Month: April 2010

Leah likes to sound out letters.

She tried to read the milk carton, but it is in Japanese.

After staring at it for a while, she declared, “This milk just doesn’t make sense!”

A dull thwak was followed by horrible screams this morning.

While Aiden, was practicing his swing with a metal bat, Micah, obviously needing some practice, too, skateboarded right into him.

After a moment in triage (um, that would be administering an ice pack my kitchen) I admonished Micah, 5, not to skateboard towards people, especially those who are wielding baseball bats; to be responsible. He had no right to blame Aiden for the black eye.

I admonished Aiden, 6, that, if he is to be swinging a baseball bat, he must look out for other people and do everything in his power to stop the swing instead of hitting them full-force. Sometimes there are ways to lessen harm to others in the midst of an accident.

Michele from our home church lost her son Hezekiah a few months back to anencephaly. In her blog, she wrote about her pregnancy, her baby’s short, yet precious, time on this earth, and now is blogging about her grief. (Will you please pray for her and her family?)

To lose someone you love, especially a when it’s a child, is so jarring.

I keep a basket of little booklets and tracts in my bathroom for anyone who wants to read them. One of them is called Grief: Finding Hope Again by Paul David Tripp.

Today, I was that person who picked up the minibook. When I read these two paragraphs, I thought, “Thanks, God. I knew this, but I needed to hear it again.”

Death Was Not Part of God’s Original Plan

We all feel death’s wrenching finality. Death is so wrong, so completely out of step with life as God planned it. The apostle Paul could think of no better word for it than “enemy” (I Corinthians 15:25-26). Death is the enemy of everything good and beautiful about life. Death should make you morally sad and righteously angry. It is a cruel indicator that the world is broken; it is not functioning according to God’s original design, where life was to give way to life, on into eternity.

It is biblical to treat death as the sad, unnatural thing that it actually is. God encourages you to mourn. Death was simply not meant to be. When you recognize this, you will hunger for the complete restoration of all things. You will long to live with the Lord in a place where the last enemy – death – has been defeated.“

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 ties in well with Tripp’s thoughts:

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

Therefore comfort one another with these words.

Photo Credit: Westpark via Flickr

Loved the post, “A Necessary Death” by Elizabeth Esther.

Amen! Wish I could give her the biggest hug ever. I know how she feels. I’m there often. Just when I think things are going well, I’m reminded that they aren’t and that ‘well’ is an illusion I see through my pride-goggles.

Elizabeth writes:

For the first time since the twins were born, I just let myself feel the need, the brokenness, the absolute inability to be The Mother I Used To Be. Or the Mother I Want To Be. Or The Mother I Think My Kids Need.

I let all that go.

We went down to the beach and I stood underneath the pier, watching the waves crash around the pilings. It was cold and cloudy with a brisk onshore breeze. The waves were high and I felt a thrill of terror as the waves pounded up the pier corridor.

That’s when it came to me. I’m right where I’m supposed to be.

I’m standing at the edge of risk. The vast immensity of responsibility was never my burden to bear alone. And also, I was never supposed to be The Mother I Want to Be. That figment of my imagination was not within my control anyway.

My children don’t need that mother. They just need me, broken, vulnerable, utterly incapable me.

My children don’t love me because I do a great job of propping up my put-together life. Maybe they love me unconditionally. Maybe they love me in my messiness, my disappointments, my weakness.

And what if (scandalous thought), God wants me in my failures and brokenness? Because only when I’m in this place am I willing to surrender, to admit I can’t do it all.

As I read this, I was reminded that Christ came to the end of Himself for our sake. He did so we can live at peace with the Father — free, without guilt, without worry — our souls face to face with His, as naked as the day we were born (Heb 4:12).

Thank God we don’t have to (and can’t even if we tried) hide ourselves from Him. Christ died for us so that when we are right there on death’s door, our souls ready to just give up, He’s right there with us. Best part is, He beat death and rose again… so that we can take His hand and rise with Him.

Philippians 2:1-11 If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.

My friend Karen wants to be a shoe designer when she grows up (she’s 30).

After ladies’ Bible study at Tully’s this morning, we decided to go for a walk and look at the different shops together. I was looking for a pair of sturdy leather clogs that I can slip off and on quickly, as we’re constantly removing shoes here in Japan.

At the shoe store, next to the clogs (which were light-colored canvas with lots of flowers and embellishments — a bit fancy for everyday wear) was a row of dress shoes.

My eye caught a really classy looking pair of black pumps with wingtips. They were strong looking, yet feminine. The leather was supple, and the heel was a nice wide square inch.

I loved them, and I never drool over shoes.

(Laugh if you want, but I only have a few pairs of shoes – my neoprene Bog boots, my chunky, open toed brown shoes I’ve had since I was 15, a pair of sneakers (eight years old), a pair of black Doc Martins that go up to my knees, and a strappy black pair of satin shoes I bought to wear in a wedding. )

Karen, said, “I think they’d fit you — how about you try them on?”

Sure enough, they had 24’s, my Japanese size (about a US 7/7.5).

At the time, I was wearing my sneakers and thick socks. Back home, there is usually a box of little disposable nylon sockies nearby to keep the shoes fresh and to also get a feel for what the shoe would be like if wearing a thin sock.

Karen asked if they had a some socks to use for trying on the shoes.

