Jakob's first time volunteering at church

Jakob's a sweet kid.  You probably already knew that.  If you don't know that, or if you disagree with that, I assume we are not friends.  He is constantly trying to help Sarah, whether she wants it or not.  He will put dirty dishes in the sink, take dirty and clean silverware from the dishwasher and put it in the silverware drawer, and he'll even hold the door for her sometimes.  He's learned all of this behavior from watching us. He knows it's helping, and he knows it's what we do, so he mimics it.

Being a pastor's kid or a church staff's kid can be hard.  They're at the church a lot more than most people, and they didn't really sign up for that.  It's just part of their life.  Jakob is here a lot, and he's always being told to follow me, come to my office, stay right there, stop this, stop that, now go to class and act like everything's cool.  It's not easy for a two-year old.  One of my greatest fears is that from overexposure and unhealthy management, Jakob could end up hating the church.  I want to protect him from that.  I want him to love church.  I want him to serve in the church.

Last week, he was at the church with me while Sarah went to get her hair done.  I was leading a small group that night, but I didn't need to get ready right away.  So we played in and around the church.  Wherever he wanted to go, we went there.  However he wanted to play, short of breaking stuff, we did that.  Then we had to transition from play time to my needing to work.  You never know how that will go.  He may throw a fit, because he wants to keep playing.  Jakob has before, but he didn't that time.

We went into the youth and children's room, and I started setting up tables.  Jakob followed me.  As I rolled a table across the room, Jakob walked up next to me and put his hands on the table.  I told him to be careful and asked him what he was doing.  He looked up at me and said, "Help, Dada."  I smiled at him and thanked him.  After we got done setting up tables, which took longer, because I was being careful about not hurting Jakob, I walked to the kitchen.  Jakob followed.  I started getting food out of the oven, and Jakob said, "More help, Dada."  I handed him a plastic bag and asked him to take it to the table and come back.  He did.  When he came back, he said, "More help, Dada."  So I gave him a stack of plates, grabbed all the pizza and followed him.

We got all of the food and drinks set out together.  We were done.  Now, when he and I play games at home or watch something he likes or eat a good snack, when we're done, he'll say, "One more of that."  He only does that for things he likes.  He doesn't say it after we punish him.  We're used to it.  We expect it.  And we usually will allow it, within reason.  After everything was all done, he looked up at me with all sincerity and said, "One more help, Dada."  He had just spent 30 minutes following me around, offering and giving me help.  He wasn't tired of it.  He wanted to help me one more time.  I had nothing left for him to do, so I told him he could hug me instead.  He came over, and I gave him a tight hug.  I told him I loved him, and I thanked him for helping Jesus, not Daddy.  It was late by the time we left, but I wanted to honor what he had done, so I bought him popcorn (his favorite snack), even though it was well after his bed time. I gave it to him and thanked him again for helping me help Jesus.

My two-year old son volunteered to help at church for the first time last week.  I cried tears of joy.  He does love church right now, and he wants to help.  He's already becoming who I want him to be.

Jakob attempting to beat box

I'm assuming that by now you've seen the Cee-Lo Green 7Up commercial.  I think that is a pretty funny and very well done commercial.  I don't like the E-Trade talking baby commercials, because they're just weird, but I can't not love a beat boxing baby.  The other day, Sarah and I were watching something we had recorded on the DVR, and before I could fast forward it, the 7Up commercial started.  Now, Jakob is drawn to music.  He will dance to any TV theme song and just about any commercial that has prominent music, and he gets upset if something musical comes on and you change it or fast forward it.  He wants to enjoy it.  So even though he was leaving the room, I knew he'd turn around and come back to dance along.  What I didn't know was that he would try to beat box along with the commercial.

I went back a couple of times, because I was trying to get my phone ready to record him, and I was trying to record him without the loud sound of our laughter.  So this is the third time he'd seen the commercial, and he is following along to the best of his ability.  He's got a long way to go, but I'm very pleased with his early interest in being completely awesome.

http://vimeo.com/38274107

Maybe someday he can be an outstanding Asian beat boxer, like THIS GUY.

I ask God to handle it, and then act like it's on me

This is Jakob standing on the windowsill of our hotel room last week.  We were 11 stories up, partially overlooking the Ohio River.  Facing this way, we were overlooking the other side of the hotel and N 4th St in Louisville, KY.

Last week, Sarah and Jakob came with me to the Simply Youth Ministry Conference.  Quick promo before the point of the post: that was definitely the best conference I had ever attended.  I learned more than I ever have, and I just scratched the surface.  I didn't have time to learn everything.  But when I wasn't in classes or general sessions, I was trying to spend time with my family, which was just as important to me as the conference.  Having the conference within driving distance made it possible or them to go, and that was a real blessing to me.

The afternoon of the opening session, there were some crazy tornados north of us in Indiana.  I presume you've heard about that.  It was windy in Louisville, but according the weather channel, we didn't have any warnings.  So the three of us went for a walk to the bank and then down to Hard Rock Cafe.  We didn't want to eat there, because it's kind of expensive, so we just walked around.  After Jakob made it clear he didn't want to be in there - which became clear to him when he got to sit by a drum set without any drumsticks - we headed back outside.  I had a tense feeling about being on the street, though, so everyone that passed by got stared at by me.  I felt like my Spidey senses were tingling (*ht Bryan Keeley).  Danger was around us somewhere.

As we headed north on 4th Street, my danger senses were going crazy.  I looked up the road and saw a pick up truck with a lot of lumber in the back, parked next to the curb right before a stoplight.  I looked at Sarah and said, "We're going to walk fast, so we don't get stopped on that corner."  I grabbed her hand and pulled her faster than her normal speed limit.  We hustle to the corner and just catch the light just as it goes to a flashing "Do Not Walk," so we continued quickly to the other side.  Once we reached the other side of the road, we heard the wind pick up violently behind us.  I turned at the sound and saw boards go flying off the back of the truck and knock two large construction workers over with brut force.  A third took a dive to try to avoid the boards, but he was covered by them lying on the ground.  Had we not hurried and crossed the street, we would have been standing right there.  Sarah would have taken at least one 2x4 right in the face.  Jakob may have been trampled as we scrambled to get between him and the boards.  It would have definitely been a dangerous situation.

After seeing that, we went into the sandwich shop just in front of us and decided to stay in there a while.  I was shaken up.  I realized my inability to protect my family.  I kept going over what I saw and what could have happened, and as best as I could figure it, I probably could have pulled Sarah out of the way, but to do so, I would have torn up her knees.  It's more likely that I wouldn't have had time, and she would have been seriously injured in the face.  I felt weak.  I was shaken up.

Two hours later, I sat in general session listening to Francis Chan speak.  He spoke about the arrogance of being in ministry, and how pastors often feel like everything is on us.  We ask God to be involved in our ministries, but when we cannot be there personally, we think it's the end of the world.  Like God can't do great things through anybody, right?  He was speaking strictly about ministry, but I felt my heart stir.  I felt like God was saying, "See!  You ask me everyday to protect them, and I did!  Get over yourself!"  Heart punch.

I was reminded of a great lesson.  Real faith asks God and believes He will accomplish it.  It shows a real lack of faith to ask God to handle something in your life and then act like it can't happen unless you do it.  That's faith in you, not God.  I'd rather place my faith in Him, especially after I was reminded of my own vulnerability last week.