jeremeybyers's Xanga

windrock & the smokies

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:14:59 GMT

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:02:25 GMT

"home"

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 15:20:57 GMT

Ok, so our vacation is almost over, and we have to get on a plane in just about 24 hours. The theme of our trip? "When you moving back?"

It would seem that having Caleb prompts everyone to ask us when we are moving back "home." the problem is that "home" is a one place for some ,and a different place for others. My family in TN asked that question, and our friends, and Christy's family in IN asked it here in indy. It would be easy to move back to one place or the other. I have had job offers, getting a place to live would be easy, we would be around family and some good friends. It would only be natural.

God has called us, however, to a supernatural lifestyle. I don't mean anything flashy, or elaborate. What I do mean is that He has called us to give Him the reigns of our lives, and let Him steer. For us to look at our circumstances, and do things the natural would rule out much of His divine intervention in our lives. We would be left with a good life. We would, however, miss out on His BEST for our family. We cannot do that. I as the leader of my family simply cannot settle for "good" when BEST is available.

I think of something a missionary friend of mine told me when I visited him in Europe a few years ago. He was still somewhat new to the area, and was having difficulty with the language (Polish it was) not to mention the difficulty of bridging the cultural gap, and combatting the religious stereotypes. He said that he thought to himself that he could always "go home." He could go on staff at his sending church, and have a comfortable life back here in the states. It wasn't until he resigned himself to living there in Poland no matter what that he was able to be effective in his ministry. That story reminds me of what Jesus said in Luke 9:62 "But Jesus said to him, 'No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.'"

God doesn't want to be number one on a list of ten things in my life, or even number one on a list of five. He wants to be NO. 1 on a list of ONE. That means that right now we live in Florida, and we must deal with the heartache of not seeing so many people that we love so much. That is why we cherish the time that we can spend with our family and friends "back home." Our real home is in heaven anyway, so someday we will finally go HOME, and then all this world and it's difficulties, and inconveniences will be a thing of the past.

falling down the stairs

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 15:44:02 GMT

So, the other day I was coming down the stairs with Caleb in my arms, and my foot slipped. I missed that step,and the next, and the next until my feet were seperated by five steps. Now, I am not normally a very flexible or limber person, so this was rather painful for me. I could have stopped myself from falling by simply reaching out and bracing myself against the wall. The only problem was that I decided to hold on more tightly to Caleb with both arms. I could see that the only way to keep him safe was to lean back and keep him on top of my chest as I fell backward, my right leg went forward, and my left leg folded up behind me with my right foot not moving much. My dad was close by the bottom of the stair case, and I handed Caleb to him as I managed to squirm my way to the floor, and streighten my legs out.

I am now partially immobilized, and limping everywhere I go. I have my knee wrapped up 24/7 and ice it every few hours. It is getting better, but it still hurts.

I hve also been thinking alot about those few seconds. I had just enough time to think about what I wanted to do as I fell. I remember actually thinking , and deciding to hold on to Caleb tighter, and lean back to protect him. I didn't consider how it would impact me. As it turned out, it reinjured my knee in the same way that i had injured it in high school. The feeling was too familiar, and painful. Well, the odd thing about the whole thing is that even though I decided to sacrificed my own body to save someone I loved; I don't feel at all that he would ever owe me anything in return. I didn't do it because he deserved it, nor did i do it so that he would be indebted to me. I did it ONLY because I love him. Maybe a small glimpse into God's love for me.

Copout?? Maybe, but maybe not

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 09:26:06 GMT

maybe this is a copout, but then again, maybe not. I haven't blogged in a while, and I think i know why. i was in a conversation the other day with 3 of my closest friends while celebrating Christy's birthday, and found that when i started to interject into the conversation i had nothing in mind to actually say. i guess at this point in my life i've got nothing to say, so i decided to try to be a better listener, and doer of what i already know. in the mean time here is a blog post from one of my closest friends who couldn't be at Christy's b-day celebration due to being on the other side of the globe....

