We had such high hopes for this blog. Busyness, lack of discipline and poor internet often defeat us. There are several blogs I like to follow when I can and it’s so inspiring to see how well others do at it. So if there’s anyone out there that actually reads our posts when they come out every decade, thank you for your patience and loyalty. It really does mean a lot.
There’s been so much happening in our lives lately on a personal and ministry level. The days just roll on and on and become a blur. All too often, you stop and realize that God has become a blur too. You know he’s there and you don’t doubt it, but you can’t quite make him out clearly and really see him all the time. When that happens, it seems like life just kind of happens “to you” and I have come to really dislike that state of being. Good things happen to you, bad things happen to you, and average every day things happen to you. I have really come to believe that when this happens, it’s more than just normal boring life. It’s a potentially life-killing enemy.
Picture a curtain on a stage. It is closed. You can hear people living life behind the curtain. Just day to day things. But what would happen if the curtain suddenly opened and everyone got to see what was going on? What if they described to you what they heard and then saw when you thought no one was even paying attention?
This kind of happened to us recently and we now know it was God who opened the curtain and shared what he saw. He did it through some co-staff at New Hope that we’ve been building a closer relationship with. It just so happens that they have served together in pastoral and counseling ministry…not bad friends to have! In spending some time with our family, they heard some things and saw some things that concerned them in our marriage relationship in particular, and even how it was affecting our kids. They had the love and boldness led by the Spirit to share these concerns with us. The curtain was thrown open. While they didn’t think we were on the edge of a cliff about to fall off, they were concerned that we had started sliding towards the cliff w/o even knowing it. Just as dangerous. They cared too much to do nothing, so they shared what they saw and heard. Wow. Didn’t see that coming.
It would have been easy to even be a little offended, but right away we sensed that the Holy Spirit was speaking to us through them and we chose to open up and listen. This led to getting together and spending some good uninterrupted time with them working through some things and praying through some things. It is still amazing to me to look back at this (which just happened like 2 weeks ago) and see how clearly and how powerfully God spoke to us about some deep and significant things. We are so grateful for our friends that loved us enough to appropriately confront, but we give the glory to God and know it was all his doing.
Some people say that God hates sin and cannot be in it’s presence and that it invokes his wrath. While that very well may be true somehow, I tend to think that God doesn’t really look at our sin and flesh and failures…primarily. He looks at US with an affectionate and unconditional love that is so strong he doesn’t want us to sin because he knows it will pull us away from truth, from his loving arms. It will keep the curtain closed like a veil over our hearts and prevent us from letting him into our lives – as if he doesn’t know all of what happening already. God doesn’t sit around judging and condemning sin. I think he sits around with his thought bent on leading and guiding us to choose to keep the curtain open and let him inside our lives. He is the best thing we can ever have, and he is what we were created to have. He is good. He is love. He is mercy and forgiveness. He restores. A perfect God can only be loving if he shares his goodness and glory with us. That’s why he exposes sin and confronts us. It’s out of love.
While all of this was happening, we started reading the book, “Love & Respect” by Emerson Eggerichs. We had heard good things about this book and wow…the recommendations were on point. The cool thing is that it all flowed with what God showed us through our time with our friends, though it was unrelated in the sense that the book was not “homework” or something, we chose to read it on our own. Yet it really has exposed where certain tensions that have been in our marriage for a long time were coming from. It’s not necessarily anything new or ground breaking when you think about it, but the basic premise of the book is based on the title. Women need to be loved, and men need to be respected. When this is not happening properly, this crazy cycle of defensiveness, fighting, and walls starts spinning round and round. We would recommend the book to anyone. A word of caution, it is rather redundant and that could definitely be a turn off for some people. But we have really experienced how much choosing to live out these biblically based principles is making a difference in our relationship. I believe it can in your too. It’s not just for singles either, there are core principles that affect any male/female relationship to a certain degree.
We are thankful that God removed the curtain between himself and his children when Christ died for us. And slowly by slowly, he’s removing curtains that we keep putting up ourselves. May we all find the joy and freedom of living life with God center stage while the curtains are not just tied back, but taken outside and burned forever. He may provide someone to help you do it, and it’s more than worth it.
Sorry for the book. This is what happens when you take months in between each post and then try to catch up at 2am. Thanks for reading. August 3rd marked our one year anniversary of living and serving at Musana Camps of New Hope Uganda. I blinked, and a year went by. The 31st of [...]
As that Enya song goes, “My my, time flies…” It is hard to believe that Rachael will be 2 months old in about a week and a half! She’s growing so fast, not to mention the other kids. So much has happened since she was born and I find it hard to really take the [...]
Meet Rachael Alexa Bouffard! Born April 13th, 2011 at 8:45pm (1:45pm EST) at 7 lbs, 1 oz. She is now the second of our 4 children to be born on her due date (Emileigh was too), which only happens in about 3% of births I am told?! She was born at Kiwoko Hospital in the [...]
When you don’t update your blog very often, it’s tough to recap what all has happened over the course of months…if you’re going for the “update on life” kind of post. Here’s a brief attempt to share a few things that have happened since I last posted (in no particular order): We traveled and finally [...]