What Gingerbread Houses Say About Us

I’ve got a lot of heavy stuff on my mind these days, so I’m treating myself—and you—to some literary fluff. Heavy can wait until March, the month when spring and hope bloom again, under all that snow.

And since it is almost March, I guess it’s time to take down the last of the Christmas decorations. Even though it’s time—past time—it won’t be easy getting rid of the gingerbread houses the kids made. (Oh, calm down, clean freaks! We live in a cool, dry climate. Nothing’s rotted yet.)

As we’ve already established, I’m not much of a baker or a crafter, but I’m well connected. Over Thanksgiving break, I took the kids over to my friend Susan’s to make gingerbread houses, an annual tradition at her house. When I picked them up later that day, I was met by frosting-faced, over-sugared kids and a very big mess. But more than that, I got a good, tangible look at who each of my kids is.

Braden’s house looked like it was made by the oldest. And the boy. It had the most detail and the most weapons. (The only weapons, actually.) My son won’t step on an ant and grimaces at the thought of shooting a bird out of the sky, but he loves weapons. A few months ago we spied on him as he shot his bow and arrow in the backyard. Unaware that he was being watched, he played with such intensity you would’ve thought he was in the archery finals at the Olympics. It’s part of who he is, and though I personally hate the idea of weapons, I can still love that he loves them.

Eight-year-old Addison wrote one word on her gingerbread house that sums her up about as well as anything: “HOME.” Kevin and I have no doubt who will be pushing our wheelchairs one day. It’s this girl, who I imagine will always stick pretty close to home. She’s been a caretaker from the beginning. When she found me curled up, sobbing on the floor shortly after we lost our baby, she said, “Mommy, I want to take care of you. Please teach me how to use the phone.” She was four. Addison is interested in all things “homey”—cooking, sewing, knitting, crafting. And she got me as a mother. She loves me anyway, and lucky for her, I’m well connected. It will be so cool to visit her “HOME” some day.

And then there's Brooka, who I write about often due to my fascination that one so fearless could possibly come from me. Her gingerbread is a crazy mess. I’m sure ninety percent of the candy went straight in her mouth and that she tossed the remaining pieces on with unbridled freedom and silliness, living the moment to its very fullest while being scolded by Braden for not following the rules.

Camryn’s house, though made by a two-year-old, looks like it was decorated by an engineer. Or someone with OCD. The M&Ms are perfectly lined up, overthought, ducks in a row. She lines things up, busy and focused. Give the girl a pack of fruit snacks, and you can bet they’ll soon be lined up on the table. And there will probably be a story to go along with it. Perhaps I’ve found the child who is most like me.

Envy and Gratitude

The dichotomy between the world I live in and the world I write about is mind-boggling. I just wrote a story about a nine-year-old Rwandan girl who was the only HIV-negative member of her family. After watching two siblings die before their first birthdays, then her father, she dropped out of school to care for her dying mother. I run three miles for exercise; she runs three miles for water. After her mother died, she was left alone in her house, penniless, to fend for herself. She was tormented by neighbors, robbed, and nearly raped. Thankfully, I got to tell the rest of the girl's story, how God has blessed her with a new family for which she is so grateful.

I don’t have a nine-year-old this year, but I have one just older and one just younger. Their reality is clean clothes, clean sheets, clean hair, carpool, sports practices, and a snack everyday after school. In addition to lunch. And dinner. And mouthfuls of Valentine’s candy.

And yet it’s still so easy for me to use this world as my standard for what is “normal.” It’s normal for people to have minivans whose doors close at the touch of a button. Man, why don’t I have one of those? It’s normal for people to spend thousands of dollars in one week on cars, vacations, toys—all things that look so appealing. No matter how long I walk with Jesus or how many hours I spend in the Scriptures, I’m still deceived into envy more often than I care to admit. Even the “poor” in America seem to have cell phones, iPods, computers, and big screen televisions. Sometimes I find myself even envying them. Big screen TVs are cool!

But so is clean water. I turn on the faucet and out it comes. Every time! To the rest of the world, that’s not “normal.” That’s a phenomenal blessing. How can I help my children understand that? How can I myself understand it? How can I turn my envy into gratitude—not just on occasion, but as a lifestyle?

I’m working on it. Times are tough. We’re hurting along with so many others. But I look around me and see more blessings than I can possibly count. Keeping my focus right there is what I long for. Just longing isn’t enough, though. Blessing-counting takes discipline and intentionality. Not accepting any of this as normal is hard work. I’m setting my mind to it, I’m praying about it, I’m learning from those who do it so well. May people someday look to me as one who also does it well.

