lamaze class

okay, thanks for enduring my brief foray into a political topic there. i definitely have some convictions about public and foreign policy, although i'm actually less 'partisan' than i have been in the past. i now have friends who are much more liberal than i, and also friends who are much more conservative (yes, it's true). besides, i wear one of those white 'ONE' wristbands, so you know that i'm a good and loving person. ;)

julie and i attended our first lamaze class wednesday. i really liked it, although the class was way too crowded. what's with all these people having babies these days, for god's sake?!

the class was much better than the la leche league 'class' we attended (which was actually more of a sharing session). this was extremely educational and interesting. i really did not know what was going on with the uterus and cervix during labor--very interesting stuff (my johnny carson routine here)... i'm glad i'm not having the baby myself.

the teacher was great, the other couples were nice... not too long... liked it. CAN'T WAIT for the baby! the lamaze teacher talked about how when the baby is born, if he/she hears the father's voice, he/she will turn her little head toward the voice. i seriously got choked up even thinking about that--hmmmmm.... wonder if i'm going to be a crying mess in the delivery room. probably not, because i usually 'ice up' during stressful situations.

benny hinn

i went with mark lafave to see benny hinn on thursday evening at the joe louis arena. i've seen him on TV, so was really curious to experience it live. i'm also doing my dissertation on miracle in the church, so this seemed like appropriate research!

here's my take on it, both the good and the bad. i saw a lot of folks there worshipping and praising God, and it looks like a lot of people overseas are having genuine conversions and new relationship with Jesus. Benny also seemed fairly balanced in what he spoke about--that God's forgiveness is the greatest miracle, etc. the videos from overseas were just fantastic... i'm talking crowds of several hundred thousand in india, huge crowds in japan, the philippines. people crying, talking about relationship with jesus and forgiveness from sin; getting healed. very cool stuff.

my biggest disappointment is (of course) with how flashy and hyped-up everything was. Benny comes out midway through worship, right at the height of things, like some kind of rock star... the gleaming white outfit, etc. etc. neither did i care for the guy who was speaking when we entered at 7pm... he was really trying to hype things up--yelling, shouting... basically encouraging us to be as loud as possible. basically I saw everything that I don't really care for in the Pentecostal church (although they're certainly not all that way). Benny also preached some of the "prosperity Gospel" stuff that I don't care for--that if you give money to his ministry you are *guaranteed* a blessing (financial/material) in return. While that may be true in some ways, there's no guarantee that financial giving will automatically generate a financial return.

i do believe that there were some genuine healings, but i think they also overblew this and hyped it up... i watched through my binoculars as Benny's entourage went through the rows of wheelchairs, and I know for sure that some of those people could already walk. one lady in particular i had just seen standing; before Benny's "deputy" went over to her, literally threw the cushion that she was holding on her lap into the air, pulled her to her feet, and took her up front. then they take the wheelchair up front as if a complete cripple were healed. to be fair, they didn't specifically state that each person was crippled before, but that's the impression given. i also watched one set of parents with a severely handicapped child, and you could tell they were quite disappointed that their son wasn't healed. It seems like the staff gravitated more toward the people with milder forms of disease, and away from those with obviously withered or deformed limbs. like I said, i do think that there were some genuine healings there, i don't think any of the guests were "planted", and i do think people experienced the holy spirit; but the whole show was just over the top.

anyway, those are just my thoughts. i do like what's happening overseas in Third-World countries; I think maybe he should focus his ministry there, because people in the U.S. are too cynical for his kind of show. i would never take someone who was wavering in their faith, or already skeptical, to see him.

the master negotiator

we received our new dishwasher a few days ago... a stainless steel model from LG. after i opened the packaging we noticed a large dent on back side of it, like it got squeezed during shipment. because dishwashers are mounted under the countertop, you'd never see it, and i highly doubt it would affect performance in any way...but it was an unpleasant discovery nonetheless.

to make a long story short, we called the online company we ordered it from, and when they called me back i was offered a $150 refund and a replacement for one of the items broken/dented on the back. i was pretty happy with that, but deferred to my wife. good move on my part, because she called them today and now they're giving us a $300 refund!

my wife is the master negotiator. here's the basic difference between us: my goal in negotiation with retailers or contractors is to obtain what i consider a 'fair' solution--where both parties are equally happy (or unhappy) with the result. julie's goal is to obtain the best solution that they're willing to give us--whether or not they're happy about it. so her negotiations are usually more beneficial for us! i think there's a strong family influence on this trait, because the people i know who are good (aggressive) negotiators also tend to have more aggressive negotiators as parents.

