A normal visit to the chiropractor.... or is it?

Ok so, I never realize how rich my life truly is until I start explaining it to a total stranger. Around HM'ers we all know each other, we come from various places and facilitate the Sports Camps, the Morning Star, Worship Events, etc.... we travel and basically work for the Kingdom.... and then they all know that I'm crazy and that I do Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. BUT explaining all that to a person who's never met you before might be slightly overwhelming... slightly. So tonight I went to see a chiropractor. I dislocated my shoulder in August while wrestling with the guys on the barge... I know, I know but it was fun... and basically wanted him to set it right again. Plus I wanted him to have a look at my ankle from when I hurt in South Africa and my wrist - this is where things get complicated. So here I am explaining all my cases; I dislocated my shoulder for the first time while swimming as a child but again during a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu class as an adult (at this point the guy snickers an okey - realizing, I think, for the first time what kind of a patient I am...) where another chiropractor set it back in its place. My ankle, I hurt badly during BJJ practice, I went to see another chiropractor, while in South Africa and he set it back in place. His specialty was ankles so I know he did a good job, I just want you to check it and see how it's doing. Now my wrist I've had chronic problems with. I used to get carpal tunnel syndrome really bad as a kid but my chiropractor in France - at this point I look up realizing what I've just said and sheepishly say "yeah I travel quite a bit" and then keep on going - told me that it was linked to my elbows. At this point the doctor (who by the way was raised in America so speaks perfect English) asks me where I'm from because he can't place my accent! Oh boy!!!! Well my mom is French, my dad is English and I was raised in Iceland.......... and I wait for it........... ICELAND! What is it like there? The classic question... if I had a cent for every time anybody asked me that question I could fly first class everywhere! So nicely I smile and give him the load down on Iceland... beautiful, no, no, there truly is no ice, quite barren landscape and definitely worth the visit....  we talk about Björk and then move on. As he's putting my body back together he asks me when I get pain in my shoulder - to which I reply.... well when I was hoisting the sail - stop - .... oh yeah I sail..... LOL oh boy! The poor guy can only say, why am I not surprised! LOL anyway so we move on to my elbow and he asks how I hurt my elbows to which he answers the question himself... wait was it while you were running away from the bulls in Spain??? LOL No, but probably from Tennis or working with the horses..... LOL by the end of the session he asking me if a fly quite a bit and asks if I might not be a pilot by any chance... LOL at least he had a good sense of humor about it all :D (If he only knew the rest...)

To us it's everyday life. It's how we've grown up. It's our pasts and our present. It's who we are. It's mundane. To everybody else... it's an amazing life. I guess it's moments like these where I realize that we truly do live amazing lives. That our lives aren't necessarily ordinary, even though to us they do feel like it because that's what we know.

For all of this I simply want to say; thank you Lord for having blessed me so richly! :o)

Christ in you, the hope of glory

Ryan Lobo photography: War and Forgiveness

I just watched Ryan Lobo's TED video and subsequently read his blog. What he tells is a fascinating story, one that includes man's desire for oblivion over humanity's misery.

War enjoys exciting press in our storytelling tradition. Photographs of men firing guns and charging forward make for great selling visuals. A Pandora’s box of pestilence, humiliation, rape, egos’, NGO’s, poverty and intensely debated editorials read by people too far away most of the time, usually do not. Our headlines are normally readable. Our images are often of the ordinary and the obvious. They reinforce our worldview and our view of ourselves. We can remain comfortable, removed from violence and its responsibility whether its 75 policemen butchered in a forest in North India or the disregard for "tribal" lives over generations. After all we are normal and ordinary people deserving of justice and the right to live peacefully.

In other words we want to watch "heroes" fight versus to poverty. Why? I believe there is this innate need for us to see people fighting for what is right (or for what we perceive to be right) versus to seeing a person struggle because of poverty. The one takes us out of ourselves whereas the other reminds us of our daily struggles. One could argue that the struggles we have in the western world are nothing compared to what some nations and people in the world go through but that's an entirely different subject. The truth is, everybody struggles in his or her own way. Everybody has felt needs, whether emotional or physical. Watching somebody do something about it - such as fighting - might give us the feeling that we too can do something about our situations... please don't go around shooting people though! Whereas watching a person bound by poverty might not inspire us as much and even, heaven forbid, make us feel bad... are we egocentric or what?! Our human nature cries out for something that we can hold on to, something that will encourage us, something that will keep us going. In our carnal nature we turn within, making ourselves semi gods trying to convince ourselves that we've got everything under control even though we know deep down inside this couldn't be farther from the truth. Or we turn without, placing our happiness in other people's hands, desperately longing to hear a kind word, a compliment or an encouragement. I mean, what good is the semi god status if we have nobody there to worship us, right?