The salesman came back with a large shoe box filled with all sorts of socks. He handed me a fuzzy black pair with white and red stitching. I pointed to the dress shoes and he said, “ah!” and handed me a pair of nylon knee-highs. I had to chuckle. They were not disposable, and looked quite used.

So, as not to be that person who snagged the community nylons, I carefully rolled them onto my feet and legs, trying to keep a straight face.

I went to unbuckle the shoe to try it on, but found a snap instead! Karen said that many of the shoes here are designed with faux buckles with snaps underneath so that women can quickly take off their shoes. The snap fastened solidly.

The shoes fit perfectly! I have a higher arch in my feet, and to have shoes line up with them in support is so rare.

The right shoe was a little snug on the strap, but it would have broken in quickly. However, Karen pointed out that the buckles on this particular shoes could be adjusted! She took a shoe and moved the buckle to the next notch.

The fit was even better!

And so, I have a new pair of shoes! (Now… if only I had a place to wear them…)

When I took the shoes out of the box at home, I noticed these great pictorial instructions on the back for the proper use of shoes. If you forget all else, remember this : Baseball players wear cleats, not heels!

For the past six months, my daughter Tabitha has been taking karate on Wednesdays and Fridays…. and I have watched from the sidelines.

Above is a video of Tab, back right, performing Heian Shodan, the first kata. She had to learn this in order to receive her yellow belt.

I really wanted to participate, as some of the parents also take the class with their children, and I finally mustered up the courage to take the class.

So, I wrote a letter to the sensei and asked if it would be okay to join. I told him I’m not very coordinated, but really want to give it a shot. He said “gambatte ne!” (do your best!) and I’ve been taking the class for the past month.

At first, it was pretty frustrating. My Japanese language skills are soooo terrible, and, did I mention I’m not very coordinated? Slowly, though, the words and corresponding motions are becoming more familiar.

I can actually do Heian Shodan, without stopping, although my form could definitely be a little stricter.

The dojo is upstairs to a sports clothing store. From the road, you would never know there is a dojo nestled amongst the shops, which close about an hour before class begins, covered with metal pull-down doors. There is a dimly lit narrow set of steps leading upwards from the sidewalk that look like they might lead up to an apartment – but this is where we meet for class.

The tiny platform at the top of the steps is always covered in students’ shoes.

During the winter, the platform was covered in knee-high boots (typical here, as the snow is deep) and then, after one warm weekend, as if everyone called each other beforehand and agreed, suddenly the boots were gone and replaced by sneakers. The back rim of the sneaker openings are often bent inward, like make-shift clogs, as people here remove their shoes so often, they just kinda scuff around in them vs. bothering to put their feet in properly lace up.

The room where we practice is lined with stacks of brown cardboard boxes from the overflow of the sports store.

The floor is covered in foam mats – the kind you’d see in a children’s daycare – the center square being white mats, and the perimeter blue. The walls are lined with certificates and photographs of past tournaments.

On the left wall, there is a teeny tiny sliding sliding door (I’m 5′ 2″ and have to duck down, almost half my size, to go through the door) that leads to the lavatory, and presumably, the sensei’s house. When you get to the bottom of these steps, you put on a pair of slippers, and then take them off 10 feet later and replace them with bathroom slippers, and then switch again as you go back towards the stairs. It’s quite the process just to take a tinkle.

A typical class begins with warm up stretches — about 15 minutes. We then take a quick water break.

Next, we practice footwork. This can be different styles of jumps, or ladder obstacles… each with the “proper” way to do them. It is NOT a free-for-all. The sensei is kind, but gets very mad if people goof off!

Then, we break into groups and practice punches and kicks in formation. As we go forward, we do offensive punches and kicks, counting up to five… ichi, ni, san, shi, go.

I do fine for the offensive part, but when we go backwards, which has a different footwork and defensive blocks, I always seem to get my feet turned around. I step backwards with my left foot instead of my right, for example. There is one blackbelt teacher’s helper in the class who always immediately comes running over to me and loudly yells, “SWITCH!”, hits his legs, and then turns his wrist. ::blush:: Tonight, he only had to yell at me twice :P

After the punches and kicks in formation, we take a break and then form two lines for practice with a partner. Depending on how hard we are supposed to kick and punch that night, we sometimes use padded shields. Each punch and block have about 3-4 moves, and words that go with them. You have to say the words identifying where you will be striking:

jodan /joe-dahn/ – Upper level, collar and up

chudan /choo-dahn/ – Middle level, belt up to collar

mae geridan /my-ay-gee-ri-dahn/ – Lower level front kick

After you identify the strike, you go through the corresponding initial set up, contact (block) and then a counter hit/kick (met with blocks).

The last part of class has been practice for the tournament. We spend time perfecting bows, and then individual katas and one-on-one fighting. The sensei would like for Tabitha to enter three competitions : Individual kata, Kata in a group, and one-on-one choreographed fighting, demonstrating the three specific moves I mentioned above; very controlled with exact moves and responses.

While I do essentially have two left feet, I am having a great time and am thankful I just made myself try karate! It is something Tabitha and I can go and do together, as well as practice together at home. I’m also able to help her more, as I am beginning to have a better understanding from having done the moves myself… and she helps me, too. Physically, it’s challenging. In order to have good form, you must keep your gut sucked in and keep all of your moves very centered and snug. I feel like I’m getting faster with my moves and definitely more toned.

(AHH!!! I’m studying KARATE in JAPAN!!!) (Had to get that out of my system. Bye, now.)