alpha group

this is just too cool... scott w. sent me pictures from a recent alpha group (a small group that formed from an alpha course). just incredibly encouraging to me... to see real friendships, community, love for Jesus, baptisms... makes it all worthwhile:

http://www.wolfington.net/vineyard/pictures/

nba finals

there's about a minute left in the half and detroit is down by 12... this truly sucks. they're missing shots inside the paint, missing free throws... san antonio looks phenomenal.

i think it's time to go to bed. maybe they'll pull it out in the second half and i'll have a nice morning suprise!

ugh... now they're down 14 and SA has the ball. the horror! the horror!

ultrasound & la leche

julie had her second ultrasound yesterday afternoon at Taubman (U of M hospital). she's measuring slightly larger than usual for this stage of her pregnancy (about 30 weeks), so they wanted to do some measurements. the ultrasound was pretty fantastic. they had the 3-D imaging and everything, and we could see the baby's nose, cheeks, and lips really clearly. they confirmed that it's a girl, and estimate that she's in the 69th percentile in terms of size for this stage of pregnancy (which means she'd be larger than 69 out of every 100 babies at this stage). Julie was a large baby, as was I, so this isn't unexpected. it was so cute, because she also had her arm up over her head, almost as if she was taking a nap in there. the baby has been kicking a lot lately, even to the point of bouncing julie's book off her stomach when she's reading in bed.

yesterday evening julie and i went to a La Leche League meeting for couples, all about breastfeeding. i was a bit surprised that there would even be a 'couples' meeting--it seemed to me like beastfeeding was solely the domain of women and infants. i guess it's a bit more complicated and difficult than you might think, so husbands need to be extra supportive and understanding. who knew? i was a bit afraid that i would be the only man there, but fortunately there were a few other guys. mostly this session was listening to mothers talk about their breastfeeding experiences; it was a bit awkward, but not as bad as i thought it would be.

The Rose

...something I doodled after a discussion we had at one of our staff meetings. you probably get the idea, but it's something phyllis tickle did recently at a discussion i attended, but apparently the idea is not original with her.

what's hurting?

ever have a feeling of disappointment--and not be able to pin down the source? not able to verbalize it? or maybe a sense that something is out of place, or out of order... like something in your living room has been removed, but you just can't figure out what it is. but your gut is telling you, "something's missing"?

the other day i was aerating my lawn with one of those coring aerators... it's a long U-shaped device that has two hollow tubes sticking out on the bottom. when you step on it, it forces the two hollow tubes into the ground. when you pull it back up with your hand, the dirt in those two tubes remains, so you've created two holes in the ground, about half an inch in diameter and an inch and a half deep. then, when you do it again, the new dirt pushes the old dirt out the top, and two 'cores' of dirt pop out.

as soon as i got home with this tool, i started using it on the lawn... about every 6-8 inches I would pop out two cores. so you can imagine how many times i had to do this. after i finished the front lawn, my back was already protesting, and my hand was getting sore. i was pretty determined to finshish, so kept going on the 'middle' lawn and the back lawn.

when i got done, i washed my hands and noticed three very large blisters on one hand, where i had been pulling the tool. these weren't shallow blisters, but really deep and large ones. i guess that was what the pain in my hand was for... to tell me "don, this is hurting; i think you should go get some gloves."

that's the funny thing about pain---it really sucks, but sometimes it's really useful. this applies to both physical and emotional pain. for a good part of my growing up i had to deal with a lot of emotional pain, due mostly to a highly dysfunctional and broken family. so i got pretty good at ignoring that pain... there was really no other alternative. i couldn't make the source of the pain go away, and i couldn't respond to the pain without going crazy, so i just sort of ignored it.

the problem is... once you're an adult, you have a lot more control over the things that cause you pain. and so, that method once so helpful for dealing with pain is actually more of a hindrance. a little emotional sting here... ah, didn't even feel it. accidentally stepped on an emotional hot-coal there... no problem, walk it off. then something hits you between the eyes, and before you can say "i'm okay", you're flat on your back... then you wake up, wondering "what the hell happened to me?" don't want to do that again.

it's usually not as easy as putting on a pair of gloves. maybe it's recognizing that a need you have isn't being met in some way. or maybe something is hurting you worse than you care to admit. or maybe there's a sin in your life that you've been allowing to fester for too long. but there's this pain, and it won't let go of you... that's really not a bad thing. i guess that's the good kind of pain... pain where there's something you can do about it; something to minimize or prevent it next time.

well, i've decided to use gloves more frequently, and my hands are in much better shape. so i *do* have the capacity to learn and change. yipee!