from Ben Morrisson

okay, so i realize that by the very fact i am writing this on my blog, it will be quite ironic and possibly self-incriminating. but i was just kinda thinking the other day about how prevelant "the blog" and similar "web 2.0" phenomena (i.e. youtube, facebook, etc.) have become. suddenly everyone and their mom (but rarely their grandma) has become a published internet-author. and at the same time i began thinking about how everyone is churning out more and more "mass communication", reaching out to be heard and, more importantly, to be known. and yet it seems that all this mass communication has had a diminishing effect on individual communication.

maybe its just me, but i think that since the advent of blogging, the amount of personal emails that i write to people (and people write to me) has probably gone down. (i'd really love to see some kind of statistic on how blogs have affected individual emailing. anyone wanna take a poll?) at the least the size of the emails has gone down considerably. now its like: "doin good. how bout you? check my blog for more." maybe you remember back in the day when if you wanted to write your friends basically the same things about yourself, you would at least have the decency to copy/paste a paragraph into a personal e-mail and keep up a semblance of individual communication? (c'mon, you know you've done it. admit it! :) now there is this great big "digital, global village" where we all live right next door, but remain strangers... or at best just give a quick wave across the virtual lawn to one another.

its like we are willing to put effort into pouring out our hearts into cyberspace and can only hope that someone, anyone will listen or appreciate it (which really means appreciate us). some may say they just blog "for themselves"... i don't buy it. if that were true, there's this antiquated device called a journal/diary we'd be using instead. and though i have seen a few random blogs out there that really get "discussion" going on some controversial topic, i don't know that i've seen a comment that echoed back a deep, heart-pouring-out response. in fact, the public nature of a blog makes it near impossible. like lovers who whisper in seclusion, perhaps the intimate relationship of true friends is meant to be hidden from mere observers. its like everybody is out there in cyberspace trying to be heard and the more people talk, the more we forget how to listen. people are longing for someone to hear their heart and answer in kind. what i suppose is a little disconcerting about the age of blogs is that we think that we can actually do this outside of real, deep, one-on-one personal friendship. granted, i think blogs can maybe link people up, help begin new friendships (or rekindle old ones), but its deceptive to think that mass posting can replace good, old-fashioned, individual communication. it can't. not that any of us CONSCIOUSLY think that, but it seems that the very nature and popularity of the blog subtly imply it.

perhaps in turn we blog also to have a voice in the world, to matter on some universal level, to contribute something of worth. as a medium of information, a mass communication device, yeah, its great. businesses have caught on to it and are using it efficiently, as have churches and anyone that is trying to get some certain information "out there". that's lovely for the business world and to some extent for churches/ministries... in the case of individuals, i think it again boils down to the desire to be known; for someone to value what i have to say. to "matter" in that sense and even contribute something to "humanity". here's the problem with that last one though: "humanity" doesn't exist. you will never have a conversation with humanity, never meet humanity and shake its hand, because there is no "humanity", there's only people. which means that we're back to personal friendships.

i see this truth in Jesus' life as well. sure, there were times He preached to the masses and that's okay in ministry and effective to some extent, BUT most of His time was spent with 12 guys that He called His "friends". Jesus was under no misconception that humanity could be changed on some ethereal, global level. but He could and did pour out His heart into the lives of 12 specific men. humanity can only be contributed to by contributing to real people. Christ did not die for humanity, He died for all men, for each person, for me. and that brings me back around to the first point: that all this pouring out of our hearts into the dark void of cyberspace is really reflective of our deep desire to be known and to matter to someone. i love the lyrics of this song by don chaffer called the worst is my being alone about a conversation between two friends as they sit by the sea, and i think it nails this desire inherent in each of our hearts:

he said, "kerri, i don't think i've ever wanted as much
to be free as i've longed to be known,
and of the things that i hate as i look at my life,
the worst is my being alone."

and the song ends out:

but at the pulse of the waves, they both turned around
thinking someone was calling their name.

if only we really knew how we are known beyond all that we can hope for, how we matter to the God who created us, that we matter to death for Him. that He is the One who desires to listen to our hearts and answer in kind. that beyond the faint hints in the ocean's waves and sunsets and thunderstorms that He is calling our names, and that He calls us friends, beloved. we are completely known by Him who is. (see Psalm 139)

well, i suppose i'll end my rambling thoughts. i'm interested to hear people's opinions on all this (all 3 of you who read this blog, ha!). don't worry, i won't judge you for posting a comment (as long as you don't judge me for blogging :).

post comments for ben here

Sunday, March 30, 2008

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 09:58:49 GMT

I'm bringing Xanga back - drop a comment if you're with me!

