Choosing to Cheat

In our culture, I think it’s pretty safe to say that work and family make up the two most significant and time-consuming arenas of our lives. It can be a struggle to juggle the demands of maintaining a career and a family. Success or failure in either category directly impacts and affects our lives.

The problem we encounter, is the reality that there is just not enough time to get everything done. We can’t do everything. Someone is going to get cheated. Worse yet, somebody is going to feel cheated.

This Sunday, we will begin a new series, Choosing to Cheat: Who Wins When Work and Family Collide? For those of us who wrestle with this ongoing tension, it’s going to be an honest look at the reality that although we will need to cheat somewhere with our time, we must make a decision not to cheat our family and the people who matter the most to us. 

Get Up!

Today Jordan, our 6-year-old learned to ride a bike. Before we started practicing, I reminded him that he will fall, but the important thing for him to do was to get up and keep trying.

He did fall . . . a lot. But after each fall, Jordan got up, brushed the dirt off of him and climbed back on his bike. He was determined to ride that bike! It was a huge accomplishment for him and afterwards, Jordan exclaimed, “Now, I’m a big boy!”

Watching Jordan’s determination reminded me that there are times when I will fall, when I will fail. The important thing for me to remember is to get up, to keep trying. Too often in my fear of failing, I avoid the risk altogether. Where’s the joy and satisfaction in that?

I truly think that a large part of our maturity as people is fashioned, and character is developed, when we persevere, endure life’s bumps and scratches, and refuse to stay down when we fall. 

“Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light.” Micah 7:8

My Daily Challenge: Chicken Parm Soup

Today is a soup day in Hawaii. We don’t get too many of them, so I hope to take full advantage of it.

This soup is one that our entire family enjoys and it only takes about 15 minutes to make. I got the recipe from Rachel Ray’s book, Just in Time.

4 T. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 pound of chicken breast, chopped into bite size pieces

   Salt and pepper to taste

4 garlic cloves, 3 chopped and 1 halved

   Red Pepper flakes, to taste

1 (28-ounce) can of crushed tomatoes

1 quart (4 cups) chicken broth

4 thick slices of Italian or sourdough bread

1 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1 cup fresh basil, shredded or torn

Preheat the broiler.

Heat the EVOO in a soup pot over medium high heat. Add the chicken, season with salt and pepper, and cook until lightly browned, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the chopped garlic, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes to taste. Stir in the tomatoes and chicken stock and cook until heated through.

While the soup cooks, char the bread on both sides under the broiler. Rub with the garlic halves and drizzle with EVOO, then mound with handfuls of Parmesan cheese. Return to the broiler to melt the cheese.

Turn off the heat and stir in the basil. Ladle the soup into bowls and float the toasts on top. You’re done! Enjoy!

My Daily Challenge

Every day, I wake up with this challenge. 7 days a week, including holidays I face it, wrestle with it and encounter it. This daily challenge, of course, is what to make for dinner.

I love to cook, but the challenge I find is coming up with something different every day, that will accommodate the palettes of seven people. Yet it must be easy enough to make in the midst of homeschooling, house cleaning, helping with homework and the variety of sports and activities that we continually have.

So, I’ve decided to pass on a few recipes that I’ve found that meet two criteria:

1.   They must be quick enough for me to make during the week, and easy enough for me to make considering the many distractions and interruptions that seem to occur only between the hour of 5-6pm.

2.   They must taste good and pass the test of at least 5 of our 7 family members.

I’ll plan to post the first recipe in my next post. Bon Appetit! 

Youth Can Make A Difference

Last night, our Friday night youth service was completely run by the students. They operated the sound, led the worship, played an entire band, taught a strong word, served the snacks and even coordinated the rides home for those who needed them.

But what inspired and encouraged me the most was to see the enthusiasm, care and effort they put into making the entire evening a success. They rose to the challenge given them and used the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of their peers.

JR and Toan began their teaching by asking their peers if they had ever been told, “you’re no good” or “you’ll never amount to anything”. Hands shot up across the room.

These young men encouraged their peers to not to believe the lies and not to “let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.” 1 Timothy 4:12

It is heartbreaking to see so many young people who have experienced deep betrayal, rejection, and feelings of worthlessness at such a young age.

They’re looking for somewhere to belong. Looking for someone to believe in them. Someone who will affirm their worth. They're looking for someone to believe that their lives matter and that they can make a difference.

What a great opportunity for these youth, who are seeking answers, to see their peers living with hope, purpose and passion in an environment that often seems unfocused and without direction or purpose. What an inspriration for them to hear that their lives have value and they have something to contribute.

Young people can make a difference. 

Even As We Put Our Hope in You

Last Sunday, Gregg concluded our series, He’s Still Got the Whole World in His Hands, with the message Hope, describing hope as a person or thing in which our expectations for the future are centered.

Although we don’t often think about it, whatever we are leaning our life against is that in which we have placed our hope. Gregg described hope like a ladder that we lean against a wall. Often we find ourselves leaning our lives against temporary and unfulfilling things such as our career, our relationships, or our finances.

Placing our hope in the world, in anything temporary, is futile because our world is hopelessly broken. Sin has messed up, infected and impacted every living thing. If our hope is in the world, we will always be disappointed. The only way to maintain hope in a broken and uncertain world is to lean our ladder against, or place our hope in God’s incredible love for us.

We asked one of our campus staff members, Shaun, to paint some artwork for the set. Shaun is also a professional artist whose work is currently on display at two of Hawaii’s libraries. You can view Shaun’s portfolio here. The picture below shows what Shaun and JR, one of our talented high school students, constructed for last week’s message.

May your unfailing love be with us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in you.” (Psalm 33:22)

Brandon's Big Catch

Last weekend, a friend of ours took Brandon and Gregg free diving for the first time. I have to admit, I was a little nervous. Free diving in the open ocean, sharks, . . .. But what really scared me was the though of my highly curious 11-year-old swimming around armed with a spear gun. 


Thankfully, there were no injuries to report. None, except this one:

Can you figure out what this is? It's a tako, Japanese for octopus. It was about the size of a grapefruit and Brandon speared this little guy all by himself. Island living suits Brandon well.