It's Friday everyone! Time for your random updates on life in the Kennedy household!**1**
Last night Charles and I went to a forum on Fuller's campus called Rethink Afghanistan. We weren't going to go, but at the last moment decided that felt like the more important place to be (our other choice was a high school football game). We are certainly still processing all we heard and saw, but it is very much worth checking out, watching the film, and thinking about deeply. A Fuller student and Afghanistan veteran (serving two tours) has really begun to think theologically and deeply about the war there, and whether it was right in the first place and the devastation that has been caused there. The opening prayer struck me powerfully, and I offer it now for your reflection. It was written by Stanley Hauerwas, a famous theologian and Christian ethicist.
Graceful Lord, we find ourselves living in the most powerful country in the world.
The pride and self-righteousness such power breeds are beyond compare.
No power exists that can humble us.
We are tyrants of all we survey.
We decide to bomb these people, send rockets against those people, kill those we call terrorists–
all because we can.
We are the most powerful people in the world.
It is hard not to be caught up in such power.
It is intoxicating.
Save us from it.
Sober us with the knowledge that you will judge this nation,
you will humble this nation,
you will destroy this nation for our pride.
Send us a reminder that you are God, that you alone have the right of vengeance, and if it be your will, make those we bomb instruments of your judgment.
At the very least, save us from the ‘normality of killing.’
Amen.
**2**My very favorite Seattle hang out burned this morning :( The structure that the Green Bean Coffee Shop was in was destroyed this morning by a fire, and this makes all of us so sad!
**3**
The "hallelujah" sermon that I preached last Sunday to the youth went really really well, I was really happy with the way it turned out, and Chuck preached a great sermon yesterday to his preaching practicum class on the Beattitude "Blessed are you who are persecuted..." I was very proud of him and his work on this difficult text! So between my sermon last weekend, his this week, and me hearing the first four student sermons in the preaching class I TA for, we've been talking a LOT about preaching this week in our home!
**4**
Life on the east coast seems to be going okay for Megan, Nathan, and new baby Lily! My dad left on Tuesday to go back to school and work, and my mom is there til Monday. Unless Megan isn't walking well or getting around easily on her own, then mom will stay a bit longer. Lily is a great eater, working on sleeping well, and as of Tuesday had gained 3 ounces since going home from the hospital last Sat. Here are my two favorite photos of her this week:
**5**Chuck and I celebrated 7 months of marriage this week, and I had the very fun realization that I love him way more today than I did the day I married him :) Megan's toast to us at our wedding was "may today be the day you love one another the least," and we jokingly ask one another every month "so, do you love me more today??" I realized very strongly this week that my answer is a resounding YES! All the discussions, conversations, communication, miscommunication, compromises, arguments, serving together and shared fun times together have added up to me being able to say without a doubt that I care more deeply for him, know him way better, and love him more passionately than I did 7 months ago. Praise God for this gift of marriage! A friend shared with me the advice she was just given by a marriage therapist: "do the hard work now in the first part of your relationship--have the hard conversations now, and you'll be able to coast and enjoy the second half of marriage." It's the couples who choose not to address difficult topics early on, who don't take the time to really communicate and listen deeply to one another up front that run into bigger problems down the line. We are pretty committed to not being a part of that group!
**6**
I finally finished the book I feel like I have been reading for a month now! Midwives was a wonderful book, but with the beginning of the quarter again I got a bit sidetracked from reading. I think I'm back in the swing again and am going to continue working my way through the 28 Books I want to read this year. The list changes a bit here and there as I hear about books that feel more important to read than others, but I'm still determined to get through 28 just to see if I can!
**7**
My favorite blog post of the week was written by my friend Brian, who wrote about the importance of exposing ourselves to vast opinions when it comes to theology because everyone has something to say that can help us expand our thinking about God. He writes about how we can limit our worldview too much by only reading one side of things. Thanks, Brian, for reminding me to keep thinking and reading people from all over the theological map!
I wish I could have been at your Rethink Afghanistan forum; it sounds like it was really thought provoking. War is such a devastating and truly terrible thing. But I found myself disagreeing with the premise for much of the prayer. We’re not at war b/c we are prideful tyrants or "because we can." The men and women who make the decisions to go to war and which strategies of war to use, are broken hearted by the destruction and devastation that war causes, and do so only to protect the lives of the people that are entrusted to them. To say that they make these choices while intoxicated with power is unfair and untrue. It is so sad to me that people propagate that those who engage in war operate under this mentality.
ReplyDeleteWe ARE a prideful nation in desperate need of God's forgiveness, humbling, and judgment. I wish this prayer acknowledged or called to account the MANY ways we fail to live out the Lords desires for us.