The No-Formula God

Sometimes I wish God were more formulaic. I’d love it if He could be more of a cause-and-effect sort of God. You know: “Do this, you get this, guaranteed, every time." Yeah, I know the Old Testament is full of that sort of thing, but Jesus didn’t leave us with a whole lot of specific formulas: “Pray three times a day, adding “In Jesus’ name” on the end of every request, and you’ll be able to make rent this month,” kind of thing.

“Unless we’re trusting God for what He’s promised to provide, the step after trust is disillusionment,” writes Larry Crabb in Shattered Dreams. (I’m on Chapter 2 and loving it, so this probably isn’t the last reference I’ll make to this book.)

It would just be so much easier if God had promised us we’d always be able to make the rent. Or have healthy children. Or that we’ll never lose a job we’re sure He’s called us to. I’m even willing to do the work that would guarantee the promise. Serve meals to the homeless and never worry about paying another bill? I’m in. Preach the Gospel in the 10-40 Window and no one you love will ever get cancer? It's a deal!

But it’s not that easy. Instead, we’re given general commands like, “Do not let your hearts be troubled; trust in God,” “In all your ways acknowledge Him,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Hmmm. OK. I’ll try to stumble through those as best I can. And what’s your end of the deal, God? What exactly is it that you have promised me?

He makes reference to things like comfort, shelter, protection, wisdom, compassion, and joy. Good things. I’ll take them all. And the biggest promise of all is this one: “I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting life” (John 6:47). There could be no greater news than that.

Sometimes it’s still hard to get past the rent thing. But the hard truth is that God hasn’t promised us a happy life. No matter how great our faith, how selfless and active our service, He makes no commitment to give us what we want. In fact, these days I’m seeing that the more I do what I know He wants, the less I actually seem to get of what I’d really like. Especially if what I’d like are blissful days. Sometimes life gets harder the more we obey, and that doesn’t make any sense. That’s not how a cause-and-effect God would work.

So I ask myself again: Do I want to serve the God who makes sense in my little head, or do I want to serve the God Who Is?

The God Who Is promises me that if I believe Him and trust my life to Him, then He will bless me with the kind of joy—though not necessarily happiness—that I can’t begin to imagine. And if what I desire more than anything else is to experience Him, to grow in trust and to walk in the closeness of His fellowship, than I will get exactly what my heart desires. While my bank account, perhaps, runs dry. And my house doesn’t sell. And my kids vomit all over me and cough all winter.

Still, I’m in.

The Great Ad Debate

Rarely do I read something I agree with strongly enough to slap on my own blog site, but this one crossed my path today and I couldn't resist. If I'm going to throw my two cents into the Tim Tebow Superbowl Ad Debate, I couldn't say it any better than this.

Worship from the Pit

A man from my church was buried in Haiti’s Hotel Montana for 65 hours after the earthquake. At home and recovering from his injuries, he spoke to our church this weekend by video. Sitting alone in a pitch-black elevator shaft, he wasn’t sure if he would ever see the light of day again. Unlike many of the earthquake’s other victims, he had time to wonder. Would he return home to life as he knew it, with his wife and two young kids? Or was his purpose on earth served, his work here finished?

Sixty-five hours of nothing but wondering.

What if it were me? Would my faith sustain me the way I think it would? Would I question God? Yell at Him? Or would I worship Him the way I think I would?

On the rare occasion I’m in the car alone, I have amazing times of worship. I also have them when I’m running. It's hard not to when I'm out in the crisp air, running under the beautiful blue sky in the shadow of Pikes Peak. But what about in a pit of blackness, hurting and alone? Would my thoughts be focused on my Savior or my situation? I’m just gonna be honest and say I hope I never find out. I’m all for some anticlimactic end-of-life experience that involves pain killers, a nice cozy bed, and the reassuring presence of my grandchildren.

But I was reminded last week that it’s not just those life-and-death moments that bring us face to face with the question of just what our faith can bear. What about when I’m standing in the kitchen of a virtual stranger, listening to the agony of her life’s story—a story involving abandonment, homelessness, the loss of three children to the state, and the most recent devastating blow, the loss of a dearly loved parent? Is my joy strong enough to fend off the despair circling through this house? Is my hope sure enough to offer to her, even though her situation seems so hopeless? Am I able to worship in the midst of that? Or am I consumed with thoughts of my own discomfort, my own instinct to run as fast as I can back to my own bright and shiny world—where worship is easy?

