Often Jessica and I feel caught between feeling overwhelmed by how many activities we have going on and feeling guilty for not communicating enough with friends and prayer supporters. Glancing at the date of our last post on here (April 17), such feelings may lead to regret or self-justification. Some of you reading this may respond, "No need to feel that way. We are all busy." Still, we apologize for our infrequency in updating.
Here are a few bullet-point updates on what is going on with us nowadays:
- Jessica is 32 weeks pregnant with our son, Noah. He'll make his entry via C-section somewhere around the end of November. Jessica's parents are coming from West Virginia for the birth.
- Sara turns 2 years old on October 13. We have a small (but joyful) Elmo-themed party planned.
- We have a team from Missouri that will work with us from October 12-23. We are thrilled to have them! They'll be doing prayerwalking, street/park evangelism, working some at the seminary, and leading a one-day VBS for our church. We'll also go up to the mountains for a day and a night to breathe some aer curat (fresh air).
- Yesterday was my first day back teaching at the seminary. In addition to teaching my usual Intro to Evangelism, I'm also teaching Intro to the Spiritual Disciplines. Should be lots of fun!
- In between the team being here and Noah's arrival, I have my PhD comp exams and dissertation proposal defense. Once I pass these two hurdles I'll be able to start my dissertation research, which is connected to the Evangelism class I'm teaching.
So, needless to say, this is a busy season for us. Jessica is ready to not be pregnant anymore. Sara is growing like a weed (and so is her vocabulary!). I am blessed.
Yet even just thinking of all these happenings makes me tired. I have to carefully take my thoughts captive and ask the Lord to exchange them with positive thoughts, like the joy in Sara's eyes when I walk through the door or the way my wife gets excited thinking of how Sara and Noah will play together. I think of my powerlessness and daily need for gospel grace.
I'm reading through Luke right now in my devotions and was especially struck by Zechariah's song in Luke 1 (he hadn't spoken in months and all of a sudden burst into song). Prophetically singing of the message his newborn son will bring, Zechariah declares, "The sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness." Such is the gospel.
Setting my sights on the sunrise that has visited us in Christ, I can face tomorrow and praise God today.
