The Most Beautiful Woman I Know

Last weekend the kids came back from summer camp with hidden passengers. All five of them had head lice. This is not meant to be a criticism of the camp, which we have attended for four summers without incident. We love the camp and the kids, as ususual, had a wonderful time.

But head lice are a real pain. Special shampoos can kill the bugs but nothing can kill the eggs, which are called nits. Nits are laid near the scalp and are attached - glued really - to the hair shafts. They are tiny and you have to go through each strand of hair and pull them out one by one. If you miss a single nit, the infestation erupts all over again. In addition, you have to wash all the bedding and clothing, and put anything like stuffed animals or decorative pillows into bags and store them for weeks. All the furniture must be sprayed. All the carpets must be vacuumed.

Now imagine five cases of head lice, five sets of clothes, five little beds to keep lice free, scores of stuffed animals and pillows and things to take care of. We spent all day on Monday washing things, bagging things, and going through each child's hair strand by strand. Poor little 7-year-old Judith had the worst case and we cut her hair three times that day in an effort to make the task manageable. Her hair got shorter and shorter until finally she had nothing but a bit of fuzz on top. And each time the little lamb was shorn she wept bitterly.

On Tuesday I had to go back to work, leaving Allie to manage everything. She spent all day, re-vacuming, re-cleaning, re-spraying, running to the store for supplies, and trying to keep the boys from doing silly things like putting on each others' hats. In addition, she did something like 50 loads of laundry that day alone.

Early that morning she found more nits in the two older girls' hair and even some live bugs. This was after using the special shampoo which is supposed to kill the bugs. It was too much. Allie decided everyone's hair had to go. The boys are self-conscious about having their hair radically shorter, but to the girls it felt like a disaster. To be an 11-years-old girl and have to get what amounts to a buzz cut is pretty horrible.

So Allie got one too. In solidarity with her children she had one of the girls cut her hair until only about a half inch remained on top. She hasn't had it professionally cut yet, so it's still a bit uneven. After all, it was cut by an 11-year-old.

And yet Allie is still beautiful. The short hair highlights her femininity. Her face is so pretty that she really doesn't even need hair. And the fact that she is willing to go through some public embarrassment in order to stand by her children shows something even more important: she is a person of compassion, bravery, and self-sacrifice.

She is the most beautiful woman I know.

A Really Big Piano

This has nothing to do with church or God or even my life. I just thought it was cool.

A Walk in the Park

This morning we decided to take a little hike in Cullen Park before it got too hot. We wore our day packs, but there's nothing in them except some bottled water.

It's a nice walk with some wooded areas. Plenty of red shouldered hawks, crows, and song birds. The kids also saw a red fox.

It started to get a little hot as the morning wore on.

It isn't Rocky Mountain National Park, but hey, it's better than sitting inside all day.

Easter at Lifepath

Colter Jones took some pictures on Easter morning of what it was like at our 11:09 worship service. I know the lighting was a bit tricky. Thanks, Colter!

Don't these look like a friendly bunch of greeters?

As people begin to gather, they hit the coffee and donuts first.

Our little cafe was filled with folks socializing before the worship service started.

The room starts to fill.....

Here I am with a couple of our elders, David Crews and Stan Stevenson. We're wondering if we need more chairs.

Worship begins!

Our Director of Worship, Stan Armor, does a wonderful job. He's the one in the blue shirt. My wife, Allie, is in the dress with the blue and brown flowers.

We are thankful for Labay Middle School. They are so easy to work with and their cafeteria makes a great worship sanctuary.

One of the fun things I got to do that morning was announce the engagement of our Director of Student Ministry. Congratulations Nicholas and Lianne!

Me reading the Bible.

It's a bit hard to see but this is me praying with baby Cooper and his parents. It was Coop's first visit back to church after being in the hospital for a month. He is our very own resurrection story.

It's time to take down the chairs and put everything back the way we found it. I hope everyone had as blessed an Easter as we did.

Lifepath Helps Build a House

I love my church. Here are some of them participating in a Habitat for Humanity build out.

Benjamin Linus and Little Boy Blue

The fifth season of LOST is winding down. Michael Emerson plays Benjamin Linus, one of the creepiest guys ever to grace a television show. Thanks to Ashley, who sent me this.

What I Have Been Reading - And Confirmation that Pastors are Nerds

Does God predetermine who is saved? Are human beings free to choose or does God's will determine everything? This book presents five views on what is called the doctrine of election.

I read this book about a month ago and found it helpful but a bit narrow. Of the five theologians, two were Calvinists (of slightly different stripes), one was an Arminian, one a Universalist, and one an Open Theologian. I could have done without one of the Calvinists and the Universalist.

Instead, it would have been helpful to have an Eastern Orthodox and a Roman Catholic for some wider perspectives. Protestants tend to go round and round a few verses of Romans. They are also locked into supporting or rejecting the Augustine/Luther/Calvin protestant hegemony over this subject. There are vast areas of Christianity that don't take Augustine as the starting point on this discussion.

I need to read more Patristics.


So next I read this. Meh. Not quite what I was looking for, but it is a great intro to the first couple of centuries of Christian thinking.

And for those of you who believe that the Church fell into apostasy right after the New Testament was written until Martin Luther came along, well, no. Calvin, Luther, and the Reformers loved the Church Fathers and used them extensively in their theological battles against medieval Roman Catholicism.

The foundation of all Christian theology, inclucing Protestant theology, was laid by these guys.





I missed the whole Nicholas Sparks phenomenon so I picked this up. I loved the way he wove the story together, even if I kind of wanted to throw up a couple of times when the hero would start crying.

I wonder if it sets women up to have unrealistic expectations of men. Who can measure up to Noah? But I suppose it might inspire us men to try a bit harder.






Who knew there were so many nice hikes in the Houston area? Allie and I have already used this book and found it very helpful








Back to the theology. I'm very fond of N.T. Wright but I'm enjoying this critique of his doctrine of justification by John Piper.

"As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend" - Proverbs 17: 27













A book on church leadership that I keep starting and stopping. If I can get through it, it will probably have a big impact on me and the congregation.














This is sitting on my nightstand and I'm still thinking about it. It's a big commitment. But I love Goodbye to All of That by Graves and he and Lawrence were friends. Besides, they made a movie out of this, so it's got to be good, right?