stacy andrews :: BLOG

baby jackson is 10 months old ...

click on any pic to enlarge ... i love this boy ... he will need a haircut soon ... people tell me he looks like rosie in the face ...

Dinner with friends

Last night my wife and I had dinner with some other couples (Mike & Angel, Warren & Marla, and Joel & Susan). Our friend Megan came over and kept our children, they love her. She dates our neighbor Chris who is currently delivering pizzas. So, of course we order a pizza for Megan and the kids, and request Chris as the delivery person. (Odd side note:: we live on the "wrong side of State Street" so Papa John's does not deliver to us. We have to give a alternative address, with our name, and request Chris, then call him on his cell phone with a heads up. That is funny to me.)

We leave the house ... my wife looks amazing ... I felt a little like beauty and the beast ... or at least Lyle Lovett & Julia Roberts. We met our friends at Walker's, one of our favorite neighborhood restaurants. We especially love the patio when the weather is great. Upon arriving we ask Warren (who works in properties) to talk through the development of downtown and his predictions about businesses on Farrish Street. He predicted what the Convention Center would--and would not—do for downtown.

Joel and Susan were a couple of minutes late, but I have since concluded that Joel must have spent an extra few minutes stretching his hamstrings and doing some hand-eye-coordination warm-up drills before they left their house. (Note to reader:: the previous sentence makes use of foreshadowing.)

Once we ordered, Mike began explaining his work at the “24 hour one-stop shop of uninsured and non-urgent medical treatment” or as it is also known, “The Emergency Room.” As the appetizers and salads arrived, Marla began confessing her recent embarassment of ordering the new Rob Bell book at Lemuria, it is entitled "SexGod" (Rob Bell is a pastor and Christian writer who loves provacotive titles). She had the first awkward moment when she had to ask for the book in the store. She is standing there with her sweet little kids asking for the new Rob Bell book. The guy behind the counter shakes his head and says, "Yeah, all I can find is a book called ... ummm ... SexGod." She has to respond, "Yes, that's it. Order me one." The second awkward moment came when the store left an uncomfortable voice mail at her house telling her that her book, "SexGod" has arrived. She has yet to go back to pick it up.

As we all continued enjoying the atmosphere of the Walker's patio at night time under the classic neon sign, I began noticing the levitation of our table umbrella. We are seated at an 8-person table, and the umbrella is big enough to cover all of us. It gets pretty windy. Then—in a flash—the umbrella blasted off the table and towards the other patrons. Joel jumped to his feet, caught the umbrella, and saved the lives of many. I still remember it. First he caught it, then it began blowing him back. It all happened in about 6 seconds, but during that time I had three different occasions to think, “Wow, that was a close one, glad it is over. Wait, there it goes again!” I just knew it would all end with Joel standing on the roof of Walkers. But it did not. Once it did end, every other dining customer erupted in enthusiastic applause. I’ve never seen anything like it. The applause made him feel good, but then my wife said something about a “mary poppins impersonation” that I thought was funny. (Sorry Joel, don’t be mad at us, you're still the hero!)

At one point Warren got up and changed seats. He claimed he wanted to hear what I was saying, but I think he was trying to re-position himself to catch the umbrella if it were to take off again. His movement started a trend of seat-swapping that continued throughout the night. I thought it was fun, although the waiter got confused trying to distribute our plates. During the meal I felt a little left out because I was the only guy not eating a Baby Bison, or whatever that thing was that was the manly special for the evening. I got the normal filet instead. I always get this plate when I go to Walker's.

After the meal--which was incredible--the waiter asks, “Did anyone save room for dessert?” We all say, “No, I don’t think so.” (Fast forward 10 minutes :: there are four giant bowls of dessert on the table, and about a dozen spoons.) As we ate dessert, we all learned from Angel about the difference between "the mullet" and "the shag." The former was a popular hair style when I was in junior high, the latter was something unfortunately going on the heads of women in the 70's.

In closing, here is an actual list of other topics at our end of the table, I will try to do ten::
1) Frankenstein, and the theological implications it suggests. There are many.
2) The role of sports in the social development of children in today’s culture. Our conclusion: it's overrated.
3) What does it mean to be “called” by God in a vocational sense.
4) The possible legitimacy of “witch doctors” in pre-modern African and Native American cultures. This topic wasn't so much of a topic, as it was me rambling. I later thought, “Why the hell was I explaining witch doctors to a retinal surgeon?" (Joel is a retinal surgeon).
5) William Faulkner.
6) A book called Kite-runner, or Blade-rider, or Wind-catcher, or something like that.
7) A film that had the word Peace in it, but I forgot the rest. It sounded good though.
8) The pros and cons of home schooling your children.
9) Philip Yancey books.
10) The positive and negative effects of the visible church owning real estate.

We met for supper at 6:30, and when we left none of us could believe it was almost 11. That was crazy. I like eating with couples our own age. Brings some balance to our crazy lives somehow.

