the Gently Mad

This has been an interesting month so far. Actually, it’s been an interesting summer. Well, OK, it’s been an interesting couple of years…

There are those periods of life where everything seems in constant flux, always changing, and while that keeps things exciting, I’m not a guy who looks forward to lots of adventure and surprises. That may sound boring to you, but I enjoy consistency.

I like spending time with my family. I like sitting out on the patio sharing a Guinness with friends. I like reading, listening to music, studying, watching Family Guy with my wife. You could say these are simple pleasures but they are the things I enjoy and look forward to.

But providence has a way of forcing change on us and for me, it’s a very uncomfortable experience.

Jessica and I are expecting the birth of our second (and possible third) child in about seven months and while of course I’m excited, I’m much more terrified this time around than the last.

With Izzie, I had first-time dad jitters, for sure, but I had no idea what being a father would be like, how it would change my life and how it would force me to change.

And don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t trade Izzie for anything, but little things like getting married and having babies tends to bring to the surface all the impurities and inconsistencies in one’s life.

So it’s not because I don’t know what to do that I’m experiencing some trepidation about the future, it’s because I know this process will start all over again. What new sins are going to be revealed? In what new ways will I have to die to myself? How will loving my family become more sacrificial?

I feel a bit like C.S. Lewis’ Eustace Scrubb in Voyage of The Dawn Tredder. At one point Eustace had turned into a dragon and in order for him to change back Aslan had to strip away the layers of scales.

Every time a layer of scales is stripped away from heart I find there are more layers still to go. And that is a painful and process.

I know the future will bring more layers of scales to be stripped away and it’s easy for me to fear the pain of that process.

Being a husband has changed my life. Being a dad has changed my life. And both for the better. My hope is that this process, though painful, will teach me to hope in Christ and bring me closer to him.

I love your quirkiness  ❀  I love how you “cuddle” me  ❀  I love your hair  ❀  I love how beautiful you are  ❀  I love your passion  ❀  I love how everything is exciting to you  ❀  I love your hands and toes  ❀  I love your sincerity  ❀  I love your tender-heartedness  ❀  I love how you care about people  ❀  I love your artsiness  ❀  I love your distaste with the status quo  ❀  I love how you love me  ❀  I love your taste in music, books and movies  ❀  I love how you need to be close to me  ❀  I love how you care about our children  ❀  I love that our family is the first priority in your life  ❀  I love your boldness  ❀  I love how your style and tastes have very little to do with what is hip or cool at the moment  ❀  I love how classy you are  ❀  I love how you put up with me  ❀  I love how you make me feel like I’m the only man for you and the only one who can make you happy  ❀  I love how you realize your faults and want to change them  ❀  I love how important your relationship with Christ is to you  ❀  I love that you’re teachable  ❀  I love how you call me “berb”  ❀  I love how you want to share all aspects of your life with me  ❀  I love how you are willing to follow me anywhere  ❀  I love how modern notions of “security” are not your top priority  ❀  I love that you’re willing to apologize when you realize you are wrong  ❀  I love how you challenge me to be a better man  ❀  I love that you don’t need lots of “things” to be happy  ❀  I love how you’re willing to follow Christ, even if it’s painful  ❀  I love how you make me feel at home  ❀  I love how you are able to take care of things that would drive me crazy  ❀  I love your excitement about being a mother and raising our family  ❀  I love how you see through all the crap of modern feminism  ❀  I love how you see through all the crap of modern christianity  ❀  I love that you’re ticklish  ❀  I love your crazy accents and rap impressions  ❀  I love how thoughtful you are  ❀  I love how your presence immediately brightens any situation  ❀  I love how you mess with me  ❀  I love how you make me feel like you could be happy anywhere in any circumstance as long as I am there  ❀  I love how you wait up for me every night  ❀  I love how you don’t make me feel bad for not having a lot of money  ❀  I love how you don’t judge me for my faults and inconsistencies  ❀  I love how charming you are  ❀  I love how you live in the moment  ❀  I love how much you love Christ

Happy birthday darling. I love you.

Very interesting article over at DangitBill! that I found via Challies.

For a long time I’ve wanted to write at length about homeschooling and its place in our world. I have very strong opinions because I was homeschooled. Nevertheless, I haven’t yet had the time to collect my thoughts in a way that would be profitable. However, that may change in comming days as my family continues to grow in size.

Brian Sandifer, who is a homeschooling dad, has written a great post that’s a start in understanding some of my fundamental frustrations with homeschooling and homeschoolers.

Everyone acknowledges that the public school system in American needs reforming. It is producing graduates that are less and less prepared for the workforce, college, and the global marketplace. But the message went far beyond that. The speaker asserted that the public school system is working perfectly–just as it was designed to do. In other words, it’s not broken; it’s evil! In a perfect world it wouldn’t even exist. Public schooling was portrayed as useless, enslaving, stupifying, and monopolizing. The funny thing is that EVERYONE in the room (including the speaker) was educated in the public school system! (It didn’t seem to terribly fail us.) We were addressed as refugees and escapees of the system, as the only ones who are enlightened to the nature and purpose of REAL education. It occurs to me that the perceived problem framed in these terms amounts to a harmartiology.

Continue reading here.

The little peanut is due on March 4, 2009…