Do you see the resemblance?

          Saturday was a good day at the Anderson house. We hung out at the house and just chilled out. Very atypical from how normal days off are spent. One thing we did do was look up our family's history. I started with mine on my father's side because it was the easiest to trace. It took a while, but I wound up at the guy in the picture, Pushmataha. He was once the chief of the Choctaw nation and a liaison for the Choctaws to the United States government. Technically, his son-in-law is my g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g- grandfather. His wife being Running Deer, Pushamtaha's daughter. All that to say, I'm about 1/264th Choctaw. Does that count?
          Sara and I went back and forth, finding little tidbits of information about one another's families. I could spend days on this stuff, right? It is very interesting to know where you come from.
          Today I witnessed many awesome things. 1) Six Derby cars built by men and women rolled down a hill successfully 2) Saw my first greased pig catching, 3) Ate (almost) 2 pies without my hands, 4) Watching CrossPointe staff get dunked, and last but I think most important 5) Spending time with my family.
          I am not only talking about my literal family here, my parents and in-laws were present at the event today. No, I am speaking of the family at CrossPointe Community Church. This church has been a part of my life for 5 years and in that 5 years  I have formed more deep and meaningful relationships than I have in my whole life. I think that may be why Paul spoke to the Jews about disregarding geneaologies. They also used them to validate their status, but when you spend all of your time chasing down those links, then what time are you spending with those people around you, you know, the ones with a pulse.
         Family is blood, you call those relatives. Family is also those who will pray for you, laugh with and at you, walk alongside you, support you, call you out, straighten you out. Although the guy in the picture is "family", I have never felt more at home than I feel when I am with my family from CrossPointe.

Enduring Understanding: Don't think you are without family when there is a whole family surrounding you (I hope), a family that Christ has given you.

          On my drive home today I thought, "It would be so simple to just learn all of the time. Even if it were one new thing a week, learning could be perpetual." My personal goal is to try to learn a new thing; whether that be facts, how to do something, or study Scripture that I have never studied or revisit a favorite.
          Imagine how productive we would all be, in our happy little lives, in our quaint little jobs, just learning to our heart's content. Then I realized something else. There is enough junk available now that is non-productive, time wasting entertainment so as to stop learning in its tracks. Literally to take the spirit of learning and have it "sleeping with the fish". And that's exactly what I do. A few weeks ago, a couple came and spent two nights at our house because of a wedding they came to town for. They introduced me and Sara to DrawSomething: the ultimate time waster. And I'm addicted.
          There are so many things that I want to know: why mailboxes are numbered the way they are, from where certain words originate, why exactly Jesus wrote in parables, along with a few other inquiries. But it is things like this that trap me in thoughtless, repetitive, brain junk food. I'm not actually learning anything, except how to cheat at a drawing game by writing words.
          What else could I be doing? Breaking a passage down, praying for a friend, calling a family member, giving my wife attention, playing with my son, talking to a neighbor. I'm not denouncing entertainment, I enjoy relaxing and having brain breaks, but my generation lives and breathes the easy, here-and-now mentality that brings us Facebook fad games that devour our time and possibly some brain cells.

Enduring Understanding: Colossians 3:17 "and whatever you do, whether in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus..." Motivation to engage this life deeper than the shallow puddles of thought we so often find ourselves wading in.

What's Good For You, Might Be Good For Me

          Lessons are a thing we cannot avoid if we as humans want to grow and learn. Initially, we must face lessons of how to roll over, crawl, and walk; then on to what we can and cannot touch (stove, electrical outlet, etc); further exemplified by decisions we begin to make on our own as children, teens, young adults, and then into full-fledged adulthood. 

          Most often for me, the hardest lessons to learn in life are about my own imperfections. The character flaws that you don't see, so therefore you don't have. How does Jesus put it, "Don't try to pluck out the splinter in your brother's eye when you have a plank sticking out of your own." The flaws that I see most in other people are in fact my very own flaws. The fact that I recognize it says that I readily know what my problems are; yet I only seek to remedy them by proxy, in other people. 

          Sure buddy, I can fix that problem for you. Step by step, here is what Jim must do in order to get right. I've always got the solution to everyone else's flaws, but mine mysteriously go away when the investigative eye is directed at me. 

          The next time I start getting aggravated at people, I might need to step back and see if I'm not just recognizing that behavior because it is in me. Do I rage when something isn't going smoothly? Do I share information about people that may or may not be my business? Is it really my place to put everyone else out on Front Street but keep my life off the shelf?

