Karen's test

My dw has been struggling with intense lower back pain for the past several weeks. We're pretty sure that she has a kidney stone, but on the last trip to the doctor, he didn't do any real diagnostic tests because she wasn't at that moment, having any pain. Well, it came back pretty strongly on Thursday and Friday, so wonder of wonders, she actually got scheduled for a CT this morning. The test went well, even though the tech was a pretty creepy lookin' dude, but we won't know results till Monday. Please hold her up as between our Sunday morning activities and this funeral, I won't be around much the next couple days.

UPDATE: It's not a kidney stone. It's a 6 cm (about 2") ovarian cyst. We have an OB appt. on Thursday (12/17) at 2 p.m. for an ultrasound and, presumably, discussion about the treatment pathway. Meanwhile, Karen is managing the pain with Vicodin.

Matthew's Begats

As you know, I've been teaching through the book of Ruth this past month. I finished up this last Sunday, and as you also know if you are familiar with the book, it ends with a genealogy. Now I confess, I used to be like most Bible readers, who come to the Bible's genealogies, if at all, as a cure for insomnia. But in teaching through Ruth, I came to see them in fresh perspective. I realized that they are all in there for a purpose-to demonstrate to us God's sovereignty over history and to show us that God is working through people, both good and evil, and through human decisions, both good and evil, to accomplish his sovereign good purposes. After all, the genealogy at the end of Ruth begins with Perez, one of the twin sons born to Tamar out of her seduction of her father-in-law Judah. This is hardly a moral example to us, yet God still worked, bringing good out of great sinfulness.

Moreover, since Ruth is all about the preservation of family, it's appropriate that it ends with a record of the family line. Something else that jumped out at me was the fact that there was no way Ruth and Boaz could know that they were literally, the two most important people in the universe in their day. Unless Ruth somehow made it back from Moab and married Boaz (who was apparently a bachelor!), the family line that brings Jesus into the world would die out. No Ruth and Boaz = No King David = No Jesus. It was such a close-run thing, and yet God was there, sovereignly working. What larger purposes, I wonder, is God using each of us in this generation to accomplish?

Anyway, in the spirit of Christmas and these thoughts on genealogies, I give you the best musical rendering ever (and perhaps the only one!) of Matthew's genealogy of Jesus. Enjoy, remembering that all Scripture is inspired by God (2 Tim. 3:16-17):

Love and prayers

My good friends Josh and Angela lost their little baby today in a tragic miscarriage. If you are reading this, say a prayer for them along with their other kids, two of whom are old enough to understand what is going on.

Samson redux

I spent yesterday helping a friend replace the flooring in his dining room. They bought the house about a year ago, and the person they bought it from was fairly obsessive about making sure everything was over-constructed. At any rate, Mr. OCD put down a variety of that attached pad Berber style carpet that normally retails for about $1-$2 per square foot. Moreover, just to make sure that nothing happened to keep this treasured product from coming up, he glued it down with some variety of contact cement. Approximately 4 hours later, my buddy and I finally had the last scraps of the pad scraped off of the floor and some new foam underlayment put down for his new maple laminate floor. I went home from laying the laminate at 12:30 a.m. We had a lot of trimming to do-4 door openings, 3 floor outlets, a floor vent and part of a chimney to go around plus it has been a few years since I laid any laminate, so it took a while to get back the knack. The important thing is, we did finish the job.

The problem is that I am sore beyond belief today. I don't remember being so sore when I put in the laminate for our attic bedroom at our house in Iowa. My knees and the heels of my hands are very tender and I'm keeping ibuprofen in my system at regular intervals. Worse, when I posted about my condition on my Facebook status this morning, one of my oldest friends had the temerity to suggest that I was experiencing the vagaries of something she referred to as "middle age." I am not amused. Personally, I've decided that gray hair or not, I'm not middle-aged until I'm 50 at least, and maybe not even then.

If that doesn't work, then I've got a fall-back theory: As all of you know, I recently got my hair cut off, and based on my study of the Scriptures, I'm pretty sure that has something to do with it. After all, read this:

...she called a man to shave off the seven braids of his hair, and so began to subdue him. And his strength left him. - Judges 16:19b

See? Middle-aged? Meh. I just got a haircut, and haircuts produce weakness. Once my hair grows back out, I'll be back to knocking over pagan temples again. Or at least, that's the theory I'm going with.

Post-Deer Season Wrap-up

Well, it's official: The shotgun deer season ended and I got a fat goose egg. I saw a lot of deer (though most were way out of range) and missed the one good shot opportunity I had on the last day. But this is no time for self-pity. I still got to enjoy being in the woods and seeing the sun come up through the trees. I got to watch foxes and coyotes on the hunt, owls ghosting through the trees, squirrels busily burying nuts for the winter, and wild turkeys fly up to roost at night and down in the morning, yelping all the way. I got to do all of this despite thinking that I might not even have a place to go this year, so the fact that I got to hunt at all was a blessing in itself.

On top of that, I got news from Iowa on Saturday that my old friend and former deer slaying partner has finally shot his first antlered buck. He had already shot a doe that morning and had his gun jam when it was time to shoot at a buck a little later. So he was very excited to get another opportunity to shoot this buck that evening. Congrats, old friend, on a very nice deer!

Hello...Hello...Is this thing on?

If there's anyone still reading this, let me say thanks and sorry for the lack of posts lately. The combination of deer season, Thanksgiving, and taking some vacation have added up to not much activity in the past couple weeks. I'll try to do a little better now that I'm going to be in the office 4 days this week.

Anyway, here's a quick and dirty update on my activities of late:

• The first deer season was unsuccessful. I took a marginal shot and missed a good buck and passed on a marginal buck though I had a good shot.
• I helped a buddy and his son-in-law butcher a deer. It was the son-in-law's first time, and he was excited about the opportunity to eat fresh, organic, hormone free wild game. It doesn't get any more "free range" than this... (Which makes me wonder why the eco-folks and the hunters, who are both fans of natural foods and wildlife conservation, usually aren't friends).
  
• I've grown a goatee and my face is now racing my head to see which grows longest fastest. I'm betting on the beard, though I'd be willing to take wagers the other direction if I get any offers.
• I completely over-ate at Thanksgiving, as per usual and now must re-commit myself to aerobics and tracking my calories.
  
• The family time at Thanksgiving was great and very relaxing. I had deep conversation around the turkey fryer and time to tickle my nephew, hug my grandma, and ponder the reasons why my children wake up at least one hour earlier when we put them to bed an hour later than normal.
• I'm doing marriage counseling with a few couples now and enjoying it. Lives are changing and marriages are improving. It's very rewarding when things go well.
• I've got one chapter left to preach in the book of Ruth and an outline to finish for the secretary, so I better hop to it!