Who Knows How to Raise a Baby? No One.

I think I am finally realizing that no one knows how to raise a baby…even the “experts” all disagree with one another on the majority of baby-related topics. Ugh! This is a disheartening realization to someone who really wants to figure out how to do everything well and “right.” It’s also frustrating when you have been told from day 1 your baby is too small and not eating well enough, and now I am so paranoid about making any changes to his nursing schedule (and there is too much conflicting advice out there to even make an educated/confident decision). I love the internet but sometimes there is just too much info/too many opinions out there…I think I’ve decided I’d just like to raise my kids on old wives tales and in ignorant bliss like the good ol’ days, haha! They’ll live right!? 🙂

2011 Year-In-Review

‎2011 was a stressful and busy year. Difficult pregnancy and recovery, job change, far geographical relocation, lived out of a hotel room for a month-and-a-half with a newborn, bought a house, and my sister got married. However, as I was reflecting on the year last night, I realized that while each of these things were stressful and hard in certain ways, each and every one of them was a huge blessing from the Lord. A sweet little boy, a great job for Sean at the Livermore Lab (allowing me to be a full-time mom), relocating within 10 minutes of such amazing and loving grandparents (though I do really miss seeing my mom and younger sister down south often), a wonderful home where our family can grow, a new brother, and of course, an awesome husband who went through all these things with me. Ok, not much redeemable about the hotel room, except that we didn’t have to pay for it 🙂 All I can conclude is that God must really love us and has blessed us in more ways than we even come close to deserving. Looking forward to a less transitional 2012 and all that God has in store for us!

Jesus Came Out a Birth Canal Too

Unfortunately I haven’t found many videos on Christ’s birth that do it much justice, but I think this is one video that does a good job and I like that it is creative and uses poetry to get the message across.

Many people think of Christ’s birth as this lovely, peaceful, purely joyous event, when in actuality, it was not. It’s funny how we tend to romanticize Jesus’ birth when in fact there were few, if any, “romantic” things about it. For starters, even people 2,000 years ago knew how babies were made; a virgin birth was no more believable then than it would be now. In other words, the world’s first impression of Jesus was that he was an illegitimate child and his mother was promiscuous and crazy. When it came time for Jesus’ birth, Mary had to travel many miles over rough terrain, and had the joy of giving birth most likely in a cave (not a stable) with lots of dirty animals looking on (imagine feces everywhere). This would be somewhat comparable to giving birth on the floor of a public restroom. Also, if you are a woman and have given birth, I think we can all agree that there is nothing peaceful about birthing a child (amazing yes, peaceful no). It is incredibly tiring, painful, and fairly gross, and fortunately I got to ride in a car to the hospital and give birth on a nice bed. Also I’m pretty sure that Jesus cried just like every other baby…I hate the line in “Away in a Manger” that says “no crying he makes.” Yeah, right…Mary wishes.

Then the “big” announcement made about the son of God’s arrival was given to teenage shepherds, a profession that was not highly regarded (think minimum wage fast food workers). Jesus also came from the town of Nazareth which was considered the armpit of the Jewish world (think Bakersfield, no offense)…there is actually a saying in the Bible that Jewish people of the time used that said “can anything good come from Nazareth?” Not to mention the fact that Jesus’ lineage included prostitutes, murderers, and other outcasts. I could go on, but I think the pattern is becoming obvious. Jesus did not come into this world in the elegant and glorious way one would think God would. He did not come in riches and fame, but in the face of adversity and in the most humble (and almost humorous) of ways, as a helpless baby.

This is how God chose to enter our world. God did this intentionally, and this is why I think it is dangerous when we begin romanticizing the Christmas story. He didn’t want us to see him as we would a human ruler or authority figure that is untouchable, distant, elite, and doesn’t care about the “common people.” “[Jesus] though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” Phil 2:6-7

Why did he do it? Because he loves us that much. He loves us so much that He was willing to do whatever it would take to get down on our level and reach us where we are at. What an amazing God.

Let’s fall on our knees and worship the King Baby Jesus!

A Good Reminder

Many people have already seen this video at this point, but I think it’s a great video to watch every year as a reminder to remember what Christmas is really about and to get us thinking about others rather than ourselves.

Oh and I know I’ve abandoned this blog for a long time but I really miss and enjoy blogging and am going to start posting again! 🙂

Who’s askin’ whom?

I have to laugh at how backwards we often get things. Jesus was constantly dealing with how mixed-up many of our common assumptions are. Most people in His day thought that if you were rich, then God must favor you (and many people still believe this). So when He said that it was difficult for a rich man to enter heaven…His disciples pretty much freaked out. They were still following the “rich = favored by God” formula and thought, “Wow, if it is hard for the rich (God-favored) people to get into heaven, it is going to be impossible for us.” But Jesus said, “Nope, you have things backward…many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” Think of all the times Jesus had to correct people’s backward thinking! We think it makes sense to strive after safety, but He said, “if you try and save your life, you will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” There are tons of examples: Loving your enemies? Having joy during trials and difficulty? Not worrying when it looks like all hope is lost? Jesus just turns our perspectives upside down.

Lately if feels like I am finding more and more of these areas where Christian’s perspectives are clouded, and there is one in particular that cuts right to the heart of our faith. Most people who have been around churches or Christians for very long have probably heard about the concept of “asking Jesus into your heart.” It might surprise you (as it surprised me), that the phrase never shows up anywhere in the Bible. I am not saying that the concept is some kind of sacrilegious theology, but I do think it might (if we are not careful), perpetuate one of those backward perspectives. Again, I am not discounting each individual’s need to make an intentional decision to follow Christ, I am only questioning how we view ourselves in light of God.

