Where is God in this?!

A shooting in a movie theater.

A shooting in a mall.

A shooting at…an Elementary school?!

If God is so good and so loving, why does he not intervene? Why does he just stand by and allow this to happen?! Over the next few days I imagine you’ll see multiple blogs and facebook posts that will ask this question as if it is definitive proof that God must not exist, and the counter to those questions put into clever Meme’s or pictures. This, to me, is almost as tragic as these incidents. We reduce the question of God to clever stories and witty questions. All of these are likely without any philosophical or theological merit, and that is the ongoing tragedy. The question of why does God allow evil and suffering starts with the fact that he allows us to have free will. Humans chose to sin. You do it. I do it. God has provided a redemptive work based on love and forgiveness to solve this problem of sin, but it isn’t an instant fix the eliminates all future sin. It also isn’t an all sweeping solution that applies to the entirety of humanity. You have to choose to accept that, and in today’s world, more people reject that truth behind “logic and reason” than accept it. Evil is the result of unchecked sin that is made by human free will. Take this video for example. Richard Dawkins, a well-known proponent of Darwinian Evolution, and outspoken “hater of religion”. Let’s not get into a discussion about that term “religion” here, you can find my thoughts on that elsewhere in this Blog, but in the video below (start at 1:45 if you don’t want to watch the whole thing) he argues that religion is about brainwashing our children based on the culture you are born into, and that brainwashing is what the source of evil acts such as the “blowing up buildings” are.



I'll assume then on some level Richard Dawkins would believe that these shootings of late are the result, albeit indirectly, of Religions. As Dawkins states: “I don’t think that any kind of reasoned argument would do that to people” Dawkins goes on to admit that Religion doesn’t ALWAYS cause this kind of evil but because it can, he wants to “cut it off at its roots”. This argument is so logically flawed it’s not even worth addressing in detail. Dawkins drives home his point by showing the extremes of religious activists around the world; Extremist Muslims, Westboro Baptist Church, The Crusades. This world isn’t intended to be easy. It is a struggle. God promises this. He doesn’t promise that if you believe in him life will become easier and he will take all your worries away. That is what false teachers like Joel Osteen, who are almost more dangerous than Richard Dawkins, want you to believe. Why? Because when tragedy happens to you, or you see tragedy in the world, you don’t have any ability to process it in terms of your faith, or belief. "Joel Osteen told me if I do good, then I will be rewarded, so then why are bad things happening? Have I angered God?" This makes me more upset than anything Richard Dawkins says because Joel Osteen is just setting up countless people up for disappointment and potentially turning their back on “religion” cause what good can it do. THAT is a problem. It isn’t about when you do this then something good will happen. God is good, but he also gave us the freedom to choose him, or chose sin, and thus evil. Sometimes those choices by others to choose evil, impact us. That is the world we live in, as humanity, this is the path we have chosen, and because God loves us, he is offered an escape route, but he isn’t requiring it, and is going to let us choose.



I would say to Richard Dawkins, you can create your videos that give the impression that the source of evil is religion, you can show extremists in cleverly edited videos with moving music, but I just need to turn the news on to see what evil is. These shootings weren’t the work of some believers who were brainwashed. The evil we see today with shootings at elementary schools pierces our sense of order. The unwritten rule of “not the children”, because that is exceptionally evil. Disasters happen. Evil happens, and it will happen again. I promise. Understanding why it is happening, and if there is a solution to evil is up to you. You can buy Richard Dawkins antiquated argument that Religion is the source of evil, because broken human beings have done evil in the name of religion. Or you can choose to understand that all of humanity is broken, and lost, and there is only one solution. The video below, is a video showing a tragedy of a bridge collapse with John Piper talking bluntly about Evil and Suffering. It seems like you could take his words, and place it over any collection of video showing any number of tragedies…including the most recent one in Connecticut, Oregon, and Colorado.



This isn’t a political issue, this isn’t a science issue. At its core, this is a problem of Evil. There is a solution. It is love. Specifically it is whether or not we accept the free love Jesus has offered us. The good news? He gave you the free will to accept it, or reject it…

In the beautiful phrasing of Tenth Ave North’s song “The Struggle”:

“Hallelujah, I am free to struggle, but I’m not struggling to be free.”



Jon

Thanksgiving Family Fun

My my how a year can change things.  It was this time last year that we told the family about the little one we now enjoy daily.  This year we had a wonderful family gathering at Jon's parents house.  My mom, Rick, Mark, Nora, Shawna and Grandma Mary were all there.  We enjoyed a day full of food, family and football.

Food Yummy!!!!

Well at his 4 month appointment the doctor told us we could start introducing cereal.  When we first started we put it in the bottle and have been doing that for a little over a week.  We finally decided just to try some on a spoon and here is how it went.

