klink

You know it really has been a roller coaster ride for my family and I as of late. Financially there have been ups and downs and emotionally it has been taxing for numerous reasons. Liz lost her mom Karen, our Prius was in an accident that put the car in the shop for almost a month and Alexander has not slept well at night. This last issue has been the most difficult. I think I can say that much of what we have been dealing with would have been blunted if we had enough rest. It is so hard right now to be consistent with my ministry and to do much more than what I have to do. We're about to go to Alabama for Christmas. We will leave early Sunday morning. With the onset of this trip we all seem to be getting sick. Matthew has been coughing. Alexander has congestion and Liz and I are on the verge of a cold. We're really under the weather, which is an apt description because we are unaccustomed to the fifty degree drop in temperature that happened a few days ago. The vast difference...

Thanksgiving is tomorrow and this year seems to be flying by. In so many ways I am blessed and I know that I need to continue to focus on that. I love my family and I think and feel that God is leading in my professional life. Liz's mom has been here since last Friday. She is staying a week to be with us over Thanksgiving. We've played a lot of Wii already and I know that Liz feels a little closer to home having her here. Water continues to flow under the bridge of life and I hope that I'm drinking as much of it in as I can.

For most of my life I have asked questions. I think it is important to ask questions. Without inquiry there really is never any understanding. However whereas most people ask questions that start with what, when, where, who and how I have often tried to ask why. I have endeavored to understand why I or anybody else would do what they are doing. I have tried to understand why God does what he does and this is where I think my problem lies. When it comes to asking questions we must ask what God wants us to do and then try and figure out how to do it. However I think that sometimes the why is beyond our reach. I think of the discussion between Job and God where God tries to illustrate that his thoughts are beyond are thoughts and his ways are different than our ways. Truly who can know the mind of God. Sometimes asking the why only leads us to doubt what was done for us and is being done through God's continual involvement in our lives. It isn't that God doesn't want us to ask...

How best do we order society? What is the role of the government? Most people would agree that the aim of any society is to produce the most good for the most people. The problem comes in when you try to define who determines what is best for society. Traditionally the debate is between giving the power to a few or to the many. There are merits to both approaches. By giving power to the few those few are able to accomplish what may have been hindered by a multitude of conflicting ideas. However this too is the weakness because if the few do not have the diversity of opinions of the many they will not be able to adequately represent all of the people. A few can move quickly but with less connection to the people and the many will represent the diversity but will be hindered by their numbers. The founders of the constitution of this country attempted to find some balancing principle between the few and the many. We are not a direct democracy which may come as a surprise to many people. A...

I am reading William Dembski's book "The Design Revolution." The book is well written and I am sure that I will have continuing thoughts on the content of the book. Currently I have noticed that design theorists do not attempt to attach any specific attributes with the presupposed designing intelligence. They merely presuppose design based upon the first step of the scientific method: observation. Observation leads design theorists to propose that there are possible explanations of existing biological structures that give evidence of design. In contemplating their methods it is clear to me that they must presuppose design. However I realize also that the adverse is true when it comes to naturalists. They predispose that there is no design and that the biological structures that exist today do not arise out of design. In essence they predispose that life is undesigned. Therefore design theorists presuppose that the biological structures arise because of design while the na...

It's been more than a week now since I completed the week of prayer at Burleson Adventist School. I really think that it went well. The students were respectful and engaged. I spoke out biblical characters and my theme or title was "Lessons from the Little Ones." I tried to highlight what five people: Moses, David, Daniel, Esther, and Jesus learned during their childhood. I really enjoyed it and at the end I offered an invitation to the older group of kids to have bible studies: the week of prayer was divided into two groups with grades Pre-K through 4th in the earlier section and 5th through 8th in the following section. In the younger section a girl from 4th grade requested bible studies without any promptings and in the older section a fifth grade boy also requested bible studies. I'm looking forward to working with both of these children.

I am so excited about the possibilities for the Lakers this year. Kobe Bryant and the rest of Hollywood's finest have the potential to reign on the roost this year. So far they are 7-1 and there are contributions from everyone. They are incredibly deep with Pau Gasol, Derek Fisher, Lamar Odom and the return of Andrew Bynum. While I would like to see more productivity out of Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom I am enthusiastic about the teams' progress.

