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Not sure if anyone is still seeking me out here, but I've been away - Facebook, you know? I may write here again someday, but I check in on F'bk daily. See you there...

Matthew 20.

Be content with your position, your pay; your vocation and your location. Where we are now is so often where we don't want to be. But if we backed up a bit and imagine ourselves in our earlier days of life, we often (though not always) find we are actually currently living some form of the dream we held in our earlier days. Maybe not in every minute detail, but we find ourselves better off than we would have imagined.

This gets complicated when we haven't gotten everything we ever wanted or realized every big dream we ever had... But, truly, does this mean we are in a bad place? I so easily forget to be thankful. I have expressed my extreme talents of forgetfulness before...

As followers of Jesus, we tend to express this discontent in the form of seeking our calling. Not in and of itself a bad thing in the least. Yet this deceptively "holy" way of saying,"This isn't good enough,God," still flies in the face of the One Who has brought us to where we currently stand for His purpose for our lives. In the parable of the vineyard workers, the owner is not fair, but he is strikingly good, giving everyone what their family needs to survive the day despite the length of their labor. Following His story, Jesus tells His followers He is going to be killed because of His Kingdom Agenda. Then, oddly, on the heels of this, a controversy ensues as to which of Jesus' followers will get the highest honor of being seated next to Him in His Kingdom. Forget the fact these were the least likely of people to be called to follow this Rabbi.

Yet Jesus called them. And when a Rabbi called you to follow him, it was because he was convinced you could embody everything he was and taught. They were living a greater honor than they would have ever dreamed in their younger days. Yet they were clamoring for more.

"Be content with your pay," said John the Baptiser. "Don't worry,instead pray," Paul says. "Which of you by worrying can add a single day to your life?" asks Jesus. Don't miss today, the significance of your place in it, and the lessons God is teaching you right now. The next step will come soon enough. And it will be the right step in it's time.

A quote to be explored

On Jesus' silence before Pilate: "Jesus himself was being the answer... part of John's point there is that truth is not primarily something you speak, it's something you are and you speak out of what you are. And... Jesus was being the truth and... the only way of being it there was the silence." -N.T. Wright

A day with the family...

King's Island with the family yesterday. Rode an assortment of kiddie and adult rides: The Fairly Odd Coaster, Avatar, Reptar, Phantom Flyer, Log Flume, White Water Canyon, The Train, Backlot Stunt Coaster (Italian Job), Shake Rattle and Roll, Flight of Fear, The Scrambler, The Monster, Viking Ship, and the Carousel. Ate at Chick-Fil-A (triple priced, of course) and La Rosa's. Mmmmmmm. Fun time. Not too hot. Not too crowded. A good day for all!

Small steps. Giant leaps.

In a matter of moments my five-year-old grew older by a giant leap. We bought the family pass to the pool for the summer. Kind of cool - pay on the front end and it feels like you get in free the rest of the season... Anyway - for several weeks now, the most fun my youngest could imagine having at the pool would be to climb up on the side and then jump in, splash around, climb out and do it again. She would do this literally for hours. To jump and be caught by me was even more fun in her opinion. Two days ago, however, I moved her to the deeper water where she had to jump in and swim to me. Again, trusting, trying, hurtling into the unknown, ultimately into my arms. Suddenly she had a new request.

"Can I go off the diving board?"

She was super-excited when I said, "Sure!" We got the lifeguard's attention, just in case, and she didn't hesitate. She leaped in and came up smiling a huge smile. "I want to do it again!" were her only words as I applauded her from the edge of the pool.

She never went back to jumping off the edge and into my arms, which only moments before had been the ultimate experience. One small step off the diving board, one giant leap toward growing up.