4 months

I can't believe how fast time has flown by.  Jon and I have been looking at how much our little man has grown and changed in such a short period of time.  Here is an idea

Here are his stats from the doctor:
Height: 26" 85th percentile
Weight: 13 pounds 11 ounces 26th percentile
Head: 16.5" 41 percentile

The doctor walked in and said, "Here is my tall baby, tall and skinny."  I should have known that he would be tall when he outgrows his clothes in length way before width.  He has started to be come so much more interactive and fun.

What he does now:
Holds his head up really well
Sit when supported
Smiles and is really starting to laugh a lot
His newest trick...blowing bubbles
he can roll from belly to back
Push himself up when laying on his belly
Almost roll from back to belly



This month has been full of all kinds of fun events.  Not only has it been an adjustment with going back to work but we traveled for the first time with a kid.  Holy smokes, that is an adventure.  We all went to KC for one of my childhood friends weddings and to visit family.  My mom, Aaron and I flew in on Wednesday and Jon came to join us on Friday.

 Snoozing with Grandpa

 All dressed up for the wedding

Me and daddy messing with mommies phone during the wedding

Halloween/Pumpkin Patch

Well it has been a crazy time since I have gone back to work.  I long for the weekends where I get to spend time with our little family and all the fun things kids bring.  This year we went to the pumpkin patch and took some pictures of Aaron.

The family picture

 Hanging with the pumpkins

 Mommy and Aaron

 Just walkin around

Daddy and Aaron

We did dress him up for Halloween but we did not go Trick or Treating.  Mommy and Daddy figured we didn't need any more candy, and it was obvious that he wasn't going to eat it.  Unfortunately,  most Halloween costumes are made with the assumption that the weather is cold; in Houston that is not the case.  We put his costume on long enough to take pictures and then he lost it because he was too hot.

Almost time to go back to work :/

Well the time has come for me to start gearing up to head back to work.  I am rather torn about this time.  I am excited about the new school and everything that a new year brings but I am sad to leave my baby.  I am so thankful that he will be home with his Grammy and doesn't have to go to a day care.  Aaron has grown and changed so much over these past two and a half months.  I have loved having the opportunity to watch him grow and develop.  We have been busy the last few weeks.

 Everyone has settled into Grammy's house.

 This was his first Sunday at the nursery.

 His first time to go to the driving range.

And working on holding his head up.

2 months already?!?!?!

Wow where does time go?  I can't believe it has already been two months since our little boy has joined the world.  It has been a fast changing 2 months with a rapidly growing little boy.  We went to the doctor today and he has grown to a whopping 10 pounds 12.7 ounces and 23 inches long.  In the last month he has gained about 5 pounds, that is a lot for a little boy.  In the last month we have struggled a lot to get his food situation settled and working.  We went through some bumps as we started to realize when he was nursing he was not getting full, this was after lots of screaming fits with no clue as to why he was crying.  We quickly adjusted that by giving him bottles of breast milk so at least we knew how much he was getting.  We quickly found out this was the problem because I did not have enough to give him in bottles for all of his feedings so we had to start supplementing him with one bottle of formula a day.  As the amount he ate went up, I was not able to keep up and had to increase him to two bottles of formula a day.  After many hours of contemplation and talking to my doctor I came to realize the already difficult task would appear to become almost impossible when I went back to work and was under more stress.  With that being said I decided to start backing off of the pumping and start moving him more and more toward formula.  We did this slowly because he really struggled with formula.  Over the course of about 3 weeks we switched him over to full formula and after 3 attempts we think we may have found a formula that will work.  Hooray!!!!

Although the start of the school year came and it was strange not to be there, I have enjoyed the time I have gotten to spend at home.  My parents have moved into their house and are very busy getting things settled in.  It has been exciting to go over there and watch the process of it all come together.  Since they have been busy bees working around their house Aaron and I have been spending a lot of quality time at the house with Luna.  Needless to say, by the time Jon gets home I am in desperate need of some adult conversation.  I love the time I spend with my two babies but neither of them answer me when I talk to them, I am sure this will QUICKLY change.  Aaron has gotten on a pretty good schedule and I have been surprised at how well I have adapted to it.  I will say, if there is one thing I have learned to do as a mom, that is how to do chores at warp speed.  Since my mom was around to help out so much when Aaron was first born I was really worried that I would not be able to shower and/or get things done around the house but I have fallen into a rhythm and all is going well.

I have about 3 and a half weeks until I go back to work and I plan to enjoy every minute of it.  I have enjoyed all of the smiles we have gotten this month and I look forward to what joys the next month has in store for us.

Here are some of my favorite moments from the last month:

 Big Smiles

 All three of my loves!

 We call this the baby burrito.

 Sweet sleeping baby

My other sweet sleeping baby

He looks so big in this picture, it kills me.