-dong, you eat it. I take the time to train her not to throw her ding-dong and the training takes hold. Well, my little girl is not Jesus. She is going to mess up. There will be a time when she goes against what she knows to be true (ding-dong does not equal projectile) and will give it a launch. If I don't as a father discipline her for the things I have taught her I am showing non love towards her. I am reinforcing that it is okay to rebel, be disobedient, and that I don't love her enough to correct and discipline her in ways that I know are best for her.

The same goes with God. God has the perfect grasp on the concept that it is all about Him and that we think it is all about us. God, in his perfect love for us, will discipline us so we don't hurt ourselves in our stupor. God's discipline and correction bring the focus back to Him.

Hebrews 12:11 - For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

O God Where Are You Now (In Iraq?, In A Birth?, In Suffering?...etc)

There is a fantastic song out there right now. It is called "O God Where Are You Now? (In pickerel Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw?)" done by the David Crowder Band. The song is actually a cover of a Sufjan Stevens song which is equally as excellent. This stringing together of musical genius is currently heavy in my rotation.

I used the song title as the blog title not because I am questioning my faith, but because of what God has been teaching me as of late. I am constantly engaging and wrapping myself around the idea that God can and is glorified in everything.

I was recently awarded the opportunity to bear witness to this on a recent mission. As the morning kicked off, there it was, a plethora of color vomited onto the horizon rising into the sky. An Iraqi sunrise. As I stood there amazed at the beauty of the whole scene being played out in front of me, a funny thought hit me. I am living in one of the most beautiful countries there is. The land is not just barren sand dunes. I am living near the Euphrates River and because of that there is green landscape scattered here and there. This greenery is spotty and mixes in nicely with the vastness of the wilderness surrounding it. This is a place where you can look to the horizon and seeing it spreading out forever. It was there in that turret, as I was cruising down that road, God's handiwork was on display for all to see. It was like when you walk into a great gothic cathedral. The overwhelmingness *how about that word* of the greatness of the cathedral was done for a purpose. It was done to cause one to wonder. To look up. It was done to give an invitation for the depraved to collide with the Divine. This is where I found myself on this morning. Getting lost in the expanse of the portrait laid before me.

The most amazing part of it all is that God did this all for Himself. To bring glory to Him. He didn't do it for me. He created this palette of visual extravagance for Himself so that I could see it, be wowed by it, be humbled by it, and then press in closer to God because of it. God is unashamedly about Himself. God is about the self glorification of God. He is ultimate.

So when I read the song title "O God Where Are You Now? (In pickerel Lake? Pigeon? Marquette? Mackinaw?)", it causes me to look at situations and see that God is being glorified in it no matter the situation. I am being taught to pause, think, and look to see how God is working in situations. Whether the situation is being diagnosed with cancer or watching an Iraqi sunrise. Going through your first child being born or having to deal with a friend going through sexual addiction.

The ultimate end is God receiving the glory. For us to realize it is not all about us, and then meet God in His story. To enjoy God and glorify him forever in everything you do. Also, get up early and check out the next sunrise. You won't be disappointed.

Oh, The Possibilities

I was hungry the other day and found myself with nothing to snack on. I was crazy hungry. I found myself thinking of this thought, "What if our teeth were made to be edible?". The more I thought of this question the more this idea really started to catch on with myself. What if God would have designed our teeth to be edible in times of hunger. Okay, so this could work. Well, what could our teeth actually be made of? The only thing that came to my mind that made sense was yogurt. Healthy, hip, edible yogurt teeth.

Then I realized how foolish that would be. There are a whole lot of complications with having yogurt teeth. To name a few:
1. There is the problem of hardness. How can you make yogurt teeth that would be hard enough to tear through a steak but soft enough to eat them when you are hungry? You could make the tooth hard and make it taste like yogurt, but then you would have a yogurt flavored hard candy tooth. Not an actual yogurt tooth. Yogurt is soft. It matters, I promise.
2. Once you ate that permanent tooth how would you get that tooth back? You could easily wipe out all of your teeth in a single hunger crazed binge. Then you would be a toothless freak, and that is bad.
3. To address the replenishing problem you could maybe have a self producing yogurt gland in your mouth that would refill the tooth void once it is eaten. But that idea is so far out there it would simply be ridiculous. Lets think realistically here.