I’ve signed up for this new relationship, literally. Kevin and I and another couple have signed up for a mentoring role in this woman’s life, and our first meeting felt a little like crawling into that black pit in the earthquake rubble. That’s where she lives. That’s where I’ll have to meet her for awhile. That’s where the things I take for granted—my trust in God and His unending love and my steadfast belief that all things do work out for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose—will be tested. I’ll have plenty of time to wonder. And plenty of time to worship Him there if that’s what I choose to focus on.

Sometimes worship isn’t a mountaintop “religious experience.” Sometimes it’s a choice. Made from a pit.

In Defense of Big Families

When the Duggar family welcomed their 19th baby late last year, not everyone congratulated them. Some—instead of just saying, “Well, not something I’d choose for myself, but God bless you anyway”—spoke out loudly and critically against these parents. Recently, someone wrote to People magazine that “most people would agree that having 19 kids is ludicrous and totally unfair to each of those children.”

Hmmm. I’d love to ask the Duggar kids about that.

I don’t know much about this particular family, but I do know several large families (though not by Duggar standards) that are among the healthiest, most creative and engaged families I know. My grandpa was part of such a family, as were most of our ancestors. These large families built up America on the values of hard work, team work, selflessness, and working for the good of the whole instead of grabbing up whatever you can get for yourself. American values changed somewhere along the way—and perhaps it’s no coincidence that they changed at the same time American families were growing smaller and smaller.

It’s not that you can’t teach an only child the values of sharing and sacrifice, it’s just that you have to work so much harder to do it. My four children regularly hear things like, “Gotta wait” or “See if your sister can help you.” We’ve even made up a “Gotta wait” song. I’m not sure those were words my dad, an only child, ever heard. I can’t help but think how much better his short 44 years would have been if he had learned some of the lessons taught by large families. Instead, he was plagued by years of restless impatience and self-focus. How would a house full of siblings have made him different, I wonder?

For sure, nineteen kids are not for everyone. Three or four are not for everyone. We all seem to know our own personal threshold. But I would hope that we wouldn’t call those who make different decisions “ludicrous.” The more well-loved, well-taught kids we have in the world, the more we all benefit. If two parents choose to have babies every year, feed them, clothe them, homeschool them, teach them to play the cello, and have them doing laundry by the age of six, I say we cheer them on. And maybe we even learn something from them.

Haiti on My Heart

On Monday, I wrote a story about a 23-year-old Haitian girl named Kensia. On Tuesday, Kensia’s life changed forever. I’ve never met her and probably never will this side of heaven. I have no idea how the earthquake affected her or if she’s even alive. But I know how her story affected me. It was one of many stories of Haitian children that has burrowed into my heart.

In my freelance work for Compassion International, I get to tell the stories of children being released from poverty all over the world. But it’s the stories from Haiti that I remember most. Maybe it’s because it’s not on the other side of the world. Or because one of my best friends has two children adopted from Haiti. Or maybe it’s just because they seem to face more hardship and catastrophe than just about any other place on earth, yet their children always seem to be smiling.

Because Compassion has been in Haiti since 1968 and has a Leadership Develop Program for college students there, many of the stories I work on are not about children but about driven young adults who don’t seem to see the Haiti the rest of the world sees. Kensia, a medical student, talked about her country one day becoming a world leader and champion of struggling nations everywhere.

Daniel, a 25-year-old with six sisters from five different mothers, grew up in one of Haiti’s most violent slums. He became president of his Compassion project as a teenager and now studies finance at a prestigious university. Gislene moved four hours from her impoverished hometown to study nursing in Port-au-Prince. Her biggest dream is to be able to support at least three Compassion kids of her own some day.

And then there’s six-year-old Lovena, who was chosen by a group of 70 college students in the Dominican Republic. They pooled their money to sponsor a Haitian child, slicing through the social and political conflicts that have divided the two nations for more than a century. I can just imagine those students today on their knees praying for their little girl.

I don’t know if these stories ever get read or make any difference in busy people's lives. But I know how they change me. I know how they put flesh on the words of James 1:27: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.” Today in Haiti there are probably more orphans and widows than ever before. One day I will get to tell their stories, and no doubt I will be amazed again by their hope and strength—and their ceaseless praise of the God who sees them through every tragedy.