Enduring Understanding: Often we find ourselves picking out other's flaws when in fact we may be only recognizing our own.

It Was That Important

          This isn't like me. I'm not that guy. Until recently. Skyrim was revealed to me by several people; namely my brother-in-laws and several church members. I kept getting the message that this was the best game ever and couldn't be compared to its predecessor, Oblivion. I had played Oblivion off and on, but like I said, I wasn't THAT guy. About three weeks ago, I began to spend time in Skyrim. Small stuff really, clearing caves of bandits, killing wolves and frostbite spiders, taking down the occasional dragon, and really just getting the feel of the game. 

          Well, I am a teacher, and this past week has been Spring Break. The glorious parting of the clouds to reveal the light at the end of the tunnel. During the day, I have been hanging out with my wife and our son Ben, all the while intermittently playing Skyrim. On more than one occasion, I was asked to watch Ben.
          See where this is going? Ben, being a toddler, and me, being a full grown man, both had different ideas about how we spent that time watching one another. He wanted to explore the house and I wanted to explore that cave I just found.
          Two minutes later, I'm questing and he is crying. I've allowed him to wander off, and while he wasn't physically hurt (most of his hurts are purely emotional), I still felt about as small as could possibly be imagined.
          This quickly reawakened my fatherly instincts and made me realize how selfish and foolish I had been. The game could wait, it would be there.
          My son, on the other hand, cannot be replaced, even though in this case he was only emotionally upset. His life was entrusted to me by God to protect and care for him.
          The games, television shows, hobbies, jobs, and stuff will be there at the end of the day, still waiting where you left it. It's really not that important.

BTW: Skyrim is a great game, tv is alright, but as long as we keep them in the proper perspective, we can still enjoy them.

Enduring Understanding: Are the things you are doing now interfering with your family or life? Is a certain action, game, show, item, becoming your main focus so that all other aspects are falling to the wayside? God will point out to you the areas in your life that you are slacking in, if you will but ask.

Time With The Ones You Love

This is Spring Break time, and we are kicking it off right. Sara has a cousin who lives in Florence and we went to see them today. Her and her husband have a little boy, slightly younger than Ben. Needless to say, family trips are easier to plan when the kids are about the same age.

Today, our trip led us to the Jackson Zoo. I never realize how much I love animals until I'm actually there looking at them. Orangutans, giraffes, otters, tortoises, lemurs, kookaburas, chimps, and rhinos. At one point, we were sitting on a stone bench looking at the pink flamingos and ducks. On observing how easily the water rolled off the duck's back, I realized two things:

      1) Why people use the phrase "like water off a duck's back"

      2) How different and unique God made animals

Yeah, I understand that environments can cause variations in animals, but the basic designs that God set are absolutely mind-blowing. I hope that one day I will be teaching Ben about the creativity of God through what He designed in nature.The greatest thing though was spending time with people who share those same feelings. 

Recently someone told me that when their husband became a believer, everyone thought he was snooty because he no longer would hang out with the old crew. Many people would feel the same way, but I feel that in order to effectively follow Christ, you need a time of separation from who you were, especially if the influences are people. 

Enduring Understanding: Believers, whether new or old, will be faced with the pressures of their old life. This may be people, things, or actions, and sometimes it is necessary, if not vital to the life of the believer to cling to Jesus instead of their old self. It's not snooty or precocious, but healthy and wise.

Kony 2012

So Sunday night a group paid a visit to CrossPointe Community Church. This group has been in the Jones County area before, but this time they meant business. In the year 2012, Mayans predict the world will end, and probably some crazy people will jump on the crazy bandwagon and predict many wild and crazy happenings.A group that has gained much popularity in the past few years has made a prediction that some may deem crazy: to stop a man named Joseph Kony. His name doesn't resonate like Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden, but his acts and deeds are just as atrocious and formidable. For 26 years, Joseph Kony has tortured the people of Uganda, forcing children into his army, forcing children to kill. He has largely gone unchecked, but this year the Invisible Children organization has decided to close the curtain on Kony's reign of terror and injustice. I have attached a link that will explain this with better visuals and words than I can  muster.

Without further adieu, follow this link --> http://vimeo.com/invisible/kony2012

Lesson for today: Action isn't always action-packed. Action is doing something, whether it is physically reaching out, or using your voice to reach out to everyone and sending a message. This can be used for good or evil, and ultimately, that choice is yours.