All that to say, the Andrews’ had a blast. We came home to find our children asleep. Parker was asleep in one chair. Rosie was asleep on Megan in another chair. Jackson was asleep in his bed. And our dog Zak was asleep in the arms of Chris (the aforementioned pizza delivery person, neighbor, and boyfriend). Seriously, Chris answered our door with Zak in his arms.

Here's to good times ...

A day at the spa ...

So, its my little girl's birthday. We had a "father / daughter" trip to the spa. She's never been. We actually have a good friend at our church that provided the whole thing for her birthday present! How great is that? So here's what went down. We arrive at Trio, the spa (click on any pic to enlarge)

We wait in the lobby, its kind of exciting for everyone. The whole staff is playing it up, telling her what a good time she is about to have, being pampered, etc ...

I go back with her to watch her get a pedicure, she is excited, but very timid, she isn't sure if we are at the doctor's office or what ...

so ... I stick my feet in ... "see, it doesn't hurt sweet baby ..."

i have a strange suspicion that these may well be the furriest feet ever put in this little tub ...

what am I doing? Anyway, rosie feels more comfortable and sticks her little feet in ...

now we're cookin' ... she likes this ...

she said this part tickled a lot ...

the finished feet ...

and now the hands ...

and the hair ...

she had a lot of it ...

not any more ...

way to go harvey (the hair stylist) ... here is a final pic with rosie and harvey, our new friend. rosie was ready for her party, fresh toes, hands, and hair. she said she wants it be an annual event for her birthday. sounds like a great plan to me

Walking out of the store ...

I was moved ... it was this past Friday. I kind of felt depressed, went to a bookstore, and sat for a little while. Read the NY Times, drank a cup of coffee, and even bumped into a few friends. As I left a lady was walking in. She was heavy set and wore a blue workout suit. We got to the door at the same time, me leaving, her arriving. I held the door as she walked in. She looked depressed too. She glanced over to thank me for holding the door, but just barely, she was having a rough day. As she walked by she said "thank you" and in her pronunciation it was obvious she was deaf. I felt something in that moment. Not pity, or even sorrow for her condition. Often I see people who are "needy" as somewhat 2-dimensional. On this day, I identified with her as an equal. She didn't even seem that nice. A grumpy deaf lady having a crappy day. Hard to explain. It had something to do with my own neediness, the human condition we all share in. It was profound for me. I wanted to say something. On second thought, I don't think I really wanted to say anything, more of a desire to do something that would prolong the fleeting interaction. But I didn't.

By the way ... the moth from the previous post is still hibernating.

A lot can happen overnight ...

Rosie, my little 6-year-old, has always been one to catch lizards and frogs … she has a gift. I have even seen her catch a lizard in each hand before. The other day she caught a caterpillar and put it in one of her containers with a small stick that had several leaves on it. We went online to identify what type of caterpillar she had caught and easily determined that he / she was a North American Green Knobbly seen in this online picture of a green caterpillar. Like the picture, he / she was almost translucent. Rosie was pretty excited. Even in our enthusiasm, we managed somehow to fall asleep.

We woke up the next morning and came in to look at knobbly, only to find that he / she had cocooned himself / herself. Meanwhile, Rosie has named her (Rosie likes girl pets), Luna. I think it is short for Shaluna. Here is Rosie with her newly cocooned friend, Shaluna. We probably need a bigger container, but it is kind of attached to the sides at this point. If you click on the picture you can get a better idea of what I am talking about.

We furthered our online research and determined that "Luna: the cocooned knobbly" would soon become the "Shaluna Andrews: the Polyphemus Moth," one of the largest in North America, growing up to a 5 1/2 inch wingspan, seen in this online picture. How long will she take to hatch? Can you keep a large moth as a pet?

What is faith?

A couple of days ago a good friend asked me how to define faith, and what my thoughts on faith were. To begin with, I think faith is necessary because our relationship with God has not been fully consummated, at least in our experience of it. I personally don't think it is consummated fully until the "Day of the Lord" that the Bible speaks of, though I am not really sure when or what that is exactly. Brian McLaren says its here, Tony Campolo says you'll find it among the poor, John Piper says it happened on the cross, and some people told me once it would be consummated if I spoke in tongues (tried that twice). I think I disagree with all of them and say our experience of God is not yet consummated.

So in response to the reality of "unconsummation" ... we can have faith. But we don't readily do that. Sometimes we'd rather just fake it. The faker acts like their experience of God has culminated and smiles a phony grin all the time. The faker says "blessed" a lot, usually with 2 syllables instead of one. Or sometimes we just become cynical. The cynic recognizes the experience hasn't been consummated and merely becomes pissed off at God. But, the person of faith is the third option. Neither phony, nor cynical. The person of faith recognizes the reality of this unconsummation, but has faith...