Lobo then goes on to tell a fascinating story about a warlord called General Butt Naked, so called because, as the name suggests, he used to fight naked. This man claims to have killed, single-handedly, over 10,000 people in Liberia's civil war, as well as using child soldiers to accomplish his atrocious crimes. The fascinating part of the story is what happens to this man as he becomes a Christian. He turns his life around, changes his name to Joshua and starts going around Liberia preaching the gospel to the people he once terrorized. He has gone back to those very people of whom he killed family members, tortured and who knows what else, and has asked for their forgiveness. Lobo expected him to get killed right away but the inexplicable happened, people have forgiven and are forgiving him. His life is now dedicated to helping and bettering the lives of the very children who were once in his army as well as preaching the gospel! I never cease to be amazed by the power the message of grace has on a person's life. This man, who killed thousands of people, is now an ambassador for Christ and advocating His message of love and peace. People aren't only listening to him, they're responding favorably to him by forgiving him! This is an amazing story of redemption, of how the Lord can take something so evil and twisted and make it into something wholesome and beautiful.

There is only one thing that we can hold on to in this ever changing world of ours. No it is not ourselves; we don't have things under control. No it is not others; people will always let you down no matter how loving they are to you today (one just needs to be married in order to know that!). The one thing that we can hold on to, the one thing that will never let us down, the one security we have in this crazy world is the Lord. Lodo said:

If someone as atrocious as the general can attempt to redeem himself, regardless of whatever idea of justice prevails or its execution and regardless of the good or bad opinion of anyone, there is hope.

The general didn't redeem himself, Christ did. He'll probably be the first one to tell you that! Redemption doesn't come from within. We can't just one day decide "Today I'm redeeming myself!" No, redemption comes from without. It is given to us freely by Christ. He died a horrible death so that people like us and General Butt Naked could one day turn our lives around and start living wholesome and meaningful lives. Lives that will echo into eternity for Christ's glory.

Christ's sacrifice on the cross, therein lies our hope.

Cockroach Trouble

OK so can I say that I absolutely hate cockroaches??? I know that hate is a strong word but what can I say... if I don't hate them then I really, really, really, really seriously dislike them.

OK so here I am, in all my innocence, about to go to bed. It's late like 2:30 in the morning, its been a long day and all I want to do is go to bed. I walk into my kitchen, which is right by my bed, to find a cockroach on my counter. Those things, unfortunately but for good cause (since most people seriously dislike them), are fearful creatures. In the 3 seconds it takes me to bend down and get my very efficient cockroach spray, its crawled under my kitchen cupboard! In one of only two cracks between my floor and the cupboard. Well, with all my haste, I start spraying profusely under the cupboard hoping, in vain I might add since the space under there, once under, is quite vast, to kill it with my spray. Semi satisfied (but more hopeful) I continue getting ready for bed. Walking through the kitchen a second time, I see my little enemy on the other side of the kitchen by the second crack between the cupboard and floor. Again by the time I start spraying it, the stupid thing has escaped under the cupboard again! Did I ever mention that those things are FAST! I keep on spraying in the crack, again hoping to kill it. I then quickly grab two towels and stuff them in those two cracks... stupid I know since cockroaches have an uncanny way of getting places they're not supposed to but hey in my defense it like 2:45 at this point. I was also hoping the fumes would get trapped and kill it. By this time it's like 2:50 and I really want to go to bed, so reluctantly, not knowing what else to do, I go to bed. OK so here I am, lying in bed, trying to fall asleep but anything that brushes up against my skin, which is quite frequent as I have long hair and a FAN blowing on me, gets me up so fast that Lucky Luke would be ashamed of his speed! Just for the record I've woken up with a cockroach in my bed before, so this is not just paranoia going on here! Ugh! For the next 15 min this show of acrobats keeps on going and I'm just praying "Please God just let me fall asleep!" by the end my prayer is "Lord I'd feel so much better knowing that I've killed the thing!" I finally get up to go to the bathroom and what do I see trapped in my bathtub? The cockroach! Once it's in there it can't crawl out so I'm thanking the Lord as I'm spraying this thing to DEATH! As I crawl back into bed, this time satisfied, a question creeps into my mind... was that the one I tried to get earlier or a second one?

Sure enough, the next day I wake up and what do I see lying dead on my kitchen floor... another cockroach! All I have to say is ignorance is bliss!

UPDATE: The following evening I found a third cockroach!!! This time INSIDE my cupboard.... with all my CLEAN plates and cups I might add.... I have now proceeded to re-clean all my previously clean plates and glasses as well inside the cupboard itself... a task I thoroughly enjoy.............. not!

Oh well, c'est la vie! :o)