If I ask Jesus into MY heart…then it is all about me. That is not how the Bible talks about those who are saved. Again, it is backward. It is not about us asking Jesus into our heart, it is more like Jesus asking us into His heart. If you remember the story where He compares the Kingdom of heaven to a banquet, you will recall that God was the One throwing the banquet, not us. We are not inviting Jesus to our banquets because our banquets are LAME compared to His. This is the reason I felt like writing about the “asking Jesus into our hearts” concept. I think we unintentionally fall into a trap when we talk that way. We can begin to think, “God is probably really excited about me right now. I have a sweet thing going on and I totally remembered to invite Him to be a part of it.” That is wrong.

God will never be content to be a PART of our lives. It doesn’t make sense to say, “Well, I have to take care of work, family, my faith in Jesus, etc. ” Even if we put Him at the top of our list, it is just not the way we are supposed to think about His invitation. Jesus said He is the way, the truth, and THE LIFE. It is HIS Kingdom we become a part of, HIS Glory we need to be concerned with, and HIS Power through which we operate. There are a few places in Scripture that talk about Christ being in us, but the vast majority emphasize a different perspective:

  • Romans 6:11 – In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
  • Romans 6:23 – For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
  • Romans 8:1 – Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus,
  • 2 Cor 5:17 – Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
  • Gal 3:27 – for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

It is easy to notice that the pattern of Scripture points toward the fact that we are in Jesus and it is all about Him. It is frightening how many times I have read over those verses and still thought my life is about me. I am going to try and stop inviting Jesus to my banquet – a small dirty table with a few scraps of rotten food, and begin accepting His invitation to the real feast.

My sister’s going to Haiti!

My older sister Sharon is going to help out with the disaster relief effort in Haiti and I couldn’t be more proud of her/excited for her trip! She will be traveling with a team of friends from her church from May 14th – 22nd to the neighborhood of La Saline in Port-au-Prince to complete clean-up and construction projects for the Kingdom Kids Orphanage, which was damaged during the recent earthquake. They will be helping the local community by passing out rice to the neighborhood residents, cooking a huge meal for the community, and teaching the children lessons and art projects (they haven’t been in school since the earthquake)! They will also bring supplies such as children’s vitamins, antibiotic creams, and toothpaste to donate to the orphanage.

Haiti is one of the world’s poorest and least developed countries, with over 80% of the residents living in poverty. The recent earthquake further increased the suffering in this country, with some estimates showing that 3 million people need humanitarian relief, including food assistance. The Kingdom Kids Orphanage was started a few years ago when several babies were dropped off at the house of Pastor Rigaud. They now have 35 children ranging in age from 2 months to 20 years (see pictures below), some of whom are from families who can’t afford to feed their own children.

In order to make this trip possible, Sharon needs your help! Her total need is $1500, which covers room and board, food, and transportation costs to Haiti. If you haven’t had the chance to give to Haiti yet (or just want to give more), please consider joining her in prayer and financial support. Gifts of $50, $100, $200 or whatever you are led to give will go a long way toward helping her meet this need. Any additional money raised will go towards purchasing supplies to donate to the orphanage. I know that many of you are unable to personally go to Haiti and help in this way, so this is a great way you can participate in rebuilding this impoverished nation!

If you would like to help her, simply click on the link below and you can donate with credit or debit card via Paypal:

https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=PSATHCNTVPXXG

Or you can write a check to her personally with the word “Haiti” in the memo line and mail it to:

Sharon Jotblad
1541 Oxford St. Apt. 401
Berkeley, CA 94709

You can give her a call at 310-562-0749 or email her at sharon.jotblad@gmail.com if you have any questions. I’ll post an update from her when she gets back!

Me and Sharon at my wedding
 

Salva Vida

Salva Vida means “lifesaver” in Spanish. It also happens to be the name of the most common beer in Honduras. It was interesting, because everywhere I traveled in Honduras…Salva Vida was available, however in all those places, if I had tried to drink the tap water I would have become sick. It seems like they should have called their bottled water Salva Vida, but I guess clean beer made it to Honduras before clean water.

A couple weeks ago I returned from Honduras where a small team of volunteers helped a hospital in Olanchito install a filtration system so that they could have access to clean water. They have a maternity ward there, and I just kept thinking how scared I would be if Melissa was going to have a baby AND she might get sick from the water while at the hospital. Maybe that is why the infant mortality rates in Honduras are over 5 times greater than here in the US. By the time we left, the hospital could use and drink the water without the fear of sickness/death, and that was a pretty cool feeling.

One thing that surprised me about the job was that it was not at all complicated or difficult. It makes sense though once I think about it. A very basic need should have a relatively basic solution. When I think of the world “water crisis” it seems like an insurmountable problem (which is actually not far from the truth), but for a very different reason than I had initially assumed. I guess I was thinking that facing a big problem like the clean water crisis meant it was going to be technically challenging, but that is really not the case here. We know how to make clean water, it will just cost us something to get it where it needs to go. The main challenge lies in getting the people who know how to do it to pay attention to people who don’t, and then commit the resources to get it done. We have the ability and the resources, all we lack currently is the will. It’s crazy to think about all the simple necessities we take for granted and how quickly we are able to forget about those who don’t have them. I am really glad I was privileged to be a part of addressing this issue (even in a small way), and I really hope that God is not done using me in this capacity!

Below are a couple pictures I took on the trip. The top one is from the day we arrived. It was 106 degrees and humid, and that was in March! The bottom one is a picture of the wiring job for the existing pump system. There was no “safety code” so they just cut some wires, twisted them together, and wrapped it up in a bunch of tape. Those red wires just hanging out at the top are 480 volts…enough to throw you across a room and kill you fyi. I also have a cool video I want to share but I’m still searching for it so I’ll put that up once I find it.