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 13:37:06 GMT

Here are some of the pics that i promised. the computer crashed while i was working on it last night. they are in chronological order. the first ones are just here around the house and one from my birthday party (that's Adam Shover there with Caleb). The last ones are from Christmas day. These aren't all of them, but they are all I could get up yet. I seem to be having technical difficulties. I'll get the rest of the Christmas pics up soon...maybe tomorrow?

our first family christmas

Tue, 25 Dec 2007 15:55:14 GMT

OK, so it's Christmas day, and I am a little bummed out. Not seriously down or anything, but disappointed in my first attempt at a family Christmas.
I had planned on decorating with lights this year, and putting up decor in the house including a manger which could have had gifts placed under and around it. I had planned on having a real Christmas letter out a month ago. I should say that I didn't really plan all these things out, I just wanted to do them. I never made an actual plan for accomplishing them. As a result none of these things ever got accomplished. Most of the disappointment is my own fault. We had only gifts for Caleb to be opened this year because Christy and I opened ours at least a week ago. When Christy and I give each other gifts we rarely wait for the date of the occasion to open them. Dates just aren't that important to us. That has never been much of a problem until we had Caleb. Well, he won't notice this year, but we had decided to begin some family Christmas traditions this year. After hearing of the impact of Christmas traditions on some friends and family of ours; we decided to begin to make up some of our own. The main thing that disappoints me is that I didn't follow through on this commitment. Well, so much for the past, what we are PLANNING on doing for next year. At lunch, just a little while ago, Christy and I discussed what we could do about the problem. We decided to do several things.
1. next year have a manger (life size) to put gifts around. We decided to do this instead of a tree. We don't want to give anyone the wrong idea. We don't think that there is anything wrong with Christmas trees, but if we use the manger instead, then it is much easier to use it as a springboard to talk about Jesus. So much of this culture is self-focussed, and materialistic that we would like to take every opportunity to share the real meaning and history of special holidays, like Christmas. For that reason, we have decided to use a manger, rather than a tree.
2. Have a special Christmas breakfast before gifts are opened. This does two things: it reinforces the importance of family time at Christmas, and takes the emphasis off of the toys, and gifts waiting to be opened. This helps to keep the perspective adjusted on a morning that can be chaotic any way.
3. WAIT until Christmas day to open the gifts. I don't want to say that gifts opened before Christmas day aren't as special, but the point is on Jesus, and so to build anticipation for that day when we will celebrate the Birth of Jesus, we keep the most exciting stuff till then.
4. Decorate the house starting the week after Thanksgiving, not earlier, that holiday has it's own meaning and shouldn't be blurred with others, no matter what the stores want us to think. Our decorations will center around Christ, and the Biblical story of His birth. We are planning on learning how to make Moravian star ornaments. They will be hand made each year, and dated so that we have some from every year, after '07 that is. You might wonder where we would hang ornaments, of which we have several, without a tree. That is simple. I hang lights from the ceiling around the walls of the community rooms; like the kitchen, dining, and living rooms. We hang the ornaments on the light strands. The heavier ones get hung on the hooks that hold up the lights. We will also have several nativity sets around our place. Some are safe for small children, and sit on lower surfaces, and some aren't kid-friendly, so they go up higher. One or two have special significance, and will sit as center pieces to the decor, out of reach for children, but in obvious line of sight for everyone.
5. Start the Christmas letter when we start decorating for Christmas. This will help us to get it out in a timely manner (like before Christmas).
6. Share Christmas with someone not in our family. We will have already had our "special family meal" at breakfast, so to give just for the sake of giving we will invite someone over to our place for Christmas dinner who may not have a family to share the holiday with. Maybe a friend who is alone, or a total stranger who just needs a meal, and some love that our family can give.
7. As far as gifts go, we have decided to not overdo it with the number of gifts. We will be doing one main gift for each person, and maybe some small ones besides. The point here isn't on less, it is on more. More time, and focus on Jesus, and less time and focus on materialism, and selfishness.