With the recent appointments by the administration of President-Elect Obama the picture is starting to come into focus. Obama picks Rom Emmanuel as his chief-of-staff and the nonpartisan veneer that was lacquered on so heavily during the campaign begins to chip away like the flecks of paint off an old 57 Chevy. Now rumorings of a possible appointment for Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State are in the air. How benevolent and unresentful Obama appears. Yet beneath even this we see the masterful hand of an ambitious politician that desires to keep the opposition where he can see them if not encumbered by his policies. Obama will further his agenda. That's what's it's alway's been about. The liberal labyrinth begins to unfold.

Choosing the political candidate that I support for president has never been a problem for me until now. I have always made my decision early in the race as I align the candidates beliefs with my understanding of conservatism: the political philosophy to which I subscribe. However this election has placed me between a rock and a hard place. I strongly believe in the three legs of the stool of conservatism: strong national defense, fiscal responsibility in the government combined with the current need to shrink the size and scope of government, and the role of the government to preserve the life and liberty of it's inhabitants by upholding the laws that prohibit and punish criminal activity and that preserve the life of the citizens. However these tenets have not been displayed by the nominee for my party John McCain: he consistently opposed Bush's tax cuts until recently, fought for the equivalent of amnesty, and undercut many of the attempts to grow the economy on the part of ...

Perhaps I should give an update to my life. Halloween is rapidly approaching and right behind it is November. It's hard to believe that we are this far into 2008. I'm trying my best to become a good pastor. I want to be competent in as many ways as possible. This particular week I have my sermon done fairly early. I completed it early so that I could continue to work on my thoughts for the week of prayer that I'll be doing next week at Burleson SDA School. I'm going to be talking about characters from the bible. My goal is to highlight some of the experiences of these characters when they where younger. I've entitled my series: Lessons from the Little Ones. Hopefully it will strike a few chords with the little ones that listen to it. Liz is trying to make the best of her situation as she takes care of Alexander and helps coach Matthews intramural soccer team. Lately she has been having a tough time being separated from family. I hope that she is able to find some wa...

Perhaps I should give an update to my life. Halloween is rapidly approaching and right behind it is November. It's hard to believe that we are this far into 2008. I'm trying my best to become a good pastor. I want to be competent in as many ways as possible. This particular week I have my sermon done fairly early. I completed it early so that I could continue to work on my thoughts for the week of prayer that I'll be doing next week at Burleson SDA School. I'm going to be talking about characters from the bible. My goal is to highlight some of the experiences of these characters when they where younger. I've entitled my series: Lessons from the Little Ones. Hopefully it will strike a few chords with the little ones that listen to it. Liz is trying to make the best of her situation as she takes care of Alexander and helps coach Matthews intramural soccer team. Lately she has been having a tough time being separated from family. I hope that she is able to find some wa...

We have had quite a lot of things happen recently and honestly our lives are still in flux. Liz took her NCLEX on Friday of last week. Unfortunately she did not pass. She is very upset about this and views this as a personal failure. She had a lot of pressure on her because we need to her to work so that we can pay on our student loans that are coming due. We needed her income. However we do have some money saved up and we might be getting some more money from Karen's estate soon. Liz will be able to take the test again in 45 days or so and then we will be able to reassess her job prospects. However because Alexander is not taking a bottle and we are having trouble finding someone who can care for him on a changing schedule Liz will probably not work until January. This solves the problem with childcare and the bottle and it also means that we will be able to visit our family for the holidays.

As I become more comfortable with being a pastor I am finding that my schedule is filling up. Perhaps it is only temporary, but at the moment I see several weeks ahead of me that will be very busy. I think that I need to be involved in activities that will further the gospel. However sometimes I feel that the meetings that I am required to go to are more for the amour-propre of others. I also need to explain that this journal will be a mix of my private thoughts and biographical detail. This journal is a place for me to exercise my thoughts as well as keep an intermittent written record of my life.

Right now it's dark outside and while I'm mostly referring to the fact that it's nighttime I'm also referring to the fact that I can't see very far in my life right now. It's not necessarily a bad thing. It's just that for the past four years my life has been a series of events. These events have expectations. That means that I'm either experiencing the events like: getting married, graduating, having a baby, moving and starting my career or I'm anticipating these events. Now that these things have happened the beacons of my existence are smaller and harder to see. I think though that I need to keep looking where I'm going. I don't want to end up in the wrong place.