Faith? It has something to do with living and thinking about God in loving ways before your experience of him is fully realized. We hope it will be and begin loving and living and thinking as if it certainly will be one day. Faith has a certainty to it, but it also has a longing. Televangelists speak loudly of its certainty and its answers, while postmodern's reflect quietly of its longing and its questions. But faith is both certainty and longing. Questions and Answers. And questions again. This has to be what Hebrews 11:1 means ... clearly.

I've gotten to where I kind of like it being unconsummated, not fully realized in my experience. I think God orchestrates it so we live with some longing. This longing for consummation is a space. A space that allows us to pursue God, and him to pursue us as well. Sometimes I wish he pursued me more. God probably says the same about me. Hopefully he still enjoys me just like I am, for now at least.

In Ephesians, Paul says that we are saved by grace, through faith. If what I have been describing is indeed faith, then it will be what leads to his grace. My longing .... eventually leading me to his grace.

Maybe God and I are both looking forward to the Day of the Lord. When I experience him in all his fullness, and he has my heart's full affection. Until then, I'll try to avoid phony, and I'll try to avoid cynical (no promises on either one though). Hopefully in the process I might even catch myself being faithful every now and then. Good for me that the Bible says, even when I am faithless, he remains faithful.

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NOTE: I think God is somehow outside of time. So when I say he is looking forward, I don't mean to limit him in any way, just trying to express my understanding of him through the limits of language, as usual.

NOTE TWO: To say our relationship is not consummated fully with God is not to say we aren't truly his children. Nor does it speak to our actual security as his in reality. I am speaking soley of what and how we experience that reality in our lives. And on this side of the Day of the Lord we see through a glass dimly. We know and are known, but not as we will know and be known. So in the meantime, we have the struggle of doubt, answers, questions, and longings. From this process, hopefully faith can spring.

It finally happened...

Due to all the hype last week about the opening of Snakes on a Plane, you may have missed this story, but as of August 24, 2006, Pluto is no longer a planet. Since its discovery in 1930, the "planet validity" of Pluto has been debated. And last Thursday, Pluto was reclassified as a non-planet by the International Astronomical Union [read more]. As astronomy has advanced, we have been finding all sorts of things in the solar system larger than Pluto, and more "planet-like" than Pluto. So, we either had to add a bunch of stuff to the list of 9 planets, or kick Pluto off and go with 8 planets. At first this decision by the IAU startled me and I worried if the IAU would start changing the status of all sorts of things. I mean, Pluto no longer a planet, what's next? Britney Spears is no longer a songwriter?

Maybe the IAU chose to redefine 'planet' so the word 'planet' could retain some of its gravitas, some eliteness. This would keep us from looking at a crowded list of 40 planets in a few years, then wistfully calling for a return to the old days of the 9 nostalgic planets, "back when the word planet actually meant something dadgummit."

Here is a silly jump, but it is what I'm thinking ... do we do the same sort of redefining with grace? For example, as we explore the depths of God's grace it often feels like it will let in all sorts of licentiousness, so rather than risk that sort of thing, we simply redefine God's scandalous grace into something more manageable. I mean, who would monitor everyone's behavior if we were really free in Christ like the Bible says? Instead, we write a new meaning for grace and keep a list of behaviors--I mean, planets--which we can manage and fit on one sheet of paper.

Paul talked about this in his letter to the church at Galatia. He spoke of “false brothers” who infiltrated their ranks to spy on the freedom they were exercising in Christ. (Galatians 2:4-5) Then in chapter 5 he says,

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.

To those who worried about craziness and destruction if they had true freedom, he said:

You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself."

This is living by a simple rule of love. I do what I do, I am who I am, not because I am keeping a rule list, but because I love people. My boundary lines are drawn in pleasant places because they fall where they fall due to love. So let’s not redefine Grace into something more comfortable, and let's leave Pluto in the planet list. Or, take it out. I can’t actually see which one fits anymore. So, you decide. Read one of the many Pluto articles, or just read Galatians 5.

Snakes in a movie theater

So I am getting ready to go see 'Snakes on a Plane' at some point this weekend. Then I come across this story::

Authorities said pranksters released the young venomous rattlesnakes in a dark theater at the AMC Desert Ridge near Tatum and Loop 101 in Phoenix. The two snakes caused a panic in the dark theater, according to the report. "That to me is very scary," herpetological association representative Tom Whiting said. "I would hate to be watching a movie about snakes and have a rattlesnake bite me." Wranglers were called to collect the snakes, the report said. No one was injured in the incident and, so far, the culprits have not been caught. Officials believe the snakes were smuggled into the theater in backpacks. "This thing is under someone's chair and they go to sit and they just push your foot in the air and startle it -- obviously all they got to do is startle this thing," Phoenix Herpetological Society spokesman Daniel Marchand said. "It's dark. They can't see you, you know that well. If it's scared, boom it strikes." The snakes were released into the desert.

This adds a whole new scare factor when seeing this film. I am still going.

New Baby Pics

Check out the new photo album of Jackson Andrews down the right column.

Pictures of Jackson

Here are a couple of thumbnail pics. Click on them to see a larger image.