We may decide to add to these by adopting some from people we know (some above we got that way). One family we know gets new pajamas every year. That is a cool tradition. There is more to it than just that, but that is their story. I'll tell it if we decide to adopt it for our family.

I realize that no matter how much I plan, and hope for a great Christmas every year, that it may not happen. I also realize that this stuff won't do the work of shaping our children's understanding of God, and of this particular holiday, but I hope to put more tools into my family's hands to win the spiritual fight that we are in here in this world.

I'll post some pics a little later tonight after we've gotten them all taken.

more pics of caleb

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 09:05:20 GMT

here are some pics of Caleb...some of you will recognize them, cause you took them. that's right I lifted some of them from some of your sites. i figured that since they are of my son, i have the right to grab them.

some are from halloween, and some are just misc. pics. if you want to see a little different perspective on Caleb you can check out Christy's page...http://www.xanga.com/Tereal

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:10:13 GMT

a slideshow of some of our pics of caleb... if it works

any way We are on vacation, a free (almost) vacation at that. we're still in FL, so it's not too far away from home. I wrote an entry while on the road so I will dump it in here.

OK, so we just got back on to I-75 headed south to ft myers beach to spend a little time on vacation. It seems like whenever we take a road trip the interstate shuts down... Last time it was I-65 in KY, this time it is the far west end of I-4 in FL. We first wanted to leave right after lunch, but we couldn't get going as soon as we wanted to today. We finally got on the road, however, around 4:00. Bad stuff didn't keep us from getting started; just stuff. So we leave around 4pm, and expect to get into Ft Myers beach around 9. It took Christy's parents just over 4 hours to get there, and so we figured with Caleb, and driving a little slower than they did, we should make it in about 5 hours. It's now 11:06 pm, and we are only about half way there after 7 hours. The rest of the trip shouldn't take very long though, relatively speaking. Here's what happened...

We were making pretty good progress, and it was about time for supper, Caleb's and ours. Besides that we needed to get gas, and take a potty break. So we stopped, but didn't find anything, so we went to the next exit where we hoped to find a Chic-fil-a. We still have some coupons for free sandwiches left over from rock the universe. Or at least we have some at home, I find out as we are getting off the exit that there is only one in the car, because I had forgotten the rest of them at home. I decided not to eat supper (because I had forgotten my coupon); fortunately for Christy, she had a coupon in the car. So we go looking for a Chic-fil-a, we don't find one, and decide on some place else. We stumble upon a Panera Bread, which is even better than Chic-fil-a, 'cause we've got a gift card, and can eat there for free. The resteraunt is really cool, there is even a great little corner where we can eat, and Christy can feed Caleb in relative seclusion. We have a great supper, and get back on the road after about an hour. We're not on the road more than 20 minutes when we stop again, not because we want to, but because there is a 37 vehicle pile up in front of us. There were semi's and cars and all sorts of vehicles involved, but fortunately, no serious injuries (according to the Florida Highway Patrol). Now we are moving again after speeding 3 hours nearly stopped. We actually only went 42 miles in three hours, and the first half of that was covered in the first 20 minutes at 70 mph, before we had to stop. About 2/3 of the way through it I thought to myself...“self, I think that when we get up to where they are making everyone get off the interstate the lanes will open back up, and we will be able to stay on the road...” I thought that it was just wishful thinking, but to my surprise that is exactly what happened. I was on the phone with Phil, Christy's dad, letting him know that we were getting on the exit ramp to exit when all of the sudden the emergency vehicles all pulled out out of the way, and the lanes opened back up. We never actually got off of I-4, it just took 3 hours to go 47 miles. So to sum it up Caleb is doing great on his first road trip, he seems really content, and is happy when we get him out of his seat. He sleeps most of the time when we are moving, so I guess we are having a really great first family vacation.