There has been a movement away from conservative values in this country. The leaders of this movement have been academia, the media, the entertainment industry, and the political left. However the "right" has been moving left as well. How do I know this. Well, in order to establish that there has been movement we have to establish the starting point. In this case the starting point is the the three legs on the stool of conservatism: strong national defense, fiscal restraint and social conservatism. The first two legs of the stool should be on the government's explicit agenda.

Karen died last week after more than a year of battling lung cancer. About six months ago it appeared that she was in remission, but in June the doctors confirmed that the cancer was present in her lungs and adrenal gland. A few weeks ago she started having problems with shortness of breath again and she was readmitted to the hospital. Her lung collapsed and she rapidly deteriorated. As her condition worsened Kathy and Bob felt that Liz, Matthew and Alexander should come up to spend time with her. They flew up early on Friday the 26th of September. She died on September 29th. On the following day I flew to Michigan and joined Liz and many other family members as we prepared to have a celebration of Karen's life. On Thursday evening we had a party at Kathy and Bob's that was heavily attended by many of Karen's friends. I know that it was very hard for Liz to lose Karen. She was her mother. Karen was a wonderful woman. It never makes sense when you lose someone you love and ...

I would like to update the reading public on the recent events in my life. On May 4 Liz and I graduated from Andrews University. She graduated with her B.S. in Nursing and I graduated with my M.Div. After we graduated we moved out of our duplex in Berrien Springs, Michigan and moved down to Niles, Michigan to live temporarily with the Whites. We wanted to stay until the baby was born and then move down to Texas. On the weekend following graduation I flew down to Texas and attended the Burleson church. I also spent time with the Adams who are members of the Crowley church: the church where I spend most of my time. I was able to rent a house in a subdivision that is developing. The house continued to be worked on while we waited for the baby to be born. We had anticipated that the baby would be born early in June. However as the baby's due date approached we began to worry that the baby would come later than expected. This would have been a problem because we had already told the Te...

Life is full of learning. Lately I have realized the necessity of being intentional. Plants,animals and other organisms have less intentionality built in to their design than humans. Human beings, myself included seem to function most efficiently when we are purposeful. Discovering how to be purposeful is difficult however. This is because we have so many choices to make or to neglect and in addition we are not completely in control of ourselves. Spiritually I find that being intentional can be difficult because it often means that I need to do what I don't want to do. When we look at the tree the tree does not make the decision to do what it does not want to do or for that matter it does not decide to try and do something that it does not know how to do. Natural forces act upon the tree and the tree responds per it's design. Unlike the plant kingdom the animal kingdom responds with choice to the forces of nature. However animals excluding humans do not self evaluate. They are ...

This week has been exciting. We went to the doctor Monday for our scheduled ultrasound. We were going to find out the baby's gender. After checking in a nurse ushered us into the Ultrasound room. We were both anxious and excited. Liz really wanted a girl and at first the Ultrasound technician was having trouble seeing if the baby had a penis. I could see on Liz's face that she thought it might be a girl. The tech told Liz to lie on her side until the doctor came in. Apparently that would cause the baby to move and possible give a good look at his or her genital area.The doctor came in and after using the ultrasound machine to do a cross-section of the area. She quickly and emphatically said it's a boy. I was very happy but I could see that Liz was stifling her emotion. After the doctor talked to us and we printed off the ultrasound pictures Liz and I separated. I went to a small waiting room and Liz went to the bathroom to get a sample of urine for the doctor's office. ...

My wife is now approximately 20 weeks pregnant. We will find out the gender of the baby on Monday. While my initial desire was to wait to find out the way my parents waited for their children, Liz really wants to know. As a result we have an appointment with an ultrasound scheduled. I'm excited. I know that whatever gender the Lord has plans for this child. In other news Matthew and I went to the doctor today. He had to have a planter's wort treated for the second time with liquid nitrogen to freeze the tissue. Interestingly I have a planter's wort on my foot in a similar position to Matt's. It is very likely that he got it from me. Matthew made sure to tell the doctor that I probably gave him the wort. When the doctor found out that I had a similar wort he offered to treat me with the liquid nitrogen free of charge. So there we were father and son sitting on the table with butcher paper with one sock off. We took turns holding each other's hands as we endured the s...