Then it hit me! Of course! We could produce prosthetic yogurt teeth. That way when you do begin to lose teeth due to old age, or you need something to fill the void from that pesky bar fight you just survived...solution...prosthetic yogurt teeth. It would be like pez, sort of. You would buy the teeth in multiples, wrapped in neat little packages. You pop one in. It looks like a tooth. You get hungry, eat your tooth, and then when it is gone you pop in your next yogurt tooth.

Different flavors. Different colors. The possibilities are endless.

Does anyone have the number to the patent office?

Billy says, "Golly, I sure wish I had two prosthetic yogurt teeth Mister!".

Back At It, or, Arrggghhh (My Weight Lifting Bellow), or, Jack Is The Man

Tonight I decided to get back into the gym. I havn't gone in a while because I got really lazy when it came to gym matters. For about a month I was busy with work. We were going through a crap load of weapons making sure they were in good working order. And a crap load is a lot. I was working these crazy hours with no day off or anything and my body was on gym boycott.

Well now I am in love with the gym (again) as a way to pass time and blow off steam. With my leave dates looming around the corner the days have actually starting going backwards in time. So something to pass the time, I'm there.

About a week ago I became the happy owner of the newest Jack Johnson album. It is a unique album because it isn't your typical Jack album. The new album is the soundtrack for the movie Curious George. When I saw that the album was coming out soon, and that it was a soundtrack for a kids movie, thoughts of "selling out" began milling about in the cranium. Yet after the sampling you can do through iTunes and the subsequent purchase of the album I was pleasantly surprised. Some of the songs are a little off beat from a typical Jack album, but that is because they are songs written for specific spots in the movie. One of the best songs on there is a song about sharing. Very good song. I recommend the purchase. The best song on the album you can view as a music video. Title: Upside Down (go to the bonus video link). The great thing about this album is that it is an album for a kids movie, but well produced enough that adults will want to jam to Jack's smooth folksy beats. I do believe he might be one of the few artists who could actually pull this off.

Booya.

Randomness

So, I have drawn the conclusion that being on deployment doesn't lead to much variation in life. Thus, I will just throw out some randomness and see where it goes.

Tarah is very huge now. And by huge I mean her belly because we are having a child. It is the most beautiful thing I have seen in some time. The due date is barreling down on us hard and fast. I am guessing baby Rebekah will be with us in the first weeks of March.

I am also guessing that is the time I will be home on leave *deafening applause* which is being much discussed in the Davis household. It is wierd because by the time I will be home on leave I will have been gone for roughly 9 months. It has been the quickest drawn out 9 months I have ever had to go through. Quite the paradox I know. Deployment time spent is unlike any other time spent. I am ready to be home.

For the coffehouse we have been talking about freedom in Christ. It has been some of the best stuff I have studied and listened to for quite some time. One of our main points that we hit is how we so often open up ourselves to allow sin in. We invite it in, fall in love with it, date it, make love to it, then justify it away in our lives. All the while wonderinig where this "freedom" is that Jesus talks about in scripture. In the end we end up free but in bondage. Free because we have accepted the gift of salvation on the cross, but in bondage because we are a slave to that sin(s). Check out what Jesus has to say about it (John 8:31-36). Jesus was all about starting the freedom journey through the salvation experience and then moving forward in progressive freedom.

Along with the freedom thing and how you can help people who are in bondage, there is a book out there that is pure quality. The book is called "The Gutter" and written by a man with the name of Craig Gross. You can find the book for purchasing at this sweet website or you can go to the website started by him and another guy. Good stuff.

I just purchased the album "Illinois" by Sufjan Stevens. Double good stuff.

Yeah, so in three weeks, give or take, I will be responsible for another human being! Crazy, mind boggling, scary, mysterious, fear. Yet, I can't wait for it to get here. Fatherhood. Bring it on.

I really like the song "Jacksonville" by Sufjan Stevens from the aforementioned album just purchased on iTunes. I grew up 45 minutes from the town being talked about.

So, in the words of Cosmo Kramer, "I'm Out!"