Lay your hands on me.

My ordination was this past Wednesday at Boston Ave. UMC. I was ordained with about 15 other new and old friends. Bishop Hayes preached from 1st Timothy about how ministry isn't making a living, it is a way of life. Good sermon--you can watch the whole thing--including my ordination-- here. My dad and Jennifer Long were the two who I selected to lay hands on me, and they were joined by my DS, Linda Harker, and other BOM members who've helped me along the way. Judy Benson, the conference lay leader, held a Bible out in front of me as I was kneeling--it was open to Ezekiel 31 and 32--the song of the Cedar of Lebenon and the lament over the pharoah. When I saw this open Bible out in front of me as the Bishop was pronouncing the ordination, I forgot that she was doing it so that I could put my hand on it, and instead started looking through the chapters to see if I was meant to see something in particular. Woops. Oh well, I trust I'm ordained anyway. As for the Cedar of Lebenon, it is a beautiful piece of poetry, and it reminds me to take a dose of humility along with all the praise and congratulations coming my way.

3 year old existentialism

Wesley is very much in the "why" phase right now. I like it. Here are some of the highlights:

Wes: Why does the sun go down?
Me: (thinking, hmmm, do I give him the scientific answer, or should the earth just be flat right now--I opt for the real reason and use my fist to be the earth and the sun to be a basketball.) Well, we are on the earth, and the earth spins like this (twist my fist around) and we're on the surface of the earth (I point to my knuckle with the other hand--so, I'm tangling up my hands and trying to keep the sun in place while I use the finger to show that we're on earth and when the earth spins it just looks like the sun goes down. I think my teaching job is a miserable failure, but notice Wesley explaining to his mom the next day and spinning his fist around too. :)
By the way, Wesley seems extremely interested in astronomy. One time he asked Lara what an "orbit" was (he was looking at one of his magic school bus books) and Lara explained that we were on the earth and were flying through space around the sun in a big circle. She said, "but we don't really feel like we're flying, do we." Wesley responded--"I can! Weeeee!"

Wesley: "Where are my feelings?"
Lara: (Baffled) "Well, sometimes they're inside our heart, and sometimes they're inside our heads."
Wes: "What's inside my head?"

Wesley, pointing to a man at McDonalds: "What's his name?"
Me: "I don't know."
Wesley: "Don't say, 'I don't know.'" (He's been saying that a lot lately. He is clearly perturbed when I don't know something.)
Me: (Debating whether I should let Wesley go over and ask the man his name.) "Son, we don't have to know everyone's name."

Wesley, pointing to a picture of Jesus feeding the 5000, "That's Jesus. I like Jesus. Why'd they nail him up on that cross?"
Me: "They did, didn't they. Why do you think they did?"
Wesley: "They nailed him on that cross like this, bam bam bam bam bam, and it hurt him."
Me: "That's right. But Jesus wanted us to know how much God loves us, so he went through the hurt because he knew it would show what God would do for us."
Wes: Oh, God loves us?
Me: Yes. God made you, and He loves you.
Wes: Jesus loves us?
me: Yes, very much.
Wes: Oh.

Brain Drain

To my loyal readers or the casual lookers: Sorry I've been kind of out of the loop, especially during the hallowed blogger free for all that is General Conference. Truth be told, my wife is having a difficult pregnancy (hyperthyroidism--which causes her an inordinate amount of nausea and exhaustion.) She's had to cancel all of her clients until further notice and has been confined to bed or short periods of activity. Meanwhile, I've had more of the household chores and childcare to attend to, so everything combined makes for a bad case of brain drain. I can't really think of anything that would be worthwhile for you to read. Somehow, the Spirit has been gifting me with some sermons that are inspiring, but as for the blog, it has been few and far between. Stay tuned, hopefully we'll be out of the woods in a couple weeks. (We hope to get away to Colorado Springs later this week, but we'll have to see if Lara can make the flight.)